I feel like I've got so much done during the past week. I posted the long over due PFL #23, posted 2 new interviews, and yet I've still got things I need to post. Oh well, you can only do so much at a time. The next item I'll be posting is a Song Fight review. They posted a new fight yesterday, so I suggest you go listen to all the songs & vote yourself.
I do plan on doing a Song Fu blog, but I'm not sure what's going on with that right now. I know that Mike Lombardo defeated Dave & Hoover in round 4, but lazy ass Ken hasn't posted an update on the site about WHAT'S NEXT. Not even a congrats to the winner. BTW, congrats to Mr. Lombardo.
Now on to today's videos... There have been a lot of TMA members uploading videos recently, so I figured it was time to throw some on the homepage.
Take Care Of Me Caleb Hines posted this great Jonathan Coulton cover yesterday. It's all kinds of wonderful, with a touch of epic.
Song For Lucy by Jeff MacDougall (original) He wrote this song while waiting for his adopted daughter, Lucy, to come home.
Waiting For The Sun by Nick Goldston (original)
Crimefighter by Kevin Savino-Riker (original)
Waking Up In Vegas by Dylan Galvin (Katy Perry cover)
Meghan Tonjes is a self taught YouTube musician who's definitely on the rise. She started an inspiring Ning community & recently signed a record deal with DFTBA Records.
Mario Kart Love Song My Mario Kart addiction is fairly well known, and I consider this the greatest song ever written. (I is nerd) Enjoy Meghan's cover of this Sam Hart internet classic.
Apologize by Meghan Tonjes & Chris Cendana (One Republic cover)
Bad Romance This Lady Gaga cover is Meghan's most popular video to date.
She'll Make You by Meghan Tonjes
Other Spintown Favorites: 1. The Start - This is Meghan's most viewed original song at the moment.
Mike Lombardo graduated from the Berklee College of Music with a degree in songwriting. He's a Song Fu veteran, and recently signed a record deal with DFTBA Records. He is also the co-founder of Too Much Awesome.
Just Another Day This video features Jason Morris, Raven Zoe & a lot of other TMA members.
Effington Mike covering a Ben Folds song.
Piano Don't Get Chicks Girls are just a pain anyways...he's better off.
Don't Say You Love Me Mike teams up with Ellen Angelico for this M2M cover.
Spintown Favorites: You can listen to Mike's music on Bandcamp for FREE. Here's some of my favorites. If you find something you like, you can buy it & download it.
The last challenge over at Song Fight was titled "Double Take", and State Shirt & Glenn Case had what I thought was far & away the best entry. The votes didn't reflect my opinion, and Doug Funnie got the win. It's funny though, because Maxo actually got the most votes. He was caught cheating (friend flooding), and was disqualified by the administrator. 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.)
Jonathan Mann - Very catchy song that's about a Robot Ninja Zombie Bear who's basically a superhero. The Chuck Norris mention made this song a total WIN!
Minty Handy - Felt like a cartoon theme song...good thing I LOVE cartoon theme songs. Made me think of "Count Duckula"...
Pet Squirrel - The vocal performance was wonderful, and I'll probably listen to this song more then any of the others since I've already caught myself singing along a couple times.
Soap Yourself - This song is about Dr. Franenstien combining 2 different things together to make monsters (Pig Sharks, Lazer Monkeys, Fire Spiders, etc...), until he decides that 4 things would be even more epic. Overall it's a fun & creepy song.
Steve Durand - The story of a dad who can't find the latest new toy his kid wants for Christmas...a Robot Ninja Zombie Bear. Cool take on the title, and well executed.
Others: (Head over to Song Fight to listen to these songs.)
Torrentz - A nerdtastic Nerdcore rap that's fun from start to finish. I almost voted for this, good job.
Deja Vu - Robot Ninja & Zombie Bear fall in love & have little Robot Ninja Zombie Bears.
James Owens - Love the oriental sound, and I was hoping beforehand that a few people would go in this direction.
The Popular Tablists - I wouldn't say this song is good, but it made me laugh countless times. The accents, the bizzare sexual rhymes, and stuff that makes you think, "What the hell are these guys on?" It definately left an impression, so maybe it IS good? In a WTF type of way...
The Weakest Suit - Good idea...but forgettable... Is this a protest to the fight title? If not, what the heck does it have to do with the fight?
Song A Day #440 Jonathan Mann made this video for his entry.
Side Notes: - Overall it was a great round for Song Fight. Going into this round I expected a lot of good songs & a lot of bad ones. I didn't expect much in between with this title, and I got what I expected.
