Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

[Billy's Little Trip]

I make fun of blogs and all the FaceSpace and MyBook sites. Yeah I know, it's a nice way to let your friends and family know that you are doing ok and you can brag about your latest accomplishments, YAY! I have a MicePace for my music because it's a free music host, it's readily available to everyone and I can pretend I'm awesome on line to girls and get them to show me thier boobs. YAY for boobies! But the one that just makes me cringe is Twitter and all the sites like it.

My kids and younger friends say it's because I'm old and not technically capable of understanding the importance of such sites. That's not it at all, it's more of a stubbornness if anything. I don't like the idea of becoming a part of some trendy way of making it easy for people to communicate with me and I sure as hell don't want to keep anyone updated on my latest productive BM. I have a cell phone that's higher tech than anything Niel Armstrong had when he went to the moon. I have an email that's faster than me walking next door to say hi to my neighbor. What more do I need? Maybe my stubbornness is a sign of my age, but I'm pretty sure I've always been this way. For the life of me, I just can't understand why a person would think their life is so damn interesting that they feel the need to announce every move they make, like they are the narrator of some horribly mundane movie about paint drying.

So here I am typing on an Internet forum. A forum that was created to bring like minded people together to chit chat about their music and "other things" as well, lol. Without the Internet and a site like this, I probably would have stopped making music years ago. Maybe that would have been a good idea, but it it makes "me" happy, so YAY for my terrible music! Song Fight has done so much for me that goes beyond making music. The effects of things I've been exposed to here and the new things I learn, transcend into my daily life in a positive way, mostly. Thank you Song Fight, the staff and the entire community.

OK, my coffee is starting to wear off and I'm about to turn back into myself, so here's the Q of the D.

Question of the Day: What has the mighty Song Fight done for you, both musically and in your daily life?


Music vid for a Tuesday. Yeah I know it's not really a video, but I couldn't find a quality one.
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[jb]

Song Fight provides an anvil against which I bang my songwriting craft into something resembling art that people other than my mother will tell me they find enjoyable or touching.

It has provided a community of people who understand a part of me that almost nobody in my "real life" truly gets, which has helped keep me from going off the deep end.

It's been the vehicle for meeting some folks who are really close friends now, like, close enough to invite to my wedding and have them actually show up (or be genuinely disappointed that they couldn't come).

It's given me a lot of great music to treasure and a lot of terrible terrible music to disdain, both of which are immensely entertaining. What's better than clicking one of those links from a "band" that hasn't submitted before, behind which you just KNOW is a terrible, terrible song, only to discover that somebody pulled magic out of their ass and you wind up listening to the thing three times in a row?

It's provided opportunities and incentive to travel to cities I haven't been to before, and interact with people who are part of communities I would normally not have an invitation to.

Most of all, it provides distraction and information on a daily basis to help me get through yet another dreary work day.

[The Weakest Suit]

played a show last night. 10 of 15 songs played were songfight entries. that's daily life.

[fluffy]

Song Fight! has totally changed my life. Seriously.

• When I was in college I did all sorts of stupid introverted electronic music which I never got any clear opinions of - just "Oh, that's lovely" sorts of feedback. I thought I was pretty good at writing music, and never tried to push myself. Now I realize how bad I am and always strive to get better with every song.
• I never had any inspiration for music at all. Song Fight! has helped me to get inspired, simply by having the title and the deadlines and a community. Not that I write songs very often anymore, but it's helped me to learn how to work under pressure and get something reasonably decent out. Now I have a side thing of doing music and sound effects and such for animation projects (nothing major yet but there's a couple of things I did a while ago whose animations should finally be finished soon)
• It got me to finally drop the Impulse Tracker bullshit and just pick up a damn instrument and learn to properly multitrack and so on
• I have met so many awesome people through Song Fight!
• I have actually performed on stage several times. Of all the gigs I've had, they've all been either part of Song Fight! or at least very closely-related to it (for example, Spudfest)
• If I hadn't met Spud, I probably wouldn't have been so interested in getting the job at Amazon in Seattle, which completely launched my actual career out of the doldrums of working for two-bit companies on short-term projects. I also met so many people through him, and also by merit of simply being in Seattle. That's more to do with Spud than Song Fight!, but if it weren't for Song Fight! I would have never met Spud.
• Even with how little new stuff I do in Song Fight! these days, I still love chatting via the forums, and the occasional side-challenges like Hxaro and GOM and whatever.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Wow JB, that is really well put. And yes, thank you to the terrible music people, it makes me feel better about myself, lol.

