Look What I Did – “Atlas Drugged”
If you’ve heard this band before, and especially if you’re a fan, then their previous work Minuteman For The Moment is more than likely at the top of your list of most interesting albums you’ve ever heard, as their myspace quote pretty much sums up their brilliant existence: “confusing the shit out of hardcore kids since 2001.” LWID is not the most popular band, but their fan-base is strong and devoted. Their on-stage presence is unlike most, being fronted by a seemingly meth’ed out political lunatic backed by guitar noises among the likes of The Jesus Lizard mixed with Frank Zappa, Marnie Stern, and Faith No More. Not strange enough? How about you take all those references and throw in the fact that it’s CATCHY? This is the band that music snobs wish they could see on MTV and hear on the radio, but hope will never get too big so that they can pretentiously name them on the top of their list knowing not many people will understand.
Look What I Did’s latest effort, Atlas Drugged, is driven by politics, radio repetition, anti-misandry, religion, philosophy, and much more. However, it is done so well that you don’t even realize a song is about burning down the federal reserve until you’re singing along while reading the lyrics. The messages aren’t so cleverly hidden or subliminal as much as they are beautifully written in. The album moves swiftly, taking you from banging your head against the wall to jumping up and down to sitting back trying to figure out all the layers while hearing your own heartbeat. This album will certainly be at the top of your playlist for weeks on end, if not months (that is, if you can get a grasp in understanding the music). This isn’t for the commercial-friendly, but is certainly needs to be heard. Five out of five stars.
30 Seconds To Mars – “This Is War” Review
30 Seconds to Mars is a band which use to have an underground respect back in 2003 with their self-titled debut. In the past 2 or 3 years however, 30STM has been tarnished by douchebaggery, fashion, and ego. The last of the three being incredibly evident in their latest effort, This Is War.
I won’t lie…I actually use to be a big fan of this band. Their debut album I thought was amazing because it didn’t sound too much like everything else going on at the time, and being such a big fan of the movie Requiem For A Dream, I naturally thought it was cool to see Jared Leto having other talents outside of acting. It wasn’t so much him trying to make it as a singer because he wasn’t going on television putting his name out there as a musician. He came out with his band instead of as a solo act, which I thought was pretty humble. Even when A Beautiful Lie came out, I thought it was a pretty good album. It wasn’t until stories of Jared being a douchebag to people surfaced that I started losing respect (telling critics he wants to bash their heads in with a bat, pressing charges on a girl after getting punched in the face, etc). Along with that, every video they made was an epic attempt, which is nice at first, but can be extremely annoying three times after.
Enough on why everyone dislikes Jared, lets get to why I don’t like this album. Lets begin with the first track. Jared sings softly into the microphone similar to a Jonas brother while strings play in the background. The track ends with a choir of children yelling “this is war.” It then goes into the first fully-written song titled “Night Of The Hunter.” 30STM has always been known for their electronic sound, but the beginning of this song sounds far too similar to the cheesy Bon Jovi guitar effect. I keep waiting for Jared to scream out “it’s my life and it’s now or never.”
The rest of the album goes on to reveal more songs similar to “Night Of The Hunter” and the single, “Kings and Queens.” Though the production on this album is pretty amazing, I can’t help but feel that this album went far beyond what it needed. The song-writing is mediocre, and without the huge production budget this album would sound as terrible as the lyrics. In their previous albums, there was always a constant theme, but the songs seemed to differ from one another enough lyrically and musically to the point where it seemed justified. With This Is War, the theme is constant with the lyrics and all the songs sound far too much alike. At most times you can take the chorus to “Kings And Queens” and sing it over the others.
Jared seems to have bit off a bit more than he can chew with this album. The production is much bigger than his vision, and his writing has greatly suffered because of it. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll find the album entertaining, but you certainly won’t like it as much as their previous efforts. It’s a shame to see such great production and engineering go to waste on mediocre music. For Jared’s sake, I know he’s been having a lot of money troubles so I hope this helps him, but I’m only giving this album a 2 out of 5. It’s not something I have much interest in listening to ever again.
