Song-Fu 2

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Comments

  • "Always the Moon" is growing on me, as do many of JoCo's songs. I still haven't been able to give any of the other songs a real listen, because they all seem to start skipping when I start playing them.
  • I'm having a hard time with the fact that "Always the Moon" makes almost no sense whatsoever and that the bit about the moon seems completely tacked on. Not top Fu, IMO.
  • Yeah, maybe. But I like how it sounds.
  • edited August 2008
    I personally think JoCO did a pretty rockin job on that song, especially considering when he wrote it, which I can sympathize with as I did pretty much the same thing.
    :D

    I think he was sorta at a disadvantage having already written a few songs about the moon.
    Writing about the same subject all the time gets tedious.

    For the challengers, I think Jeff Mcdougall did the best job.
  • I've listened to about a third of them so far, in random order. I am really tired and not paying a lot of attention, so not much has stood out. I do recall being interested enough to check which one I was listening to when I heard the whistling part in JeffM's one. Also, when I heard the RiffTones one I was quite surprised to see who it was by, I thought it was a challenger.

    But as I said, I'm pretty tired (it's 1a.m. and I've been to IKEA) so it would take something really amazing to get through to me right now.
  • Angelastic: Go to bed, you boobie. I'm going too, my eyes are falling shut, which is no surprise seeing as I only slept about 3 hours last night.

    Now I'm at 8th place with a static 18 votes, I'm not hoping for many more votes. So I'm pretty sure this will be the end of the Song Fu story for me.
  • Interestingly, I now can see the results for both the Masters and challengers... but I haven't even voted for the challengers.
  • Back to the usual crapola. I didn't vote here at home, but it randomly decided I've already voted.
  • Well, if you voted from somewhere else, then it's obvious that when you did, you were injected which nanites, which the site can remotely detect, and determine that you already voted.

    That's it exactly.
  • Except that it has different people listed than I voted for :p
  • Well I never said the nanites had that piece of information! Nano-technology isn't up to what you see in the TV shows yet, after all. The site just detected the nanites, and made a guess.
  • I really enjoyed the submissions from the folks who participate here on these forums. Jutze's song was really funny; I loved the "what gives?" chorus to Dantes' song; ManFriday had a cool beat & energy, and Jeff had the great whistle. Is that everybody? I thought you all deserved big kudos.
  • Yeah I've had one quick listen to everyone so far (13 new songs to add to my playlist! Hooray! I'm desperate for new songs!) and struggling to sift through them all!
    On the Masters front I agree (at first listen) with Spiff, P&S just edge out Mr Coulton by a nose and while the Rifftones song is amusing its so all over the place I don't know what to make of it.

    Must say I was surprised by the number of songs which attribute a male gender to the moon since typically it has been associated with femininity throughout mythology and legend! I did like Dantes take on the moon being lonely and wondering why we don't visit anymore! Its been hard focusing on each song individually while working though so I intend to listen to them more over the weekend in my downtime if possible before deciding on my votes.
  • Outside of Greco-Roman legend there's actually a wide assortment of moon gods. I guess not everyone connected the moon with that other thing that comes and goes every 28 days. :D

    Oh man, so many good songs. Can't... decide...
  • edited August 2008
    Hmmm you are right Tindomiel!

    I'm using iTunes star ratings to help me notate how much I'm enjoying each song as I listen, I guess I'll remove songs from the playlist by process of elimination and see what is left!
  • As of 1:20 AM EST, the Masters' vote count: JoCo 118, The RiffTrax 94, Paul and Storm 59.

    There's nothing said above that I find myself particularly disagreeing with. Wholeheartedly concur with Mitch's assessment of RatD ("the same kind of different and unique that [their] previous entries did") -- they were standouts for me in Song-Fu 1, but "Noon Moon" was fairly middle-of-the-pack this time around. In my opinion, the skill / talent level of this round's challengers is surprisingly higher than last round's -- more good songs, fewer mediocre ones, none that struck me on first (or second) listen as awful. Although I've not yet figured out whom I'm voting for, my hat is off to all of you.

