is live, and the games are ON. Hit the image below for the full size or click here for a downloadable pdf.
The current games are on the tabs just above this post: read, listen, and vote! Voting on each game begins at 9am the day of, and closes the next day at 9am (US/Pacific time). Vote and comment on the individual games' pages. Scores are on the ticker at the top. You can also vote and get updates on twitter via @angermonsoon's feed.
We're on the championship game as of 3/30/16. All past games are available archived at the bottom of this page.
The present bracket is here [click for full size]:
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THE TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
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Final Four [winners in bold]:
feat. guest analysis by Pam Houston and Rick Moody
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Elite Eight:
3/24: (1) The Cure vs (2) Radiohead
(1) Neutral Milk Hotel vs (2) Jeff Buckley
3/25: (7) Tracy Chapman vs (1) Elliott Smith
(14) Low vs (1) Joy Division
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First Round Games were 3/5-3/12/2016
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Sweet Sixteen: 3/18-3/23
3/18: (1) The Cure vs (3) Tori Amos
3/23: Low vs Concrete Blonde
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Second Round Games were 3/13-3/16
3/14: Neutral Milk Hotel vs New Order, James vs The Church, Ride vs Sinead O'Connor, Smashing Pumpkins vs Jeff Buckley
3/15: Elliott Smith vs Replacements, Morrissey vs Gary Jules, Kate Bush vs Nirvana, Tracy Chapman vs Eels
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All matchups will be decided by popular vote, votes to be informed by discussion here or elsewhere. Songs will be paired off for 24 hours against each other, and the winner (the one with the most votes) advances.
The selection committee would like to share its criteria:
Songs selected needed to be sad (though as you can see there's quite a spectrum of sadness here) and in the orbit of the college rock/MTV 120 Minutes (or its prequels/sequels) world, and released between 1980 and 2001, with a bias toward 1985-1995.
We welcome your naysaying, griping, props, editorializing, recommendations, complaints about the committee's song choices, and other sorts of nerdery in the comments.
Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" is an obvious snub, as is Simply Red's "Holding Back the Years". Is outrage the appropriate response for such a bracket?
ReplyDeleteThanks. The Simply Red would have been a good possibility. I don't know if they were considered. I'll have to bring that to the Selection Committee's attention. I know that the Moody Blues weren't thought to be enough in the orbit of "College Rock" to be considered, though the song is a good one. Perhaps for next year? (Suggestions are particularly welcomed for this reason.) The committee also asked me to say that Pearl Jam is not on here because they Suck.
ReplyDeleteRight out of the gate, the Gear Daddies put up a good fight, but The Cure mops the floor with them. Violent Femmes leave Neutral Milk Hotel in the dust. The Church runs circles around The Magnetic Fields, which is unfortunate, but they part friends. Nick Cave doesn't show up to the game and forfeits. He claims he's above all this, and that he and Leonard Cohen had plans to hang out. Which is untrue, because Mr Cohen is busy losing to Crowded House. The Finn brothers are also quite magnanimous in victory. Ride vapour trails right past Peter Gabriel, who meditated throughout the game. Nine inch nails talks Jeff Tweedy out of playing, and Tweedy cedes the match, saying he's been a fan forever, and that if he could ever figure out computers, he'd have done much the same as Mr Reznor. Mr Reznor moves on. He says something about looking forward to getting his art on with Radiohead.
ReplyDeleteTough first-round matchup for the Gear Daddies, I agree. I don't see how they get past the 1 seed. In another bracket they could go deep I think. More skeptical about your other predictions. I'd be shocked if The Church takes out Magnetic Fields unless their 3-point shooters find a groove.
DeleteMagnetic Fields' wit will carry the day in the early rounds. That is, unless The Church reached deep into the bench and drives it home with the accordion solo, which has no equal.
DeleteParenthetically: Tom Waits is one of the few who can take down Under The Milky Way. From his self-interview several years ago: "Q: What's your definition of a gentleman? A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn't."
A few observations/opinions:
ReplyDeleteMost interesting early matchup that will go a long way towards establishing how we're defining "sad": Replacements v. Dream Academy.
Best major upset potential: Liz Phair. That particular song could tap into nostalgia and Radiohead backlash and get into the second round. If that happens, it could go prove a tough out.
Runner up: Counting Crows. Has it been long enough to actually listen to this song? Eels hopes not.
Biggest snub from a band in the bracket: R.E.M. Everybody knows that "Country Feedback" is the saddest R.E.M. song. Everybody.
Runner up: Tom Waits, "Time."
Biggest snub from a band not in the bracket: Lemonheads, "It's a Shame about Ray"
Under-seeded: "Under the Milky Way Tonight." No guarantee to move on, mind you, but they played a better non-conference schedule and deserved to be rewarded. The Magnetic Fields deserve an easier first-round matchup.
Toughest Road to the Final Four for a 1 Seed: "Atmosphere." It can make it, and certainly deserves its top spot, but Mazzy Star is an under-seeded #9, "With or Without You" would have been a one-seed had this happened fifteen years ago, and "Joey" is a sneaky pick to win it all.
REM was among the toughest, selection-wise. "Country Feedback" was actually the runner-up, along with "Man in the Moon" and "At My Most Beautiful."
DeleteTrash Can Sinatras' "Best Man's Fall"--would they have taken the title? Agreed about "With Or Without You." That U2 track is one of the few that can go up against "Joey."
Delete"Time" lost its play-in against "Downtown Train," largely because the selection committee felt going more upbeat (while still wildly sad) offered better possibilities against the rest of the field. Several of the first-round matchups will offer clarity as to what exactly sadness is or can accommodate. Like how will existential devastation play against a sweet melancholy? How will a band with an outsized reputation for sadness but a less specifically sad entry play against a crushing one-hit wonder? How will goth measure up against synth? Just how far can cynicism take you in a sadness bracket?
DeleteTrash Can Sinatras didn't get through their league championship, and in another year might have been a good at-large bid. Lemonheads may have been an oversight. The committee knew this girl in high school who had a thing, kind of, for this guy named Ray, and found it annoying, and so found the song annoying. And lets, face it, Evan Dando, kind of annoying. But it's true they have some quality wins, even if one doubts they would have gone far in the tournament.
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DeletePoor showing from The Weakerthans. I would have thought them a tournament shoe-in—what with Guy Maddin as their native Manitoban coach (see "Sun in an Empty Room" whose first lines begin "now that the furniture's returning to its Goodwill home...").
ReplyDeleteI'll take "Two-Headed Boy" because with two heads, there's twice the capacity for "bilateral activity within the vicinity of the middle and posterior temporal cortex, lateral cerebellum, cerebellar vermis, midbrain, putamen, and caudate."
Don't sleep on Morrissey's "Suedehead" either. The only thing sadder than two heads is a suede one. Speaking of which, have you seen this image of "A Man in Suede"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suede#/media/File:Suede_Jacket.jpg
Works Cited
Just Wikipedia
Coming back to this comment now: Weakerthans weren't really on the committee's radar, which admittedly skewed heavily toward American and British bands (though we do have a few canadians represented; Canada, I preemptively shh you about the Tragically Hip though). I've heard a few songs of theirs. I'd be open to suggestions for a future tourney. Or maybe they made the NIT?
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ReplyDeleteI deleted my previous post while having a few too many poolside after a 1 hour massage today. But now, it still rings true. I would have considered the 10,000 Maniacs in the first round more seriously, had it been, "What's The Matter Here," a thematically sadder song, in my opinion, though I still think Elliot Smith would have won. "My Name Is Luka" by Suzanne Vega would have been a good contender. But anyway, in the finals, though the odds were a little against him, I think Tom Waits',
ReplyDelete"Downtown Train" beat Elliot Smith's "Waltz #2" by a long shot, PJ Harvey/Nick Cave and The Church made it to the 5th round in my bracket. So, again, I predict Tom Waits wins. this is fun, should be a yearly ritual!
The committee considered "What's the Matter Here," but felt that "Eat for Two" varied more from some of the subject matter elsewhere in the bracket. Should also note that the version of "Eat for Two" is the MTV Unplugged one. Ditto the Nirvana "All Apologies." Vega lost her play-in game against Tracy Chapman, which was an unfortunate matchup, and wasn't an at large selection. Maybe she'll make a deep run in the NIT?
ReplyDeleteI would've gone with "Saddest Story Ever Told" for Magnetic Fields, but then maybe that's too on the nose.
ReplyDeleteTough call with the Fields, right? If we could have chosen albums, then 69 Love Songs would have been a 1-seed in my view. Could have nominated at least a dozen songs from that triple album, but unlike some bands where it was obvious to us (The Cure, for instance), it just wasn't with the Magnetic Fields. Other oversights certainly include Sparklehorse, Lisa Germano, maybe Til Tuesday ("Voices Carry", though it skewed a little more Top 40), Trash Can Sinatras, Dinosaur Jr... the longer you think about this stuff the more come to mind. For a future year then.
DeleteNo "Brick" by Ben Folds Five? The entire bracket is invalid and should be summarily dismissed.
ReplyDeleteThe committee considered and eliminated Brick on account of--while definitively sad--not one of the members of the committee felt that they could advocate honestly for it.
ReplyDeleteI just can't understand how Matthew Sweet's "Someone to Pull the Trigger" could miss the tourney. That song is crushing and eminently sing-alongable, even when sobbing.
ReplyDeleteTo my knowledge the committee has never heard that song (but are not experts in the Sweet oeuvre). Will take that under advisement for future brackets.
Deletehere, I made a spotify playlist. missing is the Bob Mould song... https://open.spotify.com/user/dirtboy/playlist/4zttn6H5vV7fllbP78qvqt
ReplyDeleteThanks! Another one's up in the sidebar, though we haven't tested it, and I think it has the same problem. The google playlist up there too. That Mould song isn't available via any streaming service or even as a track download on amazon, itunes, etc. It was on the NO ALTERNATIVE album which you can buy in full, but not song by song. Weird rights thing we assume. In the era of ultimate availability, turns out not everything is. Youtube has it is the best bet if you want to listen ahead.
DeleteI can't get the pdf to open... 😔
ReplyDeletefixed that--sorry! The link above works now.
DeleteThanks!
DeleteBlank Bracket?
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you mean, but the links above seem to work ok to us--either click on the image for a larger one or click on the link above it for the pdf.
ReplyDeletethere are so many smiths songs that are sadder than morrisseys suedehead. truly an odd selection.
ReplyDeleteYou may notice that we included a Smiths song also: There Is a Light...; Morrissey is an artist who has many fewer sad songs than one might think (as you may note if you click through to the analyses of the Morrissey/Smiths games), since his art always involves quite a bit of irony. The Committee does think that we underseeded the Smiths, however; they shouldn't have had such a difficult first-round matchup with "Fast Car"
Deleteapologies. i somehow overlooked that entry. agree on the irony aspect. even there is a light has a winking quality. id probably have gone for something more elegiacal like suffer little children or asleep but light is not an unreasonable choice.
Deletethanks so much for putting this together. so much joy to be had from so much sorrow!
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