Weezer – “Raditude” Review
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 frustration this album is. I’ll get to that soon, let me rant a bit on my history with them first.
Weezer is a band that took my generation by storm in 1994 with the release of the blue album. I was 9 years old and had only started realizing what differentiates shit music from amazing music. You gotta realize all the amazing shit going on those years. Nirvana’s Nevermind. Sublime’s Sublime. Dookie. Siamese Dream. These were some of the greatest albums of all time. Weezer’s debut was, in my opinion, certainly up there because it broke away from the grunge, dark and brooding writing going on and it brought about a happier side to things.
They fell off afterwards with the release of Pinkerton, though it remains to be a fan favorite and certainly one of the most critically underrated albums of that decade. It wasn’t until 5 years after Pinkerton that they came out with the green album, certainly one of the most anticipated albums of that year. I remember that day very clearly because it was the same day that Marilyn Manson’s Golden Age Of Grotesque came out. Needless to say, this was possibly my most disappointing day in music purchasing. I listened to both albums back to back, countless times, trying to convince myself that they were good. There was no way that both influential artists could put out something so aggravatingly disappointing at the same time. I ended up, literally, being so angry I threw both albums out of my moving car.
Since then, they’ve had several albums. Starting with Maladroit, which they released nearly a year later to the day, almost to make up for the shittiness of the green album. Maladroit was a throwback to their more rock sound that put them on the map in the first place, though many say this album was a bit heavier than usual, but maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much. What followed after this album was their dive into experimentation with different sounds, a stray from their raw guitar feel. They started with Make Believe, continued with the red album, and now with their recent release of Raditude. It seems that as each album goes, they delve deeper into using poppy synth noises, breaking away from the sound that their fans love them so much for. This has never been so apparent with the release of Raditude.
Raditude, as bluntly as I can put this, is just bad. I am close to saying it’s horrible, but I would feel guilty. I don’t want to go to any extreme adjectives just because I wanted to sever a newborn’s head after I heard it. It starts off with the greatest song on the album, which is absolutely amazing the more you listen to it, but is followed by what can easily be argued as the worst Weezer music to date. The songs are heavily compressed, overproduced, and devoid of anything you loved about the band before (aside from the first track, “If You’re Wondering”).
Rivers, what the hell is wrong with you? You can’t just tease us with a brilliant first track and then continue with absolute mediocrity. You need an example of why it’s so bad you say? Listen to the song “Can’t Stop Partying” and you’ll forget why you ever loved this group. It’s a club song. I know that sounds odd, but just listen. It’s a fucking club song. It has a programmed beat, and the chorus is about drinking Patron and dancing with hot chicks in a club. Not only that, but Lil’ Wayne has a guest appearance in the third verse rapping about how he mixes pills with alcohol and how he loves to party with beautiful women. I realize that Weezer more than likely did this as a joke, but it’s not funny. It’s not witty. When listening to this I can only imagine my friend Sarah from high school listening to it and crying through her Cuomo glasses.
The entire album is so overly-rich with pop that it makes you immediately turn your iPod to Pinkerton just so you can justify ever enjoying them. I was horribly angry when the green album released, but move over my green enemy, you just got bumped a spot. If it wasn’t for the first track, I would have given this album only one star, if any at all. Therefore, I’m giving it two stars out of five. Just to give you some glimmer of hope, I’ll post the music video for that song below. I actually love the video, it’s one of the best ones I’ve seen in a very long time, but I beg you. Save yourself by only listening to this song. If you really want to be disappointed, listen to the rest. But take my word for it, this is the only promising part of the entire thing. Good luck. **
Local Nashville Band of The Moment: H-Beam
I get it. Around 75% of my visitors and readers are friends of mine, or at least people that know me or follow me on twitter or something. With that reasoning behind me, I think I’ll try doing a new thing where I start posting segments about local bands in Nashville that I feel are worth a damn. If you live in Nashville (if you’re reading this review then you more than likely do), or especially if you don’t live in Nashville and are a random visitor to the site, then you should definitely check out these unknown bands. The first I will mention is a band called H-Beam. Their album was just released and it’s pretty awesome.
