Fadnessers and Fadness fans, with the last of the play-in games just finished ("Connected" squeaked by "Achy Breaky Heart" in a dramatic finish when Cyrus's potential game-winning 3 went off the rim with time expiring), we have the final bracket.
Your brackets, thus, are due by 2/28 if you'd like to fill one out. Who you got?
Stereo MCs, Natalie Imbruglia, Digital Underground, Snow, EMF, and—surprisingly—Fastball all passed the first test to go to Tucson to play in the tourney this year.
What we learned so far: Digital Underground and Natalie Imbruglia look a whole lot stronger than expected entering the first round. We give them even odds, in fact, in taking down their big name opponents in the first round. Imbruglia is up against a potential soft one-seed in "Here Comes the Hotstepper," though its use in the recent (shitty?) film Suicide Squad might give the one-seed an extra bump. Digital Underground faces a tougher test against one of the most indelible songs of the era in Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy." They appear to be a band that's embraced their OHW status and has made the most of it, which speaks well for them and their approach to fame.
We expect that many of the other artists in the tourney resist the one-hit-wonder label. It's an unfair and denigrating one, we know. We know, y'all! We mean no disrespect by it. Part of the point of the tourney is to investigate what the brush with fame (such as it is) means for the life of the artist, or for the life of the culture. So we'll get on with that shortly. We'll also be posting some brackets over the next few days as we get ready to enter the tournament. See you on 3/1 if not before.