@ZackTeibloom “Ain’t no party like a purple party, ’cause a purple party don’t stop.” Prince first said this early Sunday morning during his 50-minute-long second encore. When he said it again somewhere around his fourth or fifth encore, the artist currently known as Prince had the crowd wondering if the purple party would ever stop, and hoping it wouldn’t. Those of us in the front row may have been standing in line since 7:15 p.m., and continuously stayed on our feet for the next seven and a half hours, but when Prince said “We’ve only got 20 minutes left. Let’s make them the best twenty minutes of our lives,” at 2:40 a.m., we summoned what little energy we had left on the last day of SXSW to see what the man in purple would do next. Well, those of us who were left did. But we’ll get to that. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom And then there were two. I think we all knew I’d rig it so Jack White would make the finals. He finally put out a solo album and it’s spectacular. But Muse? No one had them in their finals bracket except Matt, and he had them losing to Bruno Mars, so his bracket didn’t have a chance. Muse made it here with a unique song that manages to blend genres in an experimental way that shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does. Jack White made it to the finals by rocking out like only he can. While “Madness” is up for the best rock song Grammy, Jack is nominated in the same category, but for “Freedom at 21.” We went for Sixteen Saltines in this contest. I think you should here too. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom I did a little final four analysis in the recap of the last round, but here’s a little more insight. We’ve got Muse sneaking into the final four on the back of a strong single on a mostly forgettable album. We’ve got Miike Snow avoiding the sophomore slump, expanding their live show and establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with. Mumford & Sons broke out in a massive way this year and Andy thinks he finally figured out why. And then there’s Jack White finally freeing himself from the constraints of a band and sounding better than ever as a solo act with two backing bands and the best lyrics of his career. Let’s vote both rounds of the final four off in one big massive post. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom This is my favorite round two match-up and not just because Jack White is involved. It’s the break-out star of 2012 in Frank Ocean vs my favorite living artist who finally put out a solo album and showed what he can do when in complete control. Frank Ocean has found a way to appeal to everyone, and that isn’t meant to be a bi-sexual joke. He’s just quite lovable, racking up six Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. But he’ll have to beat Jack White in that category as well. I can’t wait to see who comes out on top here, even if we’re posting it on a Sunday night the night before NYE. We’ll let this run until it’s suit-up o’clock tomorrow, post a round 2 re-cap, and then start the final four on Tuesday. I’m just glad the tradition of not getting to our finals before the new year starts continues. But honestly I’ll only be truly content if Jack moves on. Read the rest of this entry »

@AndyShore I get intro duties today, as these are both “Andy” songs. That means the rest of the world thought they were among the best of the year, and not just Austinites on a mission to keep things weird (This is the second time I’ve taken this jab at Zack today…not sure why. I love Austin.). We see the biggest hit from the band that started the revolution and made folk music popular again, versus the guy who is pretty much the poster child for popular these days. Coincidentally enough, both have elements of eras past in them. It seems fit that they face off in this round. Vote for which one will have a future in our Song of the Year contest. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Now it’s getting tough. These are two of my top three songs of the  year and I’ll be sad to see either Miike Snow or Byrne/Vincent eliminated. We also see two of the most bizarre videos of the year competing, so do please take the time to watch these two brilliant masters at work. I told Andy to take his pick on who to write about this time, since I could write passionately about either one. Even though I have Bryne/Vincent in my finals, I’m glad I get to write about Miike Snow, since when it came down to it, Caitlin and I missed several shows at Coachella to get close for Miike Snow, but when Bryne/Vincent came through Austin we passed up the opportunity to see them to see Gene Ween Aaron Freeman’s solo show. I kinda regret not seeing this tour, but like any good festival, you’ll be forced to pick between favorites. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Hey all. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas or Movie & Chinese food day and are ready to get back to round two. After winning three fantasy leagues and losing another championship by 0.98 points, I’m OK with the fact that my perfect bracket will likely go down this round. I truly don’t know who will win. I just hope some of you are around online to vote. This match-up pits Passion Pit and their synth-y fun music with sad lyrics against Muse, who somehow manages to make dubstep good, which is incredibly impressive on its own. Passion Pit clearly has the better album, but for just one song, I can see good arguments being made for either one. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom We made it through round one and only one bracket is still perfect. Whaddya know, it’s the same guy who’s formatted every post, written most of the intros and created all the polls. While I may have the lead, the real points come in the next couple rounds. I had a pretty good feeling about round one, but I truly don’t know who will pull ahead next round. Perhaps the vote totals from the last round will give us a hint. Frank Ocean led round one with 55,000* votes and Muse was in a close second with 52,000. On the other hand, Miike Snow made round two with only 6,000 votes. Sure. some of this has to do with how many people happen upon the site on a day, but there’s something to be said about bands that got that kind of momentum. I’m starting to worry about Jack and his 15,000 votes.

Round two presents some real interesting match-ups:

Passion Pit vs. Muse, Miike Snow vs. David Byrne & St. Vincent, Bruno Mars vs. Mumford & Sons, Frank Ocean vs. Jack White.

And now to the rankings of those of you who turned in a bracket:

Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Oh, hai Jack. We reach the end of round 1 with my personal favorite against a band that always seems to be forgotten about. If it was solely up to me, we’d have all 13 Blunderbuss songs and the b-sides making up all 16 songs of this contest, but I’ll explain why this is the Jack White song we chose, even though “Freedom at 21″ is the one that got the Grammy nod. As for The Shins, I think it’s fair to say Andy and I both had a moment or two this year where we went from casual fans of The Shins to being fully in their corner. For me it was seeing them in the rain twice at Osheaga and then again at ACL. But even though I became more of a Shins fan, I’ve never been as into Jack White as I am right now. And that’s saying something. Read the rest of this entry »