Let Me Take You Down, Because I'm Going to (Calico Alley)

[Learned Hand]

The Hand Formula - Very after midnight sounding with the quiet vocal and all. What's with the Penny Lane again? Every tune? I like the "some cats get" verse, even if no idea what it's actually about. Mackerel can be a funny word as well. The melody is cute and works well for the duration of the tune. I was hoping for more beating on the trash can drum but didn't mind the mouth harp and other instruments providing the occasionally stumbling rhythm. Pleasant enough ditty, even better late night before passing out, I would imagine.

Thanks for comments. It's actually a tin drum & I plan to use it more in the future. At least for the time being, I'm sticking to toy instruments. I think my recording quality is gradually improving, though the voice is still kind of muffled on this track. The rhythm stumbles because I'm a crummy musician. That's harder to fix than the hiss.

Sorry about the "Penny Lane" redux. Penny Lane is my girlfriend & I promised that my first 10 songs would include her name. Only 5 to go.

Incidentally, some good songs this week. I voted for Berkeley Social Scene (reminded me of high school afternoon); Jonathan Mann (sure that isn't Jonathan Rich-mann?); Paco Del Stinko & Melvin.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Penny Lane is my girlfriend & I promised that my first 10 songs would include her name. Only 5 to go.

Ah so. Maybe you can work it in in a less name droppy kind of way. "I picked up a penny while bowling down the lane" or whatever. Good luck.

[Aardwolves]

So, I was watching Along Came Polly (don't ask). I thought I was the only one who dried the grease off of food with paper towels! This week, I'm going to calculate my votes based on the proportion of negatives to positives. Or else, whichever songs pose the lowest risk to my eardrums.

Berkeley Social Scene

+ vocals, full band. Is that glockenspiel?

Madgin and the Party Bears

- the different tracks don't blend very well, if that makes sense. Maybe the instruments should be louder?
+ instruments sound good. Vocals aren't too shabby, either - just loud compared to the rest of the band.

i.p.

++ you are awesome.
+ vocals/bass/guitar solo.

Thugs in the Scallop Industry

- The meows are terrifying the crap out of me. Is that weird?
+ Other than that, the rest was pretty entertaining, though. Especially the cartoon samples.

Hand Formula

+ percussion, mouth harp, et al.
+ "I'm on Penny Lane" is a funny line, considering she's a person.

Mico Saudad

+ low-key awesomeness.
+ a solid tune. Nice harmonies!
+ my fave track so far.

Cobalt Stomach

+ Weird, but good. Like lounge music from the future.
- I can't tell if the vocals are being serious or not: irony? Also, they get pretty quiet in the middle.

Melvin

+ lyrics!
++ energy!!

Weakest Suit

++ vintage sound! Warm and fuzzy, like a well-loved LP.
+ lyrics.

Emergency Pizza Party

- too much pussy.
+ rapping isn't bad (especially the girl), but the cat sounds are overwhelming.
- outro is looooooooooong.

Lead Bass

+ lo-fi techno! Weird! But cool, too. Makes me want to try it.
- unnecessarily distorted vocals.

Paco del Stinko

+ intro/instrumentation.
- vocals getting annoying. (I realise they're in character, but still.)

Dollar Bill & the Inkpoints

- Kind of monotonous. But then, I am pretty impatient.

Jonathan Mann

+ percussive guitar playing.
+ awesome lyrics!
+ this song rocks. You remind me a little of Murder by Death.

Best bets/votes: i.p., Hand Formula, Mico Saudad, Melvin, Weakest Suit, Jonathan Mann.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Aardwolves - Yeah, your assessment of my tune sounds about right. However, that may be the character of the voice rather than the voice in character. Anytime you want me to do some music for your voice, gimme a holler.

File under: May earn me a punch - The Melvin tune would sound great as covered by PiGPEN. It sounds great as is, but listening today, I had the revelation. Call me a genius, if you must.

[melvin]

File under: May earn me a punch - The Melvin tune would sound great as covered by PiGPEN. It sounds great as is, but listening today, I had the revelation. Call me a genius, if you must.

You twisted genius!

No punch from me - no one's ever covered one of my songs before, and I'd be charmed if PiGPEN gave it a shot.

I didn't get around to reviews this week, but I'll go on record saying I really liked the tracks from El Paco and Berkeley Social Scene. Also, I'm having one of those one-sided Internet romances with the female rapper from IPP.

