Johannes Schult

Check out our new Manticess video – it’s a cover version of Joe Lamb’s song “Mr. Tom Furby-The Furby Catcher“.

PS: I’ll be playing at the Kulturnacht at the Kulturladen in Konstanz on Friday 13th, 2012.

This is yet another song fu contribution. The challenge was to write a song that contains a recipe in some way. The music was clearly inspired by Eläkeläiset. The lyrics for the chorus came somewhat natural; the rest is a collection of ingredients, some of them intentionally sung in German. Finally, I could use some live drums. I had recorded them five years ago for a song I never released online.

“Schnitzel Soup and Vodka” is my last entry for song fu for the time being. The contest consumes quite some time and to be honest, I’m not very pleased with my latest efforts. Sure, “Kingdom of Rain” had possibly the best story line I’d come up with in ages. And the present polka was surely fun. But I’ve had enough exposure to present my case. Don’t get me wrong, I love song fu and the other contestants are great people. I’m happy to be part of it and perhaps I’ll do shadow entries in the future. We’ll see and hear.

For now, please check out the link below. There are plenty of interesting contributions; for starters I recommend Mike Lombardo, because he’s a talented musician and his tune is very entertaining. There’s more, but I’m signing off now, saving my “Best of Song Fu”-list for another post.

Download and vote over at FRED

Here is a secret that I’m going to share with you
The perfect meal to eat before you’re getting drunk
This recipe comes straight from the heart of Mother Russia
It keeps any hangover away
You need some schnitzel soup and 17 potatoes
The soup is easy – just get a lot of meat
Then put it in a pot and add a little water
Boil it for a while until it’s through
When it’s
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night

If you like it sweet you add some apfelstrudel
And if you’re hungry you should add chunk of cheese
And when the soup is boiling you add a few more items
Paprika, tomatoes, sauerkraut and beans
You have to eat a lot for the soup to be effective
Five full plates at least
When it’s
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – drinking all day and night

Vodka!
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the morning
Vodka, vodka – drinking all day and night

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is actually the song I made for the second round of Song Fu #6 (listen and vote!). The task was to write a song that doesn’t contain any rhymes. Years ago I had written a song in German entitled “Morgen kommt der Kommunikationsentferner”. I reanimated the lyrical idea and translated a few of the original lines into English. The chords of the verse also remained the same. Still, I think it became a completely different song. For instance, it used to be a ballad; now it’s a rock song.

The song fu-version of this song (entitled “Communication Removal”) is 45 seconds longer; it contains more instrumental mayhem as well as an additional line about Mike Lombardo and Nickelback. I had originally planned to have a chorus going “And as of now my rhymes are out of order”, but that didn’t fit the rest of the song, so I scrapped it.

Some trivia: For the music box in the outro I punched arbitrary holes into a sheet of paper and pulled it through the little machine. Other instruments I recorded for the outro were ukulele, harmonica, melodica and tin whistle.

#8 Communication Removal Is Due Tomorrow

I just shut down the weather
Love doesn’t work anymore
Communication removal is due tomorrow

The shadows no longer obey the sun
All seasons are in exile
Communication removal is due tomorrow

Yesterday I made silence a little bit louder
And now I’ll turn off time
Communication removal is due tomorrow

I successfully divided by zero

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

Check out the third round of Masters of Song Fu #5 over at QuickStopEntertainment.com! Manticess contributed a song called “After I Have Gone”. Other artists made songs with different titles. Go check it all out! Also: vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! (Read: you have five votes – use them wisely!)

On Wednesday evening I came up with the little melody that opens “After I Have Gone”. I wrote some lyrics on Thursday, but accidently left the paper with them at work. So when it came to record a demo for Susanne, I had to improvise a bit, because I couldn’t remember all the words. (More than 90% turned out to be ‘correct’, though.) She recorded vocals and some flutes on Friday in a bit of a hurry, because she was going to be away over the weekend. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the flutes as they were the wrong key. They would have added quite some Christmas sparkle! Something like a string quartet had been on our mind for some time now. So I used the opportunity to arrange two violins, one viola, one cello, plus a flute. Digital copies of the original instruments had to suffice. A big thank you goes out to fellow song fuer Caleb Hines, who used his arsenal of virtual instruments and provided us with a wonderful orchestra track. I spent several hours mixing the five tracks (voice, guitar, stereo strings, keyboard bells), which is somewhat ridiculous. Still, I really enjoyed what I heard and I’m extremely content with the result.

