The Song Fight Bulletin Board

TheCapitalistYouth wrote:@Masterhyde: I think in some cases you should pay closer attention to the lyrics of the songs. Of course I'm a little biased about my own song (The Social Commentaries) but in your review of PiGPEN you clearly didn't catch the concept of the song. "When did you know... you were a bear?" is obviously not a theme someone would come up with outside of this title, so I don't know how it could be "tacked on." And it's worth pointing out that it's not required the title be repeated verbatim as song lyrics. The idea is to write a song based on the title.

Actually I did catch the concept. I just know I've written about some crazy things and it strikes me as something where there's a story about being a bear and the chorus is added sayng "When did you know you were a bear". The song isn't about "When Did you know", it's about "I'm a Bear doing things bears do". I could have a rap about being rich or being an airplane and enter a song adding the chorus "When did you know you were an airplane". The song doesn't ask the question or imply there was a time he didn't know. It just relates the story of him in his beardom. Don't get me wrong, it was a cool song and I'm not upset that he won, but the topic still seemed like it was "added on". If the title were "Bear with me" and he entered this I'd probably have given it a vote. I will admit that I give tougher reviews if it seems like you could have written the lyrics before the title came out and just added the title on though.

Hey Song Fight!

I was on vacation most of last week, so I never quite got past a single run-through of the playlist. Therefore, I'm giving all of these another spin or two today, and writing up some thoughts. You're welcome. Those marked with a "*" probably would've gotten a vote from me if I wasn't such a damn slacker.

badboysatbatmitzvahs - lyrics + delivery occasionally questionable (as in, questionable whether this is necessarily the ideal style for you to be performing?), but overall rather hooky and catchy.

berkeleysocialscene - I think the guitar lead that goes in unison with the vocal parts on the choruses is one layer too many on that particular melody. I like how the bassline goes along with the same theme but does little variations here and there. I would have preferred to see only the bass and vocal parts there, or at least for the lead guitar to fade into the background the way it does for the chorus that happens right around 3:00. Otherwise, a solid package and generally uncluttered mix. I especially liked the sax, the 'lectric piano bits, and the lifted-straight-from-Blood-Sweat-and-Tears guitar solo.

djrangerden - The reverby piano part nicely leads the listener into a blissful, ethereal state -- the intro, in fact, strongly reminds me of the transitional music from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood where the painting on the wall fades into some sort of film. However, the vocal part is way too clean throughout most of the song. And then toward the end it gets way too echoey, and there's way too much contrast when it goes back to way too clean at the very end. Some sort of middle-ground between the wet and dry vocal would have been much appreciated. The hint of a string part that makes a guest appearance later on was a nice touch.

feat - The vast majority of the words sort of sail past me without quite making it into my ears, possibly because there are so many of them, or possibly because you sound so uninterested in what you are saying. I was thankful for the "hook" because otherwise I would have missed the point of all this. I was also thankful for the "hook" not repeating again, because it wasn't much of a hook.

hatenoise - I really liked it for the first four seconds.

hoglen+wages - This could really have used a pop filter and some better drums. Also probably one more take for the horn section. Generally, though, I like the interesting arrangement, and I like the vocals when they do Vin Dombroski (but not so much when they do Rob Thomas).

*joneric+friends - The tom fills are a bit too boomy for my liking, but the vocals are good and the orchestration is great.

*joshmillard - I have only two complaints: I am a bit bothered by the prosody of the word "allegory," and this song should totally have been about four minutes longer.

*kingarthur - Having a little bit of trouble placing the exact influences here -- I'm feeling a little bit of Arabic/North African, a touch of Caribbean. It might be a contributing factor that I am not totally able to identify which language that is. Not that it matters, this is a really good blend of different sounds into a well-done composite product.

masterhyde - Great story, great delivery, but relatively low quality backing track is kind of a detriment.

mccharlie0 - No.

pigpen - Poses an interesting philosophical question; musically pretty cool; but the accent would have been more convincing if you managed to keep it up the whole time, rather than slipping in and out of it sometimes.

rossdurand - Did you ever get reminded of a song, except it wasn't the whole song - more like a couple notes or a single word? That happens to me all the time, and it usually drives me nuts for days. That happened here, and I had very little to go on, but ultimately I managed to figure out that the song I was reminded of was "Shelter" by Corrosion of Conformity. Except, like I said, just the briefest little snapshot of that song.

socialcommentaries - No.

*stevedurand - Yes, yes, yes. About a hundred times better than when Weezer did this song.

x0 - Hey, you entered a song about a song entered in a song competition in a song competition! What will they think of next??

ziplore - The jury's still out whether the vocals were entirely superfluous, or if they were just bad. This would either be better with different vocals, or with no vocals. Either way, it would also be better with the beginning part intact, instead of this "radio edit" version. This probably could have worked for about 15-20 minutes, altogether, except that at some point during that span it might have needed some vocals. Just not the ones that were there. No offense.

Ah, so you're the reason I didn't win, eh?

Generic wrote:Ah, so you're the reason I didn't win, eh?

And me too!!!


It would have been a 4 way tie.

Sorry, gentlemen. My bad.

Don't worry about it, man.

