Sixty Seconds of Heaven

Made another long road trip for music last night, driving over four hours to see The Heavy play at the (very sweaty) Basement in Columbus, Ohio. They’re a British band who plays a great mix of hard rock and soul. If you consider Prince a Sly and the Family Stone disciple who sometimes mixes in Hendrix guitar, then just flip the ratios around and that’s sort of what we’re talking about here. Although, they can also decide to do straight up retro-soul sometimes. And horns, don’t forget horns.

The show was sold out, and the trip was totally worth it. The six-piece band played a short, smartly paced set that welcomed the crowd into its company early and then gradually built everybody up until they were ready for the frenzied finale of their two biggest ‘hits,’ “That Kind of Man” (below) and “How You Like Me Now.”

The main thing I want to say is that I really hope The Heavy get to tour here more often, because as good as they were, you can tell that if they got a bigger stage, more time (and maybe a back-up singer) they could really blow your mind. When you see a band like this, you think “it’s so easy, why doesn’t everybody do this?,” but clearly it’s not because there aren’t nearly enough bands like this around for my liking.

Hello and good morning.  Here’s some great, noisy pop music for you. The Young Mammals from Houston, Texas are coming to the Happy Dog tonight, Friday July 2nd,  and we highly recommend you check them out.  Their debut album, Carrots, is overstuffed with catchy hooks, clever instrumentation and unexpected left turns. Best part is, it’s not overproduced. it’s all got a great, raw, immediate sound.  You can picture the band running around while the tape rolls switching between guitar and triangle and glockenspiel or whatever they had lying around. This is meant as a compliment, by the way, in case somebody spent 3 years recording this.  If I had to break out my limited, 8-color crayola box of band comparisons, I’d say this:  If you can picture Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips going back to the production budget of their first record, you’re in the right ballpark.  Here’s a free mp3 for you: “Confetti.”  Enjoy!

Neil Young’s new concert film “Trunk Show” is coming to Cleveland June 11th and 12th courtesy of the Cleveland Cinematheque. I caught the tour this was shot on a couple of years ago and it was, as usual, amazing. But, you either know that or you don’t, regarding Neil at this point, right? Obviously, we highly recommend you all go see this. Here’s the film’s trailer if you are somehow still on the fence at this point:

By the way, don’t sleep on Neil’s last album. Some people knocked it for sounding a bit tossed-off, but I like it’s looseness. Here’s a video for my favorite song from the record, “Fuel Line” in which you’ll see (after a commercial, sorry!) Neil driving around rocking out to his own music:

OK something’s up on the concert scene this summer, I think it’s gonna be even more of a bloodbath than last year, when half-empty venues and 2 for 1 or reduced price tickets were available everywhere.

So far, Tom Petty announced a big sale with no ticket fees, which could be him just being cool like he did when he fought high record prices. Then the Dave Matthews Band, who suck, made a pretty smart move by announcing they would take next summer off, giving their fans extra incentive to go to this year’s shows. Now Christina Aguilera’s summer tour has been postponed till next year because of “future commitments” (what exactly could take up your whole summer and still be easily forgotten?), and Limp Bizkit, also terrible, is moving their tour out of amphitheaters “because we hate chairs.” Finally, the Lillith tour announced a 2-for-1 ticket sale, probably because they relied on the brand name instead of packing in a few more marquee names, and, in a move that aroused a little suspicion in my conspiracy-theory heart, U2 postponed a bunch of their summer dates because apparently Bono lost his ability to walk on water or hurt his back or something. Now, you think he couldn’t find a doctor to sign a note for him to keep them from losing tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars, IF this tour isn’t selling well?

My point? Don’t have one. Except that it seems a lot of summer tours are being downsized or postponed before the summer even starts. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with concert attendance this year.

And here, for no real reason, is ‘Fight from the Inside,’ a Queen song I didn’t know about until the other day. It’s from their classic News Of The World album, but it’s an deep cut featuring bassist Roger Taylor on lead vocals. I didn’t know Freddie let the other guys sing, but this is pretty darn good, especially the guitar:

You live in a big city, sometimes there’s gonna be two great bands visiting you on the same night. What’s different about this Wednesday is that both are gonna be in the same building, with Besnard Lakes in one room and White Rhino in the other over at the Beachland Ballroom. I’ve already written about Besnard Lakes, and I was 100% excited to hear them, no way I’d even think about missing it.. until I heard White Rhino, who have this excellent “Stooges meets Hawkwind” thing going on. You can hear them best from the songs on their MySpace page, but this is a pretty cool video sample of what you’ll get from them:

So which to see? Well, I’m gonna hope to heck that I can shuttle between both, it’ll be like a mid-week rock festival.

