The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Okay, I'm lying. I'm gonna read them all.

Please post your lyric here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11656

Songs posted!

First listen through and all I can say is that Dust Pipe song is faaarrrr outttt mannnnnn. Reminds me of Bardo Pond, heavily. Reminds me of stuff I'd play when I had a space and psych rock radio show back in 2010.

I put on the the new fight via my podcast app as I was making breakfast just now, and I don't know what happened but there was some glitch where Paco's song was labeled as CazaroTaro's and I was really surprised and impressed as I thought he was doing the world's best Paco del Stinko impression. Then I looked at the lyrics on the forum and realized there was just some podcast tagging issue. I gotta say, Paco does a great Paco impression though.

The guitar sounds on that Geech song are

Reminds me a little of Sonic Youth circa Murray Street

vowlvom wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 06, 2020 1:36 am

The guitar sounds on that Geech song are

Reminds me a little of Sonic Youth circa Murray Street

Thanks! Does this imply that I am more than a lone man in standard tuning? Alas...

Here we go. I wrote some reviews. They may be brief and baffling, but hopefully not hurtful.

rvwx - Checkered Past

Some really good and interesting stuff here, and some great takes on the title. Altogether too many past/last/fast rhymes for my liking though.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: I don't understand the vocal treatment on this. It doesn't seem to gel with anything else that the song is doing. Which is a shame, because I feel like the chorus has promise.

CazaroTaro: This is quite delightful. The phrasing/timing is really intriguing and I appreciate how much space you leave around your lyrics.

Dust Pipe: This feels like something R Pollard would’ve made, and something that I would've lapped up 20 years ago. I dig the vocal delivery and the directions the vocal melody takes.

Evil Grin: You give good chorus.

Geech Sorensen: Vom is right - you’ve absolutely nailed the guitars.

Glenn Case: the first time I heard this it was right after my own entry and by golly it blew my track away. Both aurally and structurally. I’m a big fan of your vocal treatment in general and this is no exception. I'd love to hear your solo end by playing the vocal melody as your voice comes back in for “I reflect upon the past”.

Hot Pink Halo: The Fairground Bass, I love it. I think we've touched on the reverb in a separate discussion.

The Kraken Lives: I got stuck in an instragram D&D wormhole today, so this sounds like Rock 'n' Roll 'n' D 'n' D.

Kyle Rogers: So there's a lovely guitar lick hidden in here. I know Vom mentioned Geech's Sonic Youth-like guitars, but you've got a riff in here that reminds me of the Youth for sure. I really struggled to hear this song though, as I found the mixing decisions very unusual. This is a shame, because I feel like your vocal is actually quite strong.

Lichen Throat: My head is full of different boxes into which I (unwittingly) group people and things. As I was listening to your song, you slipped into the same box as the movie Frank. Which is weird because as soon as I think of that I think of Domhnall and his red red Hux eyes and then Richard E. Grant is there beside me and suddenly we're all perfumed ponces who will never play The Dane and that's pretty much the type of magical adventures your lyrics take me on. I like your take on the title.

miscellaneous owl: I have a lot on my mind when I listen to this track. I feel very uncomfortable about the state of things when our protagonist is suggesting they've got a checkered past (generally assumed to be of disreputable behaviours, or doing Bad Things) but every part of their story seems to suggest something other.
Anywho, the piano sounds gorgeous, and plays a sweet tune. I feel like the drums and vocals sound like they're not quite in the same space as the piano, but it's a trivial concern on a beautiful and troubling song.

Paco del Stinko: This is also silly and fun. I do like the energy in your songs.

Phil Well: There's elements of this that I really love, like the Scandinavian pronunciations (the transition from "winds" to "blow" in the first verse is classic and I love it). It's got a great feel overall, but I wish the bridge actually went somewhere, or did something, or expanded on the story, or presented an alternate perspective.

Phlebia: I really enjoy the pacing of this, and appreciate the effort you went to to get it to us. I'm really digging the vocal treatment as well (sounds much better than my own in-car vocals for sure). And I'm all in at 'LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR'.

ShoehornTC: Another fun and light song. This one has a pleasing live feel to it.