The lyrics of the song were inspired by Richard Shindell‘s beautiful ballad “Before You Go”, which is basically God’s last words to his son before sending him to earth. I took up the narrative from Jesus’ point of view, both after he left the Heavens and after he fulfilled his mission. I’m still unhappy with the line “my memory has gone”. I had wanted to describe the way becoming human transforms his memories from heaven. But I also wanted everything to rhyme, so sacrifices were made. Also, the time constraint is at times a blessing, because it teaches you to not get lost in details.

In other news, Manticess will be playing a little gig with JODA this Friday at the university of Konstanz, IBZ II (K5 beneath the Mensa) around 19.30! Be there! We’ll be giving away free cds!

Für die nächsten 24 Tage werde ich diese Seite in einen Adventskalender verwandeln. Es wird täglich Einträge geben, jeweils mit einem Link zu Vampster, wo ich parallel täglich schreibe (i.d.R. CD-Kritiken). Wer noch musikalische Geschenkideen sucht, wird hier vielleicht fündig, da ich noch eine sehr bunte Mischung hier zum Besprechen herumliegen habe (Prog, Punk, Weihnachtliches und eben Heavy Metal).

Aktuell gibt es eine neue Runde im Song Fu-Songwriting-Wettbewerb. Manticess (also Susanne und ich) sind wieder mit dabei, auch wenn die Deadline – und damit die Aufnahme – direkt in die Erkältungszeit fiel. Immerhin hat das Lied (1998) nun einen Charme, wie man ihn von Manticess bislang noch nicht kannte. Ach, was fasele ich: Anhören! (Ja, am besten alle!) Abstimmen! Bitte. Danke.

Wer lieber professionellen Progressive Rock mit schönem Gesang und  einer wirren Konzeptstory mag, sei auf das Album “Realm of Shadows” von Knights Realm (Vampster-Review) hingewiesen.

Russ Rogers (of Gödz Pöödlz) said it much better than I ever could. Please read on:

The first challenge for Masters of Song Fu #5 was posted last week. The challenge was to write a song based on one Mole-man from a list of 700 Mole-men created by John Hodgman. (Hodgman is the “I’m a PC”-guy from the Mac ads. You’ve seen him on the Daily Show. He’s got two books out. The Mole-men are from his second book, “More Information Than You Require”.)

The first round songs are now posted and ready for your votes. The songs are phenomenally creative and diverse. Seriously, a good crop.

http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2009/11/17/song-fu-5-round-1-voting/

You can vote ONLY once, but you can vote for up to FIVE different songs.

So take some time to listen to at least part of every song. There are 33, so it will take a little time. Listen closely to ALL of the songs you like. Then, choose your TOP FIVE SONGS and vote for them.

You can even download ALL the songs for FREE!

You will receive Special Silver Bonus Points in Heaven if you comment at the bottom of the Song Fu page. This can be as brief or as in depth as you like. But speaking from experience, one person taking the time to comment on my song with either praise or constructive criticism was worth more than 50 votes to me! You’re comment could be as simple as listing the five songs you voted for. If you want to be more complex, give your reasons and mention the songs that almost got your vote (the ones you wish you had more votes to give). Try to stay positive or constructive.

Extra Special Heavenly GOLDEN Points are awarded to folks who encourage other folks to check out the songs and vote. Post it to your facebook status. Twitter about it. Blog about it. Make sure you link to the Song Fu site. Talk about Song Fu. This is a concept that deserves viral attention from the Hive-Mind.

Masters of Song Fu is a special contest. There is NO prize money involved. The songwriters are doing this out of love for their craft and in the hopes that SOMEONE will notice, enjoy and appreciate their efforts.

So take some time, VOTE, COMMENT and POST about the contest.

This is the first of 3 preliminary rounds of voting. The Challenger with the most cumulative votes after 3 rounds will meet a Super-secret Champion, “The Master of Song Fu” in a final head-to-head challenge for the title and trophy of Master of Song Fu!

Voting will end this Saturday, November 21 at 11:59 PM EST.

The website’s system is designed to lock out IP Addresses that have already voted. So, when I say you can only vote once, technically it means that each computer only gets one chance to vote. Sometimes the voting system gets locked up, allowing NOBODY to vote for a while. Don’t let this frustrate you. Just come back another time and vote. You can always leave a comment, even when the voting system is SNAFU.

Thanks for Supporting Song Fu. Now, got Vote, Comment and Post.

This being quoted, and yes, I second every word Russ wrote, here’s a list of my six favourite entries, followed by the video Susanne and I shot last Sunday to go with our own entry, “423. Red” by Manticess.

• Caleb Hines
• Joe “Covenant” Lamb
• Lex Vader
• Gorbzilla
• Spencer Sokol
• Sara Parsons