Nur Ein X Round Five "Two Day Shadow"

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JonPorobil
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Nur Ein X Round Five "Two Day Shadow"

Post by JonPorobil »

Welcome to Round Five!

Title: Two Day Shadow
Non Optional Challenge: Question
Songs are Due on: Monday, May 25th @ 12:01 AM EDT
Send your MP3 to nurein.sidefight@gmail.com

NUR EIN!!!!!
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

Hi errbody, I'm jon. derp derp
Just so there's no confusion about the non optional challenge, here are a few examples to help.

Image
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derp :P
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by j$ »

Just to pre-empt hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth ...

Yes, it's a vague challenge. Deliberately. Let's see how you all who that are left manage it. No more hand-holding. You'll know come this time next week (or so) whether you successfully met the challenge. My thinking was, instead of being limited by the challenge,here's a rare chance to embrace it, do something that excites, a different take ... it's round V people, time to step up to the difficulty spike.

If you want to blame someone, it's my fault. Just be glad my original suggestion was spiked by us all at the last minute for being just too f**king difficult. Maybe we'll share that once all the songs are in.

Nur more whin-Ein!

j$
Last edited by j$ on Tue May 19, 2015 3:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by j$ »

PS anyone who references Vic Sage is running a huge risk to win big or lose big. Awesome. You only ever win by taking risks, right?

Oh, yeah - this is all only one judge's opinion. Obviously!
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by glennny »

I'm going to assume all the judges speak jazz.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by j$ »

I'm going to assume you assume you're into the next round?
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by glennny »

You can assume we're working on a song for the next round. We would never assume we made it to the next round. We like making songs. Last year of my favorites were Fast Lane Junkies and Videoland, and we were out.
Btw I really enjoyed the mouth noise challenge, I'm bummed that it sounded like I didn't want to do it to you. I was particularly happy with my ride cymbal mouth noise.

Anyway, you'll hear a song from us, we just don't know where it'll be posted yet.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by Caravan Ray »

glennny wrote:I'm going to assume all the judges speak jazz.
Yeah. Right.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by j$ »

glennny wrote:You can assume we're working on a song for the next round. We would never assume we made it to the next round. We like making songs. Last year of my favorites were Fast Lane Junkies and Videoland, and we were out.
Btw I really enjoyed the mouth noise challenge, I'm bummed that it sounded like I didn't want to do it to you. I was particularly happy with my ride cymbal mouth noise.

Anyway, you'll hear a song from us, we just don't know where it'll be posted yet.
I really wouldn't worry too much about me playing tipsy word-games. Life's too short for me, right? :)
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by frankie big face »

Erik (àtlm) and I were talking today about how much we love this challenge. Much more so than the title.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by JonPorobil »

This question seems to come up every year, so I'm going to get out ahead of it this time...

The deadline will not be extended for Memorial Day Weekend. To the five American competitors remaining: I hope y'all enjoy and make the most of your three-day weekend, but the songs are still due Sunday night.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by à tous les monsieurs »

(I think people tend to post how they completed the non-optional challenge here rather than in the lyrics archive.)

The non-optional challenge: Question

Two parts for me (part two is more important!):

1. The theme - The content of the song is a summary of one of the most enigmatic moments in modern literature: episode 3 of James Joyce's Ulysses (http://www.columbia.edu/~fms5/ult03.htm). It is presents one scene but in typical Joyce fashion simultaneously tells another (in this case the Greek tale of Odysseus). In summary the protagonist Stephen spends the whole episode wandering on a beach doing very little but thinking. It is told in a stream of consciousness style with Joyce's typical jumping from language to language. In this case Stephen thinks often in French (the chorus is actually a quote from the text unrelated to my band's nom de plume).

Joyce has said he "put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant". Thus, the question.

2. The lyrics - If the above was too abstract for the judges, please ignore it. Just notice that I used the name of most common punctuation marks in the English language except for one (?).

(Interestingly, Joyce hardly uses punctuation marks in the text!)
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by j$ »

Pretentious, moi? :) If you need to explain it in advance, you may have failed in the song-writing. We shall see ...
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by noma »

I thought about sampling SOAD's "Question!" for a while. I'm glad I didn't.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by Paco Del Stinko »

I'm out. May step away for a while. Peace.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by Pigfarmer Jr »

Sad to hear. I was diggin the tunes.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by frankie big face »

We need more reviews. Not necessarily from me, but I'm here and I'm avoiding other more important things.

