The Song Fight Bulletin Board

LATEST.SONGFIGHT.ENTRY.EVER.

I got the house to myself this weekend, so I'm going crazy on vocals, and *finally* did vocals for Spin The Bottle. (It was sitting there done, minus vox, since about 3 days before the fight was due) Let me know what you think of it, kay?
Heh- I finally finished "They Meet" and "I Am a Target" too.

I would actually sincerely appreciate some feedback on these.

Spin the Bottle is my favourite of the three. The playing in all of them is great.

I Am a Target -- The vocals at the start are a little drab. It's better when they liven up, but then I can't make out the words. This song has less textural variety than the others. There's a dramatic and very effective break in the tone at about 2:20, but that seems a long time to wait. Nice solo work! Then it sounds like you want to ramp up the energy at the end, but there's not a lot of headroom left. The fadeout seems anticlimactic.

They Meet -- The guitar in one ear works well when the rest of the band is there, but by itself it's a bit distracting. This song has a good contrasting part early on, which works. When the background singers come in, the effect is kind of cloudy. I think there's too much going on in the middle ranges of the sonic space. A very nice transition at 1:30 brings new life. By 3:40 I'm beginning to feel the need of another break.

Spin the Bottle -- The opening sound effect is well done. I like the bass riff, and you chose a good tone for it. The singing is enjoyably rowdy throughout. The playing is fabulous. My only beef is the difficult rhythm late in the song. It's challenging and interesting in an academic way, but it breaks the great momentum you've built up. Maybe it's a little too long, or maybe it needs some remnant of the main beat in order to keep the pulse. The bomb effect at the end is pretty good, but it needs to be at least as loud as the note it immediately follows.

I enjoyed all three, but Spin the Bottle is the star.

Thanks for the reviews, AJ. I agree that Spin The Bottle is the best of the three. The other two were done after drinking a large quantity of lager, and they don't sound nearly as good as they did last night to these ears. As for the weird cut-time break in STB, what can I say, I'm a fan of mathrock (although it's still in 4/4, just oddly syncopated). I have several other songs sitting done sans vocals, and I hope to get to them tomorrow morning. The theme overall is "scream a lot, because there's no one else in the house to hear me recording"

They Meet was my favorite of the 3... a little muddy (?) in the mix maybe, but as a song I liked it most. It's the one I'd request at a Sven Mullet gig.

Finished a sick little death metal song inspired by my short time employed in a slaughterhouse when I was 19. Meat.

Guys-

A friend of mine in Australia is going to animation school. He had to make an intro for class & I wrote some music for it.
You can watch it here:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/512519
And furtherly alsomore you can download an mp3 of it here:
http://www.tartpop.com/tunes/fiascotheme1.mp3

Oh, I guess I have another song too!
http://www.tartpop.com/tunes/abominominous-garamond.mp3

I like that... very Dick Dale. Also, cool animation.
-bill

Nice! The music fits the tone of the animation perfectly.

Very cool. Good work, Phil and Australian friend. Nice pairing.

I've got a new recording of a somewhat recent song up on my site, but

My main question to the community at large concerns this still-unfinished demo. Specifically, does it need drums? The original (from February 2008) had drums, but they were poorly performed, badly reverbed, and mixed way too hot. Also, my wife thinks that the backup vocals under the bridge sound terrible - they give her a visceral bad reaction that makes her want to not listen to the song. Obviously all vocals will be rerecorded for the final cut anyway, but are those low vox really that bad?

About the plums: I don't think it desperately needs drums, but I'd add either those or other things in the arrangement. It gets a little repetitive. As for the bridge vocals: I don't think they're "that bad". It's the last note of the phrase that is off most, particularly in each first run of the phrase. I found the slightly detuned guitar more annoying, actually (but not really very much either).

I set some black beans to soak for about two hours this afternoon.

While waiting for them to finish, about 2:15pm I started tinkering on the piano. Around 3:00, I realized I still had an hour to go before they were ready, so I decided to record my tinkering.

