Hope everybody enjoyed the weekend. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, the continuation of Round One of Montauk Madness. Our next matchup: Coldplay vs. The Shins.
This is an interesting one because Coldplay started off as a hip indie band not unlike The Shins before they blew up into a stadium band and thereafter became terminally uncool.
Closing out this first week of Montauk Madness, we have the fifth matchup from Round One, pitting Lucinda Williams against Garbage. Folk rock vs. industrial rock. Organic vs. electronic.
As much as I like Garbage, particularly their first three albums, this is another easy pick. Ideally, the first round should be easy, though peeking ahead I see a couple of hair-pullers on the horizon.
I haven’t had a difficult choice to make through the first few matchups in Round One of Montauk Madness, and that won’t change today.
Peter Gabriel faces off against Josh Rouse. An art rock pioneer against a prolific but low-profile indie singer-songwriter. While I love Gabriel’s So — a bona fide classic — and enjoy tracks from his other solo records, he hasn’t consistently impressed me the way Rouse has.
The random nature of the matchups in Montauk Madness serves up some interesting pairings. This is probably the first time Barenaked Ladies and Van Morrison have been mentioned in the same breath.
Initially, I went with Barenaked Ladies here, my rationale being that I own and enjoy nine of their albums vs. only one by Morrison.
Our next match-up in Round One of Montauk Madness pits the legendary Frank Sinatra against the tragically under-appreciated singer-songwriter Tift Merritt. A no-brainer, right? I agree… Tift Merritt advances.
Sinatra acolytes (like my parents) will scoff at this choice, I’m sure. But as much as I love Sinatra’s voice, and his interpretation of classic songs on such albums as Only the Lonely, Songs For Swingin’ Lovers, In the Wee Small Hours and Watertown, I find it hard to vote for a non-songwriter over an excellent and prolific one.
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