H-Beam is the Frank Zappa/Mike Patton fix that you’ve been needing for the past 5 years. Their music is spastic, eccentric, non-sensical, and terribly amusing to the point where you find yourself chuckling in your car-seat while on a business call. Their debut album, Useful Box Of Hair, has the Dune Review Seal-Of-Approval and is certainly something to check out. When I say its a mix between Zappa and Patton, I mean just that. But in NO way is that a bad thing in this situation. I’ve heard bands influenced by Zappa and Patton before, and it sounded like absolute garbage. When bands try to pull it off it sounds tried and unoriginal, but H-Beam pulls it off so well that it makes you wish Frank was still alive so that he and Patton could do a double-album together.
Don’t be fooled; I’m not just going to be praising this album or this act out of bias or favor, there are things about this album that I am not too fond of. The vocals are spread out so much in stereo sometimes that the alignment seems off, out of personal preference I’d enjoy more snare, and other simple things that all come from me being overly critical. These minor complaints, however, are not enough to dislike the music. It’s not a major label act; it’s two guys from Nashville creating a monster of an album with a low budget, so don’t get excited thinking that it’s a production masterpiece. The album sounds amazing for what it is, and The Dune Review feels you should give it a listen.
Head over to their official WEBSITE, or check them out on their MYSPACE in order to grab a listen. You’re welcome.
Brand New – “Daisy” Review
Brand New came on the scene alongside bands like Thrice, Taking Back Sunday, The Used, and all the other acts that blew up around the same time as Fuse TV and Hot Topic. After their album Deja Entendu, I didn’t think too much of them and I honestly didn’t really expect to hear of them again. Though they were more original than the other screamo/post-hardcore bullshit coming out at that time, I kinda expected them to fall through the cracks with everyone else. To my amazement, they put out the album The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me, which, if you haven’t heard it, you should go download it immediately. That album blew my fucking mind.
Daisy seems to pick up shortly where The Devil And God left off, though this effort is not nearly as poignant. Daisy is a good album, but compared to their previous, it just doesn’t do the band justice. Through several front-to-back listens, I found myself becoming almost bored (though it honestly may just be coming from the comparison). The songs are more than decent, but I can’t help but feel a lack of passion in the writing. This almost feels like they tried too hard to keep writing in order to avoid the road.
One thing that is very noticeably different on this album is the overall vintage feel it has. It opens and closes with a female opera singer belting out notes behind old-school, mono vinyl effects, giving the listener phonographic images. Throughout the entire album, the production gives you this feel, however modernized it may be. The vocals peak (on purpose) at times and the overall feel of most songs bring you back to a time before radio. This album is good, but for Brand New, it’s borderline mediocre. Fans of the band will love it, but for me, it will only get so many rotations in my iPod. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. ***
Kid Cudi – “Man On The Moon: The End Of The Day” Review
Are there such things as hip-hop-stoner-hippies? Because this album is just for them. With that said, Kid Cudi’s debut album is all about being very deep, out there, spacey, and hypnotic. For the most part, it seems to work. However, like most music deeming to be spacey and hypnotic, much of it just doesn’t make sense.
Kid Cudi is an artist that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Kanye West. He was initially a film school drop-out that moved to Brooklyn to pursue music, where he made a mixtape which caught the attention of Mr. West himself. Kanye then brought him in to sing guest vocals on “Welcome To Heartbreak” as well as helping him write lyrics and melodies for the songs “Heartless” and “Paranoid”, all of which appeared on West’s album 808’s and Heartbreaks. Though I was personally a big fan of the 808’s album, while listening to this new Cudi album, it’s obvious where the influence came from. Also, even with Kanye’s album being very experimental and a great effort, Man On The Moon seems to be what Kanye should have done and what he actually meant to do. Meaning, this is very similar to 808′s, yet fortunately lacking a vocoder.