Here are my reviews in the order I would rank them:

àtlm - The high concept is lost on me - never read Joyce. But Leonard Cohen set to a train beat I understand! I'm a little sorry I didn't sing this - it's lovely. But as I told you, I'm not sure I could have improved much on your vocal performance. It's nice. I like the subtle meter changes in the chorus. Even though I don't really understand the lyrics, I think they're really good. Although I would say they are not all easy to sing—the placement of ellipses seems particularly awkward. The drumming is sneaky good, especially the build up to that awesome vocal harmony chord. This song gets better every time I listen to it. A very unique entry.

Balance Lost - The beginning of this tune delights me to no end. In general, I really like the asymmetry of the song and the different tone colors (in a genre that too often doesn't have much timbral variance). The handclaps, the stick clicks—it's all very interesting and creative. The instrumental section in the middle is a nice diversion (and reminds me of Archers of Loaf, which is a good thing). My single issue with the song is the vocal performance, which is at times great and, at others, revealing of the singer's limitations. All in all, a really pleasant listen. (Didn't understand a word you said - lyrics thread?) EDIT: WAIT, furry pedro is Balance Lost? I had no idea! (I'll get caught up eventually.) No wonder I like all this stuff. (And I found the lyrics if that wasn't obvious.)

Cavedwellers - I love the musical arrangement. Lots of stuff and it all fits together so nicely. The lyrics—well, they get their point across in a moderately clever way. My biggest gripe is this has to be one of the least catchy choruses of all time. Great mix, though. And nicely played.

The Cars (I mean, Ken Mahru!) - This kind of reminds me of when Fountains of Wayne did their Cars tribute (Stacy's Mom). Still sounds like FOW/Ken, but so obviously Cars-inspired. I don't really have anything negative to say about this song, but I'm also not that excited about it, either. I'd like the chorus to be catchier, I guess. I think you had the right idea with the synth line in the chorus but it still fall a little short melodically for me.

CBJ - I'm generally a fan of CBJ, but this song lacks the quirkiness of lyric I so adore and the musical setting is not a good complement to the raspy tone quality of the voice, in my opinion. It's a song I can tell from the first listen will never grow on me. Toms sound really boomy on my monitors! (probably my monitors)

Nick Soma - Hmmm....a whole Biblical allegory built around a terrible pun. I hope the secret message delights the judges (I didn't find it) or you're out! But, you know, nice rocking out and everything—just not my thing.

Paco - RIP.

=============
FBF - That's me! This was one of the hardest songs for me to put together. It was slow-going and tedious. I'm happy in general but, you know, the day after questioning is always hard. But it was fun playing my new guitar in so many different ways. And I even used a pick on the bass! (that's for Ken and Sam)

NUR EIN!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by noma »

frankie big face wrote:Nick Soma - Hmmm....a whole Biblical allegory built around a terrible pun. I hope the secret message delights the judges (I didn't find it) or you're out! But, you know, nice rocking out and everything—just not my thing.
Actually, the "Jesus shave me" part was added only after everything else was written down, to expand on the bridge which came to me because I found the idea of discarding Jesus just because of him sporting a beard amusing. The female character in my song does so because she suffers from pogonophobia, fear of beards, a very severe condition. ;) Of course I don't expect anyone to find that stuff amusing just because I do; I often get accused of a weird sense of humor...

That aside, the secret message... um, yeah, I can give a hint if needed. I'll happily give away that it's nothing particularly exciting, I think.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by noma »

BTW, now that the songs are up, I'd really like to hear what j$'s original challenge suggestion was... been wondering since he mentioned it :?
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by JonPorobil »

noma wrote:BTW, now that the songs are up, I'd really like to hear what j$'s original challenge suggestion was... been wondering since he mentioned it :?
It was "One Long Question." To be honest, I preferred, and still prefer, that version of the challenge. But when it came to a vote, I was outnumbered... and now you know where the Round 6 title came from, too. :)
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by Chumpy »

frankie big face wrote:We need more reviews.
I'm a SongFight noob, but I like reviewing, so I thought I'd oblige you. I often can't do these all in one sitting so I'll edit this post with more as I get more time.

Frankie Big Face
Frankie collaborates with David Bowie and Kim Deal on this one, and it sounds great. Verses are clever and interesting, I especially like the back full of arrows line. Fight requirements met with aplomb. Ask yourself a simple question? Can anybody beat this guy? The tinkly bells in the chorus could have been used more sparingly, at times they are a distraction. No, my phone is not ringing.

