90s Rock Band Tournament Vol 2
Because the first one wasn’t enough
Tournament Status
🟢 Begins July 1, 2026
I took a 1-day break from brackets, and I’m already back. This one is more ambitious… 64 bands! I’ve finalized the band selections and seedings, and got the bracket ready to go for a July 1st start. The rules were pretty simple: no duplicate bands from the first bracket, a mix of different 90s Rock genres, and all bands were seeded according to album sales (to remove any bias). The bracket follows a standard 64-team bracket.
Since I’ve started the write-up here before the tournament begins, I suppose this one will feel more like a live blog as opposed to a post-mortem analysis – though I will also be doing that once it’s complete.
My first note – getting this set up was A LOT of work. Creating a 64-team bracket inside a square image in photoshop was no easy task. I’m excited though! This should be a lot of fun.
Seeding
I tried to simplify the seeding process this time, to remove any and all subjectivity. This time, seeding is based strictly on album sales. I think this method makes more sense for Vol 2, because we don’t have to worry as much about legacy, who is king, who really ruled the 90s. Alice in Chains has already been crowned. Now it truly comes down to which band you like more, so the subjective criteria in seeding isn’t as necessary.
The “almost made it” group included bands like Superdrag, The Refreshments, Jawbox, Sunny Day Real Estate, Quicksand, Afghan Whigs, Wax, Paw, Concrete Blonde, Matthew Good Band, and Catherine Wheel.
I really wanted to include Mad Season and Temple of the Dog, but it seemed unfair since they are really super-groups derivative of 3 of the final 4 in the last bracket. However, just so we’re clear – Mad Season is my FAVORITE.
I also left out some bands that fit better into the 2000s: Jimmy Eat World, Fuel, Oleander, Splender, Tantric, Incubus, Blink-182, and Mr. Hot Dog Flavored Water himself, Limp Bizkit.
The final 64 bands are seeded as follows:
Official Tournament Seeding
← Swipe sideways to view all tournament seeds.
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 3 | Region 4 | ||||
| 1 | Hootie & the Blowfish | 2 | Pantera | 3 | Faith No More | 4 | Garbage |
| 8 | Gin Blossoms | 7 | The Verve | 6 | Goo Goo Dolls | 5 | Blur |
| 9 | Blues Traveler | 10 | The Wallflowers | 11 | Silverchair | 12 | Beck |
| 16 | White Zombie | 15 | 4 Non Blondes | 14 | Everclear | 13 | Candlebox |
| 17 | Our Lady Peace | 18 | K’s Choice | 19 | Primus | 20 | P. U. S. A |
| 24 | Soul Asylum | 23 | Tonic | 22 | Cake | 21 | Blind Melon |
| 25 | Days of the New | 26 | Eve 6 | 27 | Helmet | 28 | The Verve Pipe |
| 32 | PJ Harvey | 31 | Toad the Wet Sprocket | 30 | Fugazi | 29 | Sonic Youth |
| 33 | Filter | 34 | Vertical Horizon | 35 | The Toadies | 36 | The Breeders |
| 40 | Matthew Sweet | 39 | Better than Ezra | 38 | Mazzy Star | 37 | Seven Mary Three |
| 41 | Local H | 42 | Dinosaur Jr. | 43 | Cracker | 44 | Pavement |
| 48 | Gravity Kills | 47 | L7 | 46 | Butthole Surfers | 45 | Stabbing Westward |
| 49 | Corrosion of Conformity | 50 | Spacehog | 51 | Veruca Salt | 52 | Sponge |
| 56 | Mother Love Bone | 55 | Mudhoney | 54 | Screaming Trees | 53 | Tripping Daisy |
| 57 | Nada Surf | 58 | My Bloody Valentine | 59 | Hum | 60 | Ween |
| 64 | Tad | 63 | Failure | 62 | Kyuss | 61 | The Nixons |
Tournament Journal
📈 Prediction Record: 6-0
🫀 Personal Pick Record: 6-0
📆 Last updated: July 7th, 2026
Click each Region below to expand
Region 1
Round 1
Round 2
Sweet 16
Elite 8
Final 4
Round 1 • Match #7 – #9 Blues Traveler vs #56 Mother Love Bone
Featured Track
Run-Around
Featured Track
Chloe Dancer
🔹 Prediction: Mother Love Bone is dangerous as a lower-seed. Highly influential. I could see this going either way, but choosing Blues Traveler for the commercial success.
