The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Obligatory review thread, check.

Cover art anybody?

Before you judge the Hoglen and Wages entry, remember: We're doing things the same way as always.

Words by Wages, music by Hoglen. Melody, some mix between the two. Cheers!

Paco Del Stinko
Reminds me of an eighties song without the synth plus punk rawk. And there's the lead work I love.

Lead work: 5/5
Feel: 2.5/5
Bridge/Solo: 5/5
Overall: 3.5/5


Phoebe Lichty
Not sure how long you've been around. This is the first I recall hearing you before. The harmony areas are nice. Your voice and the guitar are a unique combination. Usually a voice like yours seems to accompany a different set of instruments.

Mixing: 4/5
Lyrics: 3/5
Feel: 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5



G Rock VOTE
Loving the vibe, but the vocals need to be mixed higher a bit. The downbeat sound is cool.

Vibe: 5/5
Vocals: 3/5 (mixing may or may not affect)
Instruments: 5/5 (digging the solo area a lot)
Overall: 4/5


Berkeley Social Scene VOTE
The lyrics are catching me right from the start. I feel this is who we are competing with, even if it is a little "Stacey's Mom"! I love the eggs/yolk/joke concept. Melodically, not breaking any ground.

Lyrics: 5/5
Synth: 4/5
Solo: 4/5 a bit generic, but solid
Overall: 4/5


Sep
Jangly. Hey, I resemble that. I wish the vocals were recording in a different way... less reverb? Less tin? Sounds like you were probably drunk a bit and just having a good time.

Nasal: 5/5
Jangle: 4/5
Lyrics: ?/5 Hard to tell.
Nintendo: 4.5/5
Overall: 3/5


Dejected Motives
Sounds like a Beck C-side. Very strange. I imagine difficulty in writing words. I try to say good things as much as possible, but it's very hard. Sorry.

Lyrics: 1/5
Vibe: 3/5
Nine Inch Nails by Beck: 5/5
Overall: 2/5


The Wankers
Ridiculous intro! I disagree with the "it shouldn't get done at all". I mean, if you can get someone to do it for you (preferably of someone of the sex of your choosing), then that's got to be better. What a bunch of wankers!

Vibe: 4.5/5
Cheech quality: 4/5
Self referential: 6/5
Overall: 3.5/5



G.U.N.S.
Sounds like something-Pandora-would-suggest-based-on-various-modern-rock-bands-while-still-sounding-remotely-like-Toad-the-Wet-Sprocket. And the bass solo comes in!

Modern: 4/5
Sounding nothing like your band name implies: 5/5
Bass: 5/5
Overall: 3.5/5



King Arthur
Hey Chuck! Still doing whatcha do! Makes me long for that transition from 1980s to 1990s, you know, that short time of 1990 to 1991. Really digging the riff. Slightly reminicent of Allman Brothers too.

Lyrics: 4/5 - nice concept!
Vibe: 5/5
Production: 5/5
Overall: 4/5


Crumpelstiltskin VOTE
Vibe has got me. A little Primus-y. hard to hear the lyrics, so that I can not judge. Good fun!

ROCK: 5/5
Les Claypool: 5/5
Lead G: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5


The Orange Crayons
Synth silliness.

Baby/kid sounds: 4/5
Creativity with a casio: 2/5
Dad and his kid: 5/5
Overall 2/5

Really wanted to do a song for this title but ran out of time.

The opinions below are by someone without a whole lot of musical know-how so take them with the requisite heaping of salt.

Berkeley Social Scene Really fun song and quality as usual. Like the line "she's a marathon runner on the treadmill". I give it four beach volleyballs.

Crumpelstiltskin Love the riff. Groovealicious. Great vocals although the cadence of some throw me off a bit. Like the solo a lot. Production is very nice, would be interested in knowing your recording methods. I give it three and a half leprechauns.

Dejected Motives This is a good effort. I like the music, but expected it pick up about 30 seconds in. It makes me nostalgic. I give it two and a half leaping stags.

g Rock Intro Radiohead-y. Like a blend of a few different OK Computer/Kid A era songs. I feel like the main vox could use some additional treatment, they're a little dry. I give it three lazy eyes.

