Downtime, with music. (Convalescence reviews)

[HeuristicsInc]

Dexter? I'm thinking of three Dexters off the top of my head.

But Dexter's in school!
I'm afraid he's not, Mrs. Fishbourne! Dexter's truancy problem is way out of hand! The Baltimore County school board has decided to expel Dexter from the entire public school system. It's the opinion of the entire staff that Dexter is criminally insane!
-bill

[Meatwad]

atonal coil bros - that's a hell of an intro. Almost caused me to spill my drink. I better finish it so that doesn't happen. Does this remind me of Counting Crows? Fuck if I know. Nice vibrato on the voice. It's better when the distorted guitar goes away. I can't believe i said that.

billys little trip - what a great drum sound. Nice mix. I don't care what Blue says, this sounds great. Backup vox. Excellent. Do that. Need a low pass filter. Wait, no, don't. Reminds me of Alice Cooper Special Forces.

booty chesterfield trio - Another nice mix. Bright and punchy. Saturated. I like that. Song is kind of boring. A bit long too. I love irony. Extra points for being too long.

caravan ray - this is actually pretty damn well done. is that kid a sample? If that's like your kid or something, then you win.

cranial biffida - not surprisingly, I love this. Totally getting my vote, unless another entry is actually Led Zeppelin resurrected from the grave. Moisty soiled corners where excrements gather? I miss Doom. I'm going to go load that on my phone and play it during my next meeting. It is excellent that it goes on forever with that annoying progression. But the words are changing. So that's excellent. Oh man. This change at 2:26 is fucked up and wrong. That's horrible sounding. No stars on thars?

damien verrett - oh man. what a let down after the last two. Sorry.

disciples of beer - same deal. Nothing to capture my interest here.

eidolon - I'm pretty sure there is a metal band named Eidolon. Yep: http://www.eidolon-nightmareworld.com/index2.php. This isn't so good either. Some potential with the singing. Seems to have a pretty good voice. Like Gordon Lightfoot. Man, I'm going to go listen to Gordon Lightfoot.

ephdream - fuck yeah. there we go. Where's the bass? Points for effort and execution. Seems to be about an adult situation. I'm not sure I'm old enough. This is excellent. This makes me happy. I hope you are being funny, because this is fucking hysterical.

flvxxvmflorvm - nope.

jim tyrrell - This dude always does quality stuff. THis is good for what it is. Very well done.

jolly roger - Sorry. Nothing really stands out about this.

klownhole - Bryan does an excellent Dr. Orpheus. The mix sucks, but that's not unusual. I need reference speakers. Mixing on the pc sucks. Needs more bass. Our next entry will sound better. Jason did a good job on guitar for this one.

masterhyde - is this hip hop? Sorry. Not supported on my OS.

mc ericb - still not supported. I can't judge this. Too long, not my kind of thing.

blue - shit sandwich.

melvin - melvin is another one who is consistently good. No exception here. Stands out as a veteran entry.

paco del stinko - I like the guitar and bass bits during the quiet parts. Nice transitions. This is actually pretty good. Nicely constructed song.

ross durand - I'm not a vocal snob, but the voice is a bit distracting on this one. The music is ok behind it.

spinlock - When I hear some of these acoustic intros, I keep hoping for some Fountain of Lamneth action. But then it turns into some fairly typical alt-pop. That's cool, harmless.

steve durand - this is entertaining. nice horns. Are those live? That's awesome either way. I don't know for wind instruments of any kind. Damn. That's like real horn playing. Cool.

steve hand puppet - I'm sorry. Sigh. But I can't listen to another whiny alt-pop song. No offense. To each their own. But there are so many entries, and so many that sound like this. I wish this were more like smooth yacht rock or something.

swilington - This is nice for a change. I love a well done instrumental. This is pleasant. Not too long, which it really couldn't afford to be. Unless you are Rush. Then you can go on for as long as you want.

those meddling kids - the guitar work is pretty good. Some nice transitions. This is pretty well done. Vocals and drums are tough in this type of deal. Oh, the drums are really rough for electronic drums. Ouch.

wes davis - this is pretty well done. Simple riff. Nice voice. Harmonizing, whoa. Good job.

wormsweater - this sounds like a retard trying to play the Rain Song by Led Zeppelin. Ok, not any more. Is this totally one-take live? If so, that's cool. I appreciate that.

zoosneakers - I wonder what that sound is supposed to be. Is that like the rattlesnake sound that Motorhead employed on every song on Ace Of Spades? I'll take this over the whiny alt-pop. But I won't like it.

