Yesterday's Final Scores & Analysis

Mazzy Star sends REM home 132-46
Concrete Blonde exsanguinates Psychedelic Furs 88-34
Alphaville crushes Dead Can Dance 71-36
Low upsets the mighty U2 120-65

Analysis: More voters got into the action yesterday, which we're happy to see. We had a big ole upset (Low over U2), certainly correct on their songs' relative merits, but still a surprise given that U2 has sold over 170 million albums worldwide and played the freaking Super Bowl. Low probably hasn't sold more than 170,000 albums. Did you punish U2 for their outsized reputation and tendency toward bombast? Or were you just impressed with Low's game? Either way, Low moves on to face the winner of Crowded House vs Leonard Cohen.

The other surprise was that you chose Mazzy Star over REM by such a large margin. They were seeded close, since REM's the band with the bigger following and the mopier reputation, but Mazzy has perhaps the more singular sound. As it turns out, Mazzy Star played a suffocating defense, forced turnover after turnover, kept point guard Peter Buck from being able to distribute the ball. The game was over by halftime. We say, though, that the bracket will be poorer without REM (and your naysaying of our REM song selection) in it.

Concrete Blonde had no problem with the Furs, as we expected, and moves on. They look like a strong contender, and with U2 out of their corner of the bracket that opens up the path for them going forward. They'll play either Peter Murphy or Bob Mould in the second round.

Alphaville, one of the odder acts of the bracket, since they're much more pop than rock, dealt with Dead Can Dance summarily, and move on to play the winner of PJ Harvey & Nick Cave and Midnight Oil. We're still not sure how strong of a team they field, since Dead Can Dance was a pretty soft first matchup, but they're one step closer to jumping into that weird diamond of light from the video and being transported into space.

Today's matchups are exciting: we get to see how the 4AD crowd looks against Yaz/Yazoo, what kind of game Tori Amos brought to one of the last gothy songs in the tournament, how the winner of the Lilith Fair tourney looks against Pavement, and one of the tossup games in our mind: Tom Waits versus The Pretenders.