The Song Fight Bulletin Board

With all due props to Plat, and apologies if anyone's attempted this already: out of curiosity (and the knowledge, born of a hockey-loving childhood, that all sport is better appreciated through statistics,) I downloaded the archive and brought SQL to bear on it. Here are some interesting statistics (with a few that surprised me.)


Most weeks in a row with a submission:
26 - Abominominous [2003-12-02 -> 2004-06-14] (4 wins)
26 - Octothorpe [2001-05-21 -> 2001-11-23] (1 win)
25 - WreckdoM [2004-08-06 -> 2005-02-07)
24 - Josh Woodward [2004-04-20 -> 2004-10-11] (15 wins)
18 - Blind Mime Ensemble [2004-03-15 -> 2004-07-23]
15 - The Landfills [2003-03-19 -> 2003-06-30]
15 - WreckdoM [2004-04-05 -> 2004-07-23]

(Though with this week's entry, WreckdoM's tied with Abominominous. And if you count There's a Mosquito in my WreckdoM, which I prefer not too 'cause just thinking about that song gives me the willies, then the WreckdoM boys are already way ahead.)

Also, WreckdoM's streak is the longest that's still active.


Most consecutive weeks with a winning song:
5 - Josh Woodward [2004-09-13 -> 2004-10-11]
3 - Josh Woodward [2004-06-07 -> 2004-06-23]
3 - Josh Woodward [2004-08-16 -> 2004-08-30]
3 - Pipe Fist [2004-11-25 -> 2004-12-13]
2 - Brother Machine [2003-10-06 -> 2003-10-13]
2 - Lemon Party [2003-12-12 -> 2003-12-19]
2 - Max the Cat [2005-01-24 -> 2005-01-31]


Most consecutive wins (though not necessarily consecutive weeks):
5 - Josh Woodward [2004-09-13 -> 2004-10-11]
4 - Josh Woodward [2003-10-28 -> 2003-12-02]
4 - MC Frontalot [2001-04-02 -> 2003-07-07]
4 - Nil [2000-07-19 -> 2001-01-19]
4 - The Frontalittle Squad [2004-01-30 -> 2005-01-17]
3 - A Kid Named Ace [2003-08-25 -> 2004-04-05]
3 - Milwaukee Youth Center Choir [2001-07-06 -> 2001-08-25]
3 - Pipe Fist [2004-11-25 -> 2004-12-13]
3 - State Shirt [2004-06-23 -> 2005-01-17]
3 - TV's Kyle [2004-06-30 -> 2004-07-23]

Josh in first place isn't much of a surprise, but no pressure on The Frontalittle Squad ...


King of second place (number of second-place finishes):
8 - Josh Woodward
7 - Pompeii
6 - Abominominous
6 - sonofsupercar
6 - The Sober Irishman
5 - Brother Machine
5 - Dylan Nau
5 - Squirrel Damage
5 - The Idiot Kings


King of third place (number of third-place finishes):
10 - Carol Cleveland Sings
8 - sonofsupercar
7 - Josh Woodward
6 - Blind Mime Ensemble
6 - Eddiebangs
6 - Forty Second Songs
5 - The Idiot Kings
4 - Future Boy
4 - King Arthur
4 - Squirrel Damage
4 - The Frontalittle Squad
...
3 - Lonbobby

I put Lonbobby there because his last post inspired the stat. I can see why you feel that way, Lonbobby, but holy crap ... CCS ... man...


And a special one for Cashpoint,

Average votes and submissions by month:
Jan: 908 votes, 153 songs
Feb: 1291 votes, 105 songs
Mar: 613 votes, 104 songs
Apr: 830 votes, 105 songs
May: 773 votes, 108 songs
Jun: 698 votes, 116 songs
Jul: 799 votes, 99 songs
Aug: 1074 votes, 123 songs
Sep: 738 votes, 113 songs
Oct: 784 votes, 107 songs
Nov: 957 votes, 124 songs
Dec: 806 votes, 132 songs

There's a spike in August, but otherwise I'd say the site is more active in the (Northern hemisphere) winter.


Does anyone else care about this stuff? Any other stats you'd like to see?

I believe that we have 26 weeks in a row.

Cool stats.

Most weeks with a submission is off though, just due to collaborations. J$ is pretty consistent with entering but not always as J$. He sometimes collabs (Yoko OhNo, The Voice Inside Johnnys Head, TFC). Abom is another person whose streak changes when you figure in that he's a part of Spy vs. Pie and The Hell Yeahs.

Plus the # thing. It's 26 (according to SF History). It's the brass ring, the thing of legend.

it's so funny to see that sober "king of second place" irishman loses in THAT category as well to josh woodward! 8)

furthermore, WreckdoM's entering streak may have been interrupted by the "zombie son" fight -- somehow their song got misnamed as "geoffrey glass" instead of "WreckdoM".

