Substack tourney recap coming your way this weekend but we wanted to invite you to our HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC ZOOM book launch TUES 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern. Register: tinyurl.com/hitrepeat

HAIL QUEEN CELINE. It’s an honor to have fallen to these champs!

I'm gonna plug the Xness anthology at my reading tonight 🫡

The @marchxness.bsky.social anthology we've all been waiting for is finally here! So thrilled to have my essay on "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" of Dirty Dancing fame included in this much-anticipated mixtape of phenomenal writing. Get yourself a copy today!!

The March Xness Anthology is here! Thank you SO MUCH to @splitlippress.com and to everyone who's contributed to the Xness anthology and the tournament as a whole ❤️🎸🥁

It’s time! I am beyond honored my extracurricular essay on how grunge did NOT kill glam metal is included among such stellar work!

The @marchxness.bsky.social anthology is out today! I love this tournament, and I’m so glad to have one of my essays from years past got included: “The Best Christian in the World,” about Creed’s “My Own Prison” and my own fallout with Christianity, among other things. So much good writing in here!

OH SHIT LET'S GOOOOOO

If you love music writing, you need this anthology. I'm beyond honored to have my (favorite) March Xness essay included: "There Are Many Atlantic Cities, and One Belongs to Levon Helm," on The Band's Springsteen cover and my (felon, dreamer, liar, dead) dad, a fellow son of New Jersey.

It's here! Super stoked for this anthology and to have an essay in it—the first I ever wrote for @marchxness.bsky.social, on the Creatures’ Exterminating Angel, Virginia Woolf, misogyny, and learning to trust myself as a musician. I love this tournament and community, and so glad to be part of it!

THAT'S THE BUZZER! MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION HAS CROWNED A NEW CHAMPION! FINAL SCORE: CELINE DION, "My Heart Will Go On" and @mfitejohnson.bsky.social 784, Ben Folds Five, "Brick" and @cicilybennion.bsky.social 474. Congratulations to both our finalists for an outstanding game.

I had a blast repping Brick all month! We didn’t get the gold but I look better in silver anyway. And for my post game snack, you better believe I’m eating one of these Brick cookies. Great game, @mfitejohnson.bsky.social! 🧱

It’s mid-morning where I live and I’ve spread the word about my @marchxness.bsky.social essay on Brick to everyone and in every way I know. The game is not over, but it does feel now as if it’s out of my hands. We’re down by over 300 votes, but I can honestly say I’m happy.

Enjoying this shade from Cicily Bennion's video this am which is simultaneously cast on Canada and the US: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLf...

This final feels pretty inevitable to me, especially as an Xennial. Both essays are so good, and so sad, and this is a true 90s heartbreaker of a matchup. My Heart Will Go On is iconic, but Brick devastated an entire generation, and still makes me cry every time. I've gotta go Brick for the win.

The road has been winding, full of surprise and (appropriately, I guess) heartbreak, but the March Sadness: 90s Edition Championship game is HERE

And allow us to remind you that it's release week for Hit Repeat Until I Hate Music: the March Xness anthology. It's like this whole tournament got shrunk down into book form! Thanks to @splitlippress.com for bringing this beauty into the world: www.splitlippress.com/product-page...

Tomorrow's the big @marchxness.bsky.social final! Seems like now or never for catching up on the rest of the pre-tournament essays! Shall we?

MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION FINAL FOUR FINAL SCORE BEN FOLDS FIVE 389, Ani DiFranco 348 ! The championship is set for MONDAY. Until then, stay strong!

518 Zine Fest tomorrow! I turned my @marchxness.bsky.social essay into a zine and I'll have some copies there ❤️‍🔥

Collective Soul & I are still way behind & NEED YOUR VOTE in the Elite Eight of @marchxness.bsky.social! ICYMI Last week my wife, Laura, & I did a cover & I'm unearthing it again to spur the comeback! READ & VOTE "THE WORLD I KNOW" BY NOON ET TODAY!! 👇 marchxness.com#/elite8-coll...

Man, the essays have been great this year! The songs have been pretty good too! But the real @marchxness.bsky.social heads know that from the Elite 8 on it's about the ground game, & people are SHOWING UP. This one's semi-close—but if you're leaning Team Brick, better start pushing buttons.

If you find yourself mourning Round Here’s @marchxness.bsky.social loss today and need a little more Counting Crows content (plus a good dose of Third Eye Blind, and driving around Midwestern back roads, and plenty of sadness), here’s a little something else! kenyonreview.org/piece/drivin...

More delightful cover action! Ani but make it flute is a genius move. Also I feel like we might actually be able to field an Xness marching band?

Well this is rad and sad and weird and artful and a little creepy and it’s definitely swaying my vote. The Xness cover game is really bringing it this year and I love it.

Will Ben Folds' brick shatter my dreams of making it to the Final Four? I've got a synth'd out "Glycerine" cover on deck that begs to differ... marchxness.com#/elite8-fold...

