Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

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toomilk
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Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by toomilk »

Ok folks.


This is an idea that I've had for quite some time now. I've brought it up with modlab and a few others. Now it may see the light of day (though it isn't "official" yet...just seeing if I can generate some interest here)...

If you frequent or have visited The Fall's glorious forum, you will have noticed the amount of effort and dedication that the members put into their fan-ship. Instead of having a simple poll (no offense to modlab) to determine the members' favorite album, they have what can be defined as a fantasy album league. Each album is a "team," but instead of you picking who is on the team (which might be an incredible separate idea) you essentially pick what happens in the game. Let me explain: each of the fall's 27 - now 28 and soon to be 29 - studio albums is a team, which "plays" another team (album) in a weekly head-to-head match-up. Each album plays every other album once, making it a 26 week tournament where forum members vote on their favorite of each match-up. The album with most votes in a match-up gets two points (and an extra one if they have >80% of the votes), one for a draw, and 0 for a loss. The end result is this:

Image
Here are their rules: http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/thefa ... opic=19349
And here is the full thread: http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/thefa ... owforum=29


Now, knowing this, I couldn't help but think of bringing their setup to this fine forum. But two problems came to mind. The first is that the Spz catalog is a lot smaller than The Fall's. I think the solution here is to include all official and non-exclusive/non-rare (e.g. not "Dub Together") releases - not just studio albums. The second is that in these match-ups, well over 100 Fall forum members voted each week. Only 56 people voted in our "poll to end all polls". Maybe the solution is to give people one vote per match-up and two or three extra votes per week to place wherever (or we could make the voting a lot easier...contact drifting or older members...make multiple ways of voting...etc etc...I'm open to any ideas).

In a nutshell, what I'm proposing is to have a competition to acquire a final, democratically determined best of the best Spiritualized release. Depending on which releases we ultimately decide to include, we're looking at a long-term (upwards of 15ish weeks) competition.....battle, if you will. It's a round robin of match-ups each week. If there is an odd number of teams, each one gets a bye week. All you do is vote for which album should win in each match-up. So simple. So powerful.

The list of tentative releases for inclusion (off the top of my head):

1. Any Way That You Want Me
2. Any Way That You Want Me (Remixes)
3. Feel So Sad

4. Run/I Want You
5. Smile/Sway
6. Lazer Guided Melodies
7. Medication
8. Fucked Up Inside
9. Electric Mainline EPs
10. Let It Flow EPs
11. Pure Phase
12. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
13. Electricity Singles
14. I Think I'm In Love (Remixes)
15. Abbey Road EP
16. Come Together (Remixes)
17. Live at Royal Albert Hall
18. Let it Come Down
19. Complete Works Vol 1
20. Amazing Grace (Peace on Earth)
21. Amazing Grace EPs (exclude? presented "officially" in a different way than the LP)
22. Amazing Grace (LP)
23. Complete Works Vol 2
24. Songs in A&E
25. iTunes Acoustic EP (???)
26. Friendly Fire (???)
27. Blue on Blue (???)


Red = Removed


Just a thought that came to mind: we might want to exclude singles that are included on studio albums to avoid redundancy. Let me know if you have a strong opinion of yay or nay. What's tricky is that we can/may-need-to differentiate between formats (e.g. medication 12"/7") or just lump them together. I've excluded Tones For DJs since it really isn't an album, and including it as such seems to undermine its artistic qualities. Also, there are some compilations/EPs whose inclusion is up in there air. Let me know if you have an opinion on them being here or not. Also, let me know if I've left something out by mistake.

And since I am the one proposing this in an incredibly long post (I'm sorry...take your time reading it and responding), I suppose I can organize it, gather votes, keep track of points, do the overall logistics, etc etc.

This might be a lot at once, but I would love to hear your opinion on the matter. It could be incredibly entertaining and interesting...making you listen to Spz in different way. It could also be exhausting - making you choose between your two favorite Spz releases. Who knows, you may come out of it appreciating an album more or having a greater appreciation for Spz. Or it could be the opposite (hopefully not!). And of course, since people here may not have all the releases, we can probably find a way to at least give people temporary access to each release (I know that The Fall has their albums on Youtube).

