BSE? Semifinals

Much like the real March Madness mine also extends well into April and I too am in my final four. While we’re talking about NCAA I would like to extend a “suck it” to Drew and Ian for getting whomped by me this year in our HamMadness tourney. UCONN! UCONN! UCONN! I can feel my pride bars rapidly leveling up as we speak.

Semifinals Match 1

Victor: The Modern Leper – Frightened Rabbit

Defeated: No Woman, No Cry – Bob Marley

Why did this song deserve to be here?

I’ve been misunderstanding the lyrics of this song for years now. This isn’t too strange of an occurrence but the difference here is I usually like my own version of the song better. Maybe that’s just because I’m used to it that way, maybe not. Some examples are the lyrics in Beta Band’s Dry the Rain (“I will be your light” vs. “I will be alright”) and Twilight Sad’s Cold Days From the Birdhouse (“Where are your manners?” vs “Where are your medals?”)

Now I never mistook any of the lyrics in No Woman, No Cry but I certainly got the message wrong. As you can imagine, I thought it was a song about scorning the fairer sex in order to not be hurt. Instead Marley’s meaning is closer to “No Woman, Don’t Cry.” The whole song is about how Marley remembers his life in Trenchtown. There are so many good lyrics in this song and they’re oftern very good at pulling on heart strings.

“Then we would cook corn meal porridge
Of which I'll share with you”

“My feet is my only carriage
So I've got to push on through”

“In this bright future you can't forget your past”

“Ev'rything's gonna be alright”

A lyrics as simple as “Ev'rything's gonna be alright” rarely seems like it’d be something so good. But Marley’s genuine tone makes this repeated line in the bridge the best part of the song.

The style is of course Reggae with heavy organ playing counter melodies with the focus on Marley’s voice. There’s a sweet slow guitar solo in the middle too. Reggae’s not exactly a big genre but this song appeals to absolutely everyone.

Why did it lose?

Mike’s been hitting the Modern Leper hard. If you had asked me if it was going to be in the finals I would’ve said no so I don’t know how he knew. I suppose I’ve tired myself out a bit on No Woman, No Cry as it’s one of the songs I feel like I’ve grown up with. My dad was always a big fan. That said this was incredibly close, as I’m listening to the version linked below I almost feel like switching it up. But as soon as I listen to Modern Leper I know I’ll feel the same way about that. It’s always hard to pick one of these songs, they all deserve their credit.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGqrvn3q1oo (This is a really awesome live version (but not the version on Legend))

Semifinals Match 2

Victor: All My Friends-LCD Soundsystem

Defeated: Changes – 2pac

Why did this Song deserve to be here?

Mike likes to make fun of me for when I rave about people who say “I like all music except for country and rap.” My usual argument is that it doesn’t make sense to “cut yourself off from a whole genre of music.” I repeated that particular line several times and throughout the latter years of college Mike tended to apply it to different situations partially to irk me and partially to agree with the point. For example “How can someone not like beans? It’s like they’re cutting themselves off from a whole genre of legumes!”

All that aside, it really does bother me when someone says they don’t like all of a genre. Periodically in my life I’ve heard people say they don’t like rap. If I’m anywhere near a computer I will make them listen to this song. “Ok, well I liked that song but I still don’t like rap.” Ok, whatever.

I don’t know where to start with this song. 2pac picked the perfect sample to along with his rap. Changes always did feel like a 90’s version of the very 80sish The Way it Is. Those cheesy drum synths are gone and replaced with hip-hop beats. 2pac gets some very talented back-up singers to fill in the gaps as well. It’s all very well produced.

Of course the lyrics are the star of the show. Let’s just look at the first couple lines of the song.

“I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself
is life worth living should I blast myself?
I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black
my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch
Cops give a damn about a negro
pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a hero

Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares
one less hungry mouth on the welfare”

What can you even say about something as powerful as that? It doesn’t need any analysis.

Why did it lose?

Gotta go with the gut.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL5sdu3pNrU

MODO

This is a M:tg blog but I promise I'll keep the jargon to a minimum.

So recently I started playing Magic Online. It's another way to sink money into a game that already takes about 50% of my spare cash. It has been extremely enjoyable so far and the more drafts you win the more you can play for free. Of course every draft requires 2 dollars to play in addition to the prizes you can win from a draft. In that sense it's a lot like playing poker at a casino, you can come out ahead but the house always takes a share. If you sell off the "cards" you open you can usually make back the money you spent, so luckily this nonsense isn't too expensive.

As there are prizes on the line people take this shit as SERIOUS BUSINESS. Most people you play online won't say anything or just give a friendly "gl" at the start of the match. Others are not so civil about the whole business. One guy I was about to beat decided he'd rather log off and force me to wait for him to time out than concede.

