Vote for your winners, results posted tomorrow:
#1 Bjork vs. #16 The Offspring
#8 Sublime vs. #9 The National
#5 The Chemical Brothers vs. #12 Lady Gaga
#4 Gorillaz vs. #13 Busta Rhymes
#3 The Strokes vs. #14 Snow Patrol
#6 Wu-Tang Clan vs. #11 Fatboy Slim
#7 Arctic Monkeys vs. #10 The Fugees
#2 The Smashing Pumpkins vs. #15 Boyz II Men
#16 The Offspring ~~~ I'm kinda surprised by this myself, but this has been a band I have liked for awhile and though I have 4 Bjork albums, I find them painful to listen to from beginning to end. Something just seems wrong about Bjork being a #1 seed...
#9 The National ~~~ I do like Sublime, but they have lost their edginess over time. 3 great albums so far from The National which seem like a band that hasn't reached their critical or commercial success yet...
#5 The Chemical Brothers ~~~ I would vote for The Teletubbies over Lady Gaga...
#4 Gorillaz ~~~ My personal choice to win this bracket...
#3 The Strokes ~~~ I am having a tough time going against Snow Patrol...
#6 Wu-Tang ~~~
#7 Arctic Monkeys ~~~
#2 Pumpkins ~~~
#1 Bjork
#9 The National
#5 The Chemical Brothers
#4 Gorillaz (my favorite of the 90's)
#3 The Strokes
#11 Fatboy Slim
#7 Arctic Monkeys
#2 The Smashing Pumpkins
#1 Bjork
#9 The National - While I do got some love for Sublime, I completely warmed to the National, after some resistance, with last year's beautiful High Violet
#5 The Chemical Brothers
#13 Busta Rhymes - Busta is a more animated and entertaining cartoon character. I like Gorillaz, but they have not delivered nearly the joyousness of Busta.
#3 The Strokes
#6 Wu-Tang Clan
#7 Arctic Monkeys
#2 The Smashing Pumpkins - Closer than you might think. I have appreciation for Boyz II Men's deep love and respect for the vocal tradition. But, although their moments of beauty and power are too intermittent for me to rank them as highly as others do, Smashing Pumpkins did reach those moments.
Very high quality of competition today; there are almost no acts here I out-and-out dislike. Well, Sublime, but that’s about it.
#1 Björk (This might be a trap matchup for her; the Offspring is still very popular if the Sirius XM alt-90s channel is anything to go by. Too bad, since she has more musical inventiveness in her little finger than etc. etc. etc.)
#9 The National (High Violet is my favorite album from last year.)
#5 The Chemical Brothers (There will be a lot of reflexive anybody-but-Lady-Gaga votes here; I want to make clear that this isn’t one of them. While I wouldn’t claim that I actually like her music very much, I don’t think she should be completely dismissed any more than Madonna, her most-comparable act.)
#4 Gorillaz
#3 The Strokes
#6 Wu-Tang Clan (Good matchup. Tough draw for Fatboy, though.)
Bjork
The National (Sublime have got to be the most overated band among my friends)
The Chemical Brothers
Gorillaz
The Strokes
Fatboy Slim (the only tough matchup of today)
Arctic Monkeys
Smashing Pumpkins
#16 The Offspring (against Bjork more than for Offspring)
#9 The National
Pass
#4 Gorillaz (neither is that appealing to me)
#14 Snow Patrol (another protest vote)
pass
pass
#2 The Smashing Pumpkins (would have voted for Boyz II Men in some of the other match-ups today)
#1 Bjork (Can't stand the Offspring)
#8 Sublime (Basically a tie, but giving Sublime some love since they're going to lose)
#5 The Chemical Brothers (Kind of indifferent really)
#4 Gorillaz (Busta Rhymes has a unique style, but it's also annoying)
#3 The Strokes
#6 Wu-Tang Clan
#7 Arctic Monkeys (Maybe the other way around if The Fugees had more than one album)
#2 The Smashing Pumpkins (End of the road for Boyz II Men)
Chemical Brothers - I hate Gaga, but I have a feeling she'll win via the non-AM vote.
Strokes - Hmm, Chasing Cars vs. Last Nite. Actually, the worst song on Is This It is still miles above Chasing Cars. Once again, however, I feel that the non-AM may f*** them over.
#1 Bjork
#9 The National
Sublime might be the best band I've voted against so far. This is a really unfortunate matchup.
#5 The Chemical Brothers
Lady Gaga has a few decent singles like Poker Face or I Kissed A Girl, but Bad Romance wipes out all the credit she gets for those. Not only does it sound awful, she put her name conspicuously into the part of the song that's chanted ad nauseum.
#4 Gorillaz
#3 The Strokes
#11 Fatboy Slim
#7 Arctic Monkeys
#2 The Smashing Pumpkins
Lady Gaga has a few decent singles like Poker Face or I Kissed A Girl, but Bad Romance wipes out all the credit she gets for those. Not only does it sound awful, she put her name conspicuously into the part of the song that's chanted ad nauseum.
#1 Bjork - surprisingly close for me
#9 The National
#5 The Chemical Brothers
#4 Gorillaz
#3 The Strokes
#11 Fatboy Slim
#7 Arctic Monkeys
#2 The Smashing Pumpkins
#1 Björk: Interesting matchup of 2 artists I came to like around 1994. One would go one to become an all-time favorite, while the other would become a total relic of my teenage years and an artist upon which I look back wondering "What did I ever see in them?"
#9 The National: I really, really hate sublime. I only know a few songs by The National, and I kind of like them. Easy choice.
#12 Lady Gaga: I never could get into The Chemical Brothers, and while I think Lady Gaga's music is overrated, "Born This Way" and "Dance in the Dark" are more than enough to earn her the win.
#13 Busta Rhymes: Evil matchup. I really, really like both a lot. In truth, I probably prefer Gorillaz, but Busta's material from 1996-2003 was so good that he deserves a vote.
#3 The Strokes: Exciting short bursts of fun vs. Grey's Anatomy fodder. Easy choice.
Pass (Don't know either well enough.)
Pass (I'm kinda meh about both, so I don't want to influence the vote).
#15 Boyz II Men: Obviously, the Smashing Pumpkins deserve to win, but I can't stand Billy Corgan's voice, and I bought 3 Boyz II Men cassettes around 1991, so they win.
Lady Gaga has a few decent singles like Poker Face or I Kissed A Girl, but Bad Romance wipes out all the credit she gets for those. Not only does it sound awful, she put her name conspicuously into the part of the song that's chanted ad nauseum.
I Kissed a Girl was Katy perry, not Gaga.
No, it was Jill Sobule. (...and always will be, Perry.)
Lady Gaga has a few decent singles like Poker Face or I Kissed A Girl, but Bad Romance wipes out all the credit she gets for those. Not only does it sound awful, she put her name conspicuously into the part of the song that's chanted ad nauseum.
I Kissed a Girl was Katy perry, not Gaga.
No, it was Jill Sobule. (...and always will be, Perry.)