The Song Fight Bulletin Board

My first impulse was to write about an insane proctologist and his unfortunate patients.

I've got my lyrics [posted], but no guest and nothing recorded. Usually, if it's not done by Friday afternoon, I'm out of luck. Fortunately, I'm already eliminated.

Is anybody available to record a female vocal?

Full disclosure: I don't have all the lyrics written yet, so I probably won't be able to get you the song until Saturday night.

lichenthroat wrote: ↑

Fri May 29, 2020 6:21 pm

Is anybody available to record a female vocal?

Full disclosure: I don't have all the lyrics written yet, so I probably won't be able to get you the song until Saturday night.

I can, if you still need one!

Cybronica wrote: ↑

Fri May 29, 2020 9:13 pm

lichenthroat wrote: ↑

Fri May 29, 2020 6:21 pm

Is anybody available to record a female vocal?

Full disclosure: I don't have all the lyrics written yet, so I probably won't be able to get you the song until Saturday night.

I can, if you still need one!

Thanks so much! I'll send you the music and lyrics as soon as I'm done with the song.

Hey, judges. Until right now I had no idea I was eliminated and resurrected again for Chupacabra. Thank you for that. I wish I'd made a better showing. Thanks so much for your reviews and comments.

Nur Ein XV - Round 3 Listening Party - 'Rear Window' - It's the guest round!
Live Monday 6/1 at 9pm EDT. Drop in to the chat to talk with the other artists.




https://youtu.be/m18w-CaC8GY

Just got mine in, this one was a battle for me. Instead of just ditching what I have done and throwing something together at the end I wanted to persevere and keep trying to build something. I also decided to leave my beloved axe hanging on the wall and play with some of the new plugins that I have been buying over the months. I initially wanted to do something with a computer generated voice, I then wanted to do a spoken word thing about Dominic Cummings debacle. Finally I settled with doing something a bit cliched, essentially the grass is always greener kind of thing, mainly because I've been watching White Lines on Netflix which has a similar plot line.

I got guest vocals from Robyn Mackensie who takes part in FAWM and also started up a songwriting thing on facebook that I do. Her music is below if you want to check it out:

https://soundcloud.com/robynmackenziemusic

This challenge scared me, the idea of asking another musician for help was extremely daunting.

I'm in, with guest vocalist Cybronica, so at least part of the song has an on-tune vocal.

I tried hard to write a goth song but ended up with early-90s hillbilly alternative instead. Maybe goth next time.

lichenthroat wrote: ↑

Sun May 31, 2020 1:52 pm

I tried hard to write a goth song but ended up with early-90s hillbilly alternative instead. Maybe goth next time.

Man, I hear you on that one. Mine started as kind of a pastiche on doo-wop, then gradually morphed into one of those Broadway-pop/swing/"cabaret" style songs I used to do, but I wasn't happy with the vocal cadence (and also wanted to stick with the guitar thing I've been doing), so I tried straightening the rhythm and tried doing it as a straight-up rock song.... And that somehow led to it becoming a country ballad. Same song the whole time. What a journey.

I just wrapped the last recording on mine, should have it submitted in an hour or two. My guest vocalist is Holly Furlone. She and Jim Tyrell also tweaked my lyrics a bit, so they both get co-writer credits. Special thanks to Mike Lamb for some arrangement suggestions.

Brown Word in with a shadow featuring Geoff WreckdoM. Will probably sound like a WreckdoM song. This one was fun. Could totally be a true story if it wasn't entirely made up. Sometimes that thing you think is going on might be, but just not in the way you think.

In with a song about my fictional husband, Data, with guest vocals sung by my IRL husband, Toshiro.