Musically, this album is absolutely amazing. It nearly perfectly symbolizes the new direction hip-hop seems to be taking with all the dance influence. However, lyrically, I feel this album tries a bit too hard. More times than not, when Kid tries to say something deep and powerful, it comes off as…stupid. There are two perfect examples of this, one of them being the intro track titled “In My Dreams,” and the other being in the song “Enter Galactic.” When the intro track starts, the music brings you back to the first time you saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, but when the lyrics come in, it seems very half-assed. It sounds like he smoked far too much pot and freelanced over the string section, saying to himself “yo this is gonna really make people think.” It’s not making me think, it’s making me skip to the next track.
The next example would be “Enter Galactic.” During the bridge/breakdown of the song, he beings a poetic, spoken-word-esque type of rant. This is where he says the words, “If you can’t do what you imagine, then what is imagination to you?” I’ll be honest. At first, I thought that was pretty cool. That is…until I went back and listened to it again. Though it sounds cool, it doesn’t fucking mean anything. It’s a dead sentence bound to blow the minds of people who’s minds are already depleted by pot and LSD. When I hear lyrics like this, it just bothers me. I’ve honestly had conversations with legitimately psychologically-damaged homeless people who have come up with phrases that make more sense than that.
And I also need to comment on the role that Common plays on this album. He has these moments at the beginning or end of certain songs where he seems to be telling a story. You would initially think that whatever story he is telling about the “main character” would be something that relates to the lyrics or the overall theme of the album, but it doesn’t. It tries to tell the story about the upcoming of Kid Cudi, as he refers to him as “the man on the moon,” but it continues throughout the album as if to set up a backstory to certain tracks. This seems to be an added-on attempt to be more poetic, but comes off very fumbled.
But don’t get me wrong, I actually highly enjoy this album. Tracks like “Soundtrack To My Life” and “Simple As” are fantastic tracks, not to mention the amazing singles “Day ‘n’ Nite” and ” Make Her Say.” ”Simple As” is a highlight simply because it starts off making you believe the song is in a 3/4 time signature, until the main beat drops in at 4/4 while still holding the 3/4 pattern behind it. This has never been done in hip-hop before (as far as I know). This album is begging to be heard, and it deserves every listener. I think its experimental and will certainly lead to a new sub-genre of hip-hop that needs to be discovered. Though this album will be regarded as one of the top front-runners of that genre, I don’t feel this album is nearly close to a perfected version of it. I do think, however, that because of this album, better things are on the way. Though there is much to complain about on my part, I’m giving this album a 4 out of 5. ****
Muse – “The Resistance” Review
Muse is possibly one of the most hyped-about bands this past decade, blowing up overseas with the album Showbiz, while waiting until the release of Absolution to explode in the states. Songs like “Time Is Running Out” and “Hysteria” dominated U.S. charts only to be continued in 2006 with “Supermassive Black Hole.” It’s obvious to say, though I’m sure other elitist music-snobs (much like myself) will disagree, Muse is one of the most original bands to hit radio in what seems to be a very long time.
Personally, Showbiz is by far my favorite album from this group. I consider myself a fan, but not enough of one to listen to them on a frequent basis. The song “Muscle Museum” from Showbiz, however, is constantly found in my playlists. Their new album is coming out soon, and I know a ton of you are really excited. I have been privileged enough to take a good listen to it this early in the game. Don’t worry, I’m not the type to say “well they’ll never be as good as Showbiz” or “I just like their old stuff better, the stuff that was out when no one knew who they were.” Fuck that noise. People like that bother me, unless the music of a certain band was clearly better years before their fame smacked them in the temple with a cricket bat (Atreyu, System of a Down, Green Day)… Just kidding (no, I’m not). Seriously though, when people say things like “Nine Inch Nails will never be as good as they were when The Fragile was out” or saying that the only good Dillinger Escape Plan was Calculating Infinity and everything else sucked, it’s pointless. The reason Nine Inch Nails will never be the same as they were during the days of The Fragile is because Trent Reznor was a completely drug-addicted maniac on the verge of suicide. And he’ll never be as angry as he was during the days of The Downward Spiral either, so quit expecting another one! Bands evolve, and as they do, their music changes. When bands grow and their music stays the same, it ends up being a horrific train-wreck downfall that brings tears to your eyes as you are forced to watch it, torturing yourself as you hope for something different (by the way, thanks 311, now I don’t even care about your new album).
With that being said, it was obvious listening to Showbiz that this band was meant for a bigger sound. It was an absolutely massive album. Guitars blazed alongside monstrous vocals with some of the catchiest bass lines I may have ever heard backing it up. As the band continued to write and put out hit albums, their sound seemed to get larger and larger. This album has some of their largest songs by far, ending with a huge three-part symphony orchestrated by Matthew Bellamy himself. The rest of the album, surprisingly, seems more stripped of effects and computer-generated keyboards than previous albums, yet still having just enough to satisfy the fans that loved it. This can be said for much of the album. While each song builds up into what seems to be an imminent explosion of rock and keys, Bellamy seems to hold back at the last minute as if to tease you each time.
My opinion: this album is good, and there are songs on here that will blast onto radio, but outside of it’s near-perfect production, I find it to be somewhat bland for Muse. The songs are good, but only good. The ending symphony is pretty sweet, but I don’t feel its something I’m going to run to my friends saying “holy shit, you gotta check this out.” They are more the quality of, “hey man, did you check out that new Muse album? What did you think of the symphony?” While you both will agree that its good, the conversation will most likely stop there. It’s not something to go much into detail about. Allegedly, the three-part ending took Bellamy quite some years to complete…ouch. Though it’s bland for Muse, it’s still better than a lot of shit that has come out lately. I give it a score of 4 out of 5.
Jay-Z – “The Blueprint 3″ Review
Here is an artist known for his lyrics and being able to write quickly and efficiently, while still holding onto a concept worth-while. Jay-Z is one of the biggest rappers in the industry right now, as he certainly is and will always be a legend, but it seems about time for him to retire for real this time. If not, then he probably needs to take a good 5 years to find something meaningful to write about.
“I shouldn’t be so popular.” This is a quote from the second track of this album, which pretty much sums up Jay’s career post-Black Album. Jay-Z use to be one of the more prolific lyricists in the game; it seems now that he is more concerned with talking about how awesome he is rather than something meaningful. Simple rhymes about how much of a badass you are, or about how much money you have, is more suited for gangster rap, not for hip hop. Not only that, but lyrics like this of his new album are overly mediocre, proving that Jay-Z is well past his prime. The beats here are amazing, but lyrically it leaves no lasting impression or commentarial impact. The hooks are top-notch, but the verses don’t match. Every song seems to be the same. The only songs where Jay-Z seems to actually talk a little about something, yet still going on non-sequitur rants about what a famous person he is, are the tracks “Empire State Of Mind,” “D.O.A.” and “A Star Is Born.” The track that stands out lyrically is “D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)” because it’s ABOUT FUCKING TIME THAT A RAPPER TALKED ABOUT HOW STUPID AUTO TUNE IS IN HIP HOP. He comically singles “hey, hey, hey, goodbye” hoping that with this track rappers will take the hint that auto-tune is on the verge of completely ruining the genre. But even with that, the song could be and should be much better than it is.
The track “Venus vs. Mars” is just creepy. Jay-Z rhymes about sex and skeeting on a shawty, which, though I would normally find funny, sounds like a sex predator masturbating outside a child’s window. The song “Hate” features Kanye West and is one of the few times I have found Kanye to be an absolute disappointment. The song quickly becomes redundant and you begin to resent Outkast for making famous the pronunciation of the word “air” as “ayir.” This song really takes that pronunciation to a completely different level, and the reason I “hate” the song “Hate” is not because I’m a hater that’s jealous of your fame, it’s because it sounds fucking stupid. The single “Run This Town” I have already reviewed (which you can read here), and I found it to be frustrating because I could never figure out what the fucking concept was. The song has no point, other than to prove that Kanye is outwardly more creative.
