... And They're All On These Boards!! (Half a Million Nerds)

[MisterQuoons]

There's a lot of things going on in that song to hate but this is just a non sequitur that doesn't really have any relevance anywhere. There might be very little variation going on but that complaint doesn't hold water because it might not be getting delivered to you in your usual beautifully wrapped package with a pretty, intricately tied bow and instead its getting driven to you in a clunky, old beat up car thats seemingly making random noises and you want to hide in your house and pretend its not getting delivered but its driving straight up to your door and saying sup, bro, I'm here, deal with it and if you don't answer the door, its just gonna chill on your porch until you recognize whats going on because its not really going a lot of places if you hadn't noticed and if you never do acknowledge its existence, it'll probably get distracted by something else eventually and head off in some other direction through your bushes, but it was there, regardless, and if you didn't like it, you didn't like it, who likes cars driving up on their porches anyway, I don't know, but honk honk, come out from behind the sofa and tell the car its not pretty enough for your garage and you never want to sit in it in the daylight without coming up with excuses that aren't applicable because if you wait too long your bushes will get ruined and who wants ruined bushes? I mean, really.

Dude, that was pretty much the best run-on sentence I've read since that one girl's long-ass speech in American Gods. You should totally use that as your sig.

[MisterQuoons]

Reviews, appearing in the order they were listened to.

Coder Lyte - Very boss. A-.

Manatee Matinee - not that bad. not that good either. B-

Rabid Garfunkel - This is one of my absolute favorites from this fight. Squirrel Nut Zippers on hallucinogens meets retro-fifties garage R&B. Very nice. A+

Mr. Beany - I feel like I just stepped into the world's geekiest beat dive. I give it two snaps in a circle. C+

Steve Durand - Another one of my personal favorites from this fight. A+

Berkeley Social Scene - Catchy enough I guess, but doesn't really stand out. This is the kind of song that I would expect to hear on a college radio station, and I would probably tap my fingers to it a little, but would not bother to find out who the band was. D+

Heine - Enjoyed the little synth pad and piano harmony in the background. This is a pretty well recorded song. A-

Andrew Reist - I never thought that it would be possible for someone to write a rap song in the style of Insane Clown Posse, and actually manage to make it suck worse than they do. Please, please don't ever do this again. F-

Trick Soup - Now this I like. Nice little jam here. Lyrics are a bit weak, but otherwise quite good. A+, with extra credit points given for the vocals by "Alex".

R. Mosquito - Like the concept. Could have been more interesting. C+

Paco - Another filthy little punk classic. A-

The Tee - Not a bad song in itself. I feel like it needs to be either a solo guitar piece, or that it needs something else besides the bass to accompany it. B-

Chadderandom Abyss - I really dig this one. Your experimental pieces are getting more and more interesting each week. A+

PositiveNegative - Hmm. What can I say, I dig mellow synthesizer music, and this is a pretty nicely layered little song. Getting a melodic progression using nothing but pads that is interesting enough to keep people listening can be hard to do. This deserves a solid A.

Abominominous - AWESOME. This song will probably cause some despondent teenager to kill his math teacher with a shovel, and then dump the body on his ex-girlfriend's porch. Well done, my friend. A+, with extra credit points given for freakiness.

JK Chrvt - Catchy without being too catchy. Needs variation, and more interesting lyrics, but otherwise not bad. B+

Cattlebat - This is a really cool song. It sounds like an edgier version of Weird Al Yankovic, with maybe a little bit of Primus thrown into the mix. Liked the way the drums were recorded; very garage. Solid A.

Slats - Good song, rather weak lyrics. B+

Weakest Suit - Nice. This is a rather jazzy fight, it seems to me. Anyway, I think of everything I've heard of yours, this is by far my favorite. I definitely prefer the full-band over the solo acoustic. A-

MC Milkplus - Word, I can bump this shit. I would have been pissed if a fight with a title like this didn't have at least one really good nerdcore offering. A+, with extra credit points given for t3h ph4tz0rz.

