the march plaidness tournament field

is now set. 64 writers (in parentheses) were selected by lottery from a list of around 200 folks who expressed interest. Those 64 writers each selected a song from the longlist (following the tournament field). When a song by one of the bands with two songs on the longlist was selected, both were removed from the list (no more than one song per band).

Afghan Whigs, Gentleman (Mo Daviau)

Alice in Chains, Would? (Lucinda Bliss)

Babes in Toyland, Bruise Violet (Scott Beal)

Beck, Loser (Jessica Handler)

Better than Ezra, Good (Ragini Srinivasan)

Bikini Kill, Rebel Girl (Emily Mills)

Blur, Song #2 (Roy Ivy)

Breeders, Cannonball (Susan Briante)

Buffalo Tom, Taillights Fade (Amy Barnes)

Butthole Surfers, Pepper (David Turkel)

Collective Soul: Shine (Tucker Leighty-Phillips)

Cracker, Low (Sean Lovelace)

Cranberries, Zombie (Maya C Popa)

Creed, My Own Prison (Matt Bell)

Dinosaur Jr, Feel the Pain (Diana Hurlburt)

Everclear, Santa Monica (Melissa Faliveno)

Fishbone, Sunless Saturday (Carolyn Kellogg)

Flaming Lips, She Don’t Use Jelly (Linda Michel-Cassidy)

The Flys, Got You (Where I Want You) (Stephanie Austin)

Foo Fighters, I’ll Stick Around (Jordan Wiklund)

Fugazi, Waiting Room (Brad Efford)

Garbage, Only Happy When it Rains (Kristine Langley Mahler)

Gits, Second Skin (Raquel Gutiérrez)

Green Day, Brain Stew/Jaded (Joe Bonomo)

PJ Harvey, Rid of Me (Lisa Nikolidakis)

Helmet, Unsung (Michael D. Miller)

Hole, Doll Parts (Janine Annett)

Hum, Stars (Ken Caldwell)

Jane’s Addiction, Mountain Song (Elana Levin)

Kings X, Black the Sky (Patrick Madden)

Lemonheads, It’s a Shame About Ray (Greg Oldfield)

Live, I Alone (Erin McReynolds)

Local H, Bound for the Floor (John Melillo)

Ministry, Jesus Built My Hot Rod (Oscar Mardell)

Mother Love Bone, Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns (Natasha Padilla)

Mudhoney, Touch Me I’m Sick (Matthew Vadnais)

Nine Inch Nails, Closer (Mika Taylor)

Nirvana, In Bloom (Jason Huff)

The Offspring, Self-Esteem (Tom McAllister)

Pavement, Summer Babe (Winter Version) (Katie Moulton)

Paw, Jessie (Steven Church)

Pearl Jam, Corduroy (Veronica Klash)

Pixies, Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) (Stephanie Mankins)

Placebo, Pure Morning (Jamison Crabtree)

Presidents of the USA, Lump (Dan Cassidy)

Radiohead, Creep (Rob Hays)

Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name (Ron Hogan)

Refreshments, Banditos (Amy Long)

REM, What’s the Frequency Kenneth (Adam O Davis)

Screaming Trees: Nearly Lost You (Scott Nadelson)

7 Year Bitch, The Scratch (Emma Ramey)

Smashing Pumpkins, Today (Paul Hurh)

Spacehog, In the Meantime (Ryan Grandick)

Soul Asylum, Somebody to Shove (Mark Neely)

Soundgarden, Fell On Black Days (Josh Borgmann)

Stone Temple Pilots, Sex Type Thing (Jim Ruland)

Sunny Day Real Estate, Seven (Sam Martone)

Teenage Fanclub, The Concept (Katie Jean Shinkle)

Temple of the Dog, Hunger Strike (Lydia Pudzianowski)

Throwing Muses, Not Too Soon (Heidi Czerwiec)

Tool, Sober (Rebecca Chapman)

Veruca Salt, Seether (Danielle Evans)

Weezer, Say It Ain’t So (Emily Costa)

Weird Al Yankovic, Smells Like Nirvana (J. Robert Lennon)

The Selection Committee will seed the tournament songs and produce the bracket in December 2020. The tournament will begin in March 2021.

the march plaidness 2021 tournament longlist

was made up of 125 songs. We started with grunge (mostly Seattle/Pacific NW) and circled out to include adjacent songs that have include some of the major markers of the grunge era: bass-heaviness; loud, distorted, crunchy guitars; seeming artlessness especially in the vocals and production; angsty (kinda emo) feels and lyrics; apparent carelessness esp in instrumentation or presentation; use of the loud-quiet loud dynamic; seeming dirtiness/crustiness/slackerness; some relationship with punk, indie, or metal (grunge’s formative influences) etc. Songs must be released 88-98. A video is helpful but not required. Being from the Pacific NW is a plus but not required. Bands on the Sub Pop label get bonus points. When some seemingly anti-grunge features showed up in songs, the more likely they’d be seen as not sufficiently Plaid. For instance, too much progginess or hair metalliness, super mainstream sounds or production, overly melodic vocals, slap bass, rapping, too much wackiness or irony, weird instrumentation (like the presence of a saxophone, for instance) may well be disqualifying.

The major tournament bands (Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc.) are each represented by two songs. From this longlist, 64 writers will be selected by lottery to each choose a song from the list. Once a song by one of the major bands (who have two songs on the longlist) is selected, the other is ineligible for the tournament. The 64 songs selected by our writers will make up the tournament field. We will seed the songs and create the bracket later this fall.

Songs on this list are from 1988-1998. We are not claiming that all of these songs are “grunge,” so do not @ us. They are not. We make no such claim. Even most of the bands identified as “grunge” would not have accepted the label. No one really agrees on what it means or what exactly it meant, if anything, except to identify it roughly with Seattle in that era and particularly with the Sub Pop label. From there, grunge quickly blew up and became a term useful for marketing a bunch of (mostly) rock bands.

If you see something we obviously missed, tweet us or email us.

If you’re new to March Xnesses, we run an actual March Madness-style tournament every March. This year’s theme is the grunge era.

If you want to get in on the lottery to determine who will be writing the 64 March Plaidness tournament essays, get your name in here ASAP. We will be doing the lottery in the last week of August 2020.

the official tournament longlist

Afghan Whigs, Gentleman

Alice in Chains: Would

Alice in Chains: Man in the Box

Archers of Loaf, Harnessed in Slums

Babes in Toyland, Bruise Violet

Beck, Loser

Belly, Feed the Tree

Best Kissers in the World, Goldfish Bowl

Better than Ezra, Good

Bikini Kill, Rebel Girl

Blur, Song #2

Breeders, Cannonball

Bush, Machinehead

Buffalo Tom, Taillights Fade

Butthole Surfers, Pepper

Candlebox, Cover Me

Collective Soul: Shine

Come, Car

Cracker, Low

Cranberries, Zombie

Creed, My Own Prison

Curve, Fait Accompli

Daisy Chainsaw, Love Your Money

Days of the New, Touch, Peel, and Stand

Dinosaur Jr, Feel the Pain

Eels, Novocaine for the Soul

Everclear, Santa Monica

Failure, Stuck on You

Filter, Hey Man, Nice Shot

Fishbone, Sunless Saturday

Flaming Lips, She Don’t Use Jelly

The Fluid, One Eye Out

The Flys, Got You (Where I Want You)

Foo Fighters, I’ll Stick Around

Fugazi, Waiting Room

Garbage, Only Happy When it Rains

Gits, Second Skin

Green Day, Brain Stew/Jaded

Green River, Swallow My Pride

Gruntruck, Tribe

Guided by Voices, I am a Scientist

Hammerbox, Hed

PJ Harvey, Rid of Me

Hazel, Comet

Heatmiser, Blackout

Helmet, Unsung

Hole, Doll Parts

Hole, Violet

Hum, Stars

Jane’s Addiction, Mountain Song

Jawbox, Cooling Card

Kings X, Black the Sky

Lemonheads, It’s a Shame About Ray

Letters to Cleo, Here and Now

Live, I Alone

L7, Pretend We’re Dead

Local H, Bound for the Floor

Love Battery, Half Past You

Magnapop, Slowly, Slowly

Mad Season, River of Deceit

Meat Puppets, Backwater

Melvins, Going Blind

Ministry, Jesus Built My Hot Rod

Mother Love Bone, Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns

Mudhoney, Touch Me I’m Sick

Mudhoney, Into the Drink

The Muffs, Lucky Guy

My Sister’s Machine, I Hate You

Nada Surf, Popular

Nine Inch Nails, Closer

Nirvana, Heart Shaped Box

Nirvana, In Bloom

The Offspring, Self-Esteem

Our Lady Peace, Starseed

Pavement, Summer Babe (Winter Version)

Paw, Jessie

Pearl Jam, Corduroy

Pearl Jam, Even Flow

Pixies, UMass

Pixies, Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)

Placebo, Pure Morning

Pond, Spots

Posies, Dream All Day

Presidents of the USA, Lump

Radiohead, Creep

Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name

Rancid, Ruby Soho

Redd Kross, Jimmy’s Fantasy

Refreshments, Banditos

REM, What’s the Frequency Kenneth

The Rentals, Friends of P

Screaming Trees: Nearly Lost You

Seaweed, Kid Candy

Sebadoh, License to Confuse

Semisonic, Singing in My Sleep

Seven Mary Three, Cumbersome

7 Year Bitch, The Scratch

Silverchair, Tomorrow

Skinyard, 1000 Smiling Knuckles

Skunk Anansie, Selling Jesus

Sleater Kinney, Dig Me Out

Sloan, Underwhelmed

Smashing Pumpkins, Today

Smashing Pumpkins, I Am One

Sonic Youth, Bull in the Heather

Spacehog, In the Meantime

Sponge, Plowed

Soul Asylum, Somebody to Shove

Soundgarden, Fell On Black Days

Soundgarden, Jesus Christ Pose

Stone Temple Pilots, Sex Type Thing

Stone Temple Pilots, Interstate Love Song

Sugar, JC Auto

Sunny Day Real Estate, Seven

Sweetwater, Cake and Strychnine

Swervedriver, Rave Down

TAD, Grease Box

Teenage Fanclub, The Concept

Temple of the Dog, Hunger Strike

That dog., Kissing Christian

Throwing Muses, Not Too Soon

Tool, Sober

Veruca Salt, seether

Weezer, Say It Ain’t So

Weird Al Yankovic, Smells Like Nirvana



We also publish essays on any aspect of the tournament theme—roughly, “grunge” and alt rock 1988-1998. If you’d like to pitch us a piece on a song not on our short- or longlist, or on some aspect of the sound, the scene, and your experience with it, hit us up at marchxness—at—thediagram.com or on twitter.