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“Hot Sweet Wings” and other wonders composed with the help of Songify

Cliff introduced me to the wonder of the Songify app. Here are some tips to making the best of it:

  1. Longer text makes for better songs.
  2. Repetition makes for better songs, don’t be ashamed of repeating yourself.
  3. Speak in a monotone voice, let the app handle the tune.
  4. Speak nonsense. No sense in trying to make sense, it doesn’t make for a better song.
  5. If you insist on trying to make sense, then just pick a single sentence and repeat it several times with slight variations.
  6. Rules are meant to be broken and this app if for silliness, why are you reading this far?

Here are some example songs demonstrating the above:

 

Corey Blanchette’s 365 Song Project

The 365 photos meme was quite popular last year (despite the 366 day leap year). I might have joined, but it’s unlikely I would have finished. Instead, I’ve been pushing my my brother-in-law Corey Blanchette, nicknamed CoreyB or CoreyB603, to do 365 songs in 2009. He launched on January first and since then has done […] » about 200 words

Are Rock Operas Too Weird For Remixing?

I love remixes, mashups, and covers. I love it when bad songs get good covers, I love it more when it’s a bad cover. I’m a fan of Coverville and I get excited every time I find yet another version of Smells Like Teen Spirit (hey, this is just a sampling: lullaby version, Patti Smith, The Bad Plus, another jazz version, and another jazz version, a string version, no, two string versions, a tango, a damn chant version, some lounge thing, and one for the opium lounge).

But I think I have yet to hear a decent cover or remix of a track from a rock opera. Take One Night In Bangkok: sexing it up doesn’t help. You just can’t out rock a rock opera. (Really, look for yourself.) It might help that Chess featured a character loosely based on eccentric chess master Bobby Fischer, but rock operas just might be too weird for remixing.

Though…I’d like to be surprised. Perhaps a folk version?

I can, however, appreciate the irony in a sex-laden video for a song that had criticized moral decay. Video may be NSFW.

Nukerator, We’re Nukrawavable

Will, Cliff (both above), and I recorded this song in one take in late 1999. Though, calling it a “take” is overstating it. We were beyond silly drunk and lacked any talent for the task, but we had a mic in front of us, a guitar, and a willingness to open our mouths and let […] » about 800 words

[Good|Bad] Covers: My Humps, Interpreted By Alanis Morissette

I’m one of those guys who almost never actually hears the lyrics to the music that’s playing constantly. Then somebody covers the song in a beautiful-but-ridiculous way, and I finally clue to them. Example: Tori Amos’ cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Now I hear Alanis’ interpretation of The Black Eyed Peas My Humps, and […] » about 400 words

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts On Music, Music Stores, and DRM

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts On Music is surprisingly open and frank, almost blog-like, for the man and the company especially know for keeping secrets. Jobs is addressing complaints about Apple’s “proprietary” DRM used in the iTunes Music Store. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses […] » about 2400 words

Casual Friday: The ALA Midwinter + Music Video Edition

The above circulated a while ago, but I post it today to recognize this special ALA Midwinter edition of Casual Fridays. And while I’m not suggesting libraries will or should become 21st century dance halls, Lichen’s title, “1.0 -> 2.0, the video” has some resonance here.

And on the theme of music videos that tell stories comes Miranda’s Yo Te Dire, which I like both because it’s funny and because I’m instantly attracted to foreign pop culture.

Richard Cheese’s Lounge Against The Machine

Richard Cheese‘s lounge-core renditions of pop favorites (and some not-so-favorites) have been cracking me up every time they chime into the mix on random, but I didn’t know what the guy looked like until I spied Beatnikside‘s photo of the man in among his Vegas people set. “Cheese,” of course, is a pseudonym for LA […] » about 100 words

33.3

The music has been on random for weeks now, but 33.3‘s “Joanne Will,” from Plays Music played this afternoon as soundtrack to the summer rains. Brent Sirota may struggle to tell us how bad it is (while also giving it a 4.5 rating), but this “easier to listen to jazzy than to listen to jazz” […] » about 200 words

Whiskey Blanket

I just bought Whiskey Blanket‘s It’s Warmer Down Here (2004) on the basis of a few tracks they offered on MySpace. It’s hip hop, socially critical hip hop (crit hop?), set atop a well constructed downtempo trip hop music bed (yeah, I’ll cut it with the hops already). It immediately brought to mind MC 900 […] » about 200 words

That Crazy Gnarls Barkley

Other than the notion that I heard it on a KCRW music show, I couldn’t put my finger on the tune weaving through my head. So I listened, and listened carefully, waiting to hear it again. Eventually I learned the earworm was Gnarls Barkley‘s Crazy (thanks to Molly for the mp3 download link). The group, […] » about 200 words