Songfighter Album-a-day Thread

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:16 pm

HeuristicsInc wrote:you shouldn't know the song titles/ideas that you will use beforehand.

Here's a question: I know there was some griping because the titles/concepts of some AAD songs came from before the day the song was thought of. I don't remember who, but someone entered an AAD song as a SongFight; obviously the title came before the song was written, but they claimed the idea to use a SF title came to them mid-AAD. This case walks a thin line: is it permissible?

To make a comparison: I could do an AAD this week (well, no I couldn't, but you know what I mean) and halfway through think of a song that fits "Les Anchois", therefore being written for both SF and the AAD. BUT, the title is obviously from before the AAD. I could also, in a void of creativity, write a song called "The Hobbit: There and Back Again" about the titular Tolkien novel. Undoubtedly thought of on the fly (I have no burning desire to someday record a song about Hobbits in two hours), but inspired by something from the preceding century. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with the second example, and I have a hard time seeing the difference between the two examples.

Anyone want to enlighten me? Could I write an AAD based on Junk mail subject lines (ala BradSucks et. al, or Heuristics) I receive while recording the album? How about the subject lines I've never seen that have been in my junk folder for weeks? How about the titles that I have seen (but haven't thought about) that have wormed their way into my inbox?

Crap Art wrote:No ideas from before the chosen day! This means covers or reinterpretations are not allowed.

What this say to me is no musical ideas for any of the songs on your AAD. It seems that choosing a genre/goal for you album beforehand (ie: I'm going to make 24 songs in 24 hours, My AAD is going to be blues, I will adhere to a four piece arrangement) is OK, and choosing to use pre-existing titles (not lyrics, just titles) is potentially permissible.

ken · Post by **ken** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:38 pm

Personally, I think the spirit of AAD is to write and record the songs in a 24 hour period, that includes the titles, but does not include any and all musical notions you bring to the table.

Ken

erik · Post by **erik** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:59 pm

There is some point at which preparation tips towards premeditation; at some point, you stop just being *prepared* to make an album in advance, and you start actually *making* that album in advance.

If you can decide on a title beforehand, but in no way think about that title (or come up with any lyrics or themes to discuss in the song), then you are a stronger man than I.

However, I think it's not at all hard to decide "I'm going to make 20 minutes of punk" without really thinking about WHAT the music will sound like.

Stop planning when you start to have concrete ideas that you want to use for your AAD.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 5:39 pm

15-16 puzzle wrote:If you can decide on a title beforehand, but in no way think about that title (or come up with any lyrics or themes to discuss in the song), then you are a stronger man than I.

Yeah, definitely. If anyone did an AAD back when SF had one title a week and included "Cancer" in their track list I'd doubt it wasn't premeditated. There's no way I could plan on doing a title like that and not have a thousand ideas beforehand.

15-16 puzzle wrote:Stop planning when you start to have concrete ideas that you want to use for your AAD.

It's a plan!

Synchronously, I happened to be listening to your AAD for the first time when I noticed your post, Erik. I can't turn it up loud enough to truly appreciate it (at work), but it sounds like it's predominantly comprised of chords you'd find in Appendix B of any reasonable guitar book.

Hopefully I can churn out one of these babies this Christmas (If it happens it will happen around the 23rd).

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 5:43 pm

I don't know if what Puce said was a compliment or not... uhhh, Appendix B?

Anyway, yeah, if you have titles or whatnot but don't think about them at all, I imagine it's legal. I just don't think you'd be able to do it

I did decide to use spam quotes as titles before the day-of. That fits in the category of "ground rules for the album" and not "material prepared beforehand."
-bill

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 6:20 pm

HeuristicsInc wrote:I don't know if what Puce said was a compliment or not... uhhh, Appendix B?

Anyway, yeah, if you have titles or whatnot but don't think about them at all, I imagine it's legal. I just don't think you'd be able to do it

It was a slightly sarcastic compliment; more of an observation (that is frequently made about 15-16 tunes) that Erik uses esoteric guitar chords that baffle my rigid human brain, which was exposed to much popular-radio during my formative years.

