Bands Bracket Day 3: Upset City??

Moving over to the Blue Fox Region we’ve got two potential upsets on tap today.  First, the top seed and JMUSB favorite Agents of Good Roots try to defend their home turf of Roanoke against the severely underseeded interlopers from Charlottesville, Baaba Seth.  Next, the younger alumni faves from Virginia Coalition take on the bracket’s only bluegrass act and a name that will make everyone smile in Magraw Gap.

#1 Agents of Good Roots v. #8 Baaba Seth

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Agents of Good Roots – Look, we loved these guys.  And more impressive, this is the one non-friend, non-DMB band in the bracket that still got the smile of approval from my wife, who happens to be lightyears ahead of the two of us in sheer music/hipster cred.  I mean really there’s only one question:  Where you’d get that vibe?  To their credit, Agents didn’t sound like anyone else in this bracket and definitely brought their own unique and at times funky style.  One minute they sounded like an edgier version of contemporaries Rusted Root and the next they sounded like they might have been a decade ahead of their time with some hip-hop style crossover jams.  But surprisingly, upon throwing this album in for another spin this week, it didn’t hold up nearly as well as I imagined it would.  Sidenote: Listening to these old albums on cd has definitely been a highlight of this project.  Found a great Gibb Droll song on an old compilation cd from The Pit in Nags Head.  Incredible album also featuring solid outputs from Babyfat and Mudcat Jones while also containing absolute dreck from The Ernies and of course, Sev.

Baaba Seth – The truth is these guys slightly predate us and definitely are more of a UVa-centric band, but they’re a) awesome, b) still playing fabulous occasional reunion shows in Charlottesville, and c) were two decades ahead of their time.  World music was years from being mainstream cool, but this huge, eccentric band was cranking out creative material throughout the 90’s.  If all of these bands were starting over today, these guys might have the best shot at larger success of the non-mainstream acts in the bracket.  That said, they just got a sweet write-up in the UVa alumni mag so feel free to vote against them on general principle. 

#4 Virginia Coalition v. #5 Magraw Gap

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Virginia Coalition – VACO gets points for a number of reasons.  Mainly, they have a cadre of songs I still enjoy listening to and are are still mildly relevant.  As our reader Jamie (who is apparently now a quotable source for the Wash Post – what has journalism come to?!) pointed out, they are a real sleeper, especially given that Dukes alum from the classes of the “aughts” are likely to be more familiar with, and supportive of, these guys.  Also, this is the only band on the list who played a basement party at a house I lived in and that was damn cool (thanks Scooter P!), not to mention an appearance or two at The Lodge (now that’s an old school reference I hope will provoke a comment or two, preferably from a few of our favorite female readers).  On the other hand, they lose points for palling around these days with the overrated OAR crew and because I once saw them play a hideous set at Champps in Fair Oaks mall during some type of Redskins Late Night show during one of the joke-to-even-call-them-playoff-runs under Gibbs 2.0.  During this debacle, they appeared to be making nice with one Larry Michael, also known as The Curse, The Cooler, Danny’s Fluffer, and Bill Lumberg.

 Magraw Gap –  Yes, I was also sure the name was McGraw Gap, but a very brief search of the interwebs revealed my just how hazy my memory was.  They were a good time at JMU, mainly because I had no real exposure to bluegrass prior to college and was in love with it by the time I left.  These guys were my first live introduction to the genre and for that I’m forever grateful.  Featuring a fairly young Larry Keel and later being tapped to back Keller Williams, MG was actually way more legit than I realized at the time.  I always thought it was a cute gimmick and never really appreciated how fortunate my timing was with this rocksolid group, but I certainly do now.  If you enjoy an all-string lineup and can track down their self-titled album, you won’t be disappointed.