the march plaidness tournament field
is now set. 64 writers (in parentheses, below) were selected by lottery from a list of around 200 who expressed interest. Those 64 writers each selected a song from the longlist (listed following the tournament field). When a song by one of the bands with two songs on the longlist was selected, both were removed from the list (no more than one song per band).
Here’s this year’s tournament bracket. As in previous tournaments, seeding is primarily based on markers of popularity (sales, ubiquity), as best the Selection Committee was able to ascertain.
You can view the updated bracket with the results as the tournament proceeds here (we’ll also update the image file above after each round).
Go to Google Sheets to view or fill out your own bracket, or download an editable Excel file or a pdf. Fill out your own bracket for free to enter the tournament. As always, the bracket with the most successful picks (weighted the further we go in the tournament), will receive a prize. The tournament starts on 3/1, so all bracket submissions must be submitted by 7am 3/1.
We started with grunge (mostly Seattle/Pacific NW) and circled out to include adjacent songs that have include some of the major markers of the grunge era: bass-heaviness; loud, distorted, crunchy guitars; seeming artlessness especially in the vocals and production; angsty (kinda emo) feels and lyrics; apparent carelessness esp in instrumentation or presentation; use of the loud-quiet loud dynamic; seeming dirtiness/crustiness/slackerness; some relationship with punk, indie, or metal (grunge’s formative influences), and so forth. Songs must be released 88-98. A video is helpful but not required. Being from the Pacific NW is a plus but not required. Bands on the Sub Pop label get bonus points. When some seemingly anti-grunge features showed up in songs, the more likely they’d be seen as not sufficiently Plaid. For instance, too much progginess or hair metalliness, super mainstream sounds or production, overly melodic vocals, slap bass, rapping, too much wackiness or irony, weird instrumentation (like the presence of a saxophone, for instance) may well be disqualifying.
The songs and their writers:
Afghan Whigs, Gentleman (Mo Daviau)
Alice in Chains, Would? (Lucinda Bliss)
Babes in Toyland, Bruise Violet (Scott Beal)
Beck, Loser (Jessica Handler)
Better than Ezra, Good (Ragini Srinivasan)
Bikini Kill, Rebel Girl (Emily Mills)
Blur, Song #2 (Roy Ivy)
Breeders, Cannonball (Susan Briante)
Buffalo Tom, Taillights Fade (Katie Darby Mullins)
Butthole Surfers, Pepper (David Turkel)
Collective Soul: Shine (Tucker Leighty-Phillips)
Cracker, Low (Sean Lovelace)
Cranberries, Zombie (Maya C Popa)
Creed, My Own Prison (Matt Bell)
Dinosaur Jr, Feel the Pain (Diana Hurlburt)
Everclear, Santa Monica (Melissa Faliveno)
Fishbone, Sunless Saturday (Carolyn Kellogg)
Flaming Lips, She Don’t Use Jelly (Linda Michel-Cassidy)
The Flys, Got You (Where I Want You) (Stephanie Austin)
Foo Fighters, I’ll Stick Around (Jordan Wiklund)
Fugazi, Waiting Room (Brad Efford)
Garbage, Only Happy When it Rains (Kristine Langley Mahler)
Gits, Second Skin (Raquel Gutiérrez)
Green Day, Brain Stew/Jaded (Joe Bonomo)
PJ Harvey, Rid of Me (Lisa Nikolidakis)
Helmet, Unsung (Michael D. Miller)
Hole, Doll Parts (Janine Annett)
Hum, Stars (Ken Caldwell)
Jane’s Addiction, Mountain Song (Elana Levin)
Kings X, Dogman (Patrick Madden)
Lemonheads, It’s a Shame About Ray (Greg Oldfield)
Live, I Alone (Erin McReynolds)
Local H, Bound for the Floor (John Melillo)
Ministry, Jesus Built My Hot Rod (Oscar Mardell)
Mother Love Bone, Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns (Natasha Padilla)
Mudhoney, Touch Me I’m Sick (Matthew Vadnais)
Nine Inch Nails, Closer (Mika Taylor)
Nirvana, In Bloom (Jason Huff)
The Offspring, Self-Esteem (Tom McAllister)
Pavement, Summer Babe (Winter Version) (Katie Moulton)
Paw, Jessie (Steven Church)
Pearl Jam, Corduroy (Veronica Klash)
Pixies, Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) (Stephanie Mankins)
Placebo, Pure Morning (Jamison Crabtree)
Presidents of the USA, Lump (Dan Cassidy)
Radiohead, Creep (Rob Hays)
Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name (Ron Hogan)
Refreshments, Banditos (Amy Long)
REM, What’s the Frequency Kenneth (Adam O Davis)
Screaming Trees: Nearly Lost You (Scott Nadelson)
7 Year Bitch, The Scratch (Emma Ramey)
Smashing Pumpkins, Today (Paul Hurh)
Spacehog, In the Meantime (Ryan Grandick)
Soul Asylum, Somebody to Shove (Mark Neely)
Soundgarden, Fell On Black Days (Josh Borgmann)
Stone Temple Pilots, Sex Type Thing (Jim Ruland)
Sunny Day Real Estate, Seven (Sam Martone)
Teenage Fanclub, The Concept (Katie Jean Shinkle)
Temple of the Dog, Hunger Strike (Lydia Pudzianowski)
Throwing Muses, Not Too Soon (Heidi Czerwiec)
Tool, Sober (Rebecca Chapman)
Veruca Salt, Seether (Danielle Evans)
Weezer, Say It Ain’t So (Emily Costa)
Weird Al Yankovic, Smells Like Nirvana (J. Robert Lennon)
The Selection Committee will seed the tournament songs and produce the bracket in December 2020. The tournament will begin in March 2021.
methodology
The longlist (below) was made up of 125 songs. We started with grunge (mostly Seattle/Pacific NW) and circled out to include adjacent songs that have include some of the major markers of the grunge era: bass-heaviness; loud, distorted, crunchy guitars; seeming artlessness especially in the vocals and production; angsty (kinda emo) feels and lyrics; apparent carelessness esp in instrumentation or presentation; use of the loud-quiet loud dynamic; seeming dirtiness/crustiness/slackerness; some relationship with punk, indie, or metal (grunge’s formative influences) etc. Songs must be released 88-98. A video is helpful but not required. Being from the Pacific NW is a plus but not required. Bands on the Sub Pop label get bonus points. When some seemingly anti-grunge features showed up in songs, the more likely they’d be seen as not sufficiently Plaid. For instance, too much progginess or hair metalliness, super mainstream sounds or production, overly melodic vocals, slap bass, rapping, too much wackiness or irony, weird instrumentation (like the presence of a saxophone, for instance) may well be disqualifying.
The major tournament bands (Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc.) are each represented by two songs. From this longlist, 64 writers will be selected by lottery to each choose a song from the list. Once a song by one of the major bands (who have two songs on the longlist) is selected, the other is ineligible for the tournament. The 64 songs selected by our writers will make up the tournament field. We will seed the songs and create the bracket later this fall.
Songs on this list are from 1988-1998. We are not claiming that all of these songs are “grunge,” so do not @ us. They are not. We make no such claim. Even most of the bands identified as “grunge” would not have accepted the label. No one really agrees on what it means or what exactly it meant, if anything, except to identify it roughly with Seattle in that era and particularly with the Sub Pop label. From there, grunge quickly blew up and became a term useful for marketing a bunch of (mostly) rock bands.
If you see something we obviously missed, tweet us or email us.
If you’re new to March Xnesses, we run an actual March Madness-style tournament every March. This year’s theme is the grunge era.
the official tournament longlist
Afghan Whigs, Gentleman
Alice in Chains: Would
Alice in Chains: Man in the Box
Archers of Loaf, Harnessed in Slums
Babes in Toyland, Bruise Violet
Beck, Loser
Belly, Feed the Tree
Best Kissers in the World, Goldfish Bowl
Better than Ezra, Good
Bikini Kill, Rebel Girl
Blur, Song #2
Breeders, Cannonball
Bush, Machinehead
Buffalo Tom, Taillights Fade
Butthole Surfers, Pepper
Candlebox, Cover Me
Collective Soul: Shine
Come, Car
Cracker, Low
Cranberries, Zombie
Creed, My Own Prison
Curve, Fait Accompli
Daisy Chainsaw, Love Your Money
Days of the New, Touch, Peel, and Stand
Dinosaur Jr, Feel the Pain
Eels, Novocaine for the Soul
Everclear, Santa Monica
Failure, Stuck on You
Filter, Hey Man, Nice Shot
Fishbone, Sunless Saturday
Flaming Lips, She Don’t Use Jelly
The Fluid, One Eye Out
The Flys, Got You (Where I Want You)
Foo Fighters, I’ll Stick Around
Fugazi, Waiting Room
Garbage, Only Happy When it Rains
Gits, Second Skin
Green Day, Brain Stew/Jaded
Green River, Swallow My Pride
Gruntruck, Tribe
Guided by Voices, I am a Scientist
Hammerbox, Hed
PJ Harvey, Rid of Me
Hazel, Comet
Heatmiser, Blackout
Helmet, Unsung
Hole, Doll Parts
Hole, Violet
Hum, Stars
Jane’s Addiction, Mountain Song
Jawbox, Cooling Card
Kings X, Black the Sky
Lemonheads, It’s a Shame About Ray
Letters to Cleo, Here and Now
Live, I Alone
L7, Pretend We’re Dead
Local H, Bound for the Floor
Love Battery, Half Past You
Magnapop, Slowly, Slowly
Mad Season, River of Deceit
Meat Puppets, Backwater
Melvins, Going Blind
Ministry, Jesus Built My Hot Rod
Mother Love Bone, Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns
Mudhoney, Touch Me I’m Sick
Mudhoney, Into the Drink
The Muffs, Lucky Guy
My Sister’s Machine, I Hate You
Nada Surf, Popular
Nine Inch Nails, Closer
Nirvana, Heart Shaped Box
Nirvana, In Bloom
The Offspring, Self-Esteem
Our Lady Peace, Starseed
Pavement, Summer Babe (Winter Version)
Paw, Jessie
Pearl Jam, Corduroy
Pearl Jam, Even Flow
Pixies, UMass
Pixies, Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)
Placebo, Pure Morning
Pond, Spots
Posies, Dream All Day
Presidents of the USA, Lump
Radiohead, Creep
Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name
Rancid, Ruby Soho
Redd Kross, Jimmy’s Fantasy
Refreshments, Banditos
REM, What’s the Frequency Kenneth
The Rentals, Friends of P
Screaming Trees: Nearly Lost You
Seaweed, Kid Candy
Sebadoh, License to Confuse
Semisonic, Singing in My Sleep
Seven Mary Three, Cumbersome
7 Year Bitch, The Scratch
Silverchair, Tomorrow
Skinyard, 1000 Smiling Knuckles
Skunk Anansie, Selling Jesus
Sleater Kinney, Dig Me Out
Sloan, Underwhelmed
Smashing Pumpkins, Today
Smashing Pumpkins, I Am One
Sonic Youth, Bull in the Heather
Spacehog, In the Meantime
Sponge, Plowed
Soul Asylum, Somebody to Shove
Soundgarden, Fell On Black Days
Soundgarden, Jesus Christ Pose
Stone Temple Pilots, Sex Type Thing
Stone Temple Pilots, Interstate Love Song
Sugar, JC Auto
Sunny Day Real Estate, Seven
Sweetwater, Cake and Strychnine
Swervedriver, Rave Down
TAD, Grease Box
Teenage Fanclub, The Concept
Temple of the Dog, Hunger Strike
That dog., Kissing Christian
Throwing Muses, Not Too Soon
Tool, Sober
Veruca Salt, seether
Weezer, Say It Ain’t So
Weird Al Yankovic, Smells Like Nirvana