Lori Petty in a reverse cowgirl (Tank Top reviews)

[Caravan Ray]

Skippy?

WTF?

TRIVIA NOTE
In 1970, vandals tried to kill the real Skippy at Waratah Park but failed

That's one tough kangaroo!

Gary Pankhurst who played Sonny in Skippy is (last time I was there anyway) a barman at the Lone Star Tavern at Mermaid Waters on the Gold Coast. My Mum and Dad used to be regulars at the pub - and they introduced me to him, but I was given very strict instructions to call him Gary, not Sonny and I was never ever to to mention a certain crime-solving macropod in his presence.

[Me$$iah]

O.K. here we go these are my reviews for the fight
and a good one it is too

right the to begin

BnB - Really nice start to the fight.Great tune dude its got it allgood lyric godd production good voice(tho I wish it was SarahAngel hehehe)

Dan - Great style Good mix cept way too quiet Love the solo not too hot on the Midi horns tho Good tune

Des - sounds like Deshead Love the two voices Top drawcould use a big low solid bass note over the verse in fact more bass in the mix

Elec- i knew it was too good to be true 4 great tunes in a row neverThis is very pleasant ends too abruptly its ok for wat it is

40ss- not bad at all Needs somthing tho dont know what just somthing It needsto go somwhere s ok

FBoy- awsome-o Got it all great harmonies and joke to end Result

HnH - She can sing He can play Its all good

LMNO- nice good tune all round - more harp cos i love the sound

Peng- well made just doesnt turn me on at all

Pil - Best of yours Ive heard yet ur delivery is better I love the laid back style

SBoy- Again good tune well made again not turning me on thobut then futureboy is the comparison in this fight for this style

SFO - OMG Its not about clothing Its about Tanks

SDam- another good un more voice needed in the mix thoI like the lead line

SDur- id like to like this more than i do its ok just doenst make me groove i gotta mensh the MIDI

Wrec- I hate this Desmond Child over-produced comercial sound otherwise its another great Wreckdom result



Bloody Hell wat a good fight this week
its gonna be hard to pick a winner tho at the mo Im leaning toward

Futureboy
Balham - Deshead
Dan-o - H'n'H

this may change before I vote

everyone else well done

[Me$$iah]

I must also point out that the SFO this week

was indeed The Me$$iah

and I had great fun doing it

its hard to put so many ideas into 40 odd seconds--obviously i went over

but I think it rocks to the max

I played it for my girl and the first thing she said was
'punk as fuck'

Result

[Me$$iah]

I forgot to say

Thanks to everyone for their kind words about my tune

Im really glad of the extra few hours the wednesday deadline allowed me to spend on the mix

[Andy Balham]

Skippy?

Gary Pankhurst who played Sonny in Skippy is (last time I was there anyway) a barman at the Lone Star Tavern at Mermaid Waters on the Gold Coast. My Mum and Dad used to be regulars at the pub - and they introduced me to him, but I was given very strict instructions to call him Gary, not Sonny and I was never ever to to mention a certain crime-solving macropod in his presence.

I'm genuinely impressed and I love the phrase "crime-solving macropod".

[Caravan Ray]

Skippy?

Gary Pankhurst who played Sonny in Skippy is (last time I was there anyway) a barman at the Lone Star Tavern at Mermaid Waters on the Gold Coast. My Mum and Dad used to be regulars at the pub - and they introduced me to him, but I was given very strict instructions to call him Gary, not Sonny and I was never ever to to mention a certain crime-solving macropod in his presence.

I'm genuinely impressed and I love the phrase "crime-solving macropod".

The funniest thing about Skippy, of course, is that the kangaroo is easily one of the stupidest animals on earth. In my experience, any animal that will stop in the middle of the road to intently stare at a pair of bright shining lights which are attached to the 36-wheel roadtrain which is about to be the instrument of its own death - is not the sort of animal which will race to Ranger headquarters to tell Jerry to start up the chopper because Sonny has fallen off a cliff. Also funny is the fact that, having worked for the Parks and Wildlife Dept. myself, every park ranger I've ever met has been a drug-addled misanthrope - not at all like that nice Ranger Hammond who works at Waratah National Park.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

I could probably use some crack right now, Scotch and Nyquil on the rocks is a pretty potent mix but it’s fighting the cold better than I am. It’s too cold outside to easily locate a crack dealer so I’ll forge on without one. The order of the reviews is how they came up on the player, not seem deeper hidden agenda.

