Been to China |
| 05/24/01: magenta Octothorpe: This one's cute, in a Gilbert Gottfried doing comedy jazz sorta way. It sounds like you need a better mp3 encoder though. I look forward to your future entries, in any case. |
| 05/25/01: mc_frontalot have twice tried to listen to octothorpe but each time my interest in What Will Finally Happen is thwarted by listening partners who insist: turn that off! |
| 05/30/01: PatrickClayton What??? Octothorpe won?? Who voted for that?? Sorry, I just didn't see it coming. Not that it's a bad track, just, I thought Add had this one. A little disappointed. Next time. |
Thousand Swords |
| 05/30/01: JBB When Octothorpe talks, he sounds like John Astin. |
| 05/30/01: magenta #: Your spoken-word entry last week was much better, IMO. |
| 06/01/01: mc_frontalot Beginning with the reigning champ, octothorpe: you suck, go eat a cheese wheel and choke on it, boooooo, booooo I say, and that said I love the way you pronounce "arbi-trator." |
Tracks For Future Practice |
| 06/06/02: PatrickClayton OCTOTHORPE - Well, at least I don't have to worry about it getting stuck in my head all week. Sorry, but the music just doesn't do it for me, and the vocals sound like Lewis Black minus the comedy. |
| 06/07/01: mc_frontalot I think this week is a toss up btw jonas and frankie, although I offer kudos ALL 'ROUND because the ring is chock full of dope-ass songs. With the exception of octothorpe -- why did you not choke on cheese wheel as instructed?? |
I Can See You |
| 06/14/01: Jonas Octothorpe has a really good style, keep it up! |
| 06/19/01: mc_frontalot special prize to octothorpe for wheel-choking as per request. I no longer hate you worse than plague lumps. |
Do It For Captain |
| 06/21/01: mc_frontalot # - your stumbly rhyming is my favorite thing about your tracks. Like how the sprite was aw-ful. Lyrics are too dense to get on first listen and accompaniment is too grating for listen #2. |
Red Robot |
| 06/25/01: mc_frontalot Never plan on it (losing)? Always plan on it! When you plan on winning you end up pissed off at octothorpe. |
| 06/25/01:
frankie big face LOL!!! |
| 06/25/01: Hoblit LOL...I see your point... How did Octothorpe win anyways? guess there is a 'they might be giants' appeal there ...hmmm Well..to each his own..really |
| 06/25/01: mc3p0 Octothorpe may have won with.. oh, clever verse, complex storytelling and hypnotically poor quality of recording. All of which lend to consistently interesting, intelligent and fun entries. TMBG.. maybe not, but a sweet comparison. |
| 06/25/01: JBB Hoblit, your song was much closer to TMBG than anything # has done to this point. But that's ok with me, 'cause I like TMBG. |
| 06/29/01: GoneAt23 though everones else's was good, judt not my style.... except octothorp, i just cant hang with morris code in a song that degrades into what sounds like a jingle.... :P |
| 07/02/01: JBB #'s John Astin impersonation clips my speakers, then kinda fades in and out for a while alternating with some singing that I can't really make out. I've listened to this a couple times, but the second time I really wanted to be doing something else. More damn beeping. What's up with the beeping this week? Not my favorite Octothorpe song. I'm a little tired of the cut&paste type of song, I think, not just #'s cut&paste, but the whole "genre". Of course, now I'll have to go and do a cut&paste song just to be a hypocrite. I'm sure there's a concept here, and a story or something, but I couldn't bring myself to listen long enough to figure it out. |
| 07/03/01: mc3p0 Octothorpe - the experience leaves me tingling.. Impurities in your metal.. nonsense! Exactly what they are, I know not, so please post your lyrics for posterity. You have a great spoken sound. |
Red Robot Review |
| 07/02/01: wannabe Octothorpe, the style of your review was brilliant; I hope that at some future point you record the reviews and post them on a website somewhere. (nods twice, then pauses) Far out. |
| 07/02/01: Hoblit Octothorpe...uh...thanks!...I think...hope... |
| 07/03/01: mc3p0 Thanks for your review # The vocals are definately questionable. Plans for a tube compressor |
| 07/03/01: gkort I am hurt that I was left out of the musical review. But come to think of it, would I be hurt more if I was included? |
| 07/03/01: JBB I believe this couplet was for you, gkort: "From stem to stern SL has for an achievement. Industrially complacent in the equational complexity." |
| 07/03/01: gkort Ok, gotcha. I guess I got LS and SL mixed up. Dyslexics, UNTIE! |
Watch Your Face |
| 07/06/01: wannabe Octothorpe: For some reason, I can't get into the surreal lyrics this week. But the line "eat your nose." My friends and I were telling people to do that in 7th grade... frightening. |
| 07/11/01:
frankie big face octothorpe - nice annoying hum at the beginning. maybe you should go buy a three-prong adaptor. thanks for keeping it short this week. |
| 07/12/01: effitz when i was in high school, some friends and i were making this video for the last act of midsummer night's dream, which is of course the most useless act in all of shakespeare's plays- he only wrote it so there would be five acts. anyway, we were just doing stupid things in my friend's basement, and in the back of the version of the play we had, there was a list of memorable quotes, and i thought it would be funny if i read all of the quotes together as if they were all one continuous poem except that they didn't fit together and had no meaning like that anyway. so i did it, and it turns out that it was slightly amusing for the first couple times we watched the video. that's what octothorpe's song this week is like. |
Do The Math |
| 07/13/01: wannabe Octothorpe: It's like children's music for intellegent people. I like the story, but the music reminds me of my Mom playing "My Little Runaway" on our old Casio. Oh yeah... 4:20? Duuuuuude! (Sorry... I couldn't resist) |
| 07/13/01: gkort # - Not my thing |
| 07/15/01: Hoblit O: Best you have done yet |
| 07/16/01: effitz Originally posted by Hoblit: O: Best you have done yet wanted to echo this. it's true. |
Birds Of Our Own |
| no comments |
Down To The Atom |
| 07/27/01: wannabe #-- my favorite # song yet. great storytelling, and I like the bass part; it reminds me of "dragnet." |
| 07/27/01: sparks Octothorpe: You are my hero! But you frighten me. |
| 07/27/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Quite off the wall. It was a novel approach that works well. |
| 07/27/01: mc3p0 # - as always, intelligent and enjoyable - good to hear the alternation of voices. |
| 07/29/01: Hoblit O : I like tom waits...and that sort of 'reminded' me a little...but honestly...I do like your lyrics...but i'm not sure about the whole production |
| 07/30/01: GoneAt23 wow it was a hard decision this time, everyone was good, and even octothorp had at least an original idea..... |
| 08/01/01: mc_frontalot # creates a listenably spare track! No clipping or antagonistic organ noises! And typically dense narrative-- I'm going to listen to this one until I can tell what the hell's going on. |
Tiny Room |
| 08/02/01: sparks OcToThOrPe#: Hahaha! You are seriously, seriously fucking insane. I noticed you actually filled out your track info--if your choice of the "Other" genre was intentional I honestly have never heard anything more correct in my life. "JAAAH!" |
| 08/02/01: wannabe #: holy jesusgod, this creeps me out. very unusual. (hello, pot? this is kettle. you are black. *click*) |
| 08/02/01: lunchboxface oh my GOD octothorpe is fucking awesome. this is the greatest thing I've heard in a while. |
| 08/02/01: jef fal octothorpe- best yet. this is your first to actually engage my emotions. that frantic chorus is just great and the vocal on it is perfect. "my home is a prison from hell." good work. |
| 08/02/01: Hoblit Oct: and I thought my song was creepy |
| 08/02/01: lunchboxface Speaking of tangential, I think I'm straying off topic here. Can't wait to get home and listen to some more Octothorpe. Oh yeah, and everybody else too. |
| 08/03/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Gee, what an assault. From way out of left field. Entertaining. The vocals seem a little gruffer than usual this week. |
| 08/03/01: JBB #- clips so badly that I can't really make anything out for 85% of the song. Not that I'm missing anything anyway. |
| 08/03/01: Suzy_No.3 Octothorpe- not a fan of this. It bored me. Nothing caught my attention. |
| 08/03/01:
Suzy_No.2 Originally posted by Suzy_No.3: Octothorpe- not a fan of this. It bored me. Nothing caught my attention. As an unofficial member of # I can honestly say I am quite offended. |
| 08/03/01: wannabe i must say that #'s stuff is growing on me. especially this week's song. the irony of Mr. Squirrel being quarantined while all of his friends are out playing and bouncing around the hill reminds me of a children's book gone awry, which makes me believe more and more in a friend who said that #'s stuff sounded like mock children's music for intelligent people. |
| 08/03/01: lunchboxface octothorpe would be a true classic along the lines of "let it be" and "tears in heaven", if the production was a bit better. |
| 08/04/01: sparks "Tears in Heaven" a classic? TEARS IN HEAVEN? YOU ARE NOT MY SON |
