S.O.N.G. .F.I.G.H.T.! (pre-fight)

[Paco Del Stinko]

I'd like to thank the Fight Master(s) not only for posting my late entry, but for all of the songs of both mine and everyone else! Good job and...THANKS!

[Æpplês&vØdkã]

Thanks fightmasters!

Why is my name '?'? I'm Ö.

Eh, oh well.

[Paco Del Stinko]

I just finished listening to every song, in order. Amazing. There are way too many good songs to even begin to mention here, so I'll start reviews:tomorrow!

I've gotta say that my songs were at the bottom of the quality pile every time, but I hope that they are a step towards both loosening up and getting better. It was fun to do the 11 and I appreciate the excellence surrounding me - thanks!

[Spud]

Thanks fightmasters!

Why is my name '?'? I'm Ö.

Eh, oh well.

\

because Ö messes up the code.

[fluffy]

Try Ô instead.

[Phil. Redmon.]

Hey, everybody, if you wanted to listen to all eleven of my tunes in order, here's a playlist you can stream:

http://www.tartpop.com/tunes/eleven.m3u

Also, on a recent Spy Vs. Pie popcast, I talk a little bit about the recording process. It's at:

http://www.spyvspie.com/?p=58

Glad I could take part in the huge fight.

[roymond]

This dentil molding interface is teh awesome! Nice job.

[king_arthur]

A big thank you to fightmasters for opening things up this time and being willing to host multiple songs. I guess there were five of us - me, Hostess, Phil, Paco and Wreckdom - who did all eleven songs, and others who did several. Not that I expect FMs to continue this practice in the future, but this might be a good chance to discuss amongst ourselves this whole question of being in multiple fights in the same week.

For everybody, is the sense that the songs aren't as good as a typical submission from those same people? I.e., are the Hostess songs significantly worse (or better) than we'd expect from a week where Hostess does just one song?

For those who did several songs, how do you feel about what you came up with? Are there songs you sent in because of the "eleven song challenge" that you might have said, "naw, this isn't good enough" if you weren't going for the gold ring? As you worked through the songs, did you feel like they were getting better or worse?

For me, if I'd been doing just a one-song week and the one song I had was "No Relation" or "High Time," I probably wouldn't have bothered submitting - those were the two that seemed the weakest to me. I did feel like the songs I did later on were better than the earlier ones, maybe because I got beyond some of the quirky KA concepts and lyrics, and just settled in to writing decent songs... I know I've already had a couple comments in the reviews about some of my tunes being, umm, exactly what one would expect from the title, but at some level, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Anyway... this may be a good chance to discuss the whole question of doing multiple fights in the same week. I understand, from FMs' perspective, the simple question of "volume of songs to be handled" justifies not doing this all the time, but in terms of the quality of songs from an individual fighter... helps, hurts, no effect?

Charles

[Phil. Redmon.]

I guess there were five of us - me, Hostess, Phil, Paco and Wreckdom - who did all eleven songs, and others who did several.

Six, actually. The magnantimant UDAHL rocked it up in all eleven as well.


For me, I have been out of the SongFight loop long enough that I didn't get too hyped out regarding peoples preferences / expectations / previous reviews and so on. I worked on the tunes incrementally, too. Here's a breakdown.


Saturday: Write riffs, record demo guitars, record 8 songs of drums (10 hours)
Sunday: Record 3 songs drums, record keeper guitar, all bass, all keyboards, write all lyrics, sing 7 songs (10-11 hours)
Monday: Sing remaining songs, record 6 guitar solos (4 hours)
Tuesday: Finish solos, additional bg vox. (3 hours)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: Mixing, mastering, converting, e-mailing (10 hours)

I was totally working on ONE thing, rather than 11 things. I feel like they all work well together, and junk.

I don't know if there are any I wouldn't have submitted in a 2 title fight, but I don't think they would have come out the way they did if worked on singularly. It was just the right kind of challenge to drag me back into Songfight.

Man, I have a LOT of reviews to write.

[Phil. Redmon.]

Another thing I meant to mention:

Like King Arthur, I tried not to double up on the keys.

I wrote a list of the titles, and went A, A#, B, C.... until the end. So poor G# got left out.
Also, no two the same tempo ( I record the scratch guitars to a click, and drum to those.) I wrote down all the tempos, and they're all in the same-ish range, and all on the 5's or 0's.

One MORE lil' tidbit: 3.7 gigs.

[jb]

Thanks fightmasters!

Why is my name '?'? I'm Ö.

Eh, oh well.

There was no band name in your email that I could see. Except for a stray ?, so that's what I went with.

[Paco Del Stinko]

In relation to King Arthur and Phil. Redmon.'s posts:

I'm not as strong as most of the fighters here, but I loved the challenge and drive to do all 11. (Now completed 11 reviews too! Woo-hoo!) I enjoyed hearing the return, every fight, of the do all 11 folks - see the highs and lows, where they peaked and what not. How they were broken up and evolved.

I wrote all 11 on the first day, in order, eyes popping out of my head by late night. Then recorded them, in order though I sang and mailed 4 on the Monday, sending them in as done. And I really did lose track of the day on Friday...sitting with my feet up on a desk thinking how strange it was that the computer didn't know the date and somehow I had all the time in the world to finish "Exclamation Point"!

I hope that from this I've been able to loosen up a bit as far as worrying what people might think, my (awful) singing, trying too hard at some things and not hard enough at others. I also hope I didn't scare anyone away, as I don't think it would hurt to give me a listen once! Some were weaker than usual and the quality vs. quantity argument comes marching right on in, but I like at least something about each of my songs, besides the excellence around me. It was a great challenge and even exercise - and sure did produce a heep of good music.

I'd do it again, time willing and hopefully not soon!

[Paco Del Stinko]

I might add to my post above that I wrote just the lyrics, not all the music and whatever, on the first day. Gee, can't tell, huh?

I think that those who contributed all 11 may have shown signs of the multi entries: Maybe not as all around tight as they might usually be, or as full with overdubs and other instruments, but man, impressive how good the material is!

Of course, this is not to snub the multi or single entries either, as there are plenty of excellent songs to listen to this week.

[blindmime]

...and "rage against the drum machine."

Just have to say I love that album title.

[roymond]

I'm not as strong as most of the fighters here...

You know, you self deprecate and all but you got it goin on, big time.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Roymond - Thanks for the nice words. I always have, and probably always will, self depracate, but I'll try not to display it as much. I'm not a braggart either (and not accusing anyone of being so) and I genuinely love what I do, if not every result.

Again, thanks for the compliment - that's high praise to me from someone as talented as you! Now let's cut it out and fight!

[Caravan Ray]

I can out-self-depracate any of you losers anyday. Bring it on.

[Paco Del Stinko]

My absurd patheticism won't even allow me a good response to that, Ray. I guess you win, as I'm not good enough for even a tie. Poor, poor me.

[Treachjuris]

I tried to do all 11, came up with some good things, but found myself being spread too thin. There was a potentially phenom track that, if it would have been the ONLY this week, would have rocked, but had to scrap in order to complete the remaining contenders for fear of destroying a potentially great track with hasty production.

I much prefer one focus, actually, although, this was awesome, and all the "full" participants have my undying admiration. You DO all have jobs as well, don't you? I don't right now, and I could not pull it off.
*high fives*

[HeuristicsInc]

You should finish the other track later and post it for us.
-bill