UPDATE: As of noon on Tuesday Asobi Seksu is laying the boots to The Dreaming, 91%-9%. Still, it’s not too late for Christopher Hall & Co. to rally. Polls close Thursday night – give them a listen and cast your vote below.
____________________
Good match last week, and in the end Black Mountain defeats Bon Iver by a comfortable 60%-40% margin. They move onto round two where they’ll await the winner of this week’s especially tough match.
Our first competitor: from New York, the exceptional shoegaze/pop of Asobi Seksu.
MySpace / Last.FM / Lala / eMusic
Their competition, from LA: the driving alt/rock of The Dreaming (featuring former Stabbing Westward front man Christopher Hall).
MySpace / Last.FM / Lala / eMusic
If you would, give each band a listen and then tell us who you’d like to see advance to the next round:
Current, updated bracket:
Related posts (automated):
- Tournament of Rock: Asobi Seksu vs. Black Mountain
- Tournament of Rock: Asobi Seksu vs. Rose Hill Drive
- Tournament of Rock: Asobi Seksu vs. Paul Steel – finals
- Tournament of Rock: IAMX vs. The Well Wishers
- Tournament of Rock: Paul Steel vs. Gogol Bordello
Print This Post
Normally this would be a slam dunk becasue I’m a sucker for big rock guitars, however i really dig Asobi’s sound and originality. Actually I’m kinda shocked that Sam would put The Dreaming in here, they’re pretty commercial sounding. I have a feeling The Dreaming may have missed the boat on this style of music. They have some hooks, are good at what they do, they just sounded too status quo. There’s a lot of stuff going on with Asobi that made me want to listen again, that song Strawberries is really cool. My vote goes to Asobi.
The Dreaming is sort of what Stabbing Westward was becoming at the end. If you listen to their last disc and then this new Dreaming disc, the evolution makes perfect sense. It is an attempt to commercialize a harder, darker sound, and that’s not easy to do. Even a band as good at it as Fuel was only got so far.
I’m always willing to give bands working this corner of the street a shot because I like hard, dark and melodic. But it’s easy to do badly, isn’t it.
In any case, I like both bands, but voted for Asobi Seksu. They’re one of the most interesting acts out there right now, I think.
Didn’t AS move away from noisy shoegaze more toward pop on Hush? I ended up voting for AS, but I think that was partly because I don’t think the Dreaming is as good as the older Stabbing Westward stuff.
There’s been a lot of talk about Asobi Seksu’s quieter sound. Maybe it’s me, but I think I perceive less of a difference than some do. Maybe it’s because I listen to so much of the genre and am used to everything from Cocteau Twins on the etherial end to Catherine Wheel on the noisy end. Yeah, their sound is less raucous, but I don’t think anyone is going to have a hard time recognizing them.
AS was lovely..and then I listened to The Dreaming’s Send Me An Angel and Crawl.
The Dreaming gets my vote.
Asobi Seksu is the best indie band today that is still actually indie. Their music is not just beautiful on the surface, it is full of incredible melodies and layers of jaw-dropping textures.
The Dreaming is not bad; enjoyed Asobi Seksu more. Voted for them.
Though there are still four bands to be heard from, Asobi Seksu could go All. The. Way.
I already know who I like the best: A & T J. But then I enjoyed them before the contest so that may not count…