tWS, that is SO cool. Your set consists of mostly music from SF. But why haven't you posted the rest here somewhere? I like your quirky style and I'd like to hear what you don't slam together in a week. ...and I still say it's "I am a JOY". Much funnier that way. Seriously, if you don't claim it, I'm making a song saying that I am a joy. ...you have 5 minutes to decide.

I have love for this community, but not in a sexual way...too much. ~BLT 2009

[Billy's Little Trip]

And fluffy (I had to start with "and" for legal reasons), that's also pretty damn deep. I had no idea that this little site really touched people the way it has me. Of course I like the way you say it better than me.
But here we are, doing what we do. Writing Making music to a title, talking about what's cool on tv, perfecting our recording technique, collaborating with people all over the fricking globe!

SONG FIGHT!

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Good question to drag us out of the woodwork, heh.

To distill it down to its purest core (since y'all are wayyyy better at the testimonials than me), Songfight's changed my point of view from "What can I do?" to "What can't I do?"

Maybe that sounded better in my head.

[AGray]

Even though I've only been hanging around a few weeks, Songfight has already kicked me in the ass to re-familiarize myself with multitracking software and get my guitar chops back together.

And more particularly, jb calling me a "pussy" has inspired me to pack up a couple instruments and my more portable recording gadgets, go up to my father's lake house for the weekend and see if I can't bang something together. (I had a difficult childhood.) No promises though. ^^;

Plus, Songfight has brightened my life by being the first online music community I've stumbled across that actually talks about songcraft rather than endlessly talking about favorite bands or jacking off to Musician's Friend catalogs.

[Billy's Little Trip]

jacking off to Musician's Friend catalogs.

Yeah, we don't jack off to that here, that would be gay.

[jast]

But that would be totally okay.

[JonPorobil]

So here's the deal. Most of you, I've never met in real life. And those of you that I have met for real, it took until July of this year. Nonetheless, the good folks here at Songfight have been my friends, and a vital part of my life, longer than anyone else I know (with the exception of my immediate family). I've "known" Spud and JB through this site for almost twice as long as I've known my wife. I was busting rhymes with the Frontalittle Squad while I was in high school. I've since parted ways with most of the "real life" friends I had then, but Songfight is still around. And it's true, I lost touch for a while.

Here's blunt truth. At no point in my life do I ever feel as productive and accomplished as I do when I'm recording a song and it's going well. And I didn't record music until I heard about Songfight.

I started Songfighting knowing basically nothing about recording. By offering targeted and productive criticism, by providing me with guidance, collaborations, and by kicking my ass when I need it, this community has helped mold me into the recording artist I am today.

In short, I went from this to this. And in the six-and-a-half years it took, everything I learned came, directly or indirectly, from Songfight.

So yeah.

THANKS EVERYONE!

[Spud]

I think I'm going to cry.

[rone rivendale]

Somehow I managed to miss this one before.

SongFight is the biggest reason why I have 4 albums out. It's the biggest reason why I love playing Rock Band. It's the biggest reason why I'm not still doing techno instrumentals. I never once did a song with vocals that weren't rap until I joined SF. I never touched a guitar until I strived to improve my SF entries. I never collab'd with anyone until I did so with Posyden a few years ago. And I certainly never had anyone cover one of my songs until SF threw me a Hxaro (although by Hxaro standards it's was short but I digress!).

Basically SF is the reason why I am a singer/songwriter. I'm pretty sure I would have given it up by now if I hadn't joined SF after seeing it on Attack of the Show back in 2005. So blame Kevin Pierrera(sp?) if you don't like my music.