The April MMMM challenged solvers to “Connect Four” and find a well-known band. The only long entry, AROUND THE CORNER, suggested looking at the grid corners, all of which had an uncommon black square. Looking around those four squares, 180 solvers found the names of four musicians: Singer Roger DALTREY, drummer Keith MOON, guitarist Pete TOWNSHEND, and bassist John ENTWISTLE, the original lineup of The Who, this month’s meta answer.

Some solver comments:

Todd G   I’m guessing I’m not the only one whose first thought for 14-Across ([Asian city whose name is also an un-PC verb]) was BANGKOK (actually, you might have been)

crucial verbalist   Love the puzzle, love the band. Very clever. Great “aha” moment when Townshend suddenly leapt out at me

zersky20   Loved it! bracing myself for when the metas get hard

FrotzNPL   Apart from ISTLE, a surprisingly clean construction of the theme answers! Did you try any other famous quartets before finding a set that could be made to work? (The Who was the first band I tried, but I think Led Zeppelin could also work: PLANT, PAGE, BONHAM, JONES)

Abide   Great puzzle! I had to put it down for a few hours and come back. Just needed to “expand” my corners

Blind Pursuit   The meta is The Who, but me getting the meta is a more like “Woo-H0o!”

molson   Great puzzle and excellent meta this month!

TeamDelphiRune   Funny how one can be stumped at first, then give it a quick casual glance a bit later and voila!

Jim Q   Nice!!! Can it be May now? 

Clues that could have been musical:

fheaney   SHIRTS:  [New wave band in which Annie Golden of “Orange Is the New Black” once sang, with “the”] (I love this band – thanks for reminding me of them)

Redhead64   ICON:   [Despised ___ (Canadian deathcore band)]

rachaar   ECCE HOMO:  [Theme song to “Mr. Bean”]

Groaners (lots of them this month!):

andeux   I probably will get fooled again, though.

DIS   Very nicely done! And always nice to see a theme from my generation.

ant   Who is the meta answer?

jefflouie and Spelvin   YYYYYYYYYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (from “Won’t Get Fooled Again”)

Howard B   Puzzly quadrophenia!

Travis Hime   The Who’s on first–also second, third, and home.

KateD   Just another tricky day

kaymook   I can’t explain how cool it was to solve

Pancho   With this one, you nearly gave me the slip, kid. Definitely another tricky day for you. But because of puzzles like this one, I like you better, you bet.

People liked this one a lot, giving it an average of 4.15 stars out of 5, the highest-rated puzzle so far this year. They thought it was harder than the first three puzzles of the year, but still pretty easy (2.8 stars out of 5). The randomly chosen winner of an MMMM coffee mug this month is Phoebe McBee of New York City.

Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend. Thanks for all the great feedback and see you next month!