Time to get on the road (Valley Highway reviews)

[Pigfarmer Jr]

"I'm gonna walk it by myself,
Don't want to nobody to walk it for me,
I'm gonna walk it by myself.'

[Pigfarmer Jr]

lYRICS: viewtopic.php?t=12696

[arby]

when oh when is fight going up?

[Lunkhead]

Songs posted!

[the idiot king]

The art is a photo from and the lyrics were inspired by a drive I was lucky enough to take through Öxi Pass in east Iceland.

[Lunkhead]

FYI I forgot to nuke the last fight's vote till now. If anybody already voted between when I posted the songs and just now you will have to vote all over again. Sorry!

[arby]

Songs posted!

huzzah!! thanks Sam!

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Fairly quick thoughts from the pickle gallery. (In case anyone is allergic to peanuts. And also, thanks to G!)

Berkeley Social Scene: The chorus melody feels like an oldies rock throw back with an indie rock sonic palette. There's a bit of a slow burn feel to this one that I find very likeable.

Frankie Big Face: The intimate vocal suits the lyric so very well. The guitar is so clear. The simple arrangement works great, too. I know this is technically G&G but it doesn't come off like the typical example.

The Freezing Hands: This one has that charming live feel to it that was optional but always fun for the live fight title. That's a super interesting bass line. Straight ahead and under the radar until you listen to it and then you can't not hear it.

Future Boy: Keys and vocals shouldn't be this damn this good, tbh. This was in my top two in the live fight and I think it was obvious that you nailed the win by a good margin. This is excellent. My wife (Phoebe) really liked the lyric live, in the moment. (So mad props to John for the good soundboard mojo.) I came away from this fight just wanting you to add keys to every song I do from now on.

The Idiot Kings: Thanks for the audience vibe to at least give us the impression of a live performance. I have to say that I like this. There's a bounce that's pleasant and a pace that works very well for me.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost: The live performance from the in person fight just the way it happened in real time. A good take on the title and I loved seeing you guys live. Such a strong vocal. It was great to meet both of you.

Pickle Farmer Jr: Had the start of a song for this earlier in the week but almost nothing would come once I travelled. I got a verse and chorus for this one on the drive back to Missouri. I'm not exactly happy with the arrangement but what do you do in a day or so? Thanks to G for the new band moniker.

The Sheeple's Choir: I loved this one at the live fight. The other of my favorite top two live fight performances.

Sockpuppet: Your verse vocal melody has such a great shape to it. The chorus melody feels like a satisfying resolution, too. I saw interest in a reinterpretation of this one (on the live chat) and I can definitely see the draw. I'd almost suggest a side cover fight for this song alone as it has so much potential be to be done in so many different ways.

[arby]

Fairly quick thoughts from the pickle gallery.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost: The live performance from the in person fight just the way it happened in real time. A good take on the title and I loved seeing you guys live. Such a strong vocal. It was great to meet both of you.

Thanks for this! It was GREAT to meet you, too! Just one small correction - I did edit the second chorus to take out my false start. Otherwise it is the live recording, with auto-mastering by Logic - thanks Fluffy!

[fluffy]

In no particular order.

Frankie Big Face: This song makes me want to curl up and take a nap while I think about life. Maybe I'll have a nice cup of decaffeinated coffee and watch the sunset.

The Sheeple's Choir: So much of this just keeps me thinking of Cassettes. As usual the tonal shifts between chill song and deep-end conspiracy theories makes for a pretty funny livefight song. I don't think I'd want to listen to this song outside of that context though.

The Freezing Hands: Some of the shrill synth tones in this hurt my ears, but it's nice to hear a long jammy thing. Would have liked it to have a proper ending though.

The Idiot Kings: I'm not a fan of the fake audience sounds (they sound more like running water to me?) but I like the rest of the song. Good little toe-tapping ditty that fills up the space in my head.

