The Song Fight Bulletin Board

You ever have one of those songs where you feel like you should apply for a salvage title? Hopefully the reviewers don't think so.

Songs posted.

Another strong fight.

Berkeley: I like the sound, the arrangement and especially the guitars. I don't know if it's pitch or tone, but sometimes the vocals are just a bit off for me. I do like them toward the end, though. The attitude in the delivery works well.

Flaming Shotpounder: The cymbals where the most "up" element in the mix, which actually works okay for me, but seems odd a bit. The guitars didn't pop through as well as I'd like. But I liked the vocals, the feel and guitars. This one was fun.

Inflatable Veggies: The classic vocal up front mix which works well with this vocal performance. I like the flowing melody and the buried guitars work well. There is just something that makes this sound good to me.

Lichen Throat: I like the music. The arrangement is good. I feel the vocal tries to follow the melody in the instrumentation too closely as it just points out the flaws in pitch and timing. (That's why I try to vary it up so people won't notice it so much in my songs.) And the melody was too samey sounding. I would love to hear a more adventurous melody on top of the instrumentation. (It's not a bad melody, mind you, just too close to the instrumentation to create a difference.) Have you thought about singing it a fourth, fifth or octave up?

Piggy (me): This was a song that I hated when I first recorded it. Lyrically, musically, melody and most especially the mix. And while the lyric is still not relating what I wanted to say very well, this is much, much better than when I started mixing. Which is one of the first times I "saved" a song in the mixing process. Which I'm proud of. I'm still not sure how much I like it, though it's growing on me. Also, the structure of the song is not what I intended when I started laying down the guitars, but I didn't notice until I was almost finished mixing. This song just kind of became what it wanted to be instead of what I envisioned and I have to say my vision sucked in comparison. So thank you, song. I appreciate the help.

Turner's Union: I like the rhythm and those guitars at the intro are great in their brevity and sound. I like the layered vocals and the feel. The slow build througout. This is a well built song.

Wreckdom: The layered vocals to be intentionally out of tune to each other. I don't know if that's on purpose or not. But I like the arrangement of the various elements of the songs and the vocal pause into the funky section was funny. The more I listen the more I like the music.

Berkeley Social Scene—I’m digging the dreaminess of this tune. The guitar solo and bridge are nice, too. This is the right way to do a song that’s slightly on the slow side. Vote.

Flaming Shotpounder—How did you avoid calling your band Tiger Pounder? There’s some static on the second vocalist’s track, but otherwise this sounds sweet and rocks hard. Good structure for a short song. Vote.

Inflatable Vegetables—I like the pronounced melody in the bass line. Your voice is good, as are the lyrics. The song doesn’t quite seize my interest, however. Maybe the chorus needs more of an uptick in energy.

Lichen Throat (me)—My ode to the flea market. Yeah, yeah, the vocal… And yes, I think I should have tried to sing it higher. I’m pretty happy with the instrumental tracks, even the weird trumpet at the beginning of the second verse. Overall, though, the song isn’t as compelling as I’d hoped, probably because the vocal flaws detract from the overall impression.

Pigfarmer Jr.—There is certainly merit in the sentiments you express in the lyrics, but the super-overt approach doesn’t do it for me. I tend to err on the side of excessive subtlety instead. The song sounds pretty good, though, particularly the guitar melody at the end. Vote.

Tuners Union—Very well performed and produced. I have a pretty strong anti-languid bias, but this has grown on me after repeated plays, even though the songwriting is not suited to my preferences.

WreckdoM—I’m impressed by the inventiveness of the lyrical narrative. The weird pause works well. As usual, I don’t feel like I understand everything you’re trying to do here, but I do particularly like the instrumentation on the line that starts with “The clouds break apart…”

Wreckdom - classic Wreckdom. Not even sure what else to say. Music is dope enough. Vocals lost me after 20s.

Lichen Throat - echoing the suggestion of trying to sing in a higher register... the music arrangement is cool - but the vocals need a bit of life, energy and with those, you might find the pitch is easier to nail.

Pig Farmer Jr - This is pretty good. - the descending part in between verses doesn't work for me. I think it steals the vibe. I like the bridge - doubled vox are nice candy. Lead guitar could use a bit more upper mid bite perhaps.. maybe some delay or verb to give it a bit of a pedastal in the mix.

-more to come later-

Tuners Union - wow-this was really sweet. In fact the only thing that I can quibble about are a couple of places where I felt the lyrics didn't match the cleverness of the music and the drum groove during the "hold on to your passion" sections - doesn't quite seem to fit the lilt of the song in those sections. Aside from those incredibly nitpicky details this was a fairly enjoyable and really well composed song. Vote

Inflatable Vegetables - this is a capable song. I think the mix needs work overall, for example I could hardly hear the drums and the guitar lead was a bit too fizzy and buried in the mix. Compositionally speaking, I think this is a well-crafted song. The lead vocals intended melody is good, but the success of nailing it not as much. So all in all - great track that just needs some refinement.

BSS - really dig this one. great opening - got me listening straight away. Something about the vox pitch bugs me - but it could be just the singers style. The melodies are great - so it's probably me. Possible vote.

Flaming Poundershot - never know who you're going to run into on the boards and collab with... good times.

Just a couple songs I have thoughts about.

Inflatable Veggies – Great work. I really like the a capella part (though the music cuts out abruptly). Would be great to hear it stretch on a bit longer before the music comes back in.

Pigfarmer – This is really great. I think the vocals have to come up a bit louder with a bit of sauce on ‘em, like slight delay. Really nice chorus.

Tuner’s Union – excellent work. This is really good. Vocals double-tracked throughout? My only complaint on this fantastic song is that the snare hits a little too aggressively. Might be better with a light snare hit or even a sidestick or brush?

Wreckdom – I got a kick out of this. Funky, great use of samples (if they’re samples) and interesting.

Flaming Shotpounder – yea, we should have called it Tiger Pounder. F. I’ll admit, I straight-up ran out of time on the mix and had to just hail-mary it when the tracks came in. No variety on the drums or anything. I look forward to remix/reworking at some point.

Congrats to Tuner's Union!