blue wrote:there's no bullshit, no filler, and nothing that can't be played by 4 drunk guys on a tiny stage. sooooo many songfight songs are just totally ruined from fluff and crap hanging off all over.
Ah OK, I totally get that.
There's kind of a paradox there: The best rock songs evolve over time, losing all the extra junk. Conversely, the ultra-short weekly process here yields vast sprawling messes. You'd think it'd be the other way around, no time = no time to waste on fluff and crap. I guess, to paraphrase Blaise Pascal, if we had more time, we'd write simpler songs.
blue wrote:(especially when you insert it just-so in your cold, calculating, evil-genius manner)
If I had more time, I'd have used a kazoo.
you'd hear my guitar smashing the fuck into something, just to go ahead and wake people up. because they were napping.
I think you're subtley saying that my song put you to sleep, but I laughed out loud anyway. 8)
Last edited by deshead on Thu May 19, 2005 4:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
i completely respect blue... think that's cool what ya think...
but i am semi-blown away by the production and the togetherness of des's tracks everyweek... he has somethin' soundin' almost professional... stuff that i could feel like i could put a CD i bought in and play it... and never known it was made in one week at home...
and i like this song in question mostly cause i feel a connection to it... cause things are goin' on in my life right now... that really coincide with a lot of what it says... and i think that's awesome... the sound is amazing... and he has a way with how he sings that gets me everytime and draws me entirely into his songs... i wished i could sing like that... i'm always so mono... haha someday i need to try to be more upbeat... but i'm such a mellow mellow person... i'll try eventually though...
i just... really wanna thank des for bein' around... cause seems like most all the tracks he makes are really somethin' i like... wanna eventually get to canada just to see what you do to put that much into a song... really curious how much is samples... how much you play... what you do with production... and see if i can learn something haha... givin' i don't necessarily know your skills as a musician... i'm a lazy fuck sometimes i think y'all are all aware of this... haha i can play... i just give up easily when i know it's not gonna sound much better... so why try... kinda gets in my head... and this is one long rant so i'm gonna stop
but... i just hope we never give him a reason to leave... \m/
"You haven't been really bad in a long time." - jim of seattle
Reviews will be on the Rock, Paper, Scissors scale. Rock being, well of course Rock. Paper being something that looks substantive until you hold it on it's plane or look at it next to a bright light. Scissors being something you shouldn't walk around with, or most importantly, hurl back at someone who just reviewed your song.
Ants Invisible: The beginning reminds me of an early '60's suspense or spy movie, or maybe some Vegas lounge singer's act. Something like that anyway, I like the plucky string sound. The vocals are like Peter, Paul and Mary. The whole thing is very '60's sounding. Not quite "Pet Sounds", more like something my parents would have listened to on their old Magnavox Hi-Fi. Only I'm not feeling like stomping around the room until it skips so that's good.
Scissors
Baron Von Smith: That's quite a little distortion pedal you have there, lose it because it sounds like crap. The piano sound is good however, your voice even better. This song has a lot of great qualities to it, too bad that guitar keeps coming back to ruin it for me. Maybe if you backed off the treble end of the spectrum and moved it back a little bit in the mix so it wouldn't drown out those excellent vocals.
Paper
Blake (Sky)Walker: The vocals are pleasant enough, even if the lyrics don't really grab me. You know that line about jumping off a building and dying? It's really not that bad of an idea if you listen to this long enough. On the other hand it was mecifully short, so you go that going for you.
Safety Scissors (Throw 'em all you want to)
Deshead: Again with the stellar production, don't you ever get tired of that? I would seriously love to know your setup for recording. (I mean that really, PM me man). This has got a lot of great stuff going on, the lyrics, vocals, musicianship, all stellar. But I can see where Blue is coming from, it's kind of, I don't know, missing the one element that made me want to get into playing. Real emotion. I'm sure this song comes from the heart, it's sure as hell sung and played like it does, but it's missing that threat of Blue banging his guitar against something and the possibility it might fly out of his hands and go out into the crowd. It's.......
Radio Rock
And while I'm on this subject, isn't that what Rock was all about in the beginning? The threat against society? That's how you should know if something rocks or not, if it makes you sit back and contemplate your safety. When Rock first started, it was considered a threat against society. It got the kids up out of their seats and act disorderly. It was sandwiched in between plate spinners and ventriloquists on Ed Sullivan, and it pissed parents off. It made them feel like they were losing control of their kids, and they did. We started thinking and feeling for ourselves, and fearing for our own safety to some degree, but not really caring. It made us wreckless, which is what rock should be, wreckless, without abandon, breaking down doors and beating the shit out of innocent guitars. That's what I think anyway, not that my songs do that. I wish they did.
