Wake up and smell the coffin ... (Dead Nose reviews)

Smalltown Mike · Post by **Smalltown Mike** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:47 am

Only the dead knows.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:00 pm

i like your title better than ken's. you get my vote.

Smalltown Mike · Post by **Smalltown Mike** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 2:24 pm

jack wrote:i like your title better than ken's. you get my vote.

I appreciate it.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:05 pm

pompeii: great tune but beyond that, great to see you guys back!

you guys are one of songfight's hidden gems.

j$ · Post by j$ » Fri Oct 14, 2005 7:45 pm

Evil Twin: If you are gonna take my name in vain, please be better. I've got the shit song aspect tied up quite nicely without your help, thank you very much. (and no, I have no idea who you are, nor really care.) You wanna piss me off by suggesting some association to this three-fingered wank then you're going the right way about it.

Pompeii - I said I couldn't take the piss out of you any more now I've seen you live, and I stand by that. But this veers dangerously close to Europe (the band not the continent) at times. A new female singer? Interesting, Pomp(eii)ous, novelty, you at yr best, I guess!

Anthony: Well, less crackly / clippy than previous efforts. Buy / download a drum machine.

Bjam - not my favourite on the AAD, but I love your voice. Guitar is maybe still a little loud. But yeah, you good.

EBA: Starts out like a cut scene in Silent Hill. nah, slow rap is not my thing (allowing for my limited knowledge of rap). You clearly have a following, so my opinion isn't much help one way or the other, I guess, but I personally got a little bored by the 'story' despite the huge amount of effort that had clearly gone into constructing it.

Kama Sutra: Did you read it in the Rolling Stone by any chance? I like this actually, but the vocal is tooo quiet. Not inaudibly so but the clean recording of the guitar is accentuated to an unpleasant degree by being so high in the mix, imo.

Luke & Steve - that's fucking great.

Merisan - Nice folky country twang. great voice and guitar-werk. A little too m.o.r. for my tastes, but very good nonetheless.

PYF - I think that the AAD is the best thing you've done - maybe you have less time to fuck it up with intellect when you work to a short deadline. Some really nice melodies and the perfect mix of tune and tone. That said this is an instrumental. I don't think I'd vote for it anyway, but it's up there in a so-far-okayish fight, and I like the SFO feel of it.

Ross Durand - Flangeytastic! Heh. Cute lyric. Nice. Almost Dylan-esque, or maybe Country Joe and the Fish -someone like that - (post)modern country take. I like the 'these dead eyes' line very much. I think the shaker should be all the way through and maybe fragments of that lead as well, but nice!

Star-Crossed Voyager - drum machine too loud too loud too loud to be such a basic pattern. Your voice is great. The tune and guitar is great. The keyboard is great. The lyric is entirely not great. I like this a lot. Mix it with the drum machine at 50% volume and I am there.

Steve Durand - Pastiche? Check. No trumpets? Boo! I'd like to see you challenge yourself more musically - you can (or at least come across that you can) do this style of thing with your eyes closed. That said, it's a very good pastiche, just I don't think there's a huge demand for this kinda sound beyond The Three Amigos II soundtrack ...

j$

philtr · Post by **philtr** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:23 pm

Thanks for all the reviews last week. I figure I oughta give back to the community and do a review myself.

Disclaimer: I don't claim to have any musical expertise. These are nothing more than my opinions, and since I don't know any of you personally, none of these are personal attacks. Please take them for what they're worth.

A-Log:
Sounds unrehearsed. Is this intentional? I mean, it fits the comedic stylings of the lyrical theme. I don't particularly find it funny. I wanted several times to skip to the next track, but forced myself to go on listening, hoping I would find a beat or a guitar or SOMETHING. But I was left with nothing. Sorry, my vote doesn't go to you.

Bjam:
I couldn't understand the lyrics very well... the whole thing sounded kinda muddy... or flat or something. I do like the singer's voice. Very beautiful and on-pitch. Even though there's only a guitar and a tambourine(?), I love the way the song builds.

EBA:
I voted for EBA last week, and I was excited to see what they were going to roll out for this week, but I was sadly disappointed. I don't mind "bad words" (for lack of a better term), but I feel like it was a little overdone in the middle phone call part. I don't know, I shouldn't be one to judge, but it kinda turned me off to the whole song and I probably won't listen to it ever again. Not to mention the fact that gangsta rap makes me want to puke.

J$:
You said this song would make you lose fans... well, you just gained one here. I love your lyrics. I just wish I could write as cool of lyrics as you, J$. HE TAKES IT IN FOR GREAT JUSTICE FOR TEH WIN!!!!!111

J$'s ET:
What is this? The most absurd thing I've heard in a long time.

Kama Sutra:
Nice guitar sound, vocals are a little quiet. The synth doesn't seem to go with the song, out of sync or out of key, one or the other or both, which ruins the song for me. "You should try breathing through your mouth" is a great line.

Luke Henley ft Steve Durand:
The voices clash. I love the music though... perfectly cheesy without being too much so.

Merisan:
Great mixing. I don't think I have anything bad to say about this song.

Phunt Your Friends:
Wow. A song without vocals. Daring move. I like it.

Pompeii:
I like it. Sort of. Personal opinion (of a Bible College student): I don't like sexual stuff. Really ruins the song for me.

Ross Durand:
I like the harmonies. Guitar solo adds a nice touch. You had me tapping my foot.

SXV Me. I played guitar and sang without a vocoder. Ironically, my nose has been stuffed up all week. I don't like how the song gets noticeably quieter when the drums kick in. Stupid compressor.

Steve Durand I love it. This gonna be stuck in my head all week. EQ some more highs in there.

philtr · Post by **philtr** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:31 pm

j$ wrote:Star-Crossed Voyager - drum machine too loud too loud too loud to be such a basic pattern. Your voice is great. The tune and guitar is great. The keyboard is great. The lyric is entirely not great. I like this a lot. Mix it with the drum machine at 50% volume and I am there.

I agree wholeheartedly. On a side note, I don't waste my time on silly things like drum machines and keyboards. I use a software studio (Buzz Tracker for the win!) - http://www.buzzmachines.com

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:45 am

Anthony
That first sneeze was pretty icky. I giggled at the "Ha cha cha cha". This is all just rather strange, which I think was the idea...

Bjam
You should vote for me.

The East Bay Acolytes
Man, when this started I thought my iTunes had gone onto shuffle and was gonna start playing "The Thunder Rolls". This is pretty dramatic, but in a kinda weird way. Reminds me of the VMAs(yes, I watched them, yes, a little piece of me died when I watched them) and that guy that did the little mini-opera-rap-thing... the closet thing... I dunno, it seemed like that but less hardcore. If that makes sense.

Johnny Cashpoint
The music is making me dance and boogie in my chair. I like the story in the lyrics. Very cute song. The lalas are sweet.

Johnny Cashpoint's Evil Twin
J$ obviously got the music genes in the womb.

Kama Sutra
Preeeetty guitar. The synthy/beepy thing sounds like those horrible doorbell testing stations they used to have Homebase back home. And on Saturday mornings all you could hear were little kids pressing the buttons. Doesn't fit. I think it would've worked better than just g&g, but either way it's a okay song.

Luke Henley feat. Steve Durand
One of you needs a pop screen. I dig the music in the second verse. Cute song.

Merisan
Pretty guitar work. Sounds liiiiike... Erin and Lunkhead? The chick vocals are beautiful, very very nice job, especially the layering in the chorus. Very pretty song.

Phunt Your Friends
I like the ding ding ding at the end. I'm not sure what it was. Xylophoney sounding. I don't know. Cute though.

Pompeii
Not really doing much for me. Nice guitar.

Ross Durand
Durand Number One! This is pretty cute. I dig the shaker lots. This is just a really cute song that I can't really say anything bad about it. It's cute.

Star-Crossed Voyager
I like the beeeeeep-beeep-beeeeeep. Your vocals are very nice. Nice song, but nothing's grabbing me massively.

Steve Durand
I giggled at the "heeeEeeere". Very nice. This has me tapping my foot, genre reminds me of(especially with the background vocals) "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" which, btw is an awesome movie. Cute song.

Dunno who I'll vote for. I do like Merisan's a lot.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:50 pm

Anthony
Whoa. Very brave, but I don't like it. If you're going to do a monologue-y thing, you should write it all out and practice till you're solid on it. Some of this sounds either improvised, some sounds like you forget your next line and are stammering a bit.

