I generally like to keep the Song Writing Game as clean and family friendly as possible. Some of these songs contain crude sexual jokes, which are pertinent to the subject, "Your Mom" jokes. If you find these jokes in bad taste, you probably will not like many of these songs.
With that out of the way, here are the songs for January! As you'll remember, the subject was "Your Mom" jokes and the genre was Electro-Pop.
Esban and Rene Zansman - Things Are Getting Hard
My comments: Esban and Rene worked together this month and made a nice collaboration. I think they really nailed the genre in an interesting way. It's not dance-y at all, which is different than most of the other songs this month. I especially Esban's parts during the chorus. I think these two working together, even when far apart, worked out well!
Jack Eggleston - Tomorrow / Christina, de mi Alma
My comments: After a long hiatus, Jack is back in the song writing game and with a truly great medley of two original songs! It clocks in at a little over seven minutes but the entire thing is worth your listen. It has a great 80's feel, capturing the genre perfectly. The words "your mom" are in the chorus of the first song, but he didn't take it to the level of crass jokes that it could have been.
Jared Griffin - Mom Bush
My comments: Oh my god. What can I say about Jared's song? This is probably the funniest song I have ever heard. It's like a weird radio-pop/hip hop hybrid and the most crude song we have here. Amazing job, Jared. Every time I hear it, I laugh out loud. Seriously.
Kayce and Kraig Kelly - I Popped Your Mom's Top 40
My comments: We have another medley here. Kayce and his brother Kraig took on a whole slew of popular songs from the last decade, all of which contain the exact same chord progression, and turned them into a string of "your mom" jokes. It is definitely one of the funnier songs I have had submitted. I especially like the end with Kayce yelling "Your mom's not pretty enough" randomly and super out of key. It's great.
Brian Salapek - Dear Kayce
My comments: Kayce is the who reason for this month's subject. He has been slinging these jokes for the last ten years, easily, so I decided to write my song about HIS mom. This song is written as a letter to Kayce about me loving his mom and all of her...features.
It's a little late, but there has been a lot of out of the ordinary posts in January (2012 Song of the Year and 2012 Song Wrap-Up). ANYWAYS! Here is the announcement for February's Song!
Genre: All-Acoustic
Subject: "Craziness is Like Heaven"
Ok, "All Acoustic" isn't really a genre, but still. It's a limiting enough stipulation, I think. All acoustic instruments. No electric. Should be easy enough, right?
As for the subject, it is part of a quote from Mr. Jimi Hendrix. Here is the entire quote:
“You have to forget about what other people say, when you're supposed to die, or when you're supposed to be loving. You have to forget about all these things. You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.”
We've finished the first whole year of the song writing game and I am really happy with how it's gone so far. Here are some statistics for the year in songs.
Note: Since December 2011 was the first month, I am going to include those songs into the statistics.
Total Number of Songs: 47 Total Number of Individual Song Writers: 14 (for groups of people, each person in the group was counted)
Top Number of Songs from a Single Song Writer:
#1 - Brian Salapek (14 Songs)
#2 - Rene Zansman (8 Songs)
#3 & #4 (TIE) - Jon Baker and Kayce Kelly (5 Songs Each)
#5 - Jack Eggleston (4 Songs)
Average Number of Songs per Song Writer: 3.36
Top Number of Winning Songs from a Single Song Writer:
#1 - Brian Salapek (4 Winning Songs)
#2 & #3 (TIE) Kayce Kelly and Jon Baker (2 Winning Songs Each)
Every other winner only had one winning song
Top Percentage of Winning Songs based on Number of Songs Written:
#1 & #2 (TIE) - Josh Nieto and Leslie Flemming (100% - 1 Song Entered, 1 Winning Song Each)
#3 & #4 (TIE) - Matt McCray and Eric Peabody (50% - 2 Songs Entered, 1 Winning Song)
#5 & #6 (TIE) - Jon Baker and Kayce Kelly (40% - 5 Songs Entered, 2 Winning Songs Each)
There was a winning song every month but I decided to narrow it down and offer my top five favorite songs of the year to be candidates for the 2012 SONG OF THE YEAR!
