SURLAW - The Homervision Fongcontest!

Hello, and welcome to Homer J. Fong's SURLAW!




What is Surlaw?
Well it’s like the opposite of Walrus – instead of everyone submitting songs to a host who judges them, the host picks the songs and the denizens in Forum Games judge them via PM.
Each person submits their top ten, and a Eurovision-style reveal is done when all results are counted.

We’ve had three successful Surlaws to date, from Also Starring LeVar Burton, Necro and lassykk. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going.

How It Will Work:
- You will be given a Youtube playlist and Spotify playlist containing the 20 songs that are in contention.
- Listen to all 20 songs and pick out your 10 favourites (or, if you don’t like any of them, the 10 you dislike least! )
- When you’ve decided your top ten, send me your ranking via PM. Please number your choices 1-10, with 1 being your favourite, 2 your second favourite and so on.
- Just like Eurovision, your favourite song will score 12 points, your 2nd favourite 10 points and so on.
- When signups are closed, I will start a Reveal thread in the Other Forum Games forum and you’ll discover which song has triumphed.

Why did I choose these 20 songs?
One thing I love about Eurovision is hearing songs from countries I wouldn’t normally listen to music from. And with that in mind I decided to go through my personal playlists and pick out 20 artists who all hail from different countries across the world. I managed to pick at least one representative from each continent (excluding Antarctica! :pac:) I also tried to keep a reasonable mix of musical genres, so as not to be too repetitive – in this competition you will find alternative rock, indie-folk, murky synthpop, smooth jazz, frantic flamenco-pop and dreamy shoegaze among others. (I didn’t manage to fit in any heavy metal though, I’m afraid.)

Other criteria I went with were
- include a roughly 50:50 split of male:female artists
- try not to include the most “obvious” artist from each country (i.e. no Björk for Iceland, no Arcade Fire for Canada, no Nick Cave for Australia, etc.)
- where I think an artist is likely to be reasonably well-known, try not to pick their biggest hit

These are songs I’ve discovered at various points in my life; some remind me of my teenage years, others I discovered via Shazam while on holiday, and some I even discovered while doing research this Surlaw! Some are happy songs, some are sad songs……the only thing they really all have in common is that I enjoy them! And I hope you do too.

I'll post the songs on thread following this post, in the meantime here are the links you'll need, and a little flag collage I made for the 20 countries competing!

I'll keep signups open for a couple of weeks at least, so you've plenty of time to get listening.

tl;dr?

1. Listen to the 20 songs in the following playlists.
2. PM me your top ten, ranking from 1-10 (1 being your favourite).


SPOTIFY playlist

YOUTUBE playlist

Australia
The Jezabels - Come Alive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoLWLsO-ApQ

Belgium
Loïc Nottet - Heartbreaker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g5BVMH6ISc

Brazil
CSS - Music Is My Hot Hot Sex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_7ZE7hguLY

Canada
TR/ST - Dressed For Space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjwM0eIQ6Rc

Denmark
Iceage - Pain Killer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nbLSGDeQSE

Estonia
Mick Pedaja - Seis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUcuJcD1pMo

Ethiopia
Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu's Mood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spv2nzEnXfk

France
Saez - Jeune et Con

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liG2cXiBs5k

Germany
Trümmer - Wo ist die Euphorie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z--eEkY-kBc

Iceland
Samaris - Viltu vitrast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEvxsq3y-bc

Ireland
Young Wonder - To You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTkuJenFdPU

Israel
Avishai Cohen Trio - Eleven Wives

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n3g2xhJqx8

Japan
For Tracy Hyde - Sakura No Sono

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYJgx0d2GhU

New Zealand
Ladyhawke - Gone Gone Gone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJi4TD-Zb38

Norway
Susanne Sundfør - Reincarnation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4cpyFAHEmI

Poland
Daniel Spaleniak feat. Katarzyna Kowalczyk - Back Home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS8J3ZxIgfo

Spain
Rosalía - Que No Salga La Luna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cENIOFk160c

Sudan
Sinkane - How We Be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rleqAGR-zY

Sweden
Molly Nilsson - I Hope You Die

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS_p_plnpL8

USA
She Keeps Bees - Owl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyTKyFlos1w

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Nice, don't think I know any of these. Don't recognize the names anyway.

Love the thread-name too!

Electric Nitwit

Good effort Homer - will be an intriguing listen, I'm sure

Rothko

Only know a couple of these artists so I'll look forward to discovering some new music.

Irish Aris

Molly Nilsson, Susanne Sundfor, Ladyhawke and TR/ST?

Good man yourself Homer!!!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Ruled out 6 songs after the first listen, but the other 14 are going to be really difficult to separate I think. This could take awhile.

Necro

Hoping to get a first listen in this evening whilst doing up my Ted contest brackets

I don't think I know ANY song in that list which is both exhilarating and terrifying all at once

Necro

Necro wrote: »

Hoping to get a first listen in this evening whilst doing up my Ted contest brackets

I don't think I know ANY song in that list which is both exhilarating and terrifying all at once

You're in for a treat then.
Or potentially a torturous experience, but hopefully won't be too bad!

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

Ruled out 6 songs after the first listen, but the other 14 are going to be really difficult to separate I think. This could take awhile.

How dare you rule 6 out, they're all amazing! :P

14 out of 20 that you at least kind-of like is a pretty good return, I'm happy with that!

Actually, must pick out my own top ten now before any entries come in and lock them in; otherwise I'd definitely be influenced by the scores that already came in and hand out points to the lower scoring ones just to make myself feel better about them!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Deleted User wrote: »

14 out of 20 that you at least kind-of like is a pretty good return, I'm happy with that!

14 out of 20 that I very much like. The 6 I ruled out were just fine, I wouldn't say I disliked them though.

Our first set of scores has been submitted!

Serious business now.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Submitted!

Irish Aris

just finished the first listen and boy, this will take some time for me.
Theoretically I eliminated 6 songs, but I'm not sure so I think I will listen to all of them one more time.
At the moment I have a provisional top-5.

Very good selection overall Homer, you keep the high standards set by the previous Surlaws!!

2 submissions received today, which means we now have four sets of scores (including the host).

I would like to take part please

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

I would like to take part please

I would like you to take part too! Signups will be open for a couple of weeks anyway, so no mad rush (though of course I won't discourage people from doing it sooner rather than later! :cool: )

Another set of votes received this morning, bring us up to:

And another just came in! \o/

the purple tin

In. I winnowed it down to 11 quite easily, then had a heck of a time trying to choose which one to bin.

Another entry received today!

Which brings us up to:

Sawduck

I will try have mine in within the next few days, love this idea of picking songs from different countries

Electric Nitwit

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Signups will be open for a couple of weeks anyway, so no mad rush...

Still a week or so Homer?
Hoping to play but struggling with time at the moment

JP Liz V1

I'll give this Fongcontest a go

y0ssar1an22

When will signups be closing?

Electric Nitwit

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

Still a week or so Homer?
Hoping to play but struggling with time at the moment

y0ssar1an22 wrote: »

When will signups be closing?

I'm in no immediate rush to close signups. Happy to keep it open for another week at least, longer if needed. It's more a case of closing when there are enough entries received, as opposed to a strict deadline*.

*provided whoever's next in the Surlaw queue doesn't get too impatient! :P

Irish Aris

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm in no immediate rush to close signups. Happy to keep it open for another week at least, longer if needed. It's more a case of closing when there are enough entries received, as opposed to a strict deadline*.

*provided whoever's next in the Surlaw queue doesn't get too impatient! :P

There are many things going on atm in the Forum Games, so I reckon it's all good!!!:)

Electric Nitwit

Getting there

Think I've got the top three sorted, as well as 9th, 10th and the cull list

4th to 8th is proving to be tough to order though

Great selection Homer, really interesting and enjoyable

Edit: random note selections for fun...

• If I was in a bar and this was playing I'd be loving it, but would I listen to a whole album?
• pounding, a bit contorted I like it
• moody, slow. Nice voice. Like it, but might get bored....? No, still like it
• driving on, great bass. Vocals are a little flat though, needs some passion. Nah, liking this more now actually
• Oh, oasis intro. Handbrake on. Grand... OK, picking up... Pretty direct and urgent, liking it
• quite a floaty 90s feel, bit like Sixpence None The Richer. I'm enjoying it, but can't see it winning
• PJ Harvey-esque, really good
• moody step time guitar and nicely muffled vocals, like this. Doesn't develop much, I feel I may get bored of it but first listen I really like
• nice intro... Oh, Strokes-ish vibe. Female vocals added too, nice. Liking this
• slow start leads into Thom Yorke-esque electro before opening into more a classic tune, very nice

phatkev

I'll get an entry in over the weekend

Rothko

Just sent in my selection now. Really great choices overall and discovered some new artists that I'll have to check out more.

Btw, this is my 10,000th post

I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Nine entries now received.
And a few more have expressed interest, so hopefully will have more to add soon. Couldn't ask for a better weekend to listen to some great international music - just saying.... :cool:

We now have our tenth entry! \o/

Would be great to get up to at least 15, so please keep 'em coming!

s1ippy

I'm just doing it, stall the ball two secs

Electric Nitwit

I've got my top ten locked and loaded, but I'd like another couple of listens before pulling the trigger

Let me know if you want to close it up though Homer, I can send them over as soon as needed

Electric Nitwit

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

I've got my top ten locked and loaded, but I'd like another couple of listens before pulling the trigger

Let me know if you want to close it up though Homer, I can send them over as soon as needed

I might do the Reveal at the weekend, won't be closing submissions anytime before Saturday afternoon at the earliest so feel free to take another few days. Important life decisions can't be rushed into, after all. :cool:

Electric Nitwit

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

I've got my top ten locked and loaded, but I'd like another couple of listens before pulling the trigger

OK, trigger pulled

We're now up to 13 entries.

Gonna close submissions for this on Saturday 11th July at 6pm.
Will do the Reveal shortly after.

sKeith

I'm half way there.

Electric Nitwit

sKeith wrote: »

I'm half way there.

FINAL CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Entries close at 6pm this evening.

Electric Nitwit

Is the reveal tonight, Homer?

Thought I'd try a prediction. Tricky, as I think a few songs will score highly with some people but low with others. I think the winner needs to consistently score with everyone, and I'm going to guess it'll be... Ladyhawke

Yes, will be kicking off in about an hour's time. Gonns start Reveal thread now

Reveal thread:
https://touch.boards.ie/thread/post/114003542

If the Mods could please change this to SIGN UPS CLOSED? Thanks.