Enhance Your Luck & Fortune Today (Good Luck Charm reviews)

[ElaineDiMasi]

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[Lunkhead]

Thank you for making a review thread!

[ElaineDiMasi]

Thank you for making a review thread!

No problem, and thanks for chiming in about the art upload as well

[Lunkhead]

Hmmmm. I am experiencing some technical difficulties trying to get the new fight posted unfortunately. Both of the ways that I've tried to access the fightmaster mailbox to get the submitted songs have failed. The mail server is failing to let me connect, I'm getting a server side timeout. I will keep trying. Hopefully this will just be a short term delay. Sorry folks!

[Lunkhead]

I guess it's not just me. Bad timing!

http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2016/07/ ... es-delays/

[Lunkhead]

OK, songs are up. Several misnamed files this time, if you could please look at the final file names and compare them to what you sent in and see if you did something wrong so you could fix it next time, that would be great.

[The_Grim]

Ok ..so firstly I want to say that I respect all of you for making music regardless whether or not I actually like the track .so basically no offense intended ..anywho.let's be pretentious and act like I know what I'm talking about

CAVEDWELLERS.- not a bad written song at all but come out of the cave guys !!!..the lack of production is holding you back

SOCKPUPPET- I want to see the sock puppet!!!!..without the image in my head of a sock puppet singing it this time does nothing for me ..without the sock puppet .no stars ..with the puppet 2 stars

FLVXXVM FLORVM- I like the guitar work even though it feels a bit stock, I've said this before but I feel like you have a vision for your music that you are just shy of hitting ..but keep going man!

KENS SUPER DUPER BAND N STUFF- firstly I hate your name, but that's a pretty good acoustic tone ..I like the melodies and the harmonies behind them .Though I have to be honest and say that it feels overall a bit boring and on the nose ..obviously talented but lacking imagination


LUCKY WITCH AND THE RIGHTEOUS GHOST- nice and sweet progression and harmonies .Production is seriously lacking though .Sounds like you put a Tascam in the corner of a garage and pressed record .lyrics are a bit cringeworthy

PEPPER JANE- I adore Pepper Jane..I can't say enough good things about this ,Looove the vocal, the acoustic melody is delightfully quirky but sounds mature and satisfying the lyrics and backing are cheeky as hell yet feel meaningful as well .The only critique I have is that you're floating pretty strongly in those Regina waters ..which isn't a bad thing (trust me I wear influences on my sleeve like badges) this gets a vote !

JERKATORIUM:-I like this ..its upbeat poppy and feel good .I like the AHHHHHHHS in the pre chorus and chorus .I'm not going to overanalyze this .,i just dig it .vote


PACO DEL STINKO-oh Paco..you are consistent that's for sure ..Dude knows how to write a song .I love the sermon like break down ..Paco is the parallel dimension the cars


BERKLEY SOCIAL SCENE- You guys have been doing this for a minute now and though you are obviously talented, I just haven't ever really dug your stuff ..nothing personal, I guess I just don't get it .Different strokes for different folks

JSMITTY feat VIOLENTBOB- this guy goes in every time !..mainly sticks to his wheelhouse which isn't a bad thing when your wheelhouse is dope beats and bars bars bars..J's rhymes are solid and I loooove the backing melody and crescendo on that hook ..Violent Bob makes a nice addition ..his Flo is a bit choppy but he more than makes up for it with lyrics and that tone..the song is a bit spacey in comparison to other tracks which have been more aggresive ..I still dig the hell out of it ..vote

TALL PIGGY -first five seconds made me excited, then the excitment immediately died ..I feel like that vocal is on purpose .,points for shredding though

MACAQUE ATTACK- digging the beat .Didn't think that synth vocoder run would work but it does ..good dynamics musically ..I find the verse melody a little boring but the key changes are good ..over all its pretty cool

Ok guys I think that's it ..if your read this and you're like "fuck this guy" well don't worry I'm submitting a song next so you"'ll have your chance to return the favor

[Niveous]

LUCKY WITCH AND THE RIGHTEOUS GHOST- Production is seriously lacking though .Sounds like you put a Tascam in the corner of a garage and pressed record.

It's a barebones live recording. It's from the recent Songfight Live concert. Instead of re-recording a studio version, we went with the performance recording from that night. We'll do a studio version eventually.

[ElaineDiMasi]

OK, songs are up. Several misnamed files this time, if you could please look at the final file names and compare them to what you sent in and see if you did something wrong so you could fix it next time, that would be great.

The song submitted by Bootlegger Girl is missing. I have the email from the submission - can we please find the problem? Thanks!

[Lunkhead]

Send your song again and I'll give you an actual confirmation of whether it made it through or not. (Sadly the automatic response that gets sent out doesn't seem to be a guarantee that by the time I get to posting the fight and check the fightmaster inbox that your email will be there.)