My favorite time was when I attacked some guy and he prevented all the damage from my worst creature. He then said "Whoops! I clicked the wrong thing, good game." This was weird off the bat because he obviously wasn't dead yet just looking at the state of things. Then I figured out he was deliberately lying to me in order to kill my best creatures without me realizing his plan. I've bluffed in magic before and played like I could do something I couldn't but never have I just lied to my opponent. That's a whole new level of skeez. I promptly killed him after that.

One guy I played had a username of HankYu. Despite Cong's egging on, I managed to resist saying "Hank Yu for a good game."

BSE Round 5

Well it's getting real close now, we're off the the final 4 after this. At this level pretty much every song on the list has some personal meaning to me as well as just being awesome. I think I only had one upset from my initial thoughts in round 5.2. I still don't know who wins yet either so I'm feeling pretty excited at finishing this up after 3 and a half months. Next round sometime next week. I might do some bonus lists too (or just regular entries) inbetween depending on how busy I am.

Match 5.1

Victor: No Woman No Cry – Bob Marley

Defeated: A Day in the Life – The Beatles

Why did this song deserve to be here?

So basically every round that the Beatles had been in so far up until now I just had to look at the match to determine the winner. God Only Knows has been its only real competition so far and even then I don’t like that song nearly as much comparatively. So here we are in round five and it turns out I’m actually going to have to listen to A Day in the Life.

Ok, so the Beatles might just be objectively the best band ever. They broke down musical barriers, they produced infinite singles and they were the ultimate pop icons. We all have our favorite Beatles song. For some it’s Hey Jude, others prefer Yesterday and crazy people love Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and Octopus’s Garden (Why????) Picking the ones Beatles song to represent their entire catalogue wasn’t easy to do. I needed a song that wasn’t tired or overused, something that has still retained its Beatle Magic, but it needed to have that instant recognizability as a top song of their discography.

A Day in the Life pushed pop boundaries with its three song glued together vibe. Random orchestra noise glues these sections together in an unconventional fashion. Sgt. Peppers is one of the Beatles albums people really get behind (Revolver, Abbey Road, and Let it Be being the others in my experience) and A Day in the Life is a cornerstone of the album. All in all the song represents the Beatles well. It’s a great song, we all know it, but we don’t really want to listen to it right now.

Why did it lose?

For the aforementioned reasons as well as Marley’s song being amazing.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Q9D4dcYng

Match 5.2

Victor: The Modern Leper – Frightened Rabbit

Defeated: Heroes – David Bowie

Why did this song deserve to be here?

I still debate with myself on whether this is the Bowie song that should have been here. Changes hold so much nostalgia for me that it’s almost unbearable. Space Oddity continues to be amazing. More recently I’ve taken a liking to the song Life on Mars? Which I hadn’t heard of before about 4 months ago. Ziggy Stardust probably would have done just as well too.

In the end I picked Heroes for somewhat of a different reason. On multiple occasions I heard my brother rave about Heroes and how the 3 minute version was complete bullshit. It took me a few listens to realize how great Heroes really is but I eventually realized he was right and the song truly stood out in the Bowie catalogue. So when I hear this song I think of my brother and the influence he has had on my musical perspectives.

The 3 minute version is bullshit. They cut out all the buildup!

Why did it lose?

I guess Heroes can be a little repetitive and the love story is a little tired. I’ve listened to it a lot recently so I guess I’m putting it to rest. Modern Leper continues to be awesome.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3SjCzA71eM (Had to search a bit for the real version)

Match 5.3

Victor: All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem

Defeated: Losing My Religion – R.E.M.

Why did this song deserve to be here?

This song has everything to me, extreme nostalgia, awesome lyrics, catchy melodies. It wasn’t that long ago that my perspective on the song changed. I always took the phrase “losing my religion” as more of a literal expression but I guess it can also take on the meaning that one is at the end of their rope. It really makes the whole song a whole lot more cohesive for me. It has the same lyrical themes that Every Breath You Take has but it executes them much more effectively. It gets a little too creepy in Breath. R.E.M. has the same unrequited love but the author seems to realize that it’s all a hopeless effort.

I mentioned this in the last set but the music video is really awesome. You know right from the start when the milk jug crashes in time that you’re in for a sweet video. The religious figures in the song give some good literal visuals. I love how Stipe avoids eye contact with the camera for much of the song. His dancing at the end is really bad and yet fits perfectly.

There’s a certain set of songs that were on one of my original mix CDs that I used to play over hours and hours of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3. Losing My Religion is one of those songs and I always get vibes of good times when I hear it.

Why did it lose?

Hardest match this round easily and definitely the song I’m saddest to see go.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if-UzXIQ5vw

Match 5.4

Victor: Changes – 2pac

Defeated: Greener – Tally Hall

Why did this song deserve to be here?