Double Team Techno Smechno Cream: The Hell Yeahs go tecno. (I'm not sure if I'm right but if I am, stick with what you folks do best. If I'm wrong, well at least you sound like Heather Redmond) I like the vocal, but the style lacks a lot for me until it starts getting better around 2:00. It sounds like where the Go-Go's would have ended up if they hadn't ended up posing in Maxim or on the Surreal Life.
Paper
Garreth Duncan: The beginning sounds like Red Rider's "Lunatic Fringe" which doesn't bode well for this song being a rocker. And then there's you stealing a line from Queen, "Mama just killed a man", this really is going down hill in a hurry. The recording itself sounds like it was done in a garage and finished on the computer. Almost professional, but lacking some ambience from the effects. The lyrics aren't grabbing me in the least. There's potential here, but it defintitely needs development. I hope this helps develop this or your next entry.
Paper
Manhattan Glutton: More crappy sounding distorted guitar, buy an amp please or at least something that emulates one. Sell the pedal and the guitar, take out a loan and buy better stuff. Recording is nothing more than reproducing the sound of your instruments, meaning if you put shit in, you'll get shit out. The recording equipment sounds good enough, hell you got it converted to digital correctly, why skimp at the front end. Oh and get some drums.
Scissors, poorly sharpened scissors, and rusty, sticking out my ear.
Matthan Minster: Very nice into, the panning on the guitar (almost sounds like mandolin, but I'm not convinced) is a nice effect. Your vocals are great, nice use of harmonies. The chord progression is solid, and then there's one of those tinny sounding thin ass distorted guitars. It's brief but it does detract a little. Other than that, no real complaints. This is a pretty solid entry, get rid of that distorted guitar part or record it so it doesn't sound so thin and and I think you got something here.
Pebbles. It doesn't quite rate rock but if you put it together correctly you could build something on it.
The Meaningless: Cut and paste, cut and paste, cut and paste: Sounds like it took you about as much time as this review.
Not Rock, not Paper, not Scissors, this is Shit.
Nothing really grabbed me as much as I would have hoped the title would. Top of the heap would be Deshead for almost rocking and Matthan Minster for having a good song to build on. Most everyone else was just so-so, except for that shit at the end, which just plain sucked.
Ants (Invisible)
Amazing vocal display, the melody is so complicated and flows so well. I'm wondering if you have this written down on paper into parts. It's really amazing and the choice of percussion instruments here and there is divine. All I can do is sit back and enjoy this. It's really beautiful.
Baron von Smith
I really like the guitar melody, and the drop off for the vocals. I'm sure you know how much that vocal melody is Radiohead, and I like how it just leaves me hanging. Could use a chorus vocal, as I listen to the guitar I think a one liner would be great. You saved it for the end. I like the ending.
Blake Walker
You're reminding me of high school summers. You've got to market this to companies and enter jingle contests. I like the ending.
Deshead
Feels just like the warm air. The stop right before the chorus really helps it slam in. I get pretty damn psyched when the chorus drops down like a hammer of sunlight screaming down reflecting off of some water. The quick drop down then back in at the end is great. I mean the drop really feels like end of the summer bonfire, but then the chorus is the good times, sun shining...
Double Team Techno Dream
That's a beautiful rhodes and a beautiful voice to accompany it. I like how the song develops too. I like the stops and the addition of that synth during the prechorus/chorus part. It just sounds like a summer song, I like the ending. Just so light and dreamy.
Gareth Duncan
My favorite parts are the verse chords and that instrumental bridge. I like you're able to bring it right back to the rock. With bigger production this would really rock pretty damn hard. And with screaming. I think I would say I don't like the Bohemian Rhapsody vocal in the beginning but I forget about it completely by the time that bridge comes around.
Manhattan Glutton
The vocal idea might be better with an acoustic or clean electric guitar, I think. There's definitely a vocal idea there that would work for a classic rock tune. The speech doesn't really make sense to me with the theme, but it's entertaining.
Matthan Minster
That synth in the intro and the mellow tone of those two repeating chords lays down a real nice smooth summer feeling. Like I'm looking through blurred, happy goggles and a beach scene with lots of skin everywhere. Nice changes around 1:00 too. I like the guitar melody there as well. Yeah the vocals could make more use of metaphors verses saying plain out what you feel, but there's a beauty to just saying what you feel. I wanna hear you scream a Blind Melon tune.
The Meannes
Wow some haphazard stuff here that I'm digging. The backwards vocal is scary. I don't get how this is a summer song...but the groove has got a ton of rocking potential.
x-tokyo-river-god
What do I say to this? It's funny as shit! Like a poetry reading at Border's but with a big ass surround sound PA with synths. I want to see the narrator getting way overemotional, in a theatre performance like this is just one scene from a play.
Deshead, Ants, Double Team, and Matthan are my favs., in that order. Wait...Baron too, and Gareth as well. And x-tokyo in hopes that it's being performed somewhere on some low budget theatre stage.
Dan-O from Five-O wrote:
Gareth Duncan: And then there's you stealing a line from Queen, "Mama just killed a man", this really is going down hill in a hurry.
I hadn't noticed that until you pointed it out. Damn my subconscious .
ants (invisible)
- very interesting; i really like the vocal harmonies
- the music is just right; swells well and gets quiet and supports the vox
- interesting, but not necessarily gripping; i'll have to listen to it some more [edit]: yes, very interesting, but perhaps there is just TOO much going on
baron von smith
- vox are really quiet; i shouldn't have to strain to hear them
- the piano needs to ring out some more; it just kind of plunks
- i really like the chorus riff
- nice change-up at 2:20
blake walker
- nintendo sounds galore
- vocal delivery is kind of flat, like you just telephoned it in
- feels less like a fully realized song than an excercise in production and arrangement
deshead
- i like the hard-panned guitars
- nice vocal melody
- and the chorus kicks out sooooo nicely!
double team techno dream
- the male vocal sounds flat; probably intentionally so, but i think it should have some more effects on it
- well-produced and arranged, but it needs a bit more tension; the change-up at 2:09 needs to come in earlier, perhaps
- shows a LOT of potential, keep it up!
gareth duncan
- i like the guitar riff
- but if you're going to scream, damn it, scream!
- the vocal harmonies on the chorus are off
- the guitars sound muted or just distant; on a song like this they should be up front and crisp like on "in utero"
manhattan glutton
- vox are way too quiet
- bass and drums, please; all electric guitar songs have to be more musically interesting than this
- the spoken word might have been interesting, but came off as too feel-goody
mattan minster
- very pretty; the acoustic guitar is miked perfectly and the vox are crisp
- you could bring up that electric guitar some more in the mix
- very well executed; could use a break somewhere to mix it up
meanness
- too much start and stop without the meat to hold my interest between pauses
x-tokyo-river-god
- ah, the always interesting experiment of collaborations; this sounds nothing like what left my computer
- a very original take on the title, finally, no nostalgia (or well, maybe its psychopathic nostalgia)
- sometimes the vox are a little too swallowed up; they could use some variations
- and nataly returns!!
Dan-O from Five-O wrote:
Gareth Duncan: And then there's you stealing a line from Queen, "Mama just killed a man", this really is going down hill in a hurry.
I hadn't noticed that until you pointed it out. Damn my subconscious .
Gareth.
yea that was the first thing i noticed when i heard the song 2...
song came out alright... but that was hard to take in haha...
but i'm guilty of such things 2... so no big thing...
my biggest prob with the track is mostly just the vocals bein' kinda empty
compared to the music...
good vocals though... mostly just production\m/
"You haven't been really bad in a long time." - jim of seattle
Dan-O from Five-O wrote:
Gareth Duncan: And then there's you stealing a line from Queen, "Mama just killed a man", this really is going down hill in a hurry.
I hadn't noticed that until you pointed it out. Damn my subconscious .
Gareth.
I thought you did it on purpose, like paying tribute or something. And I don't think it sent the song downhill. If anything, it jarred me into listening, because I immediately knew that line and then was hooked by everything else. I still think your song rocks!
my ambition is only exceeded by my lack of ability
gduncan wrote:
I hadn't noticed that until you pointed it out. Damn my subconscious .
Gareth.
I thought you did it on purpose, like paying tribute or something. And I don't think it sent the song downhill. If anything, it jarred me into listening, because I immediately knew that line and then was hooked by everything else. I still think your song rocks!
Thanks, glad you liked it. I'm a fan of Queen so maybe it was an unconscious tribute. I just found it amusing that I didn't realise where my brain had dredged it up from .
I have a headache so apologies for grumpiness in advance.
Ants, Invisible - veering towards opera. Wouldn't sound out of place in a piece rewriting Brecht lyrics for a middle-class middle-aged slef-contented audience. Personally irritated by the Carmina Buranda-isms by about 1 minute 10.
Baron Von Smith - that keyboard is a bit odd where its placed in the mix. Or possibly too loud. I do really like your voice. The weird jangly percussion thing is bit distracting. I would bring the singing over the guitar in straight away, rather than waiting. Not bad at all.
Blake Walker - heh. That's cool. I like it. having said that, I'm kind of bored by 1.05! How can I have such a short attention span?