Got a paying music journalism job, one of my first assignments was to comment on a fan-selected AC/DC best-of list. It was a blast and all the songs are excellent but I really wanted to add one under-appreciated song, ‘Go Zone’ from their 1988 album ‘Blow Up Your Video.’

I love this song because if you switch out the rhythm guitars for a horn section, you could have James Brown take over for Brian Johnson and it’d make perfect sense. AC/DC went a bit too metal for a while there, they really are best as a rock band with a bit of R&B swing. For the best sixty seconds of this song, shocker, I’m going with the instrumental breakdown and Angus’s solo, starting around 2:47:

(PS I’d like to shout out to Mrs. Slurply McNewspaperFlipper, who decided she just had to sit 18 inches from me even though I chose an isolated chair in a nearly empty coffeeshop when the storm knocked out our power while I was trying to write this yesterday. I don’t care if you’re 73 and 4′ 8″, you’re lucky the cops were there. I can’t imagine how anyone gets work done in those places, the espresso machines sound like jet engines. )

The scoreboard at the Cavaliers home games shows you the difference between the two teams’ scores. They call it “The Diff.” Yes this is real, and it’s real insulting. I’m not claiming this is a new thought at all, I know lots of Cleveland people have commented on this, but I wanted my friends back East to see this. Again, I’m not saying you’re dumb, I love it here, whoever made this board, they’re the ones to talk to..

Lastly, my photo wasn’t as good as I wanted, so I borrowed this person’s, hope that’s OK, buddy – check out his article..

OK now for today’s minute of music, as “he who can’t be named on the internet,” supposedly quite a b-ball player himself, shows he doesn’t know the ‘Diff” between his good and great songs, burying “Pink Cashmere,” a great love song, featuring this tasteful string section vs. guitar dual, in the middle of a three disk best of collection:

Prince, “Pink Cashmere,” from LEAVE ME ALONE I’M A HUGE FAN OF YOUR MUSIC

OK I’ve tried not to lay any kind of big city snobbery onto my new beloved hometown of Akron, but… c’mon, do I even have to say it? There’s no need for this sign in Boston or New York, where the penalty for walking in the street is, quite rightfully, a severe injury.

I know, really, there’s no need for it here either, I’m not saying you are dumb, whoever put that sign up is who you have a problem with. The saddest part is, this is about two blocks from a school. Which doesn’t bode well for our future. If the kids need this constant of a reminder, then they should spend the first sixty seconds of every day repeating “I will not walk in the street.”

OK rant’s over, so here’s some music that doesn’t insult anyone’s intelligence. Pop Levi with his outer-space pop take on T.Rex’s strutting glam-rock: “Blue Honey:”

Here’s a vacation tip for all you self-employed writers. Just before you go away on vacation, ask one of your much more successful writer friends, say, Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald, to write a story for you, so that when you get back you’ll have a great piece already done to start the new work week.

It helps if you begin the conversation by talking shit about one of his favorite bands. For example, The Hold Steady, who play Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom tomorrow night. I did, and just look at these wonderful results! Take it away, Jed:

“I’ve been issued a challenge from my friend (that’s me!) at Sixty Seconds of Heaven. He writes: ‘OK so, you’ve taken me to see the Hold Steady two times and both times I had a blast. But some of that, I think, was the booze, because when I go back to their albums, they seem a little stiff to me. Here’s how I think of them: they went to college and read a lot and then decided that they wanted to rock and they’re pretty good at it, but ultimately too polished and polite for me.

Now, they’re coming to Cleveland. You’ve got sixty seconds of their music to prove me wrong. What part of what song would you play people to show that I’m an idiot, and how do you answer the charges I’ve leveled at your favorite band?’

My thoughts:

Sixty seconds? Well, nothing works unless it’s loud enough. So first make sure it’s loud enough. And then crack a beer. Once that’s done I’d say this…

Sixty seconds? I don’t like the game. I really don’t. But I’ll play. Damn you. Is that beer open? First sip? Volume loud? Like at the level you’d play AC/DC? Okay.

