What happens in Song Fight, stays in Song Fight (Nevada reviews)

[frankie big face]

In fact, you actually must vote for at least two, even.

WHAAAAT?! What kind of communist organization are you running?

[Lunkhead]

Comrade, I am merely an apparatchik. This policy was instituted long ago by Commissar Spudski.

[HeuristicsInc]

yeah there was a big furor and lots of people (including me) wanted to be able to vote for multiple songs. just one was so limiting!

[fluffy]

And the two-vote requirement is there to make friend flooding less painfully obvious when it inevitably happens.

[Aciniform Artifice]

I’ve visited Nevada exactly once, about 21 years ago. It was just a quick excursion up across the Hoover Dam followed by an overnight sojourn in Las Vegas, in the middle of a week-long family vacation in Arizona. Feels like an entire lifetime ago, it was such a different time – it was a little while before I even discovered Song Fight!

Anyway, here are some thoughts about some songs about the Sagebrush State:

**

Add – funny, listening to your last song, I talked about “the genesis of early 00s indie nerd-rock,” which inadvertently seemed more closely aligned to this fight’s optional challenge than this one does. But I do like this one a lot, I especially appreciated the barely-overlapping phrasing of the duelling vocals. Also, backward guitars (or other lead instruments) are always a winner, and vocoder sounds usually are as well.

The Everfree Forest – now this one screams original-flavor songfight-dot-com. Fun times. Wikipedia tells me there is a Paradise, NV but no mention of a Paradise City – so I have to assume that was a Guns n Roses reference mixed in amongst the geographic references.

Frankie Big Face – bouncing between so many different vocal effects (from mostly clean, to drowned in reverb, to a whole myriad of others – except for a de-esser) can be a little jarring, almost as much as bouncing between pronunciations of ne-VAD-uh versus ne-VAH-duh. If that’s supposed to imply a different person’s POV for each verse, then it would make sense, but that isn’t really clear. In fact, it sounds more like the same person before and after a night out partying and gambling. Anyway, individually everything here sounds pretty sweet, but I’m not sure the assembled product comes together cohesively as a winner. I don’t hate it, though.

Glenn Case – on first listen, I felt like that emphatic drumbeat made the overall tempo feel like it was dragging, like a too-slow two-step, but after revisiting a few times, I like it the way it is. Sometimes you’re just in the mood to listen to Sirius XM’s “The Bridge” and that’s the sonic space this song occupies.

Pigfarmer Jr – having this one directly after Glenn’s (that’s a pretty big gap in the alphabet!) was interesting because the tempo is very similar, and as I mentioned above, his song felt abnormally slow the first time or two, and the apparent appropriateness of this song’s tempo compared to its genre and style seemed to serve as even more of a contrast. Also as I mentioned above, I came around to Mr. Case’s song eventually, but my opinion on this one hasn’t budged much; it still sounds as good as it did originally. Not necessarily my preferred style, if I’m being honest, but nevertheless it does sound good.

R. Mosquito – I like the contrast between the gothy tone and the upbeatedness of the music; while the vocals kind of grow on me after a bit, they do feel overly melodramatic at times. Which, presumably, is what you were going for, so good job.

Sockpuppet – love the bouncy bossanova beat, and that style of synthesized harmony vocals always makes me feel like we’re living in the A Clockwork Orange soundtrack’s version of the future. Again, the soundtrack – which is pretty rad – not the movie (or the book) which would be a less fun future to live in. Lastly, all factoids about the Hoover Dam will inevitably be (mentally) accompanied by Beavis saying “well I’ll be damned,” so that happened here, which made me smile.

Starfinger – had to do some digging to find this one (couldn’t come up with the exact title off the top of my head), but the tone and funky-laid-backedness of the bassline reminded me of the bassline from this song by Cornershop (especially in the bits where they hit the lower-register notes, e.g. around 0:59-1:04 and 2:23-2:28, etc.). Very cool. Those chorus vocals are a bit of a mindfuck though. EDIT: oh yeah, I also meant to say, I really liked the insertion of the "there but the grace of god" phrase, each time I hear the song this line catches me off guard (in a good way) for some reason.

State Shirt – you’ve managed to package political messaging into an otherwise nice and sweet seeming synth pop track, subverting expectations like – for example – Tears for Fears might have done. The lyrics, especially in the chorus, are very direct and explicit, but understandably so, since the (either hypothetical/generalized or real/specific) target audience of your message probably wouldn’t get the meaning if it had been any more figurative. Actually, (if they ever happened to hear it), they still likely wouldn’t recognize that it was about them.

[frankie big face]

Frankie Big Face – bouncing between so many different vocal effects (from mostly clean, to drowned in reverb, to a whole myriad of others – except for a de-esser) can be a little jarring, almost as much as bouncing between pronunciations of ne-VAD-uh versus ne-VAH-duh. If that’s supposed to imply a different person’s POV for each verse, then it would make sense, but that isn’t really clear. In fact, it sounds more like the same person before and after a night out partying and gambling. Anyway, individually everything here sounds pretty sweet, but I’m not sure the assembled product comes together cohesively as a winner. I don’t hate it, though.

