Friday's Action, Analysis, 2nd Round Game Schedule

Today's the last day of the first round games, with only four games left to be decided: Joy Division-Erasure (29-5 early in the first half), Leonard Cohen vs Crowded House (12-23 at the moment),  Bob Mould vs Peter Murphy (19-7 early), and, in our view the marquee game today, PJ Harvey & Nick Cave vs Midnight Oil (in which Harvey/Cave got a hot start and is up 24-10).

So here are yesterday's final scores:

• Tracy Chapman ends The Smiths' brief run 199-162
• Morrissey, however, upends Morphine, and moves on 115-83
• Nirvana downs Slowdive 137-102
• Replacements, perhaps more than a little buzzed, fend off past Dream Academy 128-82

The losers will, I'm sure, compose songs about the sweetness of their defeat.

This means that Chapman will go on to play Eels in the second round which should be a battle. Nirvana takes on Kate Bush in a tricky pairing; unsure how to prognosticate that. Morrissey goes on to play Gary Jules, and Elliott Smith takes on the Replacements, which won't be an easy game for either team.

Thanks to Metafilter for picking us up and doing some dandy snarking. We hope if you followed Metafilter here you'll stick around and join the comment threads here. Or if you're, like, the commenters who complained about there being no Cure songs or not having any country in the bracket or not including super obscure Norwegian song X from 2009, um, well, maybe read the syllabus first and then the bracket. Or, whatever, just let those thinkings fly. 

Analysis of yesterday's action

Surprised that Morrissey beat Morphine, but he's the wizard of mope, so. Slowdive kept it closer against Nirvana than expected. Tracy Chapman seems to us a final four team, except that she's going up against Eels, who will be one tough out. Still we think she could make it through to the sweet sixteen. We think Chapman wins by 15. We're happy to see the Replacements make it through to the sixteen, but Dream Academy acquitted itself well.

Second Round Game Schedule (3/13-3/16

SUNDAY: The Cure vs Tom Waits, Swans vs Tori Amos, This Mortal Coil vs Indigo Girls, NIN vs Radiohead

MONDAY: Neutral Milk Hotel vs New Order, James vs The Church, Ride vs Sinead O'Connor, Smashing Pumpkins vs Jeff Buckley

TUESDAY: Elliott Smith vs Replacements, Morrissey vs Gary Jules, Kate Bush vs Nirvana, Tracy Chapman vs Eels

WEDNESDAY: Mazzy Star vs [Joy Division/Erasure], Alphaville vs [PJ Harvey/Midnight Oil], Low vs [Crowded House/Leonard Cohen], Concrete Blonde vs [Bob Mould/Peter Murphy]