Can't make it, sorry (Rain Check prefight)

[Lunkhead]

Rain Check
Due: Saturday, 11/22/25 9:59am PDT
Optional challenge: Very long chord progression
Email a file named yourbandname_rc.mp3 to fightmaster@songfight.org
File name instructions: https://www.songfight.org/faq.html#file_name
Subject: Rain Check
Body: (your band name)

[jeff robertson]

I'm possibly going to be in but if I am it will be with a song that deliberately involves a lot of AI, as I'm trying to get better with it for (non musical) work purposes. I will submit as something like "<name of obviously fictional singer> featuring <one of my band names>" to make no pretense of hiding the AI use (everyone will be able to tell anyway).

[Lunkhead]

For folks who haven't seen it we have added an AI related section to the FAQ:

https://songfight.org/faq.html#ai

So if you want to play around with AI, for anything fully AI generated we're not really interested at this point including it in fights if we can help it. But you're welcome to share it on the boards so folks can check it out and review it.

[drproximo]

Recognizing first that AI and Generative AI are two different things, and unfortunately we're not always clear about these things. Having said that, if I find out that generative AI was used in a song, I will rejected it on principle. Legalized plagarism, poisoning communities, boiling away our drinking water, not to mention the grotesque nightmares that these things pass off as "art"; the actual current real-life reasons to hate it outweigh the potential hypothetical fictional maybe future benefits that you imagine. Just stop. Stop objectively making the world a worse place, the slop that comes out the other end isn't worth it, not even close. Whatever you would have done before GenAI is exactly what you can do today, so do that instead.

[drproximo]

I usually don't make 2 consecutive posts in a thread, but the previous one was responding to the AI discussion, now I'm posting about the current round. I'm going to attempt this one, I already have a workable arrangement and a few lines of the chorus. I was thinking of doing another drproximo song, it's been so long since I did nerdcore, so it was nice to get back in that saddle, but for "Rain Check" I'm feeling something different. There's a project I've been working on (on and off) for nearly a decade, and it's partly a continuation of stuff I was writing in the 90s. I think "Rain Check" might be the first song fully arranged and recorded for this fictional band.

A little fun side note: I saw the announcement for the new title on the Discord chat, I hadn't looked at it on the website until a few minutes ago, and I saw that "very long chord progression" was the additional challenge. The arrangement I was working on only has one chord, E minor, that's either the perfect definition of a very long chord progression or it's the exact opposite. Or both.

Edit to add: I've gotten clarification on this, and it turns out that if I do a song with one chord, it's precisely the opposite of what the optional challenge means. Not long after I posted this, I got to thinking what it probably actually means, and I asked in the Discord, it's supposed to be a progression in which a lot of chords happen before the loop starts over.

[jeff robertson]

For folks who haven't seen it we have added an AI related section to the FAQ:

https://songfight.org/faq.html#ai

So if you want to play around with AI, for anything fully AI generated we're not really interested at this point including it in fights if we can help it. But you're welcome to share it on the boards so folks can check it out and review it.

Ah. Yeah I've been gone for like 2 years so definitely haven't seen that. What I was going to do would absolutely be more generative AI than the rules allow. I may or may not post something in the reviews thread depending on if I end up satisfied with it enough to do that.

OTOH in the unlikely event that I do end up entering something non-AI generated you'll definitely be able to tell it's not AI..

[jeff robertson]

Ah. Yeah I've been gone for like 2 years so definitely haven't seen that. What I was going to do would absolutely be more generative AI than the rules allow. I may or may not post something in the reviews thread depending on if I end up satisfied with it enough to do that.

Actually scratch that, I don't want to pollute the reviews thread with something that was mainly an excercise in trying to find out if these AI tools that people seem to be using to make pop music and "modern country" (neither of which I listen to and would not know how to tell if it was AI or not) could also do genres I actually listen to and play. I'm never gonna work on these more, so may as well reveal them now.

I used the same (AI written and frankly pretty surreal) lyrics for all versions I prompted, to keep it even when comparing versions. I prompted various styles/genres and suggested instrumentations, but otherwise let it cook. I did not attempt to tell it what chord progressions or melodies to use. I used the female vocalist for all songs, and other than the genre did not tell it how to make her sound.