I made it in. Here's some "liner notes" on my entry:

Lyrically, this is a fairly straightforward breakup song. My character is a guy who is too self-absorbed to notice how his behavior is affecting those around him, so he just keeps going until he feels he can't stay somewhere anymore, leaving his partner and city behind. The kind of off-angle here is how much he and his partner (played by Holly Furlone) are actually in agreement about things, especially about how much of a schmuck he is. His part of the story is about how he can't keep up appearances, and her part is about watching him gradually stop trying. He cracks a dumb self-effacing joke in the first verse; in the second verse she describes how she sublimated her discomfort through awkward jokes. They harmonize, even as they're both singing about how they can't be together because of how awful he is.

Musically, it's pretty straightforward as well, besides being a country ballad genre exploration for me. From a theory standpoint, the "spiciest" part is that E chord (the II relative to the tonic) right before the end of the chorus, which is a little weird, sort of a borrowed technique from some jazz and 60s pop, here serving as a bittersweet little tension builder. It's a major triad, and those tend to sound positive (that would be the "sweet" in the "bittersweet"), but it's also a triad that doesn't belong in the key of the song (D), creating tension that needs to be resolved (the "bitter"), symbolizing the characters reflecting one last time on what they had, before the final chord resolves and they move on from it. I think of that II as the character indulging in one last wistful look at the city in his rear view mirror before putting his eyes back on the road away from that city when it resolves back to the D.

I got broken up with last week from a two-year relationship and I'm devastated, so it's been a pretty hellish week. Luckily you guys decided to hand me a song title like 'Rear Window' so I let my emotions run wild. Working on this song with Deirdre has really helped me in a lot of ways, so thanks again to Nur Ein for existing.

The night before the challenge was announced, I was talking to my friend Jae from my college acapella group (yes, you can make fun of me but we Clef Hangers kicked ASS) about wanting to collab with her. Then BOOM this challenge was announced and it was serendipity.

Then wildly, Jae also broke up with her girlfriend the next day so it was just so perfect to have a verse from her perspective.

This song turned out angry and cathartic and Deirds got to go ham on the drums, so we hope you dig. Thanks again to Nur Ein for existing and you all for listening <3

-glow worm

I’ve got no idea what my song is about. Pepper Jane wrote it. Probably some chick thing.

I just could not motivate myself to get started this week. Finally friday night I had some scratch guitars and about 1 1/2 verses with mumbling for the choruses.

A friend from work volunteered to come sing and play his drums (which are currently at my house).

Song is somewhat centered around a wedding where one guy wishes the girl was his and the other guy is getting married. Their different perspective is how they view "Just married" written on the rear window. I tried to avoid the cliche where married guy happy, other guy sad, so I placed the married guy a bit in the future where things aren't going as well and added themes of reflection. His reflection is to think back to the day of the wedding and remember things weren't so bad i.e. good reflection. The other guy realizes dwelling on the past (i.e. bad reflection), isn't always great and decides to have fun at the wedding. Together, they agree there is a time and a place for reflection.....

Caravan Ray wrote: ↑

Sun May 31, 2020 8:29 pm

I’ve got no idea what my song is about. Pepper Jane wrote it. Probably some chick thing.

Did you just admit to cheating? Disqualified!

Lunkhead wrote: ↑

Sun May 31, 2020 8:49 pm

Caravan Ray wrote: ↑

Sun May 31, 2020 8:29 pm

I’ve got no idea what my song is about. Pepper Jane wrote it. Probably some chick thing.

Did you just admit to cheating? Disqualified!

Well, I did write the male responses to whatever it was she was going on about. But - it was more a “producer” role. PJ sent me some voice messages of lyric snippets sung into her phone while she was working in a pub bottle shop if I understand it correctly. I songified it. I don’t think it was exactly what she was expecting.

Mandibles are IN at.... literally 11:59. PHEW that was close. The guest is our friend Ed who used to sing in the same church choir where we all have sung at one point or another. He and Estaphonia sing a duet that captures the moment someone moves out, signifying the end of a relationship. Fun fact about this song: For the first time ever on a Mandibles track, I have 0 vocals! Still on bass, though.

glowworm wrote: ↑

Sun May 31, 2020 8:04 pm

Clef Hangers

That's a great group name! I'm sorry about your relationship.