[Lord of Oats]

x Berkeley Social Scene
x Cobalt Stomach
Dollar Bill & the Inkpoints
x Emergency Pizza Party
The Hand Formula
x i.p.
Jonathan Mann
Lead Bass
Madgin and the Party Bears
x Melvin
mico saudad
x Paco del Stinko
The Thugs In the Scallop Industry
The Weakest Suit

[blue]

i voted for Melvin this week.

then again, i voted for everyone else, too. it's the end of an (duck) era!

[HeuristicsInc]

quick reviews!

but first, advice for many people:
1. post your lyrics.
2. don't be afraid to let us hear you singing.

lead bass - this is very songfighty. the rhythm is all over the place. can't you at least clap in time? all of these sounds are in completely different places, sonically speaking, very distracting.

thugs - this one suffers from a common problem - different sounds clipping all over the place. is any of the stuff in here original work, or is it all sampled? the guitars are cool.

hand - i think you need to sing out more, with more oomph. yeah, that penny lane reference is jarring in there. it doesn't flow. later on you get into a pretty good groove.

dbti - i added a bunch of stuff to j$'s song. and you even get a bonus vocal from me. i like it although so far the reviews haven't been very positive... oh well.

weakest - urban pie lips? pilots? i think you should post lyrics if you're going to sing like that. not very clear. wow, not many songs use the word 'gentrification' - points for that.

ip - i like your echoes. i like the sound of this one. nice moodiness. i don't know this use of the word 'fetch' - what's that meaning?

mico - i'd record this with the vox up more - they should be more of the focus of this song rather than buried. sounds good otherwise though.

melvin - another different one! this is good branching. i like the way the sounds are changing between sections. good one!

cobalt - oh, another lyriucburglar, eh? the vocals should be effected somehow on this version. bring 'em up, too. can't hear you. really cool background sound at 2:35 and onward.

madgin - pretty catchy. but it's not making its mark on my brain like it should.

epp - this one's cool. the meow meow meow rhythm makes it, although i tired of it a bit by the end. i like the woman rapper, good sound there. i likethe use of sample too.

paco - heh, this one's pretty fun. did you get a hairball at 2:48? try vaseline. a magical telly?

bss - ooh, i like the sound of this a lot. this is one of glennny's bands, right? i love the guitar stuff, especially in the beginning; the vocals are great; i love the lyrics, very poetic. if we were doing old voting scheme this would be my vote.

novoxrobot - i love when this song goes into spaghetti-western territory with the backing oohs. that's fun. that's the best part. the rest is good.

aardwolves - since you posted lyrics, let's see if i can say anything about them. these rhymes are pretty fun. does the communion line really work when you sing it? i don't know craig finn, but i like that last verse a lot anyway. allegory/example/story is a good ending.

favorites - dbti, ip, melvin, epp, paco, bss, novox
also getting votes - mico, madgin
-bill

[The Weakest Suit]

lyrics posted.

[phetal]

ip - i like your echoes. i like the sound of this one. nice moodiness. i don't know this use of the word 'fetch' - what's that meaning?

It can either mean, as a noun, the thing that was fetched, thus being like: "Hey Bob, what did you shoot today?" "Oh just 3 deer..." "Oh, Bob, that's quite the fetch!"

Or, it can also mean "the ghost or apparition of a living person." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fetch

So I mean it, in this instance, as if he thinks he's so good that he's worth something. 'Hide' referring loosely to a bounty on a bandit, for instance. So if his hide is a fetch... then capturing him, or killing him, is considered a feat. So yeah... he thinks he is hot shit.

[Aardwolves]

aardwolves - since you posted lyrics, let's see if i can say anything about them. these rhymes are pretty fun. does the communion line really work when you sing it? i don't know craig finn, but i like that last verse a lot anyway. allegory/example/story is a good ending.

Wow, I didn't think I'd get a review based on lyrics alone. I thought the "communion" line worked okay, but everything I write is a mouthful anyways, so I'm used to having to sing weird rhythms. I guess I'll never know for certain, though, because the recording quality was so bad I never submitted it.

Thanks, Bill!

[HeuristicsInc]

Since I harped on the lyrics thing a lot it seemed like reviewing the lyrics-but-no-song fit in with my philosophy.

Thanks to both the others - good info there. Now I get the meaning of TWS song.
-bill