1. For a band that just rocks try the first 60 of “Constructive Summer” from “Stay Positive”

The Hold Steady, “Constructive Summer,” from STAY POSITIVE

2. For a good, typical “Hold Steady” moment try first 60 of “Hornets! Hornets!” from “Separation Sunday”

The Hold Steady, “Hornets! Hornets!,” from SEPARATION SUNDAY

3. For their best moment try 1:29 to 2:29 of “Positive Jam” from “Almost Killed Me” (but, and I don’t know how strict you are, this works much better with an extra 15 seconds for 1:28 to 2:43)

The Hold Steady, “Positive Jam,” from ALMOST KILLED ME (and yeah, we let it play out..)

4. My two favorite one-minute clips (today) from my favorite band are 1:20 to 2:20 of “Certain Songs” from “Almost Killed Me” or 3:16 to 4:16 from “Stevie Nix” from “Separation Sunday.”

The Hold Steady, “Certain Songs,” from ALMOST KILLED ME

The Hold Steady, “Stevie Nix,” from SEPARATION SUNDAY

That’s what I got. Did I win?”

Yes, Jed, I think we all won. I definitely see, well..hear, that my love of Hold Steady concerts also extends to their recorded work, though not as completely. My final jab would be that there’s just a touch too much Springsteen worship in their music for my taste, but that’s a bigger fight for my next vacation.

Time for you to be jealous.. I’m away from our Akron HQ (PS goodbye until April 12th!) and on my way to see quite a killer concert in Philadelphia. I was gonna do this interview to preview tonight’s Morgantown Priestess / Black Cobra / High on Fire concert, but due to travel and me sending the questions late, it’ll just have to serve as a reason for you to check out Black Cobra and their excellent new album “Chronomega.” It’s one of my favorite metal records of the last few years, and I can’t wait to see them live. Here’s my interview with Jason from Black Cobra:

60: What, exactly, is a “Chronomega” or what does it mean?

Jason: “Chronomega does literally translate to ‘big time.’ It’s more of an idea than an actual thing though. There are different themes throughout the record, but time and our perception of it is one that frequently recurs. It’s part time travel, part scifi, part mental expansion beyond the physical, and part post-apocalyptic existence. It’s what was in our heads when we were writing the music.”

60: Wikipedia lists you as “doom” or “sludge,” but that doesn’t seem quite right to me. Your label’s bio calls you “bulldozer metal,’ that sounds better. What do you call the music you play? Or do you not?

Jason: “For lack of a better word, we just call it metal. It’s a mixture of all the different stuff that we love though – thrash/doom/hardcore/punk/metal/etc. ‘Bulldozer Metal’ does seem to have a nice ring to it though.”

60: What’s different about this record compared to past records of yours?

Jason: “We explore different ideas on every record. This record is the continued growth of the sound we’ve been developing over the last few years. It has some melodies in the vocals, a couple guitar leads, and some rhythmic changes we’ve never done before. Overall it’s a natural progression from the previous records and expands on the foundations of our sound.”

60: How are the High on Fire fans treating you so far?

Jason: “So far, so good. They’ve been really receptive.”

60: When you’re on tour, who dominates the stereo, and what gets played the most? Do you need “calm down” music after a show?

Jason: “Whoever’s driving usually has control of the stereo. There’s a lot of rock, some metal, soundtracks, jazz…we try to mix it up. We don’t need to necessarily calm down after a show, but sometimes you want something that’s not so abrasive after a night of battering music.”

60: What band, and more specifically, what song made you realize you had to be in a rock and roll band? What about the song grabbed you?

Jason: “Seeing friends of mine play songs I had heard made me realize it wasn’t some big mystery and was something I could learn how to do as well. Can’t think of a particular song, but Metallica was a big influence on me at a young age.”

60: You recently released “Chronomega” on vinyl. Is that something that’s important to you, or more like, something you did for your fans? Do you buy a lot of music, and if so, on vinyl?

Jason: “We definitely spend a lot of money on music and a lot of it is on vinyl when we can find it. Vinyl is really important to us. The sound, the size of the artwork, the experience of sitting down and listening to it… It’s a less passive listening experience.”

