The Bass Player's in Charge (Rule of Thump Reviews)

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:55 pm

blue wrote:Enter your vote for

[] The Antichrist
[] An Instrumental

[VOTE]

I freakin' wet myself after reading this

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:58 pm

jack wrote:dude's been watching too much lord of the rings......

Wasn't there a thread long ago about Blue and Lord of the Rings?

EDIT: Yes, there was. Here's a google cache:
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:DT ... ella&hl=en

Most voted Gimli.

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:00 pm

jack wrote:ok. this is just my dumb opinion.....

well, this fight is a no win situation as i see it. if you win, you can say "i won in the smallest songfight of all time! a fight of 2!"... and if you lose, well...nuff said.

so i'm going to break the rules in this particular instance and vote for both of you. because i don't want to see either one of you lose.

i hope you guys tie.

Here's another way to looks at it:

Abecedarian versus ajbure! at twenty paces with antique rickety pistols.
The first ever SongDuel!

I want to see more. In fact I may arrange it. Who's up for sidefight songduels?

MintyHandy · Post by **MintyHandy** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:08 pm

I'm gonna review this one, because it would be sad to say "hey, I don't have the time to review all two of them." I'll write as I listen.

Abjure!

I like anything that makes me smile; shame it all starts to fall apart in spots, around the clown line and the uno cards (lyrics less clever, timing less accurate), but overall, though, I'm glad you -- what the hell is that, fava beans? Hilarious, as are the little shards -- anyway, I'm glad you took the time to make this, even if it was just to prevent a single-song fight. Nice harmony on "girls will admire me down at the pool", too. I liked it very much, even if it won't end up in my mp3 collection.

Oh, and get your snare drum to a doctor, it's having a nervous breakdown.

Abecedarian

Kind of empty, not the good kind of minimalist, just the "not many instruments available" kind. Lyrics stop pretty quickly, and if they were making way for a musical extravaganza I'd be happy, but nothing really there that I find appealing. Just not my bag, I guess.

Then again, I'm a guy would couldn't come up with ANY song for "Rule of Thump", so you stand me up just by trying.

- - -

I'm going to vote for Abjure, and dude, I would love to hear you cover my Pig Sticker from last week. That's a nice jangly-bounce guitar ya got there, and a lovely voice to boot.

EDIT:
Who's up for sidefight songduels?

ME! Me! Oh, me!

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:14 pm

abecedarian wrote:Here's another way to looks at it:

Abecedarian versus ajbure! at twenty paces with antique rickety pistols.
The first ever SongDuel!

I want to see more. In fact I may arrange it. Who's up for sidefight songduels?

It's happened before. There was the Generic vs. Sven Mullet Song Duel ("Punk as..."), Generic vs. Niveous ("Gas Tank") and Generic vs. His Name is Dan ("Deep Freeze").

Meathands · Post by **Meathands** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:56 pm

Abjure!:
A rather appealing song, and the melody on, "I'm here to lay down the ultimate law" is nice. But where's the beef? I dig the snare drum "freak-outs' by the way.

Abecedarian:
I really liked the last song, but I can't say the same about this. I'm all for loose time in the right places, but if the beat is going to be this obvious try to keep it solid. I can't dig a bass and drum song that has a clunky groove. I would never want to limit you by saying something like, "stick with the acoustic songs," but if you are going to play against your strengths you've got to try harder.

j$ · Post by j$ » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:01 pm

blue wrote:Enter your vote for

[] The Antichrist
[] An Instrumental

[VOTE]

I only wish this had happened to the Left/Right fight ....

Now everybody stop whining and review the songs already

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:04 pm

Niveous wrote:
abecedarian wrote:Here's another way to looks at it:

Abecedarian versus ajbure! at twenty paces with antique rickety pistols.
The first ever SongDuel!

I want to see more. In fact I may arrange it. Who's up for sidefight songduels?
It's happened before. There was the Generic vs. Sven Mullet Song Duel ("Punk as..."), Generic vs. Niveous ("Gas Tank") and Generic vs. His Name is Dan ("Deep Freeze").

