And she's bu-u-uying ... (stairway to the moon reviews)

[mkilly]

anyone go for a led zep tribute? anyone? anyone? bueller?

[Sober]

8 hour project this morning. Fear the Wurlitzer.

[BenKrieger]

This is my first time on Song Fight...no Wurlizter on mine, but can't wait to hear it! I can't believe I didn't know about this site until now...i'm a bubble boy.

rock always,

ben

[boltoph]

anyone go for a led zep tribute? anyone? anyone? bueller?

Yea, in a way. Wrote a lyric into our song associating heaven with the stairway to the moon....climb up, fall down, but "take a piece of heaven back".
Might be more just a case of having the word "heaven" in the back of my mind, though.
Couldn't help thinking about Led Zeppelin on that title. Maybe a few bends, some lead guitar work in tribute to Jimmy Page thrown into our Corn on the Cob tune, too. And some of us have Bonham's dirty mind, perhaps.

[jb]

I don't suppose any of you wrote about Cable Beach in your Stairways to the Moon...

[Sober]

Funny. I didn't really think of Zep at all, I more thought of 'Fly me to the Moon'

[BenKrieger]

i took stairway to the moon to mean the glory days of space exploration...tried to talk about how we've lost track of bettering ourselves and should reinvest in the advancement of the human race before we destroy ourselves...i don't think i succeeded, but i sure had fun trying!

[mkilly]

Funny. I didn't really think of Zep at all, I more thought of 'Fly me to the Moon'

What the hell? You worked in music stores for how long and "Stairway" didn't evoke "... to Heaven"?

No Stairway! Denied!

[Sober]

Believe it or not, I didn't hear that song played ONCE in the year+ I worked at music stores. What I did hear was the first line of Fur Elise a billion times, and guitarists would mainly play the first line of Blackbird if they were bad, or the Smoke on the Water riff if they were really fucking bad.

But Fur Elise. God-fuck-damn that song. 30 pianos in the store, and every little kid has to play that damn line on every single piano before they're satisfied.

[BenKrieger]

Believe it or not, I didn't hear that song played ONCE in the year+ I worked at music stores.

I was picking up equipment at Rudy's Guitars in Manhattan once...many heavy hitters get their guitars from them (I was buying picks). I asked him if he was worried about the new Guitar Center opening up and he said no--most established musicians avoid those large stores (even if they have vintage equipment) so they can avoid hearing upstarts butcher guitar riffs all day. Separates the clientle completely.

Bee K

[Sober]

If it is close enough, GC will crush them. You can't keep a store open on a few loyal customers buying nice guitars. Guitars don't make money, picks and strings and sticks do. And that's where GC destroys everyone.

It may take a year, it may take 5, but they'll go down.

[BenKrieger]

nah, trust me, they're too well established...Sam Ash moved next to them on guitar row/48th street years ago and they haven't budged...they are too specialized with repairs and vintage equipment. But you never know...

[blue]

nah, trust me, they're too well established...Sam Ash moved next to them on guitar row/48th street years ago and they haven't budged...they are too specialized with repairs and vintage equipment. But you never know...

last night i dreamed i was fucking bob pollard.

[BenKrieger]

last night i dreamed i was fucking bob pollard.

Drive on! You too?

[blue]

last night i dreamed i was fucking bob pollard.

Drive on! You too?

a web site where dozens of people shit out new songs every week? bob is our patron saint.

[Sober]

Brook Mays Music Group is the #2 music retailer in the country, worth about $200 mil. GC is obviously #1 at around $20 billion. Sam Ash is #3 at a much smaller number.

Brook Mays is on the fast track to bankruptcy. I don't know if anyone remembers Mars Music, but that place was fricking huge. Great stores, great gear, great marketing. They're gone.

I worked at both Brook Mays and Guitar Center. After being at Guitar Center, I have no doubts about their ability to dominate Earth. It is an effective, efficient beast. They don't hire salesmen, they conscript units, man.

GC is Walmart. Maybe your store will be the lucky Albertsons, Tom Thumb, or Fred Meyer (indy cred). Good luck.

