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Time until sign-ups begin:

Sunday, January 25, 2015

SpinTunes #10: Round 2 Challenge

Music To My FearsWrite a scary song, basically explore the horror genre in music format. (2 minute minimum length) (your submission is due Sunday, February 1st 11:59PM)

Examples: "Creepy Doll" by Jonathan Coulton
"Dragula" by Rob Zombie

If anyone has any questions or concerns about the challenge I'll answer my e-mail after work Sunday.

Submitting Entries:- Entries must be received by the given deadline. Otherwise it'll be posted as a shadow. Received means that it has to appear in my e-mail inbox by the given deadline. I will be going by the time stamp on the e-mail in my inbox. PLEASE do not wait until the last hour to send me something. If there is a blackout in your area, your computer crashes, or your dog actually eats your thumb drive...I will not care. You are allowed to send in a draft of your song early just in case something horrible happens & you miss the deadline. Then you can add polish to your song & send in a better version closer to the deadline. 1 minute late is still late, people.


- 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.

- Name your file the song's title, but without spaces & punctuation.

- Title of the e-mail should be the title of the Challenge & your band's name.

- Include the song lyrics in the body of the e-mail. (If your song doesn't have lyrics...consider yourself eliminated. Instrumentals can be pretty, but SpinTunes does require lyrics.)

- Include information on anyone that needs credited if you collabed with someone.

- 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, and have it set so that I don't have to put in an e-mail to download it if you pick this option. 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. Please follow directions so your file doesn't wind up in my spam or trash folder accidentally.

Side Notes:

- Remember that you are allowed to send in a little background about your song. Some people don't like to do that, and you don't have to, but if you want to write a couple sentences about your song I'll post it on the BandCamp page for people to see. Some judges will look at the lyrics & this extra info, but they aren't required to.

- If you didn't sign-up in time to compete in SpinTunes #10, you can still complete the challenge & send in a song. It'll be uploaded with the other entries as a "Shadow Song". Check the FAQ if you don't know what that means. You can even complete past challenges from previous contests.

- 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 in the comments.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

SpinTunes #10 Round 1 Totals

Here are the links to your reviews:

Official Judges:


Guest Judges: Monique Macasaet, Niveous & The Orion Sound
Negative Reinforcement: Coming Soon!
Alternate Judge's Review: N/A

You can listen to all the wonderful songs from this round by checking out the free album HERE.

Well for the first time, no BAD news to announce.  Nobody gets eliminated for 2 whole rounds still.  I just hope you guys are ready for your next challenge.  Be afraid...very afraid...

Feel free to check for mistakes in my math...as always.

Total Scores:
(The Orion Sound - Monique Macasaet - The Dreamstalks - MC Ohm-I - Rusty Cage - Niveous - Jana Pochop)
Kolton H - 29 - 33 - 30 - 29 - 27 - 31 - 32 (211)
Mariah Mercedes - 28 - 28 - 31 - 33 - 23 - 29 - 33 (205)
Zoe Gray - 32 - 29 - 33 - 27 - 28 - 22 - 29 (200)
Pete Murphy - 31 - 26 - 29 - 32 - 12 - 24 - 23 (177)
Dr Lindyke - 33 - 30 - 18 - 17 - 31 - 27 - 20 (176)
Adam Sakellarides - 20 - 21 - 32 - 13 - 26 - 20 - 25 (157)
Ross Durand - 23 - 19 - 23 - 28 - 17 - 28 - 18 (156)
Brian Gray - 25 - 31 - 24 - 30 - 15 - 21 - 7 (153)
Taylor Rundell - 22 - 14 - 16 - 12 - 32 - 26 - 28 (150)
Emperor Gum - 6 - 27 - 22 - 11 - 33 - 32 - 12 (143)
Edric Haleen - 18 - 15 - 26 - 24 - 19 - 12 - 27 (141)
Governing Dynamics - 19 - 25 - 28 - 15 - 10 - 17 - 26 (140)
Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - 1 - 11 - 25 - 19 - 29 - 33 - 17 (135)
Domingo - 14 - 32 - 20 - 23 - 5 - 13 - 22 (129)
Melissa Leona - 21 - 9 - 21 - 26 - 8 - 23 - 19 (127)
Jailhouse Payback - 16 - 17 - 6 - 20 - 13 - 16 - 31 (119)
Ominous Ride - 9 - 20 - 15 - 25 - 7 - 18 - 24 (118)
Megalodon - 11 - 13 - 14 - 21 - 2 - 25 - 30 (116)
The Boffo Yux Dudes - 27 - 16 - 10 - 16 - 9 - 19 - 15 (112)
James Young - 24 - 24 - 3 - 31 - 4 - 14 - 10 (110)
Dex01 - 12 - 18 - 19 - 8 - 16 - 15 - 16 (104)
Jutze - 17 - 23 - 9 - 10 - 14 - 10 - 13 (96)
Pigfarmer Jr - 3 - 6 - 27 - 22 - 6 - 7 - 21 (92)
David J - 10 - 22 - 12 - 9 - 18 - 6 - 11 (88)
Atom And EV - 26 - 3 - 17 - 5 - 25 - 4 - 5 (85)
Ben And The Angelfish - 2 - 12 - 11 - 4 - 20 - 30 - 3 (82)
Ben Taggart - 4 - 8 - 7 - 18 - 24 - 11 - 4 (76)
The Ken Kesey Fan Club - 8 - 7 - 13 - 2 - 22 - 8 - 14 (74)
Jurek Mika - 30 - 1 - 4 - 1 - 21 - 9 - 2 (68)
Dreiviertal Drei - 13 - 5 - 8 - 7 - 30 - 2 - 1 (66)
Charlie McCarron - 15 - 10 - 5 - 14 - 11 - 3 - 8 (66)
"BucketHat" Bobby - 5 - 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 5 - 9 (29)
Army Defense - 7 - 2 - 1 - 6 - 3 - 1 - 6 (26)

Monique Macasaet:
Kolton H - 33
Domingo - 32
Brian Gray - 31
Dr Lindyke - 30
Zoe Gray - 29
Mariah Mercedes - 28
Emperor Gum - 27
Pete Murphy - 26
Governing Dynamics - 25
James Young - 24
Jutze - 23
David J - 22
Adam Sakellarides - 21
Ominous Ride - 20
Ross Durand - 19
Dex01 - 18
Jailhouse Payback - 17
The Boffo Yux Dudes - 16
Edric Haleen - 15
Taylor Rundell - 14
Megalodon - 13
Ben And The Angelfish - 12
Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - 11
Charlie McCarron - 10
Melissa Leona - 9
Ben Taggart - 8
The Ken Kesey Fan Club - 7
Pigfarmer Jr - 6
Dreiviertal Drei - 5
"BucketHat" Bobby - 4
Atom And EV - 3
Army Defense - 2
Jurek Mika - 1

The Orion Sound:
Dr Lindyke - 33
Zoe Gray - 32
Pete Murphy - 31
Jurek Mika - 30
Kolton H - 29
Mariah Mercedes - 28
The Boffo Yux Dudes - 27
Atom And EV - 26
Brian Gray - 25
James Young - 24
Ross Durand - 23
Taylor Rundell - 22
Melissa Leona - 21
Adam Sakellarides - 20
Governing Dynamics - 19
Edric Haleen - 18
Jutze - 17
Jailhouse Payback - 16
Charlie McCarron - 15
Domingo - 14
Dreiviertal Drei - 13
Dex01 - 12
Megalodon - 11
David J - 10
Ominous Ride - 9
The Ken Kesey Fan Club - 8
Army Defense - 7
Emperor Gum - 6
"BucketHat" Bobby - 5
Ben Taggart - 4
Pigfarmer Jr - 3
Ben And The Angelfish - 2
Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - 1

The Dreamstalks:
Zoe Gray - 33
Adam Sakellarides - 32
Mariah Mercedes - 31
Kolton H - 30
Pete Murphy - 29
Governing Dynamics - 28
Pigfarmer Jr - 27
Edric Haleen - 26
Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - 25
Brian Gray - 24
Ross Durand - 23
Emperor Gum - 22
Melissa Leona - 21
Domingo - 20
Dex01 - 19
Dr Lindyke - 18
Atom And EV - 17
Taylor Rundell - 16
Ominous Ride - 15
Megalodon - 14
The Ken Kesey Fan Club - 13
David J - 12
Ben And The Angelfish - 11
The Boffo Yux Dudes - 10
Jutze - 9
Dreiviertal Drei - 8
Ben Taggart - 7
Jailhouse Payback - 6
Charlie McCarron - 5
Jurek Mika - 4
James Young - 3
"BucketHat" Bobby - 2
Army Defense - 1

