As noted in the blog thread, we’ve got the Gizzies happening on a grander scale this year. With 613 Gizzheads casting their votes, we have plenty of results to chew over.
You can read the welcome post and background, as well as the first two rounds of awards, here: 2025 Gizzies — Second Annual KGLW.net Awards
We’ll have rounds 3, 4, and 5 dropping over the next three days so keep your eyes (like the sky) open. Don’t see your favorite show, song, or onstage moment? We invite you to share and discuss in this thread.
Viva la Gizz!
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I wanted the Theia intermission to win best intermission but Magma was good so I can’t complain that much.
Best Jam going to FoV’s Her & I was warranted.
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These are awesome all around! I feel very lucky to have been at the FH show and seen the best magma, best intermission, and got the best poster in that one day!
Sense on the table is well deserved too, what a fun, fun, re-imagination. Everyone was losing it when it debuted in Plovdiv!
Theia intermission is such a good jam. SO GOOD.
Thanks for giving this its own thread!
Some hot takes, some tepid takes, some obvious takes:
- Couldn’t agree more with the Her & I win for Best Jam, although the Denmark Extinction (which was >30min and had a really unique dub-style section!) deserved to be included
- Kepler-22b totally should have gotten the nod over Sense as best new electronic arrangement! What a travesty!
- I wonder if there’s any value in subdividing the big categories like Best Show into an overall winner and also add in categories for “Best AU”, “Best EU’“, and “Best US” shows to spread the love around a bit more.
To your last point that’s basically what we did. There’s a bunch of “best of ____ tour” categories and then one big Best 2025 Show category. We also have Best Orchestra Show and Best Rave Show.
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My thoughts on today’s round:
Stu Shaving His Head winning Best On-Stage Antics is deserved but I kind of wish it was Backflip Guy. I was losing it when watching that show. Never seen them break down like that either. So funny.
Joey winning Best Drag Outfit was inevitable. Slayed that!
Personally I picked Jay Weinberg/Argus for best FoV act. I need a debut Portraits of an Apparition album from those two now!
Best New Song is the biggest disagreement I have with the Gizzies so far. I think Silent Spirit deserved it. Better use of the orchestra, better and more impactful lyrics, and the vibe is amazing. Not to say Deadstick sucks or anything but I felt Silent Spirit was a notch above the competition.
True true, and good point on the various tour and format specific categories @TimelandIsWacky. Now that I ponder it a bit more, I guess I’m just curious about voting patterns and region/attendance bias in general.
Poor Silent Spirit suffered from vote-splitting between it and the other chill tracks on PI, I fear. Whereas Deadstick didn’t have any competition for folks who didn’t really connect with the rest of the album. Deadstick didn’t win in a landslide IIRC so if you compare its votes against the number of votes between the other tracks you’d conclude that people really dug the chill vibes overall.
Agree with the your assessment on the Jay Weinberg/Argus set, but I think my favorite set my actually have been the Buena Vista High School band - I was smiling the whole time seeing those youngsters crush some jazz classics. They will remember that for the rest of their lives.
If I could have voted for these (still don’t know where to do that), I would have given my vote for best new song to Phantom Island or Grow Wings and Fly, probably the latter. Just such an emotive singalong and an effective use of the orchestra that doesn’t feel so disjointed/added on.
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Unfortunately because both PI and GWAF were introduced in 2024 they weren’t up for nominations this year.
Buena Vista High School Band was awesome.
Really conflicted on this round because part of me recognizes that all of these shows are really good but another part of me says that there are other shows that were better.
Still kind of shocked one of the Lithuania shows didn’t get the EU Residency win.
Forest Hills N2 is the standout objection for me. It’s a great show but I think night one and Ravinia were all around stronger. I think it won because it was the single non-orchestral show on that ballot and one of the two streamed.
Personally I chose FoV N3 as best FoV show.
I really love all the anecdotes people shared. So many great show anecdotes but just as many shoutouts from couch tour and about the wider community as a whole.
You really get the sense the band is onto something with the free live streams, and the potential it has to do for them what liberal AUD taping policies did for a lot of bands in the pre-internet days.
And the best comment of all just kept it simple: “Magma”.
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Feel like all of the winners in round five are pretty deserved.
Best Moments is my favorite category because there’s always some fun ones. Stu throwing his sock, two brothers, and Joey pointing out 2001 come to mind. On the contrast, there’s a few in here that are really sweet and really emphasize that the community should be and is for everyone.
Reading through the “best moments” was really fun!
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That’s my favorite part of the Gizzies. There were some great favorite moments this year.
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