I’m trying hard to enjoy the album, but the only thing I’m able to enjoy is the amount of amazing beats and hooks. And though the music industry as a whole would completely disagree with me, a good beat and hook does not make a good hip-hop song. It’s good business, but its not good art. And thus describes the entire album. It’s a good business decision, a sex-symbol for radio, but to people who are particular about their hip-hop and appreciate good lyrics, I feel they will find this album to be completely uninspiring. Jay-Z has become the U2 of rap. Meaning, he can continue to make mediocre music until he dies, and he will always go platinum, simply because his name is so gigantic that it now well precedes his actual talent. I’m giving this mediocre album a very mediocre score of 3 out of 5.
The Dead Weather – “Horehound” Review
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 Raconteurs, and Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age. When you first heard the single, “Hang You From The Heavens,” you were familiarized with it because it sounded like a very rough, dirty version of The White Stripes. That particular song isn’t very commercial, and certainly not a hit, but that is the closest thing this band has to a radio-friendly tune. The whole album is very odd. And by that, I mean that I love it. If Jack White was not in this band, no one would care or ever really hear of it. It’s as if Jack White wanted to prove his fame by putting out a band he was pretty sure no one would understand or even like, but knew it would get big simply because his name was attached.
The sound is dark and heavy, but very spaced out. Nothing gets cluttered as each song sound more eclectic and off-putting than the next. I may be going a bit overboard with this, but I’m pretty sure I’m giving this album a 5 out of 5, simply because of the punch to the face Jack gave all his commercial-friendly fans. Not to mention, the video they put out for “Treat Me Like Your Mother” is one of the most badass videos I have ever seen. Please, go check out this album, whether you like Jack White or hate him, I think you’d at least appreciate it. 5 out of 5. This is amazing. Watch the video for “Treat Me Like Your Mother” below.
Jay-Z feat. Kanye West & Rihanna
Fresh off the fist of Chris Brown comes Rihanna with a new song with Jay-Z and Kanye. Ok, I know that was a very late joke, and a lot of you may be a little offended, but if that was written like three months ago, that shit would be funny. Anyway, a new song hit the inter-webs today and it’s off Jay-Z’s upcoming album. The song is pretty sweet, too. I’ve never been huge into Jay-Z, mostly because I feel he freestyle’s too much on record rather than actually writing lyrics that tell a story or have a deep meaning. But that is pretty much what he literally does. When in a studio, he never writes anything down, he listens to the beat, thinks up lyrics, and spits. That both helps prove my theory as well as signifying his talent. For example, remember the song “Diamonds” from Kanye West that had Jay-Z on it? Kanye raps the whole time about the diamond trade in Africa and how children in Africa die so rappers can have bling. Then Jay-Z comes on and talks about how cool he is. It can be really stressful sometimes. He’s one of the most legendary rappers in existence, but that doesn’t mean he can do no wrong.
This song is catchy, has a decent hook, and three of the biggest names in the hip-hop/R&B genre. Rihanna comes on with the hook, Jay-Z follows with two verses of how his bank account has millions and how he runs circles around people, and Kanye comes on with the third verse and saves the whole song. He starts off complaining once again about paparazzi and how hard it is being a celebrity (no surprise there), but how he saves the song is through his rhyme scheme and his lyrics. It proves once again how Kanye has surpassed everyone in the game as possibly the best rapper of his generation.
Overall, the song doesn’t really have a purpose to it, or even a solid meaning. It’s funny how a song like this can be strangely good with such few reasons. I’d personally give the song a 4 out of 5, but listen for yourself or download below to form your own opinion: