Spintown's Christmas 2010 #24

With this being the last day of December, Christmas at Spintown is officially over after this blog post. No more Christmas videos until December 1st, 2011....have a happy New Years!

Super Ugly
Why isn't Leslie Hall the mascot of the Ugly Sweater Store?


Snow Path Prank
This is the only non-music related video I featured in this years Christmas blogs. I laughed so hard I couldn't help but feature it.


The Christmas Song by Dan Wright (Mel Torme cover)


Wonderful Christmas Time by Dante Cimadamore (Paul McCartney cover)

Lyrical Venus & Duality

Awhile back 2 SpinTuners (Joe "Covenant" Lamb & Denise Hudson) guest hosted the Lyrical Venus Radio Hour. Heather Miller (another SpinTuner) is the normal host, and does a good job of promoting new female singer/songwriters. This show features other SpinTuners such as Zarni Dewit, Rebecca Brickley & Sara Parsons. You can listen to the show below, and here's a link to the PLAYLIST.

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #23

Happy Christmas (War Is Over) by AJ Rafael & Jenny Suk (John Lennon cover)


The Christmas Song by Scott Bradlee (Nat King Cole cover)


Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Danielle Ate The Sandwich (Judy Garland cover)

O Holy Night by Taylor Wagner

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #22

Eminem Gift Rapper Song!
Only a few more days of December left, are you guys sick of Christmas videos yet?


O Holy Night by AJ Rafael & Cathy Nguyen


Silent Night by Anhayla Stanley & Daneyelle Boynes


Jingle Bells by Matt Hutchison

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #21

A Christmas Song For My Girlfriend
Freedom is the perfect gift to give yourself.


All I Want For Christmas by MattyB, Julia Sheer & Tyler Ward (Mariah Carey cover)


Bed Intruder Christmas Carol
Meme's are invading Christmas...


A Baby Changes Everything by Sabrina Carpenter (Faith Hill cover)

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #20

Remember, Christmas at Spintown doesn't end until Jan. 1st.

Merry Christmas Everyone by Matt Hutchison, Kate McGill, Rick C, Ana Free, Craig Bevan, nicolascage09, CheekTV & Hannah Trigwell


Made Of Snow by Chris Commisso


It Came Upon A Midnight Clear by JB Craipeau & Danny Fong


All I Want For Christmas Is You (Christmas Lights)
One of Nick Pitera's friends programmed one of his songs to a Christmas light show.

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #19

I Believe by Kermit The Frog & Tiffany Thornton


God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by AJ Rafael, Cathy Nguyen, Wesley Magpantay, Roland Garcia & Rolando A. Garcia Jr.


Jingle My BaIIs
Peter Chao has his own version of "Jingle Bells".


Christmas Kitty Song
Steve Cash knows what Christmas on the internet is really about...cats of course. Want more cats? --> "Kittens In My Christmas Tree"

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #18

All I Got: A Picture Song
Nice Peter gives you a brand new Picture Song for Christmas.


All I Want For Christmas Is You by Kevin Lien (Mariah Carey cover)


Kickity Christmas Time
Ryan & Evan Kasprzak were 2 of my favorite dancers on "So You Think You Can Dance", and they've teamed up with others for a Christmas rap.


Star Wars Christmas
I'm not a huge Star Wars geek, but I thought this was pretty well done.

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #17

Rudolph (You Don't Have To Put On The Red Light)
I rather enjoyed this mashup.

North Point's iBand
"Christmas music using borrowed iPhones and iPads at North Point Community Church." - YouTube video description


What's This by Julia Nunes & Ian Axel (from "The Nightmare Before Christmas")

Drunk On Christmas
Jimmy Fallon sings one of his Christmas songs with John Rich.

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #16

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
I decided to make an E-Card including some of my favorite YouTubers. You can head over to Jib Jab to CREATE YOUR OWN VIDEO with your friends & family.

Happy Christmas by Lisa Lavie featuring Lyne Sullivan, Stacy Dudero, Misha Moore, Heidi Jutras, Blair Perkins, Orlando Dixon, Airto Edmundo, Emmanuelle Auger, Laura Broad, Anhayla Stanley, David Choi, Lois Mahalia, J Rice, Maria Zouroudis, Bruce & Daniel (John Lennon cover)


A Very Ke$ha Christmas
Kesha is a stupid name to begin with, it's even worse when spelled with an "$".


This Christmas by DeStorm & Kina Grannis (Donny Hathaway cover)
They were nice enough to offer their cover as a FREE DOWNLOAD.

YouTube Treasure Hunt #19

Sometimes finding 7 new people to feature each month can be difficult. This month every time I sat down to search YouTube for new talent 99% of the stuff was crap. But I dug & dug...then dug some more, and I found a some individuals I think have some promise. The first person on the list is exactly the type of person I tend to look for. Someone who shows potential in multiple areas, and still doesn't have much of a following. I hope I can get her at least 1 new subscriber (well 2, because I'm subbing her now), and I hope she continues sharing her talents via YouTube.

