The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Center of Mass: violin is cool. Nice atmosphere. Cool track. Wish it went even further.

Manhattan Glutton: very nice nine inch nails vibe at beginning. Electric guitars and piano are perfect. Harmonies are great too. Vote. I wish you were singing more than talk singing.

The Hate Noise: crazy and all over the place. Interesting moments.

Big Crouton: love the chord progression. Lifehouse like. Love that you're taking your time and really feeling the vocals. Electric guitars maybe a bit too loud in the mix.

Caravan Ray: guitar playing is good. Vocals not as much.

Dollar Bill: dig the retro noises. Don't like your voice too much, but the song overall is really cool sounding

Lonbobby wrote:Center of Mass: violin is cool. Nice atmosphere. Cool track. Wish it went even further.

Thanks. I didn't have much time, so it is just kind of quickly slapped together... Hopefully I will find some more time this round, but it is looking like it will have to be another quicky if I can find time to do even that.

@BBABM:

Haha, funny enough, this is the song I've spent the most time on, lyric-wise, in the past few songfights. I usually just sing whatever comes to me, or write up nonsensical but cool-sounding lyrics right before recording, but this one actually has a concept, lyrics, and a narrative arc to it.

Not that it's necessarily a good one- it's a father telling his daughter why he gave her this really weird name that she wants to change - but it's a story, and I'm proud of it to that extent.

And it's got a pretty traditional structure- A A B solo A - and the distortion comes in the second half of the bridge when the story gets all intense and dramatic. Not to say this should make you care- the song should stand on it's own- but there is craft that went into it. Even though in this case the craft seems to have been obscured by the ramshackle recording quality which was, unfortunately, out of my control.

I do enjoy your songs, and your review is pretty funny- I'm considering making the last line my new sig line.


@Caravan Ray: 

Sorry you were bored. I kind of bored myself partway through...

@Lonlobby:

Sorry, didn't have the resources to do anything besides recording all in one take, so no harmony. Same with drums. 

I didn't read any reviews before posting this, trying to have fresh ears and be as unbiased as possible.
Here goes.

Berkely Social Scene: I'm liking the combination of geeky dude rock with a female vocalist. The sudden change into a Rush song for the choruses made me smile. Really loving the bass track, the entire rhythm section in fact. The lyrics baffle me.

Center of Mass: Very soundtracky, cinematic. Kind of a world music vibe. I've never been a fan of fake string sounds, but if I pretend it's a real cello or viola, I can see how it could work really well, composition-wise, with the drum track you've constructed. Was a bit difficult to hear what the dialog clips were. Is it supposed to be like a Bond film song? I can sorta see that.

the HATE noise: It's kind of like a really stretched out version of those last 30 seconds of Helter Skelter, right before Ringo shouts "I've got blisters on my fingers!" There were some nice moments with the drums and guitars building up to a crescendo. Gotta be honest, around the halfway point the temptation to skip to the end was large. I didn't, though. Kinda turned into a different song for the last bit.

Dollar Bill and the Inkpoints: Love the ending. It just stops. Interesting song, sort of scary elevator music from the future, and I don't mean that in a bad way. Some things I might suggest, if I can be so presumptuous:

• 1. I'd fatten up that bass synth line, really thicken it up. Could be a really great groove.
  2. You don't always have to rhyme everything. Sometimes rhyme is a trap. One thing I did learn from the Jimmy Webb book Tunesmith (he's a bit of a rhyme Nazi) is that if you're rhyming everything, it's much more effective to make true rhymes (please/cheese) instead of false ones (tuxedo/Toledo, secret/leaked it, etc.) But that's coming from the man who wrote, "And I need you more than want you/And I want you for all time/And the Wichita Lineman/is still on the line."

Big Crouton: Love your voice, really. I know the part where it gets heavy is supposed to be cathartic and blow me away but I like the first half more, where you're holding back your voice; really effective. Great guitar tone. Ha! Explosion!

Lonbobby: A really nice song. There are some great lyrics in there. I haven't heard anything else by you so I don't really know if you're hiding behind the autotune a bit, but to me it seems unnecessary. I'd love to hear your voice clean over this, I bet it would be awesome.

Caravan Ray: Reminded me of The Church a bit. It's one of those songs where I sort of don't listen to the lyrics because I'm interested in what the music is doing. Nothing against your lyrics, it's just funny how sometimes I focus on one thing over the other, depending on the song. And it's interesting because I actually read your lyrics for this the other day. Great mix. I like it.