[blue]

klownhole - Bryan does an excellent Dr. Orpheus. The mix sucks, but that's not unusual. I need reference speakers. Mixing on the pc sucks. Needs more bass. Our next entry will sound better. Jason did a good job on guitar for this one.

fat fucking chance.

blue - dick!

[Meatwad]

I can respect that you do it for you and your buds and fuck anyone else. But I still gots to 'vue 'em es i's sees zums. m'k boss? 8)

Absolutely. That's all anyone should do. My treatise was in support of the points in your review. You like to rock. We like to rock. It's all good.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Billy's Little Trip
I like the "Today is visiting day". And the shift to "you can feel it". The band share the same guitar setup as the last one? The distortion tones sound similar but this one is panned out. Might pan em back in a little. Thicken that up with something.

I'm still experimenting with my mixing techniques. I agree, things were getting a bit spread out on this one, while other things were getting bunched up. I need some good monitor speakers so I don't mix by headphones only. I'm really not much of an FX kind of guy. The truth is, all I like for my guitar is a "real" tube pre amp/amp for distortion and a nice clean channel, that's it. I don't even use reverb or delay. But for the studio recordings I'm trying new things to add interest. Thanks for the review and also the info about plug in distortion.

billys little trip - what a great drum sound. Nice mix. I don't care what Blue says, this sounds great. Backup vox. Excellent. Do that. Need a low pass filter. Wait, no, don't. Reminds me of Alice Cooper Special Forces.

Alice Cooper Special Forces? I knew there was a reason I liked your style. Thanks Mr. Wad

[Ross]

ross durand - I'm not a vocal snob, but the voice is a bit distracting on this one.

Voice performance or production? I rerecorded the vocal with a different mic and the result is <a href="http://www.rossdurand.com/rossdurand2_c.mp3">here</a>

[SteveHandPuppet]

Zoosneaker: I like the music and think this would work a lot better with the voices pulled way down under it rather than up so high.

Flvxxvm Florvm: I'm not sure that the guitar tone works with all the "air" around it. Given that the bass is panned to the other side and is fairly plucky, the drums are thin and distant, and the vocals have approximately the same fuzz, there's not much "anchoring" everything together, so it sounds more cobbled-together than it is. I think it might come together by adding a second guitar or feeding the original guitar (before fuzz) into a second amp or effects chain with a more sustain-y, non-fuzz sound, probably some echo. Second guitar would not have to be very loud to hold it together. The vocals don't do much for me.

Steve Durand: This sounds good (well played and recorded), but I think it comes off sounding too much like "horns with a song attached" rather than a "song featuring horns". The rhythm section is just lost, buried. My guess is that if you could pull up the rest of the band and fit the horns and vocals in the picture (still as the lead element) rather than using the drums/bass/guitar as a click track it would sound like a more complete, cohesive song. Not really my style, but the humorous lyrics help and fit the overall feel of the song.

Wes Davis: The vocals and guitar strumming on the left are OK. The overdubbed plucked guitar on the right sounds kinda stilted; my first reaction was that your sound card is introducing noticeable latency and the track is lagging by some fixed amount, which ruins the effect you're going for. The vocal and guitar overdubs at the end are nice enough except that they make the overall song somewhat schizophrenic and unsure of what it is trying to be.

Klownhole: Pretty generic whateveryoucallit-metal. I can appreciate not taking this seriously. I'm afraid to not like it. I'll give it two votes on behalf of Dex and Sinister.

Jim Tyrrell: Good performance, recording, mix, even though it's not my kind of thing. Use of saxophone is automatic DQ.

Billy's Little Trip: I like the dynamics; it helps keep this interesting all the way through. The drums at the start sounded a bit distant, but once the music really kicks in the mix sounds pretty good. The doubled or harmony vocals distract from this, in my book.

Ross Durand: Intro with the 6 and 12 was cool, but the next minute or so of verse was an immediate letdown. The chorus is better, but the organ or synth or whatever doesn't add anything interesting and tends to just obscure the rest. The middle 8 is cool. It's generally well played, recorded and mixed, but the long, long verses are killing me.

Swillington: It's all blips and bloops to me.

Caravan Ray: I don't know what to say about this. Generally, for a children's song like this I suspect the synth wouldn't be up so high. It is what it is.

Spinlock: I like it. Nice build up to the chorus. The drums and vocals are dominating this, though. I'd want to hear more guitar and maybe beef it up a little to give it bit more of a powerpop sound. Is there a bass is there? There ought to be. It also needs more distinct stereo placement of the elements; it sounds like its in mono. Best songwriting of this week's batch, easily.

Melvin: Very nice, although like last week it immediately jumps out of me as a Weezer ripoff. Good use of dynamics. Good recording and mix, with some interesting trippy stuff thrown in to keep me guessing.

wormsweater: There seems to be too much room presence in the guitars and maybe some clipping a bit before the vocals start. Good bassline and bass tone. This is too smooth and mellow for my tastes but the mix seems to sit together well.

Ephedream: Sounds like Guitar Center.

Those Meddling Kids: I'm kind of torn on this. At points it sounds like the dual guitars are going to interweave to do something interesting, and they eventually do once they are allowed to develop some semblance of melody in the instrumental section 3/4 of the way through, but for the most part they just settle into a drone for the kind of semi-hushed vocals that seems to be the fad in modern "alternative" these days. I think they would also work better with more distinct guitar tones on each. I don't care much for the tinkly buzzy synth sound, but I never do.

Eidolon: I like the intro with the overdriven guitar over the acoustic, and I think that it helps fill out and anchor the song during the remainder, so it's more engaging than your Typical Heartfelt Song of Yearning(tm). Unfortunately the song becomes a slave to the meter of the lyrics, which are a too regular and rhymey.

Damien Verrett: I like it, or at least most of it. The changes in instrumentation are gimmicky, but in a good way. I'm trying to figure out what's real and what isn't. In any case, the recording and mix holds together well throughout the entire thing, which is impressive.

Booty Chesterfield Trio: Starts off sounding like Scary Monsters era Bowie perhaps. I'm feeling sort of ripped off by the vocals, though. I suppose that when you don't know what to do or don't want to take a risk or go out of a limb, the "distinterested overdriven half-spoken" style is the way to go, eh? By the middle this seems to be getting oversaturated and muddy. The drums sound pretty bad, like they're clipping.

Jolly Roger: This starts out ok, a bit much room presence. It settles into a fairly generic Vans Tour, So-Cal sound, with the obligatory nasally vocals (aka Blink182 or Offspring?) that I've come to despise so much. Two vocals, one more whiney and nasally than the other, right out of the cookbook. To be fair, it isn't quite as bad as that, but it has a lot of elements that remind me of some of the reasons I can't turn on the radio these days.

Cranial Biffida: Nope.

The Disciples of Beer: Nope.

Atonal Coil Bros: That distortion is working against the guitar part, in my opinion. It would sound a whole lot better with a tube overdrive sound, in my opinion. Also, it sounds like you are choking off a lot of your chords as soon as they start to ring, although again it could be the distortion, which has a sort of dead spot immediately after the attack of the note until the harmonics spread out a bit. The synth wash doesn't help this. The vocals are still flat throughout, but much less formulaic as last week's. There seems to be a lot of obvious performance mistakes, particularly towards the end; is this a single take, and if so, are you against recording in sections or overdubbing? Just curious. The unstructured start and end make me feel foolish for spending so much time reviewing it, as it seems like it wasn't important enough to you to put a complete effort into.

Paco del Stinko: This seems solid technically, but it didn't excite or interest me at all the first listen for some reason. Strangely enough, I liked it a lot better on the second listen when I was trying to pinpoint what exactly was missing. It seems that it rewards close listening and loses something when listened to more casually (third listen). Thinking about it a bit, my theory is that there is a lot of really good, interesting things happening once the song gets going, but it is initially fairly unremarkable which sets the wrong expectation for the listener (at least me), and the introduction of the "good stuff" is gradual and not ostentatious. I think that if you could find an alternate arrangement that landed some hooks early, then the soft, simpler verses would act more as a counterweight to the dynamic, swirling jangling core that is the strength of this song rather than the trippy bits being an appendage to a more ordinary and unremarkable song. Also, your clean guitar sound is great (Rick?) and unfortunately gets buried under the overdriven one in parts; I'd reverse the two and feature the nice jangle.

Masterhyde: For what it's worth, I find this more engaging than the last few weeks. I don't know if this is good, bad or indifferent, though. This simply isn't my kind of thing.

MC Eric B: Eje...I think this is the first one of yours I've listened to all the way through. Rap, hiphop and/or nerdcore are certainly not my thing, and I imagine it won't be much of a surprise to say that the singing has...issues, but I will say that I appreciate you breaking out of the strict template you've been following and taking the risk. I ultimately don't think that this is your thing, but it's an encouraging step towards finding a style of your own instead of simply trying to duplicate somebody else's well-worn path. Wow, was that condescending or what?

Spinlock would have walked away with one, easily, if it weren't for the production issues mentioned. Paco del Stinko is making a pretty strong case on the subsequent listenings. Billy's Little Trip might get this for being consistently above-average-to-very-good in all aspects.

[Caravan Ray]

Dexter? I'm thinking of three Dexters off the top of my head.

But Dexter's in school!
I'm afraid he's not, Mrs. Fishbourne! Dexter's truancy problem is way out of hand! The Baltimore County school board has decided to expel Dexter from the entire public school system. It's the opinion of the entire staff that Dexter is criminally insane!
-bill

Youre a nut! youre crazy in the coconut!
What does that mean? that boy needs therapy!

[WesDavis]

Wes Davis: The vocals and guitar strumming on the left are OK. The overdubbed plucked guitar on the right sounds kinda stilted; my first reaction was that your sound card is introducing noticeable latency and the track is lagging by some fixed amount, which ruins the effect you're going for. The vocal and guitar overdubs at the end are nice enough except that they make the overall song somewhat schizophrenic and unsure of what it is trying to be.

Nope! I'm just bad at keeping in time, sometimes. The strumming and vocals I don't typically have a hard time with, but when it comes to actual picking, trouble begins to happen. I'm working on that, but I couldn't leave the song with just vocals and guitar. It sounded far too empty. And yeah, the stuff at the end my roommates didn't like either, but I dug the sound of it, so I left it in, but without some sort of smooth transition into that stuff, it doesn't work quite so well. I guess I should've come up with something, but it really would've made the song too long.

[wages]

atonal coil bros - that's a hell of an intro. Almost caused me to spill my drink. I better finish it so that doesn't happen. Does this remind me of Counting Crows? Fuck if I know. Nice vibrato on the voice. It's better when the distorted guitar goes away. I can't believe i said that.

The PacMan intro, or BLT bass intro, or the combo with fries?

"distorted guitar". The problem lies in that I'm using a 1/2 watt Smokey Amp (looks like a cigarette pack). It's great for plugged practice on the go, but apparently sucks ass for recording. I am working towards getting a Line6 POD, but until then.....

So, for my next "solo" track, I will try to get someone to provide keys/organ, and just drop the guitar part altogether (unless there is a cool riff, at which point, perhaps I can get someone to record it nicely). Or maybe I will luck out and keep getting others to record good instruments. YES (speak that like Monty Burns), I eventually plan to have so many collabs that there will be more Wages-related band names than there aren't. j/k ....or am I? So I only need to do around 1,000 or so more songs.....

In the meantime, I think Heuristics "owes" us an alternate mix, but now I'm wondering if he got the tracks I sent him. (did you?) I know no one will vote on the alt mix, but I'm guessing its going to sound a whole lot better than my mix.

[wages]

Atonal Coil Bros: That distortion.....

See my comments just above.

....is this a single take, and if so, are you against recording in sections or overdubbing? Just curious. The unstructured start and end make me feel foolish for spending so much time reviewing it, as it seems like it wasn't important enough to you to put a complete effort into.

I made many takes on the vocals (and the guitar), but I kept a single take rather than using pieces from separate takes. There are a multitude of reasons for this, none of them really good. Sometimes I do use separate pieces, but usually only if I'm having a REALLY tough time nailing a particular part (ya know, beyond the obvious faults of what I submitted).

As to unstructured-ness and effort, unfortunately, I did spend a lot of time on the track (probably longer than I usually do), but I was running out of time as I was putting everything together, so the intro and ending suffered quite a bit as a result. Plus, I felt I needed to leave a session or two open for mixing, so that trimmed off any additional fluidity I could have added. BTW, how IS the mixing, compared to recent solo "Wages" efforts (ones that were as "Wages", not the collabs which were mixed by SF experts)? Does it sound like a better mix than I've been doing, or am I still mixing in the dark? Eitherway, I'm still learning this craft.

I appreciate the effort you put into the review. I hope my explanation makes you feel like you didn't waste your time so much.

P.S. "are you against....overdubbing" 'scuse me, but, what exactly would I be doing to accomplish this "overdubbing"?

[HeuristicsInc]

In the meantime, I think Heuristics "owes" us an alternate mix, but now I'm wondering if he got the tracks I sent him. (did you?)

Yup, have it here, have been looking at it & thinking on what I'll do with it. I'll try to post something up before the fight's over. Thanks!
-bill

[booty]

booty chesterfield trio - Another nice mix. Bright and punchy. Saturated. I like that. Song is kind of boring. A bit long too. I love irony. Extra points for being too long.