The Tally Hall album is song by song the biggest string of hit or miss songs I’ve ever seen. Haiku and The Bidding are both boring and unpleasant. Two Wuv is god awful. Taken for a Ride, Spring and the Storm and just Apathy are all awesome.

Greener stand high and tall above all of these songs though. I think this song is probably the best representation of a long distance relationship and the damage it can cause that I’ve heard.

“Telephones make you seem miles away from home
All alone I get a little meaner
I leave a message at your tone
And miles away from home
You get a little cleaner of me
And I find a little greener shade of envy”

That pretty much wraps the whole experience very well. Apart, relationships have a tendency to crumble and jealousy has great potential to develop. What I really like about this song is that it sounds like the couple is a really good match, but it’s all outside factors that are tearing them apart.

“You fit just right
Right next to me
But there's always a reason why you can't be”

Why did it lose?

It’s still just a little too Tally Hall. One of the big disadvantages of a hit or miss album is that image somewhat taints the songs around it.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLZrJ36whP4

BSE? Round 4

And we're here with the sweet 16 going into the top 8. Sorry it took longer than I thought, spring break is very distracting. Later updates should be quicker since I'll have less songs to comment on. Another tough round I saw a lot of my favorites go. Well, I knew there'd be lots of heartbreakers in these late rounds. Hope your picks came out well!

Match 4.1

Victor: A Day in the Life – The Beatles

Defeated: Brian Wilson - BNL

Why does this song deserve to be here?

Ah BNL, you’ve been my problem child this tournament with your come back from the dead stunt and your continued success against songs that probably weren’t good enough for the round they were in. You’re probably the weakest player of all the songs left in, save possibly for one candidate, and it’s honestly about time to for you to exit.

This song’s match-up’s have been interesting, The Weight could have beaten BNL on most days but I felt really sick of the song when I took it back, having played it about 30 times the previous week. Roam is a straight up loser to BW but Peacebone was much closer.

Caitlin said in a comment “I also don't understand what's so great about Brian Wilson. It just sounds like BNL.” Well put, this is probably the greatest factor the song has going against it with some dumb lyrics like “I had a dream that I was 300 pounds[…] and I floated until I couldn’t see the ground.” These humor lyrics tend to work against the song in the way someone’s bad jokes rub against you the wrong way.

But enough of the negative, the song did make it here of its own merit. Much of that stems in catchy guitar strum patterns and uptempo choruses. This is all good for a casual listen but I like to think there’s something a little deeper going on. The use of minor chords gives us that this-is-a-sad-song vibe during the verse but switches it around during the chorus. In the end we’re left feeling somewhat middle of the road emotion wise and really that’s what I feel the whole song is about. There’s a lot of sleeping, listening to music, doing nothing and the highlight of the day is going out to the record shop like it’s an accomplishment. I love when musical themes match up with lyrical ones like this and the whole piece conveys this feeling of extreme mildness very well.

Also, it’s hella fun to sing/play along with this song

Why did it lose?

Beatles Etc. as well previously mentioned dumb BNL lyrics and bad attempts at humor.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch84fmOa414

Match 4.2

Victor: No Woman No Cry – Bob Marley

Defeated: Lost in the Supermarket – The Clash

Why does this song deserve to be here?

This is another one of those Steven-really-likes-lyrics kind of songs. Of course, it’s more than that too. The guitar is complex and interesting and the intro is a really cool little riff. There are lots of good licks that are peppered throughout the song too that keeps everything flowing well. The solo is catchy too.

But let’s get to the meat here. The words are about the rapid commercialization of the world. The main point of the song is summarized well in the chorus.

“I'm all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for that special offer
A guaranteed personality”

The special offer can refer to any product that’s ever projected a happier life through advertising, basically everything. Products are shown to make the consumer more interesting, more attractive and more human. In other words, ads are made to sell the “personality.”

The verses describe the emptiness and loneliness that our mystery shopper is trying to cure. These verse have some of my favorite lyrics ever.

“I wasn't born so much as I fell out”

“The kids in the halls and the pipes in the walls
Make me noises for company”

“I empty a bottle and I feel a bit free”

Let’s think about that first line for a second. That’s nine words. It’s truly amazing to me how much meaning can be packed into a nine word sentence.

Why did it lose?

In the email Ian sent me for his entry: “I feel sorry for you. [these songs] are all so fucking good at this point your job is practically hopeless.” This match-up I felt that particularly so. Most of the rest of this round I already have a winner picked out in my head but this one required many repeated listens to both. Now at the end where I’ve picked a song I’m still unsure about it. Sometimes you just have to pick one.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA8LWKiOTGI

Match 4.3

Victor: Heroes – David Bowie

Defeated: Boys of Summer – Don Henley

Why does this song deserve to be here?