One of the coolest people I talked to over the course of all my SxSW interviews was up and coming Seattle-based rapper Grynch. He’s been working both hard and smart the last couple of years, playing all sorts of regional shows and releasing a steady stream of music for free on his website. All this work is starting to pay national dividends, as evidenced by Funkmaster Flex recently playing one of Grynch’s songs on his famous weekly radio show. You can read the entire interview with Grynch here, and after it was over we hit him up with a couple of questions for this site:

60: OK, right now, at this moment in time, what song of your own is your favorite, or, put another way, the one you’d play first for someone who hadn’t heard your music?

Grynch: “…Of my own? Man, that’s hard to do! Probably, for my personal favorite, I’ll say “A Dream Undeferred,” the one that Flex played. It tells the story of where I started from, to where I am now.”

Grynch, “A Dream Undeferred,” from the CHEMISTRY EP

60: OK, fair enough, now let’s talk about someone else’s music. A martian comes down from from outer space, says you have sixty seconds, play us the best hip hop, or we’re gonna blow up the earth..

Grynch: “Aw, damn man, this is real tough. Dr. Dre and Snoop, “Nuthin But a ‘G’ Thang.” One of the first things I ever got into..”

You could call it a safe choice, I guess, but.. this is the life of every man, woman, child, dog cat and plant on earth, hard to knock that call….

Singer/songwriter/electric-violinist/poet Bitch is coming to town ( April 1st at Beachland) to promote her brand new record “Blasted.” You might think that choosing a name like that for yourself is a big F-U to the world, or as a sign that the music is going to be purposefully difficult. Well, it’ll take you sixty seconds with the clip below to find out that her music is completely accessible. Wait, but not ordinary or boring. Oh, jeez, I’ve gotten myself turned all twisted up here. Just listen to it, OK?

Besides, you gotta respect someone who picks a name pretty much guaranteed to keep yourself out of most mainstream media. More seriously, you have to respect anyone who starts a fan-funded record company to avoid the sinkhole the rest of the business is falling into. We talked to Bitch about the troubles and bad jokes her name brings, her new tour and which of her songs she’d choose to save herself on the day of reckoning:

60: Are you performing solo or with a band at this show? What kind of lineup?

Bitch: “it’s me, backed up by an awesome two-=woman band out of Miami, called The State Of. billiE and the violent kidS shows a rock musical video before my show.”

60: If wikipedia is correct, than I know why you use the name “Bitch.” How much flack has it gotten you? Have venues refused to book you, papers refused to list your concerts, anything like that?

Bitch: “venues seem to get it, press either totally loves it or runs and hides and never responds to us..”

60: What about the jokes? What’s the most lame joke you’ve heard about your name choice?

Bitch: “haven’t heard very many lame ones, necessarily, but a LOT of men, when i introduce myself, introduce themselves as ‘Asshole.’ seriously. so when it happens, i just call them that ALL night and it drives them nuts.”

60: It’s very impressive that your new record was funded entirely by your fans. Does that make it easier to play exactly what’s in your heart and head, or was that never a problem in the first place?

Bitch: “that was never a problem. if i was somehow cut off from my ‘fly-by-the-seat-of-my-instincts’ performer-ness i would probably be as boring as Justin Bieber. is that his name?”

60: How would you rate Jimmy Page’s violin playing?

Bitch: “never knew he did. i was born under a cultural rock.”

(note: this would be my third idiot interviewer moment so far. I meant to say bow playing, not violin!)

60: Suppose you’re given one song to play, of your own, to account to some higher power for what you’ve done while here on earth. what song would you choose today?

Bitch: “OPen Up. it’s my most ‘in-touch-with-the-mother-plus-catchy’ song to date.”

Bitch, “OPen Up,” from BLASTED

60: Now, for someone else’s music – what is your favorite sixty seconds of recorded music right now, and why?

Bitch: “Nikki Giovanni made TWO albums with a gospel choir. i love her poetry and these records have inspired me immensely”

60: Are you a fan of April Fool’s Day?

Bitch: “nope. i always feel tricked and i hate being teased.”

Everybody here was very excited to get an interview with Tom Davies, bass player for the mighty Nebula, and even more psyched for them to come to Cleveland with Quest For Friday tomorrow night. Sadly, the Grog Shop tells us Nebula cancelled the show because they broke up. I asked Tom about that after this interview was done, here’s what he said: “I wouldn’t say Nebula has broken up just yet. None of us actually know what’s happening right now, but unfortunetly the show is cancelled along with the whole tour.”

I really hope they are not breaking up, and either way, I’m way too much of a fan not to print this interview:

60: In my book, you guys are one of the best at fulfilling the original mission of classic hard rock trios like the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  Not saying you’re retro in the slightest, instead, that you keep pushing a great idea forward.  Is that how you think of your music?

Tom: “I think hard rock or power rock trio describes us the best. Yeah we listen to and are influenced by a lot of older music but it’s just how we regurgitate it. We’re not retro freaks or anything we just like GOOD music.”

60: “Heavy Pysch” seems to continue the band’s shift from riff-based songs to more textured, full band arrangements.  Is that a goal or just what happens?

Tom: “I guess it’s just how the music has evolved. There was never a decision to move that way, we listen to a lot of ‘heavy psych’ from the late 60’s. Bands like July, Kak, The C.A Quintet, The Plastic Cloud, The Open Mind to name but a few so the influence from these bands records that are full of textures and layers has definitely bled in to our music.”

60: Does the “stoner rock” tag bother you?  Also, how come “Living on a Prayer,” and not “Travelin Man’s Blues,” is what I hear on my radio?

Tom: “Well… being described as Stoner rock doesn’t really ‘bother’ us as such but we definitely wouldn’t describe ourselves as it. None of us listen to stoner rock and I don’t think we have much in common with stoner rock bands. SR seems to be a heavier style of music, bordering on doom and metal, which is definitely isn’t us. I guess if it comes down to smoking pot, then maybe we are, but then so are most of the rock bands out there. It just seems to be a convenient or lazy pigeon hole to describe bands…. And that’s why you haven’t heard travellin mans blues on the radio!”
 
60: Am I correct that you joined the band prior to 2006’s Apollo? Is it true that you are from England, and if so, how did you get connected with Nebula, and were you a fan of the band beforehand?

Tom: “I joined the band in the summer of 2004. I used to work with a lot of bands on the road like mudhoney, qotsa, orange goblin etc. I met nebula in 2000 and they asked me to work with them and they’d take me everywhere with them. I was kinda the un-official 4th member. After Mark Abshire left they were having trouble finding a replacement and I was out in Cali with a girl (originally from westlake, Cleveland) and Eddie and I were jamming at the rehearsal space. We ended playing some nebula songs and I guess you could say the rest is history.”
 
60: When you’re on tour, who dominates the stereo?  What records are you listening to nowadays? Do you keep up on new stuff?

Tom: “We tend to go with the rule that whoever’s at the wheel has control of the sounds. Which works out great cos we all listen to the same stuff anyway. As I mentioned before, we like a lot of 60’s psych, 70’s rock etc. As for new stuff none of us really have our finger on the pulse but personally I’ve been listening to Muse and a few years ago we played with Ash and they were really awesome live so I like to spin their discs too. Also I’m a huge fan of The Entrance Band…. and everybody loves a bit of Slayer!”
 

60: What, right now today, is your favorite sixty seconds of recorded music? (by another band)

Tom: “I’d have to say today it would be a band called L.U.V. I’m currently producing their record. They’re a mish mash of punk, electronica, dance. In the vain of the yeah yeah yeah’s, the stooges and goldfrapp. It’s something I would never generally pick up but they’re a great band and I think they will go far.”

turns out I can’t find L.U.V. on the internet right now, I wrote Tom to get a clip, hopefully it will be up here soon, in the meantime, here’s one of my favorite Nebula songs:

Nebula, “So It Goes,” from ATOMIC RITUAL

Yeah, we watch wrestling. You saying there’s anything left in modern culture that’s not fake? CGI movies? Auto-tuned vocals? Reality television? Politics?

Here’s me, my favorite Canadian, Todd Fancey (whose New Pornographers have a new record coming out shortly..) and the funniest Cleveland twitter friend I’ve made since I moved to Ohio, Stefan Damian, talking about some of the main matches at tomorrow’s Wrestlemania:

John Cena Vs. Batasta for the WWE Championship:

The Hip-Hop loving, Marine supporting, “real-life” Rocky, aka the closest thing wrestling has to a new Hulk Hogan, attempts to climb yet another unclimbable mountain against Batista, the man who once broke his neck. Batista’s found his groove as a bad-guy again, but can the WWE really send all those young boys home without a victory for their hero?

STEFAN: “OK, first off, I do not have cable right now and WWE hasn’t held too much interest to me due to some very horrible writing the past year or more. Smackdown was an excellent show until Taker returned. Then Batista was added to the show. And it got worse. Oy.

