tw3rp r3vi3w thr3ad

Discuss upcoming, current, and previous song fights.
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thehipcola
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Post by thehipcola »

s'alright...you can join too...we could make Gert the hugest band ever. We'll call it, Gert VS ZooSnuffy. It'll be a mash-up of epic prepositions........


Alright...get serious. Time to listen to these bad boys.....
gert
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Post by gert »

Zoosneakers wrote:I don't know anything about Botoph or Leaf.
This pleases Gert.

Gert would enjoy to knowing more about what make a song good.
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Post by Zoosneakers »

gert wrote:
Zoosneakers wrote:I don't know anything about Botoph or Leaf.
This pleases Gert.

Gert would enjoy to knowing more about what make a song good.
Sorry, I don't accept questions from members with less than 100 posts...
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thehipcola
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Post by thehipcola »

He didn't ask a question, sneaky Z.
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Post by pegor »

Way OT: How come there is no link to the gert forums of off the main gert web page? I know I saw a gert forum somewhere. You are making very difficult for me to stalk you.
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Post by deshead »

pegor wrote:Way OT: How come there is no link to the gert forums of off the main gert web page?
Hmm, it got removed somehow. But I just put it back. Stalk away.

Now, back on topic: Your favorite Songfight artist and/or band sucks. Yeah, that's right.
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Post by WesDavis »

gert wrote:
Zoosneakers wrote:Honestly, I was expecting great things when I saw Gert. It had some good parts
It pleases Gert to suck labia. Labia are good parts. Gert likes to have fun, Gert has an active sex life. To Gert, the glass is always half full.
I felt that this was the truth, which is why I decided that Gert would not skirt around the issue, when it comes to sexing. Ergo, "I ain't skirtin', I'm Gertin', spread those wings(labia) and flap."
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Post by fluffy »

I wasn't defending ZooSneaker or whatever, I was just pointing out that just because someone's not a good musician doesn't mean their reviews aren't valid, and that this whole retarded thread is pointless. I should have just let this little flamewar/meltdown happen on its own. Whatever.

Can we get back to the songs please?
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Re: TW3Rp - Reviews

Post by WesDavis »

Paco Del Stinko wrote: Raspy Jasper - Saturday morning again! I like the envelope filters here adding a nice contrast to the more organic sounds going on. The arrangement is good and the verse melodies work best I think. There are moments when the rhtyhm almost seems to catch up to itself at times. There's almost a hint of menace (my word for the day, apparently) behind the boppy little romp of this.
Yeah, I recorded it in about 4 takes, and I did vocs and guitar at the same time. I was sort of making up the melody as I went along, and didn't have a lot of time to work on it, as the inspiration for this tune hit me at 3 in the morning 2 days before the song was due, and I had things to do in the interim. So yeah, that would be why the rhythm screws up at times.
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Post by jeffhenderson »

The Anarcheologists - This has the "let's-finish-recording-before-we-get-kicked-out-of-the-studio-by-the-security-guards" feel that is so popular nowadays.

Balls to Monte - I like the feel of this. I love the chord progression. The vocals have a David Bowie-ness that definitely win over my favor.

Beef - So far so good! The flow is really natural and the lyrics are captivating. Possible Vote.

Billys Little Trip - Okay I really like the spoken word verses, they remind me of the spoken word parts of Bob Dylan's first album (see the beginning of Baby, Let Me Follow You Down). I really am not a fan of the chorus however.

I have to go back to class now, I will do the rest this evening.
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Post by fluffy »

I should be working on yet another stupid internal web app but meh.

Anarchaeologists: I like the driving beat that you start out with. Bandpass vocals are nice at the beginning, though it quickly gets to be a strain to try to listen to them. The mix could use a lot of improvement. The instrumentation also gets a bit old... analog bass, piano, and drum machine just makes me think someone took an NES game's soundtrack and dumped it to MIDI then recorded vocals against it. At least it finally changes a bit at 2:18 but at that point it's a bit late. I really do like the backing vocal chords though - it almost seems like more care was given to them than the lead vocals, which seems so backwards.

Balls to Monte: This is a totally different sound than I remember from BtM of long ago! Good to see you back. Sparse arrangement and good vocal rhythms and rhymes = a great song to listen to. The lyrics don't really sound like they're describing a twerpy person, though... or is "tw3rp" some sort of designation code, like they're a robot? The way you sing it makes me think it is yes (TW-3RP). The vocal melody could use a bit more variation, and it does start to get a bit boring at 3:00ish (and then fading out is such a cop-out) but other than that I think this is a pretty good track.

