poptimists | Pop Premiership Week 2 RESULTS

Here are

zenith's write-ups - expect revelations between half one and two. And another chance to see the byzantine DRAW RULES in hott action.

"General comments: I'm very happy with how this turned out, cos there are at least two classic finds on here and several more I'm glad to have or curious about. I think I knew when I said one of the things I liked was "girls with guitars" or something that that was a very broad church, and a couple of these which I wasn't keen on demonstrated that... There should be quite a big gap between 10th place and 11th, though.

1. DJ Khaled ft Akon, TI, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne and Birdman - "We Takin Over" - Southern rap! Fuck yeah! I think T.I. is the first guy on this track? Or someone who sounds a lot like him - oh wait, he says something about being the king, dead giveaway. This is a great start cos I will definitely be keeping this. It is really, really hard to not make this number 1, cos it and the winner are great examples of probably two of my favourite kinds of music. This is totally alexmacpherson's choice, right? 2nd Place - WIN -

alexmacpherson gets tactics spot on.

2. Juniper Moon - "A Veces Si, A Veces No" - Girl punk. Musically this is not really the kind of punk I like... it kinda depends when this was recorded, if it was the early 90s or before that's forgiveable, if it's current it's not. 7th Place - DRAW -

jel_bugle fortunate to escape with a point.

3. The Walkmen - "The Rat": This is 'The Rat' by The Walkmen, far and away the best thing they ever did, and I suspected it was this within the first 15 seconds... I love it though, and I'm not sure where I put my copy if I ever had one, so cheers. Someone once pointed out it managed to sound a bit like 'Common People' and a bit like Oasis and yet nothing like either. I'd rate it higher if I didn't know it so well. 5th Place - DRAW - honours even for

strange_powers.

4. Beastellabeast - "The Final Mistake": 'The Final Mistake' by Beastellabeast, right? This was on Fluxblog. I totally deleted this off my harddrive the other night, but now I think maybe I shouldn't have. Weird, unpop pop. 4th Place - DRAW -

katstevens plays out an entertaining tie.

5. Klee - "Gold": This is nice, and I feel like I should be able to identify it. I am being very good and not Googling the lyrics, but I know I'm going to kick myself. Or maybe I'm not, and it's just that Hooky-style bassline and Ladytron vibe that feels familiar. Damn, though, I'm sure the "golden" lyric rings a bell too... 3rd Place - WIN - smooth performance takes

inhibitorylinks top.

6. Sonny Sharrock - "Portrait of Linda in Three Colours, All Black": It's a bad sign that I am wanting to skip to the next one after 40 seconds of this and there's still about 8 minutes to go. I was really hoping that was just an intro... it was, but what is this? This feels very... worthy, somehow. Experimental. I'm sure there are many people at Plan B who would love it. Oh god, improvisational horns. I suspect there are 10 people in this band, and 7 of them are vegans. Finger hovers on the skip button... Oh god, wailing. If it hurts, stop doing it, woman. Skip button hit. League of Sukrat more like! Is this from dubdobdee? 11th Place - LOSE -

hauntedballroom punished for giving players too much freedom.

7. Sonicflyer - "Tonight": That's more like it. Although I thought it was going to be a bit less jangly from the intro. Still, this is perfectly decent female vocal indie rock, which I find it very hard to dislike. Again, something naggingly familiar about the voice, but a bit too quiet to pick out. 6th Place - WIN - a lucky victory, but

fugitivemotel won't be complaining.

8. Kittie - "Brackish": Anxious guitars! Uh-oh, this is metal? I was worried that it would be a very deep voiced metal guy who came in. Instead it's a slightly generic girl and a veryfastangry guy. Collective number of tattoos in this band: 38, across 4 or 5 people. They're probably called Tarantula or something. 10th Place - LOSE - bad-tempered match ends in defeat for

bengraham

9. Sneaky Sound System - "Pictures": Sounds like the poppiest thing so far! This is either one of those hipster bands who aspire to be 80s pop, like New Young Pony Club (although it's not them), or it's one of those pop acts who have never quite won over the pop audience, like Portabella. Or it could actually be from the 80s, but I doubt it. I like the slightly shouty chorus. I'd totally play this out, y'know, and be heartbroken if people didn't dance. 1st Place - WIN -

xyzzzz_ in a tactically masterful display.

10. Mountain Goats - "No Children": I can't decide if this is one of those knowing tributes to down-at-heel folsky Irish bar singer stuff by some intellectual who hangs out in Bowery, or the real thing. This is okay. People who like this probably like the Mountain Goats, which I sort of do... I don't hate this, I respect this, I just would never listen to it rather than so many other things. 8th Place - LOSE - down-at-heel folksy Irishman

braisedbywolves comes to grief.

11. Ehsan - "Alone In Tehran" Is this going to bosh? Oh, a bit! Vocoders! Hmmm. Is this from bengraham? This is kinda meh, it could do with turning up the BOSH factor even more. 9th Place - LOSE" -

dubdobdee's side fail to gel.