Time for rock fans to place their bets

Here in Vegas, if you can bet on sports, why not on music? It's just as competitive, ego-filled and drug-enhanced. So, let's get things going and roll out some rock 'n' roll betting lines, shall we? Casinos, take note. Readers, send us your money.

Over/under on number of passed out soccer moms at Backstreet Boys/New Kids on the Block show: 1,356. Remember that time in junior high when your mean ass gym teacher made the asthmatic kid in class run the mile, even though he had a note from his mom? That's the kind of hyperventilating you're gonna see when this show hits the Mandalay Bay Events Center in July. And good for the ladies. It's about time something made you this happy, right? Seriously, not since "Friends" hit DVD have gaggles of 30-somethings with "Baby on Board" signs plastered to the back window of their minivans been this excited.

Odds of Twin Brothers' "Best Frenzy" being best Vegas release of 2011: 2-1. Plenty of bands revel in unleashing a toe-curling guitar squall, but Vegas' Twin Brother bring the noise and then shape all that dissonance and amp buzz into something as beatific as it is bracing. The emphasis here is on texture and attention to detail, with layered harmonies and dense, multipart jams, but the album still pulses with an immediacy and sense of purpose that make it more accessible than it probably has any right being. This one legitimately lives up to its name.

Odds of the Grammys actually recognizing the album of the year with its Album of the Year award: 10,000-1. Looking to the folks at the Grammys to select the finest album of the year is kind of like asking your grandma to help you decipher the slang on the latest Rick Ross disc. We'll give 'em some credit this go-round for choosing the rare indie rock album for inclusion here with the Arcade Fire's deserving "The Suburbs" among the contenders. But then it's business as usual with Lady Gaga's "The Fame Monster," a good, albeit stopgap EP between full-length records, Lady Antebellum's terminally dull "Need You Now" and Eminem's overrated "Recovery." Worst of all, though, is the inexplicable inclusion of Katy Perry's wet-brained "Teenage Dream," a dumb, dull album that's about as sexy as nude photos of Ernest Borgnine.

Odds of The Killers making a new record in 2011: Even. If I had a dollar every time someone asked me in the past year if The Killers' future was in doubt after the band went on hiatus and frontman Brandon Flowers released his superb solo record "Flamingo," I'd have at least six bucks (or a day's pay, in layman's terms). But alas, the group was recently named the headliner of the inaugural Lollapalooza in Chile festival in April and Flowers told a Canadian newspaper not too long ago that the band would probably start writing new material in May. So it seems like The Killers will resume knockin' 'em dead soon -- get it? That was a total play on the band's name. This is why I make the big bucks.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.