Red Mosquito

Okay, listening to "I'm With Stupid" for the first time, and this may be the most lunkheaded riff in the entire tournament (or at least until we get to "Break Stuff"). I like the syncopation in the vocals, but that's pretty much it. Everything else about it is very bland. I appreciate the humor and the over-the-top nature of it, but this song is just not very good. "Push It" was at least fun.

Voting for "Smooth Criminal". It is obviously the better song, and the AAF guys play the shit out of it.

"Smooth Criminal" is impressive for how it translates across mediums without losing any of its original melodic prowess. The Michael Jackson vocalizations throughout are a strike against it (they play up the jokey novelty angle too much -- there's enough of that in the concept alone), but I appreciate that these guys were able to hear that original instrumental part and recognize, "Hey, that's a palm-muted metal riff in disguise." That type of thing is a talent that doesn't get enough credit.

That said, it makes me kind of uncomfortable how close the singer, guitarist, and bassist stand to each other throughout that video -- it makes me think of the guys from KISS rocking their heads back and forth in unison.

Static X is what a b-grade artificial intelligence would turn into if you force fed it nu metal, tv feed glitches, and slim jim commercials, and then randomly took bits of code out here and there.

This has been a list of reasons why I like Static X.

RIP Slim Jim mascot man

I am voting for Smooth Criminal because of that video. It's like every member of that band is the guy you knew who played bass in high school--I know they're each playing different instruments, but I bet they each also played the bass and loved telling you how complex it actually was.