Erin Keane

I have known the pain of a first-round loss. You left it all on the court!

A fanfuckingtastic way to kick off AWP. @jaimefountaine.bsky.social had me believing all kinds of scandal about Peter Tork.

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

The main thing I am learning from this year's @marchxness.bsky.social bracket is that my personal definition of "sad" apparently does not align with anyone else's. Anyway, it's fun, the essays are terrific, you should play. Visit marchxness.com to read and vote.

If you're enjoying March Sadness, you will also enjoy this book.

My essay on Skid Row's neglected masterpiece, suburban basements, Dial MTV, and whether Liking Things really matters is up today! @marchxness.bsky.social

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION DAY 4 SCORES, 45’ to play:

Mineral 75, RHCP 57
No Doubt 83, Gillian Welch 79
Hootie 133, Morphine 129
Counting Crows 136, Savage Garden 32

Lot of game left here but these are INTERESTING SCORES.

Vote by 9am AZ time 3/5 at marchxness.com

How am I supposed to focus on AWP events when there are new @marchxness.bsky.social essays to read?!

Very different but nicely paired @marchxness.bsky.social essays here: killer exegesis from @abigailmyers.bsky.social & Geocities cred from @brianoliu.bsky.social. Great music writing in both! I’m leaning “Mark”—sadder!—but your mileage may vary!

My wife by the ocean in LA in the 90s

With 3 hours left to vote, check out my wife reminiscing about Morphine and her life in the 90s. This essay has it all: Cure for Pain, Ghosts, Shriners, all backdropped by the streets of LA. And she was so cute! marchxness.com#/1stround-ho...

That’s Craig T. Nelson

Once Again On the Sadnesses of March Listening to Sadness Songs en route to Baltimore

Thoughts on what we're doing here in March Sadness by @angermonsoon.bsky.social on the substack (which you wanna get on if you're not already): open.substack.com/pub/marchxne...

MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION DAY 4 HALFTIMEISH SCORES:

Mineral 50, RHCP 45
No Doubt 58, Gillian Welch 49
Morphine 90, Hootie 81
Counting Crows 98, Savage Garden 24

Lot of game left here but these are INTERESTING SCORES.

Vote by 9am AZ time 3/5 at marchxness.com

Yikes! These essays are so fucking sad! @marchxness.bsky.social

Fun thread, there was so much good stuff to read today!

I really dig the form of this one.

I loved this @marchxness.bsky.social essay by @emelkrishnan.bsky.social: "These were the things I knew to be irreversible: the cracking of an egg and a crush to obscure another crush. It was 1996 or 1997, and I was a 13-year-old girl in South India without a vocabulary for queerness."

I got lots of priors on Hootie. I was also in grade school when it came out; owned it on cassette. A close friend wrote an entire essay cycle on Cracked Rear View.

@kjmoulton.bsky.social nonetheless pulls me totally in as she makes "Let Her Cry" her own. Exquisite!

marchxness.com#/1stround-ho...

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

My @marchxness.bsky.social essay on Gillian Welch's "By the Mark" is live. I loved writing this piece, which I've been thinking about for years, through a lectio divina-style approach to the story of the Apostle Thomas. Check it out if you are so inclined:

marchxness.com#/1stround-no...

(+ @marchxness.bsky.social for feed visibility)

Books should be sized to fit into tactical pouches on cargo shorts, and should themselves have extra tactical pouches to carry other smaller books.

A great essay, give it a read!

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

Listen, Hootie had my vote no matter what (my first concert!), but I just read @kjmoulton.bsky.social’s @marchxness.bsky.social essay and holy shit. That ending! Bringing the bangers, Xness crew. marchxness.com#/1stround-ho...

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

“The most indelible art has something wrong with it, and the best pure-pop songs are logically incoherent.” I’m not a fan of Hootie, but I am a fan of @kjmoulton.bsky.social’s @marchxness.bsky.social essay about them! marchxness.com

It’s March Xness season! This year I am representing No Doubt’s Don’t Speak in March Sadness. Read about Ronan’s favorite song as well as hear about how I used to run a Geocities No Doubt fan page. And please vote for me!

And also to you!

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

"When I was a teenager, I was sad": For Counting Crows' "Round Here," @mlfaliveno.bsky.social's essay on hometown melancholy has a microgenerational advantage with me over M.L. Krishnan's, but this adolescent underdog's refuge in Savage Garden packs a powerful punch.

marchxness.com#/1stround-co...

A March Madness for sad '90s music is the only March Madness for me.

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

Doubting Thomas (via Gillian Welch) vs No Doubt's big breakup song in this match! Dueling mic drops with @brianoliu.bsky.social's "This is all beautiful." vs Abigail Myers' "Blessed are we who hear." marchxness.com#/1stround-no...

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

A meditation on addiction, writing, and making it through to sobriety for "Under the Bridge" vs early emo and the pain of pushing through to the possibility of happiness for Mineral's "Parking Lot"—tough round but I'm leaning toward emo (she has never said before!).
marchxness.com#/1stround-rh...

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

First up in today's round for me: @kjmoulton.bsky.social with Hootie's Let Her Cry vs @htownjenny.bsky.social with Morphine's Cure for Pain. I'm torn on this one — I'd give it to the essay on one side and the song on the other, but I am an honest person so only 1 vote. marchxness.com#/1stround-ho...