My song rocks! (I like to pretend reviews)

MonorailRT · Post by **MonorailRT** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:31 pm

JeffHenderson wrote:Most of the chorus in my song is the same as the "Anything at all, you got it" part of "You Got It". I guess I apologize to the late Roy Orbison and to Jeff Lynne for ripping off their song.

Man, you should have claimed that it was an intentional homage, and that everyone who doesn't understand is Simply A Philistine.

jeffhenderson · Post by **jeffhenderson** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:54 pm

MonorailRT wrote:
JeffHenderson wrote:Most of the chorus in my song is the same as the "Anything at all, you got it" part of "You Got It". I guess I apologize to the late Roy Orbison and to Jeff Lynne for ripping off their song.
Man, you should have claimed that it was an intentional homage, and that everyone who doesn't understand is Simply A Philistine.

Haha. Dang it, you're right.

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:54 pm

brass gopher - wow that was funny

the cutie pies - so cute it hurts. could you repeat the chorus more?

the dankins strike back - where is the lyrical element?

doscientos - there is some kind of pop or click on this, but it's catchy for a straight I-IV-V early rocknroll number.

gert - oooooh the grease that is gert.

jack calico - uhhhh.......

jacob lynn - underneath the noise floor there is actually kind of a cool concept of a song.

jeff robertson - that drum part just sounds wrong. the guitars are cool, but the digital distortion and the disproportionate soundscape kind of made me skip it. you can play the guitar though.

jeff travis henderson - with better production this could be really good. there seems to be a lot of clutter in various frequencies. i like it. very beatlesque at points.

jim fallope and his fallopian dudes - the lyrics are great if you were a spokesperson for Toyota. great, fun tune.

ken woodard - another tune that starts with the title in the first lyric. i skipped it.

kevin alborough - you really got inside my head with that catchy number.

marcus kellis - the guitar sounds good.

mmmc - that one hook is one of the best of the fight, where you repeat the title. good stuff. love all the vocal texturing.

monorail rt - i love the production. lots of deep low end. favourite so far.

rone riverdale - i'd like to pretend i didn't listen to this, but i did and that was unfortunate.

stateshirt - great space. really suits the title. the drum sounds are fantastic along with the structure. reminds me of tears for fears in a good way. one thing, that distorted drum fill should have been, imo, left out for the dramatic space coming back into the chorus. pretty frigging good. cool vibe.

the subatomic particles - great personality. got kind of boring with the same drum groove going.

tim winkle - the vocal sounds out of place to the music. no real hook to grab onto.

tomdg - skipped it after i heard the title iterated in the first verse. good attempt though in light of the competition.

truth and regret - the truth is it bored me and the regret is that i listened to it.

wren edward - why so quiet? there is a good song underneath the hiss and quiet production. try compressing it (which may not be so good as it'll increase the noise floor, but atleast I won't have to turn it up so loud to add to it) or just get your self closer to the mic. i liked this. good song.

your money wasted - good rockin' vibe, but man if you are gonna pull out the big pull-off run you got to get it on time. same with the punches. sounds a little off at points. kind of muddy in the mid ranges huh? still, nice job on bringing it.

favourites:
stateshirt
monorail rt
gert
your money wasted
mmmc
wren edward
jeff travis henderson

i'll vote later in the week. good fight.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:57 pm

AHHHH! Big mistake by the fightmaster.

The song by "Kevin Alborough"; should be credited to "Apply Liberally To Inside of Mouth". Half of the credit for this crappy song goes to my friend Jamie. That would be the good half. Either way; adjust your lists accordingly! I would very much prefer to not have my real name all over it. Guess I'm neurotic.

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:02 pm

chucky wrote:AHHHH! Big mistake by the fightmaster.

The song by "Kevin Alborough"; should be credited to "Apply Liberally To Inside of Mouth". Half of the credit for this crappy song goes to my friend Jamie. That would be the good half. Either way; adjust your lists accordingly! I would very much prefer to not have my real name all over it. Guess I'm neurotic.

man i am so hunting you down now. VENGEANCE WILL BE MINE.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:03 pm

Exactly! I'm terrified!

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:05 pm

there's a QA forum for this crap, btw. or email someone. who knows how often the FMs read the review threads.

also, your name is the filename.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:18 pm

my filename was "i like to pretend" but i apparently forgot to rename it with "apply liberally to inside of mouth" in it; still - i included that information inside the email i sent.

