MARCH MUSIC MADNESS '09

Unknown Sunday, March 15, 2009 12 comments

It’s BACK! Our 2nd annual March Music Madness, a competitive 64 band/solo artist tournament that runs concurrently with the NCAA Basketball tourney, is set to start this THUR. The bands that move on round to round are determined by you, the music fan. We will have an embedded screen up on the site THUR that will easily allow you to vote for who you think should move on. The reasons for your vote is entirely up to you…who is the best, who is your favorite, who is more “now”.

We narrowed the field to sixty four teams by selecting the most relevant indie rock/hip hop bands to compete. Absent from this years list is RADIOHEAD, who won it last year. We also dropped Wilco, LCD Soundsystem, and The Flaming Lips who all did well in MMM ’08. For those wondering how we selected the bands and why they are seeded in a certain way…fear not, tomorrow (MON), we will post a podcast where we discuss our logic and turn to our thoughts on the first round.

What we changed this year are the selections for the 16 and 15 seeds. In the basketball tournament, smaller teams make it in…so Hank and I (Zach) wrote in four teams apiece for those seeds. They are:

HANK
The Avett Brothers
Shearwater
Frightened Rabbit
Ladyhawk

ZACH
Mother Mother
The Henry Clay People
Foals
Late Of The Pier

This was a ton of fun last year and I hope you will participate in the voting to ultimately crown the 2009 March Music Madness Champion. Tell your friends, link us up, and let’s make this big.

As today was the day that the Basketball bracket was released, we roll out ours below as well. ENJOY. (how can you not love a world where Dan Deacon and Joanna Newsom square off?)

12 comments:

AnonymousMarch 15, 2009 at 7:29 PM
Yes! I love this.
BoMarch 15, 2009 at 8:26 PM
Putting The Henry Clay People against Kanye West? That's not fair...to Kanye. Just think how much he'll bitch when he loses that one!
AnonymousMarch 15, 2009 at 8:37 PM
There is some serious battles that will be going on here...some seem like no brainers - but those are the ones I always pick incorrectly anyway...

Great job, this is going to be good!

S.
didenMarch 16, 2009 at 9:56 PM
So excited to do this again.
RayMarch 16, 2009 at 11:48 PM
wow, excellent lineup, gents :D

too bad TVOTR will clean up :/
CBMarch 17, 2009 at 4:28 AM
Final 4:

Spoon vs. Fleet Foxes
Decemberists vs. TVOTR

Final 2:
Decemberists vs. Spoon

Winner:
Decemberists (let's face it, their new album is spectacular)

It's a shame you put Sigur Ros vs. Decemberists in Rnd 1.
AnonymousMarch 17, 2009 at 5:35 PM
PRetty cool idea, only thing I'd suggest to change/fix is proper seeding, for instance, the #1 seed in each bracket should face the #8 or #9 seed in the second round.
UnknownMarch 17, 2009 at 5:38 PM
Completley agree with you SonicD...the problem is the voting device we use for some reason or other seeds the way we have it in the bracket. It's a cool program b/c it embeds in the page...makes voting very easy, allows for photos, and links to the bands myspace page if a voter never heard one of the acts.

This is something we will look into next year, but it shouldn't be that big of a problem since to win the whole thing you have to go through tough comp. Wish we could have the NCAA seeding, but this will have to do for now.
AnonymousMarch 17, 2009 at 7:39 PM
Final Four: Animal Collective, Wolf Parade, TVOTR, Arcade Fire
Champion: Animal Collective
RobertMarch 18, 2009 at 9:33 AM
Animal Collective will win out... and they deserve to.
Byronius PunkMarch 18, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Lykke Li must've been on the "bubble," eh? The Radiohead bracket is brutal. Heck, the LCD Soundsystem bracket ain't that much better...
Dr. Travis ThurstonMarch 23, 2009 at 9:45 PM
I would have liked to see Metronomy get in... maybe next year.