I sit corrected

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:15 pm

Meathands wrote:I would never want to limit you by saying something like, "stick with the acoustic songs," but if you are going to play against your strengths you've got to try harder.

Yeah I'm not in shape enough to climb this hill yet, but it's a route I've got to take to get better at some of the things I'm not good at. Keep telling me like it is, though. I appreciate that sometimes as much as a compliment.

Incidentally, the beats and bass were meant to be a little off and clunky and meandering towards the middle and then everything was supposed to coalesce tightly near the end and then resolve. Unfortuantely I agree with you that the execution makes it sound like the moments of tightness are happy accidents that arise from a baseline of sloppiness.

RBHID · Post by **RBHID** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:11 am

Abjure! : Great, fun song...very Chinese themed...everything sounds really good but the really cheap sounding reverb on the guitar.

Abecedarian : Starts off promising, but the loss of vocals produce a loss of interest. Drum beat gets old quick, and the snare sound isn't appropiate for the song.

Kapitano · Post by **Kapitano** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:35 pm

Just time before I go to bed for a quick review.

Abcedarian
Okay, kudos for giving us an almost-instrumental. Just not a very interesting one.

Abjure!
Just what we need. Another They Might Be Giants ripoff. It might be nice if any two instruments could stay in sync.

Abcedarian gets my vote because Abjure! is more annoying.

Post by jb » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:40 am

Kapitano wrote:Just time before I go to bed for a quick review.

Abcedarian
Okay, kudos for giving us an almost-instrumental. Just not a very interesting one.

Abjure!
Just what we need. Another They Might Be Giants ripoff. It might be nice if any two instruments could stay in sync.

Abcedarian gets my vote because Abjure! is more annoying.

Sheesh, somebody needs a nap.

abjure! · Post by **abjure!** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:40 am

Kapitano wrote:Abjure!
Just what we need. Another They Might Be Giants ripoff. It might be nice if any two instruments could stay in sync. Abcedarian gets my vote because Abjure! is more annoying.

OK dude, let me tell you something. Unless you can specifically cite sections of my song that do this alleged ripping-off and what songs of TMBG I am ripping off, just shut the fuck up.

They Might Be Giants do not OWN the fucking novelty songwriting market. They certainly didn't INVENT the idea, and they're probably not even the BEST at it anymore.

If every song you hear that has "quirky" lyrics like this makes you think "TMBG ripoff", then you must have very poor listening skills. Or perhaps you just don't respect anyone enough to try very hard.

This particular song of mine sounds more like Lyle Lovett to me, if I'm forced to compare it to a "regular" songwriter's style. If you're going to call me a ripoff, at least fucking try to make an apt comparison rather than the fucking knee-jerk reaction of every other idiot who ever said a song sounds like TMBG on this message board.

Abjure!

jack · Post by **jack** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:22 am

i got a chuckle out of the good cop/bad cop routine.

Bolio · Post by **Bolio** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:32 am

Abecedarian – Vocals sound great but end too soon. Instrumental break/outro leaves a lot to be desired. I understand this is relating to ‘thump’ but I think the ‘thump’ could be a whole lot more interesting. Drums finally come alive too late. There's something to be said for using empty space well, but this just sounds empty.

Abjure! – Very entertaining. A little over the top but that’s never a reason to get uptight. Sweet harmonies. Could have used some kinda solo breaks in a couple places, maybe if you didn’t start this at 9:58am pst on Friday you would have had time.

draft · Post by **draft** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:47 am

These are my first reviews as draft. So here goes......

Abecidarian - The sounds are pretty beefy and oddly transient in a meandering ADD kind of way. The vocals, that come in, aren't enough, from my perspective, to take it away from being an instrumental and for the title doesn't get my vote.