Let's start a Spiritualized tradition together!
Last edited by toomilk on Sun Sep 13, 2009 8:24 pm, edited 4 times in total.
MODLAB
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by MODLAB »

-IN-

The singles maybe should come out and also the non-spaceman releases.

M
Design.
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by scratch »

including AG ep:s seems a bit too anal.. it´s the same recordings mixes etc AFAIK
..and I agree that boots/non-official releases should be removed.

EP:s with non-album versions or tracks must of course stay!
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toomilk
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by toomilk »

So i've removed most of the singles and the unofficial releases.

What do you guys think about the Medication, Let It Flow, and Electric Mainlines EP/Single-ish releases? Stay or go?
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by TheWarmth »

I'll play for sure. Sounds like fun.
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by runcible »

I'm there. It'll be interesting.
Sim
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by Sim »

That's some task to take on toomilk - count me in.

Perhaps the Electricity singles should stay? After all they will be considered (like Let it Flow) more on the quality of the live tracks than the title track.
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clewsr
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by clewsr »

I suggest seperate tournaments for albums and eps / singles, followed by a Charity Shield type play off between the two winners.
toomilk
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by toomilk »

(cough cough)
toomilk
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by toomilk »

I"m still willing to put in the effort for this, but I just want to make sure that enough people will vote each week. Using The Fall's forum as a model, about 115 people voted each week (out of 4k members...most likely not all active). If our forum could get at least 40 voters a week, then I will go ahead with the organizing.

If you are reading this and would commit to such a thing, regardless of whether you are a frequent member or not, either respond to the post, email me ( kevinhighland at gmail dot com), or pm me. The last two would be a lot cleaner than the first, but whatever is the easiest for you is what floats my boat. I am excited about doing a "album league" of sorts for Spiritualized and hope you share the same sentiments.

As always, if you have any suggestions about the organization or logistics, please let me know, as I am always open to recommendations.
mkb
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by mkb »

I'd vote.
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by cantona »

count me in.
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by scratch »

I would vote almost every week
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by Zenchan »

I'm in!
JPB
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by JPB »

I'm in.
sm-iom
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by sm-iom »

In as well..
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by Shinesalight »

I remember they did something similar on the old Wedding Present forum sometime ago but with individual tracks rather than albums (due to an even lower album output than Spiritualized). The other difference was they did it in a knockout format rather than a round-robin league. This then gave them a final "favourite" song. It may be better this way rather than on an album vs album basis, I'm not sure...what do you reckon? Maybe we could even do it a la Champions league with groups of so many songs playing each other once, with the top 2 from each group going through into the later-stage knockout rounds. I'm not sure exactly how many groups you would need, guess it all depends on whether you were going to include every version/remix of every song. Anyway, just some ideas for you to bear in mind. I'm in, whatever format is finally decided upon.
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Mustard
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by Mustard »

any which way I'll vote
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by niamhm »

yes,if you put in the effort to produce the fixtures i`ll defo post
purespace
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by purespace »

aye count me in toomilk
I think I feel it coming on
toomilk
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by toomilk »

Ads wrote:I remember they did something similar on the old Wedding Present forum sometime ago but with individual tracks rather than albums (due to an even lower album output than Spiritualized). The other difference was they did it in a knockout format rather than a round-robin league. This then gave them a final "favourite" song. It may be better this way rather than on an album vs album basis, I'm not sure...what do you reckon? Maybe we could even do it a la Champions league with groups of so many songs playing each other once, with the top 2 from each group going through into the later-stage knockout rounds. I'm not sure exactly how many groups you would need, guess it all depends on whether you were going to include every version/remix of every song. Anyway, just some ideas for you to bear in mind. I'm in, whatever format is finally decided upon.
The Fall's forum also does the favorite song competition. My only reservation about doing such a thing is that it will require a lot more voting than doing just official releases. Since it takes a while to round up the troops here, I think we should start with the much simpler and straightforward league. However, if we do get a good response the first time around, I would be all for starting up the favorite song knockout competition. The knockout format is definitely appealing.

Here is a test poll that I set up to show you all how the actual polling would work: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=8 ... 2uMg_3d_3d . It would look like this except it would have each of the match ups for the week. Pick your favorite out of each match up and click "done." You will get one vote per match up, but you can also leave a match up blank and come back to it later in the week. This also means you can go back and change your answer before the deadline. Let me know what you think about this whole setup.