After several hours of regenerating and rejecting what it came up with, it was down to these two. Had I been actually entering the fight I would have brought the split stems into my DAW and remixed them and replaced the guitars with my own playing, but kept these lyrics and these vocals.

This is my attempt to prompt something that I might submit as a Flvxxvm Florvm song. The prompt was "fast tempo 178bpm 1960s garage rock blues with electric guitar, harmonica, drums, piano, female lead vocal with male backup, be sure to include guitar solos, live recording". (notice it ignored my command to make the backup vocals male)

https://www.jeff-robertson.com/flvxx/sf ... rvm_rc.mp3


This is my attempt to prompt a "Jeff Robertson and the Neo-Candylanders" song. The prompt was "1970s glam rock, fast and in a major key in ironic contrast to the mournful lyrics, protopunk, with electric guitar, piano, bass, and drums".

https://www.jeff-robertson.com/flvxx/sf ... ers_rc.mp3

My verdict is these are recognizably the styles of music they are supposed to be. I wouldn't call them great but if I heard them unawares and wasn't paying much attention, I might possibly miss the AI-ness. I'm kind of scared now, I feel like "they came for me".

[drproximo]

I'm starting to get disturbed at how many people are still on this GenAI train. Like, am I seriously the only one here who recognizes and acknowledges.the various ways that these "tools" make the world objectively worse, with the only benefit being that people can make grotesque slop that they couldn't make a few years ago? Why are we focusing on nuance and ignoring the big picture. The comment above this is several paragraphs of "I'm killing the planet slowly and stealing from creators to keep tweaking this slop until it's a fraction less sloppy". I'm starting to get disgusted and I think I might ditch this community if this gross AI complacency continues.

[jeff robertson]

I'm starting to get disturbed at how many people are still on this GenAI train. Like, am I seriously the only one here who recognizes and acknowledges.the various ways that these "tools" make the world objectively worse, with the only benefit being that people can make grotesque slop that they couldn't make a few years ago? Why are we focusing on nuance and ignoring the big picture. The comment above this is several paragraphs of "I'm killing the planet slowly and stealing from creators to keep tweaking this slop until it's a fraction less sloppy". I'm starting to get disgusted and I think I might ditch this community if this gross AI complacency continues.

Don’t! I can just stop talking about it. Probably other people here are uncomfortable with it to but just not saying it.

[AJOwens]

. . .Like, am I seriously the only one here who recognizes and acknowledges.the various ways that these "tools" make the world objectively worse. . .

FWIW, I too think AI should be resisted.But then, I thought Amazon and Facebook should be resisted, and look how that went.

Anyway it's off-topic. Surely there's a forum for this?

[Lunkhead]

I'm starting to get disturbed at how many people are still on this GenAI train. Like, am I seriously the only one here who recognizes and acknowledges.the various ways that these "tools" make the world objectively worse, with the only benefit being that people can make grotesque slop that they couldn't make a few years ago? Why are we focusing on nuance and ignoring the big picture. The comment above this is several paragraphs of "I'm killing the planet slowly and stealing from creators to keep tweaking this slop until it's a fraction less sloppy". I'm starting to get disgusted and I think I might ditch this community if this gross AI complacency continues.

I can relate to having strong feelings about the topic. I hope, though, that you don't decide to depart this community because of a couple comments about gen AI music that one person made in one thread. Please don't take that to be some kind of representation of the broader community's position(s). Also please don't take lack of public discussion about it on our boards/Slack/Discord to mean either a) no one is thinking about it, or b) everyone has a unanimous opinion about it of any sort, etc. If folks would like to discuss it, please do so in threads/channels dedicated to the topic rather than e.g. in threads dedicated to prefights/reviews/etc. And of course, please discuss it in accordance with our forum rules as found here:

viewtopic.php?t=11849

(I'm not including that last part as a warning to anybody here, just as a general reminder for everybody about the forum rules, since they are still young relative to the age of the forum.)

[ken]

Hi All,
I'm in for this title and want to be sure everyone knows that all the electric guitars were played by Lunkhead.
Ken

[glennny]

I can attest that Lunkhead has at least played all of my electric guitars.