. Evil April
Hell Yeahs - I love this. The melody is great; the riot grrrl punk production is great; the nasty distorted everything is great. Don't change a thing! This is hands down the WINNER in my book! This song rocks, and captures the title perfectly.
Melvin - Heavy, almost reminiscent of smashing pumpkins in tone. Once the vocals kick in, it gets your Weezer vibe again. Actually, the whole thing reminds me of Jawbox. The spacey part is cool, albeit spooky "you deserved my gun"??? I'm worried about your psychological stability. You're not going to go postal on the community if you go another 20 songs are you? The solo out of that is a pretty cool descending bit. I like the deep textured orb of distortion you create for the listener -- one can get lost in it. The voices that emerge out of it at the end are cool. I can't believe you've submitted 20 songs this excellent in a row and finally cracked the streak with a win only a couple of weeks ago. An aside on game theory -- when other songfighters aren't in it, they may listen to 2-3 songs by known-excellent artists. You're clearly one of those. Anytime I see Melvin in a fight, yours is one of the first songs I'll listen to, or even give a "blind vote" for. So don't get so ugly!
Ben Foxworthy - Acoustic story bit about ninja turtles assaulting April to snag her DNA. The crazy lyrical story line is a bit distracting. The progression is fine enough and the vocal accomp in the chorus is a nice touch. I like the intensity of the "I'm not ready" melody. Bob who? The ninja turtle and silly references diminish from your good lyrics like "Evil April, how will you make your life your own when you know you are just an evil clone?"
Fart – Synth, deep reverb drum loop, moaning to strange panning alien melody. This sounds like an exercise in creating a sound scape in a gourge.
Signboy – Pretty hooky groove from the start. I really like the picky guitar verse / chorus structure. The transition and vocal highlights are all well done. I’m confused about the lyrics – Evil April has some ear that doesn’t hear well and cuts your wrists? Melodically the line works great, I’m just not getting the meaning.
Zipline – This is our entry for the week, and I like it conceptually, we just need to re-perform it. The verse melodies are not right at all in this version. I basically messed Glenny up by singing all of Ken’s verse lyrics backwards. Why I did that? Not sure, but it totally screwed up his ability to splice in proper phrases during the editing. What I do love is the 7/8 part Sam introduced, Glenny and Ken’s guitar interactions, and the super-power final outro. I also like the chorus conceptually – with its 4/4,3/4,3/4,4/4 structure, but clip that was used in the 2nd chorus had some serious bass flubs I can’t help noticing. It’ll be fun to do live all worked out, but the recording as it stands has room for improvement.
Wages – Dramatic vocal style piece with extended chord – lick switch backs. This seems crafted to be that stadium rock number when the lights come down and the main singer comes out with nothing but a guitar. You know – that song they play when the ushers start walking around handing out lighters to anyone that doesn’t have a lit cell phone to wave in the sky.
Weakest Suit – The bass tone is nice, the guitar tone is a bit rough. There’s no rhythm section, so the rhythm guitar is holding the time. This could be good, but just need to tighten it up. The circle of life chorus has a nice hook, and flows well to and from the verse. I like how the guitar lick transitions between. Yeah, drums are the #1 request. Then #2 -- maybe strings?
Urban Mail – Good hip hop groove. The fuzz in the back at the beginning is a touch coarse. The she’s so she’s so eviilll line is good. Yeah the fuzz is just too much. You’ve got urban mail is a cool sample. Over all, not really getting into this though.
Tarn Lin Music – Nice piano and steel string duet intro. The vocals are a bit too Broadway for me. For that style they’re well done, but I guess I’m not quite ready to sink into the somber mood this wants me to go into. Now it’s starting to remind me of slow Led Zeppelin, which makes it better. Yeah, this is good. The vocals are clearly nicely delivered – way to push it out!
Ross Durand – Nice slow march and classic folk melody. I like the warning line “don’t go down there alone”. This song sounds soooo familiar! Why? It’s one of those classics that sink into your subconscious. Creepy, foreboding. What’s going to happen?? Oh the horn build up is great. I was getting impatient and eyeing the length just before it kicked in, but the way this builds slowly in instrumentation really delivers. Has a very triumphant crux.
Renwick – That synth is loud and a touch edgy. This is mastered to the max. Drops into a nice lush soft chorus fx quitar and into the wall of distortion. The vocals lead this textural transition well. This song would fit well on an Evil April album with the Melvin tune. You both took the thick slow distorted approach with heavy drums. I like the solo section.
MC Eric – The drum loop is solid. The echo keys could be better, but become hypnotic. The vocals need work – perhaps start with taking the levels to avoid the clipping.
Kill Me Sarah – Nice ?Depeche Mode? minor feel – very 80s slow dance pop which is close to my roots. The vocals maintain the Emo feel nicely, over the distortion section, which is a nice idea, but the I think a touch of tweeking on the heavy distortion tone would improve the effect. The clean tones are really rich and beautiful. Abrupt ending.
Jolly Roger – Monkey beat with harmonized metal riffing intro. The execution was probably difficult – sounds a bit disturbing somehow. Drops into a good vocal verse. The chorus is pitchy and the melody doesn’t seem intentional.
Hostess Mostess – High attack intro with the vocals. The start isn’t really catching me. I like the staccato center section. The nananananas are interesting too. The piano seems EQed all weird – the lows are booming more than they need to. “A way to melt” vocal is excellent – very moving. The e-piano is sounding good on this part too. This song is a journey. You are certainly pushing it out.
HamNoBurger – Or should I say “Chris Rock’s Member Club“… Nah. The chorus has a good dramatic depth to it – I like the composition of that part. Verse 2 the bass picking is busting up the speakers – a touch of compression or a direct box perhaps? Turning it down in the mix may help too, but I think you’re going for that “huge bass” sound which is cool. The bridge and verses work, but the strongest part of this song is definitely the chorus. The solo is moody, nice.
Gammaman – a little too monotone of a verse. The wah guitar is cool. The vox are catching me.
Destruction Enterprise – This is self-indulgent. Not into this. At least it’s short!
dB Collective – The fem vocals are sort of PJ Harvey. Didn’t you guys a fully funk entry a few weeks back? If so, this is pretty different! I like the main / back vocal interaction. The chorus has a nice depth of tones and cool groove – I like it, but kind of want to hear a simple sentence or message for the lyric there rather than repeating Evil April – or maybe repeat one less time?
BiHarmonic Plus – The drum machine is too loud in the mix I think. Let the guitars carry this and tune up the singing. Add a second guitar for texture and pan them hard left/right. The composition has potential – you just need to tighten up the execution. Actually there is a really tight, beautiful song hidden behind a struggling young vocalist on this track. The bass is pretty muddy when it kicks in – not sure what to advise there, but I think the bass should be on more of this track if you can figure out how to adjust its timbre to give it space in the mix. Reminds me of Magnetic Fields.
Back Street Blumpkins – Smooth guitar and cool funk intro. Nice mega-phone vocal production – and let go of it at the right time. You guys would be a great college party band. Very groovy – that strap/heart lyric is too funny. The S/M story line is too funny. OMG this is definitely a one time listen, but pure comedy. The mouth harp rhythm behind the break-down is perfect. Appendix – this is too much. I’m massively offended now, turned off, and don’t ever want to hear anything you do again.
Antisoc – Heavy New Order synth madness with rap over top. Don’t know – I’m burnt out on reviews and this isn’t compelling me to go into detailed thoughts on it.