I started with the two different pronunciations to set up some verses and went from there. Decided to do a slap-back Elvis impression for the debauchery and the chorus is basically a Greek chorus commenting on the inevitable fate of the protagonist(s). Never really considered it to be two people. Maybe he learned a new pronunciation while in jail and making that phone call.

[Aciniform Artifice]

Maybe he learned a new pronunciation while in jail

There are lots of places (Missouri, New Orleans, Louisville, Iowa) where the locals have strong opinions on how the place name is pronounced, and after spending some amount of time there, that pronunciation will likely rub off on a visitor.

So while I don't honestly know which "Nevada" is correct, I'm now accepting this explanation as canonical.

[reve]

I apologize for my poorly thought out modular doodles this month. If you've ever been like "wow this isn't even worth submitting...." and then submitted it anyway... yeah. That was my week. I'm sorry I did that to your ears. YOU GUYS, however, DID AMAZING!!! All killer this week!

ADD
Both the synth-clarinet riffs and the call-and-response things really work for me.

Ever Free Forest
LEXICAL BRANCHES! This is amazing and totally my pick for the fight.

Frankie BF
Them's a big rock lick! I like your singalong bits and the momentary discords that bookend them.

Glenn C.
Don't shut it down, Glenn! Keep it going!

Pigfarmer
Nicely done! You barely necked out Glenn for my favorite of the G&G entries this week.

Sock Puppet
Love the "ddaaaaa...." reverb tails! And then your more complex harmonies. Then new age arpeggios? Also hilarious? Lots to love about this track!

Star Finger
It's like Johnny Cashpoint and The Sugarhill Gang in a blender. I love it.

State Shirt
This is musically my favorite track... but I feel like you might be mistaking Nevada for someone else? Roughly 86 percent of Nevada's US Senators and Representatives are Democrats. That's a higher percentage than my home state of California, for instance.

[starfinger]

#nevada reviews

glenn case - i really like the drum part on this. the lyrics are great and it feels like a real song

r mosquito - i love the beat and the blade runner goth vibe. the mix makes it difficult to settle into listening to it, but this kind of thing is right up my alley

add - the crunchy guitar part is so tasty. this has an infectious lilt to it. reverse guitar thing is awesome. yeah there's a lot to like here. i have trouble telling what you're saying a lot of the time, but i don't care

evertree forest - it ended just as i was deciding how i felt about it, which is that i like the casio(?) styling combined with the nerdy postpunky singing, but I don't know how much of it i could listen to in one sitting. it is pretty catchy!

starfinger - i wish i made a real chorus because i quite like the verses

state shirt - musically amazing, though the shift to the slower part is a bit of a surprise. i like this a lot, and i agree with what you're saying, but i don't really like them as lyrics. luckily i can just listen to all the cool sounds.

frankie big face - i love that big loopy guitar riff, and i can't hear what you're saying while its playing. that rock opera chorus part is great (sing along sing along etc). i like this a lot

pig farmer jr - this is interesting and meticulous. i have a strong genre bias, but feel like this is really well done

sockpuppet - that's a really jaunty bassline. i'm tickled by the vocal processing. i'm a sucker for all the little sounds, but i am on the edge of my seat waiting for something to change. yeah the constant short bass loop makes this feel like a wesley willis song with better production.

[stateshirt]

State Shirt
This is musically my favorite track... but I feel like you might be mistaking Nevada for someone else? Roughly 86 percent of Nevada's US Senators and Representatives are Democrats. That's a higher percentage than my home state of California, for instance.

Thanks!! Yeah the lyrics aren't a generalization about the people of Nevada, but I can totally get why that comes across. It really was about this racist guy I met that justified his actions with the phrase "well, I'm from Nevada".

[fluffy]

sockpuppet - that's a really jaunty bassline. i'm tickled by the vocal processing. i'm a sucker for all the little sounds, but i am on the edge of my seat waiting for something to change. yeah the constant short bass loop makes this feel like a wesley willis song with better production.

You might say that the long neeevvvvvaaaaaaaaaaaaadaaaaaaaaaaaaaas are just taking up a lot of horizontal space in the timeline

Also, fun thing, while I did use pitch correction and reverb on those, I’m actually sustaining those notes with my actual voice. A year and a half of choir has really paid off.

[frankie big face]

I’m glad people liked my big guitar riff. I had to practice and it’s still pretty sloppy. I wouldn’t allow any of you solo any of those guitar or bass tracks.

[Toby Roktot]

My favorites this week
IMHO:

Frankie Big Face - Shaky first five seconds (intended?) … then, the song breaks loose with the coolest vibe. Loved the Elvis nod !!
VOTE !!

Pigfarmer, Jr - I really like this song. Easily could be on the pop country charts.
Lyrics are seriously good.
VOTE !!

[Lunkhead]

Frankie Big Face bags the first win of his 2020's Song Fight renaissance.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Congratz, Frankie

[frankie big face]

Hey hey! Thanks everyone.

Twenty years have passed since my last win.

[fluffy]

Hopefully it won’t be another 20 until your next one!