Spud wrote:I believe that we have 26 weeks in a row.

It's true. I remember taking a break to tie the record.

Oh, here's an old Dumbrella thread with some other stats.

Niveous wrote:Most weeks with a submission is off though, just due to collaborations.

Ya, I thought about that, but I figured that different names are technically different artists. Like I said above, WreckdoM would have a 41-week streak on the go if wasn't for There's a Mosquito in my WreckdoM (which is now in my head again .. great.) I guess it's a matter of how you interpret the stat.

Niveous wrote:Abom is another person whose streak changes when you figure in that he's a part of Spy vs. Pie and The Hell Yeahs.

There was a thread a couple of months back (which I can't find now) where JoS and Plat discussed some way of tracking this type of thing. I haven't read anything since, though, so I guess nothing came of it?

Niveous wrote:Plus the # thing. It's 26 (according to SF History). It's the brass ring, the thing of legend.

I'll just step away quietly, then. (From Been to China, to Experimental Fashion, right?)

we need a "most entries without a win" ranking. call it the "king arthur" category... or did he win one?
-bill

HeuristicsInc wrote:we need a "most entries without a win" ranking. call it the "king arthur" category... or did he win one?
-bill

sometimes never having won has it's advantages....

deshead wrote:I'll just step away quietly, then. (From Been to China, to Experimental Fashion, right?)

1. Been to China
2. A Thousand Swords
3. Tracks for Future Practice
4. I Can See You
5. Do It For Captain
6. Red Robot
7. Watch Your Face
8. Do the Math
9. Birds Of Our Own
10. Down To The Atom
11. Tiny Room
12. Firecrackers
13. Is It Cold?
14. Video Night
15. Alright Alright
16. Highway
17. That's The Spirit
18. Skyline
19. Snow Globe
20. It's Charging
21. It's A Shame...
22. Acid Mouth
23. Adaptation
24. My Sister
25. Indie Rock Bottom
26. Experimental Fashion

Niveous wrote:20. It's Charging

Ah, that's the issue ... I never really understood what happened with that fight.

HeuristicsInc wrote:we need a "most entries without a win" ranking. call it the "king arthur" category...

I think WreckdoM have that one cinched up.

However, considering only top-5 finishes, KA has the highest average percentage of the vote per fight, among artists who've never won:

The king of consistency:
15.4% King Arthur
12.7% Glorious Mono
12.3% The Idiot Kings
11.6% Johnny Cashpoint
11.4% 15-16 puzzle
11.2% Kamakura
10.8% Brian F
10.5% Rio Mondo
10.5% The Likely Lads
10.4% WreckdoM

Just sayin'.

deshead wrote:

Niveous wrote:20. It's Charging

Ah, that's the issue ... I never really understood what happened with that fight.

"It's Charging" doesn't count. It was a hoax.

Oops, I didn't realize I included that one. Wait....then it's only 25, not 26. Oh Shit.

Phil. Redmon. wrote:

Spud wrote:I believe that we have 26 weeks in a row.

It's true. I remember taking a break to tie the record.

I did too, after 'Hey Ruth' ... in fact, I fought every week since 'PDCMK' through to 'Run Faster' bar that week, under pseudonyms and collaborations.

j$

deshead wrote:

Niveous wrote:However, considering only top-5 finishes, KA has the highest average percentage of the vote per fight, among artists who've never won.

As much as I love being on this list, as it gives the impression that I am a real songfight stalwart, I think there are a few variables that aren't being taken into account (or maybe they are) - number of fights, number of songs in the fight, number of people who listened to the fight.

I mean - Glorious Mono may have done really well in the 5 fights they were in, whereas many times I haven't done that well in a fight I have been in. Also I rather think my votes for Snooter & Wednesday might be unduly averaging up my mark.

My own impression is that on average, I consistently get between 5%-10% of the vote in any given fight (allowing for very bad weeks or, less often, very good ones) - which wouldn't get me on the list...

Twisted statistics, and all that. Just sayin'

j$

we need the stat for the fight with the most amount of One Time only fighters in it.... kind of the "hey this looks like fun, but oh damn this is hard so I'm not coming back...fight"

i'm guessing "science" but that's really a guess based on the influx of people that week from the cartoon world.
-bill

I want the statistics for the fight with the most people who said 'this is my last fight. I am off to make it with my band in the real world' and then a litany of insults telling us all how self-deluded we are. That would be sweet.

j$

I have to post this only because I make my living as a numbers geek and these things occur to me whether I want them to or not.

deshead wrote: However, considering only top-5 finishes, KA has the highest average percentage of the vote per fight, among artists who've never won

Thought #1: Hey, I should be on this list! I've had one top-5 finish in which I received 20% of the vote.

