The Song Fight Bulletin Board

@Jon Eric and @Caravan Ray:

Sorry. Never heard of Tim Minchin. I just write whatever I think is good or, in this case, funny and/or entertaining. Sorry if it didn't meet the Minchin standard. This week, I'll probably write a pop song and it likely won't be as good as a song by the Beatles, the Ramones, Pink Floyd, the Clash, Bob Dylan, Prince, Eminem or Tex Beaumont. Just giving you a heads up so you're not disappointed.

frankie big face wrote:@Jon Eric and @Caravan Ray:

Sorry. Never heard of Tim Minchin. I just write whatever I think is good or, in this case, funny and/or entertaining. Sorry if it didn't meet the Minchin standard. This week, I'll probably write a pop song and it likely won't be as good as a song by the Beatles, the Ramones, Pink Floyd, the Clash, Bob Dylan, Prince, Eminem or Tex Beaumont. Just giving you a heads up so you're not disappointed.

Good on you Frankie.

Just try to put a bit more effort in next time. And try to learn something from the criticism. These suggestions are made in good faith. We don't expect miracles - we know you're doing your best. Keep plugging away there big guy.

Generic wrote: Bram Tant - This, on the other hand. It's a dialogue in song. Perfect incorporation of the title. Unfortunately, you and your collaborator are very similar in vocal timbre, and you both appear to have the same accent (which, by the way, is far more noticable than in your other songs - what gives?). This makes it difficult to distinguish which part is being sung. You also have some trouble nailing down the voice of the government man. His part seems to have been written to create a conversation, but the voice with which he's written makes it clear which side of the fence you (as the writer) land on. I can't picture anyone legitimately saying "You are part of the hive."

I didn't find the distinction that difficult. He sings way more monotonous than I do. Then again, I can see the point you and others make about our voices sounding kind of alike. And yes, we are both Flemish, Belgians who speak Dutch, so our accents are alike, though mine is a little less noticeable usually and his pronounciation is horrible (I had to help him a lot by telling him how to pronounce words like "ideology"). And yes, my voice of "government man" isn't perfect, but my collaborator fit better as the other party. And both parties/characters are gross exaggerations... The reason the concept/lyrics turned out like that is because I had no idea what I wanted to/could do and my collaborator thought the "unholy alliance" in the sense of government and corporations working together for their own gain was a good way to go... We wanted to create a heated discussion with proper arguments between the two parties, but it didn't happen. I would've preferred another approach, but it's what we could do with the little time we had. And the line is "You belong to the hive", I actually like that verse a lot for some reason.

By the way Jon, sorry to see you go. You too Luke and Glenn.

dantes wrote:

Generic wrote: Bram Tant - This, on the other hand. It's a dialogue in song. Perfect incorporation of the title. Unfortunately, you and your collaborator are very similar in vocal timbre, and you both appear to have the same accent (which, by the way, is far more noticable than in your other songs - what gives?). This makes it difficult to distinguish which part is being sung. You also have some trouble nailing down the voice of the government man. His part seems to have been written to create a conversation, but the voice with which he's written makes it clear which side of the fence you (as the writer) land on. I can't picture anyone legitimately saying "You are part of the hive."

And yes, my voice of "government man" isn't perfect, but my collaborator fit better as the other party.

Oh, sorry, I didn't mean the actual sound of your voice, but rather the point-of-view of that character. I didn't think it was well-drawn. I sounded like words being put in someone's mouth.

Brevity reviews for y'all:

Billy's Little Trip - I liked the groove on this. The duet didn't jump out on this one, and because of that I didn't rank it as high as some of the others.

Bram Tant - Pretty much the same thoughts as BLT, except that I wasn't crazy about the groove.

DJ Ranger Den - In all earnestness, this was really sweet.

Franke Big Face - I ranked this at the top at first, but then I changed my mind. The production is flawless. It's just that in the end, the humor falls short of Tom Lehrer and reminds me of that clever but tame humor that you hear on NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me." Still pretty great.

John Kloberdanz - Meets the challenge, good lyrics. If there hadn't been such winning melodies in some of the other songs, I would have ranked you higher.

Jon Eric - I'm not sure what the unholy alliance is. Pleasant piano and metal guitar don't make me scream "Judas." You took a risk by making it an instrumental, so kudos to you. But I found it too...holy.

Luke Henley - We probably like a lot of the same metal records.

Manhattan Glutton - Great chorus and I dug the lyrics. Maybe I ranked it too high after giving it some thought, but good pop songs shouldn't be thought about that intently.

Paco del Stinko - Man, if you hadn't done such a good job with "First Blood" I wouldn't be so hard on you! I think I keep docking you subsequent rounds for not making me smile as much as that first one. But I don't think I've put you in the bottom half yet.

Ross Durand - Simply put, the least impressive entry from you so far, but great arrangement and mixing.

WSA

WreckdoM >

BenKrieger wrote:Luke Henley - We probably like a lot of the same metal records.

I'd love to compare notes! This particular song was inspired by Darkthrone's deathier stuff and a little bit of Entombed.

Generic wrote:

dantes wrote: And yes, my voice of "government man" isn't perfect, but my collaborator fit better as the other party.

Oh, sorry, I didn't mean the actual sound of your voice, but rather the point-of-view of that character. I didn't think it was well-drawn. I sounded like words being put in someone's mouth.

I got your initial point, to which I tried to respond:

dantes wrote:And both parties/characters are gross exaggerations...

And next to that, I do agree that his text isn't completely fitting, but what can I say, I didn't have much time to put lyrics together with my collaborator. Tried to tweak them a bit for my re-recording on Sunday, but still wasn't good enough.

WeaselSlayer wrote: This particular song was inspired by Darkthrone's deathier stuff and a little bit of Entombed.

Black metal is something I've only gotten into in the past 7 or 8 months. I have "T Hunger" and "A Blaze Across..." by Darkthrone, but haven't soaked them up yet. Been listening to Akitsa, Emperor, Inquisition, Immortal and the first three Ulver records. And Burzum, or course. Immortal's "Heart of Winter" is a huge favorite.

This is how I imagine Luke after his mom sticks a tv dinner in the microwave for him and goes out for a night of bowling with her friends.

[youtube]XdETLii7sIY&feature=related[/youtube]

Wow we really do like a lot of the same metal albums! Inquisition is really awesome, just recently got into them, and that Immortal album is particularly sweet.

Oh and BLT, yeah it's pretty much like that. Except I microwave my own tv dinners, god dammit, because I'm a man.

WeaselSlayer wrote:Inquisition is really awesome

The new one is pretty good, but "Into The Infernal Regions Of The Ancient Cult" is my favorite by a mile.

Have you guys seen this?

OMFG!!!!!!!

That's awesome.

I'd seen some sort of black metal chef video a while back, but nothing as awesome as that one. I would buy that dude's albums in a heartbeat!

That is f*ing epic.

Frankie Big Face - re: gay Jews...I don't know why I didn't mention this earlier, but this winter and into spring I was the token atheist on the educator selection committee at our synagogue and we just hired by unanimous vote a lesbian rabbi to lead the Hebrew school, after reviewing and interviewing some 16 candidates.

roymond wrote: lesbian rabbi

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(insert "pork" joke here)

roymond wrote:Frankie Big Face - re: gay Jews...I don't know why I didn't mention this earlier, but this winter and into spring I was the token atheist on the educator selection committee at our synagogue and we just hired by unanimous vote a lesbian rabbi to lead the Hebrew school, after reviewing and interviewing some 16 candidates.

A razbian.

roymond wrote:Frankie Big Face - re: gay Jews...I don't know why I didn't mention this earlier, but this winter and into spring I was the token atheist on the educator selection committee at our synagogue and we just hired by unanimous vote a lesbian rabbi to lead the Hebrew school, after reviewing and interviewing some 16 candidates.

Yeah, I'm aware that Jews are cool with gays. (My best Jewish friend has a gay rabbi.) But surely orthodox Jews frown upon homosexuality, right? So I went with that.

frankie big face wrote:

roymond wrote:Frankie Big Face - re: gay Jews...I don't know why I didn't mention this earlier, but this winter and into spring I was the token atheist on the educator selection committee at our synagogue and we just hired by unanimous vote a lesbian rabbi to lead the Hebrew school, after reviewing and interviewing some 16 candidates.

Yeah, I'm aware that Jews are cool with gays. (My best Jewish friend has a gay rabbi.) But surely orthodox Jews frown upon homosexuality, right? So I went with that.

Wasn't a review or anything. Simply an anecdote.