June's R&B Songs!

Sometimes I feel like I am going full force Weird Al mode with having songs that are written about food.  Last year we did Pizza Party Songs, Turkey Songs, and I did songs about snacks and McDonald's.  To add to this long lasting theme, we had R&B Songs about Fruits and Vegetables!

Have a listen to the songs and vote for your favorite below!

Danny Imig - Sad Words {insert here}

My comments:  Danny's song starts off and right away there is a weird almost "dangerous" sound to it.  The combination of the bass line and the keyboard come together and really drive the mood of the song, which is great.  I feel like it is a little redundant and would be just as effective if half the length but still enjoy it as a whole.

Jen Robinson and Brian Salapek -
My Love is Growing in your Garden

My comments: I wrote all of the music for this song pretty quickly but was struggling with lyrics.  Jen had agreed to sing for me so one day I just buckled down and wrote them pretty quickly.  It's a pretty silly song and I appreciate Jen humoring me and singing it.  With her help it came out 100 times better than if I tried to sing it myself.

Rene Zansman - My Life as a Carrot

My comments:  Rene's beat is back on this one!  He described it as a 60's pop song accompanied with 80's synth pop and I think he nailed it.  This song would have fit perfect in with the New Wave songs we did earlier in the year, but there is a lot of overlay with synth pop and RnB, I think.  I especially love around the 3:15 when it drops down to just vocals and the music slowly picks back up.  Very cool!

July Song Announcement!

It's become a tradition that for July we do cover songs.  The reason is that July is usually a very busy month for every one and it will (ideally) take less time to just rework an existing song than write a new one.  The only stipulation is that you make some sort of change to the song.  Sing it in French, meld it together with another song so it is a medley, whatever.  So there you have it, the song announcement for July...

May's Winning Song!

Squeaking in and winning by a single vote was Danny Imig with his awesome song "Teenbeat Heartbeat Backbeat."  Danny really achieved what I wanted from everyone in May with singing and smacking his stomach and a box.  It came out to be a great recording.  Congratulations Danny!

If you hadn't heard the song, here it is!

Don't forget about your songs for June!  The month is winding down!

May's "No Real Instruments" Songs!

I think my inspiration for May's "no real instruments" stemmed from those Jimmy Fallon videos where they use toy instruments and cover popular songs.  Only in the instance of toy instruments, a lot of those could be made at home, so that was the idea.  After getting it in my head, I started hearing sounds I wanted to use everywhere.  From the texture on the side of a red solo cup to the sound floss makes when pulled out from between your teeth (seriously).

Tom Waits was talking about the "organic" sound of his album Rain Dogs once and said:

If I want a sound, I usually feel better if I've chased it and killed it, skinned it and cooked it. Most things you can get with a button nowadays. So if I was trying for a certain drum sound, my engineer would say: "Oh, for Christ's sake, why are we wasting our time? Let's just hit this little cup with a stick here,sample something (take a drum sound from another record) and make it bigger in the mix, don't worry about it." I'd say, "No, I would rather go in the bathroom and hit the door with a piece of two-by-four very hard."

I wanted to include technology in the scheme as well since I planned on using some looping in mine.  So I included sequencers, drum machines and just for the hell of it, kazoos would be allowed.

Anyways, enough of the explanation.  Here are the songs that were submitted.  I hope you enjoy them and make sure you vote for your favorite.

Danny Imig - Teenbeat Backbeat Heartbeat

My comments:  Danny made a cool call and response, megaphone cheer type song.  Using a box, his stomach and vocals only (and all recorded at once in a single track) it definitely is what I envisioned with the songs.  It may be a simple song but it's very effective.  I like it!

Eric Peabody - The End of Depression

My comments: This song does have the sound of real instruments but Eric created the entire thing on a sequencer, which I allowed.  With a more focused ear, those "guitars" really just are some sort of a crunchy sounding keyboard.  Either way, Eric did a great job as usual with his songs.  It is catchy, fun and short but to the point.