| 08/05/01: lunchboxface heh, I just couldn't think of anything else right off the top of my head. it was a joke, if i had named songs that I actually considered classics, no one would have known who the hell I was talking about, more likely than not. not that "let it be" is not a classic by any means. . . |
| 08/04/01: Suzy_No.3 I actually LIKED all those songs this week. Outside of Octothorpe, and the distortion part in Old People, I actually did enjoy all the songs. |
| 08/04/01: silvergirl Octothorpe: overall structure is great and i love the story. however i found the sung melody boring/irritating and the lyrics are set klunkily. |
| 08/05/01: sparks Originally posted by Spud: For the record, OCTOTHORPE is in no way offended by JBB's review. Only 85% clipped? We were aiming for 90%. Will try harder next time. Yeah, I'd have figured it was rather obvious that # was uh shooting for the feet. Although they have been hitting them with a great deal of precision lately. Am I contorting an analogy again? |
| 08/06/01: Hoblit O: Just not a big fan...sorry |
| 08/08/01: lunchboxface Octothorpe - This song is fucking hilarious. I love it. |
| 08/08/01:
Raised by Wolves Most Studiously Sloppy = # |
| 08/10/01: Nightopian octothorpe - oh wait a minute this one is really good too. the song is totally demented... i like the way it seems to be straining desperately to be normal, but failing. and I like synth bass. some of the shouting hurt my ears though. |
Who Is Octothorpe? |
| 08/03/01: naftule It seems like most of the contributors post under various names, but I still can't figure out who the Octothorpe people are. Octothorpe, do you post in the forum? |
| 08/03/01: jeff fal octothorpe posts as octothorpe... rarely. for more info on this mysterious gaming programmer, see www.aaronondek.com |
| 08/03/01: magenta And if you can't figure out his name from that URL, it's pretty easy to figure it out from whois. (Er, not "his name," but "one of the members' names.") |
| 08/06/01: Hoblit Interesting...even if digital music really isn't these guys' thing...EVERYTHING ELSE IN COMPUTERS IS! I bow..as my inferior knowledge is crushed by the mighty minds of these supurior beings as they grow very very large. |
| 08/17/01: sparks I assume spud does the main vocals? From looking at him, that is. Who does the female vocals? Or are those female? |
| 08/17/01: sparks I was under the mistaken impression that Octothorpe was the work of a bored 30-something, and possibly his kids or wife. I have been enlightened. |
| 08/19/01: king of the dinosaurs octothorpe is cool |
Firecrackers |
| 08/11/01: Patrick Clayton OCTOTHORPE - Now here's some familiar territory. VERY familiar territory. But I'm not criticising, really. I found this actually pretty catchy. I especially like the solos imbedded in the centre of the song. I almost didn't notice it was over four minutes. Nice lyrics too, not merely confusing. |
| 08/11/01: sparks Octothorpe - A chilling rendition of a time-honoured classic. |
| 08/11/01: Problem So far octothorpe gets my vote just because of the cheesy sixth in the top voice of his final chord. |
| 08/12/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- There's something seriously amiss here. The Octothorpe stype isn't usually my cup of tea, but I do try to look at the best parts of their music. But I'm starting to like them with this song. This may be a cue to change your style, guys. Delightfully cheesy. Would have liked the lyrics a bit more up front. |
| 08/13/01: datatpanik Octothorpe: Dig that organ rhythm box. I can't catch all the lyrics here. Something about Triscuits (R) brand crackers. Hehehe And a mono-synth lead, every song needs one. Prosthetic Johnson: this is me. I'm a newbie. I swear I'm not Octothorpe, although I enjoy an occasional choke on a cheesewheel. This was me at my trusty Yamaha stage piano, doing my worst Tom Waits imitation. I did it in one take, hard to believe, eh? |
| 08/15/01: Hoblit O: still not a fan...however, I noticed that the recording quality went up a couple of notches...I did appreciate this. |
| 08/15/01: gkort #: 4 Funny as always, bordering on insane. Don't get me wrong here... I love this stuff, I just can't find myself voting for it. I did find myself bobbing my head during the solo beg @ 2:06. I'm gonna blow up a mall store organ for you. |
Is It Cold? |
| 08/17/01: sparks #: OMG WTF DIE LOLROFL U R CRAZY LOL |
| 08/18/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- You guys might be great computer programmers, but when it comes to musical production......you're doing alright, too. This was funny. Made me wonder if you've been moolighting on Sesame Street. |
| 08/18/01: Hoblit #: your on a better recording kick...keep that up... |
| 08/18/01: wannabe #: the recording on this is definitely better than on some of your other stuff. i also like how it's not so much "children's music for intelligent people" as your other stuff is. "next to Pennsylvaina is New York. Between the two is the border." LOL. |
| 08/18/01: naftule I usually vote for Octothorpe or JBB, but I think I'll have to go with Frankie this time. |
| 08/20/01: Hoblit #: I actually find myself liking this tune...no offense..but this is the first one I have ever kept of yours for the collection...The recordings are getting better |
| 08/21/01: gkort # -5- A little different than the usual #. This may be my favorite # song. Hey, you know when they say "think outside the box"? I bet you guys don't have a box, do ya? Octothorpe has boat loads of talent... if you ever decide to do something non #ish, please submit it under a different name (maybe you already have, idunno) |
| 08/21/01: Hoblit I totally agree with you on the # thing...hopefully this is a new dawn for them...the last two submissions were overall better quality sounding stuff...and I'm even keeping this weeks entry... so an extra ' Good Work ' shout out to Octothorpe! |
Video Night |
| 08/25/01: Suzy_No.3 Octothorpe- I've been liking Octothorpe more and more lately, and this song has occupied a weird space between my former and new opinion of them. I liked the song outside of the chorus, where all the odd voices together made it almost unlistenable. Mad props for using the idea of 'Video Knight', but I'm torn on this. Were I doing a scale of 1-10, this song would be dead-on at 5. |
| 08/25/01: sparks I thought of the video knight thing too! But then I realized it was too stupid and weird to use if you were anybody but #. Octothorpe: You guys are still nuts. |
| 08/26/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Whilst I liked the Video Knight concept, the rest of the song wasn't as interesting to me. But what the hell do I know, anyway? |
| 08/27/01: mekkab Octothorpe- The chorus does no justice to the verse part (which I really like). |
| 08/28/01: Hoblit #: liked your last two entries better...keep it up though...always sensing your creativity...bring your recording levels down...this might help to improve the overall recording |
Cover Fight 1: Tracks for Future Practice by Duboce Triangle |
| 08/29/01: gkort A huge thanks to the Octothorpe collective for all your efforts with coverfigt and the online lyric archive. |
| 08/29/01: JBB Wow! Cool! Hey #, please change the background color of the page-- the links are blending in and are hard to see. Now to actually listen to the songs... |
| 08/29/01: Hoblit I recomend BC's cover of Oct...and Oct's Triangle..and Triangle's Dr. Worm...and so on and so forth...most of them are pretty damn cool... |
| 08/29/01: JBB …You have your own sound, but it's not consistent or confident enough or in tune enough to qualify as "bad but good", like Hoblit's voice does. Octothorpe, for example, has turned a corner in that area in my opinion. The # cover song is almost totally sung, and the John Astin voice is still "that voice" but it works (and I usually can't stand the # sung choruses). |
| 08/29/01:
frankie big face Finally, an Octothorpe song I like! Great job with DT's TFFP, guys. It's really great. I'm sorry I keep posting all these little posts, but I'm just tickled by this slew of songs. After the shitty week I've had, this is tremendous fun. Thank you RxW for presenting the challenge and # for setting it all up. This is really great. |
| 08/30/01: mc_frontalot …And # i will choke you myself you bastard making fun of my MODERN ROCK singing inflections curses curses etc. |
| 08/30/01: Hoblit Originally posted by Spud: Luck of the draw, big fella. Probably anyone we got would have though we were making fun of them. However, we weren't 'making fun', we were 'having fun'! he he...I really like # version of that song...I actually had voted for that song on my first week of discovering the site...and I thought it was totally cool that # got that one ...he he..good work guys... |
| 08/30/01: mc_frontalot yeah yeah, i know. actually it makes me pretty happy that # got us and not you Hoblit you DAMN HIPPIE. |
| 08/30/01: wannabe so far #'s cover of DT is definitely my favorite... i laughed so hard when I heard it... Broken Class covering Octothorpe makes me laugh. When I originally heard it, I thought he had managed to strip the vocals from the original, and the ending is cool. "To finish, press OCTOTHORPE." |