Jan Kruger - I agree, overdubbing is fun. However, this tune sounds really familiar, and it's bugging me that I can't remember where I heard it. B-

My votes this week go to Abominominous, Rabid Garfunkel, Milkplus, and Trick Soup, in that order.

[Heine]

Hello everybody, here's how this fight feels to me...


Trick Soup - Who is "Alex"? I was sure, I heard Frank Black singing... Anyway, very nice song. Vote! (And under my old sofa there's still my Commodore 64...)

The Weakest Suit - Nice. Maybe the only love song around.

MC Milk-Plus - Nice groove. The chorus is catchy and reminds me a bit of Captain Sensible in a nice way... but nerdy as I am, I'm not a big fan of four-letter words.

Berkeley Social Scene - One of my favorites. Like the guitar lines with hard panning. The vocals fit very well into this kind of music.

Rabid Garfunkel - Quality is fine. But I don't understand how it relates to that nerds thing.

Mr. Beany, you said you had a band - Word art. Melody missing.

Jk Chrvt - I like the chorus with clean / distorted vocals. It's simple but that's Rock'n'Roll!

The Chadderandom Abyss - Shorter now. But still weird. I start to get into this. The beat carries the chorus. That makes it easier for me. The stereo soundscape is well done.

the tee - Simple and fine. Nice harmonies.

cattle bat - Groovy and catchy. But short.

R. Mosquito - Listening to it was 'some great reward' to me, the chorus let me see some Sparks. More bass would be nice, vocals are a bit too loud. But it's a song fight: Composition and direction are cool.

coder_lyte() - One of my favorites. Good feeling for melodies. You bring back the early 80s to me. Fine work. Nice story. But vocals sound like you were a little insecure. (That's also one of my everlasting problems, so I tried some effects on my vocals like flanging or distortion. Jk Chrvt uses it also and it works well.) Overall the song touched me, I enjoyed it several times; you got my vote!

Abominominous - Quite a lot of changes in only 2 minutes. I enjoyed the second minute more than the first.

Slats - Well, I put all entries onto CD to listen to them in my car. Next morning your song was the first I wanted to hear! Well it is not perfect, but I know where you wanted to go. I love that synth melody. Nice idea to do a White Room WahWah (maybe a bit too loud). It is my very favorite tune, so there's no other way but: Vote!

Steve Durand - Is it 1920s music? Sophisticated! I like the lyrics. It works well together.

Andrew Reist - Call me nerdy, but I don't like words like ****suckers. The backing track fits well.

Manatee Matinee - Tetris? I like the classical struktures of the (programmed?) keyboard solo (maybe touched by Deep Purple reminding me of Hackett's Giant Hogweed guitar).

PositiveNegative - This one impresses me. I like these vocals. It's like a part from a concept album and it keeps me wondering what will be next. I want to hear more. Vote.

Paco del Stinko - Kind of progressive. I like the solos.

Jan Krueger - I'm a big fan of your backings and harmonies, they are so close. Nice story. And somehow I knew that I was not the only one to rhyme nerds with hurts. Vote!

Heine - I wanted to do something shorter without drum loops. Only one guitar, not edited. And of course keybords. My first trip into polyphonic harmony vocals.

...paragons of (if I may) teutonic gloominess...

Well, I never reflected my writing, but maybe you are right. If I ever try to create a german epic metal band, it'll be the „Paragons of Teutonic Gloominess“. Cool. - P.S.: I enjoyed your Rattlesnake video very much!

bye
h.

[MisterQuoons]

Who is "Alex"?

"Alex" is the name of the newest text-to-speech voice that Apple has come up with. My friend bought a new mac last year, and we've had quite a bit of fun playing around with that voice.

[Teplin]

Abominominous - Delightfully chaotic. I like all the changes and the sounds. And the distorted drums that come in. Are there two people singing, or one person doing two different voices? One of them reminds me of Crash Test Dummies. Mmm mmm mmm. Yes, you have pleased me greatly.

the Tee - Another unique vocal. I'm waiting for more to happen. Ok, I like those background vocals. I wonder, again, if this is more than one person. I'm liking the delay. A worthy effort.

