It’s barely news anymore (sorry I don’t update more often), but two Songfights ago, my “Hardly a Moment” came in first place!
Now, Songfight and I have a long history, so let me explain for a moment why this particular fight is such a big deal to me.
In 2003, a friend of mine introduced me to MC Frontalot, the Nerdcore Hiphop superstar who, at the time, was still pretty obscure. On Frontalot’s site, I noticed that three of his songs were listed separately from the demos that would later congeal into his first proper album, Nerdcore Rising. These three songs – which included “Yellow Lasers,” which I thought was the best one he had at the time – were marked as Song Fight entries. Curious, I clicked the link and changed my life.
Songfight, in case reading this blog hasn’t yet made you familiar with the idea, is a community centered around a semi-weekly contest to see who can turn in the best song with a given title. The Fightmasters post a title, which is publicly visible on the site for about ten days before a set deadline, and anyone who wants can record a song of that title and e-mail it in. The submissions all get posted, and all users of the site can listen to the posted material and vote for the ones they like.
I listened for about two weeks before I decided I wanted in. My early efforts were weak – I didn’t have multitrack recording software and I wasn’t much of a singer or guitarist – but through active participation in the community, I learned basically from scratch how to record and mix a full pop song. I was seventeen then. I’m twenty-four now. If I hadn’t stumbled upon Songfight, I don’t think I would ever have realized that it’s possible to record quality music from my own home, without the use of an expensive studio.
My persistence was rewarded with wisdom, but never with critical or public acclaim. I’ve been involved in winning entries, sure, but I’ve always felt like there ought to have been an asterisk next to each one. Back in the early days, I collaborated with my real-life friend Andrew, and entered the fight “Sunny Again” under the name Silver Rush. Andrew spammed the servers with votes, and we won with a huge margin of the votes – but it was not legitimate. It’s still a little sketchy to me, but at best he simply made a bunch of his friends go vote without listening to the songs, and at worst he hacked the server to accept multiple votes from one IP address. We won, but I knew it didn’t feel like a victory.
Later on, I joined the earonic MC Frontalot tribute group The Frontalittle Squad. With beats mostly constructed in Fruityloops by Glenn Case and rap parts shared by anywhere from four to nine rappers, we were roughshod and unproficient, but our sense of humor and charisma led us to a few victories. I still didn’t feel like I had won, though, because my contributions to each Frontalittle song were so minimal.
Finally, last year, I wrote a song for Ross Durand, and he wrote a song for me. The song I wrote was recorded by Ross with no input from me, and the song he wrote was recorded by me with no input from him. The “Ross Durand Sings a Generic Song” entry won, but again I felt uninvolved, because he had done the whole recording.
Times when I felt like i had done my best, I found myself tying for second or third.
Finally, with Manhattan Glutton’s help, I came in first. I wrote the song. I sang it. I played all the instruments except for the drums. He added the drums and some backup vocals, and he mixed it, but this was my inspiration, my execution, my song, and my victory. And after seven years, it feels quite earned.
A year ago today I started working for my current employer. It started with a training class; I spent three weeks learning the ins and outs of Fedex and its website. Then a few months later, they announced an opening in the software division. I was eager to apply, even though I was still just a lowly temp then; my supervisor put in a request on my behalf (and for three other temps who were interested). We all got it. During the two-week training for Software Support, I was converted to permanent employee (This was in November, and the company won’t officially recognize my “One Year of Dedicated Service” until we hit the anniversary of that date), and then spent seven months supporting Fedex Ship Manager Software. During that time, there was one training class for the next step up, Fedex Remote Servers, but they did not have a formal application process; rather, they made individual requests to four of the agents who had seniority and good stats. All said yes. The next opening for the Server department was announced in May. A test was distributed to agents. I took the test while on the phone with a customer. Aced it, and was accepted into the Server department. This is my eighth week in the Server department, not including the two weeks of training.
