Back by semi-popular demand, it’s the best way to get frustrated by other people’s questionable taste in music. Walrus!
It’s a contest where participants submit one song (youtube/spotify link) to each of a bunch of categories, and the ‘Walrus Master’ ranks those songs, reveals them one-by-one in the results thread and awards points. When the dust settles and all the categories are correctly scored, the one with the most points lost the least.
This time it’s a ‘Grab Bag’, so we’ll all get a chance to judge harshly the sincere efforts of others. Everyone taking part picks a category, gets the songs submitted to it and does the ranking.
Anyone welcome, especially new blood. Coming next will be a post about all the detail courtesy of the great @seities.
Each participant hosts and reveals a category of their selection.
So that means if you enter you will have to choose a category for everyone else to submit a song to. More details on categories below.
Please make sure you can meet your commitment to doing a reveal before entering. It will take hours of your time to listen to all the entries, likely multiple times, then do a writeup for the reveal.
I think we need to cap this at around 16 entrants maximum . That means 16 total reveals, and everyone will have to submit 15 entries.
We will set a timeframe by which everyone needs to do their reveals. This will depend on how many entrants there are.
Since there will be quite a few songs for everyone to think of, it will be best to not get too specific with your category. For this format it is better to have a broad category where people can easily recall songs they like that will fit, rather than defining a really specific category where people feel like they are just searching for something they don’t care much about to meet the category. For example:
“A song in any language other than english” is probably ok. “A song in French” is too specific.
“A song from the 90’s” is ok. “A song from 1991” is too specific.
If you are unsure about your category just ask for feedback in this thread. People will be happy to help.
Here is a template to use for posting your category :
Category host name: I would put seities here. Because my name is seities. Category: Words to explain your category Musical tastes: Optional, but I like to give a very general idea of stuff I like or don’t like. Any other judging notes: For example, some hosts penalize for overly familiar songs, some don’t. Let us know if you have preferences.
New Scoring Rules:
Walrus always stays one step ahead, so there’s some new scoring rules:
Your 2 lowest scores will be discarded for the final total, to allow you to go for some some high risk / high reward submissions (e.g. Melt Banana)
If there’s fewer than ten contestants we’ll probably only discard one score, but I trust that won’t be the case.
You will pick one of your submissions to be your ‘joker’, and it means you’ll actually score 1.5x your points for that category in the final reckoning. We won’t reveal when the jokers were played until after the last round for MAXIMUM EXCITEMENT!
(Note anyone who says this is just so @LouisCyphre doesn’t walk it again will be told to be quiet.)
Next steps:
Signups. Just post here. For now I’ll say open until Thursday Morning euro time. (18th of Mar or until the limit is reached.)
Your category should be submitted in this thread by end of day Friday (19th of Mar), but the sooner the better.
After all categories are submitted I’ll follow up with a time frame for us all to send our entries, and who to send them to. Generally I am going to recommend sending a youtube link for your submissions if you can since it’s more accessible to everyone, but many of us also appreciate a spotify link.
Last, despite the mundane, rule-laden post that this is, Walrus is meant to be fun. Try not to take any results seriously, and do yourself a favour and don’t take the reveal for your category too seriously either. The fun in this game should be found in the fact that musical tastes vary wildly. Whether your submission gets roasted or toasted take pleasure in the fact that you made them listen to it!
Several of you have already expressed some interest, even if just a like, stray comment or via a family member. Please confirm, but there’s a space reserved for the people @-ed below.
Category host name: eyebooger Category: Something fucking loud Musical tastes: Rock of all kinds and catchy pop, but in this case I’ll be judging much more narrowly. I like The New Pornographers, and I like Dua Lipa. Do not submit them here. Any other judging notes:
Ideally something I’ve never heard before, but at least something not super famous.
This should kick ass pretty much the whole time. There can be a quieter, slower parts, but they should be kept to a minimum. Some punk would qualify; most symphonic metal would not.
It needs to be loud, but growly stuff turns me off. If it’s in English and I can’t make out most of the words after two or three listens, that’s a problem.
Recent songs (or at least one from a group that still exists) is better than something older.
And I always appreciate songs in a language other than English.
Examples of songs I’ve submitted in the past or had submitted to me that would have done well here (obviously don’t submit these):
Going to try something a bit different and put my category to a poll. Choose whichever ones you would prefer I go with (you can select multiple categories).
For reference, I have pretty eclectic taste but lean towards faster/heavier music in Rock/Metal/Punk Hardcore/EDM/Rap. I’ll be more specific with what sort of music I prefer to be submitted once the category is selected.
seities walrus category
Paranormal - Any song where the title or band name has a paranormal word used, the song itself may be about (or just reference) paranormal
A song between 4-5 mins long.
A song that uses a lyrical sample from another song (or movie/tvshow).
I’m going to have to rail this one, I think. Got several things coming in the next few weeks that are going to keep me busy. I’ll be watching and expressing wrong opinions about everything, though!