Sockpuppet: Like many of my livefight songs, this one ends up being about my relationship with Song Fight!. I wasn't in a good mental place for much of the Denver trip. But ultimately, things felt pretty good in the end. Anyway I've got a much fuller arrangement of this song that I'm working on for my next album, and it's also gotten a really great response at a couple of open mics I've taken it to already, so hopefully I can make the album version live up to my own expectations. This song was also most directly inspired by "Veneer" by The Verve Pipe, a band who I've always loved and felt it was almost criminal that their body of work was mostly ignored for their one manufactured-hit song that was completely unlike the rest of their music.

Pickle Farmer Jr: As far as sentimental songs about Song Fight! Live! go, this one's pretty okay. Ending's a bit abrupt.

Berkeley Social Scene: This could be on the radio with a different vocal treatment. I guess I don't have a lot to say about it otherwise.

Future Boy: I'm surprised (in a good way) that this one won the livefight, which usually goes to whatever most memorably-funny song grabbed peoples' attention. It's a great song with some pretty strong themes about mental health and isolation and that little gravity well that traumatized introverts end up in with the world being the way it is, and with a positive message about letting good things happen and opening yourself up to positive relationships. Which can be hard sometimes, but is definitely worth it. I hope I can find someone to do that with someday.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost: This is totally my fault but I should have EQed the omnichord down a bit; the harsh tones are giving me a pretty bad headache on this recording, which it didn't do during the actual event. Anyway I love how this song builds up intensity as it goes and then the rawness at the end works great.

Also hey where's Roymond's song? I extracted his recording from the stream, did he not submit it?

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Fairly quick thoughts from the pickle gallery.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost: The live performance from the in person fight just the way it happened in real time. A good take on the title and I loved seeing you guys live. Such a strong vocal. It was great to meet both of you.

Thanks for this! It was GREAT to meet you, too! Just one small correction - I did edit the second chorus to take out my false start. Otherwise it is the live recording, with auto-mastering by Logic - thanks Fluffy!

Close enough. You didn't add a bunch of overdubs etc., like Stevie Ray Vaughan did for the "Live Alive" album, now did ya?

[the idiot king]

Fairly quick thoughts from the pickle gallery. (In case anyone is allergic to peanuts. And also, thanks to G!)
The Idiot Kings: Thanks for the audience vibe to at least give us the impression of a live performance. I have to say that I like this. There's a bounce that's pleasant and a pace that works very well for me.

The Idiot Kings: I'm not a fan of the fake audience sounds (they sound more like running water to me?) but I like the rest of the song. Good little toe-tapping ditty that fills up the space in my head.

It is indeed running water! It was supposed to be more in tune with the lyrics than appearing to be a live recording, but I probably went with too subtle a recording of water.

[fluffy]

I wouldn't normally post this here but this is an earlyish work-in-progress version of the album version of my song. Since folks wanted to hear more thorough takes on it (or at least, Pigfarmer Jr and ujnhunter both mentioned such a thing).

valley highway.mp3

(7.84 MiB) Downloaded 167 times

[frankie big face]

Frankie Big Face: The intimate vocal suits the lyric so very well. The guitar is so clear. The simple arrangement works great, too. I know this is technically G&G but it doesn't come off like the typical example.

Appreciate the review. I've been trying a lot harder with recording lately and I've always sucked at recording acoustic guitar, so that's a nice compliment. There are some blank spaces in this arrangement that I may need to fill in a little, but I'm glad the spareness worked for you. Thanks!

[ujnhunter]

I wouldn't normally post this here but this is an earlyish work-in-progress version of the album version of my song. Since folks wanted to hear more thorough takes on it (or at least, Pigfarmer Jr and ujnhunter both mentioned such a thing).

valley highway.mp3

Awesome! The strings/piano parts are perfect and almost exactly like I had imagined. I really like the outro gang vocals too.

[the idiot king]

Berkeley Social Scene: If the BPM was bumped up on this, I could see this being a kickass powerpop song. As it stands the chords, melodies, lyrics, and performances are all there, but it feels a bit long. Killer stuff, I just want it faster!