Thanks for the extra points! At 3:20, you are correct, this is by far the longest songfight we have ever done. I find it kind of boring too, but I keep listening to it.

[Meatwad]

booty chesterfield trio - Another nice mix. Bright and punchy. Saturated. I like that. Song is kind of boring. A bit long too. I love irony. Extra points for being too long.

Thanks for the extra points! At 3:20, you are correct, this is by far the longest songfight we have ever done. I find it kind of boring too, but I keep listening to it.

It's like Mickey Rourke said in Barfly. Anyone can be a non-drunk. It takes stamina to be a drunk. It takes stamina and dedication to play something too long. And it's well documented that if you do something for way too long that it transcends boring into greatness. That's right.

[Smalltown Mike]

Ephedream: Sounds like Guitar Center.

Best review ever. Funny cuz it's true.

[Meatwad]

Cranial Biffida
Theatrical death metal. Are you a member of Klownhole? There's a nice grinding feeling to this tune, but I still wanna be able to distinguish the vocals (whether they have pitch or not). 3/5

Cranial Biffida is not a member of Klownhole. But a member of Klownhole helps them out with guitar or bass tracks occasionally. When they need that extra lowness.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Billy's Little Trip: I like the dynamics; it helps keep this interesting all the way through. The drums at the start sounded a bit distant, but once the music really kicks in the mix sounds pretty good. The doubled or harmony vocals distract from this, in my book.

It's kind of funny at this point. The back up vocals are just a pitch shifted copy of the lead vocals. A couple people have made the same comment as you, but a couple people said they love them. I actually got a PM asking how I did it because they really liked it. I've never gotten a private message saying they like anything I've done, and this is what they liked? Go figure, I guess this is where the old staying comes from, "you either love it or you hate it, lol.
But yeah, I'm still experimenting. Thanks Steve.

[jeff robertson]

"distorted guitar". The problem lies in that I'm using a 1/2 watt Smokey Amp (looks like a cigarette pack).

So, for my next "solo" track, I will try to get someone to provide keys/organ, and just drop the guitar part altogether (unless there is a cool riff, at which point, perhaps I can get someone to record it nicely).

Fuck that. Some of us like your guitar sound. And now that we know that your sound involves something that looks like a pack of cigs, even better.

My advice: buy the cheapest distortion pedal you can find (I think Blue might even be able to build you one) and blow the speakers out of your little bitty amp, and the ears off your critics.

Of course I am probably the last person who needs to be giving this kind of advice, considering I probably average less than one vote per fight.

[super dragon x]

wormsweater - i don't know if it's just one guy or a band, but you've been my favorite songfighter since i heard you're weezer-esque entry about two months ago, and this one is not a disappointment either. the guitars are consistently awesome and the tunes are always catchy. you rock.

masterhyde - glad to hear another emcee on here. you sound like a friend of mine, minus the new york accent. i like this week's entry but not feeling the beat too much.

[Steve Durand]

Steve Durand: This sounds good (well played and recorded), but I think it comes off sounding too much like "horns with a song attached" rather than a "song featuring horns". The rhythm section is just lost, buried. My guess is that if you could pull up the rest of the band and fit the horns and vocals in the picture (still as the lead element) rather than using the drums/bass/guitar as a click track it would sound like a more complete, cohesive song. Not really my style, but the humorous lyrics help and fit the overall feel of the song.

Really? I kind of felt like the bass line was driving the song. I guess I would have liked the guitars to be a little more aggressive but I'm not much of a guitar player.

Thanks for the feedback.


Steve

[ephedream]

Ephedream: Sounds like Guitar Center.

Damn right it does. *laugh* I ripped off ALL my best riffs from GC cstmers testing out ampsNaxes.


Hey evrbody, tahnks for all the gr8 revUz....I'm gonna anti up soon, this weekend hopfully....

thinkinn there needs to be a Giutar Center sidefight....only snotrockin' riffs and bellied screamin'....

[wages]

"distorted guitar". The problem lies in that I'm using a 1/2 watt Smokey Amp (looks like a cigarette pack).

My advice: buy the cheapest distortion pedal you can find (I think Blue might even be able to build you one) and blow the speakers out of your little bitty amp, and the ears off your critics.

Of course I am probably the last person who needs to be giving this kind of advice, considering I probably average less than one vote per fight.

I have a Pi Muff distortion pedal and a Small Clone chorus pedal, but for some reason, it won't work through the Smokey Amp (virtually no sound with the mixer levels at 11; very weird).

I just want some more options at my disposal and be able to obtain the sound I want. I'll probably still use the Smokey occasionally.