I've been going between Led Zeppelin and Billy Joel lately, with a little bit of new stuff in between (Beck, Weezer, Vampire Weekend) to clear the palate.

Sometimes it seems like Billy is just too poppy. Too quick to bounce into a chorus instead of letting it ride a little longer. And then "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" comes on and I have to look back at Zep and say, "What do you got now?"

Of course, they've got one of the most consistent catalogues in the history of rock. They started out bang up and kept it going till the drummer died.

Fuckin' drummers.

Billy Joel's been through a lot of peaks and valleys. He's now a legend who tours occasionally. Drinks more than occasionally, and then takes a little time off to dry out.

Maybe I'm getting a little esoteric today.

Maybe it's because I've got blisters on my fingers again.

Maybe we could do the big kahuna of musical politics: Beatles vs. Stones.

Except there's no winner, other than the person who spends a day listening to the late 60s Beatles and (mostly) 70s era Stones. And then they've got the best of both worlds.

I'll put Abbey Road and Sticky Fingers at the top of their respective musical pyramids.

Then I've got the White Album and Exile On Main Street. In fact, I might say that Exile is a five or more years later response to the White Album. Except that Exile was really about drug binges and sex orgies in the South of France, with the occasional bit of heavily impaired driving down seaside country roads. They were responding to the ends of their noses.

Revolver and Let It Bleed come next (even though Bleed is actually late 60s, rather than 70s), followed closely by Sgt. Peppers and Some Girls.

I always split my votes between those two legendary parties.

Duran Duran vs. Guns N' Roses. Duran Duran had the hit singles, the three guys with last name of Taylor and that Barbarella reference. Guns N' Roses has the best debut album in the history of music.

The outcome is always a surprise. In this case, Bon Jovi wins the popular vote. I totally didn't see that coming at all.

Here's one that's a little out of left field: Ween vs. They Might Be Giants. It's like LSD vs. coffee. But they are similar (both are two man bands and started out with drum machines and spare stage shows) in many ways. TMBG has the astoundingly huge catalogue. They have the almost perfect album in Flood. And they even had some hits. Ween, though, just jumps on top of you, then leaves you all sweaty wondering what happened, and then, well, that strange spaghetti western song keeps going on into the sunset. And they put out a whole album of sea shanties--way before pirates were cool again.

Ramones vs. Sex Pistols? Ramones hands down (though the Sex Pistols have the glory of lasting about as long as a teenage jerk off).

New Age punks? Green Day vs. NOFX? I wouldn't have heard NOFX without Green Day. But maybe American Idiot wouldn't have been made if The War On Errorism hadn't come first. And then there's the whole DIY thing with NOFX. The spurning of a record company to make their own. And the Warped Tour. "Eat The Meek" vs. "Good Riddance." I have to go with NOFX, just because I listen to them more often. Even though American Idiot stayed in my rotation for over a year.

So who's the big winner? And why did I only mention one solo artist? Why not the Go-Gos vs. Pretenders (Chrissie Hynde, baby)? And what is this ballot initiative all about anyway?

For some reason, Elastica takes it every time.

Matt Worley is in a musical state of mind.