Has there been any wrestler who’s done as little as Batista to be in so many main event matches? Seriously. All he does is get injured and get rewarded with main event matches. I haven’t seen Raw in a while but I am told his character is much better now but that still can’t get me excited about the a match against the incredibly stale Cena. They’ve had a potential feud building since… Royal Rumble ‘04 was it? The one where Vince tore both quads. Do not care. Cena wins.”

MW: “I usually like the guy who talked the best game in the promos to win the match, and Batista has indeed been reborn as a truth-speaking bad guy, but John Cena’s been taking a whole lot of losses this year, so he’s gonna win it.”

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon:
Will Vince get what he has coming for the famous “Montreal screwjob?” Bret Hart, despite a real-life stroke, returns to the ring he vowed he’d never again set foot in looking for blood, but it’s Vince’s turf, what could he have planned?

TODD: “I’m a Canadian, who the hell do you think I’m going for here? Vince can talk all day long and make excuses all day long but Bret was screwed in Montreal and we haven’t forgotten and never will. It is vastly cool that Bret is returning to the ring. He is a Canadian hero. I defy anyone to find me a clip of a bigger pop (crowd reaction) than the one in MTL when The Heartbreak Kid was in the ring shooting his mouth off and all of a sudden Bret’s face and music came on the screen, the crowd went absolutely insane!! It was the biggest reaction I have ever seen and the man wasn’t even in the building! So yeah I don’t trust Vince for a second and I hope he’s carried out on a stretcher after Bret’s finished with him. Bret wins.”

MW: “I wanna wish him the best, but Bret’s been kinda boring. Sorry, Todd, sorry, Canada. Actually what I hope happens is that Bret’s really back to mess with HBK in that match. Obviously Bret wins, but Vince pulls out some sort of trick afterwards, maybe to keep Bret in the WWE a bit longer.”

STEFAN: “I haven’t seen any of this. All I know is Vince is not a wrestler and needs to brawl whereas Bret had a stroke a few years ago and shouldn’t be brawling. No idea what to expect here. Bret wins”

World Heavyweight Championship (ie Smackdown title): Chris Jericho vs. Edge

Traditionally a heel, but still a fan favorite, Edge rides the post-injury fan support into the face position against the man quickly becoming the gold standard of all heeldom, Chris Jericho. Jericho won the title as a lucky side-effect of the Shawn Michaels / Undertaker feud, but Edge is determined to get it back to gain revenge for former partner Jericho’s disparaging comments following Edge’s most recent injury. Apparently this insult spurred Edge to return much earlier than any normal human could reasonably be even able to walk again.

TODD: “Apart from fighting prowess the thing I admire most about the competitors in this game is comedic ability. Chris is the funniest man in wrestling and I love him for it. Come sun, rain, heel or babyface he’ll always be a favorite for me so I hope he beats down Edge (whom I respect but have never really cared for) with every implement at his disposal, I’m talking fists, garbage cans, hammers, kitchen sinks, you get the picture. Jericho wins.”

STEFAN: “Jericho is a close second to Punk as best in wrestling at the moment. I haven’t seen much of Edge since his return but he was always a better heel than face. This feud should be the one everybody is looking forward to but it seems to have taken 2nd to Bret/Vince. This has potential to also be MOTN but face Edge doesn’t inspire that much confidence in me. I want Jericho to win but Edge will.”

MW: “Love Edge, but Jericho’s the best in the world right now. He deserves the win and I don’t care how much cheating it takes. What will probably happen is that Edge will win and turn heel soon.”

Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk:

High-flying masked man Rey Mysterio, who sends the pre-teen crowd into a frenzy with his between the ropes swinging 619 move, takes on another guy who’s just on fire as a bad guy, “straight-edged” lifestyle preacher CM Punk. If Rey loses, he has to join CM’s ’straight-edge” society. It’s unclear what his duties will be, but I’m guessing he’s not gonna be at the top of the totum pole.

STEFAN: “Punk is easily the best thing going in wrestling at the moment. Rey is Rey. I expect this to be match of the night. I want Punk to win. Rey will win.”

TODD: (Todd has been hit by a chair and is out cold by the announcers table)

MW: “I know Wrestlemania is supposed to be mostly triumphant good guys, but one bad guy has to win, and it will be Punk. They love to have Rey as the put-upon good guy and being forced to join Punk’s group is a great story they can run with for a while. Punk wins!”