Abjure - This rules. "Maybe you do have powerful kung fu" is just so finely delivered that it got my vote right then and there. Drums are an interesting contrast as I can see the drummer going somewhat convulsive and spazzing out to accomodate the nuttiness of the lyrics but giving a human feel to the tune while going outside the lines sometimes. The rule of thump pun is just so damn clever. Catchy. Keeper.

Kapitano · Post by **Kapitano** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 12:17 pm

abjure! wrote:fuck...fucking...fucking...fucking...idiot

abjure! also wrote:They Might Be Giants do not OWN the fucking novelty songwriting market.

Absolutely right. There's Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Crash Test Dummies, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and even our own Octothorpe. Arguably Beck and Flaming Lips too.

You don't sound like any of these. Would it help if I said you sounded more like Barenaked Ladies?

You also sound like someone who can't handle anyone not liking your song. Maybe that's why you're written vitriolic replies to the two negative reviews, and ignored the positive ones.

I await your hatred of my music on Friday.

erik · Post by **erik** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 12:26 pm

It might help if you say what you mean from the start. Barenaked Ladies don't sound anything like They Might Be Giants.

Post by jb » Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:18 pm

erik: I think Kapitano's still sticking to the "TMBG ripoff" argument, although he didn't answer Abjure!'s challenge to specify exactly what sounds like TMBG in the song.

kapitano: You need to listen to more of *my* songs. Perhaps a visit to http://www.johnorama.com

draft: I *KNEW* you'd like that line's delivery specifically. It's totally a jazz delivery, with the triplet and all. All the verses are, but that one is the most archtypical jazz.

mico saudad · Post by **mico saudad** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:34 pm

thanks for all of the reviews everyone (this is like the highest signal to noise ratio of any review I've ever had).

Kapitano · Post by **Kapitano** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 4:00 pm

jb wrote:erik: I think Kapitano's still sticking to the "TMBG ripoff" argument, although he didn't answer Abjure!'s challenge to specify exactly what sounds like TMBG in the song.

If I had the time and inclination to download/find a couple of TMBG songs, listen through them, and write down the common musical features between them and the Abjure! track...I would be a better musicologist, a better disputant, and probably quite bored.

As it is, I thought I'd retracted that claim. Anyway, that's not the important part of this post.

kapitano: You need to listen to more of *my* songs. Perhaps a visit to http://www.johnorama.com

Alright. Six tracks selected at random.

You know there are men who spend an hour in front of the bathroom mirror, fixing their hair to make it look like they haven't bothered? Like they haven't bothered, but in a somehow stylish way.

These tracks took a week to sound like they'd been thrown together in half an hour. Either that or they were thrown together in half an hour by an expert.

Dad I'm Changing
The disjointed chorus was presumably supposed to mimic the hesitant son confronting his father. Likewise the strange rhythm at the start. Why does this make me think of The Monkees?

Do It With Me
Genre pastiche of early rock-blues. Lyrically slightly off - there's a thousand opaque euphamisms for sex used in the blues, and in a song like this I'd expect to hear some of them, instead of 'kiss from A to Z' and 'do it with me'.

Slippage
Pleasant but uneventful.

Zombie Lover
Acoustic guitar trying to be a heavy metal guitar?

Stuck Down A Mineshaft
Okay. Definitely more like Barenaked Ladies than TMBG. Though this 'quirky AOR' stuff isn't my field, obviously.

On A Line
I quite like this one - it's catchy. This is what adults write about when they misremember their angsty teenage relationships.

Meathands · Post by **Meathands** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 5:28 pm

Kapitano,
I'd hate to get into a tangent here that has nothing to do with SongFight!... but I will. Do you really think Captain Beefheart can be classified as novelty music? I can see reasons for the other people on that list but not for Captain Beefheart. To me, Captain Beefheart is the opposite of novelty music; his music is something that must be listened to over and over before it can really be enjoyed. Most people (it seems to me) don't get immediate enjoyment from it but learn to like it on repeated listens. But tell me what you think, I'm interested...

The Bass Player's in Charge (Rule of Thump Reviews)

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