Wanted: lead reviewer (Front and Center)

[Spintown]

@glennny & fluffy: I might try to look some of those up later tonight if I get my work done in time.

[Lord of Oats]

Man! Lord of Oats, I think you stole my brainwaves. I was going to do a Joy Division/New Order type song for this fight and your song was spot on. I just recently watched24 Hour Party People and Control and now I'm obsessed with Ian Curtis. Great job!

Hey, thanks. But is it not a bit strange that I did a song in the style of New Order with vocals in the style of Ian Curtis? It wasn't really deliberate. That's just kind of how the song came out, but...yeah, it's like this historically impossible sound I seem to be attempting to create. But I'd say this vocal style is not only influenced by Ian Curtis, but also Ian McCulloch, David Gedge, Paul Banks, and Tom Smith. But you know, whatever, I don't worry about it too much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[Caravan Ray]

Berkley Social Scene:

Nice guitars, nicely panned. Pleasantly mellow. Pretty good.
Possible vote

[Caravan Ray]

Durand Durand:
Great arrangement. Love the uke/slide combo. Good lyrics. Vote

[Caravan Ray]

HoMo:

The opening few lines are driving me mad - it sounds like something I have heard before - but can't remember what. Echo gives me unpleasant memories of Pink Floyd - but overall I like this. Vote

[Caravan Ray]

Stucco Lobster:
Jeffery Davis:
Internet Famous:

No

[Caravan Ray]

Weakest Suit:
Loving your huge improvement on performance quality! Sounds great. Sounds like early Go-Betweens - so big plus from me. Vote

[Caravan Ray]

Noel:

Nice recording. There is a lot good about this. This will grow on me I think. Vote

[Caravan Ray]

Jeplexe:

Cool! I love this! vote

[Caravan Ray]

Yelyah:

This is reminding me of the Velvet Underground for some reason - but better vocals than Nico or Mo Tucker. Nice simple song nicely done. I like it. Hell - have a vote, why not.

[Caravan Ray]

William Parsons Project:

Vote

OK - it's not perfect - but you had a damn good crack. Great guitars and silly tempo change. I enjoyed it.

[Caravan Ray]

PTP:

Lyrics are pretty daggy. Nice melody and structure though

[Caravan Ray]

Did I get eveyone?

Hooray!! I remembered to vote!

[jast]

Express reviews! This set has a bit of a mean edge, I guess. Boo-hoo.

Berkeley Social Scene -- Lovely arrangement/sound. Nice (schizophrenic) duet! The solo bores me. An above average melikey coefficient for a BSS song.
Give Our Regards To The Earth's Core -- You know how to pace songs. Sounds thin. I think that's pretty much the only problem here. I like the distorted backup vocals. Great build-up.
Hostess Mostess -- This feels a bit uncoordinated, and I think it's not just because of the drums. I don't know why, but this doesn't grab me.
Internet Famous -- Whoever told you that that was singing was wrong. The drum(?) on every first beat is distracting. Arrangement is a bit sparse apart from the drums/percussion (which are actually quite nice); they stick out quite a lot. Spoken word samples suck (objectively, of course).
Jeffrey Davis -- Intro is beyond boring. Oh, that's the whole song?
Jeplexe! -- If you sang in a way that makes the words even somewhat understandable (aspirating is not singing!), I might love this. I mean, even the shaker totally dominates the vocals... oh, and would it kill you to tune the guitar, at least a little bit if you intended it to be out of tune? Apart from those gripes, this song is very interesting.
Jonathan Mann -- Ow, man! You can sing, I know that much... why aren't you doing that here? Great song and everything, but with those vocals? No way!
Lord of Oats -- Your synth sound is extremely recognisable. Slight clipping in vocals. The big problem: no chords (or way too much in the background) = no love. Main melody is not very exciting either.
PTP -- Going for this kind of singing leads to a dead end. Apart from that, no real bad points. Nothing especially interesting either.
Rycehat -- A new nose might be in order (just kidding; the nasality in the vocals can be fixed with refined vocal technique). Nice choir. Hey, interesting change when it gets all spacey-synthy. Especially in the second half performances is lacking in some places. Still, quite cool.
SomeGuyCalledNoel -- Peculiar guitar rhythm. Stretching your range, eh? The pseudo-bass parts feel a bit disjointed. I guess it would be lots better if you could achieve more consistency in your vocal sound across all pitches. The song is a bit standard fare.
Steve Durand feat. Ross on Lap Steel -- Nice backup vocals. A very characteristic Steve Durand song, I guess. Vocals are the main weakness, but they're better than in some other songs of yours. Tune your guitars?
Stucco Lobster Breadbox -- Rather on the short side, and the vocals sound like your heart wasn't really in it.
The Weakest Suit -- Great arrangement/sound. The usual comments about vocals apply. As usual, very singer-songwriter-y, in a nice way.
William Parsons Project -- Pretty strained-sounding singing (and I'm pretty sure that's due to straining ). This hops around a bit. Various parts of the vocals sound like they were recorded at different levels. Do this again once you have improved your vocal technique and we'll talk again.
yelyah -- Timbre comes and goes in the vocals... make up your mind! Not the kind of composition I enjoy, but cool realization. Vocals are flat quite a few times.

Votes are given out to:
Give Our Regards To The Earth's Core
Rycehat
Steve Durand

[ken]

Who won what now? Awesome. Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

Ken

[anti-m]

Nice work BSS! A well-deserved triumph, I think!

[Ross]

Well, I admit I never got to voting, and I only got about half of my reviews written, But just for good measure, here was what I wrote about our victors

"BSS - sounds like you right away. the time change at the chorus reminds me of the jonathon Segal solo album (a good thing - he was the violinist and multi instrumentalist from Camper Van Beethoven). This song seems like it is mostly sound and is very successful at that. It keeps me engaged even though the words are not pulling me in. I could see myself being able to sing along and have no idea what I’m saying. You should have repeated the chorus at the end. nice blend of elements.Vote."

[Lunkhead]

Awesome job BSS! I can say that this time because I'm not on this particular track.

[glennny]

http://vimeo.com/12673435

after 10 weeks of wrestling with codecs, RAM, and Nur Ein, I finally finished this thing.

enjoy