Travels With Brindle: Sure there's some moments of pitchiness here and there (and hey - I'm not in any position to cast stones about that), but your voice is very warm and lovely. I think with a bit more time and some judicious editing this could be super sweet.

gizo vs. the 17,455: Fuzz fuzz I want more guitars and also hey look I enjoyed my chorus.

gizo wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 08, 2020 9:26 pm

miscellaneous owl: I have a lot on my mind when I listen to this track. I feel very uncomfortable about the state of things when our protagonist is suggesting they've got a checkered past (generally assumed to be of disreputable behaviours, or doing Bad Things) but every part of their story seems to suggest something other.
Anywho, the piano sounds gorgeous, and plays a sweet tune. I feel like the drums and vocals sound like they're not quite in the same space as the piano, but it's a trivial concern on a beautiful and troubling song.

Thanks for your comments, and I agree on the reverb issue with the drums/vox, I should have picked a bigger/wetter sound for those (they're all going to the same reverb but the piano has buckets of it already as part of the VST and I didn't spend enough time trying to adjust the others to get them all matching up).

That uncomfortable feeling was exactly what I was trying to dig into in the lyrics, a lot of ambiguity/guilt/shame around what I think from an outsider's perspective should probably really be a pretty straightforward condemnation of the adult man in the story and not really a checkered past at all when it comes to the narrator.

There's the conflation of the monster in the last verse with the narrator herself, with the parallel of the wolf opening its jaws and the narrator closing her mouth to keep silent about what happened. I wanted to leave that ambiguous--is it confusion of predator and prey, with the narrator taking on blame for the situation, or a later, adult awareness of being complicit and having done nothing to prevent a similar situation from happening again to another teenager/child in the future?

Anyway enough about that, I should let the song speak for itself, but I'm glad to hear (I guess) that it troubled you for the right reasons.

Originally I was going to write a song that approached this in a similar way to Lichen Throat's (but mine was going to involve relationships with people into ska, taxis, and chess) but then got into some different, darker territory after I couldn't think of enough dumb puns to put in (pickup artist, life isn't fare...)

Gizo said"

The Kraken Lives: I got stuck in an instragram D&D wormhole today, so this sounds like Rock 'n' Roll 'n' D 'n' D.

Good call, however it's actually about a game called Titan (many of the same Monsters)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103/titan

thanks for the review!

gizo wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 08, 2020 9:26 pm

Here we go. I wrote some reviews. They may be brief and baffling, but hopefully not hurtful.

rvwx - Checkered Past

Phlebia: I really enjoy the pacing of this, and appreciate the effort you went to to get it to us. I'm really digging the vocal treatment as well (sounds much better than my own in-car vocals for sure). And I'm all in at 'LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR'.

I read "rvwx" as "River weather", which probably says more about me than anything else.

Anyway, glad you liked it! I was trying to keep it as minimal as possible from an arrangement standpoint. As for the vocal treatment, I think I just ran them through a light distortion VST, EQd them a bit, and then faded in some delay during the liar liar liar bit. The lyrics would have been a little less opaque if I'd used the proper possessive pronoun and said "our grandma" instead of "my grandma". I oughta call her later...

gizo wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 08, 2020 9:26 pm

Hot Pink Halo: The Fairground Bass, I love it. I think we've touched on the reverb in a separate discussion.

I sent giz a text the day after I'd sent my song in admitting that perhaps the reverb on my guitars was a touch over the top. I updated it to something I like better, but didn't want to be a re-sender. Here it is on soundcloud if anyone's interested.

After more listens, Geech and ShoehornTC were my favourites, with Phil Well close behind. Also really enjoyed Evil Grin, Gizo, Glenn, Kyle and misc. owl.

owl wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 09, 2020 12:09 am

That uncomfortable feeling was exactly what I was trying to dig into in the lyrics, a lot of ambiguity/guilt/shame around what I think from an outsider's perspective should probably really be a pretty straightforward condemnation of the adult man in the story and not really a checkered past at all when it comes to the narrator.

Thanks for sharing this. I had a feeling you had created this storyline, but I was treading lightly because there's a always a chance this is describing a real situation and I've had too many experiences in my life where I've gone in all guns blazing and regretted it.

It made me think back to Sylvan Esso's 'Modern Wolf'.

Æpplês&vØdkã wrote: I read "rvwx" as "River weather", which probably says more about me than anything else.

'River Weather' sounds like a great title for something.

