SIGN-UP FOR THE NEXT EDITION OF SONG FU WILL BEGIN ON MONDAY, MAY 4th, 2009
We here at Quick Stop Entertainment are true lovers of music, in all its forms. We’re also quite keen on the spirit of competition, and of spurring creativity through said competition.
To that end, we launched a brand new form of creative combat here at the Stop – Masters of Song Fu.
In this age of manufactured and painfully earnest talent contests, we’ve decided to instead shine a light on the quirky, quixotic underworld of musicians that don’t get nearly the attention they deserve.
Ah, but I did mention that there was a competition involved…
We invited 28 challengers to pick up the thrown-down gauntlet (You know, some spares as well). 26 Responded in time.
Like a songwriting version of Iron Chef, these 26 competitors are presented with a very specific songwriting challenge. They’ll be given one week to complete their songs – however they see fit, within the parameters set forth – after which time the entries will be uploaded to Quick Stop to be voted on by you, the readers.
In past editions of Song Fu, we’ve used these votes to eliminate Challengers as we’ve progressed from Challenge to Challenge. For this cycle, however, we’ve decided that all of the Challengers will be able to compete in every Challenge, and the Challenger with the most cumulative votes after the 3 Challenges will be the one that takes on the Master in the Final Round. So what was the first Challenge?
In light of all the doom and gloom of recent months, as financial markets crashed and winter closed in, we’re going to kick things off with a rather straightforward challenge. You can interpret this challenge however you’d like – how you do so will give people a sense of just what your songwriting personality and style is…
Your first challenge is to WRITE A HAPPY SONG.
That’s it. The only other directive is that your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 45 seconds.
After voting on Round 1, our masters and Challengers were then given their second Challenge…
Write a song containing *exactly* 10 unique words (this includes words such as a, and, the, etc.). You can repeat the words you choose as few or as many times as you want, but the sum total of the unique words can not be less than or more than 10.. You can write on any topic and in any style. Your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 15 seconds.
Here’s a word cloud look at what everyone chose:
After voting on Round 2, our masters and Challengers were then given their third Challenge…
For your third challenge, you have to write a song with the title “It All Makes Sense At The End”. You can interpret what song would be given that title in any way you see fit. Your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 45 seconds.
Well, you voted on the Round 3 Challenge HERE. Your votes determined the one Master and the one Challenger who would battle head-to-head – Paul & Storm vs Molly Lewis – in the final challenge…
I call this one FRANKENSONG. For this fourth and final challenge, you must craft a composition that contains AT LEAST THREE (3) distinctly different songs within your final song, but which fit together into a cohesive whole. By distinct, I mean both tempo and style. Your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 45 seconds. For examples of Frankensong, think of tunes like The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life” and Paul McCartney’s “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, or have a listen to the track below:
Below, you’ll find the Final Challenge songs from both Paul & Storm and Molly Lewis, followed by the all-important voting form. For all of the previous songs from all of our Masters and Challengers, you can find the archive of this edition of Masters Of Song Fu HERE. But for now, here’s Paul & Storm vs the triumphant Molly Lewis…
PAUL & STORM vs MOLLY LEWIS
PAUL & STORM
Paul and Storm are a comedy music duo, and they have been performing as a duo since 2004. Before that, they were one half of a cappella band Da Vinci’s Notebook for about 12 years. A Paul and Storm show is part music concert and part standup/improv comedy–just enough of both to fit neatly in neither category. They like to engage the audience, and are known to award snack cakes and/or other prizes for good (and sometimes bad) behavior. Their show would be PERFECT as a cable special, and would make lots of money for whichever brave channel decides to air them first.
Official Website: www.paulandstorm.com
Twitter: twitter.com/paulandstorm
FINAL CHALLENGE SONG: “Frogger! The Frogger Musical”
ROUND 1 SONG: “Hippie with a Djembe”
ROUND 2 SONG: “Boolean Love Song” (WORDS USED: Amy, Bobby, Mary, if, then, equals, and, not, loves, happy)
ROUND 3 SONG: Sadly, Paul & Storm were eaten by dingoes in the night. They got all better for the Final.
MOLLY LEWIS – ****THE WINNER****
When she’s not bluffing her way through college courses or looking passably attractive from a distance, Molly Lewis enjoys playing ukulele, microwaving marshmallow Peeps, talking to cats, and Twittering. Early last year, she wrote two original songs, “MyHope” and “Road Trip”. “MyHope” is about the inevitable day when our children will learn how to navigate the interweb and how they will LOL at our old internet presences, namely MySpace; of “Road Trip”, Molly says it’s about “that astronaut lady who went crazy and wore the diapers, you remember that?” She has not written any songs since. Hopefully this competition will remedy that. When Molly was in middle school, she took up the guitar. That sank into the swamp. So she took up the mandolin. That sank into the swamp. So she took up the banjo. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the ukulele has stayed. And that’s what you’re going to get, Quick Stop Entertainment: the strongest ukulele in all of Tacoma, Washington.
Official Website: www.sweetafton23.com/primer/
Twitter: twitter.com/Molly23
FINAL CHALLENGE SONG: “Our American Cousin”
ROUND 1 SONG: “I Pity The (Song) Fu”
ROUND 2 SONG: “Peep Fight” (WORDS USED: marshmallow, Peeps, toothpicks, microwave, sword, fight, stomach, put, in, the)
ROUND 3 SONG: “It All Makes Sense At The End“
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FINAL CHALLENGE VOTING
Who brought the most Fu to the final challenge?
- Molly Lewis - "Our American Cousin" (63%, 433 Votes)
- Paul & Storm - "Frogger: The Musical" (37%, 249 Votes)
Total Voters: 682
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Not only did Molly Lewis triumph, but she’s won remarkable (and potentially off-putting) bragging rights and a clutch of fantastic mystery prizes, and has also become the proud owner of the magnificent, one-of-a-kind MASTER OF SONG FU TROPHY.
Molly Lewis brought the Fu. Can you?
Comments: 14 Comments
14 Responses to “Masters Of Song Fu #3: The Winner Announced!”Leave a Reply |
April 30th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Yeah! Way to go Molly! Glad I could help out with a few votes.
April 30th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
MOLLY ROCKS!!! CONGRATULATIONS… a well deserved win!
April 30th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Congratulations, Molly!
🙂
April 30th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Congratulations, Molly! You deserve it!
April 30th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Holy crap, you’re starting the next one right away?
May 1st, 2009 at 12:15 am
congrats Molly. your destiny is new!
as far as the management of this contest, i think it’s right to start the next one soon. try to regain some of the momentum that was lost midway through this last competition. i also think there should be more rounds, though i can understand it might be difficult to get the master’s to agree to extra rounds. maybe have the masters compete every OTHER round, since they don’t compete against the regular contestants until the end anyway. regardless of that, i also think that the final should have more than one regular contestant going up against the Master. at least 2. would tighten up the voting in cases where it wasn’t a landslide. just my 2 cents (though at the rate i’m giving it out, i’ll be broke soon 😉
May 1st, 2009 at 12:28 am
congrats molly, voted for you every time.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:55 am
Great work Molly, can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with in Song Fu 4!
May 1st, 2009 at 1:17 am
I hope this is brought up in some capacity next time Molly’s at a Coulton show. Like, Coulton starts talking before doing one of his Song Fu songs and shows off his trophy, and then Molly interrupts him and pulls out her trophy, and all the while Paul & Storm are standing awkwardly in the middle of the two while they talk about winning Song Fu.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:22 am
My review of the First round of MoSF3 is finally complete.
You can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYgcKW-fgR4
My Final round review should be complete soon.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:28 am
@Alex: Living in the Pacific Northwest greatly increases the likelihood of being around to experience that… Isn’t it great?
May 1st, 2009 at 5:32 am
Molly, you should go share word of this victory with your youtube subscribers!
May 1st, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Congratulations, Molly!
Does this mean Molly will be competing as a “Master” the next time she participates in Song Fu. Does winning the Masters of Song Fu automatically confer upon you the honorary title of “Master of Song Fu”? I would think so.
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:14 am
Ah. If so, then the Epic Struggle continues between Molly and Paul and Storm. (OK English Majors, how do I fix that?)