Frankie Big Face: Great performance and recording. Is this live? Having said that I’m a big layers guy, and a guitar/vocal arrangement is a tough sell for me. This put up a solid fight against my natural defenses, however.

The Freezing Hands: There are some really cool ideas here (looking at you, right channel synthesizer) but the mix is a bit muted. Some more effective compression could have helped lift all of the individual components a bit to create a stronger mix. Given that this track is instrumental for a large chunk, I think that could’ve made a big difference with this track.

Future Boy: As above with Frankie Big Face, my personal preference is for big arrangements, but also as above, this is nailing it in terms of performance, writing, and recording. I have no complaints other than personal preference, so good on you!

The Idiot Kings: To be clear, the noise at the beginning and end is water, not fake applause. This was written about a specific few minutes when my wife and I were driving on a remote road in east Iceland. The boarding place called because our dog was being peckish, and they asked if they could cook her eggs to feed her. It was an absurd juxtaposition of scenery and scenario, so this song is about that. (They cooked her eggs and she liked them)

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost: I’m a sucker for sevenths and bells. Love how dark this is. Extra points for being properly performed live.

Pickle Farmer Jr: Really well-written tune. It feels like a lost Warren Zevon b-side and that’s a pretty damned big compliment from me. I really like the lyrics.

The Sheeple's Choir: Another proper live! I like the group vocals quite a bit. This feels a bit more spontaneous, what with mention of “Michael Jackson’s glove” and “Fried chickens, kittens, and doves”. The weirdo nature of the lyrics actually really works very strongly in this song’s favor.

Sockpuppet: The trilogy of live recordings is complete at last! There’s some Bowieness to this between the chords and melodies. I love me a good old fashioned juxtaposition of sad or dark music with somewhat uplifting lyrics.It does't hurt that I really like the lyrics. Not gonna lie, this song kinda rules.

Picklefarmer, Jr. and Sockpuppet really stuck out for me this week, but solid crop, gang!

[frankie big face]

Frankie Big Face: Great performance and recording. Is this live? Having said that I’m a big layers guy, and a guitar/vocal arrangement is a tough sell for me. This put up a solid fight against my natural defenses, however.

It's not live. I don't really like posting live recordings of songs I literally just wrote the day before I performed them. I haven't even listened to the live recording. I wanted this arrangement to be stark, but I agree it could use a little more. I was pressed for time, unfortunately.

[ken]

Berkeley Social Scene: If the BPM was bumped up on this, I could see this being a kickass powerpop song. As it stands the chords, melodies, lyrics, and performances are all there, but it feels a bit long. Killer stuff, I just want it faster!

You know, we talked about this before we tracked and I think meant to play faster, but everyone was still exhausted from Song Fight Live!

[arby]

I wouldn't normally post this here but this is an earlyish work-in-progress version of the album version of my song. Since folks wanted to hear more thorough takes on it (or at least, Pigfarmer Jr and ujnhunter both mentioned such a thing).

valley highway.mp3

Cool! I agree, this is sounding good. the strings are very nice.

no big deal about our EQ. people have been complaining about harsh frequencies (not that you were complaining, per se) on Omni since we started competing, so it's kind of a Lucky Witch tradition. Personally I never notice, I pretty much always love the sound of Omni! Hahaa! I tried mastering it myself (I re-recorded a WAV from the livestream, edited it again to take out my most egregious flub, and used GarageBand to "mix" and then BandLab to master using their new "Spatial" setting) and I bet this is even worse! LOL!

Valley Hwy 2.0 (Mastered - Spatial).mp3

(8.51 MiB) Downloaded 84 times

[arby]

PS My only "review" such as it is, is to say that The Sheeple Choir sounds like an unholy mashup of "Cassettes" and this song:

[Lunkhead]

The Idiot Kings ride the valley highway off into the sunset ... and victory.

[the idiot king]

Holy hell, the first TIK win!!