Hopefully this isn't the "final" round of Song Fu 6, but it's the last round involving only the challengers. It's come down to Mike Lombardo vs Leigh & Hoover, but lucky for everyone there were a lot of shadow entries this time. Here's the challenge Ken presented:
"Your task is to write a single tune that is actually comprised of two individual songs - the first half details a problem to be conquered or a battle to be fought, and the second half is a victorious, triumphant resolution. Both of these halves must feel independent of the other, but may contain an element that bridges the two. Your song must run no shorter than 3 minutes."
Final 2:
Dave Leigh & William Hoover (Yesterday Hero - Someday) - I was worried that the length of these songs would be a problem, and that they wouldn't hold my interest. This is a beautiful & moving song about a superhero...didn't feel like it was nearly 6 minutes. (Voted For)
Mike Lombardo (This Song Is Meta (And So Is This Title)) - Despite the Song Fight slam :p it was a very enjoyable song. I don't know if I would have liked it as much if I didn't actually know the people being mentioned (much like some other Song Fu songs). The song about "writing a song" has been done a little too often lately, and that was the deciding factor for me.
Shadow Entries: To listen to the following songs you'll have to go to "A Site Called Fred".
Joe "Covenant" Lamb (New Mombasa - Finish the Fight) - I really need to play Halo at some point. This is the second song I've recently heard about Halo, and I still haven't played it. Of course money is the biggest reason why I haven't so I don't expect to play it anytime soon. Great song Joe, but Edric's final note still rules all. :p
Inverse T. Clown (Manic Depressive) - Good idea, and I like the execution for the most part. The first half is certainly depressing (good thing), but I'd like to have something that connects the 2 halves. With the lack of instrumentation it just feels like the song stops, and it feels like it needs a better transition.
Governing Dynamics (Deconstructive Witticisms - Try) - Liked the guitar work (as usual), but in the end I couldn't get into the song lyrically. I actually couldn't make out the first line of the song either.
Glen Raphael (When The Prozac Kicks In) - This is the first Song Fu entry from Glen that I didn't care for. I liked the second half, but if I would have heard it on the radio, I probably wouldn't have got to the second half before turning the dial. I like the idea for the song, but the first half just couldn't hold my interest.
Denise Hudson (Keys And Lies) - It was hard for me to focus with the overlapping vocals in this song. This is the second time Denise has sung with Joe in this Song Fu. As much as I like them both individually...I'm still not sold on them as a team. I enjoy Joe & Denise vocally...I enjoy Denise's piano A LOT...I like Joe's wit & lyrics... So far this has been like putting my favorite foods in a blender together, and eating the results. Steak, chocolate milk & jello salad are great individually, but the mixture isn't nearly as good as any of the individual ingredients.
Ginyu (Quest For The Fu) - Glad to see some new blood in Song Fu, and it's always good to get shadow entries. Nothing about this entry really stood out for me though, and it didn't meet the challenge for the round...in multiple ways.
Side Notes:
- As great as this Song Fu has been (in terms of the quality of the songs), it'll be another failure if there isn't another round with an actual Master involved.
- I'd like to thank Travis Norris & Mike Lombardo for doing reviews for this Song Fu, and remind people that guest reviews are welcome here at Spintown.
Spintown News: I know it's late, but it's finally here. I actually planned on posting another PFL video tonight, but I rushed this one to completion instead because I was so unhappy with the other one. I'll post the other in the near future, but since it's been such a long time between PFL videos I wanted to post the better of the 2. Even though I'm not happy with my editing of the audio from the various clips, it has the best video quality of all the PFL videos so far. I really went out of my way to hunt down clips without a bunch of watermarks & tags this time as well.
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I couldn't get someone to cover the "PFL Theme Song". So I used the original version....which I own. Maybe someone from TMA or Song Fight will do a cover for the next video.
Ross Durand provided the featured song "Let's Get Bloody". He's a regular over at Song Fight, and you can listen to more of his Song Fight entries by visiting his profile. Big thanks to Ross.
I'd appreciate it if you would rate & comment on the video on YouTube (even if you give it just 1 star). I would also love it if you Dugg this video on Digg: HERE. These videos are what drive most of my traffic, so it really does help when people do those things.
PS: Besides another new PFL video coming soon...I have 2 interviews finished & waiting to upload. I'm just waiting on Sammy Kablam to finish the music. So if you want to see interviews with the 2 people who were recently signed to DFTBA Records...go pester Sammy into finishing the music. :p
Last time I picked my Song Fighter of 2009. Well this time I'm going back in time to the year 2000. 2000 was the first year of Song Fight, and it was a bit different from what it is today. For starters, the original "Fightmaster" Collin Cunningham (AKA Narbotic) kept the fights limited to only his friends. Fights didn't become open to the public until 2001, so there wasn't as many participants. The vote counts from the fights aren't available from this period either. There were only 6 fights in all of 2000, so this is definately the easiest year to recap. For more about Song Fight's history click HERE.
Here's the 3 things I considered when picking the Song Fighter of 2000: - How many songs each person entered in 2000. - How many times each person won. - How many songs from each individual made it onto my Song Fight play list. This factor obviously being the most important.
Graham Porter actually won the very first fight, and the original "Fightmaster" competed in 2000 as well. Even though Nil won the most fights, my Song Fighter Of 2000 is Kissing Contest. Since there were only 6 fights for the entire year, I'm not picking my top 5 songs from Kissing Contest. Instead I'm going to pick my top 5 songs from the entire pool of entries. After that I’ll include a Song Fight 2000 guide.
You can click on the title of the fight to find any of the songs listed for that fight. The songs I liked from each round are listed under each fight. The fight with the most songs entered (5) was “Golfpunk Drives A Cadillac” & "Flood Victim". The one with the fewest (3) was "A B C D Puppies".
Denise Hudson (TMA member) made a video for her song that won round 3 of Song Fu 6. After you watch it, you can listen to the new TMA podcast with Joe "Covenant" Lamb & Sammy Kablam featuring Jules Sherred (of Geeky Pleasures) by clicking HERE.
A new episode of "The Comedic Genius Of Martin & Lewis" was posted HERE. You can get the show notes HERE.
I think it was Caleb Hines who tweeted this out the other day. Whoever it was, I enjoyed this song: Brian Gray - "Staff Meeting".
Devastator Julia Sherred recently made Inverse T. Clown "Geek Of The Week" over on her website Geeky Pleasures. She also made a video for his most recent Song Fu entry.
Got nothing special for the main page today, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on another musical I recently watched.
This movie had more then a few stars in it that I normally enjoy. Unfortunately I found myself fairly bored most of the time during the movie. It definately has a few highlights worth noting & watching, but watch this movie with your thumb on the "fast forward" button.
It stars Dick Powell & Lucille Ball, and is a pretty typical war movie. Has a love story, a show that must go on & it's packed full of patriotism. It also features the likes of Bert Lahr (aka The Cowardly Lion from "The Wizard Of OZ"), Virginia O'Brien (aka Miss Deadpan or Frozen Face), Rags Ragland, June Allyson & Spike Jones. If you pay attention you might catch a glimpse of Robert Blake who was an extra.
I couldn't find a couple of the numbers I wanted to share. "It's Smart To Be People" is the big closing number with basically all the main characters playing some sort of role. I was shocked that Lucille Ball actually did her own singing, it wasn't good...but not bad either. I also wanted to share "I Got Ants In My Pants" performed by Ziggie Talent. Mata & Hari performed what is simply called "Oriental Music" on IMDB. It was an entertaining dance routine, but alas...I couldn't find it either. The 2 numbers I could find are below...
Say That We're Sweethearts Again This was the highlight of the entire movie for me. It's Virginia O'Brien singing a lighthearted, but dark ditty.
Acrobatic Dance Music Yeah the title is stupid, but that's what it's called on IMDB. It's a short dance routine featuring Miriam LaVelle doing some acrobatic tricks.
MOVIE TRIVIA:
- This movie was shown overseas to servicemen before it was released in the United States.
- Daws Butler, the voice actor for Hanna Barbera cartoon characters, patterned the voice of the lion Snagglepuss after Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Butler took Snagglepuss's catchphrase "Heavens to Mergatroid" from Bert Lahr's having said it in the movie Meet the People.
It's time to share my votes for Song Fu 6 round 3. I listened to every song multiple times, and even slept on it before making my final picks. The challenge for this round was:
Write a song that involves a recipe for something.
This recipe can be for anything - not just food. Your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 30 seconds.
My Votes: Right Click "Save As" on the song titles to download a MP3.
Inverse T. Clown (Devastator) - I was really hoping not to vote for this song. I mean if you have the option of doing a Transformers song or a Voltron song...and you pick Transformers...I don't get it. That aside, it's easily in my top 5. The entire song feels like it could be from a Transformers cartoon & the Michael Bay line at the end expresses my feelings towards Mr. Bay as well.
Caleb Hines (Secret Recipe Ninja) - I’m picturing a ninja with a bunch of cool 007 gadgets rummaging through my grandmas cabinets. I’ll vote for this, but only after I warn grandma to hide her recipe for sugar cookies.
Denise Hudson (Duality Cupcake ’Why’) - Your voice gets a little too soft in parts which makes it difficult to hear some lyrics. Overall this is my 2nd favorite song I've heard from you. Great work.
Glen Raphael (Big In Japan) - I love the idea, the music & the performance. Glen was close to getting my vote in rounds 1 & 2...he got it this time.
Governing Dynamics (Broken Boy) - I'll probably remember Song Fu 6 as the Fu that made me a Travis Norris fan. I think I said his round 1 song was his best yet...well not anymore.
Honorable Mentions: To listen to the following songs you'll have to go to "A Site Called Fred". Please listen to all the songs, then vote for yourself.
Spencer Sokol (Wicked One) - This is my favorite Spencer Sokol song to date. I felt the song was missing something though. The hand claps were nice, but maybe drums? Enjoyed the song overall...considered it for a vote.
Godz Poodlz (Godz Poodlz Jamz) - This sort of completes a trilogy of self promoting songs from the Poodlz. I have to say...like most trilogys the 3rd is my least favorite. It's still good, I mean nobody does these type of songs better, but even the funny scats at the end didn't make this as memorable as "A Gift From Godz Poodlz"...for me at least.
Edric Haleen (Robot Monkey 7.2) - The fact that there wasn't piano sort of shocked me to say the least. I can't really sing this...but it is about a robot monkey...so I want to vote for it...
Buffo Yux Dudes (A Recipe For Love) - I loved the whole “Bride Of Frankenstein” idea. This was by far my favorite entry from the Boffo Yux Dudes so far. The short rap & scatting….awesome.
The Rest:
“Buckethatt” Bobby Matheson (White Russian) - Not a bad song, but for some reason I couldn’t get into it. Maybe it's the topic I'm just not that into. It's a funny idea though, just didn't do much for me.
Gorbzilla (My American Dream) - I had a hard time focusing on this song. I kept losing interest I, but I don't know why. Maybe if the vocals were a little louder, or maybe I was just tired & it's a slower song. I'll give it a few more listens in the future to see if I can figure it out, but the music is actually very relaxing.
Ian "2 Shades" Johnson (Friday Night) - I enjoyed Ian's performance, he really tried to sell the song. Not enough to get a vote, but I think Ian put up 3 quality songs in 3 rounds. I didn't like his 2nd round song at first, but it grew on me with more plays. This song did the same thing honestly...even though I don't really relate to the song.
Jutze Schult (Schnitzel Soup And Vodka) - The world would be a better place if everyone would polka a little more often. Personally I'm not against the prohibition of alcohol, so the topic is a tough sell for me.
Kylie Petto (Recipe For Disaster) - Well I'm glad you didn't cover up your voice with crap this time. I like your voice, it's nice to hear in your music. I still wish that you hadn't used that echo effect or whatever it's called though. Sounded like you were singing in the bottom of a wishing well. Vast improvement, but I expect better in the future. Good job though.
Leigh & Hoover (Primordial Soup 'Traditional Recipe') - Beautiful music, awesome vocals and the most relaxing song of the round. Topic didn't really interest me however, and I tend to like peppy upbeat songs the most.
Mike Lombardo (We Don’t Have Any Eggs 'from Man In Kitchen - The Musical') - I'm all for someone else going the theatrical route besides Edric. The song goes from being about not having eggs while cooking, then being about the actual song idea & Ken's challenge & back to the eggs again. Story just didn't interest me...but hey...I voted for you in round 1 & 2. :p
Zer0guy (Recipe For A Bad Man) - Enjoyed the music, and SOME of the vocals. The first 4 lines sounded terrible, then someone else comes in & sounds great. Whenever those terrible vocals come into the song it's hard to listen to, but honestly everything else is wonderful.
Shadow Entries:
Bram Tant (If You Take) - Love the guitar, but the story & vocals didn't really do much for me. A lot of promise, I just think Bram is capable of better.
Joe "Covenant" Lamb (Devil’s Fu Cake) - I was going to say that this was a smart & catchy song with a bunch of cool Song Fu shouts outs. I was going to say that Joe has kicked major ass even though he's not officially in the competition. I was going to say some other nice things as well, but since Joe left a comment on my blog saying I was WRONG about something.....I'm going to say that this is the worst trash I've heard in Song Fu. :p (For you non-TMA members...I'm obviously just messing with Joe.)
Side Notes:
- Biggest disappointment: No Jeff MacDougall this round. Common Lisp & Taryn Miller also skipped this round. I know Paul's family was attacked by tiny chickens who were laying eggs in their heads. So I hope they're all doing well. I don't know what's up with Taryn, but I hope she's doing well. Unfortunately not getting a song in this round pretty much means her Song Fu experience was a complete bust.
- Well good luck to everyone, and here's hoping Ken doesn't screw up the last round...again...
Devastator Julia Sherred made a video for Inverse T. Clown's Song Fu round 3 song.
Big In Japan Glen Raphael uploaded this video for his round 3 song.
Duality Cupcake ("Why") Denise uploaded this video around the time the voting closed for this round.
I accidently deleted a comment by an intern for what I'm guessing is a talent agency. If you still want me to contact you about your artist hit me up on Twitter or YouTube. Links are in the sidebar. -->
Walt Ribeiro uploaded another cover for his For Orchestra project. This time it's an OK Go song. Click HERE to listen to "This Too Shall Pass".
Yesterday I watched "Meet Me In Las Vegas", and I thought I'd post the highlights today. It was a good movie starring Dan Dailey & the beautiful Cyd Charisse. Jim Backus does a good job as a supporting character, and there's a ton of cameos in this movie. I won't bother to list them all, but if you keep your eyes open you're likely to spot people like Peter Lorre, Frank Sinatra & more. The soundtrack for the movie is great, but unfortunately I couldn't find my favorite number "The Gal With The Yaller Shoes". This is definately worth your time if you enjoy musicals.
My Lucky Charm 1 In this clip Cyd Charisse gets tanked, and decides to dance with some chorus girls onstage.
Frankie And Johnny Sammy Davis Jr. sings while Cyd Charisse dances with John Brascia.
I Refuse To Rock And Roll Cara Williams sings & dances a sexy number.
My Lucky Charm Dan Dailey & Mitsuko Sawamura perform a cute number together that will make you say, "AWE".
Rehearsal Ballet This is Cyd's first number in the film.
Months ago I decided that I wanted to listen to every single song that had ever been entered into Song Fight. No big deal, it shouldn’t take too long. Right? WRONG! So far I’ve only managed to listen to all of 2009-2010. I’ve also listened to some random fights from other years, but not many. What I thought I would do during my adventure through the history of Song Fight, is a year-by-year review. I decided to start with 2009 since I had already listened to some of the fights from that year.
So…how do you go about reviewing an entire year? Well I’m not really, it’s too freakin’ hard. What I am doing is picking my favorite Song Fighter from 2009. I decided to see how many songs each person entered in 2009, how many times each person won & how many songs from each individual made it onto my Song Fight play list. After every fight I would usually keep 4-5 songs for my future listening enjoyment. Those are the 3 things that I considered when picking my favorite fighter of 2009.
Here’s a list of who entered the most songs during 2009. (stats may be a little off…I have yet to hire a fact checker)
8 people entered 6 songs, 7 people entered 5 songs, 11 people entered 4 songs, 29 people entered 3 songs, 54 people entered 2 songs & 209 people entered 1 song. In total 340 people/bands/collabs entered a total of 531 songs during 2009.
Here’s a list of who won the most fights during 2009.
Winners: 4 - Todd McHatton 2 - Don't Tell Betsy 2 - Erin K & Tash 2 - MC Milk-Plus 1 - Berkeley Social Scene 1 - The Bourbon Drops 1 - Brad Sucks 1 - Bread Skeletons 1 - Cabin Fever 1 - Chthonic Chthock 1 - Cock 1 - Crank Radio 1 - Durand Durand 1 - DuToVa 1 - Future Boy 1 - the Hinsdale Patent 1 - Hostess Mostess 1 - The Howling Monkeys 1 - Jan Krueger 1 - Jim Tyrrell 1 - Manhattan Glutton 1 - Paco del Stinko 1 - reconsiderate and mr scott 1 - RE:FLEKT 1 - Ross Durand Sings a Generic Song 1 - Scomber 1 - The Semolina Pilchards 1 - Sockpuppet 1 - Stolen Holiday 1 - Torrentz
There were 36 winners from 34 different fights in 2009.
Here’s a list of who wrote the most songs I’m willing to listen to a 2nd time.
86 people had 1 song make it onto my Song Fight playlist.
Of course the list above is the one with the most influence over my decision since I’m picking MY favorite Song Fighter of 2009. So it should come as no shock that Ross Durand is my favorite Song Fighter of 2009. I’ll link to my top 5 Ross Durand songs of 2009 below. After that I’ll include a Song Fight 2009 guide. Which is basically a list of were to find the songs I think are worth your time if you’re looking for new music. I planned on listening to 2008 next, but I think I may go all the way back to 2000 next. Either way, I’ve got some listening to do…
You can click on the title of the fight to find any of the songs listed for that fight. The fight with the most songs entered (55) was “Love Me A Little Bit More” & it also had the most total votes (452).
911 Was An Inside Job: - rossdurand Amsterdam: - joneric+friends - pacodelstinko - stevedurand Back From Juvie: - ca$ham - fordstheaterdisaster - ircbff - joneric - manhattanglutton - stevedurand Back To The Well: - cock - crackmyjaw - hellyeahs - joneric+friends - kingarthur - rossdurand Come Down Where You Ought To Be: - chthonichthock - cliftonleejohnston - doctorworm - humboat - quimby - quimbyslittletrip - toddmchatton Cost Of Living: - berkeleysocialscene - frankbertsch - hinsdalepatent - jeffrobertson - kapitano - kasper - sheail - torrentz - tylerheath Diggin' Out: - howldownthechimney - mcmilkplus - rossdurand - stevedurand Dry Spell: - bangingbetty - ellylane+janglinjims - flvxxvmflorvm - jaybullock - weakestsuit Elegy For Industry: - berkeleysocialscene - electricneedleroom - heine - jankrueger - jimtyrrell - quimby - raisedbywolves - rossdurand False Positive: - berkeleysocialscene - jonericsingsrossdurand - rosssingsagenercisong - stevedurand Fortune Cookie: - dutova - jankrueger - les+jowilliams - suckweasel Framed: - masterhyde - pacodelstinko - stevedurand Frostbite: - berkeleysocialscene - dutova - jeffdesantis - johnnycashpoint - pacodelstinko - rossdurand - tunersunion Green Eleven: - caravanray - chthonicchthock - indiadamjones - luckyspoon - mcmilkplus - melvin I Am A Target: - pacodelstinko - stateshirt I Will Be Acquitted: - jontitterington - kingarthur - shitloadofdolphins Love Me A Little Bit More: - berkshiresocialscene - duranddurand - embersofautumn - hostessmostess - jonathanmann - joneric+transpacificbabblebrigade - maxthecat - melvin - pigpen - quimby - rikgerblick - whitehat Made To Be Played: - cvilleramblings - fortunesfavorites - jimtyrrell - manhattanglutton Monkeys On My Back: - christophercogott - manhattanglutton - rossdurand Nothing Is Everything: - ip - kasper - kingarthur - pigfarmerjr - rossdurand Ring Them Bells: - berkeleysocialscene - boltoph - mcmilkplus - pannacottaarmy - rossdurand She Already Knows: - barelyadequate - christophercogott - donttellbetsy - efemjay - gooeycaramelcentaur - signboy Sold Out: - andrewreist - bax - bigcrouton - boltoph - leaf62 - lml - manhattanglutton - mk+lc Sometimes It's Hard To Keep Yourself Moving: - berkeleysocialscene - crackmyjaw - crankradio - forkbomb - howlingmonkeys - sockpuppet Sorry To Inform You: - balancelost - lordofoats - manhattanglutton Spin The Bottle: - ashkanna - bourbondrops The Proposal: - 1516puzzle - add - bradsucks - frankiebigface - glenncase - johnbenjaminband - kenssuperduperbandnstuff - mojos They Meet: - jamesowens - johnbenjaminband Thinkin' About The Old Days: - dutova - manhattanglutton - pacodelstinko - reconsiderate+mrscott - rossdurand - stevedurand We Keep Them Alive: - berkeleysocialscene - jizzazz530am - mailbox - toddmchatton Welcome Home Frank: - erink+tash - menbah - torrentz - tvskyle - weakestsuit Who Needs Sleep: - icetheman - jonthanmann - pacodelstinko - wages World's Greatest Dad: - pacodelstinko - stevedurand Your New Dress: - efemjay - pacodelstinko
This entire blog is a response to a comment posted on my last Song Fu critique. You can read that blog & Joe's comment about it HERE.
it's missing a point- It's only an opinion- Because for some people, it IS about the votes. Or rather, it’s about the vote being 'fairer'.
Well if it IS about the votes for someone...they are simply in the wrong competition. I'm totally for the votes being 'fairer', but you have to come to grips with the fact that it won't be completely fair as long as the public is allowed to vote. I do understand that the votes are still important though.
It seems to be getting lost that SF is still a 'contest'- with a rather hefty, expensive prize at the end of it. After all, if people are entering, & they don’t *care* about the vote, why not just enter songs as *shadows* & clear space for those who want to actually compete?
Well I would suggest that Ken not have any prize first off, but just because someone doesn't care about the standing & overall vote count, it doesn't mean they don't want their song to be voted on. The votes, even if a little unfair, is still a means of feedback someone may find helpful to becoming a better songwriter.
Y'see, I’ve spoken with a LOT of people engaged in The Fu since SF3, & we all like to say the vote doesn’t matter- but, at the heart of it, I've seen those same people ECSTATIC when their vote's increasing.
Sure, who wouldn't be happy if people showed support of their song? That's only natural, and I'm not saying people can't be happy about getting votes, just that it should be a secondary reason for competing.
The contention that 'forcing a vote' won’t mean more people'll listen to the music is a little disingenuous, because people are ALREADY not listening to the music by coming in, voting once & shutting down. I would even wager without listening to the song of the individual they are voting for
I agree that people are already doing that...you're right. However your solution is to have more votes by people who aren't listening...doesn't make sense. To listen to every song each round is a time consuming task. Just downloading that much on a slow connection takes a little time, but listening to 20 songs is a lot to ask of someone who doesn't really care & is just there to support a friend or someone they're a fan of. If someone doesn't even listen to the song of the person they are coming to support, it doesn't make any sense that forcing them to vote for 4 more people would actually make them listen to 19 strangers.
No more 30+ 1st round entries. Maybe even return the knock out round.
I agree with part of that. Basically I think adding a knockout round is the most fair thing to do as far as deciding who gets into SongFu. Just taking the first 20 to sign up is fair, but doesn't always mean you'll get talent participating, it just means you get the first 20 people to see the link for sign ups get posted. I'm for there being 30-40 people in the 'entry' round (basically everyone who wants in)...wouldn't bother me a bit. But once the competition starts I think it should be the top 20 who actually get in.
You can't say all that above & then use the argument, 'Think about how many viewers Hank & Molly brought to the competition'
Sure you can, there's pros & cons to having people like that in the competition & the pros far out weighs the cons in my opinion. If Hank brings 1,000 new viewers to the competition & only 10% of them listen to all the music....that's still 100 people that were exposed to everyone's music. That's great! The majority who just showed up to support Hank is a reason you need a second voting format to work in tandem with the popular vote. I address the assumption about Hank & Molly's fans only voting for them a little later.
The battle that Sara Parsons & I went through during SF5 was IMMENSE, and thrilling - because the vote was shifting all the time & it looked, to me anyway, that this WAS down to people actually listening to the songs. Because neither Sara nor I have the 1000’s & 1000’s of 'followers' others have.
Ok...first Sara may not be as popular as Hank Green, but she technically does have thousands of fans (2,798 YouTube subs at least). With the voting system it's impossible to say how many of her votes came from her subs, and how many songs they listened to. I'm not knocking Sara, but everyone is always going to have a larger or smaller number of fans then someone else. Where do you draw the line?
Mollys & Hanks -in essence people who make a living by creating music- being included in the Challenger Section makes the point of votes moot.
Hank doesn't make a living with his 'music', he makes a living by vlogging & other things. Sure he has released a CD & sells his music, but it's not how he supports himself, and if you think Molly makes a living with her music you haven't really thought that last sentence through. :p
No matter what anyone says about the vote 'not mattering', NO-ONE likes having their arse handed to them, but especially not when that outcome is a forgone conclusion.
Actually Joe...some people ARE programmed that way. I'm extremely competitive, but I don't care if I lose a basketball game by 20-40 points. I will dive into the stands to save a ball, foul the shit out of someone to save an easy basket, etc...etc...but at the end of the game....I'm just happy to play. I'm very sure I'm not the only person like that. It's more fun to have a close game, but the game itself is what I love.
Everything you say about the taking part, the experience, the honing of talents etc is TRUE. But the VOTE can be just as important. And that’s why it needs to be addressed.
In the end Joe I know the vote can be important, but it shouldn't be "just as important" as other things since the creator & administrator of the competition doesn't even want it to be. Making it more fair is good, but allowing the public to vote will always mean some ignorance & popularity will play a part. Unless you limit to competition to people who only have 100 or less followers on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc... That wouldn't be smart though because then you're not getting exposed to the number of potential new fans you were otherwise. It's also hard to judge were to draw that line at "who's too popular" as well. I mean Taryn jumped up a lot in this current Fu just by posting a link on Facebook. She's not exactly popular, and her song wasn't exactly...good.
I hated watching songs which 'to my mind' were AWFUL (Peep fight anyone?) flying ahead of the pack due to single votes. It makes a mockery of the entire thing.
Even though I loved 3 of the 4 songs Molly entered, I can't argue that "Peep Fight" was any good. :p I can point out some interesting stats from Song Fu 3 (the one Molly & Hank entered) & Song Fu 5 (the one you think was more fair).
I looked up what the average number of votes cast by an individual voter for each of those contests in rounds 1-3 (not including Master votes). In Song Fu 3 the average person cast 2.13 votes. In Song Fu 5 the average person cast 2.02 votes. So the assumption that the people Hank & Molly bring to the competition are less likely to listen to ALL the songs or cast more single votes....doesn't seem to be the case. It's obviously more likely that one of their fans will for them, but that's a different point.
Last Words: #joehasspoken but he is wrong. :p Kidding of course. I love Joe, and I love getting comments with so much thought put into them. Joe cares for Song Fu as much as anyone, and even though I disagree with him on many points, we both clearly think improvements should be made to the voting system. I just don't think allowing a public vote by itself will EVER be fair, no matter what you do. I think you have to live with it being unfair (while doing the best you can to make it fair), and use a 2nd system in conjunction as I mentioned in my previous blog post. #spinhasspoken
Spintown News: Bram Tant (TMA member) uploaded a new demo of his original song Never Been Closer.
Walt Ribeiro's latest cover is a-ha's "Take On Me". Click it --> For Orchestra #32
Giant Jesus Made Of Hummus This song by Drexel isn't really my kind of music. I'm posting this video because I drive by that big statue of Jesus all the time. We call it "Touchdown Jesus".
The last challenge over at Song Fight was titled "Please Stop", and honestly I couldn't pick a favorite song. It was a toss up between Ross Durand & Christopher Cogott for me at least. Architects Of Desire ended up getting the win though. They produced a good song, and I had them ranked 5th. 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.)
State Shirt & Glenn Case - Enjoyed the song, and thought it was far better then the rest of the tracks this round. Only thing I didn't care for was the layering of vocals that started around 2:44 on the track.
Dale Chase - Normally this would probably be boardline for a vote...but this fight was so weak it's my second favorite.
Rycehat - Not the greatest, but I did lol at a couple times. I wouldn't mind playing this at my next highschool reunion.
Flvxxvm Florvm - The stuttering made me laugh, but I didn't like the change in tempo.
Song A Day #421 Jonathan Mann once again made his entry part of his "Song A Day" project.
Side Notes: I really enjoyed the last fight, but this one left me extremely disappointed.
I could have posted a Song Fight review for the new fight that just started yesterday...I could have posted that response to Joe "Covenant" Lamb that I said I would do...but once again I'm phoning in lazy. I had this already made up for such a time. It's just some quick thoughts on a movie I recently watched. You can actually watch this entire movie on YouTube at the moment.
"Thoroughly Modern Millie" (1967) is a wonderfully light & fun musical comedy, that involves some farily dark subject matter. (kidnapping & selling women as sex slaves) To me it felt like the movie could have ended on the building ledge after Millie comes to her senses about who she should marry. But the dark sub plot isn't resolved yet, and the movie basically feels like it has 2 endings. If you would like to watch the movie trailer click HERE. The first video is the opening number performed by Julie Andrews.
Stumbling If you're only familiar with Mary Tyler Moore because of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", then you probably didn't know she could sing & dance. If you're like me, and have every episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" on DVD, this comes as no shock. In this clip she dances with Julie Andrews to get the elevator to work.
The Tapioca This song was sung by James Fox (dubbed by Jimmy Bryant) and danced by him, Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore & a cast of other dancers. Unfortunately this is only half the routine, to watch the second half click HERE.
Jazz Baby I'm a big Carol Channing fan. Most people thought she was strange & funny...and she was. But I thought the voice was sexy.
Joe "Covenant" Lamb (TMA member) is a talented singer songwriter who recently won Masters Of Song Fu #6. For this interview Joe wanted members of Too Much Awesome to be able to ask him questions. I ended up with about 80 minutes of video after all the questions were answered. So if you don't see your question in one of these 3 videos, I'll be posting the "extra" video in the next day or 2. Sorry I couldn't include everything, but there was just so much that it wasn't possible. (blame Edric :p )
Today's The Day This song was written by Inverse T. Clown (TMA member), and a lot of people have been covering the song. This is Joe's version...
Spintown Favorites Joe doesn't have a ton of videos uploaded yet (with him actually in them), so I thought I'd post my favorite song from each of his albums on BandCamp.
Message Redacted This is from Joe's first YouTube channel, which you can find HERE. Jonathan Coulton played in Glasgow back in 2008. Joe not only got to go to the show, but shared the stage with JoCo during "Chiron Beta Prime".