    And to put my (forum-admin) hat back on, I'm of two minds about sending messages to invite the rest of the challengers to the forums. On one hand, I'd like to hear what they have to say about their songs, and I'd like to give them the chance to promote themselves a little; on the other hand, I don't want to put more pressure on them to campaign for votes, and it's not as though the forum-member challengers have an unfair advantage, promotion-wise -- there's nothing preventing the others from signing up themselves, unsolicited, the same way the ones who are already here did. Also, I wouldn't want to stifle anybody's honest comments -- full admission: the idea crossed my mind last time, but I decided I wouldn't be able to bring myself to speak as freely about ECF if I suspected she was reading. Thoughts?

    Also, thoughts on why this round's songs seemed across-the-board better, at least to me? Initial theories:
    1. more open-ended, less restrictive topic that gave people more flexibility to show off;
    2. contrariwise: less well-structured / preordained, less cut-and-dried topic that gave people more difficulty, causing the less creative to drop out;
    3. contrariwiser: the difficulty of Song-Fu 1 discouraged the less confident from participating in the first place;
    4. fewer people knew about the first contest in advance, but the publicity garnered by Song-Fu 1, especially via JoCo, meant a greater number of experienced songwriters and musicians were licking their chops waiting for this one;
    5. the high standard set by JeffM and JoCo in Song-Fu 1 forced contestants to work harder to perfect their songs (the "Bring the Fu" hypothesis)
    Anything else to consider?
  • Bry, you could've just invited everyone except ECF. :)

    In somewhat related news to MoSF that most people won't care about since it's not really music-related: I've been working on my website/blog to update it for a possible increase of visitors due to MoSF and being able to update easier and give more personal/music news, but I've been having a lot of problems. I had made an account with a free webhost on which I could put Wordpress, but that server is too unstable, it's offline half of the time, so that's out. Then remains using Blogger.com to put a blog page on my normal website, but I can't seem to publish it to my ftp. Also, I wanted to put a Twitter updates box on my homepage, but it won't go to the top right corner, keeps stuck at the right below the text of the middle area. Blah. :(
  • I've listened a few times and I really think Paul & Storm won this one for the Masters. I'm very surprised and disapointed that they are on the bottom because I wasn't so impressed by Rifftrax.
  • Agreed. I don't want P&S to not advance to the next round. :(
  • I agree, P&S should at least be in second place and Rifftones in third. :/
  • i haven't listened to rifftrax yet but i feel like i'd have to give jonathan my vote for this, previously noted objections aside. i liked the lyrics of p&s's and so on but the sound didn't seem quite right. course maybe it was just the speakers, or similar. still, since i'm not actually going to vote, it sort of becomes a moot point.
  • what sold me on the p&s song was the Werewolves of London riff.
  • I voted for P&S even though I think JoCo's entry is better. At first with "Always the Moon", I wasn't sure what I was hearing. But then it gets under your skin. It's deceptively addictive... but I voted for P&S because I think rifftrax entry is really mediocre and I would like to hear more from the duo.

    I'm really enjoying the contestants entries quite a bit. Especially Jason's and Edric's. Very nice.
  • edited August 2008
    I agree with your view on JoCo's entry, it takes a while to catch on to but then it's addicting, just as all his songs. I voted for him, because at that point P&S weren't in trouble yet and I figured they'd pull through.

    I'm still in 8th place with 18 votes, and I can attribute this to 5 factors:
    1. low audio quality due to having to record with a crappy pc mic
    2. lack of time to work on it and record when I had to study for exams
    3. vocal track isn't as good as it could've been due to recording late at night, hence having to be silent as not to wake my sleeping family members
    4. the level of the other challengers' entries
    5. and probably also a lack of campaigning I guess, but I honestly don't want to campaign for a song that in my own opinion doesn't match up to the other entries... and I don't have any fanbase/following/anyone who cares about me anyway

    I especially enjoyed yours, Jeff, Jason's and Edric's, though Jutze and some others had good songs too. Would've voted for you or Jason if I didn't need to lift my own vote count to a non-pathetic level.
  • Current scores (if what I'm seeing on my browser can be trusted):

    JoCo: 150
    Rifftones: 112
    P&S: 72

    Insane Ian: 54
    Jeff MacDougall: 50
    Edric Haleen: 47
    Jason Morris: 44
    Buckethat: 41
    Steve C: 37
    Jeremy Pierson: 26
    Bram Tant: 18
    RatD: 17
    Jutze Schult: 15
    Nate Shivers: 14
    Tom Rooney: 8
    Mick Bordet: 1

    Go JeffM! Poor Mick. I'm assuming that one vote was his...
  • I just tried to vote for P&S but the results afterward showed my vote going to the Rifftones. I'm going to try again on another compuker.
    Anyone else have that problem?
  • In the spirit of dantes here's my self assessment

    Nice guitar sound (time to move past the eighties Tom). Plodding pace. Mismatch between the tone of the verse and the lyric. Solo seems to not take the song forward. The solo needs more of a defined melody and crescendo to finish. Probably the big stumbling block, the vocals have intonation problems as well as rhythmic issues on top of a fair to weak melody to work with. Lyrically it has a vague story and is missing a bridge. But it doesn't suck.

