(Sharkey will refer all further questions to Arthur Rubenstein, thank you very much. Pic swiped from Maria)

Clockcleaner’s John Sharkey recently said of fellow Philadelphian’s Man Man, “they suck horsedick. Ten years ago they would have been a ska band. Fake names only work if you can actually win a fight.” (Vice, May ’07) And while I’m not about to disagree with him, such rhetoric is blatantly unfair to those who actually enjoy sucking horsedick. Though I’ll guess that even that segment of society would find Man Man’s charms elusive, the Philadelphia Weekly’s Brian McManus learned that Sharkey’s neighbors weren’t willing to take the bait.

Shortly after the Vice article ran, publicist Derek Meier of Solid PR dropped Clockcleaner. (Solid also reps Man Man.)

Sharkey has a hard time understanding why people take these matters so personally.

“Dude, most of my friends don’t like my band. Won’t listen to us. That’s fine. We’re not everyone’s thing, and I get that. Dr. Dog isn’t mine. So what? To each his own.”

A fair point, one most rational people might agree with. Sharkey knows this too, which is why he adds, “Seriously though. My dad would think Dr. Dog is pussy shit, and he listens to Dan Fogelberg.”

The instances of “did not return calls by press time” for this story are too numerous to mention, and twice PW heard the phrase “I don’t want to be a part of this story in any way.”  Asked if he’d sit down to talk about Clockcleaner, Ryan “Honus Honus” Kattner of Man Man offered a simple, “Nope.”