Buffalo Tom
So my buddy Mike referred me to a contest that the Boston Herald is currently conducting. Designed like the NCAA basketball tournament, they have developed brackets of the best 64 songs to come out of Boston over the last 25 years. The list features the usual suspects like the Pixies, Buffalo Tom, Belly, Throwing Muses, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Dinosaur jr., New Kids on the Block and New Edition. Other names on the list are a veritable who's who of bands quickly signed up in the post-Nirvana frenzy of the very early '90's (Juliana Hatfield, Gigolo Aunts, O Positive, Cold Water Flat, The Dambuilders). Some classics from the '80's (The Cars, Del Fuegos, Gang Green, Til Tuesday). And just enough from this century (Dropkick Murphys, Pernice Brothers).
I had a lot of fun setting up my brackets. They set them up so a band like New Edition would go up against New Kids on the Block in the first round (and accordingly, Dropkick Murphys take on Gang Green). There were some interesting match-ups as Tonya Donelly had to take on herself in a Belly vs. Throwing Muses first round bout. Also, I had Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom taking on his brother Paul of Cold Water flat in the third round. In the end in my bracket, I had a final round contest between the Pixies' "Debaser" and Buffalo Tom's "Taillights Fade". This was an unbelievably difficult choice since both songs are in my top 50 of all time. In the end, I went with "Taillights Fade" on gut alone. It really was a pick 'em.
Set up your bracket here and then download some tunes.
Pixies "Gouge Away - live" (mp3)
Pixies "Debaser" (mp3)
Cold Water Flat "Magnetic North Pole" (mp3)
