Muzak: Up with Head, Down with J. Johnson

RIGHT: The cerebral Common



I finally got around to the music suggestions y'all dropped on me (For the record: Common, Hit The Lights, Head Automatica, Thursday). And by "got around to" I mean "really wanted an excuse to not do research for my Media Effects term paper."
Anyway, without further procrastination and pithiness, The Review:
Common -- This guy is a beat poet, not a rapper. He belongs in some dark, brick-walled basement, doing slam poetry in between yazz flute performances. He's not bad, just not much of a rapper. He's not a wordsmith, has no edge whatsoever and isn't funny. He did a song with Mary J. Blige called "Come Close" which, while having a lovely melody, sounds like a perfect fit for the Love & Basketball soundtrack. Suffice it to say that, if this was 1998 and people still actually paid for music, I would not be paying for it.
Head Automatica -- I'm assigning two (2) bonus points to Head Automatica for writing songs called "Tara Reid is a Whore" and "Zack Morris is My Hero." I always hate the cheap "all this band's songs sound the same" criticism (of course they sound the same, it's the same band), but Head Automatica's sound is rather dynamic. "Tara Reid is a Whore" sounds little like "Graduation Day." And these guys are willing to use instruments other than drums, guitar and bass. These qualities, if not their specific sound, remind me of Queen, which has long been one of my favorites.
Which brings us to ...
Houston Calls -- These guys are the spokesmen for the "kids who intentionally alienate all their classmates then complain about being ostracized, and also show up for family reunions wearing eyeliner and black lipstick and and refusing to talk to anybody, then wonder why their fathers are embarrassed of them." I can't stand these kids. And this band reminds me of all those mainstream punk bands that are as contrived as O-Town.
With that rant over, I move on to ...
Kanye West doing a song with John Mayer -- I couldn't find a full-length download of the song, just some goofy bit with Mayer and Kanye talking about black people liking John Mayer while a clip of the song plays in the background. But while we're on this topic, I would like to point out that John Mayer is so much better than Jack Johnson, that Jack Johnson should just go back to watching the Cartoon Network and waxing surfboards in his underwear, or whatever it is he did before he started writing anti-climactic songs about pancakes. What a sham. Talk about a guy whose music all sounds the same. Jack Johnson has one song. Why hasn't anybody else figured this out yet? Just put "Situations" on a loop for 55 minutes and you have a Jack Johnson album.
Tech N9ne -- A work acquaintance suggested I listen to Tech N9ne, a Kansas City-based rapper whose style is totally unclassifiable. I think Tech can rap. I also think he desperately needs a producer to grab him by the throwback-jersey neckline and tell him to stop using that dumb demonic-sounding voice in his songs. With a decent producer and someone to redo his image, he could be a star.