thedunereview

This is a review I’ve been meaning to do for a bit, but kept putting it off due to whatever stupid crazy shit is going on in my life at the moment.  I apologize about the lateness.  But now that I’m doing it, I have to start off by saying how much of an absolute [...]

The Dead Weather is the new new band from critically acclaimed and loved songwriter Jack White.  But don’t get confused when you hear it, because this music is by far the most experimental thing anyone has ever heard from him.  The band is made up of Jack, Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Jean Lawrence of [...]

The Beastie Boys are probably my all-time favorite hip hop act.  They are absolutely phenomenal and without them, we wouldn’t have people like Kanye or Common or nearly anyone big out there now.  With their new track they paired up with Nas, one of the most respected rappers in the past two decades.  Personally, I’ve [...]

If you remember, TDR reviewed the single “3am” from Eminem not long ago.  Now, we have the official music video.  If you recall what we said about the song, we thought it was a bit too hard of a try for ‘ole Slim and thought he could turn down his pitch a bit and be more powerful than nasal.  We still hold tight to our thoughts about the song, but we do love the video.  Luckily, and thankfully, the video makes the song much more tolerable and enjoyable.  I’ve always been a fan of horror movies, and this is what the video primarily is.  A nice short horror flick with an Eminem song as the soundtrack.  Personally, this video makes me much more hopeful and excited about the new album.  But, honestly, imagine how much better this song would be if he had the vocal tone used in his “Cleanin’ Out My Closet.”  If the whole album is high pitched and nasally I, amongst many others, will be terribly disappointed, but that won’t stop us from picking up the album.  I give the video a 4 out of 5, the only thing I disliked was Slim’s odd attempt at cryptic dancing.  It got a tad repetitive and overused.

The new Green Day single was released called “Know Your Enemy,” which in my opinion is everything that is cliche about Green Day.  A simple guitar riff, repeated OVER AND OVER,  with some “whoa”’s accompanied by simple melodies over the overly-simple guitar.  Don’t get me wrong, Green Day is actually pretty damn good, especially for what they do.  Their last album, “American Idiot,” was compared to being better than “Dookie,” which is still considered blasphemy in my mind.  This new single seems to be a direct continuation of the “American Idiot” feel, yet more simple.  They try to blast back onto the scene with a catchy chorus melody, but only come across as a dumbed-down, more lazy (or American for that matter) “American Idiot.”  I don’t like the single, I don’t like the video, and I especially don’t like how the same guitar riff is repeated throughout the ENTIRE song (outside of the bridge and a single post-chorus).  I’m serious.  Listen to it, the entire thing, and agree with me when I say that the songwriting is lacking and poor.  Let’s hope the rest of the songs aren’t like this.  I give this a 2 out of 5.

So I was really excited to hear the new Mastodon album, “Crack The Skye.”  Their previous work, “Blood Mountain,” was one of the best metal albums to come out in this decade, and I am VERY picky when it comes to metal music.  It’s actual been officially said that they have created their own genre of metal, aptly dubbed “beard metal.”  When I was in L.A. at the beginning of 2008, I was actually lucky enough to be able to hear a demo track of the new album while they were still in the studio, and what I heard was quite impressive.  So when the release date for the new album was announced, I was instantly psyched.
I was under the impression that the new album was going to be crazier than the last.  That’s what I was excited most about.  ”Blood Mountain” was so mathematical and hectic that it gave me the metal quench that only few bands have ever been able to do.  What they needed to accomplish in the new album was to take it a step beyond in order to top its predecessor.  What I got on the day it was released, however, was… good.  It was good, but it wasn’t great.  This album is more dedicated to their layered melodies instead of their insane riffs and chaotic style.  The song they released on their myspace prior to the release, “Oblivion,” sets the mood for the entire album.  It’s melodic, at many parts catchy, and it lacks the anarchic  chaos that “Blood Mountain” so eloquently had (look below for the song in it’s entirety). It opens the album and is by far the best track, followed by “Divinations” as the second and probably the loudest of the album.  ”The Last Baron” is the final track with a total runtime of 13 minutes.  The song is really good, but it has no need of being 13 minutes long.  Instead of a 7 track album with two songs clocked in at over 10 minutes, I would much rather have a 10 to 12 track album with each song rounding out to the 4 minute mark.  Don’t get me wrong, I do love the epic 7

03 Manchester Orchestra "I've Got Friends"
ACT III of XI of "Everything to Nothing"

Directed by Destroy Rock Music Inc
(Jason Bognacki and Clay Lipsky)
DP/Edited by Jason Bognacki

Director Jason Bognacki: In "I've Got Friends" we follow our heroine, Elaine, further down the cinematic rabbit hole as she plots another escape from her film with in a film. She lives out her memories again to a different end this time, finding love, settling an old score, and bending karma in her favor. Inspired in part by French silent films, saturday morning cartoons, and the thought "What if Georges Méliès directed a live action Scooby Doo episode?".

Shot in Southern France.

Manchester Orchestra as Themselves
Aline Avakian as Elaine
Aaron Mitchel as Benjamin
Chris Mammone as The Bear
Winston as The Wolf Dog

RED 4K Cinematography: Jason Bognacki
Archival Footage Provided by:

The Oldham Family

Here at The Dune Review, I am pretty passionate about music. I’m also very dedicated to letting you know what’s good and what’s bad. The bad for today? The new Kanye West video in the post below. What am I going to do to make up for your disappointed eyes? I’m going to give you two songs which you should download from iTunes immediately and put on repeat on your iPod. Don’t say I never did anything for ya
The first I’m going to talk about is “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” from Cage The Elephant. This band is supposedly one of the best bands to see live right now. I’ve been unable to though I’ve had several opportunities, but I hear it’s quite the energetic experience. The single from the new album, “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” is simply amazing. Honestly, the rest of the album is… not as amazing. But this song makes it worthy of your time.
Cage The Elephant - “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”


Secondly, there is a new band with a lot of hype called Manchester Orchestra. Their single is an iTunes free release this week so hurry up and grab it. The album isn’t bad and I still have some listening to do with it, but the single is pretty awesome. The video plays heavily on the whole eclectic, thrift store shopping scene that is spreading like the emo-virus, but hey, at least its not the emo-virus. Enjoy.
Manchester Orchestra - “I’ve Got Friends”

I’ve been waiting for quite a while to see the new Kanye West video for the song “Amazing,” one of the best songs on the 808’s album.  When I woke up this morning and saw the video, I was pretty disappointed.  I mean, yeah, I guess it’s kind of cool because he concentrates more on how “amazing” the world is and less on how “amazing” he is, which is a bit of a change for Kanye.  But, the video comes off like a sampler of clips from the Discovery channel, and I LOVE the Discovery channel.  This video is just so BORING though.  With Kanye West, you would initially expect nothing but originality when it comes to his videos because that’s what you have gotten so far, outside of the video for “Drive Slow,” which was just 4 and a half minutes of Kanye West and  Paul Wall driving in slow motion.  Every video Kanye has made has been able to stand out in the industry cluttered and over-saturated with fancy effects and mediocre songs.  I am a huge fan of Kanye, and its pretty much a fact that he truly is one of the biggest artists of this generation, but goddamnit Kanye, this pales in comparison to your other videos.  2 out of 5