A truly significant digit (God's Thumb reviews)

[Ross]

(I know I know - he's a bulldog)

Actually, a bull terrier. So there you go.

Woo hoo!

[Jerry]

Melvin, sorry about the oversight. No offense intended.
Melvin: Stunning feedback guitar, just beautiful, and the crushing prechorus is very nice. Nothing negative to say about this. The sonix are very polished and the details- background vox, clean section- are satisfying. Care to share your secret on controlled feedback? The song is catchy, but not saccharine. Fine job.

[Jerry]

Jon Mayor: Dusted off the old recorder, eh? S'okay. Contributing instrumentals is almost like saying it's too hard to come up with music and lyrix.
Rone Rivendale: Brooding and eerie, alright, but see above

Dude, the lyrics was the sounds of the waves and the rain and the birds and the wind etc etc. The idea of the song was that of showing the sounds of nature. It fits the title imo. I'm sorry if you think I half-assed it but I think you just simply missed the point.

You're right, Rone. I missed the point. A bit of context can make a piece like this have more meaning. And now it's clear. Of course you can't preface a song with a voice saying "The following music represents...". Or hell, maybe you could. Anyway, thanks for shedding the light.

[DeanSky]

Here are the one's that got my attention:

Billy's Little Trip featuring Paco

Nice acoustic guitar into. Good grinding transition. The drums are very alive.
This is very good.

Steve Durand

Nice groove. The trupmet and horn part is very good - addes excitement to the mix.
I'd turn up bass and drums in the mix. Very good overall.

Ross Durand

I really like the guitar lick/drum part in the intro.
The lead in the bridge is nice, good trasition and change of texture
when the acoustic guitar comes in. Very good overall.

Paco

Stones man! - Nice groove with the drums and the Stoneish rhythm guitar part.
Guitar lead is very nice. the "Oh she kneeled down" to pray
ending is great. Very good overall.

Embers of Autumn - Nice intro, nice harmonies. Good overall.

Carpetburn - Very good intro. Nice English. Good guitar part. Good overall.

The best of the lot are S. Durand, R. Durand, Billy's Little ..., and Paco. Good stuff!

-Dean

[rone rivendale]

Jon Mayor: Dusted off the old recorder, eh? S'okay. Contributing instrumentals is almost like saying it's too hard to come up with music and lyrix.
Rone Rivendale: Brooding and eerie, alright, but see above

Dude, the lyrics was the sounds of the waves and the rain and the birds and the wind etc etc. The idea of the song was that of showing the sounds of nature. It fits the title imo. I'm sorry if you think I half-assed it but I think you just simply missed the point.

You're right, Rone. I missed the point. A bit of context can make a piece like this have more meaning. And now it's clear. Of course you can't preface a song with a voice saying "The following music represents...". Or hell, maybe you could. Anyway, thanks for shedding the light.

I'm not sure if you were being serious or sarcastic but I couldn't help but chuckle.

[furrypedro]

you can't preface a song with a voice saying "The following music represents...". Or hell, maybe you could.

It is a rubbish idea for a recording but sometimes for Song Fight! purposes where you're listening to a whole bunch of songs in what I feel is a sterile environment (like listening to stuff in a record shop surrounded by music, it's difficult to describe but there is no context for the music other than the other music surrounding it) I think it might work to have a very small concise preface to a song. I woudn't encourage it as a habit, but in the one song that I did announce it as instrumental I feel that listeners/reviewers appreciated the heads-up rather than waiting for vocals to kick in and being disappointed.

[furrypedro]

T'weakest suit: for some weird reason I wanted the 2nd line in this to be "...pushing up my ass." This is a neat song, it's mellow and it makes me think of lazy sunny days. I like the tone of the guitar and the vocals but I also feel like it needs something more in terms of arrangement. Not much, just a little something for character - so next time you do a song (which knowing you will be very shortly) I'd be happy to add some glockenspiel or something if you'd like. Feel free to pm me.

Steev: I always like hearing what you've got to say in your lyrics and the angle you take on the subject, this song is no exception. I do however tire very quickly of rhyming couplets and the whole AABB lyric structure repeated over and over. To me it sounds amateurish, which is a harsh thing to say I know, and I've nothing against rhyming. I hope you understand what I mean. I guess the structure is too strict to allow for much emotion to be conveyed - that could be bollocks that I've invented to justify my criticism. I just think your better songs happen when you stray away from this formula. the track is cool as usual.

