The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I've forced myself to stop mid-production because the deadline hit. But I apologize for nothing. (except the things I do apologize for.)

No promises, but since there's a little deadline slip... I'll at least *try* to record something a little more organized. 10% chance. Not that the epic Sunburned and Sticky jam isn't an instant classic!

Something Fishy

Yeah... Ima be late.

I have my song written but I haven't ahd time to record it. I AM SORRY WHOMEVER IS FEELING STIFFED.

Okay I have a rough version done. I'll hopefully have a better version done by end of day tomorrow. I guess that's good enough for me to listen to the song done of my title (maybe that'll make feel inspired to do even better, or maybe I'll feel like it's good enough already).

EDIT: Ha, I love it. Okay I need to try a bit harder on mine I think. Still, hopefully I'll have something done by EOD tomorrow.

argh fuck it

Damn, more than a week late... :/ In my defence, ... no, actually, I'm going to spare you the excuses.

The CoT song I just submitted marks a return to things I did a long time ago, rough mixing, and rough takes haphazardly stitched together.
Hope you guys like it a bit.

Hey guys,

Life kind of sucker-punched me in the last few weeks. I'm finally sitting down to do all this now. I've downloaded songs by the following people:

sockpuppet
Inflatable Vegetables
Zack Facco
Johnny Cashpoint
Jan Krueger
Schlimminy Cricket
Pigfarmer Jr

If you have completed your song but you don't see your name on the above list, please post a link to it and/or email it to me, ASAP, so your work can be featured on the site. If you still haven't finished, please chime in and let us know your status and an ETA for your song. For example: My song is about half done and I hope to have it finished and uploaded before the weekend.

Everything I've gotten so far is up at http://joneric.table2.com/Circle5.html

To the stragglers: Send me your songs as soon as they're done, and I will upload them accordingly.

Alright, since it's official... here's my review of j$, who took my title suggestion "Dark Night of the Soul"

The arrangement is fun and whimsical. It's funny mixed with the angsty subject matter. Lots of 25 cent words.

Reviews! Feel free to complain about things I got wrong, ask for clarification, ask for more details, ask about my sanity or lack thereof, or whatever. I'll try and update when more songs are posted.

Inflatable Vegetables - Something Fishy
I'm a sucker for Wurlies, so you get infinite bonus points right off the bat. The vocals stick out a bit of a mix (that is pretty clean in all the other parts, thanks to MIDI I guess), due to the low recording quality and overdone reverb, but oh well. I like the melody and the way the chorus sets itself apart melodically. The guitar (or MIDI guitar, I guess?) is a bit too wimpy to really make much of an impact in the arrangement, I'd have loved for something a little more prominent to take its place. If it's the thought that counts, though, nice addition. Still, I think the type of song would have worked well with more stuff in the arrangement, e.g. some electric organ or other pads, if only to add some development. The relative levels of the tracks are a bit off sometimes, particularly on the background vocals, they're too prominent compared to the lead vox most of the time. I find the drum sequencer a bit too extreme, too. As you can see, most of my complaints are in the mixing department, this is a nice little song that I enjoyed listening to.
Advice: for leveling your tracks, listen at fairly low volumes, ideally with a bit of distance (specifically, absolutely no headphones). Makes it easier to judge the balance.

Jan Krüger - Enjoy It While It Lasts
I haven't done a cappella in ages, and I guess it shows in this thing I recorded in a bit of a rush. The version on the CoT site is actually the third version I uploaded; I completely redid the lead vocals twice, and part of the backing tracks to fix some intonation issues. This is still all extremely loose and isn't going to get me on today's charts, I don't think. (Nor on yesterday's or tomorrow's, if I'm realistic...)

Johnny Cashpoint - Dark Night Of The Soul
The bass synth suffers from roboticism, which is particularly off-putting during the intro where there's nothing to distract from it. It tends to dominate the mix in all the other parts, too. That aside, I like your arrangement, particularly the (figurative) bells and whistles. Some nice turns in the chords. Quite listenable, all in all, and my main complaint is still the bass. It's difficult to fix the synthness (no variation in how the simulated string sounds etc.), but some dynamics could add quite a bit to this. And also maybe a bit more variation in what the bass is playing? It's very repetitive, and repetitive sound combined with repetitive notes isn't so awesome. Seems to me like some fairly small changes could allow the rest to shine much more.

Pigfarmer Jr - Dancing Is For Happy People
This sounds good but unfortunately the drums sound very beginner-y and the timing doesn't mesh with the timing of the guitars (drums tend to feel slower), plus in a few places there are sidestick hits on the 1 and 2 instead of 2 and 3 and that doesn't really sound intentional. The groove recovers after the first minute or so (still slightly shaky but much better than before), but the first impression isn't so great. This is my only big complaint. I like the writing, nothing unconventional but done well. The electric solo feels a little out of place with the rest of the song carried by acoustic, but okay. A few vocal notes are a bit sharp. Nice use of doubling/harmony in the vocals. Sometimes the secondary vocals aren't aligned well with the lead vocals. Doing a few extra takes to make things line up is definitely worth it, sounds much more polished if the timing matches. The very last phrase prominently features what sounds like pitch correction artifacts; detracts from an ending that works really well in all other aspects. I enjoyed this and I believe it can be turned into a really solid recording with a bit of extra work.

Schlimminy Cricket - Worst Painting Ever
Fun arrangement, the writing rather reminds me of Nightmare Before Christmas, some of the progressions seem to be identical... I guess that isn't a bad thing. Quirky in a good way. A few things I didn't like so much: the arrangement is a bit too sparse (most importantly, no lowish frequency bass presence at all) and the harmonized vocals sound pretty rushed. I can't tell whether the low-frequency rumble is intentional. Refining the arrangement a little and maybe looking for some alternative/additional synths could give this quite a bit more of an impact.

Sockpuppet - Bipolar Bear
Best mix so far, aside from the bass apparently being a bit shy. Piano playing is rather loose, some of the vocal notes are a bit sloppy, but no big deal. I like the song, what I missed most is a bit more variation, some development, be it a section with different progressions or some build up... right now it's a bit, uh, relentless. That would be my main reason to have second thoughts about listening again, I guess.

Zack Facco - Sunburned And Sticky
Very, very solid drum/bass groove, but you do have permission to change it up a bit throughout the song. The guitar is a bit of an afterthought in the mix. Consider some panning, and maybe keeping it a bit drier. In fact I think separating it into rhythm and lead guitar might help. The vocals are a bit meh. I might have decided to not fast forward through the guitar solo if the rest of the arrangement hadn't doggedly kept to the same minimum and stayed exactly the same throughout. To me, after ~1:40 the song is over.

@jan: Yeah, I don't blame you for not sticking out the sprawling guitar solo. Believe it or not, I cut it down a *lot*. Pretty ridic. It's a jam track, fun to do, but didn't have much direction. I do like the change just before the 4 minute mark. I would have cut the solo shorter, but I wanted to keep that in.

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice solo and I like the changes, too, but it's not something that I think can carry a recording. Live might be a different story.
And, of course, having fun making the song is a big part of why we're doing this in the first place.

Josh - I had to look up '25 cent words' (natch). Rest assured the 'big boy' words were very deliberately chosen, either because they have double-meanings which "simpler" versions of the words don't carry, or they added uniquely to the sound or the rhythm of the lyric. Also, it's not an angry song, it's funny. I have a strange sense of humour, obviously.

Jast - I agree the synth bass is a bit, well, bassy, occupying too much space. I should have run a stronger high-pass on it. However the repetitious nature of it is key to the song for me. A more complicated bass-line would be missing the overall point.

Thanks, both, for taking the time to review. I will return the favour at some point, probably later this evening.

j$

Rereading my review, the fact that I enjoyed the song got lost in the terseness It was a fun listen. I went through it few times.

jast wrote:Sockpuppet - Bipolar Bear
Best mix so far, aside from the bass apparently being a bit shy. Piano playing is rather loose, some of the vocal notes are a bit sloppy, but no big deal. I like the song, what I missed most is a bit more variation, some development, be it a section with different progressions or some build up... right now it's a bit, uh, relentless. That would be my main reason to have second thoughts about listening again, I guess.

That's fair. I had a much much better sound in my head but I couldn't get it to work, and I just kind of gave up on doing any of the layers/changes/etc. because I just wanted to be done with it.

My song, "Come Around Again," from the title supplied by Irwin, is now complete and uploaded. I've updated the website as well. Sorry for the long delay.

I got fired from my job last week. I wrote the lyrics to my song in the weeks before being fired. I kind of saw it coming, but I had convinced myself that I could hang in there until the fall, when I'd been planning on taking a leave of absence. I thought I could make it that long, and I even thought that maybe things at my job would improve a little after I'd had some time away from them and came back.

So, in a way, the lyrics to my song are about the situation I was in—delusional, staring that the rubble at my feet, thinking everything would work out in the end.

One silver lining is that now I have a lot more time to work on music. Tomorrow I'll listen to the songs that have been turned in so far and write reviews for you all.

Bummer, thanks for following through in spite of a great excuse not to.

Aw, jeeze, sorry to hear it Jon. I hope everything works out for you.

fluffy wrote:Aw, jeeze, sorry to hear it Jon. I hope everything works out for you.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I've been chatting about this in the IRC room, but the upshot is this:

My wife is pregnant, so I'd been planning on taking a leave of absence after the birth (probably September). That would have been unpaid. After coming back from that leave, I would have started searching in earnest for a new job. So now I collect unemployment (it's about 40% what I was making before, so yeah, we're feeling the difference) even through what would have been an unpaid leave. They also paid out my unused vacation days, and they gave me two weeks' pay in lieu of notice. We're not coming out ahead, financially, but it's not as bad as it could have been. And the more I think about the BS that company put me through, the more it becomes apparent that we're better off without each other.

So I get to be a stay-at-home dad for a while. I'm doing household work, running errands, and working on my music. There might be another new album before the kid is born, maybe.

I've standardized the ID3 tags on everyone's songs and given them track numbers corresponding with the site.

Schlimminy Cricket, your song had some strange-looking code in hexadecimal in the comment section. Was that significant in some way? It read as follows: