Some General Thoughts About Sidefights

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:28 pm

ken wrote:Also, Gift of Music is a song for song exchange where people cover songs for each other.

Yeah, but Gift of Music fights have people covering songs they (and many other people) may never have even heard of! (Ken, I would like you to cover Voivod, Tuvan throat singer Paul Pena, or Rachmaninoff---your choice!) They're still covers of professional artists, not the folks who write song around here and that's my point.

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:33 pm

Lunkhead wrote: Some did not participate because they found the task of generating their choices for who would cover their songs to be a bit intimidating...

I only sort of vaguely remember this, but it sounds complicated. Drawing names out of a hat=easy.

People will always let you down (just ask Marcus about me) and you can't expect everyone to follow through with their intentions. But I still think it's more fun to hear Glenn Case cover Ken than it is to hear Glenn Case cover Abba. That was my main point.

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:02 pm

We may not have had many Original Recipe coverfights lately. But we have had some awesome hxaros/lovefests.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:48 pm

frankie big face wrote:I only sort of vaguely remember this, but it sounds complicated. Drawing names out of a hat=easy.

People will always let you down (just ask Marcus about me) and you can't expect everyone to follow through with their intentions. But I still think it's more fun to hear Glenn Case cover Ken than it is to hear Glenn Case cover Abba. That was my main point.

Yeah, it wasn't easy, but at least the possibility existed that the extra effort would make everybody more satisfied with the cover they received because it was something they asked for.

Anyway, I agree about the fun issue, I'm more motivated to cover another fighters song than some "commercial" artist's song. I think Ken's point was that even when covering each other we've had pretty sad participant-to-completed-cover/entry ratios in recent side fights. Maybe the formats of the side fights aren't really the problem, perhaps people are just busy these days.

The only way to settle this, of course, would be to hold an original flava cover fight and see if it fares any better, but the timing is probably not right for that, at the moment...

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:39 am

Niveous wrote:We may not have had many Original Recipe coverfights lately. But we have had some awesome hxaros/lovefests.

That's great, but it's still not the same thing. The coverers are not also the coverees and that takes away a very important aspect of the Original Recipe fight. Plus, for some reason, everyone decided they wouldn't review or vote for the hxaro songs, so the competition factor was removed.

Mostess · Post by **Mostess** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:03 am

frankie big face wrote:• Hostess Mostess covering 15-16 Puzzle's "Don't Fix It" (BROKEN LINK - WHAT'S UP BRENT?!)

What's up, Mr. Face (if that is your real name), is that I moved in 2005! medicine.uiowa.edu barely remembers me, I'm sure. I'm almost frantic now, because I don't have this file on my personal MP3 player. I'm sure I still have the original recording (at least the raw tracks) at home, but the old recording computer is currently helping prop up some boxes in our waterlogged basement...

The 15-16 Puzzle cover was, I believe, part of a hraxo, not an original flavor fight. I could be wrong. It was so friggin' long ago! The cover was fun and I'm so happy that it made the top of your off-the-cuff list! I'll make sure to re-post it as soon as I find it.

Covering other players is a really interesting exercise. Having one randomly assigned from a self-selected pool of active and interesting players is most of the joy of the fight. Then you have to listen to all their stuff and find the one you think you can do the most with (not necessarily your favorite). Then you have to write down all the words and figure out the odd chord change here or there. Then you have to treat that sucker like your own! And everyone ends up happy unless you give up entirely.

We covered Steve Durand most recently ("Don't You"), the 15-16 Puzzle song before that, and JB's "Listen Close" even before that. All very fun and very educational. The JB cover was particularly awkward since his favorite rhythmic schemes sound a little clunky when coming from our hands. We had to change things a bit to make them more Mostess.

Now. Look at my pouting face. We've never been covered in studio. Glenn Case and his wife did our "Unless I Change My Mind" at the 2006 SongFight! Live. Some guy made a mumble-rap version of our "Pasty White Man" for his own amusement. I would call Future Boy's remix of our "Pieces of Eight" kind of a cover.

Weep for me, SongFight! And (just thought I'd mention it) our 5-year SFversary is coming up!

Mostess · Post by **Mostess** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:26 am

Holy Moly! Our 5-year SFversary has already come and gone. We missed it. On February 25, 2002, our "Hotel" was posted and quickly dispatched by BanjoV. Not to be dismissed so lightly, we smacked back with "Grandfather Sword" which was submitted exactly 5 years ago today! It's win was so devastating to Narbotic that he used the occasion to introduce the concept of "FightMaster's Pick".

jimtyrrell · Post by **jimtyrrell** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 12:22 pm

Can it be true that Mostess is studio-cover-less? I've played at least one of your songs before, I know it. And the only reason you don't have a cover of it is 'cause I didn't hit the red RECORD button. It will be done.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:09 pm

Mostess wrote:
frankie big face wrote:• Hostess Mostess covering 15-16 Puzzle's "Don't Fix It" (BROKEN LINK - WHAT'S UP BRENT?!)
What's up, Mr. Face (if that is your real name), is that I moved in 2005! medicine.uiowa.edu barely remembers me, I'm sure. I'm almost frantic now, because I don't have this file on my personal MP3 player. I'm sure I still have the original recording (at least the raw tracks) at home, but the old recording computer is currently helping prop up some boxes in our waterlogged basement...

Hey, I've got that here at work.
file: songfight/1516-hxaro/hm_dontfixit.mp3

If ya need it I can send it to you.
-bill

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:39 pm

Mostess wrote: The 15-16 Puzzle cover was, I believe, part of a hraxo, not an original flavor fight. I could be wrong. It was so friggin' long ago! The cover was fun and I'm so happy that it made the top of your off-the-cuff list! I'll make sure to re-post it as soon as I find it.

Well, whatever it's origin, it's the greatest SF cover of all time, partiallly because the song is so damn good and partially because Erik's recordings at the time were so...um, unpolished? You're arrangement, coupled with an excellent mix/production (by Puce, I believe), shined a big fat spotlight on that song that wasn't there before and that's one way to make an awesome cover or a cover awesome. It's in heavy rotation in this household and not just because I'm married to Erik's sister.

Mostess · Post by **Mostess** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:19 pm

frankie big face wrote:Well, whatever it's origin, it's the greatest SF cover of all time, partiallly because the song is so damn good and partially because Erik's recordings at the time were so...um, unpolished? You're arrangement, coupled with an excellent mix/production (by Puce, I believe), shined a big fat spotlight on that song that wasn't there before and that's one way to make an awesome cover or a cover awesome. It's in heavy rotation in this household and not just because I'm married to Erik's sister.

The song is awesome. Your brother-in-law has a good ear for lyrical melodies and I really like that. Plus, his prosidy is spot-on; a rare skill, and again one of my pet issues.

I mixed what you have. Actually, I made a sucky mix, then Puce (who is also awesome) made an awesome mix, then I tried to mix it to sound like Puce's and came maybe 80% of the way. But his didn't have the hand claps, and I was kind of proud of what I'd learned so I went with mine (crediting Puce in the ID3 tags).

Heuristics, Inc. just sent me his copy and I've listened to it about 5 times in a row. Holds up pretty well! Thanks for reminding me of it! I'll post it tomorrow when I'm at work and put the new link here and alert Spud for the archives.

(though the irony of a broken link to "Don't Fix It" is pretty funny, it's worth fixing anyway)

Mostess · Post by **Mostess** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:57 am

Many thanks to Heuristics, Inc. for sending my his copy. The file is posted here.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:53 am

You're welcome. That is a good song and cover and it should not be relegated to the dustbins of history!
-bill

PS no comma

"Heuristics Inc."