[WALRUS] Shad Walrus 2021

Take a walk in Tin Pan Alley, the area's most famous music district.

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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#351

Post by Shad »

33rd place:

Logic

Bill McClintock - The Temptations and Black Sabbath - "Get Ready for the Grave"

This is unironically pretty good.

And ironically pretty good.

Might even be Alanis Morissette tier.

6.5
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#352

Post by Shad »

32nd place:

staypositivefriend

Dismemberment Plan - 8 1/2 Minutes

This gives me a strong Steve Albini vibe. That's cool. It feels like a band I could definitely get into on an album basis when I'm in the right mood. I'm not connecting with it in terms of this category. I could see it closing out an album maybe, but not a live set so much. It doesn't have that sort of last hurrah energy.

6.7
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#353

Post by Shad »

31st place:

schadd

Duster - Copernicus Crater

It works and it doesn't. I did enjoy it. I definitely feel the burn--the sense of exhaustion. But it drags on out of obligation, not some final burst of wim. It's appropriate material for my cat 7 last year or cat 4 here. I think if it climaxed in the slightest it might have flipped into a sweet spot and shot up into contention. But the main thrust of this song is feeling the drain, not overcoming it.

6.8
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#354

Post by Shad »

30th place:

shubaka17

Miley Cyrus - Night Crawling ft. Billy Idol

The only opinion I had relevant to Miley Cyrus walking into this was that Achy Breaky Heart is a good song.

Billy Idol kind of feels like the weakest link here to be honest, and not much of one. I dig Miley's vocals and the tune at large. Feels best as a mid-range cat 6 sub, but the lyrical theme and mood give it decent closing relevance. I tried to bump this up higher--I don't think 31st place reflects how much I enjoyed it--but there were too many other great subs.

7.0
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#355

Post by Shad »

29th place:

Frog

Yes - Roundabout

I would have never imagined Roundabout as a closer. It's such a classic quintessential opener. But I'm not at all struggling to envision it as the encore either. I don't have time to go digging the way I've done in earlier categories, but I'm really curious how a live recording of this as an actual closer would have settled on me. Something where the burnout is really tangible in the energy of the track. I'm intrigued. I clicked the link and went really and then oh, maybe! but never quite reached yessssss. I think live was the way to go with this song if a high quality option is out there. Creative choice for a classic though.

7.2
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#356

Post by Shad »

28th place:

Aladyyn

'68 - Track 10

Metalcore vocals don't always work for me, but I'm digging these ones. The flow he executes at 1:38 is really cool. I'm loving the recording quality. It starts out with intense energy and progresses into a feeling of ending. Not something I would voluntarily listen to often, but it's got all the right pieces. Something in its confrontational approach and meandering transitions makes it tiring to sit through in a way that brings out the category. This seems like it would be a really great experience live.

7.5
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#357

Post by Shad »

27th place:

Zarathustra

Toasty Digital - Kanye West & Kendrick Lamar - MONEY POWER

This is really well done for a mashup. It's low key climatic in the transitions between the samples. It builds up in a way that strangely works for me here despite feeling like it absolutely shouldn't.

7.9
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#358

Post by Shad »

26th place:

marmot

Motorpsycho - The Golden Core

It's long in the getting there, like the band's waking back up and regaining their energy in slow motion. I like how tangible the category feels, and it's pleasantly rough around the edges. I really enjoyed it and like getting these early to mid 90s post-rock subs. It's a time period for this sort of sound that I'm a lot less familiar with than the late 90s and 2000s. These guys might be getting some attention when I burn out on Dirty Three.

8.0
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#359

Post by Shad »

25th place:

ladd

Mew - Snow Brigade

Mmmm... the forward-driving bass in this is huge when it hits full throttle. It's a sexy closer I can get behind: mega energy, and sitting on the melancholy side of Mew's spectrum to give it a nice farewell feeling.

8.1
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#360

Post by Shad »

24th place:

nutella

Japandroids - Continuous Thunder

This feels a bit turn of the century lovesick alt rock radio single in a way that I took a while to warm up to, but that distorted wall they put up hooks me and the sweet melancholy endeared itself over time. It definitely fits as a song to go out on.

