Yo P&J, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but ILX had the greatest 2009 poll of all time! All time! (2009 ILX Trax Poll Results: TOP TEN TODAY)

this list is still perfect, i voted for 'no intention' but 'stillness is the move' was the first song i loved off of the album and obviously the most ear-friendly to the general population as there's no dave longstreth in it. shame i have class at 2 30, each new placing unfolding brings us nearer and nearer to impending doom of 'my girls' at #1, it's such a nail-biter.

i'm pretty sure they're singing perfectly well from a technical pov. who are you guys to know, anyways?

Dan knows.

I don't get what you mean by "tuning not very good" Hi Dere. The song has an unusual and complex melodic contour, and to sing that melody in unisom has got to be tough, (even moreso the close harmonies). I think the vocals overall are amazing on this. what little bit of pitch variance there is enhances this imo.

I'm kinda o_O that THIS is what all the 09 DP hype was about, but it still seems like a pretty good tune. Shrill yelping at the end doesn't argue its case very well, tho.

someone needs to get that bitch an autotuner amirite

guys i think the thing about dan and singing is that he's picking up on stuff that the rest of us are not even really hearing so best just to let it go

haha i'm so glad dan is backing me up here, all the press about DPs this year has tried to portray their singer as a mariah-esque virtuoso and it's just like UH NO, she is YELPING OUT OF TUNE

unfair. I don't like this song and didn't understand all the hype it received, but I do think the vocals are good. true, she's not mariah-esque, but for that she should be thankful.

uh oh

the ululating/melisma thing kinda annoys me even when people do it well or are more widely perceived as having done it well. a bit like scat.

#6 plz!

haha okay ppl

First off, this isn't THAT unusual or complex to me. Then again, I'm a professional chorister who has sung a shit-tone of twelve-tone music by Britten, Pinkham and Tavener.

Secondly, if you are basing so many important rest points on notes in the scale that aren't part of the foundational chord, if you sing them flat (which happens a LOT in the first two lines; hell, she starts the song on a minor 3rd which is a note in the chord and is still slightly under), you're going to fuck up the musical impact the song is supposed to have and make life hell for anyone trying to harmonize with you (the vocal lines don't actually lock into each other until they hit the word "highway"; the upper voice is sharp on "get a job" and the lower voice is slightly flat, keeping the chord they're going for out of tune). The don't really pull things together until the bridge and the top voice is still slightly off.

If you're going to do shit like this, your intonation needs to be in sync with the people you're singing with; it isn't as bad if you all go flat or sharp together, but when one person is riding sharp and the other is riding flat, you're fucked. Also note that I don't think anyone is singing wrong notes here; they are not singing the notes they're on the way they need to in order for the chords to be in tune.

"shit-tone"

haha oops, paging Freud (altho I do actually dig Brittenand Tavener, who's really more minimalist, a lot)

btw thanx for that explanation of what's happening on the verses, it always sounds a little wonky to me--like the girls were just below their range or something

thanks for the clarification, Dan! I didn't realize you were thinking about this on such an expert level.

DanP, no offense, but like isn't your eval of that song's vox (which on first listen, is balls ftktah) kinda like some yngwie type critiquing a cobain wannabe at guitar center?

that video is way out of tune visually

thing abt dan and singing is that all his rules for what is "good" or "right" seem kindof irrelevant to me, like just bc someone is a "technically" better singer doesnt mean i want to hear them, so everytime he complains abt stuff like tuning i'm like "i rilly dont care"

xxp that would be reasonable if Kurt man tried to tell Yngwie man that Cobain-style guitar technique represented the form's pinnacle of versatility, wouldn't it?

can we change the board description to "shit-tone" plz

I think those girls are more talented than a Cobain wannabe at Guitar Center, and if you're equating my singing capability to Yngwie Malmsteen's guitar-playing ability I am never going to sing for you so that you continue thinking I'm that ridiculously talented!

Dan's contributions to singing/vocalist conversation are like Grant on Mythbusters telling the audience the nuts and bolts of something while Tory and Kari are fucking around setting things on fire.

"yngwie type" :P

aw

it sounds like the singers are not technically good enough to succeed at what it sounds like they're trying to succeed at. but maybe they don't care and they like the glitches, which might make them super clever but i'd rather hear joanna newsom than that.

so to be closer to your analogy, if the Cobain type is bashing his way through Ygnwie-esque music, I don't think it's out of line for the Yngwie-type to comment on how it is supposed to go

xp: ugh son

(I mean, I'm not going to give vocal pointers on how to sing "Rise" by PiL in tune, for example.)

supposed

i'd rather hear joanna newsom than that

I'd rather hear cats fuckin than joanna newsom.

unless they're hepcats.

still holding out that Cats Fuckin will make the top 5 here

I don't think I've ever heard Joanna Newsom

Maybe it's participatory discrepancy.

those weren't cats in the dirty projectors song?

xxp

ugh the song isn't nearly as tedious as dan's x's and o's-style crit would lead you to believe.

ha for a minute i was wondering if all our voter intimidating in the other thread would prevent "my girls" from showing up. still not likely, though "stillness" >>> "my girls"

xp what plax and and SS said

I was going to OTM Dan before the big post OTMed itself. I love the sly frosty guitar line, the strings+Dave Longstreth hugging an alpaca or just rotating on the mountain thinking about things, but the singing isn't smooth enough to gel w/the rest. Talent is empty&I don't care about it, but their singing here feels like more of an unhappy accident than design.

man i was going to record the bit of a tune i remember for help with track i.d. but now i am too terrified of hi dere

i wanna here hi dere's reaction to joanna newsom

I don't think I've ever heard Joanna Newsom

Consider yourself lucky.

you guys

YOU GUYS

Joanna Newsom is fucking hilarious

<3 <3 <3

like i think its not really going too far to say that their voices match the concept which is "warped, distended rnb stitched back together out of broken indie rock"

like ur not supposed to be comparing the vocals to solange

which song r u listenin 2

ha for a minute i was wondering if all our voter intimidating in the other thread would prevent "my girls" from showing up. still not likely, though "stillness" >>> "my girls"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ce/Wire01.jpg

I was gonna vote for "My Girls," but then I saw this guy across the room and changed my story

I just put her name into Youtube and clicked on the first thing that came up, which was a song called "Sprout and the Bean"

holy hell

YES THAT IS THE ONE I WANTED YOU TO HEAR

so happy