Balance Lost
I don't often admire percussion in songs, but I really do on this one. Adrenal secreting tempo changes , frantic handclaps, machine gun snares, and what sounds like pencils drumming on a school desk. Do I love poppy second wave Emo? Yes. Do I love this song? Yes. I feel like you could have done more with the outro, or maybe shortened it. Since I have to complain about the contest challenges, like I'm an asshole celebrity chef judge on TV, I'd say that lip-service to the title wasn't paid explicitly, but I don't care. Why a conceptual tie-in works for me in this case, but not for the Cavedwellers probably has to do with my own interpretations of the lyrics and meaning when they are not crystal clear. Mystery and ambiguity bring me back to songs over and over.

à tous les monsieurs
I get the 70s singer-songwriter vibe, which is really nice, and I think I've got the song figured out and then you go all Prog on me. Maybe it's just the way you sing 'A mark of a madman', dunno, but it really hits my prog-spot. You should have omitted the first explanation of how you tackled the question challenge, as you're already flirting with pretentiousness. This is a beautiful song, and I were a judge I'd be agonizing over if this or Frankie's song deserves to be first.

Ken Mahru
Solid bar synth rock, concept of the dude on the prowl is well executed, and I dig the Jagger / swagger line a lot. The singing is solid, but I feel it could be more varied. The bridge vocals sound great to me and provide some of the vocal variance I'm looking for, but I felt like you missed an opportunity here lyrically. I'm impressed by how well you integrated the arbitrary title and the challenge into your song, which on the surface seems like a no brainer, but is often neglected.

Cavedwellers
Lush ear-pleasing production. Clever lyrics, and I really get the feeling of being with someone who really isn't satisfied with you, and doing everything you can to please them. The two day shadow is just another way you don't meet expectations, and I get that, but I expect more lip service to be paid to the title, because I am a caveman and need such things, especially when I can hear and understand all the lyrics.

Nick Soma
You can rock, and make no mistake, this song rocks. Lines like 'Can you read the secret message?' make it sound epic and badass to me, but a lot of the lyrics about Jesus and shaving are just unworthy of how much this rocks. Epic metal singing about Jesus' love is notionally dissonant to me. You can growl like an Ogre, sound like a radio announcer, and shriek like the undead, but all on the same song?
Last edited by Chumpy on Tue May 26, 2015 11:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Nur Ein X - Round Five

Post by furrypedro »

Sorry for being silent around here lately. Here's are some thoughts based on 2 and a half listens.

CBJ: The keyboards and rhythmic percussion in the verses make this arrangement interesting and compelling, but although the melody does develop over the course of the song I feel that it has revealed most of it's charms within the first minute. Dynamically, it stays in the same gear for much of the song and ends without having taken enough of a journey that the first minute hinted at.

Cavedwellers
: This could benefit from a bit more zip in the tempo, I dunno why but for some reason I'm in the mood for fast songs at the moment. The instrumentation here is great as always, and I particularly like the keyboards that build in during the second verse and the tone and space of the flanged guitar in the chorus. Vocal melody is nice but the narrator's desperation to please the song's subject is a bit pathetic and I have trouble identifying with the sentiment. It ends a bit abruptly.

FBF: The mid-tempo plodding of the verse doesn't inspire me a great deal but the way the song builds gives the arrangement a classy injection of flavour and dynamics. I particularly like the odd sprinklings of synth and guitar.

Ken: Gotta love a bit of chugging guitar, it sets things up nicely for what is to come. Very catchy tune and I get the feeling it's gonna be earworming me today. I think you win the prize for most memorable chorus this round based on 2 listens. Follows a fairly predictable structure but there's nothing wrong with that necessarily.

Nick: There's lots to like about this. It's a powerful song, tightly executed for the most part though there is the very occasional timing issue which peep through the cracks and undermines it slightly. The harmonies are very well done. I think I'm with Frankie on the subject matter, it is mildly amusing in it's silliness but could be risky, but I couldn't guess whether the joke will land with the judges

ATLM
: Nice airy shuffle to this. The guitar tone is rich and warm, and the imagery in the lyrics has a vivid quality. I tend not to be one to quibble over relevance to the title, but just from a couple of casual listens the link is too obscure for me to recognise without your explanations. I wouldn't hold it against you if I were judging and I would also hate to discourage anyone from being a smartypants.

Balance Lost: This week I wanted to write a song in the style of Playlounge.


Sorry to see Paco go like this :( , although as a rival I do feel some relief at my own survival chances being improved.
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