Paco Del Stinko - I'd probably be more into this if I hadn't heard the Abominominous track first. I'm not sure what the lyrics are about, but I'm having fun and you rock at what you do. The only reason this my least favorite of your entries I've heard so far is because it's not really doing anything different.

Jk Chrvt - I like that you put different effects on different parts of the vocal. Attention to detail, that. This is like the anti-"we don't need no education" song. Gold star.

Heine - You've really captured the heartbreak of today's modern nerd. Did I make a Pink Floyd comment about you last time? Because I'm getting that vibe again. A good song but not spectacular.

Slats - You, my friend, have got an ear for a good lead guitar tone, if I remember correctly I was fond of your last one too. Anyway, the wah guitar is my favorite part of the song. Background vocals aren't working as well as your Hollywood Wax entry, for some reason. It's like the song as a whole doesn't really... hang together that well?

Cattle Bat - This is the nerdiest sounding song I've heard so far. Could have been a contender if the production quality wasn't abysmal and the bass wasn't too loud. It's catchy, but it sounds like it was recorded on an answering machine with a towel wrapped around it.

Mr. Beany, you said you had a band - Yes, and where is it when you need it most?

Coderlyte - Man, for some reason this sounds like karaoke night. My beef is with your sounds, not your musicianship or songwriting. It's just that the sounds you chose this time remind me of some of the worst the 80's had to offer *shudder*. It's a no sell.

MC Milk Plus - This is well done. A UK accent makes rap so much more enjoyable to listen to. I wish it had more variation. I wish most rap had more variation. But nice groove and synths.

Andrew Reist - Well I like the beat. The EQ is off, as other have remarked. I start out intrigued because it's a slower pace than most rap I've heard, but the intrigue withers away when I realize how little variation there is.

Chadderandom Abyss - Screw traditional song structure, I'm all about texture. I love the atmosphere you've created with all your new instruments. It makes me feel like I'm in a black and green jungle. The drums that come and go are perfection. I think it... Hang on, let me try something.... yep it's even better with a bit of reverb. A keeper and a vote. Lyrically it's unique, I like the concept of you having a trained army of birds that terrify anyone intelligent enough to know they're a threat. Perhaps it's limited to half a million nerds because that's all that live in your area... the birds can't have unlimited range, after all.

Berkley Social Scene - Pretty rockin, especially the guitars. What a nice solo. Vocals are the weakest link. Lyrics are good when I can hear and understand them. I'd watch a tv series based on this.

Steve Durand - Ukulele rules. This genre rules. Those drums kick ass. If I could change anything, I would have had you go more over the top with the vocals. Just as a test, I EQed it, removing some of the bass and boosting it at 2000 hz. It sounds closer to an old recording now, and I like it that much better.

Weakest Suit - Maybe the best thing I've heard from you

Rabid Garfunkel - I've already talked about the fact that I dig this. I'm a fan of both bari sax and cats, and I don't have a problem with instrumentals.

Manatee Matinee - I can't find anything about this to dislike. Ok, maybe the vocals on the chorus. But that's easy enough to forgive, because the sounds you picked are doing it for me, and the song itself is so quirky.

R. Mosquito - Stop, you're blinding me with science! I like these synths too. This reminds me of the 80's stuff I actually like. Vocals on the verses are a bit uneven, could have used some compression. Chorus vocals are awesome. The overall EQ is a bit too treble-y.

Jan Kruger - I like it quite a bit. All the vocal parts are well done. Nice beatboxing.

Positive Negative - This is just the thing to end on. Nice and peaceful, just as I was starting to get tired. This sounds like a professional song in the genre. Yes, right about now this is very pleasant. My favorite part is that swirling in the outro.

Trick Soup - Big thanks to Chadder and Fluffy for the computer voice parts. Go Alex! I'm happy enough with this. I'd never tried to layer kazoos before and I was pleasantly surprised. It would have been better to have a few different people singing the chorus instead of the pitch shifting, but I don't think it turned out too bad. Fun project.

Hey Mister Quoons, would you mind talking about the lyrical weakness? Is was the UNIX manual cliche, wasn't it?

Good fight, everyone.

[Chadderandom]

yep it's even better with a bit of reverb.

