BNIT SEMIFINAL RESULTS

We have a Final Four for the BNIT. Competition was much tighter than usual—two brackets went to tiebreaker—which is probably to be expected once we’re in the higher rounds. The moral here is that every vote counts, especially as we get deeper into the tournament.

(By the way, don’t be alarmed by the low point totals; they’re mostly due to the smaller brackets.)

Bracket M
33. THE WHITE STRIPES, “FELL IN LOVE WITH A GIRL” (33 points / 6 first-place votes)
1. The Velvet Underground, “Heroin” (33 / 7)
32. The Wailers, “Get Up, Stand Up” (24 / 2)

Sooo close…8 out of 15 voters ranked the Stripes over the Underground, while only 7 chose Reed & Cale over White & White. So, “Girl” advances over “Heroin.”

Bracket N
13. THE LA’S, “THERE SHE GOES” (33 / 7)
21. Bob Dylan, “Tangled Up in Blue” (33 / 5)
20. John Lennon, “Instant Karma (We All Shine On)” (24 / 3)

Hey, at least there’ll be one heroin song in the Final Four. Another tie, another case of one song winning the tiebreaker by being ranked higher on 8 out of 15 ballots—in this case, it’s the La’s beating some pretty impressive competition.

Bracket O
7. TALKING HEADS, “PSYCHO KILLER” (37 / 8)
34. Aretha Franklin, “Chain of Fools” (35 / 6)
47. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” (18 / 1)

The top two songs here were tied with each other most of the time during the last week-plus, but the Heads squeaked out a win over Lady Soul.

Bracket P
3. LOVE, “ALONE AGAIN OR” (34 / 7)
38. Eurythmics, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” (31 / 6)
30. The Beatles, “Ticket to Ride” (25 / 2)

I heard a funny thing: Love beat Eurythmics by the semifinals’ largest margin (a whopping 3 points) to make “Alone Again Or” the oldest song in the Final Four.

Interestingly, each of the four brackets turned into a contest between a Baby Boom song and a post-punk song.

So the Final Four is a contest among Detroit, Liverpool, New York and Los Angeles. Appropriately for such a close week, nobody picked all four winners. Voters who picked three were Loophole, twister, Rocky Raccoon, Honorio, and some weird dude called schleuse.

The Final Four thread will open later today.

Noooooooooooooooooo *dies and loses faith and such*

Man, I only got the White Stripes in the final. I can't believe people like that Love song more than Sweet Dreams.

You and me both jonmarck. Definitely surprised by these results.

Awesome results. Wooo!

I was surprised myself, though, for the most part, not unpleasantly surprised--except for "Sweet Dreams"...I had the unpleasant task of watching its lead slowly dwindle and then vanish on the spreadsheet.

So it goes. Final Four thread will be up in about one minute.

I probably have the lowest rate of picking winners in this thing!

Yeah, Moonbeam, you 'n me both; we 80s people have not fared well in either tournament. (Full breakdowns are still coming up at the end of September, I promise.)