Song Fight Review: Looking At The Sea

The last challenge over at Song Fight was titled "Susan", and I predicted that Ross Durand would win. I had deetak as my 2nd pick, and that's who ended up winning. 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.)

Titus - You need help in the chorus, like another singer. But I enjoyed the beat, the flow, the rhymes, and the story. Best rap I've heard here in months. Come back...often...this place needs you.

heine - I liked the sound effects...waves, wind & birds...all sounded great in the mix. The vocals weren't great, but good enough not to distract me too much. I thought the chorus could have been stronger, it just wasn't all that catchy for me. Overall I thought this was a very good entry though, and think it could be improved even more with a few tweaks.

Jeff DeSantis - I usually get excited to see this name in a fight, and this entry will do nothing to change that. It was very pretty & relaxing, but it feels like it's about 30 seconds long...and it IS a short track. I hope you plan on doing more with it at some point, because this really starts to pull the listener in...

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

Kris Miner - Not really my type of music, but the longer I listened the more I got into it. Don't think it'll ever be my thing, but I'll give you a "well done" in this case.

John Kloberdanz - This ain't bad, it's just not grabbin' me either. It's just catchy enough to make me want to hear more from you in future fights, but not enough to get a vote yet...so try again next time. #Close #VeryClose

Sockpuppet - HA, I love songs that I can fit into a single tweet on Twitter. Maybe you didn't have time to produce something good, but at least you didn't waste much of my time...I thank you.

backward binoculars - I liked the concept you came up with for a story, but the music was so bland that I lost interest in less than 10 seconds.

Bad Boys at Bat Mitzvahs - I'm guessing this was written last second on a drive home from work or something. It was very brief, but I did chuckle a little, and with something so short & simple that's about all you can hope for.

DJ Venetian Blinds - You were the biggest waste of my time this round...congrats. Don't be afraid to use words...maybe form a sentence or 2 even.

On Moonlight Bay (1951)

On Moonlight Bay is one of Doris Day's biggest hits. It was even popular enough to get a sequel (By The Light Of The Silvery Moon '1953'), which I actually saw before this film. Gordon MacRae & Doris have chemistry...as usual, and the supporting cast is perfect. I enjoyed the sequel, but as with most movies, the original was a little better. Unfortunately I couldn't find many videos that I could embed from this film. So I thought I would do something a little different, and feature covers of the songs from the film or other recordings. I did find a montage of all the musical numbers from the film (ALL SONGS), but embedding was disabled. My favorite number was probably Love Ya by Doris Day & Jack Smith. Tell Me if you like me posting alternative versions of the songs, or clips right from the film. This time I had no choice really, but in the future I could do either.

"The Turkey Trot was a dance made popular in the early 1900s. The Turkey Trot was done to fast ragtime music. It lost favor to the Foxtrot in 1914. The basic step consisted of four hopping steps sideways with the feet well apart, first on one leg, then the other with a characteristic rise on the ball of the foot, followed by a drop upon the heel. The dance was embellished with scissor-like flicks of the feet and fast trotting actions with abrupt stops. Irene and Vernon Castle raised its popularity by dancing the Turkey Trot in the Broadway show The Sunshine Girl. There were news reports of dancers being fined because "their Turkey Trots were interpreted by the courts as disorderly conduct." In another instance, fifteen working girls were fired from their jobs with the Philadelphia song publisher Curtis Publishing when they were caught doing the turkey trot; even though the dancing took place during their lunch break." - YouTube video description

Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag by Lew Dite


Cuddle Up A Little Closer by Andrew Wheaton


Cuddle Up A Little Closer by The Fabulous Heftones

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles (1919) by Albert Campbell & Irving Gillette

Oh, You Beautiful Doll by Bunk Johnson (1946)

Frankensong (IT'S ALIVE!)

Aside from running SpinTunes yall know I also follow other songwriting competitions. Well Charlie McCarron (one of the SpinTunes competitors) has started a new project that I'll be following. It's more of a collaborative project than competitive, but sounds interesting. I'll try to explain, but you can get a better idea of what's going on by visiting the website Charlie created for the contest (Frankensong).

Charlie created 5 teams of songwriters consisting of 4-5 people. Each of the teams will be given the same beginning bare bones track to work with. During the first week of the contest 1 member of each team is allowed to create a track to layer onto the beginning track. During the second week someone else on the team gets to create a layer. In the end everyone on the team will have added a layer to the track. The final stage is mixing, and then a listening party on U-Stream. Since it's not really about competing there won't be any prizes other than a couple titles. The most important one would seem to be "Dr. Frankenstein Award" for the best overall track (Charlie's favorite).

Charlie picked Team Captains & Recording Order randomly on YouTube. The teams were created AutoDraft style (for those into fantasy sports, you know what that means) by lists the captains made up.

I made a Frankensong Twitter List of everyone in the contest...or at least everyone I could find on Twitter that's in the contest. If you're one of the competitors, and I missed you...hit me up with your @TwitterHandle.

I'll be reviewing all the songs when this project is over & picking my favorite entry. Just for fun I thought I'd attempt to guess which would be my favorite before the contest even starts. After reading the individual bios & looking at the teams it's hard to say who will get the Spintown Seal Of Approval. I'm only familiar with 1 person on Team 2 & nobody on Team 5...so those are kinda toss ups. I think my pick for favorite to win will be Team 3. They have the SpinTunes #1 champion & Chris Cogott who was a beast in SpinTunes #2. Along with a strong captain & 2 other talented individuals...that's going to be my pick. I'll list the teams below, but I suggest you go to the Frankensong website to learn more.

Team 1:
1.Bryce Jensen - Recording due Jan. 16th
2.Graham Porter - Recording due Jan. 23rd
3.Bram Tant - Recording due Jan. 30th
4.Joe Covenant - Recording due Feb. 6th
5.Denise Hudson - Recording due Feb. 13th (Captain)

Team 2:
1.Ryan Ruff Smith - Recording due Jan. 16th
2.Matt Schubbe - Recording due Jan. 23rd
3.Robert Carmichael - Recording due Jan. 30th
4.Stripes on Stripes - Recording due Feb. 6th
5.Reese Mankenberg - Recording due Feb. 13th (Captain)

Team 3:
1.Chris Cogott - Recording due Jan. 16th
2.Kevin Savino-Riker - Recording due Jan. 23rd
3.Gorbzilla - Recording due Jan. 30th
4.Jason P. Schumacher - Recording due Feb. 6th
5.The Boffo Yux Dudes - Recording due Feb. 13th (Captain)

Team 4:
1.Edric Haleen - Recording due Jan. 16th (Captain)
2.JoAnn Abbott - Recording due Jan. 23rd
3.The Offhand Band - Recording due Jan. 30th
4.Gweebol - Recording due Feb. 6th

Team 5:
1.Brett Thompson - Recording due Jan. 16th (Captain)
2.Matt Mahler - Recording due Jan. 23rd
3.Nick Syman - Recording due Jan. 30th
4.Andy Price - Recording due Feb. 6th