Spinlock: This is very well played, structured and layered, but sadly it's just far too cheesy for my tastes. It's pitched very deep into Elton John power ballad territory and I generally feel embarrassed listening to that kind of stuff. I'm just glad we were spared stadium rock drums. I hate it when people play the genre card on me, but this genre feels so hackneyed.

Ross Durand rocking his arse off: Cool, well played, good lyrics. There are a couple of moments where it feels like you're not totally sure which note your aiming for, like in the "use todaaaaay" bit. The thing that's good about this is, well, read Steve's review, you do the opposite of what he does and it works way better.

Home A-Rone: Reminds me of Phunt Your Friends. How I miss them. (sighs). Would've worked well in the Night Terrors fight.

Prose/AIC Industries: Interesting effect on the guitar there. The percussion in the chorus-y bit that kicks in is brilliant, I've never heard anything like it and it pretty much carries the whole song for me. The vocals on the other hand are awful, the speaking does nothing for me though it's not offensive, and the hollering - I just don't want to hear that.

Plain Songs for Doves & Tiggers: There's so much really professional sounding stuff on SF these days it's sometimes easy to forget that things like this get written too. There are points of merit about it, the guitar parts and structure are interesting, and though it is mainly a dirge small bits of good melody surface, like the sun breifly peeking through a thick layer of cloud. The piano(?) adds something too. The drums however sound retarded, completely lacking in rhythm. I'm not a fan of the vocals either, though they may grow on me but I doubt I'll give the song enough listens for that to happen. sorry, busy times.

Pathetic wannabees: I've recently got into the Violent Femmes and when this song gets going it reminds me of them. Some lyrics are cool but I don't get into the vocals much and the guitar is just another guy widdling aimlessly. I really hope that one day everyone in the world will realise that this kind of guitar playing adds nothing to a song - write a part and stick to it, how hard can it be?

Paco: Now this is some badass guitar playing. It's direct, it develops and the tone is awesome. Plus it fits the song. Enough about guitar anyway, this is a cool song, I actually want to listen to it a bunch of times. my only downer is that when you do drum fills it feels a bit like you have to pause for a split a second to do them and it disrupts the rhythmic flow, it's only a minor thing and more of a playing issue than a song issue.

Melon!: Big sounds! Intro promises good things from this song. It totally sounds like Hum, who now I think about it are like a cross between early Red House Painters (who I've been listening to a lot recently) and early Feeder (who are probably a poor point of reference since they copied all the original grunge bands). You've got the whole Riffage+spacey thing well worked out on this song. I think this is the kind of thing that I used to rip you about and say things like "try something new" cos I was/am an idiot and now I miss it. It's good to have the rock back in Melvin. Somehow when you do the slightly emo (for want of a better word) delivery I find it much more catchy than the indie/folk type stuff, or I just prefer the melodies, I dunno. Anyway, I dig this.

MC Eric B: Part of me is thinking this isn't technically a bad song, or rather, technically it's quite good would be a more positive way of putting it, but personally I'm not digging the evangelical angle, and the vocal delivery is a bit creepy. Some of the pad sounds are alright but the slap bass has never done it for me. Can't get into this, sorry.

Madgin and the party bears: The more of this fight I listen to the more I want to react as I would if I were listening to the radio, or a CD with my friends, and that makes me want to ignore any technical competencies about the recording and writing. If this came on the radio I'd think "what is this trite psuedo-rock? Either the Rasmus were allowed back on the radio or somebody liked them enough to form a tribute band. fuck". That possibly makes me a bastard, but you've got some quite well considered and reasonable opinions earlier in the thread so you can look there for ego-massaging purposes. Incidentally, my song is the Carpetburn one if you want something to do some therapeutic slagging in return.

Lordo de la Oats: This was feeling all dark and heavy until you started rhyming all the stuff with thumb which I find hilarious in a Moldy Peaches type way. There are some nice bits in here; the acoustic solo works for a couple of bars and I like that twinkly synth after 5 minutes, particularly where the beat goes from the pounding bit back into normal time. It's funny cos when I first played this song I was like "6 minutes! fuck off!!", but I would quite happily listen to this 5 times than give just one play to other songs in this fight that I'm not going to mention. That said, you could sure add another comedy verse somewhere.

Jon "night" Mayor: That be some crazy jazz flute there. There's definitely something to work with here. The bassline is pretty badass, and the drums, though the sounds aren't great and the cymbals in particular don't take too long to start grating, have some cool beats. If you were to sing on it would it be better? well, lots of people here have vocals that suck, I may be one of them. At least here we have the mystery of not knowing and a passable instrumental to boot. What vocals there are are okay, I recommend stepping out of your comfort zone to test if you can make a good vocal track. I'd say from this you have a pretty good ear for dynamics and atmospherics and stuff. What are you gonna do next huh? punk. Now you got summin'a prove.

Jimmy set and his TV Jet: It sounds from the wail in your voice that your really emoting here, unfortunately I'm not feeling it. I quite like the mexican style vibe in the chorus, kinda makes me think of Gomez. I don't think the pause between the verse and the chorus helps much, I think that with a decent producer you could salvage something from this. I'd like to hear some distorted slide guitar bits and harmonica or something.

Embers of Autumn: Hey this is really quite a nice song, but I'm totally not in the mood for GnG now, I feel like the style is sucking inspiration from my soul as I listen, which is not your fault at all, I'm just in one of those moods. I'll admit I'm a bit drunk and I want something fucked up. but I cannot deny this is a nice little song.

Dean Sky: It sounds like you've got a handy mastery of your instrument there not to mention your appreciation of the flanger. However, it's way too late and I'm far too drunk to pretend I'm enjkoying this in any kind of visceral way. Slick, tight, meh...

Chonny: At first this song was making me depressed and I don't know why, the more I think about it this is really good, the verse is really nice sounding and it's just nice and tight. makes me think of Pavement/Yo la tengo which can only be a good thing. I think it was the harmonica which put me off which is really dumb cos I recommended using some in another review. The little guitar fills are cool, the chorus isn't quite as cool and the guitar is a bit weird and overbearing but it's still cool. It feels short too, and that's much better than feeling long and wanting to skip. Good recording. I'm intrigued by you so I've gone back to listen to your And Counting, it's a bit yacht rock for me but fair enough, you sound like a good musician.

Billy feat. Paco: This isn't fair. This is like if Melvin and Thanks for the Frisbee were to form a band and lord it over everyone....oh, wait. You guys should totally enter Nur Ein 3 together and distribute some beat-down. We'll be waiting.

Carpetburn: welcome to the best song of the fight. Too many words for my liking, not enough room for the particularly jangly guitar, but hey, I'm making sacrifices in the name of song-smithery here.

[Jerry]

Dude, the lyrics was the sounds of the waves and the rain and the birds and the wind etc etc. The idea of the song was that of showing the sounds of nature. It fits the title imo. I'm sorry if you think I half-assed it but I think you just simply missed the point.[/quote]
You're right, Rone. I missed the point. A bit of context can make a piece like this have more meaning. And now it's clear. Of course you can't preface a song with a voice saying "The following music represents...". Or hell, maybe you could. Anyway, thanks for shedding the light.[/quote]

I'm not sure if you were being serious or sarcastic but I couldn't help but chuckle.[/quote]
No, I wasn't being a sarcastic ass, Rone. I can see how you thought maybe I was when I reread my post, but nope. I don't think all instrumentals can claim to be as conceptually based as yours, though.

[MC Eric B]

That instrumental fits the general "God" category pretty well, which is a step in the right direction, but I am not sure it is specifically related to God's Thumb. I could easily write hundreds of songs about God (and I am not even religious), but writing one about God's Thumb was a lot harder. As far as I know, God's Thumb is not really about nature and the beauty in the world. "God's Thumb" is more of a negative thing, unless used in a funny way like for hitchhiking.

[Jerry]

I think he meant nature is God's imprint on the planet. Like a thumbprint. Ergo the nature sounds. Dunno, maybe I'm wrong.

[erik]

As far as I know, God's Thumb is not really about nature and the beauty in the world. "God's Thumb" is more of a negative thing, unless used in a funny way like for hitchhiking.

Can you explain this a bit more? Why do you think that "God's Thumb" is a negative thing?