Bjam
Your vocals sound muffled. Too close to the mic? No pop screen/wind filter? The backup vox are a good idea. Those tambourine hits on the 1 and the 3 would probably sound better on the 2 and the 4. Why electric guitar this time? I'd prefer acoustic, personally. I like the staccato guitar part. Ah, there's the tambourine on the 2 and 4 in the end part, I like that though it gets a bit erratic. I like the song overall but it could maybe be shorter with fewer repetitions of the main chord progression.

The East Bay Acolytes
East Bay represent! Or something. Ooh, it was a dark and stormy night. I'm hoping this stays hard boiled radio theater, but I'm afraid it's going to turn in to rap. That backing track is kinda cool, though is something clipping in there? Man, there is too much unnecessary rapping going on on SongFight! these days. Then the "tough" part comes in, with some cussing, very clever. I would have liked this a lot more as a more theatrical spoken piece than a hip hop piece but I guess that's mostly from genre bias. Wow, that whole buildup and the punchline is "that only the dead knows"? Isn't "the dead" plural? anyway, I'll stop being a grammar nitpicker. Good music, good idea for the lyrics, I'm just not into the genre.

Johnny Cashpoint
Cool noises in the intro. Your drums have gotten pretty good sounding. I really wish you would mix up the rhythms of your vocal lines some. The staccato eighth notes the whole time is kinda annoying. Good "la la la" backing parts, though. Good mix, and good production overall, though I don't really like (personally) the effects on the main vocals. I like the acoustic guitar sound, it reminds me of Cake's acoustic sound. The story in the song is cool. Good outro. My favorite so far, in spite of the repetitive rhythm in the vocals.

j$.'s Evil Twin
Whatever...

Kama Sutra
That keyboard is too loud and sounds like it's in the wrong key. The vocals could use a lot of work. Much like the song. This is so SongFight!...

Luke Henley etc.
Hello, Casio-core. There are some tempo issues... Whoa, those vocals could use some low cut or something. You should use a sequencer so you can quantize those keyboard/etc. parts. I like the second part when the trumpets come in. The singing is too whiny for me. Nice and short, at least.

Phunt Your Friends
I'm not really into instrumentals on SongFight!, sorry.

Pompeii
Starts out sounding like The Minibosses. The chorus is too 80s for me. When the male vocals come in it sounds a bit like the Sugarcubes only metal. This is very rock opera-y. I don't like the thin sounding "and again and again etc." part. Whoa, the bridge is way cheesed out... Usually I love your stuff but this one just didn't work for me.

Ross Durand
This could use some drums or something. It's a strange background. I like the tremolo guitar. The rhythm of the acoustic is pretty droning... Decent singing. Nice shaker coming in. Maybe some percussion earlier would've been good. I like the bridge. The solo starts to falter near the end, though.

Star-crossed Voyagers
I think the intro drums are a bit overbearing, but I really like the part after that (the chorus?). The drums are still pretty monstrous in the mix, considering how thin and/or reverb'ed most of the other parts are. You've got good delivery in your singing. Sounds a little bassy or close to the mic or something, though. Very promising song, though.

Steve Durand
You nailed the style you were going for. But it's a style that I don't really like. Everything is just as it should be for this type of song.

Merisan
This is me and Erin from Loyalty Day again.

I think I may be leaning towards Johnny Cashpoint's Non-evil Non-twin.

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:26 pm

Anthony: The other reviewers were way too nice. This is shit. You know this is shit. Why are you submitting shit to songfight? Don't you like songfight? Would you point this song out to a co-worker? Your mom? What do you think people are going to do if they try out songfight for the first time and this pile of shit is the first thing they hear?

BJAM: I haven't listened to your AAD yet, but I like this song a lot. Very charming and a toe-tapper. Wish you could get a better sound out of your recording setup.

Eastbay: It's obvious that you're exploring some artistic elements in your music, and you admit that you're a crap vocalist, but, uh.. This is bad. The music is straight out of a USA Up All Night C-Movie. It might sound minimally bad if you did the typical rap doubled-vocal trick. Maybe Glenn Case can give you some tips. Cute ending line with the meta-ebonics.

