Brown Word and the Big Whine: For the most part I’m enjoying the energy in this one. But there’s something about it that isn’t (quite) sitting right with me. Maybe it’s where I feel like it sort of starts losing a bit of steam...like by the 3rd verse it already starts to feel overlong. The garage reggae inflicted bit imo would have worked better structurally if it came after the second verse or something. Basically it just kind of gets repetitive, though I do enjoy the story and the attitude.
Caravan Ray: So many song titles smushed together! It’s catchy in a dance punk kind of way, I like the whammy bar filled guitar work and the driving nature, though for some reason I wish you’d gone with different drum sounds. The slow bit in the middle is nice. The panning in the “drives a cadillac, rides again” part is a bit too wide for my tastes. I certainly was entertained by this one though.
Jeff DeSantis: Straightforward effective rock. This gives me some backyard cookout vibes. It’s reminding me heavily of some song that I used to hear on the radio back around the turn of the century, but I can’t place it. I think it’s the slightly generic chord progression. I want to say it’s Hootie I’m thinking of but I could be totally off there. Anyway, this is well done and competent and the chorus is pretty well executed. I like the melody there. Now I wanna listen to “Anarchy” since you mentioned it.
Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff: I think it was you a few weeks ago that brought up the “simple but effective” thing that Tom Petty does with melodies that aren’t really all that dynamic for the most part. I guess I must be the wrong audience, but I find the “let’s go for a ride” chorus just...dull. Like it doesn’t dynamically stick out from the rest of the song (other than the ride cymbal) and it’s not engaging. Actually that’s true of much of this song. Though I like that chimy guitar work in the background. And the lyrics just dont’ quite measure up to the creativity of some of these other ones.
Lichen Throat: Well, you know that your vocal track and your midi guitars don’t always sit nicely together in the mix, and you know that your melodies aren’t usually the strongest. But, even though I know it’s synthetic, I really like the guitar line you came up with for this one, though I wish it had less reverb. The line “golf is just an excuse to drink”...kind of amused me, given that it seems like every golf game I’ve played has involved my dad and his buddies having a drink or two. Which just reminded me that I haven’t actually played a single round of golf since I reached drinking age...9 years ago. This ranks in the better half of your catalogue.
The Pannacotta Army: I know it’s not production fight, but your entries uniformly
sound good. Everything sits in the mix nicely, never too cluttered, nice and spacious. I feel whether or not you enjoy this is dependent on how much you like reggae. I love it, though I prefer dub over this roots style. Imagine if we did a sequel fight for 2012’s “Don’t Like Reggae”. Anyway, you’ve got a good melody and vibe going on here, and it would shock me if you didn’t rack up the votes for this one too. I will say that one gripe I have is the lyrics...I do like them, but I don’t really understand where the bored golfer is a punk. Is the only punky thing he does declare that he’s not really into golf? Anyway, pleasant enough.
Phlebia: I should stop watching Letterkenny and I should stop listening to hed(PE). But I don’t want to. Anyway, Sweeney and I were meaning to collaborate for awhile and almost did something last fight but it didn’t happen. This song has no guitars on it -- instrumentally it’s 3 bass tracks, one playing the bass line, one playing distorted chunky power chords, and the other playing upper register fleshing out the chunky power chord one. I may have overdone the “cutting the bass” to make things not as muddy, since Fluffy said the mix was over-trebled. Anyway, the records featured are two kid’s story book records from the 70s: Thumbelina and some story about a Mogwai that isn’t related to Gremlins or the band. I had to do the warpy record intro because on this page you see a little girl giggling at a hippopotamus.
Pigfarmer Jr: This is definitely one of the better Pigfarmer songs. It’s got this swagger and attitude that you sometimes nail and sometimes don’t...and you definitely nailed it that time. For some reason production-wise I think this would sound dope if you belted the words a bit more in the chorus and used some POWER, even like setting the gain so they slightly clip into the red every now and then. Actually that’s not a production suggestion, that’s a vocal suggestion. I definitely relate to this though, there’s some fights where I’ve wondered if everyone else is deaf (and I’m not talking about the obviously gamed fights)...sometimes I just disagree with the consensus!
Sockpuppet: You know what’s satisfying? Smacking a golf ball. You know what else is satisfying? Going to the recycling center and smashing glass bottles. Personally I’d rather smash stuff and light stuff on fire in the most harmless way, but I suppose that if you have trouble doing that harmlessly, golf would be a decent outlet. The switch up to the past tense in the refrain was a nice change. I’m trying to figure out the significance of the last line. I mean I’ve met my fair share of pretentious Prius drivers (my ex’s dad, dadgum), but it sounds like golfpunk used to be way more of an asshole than he is now.
WreckdoM: Another story. Only way less Sockpuppety and more WreckdoMy. Of course they smush him! I love the guitar tone throughout the verses, it reminds me of early Bardo Pond in its noodly muddiness. The chorus here is...odd. I hear “Isle Dauphine” and think of “Isle Delfino” from Mario Sunshine. Like if this was just a story and noodly sludgy riffing I’d like it alright, but all the other parts ruin it for me.
For a milestone fight, I’m surprised at how few of these I really dug.
Rankings:
1. Me, cause I had a LOT of fun creating it.
2. Brown Word, cause it upped the punx oi oi.
3. Pannacotta, lordamerci one love I and I.