Hahahahahaaaaa. WHAT? There are layers in that song that are pretty delayed and reverbed out. How much is a bit? Maybe I'm over-estimating your use but I ran it through some reverb after reading that and no matter the settings, the rest of the song is alright, but the guitar turns into a distracting buzzy monster, if you somehow made it better without the buzziness, I'd like to hear it. Unless you like the extra buzz. Actually, if I knew thats what would happen it I ran it through heavy reverb, I might've actually tried it out in the mix intentionally.

[Teplin]

yep it's even better with a bit of reverb.

Hahahahahaaaaa. WHAT? There are layers in that song that are pretty delayed and reverbed out. How much is a bit? Maybe I'm over-estimating your use but I ran it through some reverb after reading that and no matter the settings, the rest of the song is alright, but the guitar turns into a distracting buzzy monster, if you somehow made it better without the buzziness, I'd like to hear it. Unless you like the extra buzz. Actually, if I knew thats what would happen it I ran it through heavy reverb, I might've actually tried it out in the mix intentionally.

Oh, yeah, I didn't mean to imply that you didn't use any reverb or delay. Should have said "a bit of extra reverb". I'm not getting the problem with monster buzz, but... two things. It is subtle... I'm not drenching it in reverb. But enough that you can definitely notice a difference. And, it can make all the difference what kind of reverb you use. I'm not using an artificial reverb with a lot of treble. I almost always prefer a convolution reverb of a real space.

In the case of your song, I love that crazy zoo/jungle atmosphere, and thought the reverb might draw me into it even further. And, it works. I close my eyes and I'm there, strange birds in the trees and something growling at me from the underbrush.

Your mileage may vary, of course, so better if you listen for yourself. Lets see if it'll let me attach it here... ok it won't let me, I didn't think it would but I hoped. PM me with your email, and I'll send you my "remastered" version.

[ElaineDiMasi]

Hey Mister Quoons, would you mind talking about the lyrical weakness? Is was the UNIX manual cliche, wasn't it?

You'd think. No one reads Unix manuals for fun. They read them to look stuff up when they can't figure it out by typing --help on the command line. And the hackers who do think this stuff is fun don't seem to need no stinking manuals. For fun they read slashdot. ... Hey, let's have a sidefight called "Lyrics Lies"! (But not Linux Lies.)

[mrbeany]

Hey Mister Quoons, would you mind talking about the lyrical weakness? Is was the UNIX manual cliche, wasn't it?

You'd think. No one reads Unix manuals for fun. They read them to look stuff up when they can't figure it out by typing --help on the command line. And the hackers who do think this stuff is fun don't seem to need no stinking manuals. For fun they read slashdot. ... Hey, let's have a sidefight called "Lyrics Lies"! (But not Linux Lies.)

Oh, you know, I thought it was the UNIX part that made it more of a lie than the manual part.

I mean, nobody needs the paper, to be sure, but there's this handy little command "man" that displays the manual page for you.

I totally dig in to man pages for fun. I've been doing it off and on for years. It works well for me, as I periodically find a tool I use regularly has added a great new command-line option I wouldn't know about if I didn't periodically check the man page. (Like, say, modern versions of 'grep' support a -r/--recursive option that makes things much easier than the old "find | xargs grep" thing you used to need to do... and find's -exec option has a '+' terminator which changes the behavior compared to the old ';' terminator...)

It is just the "UNIX" part. Linux would've have the same syllables, and probably would've made it sound more legit. Hmm... yeah, UNIX manuals would've made sense if you actually read manuals for multiple systems, but in the song I don't think it would fly as well as having a specific UNIX-like system mentioned.

[Paco Del Stinko]

I'll be glad to elaborate further. Just ask nicely, thank you.

Abominominous - Demented and face pounding, all in an action packed two minute epic. I don't imagine too many people humming this to themselves as they walk down the street, minus your local town sociopath. But the strangulated voice(s) are fab. Great guitar and synth textures that often blend together enough to not distinguish between them. Great stuff by one of my favorite SF!ers.

