March Music Madness - "Analysis" of the Poll Results

Last time we left the bracket at We Listen For You, we'd commented on the Sweet 16 participants (both positively and negatively). They're down to the Final Four, so we'll spend a little time wondering how we got here, and go on to predict who the readers will eventually deem the National Champion of Indie Music (or at least of an arbitrary reader poll). On to snobby remarks:

The Sweet 16

• Arcade Fire (79.1%) over Cat Power - Arcade Fire is not currently relevant. I'm going to keep saying it until it's no longer true. Ball's in your court, Canada.
  
• Fleet Foxes (65.8%) over Andrew Bird - Completely understandable, although I will say... after spending some additional time with Noble Beast, I feel like this could've been a pretty competitive match-up. Still, this results is defensible.
  
• The National (63.4%) over Franz Ferdinand - I support
  
• Sufjan Stevens (60%) over Girl Talk - I kind of support
  
• Animal Collective (58.9%) over Spoon - I understand, but it stings
  
• Of Montreal (57.3%) over Beirut - WHAT?!?!?! This makes less than 0% to me. Granted, I have an anti-Of Montreal bias. I do. But are we really saying that the band with the Outback Steakhouse commercial jingle is better than Beirut? I hope that's not the case.
  
• TV on the Radio (56.4%) over MGMT - The last result combined with how close this result is makes me wonder what the readers enjoy about music. They're a really confusing group.
  
• The Decemberists (50%) over Feist - I'm not exactly sure how this result ends in a win for The Decemberists, but I'm glad that it did.
  

The Elite 8

• Fleet Foxes (60.3%) over Of Montreal - Thank God that Of Montreal is finally out of the tournament... three rounds too late.
  
• Animal Collective (55.1%) over The National - The National made a respectable run, but Animal Collective has too much firepower right now.
  
• Arcade Fire (54.4%) over The Decemberists - [mouth agape]
  
• Sufjan Stevens (50%) over TV on the Radio - [smashing head against desk]
  

So the We Listen For You Final Four includes: Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, and Sufjan Stevens. Two bands that deserve to be there, and two bands that deserve to be there in 2006. The final match-ups pit Fleet Foxes vs Animal Collective and Arcade Fire vs. Sufjan Stevens. Based on past votes, our prediction is a National Championship of Animal Collective vs. Arcade Fire, with Arcade Fire winning. Yes, I realize that this makes no sense whatsoever, but neither have a lot of the votes. Hopefully people will come to their sense and make Animal Collective the winner (GO HERE TO VOTE!), but I highly doubt it.

The tournament ends this weekend. Thanks for following along (if you can still take it)!

PS: Our Final Four includes: Lil' Wayne, Beirut, The Decemberists, and TV on the Radio. Not necessarily better by any stretch, but it's interesting how different the two brackets look (again, this could be due to changing match-ups to mirror their NCAA Tournament counterparts).