A little over a year ago I was bummed that once again the Maryland Terrapins had failed to make the cut for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. So I thought to myself how can I possibly spice up March Madness for myself and my musically inclined friends who were also disgruntled Terps fans. The solution was Maddening March Musical Madness – where I matched up the previous years top musical artists with their ranked equivalent on a NCAA Tournament bracket. If you weren’t too keen on any of the teams you could simply fill out your bracket routing for your favorite band or musician instead. Radiohead (aka Kansas) won out. People responded well to MMMM so I decided to do it again this year. You can view and download a jpeg of the new bracket here or a pdf here. To sum it up the top artists/teams briefly – the four number ones are MGMT (Louisville), Radiohead (UConn), Cut Copy (Pitt), and Animal Collective (UNC); the four number twos are Vampire Weekend (Michigan St.), Lykke Li (Memphis), Santigold (Duke), and Hot Chip (Oklahoma); the four number threes are Justice (Kansas), Fleet Foxes (Missouri), Bloc Party (Villanova), and Bon Iver (Syracuse). You can download the full version to view the rest. You’re probably wondering how I went about the seeding. I for the most part used the Hype Machine’s Top 50 Albums Blog Zeitgeist (found here) and sprinkled in some ‘bubble teams’ that I thought deserved inclusion. There are some pretty exciting matchups that I wish were occurring in real life – Justice (Kansas) vs. Girl Talk (North Dakota St.); Vampire Weekend (Michigan St.) vs. Beach House (Robert Morris); TV on The Radio (Purdue) vs. LCD Soundsystem (UNI). If I had to pick a winner I’d probably go with Cut Copy (Pitt) but I would discount Bon Iver (Syracuse) either – they may be able to surprise some people. I’ll do another update at the Sweet Sixteen. Take a look at the bracket and let me know who you think will make it through the first two rounds (they start on Thursday). Here’s some tunes to help you decide:
mp3: MGMT – Kids
mp3: Radiohead – 4 Minute Warning
mp3: Cut Copy – Hearts On Fire
mp3: Animal Collective – Brother Sport
mp3: Vampire Weekend – Walcott
mp3: Lykke Li – Let It Fall
mp3: Santigold – Unstoppable
mp3: Hot Chip – Don’t Dance
mp3: Justice – Stress
mp3: Fleet Foxes – Heard Them Stirring
mp3: Bloc Party – Two More Years (MSTRKRFT Remix)
mp3: Bon Iver – Blood Bank
mp3: Beck – Modern Guilt
mp3: Kanye West – Get Em High (A-Trak Remix)
mp3: M.I.A. – Sunshowers (Diplo Mix)
mp3: Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Possess Your Heart
mp3: The Kills – Last Day Of Magic
mp3: TV On The Radio – Dancing Choose
mp3: Feist – Sea Lion (Chromeo Remix)
mp3: Crystal Castles – Air War
Download the Bracket (pdf)
Download the Bracket (jpeg)
Check out Part 2 – The Sweet Sixteen
so you move bands up in the bracket according to the team they’re associated with in the actual NCAA bracket? Pretty cool idea…according to my two brackets i’ve done so far…Radiohead or Lykke Li is gonna take it all….
I’m not dissing your method of ranking, cause it makes good sense…but i’d say Cut Copy is kinda overrated as number 1 seed Pitt. Assuming Daft Punk wins first battle, Cut Copy would be killed second round.
I’ll be tuning in to see what happens.
sometimes it’s all about the upset
You ripped off these guys:
http://welistenforyou.blogspot.com/2009/03/march-music-madness-09.html
Hey Joe D,
I started this thing up last year WITHOUT looking at anybody else’s blog for the idea. I’m not that type of guy. It takes a certain type of person to rip some one off like that – and that’s not me. Hopefully you won’t jump to conclusions like that in the future.
Well, I’m not a sports person and I don’t really understand the whole March Madness or brackets thing…but I’m always excited for Fleet Foxes songs I haven’t got. ^-^
um Joe, We Listen For You’s bracket is done by voting. The bracket here is moved along based on the team they’re associated with. Even if the idea was copied, they’re both being done in completely different ways.
well i don’t understand the March Madness bonanza either, but i am particularly partial to an effervescing playlist. my goodness pasta.. have an effing shiny man! niice work
i guessed the final four thanks to your bracket, keep up the good work pp!