[furrypedro]

When I first saw this title I immediately thought of being "under the thumb", which is generally interpreted as being a bad thing I feel. Being under god's thumb could be a metaphor for religious oppression of some variety. That was how I saw it.

[rone rivendale]

Actually when I saw God's Thumb it gave me the nature idea because of the common phrase "green thumb" for someone who is good with plants and stuff like that. So the basic idea is the world is God's garden.

Or something.

[HeuristicsInc]

The thing I thought of was "God's Thumb is green" as in:

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it." And so it happened: the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw how good it was.

Not sure if anyone actually went that way, I haven't heard the fight.
-bill

Edit: yeah, Rone too, I guess.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I thought about the South Park episode with Steve Erwin sticking his thumb up a crocks butt hole. I also thought about thumb print cookies and thumb wrestling.

[ujnhunter]

i thought of dandylions & dafodils but then i got horny...

er.. why must i always speak my mind? one day it'll get me in trouble!
hey, any ladies wanna dance?

[PlainSongs]

Plain Songs for Doves & Tiggers: [...] The drums however sound retarded, completely lacking in rhythm.

Pah to that phrasing but point taken, roughly, ta. A good part of it is +- as intended, so may be a taste thing too. But re-listening to the solo drum track - I did butcher the flamenco variations well in places, clueless. Oof.

[PlainSongs]

Ross Durand you get that terrier what sits next to the bar and knows all the patrons.

Woo hoo!! I'm Spuds Mackenzie!! Sounds like my song was a success.

:P

... figured for a bit that Spud has a bar and a (subbreed of) terrier called 'Mackenzie'. Google suggests no.

[Paco Del Stinko]

We'll be waiting.

Wise guy. Four against two, eh? That's what'd take, right BLT? Hey, where'd he go!

when you do drum fills it feels a bit like you have to pause for a split a second to do them and it disrupts the rhythmic flow

Yeah, no drummer am I. Funny thing is, I tend to anticipate the beat, so that usually makes things even hairier. Just be thankful you didn't hear the drums all by themselves. P-yew.

[glennny]

I enjoyed this fight on my trip from Oakland to Minneapolis today. Hopefully I'll do more elaborate reviews later. There's some seriously good stuff in this one. Just to mention a few that stick in my head:

Steve Durand: That was awesome! I really really really want to work with you again, your songwriting and horns are just excellent!

BLT & PDS- Hot Damn! Freaking wonderful rock power!

Carpetburn: I expect nothing less than a keeper and sheer musical joy when there's a Carpetburn track. This one is great too! I used to wonder around sad that Braid broke up, but then Carpteburn emerged on Songfight to satiate and surpass my love for such start-stop hooky dynamic punky math art rock brilliance.

Paco Del Stinko: I don't get why you don't win all the time. I love everything about this track! yeah drums could be tighter. Everything sounds soooooo good. Easily the best solo of the fight. Great riff too!

Melvin: I do get why you win all the time. Ummm This is above and beyond your usual excellence. This gets my vote, just a stellar track in a very good fight. Slam dunk from half court, hole in one, homerun, etc. Those soaring guitars are so beautiful, the jud jud riffs are wonderfully placed and hooky. Melody and singing is among your best. the dynamics remind me of my favorite Radiohead song "Maquiladora", I think only Carpetburn has one up on you with Dynamics.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Wow, thanks for the reviews, guys. It's always fun working with Paco because he always has something cool up his sleeve to spring on me. I don't really care for his sexual preference in llamas, but I always say, if you're not hurting anyone, except a llama, then more power to you.

[furrypedro]

Oh, so it's okay to hurt llamas now is it? shame on the both of you.

Plain Songs for Doves & Tiggers: [...] The drums however sound retarded, completely lacking in rhythm.

Pah to that phrasing but point taken, roughly, ta. A good part of it is +- as intended, so may be a taste thing too. But re-listening to the solo drum track - I did butcher the flamenco variations well in places, clueless. Oof.

yeah sorry, it was an insensitive way to put it. The thing is I like the variation, it's all just a bit staccato, no groove or anything. And I'm the kind of person who listens to the drums on first listen as much as the vocals and stuff, for better or worse.

Carpetburn: ...prefight credit

Cheers, always glad to hear it if I can spread musical joy beyond the current fight.

Thanks to all those that have reviewed this fight, word to yo mothaz