Hey who turned out the lights? (Switch Hitter Reviews)

[Nigel (spOOn) Clements]

Am I allowed to do this...?

Serving Notice
I WILL NEVER DO A SONG AS BAD AS SWITCH HITTER AGAIN!

[j$]

A bit early, but go for it I say.

Also: if yr song is so bad, don't submit it. Or ask the fightmasters kindly not to put it up, if you sent it already.

j$

[Nigel (spOOn) Clements]

yeah that's true John but live by the sword etc... I'm not a stranger to harsh criticism

[j$]

True, but also don't forget we have to listen to it ....

[Eric Y.]

if you've got advance notice it's going to be awful, you do NOT have to listen to it. no-one is forcing you, at least.

[j$]

Of course, but the best advance notice not to listen is not to submit, is all. Guaranteed 100% success rate.

(anyway the stress of my sentence should be read with the emphasis on 'listen' not 'have')

[Kapitano]

Careful, you might win. Then you'd look <i>really</i> silly.

[LukeU]

abominominous-reminds me a little of Franz Ferdinand. A solid tune.
Bjam- One of your better entries. Kind of sounds like that annoying Green Day song. But this is better. Nice.
Chinmusic-Guitar overpowers everything. I can't hear the singing. Is there singing? Might have been a good song. sorry.
Sp00ns-Some interesting music. I don't like the singing that much. It's actually kind of cool though.
FishSausage- So. Is this a country song? I can't hear the music as well as the singing. I'm not liking this too much. Maybe it's just me. Reba!
HostessMostess- Another country-ish song. This is a nice tune. Not my thing, but it's pretty good anyway.
The King. Arthur.- Reminds me of the last song. Or maybe the last song reminds me of this one. The synthy sounds are nice.
Mr.Man and Dr.Funk- Like last week, this song isn't supposed to be serious. Just so everyone knows. (Guest.)
PacodelStinko-Bass line is awesome. Ha this is pretty funny.
Pigpen-Catches my interest at the beginning, and then goes downhill. Sorry. It's not that bad, but not something that I would listen to again. Cool noises at the end!!
Udahl- No.
Wreckdom- Haha, kind of creepy. Thats all I can say.
Zipline- This reminds me of an old Megaman song. That's a compliment. Except for the singing.

[ken]

Fish Sausage is my favorite from this fight.

[UDAHL]

Hostess Mostess - neeto train whistle b vox
Paco del Stinko - thats the snare sound I want
Bjam - X vs Pretenders? (COOL)
UDAHL - my production blows
Chin Music - I get the mood
Zipline - hella too long and not purposeful
WreckdoM - the guitar/keyboard sound is killer
Abominominous - 1972 lead tone says it all
@eclectic spOOns - Fish & Chips
Mr. Man and Dr. Funk - Sooo PUNK (respect)
PiGPEN - Jammy vibe but not sincere vocal
Fish Sausage - Sweet Opry
King Arthur - I really dig the bass line

[Paco Del Stinko]

Maybe not the strongest fight, but fun. I'll vote for (not me) before the deadline.

Abominominous - Great! Comes in kicking and I love the nervous leads. Good lyrics (thanks for posting) Nice and together w/o being rigid.

Bjam - Good progression and singing - your voice is so 3-d sounding I had to back away from the speakers. Just to give you room, not 'cuz you're scary! I'm not crazy about the key patch but I like what they're doing. Although it reminded me of Jewel, I liked it anyway.

Chin Music - I enjoyed the phasey guiter, waiting for Bonham to come in. Couldn't hear the vocals well enough, and your lyrics are usually quite good. Good scratchpad.

@Eclectic Spoons - The summer of love gone demented. Very dark, I like the sparseness of it. Vocals are clear and there are some good lines in there. Hope it's not auto-biographical!

Fish Sausage - Dolly Parton's secret side! Nice, complete story well executed. I like the electro instrumentation instead of acoustic this and that. Excellent.

Hostess Mostess - Great vocal and guitar work. I like the train going by feel to it, which I mentioned in a review earlier this year too, and I'm sure it's not an el-train. Smart, and good enough to produce good song(s) w/o the whole band approach.