How is it that every song from the eighties is instantly recognizable as such? I guess every thing is just a little more synthesized. Maybe people will say about the same thing about this generation’s music “Everything is so auto-tuned.”

Boys of Summer definitely has that going for and against it. The eightiesness increases its capabilities as a sing along as you’re driving song but hurts it in not being so damn eighties (I can’t even describe it any other way, it was this way for Time After Time too.) I know there’s really good lyrics in there too but I don’t really care about them. I just want to crank it up and jam.

Let’s talk about the one line that matters. “Out on the road today I saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac” It sticks out amongst the rest of the song because of its placement in the song as well as its sound devices. Conveniently it wraps up the entire motif of the song as well. The times are a changing and what was previously seen as a sign of rebellion (Deadhead (Grateful Dead) sticker) can now be seen on the high class trophy car.

“Don’t look back you can never look back”

Why did it lose?

A variety of reasons. I always felt like this was somebody else’s song. Like it could hold a lot of nostalgia, memories and meaning for someone, but I only just downloaded it sometime in 2008 or 2009.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhaGE7RlMrY

Match 4.4

Victor: The Modern Leper – Frightened Rabbit

Defeated: The Message – Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

Why does this song deserve to be here?

Looking at the Wikipedia it appears that Grandmaster Flash himself had very little to do with the song. It was written by a member of the Furious Five and recorded solely by him after Flash and the rest of the Five showed no interest in recording it. It seems like every band that names itself after a sole member of the group is doomed to break-up at this point because of scuffles like this. How many times have I credited this song to Flash only? I’d say at least 95% of the time.

The song itself is one of the top hip-hop songs ever. The song has a real focus on the lyrics as the music is rather simplistic. Of course as a hip-hop song this is where it excels. It’s a song about the tragedies of living in the ghetto. Our rapper slowly goes from a light-hearted tone to a solemn voice and then to an almost crazed frustrated tone. It’s here that the chorus has really come to reality (“Don’t push me I’m close to the edge”) The whole song is a bombardment of awesome lyrics.

Why did it lose?

I’ll admit that partially this is a preference in song style. I’m more partial to guitar heavy pop/rock/alternative/whatever songs then early hip-hop. The Message is undoubtedly the top of its game though, despite what anyone might say about Rapper’s Delight.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4o8TeqKhgY

Match 4.5

Victor: All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem

Defeated: Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks

Why does this song deserve to be here?

Some songs need to be danced to, some songs need to be analyzed and other songs need to be sung along with. Waterloo Sunset’s in a different sort of vein in that when I listen to the song I want to be doing something extraordinarily relaxing like laying on a couch with a blanket over my head, floating in a pool on a summer day or just falling asleep at night.

Waterloo Sunset provides an atmosphere that encourages this sort of relaxation coma. Everything about this song sends out the easy going happy vibe. The lyrics encourage forgetting about your troubles and letting the beauty of the little things take a hold on you.

“But I don't feel afraid
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise”

Why did it lose?

That’s all well and good, but an active song will almost always beat a passive one. But when you’re in the right mood for Waterloo Sunset it’s all you want to hear.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J3gX47rHGg

Match 4.6

Victor: Losing My Religion – R.E.M.

Defeated: Gold Soundz - Pavement

Why does this song deserve to be here?

Gold Soundz always had a magical quality about it. A lot of that stems from the melodic guitars that come in right at the start and continue through the rest of the song. Stephen sings some pretty words alongside of them and his usually cracking voice stays on target but is so close to the. In “Range Life” Stephen uses a cracked voice to represent vulnerability but Gold Soundz hides that, like someone who is trying not to cry.

Gold Soundz is a short one coming in at 2:40 but it packs a lot into those 3 minutes. The chorus is 2 short lines and Malkmus announces when we’re approaching it “And we’re coming to the chorus now.” But what’s best about the chorus is how it changes from “I keep my address to yourself because we need secrets” to “I keep my address to myself because it’s secret” There’s an implied loss of trust here and maybe even a break-up. The song is very obfuscated in its meaning.

Best line: “You’re the kind of girl I like because you’re empty/and I’m empty./And we can never quarantine the past.”

Why did it lose?

This match and the Clash vs. Marley are definitely the most difficult of this round. I had to spend a bit of time listening to each song, rereading the lyrics, and watching the music videos (The video for R.E.M. by the way is dynamite.) Going into this match, I would have given Pavement the win on gut. If I had done seeding Gold Soundz might have been #1 too. I guess you never know

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj6QilYg5VA

Match 4.7

Victor: Greener – Tally Hall

Defeated: Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones

Why does this song deserve to be here?

