2013 SONG OF THE YEAR AND YEAR REVIEW!

It's hard to believe that the song writing game has been going on for over two years.  With what simply started out as an excuse to make me write a few songs, it's gone further than anticipated and hopefully will continue on for many more years!

With that being said, the voting has concluded and the crown has been decided.  The 2013 song of the year is none other than Danny Imig's folk classic "I think I'm married to a Zombie" from August.

Congratulations Danny!  As with last year's winner, you get A REAL PRIZE!  The prize is a 6-pack of some of my homebrewed beer.  Danny and I are planning on meeting up next week to get him his prize.  Photos to follow!

So I'd like to take this opportunity to spit out some random information about 2013's Song Writing Game in case anyone cares.  It won't be as in depth as last year's statistical rundown, but will give some of the same info.

Total Number of Songs for 2013: 46 (-1 from 2012)

Total Number of Individual Song Writers: 17 (+4 from 2012) (for groups of people, each individual person was counted)

Top 5 Number of Songs from a Single Songwriter:

 1 - Brian Salapek - 12 Songs

 2 - Rene Zansman - 11 Songs

 3 - Danny Imig - 8 Songs

 4 - Jack Eggleston - 6 Songs

 5 - Kayce Kelly - 3 Songs

Average Number of Songs per Songwriter: 2.71 (-0.65 from 2012)

Top Number of Winning Songs from an Individual Songwriter:

 1 - Danny Imig - 5 Wins

 Every other winner only one one month

Percentage of Winning Songs vs Number of Songs Written:

 1 & 2 & 3 (TIE) - Jared Griffin, Mark Maze and Jon Baker - 100% (1 song written & 1 winning song)

 4 - Danny Imig - 62.5% (8 songs written & 5 winning songs)

 5 - Jack Eggleston - 16.67% (6 songs written & 1 winning song)

Top Number of Songs in a Single Month:

 1 & 2 (TIE) - February, All Acoustic "Craziness is Heaven" songs and July Cover songs - 6 Songs Each

 3 - January, Electro-Pop "Your Mom" songs - 5 songs

 4 & 5 & 6 (TIE) - April, Robot Country songs and August, Zombie Folk Love songs  and October, TV Show Theme songs - 4 Songs Each

Top 5 Number of Listens for Individual Songs: (as of 1/31/14)

 1 - Jared Griffin - Mom Bush (from January) - 371 Listens

 2 - Kayce Kelly - Squirrel World (from February) - 75 Listens 

 3 - Mark Maze and Friends - Swamp Grass (from February) - 70 Listens

 4 - Jack Eggleston - Tomorrow / Christina de mi Alma (from January) - 55 Listens

 5 - Esban and Rene Zansman - Things are getting harder (from January) - 53 Listens

Top Number of Views for Individual Blog Posts: (as of 1/31/14)

 1 - January, Electro Pop "Your Mom" Songs - 1535 views

 2 - 2013 Song of the Year Voting - 225 views

 3 - February All Acoustic "Craziness is Heaven" Songs - 146 views

 4 - April Robot Country Songs - 116 views

 5 - July Cover Songs - 100 views

So there you have it, the 2013 year in review.  Here's to another great year of the song writing game!

February's Song Announcement!

For February we will be unleashing the expired rock Gods.  I'm talking about the rock Gods of my youth that very rarely aged well with me.  I'm talking about MID-90'S ALTERNATIVE ROCK!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was one of those guys.  I wore my ZERO shirt once a week and liked the shirt even more when the screen printing was terrible cracked and faded.  Yep, that was me.  So in honor of my youth and the first musical personality I took on, we will go with these song stipulations:

GENRE: 1990's Alternative Rock

OPTIONAL SUBJECT: Dancing Babies

The subject, always optional, is another throwback to the 90's.  So these should be interesting.  90's Alternative is pretty vague (as the genres seem to be more often than not) so there is a lot of different directions you can take.

Here are a few interesting links:
An article about the 90's brand of alternative rock and it's growth in popularity.
A timeline of alternative rock in the 90's.

2013's SONG OF THE YEAR VOTING!

If it wasn't enough of a pain to vote on a song every month, I have to ask you to do it again when the year is done to determine the GRAND CHAMPION!  As with last year, the winner will receive a REAL, PHYSICAL PRIZE!  Wowee!  So to those of you nominated, get your friends to vote and you can win a 6-pack of some of my homebrewed beer!

Jack Eggleston - Tomorrow / Christina de mi Alma (From January)

My comments: Jack wrote this epic song and although it didn't win that month, it was always a favorite of mine.  It really is two songs that stand up fantastic on their own, but they work really well together.  They are very catchy and fun songs.  I can listen to them again and again.

Mark Maze and Friends - Swamp Grass (February's Winner)

My comments:  Mark wrote and recorded this song with friends of his who were together as a metal band, which makes it that much more awesome.  It's a really great blue grass song and the winner during what I would consider the strongest month of the song writing game.

Brian Salapek - Ballad of the Trashcan Man (From February)

My comments:  I was really proud of this song of mine.  I took the direction of spoken word and incorporated the book I was reading at the time, The Stand by Stephen King.  It was fun to have everything be acoustic but I think the song suffers from having a bad microphone at the time.  Either way, I was very happy with this song.

Kayce Kelly - Squirrel World (From February)

My comments:  Remember when I said that I thought February was the strongest month from last year?  Well, here is the third song from that month nominated.  It's a super simple but really sweet and great song written by Kayce, embodying a special time in his life perfectly.  It's not exactly poetry, but I think it is just plain beautiful.

Danny Imig - I think I'm married to a Zombie (From August)

My comments:  I had a hard time picking my favorite song of Danny's to include as a choice.  I ended up favoring his Zombie Love song from August.  It has a really great giddy-up feel to it during the chorus that just gets me every time.  He really does an awesome job every month nailing the genres, but this folk song was just perfect for me.

Vote for your favorite!

December's Winning Song!

Congratulations to Jon Baker, winner of December's favorite song.  What a way to welcome Jon back to the song writing game.  It's been awhile since his last song and his contribution was very much appreciated!

If you hadn't had a chance to hear Jon's song, check it out here!

And don't forget about January's songs!

December's "Whatever" Songs!

December is a pretty busy month with all the holidays, so I opted to have no stipulations on the songs.  DO WHATEVER YOU WANTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!  So there is very little to compare the songs on other than to your own personal taste.  I was hoping for some nice variety and that's what I've received!  Have a listen to the songs and vote for your favorite below!

Jon Baker - Tsunami

My comments:  It's been awhile since Jon turned in a song and it was a great surprise.  This song was written for last November's sea shanties but was never recorded until now.  It's a cool instrumental piece with a Ween sort of vibe to it.  There is an awesome country feel to it and the plucky bass just makes me smile!

Brian Salapek - Supa Fupa

My comments: December was especially busy for me and I really didn't have time to put anything new together.  I ended up making this alternate version of a song I did in January, which I thought my vocals ruined.  It was from the electro-pop "Your Mom" songs and was called "Dear Kayce."  Now it has been renamed "Supa Fupa" after the best lyric in the song.  So I added a "thumping" club beat as well as the stupidest rap you've probably heard since my last rap song.  Enjoy!

Rene Zansman - Newark's alright if you like Homophones

My comments:  That is not a mis-spelling, it is Homo-PHONES, not PHOBES.  This is Rene's anti-beard song.  To be honest, I have been really happy with how well Rene's songs have been turning out lately.  I think this one is a really good one.  As always the chorus really shines and is nice and catchy.  Throw in some funny lyrics about shaving and it's a good song.

Vote for your favorite!