Some quick tidbits.

Hello,

Here's two people that I don't quite understand why they are so popular. John Mayer is on the cover of the most recent Rolling Stone as one of the guitar greats. He may be a great guitatist but his songs suck. When he was just beginning he had a couple of good songs including "You're Body is A Wonderland". That is a great song and it is apparantally written about Jennifer Love Hewitt. His first song was the excellent "No Such Thing". However he has not released any good music since then. Both "Daughters" and "Waiting For the World To Change" are boring. (One of the songs that David Archuleta sang on "AI" this season was "Waiting For The World To Change", does that tell you how boring his music is?)

Also in looking at rs.com they are calling Lil' Wayne a superstar, which makes we ask what is their definition of a "superstar". My definition is that no matter what genre you're in, most music fans should be able to name at least one or two songs of your songs. I cannot tell you the name of any Lil' Wayne song and I don't frankly care. What makes him a superstar then? Especially in this time of immense hype why he is considered a superstar? Also isn't the Lil' nickname about wore out as a rap nickname by now? I am so ready for rap/hip-hop to go away, even though I don't think I will.

I read something funny the other day. In no surprise to anyone, Jeff Archuleta signed with 19 Entertainment, uh I mean David Archuletta. That is the same company that David Cook signed with after winning "AI". This is the funny part: according to this report he is currently writing his own songs. Can you imagine how crappy these songs are going to be? However songwriters everywhere are applauding as he will at least reduce the number of their songs that he will ruin. Honestly he probably has a couple of songwriters he is working with, realistically he will be lucky to have more than one of "his/Daddys" songs on the CD. I am also sick of him, his 15 minutes of fame are over. Fortunately 2nd place "AI" contestants don't stick around for long. If you don't believe me, from memory name two of the 7 besides Archuleta.

Also in this era of hype and style over substance, when artists like David Archuleta, John Mayer and Lil' Wayne are getting hyped, some great artists are being skipped over. Along with Lil' Wayne, Alanis Morissette, Jakob Dylan another band releasing new music today is a band called the Fratelli's. Their new CD is "Here We Stand". If you haven't heard their first CD you need to check it out, it is titled, "Costello Music". They don't get the hype, the radio play or other publicity. But they are much better than more popular bands like the Killers et al. About the only other relatively new band I would compare them to in terms of quality is Panic at the Disco. The Fratelli's new CD is available for $7.99 at amazon.com, they have don't have the MP3 available yet. iTunes is selling the MP3 for $9.99. Also the new music Foxboro Hot Tubs is releasing today is the actual record and that record comes with a bonus CD. For those of you under 30 ask an adult what a "record" is. Also the Foxboro HotTubs MP3 is still available at amazon.com for $7.99. I also listened to the amazon.com snippets of all the songs on this CD. It sounds pretty good.

Last night I finished the book "Atonement" by Ian McEwen. I had started reading it before I watched the movie, watching the movie made me want to finish the book. What a great book, good movie and terribly depressing end. It is one of those movies/books that stays with you for awhile and you keep on thinking about it. As you think about it, new insights keep on coming to you. Also I went and watched "Iron Man" with a couple of my boys today. That is easily the coolest movie this year so far, much cooler than Indiana Jones 4. I would definitely you reccomend that you go see it. Although as you may or may not know Marvel Comics is now taking its comic book heroes and making the movies about them now, not passing that on to movie studios. So their next movie is a remake of "The Incredible Hulk", the movie that was a complete bomb a few years ago. Anyway this new "Hulk" movie looks very cool, but unfortunately the story looks about exactly the same as "Iron Man". One more movie note M. Night Shymalan's new movie is out this Friday. I don't have my hopes up but this movie looks very cool, it is called "The Happening". He is the director behing "The Sixth Sense", "Signs" and then a bunch of crap. (I also liked the comic book movie but can't think of the title now.)

According to Jimmy Page, via rollingstone.com, Led Zeppelin is considering reuniting and touring during the autumn of 2009. Apparantally Robert Plant is the hold up, Jimmy Page is all for it. I am guessing so is John Paul Jones. In fact Jones and Page joined the Foo Fighters for a couple of songs in concert the other night. For video proof, see rs.com. As much as I would like to see that, I am expecting that to be as realistic as Guns 'N' Roses ever releasing, "Chinese Democracy".

Here is some more music news: Jennifer Hudson released her new single today. The title of the song is "Spotlight". It is a nice funky jam, her voice is so awesome. Also on iTunes she has another song available, it is her remake of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed". This is a great song, her singing complimented by the musicianship of Jamie WilliamS makes this a great remake. (Yes he spells his name WilliamS.) I would reccomend you buy both. If you can only buy one, buy "Overjoyed". One more thing I am going to make a reccomendation that I cannot make believe I would be making a week ago. I reccomend you buy the CD of Poison remakes of old songs, it is titled "Poison'd". They have picked a bunch of great songs and they rock all these songs. It is much better than Def Leppard's "Yeah".

Upcoming on Thursday reviews of the new CD's by Duffy and Leona Lewis, both are very disappointing. Also coming Thursday is a review of the Muddy Waters new live CD, "Breakin It Up, Breakin' It Down". I am also thinking about tossing in a review of Guns 'N' Roses "Appetite for Destruction" as well. I want to show that not all my CD reviews are negative. I also just want to tell you how much joy reviewing music sucks out of the music. Also why does Barnes and Noble's record section suck so bad and why are their CD's so damn expensive? Also songs that are rocking my iPod and "American Idol" fifth place finishers. I am working all today tomorrow at my job, so I will be back on Thursday.

have a great week, themusicaddict