SCORES & UPCOMING GAMES



CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL SCORE: (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 168, (7) Tracy Chapman 159 .......... FINAL FOUR FINAL SCORES: (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 154, (1) Joy Division 90 ..... (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 137, (1) The Cure 89 .......... ELITE EIGHT FINAL SCORES: (1) JOY DIVISION 74, (14) Low 60 ..... (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 85, (1) Elliott Smith 69 ..... THE CURE 65, (2) Radiohead 58 ..... (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 74, (1) Neutral Milk Hotel 44 ..... FINAL SWEET SIXTEEN SCORES: (1) JOY DIVISION 75, (5) PJ Harvey & Nick Cave 24 ..... (14) LOW 73, (2) Concrete Blonde (64) ..... (1) ELLIOTT SMITH 78, (4) Gary Jules 44 ..... (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 74, (6) Kate Bush 53 ..... (1) NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 54, (13) The Church 49 ..... (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 73, (3) Sinead O’Connor 35 ..... (1) THE CURE 109, (3) Tori Amos 86 ..... (2) RADIOHEAD 76, (6) This Mortal Coil 50 ..... (1) JOY DIVISION 96, (9) Mazzy Star 91 ..... (2) CONCRETE BLONDE 76, (7) Bob Mould 28 ..... (14) LOW 60, (6) Crowded House 51 ..... (5) PJ HARVEY & NICK CAVE 65, (4) Alphaville 38 ..... (1) ELLIOTT SMITH 113, (8) Replacements 88 ..... (6) KATE BUSH 87, (3) Nirvana 64 ..... (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 99, (2) The Eels 62 ..... (3) GARY JULES 103, (12) Morrissey 63 ..... (6) Kate Bush 72, (3) Nirvana 53 ..... (3) SINEAD O'CONNOR 66, (11) Ride 27 ..... (13) THE CHURCH 106, (5) James 44 ..... (2) JEFF BUCKLEY 95, (10) Smashing Pumpkins 40 ..... (1) NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 80, (9) New Order 56 ..... (2) RADIOHEAD 102, (7) Nine Inch Nails 99 ..... (6) THIS MORTAL COIL 61, (3) Indigo Girls 60 ..... (4) TORI AMOS 89, (5) Swans 40 ..... (1) CURE 82, (8) Tom Waits 68 ............... FINAL 1ST ROUND SCORES: (5) PJ HARVEY & NICK CAVE 93, (12) Midnight Oil 38 ..... (7) BOB MOULD 63, (10) Peter Murphy 47 ..... (1) JOY DIVISION 117, (16) Erasure 19 ..... (6) CROWDED HOUSE 98, (11) Leonard Cohen 54 ..... (7) TRACY CHAPMAN 199, (10) The Smiths 162 ..... (5) MORRISSEY 115, (12) Morphine 83 ..... (3) NIRVANA 137, (14) Slowdive 102 ..... (8) THE REPLACEMENTS 128, (9) Dream Academy 82 ..... (13) THE CHURCH 262, (4) Magnetic Fields 193 ..... (10) SMASHING PUMPKINS 165, (7) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds 155 ..... (9) NEW ORDER 160, (8) Sarah McLachlan 78 ..... (1) JEFF BUCKLEY 204, (16) Bjork 92 ..... (4) TORI AMOS 78, (13) Echo & the Bunnymen 22 ..... (8) TOM WAITS 72, (9) The Pretenders 22 ..... (6) THIS MORTAL COIL 51, (11) Yaz 31 ..... (3) INDIGO GIRLS 71, (14) Pavement 26 ..... (9) MAZZY STAR 132, (8) REM 46 ..... (2) CONCRETE BLONDE 88, (15) Psychedelic Furs 34 ..... (4) ALPHAVILLE 71, (13) Dead Can Dance 36 ..... (14) LOW 120, (3) U2 65 ..... (1) ELLIOTT SMITH 63, (16) 10,000 Maniacs 24 ..... (2) EELS 50, (15) Counting Crows 46 ..... (4) GARY JULES 62, (13) Depeche Mode 19 ..... (6) KATE BUSH 59, (11) Sisters of Mercy 20 ..... (1) NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 42, (16) Violent Femmes 12 ..... (11) RIDE 25 (6) Peter Gabriel 24 ..... (3) SINEAD O'CONNOR 37, (14) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 17, ..... (5) JAMES 24, (12) Red House Painters 23 ..... (7) NINE INCH NAILS 46, (10) Wilco 31, (5) SWANS 31, (12) Pet Shop Boys 18 ..... (1) THE CURE 50, (16) Gear Daddies 10 ..... (2) RADIOHEAD 40, (15) Liz Phair 35


