Get it? Because his name's Leaf! (Leaf Blower reviews)

[ken]

And then when the falsetto kicked in...

That's no falsetto, that's a lady.

Ken

[Stolar Skye]

That's no falsetto, that's a lady.

...So it is. Whoops. My apologies. I guess that officially plants my foot firmly in my mouth in terms of how carefully I listened to the song. My bad.

[ken]

That's no falsetto, that's a lady.

...So it is. Whoops. My apologies. I guess that officially plants my foot firmly in my mouth in terms of how carefully I listened to the song. My bad.

Originally I had sung that part in falsetto, then asked my housemate to sing it instead. I almost used both, but alas, I left the falsetto out.

Extra point trivia: my housemate also appears in the form of handclaps on my Zero to Phantom.

Ken

[Caravan Ray]

LLL: Nice guitar pop with Beatlesque touches - but leaving no lasting impression

J$: This is wonderful. Is it just me or have you hit a bit of a purple patch? You seem to be churning out potential winners every week nowdays. The "orright Guv, luverly-juberly" accent on the chorus works surprisingly well. As a bit of eccentric English story-telling, it seems almost Kinks-like. I'm very impressed

PHUNT: I still can't dance to it

LUKE HENLEY: Simply beautiful Luke. Song of the year.

FLVXXVM FLORVM: Only the silly falsetto chorus stops this from being an instant classic. As it is - I absolutley love about 90% of it!

CIA: No - I'm finding this quite dull

THE POOR: and this is just plain annoying

DARRIN SETHE: This is almost great! Love the groove, like the lyrics and vocals. One major flaw though - too long on the same thing. Some sort of breakdown in the middle and cut back on the length and this would be the business.

THE BDJS: This is far better than it deserves to be. The vocals and melody really make it. I can't help myself. I like it.

GERT: Oh no, not bloody Gert again...just kidding..I actually really like this. Easily the best Gert effort I've heard. Great vocals from everybody. You ran the danger with the lyrics of making this sound like a dumb in-joke - but it doesn't - I think you actually pulled it off without doing that. The PE sample is used beautifully.

OFSCIENCEANDNUMBERS: Not at all bad - but not doing much for me

RYANR: Excellent guy-tar! Nice vocals and great melody. Really good job.

4THDR&KGB: I love this one. Played this a few times in my car today - the music is wonderful. Minor quibble - I think the "leafblower.." vocal 'sticks out' of the mix a bit. I'd like to hear some flanger or chorus on it to drag it back into the general texture of the thing. Otherwise, great work.

THOSEMEDDLINGKIDS: Not bad - but not up to the standard of your previous entries.

CHEAPBASTARDS: Not doing much for me

I'm surprised others have commented that this was not a great fight - I really liked a lot of the stuff here.
Flvxxvm, Gert, Big Dumb Jerks, Darrin Sethe and Ryan were all better than anything in the WhiteFight.

4th Doctor deserves a vote - but unfortunately they came up against J$, whose wonderful song deserves to win.

...or at least would deserve to win if it wasn't in the same fight as Luke Henley's. Vote for the Weasel Slayer.

[mc3p0]

Cheap Bastards- 8 measures were made on the 16th and just minutes to Songfight! deadline I quickly arranged and recorded the rest. The "singing" was made up on the spot. Sorry about the production, I should have had more than the accidental bongo loop. Includes samples from Grandstand TV Sports Theme, the VeggieTales (premier Christian vegetable puppet show), a wolf, and the original Mighty Mouse. I have just posted those reality-questioning lyrics..

Clever Intarweb Audios- Begins with a CIA agent apparently hypnotizing unsuspecting milf. Dig the bullhorn voice and the more melodious rapping. Nice bass music moment beginning 1:28, the guitar chorus groan is pimpy funk. Human beat-boxing is seamless in the mix, nice job. The bass could have popped-out more, excellent intro.

Darren Sethe- "break your wind upon the land".. I would totally be singing this song drunk with a drum machine, in a wig with another drunk in a wig - loaf of angst duet-like. This cheers me up, you should make a Christmas/leather holiday album.

Flvxxvm Florvm- Violent cop mancandy landscaping action! It's Giga-resurrected Divine singing with ZZ Top for big anime soundtrack and prerequisite city destruction! And those handclaps.. This is so ballsy it might be getting it's own cult of illegitimate clone super-powered ninjawhores. Not getting too homo, but I am your fan (of love).

Fourth Doctor and KGB- Her first three words: live human target. One of her ten minds has gained consciousness early, but the extraordinary combat android must sever it from the interface before she is forced into battle. Explored in perfumed neon through mental corridors. Her breathing irregular.

Johnny Cashpoint- Nifty background vocals, clean drums, swank gurgling melody synthiness. "..down he goes like Percy Thrower", possibly bestest rhyme. That picked guitar during the wild-breakup is kinda silly. Even though you are bloody British, your voice is a lot more understandable than, say, Exeter technical support or London past 7pm.

Gert- "chew it up like a lawnmower, but slower - like a leaf blower", golden. Great guitar wankery. There is some rich cheese, but overall strikes me as a pretty radio arrangement. This is nicely mixed and the vocals are studly done.

Location, Location, Location- A strong contender. That Cranberry vocal hook and the sliding synth works so well into your sound. I might bring up the lead vocals in the mix. Gentle mix, I want to hear your voices together more.

Luke Henley- I completely agree with Egg - something so sensitive contending with all of these badass Leaf Blowers makes them have to appear even harder. Gorgeous recording.

Of Science and Numbers- Your crazy eq ways.. From the get-go very pretty, if somewhat claustrophobically mixed for the first third of the song. Interesting to chorus "destroyer of serotonin.." Last reprise is nifty.

Phunt Your Friends- Welcome to behind the inverted song playhouse. Here we have senior clinky-breath's scene where he rapes the squelch out of Aquaman repeatedly. Scene two opens when the Udo Kerr is verified upon the unknown. It may repeat, byob.

Ryan Rickenbach- Nice melody and strumming. I would like to hear a single, rather than double-voice for the majority of the song. "..into the sun with the leaves of the air", [sigh] beautiful..

The Big Dumb Jerks- That was a dare so lamented in verse and piano? You are genius. I love this track.

The Poor- Singing chicken and oompa band! Okay, breaking down, oh-no, scalding at 1:00! Well, .. that was some keen safety rap, huh? Oh, nice "real" breakdown.. I gotta pee.. five and a half minutes to go.. TTS nonsense, dramatic, dramatic, atmosphere.. four and a half minutes.. whiny-mic, avant!, avant!, gibber, endless whine and gibber.. 4'45 slaps out of coma, robot TTS, pr0n groove, hick/gibber/elvis.. "particles..", JBB, warp, "orgy of sound", bleeding vaginal, wound-anus.. Awesome! I can pee.

Those Meddling Kids- Excellent lyrics, 2:36 it starts a cool groove, but then ends. You would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those darn ghost terrorists!

[j$]

Johnny Cashpoint ... That picked guitar during the wild-breakup is kinda silly.

Actually it was meant to be, so that's good! Without being too pretentious the various sections of music represent different things - the verses are the tight ordered life of the protagonist, the choruses are chaotic reality banging at the door, and the end is meant to represent death - as the character dies and takes his silly ordered control-freak nature (the noodling) to Heaven, where 'vines are growing on the Pearly gates' (the chaotic, 'abstract', punk-out part) - the simple message being 'what's the point of trying to impose order on a world of beautiful chaos?'

OK so without trying to be too pretentious ...

And not as Blue seems to think, an attack on the straight lifestyle. Gay men are for the most part far more anal than their straight counter-parts. Naturally

Even though you are bloody British, your voice is a lot more understandable than, say, Exeter technical support or London past 7pm.

Heh. You should see me in London after 7pm most nights

Thanks everyone who has said nice things about this song.

j$

[mc3p0]

1024x768 size cover art.

[thehipcola]

<b>Cheap Bastards</b>
Intro has my attention. This is pretty ambitious. Great swirling mutations in the intro. It lacks a midrange meatiness. The intro bit that reccurs is great. But it doesn't carry the song. Not so keen on the verses though, I keep wanting it to develop into something that drives a bit more. Another part would help that. I'll have to look for more CB tho, some cool production ideas in there. No Digg.

<b>Clever Intarweb Audios</b>
Nice use of the beatbox. I dig this so far. Can't understand a thing said/sung. Bummer. The vocals sound like you found a wicked track or loopset and used a pc mic to unload your flow over it. Not in the same sonic ballpark. imo, theres alot to be said for intelligibility. So, nice beat. No Digg.