G.U.N.S. Sounds like you guys borrowed Elvis Costello's Attractions. That's a good thing by me. I give it three black-rimmed glasses.

Hoglen and Wages Wages is making strides. Still very Wages. Glad to hear you're still around. I give it $15/hour.

King Arthur Throwback-y. Very breezy and relaxing. I give it two trees and a hammock.

The Orange Crayons Cute for what it is. I give this one guy I don't know sitting next to me on the plane showing me pictures of his kid from his wallet even though I'm obviously trying to pretend to be asleep.

Paco Del Stinko The Clash meets Midnight Oil maybe? Lots of cool changes keep this interesting. Really like the chorus riff. The first solo sounds like it should be in an 80s movie about karate. That's not a bad thing. I give it four Mr. Miyagi's.

Phoebe Lichty I like chimey things. I like Aimee Manny vocals. I give it one day 'til Tuesday.

Seb Lo Fi indielicious. I give it a single stoic tear I cried about remember The Lucksmiths aren't around anymore.

I was listening to Crumpelstiltskin and diggin' the groove. Then when the guitar solo came in I thought, whoa, Ace Frehley is their guitar player!? Then it hit me. Cool!

I can't decide which lyrics I like best between Crumplestiltskin and GUNS

Time for some "old school" reviews, where you're probably going to think "Who does this asshole think he is?" Also I have a very short attention span, sorry.

Berkeley Social Scene
Last time we made a 7-minute epic featuring as many of our past scenesters as we could round up, so this time around we've got our take on a 3-minute pop/rock song. Ken wrote the lyrics, we jammed out the core tracks in one session, then Ken and I worked on the vocals, keys, and percussion "in post". I really wanted to try to come up with some good melodies, hopefully they get stuck in your head.

Crumpelstiltskin
Paco, you are a song making machine. Thanks for at least using a different band name for your second entry of the fight. Not that we can ever catch up to you anyway. I'm not a huge fan of the Rumplestilstkin voice. This is fun overall though. I have to really try to figure out some constructive feedback to give. I guess one thing that sticks out to me is that it often sounds like you're rushing through the lyrics, trying to fit a lot of syllables/words in. Maybe the lyrics could have been edited down and/or simplified to make them flow more smoothly in the melodies, especially in the chorus to keep it hooky. I think personally I would have kept the intro shorter, just one time guitar alone then one time with the band before the singing. Sweet solo, and I think it could be longer. EDIT: See the G.U.N.S. review, where I realized you both used Niveous's lyrics. I'm guessing you'd done the music first then added in the lyrics after. I think it still would have been good to try to slice and dice them to fit, rather than motoring through some lines to make sure you preserved them as-is.

Dejected Motives
The beat's kinda cool. Your vocals sound kinda off pitch. I'm not really sure why you have them panned off to the side, I don't personally enjoy that. Your lyrics aren't really doing a lot for me. That weird detuned guitar also kinda adds to the off pitch issues with the vocals, makes everything sound kind of dissonant to me. All that aside I think my biggest issue with this is that it's the same so-so loop over and over and over. I don't really get it.

g_rock
I like the key sound. Your vocals are way too low in the mix and are very muffled sounding. What's your vocals recording setup? Laptop mic? Also your mix is very "mono" sounding on headphones. Everything sounds like it's center, which makes things sound crowded. You could open up room for each track by spreading things out in the stereo field. It'd be great if, for example, the keys loop were a nice wide stereo sound, maybe with a rotating speaker type effect. I like the drum loop. I like the synth that comes in after, I guess the second chorus, maybe it's the bridge? The bit before the guitar solo I mean. It'd be cool if that synth did more of a solo, or if the guitar solo came in sooner or something. That part before the guitar solo just felt long. The guitar solo has nice stereo echo on it which I like. It fits the mood of the song. This is starting to feel really repetitive to me, though, like I didn't really need this whole last minute long jam-out of the song.