| 09/03/01: mo i finally started actually listening to coverfight songs. naturally, i listened to #'s DT first. the 80's are back with a vengeance, i see, especially with that whole change of pace. you took out the "moody stirrings of the unconscious" guitar solo, which i had hoped would take new form under #, and replaced it with happy 80's keys. in context, this is funny and pretty good. |
| 09/04/01: Hoblit #: whereas it wasn't better than the original ... I REALLY DUG IT...it's exactly what I would have expected...I wish you guys got me instead...keeping it |
Alright Alright |
| 08/31/01: magenta Octothorpe: Hehe, you guys are funny! |
| 08/31/01: MonorailRT Octothorpe - This is a distinctly weird song. Nice take on the title though, and monster intro. |
| 09/01/01: sparks I swear to god, the voices in my head sound just like Octothorpe. Somebody... make it stop... |
| 09/01/01: Hoblit ....you too? |
| 09/01/01: magenta please tell the little garter snake that he can't have the cheddar crackers today, because it will give him incontinent bowels, and i'd rather not have to explain to his mother why there's little snake poops all over the place. okay? perhaps it would be versliminous of you to aggrify the justimable troag, unless we say not. |
| 09/01/01: TooFat Octothorpe: This song made my head explode. Has an urgency that most of the others lack, but at what price? (okay, 'most of the others' means 'everyone but Hoblit') |
| 09/01/01: Marcelo Octothorpe - This song is awesomely weird. I love the lyrics. This is why I love Songfight, because you can do this and people like it. Good work. |
| 09/01/01: magenta Hey #... ... |
| 09/01/01: wannabe #: The coolest take on the title. You took the misspelling and made it into a name: "Al Right! Al Right!" You're still crazy, though. |
| 09/02/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Yes, I too hear Octothorpe running through my head. It's bizarre. I'm not actually that big a fan of your music, but you're the group I look forward to hearing the most, on account of your seriously different take on everything. You're turning me schizo! Don't change though. I'd miss it too much. Another left field excursion this week. Highly enjoyable. |
| 09/02/01: RAPOSAURUS Octothorpe: ... well ... it sounds like Octothorpe, who could hate him, EVERYONE LOVES OCTOTHORPE! |
| 09/04/01: mc_frontalot Octothorpe your mother called, she told me she never loved you!!! Actually that didn't happen and I like your song this week but I thought I'd throw it in so magenta isn't lonely in the personal attacks section. |
| 09/04/01: Hoblit IF i didn't mention you in my reviews...better luck next week...I didn't have anything nice to say about the other songs...at all...'cept maybe # 's good production quality again...but the vocals are still distorted..see..that is why I didn't say anything... |
| 09/04/01: Hoblit …and # is getting better |
| 09/08/01: wannabe i still think that Octothorpe had the best concept on the title. "AL RIGHT! AL RIGHT!" screw misspelling; take the misspelling and make it correct. i so did not deserve PC's "best concept" award (at least i think that's what i got.) |
Highway |
| 09/06/01: MonorailRT Octothorpe - Classic synth sound. "Enjoying octothorpe on the radio" though? Points deducted for shameless self promotion. Sounds like the vocals are clipping in places incidentally. Compressors are your friend. |
| 09/06/01: Hoblit ok...I'm already way too paranoid and have awful dreams to be dealing with songs like that Octothorpe...and what's worse...is it's bed time.... I'm gonna have to leave the lights on....thanks alot |
| 09/07/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Stop playing with my mind! The music is quite good. Vocals still clipping- drop the levels a little when recording. Pure Octothorpe- pure delight. |
| 09/07/01: PatrickClayton Best Lyrics: OCTOTHORPE |
| 09/07/01: mekkab #:I often enjoy octothorpe on the radio! Good shift in vocal delivery at 1:00 (right by the route 99 sign sliding to a stop...) This is a great lesson on WHY you should not commit any acts of thermoplastic pollution! Nice- highway is a scarf on the hilltop! Even the rats aren't fed! 2:58- NICE organ solo! Either my brain has been re-programmed to accept all orders from Octothorpe, or I've found Octo's groove and dig it, or this is just a really good song. |
| 09/07/01: mo #: this is octothorpe, fer shur. the oscar-the-grouch vocals in the regular sections sound fine out of tune, but when you push your voice up in pitch, it might sound better to have better intonation. |
| 09/09/01: natule Octothorpe your songs are always great, but some, such as this one, are more musical than others: …I'll vote for Hoblit, Monorail Racetrack, or Octothorpe (after further listening) |
| 09/10/01: Hoblit #: Loved the lyrics...and the music...the vocal delivery was a bit 'loud' .. bring the levels down..and the recordings will get better |
That's The Spirit |
| 09/20/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Just when I thought Octothorpe would have to stick to one or two possible takes on the title, they come up with something else again. Fantastic lyrically. A new sound musically, which is listener friendly. Fine work. |
| 09/20/01: wannabe Octothorpe: HAHAHAHA you crack me up. Obey your thirst. Nice and moogy. |
| 09/20/01: Hoblit #: keeping it just because it is funny....thats the sprite..ha |
| 09/20/01: Spud Yeah, yeah, it's funny - but what about the vocals, huh? we turned down the input levels, per your (and others) numerous suggestions. Did it work? Is the production better? Come on, work with us here, Mr. Hoblit, sir. Thanks |
| 09/20/01: wannabe Bro's voice is hard to hear when you turn the levels down that much, especially in the lower register. you might want to use a compressor on the vocal input (since, if I remember correctly, it is the job of the compressor to make sure everything comes out at an even level) |
| 09/20/01: Hoblit wow...people here at work don't even call me sir... yes...definately better...you guys have definately gotten better at recording...the vocals are alot smoother...EXCEPT when you say 'thats the sprite' or 'thats the spirit'...when those phrases are said...the vocals distort/top out just a little...BUT this is a HUGE difference from way back...so keep up the good work...I enjoyed your entry this week...although...I think Cocacola should pay you for the 3 1/2 minute spot...so ..yes..vocals better....just compression at this point...or as one of those powerful singers at Kareoke (sp?) would do...hold away or pull back away from the mic just a little if you know your about to 'get louder'...you probably have a very sensitive sound card keep up the good work yall... so far I have: is it cold (I really liked that one) thats the spirit (funny) tracks for future practice (diboce triangle cover) and I love your guys collective smarts...wish I had some brains like that... |
| 09/20/01: Hoblit Also #...your recordings are all very 'hot'..so in addtion to bringing down the vocals...you could bring down everything else...this way the vocals will still be up front...your recordings have room for this...so you might take advantage of this 'signal' control ...My studio is a little more sensitive...so I find myself being very maticulus (sp) with all the different settings to get everything just right...hell I spend and way too much time on this part actually.... |
| 09/20/01: mekkab #: : Lemon-lime is regularly crushed by Caffeine (and Andreas K. but that's another story...) The sprite/spirit cuteness goes right along with the j-pop sensibility of the song. Now I liked the moogy melody but there was some cacapony during some transitions that sound better on paper. |
| 09/21/01: Patrick Clayton Patrick Clayton's Template Reviews Most Entertaining: Octothorpe Best Lyrics: Octothorpe |
| 09/21/01: GunnAndFames Did it work? It most certainly did! Octothorpe's production is very much improved this week, in my opinion. Not perfect, no, but I don't propose to throw stones in this particular glasshouse. But pleasant listening- very much so. Hoblit's idea of using a compressor makes a lot of sense to me, but I think your vocalist needs to be aware of volume variations as well. Too much compression can crush a fine performance. And you guys really should be making the most of your individuality. Skilled use of volume and compression could really enhance your work. As the production improves, I think you'll find more people interested in that Oscar the Grouch vocal style, kids music backing, and absolutely off the wall lyrics. In short, you're on the right track. And I believe that Sir Hoblit's ideas have merit. I hope this feedback is useful to you. |
| 09/21/01: GunnAndFames Make that Wannabee's idea. But Hoblit's comments reinforce that. |
| 09/21/01: Brick Pig #- ha! |
| 09/21/01: Spud wannabe, Hoblit, GunnAndFames, Thanks for the input. It is very helpful, as you have noticed - we try to take these suggestions to heart. Now, once we figure out what in the heck a compressor is, we'll get back to you |
