New year, new walrus.
What is Walrus? It's a forum game where you submit songs to me according to various categories and I rank and score them based on how much I like them.
To join, simply sign up in this thread (or drop me a DM at BrainpanSonata#0280). Submissions must be done by PM/DM, including YouTube or Soundcloud links to your picks. One by one, categories will be revealed in the official walrus Discord server and the respective threads. Aim for the highest overall score, or play along for fun and the love of music.
Scores will be logged and tracked via Google spreadsheet. Scoring is done on a 0.0-10.0 points range based on how much I enjoy a song and how well it fits the respective category. My scoring system runs along the same lines as MyAnimeList: 5s are boring, 6s are okay, 7s are good, 8s are great, 9s are awesome, and if you get a 4 or below ya dun goofed. Will anyone send me a 10 point masterpiece? We’ll see…
Additional rules are as follows:
Signups List
I'm going to do something unprecedented for me. Because the upcoming Grammys means there are qualifying songs that won't be known until late January, the signups and initial submissions phase is the entire month of January. Get it in before February 1st and I'll run the first reveal sometime in the first week of February.
EDIT: Courtesy of Aura Guardian, a Live From Here playlist has been found which can be used for the reverse covers category.
What is Walrus? It's a forum game where you submit songs to me according to various categories and I rank and score them based on how much I like them.
To join, simply sign up in this thread (or drop me a DM at BrainpanSonata#0280). Submissions must be done by PM/DM, including YouTube or Soundcloud links to your picks. One by one, categories will be revealed in the official walrus Discord server and the respective threads. Aim for the highest overall score, or play along for fun and the love of music.
Scores will be logged and tracked via Google spreadsheet. Scoring is done on a 0.0-10.0 points range based on how much I enjoy a song and how well it fits the respective category. My scoring system runs along the same lines as MyAnimeList: 5s are boring, 6s are okay, 7s are good, 8s are great, 9s are awesome, and if you get a 4 or below ya dun goofed. Will anyone send me a 10 point masterpiece? We’ll see…
Additional rules are as follows:
- Any categories you fail to submit for will automatically be scored 0. You can send submissions at any point up to the day before the respective category’s scheduled reveal. In some cases, depending on my schedule, I may be lenient enough to accept submissions up to the T-minus 12 hours mark. I will actively check in with players who have unfilled submissions to help prevent catfails.
- Any submissions which don't fit the qualifying requirements of their respective category will automatically be scored 0. For example, if I had a category about guitars and you subbed an acapella song, you would catfail.
- You will need to change your submission if it's a song I submitted to a previous walrus.
- You will need to change your submission if it's a song I used as an example, header, or outro in this walrus or my previous walruses. Yes, this does mean Watsky subs are more likely to get stamped Return To Sender.
- Tracking for rules 3 and 4 is solely the responsibility of the host. I will crosscheck all submissions and let you know if something needs to be changed. I will also let you know of any technical errors which might require you to change the links to your submissions (though region locking is no longer an issue for me).
- You will need to change your submission if I can't bring myself to listen to it in its entirety more than once. This pertains not just to the banlist found in Rule 10, but also to anything pitch shifted/chipmunked, played on a kazoo/vuvuzela/air horn, and/or painfully out of tune. If you value scoring high on the leaderboard, then this is not the hill you die on.
- If you send me a 240p or 144p vid and a better version is available, I reserve the right to switch to the better version. I will inform you privately if I do so.
- If two or more players submit the same song for a category, the second (and third and so on) person to submit the song will be given the option to change their submission. If they decide to stick with it, it will be given a single score and the players involved will tie in that round's rankings. This type of tie will be expressed in dense ranking (eg. 1223) rather than standard competition ranking (eg. 1224).
- You can change your submissions at your leisure. As with late submissions, song changes will be accepted at any point up to the day before the respective category’s reveal. Unlike Rule 1, I will not accept T-12 hour sub swaps because getting in a song that may do better or worse isn’t as urgent as avoiding a 0.
- My ban list is Nickelback, Owl City, Operation Ivy, The Neighbourhood, Kings of Leon, and US band Backlash. Swedish band Backlash is okay, but I have too many issues with that trumped up Pink Floyd cover band by the same name.
Weird and Wonderful
What’s the first thing you notice when Youtube recommends you a song? No, not the thumbnail, the title. And some of them can be quite weird. So send me a song with a weird title. Doesn’t need to be a silly song, just needs to have a weird title.
Examples:
Don’t Shoot Me, Santa by The Killers
Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued by Fall Out Boy
Silly Goose
Okay, NOW it needs to be a silly song. Comedy, mashups, parodies, serious songs that became memetastic… as long as it’s at least a little bit ridiculous, anything goes.