    I've listened to all of them a couple times and made some notes for each which I'd be willing to share individually if any of the challengers thinks I might give them any insight. Having the second lowest vote total though I suspect most folks would figure what does he know and pass. Fair enough. Which leads me to ask if anyone had any thoughts on my tune feel free to share them publicly or privately. I promise I won't pout.

    On the one hand I'm glad Mick has a vote now. On the other hand, now I'm a little nervous.
  • I wrote down Tom's and Jasons songs as ones I wanted to hear again before I made my decision- until I got to Jutze's and had an immediate "I LOVE this one!" reaction. Sorry guys "I really like this" got trumped by green cheese with a great beat!
  • @tfroooney - I would appreciate any criticism, public or private, from anyone who has something to say. If you want to do it privately, you can e-mail me at [email protected].
  • edited August 2008
    Because of limited internet access, I'm listening to these in fits and starts. Listened to all the masters. I actually was impressed by the Rifftrax guys, because I expected nothing from them. It's not a great tune, and I think that the sound effects detract more than they add, but it was moderately amusing and not horrible-sounding. P&S's entry is pretty darned amusing. I especially like the last line about having his eyes ripped from their sockets, then he can't see her anymore. Har har! Very silly. I'm also loving "Always the Moon," but, as other folks have said, it's not his best. The chorus seems more than a bit ancillary to the main story, and I was a touch put off by the biblical imagery. But damn, it's catchy. I love the accompaniment. (Me likey arpeggiated strings.)

    Of the challengers, I've only listened to a few of the folks here on the forums and RatD. Apparently, I'm the only RatD fan. :-) I really enjoy their sound. I find the texture of their arrangments to be rich and varied. I like the layering and all the different timbres, including the mix of voices. I found that Jeff's song sounds quite a bit like "High" from the first round. Now, I like "High," so that not really much of a criticism. :-) To Dantes, I would suggest pitching your vocals up a bit in the future. You appear to be singing at the bottom of your range, which isn't as flattering to the voice. It has much better tone in the higher range, so why not showcase that more? :-) I'm not talking a lot higher, maybe no more than a third. Jutze's song is fun. I particularly like the peppy chorus! I'm going to have to listen to ManFriday's again. The hotel lobby got loud and I couldn't hear it very well.
  • edited August 2008
    Hmm, got a 19th vote. But RaTD just passed me by and others are about to... I'm going to end up at the bottom of the pile. *sighs*

    Tom: Personally I liked your tune a lot, just one of these kind of classic riffs that really get to you. It just sounds a bit too "flat", needs more energy and emotion imho, also your singing, and the lyrics need a bit of tweaking perhaps. If it'd been recorded like that, it'd've been a lot better already in my humble opinion. This song's definitely got potential.

    For me counts the same as for Jeff, you can mail me at [email protected].

    Colleenky: As I've said before, the problem was that I had to record vocals late at night (because i'd only finished my lyrics by that time) when my family was already asleep and I had to be quiet so as not to wake or disturb them. And when singing silently my voice always goes lower (which I think counts for (almost) everyone), so I could've recorded it a lot better had I recorded at an earlier time. My higher range tone can be better, but also not, depends on the song I think.
  • so if you quiet folks make it through to the next round, I expect some deep belting of lyrics.
  • My apologies, all you Song Fu-ers, for launching into my commentary before offering my congratulations to all of you who entered the contest! What you're doing is great. :-)
  • edited August 2008
    Current vote count:

    Challengers:

    Jeff MacDougall (14%, 60 Votes)
    Edric Haleen (13%, 56 Votes)
    Insane Ian (13%, 56 Votes)
    Jason Morris (13%, 54 Votes)
    "Buckethat" Bobby Matheson (11%, 45 Votes)
    Steve Chatterton (10%, 44 Votes)
    Jeremy Pierson (6%, 27 Votes)
    Run at the Dog (5%, 21 Votes)
    Bram Tant (4%, 19 Votes)
    Jutze Schult (4%, 16 Votes)
    Nate Shivers (4%, 16 Votes)
    Tom Rooney (3%, 11 Votes)
    Mick Bordet (0%, 1 Votes)

    Masters:

    Jonathan Coulton (45%, 176 Votes)
    The Rifftones (34%, 132 Votes)
    Paul and Storm (22%, 86 Votes)

    I don't think P&S are going to be able to catch up with the Rifftones in time yet, except if they suddenly start getting a lot of votes, which could happen as it happened a few times in the last edition too. The challengers top 5 seems to be about right, except that Jason should be in second place, and I'd personally switch Bobby with Steve.

    Colleenky: Thanks.
  • There are some very interesting and disconcerting things happening:

    Challengers:

    Jeff MacDougall (16%, 75 Votes)
    Steve Chatterton (14%, 69 Votes)
    "Buckethat" Bobby Matheson (12%, 58 Votes)
    Edric Haleen (12%, 57 Votes)
    Insane Ian (12%, 56 Votes)
    Jason Morris (11%, 54 Votes)
    Jeremy Pierson (6%, 28 Votes)
    Run at the Dog (4%, 21 Votes)
    Bram Tant (4%, 19 Votes)
    Jutze Schult (4%, 17 Votes)
    Nate Shivers (4%, 17 Votes)
    Tom Rooney (2%, 11 Votes)
    Mick Bordet (0%, 1 Votes)

    Masters:

    Jonathan Coulton (38%, 177 Votes)
    The Rifftones (37%, 170 Votes)
    Paul and Storm (25%, 117 Votes)

    1. The Rifftones are closing in on JoCo, surely with the malicious intent to overthrow him. Damn their following's great numbers.
    2. P&S have gained a few percentiles but are still too far behind.
    3. Steve has thrown his early shackles off and is going for the lead, though Jeff isn't giving up just yet. Bobby is also rising in the ranks.
  • In Songf Fu 1 I gave up on Paul and Storm coming back in the votes too early, I will not make the same mistake again. This competition is not over until it is over people, it is still anyone's competition as there is still plenty of time for voting left. I have not had a chance to properly listen to the songs (I got home from holiday late last night and have been listening while reading the internets so not listening really just having as background music) but will endeavour to vote the way I think it should go.
  • Wow! Steve gained 20+ votes going from 6th to 2nd in under 3 hours!
    Good job Steve!

    Sadly, I am out of friends to bribe, so I have to rest on the merits of my song now.
    :D
  • Jason: That's exactly what I found so disturbing/interesting/impressive too.

    I didn't bribe/ask any friends. :/
  • I was joking about bribing the friends. :)
  • Tom: Not sure who the 1 vote was from, but not me - I only just voted a couple of hours ago. Somehow I don't think I'll be catching you any time soon... :-)

    Spiff: Your pity is unnecessary... I brandish my wooden spoon with honour!


    About the song... much of the backing was written at home, but I was away with work all week from Monday, so the remainder (vocals, uke & harmonica) were recorded in various hotel rooms around the country on a wee Boss Micro BR. Much fun was had erecting makeshift sound treatments, shifting mattresses, etc. as well as trying to sing at a level loud enough for recording but not enough to get me kicked out. Certainly not the best I can do, but I'm happy enough given the circumstances and the competition.

    Irrespective of the outcome (which is a foregone conclusion for me, at least), I'll be writing songs for the next rounds anyway, which I'll just stick up on my blog for the single person who voted for my song!

    Roll on round 2...