Collective Soul & I are down big at the half but hope still lingers on! We've been here before & have shown we're a 2nd half team--still plenty of time for a comeback! Still plenty of time to READ & VOTE "THE WORLD I KNOW" by Noon ET Wednesday! @marchxness.bsky.social marchxness.com/elite8-colle...

The final minutes of our @marchxness.bsky.social Elite 8 battle ticked down as I hit the road to Richmond, but trust that I said goodbye while blasting August and Everything After and singing along loud. Great game to @mfitejohnson.bsky.social & the Celines, and thanks for the love, Team Crows! 🐦‍⬛🖤

These are both such terrific @marchxness.bsky.social essays! Congrats to @mfitejohnson.bsky.social on winning this round and amazing run to @mlfaliveno.bsky.social whose video and singing were just beautiful & knocked my socks off.

The two remaining 1 seeds showed their quality here. Congrats to GnR and Celine and @mfitejohnson.bsky.social and @erinkeane.bsky.social! We send our condolences and appreciation for a tournament well played to @mlfaliveno.bsky.social and Cheryl Graham. You rocked it.

We can hold two thoughts at once: 1) the voice & wind covers of "Heart"—good song!—are AMAZING & a true gift to the @marchxness.bsky.social community; more please; and 2) the fact that a bassoon cover got flagged as an IP violation perfectly reflects its bothersome wigit-iness. Vote Crows.

There's room on that door! Don't let the Crows drown! 🚢 🐦‍⬛ marchxness.com#/elite8-crow...

I bought "August and Everything After" from a spinner rack in Wegmans at midnight as a teen. It was the only place open 24-hours in my rural town and my girlfriends would all drive there to browse magazines and the bulk candy aisle. Heaven. You've got 4 hours to vote! @marchxness.bsky.social

This is what we did before selfies, children! We set up timers and developed that FILM under red light in CHEMICALS I can still SMELL IN MY BRAIN.

Good time to vote Counting Crows and Kate Bush to close the gap here

The Celines showed up in the second half; where those Crows at

It's looking pretty bleak, Team Crows! Just two hours left to vote, and we're getting pummeled out there. Dig deep! Do it for the loneliness & yearning! For driving around the backroads at night! For angsty self-portraits in photography class! @marchxness.bsky.social marchxness.com#/elite8-crow...

I have been sending every Counting Crows round to one friend who is a hand-to-god superfan of the band — a love he has now passed on to his kid, who goes with him to shows — for voting and that's just one more thing I love about @marchxness.bsky.social, servicing our friends' hyperfixations.

The crows are in the trees this morning, and the cat watches from her window. A good omen for today’s Elite 8 @marchxness.bsky.social matchup? We hope so! Still a few hours to vote Round Here! 🐦‍⬛🐈‍⬛🖤 marchxness.com#/elite8-crow...

Guys, the Crows are getting…murdered out there. Read the essays & vote Round Here! @marchxness.bsky.social marchxness.com#/elite8-crow...

More hot cover action to come when I'm back home, but for now vote Counting Crows today in the Elite 8! marchxness.com#/elite8-crow...

Here we go, Team Crows! We’re up today in the @marchxness.bsky.social Elite 8 and need your help against a high priestess of sad! (Though I maintain Round Here is sadder.) Read the essays and vote! 🐦‍⬛🖤

This Blink/Bush matchup is the heartbreaker of my Xennial dreams. Sixteen Stone was one of my favorite albums as a thirteen-year-old, but Adam’s Song was my saddest 90s pop punk anthem, and when I saw Blink for the first time a couple years ago man did I weep. Blink forever!

ADAMS SONG AND SAPPY HIVE WHERE ARE YOU!!!!!!!!

It’s showtime! Ani DiFranco and I are up in the Sweet 16 of this year's @marchxness.bsky.social at marchxness.com/sweet16-nirv...

listen up readers, my first short story collection is coming out and look at this cover (and lol I like the spine so much I had to include it)

We did it, team Crows! On to the Elite 8! Big Mayor Troll top hat's off to @chrislkeller.com, hometown hero, for one hell of a fight, and for writing a devastating essay on a devastating song. May we meet up for donuts at the Schubert's of our memories, and until then, see you on the back roads.

I've been given to understand this is a @marchxness.bsky.social Sweet 16 tradition? As a millennial representing a millennial song, what I lack in musical skill I more than make up for in ukulele! Would love it if you read my Blink-182 essay and voted! marchxness.com#/sweet16-bus...

This ought to sway some (Round Here is in the midst of a solid comeback and up by 29 after the people started doing it overnight)

As promised! There’s more where this came from (including the whole song, which is long) if we win! Read the essays & vote Round Here today in the Sweet 16 of @marchxness.bsky.social! (You can find a longer version of this video, including bridge blooper, over on IG!) marchxness.com#/sweet16-cro...