G.U.N.S.
This is fun. Drum loops sound great. It sounds like there are some pitch issues in the harmonies before the "That's the Joke" part. You're probably using autotune, so the tracks are probably right on pitch, so it's more likely that they're on a dissonant/"wrong" (in terms of harmony) pitch. I am just now noticing you're using the same lyrics as Crumplestilstkin, those must be the ones Niveous posted. Yep, confirmed. That probably explains some of the issues with Paco's phrasing in the Crumple song. I think you handle the lyrics better. I like your chorus, though the way you pass the lyric between the main and backup vocals feels a bit gimmicky to me. In the second verse I notice that there sounds like there's just one guitar track, panned in the middle. It would have been nice to have that doubled and panned apart. I'm not really a fan of the instrumental bridge. I was hoping for a blazing raging solo so the strange tonality and more atmospheric lead stuff feels like a letdown to me.


Hoglen and Wages
Please trim the beginning noise and click track stuff off. I like that first guitar part. I think maybe your melody and chorus could be good, but you're off pitch in a way that's pretty unpleasant. It sounds like when you get to the chorus the lead and harmony pitch are a lot better. Oh man, I am just noticing the lyrics, and they're pretty bad. I'm losing interest pretty fast by the two minute mark.

King Arthur
Glad to see you active again. Sounds like you're still doing your usual thing here. Solid song overall. I feel like the story doesn't quite work for me, I have a hard time with the Goldilocks bit for some reason. The only other nitpick I have is I think for me the openness of the verse might work better if the drums were doing hi-hat hits just on the 2 and 4 instead of playing solid 1/16th notes. Anyway, like I said, very solid song.

The Orange Crayons
I guess this is cute, or something, if those are your kids. Didn't do much for me.

Paco del Stinko
Nice rocker. It's very dramatic, with the strings and the sustained guitar chords, but the frantic drum playing. Not sure the "whoa oh oh" third repeat of the verse chord progression adds much. The first chorus goes by really quickly, I'm not sure it's really breaking things up enough for me. By the guitar solo things are starting to feel kind of "samey". I really like the solo though, although, the last couple notes sound a bit off. I like that you bring up the energy level in singing in the third verse and the staccato part after that, nice to get a dynamic change. By the second guitar solo the rapid ride cymbal thing is getting pretty tired. Nice second guitar solo. Solid overall song.

Phoebe Lichty
This starts off cute very cute, with the glockenspiel or whatever it is. Nice singing. How are you recording the vocals? It sounds like something is maybe a bit weird. I don't know if it's just the fact that the guitar is super dry and in my face, and the vocals have all that reverb on them. Things don't really seem to be sitting well together in the mix. I really hope drums or something kick in to help stretch this out to the 4 minutes that it is. It'd be great if the backup vocals in the chorus were panned a bit away from the main vocal. The mix overall sound very very mono on my headphones, like everything is dead center, which is causing some crowding issues during the chorus. By the 3 minute mark my attention span is starting to wane, sorry. This could at the very least benefit from some kind of hand percussion. Go get a tambourine and/or shakers at least. You'll be surprised how much just some occasional hand percussion like that can really add to nice simple songs like this. Also snaps and/or handclaps. Anyway, lots of nice stuff going, would be nice with some more variety in the instrumentation and/or edited down to a shorter length.

Sep
Songs about recording songs are not a favorite of mine. This one in particular really feels like you didn't actually have any lyrics and thought it would be clever to just vamp about the music or something. It's not clever. Anyway, sounds like the band is just jamming out, which is OK. The singing is sort of meh. Oh man, what, 8-bit outro? That part is a thousand times more appealing to me than the preceding 3 minutes, to be honest. Maybe next time just stick with the 8-bit and actually write some lyrics.

The Wankers
Oh dear lord. I hate the intro. Also, baby crying noise, bad. Oh man, 5 minutes long...? I'm very dubious that this song is going to be worth that much of my time. Holy crap. OK, you can sort of sing and play guitar, but damn, not funny, terrible lyrics, etc.

