Remember the March Madness post? Blink-182 beat Angels & Airwaves and has now advanced to the Second Round. Blink-182 is now up against 30 Seconds To Mars.

I’m going to be honest: I didn’t expect this — any of this — to happen.

Last week, when I wrote my “Musical March Madness” column, I did it mostly because I love college basketball, gambling and superfluous list-making. I made my selections largely at random. I left out a whole bunch of bands I probably shouldn’t have (Linkin Park, Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails — two powerhouses inexplicably relegated to the NIT, sort of like North Carolina and UConn). I drew up a bracket by hand, for crying out loud.

I was not prepared for what happened next. Somehow, my sprawling, slightly stupid project became a fairly big deal, getting coverage on places like NPR and even The Ethiopian Review, and inspiring bands to rally their fanbases to help them advance. In the end, there were hundreds of thousands of votes being cast on the Newsroom blog, some genuine rage, and a whole lot of upsets in the first round of the tourney.

Needless to say, I’m pretty amazed by all the attention it got, not to mention all the brackets I received from readers: well thought-out, carefully crafted things with lengthy explanations of picks (“Petite-but-voluble Pete Wentz makes it to the Sweet 16 before being muscled out by Detroit’s own White Stripes, who go on to win the region over the very entertaining but predictable [read: West Virginia] Foo Fighters”) and everything. So before we get to the updated field, I want to tell those folks who sent in brackets that, yes, one of you will win something; I’m thinking that I’ll pick the bracket that’s closest to the actual results. The prize? An autograph from the band who wins the championship. I figure all your hard work (and insanity) should be rewarded. I just hope you picked a ton of upsets.

Read the whole article here and get started on voting for blink-182.