Andrew Reist - I dig the slow-mo vibe and dark mood of this, but think a change-up somewhere would be nice. Or a tempo change. The bass line/loop is effective as both bottom end and hook, so good job there. Vocal is sinister at times and I reckon that you got what you were looking for overall. Looking for a little more variety on this end, though.

Berkeley Social Scene - Gotta jump on the too loud guitar bandwagon here, especially the left side. While production should be secondary to song, it does distract a bit. They sound great though, those guitars do. Anyway, the chorus is quite good and works better each time it passes on both first and subsequent listens. I think the solo works fine as well, and dig the rhythmic changeup very much. A bit wobbly, initially, but gains strength by it's end, it doesn't feel four and a half minutes long like some songs do.

cattle bat - I like the garagey fun vibe to this. Just enough trash in the can and a hint of Fat Albert. It's not quite reaching the brass ring, charm-wise, but would suit well as the lead-in for the next track on the album. Good progressions and vocal action all done well and not abused. Good work, keep'em coming.

The Chadderandom Abyss - I too enjoy this piece most of your entries. However, at times you can almost see where this was stitched together via computer screen and not grown organically. Get this borderline madness to sound straight from the cosmos instead of the chip and you'll have nailed it. Still, nice textures and spaces both deep and near. While I enjoy the vocals I'd love to hear you lose your mind and self consciousness a bit. Tidy length too.

coder_lyte() - Nice mood here, all serious and brooding in presentation. I'd like to hear something a little smoother in the mix, like a synth pad more drawn out, to add just a bit of soarage here. I like the guitar lines a lot and the vocal melody works well if delivered a bit hesitantly. Good tune despite a somewhat inconclusive ending.

Heine - Good progression and melody line, both sound nice as well. I think that the accompaniment is just right, not too schmaltzy or anything. Might benefit from some reverbed out tambourine hits in the appropriate sections, but percussion isn't needed. Backing voices are on the right page if a bit shaky. Nice tune.

Jan Krueger - Nice work. Both melody and chord structures are very well done and keep your interest through the entire song. There's just enough variation to keep it fresh but not all manic and leapfrogging over itself. Your music is identifiable as yours, as you mentioned about me as well, and that's a good thing I think. Of course, yours has more substance to it, but I'm OK with that as well!. Now, just learn how to spell your own name right.

Jk Chrvt - I like the drive of this and especially like it when it changes to the chorus. Straight forward and no nonsense. Hate to get all nutty uncle on ya, but boy will you roll your eyes when you listen back to this song in a bunch of years and listen to your voice. Chortle chortle. However, it works great in the context of the song. Good leads and chord work, the drums might have a few too many kicks in them, making them a bit sloppy feeling.

Manatee Matinee - I like the dark weirdness of this at the start and the conquering the world vibe to the grandiose music. Great arpeggio stuff. The vocal is truly worthy of nerd king stats, at least for the week. I think the last third of the song kind of fell flat, excitement-wise, as the breakdown kind of fell apart. Nice high note ending, though.

MC Milk-Plus - Long time no hear. Great rhythm and groove. I like the enthusiastic delivery, very excellent and professional sounding. Nice accents throughout the song, keeping it interesting but not overcrowded. I almost want to hear a booming voice of god voice come in somewhere, but I guess that might bump some cool out of the way and be too nerdy. Good stuff.

Mr. Beany, you said you had a band - I like this, but would probably side with the not a song camp. Still, enjoyable bit of beatitude and the voice alterations did come out good. Works well as an intro.

Paco del Stinko - Done very hastily after a multi day power outage. The lead section was supposed to be all Aerosmithy. Old Aerosmith, that is. Cheap. Guitars are all amped, left one through a fuzz box.

PositiveNegative - I very much like the glacier motion feel to this, and it helps that it's all white and snow covered outside my window. Perfect for lying down with headphones on and floating away to, it wouldn't make for good driving music. Doesn't have to, I suppose. It's nice how a lot can be implied with a little, which doesn't always work, but it does here.

Rabid Garfunkel - I love this. The Waitsian vibe nearly begs one to yell "one step beyond" at times, but still maintains its own identity. Widdle schmoogy cat is kind of scary sounding at times, it's good you posted her picture to see how cute she is. While I can understand peoples reluctance to accept the lack of proper vocals, I think the nerd vibe is quite well represented via the music and cattitude. Nice roomy ambiance.