<b>Darrin Sethe</b>
Hey cool voice! Nice rock grit. A bit too much low end rolled off. But for live sounding stuff, it's pretty clearly recorded. Nice job. Something is clipping a bit, maybe intentional..snare? The backing vox need a level boost. This rocks pretty good. Could use a stereo widener to open it up a tad, and maybe a bit of judicious reverb, 'cuz it's really dry. The chorus vocal needs something..delay? It never seems to hit what it's reaching for. I dunno. Kind of Digg this.

<b>Flvxxvm Florvm</b>
I'm grooving on that guitar intro. Too bad the vocals suck. I like character play, but that doesn't cut it here. Vocal clipping is bad. And by the 3rd verse, I'm bored. Variate! No Digg.

<b>Fourth Doctor and KGB</b>
Like the intro. Nice textures. Like the kick offsetting the groove. This builds pretty well, but its setting itself up to have to really impress me for me to Digg it. 'k, that vocal was pretty corny, but in the genre context, not so bad. But let's get it going here....if this explodes into driving mayhem, I'm sold. The eternal build/teardown thing gets tired quickly. I'm looking for more song dynamic. Not finding it here. A neat idea that wasn't finished. Semi Digg.

<b>Gert</b>
"when he bangs the skins, even the midi gets grittier."-stm

<b>Johnny Cashpoint</b>
Some of this is should count as personal best for you. Great production ideas, some of it very well executed. Drum samples sound great. Not all the cuts line up rythmically. Semi Digg.


<b>Location, Location, Location</b>
I instantly like this. But the vocals are too buried. I like the higher register voice in the chorus, very nice. I think it's the simplicity that I like most. Easy to listen to. Digg!

<b>Luke Henley</b>
Super intimate Luke. You're one of the few musicians who can actually make tape hiss sound ok. That said, I wish it wasn't there. I like this, wish I could understand your vocals easier. But...it needs another part. Just one...a bridge of some kind. The resolve. Something. Digg.

<b>Of Science and Numbers</b>
That keyboard part is so middy, I have a hard time understanding your vox too. The part is kind of compelling..but I'm hoping for some great action to happen. A whole 'nother empty verse is gonna detract. Ok...some guitar...phew. Now kick it. Hah..the big panner. Are those drums in a carpeted cave? the hats at least could have a bit more sizzle. This could be radio friendly stuff with some more productiony type angles. Ok, now that's what I'm talking about. This should have happened like 2 verses ago. Too bad it's just rehashing the same thing that's been going on for the whole song. Nicely recorded. Add a part, will ya? Two fades same song = lost points. 3/4 Digg. I'll be looking for more OSaN.

<b>Phunt Your Friends</b>
Always challenged by The Phunt. Not sure which thread to grab and follow. The Digg Scale doesn't apply here. What are you trying to do?

<b>Ryan Rickenbach</b>
This is nice. Wish the doubled vox were tighter. Nice harmonies. fwiw, I don't think you need to double your voice so much. It's a good voice. Don't clutter it up with yourself. nice ending. Great lyrics. Digg.

<b>The Big Dumb Jerks</b>
If this turns into something other than how it starts off, awesome intro. Real guitar would have been great. I'm no star lyricist, but these just seem so obvious, not doing it for me. It's a nice little ditty. But that's all. No Digg.

<b>The Poor</b>
Nice use of phase to wrap that vocal around my head. Or nice job rewiring my monitors. This is quirky, kinda cool. Could use a little separatin'. But yer losing me. .not diggin the phunky, phresh you. like the breakdown. but it's gettin' long. The Orgy of Sound wasn't phor me, holmes. No Digg.

<b>Those Meddling Kids</b>
"Complex, inneffectual, waste of electricity." That sells it right there. Damn straight. Great great intro. Sonically muddy, but I'm in. Great productiony stuff going on here...right on. (plosives are bad...) For all the things that could bother me about this tune, I'm really really digging it. Digg!

[deshead]

I think the song overall would improve with a rounder bass tone. Something with a little more warmth..

Hmmm, interesting. I was trying a different technique with the mixing (i.e. bouncing all the music down into one track - which is something Blue suggested in a thread a while back, only I probably misunderstood / got it wrong)

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here, or more specifically what it's trying to accomplish. Do you mean running all the instruments through a bus separate from the drums and vox?