It might be possible to choose titles beforehand without thinking about them by mailing them to yourself and then getting someone to hit you in the back of the head with a hammer. This also doubles as a quick way to go blind!

Tony Asbestos · Post by **Tony Asbestos** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:39 pm

Yes, I think I will go with the hammer.

j$ · Post by j$ » Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:47 pm

Tony Asbestos wrote:Yes, I think I will go with the hammer.

I have a hammer. I use it in the morning &c &c

JonPorobil · Post by **JonPorobil** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:54 pm

A hammer! And you hammer in the morning? Cool! What do you hammer out?

erik · Post by **erik** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 8:21 pm

Puce wrote:Synchronously, I happened to be listening to your AAD for the first time when I noticed your post, Erik. I can't turn it up loud enough to truly appreciate it (at work), but it sounds like it's predominantly comprised of chords you'd find in Appendix B of any reasonable guitar book.

Well, when I started my AAD, I was trying to make pop songs, but after like 2 hours and only one fairly generic sounding tune, I said "fuck it" and just started recording more riff-based songs, with the goal (after a few songs in) of making songs where the songs sounded "off" somehow. Basically, just trying to rip off AoL. And the lyrics were going to take too long, so I just scanned the local alternative-weekly rag for bits and pieces and sang them as the lyrics. When I couldn't scan the page fast enough to find the next line, I would stop recording. So "Here Come the Transporters" is about proposed highway tolls and monorail, and "Crimes of the Heart" is about a local play. Man, I should have saved that paper.

drë · Post by **drë** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 11:34 pm

15-16 puzzle wrote: Well, when I started my AAD, I was trying to make pop songs, but after like 2 hours and only one fairly generic sounding tune, I said "fuck it" and just started recording more riff-based songs, with the goal (after a few songs in) of making songs where the songs sounded "off" somehow. Basically, just trying to rip off AoL. And the lyrics were going to take too long, so I just scanned the local alternative-weekly rag for bits and pieces and sang them as the lyrics. When I couldn't scan the page fast enough to find the next line, I would stop recording. So "Here Come the Transporters" is about proposed highway tolls and monorail, and "Crimes of the Heart" is about a local play. Man, I should have saved that paper.

uuuhhh, i think i'll do that for my next AAD..
use the local newspaper for content.
thanks for the idea.

starfinger · Post by **starfinger** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:16 am

Is it really hard to not think about it at all before you start?

That's really part of the appeal to me. What shape will the forcibly extruded turd be in?

-craig

king_arthur · Post by **king_arthur** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:55 am

Not to say there's anything WRONG with guy-and-guitar stuff with stream of consciousness lyrics or whatever, but when I did mine - http://www.charleswolff.com/D2BW/D2BW.html - I set out to make pop songs and stuck with it... actually, the thing I ran into was that, by the second song ("The Price of Paying Attention") the chord patterns were getting so complex that it was taking 45 minutes to lay down one guitar part, so I had to force myself to simplify musically. But I had listened to some of the other AAD submissions and I guess I sorta felt like it was my job to show the world that songfighters do it better... or something.

I deliberately did NOT think about titles, ideas, any of that stuff, even the night before starting. I _did_ make sure that all the instruments were working, I had blank tape, everything was wired up, etc. etc. But in terms of the songwriting, pretty much the way it worked was that I'd sit down with my songwriting notebook, start writing and let a song evolve... try to come up with an interesting opening line and then figure out where the song would go from there. I did almost zero lyric polishing or revision, except when I was actually laying down the vocal tracks, if something struck me as improveable, I'd fix it. I stopped after six songs because I couldn't tell if what I was putting together was listenable or the worst stuff I'd ever done. Plus it was 9 pm, my bedtime, y'know...

When I was finished, I really wasn't sure if it was roadworthy or not... it all seemed awfully "Arthurian," if ya know what I mean. I think it took about three weeks from finishing it until I finally decided to upload it and notify crapart that it was there... I was kinda surprised that Blind Mime picked up one of the songs from the project for the Super Secret Hxaro Lovefest thingie. Pleased and surprised.

I _did_ feel like the process - not thinking about the songs ahead of time - affected the results; maybe for the better, maybe for the worse, but the rules and restrictions are what make it interesting...

Charles

Denyer · Post by **Denyer** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:54 am

this is how I started my aad:

denyer: i was gonna do an aad tonight but i never got around to it.
someone else in #songfight!: do it now
denyer: well ok

no time to think about it.

EightLeggedOedipus · Post by **EightLeggedOedipus** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:43 pm

Hey,

I'll get to your comments in a bit...

I recently completed an AAD but I wasn't purposely adhering to the rules. I was interrupted because my microphone wasn't working when it came time to record vocals. I hope this doesn't totally disqualify me.

My record process went:
Day 1 afternoon - record 6 instrumentals, no title
Go to work
Sleep
Day 2 - morning - furiously record four more instrumentals, no titles
Hour of internet research for lyric concept
Write lyrics, melodies
Add guitar track 2
Find out microphone doesn't work without phantom power
15 minutes of cursing and breaking things

-break-

A few days later, with working mic, record vocals for additional 3 hrs.
90% first takes, doubled. No additional creative input.

Anyway, the end result is here
http://www.lulu.com/content/93798

So anyway - I had no preconceived notions other than that I waned to make a bunch of songs from scratch at a rapid pace. I also knew I wanted a basic structure to each song ala Kool Keith or RATM. I'll probably use that format again - VCVCVC where chorus = song title repeated 2 - 8 times.

Is it a crime to have song titles beforehand? No, but it's definitely dangerous territory. Only you will really know if you've cheated.

Good news, I just checked and the record was accepted. Now I need to make my first songfight track!

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 11:47 pm

congrats, and welcome to songfight.
no time to listen now.
-bill

Tony Asbestos · Post by **Tony Asbestos** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 12:05 pm

If the AAD arbiter is still accepting AADs, why didn't he take dre's latest? Give it another shot! That would bring the songfighter AAD total up to 27, assuming we include the gentleman in the above post.

j$ · Post by j$ » Sat Dec 18, 2004 8:56 pm

Tony, please please please change your avatar. It makes me slightly nauseous.

It makes me think of Obscurity dressed as Steptoe Sr. Or one of the Characters of Little Britain. Neither of which float my boat

Watch for a super-secret AAD collaboration in the next couple of weeks. Well, not that secret. You're 50% of the way there already if you're reading this post ....

J$

Leaf · Post by **Leaf** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 12:58 am

j$ wrote:Tony, please please please change your avatar. It makes me slightly nauseous.

J$

I dunno... it's kinda creepy.. like that freak from RHPS.... can't remember his name right now.. but yeah... Time is fleeting... madness.. takes control... or something like that.

Kamakura · Post by **Kamakura** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:13 am

Leaf wrote:
j$ wrote:Tony, please please please change your avatar. It makes me slightly nauseous. J$
I dunno... it's kinda creepy.. like that freak from RHPS.... can't remember his name right now.. but yeah... Time is fleeting... madness.. takes control... or something like that.

The Rocky Horror Show is brilliant! Wrong character though. I think Frank'n'furter sang that one.

This is Riff Raff, as played by Richard O'Brien who also wrote it (and hasn't had to do a days work since)

WeaselSlayer · Post by **WeaselSlayer** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:38 am

I didn't know there was like an organized group of people who did this. I made a 10-track album called Texas Messes one night. Knocked it out between like 8pm and 3am with a South Park break in the middle. A friend came and helped out for about the last 3 songs though. Anyway, yeah, it's a fun endeavor especially for someone like me who really likes when songs turn out sloppy and somewhat frantic.

Eric Y. · Post by **Eric Y.** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 12:05 pm

Kamakura wrote:Wrong character though. I think Frank'n'furter sang that one. ......... Richard O'Brien who also wrote it (and hasn't had to do a days work since)

nah, leaf was right about that particular song.
also, re: o'brien, perhaps he hasn't had to work since then but that doesn't mean he hasn't -- for example, a small part in the spice girls movie...

Songfighter Album-a-day Thread

Do YOU make these AAD mistakes?