******DUE TO THE HOLIDAY, ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE FINAL CHALLENGE WILL BE MADE DURING THE WEEK OF JULY 6th. IN THE MEANTIME, CONGRATULATIONS TO BERG & JERRY FOR MOVING ON TO THE FINAL ROUND******
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 unique form of creative combat here at the Stop.
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…
Like a songwriting version of Iron Chef, the competitors will be 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 audience.
Oh, and what do we call this competition?
MASTERS OF SONG FU
Let us not forget the very special Masters of MASTERS OF SONG FU. Think of them as the iron chefs of Song Fu – one of which will be revealed as the ultimate challenger in THE FINAL CHALLENGE. Past Masters have included Jonathan Coulton, Paul & Storm, Neil Innes, The RiffTones, and Garfunkel & Oates. Any one of them could be the Master in the final Challenge – or perhaps it could be a brand new Master. Only the Challenger who garners the most cumulative votes in all 3 Challenges will move on to the Final and face that Master, mano a mano.
As with the last edition of Song Fu, 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?
Write a song from the perspective of an inanimate object. This inanimate object must have no moving parts. Also no computers, no objects that look like living things, either human or animal (i.e. a statue, an action figure, etc.), and no celestial objects (i.e. the sun or the moon). Your song can be in any style you choose.
That’s it. The only other directive is that your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 45 seconds.
You’ll find the Round 1 songs from each of our Challengers below (for those Challengers that did not progress to Round 2, you’ll find those songs HERE), as well as the results of the Round 1 voting. The Challengers were then issued their Round 2 Challenge…
A march is “a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to” – and that is your challenge. You can write on any topic. Your song must run no shorter than 1 minute 15 seconds.
You’ll find the Round 2 songs from each of our Challengers below (for those Challengers that did not progress to Round 3, you’ll find those songs HERE), as well as the results of the Round 2 voting. The Challengers were then issued their Round 3 Challenge…
ROUND 3 CHALLENGE
For your third challenge, you are to write a standard song. I am defining a “standard song” as one with a definite melody and a chorus that repeats at least once (to clarify: the chorus should appear at least twice in the song). However, your song must run EXACTLY 1 minute in length – no shorter, and no longer. You can write on any topic.
You’ll find the Round 3 songs from each of our Challengers below, followed by the voting form…
THE CHALLENGERS
EDRIC HALEEN
Edric has been writing music (off and on) since the early nineties. He wrote and directed a musical, The Pushcart War, based on Jean Merrill’s wonderful novel. He has written and/or arranged a number of songs for various friends – some commissioned, some as surprises. He loves acting in community theatre, and is inspired by the music of Stephen Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. He is also happy to finally return his Happiness Board to the Internet. Check out the link on his web pages.
Legendz foretell of a mighty duo, born in the frozen North. Two neighborz and friendz will unite to form “Gödz Pöödlz” and battle the Mazterz or Song Fu for glory and bragging rightz! Gödz Pöödlz are Rüss Rögers and Röd Dürre. Rüss Rögers was once a member of “Kit and Kaboodle” (still available on iTunes) and currently performs in “Rusty’s Rocking Jamboree!” Röd Dürre wrote and performed with the Goth Rock Godz “Sear”, and last year Röd won the Coor’s Light “Take the 4:53 to Happy Hour” songwriting contest! Remember, the heaviest of metals are soft!
Hi, my name is Steve Chatterton, the quintessential one-man-band singer/songwriter net-based recording project. Mom always said I marched to the sound of a different drummer, but she never mentioned which one. Dad had a fondness for bagpipes. Fortunately, neither of them have any direct influence on my music. Specializing in quirky little guitar-oriented pop songs about bugs, the Scooby gang, pirates, palindromes, superheroes, old movies, infectious diseases, imaginary friends and sideshow freaks, I guess you could say I pretty much write love songs. I’m a cheesy bastard at heart. I’m a stay-at-home dad who’s looking to find more time in the studio when my youngest starts school in September. I have an ever-expanding back catalog (at least 3 albums worth & counting) I’m dying to share with the world one download at a time.
Johannes “Jutze” Schult (from Germany) likes to live in a dream world where there has been no Grunge and where he is a talented singer. Sometimes his little folky pop songs find their way into the real world. Here they suffer from his hoarse voice and the do-it-yourself home recording production, struggling to appeal off and on beaten musical paths.
In the far off land of Chandler, Arizona, where the rivers flow with sand and cacti, our leader and master, the Lord of Our Lady Gwynyth, guitar and microphone in hand, called for the greatest musicians in the land to assemble a rock and roll group like none other. Unfortunately, they were cut off on the road, and the Jalapeño Habañeros made it there first. With The Rogue Bohemian on saxophone and The Boxcar Bassist on bass and keyboards, the Lord was pleased. Now, they roam the streets of Chandler, playing epic songs and rocking faces, much like Bon Jovi. Unfortunately they are paid in change, and often get thrown into the street, also like Bon Jovi. Their lives have intertwined, and the era of the Jalapeño Habañeros has begun. Be prepared.
The Scribbles are one of the most popular ukulele-based trios in their entire 6th grade class. Oh sure, there is the rumor that Peter Choi hates them. Meh. He’s a hater. Ha ha. The Scribbles formed last November when they all agreed on the name. After that they bought some instruments and started writing songs and stuff. So far, they’ve played a handful of shows around their hometown of Springfield, MO. Everyone’s favorite song seems to be “The Robot Song”. Maybe it’s because robots really are taking over the world, or maybe because Connor wears the robot suit during that song and that’s pretty funny. Thanks to MySpace, they are now friends with really cool people like The Beatles and Weezer and Tom. They’ve said some really nice things like “iloveyouguys:D” and “thanx for the add:).” Oh, and by the way, Peter Choi, The Scribbles still luv u.
Gorbzilla is a musician/band teacher in Mid-Michigan. He has been in a few bands over the years, most notably as the bass player/vocalist for the band “Satin Jones” and the guitarist/vocalist for the band “Jimmy Likes Pie”. The proud father of two future rock maniacs, Gorbzilla has been writing music for the past twenty years, and is currently working on his first musical Beer – Finally a Musical for Men based on the Haiku by Patrick “Horkmeister” Sweet entitled, “I Think I Threw Up”. He has been happily married for eight years, and is looking forward to this competition.
Darrell Maclaine has been devouring comedy songs and interesting music ever since he was old enough to know better, and is taking part in this competition essentially as penance for the amount of free music he has obtained via the previous rounds. He plays piano and keyboard bass as one fifth of oddball UK pop group The Directors (another fifth of the group, Mathew Cornah, possesses both more instrumental expertise and a much better home studio than him and will inevitably be press-ganged into contributing to his entries), and has decided to exercise his rusty songwriting muscles in the most embarrassingly public way possible.
Berg and Jerry are a small suburban acoustic group comprised of Andrew Berg (Lead Vocals, Melodica and, maybe, eventually the Ukulele) and Jerry Geleff (Guitar and Backup Vocals). Mid-summer ’08, Berg and Jerry began writing songs together and since then… well, basically nothing. As rookies to this competition, these guys hope to at least make one good song, and entertain at least one person (*fingers crossed*). Berg and Jerry have a fun ska/indie/punk acoustic sound and often try to write clever witty lyrics. So listen, laugh, and something else that starts with an “L”, because Berg and Jerry are ready to slightly attempt to be THE MASTERS OF SONG FU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Denise lived in a grey house in the city of Austin. Her favorite pastimes were playing piano, polishing her guitar, and tormenting the geeky programmer boy who lived there. His name was Michael, but she never called him that… Isn’t that a wonderful bio???
Lex Vader was born to a single mother who worked as silicon tycoon’s personal assistant. When she died of poor hygiene, Lex was sent to an orphanage where he showed interest in organizing races and laser fencing. After being recruited into a religious order, he spent the next few years between several of their private schools. In his final year, Lex lost his hand in an argument with a professor over Kryptochlorians. Despite this, Lex was able to achieve a successful business career and even a knighthood. Tragedy struck, however, when a former classmate’s arctic home caught fire during a business lunch, scarring half of Lex’s face. At this point, Lex’s behavior became erratic. When he managed to buy SithCo, the cult that schooled him, he was shunned by the corporate world. No longer taken seriously, Lex started an evil empire and now moonlights with his evil emotronic alternapop band.
Caleb became a software engineer instead of a musician because the type of music he likes best went out of style at the end of the 18th century. Self-taught in music theory, he is more comfortable writing a four-part instrumental fugue than he is writing a verse-chorus-bridge song. After discovering the likes of Weird Al, Dr. Horrible, and especially Jonathan Coulton, he realized that “modern music” can be fun too. Now he is on a quest to update, expand, and diversify his musical knowledge and experience. In addition to singing, he plays a whole family of recorders (not usually all at once) and baroque flute, pretends to play keyboard, and most recently, ukulele. He also uses virtual MIDI instruments because a real orchestra costs too much.
Hailing from a small town in Southern Minnesota, Richard Clayton Spring has risen above the norm, blossoming into a beautiful butterfly of acoustic guitars, pianos, synths, electronic beats, and vocals ranging from the softest of whispers to the yelp of the Great Wolf. The only style of music Richard can’t write incredibly is generic pop music, or else he would be in a limousine drinking champagne with Lady GaGa. But he has acquired an auto-tuner, so he’s working his way there.
Parsons is a 20-year-old student from California. She can leap small buildings in a few bounds. She fears large fish, but for some reason not sharks or whales. Parsons always makes the same New Year’s resolution: to survive to see the next year. So far, this has worked well for her. Parsons comes from an impressive songwriting pedigree: her older brother wrote the song “Blue Moon” in 1934, managing to overcome his crippling dyslexia and the fact that the song was written 51 years before his birth. Parsons’s songwriting influences include Beethoven, The Beatles, and Weird Al. Her sense of humor comes from The Simpsons, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and her frequent injections of concentrated doses of Vitamin K. Parsons hopes to go far in this competition. If she doesn’t emerge victorious, she will be forced to turn to Operation Omega. Nobody wants that to happen.
Melissa and Ian are two amateur musicians with a longtime love of composing and performing classical music. Whether this is useful or relevant for a songwriting competition remains to be seen. They are eagerly awaiting the “Write a song in the style of an obscure Baroque composer” round, ’cause somebody totally told them there would be such a round and why would someone lie like that?
When two musicians marry one another, it’s a wonderful thing. When a multi-instrumental songwriter marries an amazing vocalist, it’s even better. Bud (oldest of three, one insane sibling of each gender) was born and raised in sunny San Diego, CA – a drummer first, guitarist second, and just about everything you could imagine third through last. Christin Joy (youngest of four, with 3 older brothers) was born and raised in beautiful Annapolis, MD – with the voice of an angel and the compassion to match; she is quite a wonderful singer and writer. The Perfect Place is a Husband/Wife duo that enjoys writing and performing music in their spare time. While their main area of expertise is theologically minded, they have been known to get a little silly from time to time. Masters of Song Fu should prove to be an interesting challenge, one we await with eager anticipation. Woot!
His Name Is Legs is a newly-created rock band comprised of guitarist/vocalist/Song Fu veteran Hazen Nester and bassist Cameron Accola, who collaborated with Nester on two of his previous entries. Born out of a mutual love of Rush and talented musicians in general, His Name Is Legs pledges to provide listeners with an eclectic array of sounds designed to stimulate and elevate. What makes this band unique is that neither Accola nor Nester have ever met each other in person.
To Whom It May Concern: Caleb didn’t want to write his own bio (musicians, eh?) so I will do the honours. After peddling his wares leading the criminally unnoticed Yay For Squares (www.myspace.com/yayforsquares) and playing an inadvisable amount of shows alongside good friends The Tastydactyls, Caleb decided to go solo in the early parts of 2008. Since then he’s enjoyed the success of dozens of fans and casual mentions on low-brow podcasts. With a flair for heartfelt song-writing and a wildly erotic combover, he’s hoping to win your love in this competition and will be wildly neurotic about it until he does so. – His bud, Aaron.
With only two members, the name may be misleading, but that seems to be a theme here. Austin Morley and Jeremy Pudak have been playing music together for several years now, and have never really settled on a genre or a name. In their younger days they would draw on rock influences like Rancid or The Ramones. In recent years, they have settled into slightly quieter influences like She & Him and Bob Dylan. Jeremy has always had a talent for the guitar, but Austin was not so lucky and decided to stick with a bass guitar. Austin & The Pudaks will be rocking your face off, but may not actually be in a rock genre. Be careful, as exposure to this amount of awesome has unpredictable effects.
Derrek J. Thompson is an irresponsible and unimportant song-writer and all-around creative type that lives in the middle of nowhere. His hobbies include sleeping and performing Bach at old-folks homes. He plays keyboards in a band called Anthropophobia but they don’t seem to be going anywhere. He hopes to become more disciplined with his creative endeavors as a result of Song Fu.
Over the twelve years since young-ish midwesterner Travis Norris first picked up a guitar, he has played and written music in a wide variety of genres ranging from rock that a-billies, metal of a medium or heavier weight, “outlaw” country (aka “the good kind”) and “frosty” jazz (not a real subgenre). Left to his own devices, something like “U2 meets Jonny Lang meets various two-to-three-hit-wonder bands of the ’90s indie/alternative scene” is what you’ll usually get. Travis’s instrumental talents range from lead guitar, 2nd lead guitar, rhythm guitar, auxiliary guitar, and bass (sorta). He can also drag and drop drum loops like you wouldn’t believe. He comes to this competition armed with three electric guitars, a neglected bass, an Ebow, and absolutely no fan base or public recognition. So be nice, eh? I hear he’s real sensitive when people that aren’t him make fun of him.
To download a ZIP FILE containing all of the ROUND 3 songs, CLICK HERE.
To download a ZIP FILE containing all of the ROUND 2 songs, CLICK HERE. To download a ZIP FILE containing all of the ROUND 1 songs, CLICK HERE.
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ROUND 3 VOTING
And now, it’s time for that all important voting. For this round, you can choose your TOP 5 FAVORITE Challenger songs. Be sure to choose carefully. VOTING CLOSES AT 11:59pm EST on SUNDAY, JUNE 28th. If you are having trouble voting, CLEAR YOUR BROWSER’S CACHE and try again. THE FINAL CHALLENGE WILL BE REVEALED ON MONDAY, JUNE 29th.
ROUND 3 VOTING – THE CHALLENGERS
Which Song Fu Challengers brought the most fu to Round 3? (CHOOSE 5)
Berg & Jerry - "Inside Jokes" (15%, 101 Votes)
The Scribbles - "We Miss You Yeti" (13%, 91 Votes)
Ian & Melissa - "Quickie" (9%, 63 Votes)
Caleb Lee - "Don't Sing Along" (7%, 48 Votes)
Godz Poodlz - "Bomb Squad Girl" (6%, 44 Votes)
Steve Chatterton - "You Chose To Be A Dick" (6%, 41 Votes)
Edric Haleen - "Acceptance" (5%, 36 Votes)
The Perfect Place - "wtfpeople20 (Three Short Stories)" (5%, 34 Votes)
Gorbzilla - "Minuteman" (4%, 29 Votes)
Sara Parsons - "I Can't Sleep (Manatee Dreams)" (4%, 29 Votes)
Lex Vader - "Keen Dreams" (4%, 27 Votes)
Darrell Maclaine - "Song" (4%, 25 Votes)
Caleb Hines - "A Standard Song" (3%, 24 Votes)
Denise Hudson - "O Queen" (3%, 24 Votes)
Travis Norris - "Finite" (3%, 19 Votes)
His Name Is Legs - "Swan Song" (2%, 15 Votes)
Derrek J. Thompson - "Fu In The Key Of C" (2%, 15 Votes)
Jutze Schult - "Joey Dumps Pacey" (2%, 14 Votes)
Austin & The Pudaks - "Typo In The Lyric Sheet" (2%, 14 Votes)
Jalapeno Habaneros - "Wish You Were Here (Falling)" (2%, 13 Votes)
Richard Clayton Spring - "Warp Speed" (2%, 11 Votes)
If you triumph, not only will you win remarkable (and potentially off-putting) bragging rights and a clutch of fantastic mystery prizes, you will also become the proud owner of the magnificent, one-of-a-kind MASTER OF SONG FU TROPHY.
@Caleb Hines – nice xkcd reference! 🙂 Oh, and I can’t resist it … the harpsichord Denise used was modelled, not sampled {grin}
@The Perfect Place (Bud) – my previous comment had an expression in
it indicating that my horror was really mock horror. Unfortunately that part was stripped off because it was in angled brackets, probably because the comment engine doesn’t allow embedded HTML.
LuckyLegendary features a group of superheroes, “The Legends” led by Captain Lucky! The fun part of the site is that the Legends actually produce most of the content themselves. It’s Homespun Superhero Fun! It’s a blend of fiction and reality that’s just a loopy good time. Like CosPlay with original characters!
@travis, if that’s the way you always sing, i can’t fault you for it. ;-D my friend said it was actually apathy though. maybe he just didn’t explain it right, but it sounds like you experienced similar things.
my church is mad poor, yo.
@caleb, hahahaha i love xkcd. but seriously though, modeled or sampled or however you put it, faux is faux. it wasn’t a real, legit harpsichord, was it? ;-P
you’re right about your song being totally fake and all, i should probably be less of a hypocrite. i rescind the comment on lex’s song [even though i mentioned that the song was still one of my favorites and one i would’ve voted for if this website didn’t hate my ip connection] but retain my disdain for sequenced drums in anything but hip-hop, non-rock pop and dancehall music.
@michael, i picked that up without the fancy emoticon. <3 my reply was intended to be somewhat sarcastic. hehe.
I know several people who have tried to come vote for round 3 songs and have either been unable to find the check-boxes to vote or have tried to vote only to be told they’ve already voted. This is really frustrating. And clearing cache has no affect.
It’s the IP number or something.
We are not 100% sure where our sudden votes came from. We heard that Carter Hulsey, who is a local artist with a big teen girl following mentioned us at a show last night. Turns out he is a fan of ours. Go figure. Maybe the votes came from his fans? We are not ruling out shenanigans but they aren’t our shenanigans.
Well, shenanigans are unlikely now because there’s only one vote per IP address.
Gotta hand it to the 12 year olds for making a cute song though. Not sure if it’s winning material, but it is cute.
@Lex: this is exactly why i suggested that more than 1 artist go to the finals against the Master. because there’s always going to be at least 1 Networking Superstar. as good as Molly is, she was definitely floated by her online following, (just past Hank Greens online following, that is ;).
if 2 or 3 finalists went up against the Master, we’d have a better chance of Actual Talent determining the end result of this competition (which is NOT to say the current vote leaders are lacking talent).
Congrats to Berg and Jerry!! Job well done! You deserve to be one of the top contestants. Your songs were fun, creative and had great vocals. Good luck, if you are chosen for the Final Round.
@Gorbzilla (missed your reply at the beginning of the lyrics post): Ahh, yes. Say no more. If my effects stopped working I would probably have to drop out completely (I use Guitar Rig, without it my guitars would be just dry signal…. truly a feast for the ears). Trying to be the “artist” and also the “recording engineer/tech guy” at the same time has always been my least favorite part of the recording process. I like wearing either of those hats but not both at the same time–that is just one goofy looking, frustrating hat.
@Scribbles: Word of mouth is truly a force to be reckoned with when the mouth is talking to impressionable teenagers. Well done!
@Berg: I thought he specifically said that you -don’t- lack talent? Easy reading mistake to make though. Dumb comment threads…
Edric Haleen, a great idea for a ONE minute song! This seems as obvious as a ticking time bomb, but I hadn’t thought of it, and nobody else did either. That’s when cleverness is at it’s best, when it seems obvious in hindsight. I like how all your songs are distinctly different from each other, but are also all so distinctly YOU. You have a unique vision and style. I envy that.
Godz Poodlz, this is my favorite of our songs. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times. It’s not perfect, but Rod’s ideas of having a rhythm track of a ticking clock, a heartbeat and the drone of an alarm are so simple and very effective.
Steve Chatterton, the video for this is better than the song. The joke is very similar to the one at the beginning of Coulton’s “Big Dick Farts the Polka,” from MOSF#2. This is pleasant and moderately funny. But I didn’t have the emotional connection with this like I did with “The Only Way I Know” (one of my absolute favorites from MOSF#4).
Jutze Schult, without you telling me this had some connection to Dawson’s Creek, I never would have guessed. You have a great pop sensibility and I find your vocals and accent engaging and endearing. But the words came so fast, I had trouble following the thread of the lyric. The idea of a song about a dream that ends abruptly with an alarm is clever for a song with a definite time limit.
Jalapeno Habaneros, this is my favorite tune that I’ve heard of yours. I could understand the vocals without reading the lyrics sheet. It seemed like you put some effort into getting a better sound this time. I liked the Song Fu (inside joke) of missing Molly and Mike. There was genuine emotion in the song. And the sound effect at the end gave me a grin.
The Scribbles, I could hear a lot of development in the arrangement of this song. A strange song, but with honest emotional tones. Those are cool. This is also my favorite Scribbles Song Fu song. This is as good as “Robots.” This is one of the few ONE minute songs that I think would sound really good in an extended re-mix. For one, I want more Yeti vocal solo. Another verse might be nice. I’ve heard rumors of a possible Scribbles Yeti musical concept album! I’m all for it! I VOTED for this one.
Gorbzilla, “Minuteman” is like reverse of the classic “60 Minute Man.” The last line doesn’t quite scan right and so you stumble on it.
Darrell Macclaine, this is truly lovely. I like how you chose to slow down things down instead of speed them up for a challenge with a short time limit. I’d like to hear this song in a medley with “Golden Slumbers.” Maybe it’s because I want to hear MORE of this song, have it move to a chorus or separate instrumental part before coming back to this. Anyway, very pretty song. It got my vote.
Berg and Jerry, “Inside Jokes” is funny. But I can’t imagine that the song will have legs beyond this round of Song Fu. This seemed like it was knocked off pretty quickly. I’m very flattered that the Poodlz got a mention.
Denise Hudson, some interesting lyrics mixing images. From the lyric I had assumed that Queen Christina had died violently, like Anne Boleyn. Some of the lyrics are muddled. This is partly due to the recording and to the fact that they don’t quite fit, flow and scan. I like the harpsichord and really appreciate how varied all three of your songs are. This one just didn’t click as much for me as “Leave the Stone Alone” or “Anna’s Gerbil.”
Lex Vader, your sound (especially with this song) reminds me of Har Mar Superstar. Funky Pop. “Keen Dreams” reminded me of Calvin and Hobbes and his daydreams of Spaceman Spiff. I was surprised to learn that there is a whole series of Commander Keen games and that “Keen Dreams” is one of them. Clever song. The music fits the happy fun images really well. Well done.
Caleb Hines, “A Standard Song,” is entirely pleasant. It bounces along. I thought the lisp was a happy character voice. It works. It fits the loopy tone of the song perfectly. Just enough to give a light, silly tone to the song but not too much to be mocking. It makes sense that you didn’t overdo it, because it’s not an affectation.
Richard Clayton Spring, “Warp Speed” is a trippy Space Opera fantasy. I like the strange Jonathan Richman meets the Violent Femmes quality of your songs. You are unlucky that “Keen Dreams” is in the same round, because it has a similar theme and Lex Vader built a stronger spaceship.
Sara Parsons, the non sequitur of the Manatee looking like your 8th grade gym teacher is very funny. It’s interesting how certain themes are popular from round to round. This round it was dreams and Meta-songs about the songs. This song pairs up against another dream song, “Joey Dumps Pacey” by Jutze. I felt more emotionally connected to the lyrics and story of this song. But I like Jutze’s production and catchy punch. If I could, I would blend your two dreams together. Maybe the two of you could virtually collaborate sometime in a “His Name is Legs” kind of way. Ah, I’m just dreamin’ now. But like Blondie says, “Dreamin’ is free.”
Ian and Mellisa, “Quickie.” This song struck the deepest emotional chord with me. The line, “I know that you’d rather have fallen first. But you can remember it in reverse.” That’s such a clever turn of phrase, almost like a magic trick. Seriously, you’ve packed a lot of punch into just one minute. I’d like to hear more instruments, a fuller sound, even if it’s just an egg shaker and a tambourine. Also, the harmony vocals are lovely, but too much the same all the way through. You might want to have just a solo voice on the verse and the harmony on the chorus. Or shift the harmony farther away from the melody line in the verse or chorus. Or have three part harmony on the chorus, just something to mix up the sound and make a bigger structural shift from verse to chorus. And there’s a sameness to the harmonies, always tracking about a third away through the whole song. But this was still one of my favorites this round. Lyrically masterful. And it got my vote. Any chance of an animated version of this song too?
The Perfect Place, “wtfpeople20.” Three distinct stories and two choruses in just a minute! Very funny and it didn’t seem all that rushed. The T-Pain verse is still my favorite here. Put some Auto Tuner on the first part of that, drive the joke home. In my head I hear a snare with brushes and a triangle sounding just after the words, “The End.” ding.
His Name is Legs, “Swan Song.” Again it’s an inside joke, but one that I truly appreciate. Especially the line, “Not a snowballs chance in hell of moving on.” For the record. You’ve made an impression. I hope you shadow the Final Round. And if this is the last we hear of “His Name is Legs,” you will be missed. I’ve tried to become MySpace iPals with you, but I keep failing the “Guess their last name or e-mail” quiz!
Caleb Lee, “Don’t Sing Along.” This melodic confection was the Meta-song (the song about the song) that I liked the most. I liked that the catchy melody made it almost impossible to NOT sing along. And after being initially annoyed with the one unintelligible verse, decided that was a sarcastic way to ensure that nobody COULD sing along with the song! This one got my vote.
Austin and the Pudaks, “Typo in the Lyric Sheet.” Too bad the F-bomb will keep this away from my kids and off my iPod. The guitar part reminded me of “Murder Mystery” by the Velvet Underground. Lyrically, I was reminded of “Heaven,” by Talking Heads, for obvious reasons. I really enjoyed this. I think you could pop an ocarina or hammer dulcimer solo in there and expand this out to 2:15 with another verse and/or even a bridge section. Seriously, I don’t exactly know how you should fill out the sound. I just close my ears and try to “hear” what is missing. Sometimes strange sounds like sweet potato or church basement piano come to mind.
Derek Thompson, “Fu in the Key of C.” This is annoying until you get to the part where you bring it down real slow and end real soft. That’s funny in an Adam Sandler kind of way. But I think just a tiny bit more spit and polish, just a little more effort in making the words flow or the “La,la,la” part melodic and you could have had a much funnier and catchier song. This was also a theme, the Meta-Song theme, “Gonna write a song about this song and the Contest,” that was explored several times this round.
Travis Norris, “Finite.” The lyric is obscure. I think it has to do with depression and trying to make yourself a better you by chemical means, in the first verse with alcohol and in the second with Lexapro. For what it’s worth, this was my favorite song from you so far in MOSF#4. This was just a very near miss from getting my vote. Too many good songs this round. Maybe happier, lighter subject matter would have steered me toward a vote. I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to change this song except see it longer, explored and developed more. I liked the instrumentation and whatever weaknesses there are in your voice actually work well in the context of this song.
None of the songs got the number of votes that they deserved. We can all be content in the knowledge that the number of votes we have only reflects a small percentage of the people who actually liked our songs and didn’t have enough votes to vote for every song they liked or weren’t able to vote because the system was locked up.
I have to say, as much as I’ve appreciated partipating, and as proud as I am of my entries, I’m a little put off entering Song Fu #5 by the fact I have literally no chance of doing even slightly well in it. I don’t have 200 internet friends so as a consequence there’s documented evidence that my songs are no good. Maybe they are no good.
This competition has served as one giant confidence knocker, and sort of made me not really want to carry on doing songs. If my best can leave eleven out of twelve people cold, considering everything, it’s maybe time for me to stop trying to be a songwriter. I shudder to think how badly I’d have done if people could only choose one song.
First of all — I really enjoy this whole “Song Fu” thing. I definitely plan on being back for MoSF#5. I love the creative challenge; I love the sense of community; I love the feedback. The votes don’t matter much to me — the experience does.
That said — I have some fears and some complaints. I think it’s time to give them voice.
One — Ken? Really? There’s no voting engine out there that can handle what we’re trying to do here? The voting has been pissing people off since the outset, and it’s still not good. I know you said in one of the Q&As that you’ve gone through three different iterations. But come on! I’m starting to get the palpable sense that it’s turning people away in droves — in a way that I haven’t felt before.
I truly believe that, if you were to go back and count — during this past round, the voting was out of commission more often than it was up and running. Not cool. I do believe that it’s still _fair_ — in that no one is more unduly advantaged or disadvantaged than anyone else. But I have baker’s dozens of people (like Felicia — they come in thirteens) who have shared with me their frustrations of not being able to vote. (And these are conscientious people who want to cast _five_ votes — not just one for me!)
In Round 1, we had the whole voting scandal with votes being rescinded and I.P. addresses questioned. I believe that that abuse was made possible by the quest to solve the opposite problem of one person’s vote wiping out the possibility of a host of other people on the same network from being able to cast their own votes. But, like I said — really? We can’t get the voting ironed out?
Two — Darrell? (And others who are thinking along similar lines?) Please don’t drop out of MoSF just because of a poor showing in the “voting.” If you’re proud of your entries, please keep sharing your music and your creativity. Do not consider what is, in fact, a _traffic_ contest (filtered through a horribly ineffective voting engine) to be any kind of “documented evidence” about the quality of your songs. The two have basically nothing to do with each other. The voting is primarily a measure of a competitor’s ability to bring in traffic. The numbers will always be skewed by the people who vote for just one song. Blessings upon those people who take the time to cast five informed votes — but they’re never going to be able to turn the overall voting picture into a true representation of relative merit or true reflection of how much the songs were enjoyed in relation to each other.
As such, I can completely understand how this competition can serve as a “giant confidence knocker.” It takes thick skin to survive it. Just the act of _submitting_ a song to something like this takes a strong soul and a leap of faith. As I’ve written before, it is a “heart-in-the-throat” moment when you click the “Send” button and launch your very personal creation out into the ether — to be judged, to be critiqued, to possibly be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or even roundly panned. And it’s not like we’re professional musicians — doing this for money with buffers like agents and managers and publicists, and with special equipment and resources and mixing boards and editors… We’re students. We’re white-collar/blue-collar workers. We’re wannabe rockstars. (Or wannabe garage-banders.) We’re making music with whatever we have at our disposal. A lot of us are on the steep part of the learning curve. But we’re learning. And we’re doing it while we gamely attempt to rising to an artificial challenge imposed on us by someone _else_ — struggling to find and bring our own style, our own voice, our own sensibility to each successive task.
It’s not easy. It takes courage in inner strength and no small amount of intestinal fortitude to continue in Song Fu. But the greatest joy (for me!) is in sharing what I’ve done, and in listening to what others have done. The great variety and diversity that springs from the same common starting point but branches out in so many unique directions. To lose people to a cockamamie voting engine is tragic, and erodes the strength of our Fu.
Three — I’ve noticed a small decline in the sense of community on the comment boards (here, and in other forums as well). It used to feel very friendly and collegial. People would share praise and constructive feedback — people would learn and grow and ask for suggestions. Then, in MoSF#4, we first had the voting scandal. And people started pointing fingers and calling names. And then, after people took the time to patiently try to clarify the situation, other people _kept_ pointing fingers and calling names — obviously too wrapped up in taking offense to actually _read_ and _consider_ and _think_. (VERY discouraging and disheartening!) Then we had the political wars, which got a bit out of hand. We also had a noticeable decrease in traffic — which I think was probably equal parts frustration about the voting and the loss of a large number of competitors between Rounds 1 and 2.
I hope that when MoSF#5 begins, we can get back some of what we’ve lost. I hope we can retain a lot of the challengers we already have, and that we can add in new, fresh faces. I hope QSE can stumble across some new voting code that will remove one big frustration from the overall equation. I hope that people will be able to appreciate that a “competition” of this format will _NEVER_ be a referendum on _talent_ — and that people who want feedback on the quality of their songs will always remember that validation, suggestions and feedback _are_ to be found here, but they’ll be found within the _comments_, not in the voting results.
Personally, I’m having a great deal of fun with Song Fu, and I’m proud of the songs I’ve written. It is admittedly a tough pill to swallow that I’ll likely never be in the final round against a Master, no matter how good the songs are that I submit. But I do get to write and share three songs before being voted off the island, and that’s great. I get to rise to interesting, creative challenges every couple of weeks, and present them to a wider audience. And I get to interact with people like Joe and Russ and Mike and Jarrett and Jutze and Bram and Caleb and Hazen and Travis through this experience — (I vote for Joe!) — as well as people like JoAnn and Borba and Matthew, and even riddle! Next to that, the voting is interesting, but relatively unimportant…
@Darrell: Edric summed it up pretty nicely, but I just wanted to say, please don’t put too much stock in the voting. Between people who wish they had four or five more votes, system lockups, a probably pretty large number of people who just vote for one person without listening to the others… well, just doesn’t seem worth worrying about it that much.
If MoSF is really damaging your confidence or worse, the enjoyment you get out of music than I can understand that you might want to quit (I for one would like to see you stay in), but please for the love of Aisha don’t let it stop you writing and recording songs.
@Berg: I assume Ken is working on wrangling a master. I know that the original choice from a few days ago is (apparently) a friend/colleague of Neil Innes so I’d bet you guys have your work cut out for you. 😀 Best of luck, by the way. Unless my counting mechanism is broken looks like you’re the Challengers.
@Darrell Maclaine – the only way to get 200 internet friends is one friend at a time. Every great journey starts with a single step and all that.
I think your tunes are good and have earned my vote at least a couple of times.
All I gotta say is keep working it – if not here than somewhere else. The secret to every overnight success is 5-10 years of hard work, or one year if you’re insanely dedicated like JoCo.
I have no idea how long you’ve really been working it, though. For me, I’ve been writing songs for about 25 years now, but I’ve only really been “working it” since April when I got my studio all ironed out & reworked my site & started recording again. And I only consider this a start. I’m not even going to turn on the juice until September, and even then it’s going to take a couple of years.
Also, do the math. Add up all the voters as well as all the votes that every person gets. I did this once when I felt down like you and I figured that every voter voted for an average of 1.25 songs, which means that the vast majority of voters are only ever hearing one song (if that).
You’re not losing 11 out of every 12. I’m no mathematician, but there’s only a slim minority listening to all the tunes & voting for 5 tunes, and you’re getting a lot of them. And they’re the real music lovers anyway.
That’s your niche. Concentrate on nurturing that.
‘Nuff said. I really like your stuff & want to hear more.
Steve’s absolutely right. To delve a little deeper into the math — if the “average” voter votes for 1.25 songs, that means that for every person who votes for five songs, there are _FIFTEEN_ people who are just voting for the artist they know! (This is based on the assumption that everyone who voted cast either just one vote, or all five allowable votes. The math gets harder if you consider people casting two, three or four votes. But I think the simplification suffices for this particular purpose…)
This is what I meant when I wrote, “The numbers will always be skewed by the people who vote for just one song.” No one should take the voting as indicative of which songs are objectively “better” or “worse” than any others. Like I’ve written before, even if “most of the judges award the Red Velvet” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwZg_f65yI0 or http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Peoples-Favorite-Thing/dp/B000TE2IL6 ), there’s still plenty of room in this competition for your Rice Krispie Treats — and we’d miss you if you were gone…
I am probably not going to do Song Fu 5. Not unless it’s a couple of months off (and fixing the voting machines you got from Palm Beach might help too). I may do this final challenge, but I have an album/EP I need to work on after that. As much as Song Fu forced me to finish three songs, I ended up taking a vacation every other week. I really need to focus on writing and recording more than one song start to finish. And I need time to make them sound good, not just passable. I have a song on a compilation coming out and I need something people can purchase or at least sample so any interest does not simply disappear after five minutes.
Darrell, your maths are confusing. I’m not sure where you got 11 out of 12 people not liking your songs. You were in the middle of the votes with both of your original songs. That means with, what, 0 fans (?), you were still able to beat out half the competitors. You make it sound like you were in the bottom two. You don’t need to quit music. You just need to get heard. And this is one way of doing that. Plus, let’s face it, without Hank or Molly or Paul & Storm or JoCo or Gene Simmons, not a lot of new listeners dropped by for this edition. I only got so many YouTube views on my shadow entries last time because I made the videos replies to Hank and Molly’s videos. And it took a while.
Russ, your comparison baffles the hell out of me. Har Mar does hip hop. I know you’re a little odd, but you’re comparing apples to marshmallow stars here. If I actually sound like a fat naked white guy doing hip hop when I put out a power pop song, I have completely failed in my musical intentions. And if so, I’m going to go eat stale peeps and see what happens.
Lex, when I compared you to Har Mar Superstar I wasn’t trying to imply that you are fat or naked. The Har Mar Superstar song I’m most familiar with is an achingly beautiful synth cover of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again, Naturally.” Not hip hop at all. Seriously, stunningly beautiful and highly recommended. Possibly better than the original. I don’t hear the fat and naked part in his music at all. Maybe I’m not familiar enough with his big hits.
When I think of Har Mar Superstar I think of a smart, nerdy, white guy, single-handedly writing and recording immaculately produced songs in an eclectic variety of genres. I think of a guy who has not only taken on a stage name, but also a comic persona in order to promote music that swims upstream just outside of the mainstream. If those similarities to your music don’t make sense or if that comparison makes you think that you’ve completely failed, I’m sorry. I intended the comparison as a compliment.
If you were to describe the “Lex Vader Sound,” how would you do it? Who would you compare yourself to? And just out of curiosity, how would you categorize the Muzik of Godz Poodlz?
I have not wanted to say anyone to anything here on the comments board until I FINALLY posted my reviews to the last two rounds … all triumphantly up here for everyone to peruse and go ooh and ahh over! I have been very sick though. There has been much pestilence in my 107 degree, roachy, ex-boyfriend-riddled life. Drama. Heatwaves. Evil. ACK! But I did want to get on here and say really quick that:
I AM a professional musician. I have a very expensive degree that has been lying in my house, in a frame, gathering dust as I housewife around my unkempt home NOT doing anything and just generally lying fallow. So therefore – I’m NOT really a professional musician. It’s kind of like an Epimenides paradox, this paragraph.
What I expected out of songfu was something like Steve C’s five year plan. Something to get me off my duff, making deadlines. Something that if (heaven forbid!) I got bad reviews or no votes; I’d get over it and keep struggling along. Because bad things happen to us all, when we are professionals. Professionals don’t make money sometimes. Professionals just work. We get up in the morning, we flip on the equipment in our recording rooms (ending lastly with our studio monitors as I almost tragically learned), and then we work. It’s a learning process. I have professionals that are more professional than me helping me now. Many/most have more impressive resumes than me. They’re also still learning. Someone will always have a cooler resume than you. And there will always be someone with a littler resume waiting to take the next award.
There’s room for all of us. I don’t really like contests. I like what Darrell said originally; when he said in his bio why he did this. To give payback for the amount of free music he recieved. I feel justified and happy – I’ve earned the right to have ‘Football is Good’ (which I thought was precious and hilarious, and reminded me of when I went to watch the cricket with my husband’s family in Australia – even though footbal isn’t cricket – although football is good). I get to keep it in my iTunes because he gets to keep my goofy-assed songs about gerbils and ancient royalty and magic rocks. Maybe next time I will learn to master better for him, others like him, and everyone else who has trouble hearing my singing because I have not yet learned the recording skills necessary to be heard even if my singing is very soulful.
I certainly had something nice to say about most everyone. I know I voted for Darrell – and I don’t say that lightly, since I am not one to “vote and tell.” But I feel that he might need the reassurance. I know I was thankful for the reassurance I got, in agreement with many of the criticisms, and amused by the rest of them.
I will hold my breath and kick if:
People quit the contest for silly reasons
Godz Poodlz break up
Legs don’t give it another go, at least someday
I don’t get my durned reviews done.
And on that note, I suppose I have a 4-5 day 4th of July plan for that. But don’t hold me to it! 🙂
Only one performer can ‘win’. With (I believe, an opening count of) 39 performers or even (a final count of) 21, your chances of ‘winning’ or even being in the top five, are extremely limited, especially if you don’t already have a following.
(The scare quotes around the word ‘win’ are deliberate – as others have articulated before me, the nature of this ‘competition’ is such that applying the word ‘win’ to the person who gets the most votes is at least a touch laughable.)
So, votes shouldn’t – in my opinion, of course – be the reason that you do this. What should? The chance to make mistakes, and thereby learn and improve.
It costs nothing (well, time and effort, but no cash outlay unless I’m completely mistaken) to put your songs here and in return, you get free feedback! Free instruction from the School of Hard Knocks, which is the best (if most painful) teacher out there.
Did you learn something with each song? If so, then they were worth doing, even if you’d gotten zero votes.
Did you enjoy making each song? If so, then they were worth doing, even if you’d gotten zero votes.
I liked all of your songs, and I REALLY hope you’ll be back if there’s a MoSF #5 (and beyond). I also hope you get a website. 🙂
(I also hope that many others will be back: Edric, Ian & Melissa, Steve Chatterton, Crabbydad [from last MoSF], Jarrett Heather, just to name a few.)
As to whether or not you sound ‘Beatle-y’, I concur with others who’ve said you do. I think there’s something about the quality of your voice, or maybe a nuance of your accent, even if it’s from nowhere near Liverpool, that says “Beatles”, particularly to us North Americans who aren’t as attuned to the differences in regional accent. It’s something, I suspect, that you’re going to have to struggle with (in terms of the way people perceive your songs).
Edric has been writing music (off and on) since the early nineties. He wrote and directed a musical, The Pushcart War, based on Jean Merrill’s wonderful novel. He has written and/or arranged a number of songs for various friends – some commissioned, some as surprises. He loves acting in community theatre, and is inspired by the music of Stephen Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. He is also happy to finally return his Happiness Board to the Internet. Check out the link on his web pages.
Legendz foretell of a mighty duo, born in the frozen North. Two neighborz and friendz will unite to form “Gödz Pöödlz” and battle the Mazterz or Song Fu for glory and bragging rightz! Gödz Pöödlz are Rüss Rögers and Röd Dürre. Rüss Rögers was once a member of “Kit and Kaboodle” (still available on iTunes) and currently performs in “Rusty’s Rocking Jamboree!” Röd Dürre wrote and performed with the Goth Rock Godz “Sear”, and last year Röd won the Coor’s Light “Take the 4:53 to Happy Hour” songwriting contest! Remember, the heaviest of metals are soft!
Hi, my name is Steve Chatterton, the quintessential one-man-band singer/songwriter net-based recording project. Mom always said I marched to the sound of a different drummer, but she never mentioned which one. Dad had a fondness for bagpipes. Fortunately, neither of them have any direct influence on my music. Specializing in quirky little guitar-oriented pop songs about bugs, the Scooby gang, pirates, palindromes, superheroes, old movies, infectious diseases, imaginary friends and sideshow freaks, I guess you could say I pretty much write love songs. I’m a cheesy bastard at heart. I’m a stay-at-home dad who’s looking to find more time in the studio when my youngest starts school in September. I have an ever-expanding back catalog (at least 3 albums worth & counting) I’m dying to share with the world one download at a time.
Johannes “Jutze” Schult (from Germany) likes to live in a dream world where there has been no Grunge and where he is a talented singer. Sometimes his little folky pop songs find their way into the real world. Here they suffer from his hoarse voice and the do-it-yourself home recording production, struggling to appeal off and on beaten musical paths.
In the far off land of Chandler, Arizona, where the rivers flow with sand and cacti, our leader and master, the Lord of Our Lady Gwynyth, guitar and microphone in hand, called for the greatest musicians in the land to assemble a rock and roll group like none other. Unfortunately, they were cut off on the road, and the Jalapeño Habañeros made it there first. With The Rogue Bohemian on saxophone and The Boxcar Bassist on bass and keyboards, the Lord was pleased. Now, they roam the streets of Chandler, playing epic songs and rocking faces, much like Bon Jovi. Unfortunately they are paid in change, and often get thrown into the street, also like Bon Jovi. Their lives have intertwined, and the era of the Jalapeño Habañeros has begun. Be prepared.
The Scribbles are one of the most popular ukulele-based trios in their entire 6th grade class. Oh sure, there is the rumor that Peter Choi hates them. Meh. He’s a hater. Ha ha. The Scribbles formed last November when they all agreed on the name. After that they bought some instruments and started writing songs and stuff. So far, they’ve played a handful of shows around their hometown of Springfield, MO. Everyone’s favorite song seems to be “The Robot Song”. Maybe it’s because robots really are taking over the world, or maybe because Connor wears the robot suit during that song and that’s pretty funny. Thanks to MySpace, they are now friends with really cool people like The Beatles and Weezer and Tom. They’ve said some really nice things like “iloveyouguys:D” and “thanx for the add:).” Oh, and by the way, Peter Choi, The Scribbles still luv u.
Gorbzilla is a musician/band teacher in Mid-Michigan. He has been in a few bands over the years, most notably as the bass player/vocalist for the band “Satin Jones” and the guitarist/vocalist for the band “Jimmy Likes Pie”. The proud father of two future rock maniacs, Gorbzilla has been writing music for the past twenty years, and is currently working on his first musical Beer – Finally a Musical for Men based on the Haiku by Patrick “Horkmeister” Sweet entitled, “I Think I Threw Up”. He has been happily married for eight years, and is looking forward to this competition.
Darrell Maclaine has been devouring comedy songs and interesting music ever since he was old enough to know better, and is taking part in this competition essentially as penance for the amount of free music he has obtained via the previous rounds. He plays piano and keyboard bass as one fifth of oddball UK pop group The Directors (another fifth of the group, Mathew Cornah, possesses both more instrumental expertise and a much better home studio than him and will inevitably be press-ganged into contributing to his entries), and has decided to exercise his rusty songwriting muscles in the most embarrassingly public way possible.
Berg and Jerry are a small suburban acoustic group comprised of Andrew Berg (Lead Vocals, Melodica and, maybe, eventually the Ukulele) and Jerry Geleff (Guitar and Backup Vocals). Mid-summer ’08, Berg and Jerry began writing songs together and since then… well, basically nothing. As rookies to this competition, these guys hope to at least make one good song, and entertain at least one person (*fingers crossed*). Berg and Jerry have a fun ska/indie/punk acoustic sound and often try to write clever witty lyrics. So listen, laugh, and something else that starts with an “L”, because Berg and Jerry are ready to slightly attempt to be THE MASTERS OF SONG FU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Denise lived in a grey house in the city of Austin. Her favorite pastimes were playing piano, polishing her guitar, and tormenting the geeky programmer boy who lived there. His name was Michael, but she never called him that… Isn’t that a wonderful bio???
Lex Vader was born to a single mother who worked as silicon tycoon’s personal assistant. When she died of poor hygiene, Lex was sent to an orphanage where he showed interest in organizing races and laser fencing. After being recruited into a religious order, he spent the next few years between several of their private schools. In his final year, Lex lost his hand in an argument with a professor over Kryptochlorians. Despite this, Lex was able to achieve a successful business career and even a knighthood. Tragedy struck, however, when a former classmate’s arctic home caught fire during a business lunch, scarring half of Lex’s face. At this point, Lex’s behavior became erratic. When he managed to buy SithCo, the cult that schooled him, he was shunned by the corporate world. No longer taken seriously, Lex started an evil empire and now moonlights with his evil emotronic alternapop band.
Caleb became a software engineer instead of a musician because the type of music he likes best went out of style at the end of the 18th century. Self-taught in music theory, he is more comfortable writing a four-part instrumental fugue than he is writing a verse-chorus-bridge song. After discovering the likes of Weird Al, Dr. Horrible, and especially Jonathan Coulton, he realized that “modern music” can be fun too. Now he is on a quest to update, expand, and diversify his musical knowledge and experience. In addition to singing, he plays a whole family of recorders (not usually all at once) and baroque flute, pretends to play keyboard, and most recently, ukulele. He also uses virtual MIDI instruments because a real orchestra costs too much.
Hailing from a small town in Southern Minnesota, Richard Clayton Spring has risen above the norm, blossoming into a beautiful butterfly of acoustic guitars, pianos, synths, electronic beats, and vocals ranging from the softest of whispers to the yelp of the Great Wolf. The only style of music Richard can’t write incredibly is generic pop music, or else he would be in a limousine drinking champagne with Lady GaGa. But he has acquired an auto-tuner, so he’s working his way there.
Parsons is a 20-year-old student from California. She can leap small buildings in a few bounds. She fears large fish, but for some reason not sharks or whales. Parsons always makes the same New Year’s resolution: to survive to see the next year. So far, this has worked well for her. Parsons comes from an impressive songwriting pedigree: her older brother wrote the song “Blue Moon” in 1934, managing to overcome his crippling dyslexia and the fact that the song was written 51 years before his birth. Parsons’s songwriting influences include Beethoven, The Beatles, and Weird Al. Her sense of humor comes from The Simpsons, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and her frequent injections of concentrated doses of Vitamin K. Parsons hopes to go far in this competition. If she doesn’t emerge victorious, she will be forced to turn to Operation Omega. Nobody wants that to happen.
Melissa and Ian are two amateur musicians with a longtime love of composing and performing classical music. Whether this is useful or relevant for a songwriting competition remains to be seen. They are eagerly awaiting the “Write a song in the style of an obscure Baroque composer” round, ’cause somebody totally told them there would be such a round and why would someone lie like that?
When two musicians marry one another, it’s a wonderful thing. When a multi-instrumental songwriter marries an amazing vocalist, it’s even better. Bud (oldest of three, one insane sibling of each gender) was born and raised in sunny San Diego, CA – a drummer first, guitarist second, and just about everything you could imagine third through last. Christin Joy (youngest of four, with 3 older brothers) was born and raised in beautiful Annapolis, MD – with the voice of an angel and the compassion to match; she is quite a wonderful singer and writer. The Perfect Place is a Husband/Wife duo that enjoys writing and performing music in their spare time. While their main area of expertise is theologically minded, they have been known to get a little silly from time to time. Masters of Song Fu should prove to be an interesting challenge, one we await with eager anticipation. Woot!
His Name Is Legs is a newly-created rock band comprised of guitarist/vocalist/Song Fu veteran Hazen Nester and bassist Cameron Accola, who collaborated with Nester on two of his previous entries. Born out of a mutual love of Rush and talented musicians in general, His Name Is Legs pledges to provide listeners with an eclectic array of sounds designed to stimulate and elevate. What makes this band unique is that neither Accola nor Nester have ever met each other in person.
To Whom It May Concern: Caleb didn’t want to write his own bio (musicians, eh?) so I will do the honours. After peddling his wares leading the criminally unnoticed Yay For Squares (www.myspace.com/yayforsquares) and playing an inadvisable amount of shows alongside good friends The Tastydactyls, Caleb decided to go solo in the early parts of 2008. Since then he’s enjoyed the success of dozens of fans and casual mentions on low-brow podcasts. With a flair for heartfelt song-writing and a wildly erotic combover, he’s hoping to win your love in this competition and will be wildly neurotic about it until he does so. – His bud, Aaron.