King Arthur - Nice progression and playing, good lyrics. I love the straight up production, you always let the song sell itself and not through trickery or stunt work. Good song.

Mr. Man and Dr. Funk - Nice medley of tune and corny after school special. There's a lot going on there but it doesn't crowd itself where it doesn't want to. Sorry there aren't many good baseball teams on the left coast this year, but Mah-vey? Fun.

Paco - I like elements of this. Cheap.

UDAHL - I'd like to hear this better as it is definitely rocking - I like the rhythm and riffs. Tight. Is it all just you? It's very together.

WreckdoM - Love the dual voices representing both sides. Good, raunchy lyrics that would be considered magnifico if I had written them! The music rocks and sounds great - not even close to muddy.

Zipline - I like how this comes out of the murk, although it carries a bit on its shoe afterwards. It hangs together although it wobbles at times. I like the guitar lines most of the way through. It could afford to lose some noise and the tempo slips a bit later on, but I was interested all the way through.

Thanks for the music everybody! See ya!

[Nigel (spOOn) Clements]

WreckdoM: Cartoon vox don't work for me, but as usual lyrically funny and irreverant, slightly annoying backing track but nice and short.
SIX AND A HALF POINTS

Mr. Man & Dr. Funk: I know absolutely diddlysquat about baseball and this sounds very confused to me, cartoonish backing vox shouting over incidental music from 'TRUMPTON' and then that outro business is just a little silly and contrived.
SEVEN POINTS

Chin Music: Not overly keen on that warped effect and the vox seem a little floaty to hold onto my attention coupled with the perceived lack of instrumental variation makes this a little disappointing from yous guys.
FOUR AND A HALF POINTS

Bjam: JESUS! Class shines through, predictably good, absolutely love the cookies line, plus the ease of delivery in the vocal department, pure pop goodness, should be on the radio, should be in the charts.
TEN POINTS

Zipline: What is that annoying noise? probably not helped by following Bjam on my playlist, there's obviously a decent tune buryed here, possibly trying too hard to be Alt. far too shouty.
FOUR AND A HALF POINTS

Hostess Mostess: Simple toe-tapping tune with expertly placed vocals and over-easy harmonies, never does quite enough to really grab me in the way that John Sebastian does, but polished enough to make repeated listens a pleasure.
SEVEN POINTS

Fish Sausage: HA HA! Jimmy pop has a sex change and the Bloodhound Gang go all Shania Twain, this could easily be a country version of Garbage's 'Queer'. I love the slipped finger line, the breathy vox are superb and the barely controlled 'Straight' feel is way cool, doesn't deserve to be up against Bjam.
NINE POINTS

PiGPEN: Too repetative on the intro, but enjoyably up tempo number lacking some variation and is crying out for a middle section either your bridges are missing or they are too seamless to notice.
SIX AND A HALF POINTS

Abominominous: Excellent intro, good paced jangle fuelled rockin' number, good steady vox and well cool guitar work, faultless if not memorable.
SEVEN POINTS

UDAHL: Grrr! without the growl, drums are brilliant, yet too far forward when the other instruments come in, very short and God knows what about.
FIVE AND A HALF POINTS

King Arthur: There's that effortless class again, I just love the way your vocals pause between syllables without seeming to do so, this songwriting lark is far too easy for guys like you, why aren't you earning loads of money??
NINE POINTS

Paco del Stinko: Nice take on the title with some delectable sound bytes in those well constructed lyrics, loving the chorus and the breakdown, this has an Aquabats feel to it and could easily become a favourite.
EIGHT AND A HALF POINTS

spOOn: Excellent idea, one of my better tracks musically, completely ruined by that awful voice, I was going for moody and threatening, and it sounded okay on my headphones, then I did the stupid thing (again) of just rushing it off to captain fightmaster without sleeping on it and having a second listen (doh! will I ever learn?), still at least I got the B&Q line in.
SIX POINTS

I won't vote yet, but it's obviously between Bjam, Fish Sausage, King Arthur and Paco del Stinko

[Nigel (spOOn) Clements]

Oops! nearly forgot, thanks for the words Paco...

