Muxtape Competition

Where are you all?

2008-09-18T00:10:00.002-04:00

Did you all running scared of famousthecat's list?

Is there no brave soul who will throw down the gauntlet?

What? Are you all too busy reading about Sarah Palin or the other natural disasters to hit the U.S.?

Come on people! We can't do this alone!

COMPETITION #5: The "Songs that Should be Presidential Campaign Theme Songs" Mixtape

2008-09-05T16:14:00.003-04:00

In your response, list the five songs and artists either alone or as hyperlinks. Use youtube or mixwit or any other place you can find an audio clip of it online until muxtape gets sorted out (if ever).

For this one, you can pick songs that you think correspond to either of our current candidates or just good theme songs, in general. You can do some explaining if you want of course. Most importantly, enjoy!

This one will end in two weeks: Saturday Sept 20th at 5pm.

Also, if anyone puts "Raising McCain" by John Rich we will publicly humiliate you for owning that song.

COMPETITION #4: Results and Update

2008-09-05T16:11:00.003-04:00

We'll its been a while. We took a breather this summer as did Muxtape. They are currently having a little issue with the ever-so-greedy RIAA.

The last entries were great if you didn't get to partake before the site was shutdown. I'll give a nod to Chris for getting songs that were all actually about the in-progress commission of a crime. Well done!

From now on I think we'll take a new strategy. Just list the songs so they will at least remain on the site for others to see. Then add youtube, mixwit, or whatever other links you may wish. Of course you can always hyperlink it into one classy affair.

COMPETITION #4: The "Songs About The Commission Of A Crime" Mixtape

2008-06-10T20:12:00.008-04:00

Since there was a tie, we randomly picked this one. Again, you don't have to make the actual muxtape (although it would be cooler if you did man). However, try to be fancy and hyperlink the lyrics if you can!

This mixtape should be 5 songs that do not have to be entirely about the commission of a crime, but clearly reference the commission of a crime. It is due SUNDAY JUNE 29th at 10pm.

ADDED TIP: To Hyperlink, do the following:
1) using this formula:
2) paste the URL where it says URL but leave the " 's
3) add the song title where it says TITLE
4) rule at the interweb

Enjoy and stay out of jail.

COMPETITION #3: Results

2008-06-10T19:45:00.002-04:00

Very nice lists overall and hat's off to the players who created their own sub-themes! We give the nod to nora flood who's Jesus-themed submissions were all very ridiculous. Congrats!

Here are some additional picks:
1) The Four Lads - Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea
2) George Harrison - Thanks for the Pepperoni
3) Just Us - I Can't Grow Peaches On A Cherry Tree
4) Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus - Dong Dong Diki Diki Dong
5) Herman's Hermits - I'm Henry VIII I Am

I liked james johnson's Sufjan pick, I figured someone might pick one of his, here's my favorite:
6) Sufjan Stevens - A Conjunction of Drones Simulating The Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze

And in the line of long, ridiculous titles:
7) NOFX - We Threw Gasoline On The Fire And Now We Have Stumps For Arms and No Eyebrows

And I loved Jennifer's parenthetical picks. A few more:
8) Simon & Garfunkel - A Simple Desultory Philippic ((or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)
9) James Brown - Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine (Part 1)
10) Quad City DJ's - C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)

Quite ridiculous.

COMPETITION #3: The "Most Ridiculous Song Titles Of All Time" Mixtape

2008-05-27T19:20:00.003-04:00

This is pretty self-explanatory. Also, this gives a chance to some of you who are having some difficulty with the sites to simply post your song titles. The song itself might be ridiculous or normal, but the title must be ridiculous.

For this one - feel free to link to a muxtape or mixwit - but actually type out the artist and song title in your comment.

This list will be due Sunday June 8th at 10pm.

Enjoy!

COMPETITION #2: Results

2008-05-27T19:16:00.002-04:00

Well we decided that this was so subjective that it will not merit actual scoring. We liked all of the lists but give a nod to Erin especially for her inclusion of Wicked Games by Chris Issak which one judge says deserves to be taken out back multiple times. It was quite humorous to see the variety in picks.

A couple ideas from the judges are available here and here.

COMPETITION #2: The “Songs I’d Like to Take Behind the Middle School and Get Pregnant” Mixtape

2008-05-08T20:54:00.002-04:00

First things first: no, we didn’t leave out a word before “pregnant.” These are songs in and of themselves that you would actually like to impregnate behind the middle school. Of course, this is going to mean different things to different people in regards to the decade, genre, and lyrical content of individual selections and will make judging them even sweeter. But, all I ultimately know is that they should be funny listenin’.

Get them posted by Sunday, May 18th at 9pm. And remember, try mixwit.com if you can’t get them to muxtape.

So, gentleman, slap on your Brut, your best silk, short-sleeve button down, and your L.A. Gear’s; ladies, put on your slap bracelets and get your mall hair right. We’re revisiting our middle school dances and sneakin’ out back.

COMPETITION #1: Results

2008-05-08T20:53:00.005-04:00

Thanks to all the participants of the first muxtape competition! We had six outstanding entries. A number of people had trouble when they found out muxtape doesn’t support mp4s. Try selecting “import using mp3 encoder” in your itunes preferences under the advanced and importing tabs for now, but we’ll try to have a nerd explain more about this later. Also, feel free to use www.mixwit.com (thanks Chad!) to circumvent this problem (or use a combination of the two sites so we can at least listen to your examples). Of course, you still need to use songs you also have in your personal collection to abide by the rules!

On to the judging. This week we had four judges for a total of 40 points – no one selected any of the bonus songs. Again, while this is totally subjective, the judges were basically in agreement on a list-to-list basis while ranging in our appreciation of individual selections.

The Funky Bunch’s Master List: found here and here: (a million bajillion points)
1) The Four Seasons - Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright
2) Klaus Nomi – Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead
3) Toby Keith – Courtesy of the Red White & Blue
4) Enrique Iglesias – Be With You
5) Pearl Jam – Better Man
6) Creed – With Arms Wide Open
7) Peter Frampton –Show Me the Way
8) William Shatner – Rocket Man
9) Glen Yarbrough – Baby the Rain Must Fall
10) 4 Non Blondes – What’s Up

Unbeatable. A variety of pop pulls and more random picks to allow for a possibility of extra points while still educating about how to whoop b in mixtaping. Listen, learn, laugh. Some close contenders were: Kate Bush -Wuthering Heights; Barry McGuire -Eve of Destruction; and Junior - Mama Used to Say.

Winner: Tripper (33 points)
1) X-Ray Spex – Oh Bondage! Up Yours!
2) Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You
3) McLusky – Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues
4) Lil’ Jon – I’m a J (ft. Gucci Mane, Fabo)
5) Shooby Taylor – Stout-Hearted Man

I expected great things from Tripper and I imagine he will consistently be a top competitor. We appreciated the diversity of his list and his “getting” the topic. While one judge scored all punk submissions rather low, we all agreed this was the top list. While some judges were very impressed with the Shooby selection, I’ve been a big Shooby fan for a while because he is, of course, the human horn. If you dig on it, you can check out more of the like from this gem. Nice start Tripper, you’ve set the bar pretty high.

Second Place: Christie (28 points)
1) Jawbreaker – Kiss the Bottle
2) Rapider Than Horsepower – Mike Bell (A.K.A. Tanklin $ Anti Ago)
3) Joanna Newsom – Peach, Plum, Pear
4) Future Of the Left – adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood
5) Le Tigre – Deceptacon

This list was very solid, as well. Loving the “we’re hungry” line that extends for way too long in the Jawbreaker tune. Two judges disagreed drastically on the Joanna Newsom pick with one giving extra points for its inclusion and one stating “Joanna Newsom may have been a case of confusing ‘non-understated’ vocals with ‘horrible’ vocals.” Anyways, fantastic all-around list!

Third Place: James (27 points)
1) The Avett Brothers – Talk on Indolence
2) Protest the Hero – Turn Soonest to the Sea
3) Yes – We Have Heaven
4) The Police - Roxanne
5) Tinariwen – Mano Dayak

James submits a great list. While one of our judges has a physiological condition that prevents him from listening to more than 30 seconds of any Yes song, we felt this was a solid list. Roxanne, while a very well known song, was a great inclusion! One judge did point out that the clear weakness of this list was the inclusion of Mano Dayak that wouldn’t even win the "Least Understated Malian Vocals Styling Mixtape."

The Rest:
Good lists, in general – the Mystikal inclusion by Langston was fantastic, it would be a tragedy for him not to be mentioned on a least understated vocal stylings list. One judge simply stated, “There's no reason for him to be going to the extremes he is. He's out of control.”

The Funky Bunch has spoken. I hope you enjoyed the kick-off contest and I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to some very specifically non-understated vocal stylings! Don’t forget to vote for the next theme at the bottom!

COMPETITION #1: The Least-Understated Vocal Stylings Mixtape

2008-04-23T13:10:00.004-04:00

Brewing in my head for a while, this mixtape competition now can finally take place. By Friday, May 2nd at 6pm, please submit your name (or a sweet alias) and a link to your 5-song muxtape submission.

General notes: the double negative is intentional and needed for the overall awesomeness of this competition. While I cannot give you too many glimpses into the minds of The Funky Bunch judges, I can recommend a few things. While entries like ethnographic field recordings or bel canto arias might be good examples of non-understated vocal stylings, these might not serve to help make a dynamite mixtape. Also, don't miss the deadline, but think strategy: if you submit your list tomorrow, you might give away ideas or you might view it is blocking others from stealing obvious, yet solid songs. Nevertheless, feel free to test any theories you've got against the judges' omniscience. We are anxiously awaiting entries.

Again, read the directions at the top of the page. As you'll notice, because members of The Funky Bunch have picked 2 songs each, you have the possibility for additional points. So, not only is this a subjective scoring system, it's doubly-subjective!

Coming Soon!

2008-04-16T21:52:00.003-04:00

If you have theme ideas, you can post them here in the comments section. Here's wishing you happing muxing.