#1 The Rolling Stones vs. #4 Collective Soul
#3 The Jam vs. #2 The Platters
#1 Journey vs. #4 Cheap Trick
#3 The Isley Brothers vs. #2 Buddy Holly
#1 Tom Petty vs. #4 Jay-Z
#6 Echo & The Bunnymen vs. #2 Nine Inch Nails
#1 Radiohead vs. #4 Counting Crows
#6 Midnight Oil vs. #2 Alice In Chains

First!

#1 The Rolling Stones
#3 The Jam
#1 Journey
#2 Buddy Holly
#4 Jay-Z
#2 Nine Inch Nails
#1 Radiohead
#2 Alice In Chains

Slicks Votes... STONES... THE JAM... JOURNEY... BUDDY HOLLY... JAY-Z... NIN... RADIOHEAD... AIC...

Slicks Predictions...
STONES -- BLOWOUT!!!
THE JAM -- Narrow win...
TOSS UP -- At first glance, Journey should win. Just not so sure...
BUDDY HOLLY -- By a vote or 3...
TOSS UP -- Edge goes to Petty...
NIN -- Also by a vote or 3...
RADIOHEAD -- BLOWOUT!!! It is interesting to look down the road to figure out Radiohead vs. The Stones...
AIC -- Another one by a vote or 3...

#1 The Rolling Stones
#3 The Jam
#4 Cheap Trick
#2 Buddy Holly
#1 Tom Petty
#2 Nine Inch Nails
#1 Radiohead
#6 Midnight Oil

#1 The Rolling Stones
#2 The Platters
#4 Cheap Trick
#2 Buddy Holly
#4 Jay-Z
#6 Echo & The Bunnymen
#4 Counting Crows (blasphemy, I know, but that's the way it is)
#6 Midnight Oil

The Rolling Stones
The Jam
Cheap Trick
Buddy Holly
Jay-Z
Nine Inch Nails
Radiohead
Alice In Chains

The Radiohead/Counting Crows matchup is particularly hilarious.

#1 The Rolling Stones
#3 The Jam
#1 Journey
#2 Buddy Holly (fairly tough call for me)
#1 Tom Petty
pass
#1 Radiohead
#2 Alice In Chains (not my fave)

Stones
Jam
CT
Buddy
Petty
Pass
Radiohead
Pass

Fave: Stones, Petty
FNVF: Journey
Fave Song: Satisfaction, Free Fallin, Surrender, Don't Stop Believin (All in my top 30!)
Fave Album: Some Girls

#1 The Rolling Stones
Joke matchup.
#3 The Jam
Love late 70's post-punk.
#4 Cheap Trick
Not a Journey fan. Too much credit off one big hit.
#3 The Isley Brothers
I like 50s R&B more than 50s rock.
#4 Jay-Z
A very talented rapper. I don't always like the gangster lyrics, but he's way better with beats than other rappers with that problem. Tom Petty is talented, but other than such good chord progressions, too few of his songs are interesting.
#2 Nine Inch Nails
I hate voting against Echo. But Nine Inch Nails are too good.
#1 Radiohead
The other joke matchup of the week.
#6 Midnight Oil
I like Alice in Chains, but they're kind of a manufactured grunge band to capitalize off Nirvana, and Midnight Oil is better.

#1 The Rolling Stones
#3 The Jam
#1 Journey
#2 Buddy Holly
#1 Tom Petty
#6 Echo & The Bunnymen
#1 Radiohead
#6 Midnight Oil

#1 The Rolling Stones
#3 The Jam vs.
#4 Cheap Trick
#2 Buddy Holly
#1 Tom Petty
#6 Echo & The Bunnymen
#1 Radiohead
#6 Midnight Oil

#1 The Rolling Stones: No contest!
#3 The Jam: I really need to pick up a comp of theirs. Bracketology has reminded me of their capabilities.
#1 Journey: Don't stop!
#2 Buddy Holly: Tough matchup, but I had to go with Buddy.
#1 Tom Petty: So many great singles!
#6 Echo & The Bunnymen: For Porcupine alone!
#1 Radiohead: Can't stand Counting Crows
#6 Midnight Oil: I'm not crazy about them, but I respect them.

#1 The Rolling Stones
#3 The Jam
#1 Journey
2 Buddy Holly
#4 Jay-Z
#2 Nine Inch Nails
#1 Radiohead
#2 Alice In Chains

Radiohead vs The Rolling Stones will be a great one. But I have to wonder, considering the vast differences in the two bands music, if there's anyone who doesn't have a clear idea who they're voting for. I love The Rolling Stones, and enjoy them regularly, but Radiohead are a definite winner.

The Rolling Stones
The Jam (really need to look into them more)
pass
Isley Brothers
Tom Petty
Echo & the Bunnymen
Radiohead
Alice in Chains

Rolling Stones
The Platters
Journey
The Isley Brothers - this was a brutally difficult choice; ask me tomorrow and it might got the other way :)
Tom Petty
Echo & the Bunnymen - not a fan of NIN
Counting Crows - another lonely vote against Radiohead :)
Midnight Oil

Today's favorite: Tom Petty
Today's favorite not voted for: Buddy Holly
Favorite song: "Shout", The Isley Brothers

The Rolling Stones
The Jam
Tom Petty
Nine Inch Nails
Radiohead
Midnight Oil

Rolling Stones
Jam
Cheap Trick
Buddy Holly
Jay-Z
NIN
Radiohead
Alice in Chains

The Rolling Stones
The Jam
Cheap Trick
Buddy Holly
Jay-Z
Nine Inch Nails
Radiohead
Midnight Oil

Only some slight twinges today: the Platters, the Isleys, Echo. But in none of those cases did I hesitate for a second.