ABOUT THE GUEST VOCALIST
I was contemplating how the hell I would get my 18-month-old to "tell a story" when who else but Mr. Bombast messaged me asking for some vocals. Unfortunately for him, he also offered to do vocals for me.

Which got it in my head that I wanted to make an epic song. I could not for the life of me figure out the song until Saturday. My chords didn't work, my guitar didn't work, my singing didn't work, my brain didn't work, Reaper crashed repeatedly, and somebody ran over my dog (just kidding, this isn't a country song).

I would like it to be known that when Mr. Bombast offers, he comes through even if it's at the last minute, and that is deeply appreciated and respectable.

Then I got his vocals back and decided I needed to put in more energy into mine to match. And thus, everything went to hell as I re-recorded my vocals the last 3-4 hours, and then, of course, the levels were off.

I would like us to avoid the conspiracy theory that Mr. Bombast's kind vocal offering was actually a nefarious plot to sabotage my song by placing me on a slippery slope. No, I did this all to myself.

Folks, I haven't slept this week or had a second to myself. I hope someone enjoys this.

This image is my liner notes. ABOUT THE MUSIC
I wanted to make an Armageddon-like song - some sort of overly dramatic nonsense like Aerosmith. And for whatever reason, I wanted this weird chord progression that's all the F# "harmonic" minor key until the chorus which, for some reason, has an E chord. OK, sure, I don't know jack about music theory, I've just got an ear. Except it's very difficult to play power chords over these weird sorts of things and get it to sound right. Whenever I came up with the melody/harmony I wanted, it clashed with something. This song needed that in-and-out duet type feel and I had just screwed myself.

I write my songs around choruses. My entire song was being held up by this chord progression from hell.

Eventually... I found out that the chorus was using the F# natural minor scale. What is the difference? Well, one has E and one has F, and the two shall not meet. Great! I can move on! Except then I found out my chorus had both E and F chords. FML. What, how?

This is the story of how I learned what a "melodic minor" scale is. It is one way going up (harmonic minor), and another way going down (natural minor). I figured this out at 3am like Thursday or Friday or something.

My song was literally a drum track with a bunch of punched in piano chords so I could figure this nonsense out.

To skip-forward a bit, I also struggled with the tempo, lyrics, the actual key I put it in, singing F# blues notes and wondering why it sounded weird, and such and so forth. I tossed out many midi tracks, many guitar tracks and bass tracks. Many hours wasted.

My first song was super lame. It had an okay chorus. It just wasn't catchy. And dang it, I wanted this freakin' chord progression for the chorus even if it killed me.

I turned the ham up a bit. Got the chorus! Now what do I do with the verse? Sigh...

And then it clicked.

Except now... instead of having a rock opera song...

I have the soundtrack for Armegeddon the musical starring Linn-Manuel Miranda.

Yes, I went out to try to write an epic rock song and ended up with some (hopefully interesting) R&B/rap/rock thing.

All because I don't know music theory.

Some liner notes for my shadow:

I came up with my take on this challenge pretty much immediately but work's been a bit crazy this week, so I haven't had time to finish the full arrangement (it was full of mellotrons and everything!). I've therefore decided to post the demo, so you get an idea of what could've been. It's a bit lofi and there are a few placeholder lyrics in there still but hey ho.

Guest vocals supplied by my good friend Alexa.

Fun fact: Rear Window isn't my favourite Hitchcock film. That would probably be either Vertigo, Frenzy or Rope.

Looking forward to my walk and listen today. All the lyrics look really great. Reading through I realised in my haste to put something together I forgot to put put in a mention to a rear window in my lyrics, whoopsees. If I was having a driving test I would have failed

Zip with all songs:

Nur Ein XV - Round 3

Incredible cover art: