Red Mosquito

Another big for All or None. Without listening to the whole album, I'd put it in the top 3 songs on RA.

It is a top five Pearl Jam song for me.

A good live performance of it almost always bests the studio recording.

That's not true.

The studio version is amazing.

numbers wrote:The studio version is amazing.

I concur.

LetMeSleep wrote:All Or None is top drawer stuff. Best track on Riot Act and could possibly be in my top 10. Along with Parachutes, the best track since Binaural.

That's "Cropduster" for me.

I love Cropduster as well, my final pick came down to those two songs.

The studio All or None is amazing. The only live performance of it that maybe equals or beats it is Albany '03

numbers
farmer john
durden
bart

Numbers vs Iholdthepain
This was a pretty one-sided affair for me. Numbers has a good team in this tourney and includes 2 gold standard tunes in Wake Up and All or None (shut your mouth, stip). The White Stripes, Modest Mouse and Band of Horses tunes are all good too. Bodysnatchers is Radiohead by numbers in my book (hey! I cracked a funny and didn't mean to!) and both people who picked a Postal Service song picked the wrong one (Such Great Heights ftw!).

Thip is a Tool fan, this is very evident. At least 3 songs here sound like Tool (although to be fair, one actually is). I'm just not a fan. That Jibe song is the worst example of Tool wannabeeness - really bad. On the positive side Insignificance and We Crawl are both great tunes. Unfortunately there wasn't enough to the rest of the mix that wasn't Toolish and grabbed me.

Bada vs Farmer John
This was closer but still I think that Bada again has a good team in this thing. I loved the Saul Williams song (List of Demands) in Lament's mix thread and it was an inspired choice. Make it Wit Chu is gold standard and was on my own list. I do enjoy The Darkness but would have put 2 other tunes of theirs up there before Growing on Me. Of the rest everything was good, except The Shins song which isn't my thing.

Farmer peaked with Shampoo Suicide and 3rd Planet, both of which were new to me and both were great. Nick Cave and PJ Harvey were both good tunes, but things bottomed out for me with I Don't Blame You and Revival, which were both just boring to me, and Pyramid Song, which again is just middle of the road stock standard Radiohead.

dct vs Rangi
This was an incredibly close one for me, but dct just gets it. dct started with more stock standard Radiohead fare. Yawn. And that St Vincent tune was just shit imo. But then there was the gold standard Seven Nation Army and very good Tom Waits to lift the team. The Dixie Chicks song was great and there was enough 'good' songs to get him over the line.

Rangi started with Puscifer, which I certainly prefer to Tool (at least what I've heard - I did have a thought at one point to include Cuntry Boner on my long list). Top song of the decade though? To each his own I guess. Rangi's high points for me were 2 songs I'd not previously heard, Push on Thru and So Flute, both of which were a pleasure. I enjoyed the cool groove of Always on My Mind also, and Rangi got some extra points for the local flavour. Sadly Latin Thugs, Maybe and Running were all crap.

(Sidebar - we had a webinar recently with a New Zealand guy presenting. At one point he old us he was going to show us "some tups and trucks" and, I kid you not, the 3 of us listening were literally rolling on the floor laughing for at least 2 full minutes afterwards)

Bart vs Kaius
Bart hasn't completed his team so Kaius gets an automatic vote from me.

Kaius's team is alright though, and very evenly matched to numbers and Bada (according to my Varis Scoring System PAT PEND.). Crazy and Let Go are the highlights, but I'm a fan of The Bucket as well. Moving Clocks Run Slow, The Mess We're In and Who Knows Who Cares were all good too. Overall a consistent mix. The low point is the Silversun Pickups, who generally I can't get into.

I'm worried about Bart. He's not answering his Kik texts.

Yeah, I hope he's OK. I've thought about him a few times over the last few days.

we need to do a search of all Bart and Bart-themed facebook pages to make sure

He will be released after the round is over.

He did think he was going to be super busy for this, so that's probably what it is.

Varis wrote:This was an incredibly close one for me, but dct just gets it. dct started with more stock standard Radiohead fare. Yawn. And that St Vincent tune was just shit imo.

Do you like any of St Vincent's stuff? Or is just Your Lips are Red that you don't like?

durdencommatyler wrote:

Varis wrote:This was an incredibly close one for me, but dct just gets it. dct started with more stock standard Radiohead fare. Yawn. And that St Vincent tune was just shit imo.

Do you like any of St Vincent's stuff? Or is just Your Lips are Red that you don't like?

I really like a lot of St Vincent's stuff, but I didn't like that song. Reckoner is one of Radiohead's best, though.

ihtp
bada
dct
kaius


kp

kaius vs. Bart

The MMJ song was significantly more epic on my second listen. The arctic monkeys were still pretty horrid. Like eurotrash ska. I like KoL sometimes, but this was the annoying side of them. Silversun pickups wasn't bad--some cool moments in that song. The band of horses song was pretty, as all their stuff seems to be. The jetpacks song was nothing special. Crazy is what it is. I kinda like the PJ Harvey/Thom Yorke song, though I like neither of those artists as much as I'm supposed to. The Frou Frou song was decent. The last song was pretty good.

But Bart's team was incomplete and had a few songs I have no desire to ever hear again. So Kaius gets my vote.