Championship Round!

The Championship Round is finally here.

Answer these four questions in the comments:

1. Who you vote for to win the championship match-up.

2. Who do you consider to be the best band ever, i.e. who should have won?

3. What one band should have made the bracket, but didn't?

4. What one band should NOT have made the bracket, but did?

Your answers to these questions will be taken into consideration next March when The Money Beets hold the second annual "Best. Band. Ever." Bracket with updated seedings and possibly new bands from the 2000s era.

VOTING DEADLINE; FRIDAY, MAY 1ST, MIDNIGHT.

Final Four Bands

We've arrived at the Final Four. And yes, Interpol is in the final four. I blame Simon and anyone who hasn't heard of Arcade Fire. Voting ends on Sunday night at midnight. New tie-breaker rules are in effect. If you want to download a song from each of these artists, I suggest the following:

Bob Dylan - All Along the Watchtower or Like A Rolling Stone

Interpol - Stella Was A Diver and She Was Always Down or Slow Hands

Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name or Bulls on Parade

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit or In Bloom

Post your favorite song or album of each band in the comments when you vote.

Tiebreaker system for the final four and championship round

Up until this point we've been using a count-back of the Money Beets' votes to break any ties. For the Final Four round and the Championship round, the tie-breaking system will be as follows:

If at the midnight deadline for voting, there is a tie, voting will be extended for another twenty-four hours, in which time additional voters will need to be rallied and encouraged to vote. If there is still a tie at midnight on the following night's deadline, voting will be extended another twenty-four hours and so on and so forth until one band is able to make the metaphorical three-point shot at the buzzer to win the match-up.

For these rounds, voters must either have voted before or be able to sufficiently identify themselves. I.e. "NewportHome" is the only person that is allowed to vote despite the fact that we have no idea who they are.

Elite Eight Bands

We're getting down to some serious match-ups now. Feel free to vote also on Radiohead versus Arcade Fire, which is what really should be going on in the bottom left bracket.

Sweet Sixteen Bands

Deadline for sweet sixteen voting: Tuesday at midnight.

Jason Ellis is Making a Difference

I thought I would share with you all about my good friend, Jason Ellis. Actually, I'm not going to tell you too much about him, but just that he is a group leader for our church high school department. He is spending his spare time helping his high school guys learn about Jesus, and mature as men. In fact, here are a few of them doing what men do best...beating on each other. Jason should be proud. (No one was seriously hurt during the filming)



Note to Taylor: This is what should have happened with Kyle.

Second Round Bracket

There were a lot of hard-fought battles and a few upsets. The biggest wins were by Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones each with 12-0 victories. Sadly, Madonna did not make it to the second round. The biggest upsets were Michael Jackson over Pearl Jam and Elton John over U2. I think deep down we're all glad that U2 is out of it, despite the fact that we're now stuck with Elton John.

Vote in the second round in the comments. Anyone is welcome to vote, even if you didn't vote in the first round.

Best. Band. Ever.

The bracket is now available. Vote in the comments. Leslie asked me whether she was supposed to vote according to which bands she knows are really good or which bands she is actually listening to the most right now. A good example is the Beatles (1) versus Band of Horses (16). Every individual needs to balance their own definitions, but the goal of this bracket is to determine which band/artist is the best ever.

As an example of voting styles: Ethan thinks that classic rock, while important, just doesn't hold up to newer music that has, in essence, stood on the shoulders of the Beatles and others to make even better music. Brian on the other hand would argue that the music of classic rock bands innovated and created so greatly that most bands since have merely been imitating but never equalling their influences. That being said, everyone should feel free to lobby others as to which bands' music has stood the test of time and also to speculate as to what new music will remain relevant for decades to come.

Once everyone votes on the first round, I'll update the spreadsheet and re-post it for the second round. The seeding system is inherently inaccurate so any complaints as to the over-rating or under-rating of a band/artist should be remedied through voting. So if Madonna gets the votes, Madonna will win.

Notice: Bands/Artists Not Seeded

The following bands/artists are currently not included in the bracket. I'm trying to make as many people happy as possible but it's hard when Brian only gives 50s, 60s, and 70s bands and Ethan gives mostly 90s bands. I'm essentially just using what I know about their music tastes to fill in the rest. If you feel that any of the following are potentially the best band/artist ever, this is your chance to say so. Once the bracket comes out there will only be voting. Here is the non-exhaustive list of bands NOT making the tournament:

Dave Matthews Band
Madonna
No Doubt
POTUSA
BLink-182
Cake
The Cars
Billy Joel
Prince
Genesis
Dire Straits
Jethro Tull
The Kinks
Lynryd Skynrd
Steely Dan
The Supremes
The Monkees
Bon Jovi
The Sex Pistols
Pavement
Ray Charles
Al Green
Rascals
Four Seasons
Allman Brothers
The Eagles
R.E.M.
Soundgarden
Every artist mentioned by Adri.

And if anyone at all would like to vote to put Belle and Sebastian in the bracket I would love them forever.

Pitiful participation

Pitiful participation . . .

I'm looking at you, Adri. And what? No Celine Dion, the greatest performer of our generation?

Also neither of you, Brian and Ethan, actually paid attention to the brackets, which are divided by decades for seeding purposes. I have the top eight in each bracket down pretty easily. It's mostly a question of which bands get to be the underdogs.

Everybody should at least give me five underdogs worthy of consideration in each of the brackets 50s/60s, 70s/80s, 90s, and 00s. So far there are only four people who will get to vote on who advances through a given round. Anyone that posts their top bands/artists will get a vote.

Top ten lists for music bracket

I'm putting together a march madness type bracket for best artist/bands, for which we will discuss and vote in successive rounds. I need top ten lists to make the seeded brackets. Once everyone throws in their favorite bands I'll decide who the favorites are and seed them accordingly. To be clear, "best" is by definition going to be a subjective argument; the point will be to debate, compare apples to oranges, and decide between us (the readership of this blog) by voting, who the best bands are. Your lists should NOT be autobiographical: just because you liked them a lot in high school doesn't mean you need to rate them high now. In your lists you should also include bands that are big but that you don't like (but who may be successful anyway) and who you would especially like to see defeated in this bracket. E.g. Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Michael Jackson, Coldplay.

Here are the categories (with examples):

The classic rock bracket (50s and 60s)
Beatles
Rolling Stones
Led Zeppelin
The Who
Elvis Presley

The do-we-need-to-include-the-Bee-Gee's bracket (70s and 80s)
U2
Guns N Roses
Metallica
David Bowie

The Yes,-Nirvana-is-a-number-1-seed bracket (90s)
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Beck

The New Stuff bracket (2000s on)
TV on the Radio
Radiohead
Pinback


In dealing with bands that have put out albums across multiple decades I'm just going to make a decision and put them into one bracket. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, U2, Pearl Jam, and Radiohead are good examples of bands that could be in multiple brackets. Let me know if you feel that I've put someone in the wrong bracket.

UPDATE:
Per Ethan's suggestion, I'm going to seed them according to decades 1 through 16 and then assign four from each decade(s) to a bracket.