8.2
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#361

Post by Shad »

23rd place:

Newcomb

World's End Girlfriend - We are the Massacre

It took a lot of outstanding subs to bottom half World's End Girlfriend. I have some sort of finale type category to end most of my walruses, and each has some nuance differences in theme. This is well suited for a cat 8 but might wind up short-changed for less imaginative but more driven options in this cat 8. Its limited energy held it back just a bit over the competition.

8.3
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#362

Post by Shad »

22nd place:

Adam

Against Me! - Pints of Guinness Make You Strong

Every one in a while I'll sit down and try to compile some ranked 100 favorite albums list. I never get far before stopping myself and realizing how dumb and arbitrary it is, but Reinventing Axl Rose is always in the top 10.

It took a while to get my head in the zone of parsing this as a submission to cat 8 and not as, you know, Against Me! playing Pints of Guinness Make You Strong. I just kept plugging it in next to songs, and this is where it ended up feeling the most appropriate. Any semblance of a novelty factor could have likely bumped it higher. A bit of bad luck for you there.

Along the way I found a 15 year old video of me screaming this at the top of my lungs, so that was fun.

8.4
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#363

Post by Shad »

21st place:

Made

Ayoni - Unmoved (A Black Woman Truth)

Lyrics this raw serve a respectable artistic purpose but aren't particularly pleasant to wade through. I tend to leave a lot of room for tracks that aren't what I anticipated but accomplish their goal well, but hating myself isn't really the note I want to go out on here. It's a compelling closer in the sense that any song with a powerful message can resonate as a key point to leave on, but is it a cat fit really? Soldiering on in the face of adversity has reoccurring relevance in my closing categories, but this year's in my head and in how I think I presented it was very direct and experience driven. It didn't need to be optimistic or burnout-defying energetic or performance-oriented or any one thing necessarily, but I wanted to be left within a spectrum of feelings that this opposes.

And this is on a level where I tend to go "who cares" and bump it up anyway, but my internal resistance is unusually compelling here. I didn't want to end on downers this year, especially when so many other subs were so good. I felt I designed the category to avoid that. It was a high risk sub, and I very frequently reward those, but it's not really a risk if it has no potential to fail. There were a couple free play sessions where I was just passively going down the random.org line and I hesitated on this one and went that's the buzz kill track and skipped over it. With that in mind, I'm content to not force it in higher.

8.5
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#364

Post by Shad »

20th place:

roro__b

Pogo - Happee

As my journey through the world of Pogo comes to a close, this feels incredibly appropriate to end on. These subs haven't fared well over all, but it's mostly been a matter of category fit. I definitely feel an endearing attachment to his sound. This is like saying goodbye to a friend.

8.6
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#365

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TOP HALF

Ace Marvel
Ampharos
birdwithteeth11
Bloobird
BLOODYRAIN10001
Cory
Kane
Keldeo
KnightsofCydonia
LordQuas
Marcher Jovian
MyNameIsNothing
Psycho666Soldier
Relm
soah
tane
Tangrowth
vanity.
Visorslash
Zack
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#366

Post by Shad »

19th place:

Visorslash

Battles - Atlas (Live)

I've subbed Atlas at least twice and recently played it in a post-reveal jam, so it feels kind of lol to get it in my own walrus. Watching it performed live is pretty rad. I'm impressed by how accurately they reproduced it. I'm not convinced it's ideal for the category, but even with that and the familiarity factor it's pretty irresistible.

8.7
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#367

Post by Shad »

18th place:

Psycho666Soldier

Immortal - Beyond the North Waves

It is probably not difficult to predict that I am a fan of Immortal, but by the nature of the genre, familiarity isn't as game-ending as some of the other songs I already knew coming into this category. Moodier, broodier, generally higher replay value. This feels like an outro all over and I really enjoy it in that context. It's more of a slogger than a slugger and doesn't have the ideal level of energy for the category, but that's only going to hold it back a bit.

8.8
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#368

Post by Shad »

17th place:

Relm

The Elders - Meetings of the Waters

My first impression of this was that I didn't like it at all but it was an exceptional category fit, and I knew it would grow on me to an extent. It starts out in a sore spot for me prevalent in a lot of 60s and 70s-vibing tunes--the uncanny valley zone for happy music, neither raw enough to feel natural organically nor cheesy enough to feel natural in that roundabout let's stop caring and just have fun with it sort of way. But the fiddle bailed it out on early listens, and the chorus rocks, and the more I listened to it the more I got over myself and learned to love this.

