Devil's in the Details (Clause 5, Sub-Paragraph d reviews)

[doorite]

Thanks for the reply. I care about all my work. And I hit the caps for u.

ME TOO ! 8)

[Caravan Ray]

Luke Henley – This starts out good and I really like the “water and concrete” line

Yeah - I meant to mention that. That line really annoyed me. "...ratio between water and concrete" makes no sense at all. The ratio between water and cement is very important in determining the workability and ultimate strength of a concrete mix - but water/concrete ratio is just stupid. I'm sure there are a million different metaphors you could come up with link concrete mix design and love - especially if you have ever performed a slump test and watched the long, hard tamping rod sliding rigourously in and out 25 times of a cone filled with a moist, but firm slurry. Mmmmmm....

...but I digress. That line ruined the song for me . It definitely cost you my vote - and quite possibly the vote of any other listeners associated with the construction industry.

[Pierre Menand]

Klownhole – Are all your songs about writing the song you are performing? This is boring and seems to have no point. This is the last Klownhole song I am going to waste time on.

If you only count this one, yes.

I'm sure that I am not alone in wanting you to post your thoughts on what separates a song from sound art - That way we could add them to the manual, and save you some time in the future.

[glennny]

First of all Thank you Sooooo much Blue for the mirror site. My tedious job won't let me listen to Songfight.org, but I can get the mirror.


In order of where my interest lead me.

Ken’s Super Duper Band and Stuff- Wonderful! I love what Glenn Case added to this already great pop song. Production and playing is flawless. Excellent take on the lyrics. This bops and bounces along very nicely. Bridge is beautiful. Contender, Keeper, maybe the one to beat.

Melvin- Guitar is good but a little sloppy, that’s the most minor of nit picks. This is one of the best pre-chorus to chorus choruses I’ve heard. Love the backing vocals. BACK to BACK wins? I wouldn’t be surprised this deserves it. Man Melvin, you game is spot on these days! Great song!

Luke Henley- Why is Furry Pedro such a big fan of yours? Oh, I get it. These vocals are awesome! Very passionate and melodic. Wonderful wonderful moody vocal performance. I don’t mind the length, I’m with you all the way. The acoustic guitar is VERY sloppy. It’s a little distracting. I’m totally down for that super-collab FurryPedro has mentioned. There’s some great stuff here! Keeper for me. This sounds like one take live, which is impressive, but I think the guitar needs to be re-tracked to improve this track.

Monte Carlo- Tempo is rushed. Recording is terrible, but listenable. Guitar solo is cool. Is that you Martin? I don’t care for the distorted vocal effect. Drums are pretty cool despite the tempo issues. Nice little rocker, doesn’t really grab me.

Steve Handpuppet- Wow, I didn’t expect the production to be this good. Not sure about the allusion to your other song. There’s some bad notes in one of those guitars in the solo section. Not a bad happy little pop song. It’s tough to compete with Ken and Melvin though. Good stuff.

Spinlock- Wow, nice a cappella opening. Somebody needs to practice their clapping, which is weird, because everything else is super tight. Great singing! Was this an out take from Rent? Sounds like this was meant for the stage. Impressive!

Signboy- A novelty song. I can’t imagine repeated listens to this. This is entertaining once. This is not as catchy as one would hope. Not a big fan of the guitar tone, or the tedious mid tempo power chords. Nothing really wrong with this song, but nothing to really get into for me either.

Caravan Ray- 12-bar is annoying, but the riff there within is great. Vocals are wonderful especially the falsetto backing vocals. The yeahs are cool too. This is fun. Probably stronger if it was even shorter. I think it’s a good 90 second song. Although I love to hear the falsetto come back. Enjoyable.

Klownhole- Cool riff, huge vocals. I like the organ. Hate the lyrics. I usually try and ignore lyrics, but this time they’re very clear and hard to ignore. Good band, dumb song.

Rabid Garfunkel- This could be Laurie Anderson. I dig. Nice and weird!

Sheail- Great groovy music! This is funny. I like the comedy of it, unfortunately not many repeated listens. It’s too bad the dialog wasn’t a background to a beautiful soaring song, like on Dark Side of the Moon. I liked it, just wish there was singing and vocal melody and stuff.

Ross Durand- Cute song. However, the future is Electric Cars! (I just got a new job). Very nice finger picking. Nice song, still filed under novelty, but one of the better in this week of a lot of novelty songs. Nice singing, good folky tune.

Wreckdom- I love it! Wow this is kooky weird, but captivating and very entertaining. Yet a again Novelty, but there’s a lot more cool music to chew on in this one. Keeper!

Steve Durand- Another cute novelty song. I don’t like the Jimmy Buffet side of you anywhere near as much as the old Chicago side of you. Fun song, but not as catchy as your usual entries.

Urban Mail- snore. If you’re going to rap, please give me some funk or beats that are interesting enough to hold on to.

Renwick- Now this music sounds like Weezer to me, sans the catchy melody and the awesome guitar solos. Pretty cool tune really. Needs a hook. Needs an awesome guitar solo. Not bad.

Ass Bandits- why?

Baker- Thank you for being short. I don’t like any of those tones, or that beat. Not much to this. It didn’t suck. Nothing really of mention either.

DJ Fizzle and MC Schweaty- Rappers with nothing to say. At least I like the beat somewhat.

Dr. Incredible- Major production issues. Is it me or do you want to sing “miss you” by the stones over this? Not much to this, seems like one okay idea that desperately needs better lyrics and a couple more ideas.

Gammaman- Vocoder is way too much. Oddly enough despite being buried in the vocoder this is one of the stronger vocal melodies. Beat is really thin. Chord pattern isn’t that interesting either. Lyrics not grabbing me either. Makes me want to listen to Danse Macabre again.

Weakest Suit- Terrible production, not a bad song. 1988 Simmons electric drum tom?

Into the Lab- why? Were you at gunpoint?

Project D- Usually I wouldn’t like this because of the genre, but swimming in all this drek, this stands out. This is done very well. Especially the banjo! Nice and short! Good job! Catchy and clever. Well done.

MC Eric B- Music needs more chords, more variation. The rap is annoying. Lyrics are dumb.

MC Wanna B- Ummmm, at 1st I was going to say this was mean. Then I realized that I was jealous of MC Eric B. I want a parody done of me or Zipline. PLEASE. I’m impressed with Eric for being such a good sport about this. The funny thing is that the line about too many syllables and being non-rhythmic is still very rhythmic. It works. This is very successful at it’s goals, in a Weird Al kind of way.

To sum up: There are 2 VERY EXCELLENT songs in this fight Ken’s Super Duper Band & Stuff & Melvin. I think my vote swings towards Melvin because of his great chorus. Other really good tunes for me are Wreckdom and Luke Henley.

[Project-D]

Caravan Ray - I like this one, I have no prob. w/12 bar blues, what chord progression hasn't been used a billion times? I like the energy of it, and the vocal delivery, and it's got a little break in the middle for some interest. Short and sweet and doesn't wear out its welcome.

DJ Fizzle and MC Schweaty - One of the better raps I've heard 'round here. Competently executed old school, it's an amusing piss-take on the Snoop thing, and doesn't take itself too seriously.

Melvin - I'll jump on the Melvin ship with everyone else. It reminds me Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Maybe Shipbuilding or I Write the Book I don't mean it's derivative, it's got that same kind of vibe. And that ain't bad.

Sheail - Mmmm, I didn't really listen to the whole thing, I was waiting for some singing. The music was so groovy, it was a shame not to take more advantage and sing over it. Especially that bass line. The voiceover didn't really invite me to listen.

Dr. Incredible - The vocals were basically the same riff, I lost interest after awhile. The drums were a little to high in the mix, I like the unaltered vocals better than the distorted ones. It's a little too much of a one trick pony for me.

Gamma Man - I liked the freakyness of this with all the computerized vocals and what not. I had a hard time determining what was being said sometimes, it didn't take anything away for me, but it might be important to you. The panning effects were interesting with headphones on, but it was mixed waaaaay too bright. I didn't listen to the whole thing because it got a little painful. It needs some serious low end, not just musically but mixing-wise.

Into The Lab - An unaccompanied vocal can work, but you need interesting lyrics, a tune that grabs people, and a voice that can deliver it.