Beefy+Snyder: Peacecore hip-hop? This is pretty good, though it'd be nice if the backing track had a bit more variation, or if there were structure other than verse-verse-verse-verse. This sort of ties into what I saw as a recurring theme in the "Thoughts about Nerdcore" thread over in Monkey Affairs - not that I think this is nerdcore or anything (it doesn't have any true nerdcore elements in it aside from mentioning games and academic pursuits) but good hiphop tracks have melodic interludes, sung choruses, etc. - anything to turn it into something other than a poem set to a beat.

Billy's Little Trip: This is such a King Missile track. I love King Missile. Are you King Missile in disguise? Great backing track for a pretty good rambly "song," and I also like how the backing track evolves and changes over the course of the song, with a clear bridge section to retain my interest. Structurally sound, pretty well-produced, and witty lyrics (though I'm not sure what they have to do with the title... is it like T-W3RP FM or something?). I definitely look forward to this coming up in my future random listening.

Booty Chesterfield Trio: I love how random and improvisational you guys are. I can't make out a single word in most of the song but I don't think understanding the lyrics is a very high priority in your music anyway. Needs more loud. Maybe have blue shout more. The low-key bridge/breakdown is so out of character, too. Defying expectations = good.

DJ Dickie Qwick: Cute bit of sample-mangling and makes for an interesting abstract glitchy thing to listen to, which I always appreciate if it sounds good. Which this does. Doesn't really stand on its own but I get the impression that's not the point either.

Flvxxvm Florvm: Bugs Bunny as a lo-fi hip-hopper? At least it's short.

Garlick Head: Cute and whimsical. Is that ukelele, or guitar played with a high capo to sound like it? This is a style that isn't done nearly enough these days, and I love how it sounds like it was unapologetically produced with modern techniques (drum machines). It's a nice bit of cognitive dissonance I can totally get behind. Definitely a keeper. (Well I actually keep all Song Fight entries, even the terrible ones, but by that I mean I wouldn't skip this if I weren't reviewing it.)

Gert: I'm not really a fan of the Gert sound (I got tired of post-grunge as soon as it came around), but as far as the Gert sound goes this is pretty well-produced and well-composed. It's very conventional, and sounds pretty much like a Gert track. But I can see how people who like this kind of music would like this specific song. It's very well-crafted. Just not my thing. (I use a lot of words to say nothing, I know.)

iNGRUO: This is really good up until the point that the vocals start. Then it goes way too long. At 2:45 it starts to get a bit rhythmically interesting again, but that's short-lived. Please try to make your vocal sections (if not vocals themselves) at least as interesting as your backing tracks. This song could be condensed into one minute without losing anything. (Actually just speeding it up 6x would probably make it pretty awesome.)

Melvin: That is some of the most harmonious dissonance I've ever heard. This song is fun to listen to, and feels a lot shorter than it actually is. I think I actually want it to be longer. Very well-produced and constructed; not really anything amazingly new or unique but it's a great listen. For some reason I can totally hear Ken doing this song. Brief vocal scatty bit at 1:40 is nice.

Paco del Stinko: When I first heard this I thought this was a Starfinger song. Pretty good rapid-fire wordiness. Meta-breakdown is fun, cute rhymes, and the instrumentation/melody changes enough to keep me interested without seeming random. Is this what Oingo Boingo would have been like if Danny Elfman were a rapper?

Raspy Jasper: Putting your guitar right in front of the mic and another mic in front of your mouth (or just recording them separately) instead of recording from across the room will give you a much better sound. This sounds like it was a guy&guitar song (not necessarily bad) with the weird synthy stuff just dubbed in retrospectively (not good). If it were kept as G&G I'd have liked it a lot better, especially since the synthy weirdness is mixed too high and panned too hard, making it stand out way too much. Basically this is great except for the synthy thing but the synthy thing is put WAY too far in front which ruins the whole thing for me.

Ross Durand: This is a fun song. It's like something from a postmodern musical. Might be a bit too short, or maybe just the right length. I like bouncy songs though.

Signboy: Singing with some of the same notes as the instrument in the background only works if your pitch is on. This kind of hurts to listen to. Mix needs more bass.

Sockpuppet: Basically I've been singing too much Britney Spears at karaoke lately and after dissecting a few of her songs I decided to see if I could make something using the principles I heard (without just duplicating her sound faithfully). I think it worked well. Of course my voice sucks and that was like the 10th vocal take but basically I did this as a production demo reel entry (hence why it's showcased as the first spot on my portfolio site). The whole song took about 12 hours from start to finish (starting where I came up with the idea in the shower).

