Creating your March band brackets

March Madness is here, that captivating time of year when 68 NCAA basketball teams set out on the road to the Final Four in their quest for a championship.

This year's tournament gets underway this week, and is in that spirit every year that I, being a music lover, think about the greatest bands in history, how they would match up, and who would take the title as March Bandness champion.

I don't have the space to show a bracket here, but you can do this easily from home. Print out the basketball bracket, and proceed to fill it out using bands separated into your four "regions." I use genres: Rock, Pop, Jazz/Blues and Everything Else. However, you can approach this is numerous ways; a friend of mine likes to use time frames, such as current, 1970s-1990s, 1950s-1960s and everything before 1950. Some interesting matchups always occur, and they can make you reconsider your music tastes.

In my bracket this year, it is all pinball wizardry and anarchy when the Who and the Sex Pistols battle it out, and old-school metal tries to bring the heat against '90s angst as Led Zeppelin takes on Nirvana in the Rock region.

And who can possibly upset the top-seeded Beatles in the Pop region? Could Michael Jackson be the sleeper pick? Will Madonna crush Lady Gaga like a meat dress at a PETA convention?

In the Jazz/Blues bracket, sheer guitar prowess will duel sensational improvisation as Robert Johnson and John Coltrane duke it out.

Upset alert: Arguably a mismatch on paper, upstart Susan Boyle looks to deliver a knockout blow to the one and only Yanni in the everything else region. One also has to wonder if Mozart can handle Handel.

So fill out your brackets and let me know who you think comes out on top. And don't forget to check www.semoevents.com, sign up for the SE Live newsletter, and follow @selive on Twitter to stay informed about entertainment around our area. Have a great week, and stay entertaining, Southeast Missouri.