🔹 Confidence (2/10) ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
🔹 Personal Pick: I recognize the importance of Mother Love Bone to the Seattle grunge explosion, but haven’t ever been able to get into them. Blues Traveler, I think.
🔹 Results: Coming 7/8
🔹 Reaction: Coming 7/8
Round 1 • Match #6 – #25 Days of the New vs #40 Matthew Sweet
Featured Track
Touch, Peel & Stand
Featured Track
Sick of Myself
🔹 Prediction: I can’t imagine Matthew Sweet really competing here – probably another 85/15 split
🔹 Confidence (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★
🔹 Personal Pick: Honestly, no preference here. I don’t like either very much. I guess I’ll go with Days of the New.
🔹 Results: Days of the New (74%) defeated Matthew Sweet (26%)
🔹 Reaction: None, really
Round 1 • Match #5 – #8 Gin Blossoms vs #57 Nada Surf
Featured Track
Hey Jealousy
Featured Track
Popular
🔹 Prediction: I think this is an easy win for Gin Blossoms
🔹 Confidence (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★
🔹 Personal Pick: I’m not particularly attached to either, but I know more Gin Blossoms songs.
🔹 Results: Gin Blossoms (85%) defeated Nada Surf (15%)
🔹 Reaction: No surprises here
Round 1 • Match #4 – #17 Our Lady Peace vs #48 Gravity Kills
Featured Track
Superman’s Dead
Featured Track
Guilty
🔹 Prediction: Gravity Kills is a sleeper pick here, but I’m going with OLP
🔹 Confidence (7/10) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
🔹 Personal Pick: Guilty is cool AF, but OLP has car anthems for me. I sing 4 AM at the top of my lungs in the car. OLP FTW
🔹 Results: Our Lady Peace (85%) defeated Gravity Kills (15%)
🔹 Reaction: Not much of a surprise here… I’m curious how OLP will fare against White Zombie next round though
Round 1 • Match #3 – #16 White Zombie vs #49 Corrosion of Conformity
🔹 Prediction: White Zombie will take this one easily.
🔹 Confidence (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★☆
🔹 Personal Pick: Interesting 1st rd matchup because they are similar to me, but I know a lot more White Zombie and I still dig Astro-Creep 2000.
🔹 Results: White Zombie (83%) defeated Corrosion of Conformity (17%)
🔹 Reaction: This bought back lots of 90s memories – I saw them both in concert and talked about it with old friends. Happy with either winner.
Round 1 • Match #2 – #32 PJ Harvey vs #33 Filter
🔹 Prediction: Oof… I really don’t know. I think Hey Man Nice Shot is more memorable, so I’ll predict Filter in a close match.
🔹 Confidence (3/10) ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
🔹 Personal Pick: I’m really torn on this one and wish it wasn’t a 1st round match. I’ll choose Filter, by a hair.
🔹 Results: Filter (79%) defeated PJ Harvey (21%)
🔹 Reaction: I am surprised by the vote disparity on this one. I listened to both a lot yesterday and they are both great.
Round 1 • Match #1 – #1 Hootie & the BLowfish vs #64 TAD
🔹 Prediction: A 1 vs. 64 matchup doesn’t leave much room for suspense. Hootie should take this comfortably, probably around an 80/20 split.
🔹 Confidence (9/10) ★★★★★★★★★☆
🔹 Personal Pick: Tad kind of rocks. Hootie never rocked like Grease Box. Still, it’s Hootie for me, so Hold My Hand.
🔹 Results: Hootie (87%) defeated Tad (13%)
🔹 Reaction: The only real surprise here was how many people hadn’t heard of Tad… the lesson here: listen to more than just radio hits.
Region 2
Coming soon