A year ago, I was not at all clear on my direction in this life. I had recently applied at the Austin Live Music Academy, using my EP …One Would Hope as an audition CD, and got accepted. The hours for the program conflicted with the hours for this job, though, so I went into the interview feeling conflicted. I was hoping that they would turn me down, and the decision would be made for me, but after my conversation with Tony (who would later be my supervisor, and later still would abruptly quit the company), I knew that I would be offered the job. When the call came in, I made a conscious decision to take responsibility for myself, start paying off my debts, and to defer my dreams for a while – pretty much everything the movies tells ya never to do. It was a tough decision, but when I made it, it felt right.
That was a year ago, and I’ve now held this job longer than any other I’ve had in my life. I’m reasonably satisfied, but I’m also assured (am living proof, in fact) that it is possible to advance in this company, and do so quickly, if I want.
A year ago I would never have guessed that this job would provide me with the closest thing to stability I’ve ever felt.
A little background: when you enter a Songfight, it’s considered good manners to provide a little feedback to your competition. I’ve already linked to Songfight a billion times, but you can hear the songs here if you’re interested. I’ve marked the songs I’m voting for with asterisks as well as noting them on the bottom. If I voted for a song, you can probably assume it’s worth checking out.
So, withou further ado…
Reviews! Listening on speakers, but my right ear is still a little screwy, so if I didn’t like your song, you can always blame that.
The Affirmative Mention – The recording is reasonably tight. No instrument is too overpowering (maaaaaaaybe the vocals in some spots), and the keys fit in just right. In fact, without the keys, it wouldn’t sound active enough. They help fill in the spaces in between the phrases of the song. My main complaint here is that the verse melody feels too vampy. The longer it goes, the more convinced I am that you didn’t actually write a verse melody; it sounds like you just made it up as you went along and tried to make your rambly words fit the music. You know what, though, Phil? As a vocalist, you’ve come a really long way in your time here at Songfight. Your voice can carry a rock song. I just wish you’d restrain your lyrics to a melody. In the end, my complaint with this song is the same as Cock’s: it doesn’t have any one particular part for me to come back for. A hook, a catchy melody, a profound lyric. This kind of washes over me and then it’s gone.
Bella D – Sounds like the drums and the guitars don’t agree on where the stresses fall in the beats here. Oh man, those vocals are annoying. I don’t object to kid vocals on principle, but these aren’t even in tune! I got maybe thirty seconds in, and couldn’t stomach any more.
Berkeley Social Scene – This is straight-up 4/4, but Ken keeps throwing in random stresses in the intro that make me want to compulsively count. Don’t recognize the singer on this one. Like Affirmative Mention, it sounds like you’re trying to cram more words into the melody than can comfortably fit there. There’s a lot of wordplay here, and some of it doesn’t really work. The harmonies on the chorus fall a little sour. Glen’s eBow brings an etherial sense of class to the show, as usual. By the end of the second verse, I’m checking the timer. Realizing there’s another minute and a half left was not heartening. Is the b-chorus doing weird stuff in the right channel, or is it my ear? Who knows? Nice outro.
*Cock – Characteristically dark 80s synth-pop, and surgically clean-sounding, as usual. That’ll get you pretty far any week, even with a pretty weak song, but you don’t generally do those. This has some good lyrics, but I wonder if the melody doesn’t wander a little too much. I’m thinking of your “Back to the Well” on this one, which won in large part due to its really catchy “broken man” hook. Here I don’t hear any similarly-catchy element, nor even any part that repeats enough to dig in, but then again, it might take multiple listens before it sinks in. And, as I mentioned before, your sound is flawless, which does invite repeated listens. Probable vote, though I’d need to hear the rest of the entires before I can say for sure.
Hate Noise – Interesting combination of samples. But… generic hip-hop drug cliches don’t play too well for me. Pretty slick package, but I can’t engage with the lyrics at all. Gave up after about two minutes.
*Jon Eric ft. Manhattan Glutton – I wasn’t going to credit MG in the band name, but when I heard the drums and harmonies that he added, and how much it transformed the song, I didn’t feel right entering it without his name on there. Sometime this week or next, I’ll post my own mix. It will sound quite a bit weaker than the mix he finished. 
This song was pretty personal for me, lyrically, so I was glad my voice decided to cooperate when it came time to do the vocals. I guess I’ll go into that more later.
*Josh Millard – The tone on those hats is wack, but I’m more distracted by the fact that the drums aren’t well-played. They keep falling off the rhythm. I don’t mind the wordiness of your vocal delivery – unlike Affirmative Mention and Berkeley Social Scene, your wordiness feels more integral to the song. This is a charming little indie-pop song with bad drums. My wife thinks it sounds like Counting Crows, but it reminds me pretty heavily of Silkworm. Maybe vote, I dunno.
*King Arthur – Is it my ear, or does this mix sound like it’s coming at us from underwater? Really sweet guitar licks. Nice harmonies, too. I’m also a sucker for a well-executed Rhodes (or eqivalent synth 
). I think the verse melody feels just a little too halting – I know it’s important to use the space between lines effectively, but it feels like it’s breaking the flow of what you’re trying to say. Probably gonna vote for this.
Lord of Oats – I like how it starts off with the really dark-sounding drums, but the synths start playing a major-key line. It toes the line between appealing and aggravating with the background noise. When the vocals start, it starts sounding like a b-list They Might Be Giants imitation. I know a lot of people gravitated to the line “Hardly a moment goes by that I don’t think of you,” but did you have to [i]start[/i] with that? It also sounds like you were trying to record the vocals without making too much noise, like you’re holding back. When we got to that sustained vocal note in the bridge, I checked the timer, saw that there were two minutes left, and then skipped ahead.
MC Who Izzy – Not bad, with the ambient opening. Then the music drops out and segues into this echoey preacher-man skit, which bores me. Then, at 1:43, with a minute left in the song, it actually starts. Oof, you and Lord of Oats both had to [i]start[/i] with the most obvious line available, eh? And then it doesn’t end, so much as it just stops. Oh well.
New Result – At about 1:30, I realized I had nothing to say about this. Wasn’t enjoying it, either, so I skipped ahead.
*Pillar of Paprika – This is reminding me of some Byrne/Eno tracks with the buzzy synth ambience. Well-sung, too. I don’t have a whole lot to say about it, when it comes right down to it, but I really like this, and I will vote for it. Probably my favorite of the fight.
Queef McBeef – What in the world am I listening to? This all ties together in a way that I recognize takes a lot of skill to pull off well, but I’m not really getting into it. Plus: title relevance?
*Queen Cigarette – You tagged your song, but didn’t put your band name in the tag, just the title… and misspelled at that. Alright, getting past my grammar snobbery (and the fact that I had to turn down my speakers just to make this listenable at all), and I’m actually hearing some halfway decent early-90s garage band pop. I’ll give it another listen, probably, but I think this’ll get a vote from me.
*Riot Nrrrds – I dunno, when I saw the name, I was expecting something a little more like what Queen Cigarette did. Heh. Oh well, for what this is, it’s not bad. The emphasis harmonies add a lot, but it feels like you’re holding back, vocally, which is exacerbated by the fact that the guitar is mixed too loud. I can barely make out the lyrics most of the time. I would have liked if the synth solo had more than, like, three notes. It could have reprised the verse melody and I wouldn’t have minded. Oh well. This has potential. Post your lyrics, and I might consider voting, if I like them.
Sockpuppet – It is what it is. I doubt a review from me could tell you anything you didn’t already know. Plus, it took me longer to type this than it did to listen to it.
Steve Durand – Are you playing your own drums now? They sound live. This is a genre I don’t expect from you. I like the chord progression over the “chorus.” I think this track needed one more guitar playing some lead licks, just to add that extra oomph. Or some harmonies over the verses – not like in the chorus, but some “Oooh”s or “Ooh la la” type deals.
Tailirine Irene – Mix the vocals a little louder (or rather, the rest of the song a little bit softer), because I can’t make out most of your lyrics. Sounds like you’ve got some halfway-decent flow. Flow doesn’t really mean much if you’re not saying interesting stuff, though, and I really can’t tell what you’re rapping about. The music sounds pretty good, but it sounds pre-fab. Is this just a built-in Garageband loop? I’ve never used Garageband, so I don’t know. Oh well. This is pretty middle-of-the-road. Any better and I might have voted. Any worse and I’d probably have panned it. As it is, you just haven’t inspired me into having an opinion at all.
Votes go to Cock, Josh, King Arthur, Pillar of Paprika, Queen Cigarette, and myself. If Riot Nrrrds post their lyrics, I’ll think about voting for them too. That’s a pretty good ratio.
So let’s talk a little bit about Net Neutrality, eh? Yesterday, the Old Grey Lady broke a story that Google and Verizon were in talks to broker a deal which would give Verizon’s Internet Service Provider users faster access to Google-owned sites. This is the very thing that Net Neutrality activists have been afraid of for a while. My sense of outrage was piqued, but I’m nothing if not shrewd, so the first thing I thought was “okay, what’s the exact text of the agreement?” Well, it turns out, we don’t know. The deal hasn’t been released, wasn’t set to be finalized until Monday, and now it turns out that this deal probably doesn’t even exist, as Google and Verizon have both flatly denied such talks. So what is this outrage over, again?
On Facebook, I’ve been arguing that Net Neutrality activists, whose hearts are clearly in the right place, need to exercise a little more caution and levelheadedness when explaining these concepts. Many of the Net Neutrality websites I’ve seen have complained a lot about hypothetical scenarios and are light on things like fact, rational explanation, and concrete example. Let’s have a look at the day’s highest-profile examination of the concept: an editorial by Josh Silver at the Huffington Post.
“How did this happen?” Silver writes. “We have a Federal Communications Commission that has been denied authority by the courts to police the activities of Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast. All because of a bad decision by the Bush-era FCC.” The article never really clearly outlines what this decision was, why it was such a bad decision, or how it led to the alleged backroom Google-Verizon deal. The polite thing to do would be to brush this off as Silver’s assumption that his reader is already familiar with the back story. Of course, any activist for a cause should feel the need to educate about things like this, instead of just running around preaching panic, but maybe I’m just not clear on Silver’s intentions with this piece. He continues:
A non-neutral Internet means that companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google can turn the Net into cable TV and pick winners and losers online. A problem just for Internet geeks? You wish. All video, radio, phone and other services will soon be delivered through an Internet connection.
Is the threat to Net Neutrality not dire enough? Apparently not, because Silver feels the need to resort to obvious hyperbole. How many years do you think it will be before “[a]ll video, radio, phone, and other services” will be web-dependent? Think about how many television sets and radios which are still being manufactured today that do not require an Internet connection to work. These devices will all need to be completely phased out before Silver’s prediction comes to fruition. That car you bought last week? It’s got an “old-fashioned” analog radio in it. Before Net Neutrality can start affecting the radio waves, automotive manufacturers will need to start building cars with onboard wifi standard. To the best of my knowledge, no such car is even slated for release. If the claim were as immediate, as far-reaching, and as dire as Silver wants you to think it is, then he wouldn’t need to beef it up with such a hyperbolic statement.
I’m going to back up for a moment here. It’s important, in an argument such as this, to define terms. “Net Neutrality” is the status quo on the Internet – no matter what website you click on, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will attempt to deliver that page to you at the top capacity its infrastructure will allow. The perceived threat is that certain large companies with vested interests in gaining access advantages over their competitors can cut a deal with your ISP to say “Hey, make my site load faster than the other sites.” If this happens, eventually the arrangement will snowball until it becomes de rigeur among large companies. If you have a lot of money, you give it to the ISP (presumably, every ISP) for special rights to faster access, and if you’re a small startup, then you either fork over some of your nest egg to get the premium loading times, or you’re screwed. To the already-wealthy go the spoils.
I’m in favor of Net Neutrality. Both as a consumer and as an advocate. I like having everything on the Internet load at the same speeds. I also find it grossly unfair for companies who benefitted from Net Neutrality as young startups themselves (Google, Amazon, etc) now preventing other startup companies from reaping the same benefit. The Internet as it works today is great, and I wouldn’t change it.
I only come to odds with the Net Neutrality movement when I point out that the threat might not be as dire as it sounds.
Case study: Facebook. Facebook is the current Web Fad of the year. It is currently the single most-visited page on the web and one of the most profitable Web Business ventures ever. They’ve got 500 million users and counting, grossed $800 million in 2009, and are estimated to be worth $1.1 billion. A few months ago, Facebook made some waves when it altered its privacy policy in a way that was disadvantageous to their users. They did this because they were not particularly concerned with losing their users, and they were particularly concerned with raising revenue. Sure enough, a lot of people made a fuss, but the number of people who actually cancelled their Facebook accounts was relatively slim. Why is that? Because a company like Facebook has attained a critical mass and doesn’t have a lot of competition to worry about.
Let’s say this Google-Verizon deal were true, and that it were enacted on Monday. A couple of things would have to happen:
1.) Google would need to strike similar deals with other ISPs, and quickly.
2.) Other major companies would have to jump on the bandwagon.
So the question we need to ask is this: If Google is interested in limiting access to its competition, then who does Google see as the competition? Microsoft (Bing) and Yahoo are the two obvious choices on the Web-search front. But Microsoft and Yahoo are both big enough to pay hefty premiums of their own for faster access to their services. Google would, therefore, only be protecting itself from the small-potatoes competition who already have some huge hurdles to jump if they want a fighting chance at all. Let’s say Microsoft buys in. They own a share of Facebook, which means that Facebook would be one of the sites with premium access. “Great!” says a hypothetical Mark Zuckerberg. “Now I don’t have to worry about competition from all those upstart social networking services who can’t afford to pay the premium access fee!” Except… well, see above. Facebook is already completely nonplussed at the idea of competition. I just don’t think major corporations are interested in getting into bidding wars with each other over ISP access when the end result is that anyone who might actually pose a legitimate threat will also buy into the premium service.
Let’s try another example. Here’s an article by Nicholas Deleon on Crunchgear.com about the Google-Verizon brouhaha. He provides another illustrative scenario: “[L]et’s assume the Comcast does, indeed, buy NBC. That means Comcast subscribers can look forward to blindingly fast access to NBC.com. Want to visit ABC.com? Better put on a pot of coffee—you’re going to be waiting a while.”
Deleon is missing the point, though. Does he think that ABC will just sit by and get stomped on? No, ABC will pay the same amount of money or more to get the same premium access or better. And so will CBS. So, for that matter, will other non-network-based streaming video websites like Google (who own Youtube) and Vimeo. So all these large comanies have just paid for “faster access,” but it’s not faster than any of their actual competition. It’s only faster than the sites who can’t afford to pay the piper, the ones who are too small to pose a credible threat anyway.
Here’s the other germane point: In this scenario, NBC, ABC, CBS, Google, and Vimeo wouldn’t technically be paying for faster access. No, they’d be paying for the same access that they get right now, but the smaller sites would load slower. Basically, anyone who can afford to pay would only be paying for the privilege of keeping the status quo. TV networks are currently hemorrhaging money; none of them actually want to start coughing up hefty fees to ISPs just to continue getting the same level of service they’ve been getting for years now.
One last point, though I did touch on this briefly earlier. It wouldn’t make sense for a company to do it with just one ISP. There’s hundreds of service providers out there now. AOL, Time Warner (Roadrunner), Cox, Verizon, AT&T, Clear, Earthlink…. Here’s a list of all the ISPs out there just in the USA. And any company that wants a piece of this non-neutral pie would have to cut a deal with each and every one of them. And you know what? The ISPs that buy into this… they’re the ones that’ll lose, in the long run. Let’s say that in my area, I can choose to get access from Time Warner, AT&T, or Clear. If Time Warner and Clear cut deals with large corporations to get major sites faster access, then AT&T, if they’re savvy enough, will start advertising the fact that they’re the only neutral ISP in my area that is still Net-Neutral. And then guess who wins?
So. In the end, I’m on the Net-Neutral side. I think it would be a shame if major corporations paid to limit our access to independently-operated sites. But the more I talk about threats like this, the more I feel like I’m talking about a zombie invasion. Yeah, it would suck, but how likely is it, really? Next time someone talks to you about how the Internet As You Know It Will Go Away Very Soon, check your facts before engaging in full-on panic mode.
I’ll be returning to blogging regularly in the near-to-immediate future. A recording music, though at a slightly less frenetic pace. In the meantime, here’s a bit of perspective:
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Here’s two demos for February Album Writing Month, and I want you to tell me which one you want me to flesh out into a full song by this time next week.
Here are your options (click to listen):
1. Loveable
2. Again
Leave a comment and let me know which you’d prefer to hear a full version of!
Here’s a band who hasn’t aged well. Let’s see where it all started.
Matchbox 20 – Yourself or Someone Like You
Released: October 2996
I discovered it: circa 2000
Matchbox Twenty is a great case study in how the public can turn on you. In 1996, they were the next big thing, the harbingers of the new mainstream, and their debut Yourself or Someone Like You was one of the highest-selling albums of the year. By the middle of the following decade, they’d become rock pariahs, with nary a soul willing to admit they ever liked the Florida five-piece to begin with. Heck, they even named their best-of album Exile on Mainstream.
My take on Matchbox Twenty is that they’ve got three and a half albums’ worth of original material, and no two of the albums sound like the work of the same band. The original tracks from Exile fulfilled The Onion’s prophecy (probably because Rob Thomas was saving the fun stuff for his solo albums). 2002’s More Than You Think You Are sounds like a group torn between its own creative efforts and those of its sales-minded producer. 2000’s Mad Season sounds like a band eager to impress bringing their A-game, even though they sometimes try too hard. And their debut, More Than You Think They Are sounds like a group that hasn’t had enough brushes with fame for Rob Thomas to lose his southern drawl, a group trying to fuse classic rock with the “alernative” music that had become so mainstream. It’s a simple, catchy, unpretentious bunch of well-written songs, and a decade and a half later, I’m still having fun listening to it.
Nothing here has too much crunch to it, relying instead on melodies, Thomas’ endearing vocals and charismatic delivery, and some uncomplicated solos. There aren’t a whole lot of chords in most of these songs – I think “Kody” might top the album with six – and the horns and keyboards which would dominate the group’s later sound is largely absent from this album, with the exception of some effectively-used rock organ in “3 A.M.” The album had six singles, most of which charted, and you can see why: A lot of these songs hang with you. Lead single “Push” has a catchy chorus, but also a verse melody that sneaks up on you long after the song is over. “Back 2 Good” is downright haunting.
The lyrics aren’t half-bad either. Thomas keeps them image-based and down-to-earth. The hit single opening track, “Real World” does a good job of mixing the fantastic and the mundane:
I wonder what it’s like to be the rainmaker?
I wonder what it’s like to know that I made the rain?
I’d store it in boxes with little yellow tags on every one
Boy I bet my friends will all be stunned.
There’s a recurring line in the other hit single “3 A.M.” that goes “She thinks that happiness is a mat that sits in her doorway.” These are very strong lyrics – evokative and filled with personality. The sort of thing it’s getting harder to get away with on the radio these days. Near the end, Thomas muses at the beginning of “Shame,” “What we’ve learned here is love tastes bitter when it’s gone.” “Kody”’s mournful chorus goes “So please hand me the bottle / I think I’m lonely now.” These are the kinds of lines that seem just barely out of reach, like you might have thought of it.
I think this album has aged pretty well, as it turns out. It still sounds fresh, in the way that only music this down-to-earth and unadorned can, and I’d recommend it still today.
