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March 05, 2007
MARCH 90s ALBUM INSANITY: THE TOURNAMENT
At the onset, I would like to say what shall become part of your Internet checklist for the next few weeks was a snap. I would love to say that I dreamed it up one night, and I finished the entire thing before my coffee pot finished brewing. That would be swell.
In fact, the below took forever and, at times, sapped my will to live. So here it goes.
In the spirit of NCAA March Madness (fair use, litigious NCAA lawyers), I have assembled a collection of 65 albums from the 90s. They are seeded based on a secret formula (the seeds will be revealed tomorrow). In the first round, each album will go up against another album. You, the public, are to help determine which album should "win" the battle. More on that tomorrow. It is, essentially, a single-elimination tournament to determine the best album of the 90s. Not only will you get the chance to pick the winners of each game, tomorrow you will be asked to prognosticate the final four albums remaining and the champion. The winner will get a few tasty CDs.
So you know, I only allowed one album per band (see Pavement), but allowed for individual albums by members of bands already in the pool (see Ghostface, Wu-Tang).
For Bracketologist devotees and fans of March Madness, I have further explanation for the impetus and my procedures at the end of this post.
What follows below is the alphabetical list of 65 teams currently slated for the tournament. This is not meant to be a definitive list, but it was determined using the procedures for March Madness as a guide.
Air – Moon Safari
Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
Beck - Odelay
Belle and Sebastian – If You're Feeling Sinister
Bjork – Post
Blur – Parklife
Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
Built to Spill – There’s Nothing Wrong With Love
Cat Power – Moon Pix
Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
Daft Punk Homework
Dismemberment Plan – Emergency & I
DJ Shadow - Entroducing
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Dr. Octagon – Octagonecologyst
Elastica - S/T
Elliot Smith – XO
Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Galaxie 500 – This is Our Music
Ghostface Killah – Ironman
Guided by Voices – Bee Thousand
GZA/Genius - Liquid Swords
Hole – Live Through This
Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Lauryn Hill – Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Le Tigre – S/T
Liz Phair – Exile In Guyville
Low - Secret Name
Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See
Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West
Mogwai - Young Team
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
Nas – Illmatic
Neutral Milk Hotel – In an Aeroplane over the Sea
Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral
Nirvana – Nevermind
Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk At Cubist Castle
Outkast – Aquemini
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
Pearl Jam – Ten
Pixies – Bossanova
PJ Harvey – Rid of Me
Portishead – Dummy
Primal Scream – Screamadelica
Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet
Pulp - Different Class
Quasi – Field Studies
Radiohead - Ok Computer
Rage Against the Machine – S/T
Silver Jews - American Water
Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Snoop Dogg – Doggystyle
Sonic Youth- Goo
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
The Breeders - Pod
Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Unrest – Perfect Teeth
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One
I am willing to swap out exactly one album for another, suggested by the public, based on the best argument. Not liking rap is not a valid one. Never hearing of Low is another invalid argument. Keep in mind that this is a list I derived to the best of my ability that combined pure art and 90s nostalgia.
To make a case for another album to be included, use the comments or e-mail me at keith.obrien@gmail.com. Make sure you say which album currently on the list should fail to make the cut.
Here's the blank bracket if you want to see how it will go down.
Here's the timeline for the tournament:
Today - unveiling of 65 teams
Tomorrow - unveiling of seeds and play-in game
Wednesday - First round games Lou Reed bracket
Thursday - First round games Bob Dylan bracket
Friday - First round games Eric B. bracket
Monday - First round games Ian Curtis bracket
Tuesday - Second round games Lou Reed and Bob Dylan brackets
Wednesday - Second round games Eric B. and Ian Curtis brackets
Thursday/Friday - break in action for actual basketball
Monday - Sweet Sixteen games Lou Reed and Bob Dylan brackets
Tuesday - Sweet Sixteen games Eric B. and Ian Curtis brackets
Wednesday - Elite 8 games
Thursday - Final Four games
Friday - Championship
Won't that be fun?
Further explanation for March Madness nerds.
If you're reading this, you'll agree that March Madness is perhaps the greatest sporting event known to man. Up until one week ago, basically every division one basketball team had a shot to make national championship tournament. In theory, they still have a chance to make the tournament up until a group of athletic directors and conference directors pick the brackets. To seed albums, I used Pitchfork's Top 100 albums of the 90s list as an RPI of sorts. As mentioned to the community above, this is not a definitive list. To contemplate Rage Against the Machine in, but, not, say, Talk Talk's Laughing Stock is to imagine if College of Charleston beat Davidson.
I'd like to think of release year to be conferences; it will be interesting to see which conference emerges with the best W/L percentage (I have my own guess). Anyone want to guess in the comments? I used straight S curve seeding (basically I seeded each seed 1 - 4), so the top seed has, in its bracket, the worst second seed, the best third seed, and the worst fourth seed). I could have gotten even nerdier based on release years, but I do have a life.
Any questions? keith.obrien@gmail.com. Hope you will enjoy this as much I as do.
Posted by Keith O'Brien at March 5, 2007 08:15 AM
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Comments
Alot of controversy brewing after Thom Yorke gave Wayne Coyne that "intentional Foul/ elbow to the bloody face." Whenever the Lips and Radiohead play it always seems to gets messy. Nice work on the field of 64. Can't wait.
Posted by: Yonah at March 5, 2007 11:09 AM
Good job!
Posted by: Kate at March 5, 2007 11:47 AM
I'm gonna win.
Posted by: Max at March 5, 2007 12:00 PM
Technically, not EVERY team was still alive. The Big East (and one other conference that I can't immediatly recall) doesn't let every team into its tournament. And the Ivy League has been over for about a two weeks now, with the regular season champ getting that league's bid (it's always Penn of Princeton).
Posted by: Randall Monty at March 5, 2007 11:28 PM
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