Examples:
YYMilk by DJ Cummerbund
Shia LeBeouf (Live Version) by Rob Cantor
Live From Where?
In case you’ve never heard of Live From Here, it’s a radio show where a white nerd with a mandolin pretends he can make people forget about Prairie Home Companion. There’s one thing he’s really good at, though: birthday covers, where he and his band do honorary covers of songs by musicians who are celebrating their birthdays.
I want to take that and flip it around for this category. Take a look at the cover songs played in these various YouTube videos and send me one of the original songs they’re covering. And please include a link to the video that has the cover version with your sub (for qualifier checking only). If a dork with a mandolin can make me want to discover a band, maybe so can you.
Examples:
Jawbone by The Band
Runs In The Family by Amanda Palmer
Animal Magnetism Redux
Lots of bands are named after animals. Send me a song from a band that has an animal in its name. Any animal named band that isn’t Owl City. I sincerely mean that. Don’t wreck your scores by sending me something from the ban list.
Examples:
Dramamine by Modest Mouse
Rock You Like A Hurricane by Scorpions
What’s On The Tube?
Is it a television theme song? Is it a song that was originally composed for a television show? Is it a previously existing song that was later used by a television show as their theme song? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then do WE have a category for YOU!
(NOTE: Television shows exclusive to streaming sites are included in this category. Anime OPs are not allowed, since this was strip mined from the Dueling Walrus and originally a counterpoint to an Anime OPs category. Sorry, Bloods.)
Examples:
WKRP in Cincinnati Main Theme by Steve Carlisle
Short Skirt, Long Jacket by Cake
Everyone’s In A Band These Days
It’s kinda true. I’ve come to learn that there are many actors and actresses who are also musicians. So send me some songs by these multi talented celebrities.
Examples:
Bad Dreams by Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johannsen
Classico by Tenacious D
The Strong, Silent Type
Some songs don’t need words to be great. So give me songs with no lyrics. Vocals as an instrument are acceptable, but spoken word segments are not. (RIP Great Gig in the Sky, disqualified on a technicality...)
Examples:
Rlyehs Lament by Deadmau5
La Gazza Ladra Overture by Gioacchino Rossini
The Titleist Redux
You know what a self-titled album is: the name of the album is the name of the musician or band. I want to hear songs from self-titled albums.
Examples:
The Unforgiven by Metallica
Seven Seas of Rhye by Queen
Yeehaw!
Sometimes it seems like Kansans fall under a particular list of stereotypes.
Use “y’all” frequently… check.
Watch Nascar… only when Bowyer’s in the chase, but check.
Know how to drive a tractor… uhhh…
Oh, here’s a good one! Listen to country music. Maybe y’all can help me with that one.
Examples:
Friends In Low Places by Garth Brooks
Heads Carolina, Tails California by Jo Dee Messina
And The Grammy Goes To…
...the song you send for this category. Send me a song that has won one or more Grammys. Any Grammy category listed here that isn’t about an album/soundtrack, a person and their achievements, or a technical aspect (such as sound editing or music videos) is an eligible category, even the defunct categories. And yes, the Grammy winners from the upcoming awards show on January 26th will also be eligible. To make qualifier checking easier, please mention which category the song won a Grammy in.
Example:
Tonite by LCD Soundsystem
Spoonman by Soundgarden
Looking To The Future (aka 2020 Vision)
For many decades, people have looked towards the year 2020 as a big damn deal. The cool gadgets we were expected to have, the exotic planets we were expected to explore… the, uh, inevitable catastrophic extinction we were expected to die in. Whatever our fate was speculated to be, people were fascinated with it. So let’s continue that tradition of focusing on the future with songs about the future and/or the three topics I just mentioned: technology, space, and/or the apocalypse.
Examples:
In The Year 2525 by Zager & Evans
Mr. Roboto by Styx
What’s the first thing you notice when Youtube recommends you a song? No, not the thumbnail, the title. And some of them can be quite weird. So send me a song with a weird title. Doesn’t need to be a silly song, just needs to have a weird title.
Examples:
Don’t Shoot Me, Santa by The Killers
Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued by Fall Out Boy
Silly Goose
Okay, NOW it needs to be a silly song. Comedy, mashups, parodies, serious songs that became memetastic… as long as it’s at least a little bit ridiculous, anything goes.
Examples:
YYMilk by DJ Cummerbund
Shia LeBeouf (Live Version) by Rob Cantor
Live From Where?
