March MeFiMu Challenge

This month's Challenge is a one-parter: Amnesty Month - submit songs based on any previous music challenge that you may have missed. It was suggested by AppleSeed. I though it was big enough to stand on its own, so I decided to forgo the usual 3-part (Lyric / Music / Wildcard) format. Anyone displeased with this month's Challenge please feel free to vent here! The last two months have seen pitifully little in the way of contributions to the Challenges. Precisely 2 submissions for January, and 2 for February. The Christmas theme for December, however, had a whole buncha takers, so I guess it's just ebb and flow. I hope this month sees a little more interest in the Challenge. We shall see!
posted by flapjax at midnite (22 comments total)

I object to this challenge on the basis that I have claimed on several occasions to have had an idea for a previous challenge but just didn't quite get around to it, and now I'm going to look terrible if I don't make good on a couple of those alibis.

Curse you.
posted by cortex at 5:45 PM on March 3

Bwaaaahahahahaha!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:17 PM on March 3

Songsmith it, cortex. Songsmith it.
posted by not_on_display at 6:37 PM on March 3

Hey, n_o_d, dude, we gonna hear something from you this month? It's been awhile...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:48 PM on March 3

I've been working on one song, really, little by little over the past six months. And it does qualify for the "cover request" thread/phenomenon/thing that happened around, what, October, December? (checking watch)

It started with the suggestion to "hey, let's cover [Guided by Voices song]," and I suggested she sing it, or maybe we'll duet. So I start by recording one or two tracks, then spending a few days to weeks not listening to it at all and letting it ferment in my brain. Then, upon getting back to it, it sounds a lot better than I had remembered, so I maybe record a few more tracks and then tweak it a little more, and then pause for a few days/weeks again. This cycle is still going on. And it is very different than how I normally go at it -- I usually do one night or two of recordrecordrecord and then mix it real quicklike and then it's done. Not this time, though.

A few weeks in, I solicited my co-conspirator for her vocals; the first two takes (recorded over two weeks) were timid steps into the world of "high quality production recording" (by that I mean "ok, I'm sending you this mp3 track; sing into your computer wherever you think the internal mic is." "You sung it into your camera? That's fine." etc.) So I'm now waiting for the third take. (If my co-conspirator is reading this, HI!)

Meanwhile, I'm fucking around with echoes here, drum sounds, little squirrely things to put in the background, and so on. Backward masking secret messages to the Cabal, etc. I like how it's turning out, and how unlike it sounds from what I first heard in my head.

So yes, hopefully this month it will all be DONE. Thanks for asking!
posted by not_on_display at 8:35 PM on March 3

Amnesty month inspired me to finish up a snake challenge from around nine months ago.
posted by umbú at 9:09 PM on March 3

Ooh, nice idea. I started the spy music challenge but got distracted; maybe I'll finish it now...
posted by equalpants at 9:34 PM on March 3

I'd like to request that the "Updated!" banner at the top of the main Music page include what month it is. If it always just says "Updated!" it's hard to tell if it's actually been Updated!

I dig Amnesty Month. Two submissions already!
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 10:20 PM on March 3

I'd like to request that the "Updated!" banner at the top of the main Music page include what month it is.

Good call, I must've checked that link at least a dozen times in March before it actually was updated.
posted by BrnP84 at 11:52 PM on March 3

This is a great idea, flapjax. I'll even try to do more than one, because I shouldn't have missed the one-minute-song challenge and the "wrong" challenge. That and I've also wanted to cover more songs from other mefites. Let's see how much I can get around to finish.
posted by micayetoca at 2:49 AM on March 4

This is a great idea, flapjax.

Glad you (and others in this thread) like the idea, mica! But, to give credit where credit is due, it was Appleseed's idea. I'm just the messenger!

Looking forward to hearing what everyone comes up with, and I'm gonna try to get at least one (hopefully more) in myself.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:44 AM on March 4

I guess this means I have to actually finish my spy music song...
posted by andrewraff at 7:59 AM on March 4

Time to bust out my old tune about ol' man Brisk (who is a Cupcake), sailing around the world on his trusty Interstitial (a ship).
posted by ORthey at 9:33 AM on March 4

It seems like everyone just missed their chance to put together a song for the spy challenge. Well, I missed because I wasn't yet a member. But I've put mine up!
posted by orville sash at 2:15 PM on March 4

Thank God for AMNESTY!!!! (I sure do need some!)
posted by snsranch at 6:02 PM on March 4

Is there anyway to view the first eight challenges, in case we really want to take it back? This is exciting!
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 7:43 PM on March 4

Someone needs to do a podcast retrospective on the challenges, telling the history, playing clips of some of the most interesting/best ones, and foretelling the future.
posted by ORthey at 12:01 PM on March 5

I would like to nominate ORthey to do a podcast retrospective on the challenges.

SEriously.

(You DO have a great voice for such a project!)
posted by snsranch at 5:39 PM on March 5

Seconding that nomination!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:45 PM on March 5

And a request: when submitting your Challenge songs this month, in addition to the mefimuchallenge tag, could you please also add an amnesty tag? Thankee!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:57 PM on March 5

To be honest, that whole RPM Challenge thing kept me away from MeFi Music pretty much all of February. Signal to noise ratio was not good.
posted by awfurby at 11:57 PM on March 18

But this is March, awfurby! Has been for a couple weeks now! Get your amnesty submission(s) in! :)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:02 AM on March 19