Historyman: Charming.

Manhattan Glutton: Sounds like a hell of a lot of work went into this. I feel like the song's getting a bit lost in all the plug-ins and VST instruments or whatever, seems like there's so much going on. You clearly know what you're doing though, and the playing is great, as is your singing.

Schlimminy Cricket: I like the low, folky, man harmonies. I'd crank the glockenspiel down a bit, it's peaking quite a bit. Nice, jaunty little tune. I had to sing, "a THREE HOUR TOUR..." in my head a few times, though.

bgm: Shitty mixing. Turn up the bass a bit and ease off on the compression, sheesh. Kinda pitchy in the main vocals. Way to wimp out on the bridge, falling back on aah's instead of an instrumental break.

bgm wrote:bgm: Shitty mixing. Turn up the bass a bit and ease off on the compression, sheesh. Kinda pitchy in the main vocals..

Hmmm...I wish I could mix as shittily as you do

Caravan Ray wrote:

bgm wrote:bgm: Shitty mixing. Turn up the bass a bit and ease off on the compression, sheesh. Kinda pitchy in the main vocals..

Hmmm...I wish I could mix as shittily as you do

Ditto

This'll be quick since I'm on an iPad and on vacation, but I'll give a better listen in a week.

D$ - Love the music going on. Feels like short circuit. Song itself seems lacking changes, etc.

BC - My favorite so far. Love the vibe and build-up.

SC - Cute and cheesy. Can't say it's my thing.

CR - Good work but feels a little loopy, needs change ups particularly with drums.

HN - Interesting noise experiment. No relation to title?

HM - One take, but some good song ideas in there. Keep it up.

LB - Interesting twist on simple chord progressions. Love the instruments, not the robo voice.

CM - Nice techno. I'll need to listen when I have more time since it seems like there's a good story.

BGM - Like the waltz and vocals. A little too granola for me with the fancy acoustic guitar playing (although nice job!)

BSS - Wish the cool riffs were more showcased and less muddied with the other noodling going on. Nice vox.

MG - I am really pleased with how this came out, even if it may not be anyone's cup of tea. If I had more time, I'd have made the verse more techno-y and the chorus more interesting.

Manhattan Glutton wrote:HN - Interesting noise experiment. No relation to title?

Well, kind of. The only real words in the song other than 'fuck you' ARE 'boron rod'...at the very end I was just doing some random hardcore screaming through a distortion pedal and crammed those two words in a few times. Also, there's a band in my area called Boron Nuzzle who makes music kind of like this so it's a little joke at their expense as well. P.S. I like the crunchy guitars and distorted bass synth in your track. The whole thing reminds me of Filter a little, which is a good thing.

bss - like that guitar a lot. main voice sounds a bit dry in comparison. never saw this movie. and the lyrics aren't posted! i feel like there should be another sound in there to liven up the mix from time to time.

bgm - my favorite parts: "like those spikes" - well sung. and the backing vocals are making me feel good. pretty good g&g.

bc - i like these guitars. and when the vocals get more strong they sound really good. i like how the song crescendoes.

cr - this song reminds me of joy division. that's cool. i never heard this phrase "white anting" so thanks for defining it in the forums. the chorus part isn't quite catchy but i like this sound a lot.

com - cool sounds. can't make out the vocals on these speakers. too much fx i think and no posting of lyrics. so i can't speak to their efficacy. it's cool and i'd like to give you half a vote, but i can't.

dbti - happy that j$ wanted to help me record this one. i guess my lyrics are silly but i like them anyway. darn, i kinda liked tuxedo/toledo. it's got two syllables of rhyme!

lonbobby - hey, i remember you from way back. this song has the best of what i remember - different and cool. love the instrumental bits.

mg - heh, i don't think this is really industrial... vox prob need more effects for that! the verses seem weirdly out of sync with themselves, but the chorus is better. i think the verse problem has to do with the drums.

sc - this song seems to have the wrong title. kazoos! hah. "our resplendent spawn" is quite a phrase. not taken with this, it seems to be not sure if it is taking itself seriously or not.

hn - what you are doing instrumentally is cool. but the swearing is gratuitous, unnecessary, and ruins the song. same to you buddy. i really wanted to like this before the words came in. as it is i had to stop listening.

hm - this is okay. i think the vocals detract a lot. if you posted the words i'd comment on them. but the song didn't really grab me either way.

favorites: cr, dbti, lonbobby
2nd tier: bss, bgm, bc, com
3rd tier: mg, sc, hm
fail: hn
-bill

Boron Rod - Reviews

Trying to live up to community duty. My thoughts upon first listen.