(Yes, I'm using an outside polling source so we don't pollute our forums--this also means you could send it to nonmember friends if they are interested in participating. I picked survey monkey, but let me know if anyone has a strong preference for another site...)
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by jadams501 »

I'll vote in this.
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by Laz69 »

Finally had a read at this. Seemed like a lot of work at first and it frightened me! :lol: But this sounds like it could be interesting... i'm in!
mkb
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by mkb »

toomilk wrote:
Ads wrote:I remember they did something similar on the old Wedding Present forum sometime ago but with individual tracks rather than albums (due to an even lower album output than Spiritualized). The other difference was they did it in a knockout format rather than a round-robin league. This then gave them a final "favourite" song. It may be better this way rather than on an album vs album basis, I'm not sure...what do you reckon? Maybe we could even do it a la Champions league with groups of so many songs playing each other once, with the top 2 from each group going through into the later-stage knockout rounds. I'm not sure exactly how many groups you would need, guess it all depends on whether you were going to include every version/remix of every song. Anyway, just some ideas for you to bear in mind. I'm in, whatever format is finally decided upon.
The Fall's forum also does the favorite song competition. My only reservation about doing such a thing is that it will require a lot more voting than doing just official releases. Since it takes a while to round up the troops here, I think we should start with the much simpler and straightforward league. However, if we do get a good response the first time around, I would be all for starting up the favorite song knockout competition. The knockout format is definitely appealing.

Here is a test poll that I set up to show you all how the actual polling would work: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=8 ... 2uMg_3d_3d . It would look like this except it would have each of the match ups for the week. Pick your favorite out of each match up and click "done." You will get one vote per match up, but you can also leave a match up blank and come back to it later in the week. This also means you can go back and change your answer before the deadline. Let me know what you think about this whole setup.

(Yes, I'm using an outside polling source so we don't pollute our forums--this also means you could send it to nonmember friends if they are interested in participating. I picked survey monkey, but let me know if anyone has a strong preference for another site...)
Would it not be better to have the polls on this forum though so that people could leave a comment following their vote? I don't know about other people, but I'm more interested in why someone prefers one album to another than only finding out which album they prefer.
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by Stuart X.Hunter »

Kev,

I think this is a very clever, simple and fun way of going about this. Is it possible to provide an RSS link to the poll? I'll be there.

mkb; why don'tyou start a thread for each weeks voting for discussion. I'd be happy to contribute but I know in the past disection of Spiritualized albums have made me change my opinions on them...BEWARE!!! :mrgreen:

Best,

Stuart
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toomilk
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by toomilk »

mkb wrote:Would it not be better to have the polls on this forum though so that people could leave a comment following their vote? I don't know about other people, but I'm more interested in why someone prefers one album to another than only finding out which album they prefer.
Stuart wrote:mkb; why don'tyou start a thread for each weeks voting for discussion
I think a debate would be necessary for each week, but I'm stuck trying to think of a way to avoid having all of these weekly voting/discussion threads take over the music section. To refer to The Fall's forum once again, their 'leagues' have their own sections in the forum. This works out nicely because all of the debates and voting are in one place, but I also don't want to have our mods change the layout of this forum because I wanted to try out this 'league' thing.

Maybe just one master thread could work? Or would that become too pudgy and hard to keep track of?
Stuart X.Hunter wrote: Is it possible to provide an RSS link to the poll?
I would like to, but I don't think you can create one for surveymonkey.......and I also have no clue as to how to create one. Hahah. Maybe I can just create a email list to send it to each week, as well as posting it on the forums?
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by Shinesalight »

Whats the latest with this Toomilk....or are we going to wait till the 50 fave albums thread has reached its conclusion?
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toomilk
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by toomilk »

Haha, looks like that might be the case. Including myself, there have only been 20 commitments. :?

EDIT: I'll just get everything ready in the meantime. We should start up the "what's included?" discussion again. I'm kind of liking the 2 division (full lengths and singles/EPs) idea.
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Re: Favorite Spz Release - Let's do this fuckin' right...

Post by JPB »

Was it one, two years ago I did a poll for the best Spiritualized song? Anyway, I found that it gained momentum as people read the thread and saw what other people picked.
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