I thought the overall result is it sounded thin / a little tinny in the mix - maybe I was just mistaking a lack of bass warmth - could I get away with exciting the bass part in ozone before mixing it all together, do you think ... or should I abandon the grouping idea altogether?

Probably that would work, though it depends what you're doing to the grouped track. The pitfall with this approach is that, if the rest of the instruments are "warm" to begin with, adding those frequencies to the bass will just muddy things up. And if you try to clean the mud with an EQ cut, you'll lose warmth.

Some thoughts (forgive the generalities):
- Assuming the mix even needs to sound warm (speed metal, for example, doesn't), it's best to decide up front where the warmth will come from. Usually, from bass guitar (and I'd say that's the case in your track,) though sometimes you'll drive it with, say, a pad, and make the bass more of a rhythm instrument.
- I usually group the instruments together WITHOUT the bass. In general once you've identified the track that's responsible for warmth, you'll need to cut frequencies from everything else to define the richness in the bass.
- Bass warmth lives between ~ 200Hz and 300Hz, even when the fundamental frequencies are down in the first octave (40Hz to 80Hz.) Often (more often than not?) you can add warmth with a gentle EQ boost somewhere in this region, and a corresponding cut from the rest of the instruments. I always try that before reaching for an exciter or warmer.
- Exciting the bass line (with Ozone, or RBass, or a tape sim or whatever) won't always add warmth. It depends on the tone you've started with. I find those effects work much better when the bass has a lot of meat in the first octave.
- In this case specifically, I think your bass tone (patch?) simply wasn't bassy enough to present any warmth. (Though it's possible something in your mixing chain EQ'd out the meat.)

[jeff robertson]

I didn't really write a song from scratch for this context. It's a last-minute, hurried remake of an earlier song of mine, "Flamethrower of Love". Here's the original:

http://www.cba.ua.edu/~matt2/flvxx/Flvx ... 20love.mp3

I spent maybe 30 minutes on it, recording and mixing. That's all the time I had because I also had to paint the master bathroom before my wife came home and caught me. No time to mess around wth an amp: guitar straight into the soundcard.

[Ryan Rickenbach]

I didn't really write a song from scratch for this context. It's a last-minute, hurried remake of an earlier song of mine, "Flamethrower of Love". Here's the original:

http://www.cba.ua.edu/~matt2/flvxx/Flvx ... 20love.mp3

I spent maybe 30 minutes on it, recording and mixing. That's all the time I had because I also had to paint the master bathroom before my wife came home and caught me. No time to mess around wth an amp: guitar straight into the soundcard.

Did you know that's against the rules and the basic premise of songfight?

[Leaf]

Damn. I did all my reviews last night in word and then left them on my home computer. I'll have to post them tonight.

[jeff robertson]

Did you know that's against the rules and the basic premise of songfight?

That's what I get for submitting before reading the FAQ. I guess it would've been an issue if I'd gotten any votes.

[Ryan Rickenbach]

Did you know that's against the rules and the basic premise of songfight?

That's what I get for submitting before reading the FAQ. I guess it would've been an issue if I'd gotten any votes.

Keep going at it. I've been at 0 before too.

[rone rivendale]

Strangly enough I got 4 and 1 in the fights I've been in. But hey... don't feel bad.

[WeaselSlayer]

You suck, Rone Rivendale.

[rone rivendale]

No I don't, and stop asking me to. I'm not that way.

[WeaselSlayer]

Your emoticon begs to differ, sucker.

[Leaf]

All results are final. Marks are out of five. At my job I get these telemarketing calls sometimes about computer manufacturers. Sometimes, they won’t take no for an answer, so I start answering one question with “9â€

[WeaselSlayer]

I just want to point out that I haven't sat next to a camp fire in a really long time. I don't know why people keep bringing that up.

[Leaf]

It's the feeling that the listener gets listening to you. It could be worse. They could keep telling you that your music makes them feel like they are sitting in a cold room with electrodes attached to their testicles while having bamboo shoots shoved into their spleen.

So it could be worse.

[Mogosagatai]

that your music makes them feel like they are sitting in a cold room with electrodes attached to their testicles while having bamboo shoots shoved into their spleen.

New goal.