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:30 pm

still looking for your phone number..

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:30 pm

just think about how many entries have to be posted by the fms. do you think they have time to pour over the fact that your filename says one thing and your email says another? next time submit under the filename

chucky_iltp.mp3 or whatever you want to call yourself with the songfight title in shortform.

that would probably be clearer to the fms and makes them have less work in fixing the filenames..

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:32 pm

tonetripper wrote:just think about how many entries have to be posted by the fms. do you think they have time to pour over the fact that your filename says one thing and your email says another? next time submit under the filename

chucky_iltp.mp3 or whatever songfight title in shortform.

that would probably be clearer to the fms and makes them have less work in fixing the filenames..

pretty sure the FM changed his filename to his name. i was suggesting the he beg them to change it on the server + m3u, but he's prolly SOL.

jeff robertson · Post by **jeff robertson** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:58 pm

tonetripper wrote: the guitars are cool, but the digital distortion and the disproportionate soundscape kind of made me skip it

That's actually a DS-1.. clipping is clipping, I guess, and cheap distortion pedals like that are basically just hard-clip machines, even if they're analog.

All: Thanks for compliments. The feelings of my Casio are absoluely crushed that nobody likes the drums.

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:05 pm

Actually the digital distortion I was speaking of was on your voice and not the guitars. Try mixing lower and compressing on the backend, or maybe lower your input when you track. It had the harsh sound of digital distortion.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:25 pm

blue i love you, but change the icon please. 4 year old pictures of myself = no thanks.

i appreciate the humour; but joke's over now.. when i said i didn't want my name all over the place, i wasn't referring to the internet, i meant i didn't want full credit for that song, since i'm only half responsible for it and it wasnt fair. it's cleared up now.. please clear up the message board from my offensive 16 year old face.

jim fallope · Post by **jim fallope** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:35 pm

burstroc wrote: jim fallope and his fallopian dudes:
this is wonderful. i was giggling from start to finish. as much as i like a good funny song, though, i can't really take it seriously, and being able to do that is what really gets me into a song. extremely funny though.

but i'm just so serious about not being taken seriously that it all cancels out.

jeff robertson · Post by **jeff robertson** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:34 pm

tonetripper wrote:Actually the digital distortion I was speaking of was on your voice and not the guitars. Try mixing lower and compressing on the backend, or maybe lower your input when you track. It had the harsh sound of digital distortion.

I probably did that in the mix. The first mix, after listening to it for a day I decided the vocals weren't loud enough, so I went back and re-did it and overcompensated.

rone rivendale · Post by **rone rivendale** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:55 pm

Future Boy wrote:
Rone Rivendale: Yah, I like PLUCK, too, don't abuse it like that.

I laughed so hard when I read that. It's true, I've been experimenting with Pluck with this song and my Bitter Orange entry as well.

Man, there are ALOT of entries for this song. I gave them all a run through and I'm leaning towards Your Money Wasted. The music is pretty kewl and I like the chorus.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:42 am

Hey Wren Edward! Your song is very cool in spite of the low levels / hiss. I would like to hear more of your stuff.

Crates · Post by **Crates** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:27 pm

Hey, guys.

Deacon and I would like to thank everyone for the seriously constructive criticism on our song (I Like to Pretend, by MMMC). With our first submission to SF, we really hoped for nothing more than to make people say, "Holy crap! Where are the ear-abusing acoustic guitar chords and angsty pre-pubescent vocals?"

Well, we also wanted to make a song that people would enjoy when they are really, really stoned. Which I think D and I both feel we accomplished.

I can only agree with the comments I'm hearin from TruthAndRegret, Future Boy, and well, basically everybody... we went entirely nuts on echo effects and weird post-production stuff to jazz up the sound of the song. Partly, because we wanted the song to sound ethereal and stupidly silly, but also because we decided on competing the night before it had to be submitted, and didn't really take the time to record enough samples to get everything right. We figured, hey, if they can't hear what we're saying, they really won't notice if we fuck it all up.

Just the same, what we're hopin to do with future stuff is to produce each song slightly differently, incorporating most of what you'd hear on mainstream hiphop channels with our personal satirical flavor. Maybe do an east-coast Jay Z sound on one track, then a dark but pop-ish Eminem/Dre style beat, or just go nuts and invent. We don't know. We don't make any decisions sober, or on time, for that matter, so it probably won't get figured out until 3AM on the morning the song is due.