[Smalltown Mike]

Uh ... for some reason the Ill Cricket Crew's Stairway to the Moon wasn't posted in this fight—and I have no link to direct you to. Hopefully the FightMaster will see it in his heart to post it at some point.

[Thanks For The Frisbee]

my entry isnt there either. there are a lot of songs for stairway. i posted a topic in quality control and then resent the song. i also hope that the masters will take pitty on my soul.

[JonPorobil]

My grateful thanks to the fightmasters for putting up the later but better of the two versions of my song.


I'll have reviews before too long, but at first glance, I'm quite relieved to see some familiar names fighting with me. Theophilus Monk! Sober! Frankie! Jute Gyte! Hostess Mostess!

[JAK]

2 Many 2 Judge with any depth…

Frankie Big Face — Didn’t love the piano solo; pretty good words(mithing), for example the line about checking out every mirror in this town. The problem with taking a drum intro from another and quite brilliant song is that the listener can’t help but compare this song with that. On the other hand, in some ways this is like an early Bowie track, which is a very good thing.

Ben Krieger — Early Bowie redux, still not a bad thing. Frankie + Ben = a very good band.

Theophilus Monk — Funny. Friendly. Did Willie the Shakes really write that “love will find a way?â€

[Smalltown Mike]

For those who have been dying to hear the Ill Cricket Crew's tune (anyone? Bueller? Anyone?) it's now in the fight.

Thanks very much to the Fight Master for that.

[JonPorobil]

Is it just that better software is getting cheaper? Almost everyone in this fight is sounding much more professional than they used to in my day, fidelity-wise. It's nice not to have to wade through too much foundering sloppiness, it really is. Here we go:

Ben Krieger - Some nice guitar in there. I think your vocals are mixed loud. Oh, and a genre switch at :35... Quite Glam. The bass is probably also mixed too high, but I kind of like it how it is. For the second verse, I was kind of hoping you'd add an instrument or change a riff or something to make it more dynamic, but it's a little dull by that point. Line for line, there's nothing wrong with your lyrics, though by the end of the song, it's occured to me that I don't know what it's about. Might be my fault; might be yours. Is that repeated line in the coda... is that "We're going over," or "We're going nova?" Not bad overall, but there's room for improvement.

Chin Music - Nice muted slide guitar there. I'm hearing some points where the lyrics don't quite fit the melody, such as "new boy-FRIEND," and "crept into my bed-ROOM," in close succession around :45. I'm quite a fan of the subtle buildup, but I was definitely expecting the song to explode from its current mood by the end of the first verse, at the latest. It's a cool mood and a clever melody, but it gets boring by the time the first ending rolls around at about 2:30, and I'm not sure why you stretch it beyond even that. It just feels like your whole song could be condensed into a killer intro for a much better song.

Chuck Chuck Moose - Nice drums to start off with, and I like your guitar tone. it's quite chill. Your vocals are mixed too low; I can hear most of your lyrics, but it's a strain, and that makes the whole experience of the song less pleasant. The piano is nice. As are your harmonies; they make the whole thing sound professional. Something about this reminds me of Sugar Ray at their best... the laid-back summery groove, the phone-EQ vocals echoing in the background... This is a contender. If you plan on working on this longer, I'd suggest mixing the lead vocals higher, and if you're looking for a more radical suggestion, maybe speed the whole thing up by a few bpm. Maybe. Never hurts to experiment, anyway. Possible vote.

Corn on the Cob - Well, the guitar is better than I could do (see my entry), which isn't much, but it's nothing spectacular... This whole thing sounds professional, what with those harmonies and that driving crunchy guitar, the stadium-ready chorus, that crazy solo in the bridge, and the occasional clever lyric doesn't hurt, such as "take a little piece of heaven back" in the chorus. Okay, I hear the song ending at 3:15, but then this loud drone comes on a nearly kills the whole thing for me before fading out into a strange post-coda. I honestly wouldn't have minded if you'd just ended on a ringing power chord; it woudl have suited this song pretty well. Regardless, this is a possible vote as well.

