Reposted by Katie MoultonJerad Walker @jeradwalker.bsky.social · 06/04/2026What a beautiful moment. 3853711376
Reposted by Katie MoultonMatt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 05/04/2026My traditional Easter reading, from James Tate. 4381102
Reposted by Katie MoultonMarch Xmas 2026 @marchxness.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Substack 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 21810
Reposted by Katie MoultonSplit/Lip Press @splitlippress.com · 31/03/2026Happy Publication Day to the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee, @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social, and the long awaited, never duplicated HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY!!! www.splitlippress.com/product-page... 14016
Reposted by Katie MoultonMarch Xmas 2026 @marchxness.bsky.social · 30/03/2026And 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... 01915
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 25/03/2026(ya-uh) whoa-oh-oh-oh let your light shine down on @jamcharlesworth.bsky.social for @marchxness.bsky.social - vote collective soul 173
Reposted by Katie MoultonMelissa Faliveno @mlfaliveno.bsky.social · 23/03/2026Here 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! 🐦⬛🖤 0128
Reposted by Katie MoultonLela Scott MacNeil @lelascottmacneil.bsky.social · 19/03/2026"Back before anyone had cell phones, we’d drive with the windows down, shouting to other kids as we passed, pulling up to packs of cars idling at the Cenex, trying to find something—anything—to do. Something—anything—to be, other than what we were." I love this essay and its very 90s sadness. 052
Reposted by Katie MoultonJames Charlesworth @jamcharlesworth.bsky.social · 19/03/2026Collective Soul & I are nursing a small (~10 votes) lead in our @marchxness.bsky.social Sweet 16 matchup but could still use your vote! Click below, READ the essays, & VOTE "The World I Know" by NOON ET TODAY!! marchxness.com/sweet16-coll...marchxness.com3/18, Sweet 16: (6) Collective Soul vs (7) Alanis Morissette — March Sadness 90s Edition 094
Reposted by Katie MoultonMelissa Faliveno @mlfaliveno.bsky.social · 19/03/2026Pouring one out for Hootie tonight. It was a hell of a fight, and a hell of an essay. ❤️ 041
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 18/03/2026with a last-minute surge from kate bush stans (lovehounds or fish people), hootie & my essay have been defeated in this year's @marchxness.bsky.social. hats off to @cherylgraham.bsky.social's essay & margarita campaign! we're sad over here, but not all that sad in the grand scheme. 2114
Reposted by Katie MoultonCarl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 18/03/2026It's the music essay version of March Madness! And speaking to the 2nd match here - while I'm a Kate Bush lover first-last-always, @kjmoulton.bsky.social's deeply personal Hootie essay deserves your vote, and you the bittersweet reading experience. (On the other, obvs, je dois être Équipe Céline.) 053
Reposted by Katie MoultonMartin Seay @martinseay.bsky.social · 18/03/2026"Let Her Cry" on the other hand—& as @kjmoulton.bsky.social's @marchxness.bsky.social essay mentions—started small-scale & personal & became something you hear all the time at CVS. It clearly has pop ambitions, so it gets its damn message across. Bush's erwachsenetotenlied is great! But Hootie wins. 093
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 18/03/2026proof we @marchxness.bsky.social can't help but be who we are - me & my cousin, back when Hootie was still playing REM covers-- read, listen, vote! marchxness.com/sweet16-bush... 0103
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 18/03/2026hellooo @marchxness.bsky.social sweet 16! me & hootie are facing off against @cherylgraham.bsky.social's illuminating piece, inc this perfect Kate Bush quote: “I’m not talking about only pain or only ecstasy. The moments of pleasure couldn't exist without the sadness.” marchxness.com/sweet16-bush...marchxness.com3/17, Sweet 16: (11) Kate Bush vs (7) Hootie & the Blowfish — March Sadness 90s Edition 3135
Reposted by Katie MoultonCarl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 18/03/2026The only circumstances where you will see me advocate a vote against Kate Bush - and for Hootie and the Blowfish! Go read and vote before time runs out tonight! 162
Reposted by Katie MoultonErin Keane @erinkeane.bsky.social · 17/03/2026A devastating essay by @kjmoulton.bsky.social has changed me — not quite into a Hootie fan, but definitely an appreciator of the particular sadness of this song: marchxness.com/sweet16-bush...marchxness.com3/17, Sweet 16: (11) Kate Bush vs (7) Hootie & the Blowfish — March Sadness 90s Edition 1104
Reposted by Katie MoultonKristine Langley Mahler @suburbanprairie.bsky.social · 17/03/2026I read 3 essays aloud to my partner on our road trip last week: @kjmoulton.bsky.social on Let Her Cry, @nanette.bsky.social on Winter, and--bc I needed a break from crying while reading-- @erindorney.bsky.social on Where Have All the Cowboys Gone. Only @kjmoulton.bsky.social remains. VOTE HOOTIE!!! 1115
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 17/03/2026love @erinkeane.bsky.social on "november rain" for @marchxness.bsky.social, giving hamlet a bad name: "Incorrigible darling of the Sunset Strip channeling the original literary 'I can fix him' by cradling the skull of poor Yorick, alas, in front of his naked crotch." marchxness.com#/2ndround-gn...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 172
Reposted by Katie MoultonErin Dorney @erindorney.bsky.social · 17/03/2026Last call for "In the late 1900s, you spent an unprecedented amount of money ... riding a dolphin through the ocean to make sure everyone knows you’re over your ex." vs "When I realized her spirit was fading away, I started looking for her everywhere." @marchxness.bsky.socialmarchxness.com3/16, 2nd Round: (1) Guns n’ Roses vs (8) Neutral Milk Hotel — March Sadness 90s Edition 183
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 14/03/2026s/o another tough match! Linger's melancholic yearning hits but i'm extra moved by @silashansen.bsky.social on its sadness: "not the loss of something I’d experienced but the realization that I will likely never feel that, that it’s a feeling entirely out of my reach." marchxness.com#/2ndround-ho...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 181
Reposted by Katie MoultonMartin Seay @martinseay.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Somebody has probably already said this, but the position that "Let Her Cry" occupies int he culture would be substantially different if this band just had a different goddamn name. This song is SAD, y'all, & gets my @marchxness.bsky.social vote in this round!marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 1124
Reposted by Katie MoultonCheryl Graham @cherylgraham.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Close game happening right now between two songs I never want to hear again and two essays I will happily read more than once. marchxness.com/2ndround-hoo...marchxness.com3/13, 2nd Round: (7) Hootie & the Blowfish vs (2) The Cranberries — March Sadness 90s Edition 073
Reposted by Katie MoultonErin Dorney @erindorney.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Time for "Sometimes the only way to get through it is to address it head-on, to keep doing the hard thing until it’s not hard anymore, to not just bolt." vs "The most indelible art has something wrong with it, and the best pure-pop songs are logically incoherent." @marchxness.bsky.socialmarchxness.com3/13, 2nd Round: (7) Hootie & the Blowfish vs (2) The Cranberries — March Sadness 90s Edition 182
Reposted by Katie MoultonCammy! @camelliagrass.bsky.social · 13/03/2026What a cruel bracket pairing. I'm maybe rooting for infinite overtime here. Unfair that only one of these essays can advance. marchxness.com/2ndround-hoo...marchxness.com3/13, 2nd Round: (7) Hootie & the Blowfish vs (2) The Cranberries — March Sadness 90s Edition 2143
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 14/03/2026an apt description of the @marchxness.bsky.social match b/t Blowfish & 'Berries! from poet Kien Lam: "LET IT LINGER vs LET HER BE. Why must sisters fight like this 😔" let your tears be your guide! marchxness.com#/2ndround-ho...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 182
Reposted by Katie MoultonMelissa Faliveno @mlfaliveno.bsky.social · 13/03/2026We’re back at it! Round Here by @countingcrows.bsky.social needs your help against a real sad banger! Read the essays and vote! 2145
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 13/03/2026this is who is writing about #Hootie & the Blowfish for @marchxness.bsky.social. give us a read & vote in the matchup today with "linger": marchxness.com#/2ndround-ho... 0103
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 13/03/2026kicking off round 2 of @marchxness.bsky.social with an endorsement from the one & only @carlzoilus.bsky.social, who journeyed to the end of taste for #hootie 🙏☔️ 041
Reposted by Katie MoultonMarch Xmas 2026 @marchxness.bsky.social · 13/03/2026MARCH SADNESS 90S EDITION ROUND 2 DAY 2 SCORES, 120 minutes to go (yeah) in some VERY tight games: Bonnie Raitt 74, Alanis Morissette 72 Ben Folds Five 177, Mazzy Star 155 Collective Soul 118, Des’ree 115 Bush 136, Paula Cole 88 120’ to go; vote by 9am AZ time Friday the 13th at marchxness.com 143
Reposted by Katie MoultonAmy Rossi @mossyair.bsky.social · 13/03/2026"If you could choose how to spend your last year, would you pick falling in love?" @cbiondolillo.bsky.social on Mazzy Star. on love. on everything. marchxness.com#/2ndround-fo...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 0144
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 13/03/2026tbh i put off reading @cbiondolillo.bsky.social on mazzy star bc i knew how hard it would hit. "In science, specifics are required for any story. Sometimes it can take thousands of people to tell an incredibly short story, because of how much can happen in the proverbial blink of an eye."marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 141
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 13/03/2026really compelled by this @jasonthayer.bsky.social essay on bush as "safer grunge." also wondering how many 90s parents thought, "glycerine...what a beautiful name for a girl." 011
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 12/03/2026i've always heard "uninvited" by @alanismorissette.bsky.social as "menacing," as @lelascottmacneil.bsky.social writes in a searing, harrowing essay for @marchxness.bsky.social. i do think "i can't make you love me" is a *sadder* song, but this matchup is brutal! marchxness.com#/2ndround-mo...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 042
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 12/03/2026i'm pro-CollSoul but this makes a case! "Des’ree...understood that Romeo and Juliet were the products of a dumb, violent culture; she understood that Shakespeare’s play was about the cruelty of feuding families and the corruption of young love, impulsive as it may be." marchxness.com#/2ndround-co...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 041
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 11/03/2026still coming to terms with @googoodollsmusic.bsky.social loss in @marchxness.bsky.social so need to share this gem: first performance of "name" in 1995 on fx ft young jeff probst?? & where they actually seem cool -- enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=nexA...youtube.comGoo Goo Dolls - Name - Sound FX 1995 (First Performance)YouTube video by Armand John Petri 3122
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 11/03/2026On "Don't Speak" - so good!: "Can a sad song resolve itself throughout the course of the track? ...We all used to love somebody. We all used to be loved by someone. The most beautiful song we’ve ever heard until we heard something new. But it’s still beautiful, right?" marchxness.com#/2ndround-sa...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 0123
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 10/03/2026Got my vote big time. "It’s a song that shows how relationships can break irrevocably and that no amount of Pollyanna positivity or couple’s counseling or chore charts or forcing yourself to learn from the situation is going to make the experience something you’re kind of glad about once it’s over." 150
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 10/03/2026WHEW damn. @emilylauracosta.bsky.social that is a (literal) hell of a @marchxness.bsky.social essay on "runaway train." giving me all kinds of questions of the relationships between sorrow and fear & protection & inexplicable evil. marchxness.com#/1stround-so...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 292
Reposted by Katie MoultonNiko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 10/03/2026I sometimes worry that too many people think being a good critic means being a self-righteous dick about every little thing and I think far too many miss the point that you can't critique anything if you don't know how to love something. 44099728
Reposted by Katie MoultonLit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 10/03/2026@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Jun Yun, author of All The World Can Hold, about writing a post 9/11 cruise novel.buff.lyJung Yun on Writing a Post-9/11 Cruise NovelAll the World Can Hold is both emotionally bold and granular, as it captures the experience of the 9/11 attacks 25 years ago. Jung Yun, author of Shelter and O Beautiful, drew upon personal experi… 053
Reposted by Katie MoultonKathleen Rooney @kathleenmrooney.bsky.social · 10/03/2026Dang. I have now read all 64 essays for this year's @marchxness.bsky.social tournament for the saddest song of the 90s & I am sad & impressed in the most excellent way & grateful that this annual event gives us some of the best writing, reading, & community available on this godforsaken internet. 24010
Reposted by Katie MoultonChristopher L. Keller @chrislkeller.com · 10/03/2026Ummm @moirajo.bsky.social and @marchxness.bsky.social … a convergence in worlds may have occurred and I dunno what happens next… 1143
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 10/03/2026oh! love the ending of this @silashansen.bsky.social @marchxness.bsky.social essay on "linger": "The crows didn’t come down from the tree...but I imagined them later that night, after downtown got quiet and they felt safe, coming down to investigate, to see what gifts these friends had left."marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 1112
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 10/03/2026tapping in for the late shift of @marchxness.bsky.social reading/voting! first up: @nanette.bsky.social on @toriamos.bsky.social "winter" vs. @chrislkeller.com on wilco's "via chicago." two lovely essays, two heart-twinging songs. tough! marchxness.com#/1stround-am...marchxness.comMarch Sadness 90s EditionA yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe) 152
Reposted by Katie MoultonMarch Xmas 2026 @marchxness.bsky.social · 09/03/2026Good gracious / cat is bodacious 292
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 07/03/2026some lore for @marchxness.bsky.social community: legend @anniezaleski.bsky.social was my first editor- she took a chance & gave me my very first music journo assignment in 2009 (rip @riverfronttimes.bsky.social)! i was 23 with no clips/no idea what i was doing! so excited for her work here & always. 2124
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 07/03/2026i too have a long history with "she talks to angels" (and listened to it a lot prepping to write about hootie because darius rucker set out to write his own version of the song with "let her cry"), and @levin.bsky.social's @marchxness.bsky.social entry is great! marchxness.com#/1stround-bl... 183
Katie Moulton @kjmoulton.bsky.social · 07/03/2026this may have been THE hardest matchup day for me, song-wise -- i love them all! heartbreakers! 061