8.9
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#369

Post by Shad »

16th place:

Ace Marvel

이달의 소녀 (LOONA) "Hi High"

We said goodbye to Pogo. Now it's time to see off kpop with an exceptionally energetic final run. Sub these to me forever; they never get old.

9.0
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#370

Post by Shad »

TOP 15

Ampharos
birdwithteeth11
Bloobird
BLOODYRAIN10001
Cory
Kane
Keldeo
KnightsofCydonia
LordQuas
Marcher Jovian
MyNameIsNothing
soah
tane
Tangrowth
vanity.
Zack
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#371

Post by Shad »

15th place:

KnightsofCydonia

The Black Keys - Little Black Submarines

That guitar tone is so absurdly thick and dirty I am in instant bliss the moment it kicks in. There's not much to this song, but there doesn't really need to be. It resonates all the sweat and smoke and grime of a band rocking out in a crowded room for two hours and coming back for a final hurrah.

9.1
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#372

Post by Shad »

14th place:

vanity.

Tearist - LOV

This is deliciously erratic. It comes off like it was barely even planned and she's just doing whatever comes to her. I get the feeling maybe all of their music sounds like this, but as a stand alone piece, the improvisational chaos of her vocal performance sells me. Definitely worth watching the video too.

9.4
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#373

Post by Shad »

13th place:

Marcher Jovian

Streetlight Manifesto - If and When We Rise Again

Something about this instrument palette always resonates a sense of being at the end of the line to me. I'm not sure what it is. I would humor a quip about how the transient tonal qualities of brass submerged in ska energy resonate a struggle against finality, but I'm tired. This works great.

9.5
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#374

Post by Shad »

12th place:

Cory

Nothing - Say Less

Wow shoegaze works soooooooo well for the mood I was after here. That soaring guitar and the underlying noise mix with the pace of the song and tone of his voice to give me exactly what I was looking for. It's a comet blazing through the sky, melting away at every angle but determined to crash into the earth before it can flicker out.

9.6
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#375

Post by Shad »

11th place:

Keldeo

The National - Graceless (Live)

This has a lot of subdued energy. Something in the way the singer feels like he could lay down on the stage and fall asleep at any moment but the drums and bass are driving on full speed ahead and dragging him along with them. It hits on the category well for me from the start, and his outburst at the end really sells it. This absolutely needed to be live. Though I think it's high time I gave their studio albums another try.

9.7
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#376

Post by Shad »

TOP 10

Ampharos
birdwithteeth11
Bloobird
BLOODYRAIN10001
Kane
LordQuas
MyNameIsNothing
soah
tane
Tangrowth
Zack
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#377

Post by Shad »

10th place:

soah

Non Serviam - Infanticide

This is like taking a half dozen appropriate songs for the category and condensing them all together into a seven minute package. Each transition point is an exercise in gathering yourself up and ramming forward in defiance of every impulse to call enough enough. It takes some of the wackiest experimental French metal I've heard and pushes it a step further. It was a pretty instant hit for me that just kept getting better over time.

10.1
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#378

Post by Shad »

9th place:

MyNameIsNothing

Daft Punk - Contact

I guess I can't claim to have never paid attention to a Daft Punk song before anymore. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is fabulous.

10.2
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#379

Post by Shad »

8th place:

Zack

The Armed - All Futures

As I got into these highest tier subs that were just impossible to parse, I found myself ranking them on how I felt at the transitions. It seemed... an appropriate approach for the category. It's like the Daft Punk sub took me to a higher level finale but I broke out of my daze and took off blazing ahead again on this next unknown level of adrenaline. It's encore after encore after encore, and if I didn't get the order perfect on song quality, listening to them all in this sequence blew me away.

This is what I was referring to when I mentioned a new contender for my favorite album of 2021 by the way.

10.3
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#380

Post by Shad »

7th place:

birdwithteeth11

Leprous - Contaminate Me (Live)

Wow wow wow Ihsahn absolutely kills it and the lead singer absolutely kills it and having two drummers is supposed to be a gimmick not this awesome and wow. I can immediately tell this is the sort of track that sounds sooooooo much better live than it ever could in a studio take. This is awesome. I definitely need to check out some Leprous. And I've drifted away from Ihsahn's albums over the years as he dabbles further and further into eclectic noodling, but maybe I should just go straight for the live sets. Dude's still a beast, and this appears to be his touring band's main project.

