POP!

Prince continues his undefeated streak and, in our lowest voted-on match yet, Tom Petty psyched out the Furs to give us Full Moon Fever vs. 1999 in the second round. Since those albums didn't bring out the masses to vote, let's do the pop pop poppiest bracket I think we gots left.

Rhythm Nation 1814 (Janet Jackson) vs. East Side Story (Squeeze) - Game 3
Rio (Duran Duran) vs. An Innocent Man (Billy Joel) - Game 4

So, there. Pop away!

From The Bottom...

All right, I know I ended that one 4 hours early, but I gots ta work and won't have a chance to get another bracket going until tomorrow night, so it be what it be. Yaz beat Georgie by 1 vote, putting former Beatles at 0-3 thus far. De La made quite a comeback on the last day to keep 80's hip hop undefeated. We have Upstairs At Eric's vs. 3 Feet High And Rising in the next. It's probably time for another Prince album and this bracket has some summery selections, so let's do this...

Full Moon Fever (Tom Petty) vs. The Psychedelic Furs (The Psychedelic Furs) - Game 63
1999 (Prince) vs. Medicine Show (Dream Syndicate) - Game 64

This one ends a little earlier so I have time to get another bracket up for the weekend, so make sure you're watching the vote clock!

Firsts And A Last

The OGs from Compton beat down Annie and Dave and Fugazi just barely made it past Ms. Turner to give us 13 Songs vs. Straight Outta Compton in the second round. I recall listening to Yaz quite a bit back in my first summer fully in Flint, so let's get that bracket while summer is still with us.

Upstairs At Eric's (Yaz) vs. Cloud Nine (George Harrison) - Game 43
Peter Case (Peter Case) vs. 3 Feet High And Rising (De La Soul) - Game 44

Former Beatles are 0-2 right now. Will George change this unlucky streak? Hip Hop albums are 4-0. Can De La keep the genre's undefeated streak alive?

DIVAS DO HARDCORE!

Phish got out to a quick lead and kept it and in the final 7 hours Sonic Youth lept ahead of Macca to give us Sister vs. Junta in the second round. Here's a couple matches with divas taking on some hardcore factions. Well, hardcore to me, anyway. Plus, I really wanted DIVAS DO HARDCORE! to be a blog post name, so...there it is.

Private Dancer (Tina Turner) vs. 13 Songs (Fugazi) - Game 31
Straight Outta Compton (N.W.A.) vs. Touch (The Eurythmics) - Game 32

Do you Diva? Do you Hardcore? Do you go both ways? What's your number? Sorry, one too many questions there. Just, go listen.

Animals and Fourths

Both R.E.M. and the Talking Heads won their matches to give us Speaking In Tongues vs. Green in the next round, making these two bands pretty fearsome rivals in our little tourney as they also have a first round match against each other coming up. Let's skip to something else now, though....

Tug Of War (Paul McCartney) vs. Sister (Sonic Youth) - Game 17
Pyromania (Def Leppard) vs. Junta (Phish) - Game 18

Oh, did you not notice I slipped a Phish album in here? Hee hee hee. Now, I've read some comments from Don and others...well, mostly Don...okay just Don, voicing that it is only the faves going in that are winning. I just want to say...WHO'S FAVORITES, MANNNNNN? Alls I know is The Thompsons beat G'n R, Grace Jones beat Metallica and a so-so Elvis Costello album beat a great Peter Gabriel album. I am actually enjoying this tourney more than the last one (maybe not the albums, but the actual tournament) because I can't guess at what will win most times. Don's saying Thriller is taking this all. I'm calling it, right now...I say Thriller wins maybe one more match then loses. That's right, hold me to it. We shall see. Now go do some listenin and vote for MY favorites. Word.

CONTINUING UNDEFEATED?

Van Halen outrawked Bon Jovi (duh) and Faith No More did, indeed, pull out a win by 1 vote, probably causing Don to have faith no more. Fear not, Don, The Replacements have one last shot further down the road to get a win. But that's later, for now let's go for an all-around pretty damn good bracket...

Speaking In Tongues (Talking Heads) vs. Skylarking (XTC) - Game 13
Second Edition or Metal Box (Public Image Ltd.) vs. Green (R.E.M.) - Game 14

Will this set up another second round match between Talking Heads and R.E.M.? Both have already won their first matches, so will we see 2-0 for both bands, or will this be the upset round? Up to you!

HAIR

We've had our first shut-out as Tom Waits decimated Ozzy and poor Lou Reed couldn't muster up half of the votes Prince reached. This gives us Sign 'O' The Times vs. Swordfishtrombones in the second. Now, I gotta admit, I've sorta been guiltily looking forward to this one...

1984 (Van Halen) vs. Slippery When Wet (Bon Jovi) - Game 59
Let It Be (The Replacements) vs. The Real Thing (Faith No More) - Game 60

Get yo rawk on!

DIFFERENT DEMONS

Jane's Addiction destroyed Ringo Starr and Grace Jones edged out Metallica...wait, is that right, that can't be...no shit?....okay, Grace Jones beat Metallica to give us Nothing's Shocking vs. Nightclubbing in the next round. We should probably do another Prince now, so, here we go...

Sign 'O The Times (Prince) vs. New York (Lou Reed) - Game 55
Swordfishtrombones (Tom Waits) vs. Tribute (Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhodes) - Game 56

Puppets, Clubs, Shock and...more Roses.

By dual scores of 8-3, Beasties and the Pretenders move on to give us License To Ill vs. The Pretenders in the second round. We've got 3 Metallica albums in this thing, so we better get one of em in here now.

Master Of Puppets (Metallica) vs. Nightclubbing (Grace Jones) - Game 5
Nothing's Shocking (Jane's Addiction) vs. Stop And Smell The Roses (Ringo Starr) - Game 6

I would think this one might be a quick blow-out on both ends, but what the hell do I know? Have at it!

HAPPY B-DAY MCA

2 decisive victories for R.E.M. and Talking Heads gives us Murmur vs. Remain In Light in the next round. I had a different bracket all picked out, but that was before I read it was Adam Yauch's birthday. Let's do the other Beasties album in his honor.

The Pretenders (The Pretenders) vs. Indigo Girls (Indigo Girls) - Game 23
Licensed To Ill (Beastie Boys) vs. The Miracle (Queen) - Game 24

The Emotional Bracket

U2 won in a blow-out and Elvis hung on to win by one vote (helped by Don's stumping) to give us The Joshua Tree vs. Imperial Bedrooms in the next round. We have yet to do a Talking Heads album and, since they are one of the artists with the most album represented, we should do one. This bracket seems kinda summery to me....

Murmur (R.E.M.) vs. Closer (Joy Division) - Game 9
Remain In Light (Talking Heads) vs. Red (Black Uhuru) - Game 10

So you newbies have no seen how stumping for an album can help immensely. Feel free to do the same for any album you feel you must give a little shove to. It doesn't work every time, but it makes things more interesting.