@SR, regarding the impending Stones/Radiohead matchup: it’s worrying to me that two voters—AM voters, no less—have gone with Counting Crows (an execrable band, by the way) as a protest vote against Radiohead.

Hardly anybody really hates the Stones…even people who are lukewarm on them can probably identify a handful of songs they like…and they have the advantage of being vastly more successful commercially. Radiohead, however, can be very polarizing—it seems you either get them, or you don’t. However, people who get them usually love them.

It’ll be an interesting matchup—and nobody will be able to legitimately say that it’s a travesty if either band wins…they’re both all-time top 10, maybe top 5.

(All due respect to Stephan and Larry—I’m not calling y’all out.)

I can certainly accept that Radiohead puts a great deal of thought and creativity into their music and lyrics. I believe they are very talented, and perhaps someday I'll learn to enjoy listening to their music. But at a certain point, I ask myself "why am I listening to something I'm not enjoying?" At the end of the day, for me, music is entertainment, and while I'm open to listening to new things (I've been exposed to more new music since joining AM than I have in the past 10 years), I don't have all that much free time to listen to music. So, the time I have, I devote mostly to things I enjoy. Call me shallow. :)

But yes, for the record, I can understand that Radiohead is deserving of winning this whole tourney. However, they don't need my vote to do that, and I don't forsee a matchup where they'd get it.

ps. I'm not offended if you call me out. Musical taste, to me, is something you can't really control. You like something or you don't. But you can make sure you try new things, and give yourself a chance to like new things

I'll also chime in. I don't often agree with Larry, but I do here. There is literally only 1 song by Radiohead I absolutely enjoy and that's "Everything In Its Right Place", a song in which I think everything Radiohead always attempts to do comes together beautifully. Everywhere else, in my opinion, they fail. I've tried time and time again to listen to OK Computer and Kid A, and I've probably listened to both about 50 times now, but I still don't enjoy it. Sure, I 'get' the appreciation they receive more than before, but I just don't enjoy it.

Counting Crows is by no means a great band, but to call them execrable is an injustice—although an argument could be made for their terrible rendition of "Big Yellow Taxi". They are above all a very solid band. I have rated almost every album they've released an 8/10 (something which allmusic has done also, by the way) and I find something to enjoy on most of their albums. Sure, there are no masterpieces, but that's 5 solid enjoyable albums. Nothing to sneeze at. Radiohead on the other hand, for me, has one album I would rate 8/10, one 7.5/10 (OK and Kid, respectively) and the rest is 7 or below.

Simple mathematics therefore led me to vote for Counting Crows, not a protest vote.

The Rolling Stones
The Jam
Cheap Trick
The Isley Brothers
Tom Petty
Nine Inch Nails
Radiohead
Alice in Chains

Radiohead is one of my favs, so I will be voting for them... As for Counting Crows, I really like 'August and Everything After', I thought it was a great album with the exception of "Mr. Jones", that song bugs me. So I wouldn't consider CC as a protest vote per se, but of the 4 people that voted for them, I would say 2 are strongly legit and 2 are borderline.

From one of the borderline cases...Counting Crows certainly isn't in my top 100 list, but I did like "August" as well. I agree "Mr. Jones" is annoying, but I do like the piney-whiney vocals of "A Long December". They remind me of Kermit the Frog, but in a good way. I kind of like "Hanginaround". The BYT cover is an abomination.

Counting Crows, in my opinion, have a few really good songs but no solid albums. I understand not liking Radiohead. They're inarguably the more talented band, but they're also inarguably the less accessible band.

Although, I really hate their cover of Big Yellow Taxi, and I strongly dislike Hanginaround. The song starts off strong, but it doesn't have enough different words in it. Every time I'm at work and it comes on, I end up singing to myself 'I've been repeating this line over and over. I've been repeating this same line for way way way too long!'

So long as they're voting Crows because they genuinely like them better, that's fine. If they don't genuinely like them better and they're only voting against them to help their other favorites later, that's not fine. But nobody has explicitly stated they're doing that. I don't know if the two non-AM votes have said they are, but it's fairly clear Stephan and Larry are being honest.

winners in 3.9...
The Rolling Stones 100% / Collective Soul 0%
The Jam 68.6% / The Platters 31.4%
Journey 54.5% / Cheap Trick 45.5%
Buddy Holly 68.6% / The Isley Brothers 68.6%
Tom Petty 61.1% / Jay-Z 38.9%
Nine Inch Nails 72.7% / Echo & The Bunnymen 27.3%
Radiohead 86.1% / Counting Crows 13.9%
Alice In Chains 66.7% / Midnight Oil 33.3%

OK, it's possible I was too harsh on Counting Crows (I was cranky this morning). I do remember buying August and Everything After when it came out and disliking it, but that was, what 16 years ago? (ouch)

Look, I'm a former Radiohead skeptic, and I do get where you guys are coming from...I was more interested in talking about their looming matchup with the firm of Jagger & Richards, and I guess I just took a cheap shot.