The Undertaker Vs. Shawn Michaels: Streak Vs. Career match.
Can the Deadman keep his streak of 17 straight wrestlemania victories intact? If so, then we lose one of the best of all time, the heartbreak kid, who has agreed to retire forever (whatever that means in this world) if he can’t win after narrowly missing last year.. Can they let this happen? Shouldn’t Undertaker lose to a younger guy, though?

STEFAN: “Both men very much past their prime. Last year’s match was a tad overrated but still good. I seriously doubt they can match it. Both are injured and need time off. The streak means more than a career in the wrestling world. Taker should and will win.”

MW: “HBK is one of the five best wrestlers in the world right now (Jericho, Punk, Angle, HBK and the 5th changes.) I can’t believe they’ll really get rid of him, but even less likely is Undertaker losing to an older guy. I say Bret Hart comes in, interferes and causes Shawn the match. That gives him an excuse to worm his way out of retirement and starts a whole new round of fights. 2nd possibility – Shawn wins by such devious means that the decision is overturned.”

TODD…recovered from the chair shot, but was immediately put into a sharpshooter submission hold. He didn’t tapped out but the American judge rang the bell to end the match anyway. Todd spit on him and spelled “WCW” in the air with his fingers….

Hi, Johnny Lately here, and one of the bands I’ve been most excited to discover in the past few weeks are San Francisco’s Citay. Many of you are probably way ahead of me. Citay plays excellent, long, catchy psychedelic rock songs, with lots of acoustic guitars, vocals from the age of aquarius, and tons of sweeping, melodic, non-wanky electric guitars. Imagine if Jane’s Addiction had more swing and were lighter on their feet, although maybe that’s a bad reference because frontman Ezra Feinberg declares himself “not a fan” of Perry & company.

Citay is skipping Cleveland on this leg of their current tour (boooo!) but we’re making the short trip out to Pittsburgh to see them at The Nerve this Monday and we strongly suggest you all join the caravan. Ezra was kind enough to answer a few questions for us via e-mail, here we go..

60: Many musicians say that their songs are all like children, and they couldn’t pick a favorite amongst them. Fair enough, but say a loved one emerges from a long coma, and after the joy and happiness has settled in a bit, they ask what you do for a living – which of your “children that you love all equally” would you play them first, and why?

Ezra: “I’d have to say ‘Careful With That Hat.’ After a long coma you’d need a good pick-me-up. It’s got a spring in its step that gets you goin, and the outro solo really says ‘welcome back to the world old pal. Now start shovelin’!!!’”

Citay and their label were kind enough to share the entire song with us, and it’s a great one:

Citay, “Careful With That Hat,” from DREAM GET TOGETHER

60: What do you think of projects like Beck’s record club, where he quickly covers a whole record with an assortment of musician friends, or the Flaming Lips “Dark Side Of The Moon” recording? What album by what artist would you most like to record start to finish?

Ezra: “I like the records he chooses, but I haven’t heard any of them yet. If I could do a record start to finish I think it would be The Roches ‘keep on doin.’ Because I’d like to get my hands dirty in some Robert Fripp folk pop.”

60: Do you realize what a good wedding song “Tugboat” is gonna be?

Ezra: “I do realize that, yes, and congratulations!” (thank you!)

60: When you’re on tour, who dominates the stereo? What’s being played on the current road trip?

Ezra: “It’s a democracy, mostly, and the stereo is occupied by many musics, but mostly anything derived from either Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust” and Judas Priest’s ‘Diamonds and Rust.’”

60: Do you enjoy rock musicals? Would you ever write one, and if so, what would it be about?

Ezra: “Grease! Especially the opening disco song which is so not 1950s. I’d like to write a rock musical about the influence of pornography on video format wars, from Betamax to blue-ray.”

60: OK here’s where we get to the name of this site – benevolent aliens have arrived, but the first thing they tuned into was E! television and now they’re not sure they should help us as originally planned. They are willing to listen to one full minute of recorded popular music, and if they like it enough, they’ll give us some special formulas to make the world run better. What are you going to play them?

Ezra: “The thong song.”

(60: Now, Ezra’s an indie rock guitar hero, so does he mean this one?…. )

Kyuss, “Thong Song,” from BLUES FOR THE RED SKY

(60:… Or this one… and what would either choice mean for our future?)

Dru Hill, “Thong Song,” from DRU HITS