Masterhyde wrote: Actually I did catch the concept. I just know I've written about some crazy things and it strikes me as something where there's a story about being a bear and the chorus is added sayng "When did you know you were a bear". The song isn't about "When Did you know", it's about "I'm a Bear doing things bears do". I could have a rap about being rich or being an airplane and enter a song adding the chorus "When did you know you were an airplane". The song doesn't ask the question or imply there was a time he didn't know. It just relates the story of him in his beardom. Don't get me wrong, it was a cool song and I'm not upset that he won, but the topic still seemed like it was "added on". If the title were "Bear with me" and he entered this I'd probably have given it a vote. I will admit that I give tougher reviews if it seems like you could have written the lyrics before the title came out and just added the title on though.

Except the concepts entry point was not when did this character know he was a bear? it was when will the listener know the character is something other than human? I didn't need to include those between verse talking bits where the actual phrase is said and it still would have fit the title.

And you should try being more original yourself, i'm sure your song concept+title has been used at some point (if not multiple times) in RnB. You didnt go above and beyond performance/music wise to justify such a cliche concept.

PiGPEN wrote:Except the concepts entry point was not when did this character know he was a bear? it was when will the listener know the character is something other than human? I didn't need to include those between verse talking bits where the actual phrase is said and it still would have fit the title.

I didn't get that idea from the song.

PiGPEN wrote:And you should try being more original yourself, i'm sure your song concept+title has been used at some point (if not multiple times) in RnB. You didnt go above and beyond performance/music wise to justify such a cliche concept.

A couple of things here:

1) I never said, implied, or meant to convey that I thought my topic was original or more original than anyone elses' topic including yours
2) I am not aware of the Song Fight explicit or implicit rule of originality in topics that would exclude my topic, but if there is one I would appreciate someone pointing it out to me
3) With all due respect, giving these comments as a rebuttal to something I said critical about your song tends to reduce the effectiveness of the comments as it now seems you are just "getting me back" even if my entry was the worst song in the history of song fight
4) However horrible my song was and however terrible the topic was doesn't take away from the fact that I didn't get the idea you explained from your song
5) Enough other people got what you meant to give you the win
6) despite the fact that I didn't see your topic as relating to the title I did like the song as evidenced by my saying it would have been a vote with a different title. A different title would have nothing to do with your execution of the lyrics or music, and I stated I thought it was a cool song.

I understand what you are saying in your explanation but just didn't get that idea from the song. Honestly I had never had anyone start attacking my song as a result of something I said about theirs that really wasn't that bad...but now I know what to expect here. And If there is a minimum amount of skill your song needs to have before you can criticize others, then I'll refrain from reviewing because frankly my songs aren't good enough to pass.

I'm not looking to rebutt your rebuttal of my butt-in to your open conversation with CYouth but...

I am not aware of the Song Fight explicit or implicit rule of originality in topic

That wasn't a SF related suggestion i was making, it was a lyricist one.

attacking my song

Hey, fuck you.

PiGPEN wrote:I'm not looking to rebutt your rebuttal of my butt-in to your open conversation with CYouth but...

I am not aware of the Song Fight explicit or implicit rule of originality in topic

That wasn't a SF related suggestion i was making, it was a lyricist one.

attacking my song

Hey, fuck you.

So this is how we do it here? I wasn't aware. I thought this site was more civilized than personal non music-related attacks. Apparently I was wrong. So you have a personal problem with me. We can resolve this in other ways if you wish. Let me know how you want to proceed.

Masterhyde wrote:

PiGPEN wrote:I'm not looking to rebutt your rebuttal of my butt-in to your open conversation with CYouth but...

I am not aware of the Song Fight explicit or implicit rule of originality in topic

That wasn't a SF related suggestion i was making, it was a lyricist one.

attacking my song

Hey, fuck you.

So this is how we do it here? I wasn't aware. I thought this site was more civilized than personal non music-related attacks. Apparently I was wrong. So you have a personal problem with me. We can resolve this in other ways if you wish. Let me know how you want to proceed.

This is not how "we" do it here. That post was just made by one guy.

Seconding Ross' dismissal of unfair generalizations.
And Hyde, how did you expect me to respond after accusing me of that? Fuck you. Fuuuuuck yoooooou. Stop playing the victim and... go fuck yourself.

PiGPEN wrote:Seconding Ross' dismissal of unfair generalizations.
And Hyde, how did you expect me to respond after accusing me of that? Fuck you. Fuuuuuck yoooooou. Stop playing the victim and... go fuck yourself.

I apologize for the generalization, that was uncalled for. I just wasn't aware that anyone did that here and it was ok. And by "did that" I mean start cursing at someone based on criticism of their song. If that were the case I pretty much need to curse everyone here out as my songs have been killed by everyone at one time or another. You're "fuck you" comment is difficult to take as any type of analysis, so I ask you the same question: How did you expect me to respond to that? You seem rather immature and unable to take any type of critical points about your music even if the person said they basically liked the song. That seems rather childish to me. I take it you'll respond with more creative cursing, so have at it...more "uuuuuuu"'s and "oooooo"'s this time maybe so we'll know you "reeeeeeeealllllly" mean it?

Masterhyde wrote:You seem rather immature and unable to take any type of critical points about your music even if the person said they basically liked the song. That seems rather childish to me. I take it you'll respond with more creative cursing, so have at it...

Sometimes no response beats the alternatives.

Masterhyde wrote:I just wasn't aware that anyone did that here and it was ok. And by "did that" I mean start cursing at someone based on criticism of their song

That didn't happen. I told you to go fuck yourself for accusing me of attacking your song.
You can go re-read it if you like. I'll wait...
Okay, you got that? You accused me of "attacking you" because you didn't like the criticism i gave you.

Masterhyde wrote:You seem rather immature and unable to take any type of critical points about your music

touche