| 09/21/01: Hoblit first of all...'anytime' love to help... compression is almost simply it's own defination in this instance.... mentally picture apple sauce being jarred...all the bottles are exactly the same size...consistant with each other...now...if you try to put 'too much' (input) apple sauce into one of those jars...it's going to 'over flow' (top out...distort) ...well...the compression is basically a flat edged spatula that smooths the top of that jar so the 'cap' can still fit on real nice like (no distortion) what if you didn't fill the jar? well...there is something called expansion...but that is a lesson for next week....boys and girls...until then Hoblit's Hideaway and pals says have a good day and always keep your chin up...even when you are at war Post Script: compression utilities available one might ask? There are many many sound editing tools with this feature...stay away from Goldwave if this is what you intend on using...it's compression tool will put you into a 'flanged can' ..no good However, in the case of 'input' compression...I would recomend 'hardware' between 'signal' and the sound card. computer software might only be able to 'level' the sound AFTER it's recorded...although there are expensive programs that will do a decent job controling your soundcard's input and output...ask Moby or Poe |
| 09/21/01: gkort …same thing for Sprite? |
| 09/21/01: Hoblit yah...but replace 'flat edge spatula' with a 'Squeegee' |
| 09/21/01: mc3p0 # - in harmony with what has already been said, the vocals peak too much.. it's time for a simple vocal compressor (Frankie is knowledgeable) which is only a minor flaw on what I feel may be your best production yet. Such fun stories. The synth instruments are right on target. And the lead moogish/nordly goodness is perfect. What is it? If it's an FM synth, then I'm even more piqued - the syncopated tinny synth is superior with the moogliesqueishness. Maybe some "harder" synth drums would compliment your arrangement? I think # and ADD would find Plone appealing. |
| 09/23/01: Too Fat Octothorpe-You make me laugh. I like to laugh. I was, in fact saying, "It's 'Spirit', dude" when the pause in the middle kicked in. I almost squirted my kool-aid through my nose. |
| 09/23/01: Suzy_No.3 Octothorpe completed their mission of making me go from hating them to loving them. |
Cover Fight 2: Yellow Lasers by John Benjamin Band |
| 09/22/01: mc_frontalot # worked their magic balancing act of scabby noise pollution and glee. |
| 09/22/01: naftule Octothorpe can do no wrong |
| 09/24/01: mekkab octo that whistle at 4 seconds will get you shot. would have been nice if you could have held the note at 31sec. (much better @ the 55 point). Nice #-steez @ 1 min. This part is the best part. (and again after 2min) |
| 09/25/01: Brick Pig # - always # |
Skyline |
| 09/29/01: Suzy_No.3 Octothorpe- Accordion!!!!! Or, something equivalent in awesomeness. Octothorpe continue to make me like them. I was laughing through the whole thing. Loved the keyboard solo. LOVED it. I don't really know what to say about this. Oh, yeah, uhh...I liked the lyrics. there we go. |
| 09/29/01: Marcelo Octothorpe - Everything you make makes me smile like a geeky li'l kid. I wish I could be this original with my own work. You truly have a gift to visualize and think outside the box. I really like it. |
| 09/29/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Wonderfully manic. Good to hear the energy and the warped view of the world coming through. Hilarious. |
| 09/29/01: Patrick Clayton Best Display of Creativity: Octothorpe Most Entertaining: Octothorpe Best Song: Octothorpe And Octothorpe - insane. I love it. |
| 09/29/01: MonorailRT Octothorpe: This reminds me of a Colin Mockery (sp?) hoedown from whose line is it anyway. This is not a bad thing. Top track. |
| 09/30/01: Sparks #: OCTOTHORPE WILL NEVER JUMP THE SHARK! And the solo does rock my world |
| 10/01/01: wannabe oh yeah, and # is also one of my fav's this week. |
| 10/01/01: mc_frontalot For my own part, I got great pleasure from this week's entries by Sun Li, # (my fave # so far I think, with that punky polka business), and JBB's creepy lullabye. That... thing... in the cellar... is NOT my mother! Oh, and RxW's sidelined so-called trifle is more of a gem. DDA and Pat did solid work this week. Also, G&F's song was weird and maudlin but after a while, touching too. Call me a puss. |
| 10/02/01: Hoblit #: i didnt really go for it...BUT the recording quality is still improving...at home..it sounded GREAT....my speakers at work are crap...and I did get a little distortion (no fret though...my own song on my speakers at work sounded terrible at points) |
| 10/03/01: naftule JBB, MYCC, Metalmags/Narbotic, # all made great tunes |
| 10/09/01: Patrick Clayton ...I mean, maybe I'm wrong, I just imagine a bunch of Kompressor fans voting for him cause they liked his past work, and not even listening to the other songs. If true, that kind of defeats the spirit of songfight. I mean, sure it's not about winning, but I'd like to think whoever put together the best song (IMO it was Octothorpe last week) should be celebrated for it, and that the victory shouldn't go to whoever has gained the most popularity over time. Is it unfair for me to say that? |
| 10/09/01: MonorailRT Incidentally is there a higher bitrate version of #'s skyline available? Are we blink one eighty two? Octothorpe says untrue! (adopted by Monorail RT as sig) |
Cover Fight 3: (80's) Kokomo by The Beach Boys |
| 10/06/01: hectified How did I know # would do "Kokomo"? heh |
| 10/06/01: JBB #, you guys make Kokomo into this rhythmic thing that just plain stomps. Really makes your cover different from the original. It's almost like a military chant. I really like it. |
| 10/07/01: sparks Octothorpe I liked, but it would have been better without the nasty levels clipping. Don't know if that was intentional, but I'm assuming so. |
| 10/08/01: Hoblit wow...ok..I'll pat JBB's back ...and JBB..you pat RxW's back...RxW pats #'s back and #, you pat ADD's back...and ADD you pat SMU's back..and SMU...you pat my back (if you can stand it) I like all the songs ... even #'s topped out vocal version of kokomo...ha… |
| 10/08/01: hectified Add's cover absolutely kicks ass. SMU and Hoblit tie for my second favorite, but certainly everyone deserves mention! Despite the small turn-out, the results were more than satisfying. Nice work, JB, #, and RxW! |
| 10/08/01: Hoblit #: you tied with me for fifth place (not to be confused with last place....) I really liked your tune...down to the almost robotic singing of the lyrics as your signature...both of us had production problems this time 'round...but both us did very well....Hoblit pats #'s back(s) |
| 10/11/01: Spud As posted in another thread, but of possible interest here, we have re-recorded the vocals for our Kokomo cover and re-mixed to eliminate the horrible clipping, and the results can be found in the COVERS section of our website at the link below. Oh, it's also at 192kbps there, so if you are on dial-up - beware. |
| 10/12/01: Hoblit Excellent! I love it...thank you for taking the time... |
| 10/15/01: sparks Octothorpe would take third or fourth, that is, the fixed version would. Very cool... I love how you do the lyrics wrong in places--it wouldn't be octothorpy enough otherwise. |
| 10/15/01: Spud First of all, thanks for taking the time to check out the upgraded version. It makes it more worth it knowing that at least someone listened. Secondly, regarding the wrong lyrics...where? We left off a few TOs to get a more robotically rhythmic sound, and skipped the overlapping section of the chorus to simplify a bit, but did we actually get some wrong? I have just listened to the original and to ours and I can't find it |
| 10/15/10: sparks Oh... well I could be wrong, since the only Beach Boys I have is Pet Sounds, but I think during the "aruba, jamaica..." part you repeat "jamaica" at the end (which is the logical thing to do), but I didn't think they did that. Again, I could be wrong, though (and likely am, if you don't know what I mean. EDIT: Ah, it's near the end I think, when it's "baby why don't we go" and you say "ooh I wanna take you". But 6 of one, half a dozen of the other as far as I'm concerned, heheh. |
| 10/15/01: Spud Actually, the two are sung at the same time, but since we aren't the harmonizers that The Beach Boys are, we avoided this overlap and potential tonal conflict. Hope this clears this up for all of our concerned fans. On the other hand, we don't want to be accused of being non-octothorpy, so maybe we did screw it up in a couple of places |
| 10/15/01: Patrick Clayton Phew. I was losing sleep over that one. |
| 10/15/01: sparks I know you're joking Patrick... but that's been keeping me up for days |
Snow Globe |
| 10/09/01: MonorailRT # - You're weird. I like that. (cough simpsons cough). The distorted vocals are definitely a stylistic choice :), but even at 5 minutes I can say I didn't get bored listening to it. I probably wont vote for it, not listen to it as much as I have your skyline, but it's a solid bit of octothorpage. |
| 10/09/01: wannabe Octothorpe: Weird. And you've got compression problems again. It's hard to understand your words through all the clipping. And it was a bit long. I got bored, and so I watched "Lobster Magnet" again. |
| 10/10/01: sparks Octothorpe - Well... I can kind of tell what you're saying at least this time. You should really check into that, though. Major probs. You can't hear it? ack headache... next review. |