I normally focus on finding lesser known YouTubers each month, but this month I did so more than usual even. Nobody has more than 500 subs in today's blog.

Unsaid by Jen O'Sullivan (70 subs)

lionwell9 & @lionwell
Zombie Penguin Tango by Lost Alamos: Brian Daniell, Vicki Bynum & Scott Bennett (6 subs)

LostAlamosMusic
You by Ricardo Roth (426 subs)

RitchPina
It's Not Me by Natalie Edward (10 subs)

NatalieEdwardMusic & @natalieedward
Far Away by Alexi (103 subs)

Lexi005
Anne by Jennifer Berning (388 subs)
This channel is actually for 2 girls. I suggest you watch Jennifer cover "Fuck You" by Garfunkel & Oates, with her YouTube partner Maria Knoll.

MaryJen93 & @MaryJen93
Piccolini by Rebecca Jane Woodul (6 subs)
It's funny, but I almost featured Rebecca's song "Bloom" last month. And this month, I randomly stumble onto this song.

cheesecake77777777b

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #15

Dick The Balls
Stephanie Holmes will be getting some coal in her stocking if Santa hears all these dirty words, but I love a dirty girl.


I Saw Three Rogues
"Three smelly Night Elf rogues attempt to kill the Orgrimmar auctioneers, but Ox & gang see them coming. What will they do about it?" - YouTube video description


Jingle Bell Rock by Craig Bevan (Bobby Helms cover)


The Little Drum And Bass Boy by Andrew Huang

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #14

I have some good news to report before I get to today's Christmas videos. I started a new Twitter account (which makes 3 total). For those that follow the songwriting contest, you know I have a @SpinTunes account to give people updates about that. My main account was @Spintown and I was using it for personal tweets & for posting blog updates. Well I just started a @SpinBlogs account, which will only be used to post blog updates. So now if you want to follow my personal account without getting blog spam, you can. Or if you just want blog updates, and don't give a shit about my personal tweets...you can have that as well. Either way, you now have a few options in terms of following me & the blog on Twitter. I'll be changing the links in the sidebar later tonight. Now on to the Christmas videos...

Epic Santa Battle
Santa has some bells...


Silent Night by Venetian Princess


Christmas In Jail by Ernie Halter


Christmas Eve by Danna Richards

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #13

Reindeer by Ein Astronaut, Again Polliwog, Andrew Huang, Arno Ceres, Bailey Sutton, c-van, Carlo Castellano, Chad Dowdell, Christian Farmer, David LeDuc, Dave Rollans, Eric Hullquist, Faireset, Igor Bianconi, Jackie Lopez, Joe Silke, John Gray, Julien Neel, Lauramarie Marek, Levi Warnos, Marty Scanlon, Matt Hutchison, Peru T. Gnar, Natalie St. Clair, Matthew Cody, Nabeel, Tim Harnaschmacher, Thom, Raven Zoe, Rob Michael, Seph Bentos & Twintapes


The First Noel by David Ramos


Joy To The World by Brent Morgan


Christmas Pussy Song
This is a total WTF video...

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #12

Christmas With Gwar
Christmas caroling would actually be FUN with these guys.

Deck The Halls by Julien Neel, Julien Neel & Julien Neel


Dancing Santa
This obviously isn't the real Santa, the real Santa doesn't visit Michigan.

A Christmas Trololo
It's a bit strange to see internet memes taking over Christmas...

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #11

Christmas, Christmas by Gerald Ko, Jackie Kim & Dennis Christians


Home Alone Remix


Angels We Have Heard On High by David Ramos


Rudolph The Regular Reindeer
The song just isn't the same without the red nose.

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #10

Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy
Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly pretend to be David Bowie & Bing Crosby.

Christmas With You by Nice Peter & Dante Cimadamore


Last Christmas by AJ Rafael & Tori Kelly (Wham! cover)


Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer by Matt Hutchison

Pain For Laughs #24

Yeah, it's been awhile, but I finally made a new one. I've actually got another one done, but I'm still not sure if I want to upload it. I got a message on Twitter the other day from a PFL fan. He was wanting me to sell him a signed DVD of the complete collection. Apparently it was to be a Christmas gift for his brother who is also a big PFL fan. I wouldn't feel right profiting from these videos, but I did promise to give the guy a shout out in the video. So merry Christmas PFL fans, and especially to @costlow.

I would really appreciate people spreading the word about the YouTube copy of this video. Especially to sites like GorillaMask & Phun.

These videos generally do pretty well in terms of views over time. I have 3 others on YouTube at the moment, and one of them has well over 300,000 views. The other 2 are around 70,000 views. I also have some on Metacafe, and 2 of them on that site have well over 100,000 views, with 6 others in the 10,000-70,000 range. If you are interested in covering my theme song, or writting a featured track for a video, it will probably be heard by a large number of people. So contact me if you're interested.

You can also find this video on: Metacafe, Daily Motion, Viddler, Veoh, Seven Load, MySpace, LiveVideo, College Humor & Break.