Spinlock (great name by the way): This reminds me a lot of the old Gunn and Fames entries from Song Fight of yore, only with more cursing and much better vocal performance. Vocal rhythms could use some tightening, vocal mix needs a bit more bass, but those are just minor quibbles. This is a fun track to listen to, and the bridge makes me think of a cartoon with little anime hacker dudes trying to crack into a mainframe on a space station. I get some pretty good visuals through the whole song, really, and I like songs which tell a story.

Wages of Spin: Speaking of karaoke, this sounds like a bad karaoke performance. I think you need to rerecord the vocals while absolutely hammered, and then it'll be perfect.

WreckdoM vs Sven: Oh man, I had no idea how freaky this would be. All the other reviews did nothing to prepare me for the sheer mind-blowing fucked-up-ness. I feel like I need to listen to this like 30 times just to dissect it, but I fear that'd make my brain explode.

Zoosneakers: Holy crap, this really is a shitty track. Sorry Leaf.
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Post by WesDavis »

fluffy wrote:Raspy Jasper: Putting your guitar right in front of the mic and another mic in front of your mouth (or just recording them separately) instead of recording from across the room will give you a much better sound. This sounds like it was a guy&guitar song (not necessarily bad) with the weird synthy stuff just dubbed in retrospectively (not good). If it were kept as G&G I'd have liked it a lot better, especially since the synthy weirdness is mixed too high and panned too hard, making it stand out way too much. Basically this is great except for the synthy thing but the synthy thing is put WAY too far in front which ruins the whole thing for me.
I agree! However I'm stuck 3 hours away from my equipment, and didn't have the time to do the guitar and vocal tracks separately. Also that isn't synth, it's a guitar tuned about 4 steps down going through an effects pedal. And I didn't really have any time to mix it, but I felt like for the type of song it was, I didn't really want an amazing mix on it. It's a pretty trashy song. But I'll likely have a better mix one of these days, and if you are interested I can send you a link to it.
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my picks

Post by MC Eric B »

Billy's Little Trip gets my vote this week. It reminded me a little bit of early U2.

I liked Beefy's song 2nd best. As he says in his lyrics, the song takes you in an unexpected direction. It is not just a typical nerdcore song. Also, it has very clean, professional sounding production.

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Post by specific_chris »

- Raspy Jasper - Great singing. Is this annoying bass sound week? This is like the fifth song with an annoying rhythm guitar or bass part.
Contrary to what popular music critics and Wes would have you believe, the "annoying bass sound" was not just my guitar tuned down about 4 whole steps and played through the second weirdest guitar effect I could come up with, but in fact I AM playing bass, from the inside of my own stomach.
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Post by Egg »

I made this song with a friend:
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=6755

Hopefully, it will get added to the fight. I mean, most of you are probably not weeping that my entry is not in the fight. But this is my return, dammit!

The band name is Tri Minutieux
glug glug glug egg makes wine. You can make wine too.
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Egg

Post by MC Eric B »

Egg - That seems more like a "creative piece" or "musical work of art" than a song. But, I like it. It is unpredictable.

- MC Eric B
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Post by Zoosneakers »

but in fact I AM playing bass, from the inside of my own stomach.
Does that make it acid rock?
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fluffy
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Post by fluffy »

I love your track, Egg. I hope it gets posted too!

I wouldn't vote for it but it'd suck if it just got buried in this thread.
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Post by WesDavis »

Egg, for the hell of it I am reviewing your song.

Here is my review: WHAT

I mean that in the most flattering way I can.
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Post by Reist »

Nice to see Gert back. You guys rule.
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Post by genecawley »

fluffy wrote: Balls to Monte: This is a totally different sound than I remember from BtM of long ago! Good to see you back. Sparse arrangement and good vocal rhythms and rhymes = a great song to listen to. The lyrics don't really sound like they're describing a twerpy person, though... or is "tw3rp" some sort of designation code, like they're a robot? The way you sing it makes me think it is yes (TW-3RP). The vocal melody could use a bit more variation, and it does start to get a bit boring at 3:00ish (and then fading out is such a cop-out) but other than that I think this is a pretty good track.
Yeah, it goes on a bit too long (which necessitated the fadeout. Are fadeouts bad in general?). I was riffing off of Roxy Music's CPL593H from "Re-make/Remodel" from their first album. It's alright. Doesn't quite take off. Thanks for the comments.
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Post by fluffy »

Fadeouts are bad in general. If you want to end the song, end it! None of this wishy-washy "I don't know how to end it so I'll just repeat until the entropic heat death of the universe" crap. Otherwise you end up with the 15-minute wordless outro of Hotel California or whatever.
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