The Song Fight Bulletin Board

While we're waiting for the judges to finalize their Round 1 rankings, you get a head start on writing your entry for Round 2. Remember, if you get eliminated in Round 1, you are still encouraged to submit a shadow entry for Round 2. If any entrants fail to make the deadline, a previously eliminated competitor may be reinstated - but only if they've submitted a shadow!
Here's your Round 2 challenge:

What Were They Thinking?: Retell a work of fiction (book, movie, play, etc.) from the perspective of a minor or supporting character. In your song bio, identify your source material and POV character.

Examples include:
“And Your Little Dog Too” by Hannah Fury, based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
“Calypso” by Suzanne Vega, based on the Odyssey by Homer
“The Drowning Man” by The Cure, based on Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
“Michael’s Song” by The Coral, based on “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger
“Mrs. Bluebeard” by They Might Be Giants, based on the folk tale “Bluebeard”

If you include an image to be used as cover art for your track, I'll include it on the Bandcamp album. Otherwise, I'll use the artist photo or logo you sent me when you signed up. Bandcamp album art must be 1400x1400 pixels or larger. I'll crop and re-size it as best I can. If you didn't send me anything, the album art will be displayed.

Submitting Entries:
Your entry must be received by Sunday, March 28th, 2020 @ 11:59 PM EDT. Otherwise it'll be posted as a shadow. Received means that it has to appear in my e-mail inbox (spintunescontest@gmail.com) by the given deadline. I will be going by the time stamp on the e-mail. One minute late is too late.
You are allowed and encouraged to submit a draft of your song early just in case something horrible happens and you miss the deadline. Then you can add polish to your song and send in a better version closer to the deadline. The last version received prior to the deadline is your official entry.
Lyrics are mandatory. No instrumentals. Having no lyrics will get you disqualified.
Name your file the your band name + the song's title, but without spaces & punctuation.
Subject of the e-mail should be the title of the Challenge & your band's name. (e.g. "What Were They Thinking? - All the Robots") (The title of your song is whatever you want it to be)
Include information on anyone that should be credited for collaboration. Remember, collaborations are OK, even among competitors. You must write your song, but if you want to use another vocalist or musicians, do so. Use the Facebook and SongFight forums!
If you have a BandCamp account, you can just send me a link to your song on BandCamp if you include all the info I mentioned above. Make sure you have it set as a free download. THIS IS THE BEST FILE SHARING OPTION!
Other file sharing options if you need them: Sound Cloud (set to download a format BandCamp is ok with) & Drop Box. Please send an e-mail as I already stated, but with the download link if you need one of these services.
If you're using something other than Bandcamp, It's best if you send your file in a format that Bandcamp accepts (.aiff, .wav or .flac, at least 16-bit/44.1kHz) You can find the specific requirements for Bandcamp files HERE.
If you send me an MP3, I will attempt to convert it for you. But be warned... I will be strapped for time, and I will post whatever Audacity spits out of the conversion. So if you picked the wrong sample rate, your dulcet tones may wind up sounding like termites or chipmunks or random static. And that is what will be judged. So please... save and submit your files in the right format.

Side Notes:
You are allowed to send in a little background about your song. We encourage and appreciate "song bios". You don't have to do it, but if you want to write a couple sentences about your song I'll post it on the BandCamp page for people to see. I'll even link to longer blog posts if you want to explain your song on your blog. Some judges will read this extra info, but they aren't required to.
You can send in an entry to SpinTunes 17 without competing. Just tell me it's a "Shadow Song". It will be played at the listening party, but won't be ranked and you might not receive feedback from the judges. Check the FAQ if you don't know what that means. You can even complete past challenges from previous contests. It's a nice way of playing along if you can't commit to the schedule or you just want to get your feet wet.
The only other way to get your music played at the LP is to cover "Today's The Day" by Inverse T. Clown.

Feel free to leave any questions below.

I am really quite excited by this challenge.

I feel like we've got a great idea. I've written (and re-written) plenty more words than I usually would, and I've even learned a little French in the process! Thanks, Crumpet!

The lyric and basic structure is done, and now Toshiro is making magic happen with the music. I am lost without his skills and ears.

I don't wish it on any of the top 24, but I'd be secretly happy if someone didn't get their entry in, and Micah was lovely enough to slide rackwagon back in to the contest from #25.

Regardless of that, I'm happy with the song we've wrote.

It is an exciting challenge - I'm doing a lot of reading and writing before I finish the lyrics. But the end result will have a worthwhile place in my "art" - even if the song sucks. Just need 11 people to drop out!

Kind of abusing my pedal rack on this one. But that's okay, because why have a pedal rack if you don't abuse it?