Brian Salapek - Ketchup Covered Kids

My comments:  I think the most fun I had with this song was making the "instruments."  I built a tongue drum, filled 7 glasses with water and "tuned" them, and just had fun finding sounds I wanted to use.  I think it gets a little chaotic but wanted it that way.  In the end, some elements are a little sloppy but I am happy with the whole.

Rene Zansman - Self Realization (a capella)

My comments:  Rene took the original a capella idea behind this month's song and ran with it.  I was very happy to see that he took that route and ended up with a pretty successful song.  Rene has always done well with backup vocals so this was a natural progression and I really like the end result.  Great job!

June's Song Announcement!

The last few days I had been on a kick where I listened to nothing but Prince.  It got me thinking that it would be a lot of fun to write a cool and funky contemporary R&B song.  So there it is, that's what we're doing!

Genre: Contemporary R&B

Optional Subject: Fruits and Vegetables

So what makes the genre "contemporary" rather than traditional?  That's simple, contemporary draws influence from funk, hip hop and dance while traditional is more soul and jazz.  The most important aspect of either genre is to be suave, be cool.  There is a certain refinement to R&B's calm and cool, which is worth trying to capture.  Good luck everyone!  Here's a funky carrot for inspiration.

April's Winning Song!

First and foremost I want to thank everyone who took the time to listen to the songs for April.  The songs all had 50% more "views" than the songs for March and February had.  Hopefully that means there will be a continued interest in the song writing game from now on!  Also, I would like to thank Danny and Rene for their dedication each month and writing.  Without them, this wouldn't be a game at all.

After the voting was all said and done, the winning song was Farmer Brown by Kayce Kelly, Trever Wilkins and I.

I have been writing one song a month for the last 2 1/2 years and I am certain that this one was my favorite that I have worked on.  Even my mom and wife liked it!  Wowza!

Don't forget about your songs for May.  The month is dwindling down!

April's Bluegrass Songs!

In December, Kayce and I started writing a song together and never had a chance for it to come to formation.  Everything was written but nothing was recorded.  A few months later, this song popped into my head and I decided to build the song stipulations for April around this song so it would see the light of day.  The genre was bluegrass (at least once a year we do some version of country) and the subject was "the unintended consequences of alcohol."  They kinda go hand in hand, right?  Right.

Anyways!  Have a listen to the songs and vote for your favorite below!

Danny Imig - Whiskey Dick

My comments: As always, Danny has a great lyrical pun in this song.  I wouldn't want to drink with Richard either, from the sounds of it.  It has a great authentic sound and keeping with the style, goes into solos for banjo, mandolin ("Yeah, I suck a mandolin too!" lol) and guitar for a large chunk of the song.  All in all, it is a well done, funny and true to style song.  Well done as always!

Kayce Kelly and Brian Salapek - Farmer Brown (ft. Trever Wilkins)

My comments: I wrote above how the whole month was worked around this song in particular.  Kayce and I weren't able to get together during the month so we worked things out through e-mail and texting.  I recorded all the music, minus the guitar solo which was done by my cousin Trever Wilkins (Thanks Trever!) and Kayce did the vocals and the harmonica.  We went for a Johnny Cash sound, which isn't bluegrass at all, but works great with how Kayce sings.  I am very happy with the song.

Rene Zansman - Lottery Ticket

My comments: Rene really dives into the "unintended consequences" with this tale of his.  First there is a butt tattoo but soon the lottery is won and all is well.  But that begs the question, is having a butt tattoo worth winning $100?  That is the question of the century.  ANYWAYS!  Like my (our) song, Rene doesn't really hit the bluegrass style.  It's not a bad thing, Rene does his version of pop punk songs well.  This one has a mix of folk in there and a plucky keyboard (banjo setting?).  I would have liked to have the keyboard playing something a little more intricate.  Either way, Rene did a good job.