| 10/10/01: Patrick Clayton Best Display Of Creativity: Octothorpe Could Have Been Shorter: Octothorpe Suffering From Lo-Fi: Octothorpe Octothorpe was very interesting as well, but too long methinks (I'm one to talk), and the production quality was a bit poorer than usual. |
| 10/10/01: Spud We are seriously thinking of re-recording the vocals and remixing this (as well as our Kokomo). Will post a link if we do, just so you don't have to put up with all the damned clipping. |
| 10/10/01: Hoblit Hoblit would be interested in obtaining a copy of the Kokomo Remix :-) |
| 10/10/01: sparks I would be highly highly in favor of you doing that, spud. I'd like to hear them proper-like. Maybe you could avoid the problem by recording at a lower volume, routing it into the card and then boosting digitally, or something? |
| 10/10/01: Fireline Octothorpe - The intro is totally Bill Nye. (Good thing) As for the rest of the rest of the song, it's.... interesting. Well done, but it'd be nice if you weren't always trying to scare the hell out of me. |
| 10/11/01: naftule Octothorpe is great as always |
| 10/15/01: Hoblit #. Not one of my favorites :-( |
It Is a Shame My Binoculars Don't Work At Night |
| 10/10/01: spud Hope you can find the two hours, and do something. Sometimes pushing it out quickly can lead to interesting results. Due to circumstances, we were forced to record our "Is it Cold" in less than an hour, and we got more positive comments than some others that took hours, even days |
| 10/10/01: sparks Well yeah... but you're Octothorpe. The same rules do not necessarily apply. |
| 10/16/01: MonorailRT #: Octothorpe should have their own category. It is unfair to judge them in the same league as everyone else. Of course whether they are above, below or too the left of everyone else is highly debatable. |
| 10/16/01: sparks #: Haha... Good vocal editing. Have you seen Dictionaraoke yet? Anyway this title was made for you guys |
| 10/16/01: Spud Thanks. But the reason that the editing was so good is that there was no editing. That was LIVE! Really. Still, glad you liked it. |
| 10/16/01: sparks Then you truly are insane. :) Or more than we suspected. |
| 10/17/01: Patrick Clayton Template Reviews Could Have Been Shorter: Octothorpe |
| 10/18/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Delightfully chaotic. The disjointed voice effect worked and added to the mayhem. But what really impressed me was the backing music. It's getting better each week, and was the perfect foil for the choppy vocals. Production is on the improve. A pleasing result. Well done, lads. |
Octothorpe Quiz |
| 10/21/01: sparks From the Octothorpe Quiz: 59. What medicine does [Silly Squirrel] need? Tylenol I would like to challenge that answer. While indeed the song CLAIMS he needs Tylenol, no one actually needs Tylenol unless their greater goal is liver death/destruction without actual pain relief, due to the relative ineffectiveness of the product in question (which is Tylenol). I demand a recount, additionally. |
| 10/21/01: Spud In Tiny Room, Silly Squirrel has a rare condition which actually requires Tylenol to be cured. However, because of fanatics like yourself, all of the world's supply of Tylenol has been destroyed, and Silly Squirrel is sentenced to the horrible fate of confinement to the tiny white room. Thanks a lot |
| 10/21/01: sparks I feel... horrible now. Give him my regards, please. I had no idea I'd gone so far. |
| 01/15/02: whoatethefish You know, if you check "C" for all 82-odd questions you get about 18% of the answers right... |
| 01/15/02: Hoblit what is funier I think is the fact that I answered about 20 of them the best I could...and didn't answer any more...and just kept hitting 'next' or whatever, and scored 17% ..he he |
| 01/15/02: Nanja Sorya If you answer only "A" (the first answer) Your score: 18.52% Your ranking: Intelectual (sic) Peasant |
| 01/15/02: magenta You know, if you randomly guess out of four choices, statistically you should get about 25% of the answers right... |
| 01/16/02: magenta Oh god, I actually scored a 42% on the Octothorpe quiz... Shoot me now |
| 01/17/02: whoatethefish bang. i'm dissapointed. really. |
Octothorpe Photo |
| 10/20/01: Patrick Clayton Way to shatter the image of what Octothorpe looks like as a collective. I had always assumed this was the shocking truth, though colored in by young children for the full effect. |
| 10/20/01: MonorailRT Octothorpe have that failed Dr Who applicant look going on I think |
| 10/21/01: sparks Ha, well the one on the right maybe. http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store/store.aspx?storeid=octothorpe bwwaahahahaha. |
Acid Mouth |
| 10/23/01: MonorailRT #: Could have done with some mastering to my ears, some eq could have really helped the sound here imo. The dark side of octothorpe sound wise I think, with the typically deep and meaningful lyrics. I like the deep synth sound especially. |
| 10/23/01: naftule Octothorpe -- great melody and vocal harmonies and unisons |
| 10/23/01:
frankie big face Octothorpe - I told my orchestra students about the #. They were impressed with my vast knowledge of symbols and Seattle-based trios. I don't hate this any more than the usual # fare. Victory! The chorus is even kind of catchy. Wish I could understand the words. Put 'em up and I'll give it another listen. |
| 10/23/01: djsurly Octothorpe - makes me wanna go surfing - in acid! |
| 10/23/01: jippers Octothorpe - Great crashing drums in the intro. This piece has a cool groove. The vox don't do it for me though. But then I'm more concerned with the music thanx vox in most songs anyway! And the music here scores with me. |
| 10/23/01: thousage Octothorpe - As strange as ever. The most original entry, I think. There is some real creativity here. Bizarre, yes. But creative none the less. |
| 10/26/01: Hoblit #: good work guys...I liked it...this makes the fourth one I have kept from you guys...how shallow of me ...I know....but I really didn't like some of that early stuff...but I'm coming around on you guys...I like music ALOT better these days...better mix...and I even think the lyrics are getting better...hmm...maybe it's five now |
| 10/28/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- The double vocal parts really lift this. I like the synth sound- what did you use? Pretty good work, gents. And sort of touching, too. In a cartoon sense, anyway. |
Adaptation |
| 10/30/01: djsurly octothorpe - i wish i was there while you recorded this one. sounds like their was alcohol involved, and alcohol = good times. |
| 10/30/01: MonorailRT #: I'm going to be honest and say I don't expect you to win this one. Sounds like a laff though :) |
| 10/31/01: mc3p0 I normally don't like to review fights I'm not participating in, but I'd like to make a small exception. Just an initial reaction that still eludes proper wording - #, absolutely the best entry I've heard from the collective. Not to discount the whimsical earlier entries, but after listening to every entry at least twice the short of it is that I LOVE it, sincerely. |
| 11/01/01: NationwideClyde Octothorpe- Is there a video of this? At last you break out the accordion! At least you had fun! (I know you guys have some serious analogue equipment. Maybe next time?) Sounds like you had girls over. I wish I had girls come over. I wish I had friends. Octothorpe has friends. Lovely, lovely friends. If you tape-recorded this on microcassette, hats off to you! Sounds like Guy Smiley on acid. |
| 11/03/01:
frankie big face # - I applaud your continuing effort to find new and interesting ways to be annoying. If I had had a gun, I would have shot this sucker. |
| 11/04/01: Frese #: "Bzzt bzzt bzzzzzzzzt bzzt" is all I hear. TURN YOUR LEVELS DOWN. |
Cover Fight 4: (50's) Mack The Knife By Bobby Darin |
| 11/02/01: thousage Octothorpe-- well it's *definitely* octothorpe. I love the background mumbling. It really makes the song. I really like how you did the beginning too. I started listening and thinking you were going to do it serious. then "No! We are Octothorpe!" great! |
| 11/02/01: Hoblit Hoblit thanks the great Octothorpe (for hosting the CoverFight site, not for the song -ed.) |
| 11/03/01: mc3p0 Octothorpe - s c a rin e s s e n su e s w h en t e mp o i si g n or e d Performed from the apocalypse lounge right next to Tex Cthulhu covering Doris Day 'Secret Love'. The distortion flavor is fun, but not dynamic enough. I love cooledit pro for it's built-in tools, which include some really nasty eqing, etc. But for truly nifty faux analog compression, T-Rex is fan-fucking-tastic for ye and all yer cursed kine, arrrrr, don'cha know.. |
| 11/05/01: Hoblit #: ha..cute...I liked the ooohs and the zows...or whatever....that was cute...it was a little long for my tastes in your art...but I enjoyed it...but don't know if I am gonna keep it...havn't decided...I mean...it might be novel to keep around...I don't know. THANKS Octothorpe for hosting us once again...and I hope that everyone will simply have a wonderful Christmas time! |
| 11/10/01: GunnAndFames Octothorpe. I'd love to see you guys play live. The percussion got a little out of sync with the singing, which distracted me. Otherwise a fine- indeed animated- Mack the Knife. Very good site, Octothorpe. |
My Sister |
| 11/07/01: MonorailRT Nuffink much to say here, I quite liked it. |
| 11/07/01: Sparks Octothorpe - Aack. Running into those levels problems again. Not quite as bad. Decent work though, in general. |
| 11/07/01: frankie big face (reviewing Sparks'
review) Aack.....nice choice of, uh......exclamation? Levels are the least of Octothorpe's problems, but it's a good place to start. |
| 11/07/01: mo i have a similar observation about octothorpe's mixed vocal tracks, in that i feel like the rhythmic ideas in your singing(s) aren't backed with a real belief in them. like you're feeling your way around the rhythm when it might sound better if you made it a little snappier. |
Indie Rock Bottom |
| 11/13/01: djsurly octothorpe - i think it's over my head. |
| 11/13/01: NationwideClyde Octothorpe - The best Octothorpe song I have ever heard. Also, very on-topic. Also, I swear, that voice, can't put my finger on it, but it sounds like a cartoon character... No, not a cartoon character, a radio personality? Maybe a radio commercial? Fuck if I know... |
| 11/13/01: JBB One of the members of # is able to channel the ghost of John Astin (Gomez Addams in the original Addams Family TV series) even though John Astin isn't actually dead yet. I think it's some kind of Freaky Friday thing; it's never really been explained well. |
| 11/13/01: MonorailRT #: The collective are unmarkable, they rock just too hard. "hoodie that looks goodie" Song: Production: Performance: |
| 11/13/01: JuniorMint Octothorpe - Obviously pulling from the comic thing… reminds me of a funny weird Mcgruff video or something… NO! I REMEMBER! That stuffed animal thing called My Pet Monster, I watched a video with my friend once (when I was much younger of course… er… yes…) and the monster talked just like that!… we used to find it quite funny… Oh…. good memories. |
Experimental Fashion |
| 11/21/01: Grim Father Octothorp- I think I'm beginning to like your music. Often I hate a band for a while before I finally understand their music and enjoy it. I liked this song as well as your last. |
| 11/26/01: Flanger Man Octothorpe well.... the lyrics are fitting. i like that the vocals arent always in sync(thank god the're certainly not n'sync) the backing sounds like a keyboard demo. maybe if it were pushing the cheezy button harder it would work. 7.5/10 |
| 12/13/01: mc3p0 ...# tends towards some extreme expression - one of my favorite entries of all songfightdom is their Adaptation. |
Cover Fight 5: (Christmas) Little Drummer Boy |
| 12/15/01:
frankie big face Octothorpe - LOUD. And surprisingly not bad! The whole John Astin thing still cracks me up but this works pretty well for you guys - good choice of material. The natural percussiveness of the tune compliments your quirky-jerky style. Huzzah - a victory for #! (I just felt like saying Huzzah.) |
| 12/17/01: mc3p0 #- lo-fi masters. Amazing. I leave you in possession of the field.. whilst I don a fine field marshals knickers! |
| 12/17/01: Hoblit #: I LOVED IT! could have done without the 50's guitar intro on the keyboard...but everything else was great. I loved the way the vocals on this track are done. There seems to be a passionate and forceful delivery. Great work guys...love the keyboard...and snare loop. |
Secrets |
| 12/19/01: thousage octothorpe - these guys have definitely perfected their own sound. you can always count on them for bizarre, overdriven vocals. nothing i've ever heard sounds like octothorpe. ok, now I've got that out of the way, as far as octothorpe goes this one's not one of my favorites. remeniscent of their 'acid mouth', but i liked 'acid mouth' better. needs some accordian I've decided. |
| 12/20/01: MonorailRT #: Octothorpe is not just a band, it's a state of mind. |
| 12/20/01: NationwideClyde OCTOTHORPE (#) - This is flat-out your best work I've heard yet. In fact, do you have an instrumental mix of this? It's got the great old synth sounds I love so very, very much. 8/10 |
| 12/20/01: ken Ocothorpe: Love the vibe patch and melody. I like your take on the title. very original. Gets a little long though. |
| 12/21/01: JBB ...the Octothorpe song is good until you guys start to sing. At least it's not clipped to death this week. |
| 12/21/01: Hoblit #: I too liked the music...kinda neat...I didn't like the singing as much as the others either...but I will be downloading the instrumental...so keeping it in a way. |
| 12/21/01:
frankie big face Name: # What sucked about it: Too long. I'll never get used to this style, especially the "singing," but this doesn't bother me that much. Did I mention it's too long? What didn't suck: The vibes or the vibes patch. The whispering. Overall suckitude: 3 pacifiers. |
| 12/21/01: Spud Since, according to your rating system, we're tied for fourth, I have to know!!! Did we make the cut? |
| 12/22/01:
frankie big face You did very well this week, but alas, you are still Octothorpe. Sorry. (I'm going to download it again--give it another listen.) |
| 12/24/01: Patrick Clayton Best Use Of Production Value: Octothorpe Most Entertaining: Octothorpe |
| 12/27/01: Nanja Sorya Octothorpe: You use a great diversity of synth sounds that work well together (although on repeated listenings, the bass line, although purposely detuned, gets kind of annoying because it is out of tune with the rest of the piece.) Unfortunately, the complexity of overlapping lines demand rock-solid rhythms, which on this recording are sorely lacking -- think James Brown and his penchant for fining his drummer for missing a beat. In terms of the mix, perhaps the lead vocals/synth line are too much out in front? And I assume you aim for that type of over-the-top vocalization. |
| 01/02/02: Brick Pig # - I know there are a lot of # fans, but I'm to a point where all The Collective's songs sound alike to me. Sorry, guys. |
Floating Bridge |
| 01/14/02: sparks Octothorpe - You seem to have recovered from your recording problems. This is pretty different from most #, stylistically, and I like it. Keep mixing it up like this and I will continue to be your Numbah One Fan. Seriously. Like Beatlemania. I have looked and looked for the bare-midriff cutoff # shirt, but most stores don't seem to carry it yet--you guys should work on that. You could boost vocals very slightly maybe. 7/10 "Hey buddy, whatchoo lookin' at?" |
| 01/05/02: Nanja Sorya octothorpe: A vocal line that actually has some musical content! A happyday sunny song, to be heard driving around town in a convertable with its top down. Or maybe best enjoyed in a pub drinking with friends. As is typical of #, long. Perhaps some variations of melody could be interspersed in those sections between the vocals, to make me want to hear what's gonna happen next |
| 01/05/02: jbb #- this is the song i'll cover if i draw your name in the next coverfight. You have the stilted-line-reading problem that Hoblit has, only you have it in spades. But from reading the stuff you like and dislike, that stilt is probably what you like |
| 01/06/02: hoblit Octothorpe=Octothorpe (better than average) |
| 01/07/02:
frankie big face Whatta you gonna do--we can't all hit a home run every time. Just Octothorpe # - I'm never going to like your sound. You guys remind me of the patient that Oliver Sacks writes about in "An Anthropologist on Mars." This guy was an artist who lost his ability to see colors in a car accident, but continued to paint and came up with a very unique black and white style. All your colors are from a palette that I can't see. Wait, maybe I remind me of the guy in the book. I'm so confused, but your song is over now and my life can resume. |
| 01/08/02: problem Octothorpe whups a llama's ass with a belt, jerk. |
| 01/08/02: matt_the_oscillator Octothorpe: the muppets play TMBG songs.. fashionably, of course |
| 01/09/02: PrayForMojo #: It's one of the better # tracks I've heard. 'nuff said. The Accordian rocks. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise! |
| 01/10/02: GunnAndFames Production skills have certainly improved, as have the arranging and playing. A tight result. Liked the swirling accordian type of sound. This is well worth pursuing. I think you're on to something here. 7.0/10 |
| 01/10/02: mc_frontalot #: okay if I could have gotten this shit rocking at comp USA free internet terminal fifty people would have come by to find out about songfight and it would have been like a songfight booth at comdex or something, I mean you just can't ignore this stuff. You can run holding your ears, but you can't pretend it's not there. I have total understanding of why frankie hates you people. It's all there, the disregard for things like pleasing vocal tone, craftsmanship (i mean except the lyric, that's always like a goddamn novella), the all+kitchen sink approach to the texture of the recordings. When you guys started I was sure you were shooting for irritating-superwacky but it's like a fucking sledge hammer, week after week, fucking octothorpe, you guys are just fucking LIKE THAT. IT'S YOU!! YOU PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY OCTOTHORPE. I'm with patrick clayton, you guys rule. This and every song. |
Cover Fight 6: (George Harrison) Three Cool Cats |