[Lunkhead]

In case anybody else's song didn't show up and you'd like to resubmit, Dreamhost is still having issues that are messing up the fightmaster email:

http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2016/07/ ... t-4-hours/

If you need to resubmit, DM me and I'll give you my email.

[Lunkhead]

Bootlegger Girl added to the fight.

[HeuristicsInc]

yeah, that email outage affected us too. i was on vacation and couldn't access email!
-bill

[PepperJane]

Ok ..so firstly I want to say that I respect all of you for making music regardless whether or not I actually like the track .so basically no offense intended ..anywho.let's be pretentious and act like I know what I'm talking about ... don't worry I'm submitting a song next so you"'ll have your chance to return the favor

Hey at least you WROTE a review!! Looking forward to hearing your entry next week!

I wrote these reviews last week during layover at LAX on the way home (sniff) from Songfight (sniff) and was slack to type up on my tablet. Hello real keyboard. Plus now I get to include Bootlegger Girl.
In order of listen.

Paco - Diggin the pseudo-SongfightLive vibe. On 2nd listen however, my thought was: "wait, you only had to come from MASSACHUSETTS (and you didn't)?" You were right though, it WAS great to be there...

BSS - I really dig the percussion in this and its builds.

LW & RG - Yes, we see why you won SF Live. The cute factor as intense as the omnichord presence. Grim I do concur with your cringeworthy comment, but what Niveous left out in his production-related response was that this was the first song he has written with his gf and they've just started playing music together on stage so it was legit, albeit chunderously, adorable (that's coming from me who writes either pathetically romantic letters of longing or anti-romantic vein-openers, thanks Paco) Kudos for being one of only two, I believe, to meet the optional challenge.
(EDIT: the title totally leant itself it to cheesy lyrics so there were plenty of them throughout the comp!)

Cavies - probably the most appealing melody to me this round. Still don't get the farm thing though. And I live on one. I love the audience bottle noise near the end, as a result of meeting the optional challenge.

Stone Temple Piggy - ouch. Only because I'd had the vol up for the two live recs. Wish I could make out the words a bit better but when the lead break happened I didn't care about that anymore

jsmitty & violentbob Dig it. Get out of my favourite car. I never needed a good luck charm either. Let's walk under ladders sometime. My socks too!! Stay calm lol. Feels like you're taking the piss but it reminds me of a bunch of music out when I was enlarging so I might even vote for it. On 2nd listen: "all on card" sums up my SFLive so that gets a 'tick' from me

Ken and friend Good g&g+. On 3rd listen: That fuzzy bass makes me chuckle. I guess that means it tickles. A gentle feel good tune to warm my winter day.

Mac Attack - I think there's something in my shoe so I'm a bit distracted but I like the late 90s electro grunge feel. On 2nd listen: I'd like to be able to discern the words

sockpup - Not going to touch the subject matter I like the arrangement of the fruity bits anyway

Jerko - Sorry to hear about your ebola. Happy to hear the track. You didn't need him/her/them anyway. Can't fault this. Putting it on my playlist in fact.

Flvxx - Think I finally got rid of the livestock from my boot. Now I might catch an earworm though. The Flvx is strong in this one. (I did 5 years of Latin at high school so I lvv the vse of vs too btv)

Bootie (I meant this abbrev of your name in the way of the baby shoe, then realised it's inappropriateness, and chose to leave it there) - I like the arrangement when it's all happening, ESPECIALLY the 1st build. You lose me in the sparse bits though. Somehow I remember being more interested in this live.

PJ (me) - well isn't this a bit more exciting than usual, in a studio in NYC having a famous friend add keys and bass and rec/prod/eng skills. One day I'll get my timing right. Or closer, at least. Anyway I thought manic worked ok for this one. Regina who?!

PS I did think I was a bit frisky with the smilie use, but wasn't expecting there was ACTUALLY a limit of 4... who run da world???

[jb]

I do. And you can blame Billy's Little Trip.

JB

[PepperJane]

(I knew you were the answer to that Beyoncé "quote" question, Lord JB ... I think that lyric popped into my head because the alternate hemisphere of your existence hashtagged something like 'girls run the world' recently).

Seems BLT contributes significantly to what's wrong with the world. Equally such if you're vegan.

I might feel bad about clogging up a review thread with another non-review, but there's such a shortage that I don't.

[jb]

You can clearly hear it on the record if you play it backwards. Me n' Bey are like *THIS*.

[Chumpy]

Tall Piggy: I'm hearing some Rock at the start and I'm liking it. The mumbly vocals are a buzz-kill though. In places they're pretty decent, like when they're two tracked, one high, one low, like on 'awwww yeah', but they need some polish and focus applied to them.

Pepper Jane: This is great. I love the subtle reverby piano sounds that ride shotgun with the sparse guitar. Interesting and fun lyrics, fantastic singing, A+++ would vote again.

Macaque Attack: Dig the Cylon vocals at the start, but they wear out their welcome once you get into the first verse. The vocal distortion on the first lines of the first verse just sound bad to my ears. Then on "We agreed, we'd", one of those pitches sounds dodgy. When I listen to new music I'm judgmental and impatient, and this makes me want to hit 'skip track'. I like the choruses, the middle bit though, so overall it's a net positive.

Flvxxvm Florvm: The instrumentation in this is fantastic -- those dual distorted guitars, the drum machine, and I love those dual lead licks. Really like the right and left panned guitar solos too with their distinctive tones. My complaint is that the vocals are boring. They've keep the same effect throughout the song, they're single tracked, center channel, with not a lot of variation in melody and don't say anything that grabs me.

Sockpuppet: Funny, weird, psychedelic, and sounds like it's sung by a giant muppet. Concept cracks me up, I like the "touching wood" line a lot. The way you build up the music at the end is pretty epic. Beatlesque. Sweet production on this.

Bootlegger Girl: Stellar singing, your voice works nicely with the sparse piano chords at the beginning, very pretty. Once the drums kick in, I'm a bit distracted by how they kit is panned all over the place, and they seem mixed a bit loud.. I really want to hear the vocals and the drums seem to drive them into the background in the verse. The ending is super, I love how the vocals get all reverby and then distort to a crackle.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost: I really liked this the first time I heard it. Nice live energy, vocal harmonies, and that great glockenspiel sound really works. Lyrics draw me in, and Niv delivers them gusto and character in the verses. This is charming as hell. Back to the verse!

BSS: That syrupy sweet Beach Boys kinda sound I struggle with. One of those high-pitched sounds (is it a vibraphone?) is distractingly loud in the mix. I think you guys got the sound you were looking for though.

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff: Nice jangly guitar sound, everything sounds crisp and bright. Maybe too bright? Happy, sunny, slow, feel good, not my thing.

Paco: Damn dude, you really know how to make things sound raw, exciting, and live. This reminds me of what you did for Nur Ein's Million Watts. Love the Emcee, the crowd sounds, song, and the way the crowd went "awwww" when you said "it's my gal". You gotta tell us how you put this together!

Cavedwellers: Some low frequency booming and rumbling makes this a hard listen for me. Cool song though, good playing, singing, and performance. I'm jealous of your live chops.

My favorites this time around are: Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost, Pepper Jane, and Paco.

[fluffy]

I gotta get around to reviewing these (I really want to!) but my wrists are so shit. Maybe I'll do audio reviews like I did for Bad Cat.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Berkeley Social Scene - A mild psychedlia inside of a pleasant cave that is cool, not cold. Bridge and post bridge vocals/breakdown are my favorite sections, nice work there.

Bootlegger Girl - Glad to hear you, Elaine and Co., oh yes! Vocal work is superb, I'm hoping that you performed them all individually. Kind of a neo Joe Jackson at times, but further on. Warm and sunny.

Cavedwellers - Backroom groovy mock prog trying to play on the front porch vibe here. The short pre-chorus reminds me of me, somewhere in my history. Sorry. Chorus easily pushes that aside though. Cool and casual.

Flvxxvm Florvm - Oh man. Fuzztastic snarl over turbo Ween drums. Snotty vocal works for me. I'm a fan, and am always knocked out by your shift into overdrive leads, and thank you for the double dose. End falls apart like an old four-track song.

Jerkatorium - Great intro. Good luck charm as addictive as a bottomless box of cereal on Saturday morning. I dig the 1920's guy vocal too, with the bass wrangle going on there along side of that chunks of meat (and veggies too!) guitar solo. A delight.

JSmitty Feat. ViolentBob - Good work. Your vocal delivery is again performed with conviction, and the doubling (thanks for clarifying last week) is well done, not all sloppy. Bob's performance is just as good, too. Some funny lines, so serious sounding!

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff - Slip back in your chair, Captain Easy. Or, rather, walk through a sunny field awash in a filtered haze, daisies and tall, blowing yellow-green grass. Oh Ken, you're such a romantic. Nice harmony vocals stealthily providing stability.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost - Sweet. Easy going and catchy melodies, voices work well together. But geez Niv, where's the dark sense of foreboding? Teasing. I like this performance as it is but could also hear it slightly enhanced with maybe a discreet 12 string or something in there. Could chop out 20-30 seconds to enhance the sweetness. More from you guys, please.

Macaque Attack - Upbeat robot music. The chord progression is some of the catchiest part. Vocals are hard to make out often, but I like where they go melodically, if lacking a knockout hook. Eh. Who says they have to have one? Hard to keep up with where you guys are going next, this fits nicely on the middle of the second side of an album.

