{"id":2504,"date":"2011-06-09T22:12:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T02:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2504"},"modified":"2012-03-18T21:27:14","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T01:27:14","slug":"summer-bracket-2011-90s-college-bands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2504","title":{"rendered":"Summer Bracket 2011: 90’s College Bands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, at long last, the Bracket is back.\u00a0Last year,\u00a0we\u00a0looked back at the Best Eats in the ‘Burg<\/a> for\u00a0our first bracket o’ nostalgia.\u00a0 In that contest, Gus’s Taverna managed to hold off serious challenges from Luigi’s and the Little Grill and an unexpected strong showing from Mr. Gatti’s to take the title.\u00a0This year we’re back with a retro look at the bands Rob and I both loved and made fun of during our tenure (matriculation would’ve been to much credit for my academic career in the ‘Burg).\u00a0At one point or another during the “heyday” of the following acts, I’d venture to say one or both of us probably tried to float a test-balloon to a young lady or two that each of these bands was “really good, you gotta check them out.”\u00a0 Of course we’d never admit that today for most of them, but don’t let our attempt to go all Cusack\/Gordon on the criticism fool you into thinking we actually knew what the hell we were talking about then or now.<\/p>\n

So here’s the deal.\u00a0We’ve\u00a0seeded 16 bands\u00a0and\u00a0broken them\u00a0into two 8 band regions, the JM’s Region and the Blue Fox Region. Every couple of days we’ll trot out new matchups for you to vote on.\u00a0We tried to seed the bracket as fairly and\u00a0objectively as we could based on the bands’ various impact and larger popularity\u00a0as our beer-pong ravaged brains can remember.\u00a0We’re not saying we actually thought the fifth seed was the fifth-best band, just that they deserved a five seed based on those rather loosely applied criteria.\u00a0As you might imagine, we’re actually kind of partial to some of the lower seeds for sentimental reasons, including today’s huge underdog in our first matchup.\u00a0We also may have made some rather serious omissions and we’d love to hear stories of those long-lost musical stylings in the comments as well.\u00a0Lastly, thanks to frequent contributor and former Blue Fox headliner Uncle Ron for a good bit of help and material for this series!<\/p>\n

Now, the Bracket in it’s entirety:<\/p>\n

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Click for larger image.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before we break down our first match-ups, let’s\u00a0look at the biggest snubs in the tourney field.\u00a0Dickie V’s going crazy somewhere that these guys didn’t get in.\u00a0Conor & Dric<\/em> – Both of these friends of JMUSB are still playing for money, or at least beer, on a semi-regular basis, but they convinced us personally they didn’t truly belong.\u00a0 Modesty is crap though so they’re getting a nod here.\u00a0Van Heusen<\/em> – Ultimately we only had room for one full-fledged\u00a0cover band and they just missed out, but Harrison St. and other raucous off-campus house parties frequently played host to this high energy (read: cocaine-fueled) group.\u00a0Sev<\/em> – I’m probably alienating actual readers by trashing these guys and possibly risking a future incident in a Coastal Flats, but really?!\u00a0 Really? They had their backers and had to be mentioned, but no place in the field.\u00a0Rob Conklin <\/em>– Another old friend of JMUSB with enough charisma to warrant at least a high-five if not a flying chest bump.\u00a0Probably saving the world right now, but Rob was too nice to actually wish bracket harm on anyone else.<\/p>\n

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Really hard to argue<\/p><\/div>\n

And now on to the match-ups in the top of the JM’s Region:<\/p>\n

\u00a0#1 Dave Matthews Band v. #16 Nickel Bridge [polldaddy poll=5129657]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dave Matthews Band\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>was already huge by the time I got to JMU, but Rob was there when Trax was still on the “tour dates” portion of their flyers.\u00a0We’re talking the VAX years, forget interwebs, now that’s old school.\u00a0But when Crash<\/em> was released during my freshman year, there was really no doubt what would become THE defining album for the classes of the late 90s.\u00a0Girls went nuts, guys loved it cause girls loved it, and we all loved that they were from VA, even if our friends from that other school in Charlottesville acted like they were actually in the band.\u00a0Some of my favorite moments in college were spent on Sunday mornings\/afternoons sitting around with friends (Eddie A!) eating pizza, being hungover, and alternating between breaking down the previous nights events, the Redskins chances later in the day, and the meaning of Proudest Monkey.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nickel Bridge<\/strong>– <\/em>Save it. We know this band formerly known as Full\u00a0Circle, doesn’t\u00a0have the name recognition or bring back tons of memories like some of the other bands on this list. We admit it. We selected them because they were good friends of ours. We didn\u2019t do it to be nice however. We did it because we know a lot of our other friends who read the blog, were also friends with them. Therefore things will either play out in one of two ways. 1. Our friends will stuff the ballot box giving Nickel Bridge the upset victory and spare us from the indignity of JMUSB turning into a blog for DMB fanboys in 2011, or 2.\u00a0They flood\u00a0the comments\u00a0poking fun at\u00a0our buddies in the band in ways that only good friends can. It\u2019s pretty much a no lose proposition for us.<\/p>\n

# 4 Mr. Greengenes vs. #5 2 Skinnee J\u2019s [polldaddy poll=5129660]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Greengenes <\/strong>\u2013 <\/em>To say that these guys were best appreciated while drunk (very, very drunk) would be putting it mildly. They could pack parties at pretty much any campus on the East Coast, routinely sell out the Bayou, and were a fixture on the Dewey Beach scene for a while. Everyone I know loved going to their shows. And yet nobody I know ever even considered buying one of their albums. They could be extremely entertaining in their own way though. A way which involved transitioning from Guns \u2018n Roses \u201cSweet Child O\u2019 Mine\u201d to Will Smith\u2019s \u201cGetting Jiggy With It\u2019. You\u2019ll just have to trust me that it seemed pretty extraordinary at the time. Of course this was before the whole \u201cwhite guys covering rap songs\u201d became pass\u00e9. And I mentioned the part about being really drunk, right?<\/p>\n

2 Skinnee J\u2019s<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Younger readers will<\/a>\u00a0just have to trust\u00a0us on this, but Brooklyn wasn’t always known for being home to an inordinate\u00a0number of\u00a0PBR swilling, Camper shoe wearing, messenger bag carrying,\u00a0d-bags. In fact before God created hipsters (presumably to punish us for something) and deposited them all\u00a0in Williamsburg,\u00a0the neighborhood it was home to bands like 2 Skinnee J’s.\u00a0We mention that\u00a0for no other reason than it gives us a chance\u00a0to\u00a0remind everyone\u00a0that\u00a0hipsters suck.\u00a0Plus we don’t have much else to say about 2 Skinne J’s.\u00a0Yes, 99.9% of rap rock sucks, but these guys were closer to the Beastie Boys side of things than the Limp Bizkit side.\u00a0And they were screaming about their area code<\/a> before it became such a terrible cliche. So there’s that.<\/p>\n