Challenge #1 – Voting Update…

As of 10:39pm, June 4th, To Serve Mankind is #4 of the challengers, with 124/1227 votes. (Inspector Lex Friedman must have a lot of friends…)

Keep those votes comin’ in, folks. Good songwriting must prevail!

VOTE HERE!

It’s your DUTY, people!

Voting commences NOW! Head over to Quick Stop Entertainment/Masters of Song Fu and place your VOTE. You only get one, so choose wisely. I’d suggest listening to all the songs, then making your decision. Don’t just vote for us because you know us… vote for us because we are the best. And if we’re not the best, vote for someone else. That’s how we’re playing this game.

UPDATE – I found out (the hard way) that you can only submit 1 vote TOTAL, so when you are deciding, know that you can either vote for a Master or a Challenger – not both – even though they appear to be listed in two different categories. (Turns out my vote went to Paul and Storm – which I’m not totally sad about – they deserve my vote – besides, isn’t it kind of lame to vote for yourself?)

Jonathan Coulton described his song on his blog… I think I’ll do the same.

TO SERVE MANKIND is a show about two guys who own this van and cruise around looking for people to help. We do all kinds of jobs (listed on the side of our van), from Dog Grooming to Family Counseling to Secret Shopping to Septic Cleaning… whether you need it or not. “No job left” would be an appropriate slogan – although Bryan and I are keen on “We’re Professionals.” We start the song saying, basically, we’ll find the problems at your house so we can fix them… our way.

Challenge #1 – with Bryan

We finished the recording today and submitted it. You can place your vote Wednesday, May 28. Hopefully the internet is kind to us and we advance to round 2, which won’t be easy, because the first elimination will wave goodbye to 14/19 competitors. Yikes, right? But still, we are confident. If this were real life, we’d probably expect the theme to do really well and the show to run until the pilot ended, then be canceled.

…(h)And we’re back

Okay, I’ve gotten a better picture. Which is a better sample to use in the piano book?

1=

2=

(Okay, so I bite my nails…)

Challenge #1 – Demo (no Bryan yet)

We’ve written our first song for the Masters of Song Fu competition – a theme song for our band. I proudly give you the demo version (named for its lack of Bryan) of the To Serve Mankind Theme Song (the 1st track – and hopefully not the last – of our Masters of Song Fu Album “Fu Serve Mankind.”

Challenge 1 – Demo

Well, we did it. Today, Bryan and I wrote our theme song… We recorded some of the magic for you viewers at home. Enjoy – The To Serve Mankind TV Theme Song.

(Jeff sings the right words in the wrong place)

(Jeff sings wrong words)

(To Serve Mankind Theme Song – Demo 1 – “We’re Professionals”)

(To Serve Mankind Theme Song – Demo 2)

Challengers of Song Fu

That’s Bryan and Me as To Serve Mankind – you remember, the band that used to play at all the church functions. Well, we’re on a mission from God… not really God, but a mission nonetheless – to become the Masters of Song Fu – by taking on a series of weekly songwriting challenges, of which we have absolutely no foreknowledge. We will be judged by Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm, and Doc Hammer. You may know some of those names. I just received the first challenge…

“You must do a song in the style of a classic television show. Not only that, but this song is the theme for a fictional television show about yourself (or your band). By “classic television show” theme song, we mean the type of themes found in shows from the 1960’s – 1980’s (ie Gilligan’s Island, Cheers, The Fall Guy, Diff’rent Strokes, Welcome Back Kotter, Greatest American Hero, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Facts Of Life, Green Acres, Gimme A Break, The Monkees, etc.). Your theme song must include both lyrics and music. It must run no shorter than 30 seconds, and no longer than one (1) minute. Deadline for submission is 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008.”

So there you have it – our first challenge. Who are we? That is very profound. I’m not sure we knew. That is something to consider, especially as we have to compose something that reflects us. Feel free to offer suggestions in the comment section of this post. We will take those very seriously – as, so far, no inspiration.

If you have any interest in checking out the official contest page, you can find it at Quick Stop Entertainment.

Thou Shalt Always… BUY!

I’m glad to say the next installment of parody is here – riding on the backs of Scroobius Pip and Dan le Sac, with their original “Thou Shalt Always Kill,” I’m proud to present to you today, “Thou Shalt Always Die.” One of our pastor’s most oft-quoted verses in the Bible is about dying to yourself, taking up your cross and following Jesus. Although I can’t quite quantify how much of the new lyrics point to that exact message, certainly, most of them are good guidelines to follow.

In my head, I must admit, I was writing half for the public and half for my daughter (in utero). I wanted the messages to be poignant and relevant to our society just now. Enter the song, and many of the references in my parody. As always, this song incorporates many of my life experiences. You may be surprised how difficult my life can be sometimes. Although not everything in the song is autobiographical, there is enough there to feel really personal to me. The rest is just good livin’ as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, if you are so inclined and want to own your very own HIGH QUALITY mp3, you can cruise over to my Speakerheart store and buy the thing (@ 192kbps).  Enjoy.

PS – to ensure everyone can have a cursory listen to the song, I’ve included it at the top, but recorded at 64kbps – which affects the sound quality – and with so much going on lyrically, it gets muddy.  The good news for you is – the HIGH QUALITY recordings are crystal clear.