Paco del Stinko - Yeah, I'm a goof. Planted both the Fleshtones and the Lyres in the back of my mind for this, both knockout small-club bands. Not that I come within miles of their greatness but, you know.

Pepper Jane - Nice to hear one of your tunes fleshed out a little, not that they really need it. Your playing and voice(s) are very organic sounding but this takes it into dreamland. Somehow the start and stop of this works and doesn't feel all stuttery. Please don't disappear on us.

Sockpuppet - The lyrics are like polished Mad Dog. Ha! That's awesome. The delivery is a bit of a surprise, is it slowed down? The ending is your "Can't Always Get What You Want" or something. Great tune.

Tall Piggy - Loverboy to the rescue. On a flatbed pickup truck down south. Sloppy, but I kinda like where it wants go, even if it lacks confidence. Re-worked and re-mixed this would be good goon rock.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Thanks for the reviews, peoples. Here some responses. Someone here says to never respond, but I think it's ok, in an explanatory or clarifying manner. Dumb if you're all "well, screw you if you don't like it, nyah nyah gargle bargle" kind of way.

Paco is the parallel dimension the cars

The Cars were very important to me as a young kid, the first album coming out when I was like, twelve. To me, this is high praise, thank you! Although I could certainly never approach their greatness, even in the cheesy (cheesier?) later years. Yes, I saw the parallel dimension part, that makes it even better!

wait, you only had to come from MASSACHUSETTS (and you didn't)?

Sigh. Yeah, I know. I work every weekend, which are near impossible to get off, but suppose I could have forced it. I've been to one Live! event, and will appear one day again, I hope. But, trust me, you all were probably better off without my goonitude mucking up the proceedings. My voice + amplification = "where's the exit?" However, I'd be honored to play in your backup band at SongFight! LIVE Boston II. (Or, Jim Tyrell's lake's region Live Free or SongFight! Do it Jim, do it!)

You gotta tell us how you put this together!

Ya know, I don't consider myself a great musician or songwriter, by any means. I've had moments, but c'mon. However, I do feel that I am a pretty good put-togetherer. I've done these "live" songs many times here, and on my own, over the years, but it's just a knowing where you want to go before you leave kinda thing. So, song first, keeping it simple, like, step on the fuzz for the lead kind of playing, don't fix the looseness or all of the mistakes, set up a breakdown and have an "enthusiastic" singer. Crowd, MC, all later. I'll be glad to go step by step, if you really want to hear, but that's the gist.

[ElaineDiMasi]

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff - I think a slightly faster pace would improve the music. The lyric doesn't motivate the title.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost - This was the most charming Live Fight! The lyric motivates the title because the list of things that don't happen imply that there was a past time for the character when they did.

Macaque Attack - The flow of chord changes is interesting, but I don't feel too involved in the story.

Paco del Stinko - WHO IS this charmer gal who everybody has on her arm and makes them feel so good? Cause I think if you knew how many guys are calling her their good luck charm, that organ line wouldn't sound so damn cheerful... and yes, I like your live-crowd-break-gimmick just as much as everybody else does.

Pepper Jane - And the love songs go more highbrow as the setlist continues..

Sockpuppet - I love imagining how this, er, "item" could be carried in public. On the belt with a clip, check. As a necklace? Attached to the car keys? This would be great for the rest room key at a gas station so people don't accidentally take it home...

Tall Piggy - I like this track, it is by far the least predictable thus far. Sounds kinda like STP doing this kinda thing.

Berkeley Social Scene - I always love stuff in 3. This is very pleasing but not excessively hooky in my direction.

Cave Dwellers - You have put together a good sounding track! Shout-out for the E-bow, iirc that's what that is.

Flvxxvm Florvm - Best groove in this fight. Usually I'm critical when a song goes into the 3rd verse and doesn't change up anything - vocal cadence, melody, backing track the same - but it's fine to do that here as the song rocks along.

Jeratorium - Good job putting energy into the use of the title lines, it's noticeable. Still, interpretation of 'good luck charm' is solidly with the song majority here.

JSmitty Feat. ViolentBob - Did I hear the phrase "magic flute" ? If so, v. cool. /* scratches another tally mark for "woman on the arm" in this fight */

Bootlegger Girl - Thanks to Rick @rick.mealey for producing to spec I won't say the song's finished, this needs something and we haven't decided what, but I got VERY inspired by the Live Fight and just had to jump in. So thanks to everyone for that! And we needed to do a bit of production gloss to see if the glitch and static ideas would do what I hoped. If I need any more excuses.

Votes: Tall Piggy for unpredictability, Flvxxvm Florvm for groove, and Bootlegger Girl because I'm enamored of the characgter I created. Don't worry, I'll get over it.

Will now read the other reviews and respond accordingly!