To add to the honor (yes, there is honor), there will be A REAL, PHYSICAL PRIZE to be won! I will mail it to you and everything! Holy Moly! The MSPaint prizes were nice, I'm sure, but THIS ONE IS REAL! Wowza!
Anyways, here are the songs. Have a listen and vote below!
My comments: Ah, the memories. This was the first song to win during the Song Writing Game. Jon borrowed from Lady GaGa and made a really awesome space dance song. He also hit a giant plastic barrel with a stick to make the bass drum beat! Jon is a really great musician and this song shows it!
My comments: Punk Rock definitely comes natural for Matt and he really shines in this song. The song totally rocks and it's about Walter from The Big Lebowski, who is probably more punk rock than anyone ever. At first I was taken back by the vocal style but with a few listens, I like it. I like it. A lot.
Kayce Kelly and Jon Baker - Call Me Buddy (April's Winner)
My comments: Kayce and Jon teamed up and made a really rocking, raunchy blues song. With Jon's kick ass guitar and Kayce's hilarious lyrics, this song could not go wrong. My favorite part is "You think you've got the blues, baby? JUST THINK ABOUT ME!" What a great moment in a great song!
My comments: Jack really outdid himself, and the competition with this song. May was a really tough month, too. I honestly liked every single song and had a hard time choosing. When it came down to it, Jack won narrowly, and really deserved it! (Note: the blog voting was screwed up and upon revisiting the post, it no longer shows Jack won but he did)
My comments: When I met Josh in college, I was really impressed by his musical talent. This song is no different. Everything about it is done really well. It is probably the most professional song submitted all year and won against some pretty great reggae songs!
Vote For Your Favorite Song!
I am really honored to have had so many great songs submitted to the Song Writing Game over the last year. Hopefully we can keep up the momentum and have another great year!
With over 50% of the votes, December's winner was none other than Eric Peabody with his song Denial!
Great Job, Eric! You win one of our most fabulous prizes, yet! It's a GIANT TIN OF POP CORN! It even has three flavors! Butter, Cheese and Caramel! If I know Eric, I know that caramel corn will be gone quick. He sure has a sweet tooth!
Look at how big that tin of popcorn is! He has to hold it with both hands! What an amazing prize! I really am the best at giving prizes to these deserving winners, aren't I?
Well, with that being said, I hope everyone is doing well with their Electro-Pop "Your Mom" Songs. The month is about half over at this point.
With the holidays it can be difficult to take the time to write a song, especially when I say it has to be a 17th century ballad about Edgar Allan Poe's most obscure poem. Sometimes the research takes more time than writing the damn song. So, with that in mind, I decided that YOU COULD DO WHATEVER YOU WANT. That should make it easier for everyone, right? Right.
Jon Baker - Dark Jam
My comments: Jon sent this song in late but I hope you take the time to listen to it. Here Jon is totally rocking out with his nearly 7 minute trippy jam. I've always been really impressed with his guitar work and this song is no exception. Great job, Jon!
Keith Novotak - Beetlejuice
My comments: This song is part of Keith's "Movie Metal" series, where he plays theme songs from movies in the style of metal. I love Danny Elfman and this version of his Beetlejuice (betelgeuse) theme song is pretty kick ass. Great job Keith!
Eric Peabody - Denial
My comments: Eric is a musician that I have listened to for almost half of my life (holy shit...) and I've always really enjoyed his style and writing. This song is classic Eric in every way. It's short, sweet and incredible catchy. I like it.
Brian Salapek - I Wanna Talk to Nate
My comments: This song has been a work in progress for a few years. I sang (rapped?) the initial part of it ("If you're stumbling with Nate...") for Nate at his wedding. He fell down laughing, although I think the alcohol had something to do with it, too. With our college love of Half Baked, I decided to meld my lyrics with those of Sir Smoke A Lot.
Rene Zansman - Metro Gnomes
My comments: What a nice Christmas-y intro this song has. Oh, wait, what's happened? I think Rene does his best punk vocals in this song. It's about Gnomes singing Christmas Songs but it's hard to tell that from the vocals. I don't have a problem with not understanding lyrics though. This song is strange but has some charm. Rene is at his best in his "Woah-oh"'s as always.