    Mick
  • edited August 2008
    Challengers:

    Jeff MacDougall (13%, 84 Votes)
    "Buckethat" Bobby Matheson (12%, 80 Votes)
    Edric Haleen (12%, 80 Votes)
    Jason Morris (12%, 78 Votes)
    Steve Chatterton (11%, 76 Votes)
    Insane Ian (9%, 62 Votes)
    Run at the Dog (8%, 52 Votes)
    Nate Shivers (7%, 49 Votes)
    Jutze Schult (5%, 36 Votes)
    Jeremy Pierson (4%, 30 Votes)
    Bram Tant (3%, 21 Votes)
    Tom Rooney (2%, 13 Votes)
    Mick Bordet (1%, 8 Votes)

    Masters:

    Jonathan Coulton (36%, 204 Votes)
    The Rifftones (33%, 187 Votes)
    Paul and Storm (31%, 174 Votes)

    1. Yes, P&S are going to overthrow The Rifftones. :)
    2. The top challengers are really fighting for first place.
    3. Tom, you'd better watch out for Mick.
    4. So should I, since I'm still in 11th place. I suck.
  • Stop saying you suck, or people might believe you. 21 people think you're better than all the other challengers, even better than the top challenger in the last Song Fu.
  • Those were as far as I know (almost) all from friends/people I know, so they don't really count in my opinion, since most of them probably haven't even listened to any of the other challengers. And what does this have to do with the last Song Fu edition? I don't get it.
  • It means that a previous winner of that competition is among your competitors this time, so voting for you in preference to him is a compliment. Is that right, Angelastic?
  • Yes, that's what I mean, some people thought you were better than Jeff McDougall, and he won the last one, therefore you don't suck.

    Also, you're coming third-to-last in your section of the competition. Jonathan Coulton is coming third-to-last is his section of the competition. Therefore being third-to-last does not suck. ;-)
  • That's math, bitches. It don't lie.
  • Grr the page says I voted and I haven't yet! I was just ready to cast my Masters vote (P&S, and not just to ensure they advance, I think they nailed the Fu better this time in terms of content. Having said that, "Always the Moon" is one sneaky lil sucker, getting into my head all the time, its really growing on me!)

    As for Challengers I still can't even begin to narrow them down! Removing low rated songs from the playlist today in the hope of narrowing it down more!
  • OK, so here's another update:

    Challengers (I ended up liking JeffM's song the most)

    "Buckethat" Bobby Matheson (14%, 118 Votes)
    Jeff MacDougall (12%, 107 Votes)
    Steve Chatterton (12%, 101 Votes)
    Jason Morris (11%, 96 Votes)
    Edric Haleen (11%, 95 Votes)
    Insane Ian (10%, 86 Votes)
    Run at the Dog (9%, 76 Votes)
    Nate Shivers (6%, 52 Votes)
    Jutze Schult (6%, 48 Votes)
    Jeremy Pierson (4%, 33 Votes)
    Bram Tant (3%, 24 Votes)
    Tom Rooney (2%, 14 Votes)
    Mick Bordet (1%, 9 Votes)

    I'm very surprised Buckethat is leading. I would have Insane Ian and Jutze in the top 5 instead of him and Steve Chatterton. But that's just my opinion.

    But more shockingly, here's the Masters round result:

    The Rifftones (34%, 240 Votes)
    Jonathan Coulton (34%, 238 Votes)
    Paul and Storm (31%, 218 Votes)

    Rifftones are actually leading with that "song". Barely, but still. I threw P&S a vote cause I liked theirs best.
  • Hey, Coulton-Commenting gang. Just swung (swinged?) swang?) by to mention a couple of things...

    - First of all, thanks for all the kind words. In a cold, mean world such as ours, they are appreciated.

    - Second, it's been our experience that most of the voting troubles people have been experiencing tend to clear up by either trying a different browser or computer (not always an option for people, we know), or waiting a few hours, or a day. We don't know why, and we're certainly not speaking as apologists for the site or the system; just saying what we've seen. Certainly, if you experience a continued inability to vote, feel free to contact Quick Stop and tell them your situation. I'll be helpful to also describe what browser(s) and OS you're using.

    - Finally, it's not made clear in the description of this round, but it is our understanding that the voting on the Masters will be cumulative--that is, all Masters (you like how we keep capitalizing that? Feels nice) will participate in all rounds (and we're not sure how many there will be) until the elimination for the final head-to-head Master/Challenger round, at which point the total votes cast in all rounds will determine the Master finalist.

    The Challengers will still be facing elimination at the end of each round, as spelled out on the site. And it doesn't diminish the effectiveness of any "get out the vote" campaigns people advocate (whether for us, Jonathan or the RiffTones); there's just not the "urgency" of immediate elimination as far as the Masters are concerned.

    So there it is. See you in the Octagon,

    P&S.
  • edited August 2008
    it is our understanding that the voting on the Masters will be cumulative
    they should totally do that with the challengers. i'm just saying.
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