The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Pick your favorite of the four entries:

"Simon Says" by Assault! Assault!
"Never Tear Us Apart" by the Tyrrell Corporation
"Don't Change" by Paco Del Stinko
"The Loved One" by Caravan Ray

Despite my rather sparse reviewing style (I'm tired today) I enjoyed all these.

Assault! Assault!

What I Liked – The tub-thumbing kettle drum style. The way the guitar drums and vocals somehow sound like a punk Dylan. The energy of enjoyment.

What I Didn’t Like - Took me two minutes to realise there was some bass on this. Around the time the song should have finished. Too long, in other words.

Do I Know The Original? No.

Paco Del Stinko

WIL – Backing vocals under the chorus are cool. Jerky almost ska-esque rhythms. Great piano – tone, arrangement and playing. Jaunty!

WIDL – Chorus could have stood out of the mix more in relation to the verses. The rolling snares are cool but are there are occasional timing issues? Is that possible? Sounds like a drum machine, so maybe not… I could just be hearing things.

DIKTO? Nope.

Caravan Ray

WIL – The acoustic tone. Starts off like something from late 60s Kinks before the tune kicks in and it goes a bit campfire singalong (a less appealing option for me).

WIDL – The song itself. BPM is a bit slow for the bareness of the track? The reverence accorded to a song that isn’t actually all that good?

DIKTO? – Didn’t think I did, but actually yes I am having horror flashbacks now. Thanks for that, CR

The Tyrrell Corporation
WIL – the song itself (not that many INXS songs I like but this one I like a lot). Jim’s vocal and sax-o-tar solo. Bill’s ghostly accordion synths. The fact you can’t hear my ‘brilliant’ backing vox (that they become texture I mean). The fact that it almost sounds like it could play over the end credits of ‘Bladerunner’ (or a cheap knock-off at the very least.) Naaaatch.

WIDL – My sloppy bass playing. The fact you can’t hear my ‘brilliant’ backing vox . The drums though perfect for the mood don’t fit my usual preference for tub-thumping.

I'm voting for TTC. PDS takes number two spot.

J$ - That's me on the drums, I played with rods. So yeah, it is most likely timing issues.

I liked all of these songs, and will comment on them tomorrow. However, I will say that I voted for the Corporation, and that the Assault would tie with Mr. Ray for second, edge to the Assault. I like some of the things I accomplished in mine, but it is a mile from where I had originally intended to take it, and my voice is just way too goony. Enjoyable batch of tunes though, guys.

j$ wrote: The Tyrrell Corporation
WIL – The fact you can’t hear my ‘brilliant’ backing vox (that they become texture I mean).

WIDL – The fact you can’t hear my ‘brilliant’ backing vox .

Hmm, good point. I love how your "unh unh unh unh" bits meld right into my synths to make this atmospheric coolness, but I think I should really turn up your actual words backing vox... since they're two separate tracks I can do that. My bad!
-bill

Paco del Stinko: I like how you have sped this up a little, given it an upbeat feel. I don't know if you sound 'goony', but you could go up a notch. Not that you current notch isn't fine, but your on 10, and you could go up to 11.

Caravan Ray: Interesting stripped down version of this song. It feels odd having a Caravan Ray song without a percussive assault of digital bongo drums. Or is that just me? You really get into the lyrics with gusto.

The Tyrell Corporation: Very slow and purposful. Probably the most technically impressive of the entries, I like how the instruments kind of build up, move in and out, disappear, it's all quite ethereal and dreamy.

Assault! Assault!: I'm generally happy with how this has turned out. I have always thought INXS songs seemed to lend themselves to punkish, frenetic reinterpretations. I would vote for Assault! Assault!, but that's bad form.

1st- Tyrell Corporation
2nd - Caravan Ray
3rd- Paco del Stinko
Assault! Assault! is about as welcome as a yellow belly black snake at a BBQ!

Voting closes on Nov 3rd. Get your votes in.

Ok, I needed to get my reviews in!

paco - I don't think I know this original. This is pretty catchy. Maybe a little too bright? I feel like there is some low-end missing, but that might just be my speakers. I definitely like the use of piano. Hmm, this was not on any normal album? I hear a sample of the original, anyway. Yeah, I feel like yours needs a bit more darkness in it.

assault - I don't think I know this original either. The jangly guitar plus 4-on-the-floor drums is a fun combination. Pretty hard to understand the vox, though, maybe too much distortion? Sounds like a tuba in there which is just fun. I do like this a good bit tho. Oh oh parts == good.

caravan ray - This one gets some in inadvertent points because I do know it. Handclaps are nice touch. Good vox, like that guitar. These vox are the best of these three. Love how the "can't go on" fades in reverb.

Tyrrell Corp - I am very happy with this collab. I like how the different sounds of us contributors mesh together in the final song ...that took some eq/fx/mastering work too I took far too long to get some synth sounds I liked to replace the strings... that was a tough one. Thanks Niv for the extension. As previously discussed I'm going to try to fix up the backing vox levels.

Oops, I guess I just missed the voting period. Oh well!

But hey, we won! This is the first time I won anything over here, I think!
-bill

Congratulations to the Tyrrell Corporation!!

Congrats to the Tyrrell Corporation! Best of the teeny bunch, and thanks to whoever tossed a vote my way. I will still post of couple of comments that I promised, uh, a week ago.

About time I did some comments for these:

Tyrrell Corporation: Great work. Love the organ backing, and superb vocals. Maeandering bass, sick, echoy sounding guitar stabs - all up - far better than original. Got my vote.

Paco del Stinko: This is one of the very few INXS songs I actually like, and I'm afraid to say - the polkaesque jauntiness is not doing it for me here. I may have done this myself, had you not called it first - but I would have tried to keep the drive of the original

Assault! Assault!: Heh! Love that name! (NB - it must be pronounced with a drunken Polynesian accent). This is Sausage Boy having his way with my guytar take of what I believe was the first single INXS released in Australia (it is not well known - but there is a great video of it on UTube). Came out pretty well! Love the pounding bass drum

Caravan Ray: And obviously - not a cover of INXS, but a cover of The Loved Ones - who INXS also coincidentally covered. Falls far short of the original, which in my opinion is one of the greatest songs of all time.

I'd like to ask peoples' opinions on this one - I took J$'s backing vox where he was singing words and brought them up in the mix, cut the reverb on them etc. so they were more understandable. Does this improve the song? Disprove it? Did I go too far in cleaning them up? What do you think? Don't know if I should have messed with success
Listen here:
TTC - NTUA - w/bg vox
This goes for you two also, Jim & J$, since you didn't hear this version yet.
Thanks!
Also: Thanks for the votes, everybody!
-bill

I for one think it's an improvement (though I would, wouldn't I? )

Nice work, Bill!

j$

Yes, this new mix is even better. Nicely done!

Great, thanks. I'll use this new one as the "official-released-version".
-bill