Lunkhead wrote: What's your vocals recording setup? Laptop mic? Also your mix is very "mono" sounding on headphones. Everything sounds like it's center

I play live through a looper and a PA and record pre-PA. Your right, it'sall mono except for the one stereo delay on guitar. My vocals just through a beta 58a with some mid eq, a little reverb and a delay pedal . Where you said it got long before the solo thats cause I had to put the bass down after the synth part and pick up the guitar. Took a little longer than I wanted but it is live. Im sure it could sound more interesting if I recorded with a daw like everyone else (double parts, harmonies, effects) but that just takes the fun out playing for me and just becomes work. thanks for the feedback, hopefully one day Ill get the knack for the daw.

reviews...

phoebelichty
guitar and bells sweet voice nice harmonies and transitions. felt a little empty without low end and some sort of percussion.
sweet sound though and pretty enough on its own. to me sounds like a stripped down multitrack recording. like the soft vocals especially in the lower registers. nice song.

hoglen+wages
funny lyrics. like the guitar progression. silly song guys like the bridge. Strained vox sound like eels, I like the eels in case you didnt get that.
Entertaining song.

sep
Love the loose vocal stylings. crazy synth sounds. very stripped down sounding but that keeps the focus on your vocals. voice sounds like dude from violent femmes. cool song, I like it.

crumpelstiltskin
How do you do your vocals? is that your voice or is that effect or both? like the voice on the chorus better than the verse. Really nice guitar sound and solo. Good song solid.

kingarthur
guitar very island sounding. progression during chorus caught me a little of guard. I like a little bit of suprise. really like the guitar sound. Fun to listen to. didnt even notice the organ till the fade out last note. I could barely hear it on the third listen.

orangecrayons
Thats one way to get your wife to let you play with your toys. (include your daughter) Whatever it takes man.

pacodelstinko
Drums a little loose with the beat. vocal harmonies are crisp. how many overdubs are on the chorus vocal track? I generally dont like vocal harmonies from just one vocalist but yours work really well. Goddamn love your guitar tone. What are you playing through? Sounds fuckin sweet! Good song had to listen twice in a row during reviews.

berkeleysocialscene
I like this vocalist best from what Ive heard from BSS. Weezer sound? catchy and clean. you guys do this sound really well.
I cant pick anything thats weak about this song. Entertaining and catchy. Best song in the fight. How do you all write and record? Is it one primary writer or is it shared.
Great song.
I have to say this song was still in my head in the morning after my first reviews, catchy as fuck.

guns
is this another bss song different vocalist? Drummer sounds the same. neat progression, Like the drum fills, they sound really good. Bass is badass! Good transitions like the ending. you knew the whole time it was bound to come true sometime...
Drummer and bass really stand out to me.

dejectedmotives
nice low end. vocals sound a little half hearted. Not enough of a melody going on to keep me entertained.

wankers
Silly shit guys. jcpenney stall just made me laugh. Would anyone like some Ween? Like the double voice on the bong bit.
The outro commercial is over the top but so is the songs story, So well done guys.

g_rock

Crickets...

... tumbleweed rolls by ...

yawn

Didn't know I was typing to the sound of crickets! Or was it yawning? Either way, here are some brief comments. I'll be glad to clarify and/or expound if you'd like me to.

Berkeley Social Scene - After the intro, it goes 'round and 'round without a clear start and end point: neato! Certainly catchy if not infectious. Cupcake line makes me roll my eyes and smile, can't resist. I like the dry and tight production, would like a stack of vocals at the repeated end. Tasty guitar solo and well placed keys throughout.

Crumpelstiltskin - Niveous lyrics part one. I like the main riff and guitar tone. The vocals feel a bit crammy much of the time. The almost Pink Floyd/Hendrix seagull sounds work kinda ok. Song could build and layer more, but has a fair amount of menace. And who doesn't want menace in their music?

