It’s Musical March Madness! The sprawling bracket — both a parody and a tribute to the NCAA basketball tournament, masterminded by MTV News’ James Montgomery — takes the 65 biggest names in rock, splits them up into four regions, assigns them seeds and puts them up against one another in a single-elimination series of match-ups in a winner-take-all contest. We’re leaving it to you to decide an actual champ in this field of 65. Over the next few weeks, we will present a series of polls that will allow you to vote for the match-ups presented in MTV News’ Band Bracketology. You vote for the winners, we’ll keep advancing the seeds and, in the end, we’ll have some sort of champion. What will the winner receive? Little more than our esteem (as well as that of the fans) and some Internet bragging rights.
Cornell killed Temple! Siena is up on Purdue! Green Day and Panic at the Disco are neck and neck! The matches keep coming fast and furious, so let’s open up another set in the West bracket.
(4) Pearl Jam vs. (13) Hollywood Undead
Talk about a styles clash. This head-to-head pits a team of Los Angeles rap rockers against a venerable Seattle rock institution. Hollywood Undead are still surging thanks to the success of their debut album Swan Songs, but Pearl Jam are in the middle of a resurgence thanks to their well-received 2009 album Backspacer and a hotly-anticipated tour. Will youth triumph over experience?
(5) My Chemical Romance vs. (12) Gorillaz
Though My Chemical Romance will be dropping a huge album this year, they have had some turmoil lately (they called off a shows on the Soundwave festival in Australia because of damage to singer Gerard Way’s vocal cords, and drummer Bob Bryar just left the group). On the other hand, Gorillaz just released a fantastically eclectic album that is an early bid for the best of the year. Can MCR overcome adversity to top Damon Albarn’s cartoon juggernaut?