All my review files are 'rvwx' files, and all my lyric files are 'lyrx'. That's an old Merlin Mann-ism that I have held onto, to make it easy to search them up en masse.

glennny wrote: Good call, however it's actually about a game called Titan (many of the same Monsters)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103/titan

ooh, thank you - I will investigate this.

gizo wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 09, 2020 3:25 pm

owl wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 09, 2020 12:09 am

That uncomfortable feeling was exactly what I was trying to dig into in the lyrics, a lot of ambiguity/guilt/shame around what I think from an outsider's perspective should probably really be a pretty straightforward condemnation of the adult man in the story and not really a checkered past at all when it comes to the narrator.

Thanks for sharing this. I had a feeling you had created this storyline, but I was treading lightly because there's a always a chance this is describing a real situation and I've had too many experiences in my life where I've gone in all guns blazing and regretted it.

It made me think back to Sylvan Esso's 'Modern Wolf'.

Well... actually, I didn't especially want to get into the details here, but I feel like I should clarify that this is in fact not a made-up story, buuuut given the subject matter and the fact that this is a song discussion and not a therapy session, I figured I would try to keep discussion about "the narrator", the song, and artistic intent in lyrics and not "me" or "my feelings." Ugh, I really should have probably written this song to be about ska, sorry. Carry on

Brown Word and the Big Whine—The highly processed vocal doesn’t work for me. Otherwise this seems like a competent metal-adjacent song. I like the drum pattern and the way the drums sit in the mix.

CazaroTaro—I can’t decide whether I like the bass-light drum sounds or not; sometimes it seems to create a cool aesthetic, whereas other times it seems to miss the lower end. In the vocal, the precise shifts from one pitch to another are almost too precise. I hesitate to advise you to be sloppier, but a few more slides might sound more natural. I like the composition overall, and the end is cool.

Dust Pipe—There’s something good going on here, even if I can’t quite identify it. There’s kind of a Captain Beefheart vibe.

Evil Grin—Solid. I really like the vocal melody in the chorus. The background piano is nice. I’d like Amanda’s voice turned up a little, but overall, I think you’ve both done a good job with this track.

Geech Sorensen—Nice groove. This is good, and I don’t have any complaints at all. I like how the chorus raises the energy enough to distinguish itself from the verse, but not so much that it’s jarring. The bridge is sweet, both the solo part and the oh, oh vocal.

gizo vs. the 17,455—I like the melodies and the general atmosphere, but I feel like the song should be faster. It sets up expectations that it’s going to rock hard, and then it stays fairly slow all the way through. Nevertheless, I have a positive overall impression. The fade out fits well in the context of the song.

Glenn Case—The selected vocal doubling sounds great and enhances the song. Your vocal performance is good, too. This is too much on the languid side for my taste, but it’s a good song objectively.

Hot Pink Halo—I quite like the melody of the sitar-sounding instrument. All the different weird parts come together to make an enjoyable, original song. I’m not sure you need the laser beam sounds, but I have to say that I like this song.

The Kraken Lives—I like first part of the intro. It’s nice to hear some late 70s hard rock again. I think this could sound epic with a different effect on the vocal to make it fuller and even echoier. Nice solo.

Kyle Rogers—I found the prominence of the tambourine distracting. I like the chorus, with respect to both the melodies and your vocal delivery. A clear rhythm from a bass might be a beneficial addition.

Lichen Throat (me)—I tried to fully embrace an electronic sound. I like it, but I don’t think I’ll do this all the time. The vocal turned out to be a lot harder to sing than it seemed to be when I was mumbling it to myself as I wrote the lyrics. I was reasonably happy with this overall, though there are many rough edges.

miscellaneous owl—I think the piano sounds good. This immediately brings me visions of a once-elegant nightclub with a stage draped in dark red velvet. The lyrics and overall sound are effective at creating exactly the kind of multifaceted sense of unease that I think you had in mind. With regard to your comments about the lyrics, this is perhaps an opportune time to mention that I’ve consistently admired the absolute fearlessness that is manifested in your songwriting. You are able to take on difficult emotional subjects, from which I would instinctively shy away, and address them with gravity, nuance, and insight.

Paco del Stinko—This is very fun and is an example of the kind of song that is best suited to your style. The rhythm is impressively complex, but it still lays down a solid groove.

Phil Well—I like the timbre of your vocal, especially when you drop down to lower notes. The song sounds very smooth and well crafted. The moments in the chorus when the backing instrumentation suddenly drops in pitch are my favorite parts of the song.