Anyways... we're glad we got Ed dancin on his bed and gave Burstroc another reason to smoke weed. But mostly we're just glad that everyone didn't hate what we're tryin to do here. Not sure we've gotten to a point where we are submitting winning material yet (hell, it's our first song

), but who knows... we'll see how everything pans out at the end of the week.

Oh, and T&R: we'll try to remember to tag the MP3 proper next time.

Peace,
-- Crates

blue · Post by **blue** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:23 pm

Apply: Missed this one the first couple listens thru the fight, then caught it when I wasn't paying attention. Absolutely freaking brilliant across the board. The production is perfectly fractured, and the lyrics are great. It's like listening to the Cardigans from the other side of The Barrier That Holds Back The Demons.

Cudee Peyes: A little light in the pants, but pleasant and fun nonetheless. I'd really be into this band if you guys only ever sang about torturing kittens and burning puppies alive. Then you'd have a serious hook. Ken, your vox sound great. (So do Bjam's) Really really great. Jealousy-inspiring great.

Doscedos: Very 50's swing bop melody and progression. Your vocals and the mix are still shrill shrill shrill. What are you singing into? You guys used to have a nice, mellow sound. The song doesn't hold up, probably because it's so evocative of something you'd find on the jukebox at your gramma's favorite Waffle House.

JacobLyn: This is an exceptionally introverted tune that might be well-served as an album outtro, but isn't going to get you much love on songfight. It is definately in the sadcore genre, which is a bonus, but the hiss on the recording and the general inaudibility make it sort of unpleasant. The saving grace is the "sometime I like to pretend that I'd like that" changeup in there. Great little lyric bit. Get closer to your mic, get some gain going on, invest in a decent recording setup, etc. Avoid those easy rhymes, man - they are just a turnoff. I should say - I really like Smog, and this has that same feel. But he pulls this sort of stuff off almost entirely on the strength of his lyrics. If you're going to do bare-bones songs, something about them has to really stick out. Clearly you have the potential for interesting phraste-turns, now don't stop working on it till it's _good_.

Jeff Robertson: I dig the Timbuk3 feel to the percussion. This song suffers mightily from an uneven performance and poor distortion choices. Well, and the static progressions and crappy lyrics.

Jeff Travis Hendershot: Yeah come on, what the hell with the Travelling Wilbury's ripoff. YOU GOT IT. Suckah please. Write your own songs.

Jimmy Fallop and his Galloping Herds: Mildly amusing and certainly strange. I like the disjoint created by singing about wanting a crappy car. Interesting take, cute scat vox.

Macross Kellis and the Angel Mech of Doom: Everyone doing G&G on their crappy computer mics should listen to this. Marcus is an old hand at getting an OK sound from entirely substandard gear. Marcus, why isn't this song funny. More necromancer frogs, less about your crappy sad life.

MMMMMC: I'd say this was "well put together," but it's kind of a mess. I dunno if it would work stoned or not, but I like it because it sounds like Pray For Mojo when he's stoned. Definate potential, looking forward to more weirdness.

MRRT: Good snare sample, plodding tune. Garageband?

SS: I dunno why your engaging live stuff doesn't translate so well to your recordings.. Maybe it's because everything is sloooooow. Dangerously close to a closing theme from a teen-drama TV show.

Subatomic Heracles: You guys are the vanguard of songfight's New Weird sound. I dig it. Keep it up.

Tim Hinkle: Interesting vibe from the get-go. Too bad about the crazy mud all over the recording. The lyrics are just so stridently literal - I think most listeners would like a little metaphor in there, and some kinda repetition or hook, something with which to identify. Excellent job creating the mood with the music, tho. See, basically, you should get the cutie pies to sing this, and then everything would be perfect. As a narrative songfight entry, tho, it is well done.

Wren: The "lazy" line doesn't work - but I'm sure you knew that. This would be compelling if it were well-recorded. Check the help thread for info on submitting audible tunes.

Ed · Post by Ed » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:01 pm

Crates wrote:we're glad we got Ed dancin on his bed

Dude...dude dude dude. not a dude. most definately not a dude.

Crates · Post by **Crates** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:48 pm

Sorry, dude. The hearts threw me off.