Steve Durand: I wish you would have used real guitars on this, but your point is made despite the emulated instruments, says the guy with the song using fake horns. It’s definitely a different style for Song Fight, traditional Hawaiian, but it’s cool. I’m not quite sure about some of the lyrics like “dat girl she’s da kind”. Maybe I’m just not hearing it clearly. This is a preety good entry for one night’s work, I look forward to seeing what you can do in a week.

Electrocushin: No lyrics = no song IMHO unless otherwise specified. In this competition it is stated in the FAQ that there must be at least a reference to the title. There is no reference here. On top of that, re-making “Popcorn” will get you shot in the neighborhood I live in. This song should suffer death by “Electrocution”.

Deshead: Flawless production and playing along with a masterful use of lyrics. The lack of references to the title doesn’t do you any favors in my (My as in mine only) scoring, but didn’t kill the deal for you either. This is a great song that I wish made me a believer that it wasn’t written long before this week. But because of the lack of references to the title (a lot of people use it in a chorus) I can’t tell if you re-wrote one line to qualify it for this week or if I’m denying an obviously well written song my vote because of my doubt.

40 Second Songs: This song has a mood about it that’s very fitting for the topic in the beginning. I can feel the cold of winter and I know about the lack of seeing S-K-I-N during this dreary period of the year. I only wish the mood changed a little bit when the lyrics speak of Spring, but no matter, the song is successful as is. I really like the instrumentation as well, but who is Jonathon?

Future Boy: I really am unqualified to review this style of music.There must be something about techno that hits a chromosome in my body that makes me unable to get beyond the fact that I can’t stand electronic music. Yet I struggled through this a number of times to find the lyrics interesting enough to overcome my own prejudices and inadequacies.

Henrietta and the Hostage: Another well produced and played acoustic song, it will be tough to choose between you and Deshead. Henrietta’s voice is wonderful and the guitar playing is a superb accent to it with the picking going on in the background. I’m assuming you’re using a capo for that and the chording, I just don’t have a guitar handy to check it out. Anyway, this is a great little story and song, I like this a lot.

LMNOP: I love the way this song just feels like Summer, and the opening line is great. Man I miss Summertime, and the park, and Leroy. Your songs are always really clever, the tank top reference is used only once at the beginning, but the whole song speaks of a time of year when you know you’ll see people in tank tops. I envy people that write like that. I can’t, I just beat them over the head time and time again with the title. Nice work again Paul. If you would only take me up on my offer to play guitar on one of your songs, you would rock. Oh hell, you rock anyway.

Pileus: If I thought I was under-qualified to review techno, my lack of experience really shows in the Rap genre. The lyrics are OK I guess, but again I’m guessing, I’m no expert here. I get the story, you mention tank top, I know what a drop top is, maybe that’s why this isn’t really authentic to me. I can understand this song. Guys like me aren’t meant to understand songs like this. Still, it’s good for what it is, I guess.

Sausage Boy: Another song that’s not really my bag baby, but I do like the beat. I can’t understand why the vocals needed to be distorted. I think if I could hear your voice without the mask on it, I might actually like this song a lot more. I think it’s cool that you mention the title more than I did in my song, I was afraid I might have done that too many times compared to some of the songs in this fight. Now I know I didn’t. I don’t really get the ending, but maybe it’s just lost on guys like me.

Song Fight Orchestra: I need to go see how this experiment is panning out. I did think that the idea was for each one of these to be 30 seconds long and this isn’t, but I need to check out the thread again to make sure. Anyway, I hope this entry is adding something to the collective mix.

Squirrel Damage: The lyrics are a little to on the side of forcing the rhyme for my taste, (tank top / like a mop) but overall the songs works. I like the high Ooo’s for the backing vocals, they are a nice fit and accent the song well. On the critical side, I think you’re timing is just a hair off in the beginning on the acoustic guitar. The lyrics are pretty good, I like the “naked shoulders” line. Overall this is pretty solid entry, short, concise, to the point, all the things I should work on.

Andy Balham: This is a good story, I remember that 80’s tank top with the white suit rolled up sleeves slip on shoes and no socks look. I didn’t dress like that, no seriously I didn’t, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Man that was a hideous period of fashion, kind of makes me ill just thinking about it. So, in a way your song is about something that could make me sick to my stomach, and yet I did not yack. Nice work., oh, and good song.

Dan-O (Me): I wasn’t at all struck by the titles this week so I set off to work on something else not Song Fight related, ironically it was going to an acoustic song using techniques from the “How to record acoustic guitar” thread. I hit a wall in the lyrics on the song and just started tinkering around on the keyboard to clear my mind, and this song just popped out. It was Saturday night already and I didn’t have much time to get it completed, but for what it is I’m fairly satisfied. I’ll probably go back to it and put in real horns, re-do the guitar lead, and change a line or 2 like the bridge should be “Red and Green and even Blue” (RGB) instead of “Green and Red and even Blue”. Other than that I’m fairly happy.

Wreckdom: Musically, not a style I really appreciate again, and again I find myself in the unenviable position of reviewing a song I have little to no experience in. I will say this, some of the lyrics made me laugh out loud. It’s a good thing I wasn't taking a drink when I heard “caress my man bosoms” because it would have been a spit take all over my computer. I’m going to try to have to write something in this genre someday, either to gain a greater appreciation for the level of difficulty involved, or conclude that anyone could do it. Again the lyrics kept me entertained, so this was a success in my book.

Penguin Map Mijinko: I had a hard time making out the lyrics at points in this song, which made it hard for me gauge how much or little I liked this. Several listens later, the repetitiveness of the lyrics I was discerning wasn’t doing much for me. Musically, the music box patch on your keyboard was interesting, I think the drums could be just a bit louder. The effects you used on you vocals worked well for the song. Overall, it wasn’t really for me but I could see the effort.

In the end I think this was a pretty good fight, with a lot of surprisingly good entries. If I had time to fix the things in my song I might even consider breaking my rule about voting for myself. However I won’t so my top three would be with each one just barely edging out the next:

1) Henrietta
2) Deshead
3) LMNOP

[deshead]

Thanks for the review, Dan-O.

But because of the lack of references to the title (a lot of people use it in a chorus) I can’t tell if you re-wrote one line to qualify it for this week

I hear ya. I feel the same way myself when I have to listen to a song 3 or 4 times to find the title reference.

FWIW: the song is about a night I .. uh .. accidentally set fire to a car while a friend was pumping gas. We figured afterwards that the only reason the car (and gas station) didn't explode is because the tank wasn't full yet. Hence the title reference in the 2nd verse. (My point being: the title is an integral part of the lyrics, not something I pasted in on Wednesday morning.)

But all that said, Henrietta's the obvious vote. Her song is awesome.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

I don't really like feeling that I have to have a title explained to me, it makes me feel incompetent. At the same time I do appreciate it when an artist can help me better understand what their thought process was, so I appreciate you're clearing it up for me. I hope you didn't take any of what I said as being negative, it certainly wasn't meant to be. I still feel your song was easily one of the best in this competition. I just felt Henrietta's song edged you out with the vocal, but not by much.

[Sarah Beanz]

<b>Andy & Sarah</b> -- A nice solid effort but the chorus really leaves me wanting. Musically it’s kind of bland, the lyrics don’t take me anywhere and the vocals are way too wet.

Wet?! I'll have you know i had a stinking cold!

[Future Boy]

<b>Andy Balham</b> - I don't really like the lyrics in this one. This dislike is, in part, related to all the britishisms in it. 'Offy', for example, just shouldn't be used as a lyric. Also not a huge fan of the vocal delivery. Not sure what would make it better. The guitars are a bit muddy and the bass guitar is a bit buried.

<b>Dan-O from Five-O</b> - The fake horns are NO good. Sounds like you are playing over a generic "blues" accompaniment on a keyboard. The vocal delivery is decent, maybe mixed a little too low. Or it could just be that the whole track needs to come up. I get bored with the whole song in the middle of the noodly guitar solo.

<b>Deshead</b> - A very epic song, sounds like it should be on a soundtrack or maybe on a show like Dawson's Creek during an emotional love scene with lots of vaseline lense. "mostly we are more or less the same" is a bit redundant. Totally not seeing how this relates to the title at all, even after reading your explanation in this thread. I agree with whoever said the strings work well. You are easier to stomach than Josh Woodward, at least.

<b>Electrocushin</b> - At first I'm like, hey cool, and them I'm like, wait no words, lame! Outside the context of Songfight! I might be more supportive and simply say it's too short and that the ending is too abrupt.

<b>Forty Second Songs</b> - The clarinet is an excellent, excellent touch. This song got my vote, it's awesome.

<b>Future Boy</b> - This is me. Glad I was able to make someone feel dirty after hearing it.

<b>Henrietta and the Hostage</b> - Your voice is beautiful, the guitar playing is pretty, and I appreciate the fact that you used the word 'anechoic' in the lyrics. However, I read the lyrics and found the "tank top" metaphor to be a little unconvincing. Especially confusing is that you refer to your "tank top" and then immediately afterwards there's a line about removing your sleeves and I think, "but tank tops don't have sleeves", but then see later that you're being figurative with the term "tank top". That's basically what I think doesn't work. It's not clear enough that you are being figurative so the meaning is not communicated clearly.

<b>LMNOP</b> - So, wait, this song's title isn't "Hangin with Leroy"? Too much of this song is about the dog, I don't even remember hearing a tank top refered to. Performance-wise, well, I guess it's put together pretty well. The harmony was good. Not a song I would listen to again.

<b>Penguin Map Mijinko</b> - This is kind of fun. But I'm a sucker for silly synthy stuff.

<b>Pileus</b> - Promising sounding, then the vocal comes in. The vocal is too muffled, the reverb on the vocal is bad, there are too many air sounds in the vocal part (ie it's poorly mic'd), and the delivery is sloppy.

<b>Sausage Boy</b> - Welcome back. Don't really like it.

<b>SFO</b> - This project is so not going to work the way Jim intended, also it pisses me off that Songfight! is being used as a forum for what is essentially a sidefight and actually has very little to do with the weekly titles, in concept. Try not to take that personally, you're just playing along.

<b>Squirrel Damage</b> - This is cool. Reminds me of Weezer/The Rentals but it needs to be punchier. The poor production values are hurting the song. So is the vocal.

<b>Steve Durand</b> - I totally don't mind the fake instruments, but agree that real ones would be better. This is pretty cute. I saved it.

<b>WreckdoM</b> - Yep, it's still crap. Got to say that your production values have increased significantly, though. Hooray for you.

[jack]

<b>SFO</b> - This project is so not going to work the way Jim intended, also it pisses me off that Songfight! is being used as a forum for what is essentially a sidefight and actually has very little to do with the weekly titles, in concept. Try not to take that personally, you're just playing along.

normally i'm not going to comment on something like this but this statement pissed me off. the fact that people are putting something like this together doesn't detract from songfight any more than wreckdom detracts from songfight (sorry wreckdom, you were just a handy metaphor). the idea to create something for the title in a week is still there, and sometimes people are good about it and sometimes they are not. but that isn't jim's fault. jim never said "don't write for the titles". the fact that you don't like it or believe in it is your opinion, which you are obviously entitled to, but to call it a "sidefight that has nothing to do with the titles" is just plain ignorant and close minded.

[LMNOP]

chorus...vocals are way too wet.

Wet?! I'll have you know i had a stinking cold!

Wet = too much reverb. Primarily on the backing vocals if I recall. Just sucks the soul out of the thing IMO.

I don't even remember hearing a tank top refered to.

The song opens with "Check out that tank top over there, I think I'm in love." That's the line that got me going on a song that's, at least on one level, poking fun at the "secret guy code" wherein we might cleverly say "check out that tank top" instead of "check out the redhead in the tank top." It was going to be a conversation between guys until the locale got pegged as a park at which point it seemed better to make the second party a dog.

I initially thought it was important to write a song that would unquestionably carry the subject title but that doesn't seem to be consensus around here so I got over it. You'd love my entry to JoS' Extra-Long Fight in which I don't even use the title in the lyrics. I'm such a rebel.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

Dan-O from Five-O: Sweet guitar tone, both rhythm and lead. And your vocal delivery rocks. It really suits the style. The bass overwhelms everything in the mix, though.

Thanks, Desh, I’ll work on the bass tones and see if I can get them up to the quality of the guitar tones.

And now the very drunken opinions on Mr Balham…

Dan-O from Five-O
Good rhyme of tank and swank, will I hear that again? Given my state I’m like the late night jazz bar feel here. Good solo, I feel even more pathetic about my endeavours.

I love drunken opinions. It never ceases to amaze how many I’ve heard and given over the years. Thanks for the review.

dan o
i like the bold move to bust into untested genre waters, and you pull it off pretty good. the mix could definitely be louder in general. singing reminds me alot of balls to monte. and the 335 guitar and horns are really well done. nice job. i really like this alot.

Wow, thanks a lot Jack. Great ears by the way as that is indeed a Gibson 335 I used.

<b>Dan-O</b> -- The groove has me from “hello.” I love how the lyrics come flying at you like spatter off a semi’s wheels. Of course, my feeble mind can barely keep up, but what is this, Ode to Impoverished Redneck? I’d like a tad more level on the lead guitar, please.

Thanks Paul, I was pretty satisfied with the groove as well. Funny thing about those flying lyrics, you're brain would have kept up if I hadn't been slurring the lyrics at about 12:30 at night. An hour of watching CMT will get you up to speed on any odes to impoverished rednecks. OH, and I do tend to hold back when mixing guitars and vocals that are my own. I need to develop a more detached approach or have someone else do it for me.

And thanks to everyone else for the feedback both positive and negative. The latter will defintely help me improve.

[Future Boy]

I'm such a rebel.

Yes, but do you have a cause or not?

[deshead]

Totally not seeing how this relates to the title at all, even after reading your explanation in this thread.

At the risk of appearing defensive, I'll try one more time: I couldn't think of a good wife-beater lyrical reference. But the title also suggested a topped-up fuel tank, which in turn reminded me of the so-called 'Milwaukee Gas Station Incident.' There's a direct title reference in the last line of my 2nd verse, "with the tank topped-up I'd burn us all," where 'the tank' is the fuel tank of the car that caught fire. Had my friend pulled the nozzle out and comically sprayed my feet with gas after filling the tank to the top, instead of doing it after pumping only a gallon, there would have been a much bigger fire when I kneeled down and struck my lighter. Like, big enough to ensure I wouldn't have lived to over-explain my motivation for writing the song.

[Future Boy]

Uh, yes, I understand that, I even understood the line in question. My point is more, like, it doesn't make sense. Nor does the song even sound like the event you describe. It sounds like a love song.

[Me$$iah]

Future Boy

Why do you think my song has nothing to do with the titles provided

It was the start point for the whole of my song

"im gonna blow your tank top off"

it seems to me that both Des and I are the only ones here who was able to take a title like tank top and think beyond the item of clothing that everyone else seems so fixated on

Des was singing about an incident that involved filling a petrol tank to the top. seems pretty relevant
I was singing about a military tank. seems relevant also

I personally prefer songs that use the title ambiguously otherwise we'd all just sit around writing the same songs and slapping each othert on the back for our remarkable efforts, cos it sounds just like mine and Daves and Jonnies etc. even got the same words

[Future Boy]

If you reread my review of your song I think you'll find that I didn't even really review the song properly. I used it as a place to express my disagreement with the SFO project.

As far as Deshead's song goes, I think I've addressed my issues with his interpretation pretty well in my responses to him. Also, despite all of my criticism, his song is the one song from this fight that is stuck in my head.

I have no problem with people interpreting the titles ambiguously. However, just because someone interprets a title ambiguously doesn't mean that their song is automatically good or better than literal interpretations.

[Hostage]

Henrietta and the Hostage: ...I’m assuming you’re using a capo for that and the chording, I just don’t have a guitar handy to check it out...

Thanks for the positive feedback, Dan-O. Henrietta wrote this song with a capoII, then I used capoII and came up with fingerpicked chords to go with her strummed chords (numbers are relative to the capo):

Verse:
x|x|x|7|5|7
x|x|7|4|5|0
x|x|5|5|3|3
x|x|x|2|0|0
x|x|7|7|0|0
x|x|9|9|7|0
x|x|12|12|10|0
x|x|10|9|8|0
x|x|12|12|10|0

Bridge-type thing:
x|x|x|10|8|11
x|x|x|14|12|12
x|x|x|10|8|9
x|x|x|9|8|8
x|x|x|7|5|7
x|x|x|5|3|5
x|x|x|x|3|3

[Andy Balham]

<b>Andy Balham</b> 'Offy', for example, just shouldn't be used as a lyric.

I was going to ask in a pithy manner for a list for a list of words suitable for use in songs, but I will satiate myself with the following quote "It is a common word down our way."

[Me$$iah]

Future Boy- its all good

and Id like to offer Mr Balham my most humble contrafibularities on his song which I found to be most peptic and combunctious

thanks

Im off now to cook some sausages