MC Ohm-I:
Mariah Mercedes - 33
Pete Murphy - 32
James Young - 31
Brian Gray - 30
Kolton H - 29
Ross Durand - 28
Zoe Gray - 27
Melissa Leona - 26
Ominous Ride - 25
Edric Haleen - 24
Domingo - 23
Pigfarmer Jr - 22
Megalodon - 21
Jailhouse Payback - 20
Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - 19
Ben Taggart - 18
Dr Lindyke - 17
The Boffo Yux Dudes - 16
Governing Dynamics - 15
Charlie McCarron - 14
Adam Sakellarides - 13
Taylor Rundell - 12
Emperor Gum - 11
Jutze - 10
David J - 9
Dex01 - 8
Dreiviertal Drei - 7
Army Defense - 6
Atom And EV - 5
Ben And The Angelfish - 4
"BucketHat" Bobby - 3
The Ken Kesey Fan Club - 2
Jurek Mika - 1

Rusty Cage:
Emperor Gum - 33
Taylor Rundell - 32
Dr Lindyke - 31
Dreiviertal Drei - 30
Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - 29
Zoe Gray - 28
Kolton H - 27
Adam Sakellarides - 26
Atom And EV - 25
Ben Taggart - 24
Mariah Mercedes - 23
The Ken Kesey Fan Club - 22
Jurek Mika - 21
Ben And The Angelfish - 20
Edric Haleen - 19
David J - 18
Ross Durand - 17
Dex01 - 16
Brian Gray - 15
Jutze - 14
Jailhouse Payback - 13
Pete Murphy - 12
Charlie McCarron - 11
Governing Dynamics - 10
The Boffo Yux Dudes - 9
Melissa Leona - 8
Ominous Ride - 7
Pigfarmer Jr - 6
Domingo - 5
James Young - 4
Army Defense - 3
Megalodon - 2
"BucketHat" Bobby - 1

Niveous:
Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - 33
Emperor Gum - 32
Kolton H - 31
Ben And The Angelfish - 30
Mariah Mercedes - 29
Ross Durand - 28
Dr Lindyke - 27
Taylor Rundell - 26
Megalodon - 25
Pete Murphy - 24
Melissa Leona - 23
Zoe Gray - 22
Brian Gray - 21
Adam Sakellarides - 20
The Boffo Yux Dudes - 19
Ominous Ride - 18
Governing Dynamics - 17
Jailhouse Payback - 16
Dex01 - 15
James Young - 14
Domingo - 13
Edric Haleen - 12
Ben Taggart - 11
Jutze - 10
Jurek Mika - 9
The Ken Kesey Fan Club - 8
Pigfarmer Jr - 7
David J - 6
"BucketHat" Bobby - 5
Atom And EV - 4
Charlie McCarron - 3
Dreiviertal Drei - 2
Army Defense - 1

Jana Pochop:
Mariah Mercedes - 33
Kolton H - 32
Jailhouse Payback - 31
Megalodon - 30
Zoe Gray - 29
Taylor Rundell - 28
Edric Haleen - 27
Governing Dynamics - 26
Adam Sakellarides - 25
Ominous Ride - 24
Pete Murphy - 23
Domingo - 22
Pigfarmer Jr - 21
Dr Lindyke - 20
Melissa Leona - 19
Ross Durand - 18
Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - 17
Dex01 - 16
The Boffo Yux Dudes - 15
The Ken Kesey Fan Club - 14
Jutze - 13
Emperor Gum - 12
David J - 11
James Young - 10
"BucketHat" Bobby - 9
Charlie McCarron - 8
Brian Gray - 7
Army Defense - 6
Atom And EV - 5
Ben Taggart - 4
Ben And The Angelfish - 3
Jurek Mika - 2

Dreiviertal Drei - 1

SpinTunes #10 Round 1 Reviews: The Dreamstalks

I used to discover musicians via YouTube.  Here lately I've discovered more via Twitter.  The Dreamstalks are a prime example.  After checking out some of their songs I thought they would be a great fit for SpinTunes.  They're talented, funny, and if one of them calls in sick...the other can do the reviews.  Kidding of course, listen to the song below and you'll see why I wanted them involved.  WARNING: Zoe Gray...do not watch that video...you're not old enough yet. -Spin




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1. Zoe Gray - Make The Most Of It (Already in love in the first few beats. Love your voice and style. ZOMBIES?! YES!!! Great take on the theme. Very creative. End of the world? Get it on, obviously.)

2. Adam Sakellarides - All I Wanna Do (We enjoy tapping’ our foot and you got us tapping’, sir! HAHA, “binge on Netflix”! You know us WELL. We love that this song is SUPER topical and relatable. We think more first dates should be binging Netflix. Nice button at the end. We also enjoyed that you kept it short and sweet.)

3. Mariah Mercedes - As Charming As You (Oooh, LOVELY voice. Sweet and sincere lyrics. We feel your adorableness through this song. This is beautiful and we love your style. Very poetic and thoughtful. Gorgeous and seamless transitions)

4. Kolton H. featuring SpknSpell - Binary Love (Oh hey! Let’s get to da club! All about that robot sex. Love this concept. Since you are using an autotune vocal effect, we would have loved to see more a melody used with it. Robot voice, check! Hardrive/Downloads, check! No viruses, check! Super creative. Super smart.

5. Pete Murphy - Get It On With You (It’s like 90’s porn but super dreamy. I’d get it on. Sweet bridge. Nice choice of funk, totally gets the theme)

6. Governing Dynamics - Introvert Asks To Spend The Night (Oooh! I want to start dancing to this right of the bat…in my underwear as I get ready for the evening. We feel ya, man. You found a very poetic way to describe the internal conflict introverts feel.

7. Pigfarmer Jr - Hold You Tonight (Love this tune. Simple yet powerful. Honest song. You sing pure emotion. Great acoustic.)

8. Edric Haleen - 2-14-11 (Oh! Hey you…your voice…we like it…just like that. Talk more math to us. “Unit circle” - I can’t stop cracking up. I probably wouldn’t have failed Geometry if you were my teacher. You funny. This song could stand to be 2-3 minutes shorter. The jokes are great but towards the end we felt pounded with math terms.)

9. Gorbzilla And The Gorbzookies - First Kiss (You have a great style. It’s heartfelt. We really enjoyed your rich voice and soulful quality you brought to the song. We would have loved to see more of that soulfulness and depth in the lyrics. “Ever since” became a tad redundant for us.)

10. Brian Gray - Just You And Me (You’ve got a nice voice. GREAT chorus. Love the premise. Truthful lyrics. We can tell you really felt them. A tad bitter but we see where you are coming from.)

11. Ross Durand - I Wish (YESSSS!! A country song! Oh, our inner southern girl/guy is swooning. This is a beautiful country ballad. It’s got heartbreak and hopefulness. We can easily see this music video taking place by the fireplace with two country lovers.) 

12. Emperor Gum - Tianjin (Love this melody. We love the sweetness of your voice…and this song. We can tell you spent some time coming up with these lyrics. We want to dance with a lover to this song on the beach in Hawaii. Nice job.)

13. Melissa Leona - Rocking In The Waves (Girl, you can riff! SING IT, YES! Nice beat. Sweet piano. Harmonies are beautiful. Hopeless romantic. A great Valentine ballad however, doesn’t get “get us in the mood”. It’s like 75% the theme.)

14. Domingo - Escondidas (Whoa, nice riff! This is when paying attention in Spanish class would have paid off. Right off the bat, having only understood half the song, we can definitely sense the passion in your voice and that is so important in a love song. Well done. Gorgeous harmonies.)

15. Dex01 - Get Together (You definitely met the theme requirements. A little too literally. However, we really enjoy your folky style. We would have loved to hear a little more confidence in your lyrics. We felt they were a bit passive for a love song. Take that girl and grab her.)

16. Dr. Lindyke featuring Cherry Pi - Date Night (Kinky. Love this chorus. Super catchy. Sometimes the lyrics fall off beat. The piano seems a tad off by half a beat when mixing with the drums. We love your take on the theme.)