I like talking about the lesser known songs a bit more because really, what can you say about Sympathy for the Devil that everyone hasn’t already heard. The bongos are infectious, the piano is awesome and everyone loves the “Wooo, Wooo.”

The theme is my favorite part of it. It partially implies a devil acting to produce some of the lowest points of human history. But all in all these are human performed actions and the stones remind us to take a look at ourselves “Because after all it was you and me”

Why did it lose?

Over saturation hurts a lot. Sorry Stones, but you’re in far too many commercials

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je8MXiwmNIk

Match 4.8

Victor: Changes – 2pac

Defeated: The Rat – The Walkmen

Why does this song deserve to be here?

A lot of angry music is directed at some sort of institution. Sometimes it’s the police, the government, or even just your parents. It’s much less frequent that we get an angry song that is much more personal than that. In The Rat our lead singer is definitely mad at one figure. We don’t find out much about this person but that’s ok, anger doesn’t need to explain itself. We can probably infer that it was an Ex but even that’s not for sure. What we do know is that our singer is pissed to be hearing from this person, asking a favor no less. What’s also interesting is the line “I know we've been through this before” seems to lead me to think that he’ll give in to her yet again.

“When I used to go out I'd know everyone I saw/Now I go out alone if I go out at all” This line is repeated 3 times during the break and it’s difficult to tell if it’s related to the rest of the theme or just a mourning of the good times. I like to think he’s referring to how hard it is to meet someone new at his age.

The drums are the best part of this song. They give so much atmosphere to the song and it would be a very different song without the intensity they provide.

Why did it lose?

I just like Changes a lot.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipehdaDw7v4

BSE? Round 3 Part 2 plus BSE MaRcH MaDnEsS

Round 3 is finito. We saw a lot of great songs go but we saw even more greats progress. This project is close to wrapping up and coincidentally we happen to be headed into March. Hmmm, March... Brackets... sounds familiar.

Contest!

Ok, here's the deal, I'll be finishing this thing up all throughout March with probably one update per week. Send me your predictions for the rest of the bracket in any form you like along with your mailing address. I shall organize and score them as I go along and the winner shall receive a (secret) (special) prize! Here's the bracket so far:

http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=143649&tclass=Best%20Songs%20Ever%3F

Good luck bros and brosephines!

Match 3.9

Victor: Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks

Defeated: Under Pressure-Queen and David Bowie

Why did it deserve to be here?

What a fantastic collaboration. It seems like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury were made to sing together. I don’t think I could pick a more perfect pair of artists to work together. It’s a great duet, Mercury and Bowie are both obviously fantastic singers and they play off each other extremely well. Their lyrics are often overlayed on each other and this makes for some very interesting effects. Its got some memorable riffs including the famous Vanilla Ice bit. It’s definitely a vocal song but the parts in the background are technically sound and support the two singers very well.

Why did it lose?

Oh such a dreamy kinks song. It always just makes me a little happier and relaxed. Under Pressure is just a little arena rock. Plus they ripped off Vanilla Ice.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYXKaAzEJrk (check this out if you haven’t already)

Match 3.10

Victor: All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem

Defeated: No Children – The Mountain Goats

Why did it deserve to be here?

There are an awful lot of love songs out there in the world and it’s hard to approach the concept in the new way. Even break-up songs all tend to have the same “I’m so sad” themes. So that’s what really makes No Children something special. It’s not a break-up song since our couple has no intentions of splitting up and its dreary words and mutual hate tell us it’s certainly not a love song. This is more of a staying together in perpetual misery song. It’s a fate much worse than a break-up and the Mountain Goats encapsulate all the feelings of this type of relationship incredibly well in 3 minute song. The spite is fierce “I hope I lie, and tell everyone that you were a good wife.” Our narrator doesn’t want to give his wife the satisfaction of admitting their relationship is a failure. Every positive feeling is a façade but it’s all maintained for appearances sake. The title wraps up the song perfectly. There will be no children in this loveless arrangement.

Why did it lose?

All my friends is more relatable and the music is a bit more complex and interesting. Hard to see no children go though.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRP6egIEABk

Match 3.11

Victor: Gold Soundz - Pavement

Defeated: Hey Ya! - Outkast

Why did it deserve to be here?

I’ve talked a lot about pop songs over this contest and I don’t mean rock-pop, alternative-pop or any other adjective-pop. I’m talking straight off the radio, bubblegum happy, toe-tapping pop music. This is one of the most difficult genres to compose for without selling your soul. Much of the pop music you hear is recycled garbage from the other recycled garbage. Don’t get me wrong, borrowing from other musicians is all well and good, but when the third R&B song about “the club” comes on it’s just a little too much for me.

So in this wasteland of a genre a good song can shine like no other. I spoke about Roam, Real World, and Brimful of Asha really repping their genre and they are truly fantastic pop songs. But in the world of pop music I find that Hey Ya! rules them all. (I’m limiting this to modern pop music here before anyone gets in a huff. Yes, the Beatles are pop music.)

Hey Ya! is indescribably catchy. It’s simply impossible to listen and not move a little bit. The bass is kicking, the drums are popping, Andre is nailing those vocals to the wall. Everything about this song went right. Andre even makes sure to through in a little call and answer for some audience participation “What’s cooler than being cool?!” “ICE COLD.” And who can forget “Shake it like a Polaroid picture.”

Why did it lose?

Oh Gold soundz, you’re so damn good.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw

Match 3.12

Victor: Losing My Religion – R.E.M.

Defeated: Purple Rain - Prince

Why did it deserve to be here?

It’s the power ballad to end all power ballads. It’s a powerful 8 minute performance with killer vocals and awesome guitar solos all emanating from our main man Prince. I always loved that Prince plays his own guitar. So many bands just have Guitar George in the background cranking out perfect notes while the soloist only sings. There’s not too much to say about this song that you don’t already know but it is a classic.

Why did it lose?

Losing my religion has just about everything I want in a song. Honestly purple rain is too long as well, though I can’t say I’d want it to be cut.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtrQK8Zqj-g

Match 3.13

Victor: Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones

Defeated: Disarm – The Smashing Pumpkins

Why did it deserve to be here?

It’s a really good mellow one from the Pumpkins. Corgan has stated that the song is about the shaky relationship between him and his parents as a child. Though I can see how that works with some of the lines I have some difficulty seeing how that relates with a lot of the lyrics. Despite the link between the metaphors and the reality being shaky without knowing the background, you can tell that Billy is passionate with his words and there is a lot of meaning sunk into them.

The guitar sounds much deeper than its simple chord progression lends it to be, this is one of those 4 chord songs. The interesting strum pattern allows Corgan to use this simple progression and make it sound complex. The orchestra in the background definitely helps propel the song and doesn’t come off as overproduced.

Why did it lose?

I had it the other way around as a snap pick. The Stones’ statement about humanity in sympathy is so effective though that I felt compelled to switch it around.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQtLoJlQD6E

Match 3.14

Victor: Greener – Tally Hall

Defeated: Chicago – Sufjan Stevens

Why did it deserve to be here?

What awesome orchestration, usually a song throws violins and cellos underneath the melody to add some layers to the song. But in Chicago, the orchestra plays a central role to melody alongside the vocals. When the horns come in during the center of the song, the whole song comes together and reaches a peak. Sufjan then brings everything down a notch to emphasize the most important lyrics of the song

“if I was crying
in the van, with my friend
it was for freedom
from myself and from the land
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes”

A difficult song to classify, I’d say it fall somewhere under folk-power-ballad. It’s truly something unique and extremely satisfactory for the ears.

Why did it lose?

Greener is such a classic story with a mix of catchiness. Relatable, sad and fun all at the same time.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDRrqcZbdPU

Match 3.15

Victor: The Rat- The Walkmen

Defeated: Cold Days From the Birdhouse – The Twilight Sad

Why did it deserve to be here?

It’s definitely one of the more obscure songs on this list. Frightened Rabbit describe The Twilight Sad as one of their big influences and you can definitely hear it in their songs. I absolutely love the instrumentation of this song. We start out with a repeating out of key piano note. Then the twangy guitars come in with lots of slides. There’s lots of sounds in the background that I can only really characterize as vibrations. I think I hear an accordion in there. Finally our lead singer joins in and I can’t tell you how perfect the Scottish accent is in this song (and album.) If I was a teenage girl I might describe it as “dreamy.”

It’s hard to find meaning in the lyrics, but it definitely about a relationship turning sour. You can hear it in the tone of the voice and in certain lines of the song. “Romantic gesture //With ruined plans” It’s a really fantastic melodic piece.

Why did it lose?

The Rat is intense and powerful. It’s an awesome song.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79pmP4FjnXc

Match 3.16

Victor: Changes – 2pac

Defeated: The Who - Baba O’Riley

Why did it deserve to be here?

They say there’s The Who people and there’s Led Zeppelin people. I have no idea how anyone could be a Led Zeppelin person when The Who is the alternative. I like some regular old rock music now and then as the Zep tends to be but it just doesn’t match The Who.

Baba started its life as part of a rock opera The Who was composing as a follow-up to their record Tommy. The lyrics over top of it are supposed to be sung by the main character of the story to his wife “Sally.” The frantic organ sounds in the background were intitially planned to be the life of mystic “Baba” (hence Baba O’Riley) fed into a synthesizer. When this plan didn’t work out one of the band members simply played this part on the organ.

The song itself is of course breathtaking. It amps you up. It gives you a boost. It plays to your emotions and sets you up like your heading out on a journey (as was the intention in the original opera.) It’s a great composition.

Why did it lose?

2pac’s got it all, lyrics, beats, and a great tune. Fare thee well Who.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2KRpRMSu4g (I had some cool stuff happen playing this song over itself with a 15 second delay, though it does desync eventually at the tempo change)

App Development in Review

I got a blog double feature today. This one is about my recently finished Android app and the next is about my Mirrodin Besieged prerelease. Second one is of course quite skippable for non magic players.

The Background: For my mobile phone programming class we had an app due at the end of the first three weeks of class. It’s an interesting class because the professor doesn’t teach anything (causing me to question why the hell I have to pay for this) and you just learn iphone/android/windows phone 7 app development on your own. Today we presented what we had along with each other group

The App: So often when you’re in the buildings on north you may have wifi connectivity but the phone service usually doesn’t come through. So if you use something like Google Voice you don’t need your phone constantly searching for phone service. It’s just wasting your battery. So our app notices when you’ve connected to wifi networks of your choice and puts your phone into airplane mode with wifi enabled. It’s a good little niche app and it’s pretty close to done, so we may put it up on the marketplace soon.

The Tales:

TALE THE FIRST

After announcing our ideas for mobile apps to the class we were sent off to go form groups. I pair up with a guy who has a decent idea about a battery saving app, mostly just to get into a group quickly. Groups can be two or three people so we consider adding a third. One of the members of a group I was in last semester is milling about us staring into space.

“Hey Dan, do you want to join our group.”

“Yeah ok I guess. You found my weakness, being asked to join a group.”

Uhhh… I’m doing you a favor here. You don’t have to be in my group if you don’t want to be. I don’t really care either way.

Teacher – “has everyone found a group?”

Dan whispering to us – “ehhhhhhhhh” as he wobbles his hand back and forth

Me – “If you don’t want to be in our group now’s your chance.”

He either doesn’t hear me or ignores it. This guys a pretty good programmer so he’ll be good on the team but I just don’t get it. If you don’t want to be in the group then don’t be. I swear my feelings won’t be hurt. Notice, I didn’t seek you out immediately either.

TALE THE SECOND

2 weeks in into app development we had to present what we had so far. Of course being seniors we hadn’t done anything besides set up our programming environment. Here I took matters into my own hands and got to work making a nice little user interface for us to show to the class.

Not too bad for a mock-up if I do so say so myself.

Then our team fell into what I like to think of as “The Dark Week.” No one in the group did anything in our final week due to our senioritis. So it was the last day and the project was so far from completion that I basically had to pull an all-nighter to finish it up. I had good help from the guy who came up with the app (Travis) and zero help from errant group member Dan. Dan has actually contributed no code to our project even now at the end.

For those interested, some of the tech talk. I designed this initial UI and Travis fixed it up as well as figured two big problems. 1. How do we send information from our UI screen to our service running in the background? 2. How do we populate a list of checkboxes from your phones previously saved networks? My code on this final part was basically implementing all the functionality. I made it do all the things it was supposed to do and solved the problems 1. How do we use the info sent from the UI in the backend? 2. How do we switch the phone into airplane mode? 3. How do we implement a service that runs in the background and checks for updates at given intervals of time? It was a good challenge and despite the hell of staying up all night, I enjoyed making it.

TALE THE LAST

So today came and we had to present our final app. It had all the functionality and was ready to go. As team member Dan had done no part of the development we decided he should at least do the talking for our presentation. We got up to the front of the class, Dan was ready to talk, Travis was manning operating the app while Dan spoke and I was just standing there looking like death. Dan began talking

“Hey guys, we’re team Signalz and this is our app.

This is our splash screen. Press start and we move to the main screen of our application. See here you see a list of networks and you can check or uncheck them and then our app will connect to them. From there you can click the button at the bottom to turn on the service and phone will go into airplane mode. When you become unconnected to the internet the phone will turn airplane mode on”

Can you figure out what our app does from that? I sure can’t. After this I had my doubts that Dan even knew what our application does. He made it seem like the main functionality was connecting to wifi networks. I’m still pissed. After I put in all that effort into making the app look good and function well, Dan completely misses the point in the presentation. He didn’t even mention you don’t have to have the app open for it to function. Sweet dude.

In conclusion:

Despite being a decent team member last semester Dan has taken a turn for the abso-fucking-lutely useless. Next project I'm either going to have to make him work or keep him from doing anything, awesome. The app is finished and we may release it to the market soon depending on how much clean-up is actually left to do and how hard it is to upload it. I had fun though and I'm excited for the next app. If you have any suggestions I'm all ears too.

Magic: The Blogging-Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease

As usual, if you don’t care for magic then skip this post. I’m just going to recap the Prerelease tournament.

Deck building:

The initial pack opening was a little different then usual to prevent cheating. I’m unsure why Topps bothered with this since even Get Your Game on doesn’t but whatever. You opened 6 packs (3 Scars of Mirrodin, 3 Mirrodin Besieged) and then wrote down all the cards in the packs. These aren’t the cards you get to keep though. You put these cards into a bag with the list of all the cards and pass it in to the organizer. He then mixed them up and handed them out again. So basically you don’t keep the cards you opened, you cards someone else opened and catalogued. I really disliked this since there’s a certain special feeling that goes with opening a fresh pack and slowly scrolling to the rare in the back. Robbing us of that feeling on Prerelease day seemed kinda shitty.

My pool of cards wasn’t too bad though. I ended up with a G/B infect deck that was quite potent. My all star cards were “Inkmoth Nexus,” “Skinwing,” and “Massacre Wurm” mixed with a bunch of little poison dudes. I stole many of the games by wiping the board with my worm then sticking equipment on a poison dude. Skinwing in particular was awesome at pushing through the last few poison counters. I don’t think I really made any mistakes in my deckbuilding this time.

Match 1:

I don’t remember much about the specifics of this match. He was G/B poison too but his cards just didn’t match up to mine and I played pretty tightly. I won both games fairly quickly due in part to Massacre Wurm giving me massive amounts of card advantage.

Match Record 1-0 Game Record 2-0

Match 2:

My opponent this round was definitely the best I played that day. He was playing an aggressive R/W Metalcraft deck. He generated tons of 1/1 myr tokens and bashed me as fast as he could. Game one I lost, but slowed him down a lot with my infect guys with big toughness. He finished me off with his Mirrian Crusader which really should be an auto win against my deck. I think if hadn’t played that card I could have taken him down. Game 2 I won by slowly gaining card advantage with beneficial blocks. I also wiped the board twice, Once with Creeping Corrosion and once with Massacre Wurm. Both those cards came at very good times for me, though I did do my best to slow roll them. The Creeping Corrosion killing his Wurmcoil Engine tokens and the Massacre Wurm took down his Mirrian Crusader when I needed it to. I finished him off with a 5/5 infecter. After game 2 there were only 3 minutes left in the round. We did our best to play fast but the clock ran out and we were forced to draw. I think I could have beat him and Dan Buck agrees. This draw came back to haunt me.

Match Record 1-0-1 Game Record 2-1-1

Match 3:

I was paired against a 12 year old and I was happy to come into an easy win that round... Oh fuck. Game 1 I beat him easily, he misplays all over the place by making terrible blocks and playing crappy 1/1 dudes. Game 2 gets interesting. He plays his crappy dudes and hits me for about 3 before I get my sweet infecting blockers out. Then he plays 2 “burn the impure” on my guys, killing them and doming me for 6. He then hits me for another 3 or so. I play a giant 5/5 infect dude and stabilize my board. On his turn he draws and immediately plays “Red Sun Zenith”, which is a fireball that shuffles back into the library, to kill my big dude and hits me for 3 again. Ok that sucks, but whatever. I set out more blockers and stabilize again. He draws Red Zenith again and fireballs me for the last few damage. Fuck! So this kid still can’t play for shit but he’s got a kick ass deck against me. Game 3 happens much like Game 2 “Red Sun Zenith you for 5” Draw it again “Red Sun zenith you for the win.” Dumb.

Match Record 1-1-1 Game Record 3-3-1

Match 4:

With my record diminished I face a meatball in my 4^th round. He makes mistakes then tries to take them back. I let him because he’s not going to win anyways. The only time I don’t is when I’m about to win the game and he trying to rearrange his blockers after he declared them already. But he’s a nice enough guy and the matches are decent. I beat him both games fairly easily.

Match Record 2-1-1 Game Record 5-3-1

Match 5:

I’m facing off against poppa magic this round. This is actually my round 3 opponent’s dad. Shit, now I better beat him. His deck is mediocre, he plays some good cards but also some really terrible ones. You can tell he has some trouble figuring out what’s good and what isn’t. He does, however, play much better than junior so I still have to keep it pretty tight. I beat him both games by wiping the board and hitting him with a 5/5 infect. Good shit.

Match Record 3-1-1 Game record 7-3-1

So my odds for top 8 right now are decent. Unfortunately there were a good number of people with a record of 4-1. Only one person with my record can get in but it unfortunately isn’t me. Both my round 2 opponent and my round 3 opponent (nice job kid…) make it into the top 8 so I don’t know how someone with my record had better tiebreakers than me, but sometimes that’s just the way it is. I ask the organizer my place in the standings. Apparently I was 9^th, shit.