March Madness 2015: Do the Evolution wins!

[epilogue]

I thought you were a lover.

And loyal. And I LOVE Sarge.

[LetMeSleep]

Yeah Sarge is the best.

[Kaius]

Absolutely. And he cops some crap unnecessarily too.

I believe (hope) all of the crap Sarge gets is in fun. Except for from chud. He's just a dick.

[epilogue]

Absolutely. And he cops some crap unnecessarily too.

I believe (hope) all of the crap Sarge gets is in fun. Except for from chud. He's just a dick.

Watch it, K. You're on thin ice as is.

[LetMeSleep]

Joey will love you up.

[Kaius]

Absolutely. And he cops some crap unnecessarily too.

I believe (hope) all of the crap Sarge gets is in fun. Except for from chud. He's just a dick.

Watch it, K. You're on thin ice as is.

Jokes! Jokes. I kid.

[Leatherhead]

This is kind of a stupid round for me. I seem to be voting for a lot of the losers.

[stip]

Next round up in about 3 hours

[stip]

Nothing all that close for DI round 2. Putting up the next round of matches

[stip]

Advancing from Division 1

Even Flow
Alive
Black
Jeremy
Oceans
Porch
Release
Breath
State of Love and Trust
Yellow Ledbetter
Go
Animal
Daughter
Rearview Mirror
Elderly Woman
Indifference



That's just a staggering list of ridiculously good songs. These two years just dwarf everything else they've done by orders of magnitude (excepting vitalogy)

[LetMeSleep]

Voting on songs is fun. Repeatedly year after year somehow makes it better.

[stip]

Present Tense advances by one vote. Everything else this round was pretty clear cut.

Advancing from Division 2

Last Exit
Spin the Black Circle
Not For You
Tremor Christ
Nothingman
Corduroy
Betterman
Immortality
Hard to Imagine
I Got Id
Long Road
Sometimes
Hail Hail
In My Tree
Off He Goes
Present Tense

[Kaius]

That's a better list than the first group.

[stip]

it falls off a bit when it gets to the end (songs like sometimes and off he goes and even present tense are just outclassed here) , but any list that's half vitalogy songs is going to be excellent.

Both lists will be much better than what comes out of D3

[Kevin Davis]

I wrote this for the "Smile"/"Better Man" thread but the thread was locked while I was writing, so I will just put this here:

Spoiler: show

"Better Man" was the song that got me into Pearl Jam. In early '95, when I was 11, it was in heavy rotation on the same "hits" station as Green Day's "When I Come Around," Dionne Farris's "I Know," Dave Matthews Band's "What Would You Say,"'Blues Traveler's "Run Around," and Johnny Cougar Mellencamp's cover of "Wild Night." I was hooked by the song instantly, and was further intrigued for having remembered an episode of "Clarissa Explains it All" centered around the main characters trying to weasel out of some family function to go see Pearl Jam -- whom, like The Beets, I had always just assumed to be a fictional band created by the show's writers. Eventually I scrounged together enough allowance to buy "Vitalogy" on tape, and about 30 seconds into "Last Exit" I had a new favorite band (the previous reigning champion was Ace of Base). This record basically changed the way I thought about music, which in turn changed the way I thought about the world, which subsequently influenced the sort of people I gravitated toward as friends, the kinds of conversations I sought out, and the types of extracurricular activities I pursued. Had something of this magnitude not derailed the train, I probably would have pursued my pipe dream of becoming a professional basketball player to its inevitable, tragic end, and here in 2015 I would be on a message board dedicated to the memory of the '97 Chicago Bulls, reminiscing about the time my 7th grade varsity team begrudgingly voted me "sixth man" in the yearbook (as opposed to on RM reminiscing about the '94 Pearl Jams and talking about listening to Blues Traveler on the radio when I was 11). I do not say lightly that "Better Man" changed the course of my life -- and would also argue that, from the standpoint of raw songwriting, it exceeds "Smile" in just about every way.

And yet.

"Better Man"'s flame had dimmed over time, while "Smile" sounds forever fresh. I am tempted to blame this on overexposure to "Better Man," but after almost 20 years of listening to both songs, I have a hard time thinking that "Smile" isn't etched just as deeply into the grooves of my brain by now. What seems more likely to me is this: "Better Man" is a pop song that aims to hit an emotional climax that I am not always in the mood for -- and, over the years, I have heard enough phoned-in live versions to believe that the band isn't in the mood for it half the time, either. When mood and song cross paths, the feeling is monumental; the song hits all the right pleasure centers and makes me feel like I'm 11 again, dreaming of my jersey hanging from the rafters of the United Center. But 80 percent of the time it's just not a song I feel compelled to listen to -- I skip it on bootlegs, groan when they start into it at a show, and underrate it in my mind.

"Smile" is a simpler song with simpler ambitions that yields a simpler pleasure -- a heartfelt sentiment framed by minor charms: Lyrics fashioned out of notebook scribbles by a guy named Frog! The guitarist and bassist switch instruments on it! It's the one time Eddie plays the harmonica that doesn't sound like some lame attempt at being a grizzled folkie! It's one of the few songs whose legacy the band seems to have consciously written -- it is, like "Oceans," one of the very few non-hits to never have dropped out of concert rotation, and -- also like "Oceans" -- it is played just frequently enough (and is unchallenging enough a composition) for the band to stay sharp on, but rare enough for it to always feel special. From its earliest 1996 performances to last year's Moline "No Code"-a-thon, I can't remember a single poor version. Its sentiment of "I miss you already/I miss you always" always means something to me, somehow -- the specifics are forever in flux but the sentiment is constant, eternally relevant (particularly compared to "Better Man"'s domestic drama -- which I suppose is eternally relevant too, unfortunately, though I can be thankful that it has never been for me). It is, for me, the ultimate rarity -- a minor song that always gives to the listener more than it asks, thereby rendering it strangely major. Pearl Jam at their best.

"Smile."

[stip]

guys, Kevin Davis' book is also a pretty great read.

[William Bloke]

^^ That was a great read there, KD.

[Kevin Davis]

Thanks guys

[Norah]

The problem with grouping the songs by era in the early rounds is we have more compelling matchups now than we will towards the end.

[Kevin Davis]

I dunno -- at least they won't be the same matches as every other year. And you know there will be at least one guy who votes for "The End" over "Hail Hail" -- and he will have some 'splaining to do.