Band Wars 2: The Revenge

I figure that it's just about time to start with Band Wars 2.  The last first incarnation happened in May.  At the time, I included only recent releases.  In this version, I am only including albums that have been released since the end of Band Wars 1.  By the way, the winner that time around was M83's Hurry Up, You're Dreaming, a tremendous album.

Here are the results of Band Wars 1 if you're curious:

My process was simple.  Play two competing albums back to back, then choose a winner.  To win, the best album had to be catchy enough to survive a first listen but have enough staying power to still sound good on the fourth.  I tried to be fair and ended up surprising myself several times.  Youth Lagoon, for instance, is a first album by some undergrad--I think--up in Idaho.  His Year of Hibernation was consistently strong.

Anyhoo, this time around I am going to double the size of the competition.  In order to represent 32 bands--rather than 16--I found the need, due to my inept Paint skills, to create two brackets.

A comment or two about Division 1 (above).  It is the weaker division.  (That's my guess anyway; I haven't listened to all of these albums yet.)  You will notice that Mount Eerie is represented in this division and in Division 2 (below).  That's because Mount Eerie has released two albums in the last few months.  Some of the band names are abbreviated due to space limitations.  

Anyhoo, early favorites in the above bracket are probably Frank Ocean, the Walkmen, the Dirty Projectors, and the Divine Fits (the new band led by Britt Daniel, the singer of Spoon).  Whichever team is the last band standing in that division will match up against the winner of Division 2 (below).

I would guess that Division 2 contains three or four of the best albums in the competition--the Grizzly Bear album, which has gotten rave reviews, as well as the albums by Hot Chip, Matthew Dear, John Maus, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, and Fiona Apple.  Other consistently solid bands include Animal Collective, Four Tet, David Byrne (with St. Vincent), and Beach House.  Division 2 seems stacked.

However, I fully expect to have an album or two surprise me this time around as well.

32 bands leads to 31 matches.  16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1.  I think I got that right.  And because I'll probably average about one matchup per day, I'll finish right around Halloween.

Completing this competition will be one of my goals for October.  I enjoy it.  Along the way, hopefully I'll discover a couple new albums for my rotation.  Worked wonders last time around.  Despite being an October goal, I think that I will start the competition early.

It is now Thursday afternoon.  In the Middle East, Thursday afternoon means one thing and one thing only to a university teacher: weekend!  (Out here, Friday is a holy day.)  Time for beer and music.