Ken's Super Duper Band - Just the kind of jangly happy pop that makes me want to bop along. I'm not put off by the saturation of it, but I'm listening through headphones at the moment. I'll try another system later. It may be a little by the numbers, but I want to listen again, so maybe not.

Klownhole - Nice crunchy guitar sound, I don't know if the vocal was sufficiently hard to match it. It's a change from everything else but I wasn't really motivated to listen the whole way through.

Luke Henley - Not a bad song, not well recorded though. Sounded like it was recorded with a computer mic, I could tell when you turned your head or pulled away from the mic. The guitar was too thin and the voice too distant. I think it could be pulled off as G&G, you'd need a nice fat guitar sound, maybe a 12 string, The vocals would need a good mic and they need to be right up in your face. I like the emotion of the vocal delivery and the lyrics in places. I listened to almost 6 minutes of it, but it should be half that.

Mc Eric B - Good on you for on mixing it up, I could almost hear the chord progression to your melody. Your backup didn't change though, it just plugged on the same chord. If you had some way to sync your computer w/keyboard you could've added one of your rap beats to it. Bluegrass is usually pretty fast, and the vocal style is very high, and forward in the head. Nasally in fact. It's not great, or super interesting but to me one of your more interesting ones yet.

Mc Wanna B - I though it was a fairly amusing parody of some of the rap on here. Some of it was kind of generic to most nerdcore rap, there were a few lines that poked fun directly at Eric B, but really, he's gotten his chops busted way worse on the boards than in this song. It wouldn't be as amusing if you didn't know the back-story.

Monte Carlo - I was expecting something cool when I hear the intro until the drummer came in. The tempo took awhile to lock in and it was all over the place after that. The material isn't bad just tighten it up, and re-record it.

Rabid Garfunkel - I'm not really into the spoken word thing, but the soundscape is interesting.

Renwick - I can't think of much to say. It's produced well, done well. I like the first line.

Ross Durand - I like the guitar part, I had to listen to the whole thing to see how it turned out. Reminds me of Woody Guthrie's Talking Dust Bowl, I can see this being a favorite with the folk crowd. There's a lot of songs that channel Talking Dust Bowl but few do it so cleverly.

Sign Boy - "ROCK STAR!" Heh. Silly, and fun. Something about the guitar sound I don't quite like, but I listened to the whole thing.

Spinlock - Good intro, never thought I'd hear a gospel choir influence, but I'm glad you did it. One of my favorites for some reason.

Steve Durand - Not bad, I'd like to hear the vocals a little higher in your range, I miss the horns from last week. It didn't rock my face, but it was pleasant and likable.

Steve Hand Puppet - The chorus w/the tambourine was catchy, but I wasn't a fan of the mix, the back up vocals needed to be louder, I would've like you to commit more to the lead vocal delivery, I think this song has some potential.

Urban Mail - Ok, I don't want to come of as a bastard, but anyway... Every song (not rap) on here distinguishes itself as being different from the others whether in chord progression, instrumentation, guitar style, overall style, whatever, there's lot's of things to be different. It's hard to distinguish yourself when you talk over music. Really, Mc Eric's stands out more because he tries to sing, and it's got a bluegrass beat. I mean, what the hell, bluegrass rap? But at least I remember it. Mc Fizzle and Co, manage to pull it off, and don't take themselves so seriously, so I give them a pass, but this is more of the same. It doesn't even distinguish itself by sucking.

The Weakest Suit - The electronic drums are a little odd here, I think they could've been left out. They're like someone yelling "BOO!" at you when you least expect it. Repeatedly. The rest of it's ok though.

Wreckdom - I like the vocal on "You are the queen, baby shake your thing" if you'd carried that throughout I'd have liked it better, the un-intelligible blabbering, was probably my favorite part. Go even more nuts next time.

[signboy]

Thanks for catching that little cameo, Caravan Ray. I had a bitch of a time convincing him to do it, and I'd hate to think it was wasted.

[MC Eric B]

Project-D - I did actually add a few hip-hop sounds to it, but I ended up making them pretty soft in the mix because most of them did not fit in too well.

=====================
Mc Eric B - If you had some way to sync your computer w/keyboard you could've added one of your rap beats to it.
=====================

[Project-D]

Project-D - I did actually add a few hip-hop sounds to it, but I ended up making them pretty soft in the mix because most of them did not fit in too well.

Well, they are on opposite sides of the spectrum. but I like that you tried something different. There's a Swedish outfit called Rednex that mixed bluegrass with techno and manages to pull it off if you like that sort of thing. Their biggest song was Cotton Eyed Joe

[MC Eric B]

Yes, I remember Cotton Eyed Joe now that you mention it. I have not heard that in a long long time.

[Tex Beaumont]

Project-D - I did actually add a few hip-hop sounds to it, but I ended up making them pretty soft in the mix because most of them did not fit in too well.

Well, they are on opposite sides of the spectrum.

Hip-hop and bluegrass are far from opposite sides of the spectrum. More like in-bred cousins. Read this months National Geographic magazine. It has a nice colour family tree and everything.

[Meatwad]

I'm going to start campaigning for the position of King of Not My Thing. Heh.

I think you will have trouble unseating the encumbent.

[Project-D]

Thanks for the read Tex, good article.

because I realize to my horror that rap—music seemingly without melody, sensibility, instruments, verse, or harmony, music with no beginning, end, or middle, music that doesn't even seem to be music

Read the article for the rest...

[Rabid Garfunkel]

I think you will have trouble unseating the encumbent.

Good point. Much rather be a Duchess, anyway.

[obscurity]

Thanks for the reply. I care about all my work. And I hit the caps for u. :D

ME TOO ! 8)

OK, now that was fucking funny!

[WeaselSlayer]

Luke Henley - Not a bad song, not well recorded though. Sounded like it was recorded with a computer mic, I could tell when you turned your head or pulled away from the mic. The guitar was too thin and the voice too distant. I think it could be pulled off as G&G, you'd need a nice fat guitar sound, maybe a 12 string, The vocals would need a good mic and they need to be right up in your face. I like the emotion of the vocal delivery and the lyrics in places. I listened to almost 6 minutes of it, but it should be half that.

Let me get right on that shopping list, considering I just found out I'm officially broke today.

[MUMBLES-TheRedEyedSamurai]

My top 3 picks for best song are:

1.Luke Henley-I had to wave a lighter around for this one.

2.Spinlock-It's got a euro kinda feeling.Very feel good.

3.Dj Fizzle and MC Schweaty-Thats sum funk

[ken]

Caravan Ray: Are your vocals off to the left a little bit? A very Tex Beaumont style track. Reminiscent of The Price is Right.

DJ Fizzle and MC Schweaty: You should spend more time editing your lyrics. There are some good parts to this song, but most of it feels like filler. Next time, try writing more than you need and then just keep the good bits.

Dr. Incredible: Drums sound good. Bass is kind of low and back in the mix. Vocals are pretty bad. Overall, this song is plodding and kind of boring. At times it has a cool Classic Rock vibe like Cream or something, but since it is essentially the same riff the whole time, it is just repetitive. Try to vary it up more and put some feeling in your vocals.

Gamma Man: I liked the panning at first, but quickly it just makes me dizzy. I'm not a fan of the vocoder vocals. They get lost in the mix of the music.

Into the Lab: Not sure what to say about this song. It has some decent lines in the lyrics. The melody is pretty static and it is badly recorded.

Ken's SDBnS: Such a dense mix. The bounciness of this song pleases me. Thanks to Glen Case for back up vocals and piano. This mix could certainly use some space.

Klownhole: Klownhole is always rocking! Verses are really pitchy. Is that on purpose? The chorus is nice. Overall, the vocals/lyrics sound like they were made up and recording in one take. I think I hear some sweet keys in the background of this track.

Luke Henley: Nice. Sounds like a one mic live take. Try holding your head still when you do this. It sounds weird when you move your head away. Lyrics get pretty meaningless as the song progresses. At 3 minutes I am already done with this song. You could have taken those 6 minutes and made one good 3 minute song out of it. I'm very tempted to skip to the next song at this point. 4:45 - why is this song still happening?

MC Eric B: This is pretty cute. It has a lot of cute lines. Overall, though it sounds pretty amateur.

MC Wanna B: For using lofi instruments, this track sounds pretty good. I'm a fan of casio though.

