The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Re-whos? Reviews!

Battle Cry Creek
Head bopper, this one. Some timing issues in the vox, kinda off-beat/packed into many beats/syllable syllabobbles. And the chorus' vocal train wrecks between the two vox, but you knew that. Evocative of the late '70s-early '80s "let's pervert technology and make music" stuff that later devolved into new wave and such. Enjoyed it.

Hostess Mostess
Tight track. Octave shift on the low strings of the guitar? Fat sound. Nice stuff.

Luco Brazzi
Heh. Le Mash. The Musician's Friend line resounds mightily with me, yo.

MC Fancy Boy and Ry Guy
Errr. I've listened. More than once. Don't apologize in advance for things. If you're proud of this, great. If not, you're not obligated to submit if shit ain't coming together.

The Molsen Twins
Catchy fun stuff. j$, it sounds likes you're not getting enough air in your lungs to finish out the lines. Possible vote.

Phunt; Don't Tell and Phunt Your Friends
Hmmm. 1) I enjoyed these tracks. This is the sort of stuff I listen to at work incessantly (ask Morbid, heh). 2) I read your post explaining the schitzy side challenge between the two groups of you. Still lumping you both in the same review, as, well, it's more a pair of instrumentals with vocal samples than what falls into my personally vague definition of "song". Entertainment, yeah, but reviewing an assemblage of samples chained together... sorry, homeys, no can do. As well ask me to review the rain.

Primitive Screwheads
New "studio" up here. Completely different acoustics in this room, and well, it shows in the recording. Darned room 'verb. Sorry, Alby. And for the rest of you, the original track was at 184 bpm, and insanely distorted on the guitar. The Albatross is far more merciful than I.

j$, this is a song about the movie "Ghostbusters". Just so ya know.

Smalltown Mike
Dig this. A little much bass and reverb in the main vocals. EQing on the low-end (subtracting, not adding) of the main vocal track might make it cleaner. Good words, and feel for where they should go. Possible vote. Dig the fucked-out kick sound.

Song Fight Orchestra
This gets louder and louder without losing anything. Good mixing job. What is it with you and ninjas? Heh.

Your Momma's Muzak
Uhhhh... which breaks first, the picks or the strings, yo? No more Tenacious D for you, homey.

OK, since this is the first fight I've been involved in a quite a while, it seemed like a good time for my first stab at a review post. All the usual self-deprecating disclaimers apply.

Battle Cry Creek
I have no problem with the freeze-dried Casio-ness (Casiosity?), and it's not as bad as you seem to think it is, but again, your tracks seem to be making use of about three or four different metronomes. Bring the vocal out, and also maybe cut the low end, it's clashing with the bassline.

Hostess Mostess
Wonderfully simplistic, simplisticly wonderful. Instantly reminded me of the Doobies, and I mean good Tom Johnston Doobies, not crappy Michael McDonald Doobies. I think my Dad would really like this (you can interpret that however you want). Love the vocal, passionate yet natural, with just enough imperfection to give it a certain charm. I wanna see you beat the shit out of Kenny Loggins.

Luco Brazzi
Production quality is there, no doubt. Groove is cool, and there are some good lines in here, others I don't care for quite as much. I just have a natural aversion to lines like "shizzle my nizzle." Like the vocal doubling, but not altogether fond of the pitch shifted vox.

MC Fancy Boy & Ry Guy
Ry Guy's voice sounds just like Jimmy Pop. I'm certainly not down on irreverent songs recorded solely for the fun of it, but vocals that clip that badly are never a good thing, regardless of the context. I like a few of the lyrics, but they get rather redundant, and then it just devolves into some kind of fourth-grade bathroom rant.

Molsen Twins
Wicked drums and a good bass groove win me over every time, and this has them both in spades. Love the bass tone, is that a P? The synthy bits are a nice touch as well. This kinda sounds like Mark Mothersbaugh joined Echo and the Bunnymen, with a coked-out Glenn Tilbrook on lead vocals (and I mean that in a good way). Dug it.

Phunt Don't Tell Your Friends
This ranks somewhere between crappy WreckdoM and good WreckdoM. Reminiscent of Zappa's synclavier stuff, Civilization Phaze III in particular. Some nice mood shifts, and the creepy dissonance at the end is pretty cool.

Smalltown Mike
Has the rebellious nature of the Offspring without the obnoxiousness. Could use a beefier snare sound, as well as some variations in the verses, maybe with some additional guitar parts or inflections in the vocal. But it's a solid entry nonetheless.

Song Fight Orchestra
This has a definite surreal quality to it. If someone ever made a compilation called "Songfight Songs To Get Stoned By", this would be on it. It made the MilkDrop Winamp plug-in do some really cool shit.

Your Momma's Muzak
Acoustic chops are decent, if unrefined. Reminds me of Neil Thrun, circa one year ago, only without the humor.

and...

Primitive Screwheads
This is Rabid Garfunkel and moi. Don't think I've ever had a quicker reaction to a Songfight title, this immediately made me think of Mr. Stay Puft. At first I thought it was a little too gimmicky to make a song out of it, but RG seemed keen on the idea, so we went with it. Some random notes:

- The guitar part at the beginning is RG trying to emulate the siren of the Ectomobile, the weirded-out station wagon the Ghostbusters drive around in. Ended up sounding more like a regular ambulance siren, the Ectomobile siren is markedly different. Of course, it didn't help that Rabid had his Ghostbusters DVD stolen in a break-in. (as a side note, an anagram of Rabid Garfunkel is "knifed a burglar." Yeah, if only)

- The bass riff after the pause is lifted from the chorus of Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters song (where he says "I ain't 'fraid of no ghost"). Doesn't look like anyone caught that, so maybe we'd have been better served omitting it entirely. Might have helped with the length issues.

- Speaking of which, you'd think that with all the Weird Al and Dr. Demento albums we own, we'd know better than to make a novelty song too long. Geez.

In any case, thanks to everyone for their feedback.

Top 3:

3. Smalltown Mike
2. Molsen Twins
1. Hostess Mostess

Now, some quick responses:

Egg wrote:I might be in love with you.

Yowsa... well OK, but remember, truffles and Godiva chocolates work best, I wear a size 2XLT (3XLT if it's gonna shrink), and my best color is white.

j$ wrote:The chorus could do with another instrument - maybe a buzzing saw-synth.

Now that I think about it, you're right. Cool idea. I might have to futz around with that later.

Mostess wrote:A little less tone-deaf than the "Who Ya Gonna Call" official one.

Less tone-deaf? You, sir, are far too kind.

Songfight Orchestra:
Wicked. I love it. great mix, great ideas. A CONTENDER. I love the batmanesque riff pedalling in the background...

Phunt your friends:
There are things I like about this, and things I don't. First off, as a "song" , no, not in my books. As musical art... pretty cool, although it's really like a odd, late night CBC radio play. So, I like it, but I'm not voting for it. Also, since I got no clue what this has to do with "Pasty White Man".

Battlecreek Cry:
First off, I like your band name... cool groove off the top. I'm not really liking the sound of the "electric guitar" sound thing. That bass tone is cool. Well, this has things I totally dig, but the rest is kinda average sounding. vocal production issues aside, and that cluttery stuff in the middle, there's not much of a song to vote for, but I sure like the bass tone, and the mood at the start. Then it gets too cluttered and seems to not really develop.

Phunt, don't tell:
Ok, first off, I'm not liking the way this is very similar to the other Phunt. Yeah, I'm not even gonna finish listening... does nothing for me at this point.

Hostess Mostess:
Hardon your sleeve... oh, HEART on. Seriously, I didn't actually think you said that. Just missing my favourite brand of chips. I really like your stuff. I completely didn't even know this was boy/guitar at first, cause it's so excellent. Yeah, you rock. CONTENDER. that being said, man wouldn't this sound great with some hot bass/drums kicking it along...great singing on this by the way. I really dig it.

Primitive Screwheads:
"the jitterbug"... "the jitterbug"... I dunno why, but first I got a big WHAM whiff, then suddenly it was B-52's... I like the vibe, and the low-fi 80's new-wave sound. Pretty good. Not a contender, but close to that label... I like the energy. I am the walrus by the way.

Your Momma's Muzak
Ah shit. I'm already accoustic guitared out man... it sounds like your jamming out on your couch... it's ok, but something about the tone is harsh... the vocals are terrible. Of course, you did that on purpose. I've done stuff like this... usually stoned, alone, and certain that it will never, ever be unleashed upon the public. I take back the "it's ok". It' s....not.

MC Fancy Boy and Rye Guy:
The "intimate" thing at the beginning was... uh... anyway, the rap is ok, but your production is not that great... yeah, this is certainly not a contender. There are things that I'm liking here and there, like the energy, and the ...uh, actually, I'll probably never listen to this again.

Luco Brazzi:
Nice smooth intro. Yeah, this is much better for a rap tune. I like it. Good mix... When I first heard this earliier this week... I was all enraptured by the Molsens Twins tune, as I really was digging doing that, so this kinda slipped under the radar. I totally like this groove.... great sound, good progression. CONTENDER.

Smalltown Mike:
Ok, this is a weird little coincidence... but Smalltown Mike and I were in a band together in Ontario in 1991 or so.. we didn't have any contact since 1994... and a month or so ago... I get this pm... "hey , are you Tom from boon liver?" well holy fuck. We totally bump into each other on songfight 11 years later. Small world... smalltown mike. Of course, this band spent alot of time getting drunk... but to the review..

I like it.

Good drum programming. That's the first thing I noticed, and of course, how bizarre it is to hear your voice after so long. Nice double time punk rock outro... you need some wailing guitar on there.. I love those dynamic bits. I'm lumping you in my CONTENDER heading... which of course, is meaningless.

Because....\

Molsen Twins:
I had a great time working on this one. Pretty cool to throw together collabs across the seas and sands... I love the "hellos" and the whole "build a home away from home".... basically, I think it's damn good. CONTENDER.


Whom to vote for... .hmmmm.....hmmmmm.....hmmmmm.

Re-whys? Replies!

Egg
The repeated sound is me ad-libbing some grunting. Somewhere between Tolkein's tree languages and incidental sounds from "Forbidden Zone". Call it "hoom" and "hah" and you've got it. Albatross deserves all your love, he conceived and wrote it, I just fronted this time around.

j$
Thanks! Vox are fucky 'cause I haven't found the sweet spot in the new room yet. Albatross de-fucked them mightily from their original state, believe you me.

EightLeggedOedipus
I beg to differ with you on the out of tune guitar thing. But that's just me.

My Name is Luco
Thanks to you as well! Dig the Talking Heads' lo-fi period, personally. Great, now I've got "Don't Worry About the Government" in my head. Grrrrr.

nyjm
Agreed. Longest... song... ever...

MintyHandy
Heh, thanks. One of these days there'll be a rabid song that's mostly weird mouth noises and cat squeezings. Once I get the acoustics of the room figured out. Still don't know what a CCR is... oops, CMP I mean. Guess it's like obscenity ("Ah know it when ah see it"), yeah. Mad props for your reviewing. You sir, are hooked.

Blatent Revival
Thanks. Humor's tough, and sustaining it, damned tough.

Niveous
Second place? Dude, from you that's a first! (Doing the Mary-Lou Retton dance now.)

Mostess
Whoo-hoo! Tight playing! Thanks!

Bolio
Started as lyrics, then a guitar line (which was vetoed, heh) and another line which swung the the foundation into shape. And holy fuck! Thanks!!!

RBHID
Already replied in the thread.

Leaf
Damn you, Paul. WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM (head on table). And visions of neon legwarmers run through my head. Nooooooooooo!