May's Song Announcement!

2016 has been a bitch of a year.  Just last week we lost a great artist, Prince.  As with February and the Bowie Covers, I feel it is only appropriate to do the same for Prince.  He was an incredibly talented and versatile artist, who transcended many genres of music.  Because of this and his 30+ year career, we will surely have some interesting songs submitted!

May:  Prince Covers

Good luck, everyone!  I can't wait to hear the songs!  Also, don't forget to turn in your Game Show Theme Songs!

February's Winning Song!

When I decided to do David Bowie covers, it was an idea to do something to honor him.  But then I thought, "What if they are all terrible?  That would be the opposite of an honor to his memory."  Fortunately, I really loved both songs turned in.  Phew!  That could have been bad lol.  Anyways, after 2 weeks of voting, the results were very close.  The winner came through 1 vote higher.

Lauren Hughes and Brian Salapek - Sound and Vision

Congratulations and thanks for participating, Lauren!  I hope to get to work with you again in the future!

February's David Bowie Cover Songs!

To try our best to honor one of my favorite artists, I decided to cover David Bowie songs for the February Song Writing Game.  Unfortunately, we ended up with only two entries.  Fortunately though, they are both great in my opinion!  Check them out and vote for your favorite below!

Rene Zansman - Rebel, Rebel

My comments:  Rene told me that he felt like this was one of his best songs submitted to the song writing game.  As he's been a part of it for over four years, that's quite a statement but I think I agree.  This song is just perfect for Rene, a great fit.  He even wrote a verse of his own and makes a reference to "I Got You, Babe."  Very nicely done!

Lauren Hughes and Brian Salapek - Sound and Vision

My comments:  Lauren and I met in college and haven't seen each other really since.  She is a huge Bowie fan and sang in bands in college, so I knew I had to ask her to sing for my song.  The biggest problem we faced was picking out a song to cover.  All in all, I am very happy with the end result.  This is one of my favorite Bowie songs, and Lauren nailed it!

Vote for your Favorite!

March's Song Announcement!

Ah snap!  I've been slipping big time on the song writing game lately, and I am sorry for that.  This will be short and to the point.  For March, our songs will be....

Game Show Theme Songs!

Specific enough?  Weird enough?  We shall see!  Good luck everyone!

January's Winning Song!

I felt it was a nice change of pace with the January songs.  Instead of specifying a genre and subject, as we have always done, we set a number of chords to limit the song writing process.  What resulted was each song was more representative of the person who wrote it.  All styles and genres were accepted and we had a big diversity as a result!
After two weeks of voting, we had a clear winner, and he was no other than Danny Imig with his song, "I Quit School 'Cause they had Recess'  Check it out here...

Congratulations, Danny!  Good work, as always!  We will be doing David Bowie (RIP) covers for February so watch out for those coming soon!

January's "Chords" Songs

For January, a set list of chords was put forth and the songs could ONLY use those chords.  This is a far different stipulation than normal, and it came through with great results!  Each song is quite a bit different and they all are great in their own ways.  Check them out and vote for your favorite below!

Ryan Kinal - My Last Night

My comments:  I dont think I have ever heard such an upbeat and catchy song about dying!  This song is a lot different than Ryan's other offering since it features an electric guitar playing lead and a solo.  I really enjoy the song and think the separate vocals for the different characters is a fun touch!

Rene Zansman - Predestined to Dull

My comments:  When I saw the length of Rene's song (about 4 minutes) I was a little reluctant but I ended up REALLY liking it.  The chorus has a great feeling of happy and sad at the same time.  The whole song is really catchy, too.  It gets a little sloppy towards the end during the solo but that's pretty minor in the scheme of things.

Brian Salapek - January

My comments:  Here's another instrumental track of mine.  It is a lot more effects heavy than I usually make my songs, but I think it works well.  I originally recorded this song on my loop pedal completely improvised but liked it enough to work it out into a whole song (by adding the chorus) and recording it properly.

Danny Imig - I Quit School 'Cause They Had Recess

My comments:  Danny's song has an awesome country feel to it.  This song came from Danny's 2006 album, Space is Your Friend, which he has submitted a few other fun songs from.  I like that this song has the country twang but is fast and upbeat enough to even touch into a little of the punk territory.  It's upbeat, a little sloppy and fun!

Vote for your favorite!

February 2015 Song Announcement

January saw the passing of one of my favorite musicians, David Bowie.  It was a pretty upsetting thing for me, especially since it came so shortly after the release of his newest album, Blackstar, which I had been listening to religiously.  I won't try to express my mindset, or give a memorial here, since words aren't my strong suit.

So jump ahead a week, Jack Eggleston messaged me and said "I'm totally going to try to do a cover of Heroes for January...It also fits with in the note limitations."  The next day I sat down with the chords specified for January and all I could play was Ziggy Stardust.  I didn't mean to, I was just messing with the chords and it flowed out of me.

So, with Bowie's passing, and the strange coincidence of the two songs, we will be doing David Bowie covers for February.  It's only fitting to try and pay tribute to the man.