Is This How You Demo?

I don’t know exactly what a “demo” is supposed to be, I’ve seen context that it’s a thing you send to labels or what have you as a demonstration, and I’ve also seen it as sort of a “working” version of a track, usually without all the instruments yet figured out. This is the latter.

My band made an album of demo songs. The idea here is that lyrics-wise, these songs were actually written beforehand. The guitars are still pretty much all improv, but the idea was to record it, then all of us have to listen to it for a month or so and actually learn and practice the songs so that we can later record a better version.

Importantly, even in demo form, these are easily the best songs we’ve recorded yet. Working around pre-written lyrics makes a *huge* difference. The question is, will the guitarists actually be interested in learning the songs, adding to them, perfecting them, etc? I certainly hope so. I’d love it if these became “real” songs and we released them as a “real” album. (lol I can tell just from the number of plays on purevolume that they haven’t even listened to these songs since I released them on like Friday).

You can here the “I Just Wanna Folk” demos here, though I have FLACs if you prefer: http://www.purevolume.com/TrialoftheGoldenWitch/albums/I+Just+Wanna+Folk

A New Album Ranking System I Dreamed Up

Scoring albums is hard as fuck, so I finally dreamed up a great system for it. It was inspired by director Howard Hawks’ saying that a good film just needed “three good scenes and no bad scenes.” It translates pretty well to albums and songs.

10 - 3 great songs, no bad songs; 4 great songs, 1 bad song; 5+ great songs, 2+ bad songs

9 - 2 great songs, no bad songs; 3 great songs, 1 bad song; 4 great songs, 2+ bad songs

8 - 1 great song, no bad songs; 2 great songs, 1 bad song; 3 great songs, 2+ bad songs

7 - No bad songs; 1 great song, one bad song; 2 great songs, 2+ bad songs

6 - 1 bad song, no great songs; 1 great song, 2+ bad songs

5 - 2 bad songs, no great songs

4 - 3 bad songs, no great songs

3 - 4 bad songs, no great songs

2 - 5+ bad songs, no great songs (at least 1 good song)

1 - All bad songs.

Intros/Outros not counted, definitions flexible.

—

I applied this system to the Coheed and Cambria discography and got the results I wanted. The trouble therein is that what guided my hand in determining if a song was ‘good’ or ‘great’ may have depended on the results I wanted (which, I guess, makes it more accurate? This is the eternal conundrum of scoring.)

As an afterthought, I applied it so that places where I felt like I cheated to make something ‘great’ would constitute a .5 deduction.

The Second Stage Turbine Blade

Intro - nil
Time Consumer - Good
Devil in Jersey City - Great (cheating?)
Everything Evil - Good
Delirium Trigger - Great
Hearshot Kid Disaster - Good
33 - Good
Junesong Provision - Good
Neverender - Good
God Send Conspirator - Good
Elf Tower New Mexico - Great

Score: 9.5

In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

Intro - nil
In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 - Great
Cuts Marked In the March Of Men - Good
Three Evils (Embodied In Love And Shadow) - Great
The Crowing - Good
Blood Red Summer - Good
The Velourium Camper I: Faint of Hearts - Good
The Velourium Camper II: Backend of Forever - Bad
The Velourium Camper III: Al the Killer - Good
A Favor House Atlantic - Good
The Light & The Glass - Good
2113 - Good

Score: 8

From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness

Keeping the Blade - nil
Always & Never - nil
Welcome Home - Great
Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial) - Good
Crossing the Frame - Bad
Apollo I: The Writing Writer - Good
Once Upon Your Dead Body - Good
Wake Up - Bad
The Suffering - Good
The Lying Lies & Dirty Secrets Of Miss Erica Court - Bad
Mather May I  - Bad
The Willing Well I: Fuel For the Feeding End - Good
The Willing Well II: Fear Through the Eyes of Madness - Good
The Willing Will III: Apollo II: The Telling Truth - Good
The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut - Great

Score: 7

No World for Tomorrow

The Reaping - nil
No World for Tomorrow - Great
The Hound (Of Blood and Rank) - Good
Feathers - Bad
The Running Free - Good
Mother superior - Good
Gravemakers and Gunslingers - Great
Justice In Murder - Good
The End Complete II: Radio Bye Bye - Good
The End Complete III: The End Complete - Great
The End complete IV: The Road and the Damned - Good
The End Complete V: On the Brink - Great

Score: 10

Year of the Blak Rainbow

One - nil
The Broken - Good
Guns of Summer - Great
Here We Are Juggernaut - Great
Far - Great (cheating?)
This Shattered Symphony - Bad
World of Lines - Good
Made Out of Nothing - Bad
Pearl of the Stars - Good
In the Flame of Error - Good
When Skeletons Live - Good
The Black Rainbow - Good

Score: 7.5