Alright. Change of plans. Disregard the title of this thread (the NIT part) and disregard anything you read here before. This is now once again the FeaturesNCAA. Carl came up with this bracket that is just too genius not to use. Seriously, Carl, this is genius stuff.

Sorry for any confusion!


FIRST ROUND - VOTING ENDS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23 AT 11:59pm CST!

Spongebath Region (Murfreesboro, TN)

1 Paid to Think
16 Matt’s Little Ditty

8 Attention
9 Treehouse Club

5 Extension Cord
12 Button My Shirt

4 Jurley
13 Hey Lou

6 D-Con (Radio One)
11 That's Me

3 Your Smile
14 Engine Debris

7 The Anti-Gravity Class of '93
10 Roger's Theme

2 Armani Suede
15 Standing By


Universal Region (Santa Monica, CA)

1 The Way It's Meant to Be
16 Stark White Stork Approaching

8 Exhibit A
9 Blow It Out

5 The Beginning
12 Bumblebee

4 Circus
13 Situation Gone Bad

6 The Idea of Growing Old
11 Someway, Somehow

3 Leave It All Behind
14 Walk You Home

7 Me & the Skirts
10 Harder 2 Ignore

2 There's a Million Ways to Sing the Blues
15 2 x 2


Old Favorite Region (Nashville, TN)

1 Thursday
16 Rabbit March

8 Oh My Love
9 Temporary Blues

5 Kari-Ann
12 33 1/3

4 God Save Rock'n'Roll
13 Action

6 See You Thru
11 Moonlight

3 Exorcising Demons
14 Serious

7 Buffalo Head
10 Stagecoach

2 Darkroom
15 Discotheque

New/Rare Region (Sparta, TN)

1 Mosis Ptosis
16 Captain Williams

8 The Design
9 Harold

5 Bring On the Night
12 Don't Lie To Me

4 Arcata (the “Pack It Up” song)
13 Stick Together

6 The Damage is Done
11 Burma

3 Hold (the “Are you Alone” song)
14 I Won't Let You Down

7 Love is Golden
10 Chemical Head

2 Look Out Below
15 Disco

The easiest way to vote would probably be to copy and paste the above and just put an 'X' beside your choice in the e-mail or PM. E-mail it to: btpatton@elvis.com, or PM it to me. May the best song win!

Oh and I guess I should give a little background on exactly what this is! Basically, it's an annual little tournament that we have coinciding with the NCAA tournament, that determines what we think is the best Features song. Each person who participates basically just picks one of the two songs in each matchup and PMs it to me (or e-mails it). I tally all of the votes and post the results. Then we have another round, and so on and so on until we're down to just one. This is totally just for fun and absolutely anyone can participate. And of course it's all anonymous. Did I leave anything out? Do you have any questions? Please, don't hesitate to ask!

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 2:36 am on Mar. 21, 2005)

I wasn't aware that we've had 64 songs in the past. Do The Features even have 64 songs?

Anyway, thanks for doing this JC, I'm glad you're back!

Yes, the first two years were supplemented with cover songs, but last year they broke the 64 original song mark (although Hey Lou was included for sentimental sake). Actually, I'm sure Matt has many many more songs that never saw the light of day...

How come the winner from last year is ranked so far down?

This is a new and interesting way to seed them. In some ways I don't agree with it since the Final Four will probably have an obvious favorite that will trump the rest of them (and it will probably be from the Universal section). I'm glad it's starting again though.

I doubt Harder to Ignore will be the winner this year since it is not being played live anymore.

While I think the within-region matchups will be more exciting than the final four, I expect the Spongebath champ to be the only final four without a chance in hell. On the other hand, we've seen a large resurgence of "Hey look at me, I'm from Sparta and I knew these guys way before you did" posts lately, so I wouldn't count Armani Suede or Paid To Think out just yet. Also, a lot of folks (both new and old) are hearing Arcata, Mosis Ptosis and Hold lately, so I expect them to do pretty well. Plus, I think people here are more passionate about Darkroom, Thursday, GSRnR, etc. than you give credit.

My prediction: I expect a close call between the Universal Champ and the Old Favorite Champ. I won't name specific songs as to not bias the competition (most likely in a negative way because certain people love to prove me wrong), but obviously I seeded songs based on how popular I thought they were.

Extension Chord got a five-seed!

Don't forget to vote by midnight tonight!

I'm starting to fear that we won't get as many participants as in years past.

I kind of think that the message board buzz is at its all-time low, and so I wouldn't be surprised. The only person who can answer us though is JC.