This was done in time for me to not ruin dinner: Jon Eric - On Your Side

Not a bad afternoon, if I say so myself.

Two nearly-done masters from my forthcoming album:

One is a new(ish) song (I wrote it in 2005, but this is the first recording of it) called "Soap."

The other is a re-recording of my Songfight entry "Elegy for Industry."

Have you heard "Damn" by Matchbox 20, Jon?

Just wondering.

supremeedible wrote:Have you heard "Damn" by Matchbox 20, Jon?

Just wondering.

Wow, I would never have noticed the similarity if it hadn't been pointed out to me... probably because the chorus of "Damn" isn't really its hook. I've always thought the verses were by far the catchiest part of that song.

Oh well.

Hey Peeps! I've got a new song for a holiday music net release (Peace of Winter) that just came out, benefiting the people of Tibet. The song I recorded, "Amazing Grace", features the vocals of Frank H. Carter III, a really great singer from Queens. He sings the main vocals and I do everything else.

Available through Jamendo and iTunes. Some really cool original tracks & covers on this so if you're looking for some "alternative" holiday music, check it out!

Sounds great Jack! Congrats.

Yo, I finally got around to uploading an album I did half a year ago. Chris Fawcett (or big crouton to the SF crowd) did the recording, mixing and mastering for it, and I think it sounds pretty good. Check it out. Free music never hurt anybody ... or DID IT?

http://www.ummband.com/discography/fanks.html

And since nobody seemed to notice my other new album when I posted it, here's a link!

http://www.ummband.com/discography/town.html

Fanks is more straight up rock, while I mess around a bit on Therman One World None. Let me know what you think!

My new album An Air of Legitimacy is available for download on my website!
Eight reworked Songfight tracks and four new songs, for your perusal.

http://www.jon-eric.com/music.php?album=1

There's also a handy .zip file of everything, for one-click download, at http://www.jon-eric.com/Songs/An%20Air% ... timacy.zip

I saw you mention this yesterday, so I went to check it out... I had been reminded of how much I liked your "Race To Seven" but that the recording was not quite up to snuff, and was really excited to see that you'd re-recorded it. Sounds good! I didn't get to hear the rest yet but will soon.
-bill

Generic wrote:My new album An Air of Legitimacy is available for download on my website!

Yo, I listened to this on the train this morning. Some thoughts:

I envy the optimistic mood you capture in your music. While the lyrics aren't all necessarily cheery (St. Expedite for example), every song seems to energize and interest me.

While your vocals aren't the tightest I've ever heard, I really like your tone - it's a non-conventional sound, and gives the album a nice cohesive atmosphere.

You kick ass at ukulele. I've got one of those, and I blow out my hand playing it for more than five minutes, so you have HUGE respect from me for that.

I'm pretty sure I heard accordion, which is also fricking hard to play. Very nice.

Love the horns on We Keep Them Alive. I'm inspired to bust out my old trombone on my next album. Just for the hell of it. Or as a tribute to this album - either one.

Favorite tunes (in order of appearance):
False Positive
Back From Juvie
Elegy for Industry
Your Little Heart
St. Expedite
Surrender

I liked the other ones too - those were just the ones that stuck out to me. Great album, I have no doubt it'll get a lot of playtime on my iPod. My only real beef with the album is drum-based. They sound pretty fake. But it doesn't detract from the album's atmosphere as a whole. In fact, it kinda amplifies the indie vibe which gives it a little more character. Never mind the drum comment then.

ps - got any album art?

Reïst wrote: [...]
ps - got any album art?

Wow, Reist! Thanks for the detailed comments!

Yeah, the drums are still my weak point. They sound fake because they are fake, and if I'd held out for a better solution, this album would not have seen the light of day for a long time, so I just used what I have, and tried to make the tracks as seamless as possible in spite of it. You think you might want to try your hand at one of my swingy tunes sometime?

Album art is still in the works. I made the mistake of asking a friend of mine who has a spotty relationship with deadlines... But currently the plan is to make the CD version available with a full booklet by Dec. 7th.

Thanks for listening!