Melvin: Immediately love the guitar. I love the harmonies on the chorus. I like where the chorus goes, but I don't think the transition from verse to chorus and back works very well. Really excellent back up vox!

Monte Carlo: I like the guitars. They are kind of Rolling Stonesy. Tempo starting speeding up when the drums kick in. This song doesn't really go anywhere.

Project D: Nice country tune. I hope you are really playing the banjo on this song. Songfight needs more country. Overall, this song sounds really good just kind of boring.

Rabid Garfunkel: Great opening. This track is really good. I'm trying to think of how to categorize it. At times, it reminds me of Zappa. At other times, spoken word. Very original and very good.

Renwick: The music for this is very Weezer. The vocals not so much, but still good. Your melody isn't very exciting. The drum beat is nice in the chorus.

Ross Durand: Nice finger picking! I have been really wanting a song in this fight to have strong lyrics and tell a story. I am enjoying your story. I really like the lists.

Sheail: I'm not interested in the sketch going on. I like the bouncy groove in the background. I wish the song was based on this instead of whatever the announcer is saying.

Signboy: This is okay. There is a lot going on with the different parts. Some are better than others.

Spinlock: Great a capella intro. Picks up nicely when the piano comes in. Way to keep things moving by adding hand claps. This is my favorite song so far! Good work.

Steve Durand: This song took a while to grab me. Vocals are very nice.

Steve Hand Puppets: This is a nice song. The mix could be better. There are some sour notes in the solo. I think you did a good job with the arrangement on this song. Nice ending!

Urban Mail: This song is unremarkable. I like that you have a lot of different vocalists.

The Weakest Suit: There is an okay song here with an odd arrangement. Okay.

WreckdoM: Thanks for being last in this fight. A song I can sink my teeth into. Interesting as always. Sounds great too!

That was a lot to listen to in one sitting. I'm off to Guitar Center.

Ken

[Project-D]

Quote:

I hope you are really playing the banjo on this song

Yes, yes I did play the banjo. If it's a stringed instrument I played it.

[spinlock]

Thanks for the reviews. Especially to the person who compared it to a high-school choir. That's better than we were expecting.

I’m curious if you touched up the lows and highs with a shifter or something

Nope, this is just me and Xan, pretty much raw. Totally overstretched my range on it, which is why it gets a bit thin and out of control at the top and bottom ends.

It ended up with 12 voice layers, 4 - 6 of which had both of us singing/clapping on. A problem we kept running into was if you sing the same thing yourself, you don't get the chunky sound a real choir would get.
In the end we tried singing it in both a throaty way and a lippy way. We didn't think to use shifters, though that'll be something to try if we ever do a gospel song again.

Somebody needs to practice their clapping, which is weird, because everything else is super tight.... Was this an out take from Rent? Sounds like this was meant for the stage.

Yes. Clapping was hard. At first they were just too thin, even though there were ~ 12 claps at once, it sounded like 2 people clapping. So we tried to clap a little out of time for each clap. I'm sure there's a better solution, but at the time it wasn't obvious.

As the idea came after seeing this, I guess you can say it was meant for the stage. Haven't seen rent, though, is it good?
Stick Magnetic Ribbons on your Suv

Spinlock-It's got a euro kinda feeling.

Thanks .. . .. . what does that mean?

[Rabid Garfunkel]

It ended up with 12 voice layers, 4 - 6 of which had both of us singing/clapping on. A problem we kept running into was if you sing the same thing yourself, you don't get the chunky sound a real choir would get.

Did you spread the individual voice tracks across the entire panning space (for the choral feel)? Y'know, one of 'em hard left, one middle left, one just off center-left, etc. A bit more reverb than you'd normally use on the choir-ish tracks also helps the illusion along.

But if the Red Army Men's Chorus-esque vocals in my entry this week don't sound right (all 4 tracks of it), choir-wise, then by all means ignore the above

[spinlock]

You know what. We didn't.
Not only that, I just tried that and it makes a lot of difference. Although some of the quieter voices disappear, the overall sound is a lot more choir-y.
Thanks for the tips

[lesChaps]

Klownhole – Are all your songs about writing the song you are performing? This is boring and seems to have no point. This is the last Klownhole song I am going to waste time on.

Excellent. Welcome to our killfile, jack.