R. Mosquito - Mega-nerdage. From the synth lines and vocals to the lyrics, this brings the dorkitude. I like the backing vocals as well, nicely done and not all in the way. I was expecting another verse, but like the build up and climax better, I think. Needs some of those synth tom fills, like in an old Cars tune or Flock o' Gulls.

Slats - Sounds kind of like watered down Blue Oyster Cult. I want to like this for more than the idea, but I don't think it came together well. An 'A' for intent, 'D' for execution, I'm afraid. I very much like the chorused out lead on the left side a couple of minutes in, though. I'm also a big wah fan and yours is appropriately skanky. But while I'm beatin' on ya a bit, bring on the wah fight!

Steve Durand - I think this takes the nerd cake this week. I think your voice sounds good up high like this and your excellent horns are even better here this week. Clarinet! C'mon, does it get nerdier than that? (I think it's great, as probably most do around here, but you know how the popular kids feel. Idiots.) Love the progressions, question mark for the ending. One of the best songs, if not winner, of the week.

the tee - Simple progression works well, like most do and should. I like the bass line as well, but don't think it necessarily works well here, as in, this song. And where did it go? I think a more simple one throughout would've worked better. Loose and incomplete feeling, but a decent idea for a tune.

Trick Soup - I really like the chorus although the verses grew on me after repeated listens. Even though I'm a big kazoo fan, I didn't think the solo section worked well here, kind of took some steam out of the song somehow. The main vocal is good, I like the effect on it as well.

The Weakest Suit - Best part is the simple keyboard hooks. Hardly anything to it, but catches you right in the gums. A bass line the walked during parts might be nice her. Not all the way through, but during key lines and the bridge especially. Nice and sunny if a bit incomplete feeling at the ending.

[The Weakest Suit]

The Weakest Suit - Best part is the simple keyboard hooks. Hardly anything to it, but catches you right in the gums. A bass line the walked during parts might be nice her. Not all the way through, but during key lines and the bridge especially. Nice and sunny if a bit incomplete feeling at the ending.

thanks for the review. it's all guitar though. no keyboard. and i did want to do a walking bass but didn't have time to figure out the right notes while recording.

[Teplin]

Hey Mister Quoons, would you mind talking about the lyrical weakness? Is was the UNIX manual cliche, wasn't it?

You'd think. No one reads Unix manuals for fun. They read them to look stuff up when they can't figure it out by typing --help on the command line. And the hackers who do think this stuff is fun don't seem to need no stinking manuals. For fun they read slashdot. ... Hey, let's have a sidefight called "Lyrics Lies"! (But not Linux Lies.)

Oh, you know, I thought it was the UNIX part that made it more of a lie than the manual part. I mean, nobody needs the paper, to be sure, but there's this handy little command "man" that displays the manual page for you.

Yeah, If you don't think anyone ever reads an operating system manual for the sheer pleasure of doing so, you're underestimating how nerdy people can be. And I'm sure at some point in time someone has.. printed out.. the... man... pages.... Aw, fudge, you got me.

[ElaineDiMasi]

I thought about this as I posted it. Flushing you guys out was going to be too easy, really.

[Chadderandom]

Should have said "a bit of extra reverb". I'm not getting the problem with monster buzz, but... It is subtle... I'm not drenching it in reverb.

Well, the fact that there was already what I thought was enough reverb on the track made me believe you were going heavy on it.

While I enjoy the vocals I'd love to hear you lose your mind and self consciousness a bit.

That would be more possible if everything was more organic and being played live, since a live performance is where I can become one with the music and step inside the character, but since I'm the only one doing anything, sometimes by the time I get to the vocals, its just me laying down the vocals and the feeling really isn't there for it like it should be, since everything is so canned at that point. And that definitely applies to this song.

