Coldplay at the Super Bowl, Mike Polk, By Light We Loom and more: While We’re Waiting…

What’s up everybody? Recovered from Monday yet? Better yet, have the Browns? There’s no ice bath or practice schedule that can recover what has stricken this team, and even if there was it wouldn’t be ready in time for Sunday when the Browns play the Bengals. Speaking of…

What keeps me going as a Browns fan is what the Bengals have…

Those Bengals do give you some hope to every wannabe NFL team. It’s taken them a long time to become respectable, but it coincided with the arrival of A.J. Green and Andy Dalton. In so many ways it only takes two players. That’s an oversimplification, of course, but it’s also kind of just that simple. A couple key players is all it takes to head in the right direction. Even as the Browns have wasted every first round pick since Joe Haden, it only takes getting one or two of those picks right and all of a sudden that “bad luck” changes to good. Even as we’re mired in the depths of Browns despair, I truly believe that the Browns are a quarterback, receiver or difference-making middle linebacker away from turning the tide to something infectious in a positive way.

Coldplay are your Super Bowl halftime show and that’s probably good

I know Coldplay is a band that people love to hate. Whether it’s cool kids who think that Radiohead and Coldplay are mutually exclusive because they share an accent, or there’s disdain for lead singer Christopher Martin’s stage mannerisms and marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow, they are kind of disdained in a big way. I’ve never totally understood that. Granted, I haven’t enjoyed a Coldplay record since X & Y came out in 2005, but despite my personal drought with the band’s material, you can’t say they stink.

When the band was on their tour for X & Y back in March 2006, I scored prime seats from the corporation I worked for at the time. I didn’t love X & Y, but I had done whatever the modern equivalent is to wearing out a record when I consumed “A Rush of Blood to the Head” back in 2002 and 2003. Any band in the history of music should be lucky enough to have an album that good on their resume. It’s one of those albums that is full of great songs and needs to be listened to from front to back. From the the blasting of “Politik” to “In My Place,” “The Scientist,” “Clocks” and on down to “Amsterdam,” it’s an all-timer kind of album. That doesn’t mean you have to like it, but you should respect it.

And their live show was incredible. This is the kind of band that belongs in an arena filling it up with dramatic lights, dramatic moments and other histrionics. Just look at this setlist that we saw.

I get chills thinking about them ending their set with “Fix You” as the guitar comes in to lead the band into the final huge movement of the tune. It’s a bit melodramatic and a bit on the nose in terms of subject matter, but it’s still damn effective. And maybe that’s not the biggest endorsement you can give to a band, but it sure seems like the perfect kind of endorsement for a band that’s going to play the Super Bowl. Coldplay is a rock band that’s used to playing for gigantic audiences and writes music that plays really well to those huge audiences. There will be lots of snark about the selection of Coldplay, but it makes sense to me.

Mike Polk talked to me and it was a lot of fun

We’ve never had Mike Polk on the WFNY podcast before and he was certainly someone we’ve always appreciated. We’ve posted his videos here and now that he’s been on the podcast we just hope he’ll do it again some time. He was super funny, really nice, and self-deprecating in a real appreciative way as opposed to that fake modesty humble-braggy kind of way. I always say about Les Levine that “he’s exactly as nice as you think and hope he is after watching him on TV.” After meeting him and podcasting with him once, I can say the same for Mike Polk.

Please consider going to see him at The Agora. You get a copy of his CD with your ticket purchase, plus it’s going to be a giant, entertaining party with Cobra Verde closing it out at the after-party. Here’s the podcast I did with him.

Your weekly moment of soccer zen… COLUMBUS CREW YES CHANT

The only thing that I have to say is YES! I’m not really a Crew fan because I just haven’t watched them, but I’m really happy for all those that are. I’ve been paying more attention now that they’re in the playoffs and soccer fans in general – and Crew fans specifically – have some really cool stuff going on with the culture around the team. This “YES” chant might be the best.

By Light We Loom – Measure of Us

Last Saturday night I went to a show to benefit The Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland at The Happy Dog and I saw a band that blew me away called By Light We Loom. They’re two members of a now-defunct band called Bethesda that some of you might have heard of and they’re killing it as a duo. I’ve been listening to their EP non-stop and I’m already trying to book them to talk to me on the Scene podcast sometime soon. I wanted to share this song with you this week because it’s easily my favorite from them so far.