Eclectic Spoons - I originally misread your name as "Electric Spoons," and I liked you better then. You couldn't have found a real radio sample? Your vocals sound like they're not syncing with the music at all at points. Harder to tell because they're mostly inauduble. I'm going to chalk this up to being not my kind of thing, though you might have had a fighting chance if I'd been able to hear the lyrics. And perhaps a stronger hook.

Frankie Big Face - The first bar of drums sounds like "Say Goodbye to Hollywood." The rest still has that impression, though not as strongly, until the vocals start. I think your vocals shine best when you're in the upper range, and here you stay rather low throughout the verse. Nice organ at about 1:10. I'd have taken it a touch down when it starts with the stacatto at the beginning of the second verse, but it's not uncomfortably high. Your lyrics, as always, are brilliant, though I feel like I'm spending most of this song waiting for the explosion at the chorus and, eventually, the second part of the bridge/coda. Don't bore us, get to the chorus, and whatnot. Or make the verse more dynamic somehow. That's quite vague, I know, but... well, there is no but. Contender.

Hostess Mostess - Quite a pretty progression. I'm not so sure this would sound right with a fuller arrangement, as you seem to want. The verse reminds me of some relatively obscure Better than Ezra song, but that impression is destroyed as soon as the chorus comes in. I really do think you do a fine job of building it up naturally without having to throw in other instruments; the guitar and piano are just beautiful together, and the cerescendo makes it feel much fuller than it is already. I wouldn't complain if, say, some strings were there, but that's kind of hard to pull off, considering the budget most of us have to work with. Possible vote.

Ill Cricket Crew - The presence of the term "(Aussie Dance Mix)" in the ID3 tag worries me.... Although this is a pretty funky dancable groove. I particularly like the bass. As well as the line "How far can a cricket jump... in SPACE?" Okay, with a name like that, I was skeptical, but this cut rocks it old school. The harmonies in the chorus don't hurt. Ooh, the half-bar of disco at about 1:48 actually made me want more — oddly enough. "Got a buzz on like Aldrin" strikes tight. Then those song parodies, some of which are pretty funny, start, and they don't stop. That kills the track, sadly. If it were a minute shorter, this would be an almost definite vote. As it is, it's still possible, but far more disappointing.

Jolly Roger - Drum-machine-tastic! The swell in the chorus is too sudden, and your vocals could use more reverb. There's some real musicianship here; you just need some production pointers. For example, the crescendo throughout is too sudden. Every time we hit another section, it gets jarringly louder. Some stronger structure couldn't hurt either. A repeating chorus, perhaps, for this song, or at least some element returning. And if you're worried about that making the song too long (you shouldn't; you've got plenty of room to expand here), then cut the intro a bit; it's too long anyway. Good melodies, though.

Jon Eric - What are you doing singing? Your voice is strained, and the lyrics are hackneyed. And good god, learn to play lead before you throw a solo in, please! Get a new drummer, while you're at it. Oh, and nice try on the harmonies, but they're too loud.

Jute Gyte - What time is that, 14/4? That Jute Gyte is crazy! The strange time sig justifies the overly long intro, in this case. My god, you're sounding much better than you used to. In the two years of my absence, you've improved dramatically. I mean, I still can't understand a word of your vocals, but the whole thing has this beautiful studio sheen, and a much better variety of guitar tones. And yet, it still sounds gritty and dirty. The chink in your armor is your symbals; they sound fake, and this song relies on them pretty heavily. I think it would downright obvious to state that you're channeling Tool here, right down to the almost uncomfortable song length, which for Tool would in fact be pretty short, but for Songfight, it's fairly long. You do appear to be trying to keep it interesting throughout, but I wouldn't mind if you found a way to chop off a minute or so. Contender.

The Marginals - Nothing quite like DIY punk. Your vocals are in a lower register than your average vocal act, and so they're gonna need to be a bit higher to stand out from the music. I can hardly hear a word here. As far as the rest of it, it's not quite offensive, per se, but nothing really stands out. It's dark and brooding and ever so indie, but it doesn't really make much of an impression on me.