So, maybe I should be trying for more organic and less, uh, musically creative, because I kind of do like it when my voice sounds more emotionally invested in whatever the subject matter of the song is. Though depending on how dark the subject matter is, it can start to sound a little creepy and uncomfortable for listeners. Its just really hard to be organic when it comes to the recording process since I have to follow whatever dumb idea pops into my head and then there's no turning back once its in my head.

[jimtyrrell]

It’s been too long. Here’s my reviews, in which I like something about everything, and make up a bunch of words.

Abominominous – Nice Mr. Bungle-esque piece of business here. Over too soon, which is always a good sign.

Andrew Reist – Good prosody, and a few clever turns of phrase. I dig the slow jam feel, but at about 2:00 I find myself looking for a changeup. The vocal delivery is a real good effort. Nice job getting yourself ‘in character’.

Berkeley Social Scene – Slight pitchiness in the vocals shaves a couple points off an otherwise decent score. Good hooky chorus. I like that bridge a lot too.

Cattle Bat – I need to read the lyrics on this one. As it is, it’s a funny little lo-fi novelty with an unabashedly pentatonic guitar solo and an ending that leaves me wondering what the Hell happened.

The Chadderandom Abyss – I spent the first minute waiting for the song to get started. It wasn’t an unpleasant minute or anything. But it was a little disappointing to discover that the vocals were going to stay in back behind that slide whistle business.

Coder_lyte() – Can’t argue with the premise here. I like a good story song. And the Flansburghy vocals make sense in this context too. The ending feels unfinished (if that’s possible).

Heine – This is a tough title to take this seriously. But I like the atmosphere created in this one. You win the ‘song I’d most like to cover’ award, if that can be said to be an award, I guess. Great ending.

Jan Krueger – All right! Extra points for effort. The chorus is a very nice payoff. Actually, I’m impressed with this arrangement all the way through. The lead vocal comes off a bit goofy in a couple spots, but it’s not enough to knock this out of the top spot. For now.

Jk Chrvt – There’s a bunch that should bother me about this: The reedy youth vocals, the strict major-chord progressions with the strict pentatonic leads overtop, the incessant drum loop that’s left to chug through where there should be a rockin’ fill, et cetera. Somehow, a song about half a million nerds turns these things into endearing qualities. This title was made for Song Fight.

Manatee Matinee – I’ve been playing a lot of Tetris lately. So you got my attention. Boy, the instrumental bit starting at :55 is pretty fine. The ‘Super Mario underground level’ joke takes a little too long to tell. The end is funny and just right though.

MC Milk-Plus – You’re good at this. A bit corny, but that’s the title’s fault as much as it is yours. I’d like the vocals to be a bit more out front. Great beat.

Mr. Beany, you said you had a band – Love the band name. Wish it weren’t true though. That’s really it, huh? Let me listen again, at least… okay, an interesting piece of work, I suppose. But tell me, Mr. Beany; did you think it would hold up in competition against musical compositions?

Paco Del Stinko – Yeah, see? That guitar completely wipes out the possibility of spoken word being in any way relevant here. Some of your best vocal work here, Paco. Oh man, that solo friggin’ rocks. Why do I picture Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force air-guitaring to this?

PositiveNegative – I might get into this easier if it didn’t follow Pacogeddon. And you’re asking me to take a silly premise way too seriously. But the arrangement is very pretty.

Rabid Garfunkel – Love that bass. Sounds like Tom Waits handed Ray Stevens something and said “don’t ask what it is, just eat it”. We’re 1:00 in and I’m getting nervous… an instrumental, maybe? Oh, I think so. I like it a bunch, I can see myself putting it on a mixed CD sometime, but I just can’t vote for it.

R Mosquito – If there were a Rutles-style movie about Gary Numan, this song would be in it. A good ending goes a long way with me, and this is a good ending.

Slats – Pitchy backing vox and a muddy mix. A chorus that repeats the title four times. But there’s a few clever lyrics in here. I dunno, what can I say? I didn’t even write a song for this title.

Steve Durand – After the Slats tune, the crispness of the recording here is like a bucket of cold water. Nice job of embracing the novelty-song nature of the title. The mute trumpet work is undebatably authentic. If I ever make another CD, you gotta play on it. Please?