Center of Mass - wow sonically pristine! If the spoken intro is the entire text of the “song” I may have a problem with it as an entry in this contest. I wish you had not obscured teh middle spoken word part so much. reasonably strong entry in the “instrumental” category although, I am still biased towards more traditional “songs” in this contest. Very listenable and a reasonable amount of dramatic tension here. Nice job, but no vote for reasons already stated.

Lonbobby - wha? Lonbobby? really? Welcome back, dude - Another really great sounding piece (again with great electronic sounds). I wish I was more engaged. The lyrics are a bit too obtuse for me to really care much, does remind me a little of “Little Neutrino” by Klaatu.

$ and teh inkpoints - oh, wait, I know that voice! I’d forgotten who this was. another electronic piece.sounding great along with the first two pieces I heard. I better learn how to do this electronic stuff. Again the lyrics aren’t doing the drama job on me - a bit clinical - wikipediesque even? But nicely put together track and I love the abrupt ending.

Big Crouton - wow folks are coming out of the woodwork this February. Holy cow - HUGE DRUMS!! Excellent guitars, as one can always expect from the large crunchy one. This is working pretty well for me as scifi prog. A vote - largely for the build into 2:20 - works on many levels and you pulled it off just right. How many guitar tracks here? I’m guessing you use an actual tube amp.sweet! I love when the production value supports the composition this well. VOTE

Shlimminy Cricket - Enjoying this - in the nouveau folk realm of the early 60s (reminds me a little of my own “Green 11” from songfight archives. Well done harmonies and I love the bells. Nice job!

The HATE noise - The title wasn’t “Boring Cock” it was “Boron Rod.” kidding aside, I really enjoyed this. I have always loved all that psychedelic jam crap from the late 60s and this definitley had that vibe. I give 90% of the credit to your drummer - he/she really made this thing work, there were several interesting apexes and the ending was a good choice to really top the thing off. An enjoyable soundscape. Also interesting to hear you bust out of your usual thing. I know - I don’t get eh hip hop, but this I get - jokes on me I suppose. I bet I like this better than most of the stuff on the new Radiohead record.

BSS - great opening - right to it. Neat sounds - really tight - well performed. Is it supposed to be ironic how controled this whole thing sounds? The drummer is the only one who ever sounds like they might explode. Diggin the fuzz bass and the ending is very effective.

BGM - wow - I used to think I had a decent acoustic sound. nice pretty much everything. Song - a bit of a stretch, but well done considering the angle you took. I tend ot like more ups and downs in my music but this zooms along pretty good.

Historyman - you’re working so hard - I wish I liked it more. I just have a hard time where this is going. I need more glue. Seems like in your head this is like a WHo style epic, but it’s not coming across. Stay with it though. I think htere is so much potential waiting to be tamed here.terrible punchline.

Caravan Ray - I really like teh sound of this. I do wish things kicked up a bit more at the chorus, like I hear you try ing to do. I think I like your rock better than your groove. Nice writing!

Manhattan Glutton - I like the way you’re fooling with time at the beginning of this. Like some of the others above, I just didn’t get involved I respect the structure and orchestration and all, but the package didn’t pull me in and make me want to listen again.

Well, I've been quite busy as of late, so I really only had time to write my thoughts as I listened to these songs for the first time.

Berkeley Social Scene: This is good. I think I read something about your singer sounding disinterested, and I agree. This reminds me strongly of something from the 90's, but I can't figure out what. I think there's elements of The Presidents Of The United States Of America. That's neither here nor there though. I'm quite digging this. I'm not sure if it's got my vote though. I really dig the music, but the vocals are uninspiring.

BGM: Great acoustic playing. This song makes me feel good. I'm not sure I have much else to say about this, other than I really like it. Unless the second half totally ruins the song, you've got my vote. Question for ya: are you playing the acoustic on the right with one of those finger shakers strapped on, or is there just a shaker lightly mixed in over there? (option three is that I'm just hearing things that don't exist, which is a distinct possibility) Anyways, great song.

Caravan Ray: Pretty cool atmosphere to this song. The drums kind of ruin the feel. I like the "white and in me" (might be wrong about the lyrics) part. Not the part where you keep singing "white and in, white and in" but the part before that with the more interesting chords. Anyways, not a bad song, but I'm not really into it.

Center Of Mass: The sounds and production really draw me into this. The intro sets up for what could be a reasonably interesting story, but so far you haven't really developed that story. The main section of this song really reminds me of the score of the recent Battlestar Galactica tv show. This is a good thing, and were this music placed behind a movie or tv show, it could be awesome. As a standalone piece, there's not really much going on though.

Dollar Bill & The Inkpoints: This is a pretty cool laid back groove of sorts. Not really into the vocals. Had I been paying attention to the lyrics, the ending might've made more sense, but as it stands now, it didn't. I appreciate the brevity.

The Hate Noise: From snippets I've read in the forum, I should expect to hate this. Starting off though, it's pretty alright for what it is. We'll see how it develops. This is pretty interesting. I can't say I'm fully into it, though I'm sure I'd be loving it if I was high. This is far better than a skimming of the review thread led me to believe it would be. It does seem rather lyrically void. I don't care for the up-front "fuck you"'s (impressive apostrophe usage, I know) the spaced out ones are coolish, but the up front ones just seemed tasteless. Well, if nothing else, I can certainly say this song is mighty interesting. It also progresses more than I was expecting. Good builds and drops. So, in conclusion, I'm really not getting any ties to "Boron Rod" but this song is quite cool for what it is. Whoah, it just took a drastic turn. Interesting ending.

Historyman: I'm sure I've heard this verse chord progression and melody before. Wait, what happened with the distortion switching on for a second. Oh, now I see. It just came in too early. Wait, are the lyrics here a play on "Born Rod"? Oh, the kid is called Boron. Now I think I get it. I'm generally not into super simple production like this, and I didn't expect to like this song, but I found myself quite enjoying it. I'm still sure you ripped that progression and melody from somewhere else, whether you knew it or not, so that's preventing you from getting my vote, but otherwise, good job.

Lonbobby: Cool start. I can't really dig the processing on the vocals, but the music is just too cool. Where are you getting the orchestral sounds from? It sounds great, and I'll be disappointed if I learn that they're loops or samples. I guess it doesn't detract from the song, but I'd like to think that you made this song note by note, cause it's great. I'm really not into the vocals, but it's hard not to vote for the music of this song.

Manhattan Glutton: Sweet bass line, solid chorus. I really dig the elements of this song, but for some reason, I'm not really into the song. Not crazy about the frantic drums. Cool breakdown/outro. I'm quite digging the feel of that part. Close to a vote, but it didn't hold my interest for the first couple minutes. I don't know why, cause as I said, I dig pretty much all the elements of the song.

Schlimminy Cricket: This is fun. The xylophone (I assume) doesn't seem to fit, or is just too loud. It's rather distracting. HA! I've always thought that there's a sad lack of kazoos in music these days. Awesome! Nice high ahhs that come in there. I wouldn't have voted for this, but the kazoos totally won me over. Also, way to ruin this weeks trend of having band names that start in the first half of the alphabet.

As for my song, I was way more into it when I first came up with the chorus. I think I just lost interest as time went on, but I still dig it. I'm just not super excited by it anymore. Ross: no real amps were used in the making of this song. All tones are courtesy of Amplitube 2, and there's 4 layers of guitars going on in the chorus.

hate noise, any possibility of hearing an instrumental version of your song? i think i'd enjoy it more.
-bill

big crouton wrote: no real amps were used in the making of this song. All tones are courtesy of Amplitube 2, and there's 4 layers of guitars going on in the chorus.

nice commercial for amplitube

Good fight, though not as much weirdness and variation as I like. Here's what I thought:

Big Crouton: Awesome feel and flow after it gets going. The 'verb guitar seems out of place -- maybe needs a little modulation, or not so wet. Turns into "Black Hole Sun" at the end. Vote

Center of Mass: The music is good, but one-dimentional and gets old. Couldn't understand most of the 'speech', but changing the melody at "...reactor meltdown" was pretty cool. I'm guessing the story is the star here, but you didn't post any lyrics. Oh well.

Lonbobby: Good orchestration. The music is about as engaging as CoM (above); needs more parts/tention/release to maintain interest. The singing is OK, but I'm not impressed with the vocal melody and effects.

