Mefi Music Challenge #1 wrap-up etc

July 7, 2007 9:52 AM

The first Metafilter Music Challenge, "water", has officially deadlined, with 27 entries as of this writing. Fantastic! A whole lot more below the fold, so come inside!
posted by cortex (staff) to MetaFilter Music at 9:52 AM (19 comments total)

Mod note: Confused? A bit of pre-history!

27 entries! That's stunning—more than my optimistic predictions by about half again over. I'm thrilled to see so many people jumping in, and with such good and varied stuff. You can check out all the entries on the mefimusicchallenge+water page—which unfortunately has no built-in playlist at the moment, so check out this page if you want to just hit play and let it run.

People took the theme and ran in all directions with it, which is just about the best thing that could have happened. Songs about water, that mention water, that take place illicitly in pools thereof; tangents on coffee and war, underwater caves, even Metafilter itself; and everything from recitation with foghorn to straight-up instrumental.

A few folks brought in existing but thematically apt recordings, with the majority balance of the contributions being new recordings. That's pretty much what I expected, and pretty much perfect.

We also had a few people join specifically to take part in the challenge, which is fantastic; check out the entries from nollaf126, xorry, and kimyo (and from ray_ray, whose first contribution wasn't a Water entry but is totally fucking great). Hi, folks!

I could talk it to death if I don't watch it, so just one more time: I'm just floored, just completely happy to see this first round go off as well as it has. Well done, everybody, and let's keep it up.

Going forward: we've gone ahead and posted a new theme for the next couple weeks: snake. I'm hoping it'll be as effective a jumping-off point as the last one was. Brainstorming on and about the new theme is welcome and encouraged, from recordists and spectators alike; suggestions and arguments for future themes, likewise.

There're some going-forward details to work out about the handling of the challenge and its artifacts: we'll probably put together some sort of official playlist for each challenge, and maybe other such stuff. Suggestions are more than welcome, so let 'em rip.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:54 AM on July 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

This was a fantastic success, and 27 songs is mind-boggling. MeFi music needed a jolt, and it got one. A huge thanks to everyone who's participated, and those who got the ball rolling.
posted by ORthey at 10:04 AM on July 7, 2007

Wow. I'm very, very happy. I'm relieved, as well. Backstory:

I tried this idea out before on LiveJournal and it flopped... people just stopped uploading after a while and I deleted the comm. I don't know if it was because the challenges were too difficult or because of the competition angle, but it just petered out.

I was actually pretty heartbroken about it.

So, when I brought it up here and you three liked the idea (and implemented it), I was cautiously optimistic... Like Matt said in the podcast, it started slowly, and I was kind of biting my nails: I didn't want you guys to make a big thing of it and see it fail at the first hurdle.

I guess I was right in my assumption after I joined this community: MeFi Music is absolutely the best place for this idea. I hope it continues to do well and drive traffic towards the Music page.

MeFi Music is a playground for songwriters, it's not as clogged with shite and played out as other Music wells on the net (not naming names), and... it's Black. How much cooler can you get?

Shit, I hope we get twice as many songs next time. I promise something new and 'snakey'.

So, cheers. *raises a glass* Big love to y'all.
posted by chuckdarwin at 10:27 AM on July 7, 2007

Indeed, the Challenge was amazing and inspiring. Thanks to all who participated!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:57 PM on July 7, 2007

*Amends chuckdarwin's comment*
MeFi music is absolutely the best place for this idea.
posted by Cranberry at 1:07 PM on July 7, 2007

Very nice. I'm constantly amazed at the quality of songs in Mefi Music.
posted by Otis at 1:28 PM on July 7, 2007

Thanks chuckdarwin, for bringing the idea, and thanks cortex for the groundwork.

It was really great to see so many variations on that theme. Snakes? Like Mutha Fuckin' Snakes? That'll take some thinking and it'll be fascinating to see what comes of that.


!!!!!!
posted by snsranch at 2:25 PM on July 7, 2007

Dagnabbit, I posted a snake song last week! (But it was a cover and I think these are ineligible anyway, right?)
posted by escabeche at 2:34 PM on July 7, 2007

I'm not sure I'd say ineligible, per se, but it'd definitely be pretty much pushing the envelope as far as it'll go.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:06 PM on July 7, 2007

Yay MeFiMusic Challenge! [this is good].

"Snake", eh? Sounds good to me. Wonder if anyone'll cover this curious little number... Remember it, anyone?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:20 PM on July 7, 2007

And seeing as my USB microphons should be arriving annny day now (curse you Amazon Marketplace!) I can't wait to participate in the next challenge. :)
posted by Zephyrial at 11:13 PM on July 7, 2007

Er, microphone*.
posted by Zephyrial at 11:13 PM on July 7, 2007

flapjax at midnite writes "Snake", eh? Sounds good to me. Wonder if anyone'll cover this curious little number... Remember it, anyone?

Yeah, I still have the original 45.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:42 AM on July 8, 2007

Al Wilson, The Snake
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:44 AM on July 8, 2007

I'm excited to see this. Wish I had the bandwidth to hear all the music now (as usual I'm doing 2G-cellphone-as-modem, with a poor signal to boot). But I will remember to listen, next time I'm with width.
posted by allterrainbrain at 6:32 AM on July 8, 2007

Hey Peter, thanks for the YT link: it's actually been years, that is decades since I've heard this, but it was a pretty big hit when I was youngster, and I've remembered it since then. What I didn't remember was how prominent the horn section is, and in my head the tempo was a little slower. Now I'm gonna look up Al Wilson, too: I hadn't remembered his name or anything, just this one song. Anyway, this YT clip has a bit better audio quality, just in case anyone's interested.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:41 PM on July 8, 2007

Here's his Wiki page. Not a lot of info: Wilson seems to be one of those largely forgotten singers, sadly. He had a great voice.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:48 PM on July 8, 2007

Didn't know it was Wilson who did Show and Tell, either. Never cared for the tune too much, and somehow I always thought it was Lou Rawls doing that. Hearing it now, though, I realize that the vocal is a bit meatier than ol' Lou. Seems like a Lou Rawls tune, though, something he would've ben likely to do.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:53 PM on July 8, 2007

Man the new theme would be perfect for some of the stuff I'm doing at the moment but dagnabbit I'm away from tomorrow so won't be able to record anything! Ah well! Well done to everybody that got songs in for the first challenge!
posted by TwoWordReview at 6:38 AM on July 9, 2007