Phlebia—The opening drumbeat sets a great rhythm and energy. I really, really, really want the vocal to burst into a louder, cleaner tone at some point. As it is, the song builds tension all the way through and never releases it. If that’s what you had in mind, you nailed it, but I’m desperate for that tension to be released. Of course, my desperation may speak to the effectiveness of your songwriting.

ShoehornTC—Charming and fun. I can imagine this as the lighthearted closer on an otherwise serious album. I feel like this achieves what you set out to do.

Travels with Brindle—All the individual moments of this sound good in isolation, but I don’t think the song has enough variation to maintain interest all the way through. You have a great voice; I’d like to hear you be more adventurous in your melodies and instrumentation.

I submitted my votes! I swear I'm going to review this fight eventually, but the afternoon that I decided I was going to write out my reviews, I decided to plant a garden instead. So now I'll have collard greens, radishes, spinach, and onions within a couple months. The benefits of living in the deep south of the US: January isn't that bad. Anyway, my favorite song this fight was probably ShoehornTC.

And Lichen: endless burning tension with no real release was kind of the point, but not entirely. Mostly I was curious just how minimal I could make an arrangement and have it still work. No real chorus (unless you count liar liar liar liar), no cymbals at all, a tinny warbly synth, and a moody, driving bassline. I'm glad you liked and were frustrated by it! By the way, I listened to 15 Lichen Throat songs in a row the other day and decided that Tumbleweed is my favorite of yours.

Æpplês&vØdkã wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:16 pm

By the way, I listened to 15 Lichen Throat songs in a row the other day and decided that Tumbleweed is my favorite of yours.

Wow, I'm honored by your perseverance! "Tumbleweed" is one of my favorites of my stuff, too. I didn't mention this at the time, but the conceit of the song is that the lyrics are the content of the letters that are being received by the unfortunate narrator of 10,000 Maniacs' "The Painted Desert."

lichenthroat wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:48 am

With regard to your comments about the lyrics, this is perhaps an opportune time to mention that I’ve consistently admired the absolute fearlessness that is manifested in your songwriting. You are able to take on difficult emotional subjects, from which I would instinctively shy away, and address them with gravity, nuance, and insight.

Aw, thank you. That's one of the best compliments I've ever gotten.

Hot Pink Halo: Love the chorus lyrics. Very interesting thought. I’ve always found the tradition of swearing on a book weird, like what’s the point? People are going to say whatever they want for the most part anyways. The round at the end is pretty cool. Maybe pan them hard left and right to separate them from each other more.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: The effect on the verse vox, yes. Had to listen a few times to catch everything. Always a good thing. That creepy laugh. Shudder. Love it. And that lasagna line!!! And this line “…a person is many people throughout their lifetime.” Good grief this whole thing works for me.

Geech Sorensen: So that’s one interesting love interest… I’m nervous that his love will not conquer all their transgressions, but I also believe love is force that we cannot even begin to comprehend, so I’m hopeful. I think? Sometimes evil is just so, evil, ya know? The cymbals are a bit much most of the time for me. Could’ve used some more BGVs, but I’m being super picky there.

Cazaro Taro: Simple, but it packs a punch content-wise, and it’s relatable for sure. The second verse especially. Maybe more piano here and there, like the piano in the instrumental, just tinkling around in the background more. It needs a little something more, a little more oomph. More bass maybe.

miscellaneous owl: Ah piano, that’s right. I have almost zero plugin knowledge, so I’m not help there, but it sounds pretty damn good! Nice and moody. And there’s a ton of vulnerability to the melody that just makes this so intense. And holy cow, what deep context, which you’ve spoken to already, so moving on. Love the sigh in the beginning. Getting up the courage to say this is difficult to say the least.

Paco del Stinko: I don’t think you could get any sassier if you tried. That chimp line is GREAT. The different guitars left and right sound awesome. I always forget to do that kind of thing. Not much to say except I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Glenn Case: I want this to go somewhere more quickly. It drags for me. Maybe pick up the tempo, just a smidge? Dig the piano amongst the more produced sounds. Brings some balance.

Kyle Rogers: Whatever that percussion is that sounds like a tambourine or jingle bells is a bit much. Distracts from everything else. I like how it moves between left and right though. Just needs to be blended better. Having a hard time making out the lyrics, but I might just have old ears.

gizo vs. the 17,455: I really like the idea of being someone’s checkered past. You can’t let go, but you can’t show it. So. Damn. True. (Not speaking from experience or anything. Nope. Nope. Nope.) I dig the BGVs. And the slow, kinda mellow vibe to a rather tawdry proposition. I want a 2nd half to the second verse though. Just to get more of the story. What message already???