Schlimminy Cricket: You said "long and hard." Heh... heh heh. Very patriotic, anthem-like. In that context, it's pretty good. Change a few words and it could be a good football (soccer) anthem. Vote.

Berkeley Social Scene: I always end up comparing you guys to somebody from decades ago. Why is that? Everything sounds good, but the end was the best part. OK, I got it -- The Bangles!

The HATE Noise: OK, after the "fuck you" goes on a while I begin to take it personally and stop. I'm glad you're able to channel your anger, but for me it's a complete waste of time.

Dollar Bill: Nice jazzy feel until it gets repetitious and pseudo-techno. Vocals fit pretty well. It needs more musician, less computer.

Caravan Ray: Cool, almost epic vibe. Must be that guitar that sounds like a violin/bagpipe thingy. Pretty good for commercial rock of days gone by. Vote.

bgm: Nice guitar. And vocals + harmonies. Well produced. This style demands less tension/release than some, but there's still a need, IMHO, for a turn here or there. Maybe I missed it.

Historyman: Hey, either mute/fade in the noise at the intro or just delete it. Sounds like you hit record on your porta-studio and just went for it. Oh man, there's more problems than I'm gonna tackle here... The song itself isn't bad, I think. Just too many distractions.

Manhatton Glutton: My favorite parts are where there's no obviously-fake drums playing -- like the breaks and refrain. Good use of the bass. Production is pretty good. Vocals are kinda blah, but competently done. 9/10 of a vote. I'm gonna round up. Vote.

Big Crouton should win this one.

I know I'm pulling this one from the past a little bit, but there's two things that really stand out.

Big Crouton - Okay, I've always liked your stuff (especially City In Fog) but this takes it to another level. Questions: are the drums acoustic or triggered? Reist said he "dropped" them for you. If they're acoustic, how did you mic them? If electric, what software? Also, you mentioned you use Amplitude. What effects are you placing on the clean lead beginning at 0:46? Absolutley fantastic. I want to kidnap your tone, hold it for ransom, then make off with both the money and the tone in a creative bait-and-switch scheme. Ohh, all the dirty things I'd do to your tone...

...

...okay, sorry, that got a little out of hand.

The HATE Noise - I'm not one for noise collages. But I am one for black metal. When you burst into that bit of crust at the 7:32 mark, I'm knocked out of my seat. Why not go in that direction for the duration of the song? Or maybe you do that on such a consistent basis outside of SF that you're sick of it. Nonetheless, I love that blast of ferocity. Keep it up.

Thanks for the comment. The drums were acoustic, I believe it was a Sonor kit I had rented for a few clients at the time. Here's more than you probably wanted to know about how I mic'd it. My typical micing which I probably used is Audix D6 on the kick placed inside a bit off center and 2 to 6 inches from the beater facing the beater, I5 on the snare top with a Electrovoice Blue Raven on the snare bottom, d2's on the rack toms and a d4 on the floor tom. I'm not sure if I had switched to ORTF positioning for Overheads at that point, but if you're looking for advice, I highly recommend it. It provides a much more coherent stereo field than a spaced pair while giving a much wider field than XY. I would have used my Sennheiser E914's for overheads, a blue baby bottle and some cad ldc I've got kickin' around for stereo rooms, and then audix adx51's for hats and ride.

As for the amplitube tone, I feel like that's a magical tone for this song that probably doesn't have a wide variety of potential applications, but if you want to know how I got it, it's the 'American Tube Clean 1' amp with a tube screamer in front of it with level and drive at about half and tone at about 2/3rds. The real magic happens though from the cab section, where I have a 87 set to on axis and far with the ambience cranked all the way. I then ran that through Waves IR1 reverb with the 'Hall 1' impulse at about 35% wet.


upon going back to the session, I was reminded that this was recorded when my D6 was out of commission, so I just recorded the kick with a blue raven and triggered it with Slate Trigger. The session also reminded me of a fun mixing trick I often use for kicks with insufficient low end. Set a signal generator up on an aux track with a sin wave at somewhere between 40 and 50 hz and put a gate on it that is triggered by your kick track. You can add a whole lot of balls to your kick with that trick. Just be careful doing that if you don't have a sub, cause it's easy to add way too much low end that way without realizing it.


I suppose I got a bit carried away there, but hopefully it's useful information to you.