Music March Madness

I don't download much music, don't burn cd's, so when I move to a new area one of the top priorities is finding a good drive time/commute radio station. It didn't take long to fall in love with 94.9 in San Diego. When they say "It's about the music", they mean it. Most, heck ALL other commercial radio consists of am drive time dj/idiots who laugh at their own material in-between traffic, weather and news reports. I often get twenty full minutes of music during my twenty two minute commute to Camp Pendleton(imagine that!). The station features what is best described as "progressive rock" with healthy doses of Eddie Vedder, Muse, Rage Against the Machine, Smashing Pumpkins. Some bands I've discovered I like include Radiohead, and Death Cab for Cutie. Of interest, and how this ties into the theme of my blog, is that this March 94.9 has started it's own version of March Madness. They've "seeded" rock bands using the popular NCAA men's basketball tourney format and have a "play" off during certain hours of the day. Instead of West/East or other geographical regions they have broken up the regions into musical decades. They've seeded the best bands from the 70's 1-16, and the 80's, 90's and 00's(aughts?). There was no backlash though for the "committee" leaving out certain bands, and bands from say Seattle weren't mad that they got sent "out east". Winners are decided by online voting during certain hours of the day when the station plays selections from the two bands facing off head to head. The "tourney" is well underway and there have been a few upsets. Devo, a # 14 seed, knocked off the # 3 seed in the 80's The Beastie Boys. All the # 1 and # 2 seeds survived the opening round and are preparing for much tougher battles in the round of 32. The # 1 seeds are as follows: 1970's-Led Zepplin, 1980's-U2, 1990's-Nirvana, 2000's-Radiohead. Here are Nixed's Picks for this particular Music March Madness. I see U2 coming out of a relatively easy 80's bracket taking down REM in the Elite Eight, and then going on to face the 70's winner Led Zepplin but not having enough to take out Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. The other finalist will come from my surprise winner of the 90's bracket, The Smashing Pumpkins, seeded at a ridiculously low # 7 vs the 00's winner Nirvana. I see Nirvana taking this mainly because of the demographics of the listeners. Those same listeners won't be able to sleep at night voting in Nirvana over Led though. The winner is Led Zepplin!