The Song Fight Bulletin Board

taught us to live with differing opinions. You know, like adults.

And then we put our lyrics in the appropriate thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12310

Songs posted! We got 9 after all, in spite of Nur Ein.

Great fight, everyone. I’m hearing a lot of boxiness/excess reverb, but that may be my listening situation or my general aversion to too much reverb. So if I’m the only one who says things are boxy/reverby, please factor that in. I took a pause to listen to some reference tracks and I don’t think it’s my room and monitors, but I could be wrong.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: I like the composition and performance of this quite a lot. Like, this is among my favorite BW & the BW songs. Guitar and vocal performances sound great to me. Good choice to establish the feel before bringing the drums in. As far as the recording and production go, I feel like the guitar is taking up too much space with a big boxy low end, and overall there’s a lot of mud and reverb. I can’t tell how much of this is attributable to the recording vs. mixing of the guitar. It sounds to me like it’s either a really bottom-heavy recording (like one mic aimed at the body) or too much bottom-end getting too much reverb. If you’re not using two mics, try it, with one aimed at the body and one at the neck. Or just one mic closer to the 12th or 14th fret. If you are doing something like this, try mixing more of the neck mic and less of the body to get more sparkle, or EQ’ing out some low end, either on guitar track itself or at least on the reverb. And maybe less reverb all around, though this might just be my very reverb-shy bias. Oh, and bring up the synth. Had to strain to hear it. All that said, I really enjoyed this song.

Gil Sans: Short and sweet. As usual, I like the kind of raw, live sound you have. Mix is a little boxy and reverby for my tastes, particularly the drums. But overall I really like this.

The Gross Tones: I like the general feel of this. Highlights are the little guitar leads throughout (simple but effective), and the stops in the refrain (always good). Overall mix sounds muffled/boxy. Hope you stick around and continue to review, and maybe your voters can start some bands and submit some songs, too

The Mellfire Trifecta: Nice sparkle in the acoustic guitar, and overall the mix sounds pretty balanced to me. Nice feeling of resigned melancholy turned to something pretty far short of, but aspiring to optimism in the lyric and delivery. Nice performances. Backing vocals add a lot to this one.

Night Sky: This started as a general funk intention and experiment with B3 palm slides. Sally didn’t have time to write lyrics, so Steve and I muddled through. The vocal was terrible, so I decided to just go full-on vocoder with it. Should have spent more time aligning the MIDI with the syllables, and should have cut some of the low end out of the vocoder track. BUT I had a lot of fun with this, and that’s what it’s about. Only one sax, but the synth solo was an EWI, so that kinda counts.

Paco del Stinko: Love the agile bass line. Really effective interaction of the different rhythm parts doing their own things, but working together to make something more. Wonderfully unhinged.

The Pannacotta Army: Sounds like a winner to me (jinx). I mean it’s just so put together that I’m not really sure what to say. Really tasteful guitar leads throughout, and lest it be said that I only say bad things about reverb, the reverb on the guitar is really nice. String pads nice and atmospheric. And of course, great vocal performance. And bittersweet take on the prompt. Well done.

Phlub: I admire your dedication to merging the microtonal and the pop, but the synths in particular just come across and dissonant and/or out of tune to my 12-tone ears. Arrangement is nice, and I like the drums quite a lot. Nice high vocals, too.

WreckdoM: I, too, loved Radio Shack. So sad. Musically, I like the synths, but the swing feel seems incongruous somehow. Mostly it’s a struggle for me to get on the WreckdoM wavelength, but fly your freak flag, man, fly it high!

mholland wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:09 pm

Phlub: I admire your dedication to merging the microtonal and the pop, but the synths in particular just come across and dissonant and/or out of tune to my 12-tone ears. Arrangement is nice, and I like the drums quite a lot. Nice high vocals, too.