| 01/15/02:GunnAndFames Octothorpe- Majestic is the word I'm looking for here. Production okay by Octothorpe standards, but the vocal clipping is in evidence. It seems that to get the most animation out of your vocalist (which is certainly one of your trademarks) you have to trade off on sound quality. I can but suggest recording the vocals at a lower level, hitting them with a compressor (no not Drew), and then beefing them up to the desired volume. Probably worth a try. The backing music was very together, making this a good and most entertaining entry. 7.0/10 |
| 01/15/02: Brick Pig # - Given what I said about you guys in the "Secrets" reviews, I must say this is one of my favorite # entries yet. I don't know if it was just a good choice of material, or if you are showing a greater-than-normal amount of restraint in your treatment of the material. Anyway, not bad. |
| 01/15/02: jeff fal octothorpe - it's good. there's some droning tone in the background that really sets a cool mood. as is always the case with #, i wish the vocals were just a bit more melodic. |
| 01/16/01: mc3p0 octothorpe- you guys must throw some spooky suares. THe organ is perfect, drums are great - need to be forward. Cool, cats. Now make a compressor and eq. |
Rot To Fill |
| 01/17/02: Patrick Clayton Octothorpe: Best music I've heard in an Octothorpe song. "Skyline" will always be my personal favorite for breaking the barriers of "entertainment", but this is a close second. It's your most accomplished piece. The drums sound great, and the keyboard is, well, very nice. Your songs are always enjoyable and often catchy (though not in necessarily the typical sense), but this is a strong piece that has a lot to offer all around. |
| 01/17/02: Frese Octothorpe -- "Children's music for intelligent people" takes on their musical version of "The Lorax." Er... more or less. What can I say? |
| 01/17/02: Matt_The_Oscillator octothorpe: this song is great.. i love it.. the exaggerated vocals.. the singing synthesizers.. its almost a parody of itself.. wow.. if monty python did songfight.. |
| 01/17/02: mc_frontalot can't sleep! so smoking & listening to fresh moist young songfight songs -- they are cool! okay here's my final reviews: I like these ones -- 15-16, hoblit, mouth reliant, #, and xenon light. |
| 01/17/02: NationwideClyde Octothorpe - Ah, good old 'Thorpe. Does anyone besides me think that maybe #'s musical abilities and production qualities are outgrowing the novelty vocals? This one actually has a very nicely sung chorus, and anything this excessively analog gets a thumb up from me. |
| 01/17/02: Nanja Sorya Octothorpe: Vocal explorations! Keep exploring, please! (I mean this in a good way). Love the space in the piece -- hope this was intentional and wouldn't have been filled with more synths (as usual) with more time. Otherwise, not the strongest # entry I've heard, but very #ian. |
| 01/20/02: 1516Puzzle Octothorpe: The first verse and chorus I like. After that, too many words being stuffed into each line. The chorus sounds like an old drinking song that I never really learned the words to: familiar, without sounding like anything in specific. |
| 01/20/02: Hoblit #: Neat, I'm not as impressed as some of the others...I think the keyboard solo was too loud and it didn't really do much for me, but it did make the collection. The melody was good and catchy. The more advanced sound is much better...just keep working on those recordings...and vocal performances |
| 01/21/02: Suzy_No.3 I Liked: Matt the Oscilator Octothorpe Hoblit Xenon Light Pickup Artists |
On My Block |
| 01/28/02: sparks #: Groovy. No other word to describe it precisely. I am glad you're still mixing things up. |
| 02/02/02: grim father This is a pretty cool song. I love that high pitched horn melody. The rattling precussion is great, it sounds like your hitting ice cream buckets. perfect length. Good tuneful vocals. |
| 02/02/02: Fireline Yeah, this is definitely Octothorpe. *grin* (I can faintly hear "and we wouldn't have it any other way.") Cool percussion, interesting disjointed feel throughout. This is possibly my favorite Octothorpe song. |
| 02/02/02: 1516Puzzle The bongos sound to slow to me. Either change the bassline, or change the melody, because it would sound better if the two would compliment each other, instead of mimic each other. |
| 02/03/02: Jonas This is one sinister song: the bass, the percussion, the twisted bazouki, the lyrics--especially "Forces at work on my block". It's really expressive, conjuring up images of an otherworldly bazaar in some uncontrollable dream. It's compelling and unsettling. There's a sense of some larger story behind this nightmarish glimpse. |
| 02/04/02: Hoblit #: I think I'm going to keep it...I do like the music..kooky...loved the toms. Not crazy about the singing...but the lyrics are pretty good...again kooky...not bad at all. Keep working on the vocal tracks...maybe add a slapback or something...make it even kookier... |
Octothorpe: Information Overload |
| 02/03/02: mc3p0 Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in. But then I'm startled awake, realizing I had fallen asleep to Information Overload on repeat. KHAN!! khan! kha.. k.. |
| 02/03/02: Jonas Lord AlMIGHTY. I guess that's $10US, right? I don't know what's up with my PayPal account yet, so I'll have to write a cheque. But write I shall. |
World Of Screens |
| 02/19/02: matt_the_oscillator octothorpe - casio like it aint no thing.. sounds like a weird al demo.. if he was a gruff russian.. very dr. teeth.. scary and funny at the same time.. sounds like youre having a great time making this one.. i like that.. |
| 02/20/02: Patrick Clayton Best Display of Creativity: Octothorpe Most Entertaining: Octothorpe |
| 02/20/02: 1516Puzzle Octothorpe: I'm not feeling this one. Feels very thrown together, like any chord pattern or melody was good enough. Also, too long, for what you were going for. |
| 02/20/02: djsurly octothorpe - no sir, i don't like it. |
| 02/21/02: jonas Octothorpe: Surprisingly, a disappointing entry. The music really does nothing but mechanically progress from chord to chord while the song kind of stumbles around, and then for a minute or two too long. Maybe your incredible "On My Block" dipped into this week's creativity reservoir, as this didn't do much more than besmirch the Octothorpe name |
Cover Fight 7: Skylen by Patrick Clayton |
| 02/22/02:sparks Octothorpe - Patrick Clayton - Skylen - I don't remember the original too well. This frightens me deeply, as all octhothorpe songs should. |
| 02/24/02: fireline *octothorpe - patrick clayton - skyline* barely able to understand anything being said. very... octothorpe. I never really warmed up to the unique # sound, but this is still decent work. |
| 02/24/02: Spud http://www.aaronondek.com/archive/archive.php?band=15&song=33 the lyrics - ed |
| 02/24/02: fireline Nevermind, I understand now why I couldn't comprehend it. *grin* |
| 02/24/02:
frankie big face Octothorpe - absolutely brilliant - love the new feel - my favorite part: "Here we go!" Patrick, this is a really great song, btw. I missed it the first time around. |
| 02/24/02: magenta # - Okay, what the hell was this? #-styled punk rock, indeed. |
| 02/25/02: Hoblit #: Cool! you took out all the 'Ramonish' and replaced it with Octothorpe... that is seriously cool...I like it... especially "ARIZONA SKYLINE!" (as I secretly try to figure out exactly how a whole state can have a skyline...traditionally anyways) The feedback at the end is a nice touch... |
| 03/01/02: mo ...for some reason i found the other songs a little flat, even octothorpe's, which i thought i'd never say. |
Hotel |
| 03/09/02: Fireline Octothorpe: nice drums! (thank you for focusing on that more than some) good bassline and keyboard work. I generally don't like your sound that much, but I'm really enjoying this song. Accordions rule. GREAT chorus. good lyrics overall, in fact. easily my favorite octothorpe, and definitely one of the best this week. |
| 03/09/02: Kelysian Octothorpe: I have one thing to say: Hey you guys, can you please do a cover of "Mah Na Mah Na?" Please please please? I would pay money for it. |
| 03/09/02: MonorailRT # - I got nothing. |
| 03/09/02: Spud Sorry, hafta ask. Do you mean you couldn't play it, or you got nothing to say? |
| 03/09/02: MonorailRT Oh no, I could get it to play, it's just my brain shuts down when presented with octothorpe (with the exception of the sublime, and I mean it, skyline) I have a strange reaction to the music of #. I really seem unable to like or dislike it, I just listen in bewildered fascination. |
| 03/09/02: 1516Puzzle Octothorpe: The rap is kind of cool, the rest I don't really care for. |
| 03/11/02: Patrick Clayton Octothorpe: I voted for this! Yee! I love it! I really do! Fantastic lyrics and the rap in the chorus is just good wholesome nutty fun. You guys are on a roll I think, as despite your personal criticisms, I even liked your "World Of Screens" quite a bit. Not much else to say here. |
| 03/13/02: Brick Pig #: A few weeks ago I posted that I didn't "get" you guys. Then, for the next couple of songs, I liked you. Now I don't get you again. |
Top Drawer |
| 03/22/02: Hoblit octothorpe: didn't do it for me....and I think you have used that intro before |
| 03/22/02: JBB #, you guys are definitely unique, but I would oh so dearly love to hear some kind of changes creep into your music. It's this loud loud loud almost cacophonic THING that goes from start to finish, I hear some interesting things in there but mostly I just can't shut it off fast enough. Anyway, thanks for existing, I suppose, even if only an occasional song comes anywhere close to being something I almost sort of slightly like. How's that for dubious praise? |