Phlebia: Man, this is a therapy session right here. The way you sing “liar” over and over again, it’s just so intense. I love it! Your drums are always so interesting too, but sometimes they tend to overpower everything else. I like the bass line tons too, but good luck talking a bass player into waiting that long to come in. Hahaha!

Lichen Throat: This sounds like the 80s. Nice. Not a fan of the vocals though. They just don’t seem like they fit in with the rest of it. A new direction for you I hear though, so that’s super cool!  Like the full circle-ness of the lyrics.

Travels With Brindle: Uke!!! Yeah!!!!!! Not sure I like this guy though… The dark lyrics with the happy uke are a great combo. And you went for the checkered future!!! I thought about that exactly 15 minutes ago listening to another song. Totally missed that boat, but you caught it. Super awesome! 

Phil Well: Is this first song I’ve listened to where the checkered past is “ours” as opposed to “yours” or mine”? I think so. Very cool. Ironic that the first snow is blowing outside right now also? Verses rhyme nicely. The lift in the bridge works nicely. Maybe back the synths off a bit.

ShoehornTC: Embracing the past is a bit of twist on the prompt. Cool. And now that I think about it, what about a checkered future??? Planned debauchery. Hehehe… I dig this.

Dust Pipe: Notes said this was improvised. So recorded all parts at once, or individually? My guess is the former, and if so, not easy to do. High five! Very angsty. Love the section that starts “I was young and angry.” Rhyming milieu and Mahavishnu is super fucking awesome. Quite a meditative feel to this. It’s like we’re all in the sweat lodge smoking, well whatever one smokes in sweat lodges , and working out some serious issues from our pasts. Intense.

The Kraken Lives: Often I struggle with what to say in reviews, as most of you are so technical, and I am so, not. This is one of those moments. So I will just say that those guitars rock, and I fucking love the chorus lyrics. The end.

Evil Grin: I blame PFJ for this entire song. It’s great!

I hope these aren't too terse. I really enjoyed listening to everyone's contributions!

Phlebia - I'm not good at genres, does this sound like lo-fi new wave/early 80's punk? Anyway, I've always liked that particular drumbeat and that synth sound.

Hot Pink Halo - Sweet-sounding vocals are a not-so-secret weakness of mine. Some autotuning would bolster the neat harmonies. That echo-y guitar tone accompanies the vox well.

Dustpipe - This sort of sounds like the vox and the music are two different songs. That does give it a "far out" sound.

Glenn Case - Pretty solid in terms of construction, execution, production. Good transgressive synths underlying that pretty piano.

Paco Del Stinko - This is very good. Mischievous minor key, ripping guitar solo, humorous lyrics. Executed with conviction.

gizo vs. the 17,455 - This is pretty good. I like the melody, the song is well-constructed, and performed well. Nice fade-out.

Cazarro Taro - Abrupt endings are some of my favorites. The sound was reminiscent of the 80's for me, which isn't a bad thing.

Geech Sorenson - Right away I liked the upbeat guitars. Very nice breakdown. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of this perhaps emotionally dangerous love affair.

Phil Well - This has everything. The instruments sound great, there is complexity to the construction, with instruments layering in and out, nicely crafted melodies. Such a pretty song.

Travels With Brindle - Is that a uke? I've always liked a minimal uke/vox arrangement.

Lichen Throat - Vivid storytelling, I like that in a song.

Evil Grin - Really nice sounding guitars. Pretty vocal accompaniment. This song is very well put together and super catchy!

Shoehorn TC - Rockin' ditty! I like the dual vox. Nice chord progression in the chorus.

The Kraken Lives - Great guitar work here! Rockin'

Kyle Rogers - There's a lot going on here. I do like that there is some shift in energy as the verse progresses.

miscellaneous owl - Haunting piano, lovely vox, lyrics tell a (disturbing) story. This is really good, as in, I got chills!

WreckdoMelle wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 14, 2020 5:39 pm

Phlebia - I'm not good at genres, does this sound like lo-fi new wave/early 80's punk? Anyway, I've always liked that particular drumbeat and that synth sound.

Yes, indeed it does! that whole Goth/Deathrock scene is a natural fit seeing as how I'm mainly good at drums, bass, and synths and that's the main ingredients...who needs an electric guitar anyway?