Final scores from yesterday's games

• (1) Elliott Smith's "Waltz #2" trounces (16) 10,000 Maniacs' "Eat for Two" 63-24
• (4) Gary Jules's "Mad World" easily handles (13) Depeche Mode's "Blasphemous Rumours" 62-19
• (6) Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" rolls over (11) The Sisters of Mercy's "Some Kind of Stranger" 59-20
• And the (2) Eels' "Dead of Winter" survives (15) Counting Crows' "A Long December" 50-46

What we learned from yesterday's action:

Goth songs (Sisters of Mercy, Depeche Mode—realizing DM isn't a goth band, but that's a pretty goth song) all lost today, leaving only a few entries from the goth conference. Those songs that remain are only on the edge of goth: Peter Murphy (since Bauhaus, but this isn't a super gothy song), PJ Harvey & Nick Cave (murder ballad!), not The Cure, since "Pictures of You" is not a gothy song, Joy Division (in the outskirts of goth), Echo & the Bunnymen (this song anyhow), and maybe you should claim Swans "God Damn the Sun." We didn't expect the goth conference to make a strong showing, but we also didn't expect all the teams to get eliminated in the first round. What does that mean for how we seem to like our sadness?

We were surprised by the Counting Crows' close showing against Eels, but maybe we shouldn't have been. They were clearly undervalued as a 15 seed, and Eels, not being a well-known band, are probably overvalued at a 2 seed. Still, "Dead of Winter" is damn sad. But it's going to be up against Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" or else the freaking Smiths. They'll have to play better in their second round game than they did yesterday to have a chance of making it through.

Today we have matchups of megastars (U2) versus indies (Low), iconic one-hit wonders (Alphaville) vs torch-carriers of ancient music (Dead Can Dance), alternative icons (REM) vs timeless-seeming sadsters (Mazzy Star), and new wave superstars (Psychedelic Furs) vs edge-of-goth sort-of-vampire-oriented-songs-about-alcoholism-and-doomed-love (Concrete Blonde).

Ehhh. No one is impressed with those forced little thumbnail descriptions, are they? Better to just listen to the songs, comment, and vote.