Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Discuss upcoming, current, and previous song fights.
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Lunkhead
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Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Post by Lunkhead »

Small fight this time.
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AJOwens
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Re: Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Post by AJOwens »

From the file names, it looks like Rabbit and Ram and Older Brothers are crossed up on the voting page.
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Lunkhead
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Re: Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Post by Lunkhead »

Dang it. :/
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Lunkhead
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Re: Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Post by Lunkhead »

OK, should be fixed on the main page. I will try to find other spots where this might be messed up. Thanks for catching that!
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Re: Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Post by Future Boy »

Only 5, wow!
New Album: Comes Apart | Missed Connections | With Johnny Cashpoint: A Maze of Death | modular synths on Youtube
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Re: Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Post by Lunkhead »

Yeah. We haven't had a fight this small since "Cable Beach" over nine years ago!

http://sfjukebox.org/fights/cable_beach
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Re: Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Post by AJOwens »

James Owens -- I wanted this song to actually make you feel cooler. Not much else to say about it, except that it started out way too short, so I stuck on the flute bit at each end, narrowly avoiding an evocation of The Cyrkle's Red Rubber Ball (in my own mind at least).

Klownhole -- This power-trio extravaganza reminds me of Blue Cheer, true phenomena in their day, if not exactly at the top of the music industry food chain. (I'd love to hear your cover of Summertime Blues.) The riff is mindlessly menacing and depressing, as it wants to be. The performances are all deliciously sympatico with the vision, and the vocals are particularly engaging. I'm not catching all the lyrics, which sound improvised, but the phrases that jump out are interesting. After about eight minutes, my wife called from the living room that it was horrible. Well done! To really understand this song you need to experience the whole nine minutes and fifty seconds.

MooseMuse -- Some of the lyrics are clever digs, such as the evocation of Fox News, but the closing reference to mindless religious faith almost feels like a non sequitur, or perhaps more fittingly a Deus ex machina. Still, it's a song fight entry and sometimes we toss these things off. The composition and arrangement go through several colorations, perhaps a little abruptly and randomly, like one of those old Paul McCartney songs that were just bits of several songs spliced together. There's one short lead guitar passage that sounds more feeble than it should, but generally the production and mixing are clear and sweet; I expecially like the sound of the acoustic guitar.

The Older Brothers -- I can't make out the singing too well, but there's no escaping the complexity of the musical passages, the intricacy and imagination of the arrangements, the technical competence at every level, and the twisted humour. I particularly enjoy the plaintive cries of "Where's all the water?" Very interesting listening.

Rabbit & Ram -- An excellent nod to surf music. Here your, uh, casiocore arrangement, if that's what the youngsters call it, is well balanced and integrated. The skipped beat at the turnaround is highly effective, and exactly what those who have asked for a little more surprise are talking about. The varied interpolations, I mean the little bells and the bongo riffs or whatever they are, add their weight in gold.
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Re: Don't settle for a draw (Beat the Heat reviews)

Post by AJOwens »

Here's an interesting link, a bit late for this fight: Vegetation Limits City Warning Effects. See how Portlandia rates!

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=86440

(So. . . wadja think of those five songs? Guess it's a bit late for that too.)
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