In case you’ve never heard of Live From Here, it’s a radio show where a white nerd with a mandolin pretends he can make people forget about Prairie Home Companion. There’s one thing he’s really good at, though: birthday covers, where he and his band do honorary covers of songs by musicians who are celebrating their birthdays.
I want to take that and flip it around for this category. Take a look at the cover songs played in these various YouTube videos and send me one of the original songs they’re covering. And please include a link to the video that has the cover version with your sub (for qualifier checking only). If a dork with a mandolin can make me want to discover a band, maybe so can you.
Examples:
Jawbone by The Band
Runs In The Family by Amanda Palmer
Animal Magnetism Redux
Lots of bands are named after animals. Send me a song from a band that has an animal in its name. Any animal named band that isn’t Owl City. I sincerely mean that. Don’t wreck your scores by sending me something from the ban list.
Examples:
Dramamine by Modest Mouse
Rock You Like A Hurricane by Scorpions
What’s On The Tube?
Is it a television theme song? Is it a song that was originally composed for a television show? Is it a previously existing song that was later used by a television show as their theme song? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then do WE have a category for YOU!
(NOTE: Television shows exclusive to streaming sites are included in this category. Anime OPs are not allowed, since this was strip mined from the Dueling Walrus and originally a counterpoint to an Anime OPs category. Sorry, Bloods.)
Examples:
WKRP in Cincinnati Main Theme by Steve Carlisle
Short Skirt, Long Jacket by Cake
Everyone’s In A Band These Days
It’s kinda true. I’ve come to learn that there are many actors and actresses who are also musicians. So send me some songs by these multi talented celebrities.
Examples:
Bad Dreams by Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johannsen
Classico by Tenacious D
The Strong, Silent Type
Some songs don’t need words to be great. So give me songs with no lyrics. Vocals as an instrument are acceptable, but spoken word segments are not. (RIP Great Gig in the Sky, disqualified on a technicality...)
Examples:
Rlyehs Lament by Deadmau5
La Gazza Ladra Overture by Gioacchino Rossini
The Titleist Redux
You know what a self-titled album is: the name of the album is the name of the musician or band. I want to hear songs from self-titled albums.
Examples:
The Unforgiven by Metallica
Seven Seas of Rhye by Queen
Yeehaw!
Sometimes it seems like Kansans fall under a particular list of stereotypes.
Use “y’all” frequently… check.
Watch Nascar… only when Bowyer’s in the chase, but check.
Know how to drive a tractor… uhhh…
Oh, here’s a good one! Listen to country music. Maybe y’all can help me with that one.
Examples:
Friends In Low Places by Garth Brooks
Heads Carolina, Tails California by Jo Dee Messina
And The Grammy Goes To…
...the song you send for this category. Send me a song that has won one or more Grammys. Any Grammy category listed here that isn’t about an album/soundtrack, a person and their achievements, or a technical aspect (such as sound editing or music videos) is an eligible category, even the defunct categories. And yes, the Grammy winners from the upcoming awards show on January 26th will also be eligible. To make qualifier checking easier, please mention which category the song won a Grammy in.
Example:
Tonite by LCD Soundsystem
Spoonman by Soundgarden
Looking To The Future (aka 2020 Vision)
For many decades, people have looked towards the year 2020 as a big damn deal. The cool gadgets we were expected to have, the exotic planets we were expected to explore… the, uh, inevitable catastrophic extinction we were expected to die in. Whatever our fate was speculated to be, people were fascinated with it. So let’s continue that tradition of focusing on the future with songs about the future and/or the three topics I just mentioned: technology, space, and/or the apocalypse.
Examples:
In The Year 2525 by Zager & Evans
Mr. Roboto by Styx
Signups List
- BLOODYRAIN10001 [Kong]
- leonard (from big bang theory) [Smogon]
- termi [Smogon]
- Aura Guardian [Smogon]
- Aladyyn [Smogon]
- shubaka17 [Smogon]
- Energy [Smogon]
- gbsfranca [MU]
- Dobby [MU]
- Lectys [Smogon]
- Lebossle [Kong]
- Isa [Smogon]
- catgode [Kong]
- ムース[Smogon]
- Logic [MU]
- Celever [Smogon]
- Owner Of A Lonely Heart [MU]
- LordQuas [MU]
- Andy Snype [Smogon]
- RaceBandit [Kong]
- nutella [MU]
- Your name could be here!
I'm going to do something unprecedented for me. Because the upcoming Grammys means there are qualifying songs that won't be known until late January, the signups and initial submissions phase is the entire month of January. Get it in before February 1st and I'll run the first reveal sometime in the first week of February.
EDIT: Courtesy of Aura Guardian, a Live From Here playlist has been found which can be used for the reverse covers category.
Last edited: