We tried it once with less than perfect (but more than imperfect) results: predicting football matchups using music. That said, the analytics department at Music Times has messed with our metrics and decided upon a new formula for determining the winners of this weekend's AFC and NFC Championship Games and, furthermore, who will win the Super Bowl. Patriots versus Colts...Seahawks versus Packers...who takes home the Lombardi Trophy?
Our previous attempt at predicting a four-team football tournament was the NCAA College Football Playoff, where we picked Florida State winning over Ohio State. Obviously the Buckeyes managed to upset the Crimson Tide, but the Seminoles were steamrolled by the Ducks. What did we do wrong? We put too much emphasis on the respective universities' musical history as a whole, and not enough on 2014. Obviously Florida State was pretty great during 1999, but you can't base the current team on that. This time around we base our choices on the best albums to come out of the respective cities during 2014.
That said...
New England Patriots versus Indianapolis Colts
Not many people saw Andrew Luck and the Colts as entering Denver and defeating Peyton Manning in the divisional round, music aside. Having not learned our lesson, we're going to say the Colts don't have a chance heading up to Boston. We had never really considered how limited the music scene in Indianapolis has been over the years but this year proves it (most of the up-and-comers are coming out of Bloomington, the home to Indiana University). The only real gem from the Indianapolis area we found was the Bonesetters' Figure It Out. Coincidentally, we'll be seeing that band Saturday night...and we didn't even realize it was from Indiana. Which says something. That said, Lake Street Dive had a huge year out of Boston, releasing Bad Self Portrait and appearing on The Colbert Report. Tom Brady (who, for the record, has never had a bad portrait of any kind) takes the Patriots to Glendale.
Seattle Seahawks versus Green Bay Packers
We'll be forthright with this one: We expanded the Packers' musical radius to include the entire state of Wisconsin. Green Bay is probably the smallest of small market teams and frankly, despite having a noteworthy hardcore scene back in the day, it needed help. The best album from America's Dairyland we heard this year was the self-titled album of indie folk-rockers PHOX. And we also had a friendly podcast last year with Madison pop-punk rock act Masked Intruder last year—who, for what it's worth (presumably part of its act), denied being from the state. Seattle, in case you haven't heard, is a huge musical hub so this could get ugly quick. To maintain parity at this point, we'll just cite chamber pop songwriter Perfume Genius, who released his third album Too Bright, which was greeted with equal praise as his first two efforts. One of your correspondent's Top 10 albums of the year to be sure. A strong start to the final four by Seattle.
THE SUPER BOWL: New England Patriots versus Seattle Seahawks
The Patriots knew things wouldn't be so easy during the championship game, playing against a team superior to the Colts at a neutral venue. Thus they kept their big guns for the big game: the Pixies and Indie Cindy, the first full-length release from the acclaimed alternative act in nearly 23 years. Unfortunately, the hype could have been ignored...it hardly stood up to the precedent set by the band's four other classic albums. Bill Belechick's scowl was one of disappointment. They tried to pull a trick play (similar to its offensive line shenanigans) by dropping Is This Art?, an excellent underground hip-hop release from Boston emcee Michael Christmas. Alas, Seattle had an answer in the form of Shabazz Palaces' Lese Majesty, the no. 10 album of the year according to this very site. And although Future may be dropping a mixtape titled Beast Mode soon, the more appropriate soundtrack to Marshawn Lynch's running style was Become Ocean, a huge sound composed for three orchestras. Composer John Luther Adams may be a native of Alaska but this release was recorded by the Seattle Symphony, driving the Seahawks to victory.