With only two members, the name may be misleading, but that seems to be a theme here. Austin Morley and Jeremy Pudak have been playing music together for several years now, and have never really settled on a genre or a name. In their younger days they would draw on rock influences like Rancid or The Ramones. In recent years, they have settled into slightly quieter influences like She & Him and Bob Dylan. Jeremy has always had a talent for the guitar, but Austin was not so lucky and decided to stick with a bass guitar. Austin & The Pudaks will be rocking your face off, but may not actually be in a rock genre. Be careful, as exposure to this amount of awesome has unpredictable effects.
Derrek J. Thompson is an irresponsible and unimportant song-writer and all-around creative type that lives in the middle of nowhere. His hobbies include sleeping and performing Bach at old-folks homes. He plays keyboards in a band called Anthropophobia but they don’t seem to be going anywhere. He hopes to become more disciplined with his creative endeavors as a result of Song Fu.
Over the twelve years since young-ish midwesterner Travis Norris first picked up a guitar, he has played and written music in a wide variety of genres ranging from rock that a-billies, metal of a medium or heavier weight, “outlaw” country (aka “the good kind”) and “frosty” jazz (not a real subgenre). Left to his own devices, something like “U2 meets Jonny Lang meets various two-to-three-hit-wonder bands of the ’90s indie/alternative scene” is what you’ll usually get. Travis’s instrumental talents range from lead guitar, 2nd lead guitar, rhythm guitar, auxiliary guitar, and bass (sorta). He can also drag and drop drum loops like you wouldn’t believe. He comes to this competition armed with three electric guitars, a neglected bass, an Ebow, and absolutely no fan base or public recognition. So be nice, eh? I hear he’s real sensitive when people that aren’t him make fun of him.
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June 25th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Bud’s Hobby: Insisting That Real-Life Instruments are Sequenced
http://xkcd.com/331/
🙂
My song, OTOH, was totally fake.
Thanks for the advice on smiling. I’d found biting helps, or, to really be sure, deliberately under-biting.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:36 am
how do i vote? it doesnt show any option…
June 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
@Caleb Hines – nice xkcd reference! 🙂 Oh, and I can’t resist it … the harpsichord Denise used was modelled, not sampled {grin}
@The Perfect Place (Bud) – my previous comment had an expression in
it indicating that my horror was really mock horror. Unfortunately that part was stripped off because it was in angled brackets, probably because the comment engine doesn’t allow embedded HTML.
June 25th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Hey gang! A very cool Superhero/Pop Culture site, luckylegendary.com has featured the video for “Bomb Squad Girl!”
http://www.luckylegendary.com/ItemViewer.aspx?itemID=500
LuckyLegendary features a group of superheroes, “The Legends” led by Captain Lucky! The fun part of the site is that the Legends actually produce most of the content themselves. It’s Homespun Superhero Fun! It’s a blend of fiction and reality that’s just a loopy good time. Like CosPlay with original characters!
June 25th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
@Steve Chatterton: Don’t worry about fixing ‘tic’; that was more of a ‘for future reference’ point, and only in case you didn’t already know it.
I really like your Zen of Voting post.
June 25th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
@travis, if that’s the way you always sing, i can’t fault you for it. ;-D my friend said it was actually apathy though. maybe he just didn’t explain it right, but it sounds like you experienced similar things.
my church is mad poor, yo.
@caleb, hahahaha i love xkcd. but seriously though, modeled or sampled or however you put it, faux is faux. it wasn’t a real, legit harpsichord, was it? ;-P
you’re right about your song being totally fake and all, i should probably be less of a hypocrite. i rescind the comment on lex’s song [even though i mentioned that the song was still one of my favorites and one i would’ve voted for if this website didn’t hate my ip connection] but retain my disdain for sequenced drums in anything but hip-hop, non-rock pop and dancehall music.
@michael, i picked that up without the fancy emoticon. <3 my reply was intended to be somewhat sarcastic. hehe.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:41 am
PerfectPlace, let me know when Walmart starts their drummer-in-a-box sale.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I know several people who have tried to come vote for round 3 songs and have either been unable to find the check-boxes to vote or have tried to vote only to be told they’ve already voted. This is really frustrating. And clearing cache has no affect.
It’s the IP number or something.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
just my preference, lex. it’s also why i don’t write songs with drums in mind if i know i won’t have the time or resources to record them.
you take the electronic route, and that’s just fine. it simply doesn’t appeal to my musical tastes. ;-P no need to be catty, my good man.
June 27th, 2009 at 1:59 am
ditto, miceelf. everyone i’ve told says they can’t vote.
June 27th, 2009 at 2:44 am
Well if you’re saying you don’t like They Might Be Giants, then GOOD DAY TO YOU, SIR! I SAID GOOD DAY!
June 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Just mowed the lawn, couldn’t get Bomb Squad Girl out of my head. At all.
June 27th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Wait, how did the scribbles double their vote count in one night? Do 12-year olds have LAN parties?
June 27th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
We are not 100% sure where our sudden votes came from. We heard that Carter Hulsey, who is a local artist with a big teen girl following mentioned us at a show last night. Turns out he is a fan of ours. Go figure. Maybe the votes came from his fans? We are not ruling out shenanigans but they aren’t our shenanigans.
June 27th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Well, shenanigans are unlikely now because there’s only one vote per IP address.
Gotta hand it to the 12 year olds for making a cute song though. Not sure if it’s winning material, but it is cute.
June 28th, 2009 at 12:15 am
@Scribbles: Grats on the promo! Good luck keeping ahead of B&J 😉
June 28th, 2009 at 5:32 am
“Networking: The Internet Game.” Whaddya think, Ken? New title for the next edition?
June 28th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Cheers
~ Later ~
June 29th, 2009 at 11:19 am
@Lex: this is exactly why i suggested that more than 1 artist go to the finals against the Master. because there’s always going to be at least 1 Networking Superstar. as good as Molly is, she was definitely floated by her online following, (just past Hank Greens online following, that is ;).
if 2 or 3 finalists went up against the Master, we’d have a better chance of Actual Talent determining the end result of this competition (which is NOT to say the current vote leaders are lacking talent).
June 29th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
you’re such an enigma, riddle.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
@Riddle: How is that not saying we lack talent exactly?
June 29th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Congrats to Berg and Jerry!! Job well done! You deserve to be one of the top contestants. Your songs were fun, creative and had great vocals. Good luck, if you are chosen for the Final Round.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
@Gorbzilla (missed your reply at the beginning of the lyrics post): Ahh, yes. Say no more. If my effects stopped working I would probably have to drop out completely (I use Guitar Rig, without it my guitars would be just dry signal…. truly a feast for the ears). Trying to be the “artist” and also the “recording engineer/tech guy” at the same time has always been my least favorite part of the recording process. I like wearing either of those hats but not both at the same time–that is just one goofy looking, frustrating hat.
@Scribbles: Word of mouth is truly a force to be reckoned with when the mouth is talking to impressionable teenagers. Well done!
@Berg: I thought he specifically said that you -don’t- lack talent? Easy reading mistake to make though. Dumb comment threads…
June 30th, 2009 at 3:46 am
My quick impressions of this round:.
Edric Haleen, a great idea for a ONE minute song! This seems as obvious as a ticking time bomb, but I hadn’t thought of it, and nobody else did either. That’s when cleverness is at it’s best, when it seems obvious in hindsight. I like how all your songs are distinctly different from each other, but are also all so distinctly YOU. You have a unique vision and style. I envy that.
Godz Poodlz, this is my favorite of our songs. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times. It’s not perfect, but Rod’s ideas of having a rhythm track of a ticking clock, a heartbeat and the drone of an alarm are so simple and very effective.
Steve Chatterton, the video for this is better than the song. The joke is very similar to the one at the beginning of Coulton’s “Big Dick Farts the Polka,” from MOSF#2. This is pleasant and moderately funny. But I didn’t have the emotional connection with this like I did with “The Only Way I Know” (one of my absolute favorites from MOSF#4).
Jutze Schult, without you telling me this had some connection to Dawson’s Creek, I never would have guessed. You have a great pop sensibility and I find your vocals and accent engaging and endearing. But the words came so fast, I had trouble following the thread of the lyric. The idea of a song about a dream that ends abruptly with an alarm is clever for a song with a definite time limit.
Jalapeno Habaneros, this is my favorite tune that I’ve heard of yours. I could understand the vocals without reading the lyrics sheet. It seemed like you put some effort into getting a better sound this time. I liked the Song Fu (inside joke) of missing Molly and Mike. There was genuine emotion in the song. And the sound effect at the end gave me a grin.
The Scribbles, I could hear a lot of development in the arrangement of this song. A strange song, but with honest emotional tones. Those are cool. This is also my favorite Scribbles Song Fu song. This is as good as “Robots.” This is one of the few ONE minute songs that I think would sound really good in an extended re-mix. For one, I want more Yeti vocal solo. Another verse might be nice. I’ve heard rumors of a possible Scribbles Yeti musical concept album! I’m all for it! I VOTED for this one.
Gorbzilla, “Minuteman” is like reverse of the classic “60 Minute Man.” The last line doesn’t quite scan right and so you stumble on it.
Darrell Macclaine, this is truly lovely. I like how you chose to slow down things down instead of speed them up for a challenge with a short time limit. I’d like to hear this song in a medley with “Golden Slumbers.” Maybe it’s because I want to hear MORE of this song, have it move to a chorus or separate instrumental part before coming back to this. Anyway, very pretty song. It got my vote.
Berg and Jerry, “Inside Jokes” is funny. But I can’t imagine that the song will have legs beyond this round of Song Fu. This seemed like it was knocked off pretty quickly. I’m very flattered that the Poodlz got a mention.
Denise Hudson, some interesting lyrics mixing images. From the lyric I had assumed that Queen Christina had died violently, like Anne Boleyn. Some of the lyrics are muddled. This is partly due to the recording and to the fact that they don’t quite fit, flow and scan. I like the harpsichord and really appreciate how varied all three of your songs are. This one just didn’t click as much for me as “Leave the Stone Alone” or “Anna’s Gerbil.”