@Eclectic Spoons - The summer of love gone demented. Very dark, I like the sparseness of it. Vocals are clear and there are some good lines in there. Hope it's not auto-biographical!

Nope it's not I just have a dark mind, you should hear some of the shit I throw away

[king_arthur]

Okay, I'm really gonna try to review all the fights before
I head out for SFL. As mentioned in other threads, I am
particularly interested this week in the songs by people who
were in lots of fights, they get a little extra credit in my
book this time 'round. Comments below probably come off more
negative than intended, but, basically, if a song wasn't a
keeper for me, I try to explain why, even if it's just old
guy genre bias...

For me, the main thing it comes down to is whether each song
is a "keeper" or not, "keeper" meaning it gets saved on the
hard drive and might show up in the random listening rotation
some day...

Abominominous:

Borderline keeper for me, mostly due to my wimpy genre
bias... I suspect most of your stuff this week will fall
into that "rawks harder than I care for" category, but
that may be a good thing. Good concept, lyric, performance
and recording. To be keepers in the other fights, I suspect
your songs will really need to grab me lyrically.

Bjam:

Wow, a full band thing! I'm not quite sure what the singer
means by "switch hitter," but I'll call this a keeper. I
think the thing that weakens a lot of your songs for me - and
I hear this here, too - is that the vocal phrasing and rhythm
work against the text rather than supporting it - for
instance, "so LETS dance with the most..." with the emphasis
on LETS instead of on DANCE... almost always, when I get to
the end of one of your songs, I'm going, "hmm, wonder what
that was about???" and I think it's because the important
words don't get reinforced by the melody.

Chin Music:

The woozy feel of this one doesn't appeal to me... between
the heavy flanger and the slide guitars, it's just not my
thing...

Eclectic Sp00ns:

Hmm... coulda used this a year or so ago when I was looking for
songs about domestic violence. Distorted vocals and sorta the
whole sound here don't float my personal boat, but I'm thinking
it's a reasonably well done example of what it was intended to
be...

Fish Sausage:

Story line doesn't seem like it fits with the old timey country
music, and with the verses and choruses having the same chord
pattern, it feels like it goes on and on and on...

Hostess Mostess:

It feels like the chorus needs one more line to it... "for some
that may be fine..." seems incomplete, like it needs some sort
of "but not (something) mine." You sorta did that at the end;
there's probably a great line there somewhere that would fit on
the end just perfectly... keeper, but I'm hoping some of your
stuff in the other fights will shine brighter than this...

me:

one of the first ones I did, this was kinda my song to get all
my whiny self out of my system so I could get on with writing
some real songs... I kept thinking of John Fogerty's "Center
Field" while I was doing this... this is the anti "put me in,
coach..." song.

Mr. Man and Dr. Funk:

Well, this is fun on a first listen, but it feels to me like it
would get kinda annoying after hearing it ten times.

Paco del Stinko:

Man, are you trying to be the new # ??? You might just have it
in you. Keeper! You got my interest at the start of the song,
and kept me listening, wanting to know where the story was
going.

Pigpen:

Sonically overwhelming for me. Somewhere in the recording
process, I think it picked up some distortion that was... well,
I guess I can't say unintentional, but, for me, it certainly
didn't add anything.

Udahl:

Umm, just sorta went by me without making much of an impression.
I'm a "words" person and the vocals were so buried that I
didn't ever really latch onto the song...

WreckdoM:

Yeah, nobody else does it like you guys. I was watching your
dancing bowlers avatar while listening to this and I could
just imagine them singing. Positive: no question what the song
is about, you made your point. Call it a keeper, helped
perhaps by the fact that I'm especially interested in the
stuff from the people who made all eleven fights this week.

Zipline:

Sorry, I guess I'm too old for this to appeal to me...

[jseavers05]

Thanks for the music everybody! See ya!

see ya!

[roymond]

Some random thoughts:

Abominominous - Like the drive and the soaring guitar work. Tight vocal delivery makes this a sweaty rocker. I'm teased by the cool Barry Andrews-like (XTC) keyboards. I'd like to hear them take over for a break or something.