The Tee – A pleasant enough tune. This one comes closest to being taken seriously. Will listen again.

Trick Soup – There’s nothing WRONG with this song, in that it takes a premise from the title and sticks to it. It just doesn’t resonate with me, I guess. But the kazoo bit (and the commentary regarding it) at least lend the piece an air of certainty. YOU believe in what you’re doing, and that makes the piece credible.

The Weakest Suit – Very clever use of the title. The song isn’t ABOUT half a million nerds, and that sets it apart nicely. I can’t make out the words in the bridge very well. But the parts I can hear qualify this as the best lyrics in the fight.

Who gets the vote? I don’t know yet.

[Spud]

Aw, c'mon. Vote for all of em.

[Steve Durand]

Steve Durand – After the Slats tune, the crispness of the recording here is like a bucket of cold water. Nice job of embracing the novelty-song nature of the title. The mute trumpet work is undebatably authentic. If I ever make another CD, you gotta play on it. Please?

You betcha!

[jimtyrrell]

Aw, c'mon. Vote for all of em.

Two things:

1) It's been so long since I've participated in this way, I completely forgot you can vote for more than one song now.

2) I'm too nice, I know.

[jast]

Oh, by the way.

Jan Krueger | Heine - grouped together as paragons of (if I may) teutonic gloominess.

Suppose you're a US citizen and your hear something like this on the news: "in a tragic accident in Vijayawada, three thousand people were crushed to death by a collapsing building. Among them were three American tourists." I think I'll pass on explaining how that relates to this fight or my song.
By the way, I actually had to look up "teutonic". I should probably help myself to a spot of educational background.

I don't usually find gloom by itself interesting enough in a song (at least when I write it), though I might be making an exception in the next fight. I'm not sure yet.

PS. if I was looking at this thread I'd have hoped for another post containing reviews. I'm sorry to disappoint those who did. Anyone else feel like posting more reviews? Please?

[Reist]

Anyone else feel like posting more reviews? Please?

It's christmas! Nobody wants to review on christmas!

[mrbeany]

Mr. Beany, you said you had a band – Love the band name. Wish it weren’t true though. That’s really it, huh? Let me listen again, at least… okay, an interesting piece of work, I suppose. But tell me, Mr. Beany; did you think it would hold up in competition against musical compositions?

Oh, I knew it wasn't going to stand up. It was a last minute effort, and I couldn't think of a tune. I also wasn't familiar with the software I had to assist in anything except an a capella submission. Were the topic not so nerdy, I would likely have not been able to bring myself to submit the entry.

I basically exclusively listen to SongFight music at this point. There's a lot of it and quite a bit of it is really very good. I download it, clean up the id3 tags, listen to it and rate it within my desktop software. I then delete everything that lacked sufficient redeeming value.I have to say that my entry (even I refuse to call it a song) would have been deleted.

I knew my first attempt would suck, I just didn't know how much.

My specific rating scale is:
5 stars: so great I can never get tired of it, worthy of rarely updated portable devices
4 stars: good enough I want to listen to it again, but on a longer playlist
3 stars: a fine song, but it just doesn't work for me personally
2 stars: severely flawed, but something about it makes it cool
1 star: no redeemable value, a waste of disk space (only this gets deleted)

Even I would rate my song '1 star' and immediately delete it.

I don't use this rating scale in my reviews, as I don't see it as adding value to the reviews. It is more for personal reference so I can know something of what I'm getting at-a-glance.

On the plus side, it means I have very low standards to shoot for to get something far better than my last submission.

[mrbeany]

Mr. Beany, you said you had a band - I like this, but would probably side with the not a song camp. Still, enjoyable bit of beatitude and the voice alterations did come out good. Works well as an intro.

That has to be the nicest thing anyone has said about my entry.

In fact, a lot of the reviews were really surprisingly nice.

I kind of feel like it is a photo gallery with a lot of really great pictures, and somehow my picture managed to slip in -- except I only managed to take an out of focus, poorly framed shot of my own vomit after an all-night bender -- and everyone is generally being nice about it.

I mean, really, the FAQ warns people about mean reviews. As near as I can tell the boards are full of really nice people.