17. Atom & EV - Tarzan And Jane (Okay, okay nice take on the theme. This could be a theme song for a television sitcom from the 60’s. It’s catchy. The songs simplicity is forgiven because it is coming from the lips of “Tarzan”. That being said though, we would have loved to see a little more from the chorus. Even if it’s just monkey sounds mixing with the beat)

18. Taylor Rundell - Make A Move (A tad hard for us to understand what you are saying. We totally get your style and see what you are doing. We LOVE the chorus. We feel like you are making more of a confident choice during the chorus rather than the lyrics.)

19. Ominous Ride - Open Your Fire (Lot of innuendos. We feel you hit that challenge right on the nose - a little too literally. We would have liked to see a bit more artistic license. That being said, it’s a catchy chorus that we’ll be singing all day.)

20. Megalodon - Can’t Weight (As fans of the cosmos, we really appreciate what you did here. We felt like the sax, while it was played well and very jazzy, wasn’t necessary. Or just choose the sax or guitar. Nice chorus. Lovey dovey and sweet.)

21. Red Watcher - Hopeless Dreamer (There is no real structure to this song. We would have loved to see a definitive verse/chorus/bridge. It ends a bit abruptly. We see the potential of a love song in this but don’t feel it is “seductive”. You’ve got a nice beat and tune here and we like the ethereal and majestic style you developed.) 

22. The Ken Kesey Fan Club - How To Seduce Women (Whoa. It’s a tad loud and the levels fluctuate quite a bit. We enjoy your comedy. We felt the song itself is just a tad sloppy. There is no build. It’s hard to go further after singing “vagina”. We would have just loved to see it get more and more intense and creepy.)

23. David J - Language Of Love We are feelin’ your style. We don’t understand French but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate it! The song is a tad slow and repeative for us. With that, we felt this wasn’t really “putting us in the mood”. We would love to FEEL the passion and love you have for this woman.) 

24. Ben And The Angel Fish - Love’s Lost (A tad low. Hard to understand. Beautiful piano. Love your build to the bridge. Powerful. Terribly sad but meaningful. That being said though, doesn’t “put us in the mood”. It makes us want to cry and hug you.)

25. The Boffo Yux Dudes - I Can’t Get Enough (Wait. Is this an innuendo or does he really want to do dirty chores? We weren’t really sure of the real intent of this song. We appreciate your take on the theme but needed a little more clarity.)

26. Jutze - This Could Be The Night (Yeah. We're feelin’ this beat. Aw man, friend zoned. So hopeful. Sing OUT those long notes! You got this! YES! We’re so happy you guys fell in love. The lyrics are a bit redundant and we felt the song lacked a real desire and NEED to BE in love.)

27. Dreiviertel Drei - Gag Reflex (Alight! Blow Job song. We get it. Penises are scary. There is a nice Pink Floyd quality you’ve got. By the way, penis skin should not get stuck on your teeth. Ow. A tad long for the content)

28. Ben Taggart - The Story Of Us (This is a beautiful love song, but we don’t really see the theme in here very much. We wanted to see a little more passion. We thought the lyrics were lovely but it left us rather sad. It was still played and sung wonderfully)

29. Jailhouse Payback - Another Line (Great style. We don’t really see how it fits into the theme. It’s a solid song. Well sung. Well played. Just doesn’t meet the theme the way many of the other contestants did.)

30. Charlie McCarron - If You Need Romance (I feel like the musical beat doesn’t match up with vocals. Okay, I like chorus. Sultry sound. Haha, argh text messages ruining the mood!)

31. Jurek Mika - The Mood For You (Ooooh. Jazzy. Vocals don’t match the beat. Would love for those to blend a little more.)

32. James Young - In The Dark Of The Night (I love this tune so much. I would have loved to see more than song speak at the beginning)

33. BucketHat Bobby - Glad You Came (The lyrics don’t really match the beat. The lyrics are are tad too literal. We don’t feel there’s much depth there. You definitely followed the theme…just a little too on the nose.)

34. Army Defense - Sexiest Sex (Lyrics don’t always match up with the tune. Same with the instruments. Especially in the beginning of the song. We felt you could have gone further with the lyrics. It’s a little too on the nose relating to the theme. We love your sound and style. We wanted it to be a more crisp and sharp though)