Deshead - I really like the choruses, a lot. I kind of wish the whole song was like that!
DDTT - nothing much to say about this. Except it sounds like Lonbobby's collab stuff / Future Boy & Moboid / Cutie Pies et all. For once I'd like to hear one of these beautiful voices singing over a screaming keyboard punk song. It wouldn't win but it would make a change ....
Gareth Duncan - nothing to say that I haven't said before.
Manhattan Glutton - I like this a lot. Except the holding back on the vocals - if you can't shout it out, why write a lyric that requires you to do just that? Play to your strengths. And I don't like the spoken word part. Apart from that good stuff.
Matthan Minster - Well, I'm glad for you, having a beautiful girl and all. Bully for you. Do we have to a song about it? Urk. Nothing constructive to add, so I'll just be quiet.
Meanness - What a mess. A glorious mess perhaps but finally, just a mess. Also not very mean.
X-T-R-G - this sounds like early 'blueberry hassle' era XTRG better produced. Nice to hear Niveous sounding so clear on the vocals. Almost very creepy.
I'm voting for Blake Walker. Though I suggest he changes his name to Blade Walker - that's tougher.
j$ wrote:
X-T-R-G - this sounds like early 'blueberry hassle' era XTRG better produced. Nice to hear Niveous sounding so clear on the vocals. Almost very creepy.
Thanks J$,
I finally conquered the problems with the home PC and can now record direct to the PC (yeah, no cassettes!). The song was a struggle and I feel like I wanna still do more with it (perhaps for coverfight) until it turns into a "Minerva"-like song but heavy on the creepy with all of the odd production (your beat is backwards, smoothed, slowed, a bit reverbed and some other stuff while Noah's guitar is pitchshifted, reverbed, smoothed and some other stuff) and odd vocal stylings (I think I'll try to sing more on the next version while Nataly will continue to whisper her way through the Cure).
matthan minster
very nice. lush and layered, and the production is very clean. for such a simple sort of arrangement, you bring alot of richness to the mix. i don't mind the distorted guitar but i think it might work better sitting back deeper in the mix, maybe more reverbed. singing's very nice too, and better when you double it. this seems a little darker than your normal kid named ace sort of pop arrangement, so thats a cool departure too.
the meanness
i wouldn't call it terrible but you need to be careful with all those long codas. they tempt me to hit the back button.
baron von smith
the dirty guitar isn't a bad idea but it seems a bit too in my face. bring it down or maybe move it out of dead center. i really think your singing has potential here, but the gained up guitar kind of detracts from all the other elements. it would work great as a dynamic element to balance things out but instead hogs all the attention when it's playing. it muddies more than it balances.
gareth duncan
hehe, i totally here how you were going after the seeker riff with this. in your case, you could definitely bring that guitar up and make it less squishy and compressed. listen to how abominominous does his dirty guitar. that's the best way i can describe it. always go for the philtone. this would kick with better mastering.
ants invisible
as previously stated, i love it. you always bring a unique and diverse element to songfight, always very, very well done. some will hate it i'm sure, but i'm sure an equal number like me will love it and appreciate it for what it is, a unique and original interpretation. my first thought was pet sounds.
deshead
again, as previously stated, i love it. quality production, and anyone that says you don't sing with passion and conviction is full of shit. rock is in the ear of the beholder. you really do toad the wet sprocket almost better than they do. killer chorus. you have a knack for creating hooks with your prosdy, and that makes me jealous with envy. you are a hook machine deshead.
manhattan glutton
production issues aside, this isn't bad. maybe overly ambitious. it could really use some percussion. the whole thing sounds pretty flat mix wise, though the playing isn't bad. a bit too much fretboard masturbation but i'm a fan of gratuitous guitar noodling so i'm hip to it.
x tokyo river god
i definitely hear improvements in your production niv. the vocals are about as clean as i've ever heard from you. for what you're going for here, i think you nail it pretty good. definitely creepy. it's like lush wreckdom, if there ever was such a thing. emo wreckdom. now there's a niche! pretty cool. i like how you don't overuse the nataly effect.
double team techno dream
well, i LOVE the singing. not so huge on the mix. the mix is really well done but the tone and feel seems a bit too 80's synth pop for my taste. but i'm sure thats exactly the sort of feel you were going for, and in that sense, you completely nail it. this sounds like henrietta stretching her wings, or maybe a high density/JBB collab. whoever it is, it's excellent, and it's not even my thing.
blake walker
for crapcore casio, dude...........YOU ROCK! YOU FUCKING ROCK!
faves: ants invisible, deshead, double team techno dream, blake walker.
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