Bjam - Such a full sound! Your voice just keeps getting better, it's really getting that growl thing going. Love that. "Relax and take a rest" doesn't sit so well with me, however, but the changes under the chorus are sweet. and the break is both welcome and satisfying. I'd loose the crash at the end, though.

Chin Music - I was just getting motion sickness when all the deep backing vocals came in. I wish they were stronger and took the tune to another level. It's so slippery.

Eclectic Spoons - I appreciate the arrangement, but this is just really irritating right now.

Fish Sausage - fun delivery but...whatever.

King Art - Now I'm listening to your bass playing a lot more and really liking it. Call me un-American but I just hate baseball so all the SH analogies can't help but turn me off (the whole fight, not just yours). Even so, your lyrics don't sit well here, not your usual crafty presentation.

Paco - I'm really liking your Zappa meets metal Floyd. Man your guitar work is awesome here!

[stueym]

Bjam - Such a full sound!..... I'd loose the crash at the end, though.

Blame the engineer....given more time we would have reworked the ending to remove some loose alingment of track endings and some spurious laughter on the vocal track. A splash hit ending covers a multitude of sins LOL. Bjam did do a nice job though for a one evening session.

[glennny]

Abominominous- The 11 abominominous songs in this week are all very good rockers. This is very good. Wish the band was louder, but it's all great live band stuff! Great energy.

Bjam- WOW, great production! Nice singing, nice playing!

Chin Music- If you turn it up, this is quite a gem. I like the slide guitar a lot. It'd be stronger with drums, but this is nice the way it is.

Eclectic SpOOns- Quirky and more restrained than the usual Eclectic tracks I'm used to. Vocal melody could be stronger, but this has it's charm.

Fish Sausage- Nice little Bluegrass ditty. Like to hear the vocals a little softer and less reverby, maybe with more drawl to really own the Bluegrass vibe. Good song!

Hostess Mostess- Fantastic guitar playing! This acoustic really holds up the music end. The singing is top notch. Contender.

King Arthur- Nice solid song. The "some People" bridge part is my favorite part.

Mr Man and Dr. Funk- Sounds like 311. I love the big muppet chorus. Very fun. The last 30 seconds is hilarious. A contender.

Paco Del Stinko- Another great solid Paco song. He's got eleven of them this week, this is good but not my favortie of the bunch.

Pigpen- Very cool, like the music a lot more than the vocals. It works. Cool stuff.

UDAHL- Not as tight and cool as the other UDAHL tracks this week, but rocks none the less.

Wreckdom-Cool weird wreckdom splendor!

Zipline- Exerpts from jam night. I should've cut this down a little more, sorry it's so long. i like bits here and there but it's still a bit of a mess.

Hostess Mostess gets my vote.

[glennny]

(sorry for the double entry before)

[Treachjuris]

Abominominous - A
Forever rockin’. Love. I want the entire album. I don’t normally enjoy rock, but you guys have the dark, driving, raw edginess that, to me, constitutes good rock. ROCK!

Bjam – A+
Wow. You rock. Such a pretty voice; such a humble feel; very, very nice. Is this all you? Lovely rhythm guitar, nice little lead, quiet keys a nice touch. Take it on the road, girl.

Chin Music - B
Nice wah. Reminiscent of older Cure…oddly enough…enjoyable…waiting for the rock by 1:00, though - you left me hangin’.

@eclectic sp00ns - A
Succumbs. Perpetually. Dig you for excellent command of the English vocabulary, you dark, creepiness, you. Always with the minor *almost* painful oddness that I love. Then, of course, I love pain. Awesome “get outâ€

[Bjam]

Bjam – A+
Wow. You rock. Such a pretty voice; such a humble feel; very, very nice. Is this all you? Lovely rhythm guitar, nice little lead, quiet keys a nice touch. Take it on the road, girl.

Woo! Thanks. I came up with the lyrics/style and stueym(my father) helped it all to mesh and sound decent.

[jseavers05]

OMG Mom