A Town Called Malice (Mad City Reviews)

[j$]

It's not the thickness - I liked the thickness - it's the tail on a few of the notes just veered into 'professional bass-player' territory - absolutely nothing wrong with that in the slightest - just personally I think the bass is the most important instrument, being the link between rhythm and melody, and therefore it should be first and foremost functional.

My headache has cleared a bit now. man, all day. Like a migraine, only I don't get migraines ... probably a tumour

j$

[j$]

Also, you'd be surprised how much of the deepness in that song is coming from the guitar.... everyone seems to think that it's just continuously doing one thing. It's actually doing quite a bit more than the guitar, elaborating through the root chord and then adding a quartal chord harmony when it moves around .... I thought doubling it might end up increasing the clipping too much (you said it's too loud as it is).

Ah, OK. I make no pretence to understanding all that quartal chord harmony stuff, but I liked the insistent bass / guitar very much. A tad too loud (like 5%) just because it was sucking up all the deep-end stuff - as for goth or no, well, maybe nu-metal instead? I'm not very good at this comparision game, I just say what i hear.

But I did like the song, but just not my bag style-wise, is all.

j$

[boltoph]

just personally I think the bass is the most important instrument, being the link between rhythm and melody, and therefore it should be first and foremost functional.

Gotchya. This is great feedback for me, I used to play bass more with the melody but now I play all with the bass drum. I got way into liking the bass guitar and bass drum to be sorta as one. I'm going to rethink my strategies. I really think the bass has to gel with the bass drum, in a mix, but at the same time you're pointing out something really important that I think i've been neglecting. Thanks.

My headache has cleared a bit now. man, all day. Like a migraine, only I don't get migraines ... probably a tumour..

Coincidentally I was sick this week with cold symptoms but also had a sore spot on the side of neck and was starting to get paranoid. Imagining surgery and stuff...damn vivid imagination.

[AngryKowala]

boltoph - i kept starting to review all these and hearing this at the beggining and was all like i've heard this somewhere but then i remebered that it was the day before. Strumming and snares are passing rolling in the hay. concretete directions! this one fills me with joy and emotion, and do you have albums to hear? a whole time? because i could definilty do activities to this music for a while, like drive hard.

davidover - Oh i just want to fall in love with you. what a wicked game to play make me feel this way. what are the other chris issac songs? also he gets real real screamy and there needs to be more screamy. butterflies and the heart goes down the drain.

hookerdramaofseaart - HORNSWAGGLE! you voice is crisply tiny and beautiful i want to rub your vocal chords with a lint free cotten cloth and then wipe my face full of tears away and then smile? you know? goodgolly.
one day we will collabrate with some bongos and make the tracks go
you me you me you me you and people will be like

johnathanmonataryspot- i think i am rather clever for deriving that name for you. Mad city is the best title for this song, out of all the songs yours fits the title musically the most i feel like, and then that cool wistlemetal on your voice! Did you say hypnotists in your lyrics cause i kept singing it in my head and making that word appear.

nutwalls- everyday!? you walk them everyday? You must have real good legs and strong looking skills. Painters and tax accountants are good lookers and probably not walkers so you have the world in your hands. you know?

phuntdonttell- This man is likely to be my friend one day, he'll be at the grocery store which i will probably be working and ask "can i write a check for that?" and i'll be like you're THAT GUY FROM ALL THE MUSIC AND OH MY GOD CAN I RECORD YOU SAYING ACEDEMIC SOUNDING THINGS! and then he will be confused and troubled as i follow him home to his house and eat food at his table staring without looseing contact with his eyes. HEXITOMES OF OX?! YES! oh the rummbleing tea saucer thing needs to be so much more! like the body sounds in i ment to remeber

rossdurand!- one two three four five! amazing, cause i used to read this and i was bazzeee until i read somthing about it being what it is and then i was like! yay! they DO SEE THINGS IN BLACK AND WHITE! that is what america is totally like now, but mad magazine maybe has advertizemenets in it now and is it still good as back in 96?

ryanhardigan - did i tell you about that once when i was eating my lunch in the cafeteria and then these big fat mean kid were like you are such a tard, and i said shut up my friend on the internet loves me and writes music about the way i feel, and they said haha what a nancy and hit me in the face, but i still remeberd you, thanks yo!

songfightorchestra- what happens when they all liine up?

stevedurand - i can't get over how delightful a horn this is, do you have to wear headphones and then play over what you have previously recorded? to do multiblue trumpets at the same time?

stolarskyle - i tottaly got up and danced like a robot dances when he has been given legs that are real! but the words are so unclever, but only cause i forgot to listen to them. Wash in neon lights, ok that is good. but the mad city will not really keep us here till we die, will it?! oh and then the guitar rocking out is so good. Dance Dance the robots with real legs again!
YAY!

whitehat - i keep getting confused! is there someone different in my left speaker as my right speaker! I hope not because i paid for two of the same! stinkin' yamaha company of speak venders, i liked this one so much because it talked about my favorites of incandecent lights. and the stars in a circus! and then i was tricked at the beginning by the harmonica. delicous.

[Ross]

And it looks like first prize goes to Noah for being the first to ID out loud the inspiration for my take on this title. I'm glad someone heard it. I knew the subtleties of the lyrics were aimed at a niche market and told myself I'd be satisfied if just one person connected:-)

BTW - I'm really enjoying the conversational, thoughtful, non-judgemental tone to this review thread.

Ross

[Nut #2]

nutwalls- everyday!? you walk them everyday? You must have real good legs and strong looking skills. Painters and tax accountants are good lookers and probably not walkers so you have the world in your hands. you know?

You know, I probably shouldn't comment on this, but yes, I do walk them every day. I work in downtown San Francisco, I commute from near Sacramento via train, and I walk about a mile through downtown SF every day, and have been doing so for a year. I wrote the song based on my thoughts and feelings about a daily grind that really wears me down, in a city that is, for all intents and purposes, mad.

At this point, I would also like to acknowledge the reviews we've gotten so far (there are two other Nuts.) This is our first real attempt at recording original music, and my first time ever singing, so yeah, I'm learning my range. Thanks everyone for the constructive criticism, our next entry will hopefully be considerably better!

So far, I'm having a blast, this is a great forum, and some of you guys set a really high bar to strive for.

Cheers,
Nut #2 - Chris

[nyjm]

And it looks like first prize goes to Noah for being the first to ID out loud the inspiration for my take on this title.

woo hoo! i get a cookie! i have to admit to listening to the first verse thinking "what in the..." and by the chorus i had to go to the lyric archive to be sure. (thank you for always posting your lyrics!) but then it was all good.

[HansGruber]

J$ - Is that a Floyd sample at about 2:10 (I think)? Sounds like something from 'Animals'...

[HansGruber]

I was sick this week with cold symptoms but also had a sore spot on the side of neck and was starting to get paranoid.

Prolly just lymph nodes. Happens to me when I get sick too.

[boltoph]

..lymph nodes.

Yes, probably just a little lymphoma perhaps.....um.....hehe. It's clearing up a bit, though rocking out on the main stage at the Paradise (playing bass in a band at Emergenza finals) last night til midnight definitely didn't help. Neither did screaming out those high B harmonies........

[HansGruber]

..lymph nodes.

Yes, probably just a little lymphoma perhaps.....um.....hehe. It's clearing up a bit, though rocking out on the main stage at the Paradise (playing bass in a band at Emergenza finals) last night til midnight definitely didn't help. Neither did screaming out those high B harmonies........

Try smoking a pack of cigarettes. It usually does me a world of good.

[boltoph]

Try smoking a pack of cigarettes. It usually does me a world of good.

he he...a friend from Barbados once told me a shot of 151 rum with a teaspoon or two of lemon juice, in the microwave for 10 seconds, can do wonders for a sore throat. It does. The lemon really helps the vocals too!

[Stolar Skye]

High B? Full voice? That's brutal...

[j$]

J$ - Is that a Floyd sample at about 2:10 (I think)? Sounds like something from 'Animals'...

Urh, no, I had a listen and there are three things in that breakdown -

1)Me playing piano on the upright at work recorded onto a dictaphone

2)Me trying to recreate the sound of an ECG machine by taking a sample of John Cleese saying 'Ping' and mangling it

3)Me whispering 'Do you think he can hear us?' with a whole lot of high pass on it.

It's one of them! However talking of 'sampling' floyd, I'm pretty sure the opening of one of the songs from my most recent AAD (which you can hear here comes accidentally pretty close to some Pink Floyd song but I can't think which. You can check out the whole album in the appropriate thread over in Highlights & sidefights. [/gratitous self-promotion]

[boltoph]

do you have albums to hear? a whole time?

I wish I could say I do, and actually, I do but i'd have to put a compilation together of just certain songs because people usually tell me it sounds like five different artists all with the same voice. You might say I'm addicted to too many types of music! Maybe addicted is too strong of a word...well...nah

[Dan-O from Five-O]

Reviews will be done as thoroughly, thoughtfully, and as explicitly as possible. They will not be up for public debate or conversation. If you want or need clarification, PM me and I'll be happy to elaborate. These reviews and the preceeding disclaimer are done in dedication to Kapitano.

<b>Boltoph:</b> Great inro. The instruments are very well recorded, the accoustic guitar sounds great, and everything else right where it should be. The mix is so solid, the lyrics and vocals are grabbing me. A lot of work went into this. How does one accomplish this in a week? This is a solid entry. Not the most solid reference to the title, I know it's in there, but it doesn't hit me as being the "Mad City" I wanted it to become. This has a lot of great references, pretty good production (but the more I listen to it the less I like the sound of some of the instruments) and a lot of potential. Recorded with real drums and electric guitar through an amp with real tubes, who knows? I just might like it more than I already do.


<b>David 'Over:</b> This comes up a lot, so at the risk of being redundant, you really should tune your guitar before you record. And to expound on that, that means before every take and every track. Not just once at the beginning of the session. Looking past that flaw, this song starts with potential but ends up not realizing it. The middle section of the song where the fake strings come in is really a detraction from the overall composition, which unfortunately, isn't strong enough to carry the song anyway. From there until the end it's evident that you ran out of ideas.


<b>Hooker and the Drama of Sea Art:</b> You should go into some of threads here and find the one about recording accoustic guitar. Josh Woodward has some great suggestions on how to make the sound of your's better. Now that I read that it's arrogant of me to say that, I don't know what kind of equipment you're dealing with, or for that matter, what sound you were going for. The story is pretty good, the lyrics right in there but lacking somehow, especially with that huge gap in the middle. I like your voice, there's something here that shows a lot of potential. I think it will be interesting to see how you develop your entries in the future.


<b>Johnny Cashpoint:</b> I'll be honest Johnny, (as though I'm never that) I'm not a real big fan of this type of music. I don't know if it's the cheezy sounds of the keyboard or the fake bass and drums, but I just don't like it. Having said that, it is a step backward for you from your last couple of entries. I think you're better off trying to revive punk, that seems to be the genre that fits you best. I didn't really listen to the lyrics, which I know is your other thing you pride yourself in, but I didn't listen because the overall production and content made me not want to.


<b>The Walls:</b> I liked the way this song started out and then you go to that falscetto part and I thought "No Balls". It's OK to let the vocal go man. Pollups will go away, ....eventually. Don't sell yourself short vocally, scream that shit if you need to, and then take some time off of work until your voice comes back. The body has amazing recouperative powers, use them. Other than that I thought the production was nice and simple, very cool POTENTIAL, not quite there. The guitar solo wasn't very good or necessary. Not a bad entry, needs work as desribed, but serious potential. Again, I look forward to your next submission.


<b>Don't tell anyone you think I'm a Phunt:</b> You see, to me anyway, this isn't music. Simply putting something together, let me be more specific, simply attaching pieces of sound in a series of sequences is not a song. This will probably start a hailstorm of debates over what is and what isn't a song, but I'm gonna enter into the firefight unafraid of public backlash anyhow. This isn't a song, this is shit cut and pasted together and I've wasted more than enough time on it already.


<b>Ross Durand:</b> I like the beat and the melody, your vocals are lacking just a little bit though. There's a line in this song about seeming pretty marginal, and I really don't think I can put it any better than that. This is pretty fucking marginal. By the way, the '50's and '60's are over. I wasn't sure if you got the memo. The rest of us did.


<b>Ryan Hardigan:</b> This is a creative exercise in my telling you how much I hate this type of shit. I won't use the Nintendo line, that's been played apparently. So I'll go along the line of Casio Demo Mode. Someone spent some time programming it, but I wasn't impressed. The complete lack of lyrics doesn't help either. You see the real problem with something like this is you may as well have called it, "Mommy. Look what I can do on my new toy!" This is shit, completely untalentless shit. Until you have something better to enter, keep it to yourself. OK, because I was raised better than this, PLEASE keep it to yourself.



<b>Song Fight Orchestra:</b> I reserve the right to hear the final product before I comment as a whole. However, this is a compelling entry on it's own. Too bad it isn't a complete song.


<b>Steve Durand:</b> Man you need some friends, bandmates, or something / someone else to occupy your time. There's nothing wrong with this entry overall, but WTF? C'mon Steve, I know you have more in you than this. Nice trumpets, other than that, nothing else except the funny talking part at the beginning made me want to write this down.


<b>Stolar Skye:</b> It's just not really my bag baby. I think this has all been done before, even when the distorted guitars come in. Technically, this has got some really great parts going on. Feel wise, it just doesn't grab me by the balls. I have to admit though, the more I listen, the more I like it. The guitar solo is pretty good even if it's not eye popping stuff. Maybe it's the lyrics holding this back, or the vocals, I'm really not sure. This is somewhere in the middle of experimental and developmental.


<b>The White Hat:</b> This started out as stiking me as Blues played by guys who don't know what the Blues are. When the lyrics start getting "sung" really fast and synchopated, it's cool, it sounds like you're trying to progress the Blues, which would be no easy task. The mix is pretty good overall, I really like the part where you have the "call" lyric going on in one side and the "response" going on in the other. Nice effect, and very nice mixing going there. This is a very cool song, I'll have to listen to it more to find out exactly why I like it so much, until then I do.

[Egg]

<b>Don't tell anyone you think I'm a Phunt:</b> You see, to me anyway, this isn't music. Simply putting something together, let me be more specific, simply attaching pieces of sound in a series of sequences is not a song. This will probably start a hailstorm of debates over what is and what isn't a song, but I'm gonna enter into the firefight unafraid of public backlash anyhow. This isn't a song, this is shit cut and pasted together and I've wasted more than enough time on it already..

Rahhhhh, /debate debate debate!
oh, ya, I see your point and most everybody agrees with you.

I'm gonna go ahead and be unapologetic for wasting everybody's precious time. To put out good tracks, I have to make a lot of strange choices and I end up spending so much time with them that it's easy to lose perspective on whether they actually sound good... so I bounce them off you guys.

Thanks, by the way. I love song fight.

[j$]

They will not be up for public debate or conversation.

ah good, this means i can ignore them then. Blue was wrong.

[Ross]

By the way, the '50's and '60's are over.

I have no idea what this comment has to do with this song. This song clearly references the early 80s and the bridge is a gesture towards bands in the modern 80s revival.

If you don't want your reviews to be up for debate don't post them on a "discussion" board. (or perhaps your intro was some sort of in-joke)

Also, Dan-O, there is a difference between being critical and being insulting.

So much for the conversational, thoughtful, non-judgemental tone of this discussion thread.

cc: pm to Dan-O

[boltoph]

I see the reviews as a way to get public exposure for the songs and to get to see what other peoples opinions are. You gotta give props to Dan-O for throwing down reviews - props - I don't really think anyone's under any obligation to be constructive, and regardless of debating them, if someone just wrote one line saying my song sounded like a steamin foot long crap, sure I'd want to know why, but more importantly is the general public impression.
Praise be to the world wide web!

FWIW, it was a pignose (had to turn it down quiet to get the cleanest sound I could) with a condenser on it. Sucks not having my carvin tube combo around but it's coming back this week.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

They will not be up for public debate or conversation.

ah good, this means i can ignore them then. Blue was wrong.

Admittedly, it's right there in my tag.

[Ross]

I don't really think anyone's under any obligation to be constructive,

I don't think anyone's obligated to anything, either, but I guess I figure that what's posted on a discussion board is up for discussion.

I know we all have a wide range of views of the role of reviews and such, and I'm just putting my thoughts out there with the rest of 'em.

Here, here, to the World Wide Web!