(Update: This video was featured on Phun, With Leather & made it to #62 on YouTube's weekly music chart. The YouTube version was viewed over 102,000 times within it's firt week of being posted.)

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #9

Wrapped Up In You
Never heard of this girl until the other day on Twitter. She's a talented young lady.


Christmas Carols You Only Sort Of Know
Nobody knows them cause nobody likes them.


Fairytale Of New York by Matt Hutchison & Kate McGill (The Pogues cover)


Silent Night by Esmee Denters

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #8

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Jason Chen, Gerald Ko, Arden Cho & Ken Salomon (Judy Garland cover)


Fairytale Of New York by Alexa Goddard & Brett Domino (The Pogues cover)


All I Want For Christmas Is You by Nick Pitera (Mariah Carey cover)


Last Christmas by Drew Taborr (Wham! cover)

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #7

Santa Is A Gangsta
Nice Peter revisited one of his old holiday songs.


Christmas Food Court Flash Mob
At the 1:06 mark...doesn't that guy look like Ethan from "Lost"?


This Christmas You'll Always Be My Baby by AJ Rafael, Renee Thomas, Jessica Sanchez, Nick Pitera, Jumoke, Chris Cendana, Meghan Tonjes, Laura Song, Jon McSingee & SamDaSinga (Donny Hathaway & Mariah Carey covers)


Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy
Jack Black & Jason Segel...animated...and rockin' Christmas.

Yo Mama

Today's blog doesn't really have anything to do with music, but it's my blog & I typically do as I please here. :p I've long been a fan of the "Ask A Ninja" videos, and I often bait the ninja in the comments section. Well he finally decided to lay the smack down, but at least he hasn't killed me...yet.

3 Years Of Monsters, Aliens & Geeks

Len Peralta put together a montage of his work & life online from the past 3 years. Some of you may know I've hired Len to make various Flip Faces & 1 Monster By Mail. In total I think I've hired him over 20 times, and I've never had reason to complain about his work. If you're looking for a Christmas gift for someone, a personalized avatar or video would probably surprise them.


You can see my Flip Face around the 3:38 mark in the video, and my Monster By Mail around the 4:19 mark. My dad, mom, sister, brother in-law, niece & nephew are all in the video (I got Flip Faces for my family last year). And you can also see others I purchased Flips for:

"Buckethat" Bobby Matheson
Sammy Kablam
Dustin McLean
Mike "Spiff" Booth
Frank Bell
Kris Mark
Joe "Covenant" Lamb
Sarah LaMantia
Jeff MacDougall
Nathan Wills
Mike Lombardo
Meghan Tonjes
Andy Rehfeldt
Kata Hay
Sasha Young
Sophie Merry

The Guy Who Paints The Lines On The Road

I was watching one of Jonathan Mann's videos the other day (as I often do), and he has been doing fan requests while on a trip. So I made a silly request, just the first thing that randomly popped into my head. I didn't expect Jonathan to use my stupid idea, but he did, and he turned the stupid idea into a good song. Jonathan writes a Song A Day on YouTube, go subscribe to his channel.

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #6

O Holy Night by Matt Mulholland


Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Joseph Vincent


Silent Night by The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets


Unforgotten by Dr. Lindyke

Song Fight Review: Look At The Sky

The last challenge over at Song Fight was titled "Future On The Road", and I predicted that Todd McHatton would win. As usual I was right (just kidding), and he did pull off the victory. There's a whole new batch of songs over at Song Fight, so I suggest you go pick your favorite songs for the current round. My picks are listed below:

Voted For:
(Right Click "Save As" on the artist's name for a MP3 of their entry.)

Something Happy - I liked it. I expected to smile when listening to this (based on your name), and I did. So I'm not going to say anything bad about it, just well done.

Ajl Anderson - I really dug the music. I didn't care for the lyrics or story telling. I just got bored, and since it's almost 6 minutes long, I suggest cutting it down a bit. The vocal performance was my favorite of this round. You've got a lot of tools in your bag, but I just didn't dig the story...the looooong story.

Scott Gesser - I think this has promise...despite me not being into the story. The hook is catchy, but the recording just sucks. I don't really know what you're capable of, but I look at this being a solid very rough demo.

Others:
(Head over to Song Fight to listen to these songs.)

backward binoculars - Very simple music, and you have a soothing voice. WTF moment just after the 2 minute mark? Some of those sound effects just aren't pleasant to listen to. At one point I was reminded of what it was like having a dial up internet connection. I didn't really get the story being told, but as most people find out, I'm the type of person who likes the story to be crystal clear.

Fritzl Family Staycation - Next...

The Dinnertime Boys - Honestly that was very purty. The first 20 seconds I just sat back with my eyes closed relaxing. Then I opened them & saw my player said the song was about 1/3 of the way finished...just when I was expecting...well...lyrics? I know instrumentals are allowed here at Song Fight, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. At least make it longer (TWSS) you tease.

Baker - What the heck is going on in the beginning & from 2:18-2:41? Whatever it is, stop it. The second time it stops very abruptly, which just makes it seem even more weird & out of place. The vocals weren't great, but good enough. My big problem is that there seems to be a lot going on in this song, yet none of them seem to go together.

shamanizer - Why?

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #5

30 Christmas Songs In 60 Seconds


Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Julia Sheer & Tyler Ward


Three Pairs Of Long Johns On by Bryant Oden

All I Want For Christmas Is To Spend All Of My Christmases With You by Bryant Oden

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #4

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas by Matt Hutchinson


Santa Claus Is Coming To Town by AJ Rafael & Andrew Garcia


The Christmas Song by Kris Mark


Blue Christmas by Rhema Marvanne

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #3

Have you ever heard of the Cup Size Choir?

Do They Know It's Christmas Time?
There's a lot of YouTubers involved in this collab.


Christmas Manatee
Maybe I'd like Christmas more, if the Christmas Manatee would skip my house once in awhile.


Baby It's Cold Outside
Katrina Marie & Chris Commisso team up to sing a holiday favorite of mine.


Hello Mistletoe (Goodbye Cold Snow)
Brett Domino made a Christmas music video.

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #2

In Bed With Santa by Growing Robots


Breaking Up For The Holidays
Seems like a good idea to me.


Sled Intruder Song by Brent Morgan featuring Justin Pearson


All I Want For Christmas Is You by Rhema Marvanne (Mariah Carey cover)

Spintown's Christmas 2010 #1

It's now December, and Christmas time has officially started here at Spintown. Expect a new post pretty much every day of this month. If I don't have a review or something else to post, I'll be posting Christmas related videos.

Christmas Tonight
I've never heard of Dave Barnes before, but this is a nice little Christmas song. Honestly the only reason I found it is because Jennifer Love Hewitt is in the video. Gotta love Love.


Deck The Halls
Nothing says Christmas is near like a new Pomplamoose VideoSong.


Slayer Christmas Lights Spectacular
I love these videos...as long as they don't give MY neighbors any ideas...

Jingle Bell Boobs
This doesn't really need any farther explaining...

SpinTunes #2 Round 4 Review

There is a NEW SpinTunes champion! The judges may have reviewed this round, but it's the previously eliminated competitors who voted for the new champion. Since once again everyone met the challenge, this is mostly just, "What would Travis want to listen to more in the future." You can also read reviews from the 5 other judges (and a special guest judge) over on the SpinTunes page of the blog.

Going into this challenge I thought the game people used to take their character from would play a major role in deciding victory. You can write a good song about any game probably, but picking a game your audience was unfamiliar with wouldn't bring up all the nostalgic feelings that could help win votes. For instance picking Pac-Man is a pretty safe bet because everyone knows Pac-Man. If you decide to write about a character from Dues Ex...well it's a great game with a lot of story possibilities...but a lot of your audience will not have any experience with it. I expected most people to play it safe by picking characters like Mario, Zelda, Sonic, Mega Man, etc... There were a couple people who dared to be a little different, and I wonder if that hurt them at all.

Mitchell Adam Johnson - (In Another Castle) - I expected lots of Mario this round, but I guess everyone figured it was too obvious...everyone but Mitchell at least. Obvious or not, I really enjoyed the direction this took. Everyone knows how useless the Princess seems to be in the regular Mario series, and it's a bit of a joke how often she gets captured, so why not explain WHY this keeps happening? It's cute, funny, and light; but it's what is SHOULD be. Great work with the game sound effects.

Chris Cogott (In Bright Falls) - During the LP I mentioned that this reminded me of The Munsters. That's not a bad thing, I love that theme song. This is another game I had never played though, and after looking it up on good old Wikipedia it seems like a very dark game. The music behind this song while very cool & fun...don't seem to fit the mood of the story being told. I could be wrong...again I'm just going by what Wikipedia told me. Everything else about it is great, and I have no other complaints.

Zarni De Wet (The Bleeding Effect) - Beautiful song that has the best line of the entire round in it.

"If I gotta shed some blood to save some
Then I'll save some"

How can that line not stand out? I had a little trouble with this song, mostly because I hadn't played the game before. (not Zarni's fault) I had heard of it...watched a trailer at one point, and I read the long summary that Zarni included on BandCamp. However that's just not a replacement for actually playing the game, and really learning about the character. This makes it really hard to judge compared to a game you may have experience with. I can't really complain about the song itself at all...it's beautiful, and if I had the money I'd buy the game. So well done.

PS: It kinda sucks having the more than 60 seconds of dead air at the end of the song. But I know you sent in the wrong file, and the deadline past before you could send the correct one. I'll upload the updated file sometime tonight. I don't hold it against the song...one of my favorite Song Fu songs did the same thing. *looks at Denise*

Rebecca Brickley (Where I Am) - Interesting character choice. I know of the game & what it's about, even if I haven't played it. I think I've seen a few episodes of the cartoon as well, but I think you're the first person I know who liked the game. The song just seemed...rough to me. Sometimes the lyrics don't seem to flow, and a word was dropped that shouldn't have been. (fun) Maybe you meant to leave that off, but it bugged me. It's not a bad song, and

"So let’s play hard to get
Follow my silhouette
And catch me if you can"

was honestly VERY catchy. Just felt like it needed a bit more work.

SHADOWS:
Charlie McCarron (The Pac-Man Duet) - Short & sweet. Fails to meet the time requirement, but as I've said in the past, I don't care when it comes to shadows. The last line Charlie & Nicole seem to be out of sync, but the ending was pretty much perfect.

Mark Humble (I'm Q*Bert, Babe) - It's a shame you didn't sign up for SpinTunes from the start, because this is great. Very relating song, and the sound effects from the game were used extremely well. I played Q*Bert a little as a kid, but I didn't get the 'Shoe*bert' reference? Just wondering what that is?

Brian Gray (Hard To Get) - You made me look up Greek mythology...and a couple other references, but I forgive you. :p This is probably my favorite song of the round. The lyrics were clever, the song fun & bouncy, and I can't help but smile while listening. Definitely a new take on the DK & Mario relationship. Loved it.

Boffo Yux Dudes (Floating Away) - You did a nice job of putting the listener into that ship. The background vocals made me feel like I was floating out in the middle of nowhere, and I felt sort of helpless at times. This would have been hard for me to judge in competition because I think you did achieve what you wanted, but in the end it's not the type of song I typically listen to. Well done in terms of stuffing my fat ass into that tiny ship though.

JoAnn Abbott (Go For The Eyes) - This is another tough one for me to judge/review. I think it's the best vocal recording I've heard from JoAnn, and Caleb did a fine job helping out with the music. It's a really nice tune, but it's just words to me. I've never played the game, and after reading a quick wiki article about the game I'm still in the dark about MOST of this. So unless I go buy the game & sit & play it, it's not going to make much sense to me. That isn't going to happen, so this probably won't get played by me much in the future...as I said...it's just gibberish put to a pretty tune. I'm sure fans of the game will like it though.

Boffo Yux Dudes (One Level Down) - Like your previous shadow the music in this one does a great job of putting the listener in the game. The way the music continues to speed up throughout the song really makes me a bit frantic...much like how the game can. The music also gets louder as the song goes along, and that works to a degree. I think it's a great idea, but you start off so low that I can't pick up the first 2 lines. Bump it up a little to start, and it's fine though. It's another time requirement fail, but who cares.

David Ritter (Pitfall!) - This is a really pretty & sleepy tune. Strikes me a bit odd for a game about "Pitfall!". You describe a lot of exciting things, but the music isn't trying to get me excited. So like I said, the overall picture you give me is a bit odd.

Boffo Yux Dudes (Elf Shot The Food) - This is one of the games I always wanted to own, but never have. I rented the hell out of it though. At first listen during the LP, I didn't care for this song...but of course I don't really pay a lot of attention to the music at the LP. (one bad thing about running the LP) But when I could actually give it my full attention I laughed a lot. The characters talking in the background, the in game voice, and everything together just works. Like I know Chris Cogott has been doing...I find myself saying, "The Elf Shot The Food" a lot lately.

Caleb Hines (The Writing On The Wall) - Like JoAnn's shadow it's another game I've not played & I don't really 'get' it. (I've been hearing cake jokes forever & I still don't know why. :p ) That's just the problem with picking a more current game. They take longer to play, and less people will be able to be in on the story. Writing about a 25 cent game is the safe route, but it doesn't mean this is bad. Just means I can't understand it without a lot of research or buying the game. (Less helpful or informative review EVAR!)

Governing Dynamics (One Four One 'Roach') - This will give the previous review a run for the title... Yeah, it's another game I don't have experience with. The chorus wasn't all that catchy to me, but I liked the delivery of the curse word. :p (Don't know why I even bother reviewing some of these...sorry these reviews suck.)

Inverse T. Clown (I'm Tops) - I didn’t care for the vocal performance at all, but I know you recorded this without working headphones...so you get a pass. I loved the story, and the fact you went with a lesser known character from a game. The music is something I could see being on a classic game. There's some classic themes from the 8-16 bit era that I can listen to all day. This could slide right into that category had it been on a game. Very well done.

She's Working Her Way Through College (1952)

In She's Working Her Way Through College, Virginia Mayo plays a burlesque dancer who is trying to earn enough money to go to college. On what happens to be her last night as a dancer, she runs into Ronald Reagan, who plays her old high school teacher who is currently a college professor. Virginia ends up attending the same college her former teacher is currently employed by, and even rents a room from him & his wife.

This movie is centered around the jealousy of Ronald, his wife, and another female student who sees her man stray in favor of Virginia. As with a lot of musicals the whole group is involved with putting on a school musical. Add a little blackmail, a few song & dance routines, a happy ending, and you have a musical remake of "The Male Animal".

It was no masterpiece, but overall it was an enjoyable 90 minute flick. I couldn't really find much of the film on YouTube. I really wanted to share the number "Am I In Love?" performed by Gene Nelson. He was pretty amazing in the film overall, and that number showed some incredible athleticism. If you catch it on TV, the movie is worth watching.

Original Trailer
Since I couldn't find many clips, hopefully this will give you a better picture of what the film is like.

I'll Be Loving You
Gene Nelson & Virginia Mayo make a good team. (Bonnie Lou Williams dubbed Mayo's voice)

Song Fight Review: Future On The Road

The last challenge over at Song Fight was titled "After Hours", and I predicted that Ross Durand would win. Well I was right, and Ross did add yet another Song Fight victory to his collection. There's a whole new batch of songs over at Song Fight, so I suggest you go pick your favorite songs for the current round. My picks are listed below:

Voted For:
(Right Click "Save As" on the artist's name for a MP3 of their entry.)

Todd McHatton - It's funny that you entered this fight, it was about a week ago that Glen Phillips brought you up in a discussion over in ArtiFiction. As for the song; it boarders between catchy & annoying. I swear I've listened multiple times on multiple days, and sometimes it falls into one catagory & sometimes the other. It definitely feels like the song is driving the listener...that may be the thing that strikes me as annoying at times.

Rycehat - Did you just write a Back To The Future related song? Intereting take on the challenge. Unfortunately this song ends before I wanted it to. Just felt like there was more story that could have been told.

Architects Of Desire - Mood music...good mood music, but still mood music. It's so long & slow that any story you might be telling doesn't hold my attention past the 2 minute mark. Sounds pretty, I'm happy to fall asleep to this anytime. :p

Berkeley Social Scene - When the chorus starts at 1:20 it gets difficult to pick up the vocals. Musically BSS is always interesting, even when I dislike the entry. Not being able to pick up chunks of the lyrics is a deal breaker with me though.

Others:
(Head over to Song Fight to listen to these songs.)

Bad Boys At Bat Mitzvahs - Whatever you did to the vocals actually startled me at first. Later it just became annoying. I could have good things to say about this with a new vocal track, but as is, it's not something I would listen to a 2nd time.

Monotone Max and His Long Band Name - Why the heck is this even entered? I can't see how it relates to the prompt at all. Sorry, but I considered this a waste of my time.

The Semolina Pilchards - Musicially it's mellow & interesting, but lyrically felt weak. If I don't really pay attention I don't pick up the lyrics.

Two Girls And A Sailor (1944)

So...lets see how long I can put off the next Song Fight review. :p Just kidding, I did some of it already. I just haven't finished yet, and I threw this post together the other night as I was watching the film. So it was either post this or nothing today.

"Two Girls And A Sailor" is the best movie EVER! Ok, not really, but it was darn good for what it was. During the war years (WW2...it's sad I have to clarify that), you could expect to see a new movie come out every month that basically followed the same formula. Create a very thin story line (usually connected to Broadway or Vaudeville), with lots of excuses to include musical numbers (and cameos), and have happy endings for EVERYONE! (not those kind of happy endings...you sick-o) It's like Hollywood was trying to package unicorns, kittens, rainbows & everything else feel-goodie into a 2 hour period. Taking peoples minds of the problems of the real world, and bringing them as much sheer joy as possible.

This film doesn't do anything outstanding, it follows the same recipe mentioned above. It just does everything a little bit better than most. June Allyson & Gloria DeHaven play sisters who grow up on the stage. June, being the older sister, always looks out for her sister especially when it comes to men. This film is about the sisters falling for the same man (Van Johnson). (No worries, the runner up gets Tom Drake.) Unbeknownst to both sisters the man they fall for is a millionaire who sends them lots of expensive gifts. Nothing all that original...so no need for me to continue describing the story line.

What you should know is that the number of A-List cameos is pretty awesome. Ben Blue, Lena Horne, Lee & Lyn Wilde, Xavier Cugat, Harry James & many more all contribute music or dance numbers. I couldn't find video of the Virginia O'Brien number, but she is amazing...as usual. They apparently deleted a scene with Buster Keaton in it (WHY!), and Ava Gardner has an uncredited appearance. (I totally missed it when watching the movie though) Jimmy Durante plays a supporting role in the film, and he does a few of his standards. I don't care who you are, you have to smile when watching Jimmy.

On to the clips!
(I couldn't find half the clips I wanted to embed...sorry.)

My Mother Told Me
Gloria DeHaven being sexy...and doing it well.

Concerto For Index Finger
One of the best bits of the movie is when Jose Iturbi is arguing with Albert Coates about conducting Gracie Allen.

The Young Man With A Horn
June Allyson sings & dances with Arthur Walsh, while Harry James supplies the music.

YouTube Treasure Hunt #18

The YouTube Treasure Hunt is something I had been doing on the "Songs Of The Day" page of the blog. But I've decided to start posting these monthly blogs on the main page of the site. If you're unfamiliar with this project, this is what I do a few times each month to decide who I'll feature.

1. Search for "Original Song" in the YouTube search bar.
2. Search options set as: Videos, Relevance, Today & Music.
3. I will look through the first 7 pages of results only.
4. Anyone who sits down in front of a camera & sings an original song could be featured in the "YouTube Treasure Hunt". I do try to find lesser known YouTubers with around 100 subscribers or less, but that part is flexible as you'll see.
5. I can feature older videos from people I stumble across & related videos.
6. Unlimited searches allowed.

The following are my favorite original songs that I stumbled onto while sifting through all the crap on YouTube during the past weeks. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the new talent & check out their personal channels.

Just Like Her by Lindsay Jacobs (3 subs)

lindsayjacobsmusic & @lindsayjacobs
"Good Bye" & "Man Song" by Kersten Capra (10 subs)

KerstenCapraMusic
(featured video is actually on a third parties channel)
Stronger Than The Sickness by Danna Richards (9,129 subs)

DannaRichards & @mynine2five
(This is not the first time I've featured Danna, I've stumbled onto her randomly a few times. Each time I've done so I've enjoyed her video more than the previous time. I finally broke down & subbed. She's like a female Jonathan Mann, writing a song every day.)
Hey Love by Michael Carreon (11,652 subs)

mcarreon89 & @michaelcarreon
Stay Tonight by Mike Finkelstein (4 subs)

MrMikeFink
Cupid by Autumn Andersen (453 subs)

tumnusLOVE & @autumnandersen
Doormat by Robert Borden (2,548 subs)

RobertBordenMusic & @RobertGBorden

YouCube

This website made me smile & annoyed the heck out of me. YouCube is a website that allows you to share 6 YouTube videos on what is basically a photocube. It's a neat idea, but the site is buggy. It takes awhile to load, and it took me 3 tries just to save mine. At one point the whole site went down, so hopefully it's working again now? If it doesn't play my cube, you can find it in the archieves titled as "Make 6" by Travis.

If it's not working, you can kill some time with the other 3 updates I posted today, and then come back & try again.

This Is Me (Medley)

I thought Charlie McDonnell was pretty creative in promoting his new album.

SpinTunes #2 Round 3 Review

Everyone met the challenge this round, and nobody was DQed. I won't be taking the challenge into consideration much when ranking songs this time. This is mostly just, "What would Travis want to listen to more in the future." You can also read reviews from the 5 other judges (and a special guest judge) over on the SpinTunes page of the blog. The round 3 eliminations were also announced.

Zarni DeWet (Eric) - I like this because it's about a subject I'm really interested in, it's performed beautifully, and it's something I didn't expect. It got the biggest emotional reaction from me this round, and it was on my MP3 after just 1 listen.
Challenge: Met

Inverse T. Clown (I Have A Leap) - Before I even get to the song, I should mention this is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Even with the fictionalization being ok, I didn't expect this. One could argue it doesn't meet the challenge because Sam is a popular figure in media history...cultural history is history after all. But in Sam's world, he is unknown...so you can argue both sides. This song makes me want to get out my season 1 DVD set, and start watching all the episodes from the beginning. I just hope that all the judges were fans of the show, because if not there are other good songs that will probably leap this in the rankings. The ending was perfect btw.
Challenge: Met...creatively...

Steve Durand (Cuban Missile Mambo) - This is the best thing since "Mambo No. 5". :p Ok, so that's not a GREAT song, but I can still remember that cheesy 1 hit wonder over a decade later. Being memorable & standing out is a hard to do...but you do it often. Looks like Dean Martin's "Mambo Italiano" isn't the only mambo I'll be listening to in the future. I'll just pretend I sing like Dean & not Steve. :p
Challenge: Met

Charlie McCarron (Queen Of Heart) - Wow, Charlie has impressed the shit out of me the last 2 rounds. This got one of the most emotional responses from me in this round. White guilt for the win?! Charlie's story telling seems to have improved a lot from ST1 to ST2. I see him as a real threat to win if he makes it into round 4.
Challenge: Met

Ross Durand (Ivan Vaughan) - I wonder how many times Ivan Vaughan got laid telling girls how he introduced John & Paul? This seemed like it was coming from a guy just hanging out at a bar telling stories to a bartender. I'm not a Beatles fan, but I enjoyed learning this bit of history. Good idea, well executed.
Challenge: Met

Gweebol (She Said, As She Handed Him The Telephone) - I know little about Gweebol, but after 3 rounds of competition I know the girl can sing. This song...has moved up & down in my rankings like a bouncing ball. I find myself singing "So you can take this train to Philadelphia" often, but I honestly don't think I've made up my mind about this song yet (and I've listed 10+ times easy). So I'm sticking it right in the middle. It's fun to sing, and I enjoyed the organ a lot.

Side Note: I wanna hear you & Edric duet "Anything You Can Do".
Challenge: Met

Chris Cogott (Final Flight) - For the first few seconds I enjoyed that pickin' sound...but then it just gets way too busy. Eventually it calms down, and it's a pretty rockin' song. Can't really complain about anything else. With the opening, and it just being a tough round, it stays middle of the back.
Challenge: Met

Governing Dynamics (Los Alamos) - I enjoyed this a lot, even though I'm guessing we have very different opinions about Little Boy & Fat Man. Whether it's for the greater good or not, I can definitely understand how someone would be conflicted about being part of something like that. Your song does a good job of reflecting just some of the emotions I'm sure people on that project had to deal with. My favorite lines were:

"I guess when you wake a sleeping giant
It's no surprise that he looks for a club"

Challenge: Met

Mitchell Adam Johnson (Pictures Of Love) - Another song about the Beatles that I actually learned something from. It also kind of sounded like a Beatles song. I'm finding it hard to move this up real high, but I honestly can't find anything bad to say. It's a good song, just not my thing...I did mention I'm not a Beatles fan.
Challenge: Met

Rebecca Brickley (Oh Mercy) - I wish the remix had been turned in before the deadline, because that would have jumped you up on my list a lot (at least 3 spots maybe more). You can still hear a quality song in the original mix, but production does count with me, and it is a bit distracting at times. You probably have the best chorus of all the songs in this round. Don't know what to complain about since you fixed all my complaints in the new mix.
Challenge: Met

Edric Haleen (I Was There) - It's singable...I just don't want to sing it. Too slow for my tastes. The big issue I have with the song is the performance. Edric is a great performer, but him doing both parts keeps putting a silly picture in my mind. I'm completely fine up until "MAN 2" starts, and then I'm picturing Edric in blackface. I was actually reminded of a Sophie Merry video (Solo Duet). It's a serious song meant to get an emotional reaction, and I wasn't getting it because this stupid image in my head. Song still wouldn't have ranked really high with me (no fun to sing), but that image hurt his standing.
Challenge: Met...twice

Ryan Ruff Smith (The Driver 'Dallas, 1963') - I expected a JFK song, but this kinda surprised me. I liked the static & radio transmissions being played with the music (but you could cut a few seconds off the end). For me this had a lot of good parts, but 2 didn't seem to fit together. The music (& performance) seemed a little too carefree for the subject matter. I'm sure you knew what you were doing & it has a purpose for being that way...but I didn't 'get it'. That's nothing new though, people often have to beat me over the head with something before I 'get it'. One reason I love it when people post Song Bio's. I don't always read them, but there's been a lot of times when I will read one to clarify a question I had about the song.
Challenge: Met

SHADOWS:

Duality (Columbia) - Great song, probably would have been in my top 4 if it wasn't a shadow. I was hoping someone who do a song about the space race, Challenger or maybe the rover landers. Congrats on a moving song that gave me the space theme song I was hoping for. This lyrical style is a lot of fun for me as well.
Challenge: Met

David Ritter (Portal Of Doom) - You totally would have got the nerd vote if this wasn't a shadow. Loved the guitar, and the performance was pretty great. Lyrically I didn't care for a few lines that seemed just thrown in, but overall this is my new favorite David Ritter song.
Challenge: Met

Duality (Historical Verity) - I normally check the lyrics on each song, but when I got to this I just said "screw it". Aside from me not being able to read some of the lyrics, this song was great. It was catchy & used humor to meet the challenge perfectly.
Challenge: Met

JoAnn Abbott (Candle In The Dark) - I like the idea & Caleb did a great job helping with the instrumentation. Here's my problem, I've listened to soooo much kids music (old & new) that it usually drives me nuts. This isn't bad, but my dislike for the type of music makes this not fun for me. That's not your fault, so don't be discouraged. Sounds like you hit the mic at the 47 sec mark, might wanna clean that up in another mix. Good work, but this just isn't for me.
Challenge: Met

Duality (St. Andrews) - Someone is being held...about to be burned? Don't know who or why. Witches were burned...but I don't know if that's it. I'm used to not understanding Denise, and if this was a regular entry I would probably have asked her or found out what it's about for sure. Since it's a shadow, and there were no notes attached I'll just go without knowing for now. I liked Denise's performance...just wish I understood it. But I am someone you have to spoon feed lyrics to.
Challenge: I don't know...think so...

Common Lisp (Sherman's Lament) - This fails to meet part of the challenge, but I don't really care since it's a shadow. It's an great idea, and I enjoyed the song a lot. Some of the audio clips from the show worked well, while others just annoyed me. (didn't like the one at 0:32) Liked Joe & Denise singing together (didn't expect that), and this brought up some fond memories from childhood. Ended up being a sad song, but I felt happy after listening.
Challenge: Not Met (major historical even fail)

Duality (Triangle) - I didn't know what the heck this was about & how it met the challenge. Dave mentioned a couple times to me that it was about Amelia Earhart? I don't see that, and the notes you provided just baffled me even more. The good thing about submitting 4 songs & working on a 5th with someone else is that I've already said something nice about your work at some point. I'm not going to find anything nice for this one. Sorry. BTW it really is amazing that you both turned in 4 tracks.
Challenge: Not Met

Subjects I expected people to write about...but they didn't:
1. 911
2. Pearl Harbor
3. D-Day
4. Christopher Columbus "discovering" America
5. Great Depression
6. Jackie Robinson (or some other historic MLB moment)
7. Release of the Atari 2600
(Yes these are all U.S. related events...deal with it.)