The Song Fight Bulletin Board

nyjm wrote: chthXchthXchthX
/// how did you get this so loud without clipping? ///
+++ Surrealist reference +++

+1 for catching it!

TheYyarrellBrosBand wrote: MC Who Izzy and Kapitano -- I was reading up on the prefight, so I knew what to expect. I have to say this worked out quite nicely. Major props.

Woo! Thank ya kindly.

reve wrote:

nyjm wrote: chthXchthXchthX
/// how did you get this so loud without clipping? ///
+++ Surrealist reference +++

+1 for catching it!

I thought it was just the Pixies



But speaking of surreal references:

eggnogadam wrote: Caravan Ray - Are you by chance the same person who recorded Man Ray?

errr...no - but I have sung back up for Magritte. (He said I had a great set of pipes - not)

nyjm wrote:

julietshappydagger_officeremix.mp3

... yup. That does sound better. Note to self: sing better or sing less.

Noah, I think your vocals themselves are good on the original submission- I think what we're hearing is that our voices don't blend well as a duet. We can discuss protocol for future songs to achieve a better blend.

lalabrookie wrote:Noah, I think your vocals themselves are good on the original submission- I think what we're hearing is that our voices don't blend well as a duet. We can discuss protocol for future songs to achieve a better blend.

Thanks. You're right. It's funny, because I usually love the blend of a sweet female vocal with a growly male vox, a la Iggy Pop's and Françoise Hardy's "I'll Be Seeing You." But yeah, something to work on: probably getting me to sing along to you (instead of vice versa, which happened this time 'round) and finding the right blend of compression, volume and reverb.

Once we figure it out, this is definitely one to go back to and redo.

Manhattan Glutton wrote:

Stubby Phillips wrote:Manhatton Glutton: I can't hear the drums, dude. Or the bass.

Hey thanks for the review. Out of curiosity, what speakers/headphones is this based on? So that I can get better at mixing/production.

I probably should have said "bring the bass and drums up a bit." I was listening to some admittedly tiny M-Audio "StudioPro 3" monitors, but then I listened with some bass-heavy Sennheiser phones and it's still lacking, IMHO. For the bass guitar it sometimes helps to add a fairly narrow 3 dB boost at about 300 Hz for punch (and small speakers in your audience.) And listen to it on a car stereo and/or ipod before the final mix. But hey -- the song kicks ass. And the sound is super clean. Nice job.

No bad songs this week Hooray!
But nor where there any that really took my fancy and shook it vigorously


This is how I would list them in order of preference:

1. Billy And The Psychotics
2. Bubble Pipe Media and Viktor Walters
3. Missions to Proton
4. Manhattan Glutton
5. EggNogAdam
6. MC Who Izzy and Kapitano
7. chthXchthXchthX
8. Juliet's Happy Dagger
9. Steve Durand
10. Toshiro
11. Trotsky and Marx
12. The Yyarrell Brothers Band
13. heine
14. Berkeley Social Scene

Top 5 get a vote.

Will try to get back later with some explanations

Wow, CR. At the top of the list? You are a tough critic and that's nice to see. And you should know, you are welcome in the psychotics any time. I see the psychotics as the people that inhabit this planet that have no choice but to sweat their feeling through song. Our people and family's don't quite understand why we do what we do. We record in an uncomfort of what others will think of our emotional delivery into the mic.
We are musicians. We are artists in our own right. We are misunderstood. We are the Psychotics.
~BLT 2011

I didn't realise that was you. (Damn - is it too late to change my opinion?)

Billy's Little Trip wrote: We are musicians. We are artists in our own right. We are misunderstood. We are the Psychotics.
~BLT 2011

That's you? Great job.
I always wanted to tell, that your collaboration with Quimby (Come down where you ought to be) still runs frequently in my car; a very fine song.
Thanks for being psychotic.

Thanks, Heine.
I haven't heard that song since I posted it here, lol. I'll have to go give it a listen right now.

nyjm wrote: Heine - vote of catchiness
+++ chorus melody +++
+++ a very solid GnG tune; I don't feel like it's lacking anything for its simplicity +++

Thanks, very kind. I've already googled it - but cannot figure out what is a "GnG tune".

TheYyarrellBrosBand wrote: heine -- Love the lyrics. Makes me want to wave my songfight beer stein* in the air and sing along!
*I don't really have one... but I want one!

Nice idea!!! Hey, what about some merchandising? - Just kiddin'! Don't ever commercialise it! - We make our own music, so we should be able to create our own gooddies. I know a shop where you can get a mug with your own photo or jpg. So, at least it should be easy to create a Song Fight "coffee stein".

Caravan Ray- Story a little corny but you backing and guitar and bass was AWL SOME

hillbilly wrote:Caravan Ray- Story a little corny but you backing and guitar and bass was AWL SOME

Thank you very much. I have never been real strong on the "playing" stuff (many of my songs I will just record a few chords then loop them) - but I did play this 'live' - so I guess that means I'm improving. I would have re-done the weak lead guitar - but I accidently deleted the whole file when doing the fade out bit at the end and that mp3 mix was all that survived.

Heine wrote: I've already googled it - but cannot figure out what is a "GnG tune".