J$: Cute narrative, and the music is sounding better all the time. You're doing a lot of intersting things with the mix that are maybe getting lost behind your melody and vocal delivery. You really do seem to sing the same way every week. Vary it up!

J$ET: Meh. Screw you too.

Kama Sutra: Goes way downhill after the sample. Also is the guitar line from many Nirvana songs. Also is not in tune. .. Still manages some small bit of charm. The casio doesn't help things - nor does the MJ dialogue.

LUKESTEVE: Awful but fun.

Merisan: Like every week, sounds great but puts me to sleep.

Coulda used a little panning w/the bass and gitter. Just a wee bit. Really does sound great tho. Erin's lyrics are just so GIRLY.

Phunt: God, F you guys to death. Don't blame this shit on The Books.

Pompeii: Missing the anthemic fun of your greatest hits. Too much slow 80's prog cheese, not enough singalong chorus.

RossD: This is a great song well executed. Love it. Lyrics are exceptional. You better win.

SCV: Not at all my genre, and very canned sounding, but not terrible. Some people will probably like it. (Goth people)

SteveD: At first I thought you were doing some kind of song cycle with RD up there, but this turned into a silly campfire tune. Keep it around for next time you're burning things.

j$ · Post by j$ » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:09 pm

blue wrote: You really do seem to sing the same way every week. Vary it up!.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. Too be honest I am not good enough a singer to be able to put any expression into my singing - if I try and emote (like on 'Wednesday') I get accused of being out of tune, or worse, (cf. countless entries) being out of time. What can ya do? It's coming, I guess. Just need to find that next step....

j$

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:24 pm

it seems like most of your tunes have whole-note choruses where you sing right along. try cutting your lines into more bits, or staccato'ing up the parts.

or something.

j$ · Post by j$ » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:29 pm

I am just really conscious of trying to make sure I hit the beat, really. Dating back to a Bill Heuristics comment in a recent fight that hurt a lot more than they usually do. When a friend says something like 'your usual problem of not keeping time' you sit up and pay attention!

Anyway, enough of the sympathy bid - I'll get over it. I just like getting more votes compared to getting not many - but I'll try being more relaxed about the whole vocal take this week and see where it takes me ...

j$

Post by **Lunkhead** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:41 pm

Merisan: Like every week, sounds great but puts me to sleep. Very Happy

Blue, just listen to our song right before bedtime. You will develop a whole new appreciation for the fact that it puts you to sleep.

jack · Post by **jack** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:45 pm

hey johnny, quit listening to non-singers tell you how to sing.

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:54 pm

jack wrote:hey johnny, quit listening to non-singers tell you how to sing.

dude, i sing. mttp, i have written some OK (and some bad) vocal melodies - red, shreds, air traffic, (death plunge), etc.

jack · Post by **jack** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:21 pm

i know you sing. i actually like your all night bakery singing.

sheesh. now i guess i'll have to do reviews or something.

blue · Post by **blue** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:29 pm

jack wrote:i know you sing. i actually like your all night bakery singing.

sheesh. now i guess i'll have to do reviews or something.

pwned! altho, uh.. i don't think i sang on the ANB stuff. MCF sang on the good one, and Stephen sang on the other one.

jack · Post by **jack** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:32 pm

no wonder i liked it!

/pwned

A-Log · Post by **A-Log** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 2:42 pm

Hey people, A-Log here. Sorry for creating another stinker. I've tried to get my dad to help me out as well as my sister, but it didn't work so well. I'll try my best to make a rerecording of the song with better results. I know it's too late, but trust me.

Anthony "A-Log" LoGatto

PS- It's Anthony "A-Log" LoGatto, not Anthony. That's the second time they messed up my name.

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 2:54 pm

So, er, reviews? Anyone?

Also, Anthony "A-Log" LoGatto, are you putting your full name in the e-mail? Actually saying "Band name: Anthony "A-Log" LoGatto"? Usually FMs are pretty good, if not try e-mailing them. Or they'll probably see this. Or if you put it in the artist consolodaition thread thing.

Post by **Spud** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:25 pm

It's the fucking quotes. They don't make it through the parser. First, we had to deal with all of Ken's apostrophes, then various punctuation marks. You know, & and the Angle Brackets has been screwing up the archive for years. There's even a band called ~)*|*(~. Now this. Goddamned quotes. It's just a bit too much, to be honest.