10.4
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#381

Post by Shad »

6th place:

Ampharos

65daysofstatic - Retreat! Retreat!

This top 10 shaped up so fucking epic to me because like, every track is lay your final 100% on the line and push it to the end and then another track gets to grab the torch and do it all again. That spoken word clip right before the song kicks off sets a mood for this category so well. "This negative energy just makes me stronger. We will not retreat. This band is unstoppable." It's silly but it's so perfect here.

Fall of Math era was the only time I was really into 65days, and this hooks me so much more effectively than most of their later material I've heard.

10.5
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#382

Post by Shad »

TOP 5

Bloobird
BLOODYRAIN10001
Kane
LordQuas
tane
Tangrowth
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#383

Post by Shad »

5th place:

BLOODYRAIN10001

CQ - Primal

These are progressing by how much I'm feeling the drain as I plow through them. The melancholy mood of this as it rockets ahead stacks up the burnout, makes my ears even more reliant on the pure adrenaline they're serving up on a platter to keep me in the zone.

10.6
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#384

Post by Shad »

4th place:

LordQuas

The Armed - Bad Selection

This might be a weird spot in so far as I think I enjoyed All Futures more--this category's been the first time I've actually listened to The Armed despite being told to all the time. But I'm in the category zone now and it's in complete control of placements. This song feels like it's even more exhausted, digging even deeper to drive on, struggling harder to keep up the energy, sometimes slowing down and nearly losing it, finally finding it and exploding more radically than anything that's come before it in the end.

10.7
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#385

Post by Shad »

3rd place:

tane

Vajra - 猿は拝まない - Monkeys Don't Pray

I think that Armed track finally broke me. This song is at the barest brink of holding anything whatsoever together. I can't feel my feet. I have no idea how I'm still standing let alone what the hell I'm playing, but by God I'm going to keep pressing on.

I just discovered at the last minute that this is Keiji Haino. I only knew him from a hundred collaborations with other musicians I love. Neat. I bet he's incredible live.

10.8
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#386

Post by Shad »

2nd place:

Bloobird

Pavement - Fillmore Jive

Is it over? We're still going?

This is just too perfect lol

I've only listened to Wowwee Zowee, and not terribly much of it. Good stuff.

10.9
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#387

Post by Shad »

1st place:

Tangrowth

Hüsker Dü - Books About UFOs

Ok, no, we're really done, just let me play this one last song... This feels exactly like the happy mush that is my brain after rolling out 8 walrus categories, and it has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to experience them all with you.

11
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#388

Post by Shad »

1st place:

Kane

The Specials - A Message To You Rudy

The lights are on and the boomer venue owner put on a classic to kick you out the door to. So go on, get.

This is kind of a cat fail lol. But I couldn't not close with it, and not giving a win to the song I play last feels ridiculous. So congratulations, you broke my system and forced a tie.

11
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Re: Shad Walrus 2021

#389

Post by Shad »

Final Score

39. 41.0 PunchyTheCat
38. 44.2 Moose
37. 51.6 Frog
36. 53.9 Relm
35. 55.5 BoKnows
34. 56.0 Logic
33. 56.2 Cory
32. 57.0 gbsfranca
31. 58.5 roro__b
30. 58.8 ladd
29. 60.7 staypositivefriend
28. 61.4 nutella
27. 61.6 vanity.
26. 61.7 Visorslash
25. 62.8 Made
24. 63.3 Ace Marvel
23. 63.7 Owner
22. 64.3 Aladyyn
21. 64.5 soah
20. 64.7 Marcher Jovian
19. 65.2 Keldeo
18. 65.4 LordQuas
17. 65.6 KnightsofCydonia
16. 66.7 shubaka17
15. 66.8 Zack
14. 67.2 Adam
10. 68.8 birdwithteeth11
10. 68.8 Bloobird
10. 68.8 marmot
10. 68.8 Newcomb
9. 69.0 Ampharos
7. 69.1 Psycho666Soldier
7. 69.1 schadd
6. 69.4 Kane
5. 70.4 Zarathustra
4. 70.5 tane
3. 71.9 Tangrowth
2. 73.1 MyNameIsNothing
1. 75.5 BLOODYRAIN10001
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