The Older Brothers - Is that Ken? I like the harmonies, as well as the way the song starts off in full blast. The high hat adds to the atmosphere of the verse, but I wish the chorus were a bit stronger. That guitar just barely howling the background at the start of the second verse is a nice touch. I'm no vocal authority, but I think you're a bit off at the end of each verse. The rhymes in the chorus are strained, as well: "If I get dismembered?" Is that what you're saying? Funny bridge, but it's not enough to save the track.

Pace del Stinko - Cute. The vocal sounds just strained enough to not be annoying, and the little synth organ there is very reminiscent of They Might Be Giants. I'm not so sure you'll be able to keep it up for four whole minutes, though. The switched up drum pattern is enough to whole my interest for the second verse, at least. And you've got a good ear for melody, which also reminds me of TMBG. Not to mention good prosody; that always helps. There's a false ending just beyond the 2:00 mark, and the strained lyrics and vocal performance in the bridge (lose the falsetto, pal, please) make me wish the song had just ended after the second chorus. The solo is fine, btu nothing worth extending the solo for. Then, at about 3:10, we finally get back into the charm that made the first half of this song so interesting. The transposition in the final verse, at least, works pretty well, though it does give the song as a whole a lounge feel that you might not be going for.

Sober Irishman - Ooh, very 90s-ambient at first... ouch, at least until the vocals start. Your vocals are alright, they're on-key and whatnot, but they're failing to cooperate with your mix in some way. Maybe some more reverb, or delay, or making them a touch softer? I don't know. The music is very effective; it's ambient, it stays interesting throughout, and the progression doesn't fall stale. I like the bluesy guitar for the last chorus, though by the end, I'm getting entirely sick of the line "Ohh-ohh, what might have been." It wasn't that good to begin with, but you stretch it as far as it'll go.

Special Relatives - Ooh, unmastered glory. This barely even registers on the EQ meter. Regardless, I'll pump it up and give it a good listen. I wish you delivered more of your vocals straight, without cracking for emphasis, like on the lines at :19 and :33. Rhyming "hello" and "cello" is just silly. Despite the failure to master this properly, this mix is pretty good. Passable guitar playing; the music stays interesting enough, but you need to take a step back from your mic and try to sing for real.

Ted and Jon's Excellent Adventure - And more unmastered fun. For the record, I'm not the Jon in question here. Sounds like you're way too close to the microphone for your vocals, and as a result they boomed into the speakers so you had to compensate by lowering them to the point of inaudibility. Something about a "Special tune?" Yeah, I can't make these out at all. The guitar chords are rather dull, though the lead is fine. Next time, keep your mouth father away from the microphone.

Thanks for the Frisbee - Your vocals around :38 start sounding rather Tom DeLonge-ish, but not really in a bad way. It teeters on the dark side of Emo for a little bit, but the literally-grounded lyrics save it from that road. Around 1:30 I'm aching for a little more variation on that jangly guitar part (the one that the song starts with)... I like the howling bridge. The mix is fine, but you need to shake things up a bit with your guitar - change the pattern a little bit, perhaps, if not the chords being played. The lyrics are also quite worthy, if only for being the most literal and straightforward of the whole pack this week. Not bad. Contender.

Theophilus Monk - Ah, crazy protest lyrics. Marc, you need to try to avoid singing that high; your voice starts to crack, and you're quite passable in your natural, lower range. Musically, this sounds quite familiar; is this melody copped from somewhere famous that I should recognize? The chorus melody sounds vaguely like "Good Riddance (Time of your Life)" but I don't think that's it. Nice coda.

Wave Umbrella - That instrument in the intro, whatever it is, needs to be a little softer so that I can turn this song up loud enough to hear the vocals without the upper range hurting my ears. Ah, yay, MIDI guitar. This isn't bad, but it's not much of anything, really.

I'll be giving these another listen, but I think I'm voting Mostess.