For breakfast today I had an Entenmanns rich frosted donut, a revolting sip of Gatorade (post teeth-brushing, terrible idea), and a nearly-private acoustic serenade by the real-life Nigel Tufnel, Derek Smalls and David St. Hubbins. How did I get so lucky?  I'm a Libra.

Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean held and "anti-Wembley" press conference this morning (3/2/09) at the House of Blues on Sunset to announce their 30-city, acoustic tour, Unwigged & Unplugged, kicking off April 17 in Vancouver.  It's the first time the trio will perform collectively as themselves, instead of in character.

In honor of the big news, the comic trifecta played a brief medley of Spinal Tap and Folksmen favorites before answering questions about the tour, the upcoming record, the 25-year legacy of This is Spinal Tap and how the rights to the iconic film, once owned by Embassy Pictures, came to belong to French Nazi lawyers. Then they took a few jabs at the ever-smug, MTV VJ of Christmas past, Kurt Loder, who emceed the Q&A event.

"It's a fine line between nostalgia and nausea," remarked McKean, and no one straddles that thin moat quite like these music-minded satirists.  Their upcoming venture promises to be big on funny and low on camp.  No smoke, no costumes, no 11.  The bandmates estimate the sound closer to an "8.5," with songs like "Big Bottom" still in-development (and proving a challenge to maneuver sans 19 bass players).  Expect Tap classics, the best of A Mighty Wind and some Waiting For Guffman selects to find their way into the show. 

Plans to tour as Spinal Tap, as well as the release of the band's "lost studio album," are also expected later this year.  The label rep was quick to announce that there was nothing more to announce at the moment, but Shearer indicated the album (available May 26) would include seven or eight new songs, as well as proper studio versions of live material from the film's original soundtrack.  Additional game tracks for Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero tracks may also be in the works. 

In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people, the Druids...  No one knows who they were, or what they were doing, but their legacy lives on. 

Remember this.