Lex Vader, your sound (especially with this song) reminds me of Har Mar Superstar. Funky Pop. “Keen Dreams” reminded me of Calvin and Hobbes and his daydreams of Spaceman Spiff. I was surprised to learn that there is a whole series of Commander Keen games and that “Keen Dreams” is one of them. Clever song. The music fits the happy fun images really well. Well done.
Caleb Hines, “A Standard Song,” is entirely pleasant. It bounces along. I thought the lisp was a happy character voice. It works. It fits the loopy tone of the song perfectly. Just enough to give a light, silly tone to the song but not too much to be mocking. It makes sense that you didn’t overdo it, because it’s not an affectation.
Richard Clayton Spring, “Warp Speed” is a trippy Space Opera fantasy. I like the strange Jonathan Richman meets the Violent Femmes quality of your songs. You are unlucky that “Keen Dreams” is in the same round, because it has a similar theme and Lex Vader built a stronger spaceship.
Sara Parsons, the non sequitur of the Manatee looking like your 8th grade gym teacher is very funny. It’s interesting how certain themes are popular from round to round. This round it was dreams and Meta-songs about the songs. This song pairs up against another dream song, “Joey Dumps Pacey” by Jutze. I felt more emotionally connected to the lyrics and story of this song. But I like Jutze’s production and catchy punch. If I could, I would blend your two dreams together. Maybe the two of you could virtually collaborate sometime in a “His Name is Legs” kind of way. Ah, I’m just dreamin’ now. But like Blondie says, “Dreamin’ is free.”
Ian and Mellisa, “Quickie.” This song struck the deepest emotional chord with me. The line, “I know that you’d rather have fallen first. But you can remember it in reverse.” That’s such a clever turn of phrase, almost like a magic trick. Seriously, you’ve packed a lot of punch into just one minute. I’d like to hear more instruments, a fuller sound, even if it’s just an egg shaker and a tambourine. Also, the harmony vocals are lovely, but too much the same all the way through. You might want to have just a solo voice on the verse and the harmony on the chorus. Or shift the harmony farther away from the melody line in the verse or chorus. Or have three part harmony on the chorus, just something to mix up the sound and make a bigger structural shift from verse to chorus. And there’s a sameness to the harmonies, always tracking about a third away through the whole song. But this was still one of my favorites this round. Lyrically masterful. And it got my vote. Any chance of an animated version of this song too?
The Perfect Place, “wtfpeople20.” Three distinct stories and two choruses in just a minute! Very funny and it didn’t seem all that rushed. The T-Pain verse is still my favorite here. Put some Auto Tuner on the first part of that, drive the joke home. In my head I hear a snare with brushes and a triangle sounding just after the words, “The End.” ding.
His Name is Legs, “Swan Song.” Again it’s an inside joke, but one that I truly appreciate. Especially the line, “Not a snowballs chance in hell of moving on.” For the record. You’ve made an impression. I hope you shadow the Final Round. And if this is the last we hear of “His Name is Legs,” you will be missed. I’ve tried to become MySpace iPals with you, but I keep failing the “Guess their last name or e-mail” quiz!
Caleb Lee, “Don’t Sing Along.” This melodic confection was the Meta-song (the song about the song) that I liked the most. I liked that the catchy melody made it almost impossible to NOT sing along. And after being initially annoyed with the one unintelligible verse, decided that was a sarcastic way to ensure that nobody COULD sing along with the song! This one got my vote.
Austin and the Pudaks, “Typo in the Lyric Sheet.” Too bad the F-bomb will keep this away from my kids and off my iPod. The guitar part reminded me of “Murder Mystery” by the Velvet Underground. Lyrically, I was reminded of “Heaven,” by Talking Heads, for obvious reasons. I really enjoyed this. I think you could pop an ocarina or hammer dulcimer solo in there and expand this out to 2:15 with another verse and/or even a bridge section. Seriously, I don’t exactly know how you should fill out the sound. I just close my ears and try to “hear” what is missing. Sometimes strange sounds like sweet potato or church basement piano come to mind.
Derek Thompson, “Fu in the Key of C.” This is annoying until you get to the part where you bring it down real slow and end real soft. That’s funny in an Adam Sandler kind of way. But I think just a tiny bit more spit and polish, just a little more effort in making the words flow or the “La,la,la” part melodic and you could have had a much funnier and catchier song. This was also a theme, the Meta-Song theme, “Gonna write a song about this song and the Contest,” that was explored several times this round.
Travis Norris, “Finite.” The lyric is obscure. I think it has to do with depression and trying to make yourself a better you by chemical means, in the first verse with alcohol and in the second with Lexapro. For what it’s worth, this was my favorite song from you so far in MOSF#4. This was just a very near miss from getting my vote. Too many good songs this round. Maybe happier, lighter subject matter would have steered me toward a vote. I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to change this song except see it longer, explored and developed more. I liked the instrumentation and whatever weaknesses there are in your voice actually work well in the context of this song.
None of the songs got the number of votes that they deserved. We can all be content in the knowledge that the number of votes we have only reflects a small percentage of the people who actually liked our songs and didn’t have enough votes to vote for every song they liked or weren’t able to vote because the system was locked up.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:21 am
I have to say, as much as I’ve appreciated partipating, and as proud as I am of my entries, I’m a little put off entering Song Fu #5 by the fact I have literally no chance of doing even slightly well in it. I don’t have 200 internet friends so as a consequence there’s documented evidence that my songs are no good. Maybe they are no good.
This competition has served as one giant confidence knocker, and sort of made me not really want to carry on doing songs. If my best can leave eleven out of twelve people cold, considering everything, it’s maybe time for me to stop trying to be a songwriter. I shudder to think how badly I’d have done if people could only choose one song.
June 30th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Okay — weighing in again…
First of all — I really enjoy this whole “Song Fu” thing. I definitely plan on being back for MoSF#5. I love the creative challenge; I love the sense of community; I love the feedback. The votes don’t matter much to me — the experience does.
That said — I have some fears and some complaints. I think it’s time to give them voice.
One — Ken? Really? There’s no voting engine out there that can handle what we’re trying to do here? The voting has been pissing people off since the outset, and it’s still not good. I know you said in one of the Q&As that you’ve gone through three different iterations. But come on! I’m starting to get the palpable sense that it’s turning people away in droves — in a way that I haven’t felt before.
I truly believe that, if you were to go back and count — during this past round, the voting was out of commission more often than it was up and running. Not cool. I do believe that it’s still _fair_ — in that no one is more unduly advantaged or disadvantaged than anyone else. But I have baker’s dozens of people (like Felicia — they come in thirteens) who have shared with me their frustrations of not being able to vote. (And these are conscientious people who want to cast _five_ votes — not just one for me!)
In Round 1, we had the whole voting scandal with votes being rescinded and I.P. addresses questioned. I believe that that abuse was made possible by the quest to solve the opposite problem of one person’s vote wiping out the possibility of a host of other people on the same network from being able to cast their own votes. But, like I said — really? We can’t get the voting ironed out?
Two — Darrell? (And others who are thinking along similar lines?) Please don’t drop out of MoSF just because of a poor showing in the “voting.” If you’re proud of your entries, please keep sharing your music and your creativity. Do not consider what is, in fact, a _traffic_ contest (filtered through a horribly ineffective voting engine) to be any kind of “documented evidence” about the quality of your songs. The two have basically nothing to do with each other. The voting is primarily a measure of a competitor’s ability to bring in traffic. The numbers will always be skewed by the people who vote for just one song. Blessings upon those people who take the time to cast five informed votes — but they’re never going to be able to turn the overall voting picture into a true representation of relative merit or true reflection of how much the songs were enjoyed in relation to each other.
As such, I can completely understand how this competition can serve as a “giant confidence knocker.” It takes thick skin to survive it. Just the act of _submitting_ a song to something like this takes a strong soul and a leap of faith. As I’ve written before, it is a “heart-in-the-throat” moment when you click the “Send” button and launch your very personal creation out into the ether — to be judged, to be critiqued, to possibly be misunderstood, misinterpreted, or even roundly panned. And it’s not like we’re professional musicians — doing this for money with buffers like agents and managers and publicists, and with special equipment and resources and mixing boards and editors… We’re students. We’re white-collar/blue-collar workers. We’re wannabe rockstars. (Or wannabe garage-banders.) We’re making music with whatever we have at our disposal. A lot of us are on the steep part of the learning curve. But we’re learning. And we’re doing it while we gamely attempt to rising to an artificial challenge imposed on us by someone _else_ — struggling to find and bring our own style, our own voice, our own sensibility to each successive task.
It’s not easy. It takes courage in inner strength and no small amount of intestinal fortitude to continue in Song Fu. But the greatest joy (for me!) is in sharing what I’ve done, and in listening to what others have done. The great variety and diversity that springs from the same common starting point but branches out in so many unique directions. To lose people to a cockamamie voting engine is tragic, and erodes the strength of our Fu.
Three — I’ve noticed a small decline in the sense of community on the comment boards (here, and in other forums as well). It used to feel very friendly and collegial. People would share praise and constructive feedback — people would learn and grow and ask for suggestions. Then, in MoSF#4, we first had the voting scandal. And people started pointing fingers and calling names. And then, after people took the time to patiently try to clarify the situation, other people _kept_ pointing fingers and calling names — obviously too wrapped up in taking offense to actually _read_ and _consider_ and _think_. (VERY discouraging and disheartening!) Then we had the political wars, which got a bit out of hand. We also had a noticeable decrease in traffic — which I think was probably equal parts frustration about the voting and the loss of a large number of competitors between Rounds 1 and 2.
I hope that when MoSF#5 begins, we can get back some of what we’ve lost. I hope we can retain a lot of the challengers we already have, and that we can add in new, fresh faces. I hope QSE can stumble across some new voting code that will remove one big frustration from the overall equation. I hope that people will be able to appreciate that a “competition” of this format will _NEVER_ be a referendum on _talent_ — and that people who want feedback on the quality of their songs will always remember that validation, suggestions and feedback _are_ to be found here, but they’ll be found within the _comments_, not in the voting results.
Personally, I’m having a great deal of fun with Song Fu, and I’m proud of the songs I’ve written. It is admittedly a tough pill to swallow that I’ll likely never be in the final round against a Master, no matter how good the songs are that I submit. But I do get to write and share three songs before being voted off the island, and that’s great. I get to rise to interesting, creative challenges every couple of weeks, and present them to a wider audience. And I get to interact with people like Joe and Russ and Mike and Jarrett and Jutze and Bram and Caleb and Hazen and Travis through this experience — (I vote for Joe!) — as well as people like JoAnn and Borba and Matthew, and even riddle! Next to that, the voting is interesting, but relatively unimportant…
All the best! Long live Song Fu!
🙂
Edric
(Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!)
June 30th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
…..sooooo are we still doing a Final Round?
June 30th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
@Darrell: Edric summed it up pretty nicely, but I just wanted to say, please don’t put too much stock in the voting. Between people who wish they had four or five more votes, system lockups, a probably pretty large number of people who just vote for one person without listening to the others… well, just doesn’t seem worth worrying about it that much.
If MoSF is really damaging your confidence or worse, the enjoyment you get out of music than I can understand that you might want to quit (I for one would like to see you stay in), but please for the love of Aisha don’t let it stop you writing and recording songs.
@Berg: I assume Ken is working on wrangling a master. I know that the original choice from a few days ago is (apparently) a friend/colleague of Neil Innes so I’d bet you guys have your work cut out for you. 😀 Best of luck, by the way. Unless my counting mechanism is broken looks like you’re the Challengers.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
@richie – Kind words indeed. Where should I mail your cheque.
Btw, that John Cleese thing has been dogging me for years (since high school), but you’re the first to bring it to the internet.
June 30th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
@Darrell Maclaine – the only way to get 200 internet friends is one friend at a time. Every great journey starts with a single step and all that.
I think your tunes are good and have earned my vote at least a couple of times.
All I gotta say is keep working it – if not here than somewhere else. The secret to every overnight success is 5-10 years of hard work, or one year if you’re insanely dedicated like JoCo.
I have no idea how long you’ve really been working it, though. For me, I’ve been writing songs for about 25 years now, but I’ve only really been “working it” since April when I got my studio all ironed out & reworked my site & started recording again. And I only consider this a start. I’m not even going to turn on the juice until September, and even then it’s going to take a couple of years.
Draw up a reasonable 5-yr-plan for yourself that involves time for writing, recording & networking. Check out mine on my site for an example: http://www.stevechatterton.com/20090624-the-dreaded-five-year-plan.html
Also, do the math. Add up all the voters as well as all the votes that every person gets. I did this once when I felt down like you and I figured that every voter voted for an average of 1.25 songs, which means that the vast majority of voters are only ever hearing one song (if that).
You’re not losing 11 out of every 12. I’m no mathematician, but there’s only a slim minority listening to all the tunes & voting for 5 tunes, and you’re getting a lot of them. And they’re the real music lovers anyway.
That’s your niche. Concentrate on nurturing that.
‘Nuff said. I really like your stuff & want to hear more.
July 1st, 2009 at 8:35 am
Steve’s absolutely right. To delve a little deeper into the math — if the “average” voter votes for 1.25 songs, that means that for every person who votes for five songs, there are _FIFTEEN_ people who are just voting for the artist they know! (This is based on the assumption that everyone who voted cast either just one vote, or all five allowable votes. The math gets harder if you consider people casting two, three or four votes. But I think the simplification suffices for this particular purpose…)
This is what I meant when I wrote, “The numbers will always be skewed by the people who vote for just one song.” No one should take the voting as indicative of which songs are objectively “better” or “worse” than any others. Like I’ve written before, even if “most of the judges award the Red Velvet” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwZg_f65yI0 or http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Peoples-Favorite-Thing/dp/B000TE2IL6 ), there’s still plenty of room in this competition for your Rice Krispie Treats — and we’d miss you if you were gone…
🙂
Edric
July 1st, 2009 at 10:53 am
I am probably not going to do Song Fu 5. Not unless it’s a couple of months off (and fixing the voting machines you got from Palm Beach might help too). I may do this final challenge, but I have an album/EP I need to work on after that. As much as Song Fu forced me to finish three songs, I ended up taking a vacation every other week. I really need to focus on writing and recording more than one song start to finish. And I need time to make them sound good, not just passable. I have a song on a compilation coming out and I need something people can purchase or at least sample so any interest does not simply disappear after five minutes.
Darrell, your maths are confusing. I’m not sure where you got 11 out of 12 people not liking your songs. You were in the middle of the votes with both of your original songs. That means with, what, 0 fans (?), you were still able to beat out half the competitors. You make it sound like you were in the bottom two. You don’t need to quit music. You just need to get heard. And this is one way of doing that. Plus, let’s face it, without Hank or Molly or Paul & Storm or JoCo or Gene Simmons, not a lot of new listeners dropped by for this edition. I only got so many YouTube views on my shadow entries last time because I made the videos replies to Hank and Molly’s videos. And it took a while.
Russ, your comparison baffles the hell out of me. Har Mar does hip hop. I know you’re a little odd, but you’re comparing apples to marshmallow stars here. If I actually sound like a fat naked white guy doing hip hop when I put out a power pop song, I have completely failed in my musical intentions. And if so, I’m going to go eat stale peeps and see what happens.
SEACREST OUT!
July 1st, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Lex, when I compared you to Har Mar Superstar I wasn’t trying to imply that you are fat or naked. The Har Mar Superstar song I’m most familiar with is an achingly beautiful synth cover of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again, Naturally.” Not hip hop at all. Seriously, stunningly beautiful and highly recommended. Possibly better than the original. I don’t hear the fat and naked part in his music at all. Maybe I’m not familiar enough with his big hits.
When I think of Har Mar Superstar I think of a smart, nerdy, white guy, single-handedly writing and recording immaculately produced songs in an eclectic variety of genres. I think of a guy who has not only taken on a stage name, but also a comic persona in order to promote music that swims upstream just outside of the mainstream. If those similarities to your music don’t make sense or if that comparison makes you think that you’ve completely failed, I’m sorry. I intended the comparison as a compliment.
If you were to describe the “Lex Vader Sound,” how would you do it? Who would you compare yourself to? And just out of curiosity, how would you categorize the Muzik of Godz Poodlz?
July 1st, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I would say Lex Vader sounds like a less good Godz Poodlz. And vice versa.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I have not wanted to say anyone to anything here on the comments board until I FINALLY posted my reviews to the last two rounds … all triumphantly up here for everyone to peruse and go ooh and ahh over! I have been very sick though. There has been much pestilence in my 107 degree, roachy, ex-boyfriend-riddled life. Drama. Heatwaves. Evil. ACK! But I did want to get on here and say really quick that:
I AM a professional musician. I have a very expensive degree that has been lying in my house, in a frame, gathering dust as I housewife around my unkempt home NOT doing anything and just generally lying fallow. So therefore – I’m NOT really a professional musician. It’s kind of like an Epimenides paradox, this paragraph.
What I expected out of songfu was something like Steve C’s five year plan. Something to get me off my duff, making deadlines. Something that if (heaven forbid!) I got bad reviews or no votes; I’d get over it and keep struggling along. Because bad things happen to us all, when we are professionals. Professionals don’t make money sometimes. Professionals just work. We get up in the morning, we flip on the equipment in our recording rooms (ending lastly with our studio monitors as I almost tragically learned), and then we work. It’s a learning process. I have professionals that are more professional than me helping me now. Many/most have more impressive resumes than me. They’re also still learning. Someone will always have a cooler resume than you. And there will always be someone with a littler resume waiting to take the next award.
There’s room for all of us. I don’t really like contests. I like what Darrell said originally; when he said in his bio why he did this. To give payback for the amount of free music he recieved. I feel justified and happy – I’ve earned the right to have ‘Football is Good’ (which I thought was precious and hilarious, and reminded me of when I went to watch the cricket with my husband’s family in Australia – even though footbal isn’t cricket – although football is good). I get to keep it in my iTunes because he gets to keep my goofy-assed songs about gerbils and ancient royalty and magic rocks. Maybe next time I will learn to master better for him, others like him, and everyone else who has trouble hearing my singing because I have not yet learned the recording skills necessary to be heard even if my singing is very soulful.
I certainly had something nice to say about most everyone. I know I voted for Darrell – and I don’t say that lightly, since I am not one to “vote and tell.” But I feel that he might need the reassurance. I know I was thankful for the reassurance I got, in agreement with many of the criticisms, and amused by the rest of them.
I will hold my breath and kick if:
People quit the contest for silly reasons
Godz Poodlz break up
Legs don’t give it another go, at least someday
I don’t get my durned reviews done.
And on that note, I suppose I have a 4-5 day 4th of July plan for that. But don’t hold me to it! 🙂
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:18 am
Grats to Berg and Jerry! Well done!
Best of luck against the master! (Could it be Molly????)
Oh, and happy 4th to everyone! Cheers!
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
@Darrell:
Only one performer can ‘win’. With (I believe, an opening count of) 39 performers or even (a final count of) 21, your chances of ‘winning’ or even being in the top five, are extremely limited, especially if you don’t already have a following.
(The scare quotes around the word ‘win’ are deliberate – as others have articulated before me, the nature of this ‘competition’ is such that applying the word ‘win’ to the person who gets the most votes is at least a touch laughable.)
So, votes shouldn’t – in my opinion, of course – be the reason that you do this. What should? The chance to make mistakes, and thereby learn and improve.
It costs nothing (well, time and effort, but no cash outlay unless I’m completely mistaken) to put your songs here and in return, you get free feedback! Free instruction from the School of Hard Knocks, which is the best (if most painful) teacher out there.
Did you learn something with each song? If so, then they were worth doing, even if you’d gotten zero votes.
Did you enjoy making each song? If so, then they were worth doing, even if you’d gotten zero votes.
I liked all of your songs, and I REALLY hope you’ll be back if there’s a MoSF #5 (and beyond). I also hope you get a website. 🙂
(I also hope that many others will be back: Edric, Ian & Melissa, Steve Chatterton, Crabbydad [from last MoSF], Jarrett Heather, just to name a few.)
As to whether or not you sound ‘Beatle-y’, I concur with others who’ve said you do. I think there’s something about the quality of your voice, or maybe a nuance of your accent, even if it’s from nowhere near Liverpool, that says “Beatles”, particularly to us North Americans who aren’t as attuned to the differences in regional accent. It’s something, I suspect, that you’re going to have to struggle with (in terms of the way people perceive your songs).
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:22 pm
@Edric:
Apropos of your round 3 song: http://mediumlarge.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/thursday-july-2-2009/
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Nice, Wilson! Thanks!!
🙂
July 5th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
@Denise: I think we might be taking a break from Song Fu for a bit, but I think odds are good for an eventual return. 🙂