GnG = Guy (or Girl) and Guitar

Is this abbreviation really that obscure? This is the second person in as many weeks that's been stumped by an acronym that I thought was common in the songwriting realm.

nyjm wrote:

Heine wrote: I've already googled it - but cannot figure out what is a "GnG tune".

GnG = Guy (or Girl) and Guitar

Is this abbreviation really that obscure? This is the second person in as many weeks that's been stumped by an acronym that I thought was common in the songwriting realm.

I think it's a Song Fight specific acronym. I don't think anyone else in the universe nor most parts of Canada use it.

Also:
GnP = Guy (or Girl) and Piano

TfE = Thanx for Explaining

Heine wrote: Nice idea!!! Hey, what about some merchandising? - Just kiddin'! Don't ever commercialise it! - We make our own music, so we should be able to create our own gooddies. I know a shop where you can get a mug with your own photo or jpg. So, at least it should be easy to create a Song Fight "coffee stein".

http://www.cafepress.com/spudstuff/4353743 (scroll down a ways)

Caravan Ray wrote:I didn't realise that was you. (Damn - is it too late to change my opinion?)

Sorry people, I've had no time for proper listening or reviews. But here's some quick comments:

Berkeley Social Scene: Oddly muffled sound - on all tracks. Bad mic?

Vocalist sounds tired. Could use more going on, sounds bare.. Organ or keyboards? Claps would be good .

Overall impression of a very competent band with a good formula, who're not interested in playing on that day.

Billy and the Psychotics:Crunchy guitar and seductive female vocalist. Somewhere between Joan Jett and Britney Spears!

Catchy.

Good separation between instruments. I'd have compressed more, especially the drums.

Bubble Pipe Media: Don't know what to call the genre - Downtempo Horror Geekcore? Like it.

With all those low frequencies, the vocals can easily get muddy, but you've done a good job in avoiding that.

Caravan Ray: Is that the Dick Van Dyke school of cockney accents?

Crisp accoustic guitar. Full but unobtrusive bass. Clear vocals.

CthxCthxCthx: Surprising how many synthheads are into hard guitar.

Any wall of sound gets boring after about 30 seconds - and you've avoided the constant wall of sound, so you didn't get boring.

EggNogAdam: Voice matches the genre, mood and meaning. Not often you can say that.

"I am friends with Michael Bolton"...?

Heine: There's an old tradition in British music hall comedy of shouting "Boom Boom!" after the punchline of a joke...if you think it might not get a laugh. It's supposed to cover the audience lack of reaction.

Just thought you might like to know that.

The voice strains slightly at the higher notes, without transitioning into head voice.

You ought to duet with EggNogAdam.

Juliette's Happy Dagger: Nice female vocal again. The male vocal doubling, dropping in and out, works well.

The sound gets a bit cluttered in the choruses...and could use some more clutter in the solo.

"After you diffuse that"...bomb? If you want to suggest the last word is cut off by an explosion, try some radio hiss or crackle. A noise to indicate 'no signal'.

Manhatten Glutton: It's a stalker song!

Earworm chorus, though could be a minute shorter. Nicely recorded, layered and distorted guitars.

MC Who Izzy (and someone called Kapitano): Everyone seems to think I did okay with the music - so I'll have to figure out what I did right. Maybe it was spending two hours instead of a week on it, most of it tweaking EQ and reverb.

Misson to Proton: Sardonic folk with, erm, 8-bit drums...and guitar patterns I'd usually expect to hear through a distortion pedal.

File next to Pete Shelley in his 'homosapien' phase. Which is a good thing in my book.

The vocals are dry compared to the rest, which surprisingly works here. The voice has a nice grainy character - look forward to hearing more of it.

Steve Durand: Piano is precise (sequenced?) and sparkly. The voice doesn't 'gel' with it, lacking reverb and hitting a lot of notes flat. You've done many better songs than this.

The slower, smoother, less happy sections I thought worked better than the others.

Toshiro: Back to the 60s, with bandpassed guitars, cardboard box drums and wurlitzers! And a sitar!

What BSS was missing this week, you've got. Great stuff.

Trotsky and Marx: Needs more Lenin .

Why is the guitar panned right? Why are the drums left? It really accentuates the small errors of timing.

Pleasant voice - even with some emotion, which we don't often get - but needs a different backing track.

Yyarrell Brothers: Pleasant, retro, nicely played and sung, well mixed. Just nothing to grab me.

Kapitano wrote:
Caravan Ray: Is that the Dick Van Dyke school of cockney accents?

Huh?!?! I'm Australian remember. That is my natural accent. There are 2 lines where I speak the words of the 51 year old Australian tea lady, as 51 year old Australian tea lady may say them - although it was not meant to be an imititaion.

As I understand it (from my study of several taxi drivers during my recent trip to London), Cockney involves a lot more "cor blimey, apples and pears guvner, know what I mean?" -type action. Innit?

Takes me back to the good old days when everytime Denyer entered a song, someone would say he sounded like The Streets - which would piss him off no end.

Kapitano wrote: Heine: There's an old tradition in British music hall comedy of shouting "Boom Boom!" after the punchline of a joke...if you think it might not get a laugh. It's supposed to cover the audience lack of reaction.

Heh! Yes - I can't hear that song without thinking of Basil Brush.

Kapitano wrote:Manhatten Glutton: It's a stalker song!

I was not stalking that girl at all. I don't know what you're talking about.