Thought #2: By including only top-5 finishes, this doesn't tell us a darn thing about consistency. In fact, I'm not sure it tells us anything.

tviyh wrote:furthermore, WreckdoM's entering streak may have been interrupted by the "zombie son" fight -- somehow their song got misnamed as "geoffrey glass" instead of "WreckdoM".

If you count that one, and the Mosquito one, WreckdoM's in their 47th consecutive week (starting with Upcoming Downtime/Lizard Wizard/Blueberry Hassle.) And FWIW, the Upcoming Downtime fight was a week ago this Sunday. So, uh ... happy anniversary.

j$ wrote:My own impression is that on average, I consistently get between 5%-10% of the vote in any given fight (allowing for very bad weeks or, less often, very good ones) - which wouldn't get me on the list...

For the list above, I only looked at top-5 finishes. If I include them all, then ya, your average percentage of the vote is 5.7%... Which is 0.8% ahead of Blind Mime Ensemble!!

bortwein wrote:we need the stat for the fight with the most amount of One Time only fighters in it.... kind of the "hey this looks like fun, but oh damn this is hard so I'm not coming back...fight"

Fight with most one-time only fighers:
12 - Glass Eye
11 - Postcard
9 - Thunder Storm
8 - Space Cadet
8 - Secrets
8 - It's Charging
8 - Dark All Day
...
6 - What We Need More Of Is Science

Glass Eye probably shouldn't count because it's recent enough that a lot of those artists will submit again.
Postcard probably shouldn't count because of the extreme Patrick Clayton-ness.

So Thunder Storm it is.

LMNOP wrote:I have to post this only because I make my living as a numbers geek and these things occur to me whether I want them to or not.

I make my living as a database geek, so I find the numbers but don't know how to interpret them.

LMNOP wrote:Thought #1: Hey, I should be on this list! I've had one top-5 finish in which I received 20% of the vote.

Heh, the full table description should have been "average percentage of the vote per fight, considering only top-5 finishes of artists who have entered more than 3 fights, but never won." (If I counted every artist, there were many who only submitted once or twice but got lots of votes, which skewed the result. I know, it's arbitrary ...)

LMNOP wrote:Thought #2: By including only top-5 finishes, this doesn't tell us a darn thing about consistency. In fact, I'm not sure it tells us anything.

It was a simple way to throw out the "I whipped this song together on Sunday night in a single take" songs. I'll figure out something better.

deshead wrote:

LMNOP wrote:Thought #2: By including only top-5 finishes, this doesn't tell us a darn thing about consistency. In fact, I'm not sure it tells us anything.

It was a simple way to throw out the "I whipped this song together on Sunday night in a single take" songs. I'll figure out something better.

If sometimes you put time into it and sometimes you whip something together, doesn't that make you inconsistent? Doesn't seem like we should be taking those songs out.

The best measure of consistency is standard deviation, if you have the means to calculate that.

As it is now, the stat probably tells us something about the average size of the fights entered -- because you're apt to get a larger percentage of the total vote earning a 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th in a small fight.

Yours in geekness,

Paul

deshead wrote:

tviyh wrote:furthermore, WreckdoM's entering streak may have been interrupted by the "zombie son" fight -- somehow their song got misnamed as "geoffrey glass" instead of "WreckdoM".

If you count that one, and the Mosquito one, WreckdoM's in their 47th consecutive week (starting with Upcoming Downtime/Lizard Wizard/Blueberry Hassle.) And FWIW, the Upcoming Downtime fight was a week ago this Sunday. So, uh ... happy anniversary.

j$ wrote:My own impression is that on average, I consistently get between 5%-10% of the vote in any given fight (allowing for very bad weeks or, less often, very good ones) - which wouldn't get me on the list...

For the list above, I only looked at top-5 finishes. If I include them all, then ya, your average percentage of the vote is 5.7%... Which is 0.8% ahead of Blind Mime Ensemble!!

bortwein wrote:we need the stat for the fight with the most amount of One Time only fighters in it.... kind of the "hey this looks like fun, but oh damn this is hard so I'm not coming back...fight"

Fight with most one-time only fighers:
12 - Glass Eye
11 - Postcard
9 - Thunder Storm
8 - Space Cadet
8 - Secrets
8 - It's Charging
8 - Dark All Day
...
6 - What We Need More Of Is Science

Glass Eye probably shouldn't count because it's recent enough that a lot of those artists will submit again.
Postcard probably shouldn't count because of the extreme Patrick Clayton-ness.

So Thunder Storm it is.

What if you do that stat up in percentages? Discount "It's Charging".