Well...it's a 22 tone scale, so I do suppose it may be a bit of an adjustment. But I will make it work! An interesting characteristic is that the most "textbook" major third is actually more in tune than the one that you get in 12edo, but it's 5 steps to get to it, so rather than stacking two identically sized whole tones, it's a 3 step "major" whole tone and a 2 step "minor" whole tone. There's a lot of other interesting features in the harmonic system -- it's just similar enough to work for common practice music but different enough to where it comes across as kind of odd. Personally I think the sevenths sound great, but I've been breathing this stuff for awhile now. I guess it's like learning to enjoy spicy food. Which I also really love.

Anyway, I'm glad you liked the arrangement/drums/vox at least!

Not done any reviewing for a while...probably with good reason

Brown Word and the Big Whine: Not the most melodic of vocal lines but the song is okay. It could really do with more dynamics in the arrangement though. The acoustic has a bit of a harsh tone and is probably too loud in the mix. Now I know I’m using lots of reverb this week too, but it’s a little too swampy here, particularly on the vocals.

Gil Sans: I like the Keef sounding rhythm guitar. Same goes for the melody and your indolent vocal style. I also dig the instrumental outro which has a Pixies kind of vibe to it. This is pretty short with a slightly odd structure of two verses, one chorus then solo/instrumental outro. I think you could’ve come back for a further verse and chorus to extend it beyond the 2 minute length.

The Gross Tones: Sounds more like a lawnmower than a VW. It’s okay having that at the start and the end as a novelty, but I don’t think it adds anything while the main song is happening. There’s some odd phasey/chorusy thing going on with this probably linked with the general poor sound quality - it’s like the mp3 has been encoded at some ultra-low bit rate. It’s a shame because the song is quite catchy in a blues-rock, Stones-ish kind of way.

The Mellfire Trifecta: The tuneful layered acoustics are great - one with a capo to add depth. Lots of REM vibes oozing out of this from the arrangement and especially your vocals. Nice touch bringing the piano in on the second verse. Plenty of good melodic vocal phrases. This all just this works well and flows along nicely. Good mature work and I haven’t even mentioned the lovely harmony vocals yet….fixed. My pick for this fight.

Night Sky: 70s jazzy funk vibes. This kicks off with a nice arrangement of e-piano, organ and choppy guitar, though I think maybe a less-is-more approach with the latter may have worked better. Interesting choice with the vocoder vocals - the jury’s out on that. Noted the optional challenge of synth solo and some cool sax flourishes for the coda. Neatly packaged.

Paco del Stinko: Freak-show operetta vibe with a varied cast of vocal characters. Sounds like a mongrel mashup between Kid Creole and the Coconuts and Berthold Brecht which probably doesn’t make much sense to anyone but me. The lyrical melody is lacking a bit for me but I like the funky guitars and bass which along with the faux sounding brass stabs create some nice energetic rhythm. The theremin type synth gives the whole shebang a comic spooky flavour and there’s great detail in the drums with some excellent breaks.

Phlub: I like the dynamic change between the synthy verses and hard edged chorus. The vocals come across a little shy of commitment in the verses and then too forced/shouty in the chorus making them get pitchy - I assume that isn’t a sort of micro-tuning as with some elements of the music. Maybe my ears are too Western accustomed but the mix of microtonality with standard tuning just seems to clash too much in places. That jarring chord change at 0.50 takes some getting used to as well.

WreckdoM: The Depeche Mode style of the music for the first 1 min 50 or so section is okay, but I think things start to lose their way a bit in the remainder. Some of the drum breaks don’t work that well. I guess your aiming for some kind of humorous shtick with the stream of consciousness style lyric and comic sprechgesang delivery. I find the pitched up vocal layer gets a bit grating after a while.

The Pannacotta Army: Maybe a little heavy with the reverb, but I was trying for a little Phil Spector flavour.

the panna cotta army wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 17, 2022 9:56 am

Night Sky: 70s jazzy funk vibes. This kicks off with a nice arrangement of e-piano, organ and choppy guitar, though I think maybe a less-is-more approach with the latter may have worked better. Interesting choice with the vocoder vocals - the jury’s out on that. Noted the optional challenge of synth solo and some cool sax flourishes for the coda. Neatly packaged.

Thanks for the review. I always struggle to put the main rhythm guitar part in its place--I almost always establish the groove with a guitar part, and have a hard time backing off of that as I start bringing in the other rhythm instruments. In this case I think it crowded out the possibilities for a groovier bass line (what's there is embarrassingly just Steve's kick rhythm with a couple of pickup notes here and there). But fundamentally, I really dig electric guitar sixteenth funk grooves, so I'm OK with where it landed.

Under the constraints of Song Fight! timelines and my (lack of) vocal skill, I think you'd probably agree with the vocoder call if you heard the raw vocal takes. Also, I figure if Herbie can do whole vocoder albums, I can do a song or two. That said, I slapped it on at the end, and was a little haphazard in recording the MIDI region. I went back and made the MIDI more legato and lined it up better, and also cut out some of the low frequencies and tamed the highs a bit. This improved the clarity of the vocal, though there are still some words that don't come across (in particular, "snared" sounds like "scared," which isn't really what I meant).

Gown Bird and the Wig Brine - Okay, so lyrically this a great folksy acoustic number. It’s simple. But that’s why it works. No frills. A reasonable structure. Now, *could* you have been more adventurous with the chord progression? Yeah, probably but that would have taken it out of genre, and it’s good at being what it is. That chord progression during the C F and G, wheel of a work truck, write lyrics on a gas station receipt” is great. And the fading in of the reverb towards the end of the song was a nice touch. Maybe a higher quality acoustic recording would have been better, but I dunno, this is a legit good song.

Sil Gans - Maybe a bit too reverby on the drums here. I’m not sure if that’s a function of how they were recorded or if they were configured that way in post-production. That being said, the washed out thumpiness mostly sounds decent, it’s just a lot is lost in the attack. Maybe just a couple more closer mics would help out a lot there. To be honest it’s kind of got a Steve Albini vibe. I spend all of this time thinking about the drum recording and the song is over. As for the song itself…I mean, it’s not bad, but I found it kind of forgettable.

Toast Groans - Okay, there’s that noise that pops up periodically in the recording and I really can’t say I fully understand what’s going on with it but I don’t like it. One thing that I’m finding interesting is the production here. It sounds like there was some sort of encoding issue on the drums in particular, like I’m listening to very degraded audio from a super low bit rate mp3. Honestly the thought that came to mind was “watching music videos on yahoo music in 2001”. I used to record some of those to tape for DOUBLE degradation. Anyway, the guitar noodles are nice here. The song is decent. I don’t hate it.

Hellfire Infectah - Guitar recording come out good. Is this doubled? The stereo field sounds good. Vocal performance is very solid, and the harmonies are great. The chorus is nice. With a bit more tropicalia it would remind me of Jimmy Buffett, in terms of the overall melodic structure. There is probably closer touchstone, but not one that I’ve listened to extensively (thanks Dad). I’m not sure what else to say about this one, it’s pretty solid.

Knight Skye - Okay, this vocoder business actually works great for the genre. Maybe cause I’ve been jamming a lot of Roger and Zapp lately, but I’m all about it. Opening groove makes me expect some “doot-doot-doodoos, flyyyy like an eagle!” coming in. But the funk here is infectious. And I seriously love the vocoder, even if you only put it on cause you thought your vocals sounded bad. Am I hearing phaser on the saxophone? That’s an interesting and cool touch. I don’t like the ending of this song, it’s so…inconclusive! Yeah, I liked this.

Sacko del Pinko - This flows well after Night Sky. Vocals seem a bit lower in the mix than I’d really prefer, they’re kind of buried behind the incessant groove. Harmonically this lands in a strange place, but it’s a good strange place. And the harmonies are great, and the drums are great. This is one of the better Paco songs I’ve reviewed in awhile. Though maybe a stronger melody would be nice? That is such a dinky sounding synth voicing, sounds like a cheap keyboard, but in a good way. Rhythm is infectious.

Terracotta Farming - You and your slick professional production quality. This makes me want a nice dinner. The string patch in the solo is mega spiffy. Lyrics are vague and bittersweet. Someone fell out of love. That stinks. I have very little to critique on this. I feel like I should be wearing a nice blazer as it plays.

Phlub - “Microtonal pop rock” was what I was going for here. I tried but just could not get the vocals to sit in the mix the way I wanted. I really enjoyed throwing in that neutral 6th in the “pseudo-chorus”, more people should use neutral 6ths in their pop rock. I’m very pleased with the second half of this. The lyrics don’t really mean anything.

Rectum - You know you’re impossible to review. This makes me want to go to the mall. Though for me I usually associate going to the mall with wandering around aimlessly, then going and buying an edgy t-shirt at Hot Topic. Back in middle school my mom had this friend we always called Shack. Cause he worked at Radio Shack. I forget what his actual name was. Rick? I don’t think that’s it. Vince? Gary? I have no idea. I always called him Shack. He taught me some boogie woogie type stuff on piano before I decided piano was boring and started learning all of the other more ROCK AND ROLL instruments. The best part of west town mall in knoxville was watching the kids who had more quarters than me kicking ass at DDR. There was this kid named squid who always wore tripp pants or JNCOs or whatever who would always be there, stomping away on those arrows to the J-Pop. I think Emily thought he was cute? Or maybe that was her friend Brittany. Later she would manage that Spencer’s. I don’t think she liked managing the Spencers but it was money I guess. Congratulations, I'm now re-living my preteen mall rat days.

sleepysilverdoor wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 18, 2022 10:49 am

Knight Skye - Okay, this vocoder business actually works great for the genre. Maybe cause I’ve been jamming a lot of Roger and Zapp lately, but I’m all about it. Opening groove makes me expect some “doot-doot-doodoos, flyyyy like an eagle!” coming in. But the funk here is infectious. And I seriously love the vocoder, even if you only put it on cause you thought your vocals sounded bad. Am I hearing phaser on the saxophone? That’s an interesting and cool touch. I don’t like the ending of this song, it’s so…inconclusive! Yeah, I liked this.

I think the natural conclusion would have been an extended jam on the main vamp, but that doesn’t usually go down well around here. And yes, that’s a phaser on the sax. The sax was a little dry, so I just dragged the effects chain from the guitar over and turned up the feedback and depth a bit. Even toyed with triggering the vocoder with the sax, but it didn’t sound so good.

Super quick comments. I don't believe there's anything in this fight that sucked, strong batch. Pat yerselves on the backs, gang! Now, who wants ice-cream?

Brown Word and the Big Whine - Got the cigarette lighter out and slowly waving. Wobbles at times, but good mood. Really dig the bridge direction, the slightly angular chord. Could benefit from refinement in most areas, but this goes in a really good direction at its core.

Gil Sans - Great all around. Strummy, punky, just raw enough all-around hooks. Production is right on, balanced playing sounds live, and excellent lyrics, just enough color. Homegrown goodness.

The Gross Tones+ - Easy going groovy time. Pleasant melodies if not covered in glue, but its all about the casual good time vibe anyway. Jam rock on a warm afternoon.

The Mellfire Trifecta - Very nice. The rhythm and tempo are just right for each other and support the nice melodies well. The holiday lines blow off the present time fog top be instantly transported to a better part of the '70s. Sounds great, played superbly, all around delight.

Night Sky - Midnight jam with some groovy love going on here. I like the melody and the vocoder is not unwelcome. This in the background at a party would sit comfortably and keep a nice energy flowing. With refinement, could be made into a full length hapenin' tune. Dig it as is for what it does though.

Paco del Stinko - I like the bassline here, the rhythm guitar sounds great in isolation. Late night slop-fest in the key of Beer Minor.

The Pannacotta Army - Oh man. This takes hold immediately and goes to the places that Pixies and Bonds only dreamt of visiting. Wonderful and somewhat soothing lead melodies are embracing without any smother. Neil Young passed by. That guitar solo is beautiful, and its intro great. Singable. Seems simple, but some tasty and smart complexities here in the arrangements. One of the best songs I've heard all year.

Phlub - This gets its footing more as it progresses, really getting it going in the middle and on. Pounds and gargantuans it up, radioactive halo. I like the vocal and melodies, a more raw delivery sometime would probably blow it up nicely, but very good melodies. Your singing reminds me of my old friend Steve in approach, melodic sense, and a bit of timbre. Cool, huh? I like the dissonance, but it probably works better after it kinda tightens up. Pow!

WreckdoM - Nice and rubbery ode to the Shack. This is dance music in the hazy slo-mo zone. Starts to wander, then galoomps along to a star-struck ending. Good colors and commentary, I don't feel threatened or in danger, just a little goofy. Works for me!

I don't often talk about voting, but if I could still only vote for one, it would have to be PCA. Too good.

Yes. Pannacotta knocked it out of the park. Very ambitious. Well done.

Paco Del Stinko – I like the groove right away. I’m getting some House of Frankenstein vibes out front and it captures me. Great drum part and the bass slots in there well. The vocal ran around and surprised me by often going in an unexpected direction. I do like that guitar solo. Good playing. I can’t hear every lyric, but I think a happier take on the vocal might have been a cool alternate take. Maybe I’m missing something on that one though. Everything is well played here. It’s solid.

Gil Sans – Noticeable echo on the drums – an interesting touch. The vocal is just right for this tune. I can’t hear quite as much bass as I’d like to, but the whole thing is very well put together. Guitar paying is just right. Short and sweet. Does what it wants to do and gets out.

WreckDoM – Would love to know how you got that vibrating synth sound. An unusual vocal effect on the high part. “Radio Shaaaaaack.” That extended note is good stuff. Definitely took a turn at the two-minute mark. This a strange and wonderful trip lyrically and musically you’re definitely committed to the journey. Unusual stuff. I chuckled too.

Brown Word and the Big Whine – A kind of power ballad with some great lines, like: “Like turned to love on the fretboard of a dreadnought. The alchemy of artistry made true.” The chord changes near the end did not satisfy me as much as the ones at the beginning but I liked that you were changing things up and the ending itself is well done.

Night Sky – I always listen to the songs at least twice, and I’m glad I do. I thought this wasn’t really grabbing me til I turned it off to go make breakfast and found myself humming it for the next while. I’m of two minds on the vocal effect. Would have loved to hear the original but I read your reason for using it so I can’t know if you were right or not. The playing is good. The lyrics fit well with the vibe. Good job.

Phlub – There is a fine line you’re walking here. I like the chorus when you get right up in your upper register and let loose with the reverb. For other sections it feels like the keyboard part is dragging the train off the rails when it’s only trying to toot its horn. Also, your lyrics are great on this one.

The Mellfire Trifecta – This was ours. Was happier with the mix on this one than most others. Wanted to add a solo but also wanted it to stay shorter so the solo was out.

The Gross Tones – I think your mix of instrument sounds, especially guitar, is very good here. This reminded me of Weezer, and I could see Rivers C. writing the “At first she didn’t like me…” part. Guitar fills add a heck of a lot. I could do without the automobile bookends but this is a good effort.

The Pannacotta Army – Seems like you are really putting together all your talents here. Good production, great playing, structural perfection, nice subtle vocals, harmony in only the right places. I like this on a lot. Not too many words here, but it doesn’t feel drawn out or sparse. Noting also that the strings sound pretty damn good for fake strings – unless you are someone who happens to use a quartet for rent. Really nice work.

The Gross Tones and the pannacotta army tie!

Thanks. It’s not why I do this but a little bit of recognition is still a nice thing.

Congrats to the PCA, well deserved win, great tune.

I'm surprised by how many votes I received, I would figure about half that might be more appropriate, or that kind of total for Gil Sans. And I've still never voted for my own song here. Honestly! So. Was there some unsolicited monkey business here? Some kind of Gross trickle down or something?

Never know. Something funny is going on....

Paco Del Stinko wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 26, 2022 8:08 am

I'm surprised by how many votes I received

Well, I liked your tune. *shrug*

Congratz, Tim.

Pigfarmer Jr wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 28, 2022 12:15 pm

Paco Del Stinko wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 26, 2022 8:08 am

I'm surprised by how many votes I received

Well, I liked your tune. *shrug*

Congratz, Tim.

Also liked it Paco.

I voted for Paco.