Grandfather Sword |
| 03/23/02:
Raised by Wolves Speaking of TMBG, the # entry sounds like that song on Lincoln where they yell a lot, and um, yeah, I hate that song. |
| 03/23/02:
frankie big face Octothorpe - Oh COME ON. Are you guys regressing? Or are you just railing against the recent compliments paid to you by the establishment to re-gain your indie cred? Thanks for keeping it short, at least. |
| 03/23/02: Hoblit #: Too loud...clipping was bad... I too am more into your later sound with the more professional sounding synths... I also miss songs like your 'is it cold' I admire you guys for pumping out songs for every fight...but maybe you should work a bit more on quality over quanity... keep up the strong determination..and let me thank you guys again for all of the 'side' stuff you have been doing for this community |
| 03/24/02: 1516puzzle Octothorpe: Seems like bunch of ideas that you've used before. Reminds me a bunch of "Skyline": Organ descending a scale, the stilted psuedo-rap... hmmm, that's your thing I suppose. |
| 03/24/02: mc3p0 #- WHAT IN HELL IS IT? Enchanting. |
| 03/24/02: Frese Octothorpe: I'm looking for the clock concept, but all I hear is that everything is too loud and Bro sounds like he's trying to rap; the sonic assault offends my delicate eardrums! I was glad to see you progressing in a new direction, because I'd probably get pretty tired of listening to this week after week. Sorry. |
| 03/25/02: Mostess Octothorpe: You guys make Song Fight worth discovering! Thank you for everything you've done. Not since I first heard Negativland have I been so happy to hear someone carry on the joyous rampage of postmodernist pop. Hats off. I can offer no suggestions because your methods already perfectly justify your madness. This is an unintelligable nugget of poetic energy. |
| 03/26/02: Suzy_No.2 I voted Octothorpe. There were a couple others that were decent I felt, but nothing that really stood out in the bunch. I would have liked RxW's entry a lot, but the lyrics in the chorus just didn't agree with my brain. Sorry. |
Cover Fight 8: Don't Dance by Kompressor |
| 04/02/02: Jonas #: Oc-TOH-thorpe! |
| 04/02/02: MonorailRT # sing the hits of Kompressor. This is probably my favourite Kompressor track, and it is very much done justice :) Nice work guys |
| 04/04/02: mc_frontalot # - very funny, very frightening. I am again reconsidering my participation in the local dance culture |
Bad Dreams |
| 04/06/02: Hoblit Octothorpe=# what can I say.... |
| 04/06/02: Fireline Uh-oh... 5/4... *hides* This sounds like your Acid Mouth on heroin. The goal was achieved, you certainly manage to fit in the lyrics (which are good). I checked your list... I'm disappointed to see this won't be played live. I would have been curious to see who'd play drums (*grin*)... I'm actually having a blast right now air-drumming along to it. Good vocal work. This is definitely Octothorpe... and lots of fun. |
| 04/06/02: Patrick Clayton Yeek. This isn't stuck in my head. But it's unique, and of course the lyrics are great. This could be the soundtrack to some great avante garde short film. And by great, I mean godawful. This song would be the highlight. |
| 04/06/02: 1516puzzle Octothorpe: The drums on this song, I think, are just giving away that the song is in 5/4 time. (Well that and the way you sing the lyrics, but you like that.) More drum variation would help. I really like the song at the part "I fight the screams"... everything seems to come together at that point. |
| 04/09/02: Hoblit #: Vocals way too loud again...digressing. The lyrics aren't half bad though... but I can't say that I really like it though. But I have to say that the music interlude in the middle parts is pretty good. |
| 04/12/02: GunnAndFames Octothorpe- A brave effort. Not many would have had a crack at 5/4/ time- I know I wouldn't have. You held it together pretty well, but I found it took a bit of effort to stay with you on it. I LOVED the swirling circus organ- complements Bro's vocals well. |
| 04/14/02:
Frankie Big Face # - I like the 5/4 feel and the lyrics are SUPER interesting, as usual. But alas, you are still Octothorpe. Although...you could probably get this song into the next Adams Family movie, right? John Astin lip-synchs to it in a show-stopping musical number? Have your people call my people. Oh yeah, it's also one (at least) chorus too long, imo. |
Cover Fight 9: Red Robot by Hoblit |
| 05/22/02: magenta Octothorpe: How Octothorpian. |
| 05/22/02: sparks ######## (Hoblit) - Hahahaha. You know the thing is, I couldn't be Octothorpe if I tried. I don't know whether to be comforted by that or what. |
| 05/24/02: Hoblit OCTOHORPE: I laughed when I heard this. I love the accordian interpretation of my heavy electric guitar...that cracks me up. My favorite parts are the 'i feel so insecure' parts. I love how deep the voices get...makes me smile. i have to say it takes a very secure man to sing this song...let alone taking it on as a cover when you could have easily tackled something that was ... well ...less insecure. he he. Good Job! It was better than Cats...I'm going to see it again and again and again. Although, I miss the groaning female parts. Definately keeping this ...might paste it twice! Thanks again Octhorpe for covering me...and for hosting this competition once again... |
| 05/29/02: mc3p0 octothorpe- HA! The breakdown "I feel so insecure" is really eerie with the moogliesque pad- getting used to the vocal distortion is another matter. :-) I love you guys, but if you are going to distort all of the vocals why bother stopping there? Try the drums next time and put the vocals back a bit.. I enjoy this cover immensely. |
Postcard (collaboration with Patrick Clayton) |
| 07/14/02: Grim Father Octothorpe and Patrick: Wow you guy's sound exactly the same. I really like that sickening keyboard line. NICE 80's guitar solo! (oh, it gets better). Really strange, good, lyrics on this one. |
| 07/15/02: Fireline *Octothorpe & PC* This is so great. Pat sounds like a regular member of #. STRANGELY ENOUGH, the beginning of that guitar solo sounds exactly like the lead guitar in the last chorus of our song. Yet another fantastic addition to the Octothorpe collection. (I'd so love to play drums on this.) |
Criminal Charges |
| 07/19/02: fireline octothorpe - ROCK. this is so awesome. great drums, I LOVELOVELOVE the lyrics/screaming vocals. this is so totally a b-side to an old-school street fighter soundtrack. instrumentation is perfect. great work. |
| 07/19/02: Sparks Octothorpe - Excellent work, as usual. A romping journey of thrilling narrative introduction through the judicial system of the judicial system. |
| 07/21/02: mc3p0 #- you are so ninja. What initially sounds uncoordinated, gels and grooves showing a lot of control and inventiveness - # signature. My one issue - I have a tough time making out all of the lyrics, unless part of the fun is a telephone game style interpretation. |
| 07/20/02: PrayForMojo # - Yup, this is an Octothorp song. The great thing about seeing the SFP&T videos is that now I can envision what you all would look like while playing this, and that makes me happy. The lyrics here are not great. Granted, the distortion covers enough of them that it really doesn't matter. I dig the synth stuff, and the 80's drum groove. All in all I like this song. |
| 07/22/02: jeff fal # - well, your influence seems to converting doubter after doubter, but i remain unswayed. who knows what the future holds, but for now i remain in the "i don't get it" column. as always, the distorted vocals are grating and the lyrics never seem to get properly crammed into the song. in the face of that, it's hard to judge the music separately, but it sounds ok, maybe good, i don't know. anyway, keep at it cuz i know you will anyway. |
| 07/22/02: jippers On the issue of Octothorpe as mentioned above. I, for one, have found Octothorpe's unique brand of musical mayhem a little hard to fathom over the course of their many releases (which is somewhat ironic coming from a Zappa fan!) However, I need to spend more time listening to their work to get a more full appreciation of it, and unfortunately I haven't had the chance to do that though. One thing I will say about them though, and this is something I really respect about them, is that everytime you hear one of their songs, it is instantly recognisable as being Octothorpe. They have their own sound and you can spot it a mile away. There are not many bands these days that can claim such a feat. Well done guys, and more power to ya. I just hope they don't end up like Bob Seger, recording awesomely shit hot music during the early part of their career, only to end up playing ballads to satisfy your label and AM radio. (If you've never heard a pre-1975 Bob Seger LP, get one. They rock and rock HARD!!!) |
| 07/23/02: 1516puzzle Octothorpe: Sounds like the riff from your "On My Block" changed a bit and sped up, to my ears. The vocal delivery is very... what's the word... punk, on the verses. Not just the volume, something about the feeling I get behind them. (Not explaining myself very well.) |