I've only gotten four brackets, including my own, though I know Digsy is working on one. I hope to get more, but with only 8 hours to go, I'm curious.

I figure JC probably doesn't have this power, but there's a feature on invision boards to send out a mass email... don't know if the admins would want to send one about the vote so everyone remembers this place exists...

(Edited by deathscythe257 at 5:01 pm on Mar. 23, 2005)

I think the inmates are pretty much running the asylum at this point anyway.

Excellent match-ups, if only they had mp3 links. I don't know so many new songs...I guess I'll have to go to a show soon

yeah Lauren...you should fly down again...that was hardcore....

I'm not the type to say I told you so, but I would hardly say there was an obvious favorite when you consider 12-9 and 13-8 victories in the semifinals and a 16-14 victory in the finals.

Of course, if this were the American Presidential election, it would be considered a landslide on all accounts...

(Edited by carligula at 3:26 pm on Apr. 6, 2005)

I think the results were thrown off a good by people voting and not voting in different rounds. The final round had 30 voters, where as some I think may have had only 12 or so. Also I think Mosis Ptosis gained more strength after the Exit/Inn show, which may have been a result of new fans coming to the board. All in all, Circus should have one, and I find it suspicious that mosst people stated they voted for Circus in that topic, and it still lost. Therefore I demand a recount, and the old votes should be made into some sort of festive soup or thrown into a volcano.

"Mosis Ptosis" deserved to win. I always conisder this to be "Song of the Year" and this was definitely "Mosis Ptosis'" year. "Circus," while amazing, already won a few years back.

This makes no sense to me. I use statistics every day and I don't see how different sample sizes will "throw off" the results. I suppose you could argue that the choices offered were merely decided by a select few, but I don't see how JC could have made it any easier or open.


But they played Circus at that show, too. Plus, if you're a "new fan" then how do you know Mosis Ptosis is new and Circus isn't. In fact, a "new fan" that is unbiased by the history of a particular song is probably the best judge of which song is "better". My fear in making a Universal Region was that a vast majority of voters have heard the albums, but have not been fortunate enough to witness/hear a live performance. I expected the Universal champ to win on that merit alone.

Not a shot at JC, I really just felt like reopening the argument that I like Circus better than Mosis Ptosis. I do enjoy Mosis Ptosis and hopefully now that its popularity has grown they will be more likely to record it. Unfortunately that's not always the case. GSRnR was well-liked amongst fans, and now it is dead.

That saddens me. After the retooled bits of it and made it even more awesome...what in the world...

It's the opposite way... the new non-recorded song wins... just look at last year with "Harder to Ignore".

People hear it, think "Ooooh, I've not heard that one before", and then vote for it as the best song ever. I guaran-damn-tee that a year from now it won't score even nearly as highly.

Having said that, last year I expressed my distaste at the finalists because Circus was not a favourite (I only had a really crappy live copy of it) and I'd never even heard H2I (despite having seen them live twice). At this point in time, neither are my favourite still, but Circus would make the top five, maybe, and H2I would make the top 15 or so of my fave Features songs, maybe even the Top Ten.

Mosis Ptosis wouldn't make the Top Thirty at the moment. It's definitely been the low-light of the shows I have seen it in, lacking somewhat in melody and the chorus just seems so... 'bleh'... but maybe I need to hear it recorded, even just a live taping.

Next year something new will win again, some song they've not recorded... the flavour of the moment. It's like all the 'greatest song/album/artist ever' polls that happen all the time over here... new stuff always wins. Best song ever? Robbie Williams! Best album ever? SClub7! Best Features song ever? Mosis Ptosis!!!!

It's always that way with polls.

I think Hold (You Alone) is the best of the "diamond in the rough" new songs they've begun playing at shows a lot recently. I remember when they were in Austin a lot of people around me were asking what that song was when they played it. Unfortunately at the time I had to say I wasn't sure, but it was great none the less.

I'm telling you guys, the fastest, most frantic song will always win here. Look at what's won in the past: Circus, Buffalo Head, Harder 2 Ignore, and now Mosis Ptosis. Do you see the trend? I guess Buffalo Head is somewhat an exception, but not that much. The kids like songs they can freak out to at the shows, and to, as some have said (with so much pride), "dance like Ian Curtis."

Having said that, I do think that newness has something to do with it, within the context of the above stated preference. It's a natural inclination to get more excited about something when it's new.

Prediction: if Matt writes another rocker that is at least 150 or so bpm, it will be the winner next year.

Man, now I really wanna hear "Mosis Ptosis"...and all of the other new songs. Can anyone spare a bootleg or something?