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In the world of sports, everyone knows about the long-standing rivalry between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.  When it comes to ass kicking rock ‘n’ roll, however, it’s a different story.  Northeast Ohio rock fans have gladly embraced Pittsburgh’s The Cheats, so much so that the band plays Akron and Cleveland as much as most hometown bands.  Vocalist Todd Cheat says, “I’m a sports fan, but sports are one thing; rock ‘n’ roll is another.  I’m playing Cleveland and Akron, we’re there all the time.  I don’t bring my Pittsburgh bullshit in.  And when we play out I don’t want to hear the Cleveland bullshit either.  We’re here to play fucking rock.  The jocks can stay at home (laughs).”   

The Cheats (Todd Cheat – vocals, Houston Wehavea Problem – guitar, Rob Reaction – guitar, Phillip Oliver Holes III – bass, and Angelo Automatic – drums) began their rock ‘n roll odyssey when Todd’s previous band, Silver Tongued Devil, broke up.  He says, “We got together probably like 2 years ago.  Me and Steve [the bass player, aka Phillip Oliver Holes III – ed.] were in a band called Silver Tongued Devil.  We toured Europe and had a big falling out with the rest of the guys in the band.  And we decided, when we get back let’s do a new band, completely different stuff.  STD was more like New Bomb Turks, Hellacopters.  Punk rock but with metal influences, like leads and all that stuff.”  The Cheats, in contrast, play a more straight forward, old-school style of punk.  Todd says, “We try to do the 2 minute song you can sing along to.  We’re not breaking any new ground, dude.”   

Todd and Steve still needed to find the rest of their band, but that proved to be a fairly easy task thanks to Todd’s job as a tattoo artist.  He says, “I tattooed on everybody in the band.  I tattooed a drummer, I tattooed 2 guitar players.  From tattooing those guys I was just like we should get something together.  As soon as I got back from Europe I called everybody up.  From there it was really cool.”  It didn’t take long to put a set of material together, either.  Todd says, “We wrote our first album in 3 days.  Both guitar players had stuff written, and I had all the lyrics.  It was basically a demo.  If you listen to it, you can hear some songs sound a little different that the other ones because we recorded it at two different times.  For what it is it’s cool.  We basically did it live.”   Eric Corbin heard the results, and decided to release the “demo” through his record company Da Core. 

While I think the album sounds great, the live setting is where The Cheats really excel.  Hardly surprising considering Todd and his bandmates have been delivering the rock goods professionally for several years now.  Todd says, “We’ve all been in a bunch of bands.  We’ve got a pretty good following, but we’ve been at this shit forever.  The Pittsburgh scene kind of sucks.  Some shows are good, some are bad.  The eighties around here, that’s when the scene was happening.”  That’s also when Todd was vocalist for underground thrash/hardcore legends Eviction.  If you can find Eviction’s album for Metal Blade records, you’ll hear a very different side of Todd’s vocal skills. 

While things have been going well for The Cheats for the most part, the band suffered a loss when guitar player Rob Reaction recently decided to go his own way.  Todd says, “He left via email.  He signed up for the Navy Reserves and said he couldn’t handle it.  So right now we’re doing auditions.  We’ve got a friend of ours who’s in a band called The Hucklebucks filling in.”  Rob’s leaving has unfortunately slowed progress as far as working new material into the band’s set and working on a new album.  Todd says, “It freezes you because you have to teach the new guy the old shit.  You’ve got to put that newer stuff on hold.”  Nonetheless, The Cheats will have a few new tracks coming out soon of various compilations, including Offspring and Green Day tribute albums.   There’s also a split single with Cleveland’s own Standing 69s in the works. 

Once the band gets their new guitar player in place, The Cheats plan on recording their next album.  There’s also talk of more extensive touring.  Todd says, “Eric from Da Core got us a booking agent, so we’ll probably do a few 2 week excursions.  All of us have jobs we can piss off for a little bit.”  As for long term goals, Todd says, “Basically I just want to have fun.  I’m like 40 years old and I’ve got a 16 year old kid.  I think everybody else in the band is the same way.  It’s the first band I’ve been in where it hasn’t been a hassle.”   Becoming a fan of The Cheats isn’t a hassle, either.  Get out and catch one of the band’s frequent live shows in northeast Ohio or pick up their album.  You’ll be glad you did.

Visit  The Cheats website.