The June MMMM challenged solvers to find a famous rock group. The title, along with the presence of R-LESS at 58-Down in the bottom-right corner clued as [Like non-oyster months, traditionally], hints at a mechanism involving removing R’s from entries.

The Across entries that contain an R, in grid order, are:

BRING
OTHER
BRAND
YOUR
WARN
TRIS
DRAWERS

Removing the R’s from these entries spells out BING OTHE BAND YOU WAN TIS DAWES, or parsed differently, “Bingo, the band you want is Dawes,” revealing the rock band Dawes as this month’s meta answer.

Quite a few solvers questioned whether Dawes is a “famous” band. In addition to being one of my favorite bands, they are very famous on the indie scene. But they are not mainstream-famous, so point taken!

Meta Song:

We had a blast covering a Dawes classic. Enjoy!

Selected Solver Comments:

Burak O’Drama   Complicated metas are great, but straightforward metas that still make you struggle and sweat a bit are as great. Went through a lot of clues, answers and anagrams when I finally realized I just had to read them in a row lol.

Erich Otto   First I thought it is Asia – the only continent (part of the WORLD) without an R.

Katiedid   I confirmed by searching Dawes Band Bingo, and found their connection to Bingo.  Dawes has eight albums out and play many different songs at concerts. Some fans bring “Bingo” cards to the show filled with song titles. I didn’t know this until I saw this comment!

Allan Patterson    It didn’t help that I’ve never heard of this famous rock group.

Alternative Music Clues:

Evan suggests cluing APPS as [Spotify and YouTube Music, e.g.], WARN as [“___ You” (Chamillionaire song with the lyric “First of all let me alert you that there’s been a change of plans”)], and GOALIE as [The Zambonis song with the lyric “Hey man do you know what is up? / The Flyers could’ve used me in the Stanley Cup”].

benchen71 suggests cluing VANESSA as [“Absolutely Everybody” singer Amorosi].

pbfrommn suggests cluing ECCE as [“___ Cor Meum” (2006 Paul McCartney album)].

Groaners:

Laurabrarian   and MMMMay all your favorite bands stay together.

rvkal   Instead of an “Aha!” moment, this was a “Bingo!” moment.

AxelPlays   The answer probably came naturally to Bostonians – it’s how they noh’mally tahk.

Jwaan   There was a meta had a band, and Dawes was its name-o.

Mikey G   But if oysters played in a rock band, it’d be a pearl jam!

Totals this month:

241 correct, 19 incorrect

Rating: 4.11 out of 5 stars

Difficulty: 3.11 out of 5

Monthly mug winner: Bob Johnson from Carmel, IN

Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can rate the puzzle (thanks!) and/or leave a comment.

Thanks to Tamara Brenner for the graphic.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!