I have started an Ultimate Music Tournament on my facebook fan page. It is 1024 artists covering all styles, formats and genres. 8 matchups each day, you pick the winners. If you would like to participate, here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/1000000-Members-Of-The-Slicknation/279613627573

For those that do not want to go to facebook, I will be posting the matchups here as well and you can vote. Here is bracket #1...

#1 Elvis Presley vs. #16 Bowling For Soup
#8 UB40 vs. #9 MGMT
#5 Pixies vs. #12 Triumph
#4 Ludacris vs. #13 Kasabian
#3 The White Stripes vs. #14 The Grass Roots
#6 Cream vs. #11 Saliva
#7 Sublime vs. #10 Warrant
#2 The Four Seasons vs. #15 The Cutting Crew

#1 Elvis Presley
#9 MGMT
#5 Pixies
#13 Kasabian
#3 The White Stripes
#6 Cream
#7 Sublime
#2 The Four Seasons

#1 Elvis Presley
#9 MGMT
#5 Pixies
#4 Ludacris
#3 The White Stripes
#6 Cream
#10 Warrant
#15 The Cutting Crew

Has everyone really heard all these artists?

#9 MGMT
#2 The Four Seasons

I had to youtube a song of Bowling For Soup, Triumph, Saliva and Warrant. I suppose listening to just one song doesn't make for a very large sample, but in the first three choices I'm fairly confident that no matter how much more I listen to I will still pick the other band. Maybe I should withdraw the Warrant vote though.

Triumph was the first concert I ever saw, back in 1980 with Rick Derringer opening. They were a great live act (lots of lasers and the like), but as a Canadian power trio always fell in the shadows of Geddy Lee & Co. and sound quite dated now.
Big "Hit" = "Lay It On The Line".
Not a chance against the Pixies, regardless.

#1 Elvis Presley
#9 MGMT
#5 Pixies
#4 Ludacris
#3 The White Stripes
#6 Cream
#7 Sublime
#2 The Four Seasons

That's the one song that I listened to that made me vote for them. You make a good point, that song swings so hard I will not withdraw my vote.

#1 Elvis Presley
#9 MGMT
#5 Pixies
#13 Kasabian
#3 The White Stripes
#6 Cream
#7 Sublime
#2 The Four Seasons

The only one of these that gave me any pause was Ludacris vs. Kasabian. I don't really care for Kasabian (my Britrock block goes way, way up with them), and Chris Bridges is a funny guy and a surprisingly fine actor. BUT, the cover of CHICKEN-N-BEER alone is enough to disqualify anyone from any tournament, so Kasabian wins by default.

#1 Elvis
#9 MGMT
#5 Pixies
#13 Kasabian
#3 The White Stripes
#6 Cream
#7 Sublime
#2 The Four Seasons

(First time listening to Kasabian and Saliva.)

Slick, how are you determining the seeds?

I ask partly because I’m interested and partly because…well, Ludacris a #4 and Pixies a #5? Really? (Also, that would make the Pixies somewhere around the #300 artist of all time, which seems, um, low.)

Also, I’m guessing that you’ve created some thematic matchups here. Looks like there might be an acronym region? A bodily functions region? An Elvis vs. food region?

I compiled a top 400 song list from each year based on record sales, radio airplay, critics lists and personal lists. Then took the totals from all those songs and compiled a spreadsheet with overall scores by artist. Ranked them from 1 to 1024 and broke them down into 64 brackets of 16. Then I moved artists up or down one seed to create better matchups.

#1 Elvis Presley
#9 MGMT
#5 Pixies
#4 Ludacris
#3 The White Stripes
#6 Cream
#7 Sublime
#2 The Four Seasons

I would love to know what idiot would vote for Bowling for soup over the king.

1. Elvis Presley
9. MGMT
5. Pixies
13. Kasabian
3. The White Stripes
6. Cream
10. Warrant
15. Cutting Crew

The only one where I know enough about both to be fair:

The Four Seasons

Can't believe everyone has voted for MGMT. Sure,UB40 might not be the most original group or might not have released any real classic albums but surely 30 years of OK-ish albums and loads of hits beats out a group with just a couple of albums. Well,whatever...

#1 Elvis Presley
#8 UB40
#5 Pixies
#13 Kasabian
#3 The White Stripes
#6 Cream
#7 Sublime
#2 The Four Seasons

#1 Elvis Presley vs.
#9 MGMT
#5 Pixies
#13 Kasabian
#3 The White Stripes
#6 Cream

The voting took place on the Slicknation facebook fan page, here on the AMF, and via my e-mail. These are the results from bracket #1, look for bracket #2 to be posted here shortly.

Elvis Presley 95.5% over Bowling For Soup 4.5%
MGMT 81% over UB40 19%
Pixies 73.7% over Triumph 26.3%
Kasabian 57.9% over Ludacris 42.1%
The White Stripes 100% over The Grass Roots 0%
Cream 100% over Saliva 0%
Sublime 60% over Warrant 40%
The Four Seasons 60% over The Cutting Crew 40%

The point system I developed for my records had Elvis & The Beatles way ahead of everyone else. The two were seperated by just a few points. I copied the list from 1-30 to show...

33848 Elvis Presley
33720 The Beatles
24620 The Rolling Stones
20983 Madonna
18672 U2
16480 David Bowie
16248 Led Zeppelin
16126 Stevie Wonder
15486 Elton John
15474 Prince
14869 Bruce Springsteen
14679 R.E.M.
14236 Depeche Mode
14161 Pearl Jam
13416 Bob Dylan
13395 Van Halen
13177 The Beach Boys
12888 Michael Jackson
12211 Aerosmith
12181 The Cure
12071 James Brown
11746 Marvin Gaye
11637 Queen
11609 Ray Charles
11587 The Who
11585 Johnny Cash
11476 Rod Stewart
11035 Paul McCartney
10964 Janet Jackson
10939 Tom Petty