CURRENT GAMES BELOW — PAST GAMES ARCHIVED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

Monday, March 14, 2016

Second Round: (5) JAMES vs (13) THE CHURCH

Calling The Church a #marchsadness Cinderella is premature, especially for a band with 24 albums, at least one of which (Starfish) went gold in the US, and a string of hits, but their first-round upset of (4) Magnetic Fields shocked the field and got our attention. Here they're up against UK act James, and to some extent this is a matchup of innocence (James) versus experience (Church).

I mean, James is no slouch either; they had hits too, but (at least here: in other songs they're slyer) they're sincere and direct and wounded. The US video (linked below) goes in the Wings of Desire direction, giving the song a pleasing second gloss. The Church's entry is more mysterious and sweeping.

Another way to think about it is that this is a matchup pitting the aesthetic of the 80s against that of the 90s. “Under the Milky Way” mixes the bombast of the 80s with an irresistible dash of goth. Its eventual use in Donnie Darko pretty much cemented its place in the 80s canon. “Say Something” is less known, a representative of that moody minimalism the 90s did so well. Both songs feature speakers trying to break through to someone: “Wish I knew what you were looking for,” The Church laments, while James pleads, “Say something, say something, anything / your silence is deafening.” Neither connection evidently lasts—or is in fact made at all.

The question seems to be, in part: Do you prefer an articulation of "loveless fascination" ("Under the Milky Way") to a plea to end an unknowable other's silent opacity?

For more discussion of the songs' merits, you may want to read our previous coverage of "Say Something" and of "Under the Milky Way."

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(5) James, "Say Something" (US Version: see previous coverage for link to original/UK video)



vs

(13) The Church, "Under the Milky Way" (official video)





Note: today, some folks are reporting an error when voting in our polls below. We're working on it, but note that it IS counting your votes, even if the error shows up; the software also filters out multiple votes, so you can't accidentally vote too many times. We're embedding the twitter poll, which you can use if you're on twitter, if you'd rather. Or you can click HERE to vote or HERE for the results.





Which sadder is better? Vote by 9am 3/15

Under the Milky Way
Say Something
Poll Maker

8 comments:

  1. Posting this in case I'm not the only one having this problem: I'm having trouble voting today. When I click the vote button I get a message that says my account does not have access to this page. It's not clear if my vote is going through.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is being counted, but we've had a couple reports like this where you can vote but get that error message when you try to reveal the results. Not sure what accounts for that just yet, and we're working on the problem. Is it only happening with this vote or with the others today too? Does it happen when you're looking at the whole blog or when you've loaded up the page with the matchup on it?

    The good news is that it's being counted, but we'd like to figure out why this problem is occurring, so any more feedback you can give us on the problem helps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for looking into it. The couple of votes I made from the main page both gave the error message. When I tried voting on one from the individual blog post, I didn't get the error, but it didn't show the vote tally.

      Delete
    3. We were able to replicate your problem on one of our official NCAA machines; yeah, it was more of an issue from the main page, not the individual pages. Not sure what the problem is/was. Since we can't get it 100% resolved, we're switching to a different poll software for tomorrow's voting once these polls close. The twitter polls of course continue to work fine. Let us know if you have trouble tomorrow on the new games?

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  3. In the interim, we added a workaround just above the poll: you can vote here: http://goo.gl/bFUIVW and check the results here: http://goo.gl/pPjYnI

    ReplyDelete
  4. I continue to be surprised by the strength of support for "Milky Way." Count me with those who find it evocative, moody, mysterious... but sad? not really. Despite its peppier music, "Say Something" seems like the clearly sadder song to me.

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  5. I'm with you. I quite like the song, but the committee's seeding reflected that we thought it really wasn't a particularly sad song, nor are they a particularly sad band. Surprised and pleased by the degree of support for "Under the Milky Way." They got lucky with a little softer opponent in James (than, say, Sinead, Jeff Buckley, or Smashing Pumpkins) via the draw, but still their cinderella run appears to continue. The way this is going, does it have a shot at the elite 8?

    ReplyDelete