Mine's coming along ok. Had to redo a lot of the arrangement, as it unintentionally was sounding very much like the Godfather theme

Also trying some things musically outside my comfort zone, so I look forward to being on the cut list next week

This is turning out far more depressing that my source material ever was. Somehow I've turned a light-hearted halloween comedy into an existential crisis. Oops.

sleepysilverdoor wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 26, 2021 3:19 pm

This is turning out far more depressing that my source material ever was. Somehow I've turned a light-hearted halloween comedy into an existential crisis. Oops.

My specialty!

I sent in a rock song. Guess I’m in.

I attempted to sound like Ben Folds but ended up crooning a bit too much and am no where near as capable on the piano. I do like how it came out though.

I'm so happy with what we've done, it feels like the most complete song we've ever written. Of course, it's a shadow song.

Toshiro wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 27, 2021 12:58 pm

I'm so happy with what we've done, it feels like the most complete song we've ever written. Of course, it's a shadow song.

Bless you, sweetheart. You’re wonderful.

Welp, against all odds* we recorded a song. I'm really happy with how it turned out, but it's a slow, dreamy shoegazy number and I feel like slow songs sometimes don't do as well with judges. Or maybe that's just our particular kind of slow songs. We've gotten kicked over slow songs before

* our attic was spray-foamed on Thursday, so to avoid the toxic off-gassing, we're spending a long weekend in the city, at my stepmother's place. Add to that the fact that I was feeling distinctly unwell earlier in the week, and I felt like the odds were against us completing a track at all this round. But my wonderful husband and bandmate brought his Tascam, a mic and the drum pedal - I was fully ready to lo-fi it with the little Zoom mic that plugs into my iPod - so we were able to do something approximating what we would have done had we been at home with full access to gear. ANYhoo, I'm babbling. Much luck to everyone this week. I have also started reviews for Round 1 but I'm only 9 songs in so we'll see if I manage to finish them tomorrow.

Submitted!

arby wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:29 pm

Welp, against all odds* we recorded a song. I'm really happy with how it turned out, but it's a slow, dreamy shoegazy number and I feel like slow songs sometimes don't do as well with judges. Or maybe that's just our particular kind of slow songs. We've gotten kicked over slow songs before

Now you tell me! Ours is kinda slow, and several seconds longer than yours, and not finished yet, so back to work for me!

In at 96bpm, baby.

crumpart wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 2:52 pm

In at 96bpm, baby.

so fast!

gizo wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 3:03 pm

crumpart wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 2:52 pm

In at 96bpm, baby.

so fast!

Is yours 69?

mholland wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:04 am

Now you tell me! Ours is kinda slow, and several seconds longer than yours, and not finished yet, so back to work for me!

How do you know how long ours is?!?! We haven't submitted it yet! We listened to it today in the car and feel like it's kind of bleh. But then we had a long struggle with our cat (trying to catch him to bring him home from our neighbor's house) and now everybody is exhausted so.. we'll see. Might have to submit as is

arby wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 4:33 pm

mholland wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:04 am

Now you tell me! Ours is kinda slow, and several seconds longer than yours, and not finished yet, so back to work for me!

How do you know how long ours is?!?! We haven't submitted it yet! We listened to it today in the car and feel like it's kind of bleh. But then we had a long struggle with our cat (trying to catch him to bring him home from our neighbor's house) and now everybody is exhausted so.. we'll see. Might have to submit as is

Oops, misinterpreted your post and thought it was the song in your signature, which admittedly I didn’t listen to, just saw the length in the preview. We’re running 80 bpm and a shade over 4 minutes. But we had to tell a story.

mholland wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 5:06 pm

Oops, misinterpreted your post and thought it was the song in your signature, which admittedly I didn’t listen to, just saw the length in the preview. We’re running 80 bpm and a shade over 4 minutes. But we had to tell a story.

Haha, no that's just the title track from our latest EP. Our Round 2 song is nearly 5 minutes long! We sent it in at 11:57, haha. Added bass and with mixing and mastering we like it better. Now to cross our fingers!

mholland wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 5:06 pm

We’re running 80 bpm and a shade over 4 minutes. But we had to tell a story.

8:32 mins @ 60 bpm

I got mine submitted. Since we're talking tempos and song lengths, mine is mostly 112bpm, but it jumps up to 123bpm for the bridge, then back down again. My song clocked in at 3:13. You're welcome, judges.

(Yes, when I'm judging Nur Ein, I will absolutely hold it against you if you submit a long song, especially in the early rounds. You need to be really certain the material justifies that kind of time, IMO, particularly if you're submitting something in a group to be judged competitively.)

My entry is entitled "Bald, Green, Boneless," and it's a character study from the point of view of Lieutenant Kif Kroker, from the television series Futurama. I play Kif (with apologies to the great Maurice LaMarche), and my brother Harrison popped in for a cameo as Captain Zapp Brannigan (with apologies to the great Billy West). I got it submitted nine minutes before the deadline, which is six minutes more time to spare than I had last round. Looking forward to being in the last few songs on the playlist again.

Also, I'd be surprised if I don't get cut this round. Looking forward to hearing everyone else's songs!