Dejected Motives - The loop is cold sounding, and spooky but makes me want a big crash of loudness to come in and pummel me. The nyah-nyah vocal line could vary more from the one or two notes it repeats. Indeed, maybe the joke is on me.

g_rock - This is the stronger, more confident older brother of the tune before this (Dejected Motives) Nice loops, simple but haunting vocal line. The snare beat works well and helps propel everyting without dragging or rushing. Some timing issues are present, but not too painful, but that drag on the guitar could be tightend better. Nice'n moody.

G.U.N.S. - Niveous lyrics part II. The vocal harmonies could be tightened up, but I get what they want to do. So very serious sounding, the mood, until it kind of unravels in the last minute: gets a little too kooky although I like what it does. Just don't think it belongs here. Regardless, this is well done if a little unfocused at points.

Hoglen and Wages - I'd like this better if it was more rehearsed. Autobiographical? About just Phil or both of ya's? Alternates between silly and funny, a re-write would be on order before re-doing. This could smash with a full band, too.

King Arthur - Love the main guitar hook/riff. Sounds great, too. IF I were smart, I'd pay attention to you and keep things simple like this. Not simple as in duh, but lean and uncomplicated. I used to do that. Nice to hear some vocal harmonies and a tasty lead. Some good lyrics, as usual, I find myself enjoying the piggy verse best.

The Orange Crayons - Cute, and I'm sure your kid had fun as well. Nice synth tone, rubbery, in a toss-off fun with the son kind of a song.

Paco del Stinko - I had the lyrics, such as they are, ready, and did some music. I hated it and after trying several different things, all failures, I tossed them all and did drums first and wrote this on top of them. Hence the manic ride cymbal, not accompanying any music, initially. Eh.

Phoebe Lichty - This could quickly become too cute, and annoying, but manages not to by turning into a decent progression and nice vocal work. Love the layered vocals overlapping each other. I'm glad the glock doesn't do more than it does, that would be way too much. Sloppy Petra Haden at times. Good work, please do more!

Sep - Oh why isn't that guitar tuned? Is this Fodroy? C'mon, man. It sounds like two songs playing at the same time. Your voice is pleasant and the groove would be fun, but this is a trainwreck. Gordon Gano on mescaline.

The Wankers - Great production and intro, voice work is well done. Silly, but well written and delivered. Was hoping for a short punk song, but while this mood and groove is fine, it feels flat after the intro. Full band it, tighten the vocals, get a fresher joke: You have some good talent.

g_rock wrote:Goddamn love your guitar tone. What are you playing through

Thanks, that's a nice thing to say. There are two amps being used, both went through the same speaker/isolation box. The guitar on the left is through a Bedrock Royal amp, 6l6 tubes, I think. The right guitar and lead are through a Tophat Emplexador. It is equipped with EL-34 tubes. I have the 2x12 cab for the Tophat here at the house now, but it is painful to play through and record in the small room I record in although I did this summer during NUR EIN!. Great cab, you can really hear the wood. I'll make mention when I use it. Thanks for your comments and interest!

Lunk: Thanks for writing, your reviews are spot on and I couldn't agree more with your appropriate criticisms of my song(s). Nice to hear your opinion, yours is valued. By me, anyway!

Also: I commented about by 'drumming' in the remarks about my tune, if anyone's interested.

Berkeley Social Scene
We don't have enough songs with Sam on lead vocals. I love Sam's voice. I like how focussed this song is. It's so catchy! I'm so glad to be a part of this song. I bet this will be in our next live set whenever that is. Vote!

Crumpelstiltskin
This is really fun to hear how someone else treats the same set of lyrics. This is delightful. Great riffs! I like the phone vocals. The guitar solo is awesome! The backing ooohs on the chorus is brilliant! So much fun! Vote!

Dejected Motives
Trip hop groove is nice. The vocal melody is so unsure of itself. This is all built around the vocals, they really need more variance. Oh, the jokes on me. lyrics leave a lot to be desired.

g_rock
This is nice. I think maybe the vocals are too far back in the mix. I like this. Great bass line! I think the drums could use more variance and some more fills. Some harmonies in the chorus would be sweet too. Good stuff!

G.U.N.S.
The night before this was due, i decided to throw this together. Niv's lyrics were there, which would save a lot of time. I wrote this on my little Spanish guitar. It was a last minute decision to cut it. It was a very hissy scratch track and I liked the sparseness of when it was taken out. It's embarrassing I didn't correct that bad note on the high harmony in the 1st pre-chorus. It's painful. This needed some more listening and correcting. Sorry. I like the riffs and grooves and a lot of the vocals. i love the lyrics too.

Hoglen and Wages
ouch! Some terrible harmonies in there! Nice solid guitar playing. The story isn't interesting enough to keep me entertained, the music is rather redundant too. This desperately needs a hook. I can't believe this is 3:09, it feels sooo long. With this instrumentation, this should be 90 second song. One good joke, and super solid harmonies, and hopefully a catchy melody.

King Arthur
It's your sound. I know it's you immediately. My usual likes and dislikes. Guitars are great sounding. Love your vocals, nice melody! The drums however are driving me nuts. You clearly approach songwriting differently than I do. When I write a glennny track I start with drums, I compose the structure and all the fills before I move on to the bass, then rhythm guitar, then any other rhythm instruments, then vocal/lyrics, then a solo. Great song! Just a glaring flaw to my ears with the drums.

The Orange Crayons
Cute.

Paco del Stinko
Last week I was singing "the Girls got Rhythm" by ACDC to your opening riff. This week it is "Achilles Last Stand" by Zep. The riffs are upstaging the vocal melodies. I love the drums, guitars are super tasty. I'm a hug fan of your singing, but I don't think this melody is up to your usual standards, it's okay. I usually walk away with the melody stuck in my head.


Phoebe Lichty
Love your voice. I really miss drums and bass on this. I am satisfied in the Glock department. I'm not a fan of the direct guitar sound. With the lush vocals, I'd expect an acoustic guitar. My advice is to get an iPad and garage band. You'd be amazed at the accompaniment you can conjure up easily. Good stuff! I look forward to more from you!

Sep
I'm just listening to the latest Song Fight. I'm reviewing Sep right now. I like this guys voice. I like the saunter of the groove. I despise, hate, loathe, have contempt for, am pissed off about, can't stand the meta-song violation. The solo was brilliant. I'm eating a pink lady apple. I'm watching the sun rise. I'm delaying finishing off the Overcast song I started. I see the sunrise in my Bay area suburban stucco neighborhood. I wish I got more sleep last night. Paco made me feel guilty about not doing reviews. Damn Paco to Hell. Guilting me into reviewing this, what a jerk!

The Wankers
In the bay area we had KOME radio. All the cum radio jokes were taken by them 20 years ago. Come on! Where's the drums and bass? I'm sorry there is a bass there. Not a very interesting line though. I have to hear the plectrum sloppily slap the wood of the acoustic guitar and them be thankful there's percussion at all? At least the vocals and acoustic were recorded well. The solo has some really sour notes.

Now hold on there, big fella! Let me address some things here:

Glennny wrote:Paco made me feel guilty about not doing reviews.

Only you can make you feel guilty. But if you must point fingers, point them at Lunkhead. This week. Last week, ok, me.

Glennny wrote:Damn Paco to Hell.

Too late. Already have my ticket.

Glennny wrote:what a jerk!

Now this is true!

Thanks for your comments, bro-bro!

Paco Del Stinko wrote: The Orange Crayons - Cute, and I'm sure your kid had fun as well. Nice synth tone, rubbery, in a toss-off fun with the son kind of a song.

Daughter (2 years old). Which is a really weird word if you think about it. Anyway, she is at the age where she tells these really unfunny jokes and then says "that's the joke!" so I figured I shouldn't let this title pass me by. I enjoyed making this. Bandname was supplied by her.
-bill

[bss] - i like the rhymes. this is solid. catchy and fun.

[crump] - reminds me of something like the butthole surfers. liking the instrumentation a lot and the vocals work well.

[dejected] - too much repetition for my taste. seems kind of meandery. sort of compelling anyway tho.

[grock] - i like that repeating motif with delay but the vocals are kind of hard to grab on to. digging the solo. that delayed guitar line is pretty awesome.

[guns] - vocals sound like they're somewhere else. this one's reminding me of bss. vocal pitch is kind of all over the place. cool song, but might benefit from some re-recording.

[hw] - i'm not sure if this is a lyric that needed to be written, heh. not getting past the silliness.

[king] - your songs always sound good. not hearing any vocal problems. this one i'm getting a strong grateful dead vibe. that's good.

[orange] - this is my daughter. she has the tendency to tell these jokes that aren't at all funny then say "that's the joke" so i really wanted to enter this one. i had to do the instrumentation pretty quickly, though, because i was working on the coverfight.

[paco] - nicely done. good guitars.

[phoebe] - mix is kind of wonky and that's distracting. tone down the bells. this is an interesting concept but i think the pieces need to hold together better. ending is effective.

[sep] - again i feel like the pieces aren't holding together well. seems out of sync. videogame ending is cool.

[wankers] - another lyric that i don't think needed to be written... unison vox are good. seems a bit long.

favorites: bss, crump, king, orange, paco

Heurisitics wrote:Daughter (2 years old). Which is a really weird word if you think about it. Anyway, she is at the age where she tells these really unfunny jokes and then says "that's the joke!" so I figured I shouldn't let this title pass me by. I enjoyed making this. Bandname was supplied by her.
-bill

Cute. I thought you had a girl, but also thought you said something about a son on the boards somewhere. Oops! The fun comes through in the recording and it'll be fun to play when she's older. Especially at an embarassable age!

For the first time in *mumble mumble* months, I've written reviews. As usual, I wrote down quick, entirely unhelpful thoughts on the first listen. Unlike usual, I was listening on tinny laptop speakers, so if I missed the subtle intricacies of your mix....tough. Listened in random order, alphabetized for your convenience:

Berkeley Social Scene - This has a great feel to it. I really like the keyboard melodies. This is a nice little tune. VOTE.

Crumplestiltskin - I'm not a fan of the silly vocals, especially considering the depth of the lyrics. Well written and well recorded, though.

Dejected Motives - This needs way more variation in the melody and the rhythm.

g_rock - The chorus really grabs me. Love the build in the solo section. Good powerful stuff. This is my favorite song of this fight. Downloaded and VOTE.

G.U.N.S. - This needs some more punch. Some of the vocals are pretty sour and most of them are hard to understand.

Hoglen and Wages - If you're going to do a song like this, the harmonies need to be way tighter. I guess I should expect a lot of terrible humor for the title "That's the Joke", but I don't find this funny at all.

King Arthur - I love these lyrics. This is really well done, even if it's not something I would regularly listen to. VOTE.

The Orange Crayons - Cute. Not much else.

Paco del Stinko - Amazing recording, as usual. The vocals are a little pitchy in places, which is unlike you.

Phoebe Lichty - I like this, but I'd like to hear some more instrumentation. A full band arrangement with drums and bass (and maybe strings?) would make this incredible. Still, VOTE.

Sep - Nice groove, nice riff, terrible lyrics.

The Wankers - Juvenile and awful. I can't believe this goes on for 5 minutes.

Paco Del Stinko wrote:

Heurisitics wrote:Daughter (2 years old). Which is a really weird word if you think about it. Anyway, she is at the age where she tells these really unfunny jokes and then says "that's the joke!" so I figured I shouldn't let this title pass me by. I enjoyed making this. Bandname was supplied by her.
-bill

Cute. I thought you had a girl, but also thought you said something about a son on the boards somewhere. Oops! The fun comes through in the recording and it'll be fun to play when she's older. Especially at an embarassable age!

No, you're right, we have a son too, he's 4. He's done some songs with me for FAWM but none for Songfight directly.

Congrats BSS! It was a deserving win.
-bill

Good shit BSS! good win
Your songs are tightly performed and produced every fight.
I wanna hear more Sam on vocals and that aint no joke!

g_rock