Regina Spektor – "Laughing With" new single

Regina Spektor is absolutely amazing.  I’ve always been a big fan of this woman.  Her quirky lyrics and magnetic voice is very easily recognizable, and lately, has been very influenced on the indie scene.  She has a new album coming out called “Far,” and has just released a single online called “Laughing With.”  The song is about God being funny, but when bad shit happens, no one is laughing.  The song is good, its very pretty, but I just can’t help but think it’s too repetitive.  The lyrics are in a very Bob Dylan style, and as clever as they are, it just seems to be a bit too much.  However, the song is still very pleasing on the ears.  I give it a 4 out of 5.  You should definitely give it a listen below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0uFdpS54BQ]

Brandon Flowers is kind of a douche.

Brandon Flowers, of The Killers fame, has been going around lately and ranting about how he thinks Nirvana and Zeppelin are overrated and that America needs to concentrate more on modern rock.  Let’s revue the situation:

On the 15th anniversary of the day Kurt Cobain’s body was found, Brandon Flowers went on to say, “I think Kurt Cobain and grunge took the fun out of rock ‘n roll. Everything’s changing, though, and it’s starting to become a lot more playful and brighter.”  This, as offensive as it was, brought a good point, though it was a tad inaccurate. This also coming from a man quoted to say, I grew up seeing people like Morrissey,” as if Morrissey was such a happy camper.  If what Flowers meant was that Nirvana killed the over-saturation of hair-metal and the effeminate party scene, then he was entirely accurate.  Nirvana did do that, and it was completely necessary. They certainly didn’t take any “fun” out of rock.  It happens with every scene.  Kiss killed disco and paved the way for hair-metal, Nirvana killed that, Korn killed grunge, and emo killed nu-metal.  Now we have a myriad of rock styles, some being influenced by the 70′s classic rock, and far too much being influenced by 80′s new wave.  Not to mention all the different sub-genres of metal that are out there now.

He then went on to say, “We’ve been embraced in Britain in a way that I’ll never understand, and it’s such a wonderful thing… But over here [in America], people are still so obsessed with Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, those sorts of bands, that nobody else is allowed [to grow].”  Flowers is correct that people need to stop concentrating so much on how Zeppelin or Nirvana, or any one particular band for that matter, were the greatest and the such a huge influence on music today.  What he fails to comprehend, however, is how much his music is based on 80′s new wave.

His main argument is that American music is too obsessed with Nirvana and Zeppelin, which then forms a bubble around the industry, putting boundaries on creativity.  It’s a good point, but he is still ignoring the fact that his own band is so obsessed with a genre that came and went quickly in the 80′s because it was terrible music.  When people listen to old 80′s new wave, they don’t do it because it’s amazing music and they really get into it.  They listen to it for the comical nostalgia.  When was the last time you met someone that said, “ahhhhh ‘You Spin Me Right Round’ from Dead Or Alive was one of the greatest songs ever written!” and been serious about it.  No one.  You know why? Because new wave was fucking stupid.  The reason it’s become so big now is because people are fusing it with different genres, making it catchier and (to some sad extent) more original.  The reason The Killers are bigger overseas is because Europe is more susceptible to techno.

My point: you can’t have a valid argument while ignoring your own hypocrisy.  Yes, people need to start branching out to create more original forms of music, having past genres and bands as influences but not sole-influences.  But, The Killers are not too original.  They aren’t playing anything that hasn’t been played before.  No one can listen to “Human” from The Killers and say, “This is awesome! I’ve never heard ANYTHING like this before!”  If you want to encourage originality from artists; if you want to try and get people to stand out on their own and start having multiple influences as opposed to a single major influence, then you need to be the example.  Brandon Flowers is not that example.

Eminem – "Old Time's Sake" ft. Dr. Dre

A new Eminem track has been released on iTunes, this one called “Old Time’s Sake” which features mega rapper/producer Dr. Dre.  It’s becoming clear that this is how Em is going to rap throughout the entire album.  If you prefer his higher pitched, nasally rap opposed to him sounding like he’s having a heated discussion with the listener, then you’re in luck.  The chorus this time around is pretty awesome, but lyrically, I feel Eminem is lacking a tad bit.  He set the bar of standards pretty high with his previous albums, cementing himself as one of the greatest lyricists of all-time.  If someone new and unknown had used these lyrics, it would have gone completely unnoticed.  The beat is pretty good, it has a good hook, but both Dre and Em just seem to lack the lyrical creativity they are known for.  It’s all about how they are fun to smoke with.  The whole premise is a little funny, but completely unoriginal, outdated, and overdone.  Don’t get me wrong though, it is a pretty good song.  When I pick at these Eminem songs I’m not trying to seem biased; I’m a big Eminem fan that just expects most, if not each, Eminem song to be an Eminem song, not a song that someone else could easily do.  With three songs released from his upcoming album so far, I’m getting much more excited about the videos than I am about the music.  I give this track a 3 out of 5.  What do you think?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFw7DtAX8V4]

Labels Losing Money With iTunes Variable Pricing

It’s really no surprise.  The fear of the new variable pricing with iTunes was that raising the price on newer albums would result in less sales.  This is just obvious.  The reason of the variable pricing was Apple being stubborn and the labels demanding more revenue from the digital sales.  Currently, iTunes takes, literally, nearly 20% of the sales.  That is pretty damn ridiculous considering iTunes is becoming the primary source for music.  TDR wrote about the variable pricing before, and we warned of people becoming angry about it.  This is coming true sooner than later.  With both iTunes and labels losing revenues over the pricing, something is bound to change soon.  My opinion is that iTunes will, hopefully, give in and take less of a share.  If you think about it, with iTunes taking 20% of a $10-$12 album, the rest of the money going through the trickle-down process of a label, the artist gets practically nothing at all.  iTunes needs to change their take, preferably in half to about 10%, in order for labels to start seeing more revenue and possibly even the artist seeing a little cash flow.  That is, until the more than likely downfall of the record label industry as a whole.

New Green Day Track – "Hearts Collide"

Another track was released from the upcoming Green Day album 21st Century Breakdown.  The track is called “Hearts Collide,” and it is MUCH better than single they very recently released, “Know Your Enemy.” “Hearts” is a throwback to old-school beach rock, much like you would find in the movie That Thing You Do.  It’s catchy, the guitar is still very simple, yet still more complex than the riff overly-used in “Know Your Enemy.”  The chorus in this song is very repetitive, with the lines “tonight, hearts collide, hearts collide,” but the mixture of the vocal melody and the guitars are much more tolerable than the ones in “Know Your Enemy.” All in all, it’s just better than “Enemy.”  If you were disappointed by the first single and video of the upcoming album, listen to this.  It may just give you that shimmer of hope that could cause you to buy the album.  The song gets a 4 out of 5.  Click below to listen to the song (right-click to save as):

Green Day – \”Hearts Collide\”

Stupid People and Their Comments

One of the better perks of having this blog is that when people leave a dumb or insulting comment, I get to know a little more about them as a person.  So congratulations to a man going by the name A.G.E.   He was quite angry about my little tidbit I wrote about B-Real having a new album out.

“What a fukn tool of a reviewer “gives you autism” grow up you stupid fuk and stop writing ridiculous comments”

Let’s take a fun look at this. Not only is this simply a run-on sentence with little to no grammatical accuracy, but he insists on misspelling the word “fuck.”  Where is this guy even from? Perth, Australia? I mean, how would I even know that he is, in fact, writing from Perth, Australia? It’s not like I have his email and IP Address, right? …(age1985@netspace.net.au, 220.253.163.250)

If you read my spot on it (you can view it HERE if you want), you’d realize that no, I didn’t actually review the album.  Instead, I just thought it was funny how iTunes had to label his album as being by “B-Real of Cypress Hill,” because, unless you are a fan of Cypress Hill, you probably don’t know who the hell he is.  I even posted a picture of B-Real with the caption “pot gives you autism” written under it, linking it to the line I wrote about how B-Real sounds like he has autism.  I’ve not really a big fan of neither Cypress Hill nor B-Real as a rapper, primarily because I stopped doing drugs post high school.

Thanks, A.G.E., you certainly gave me a smile.  With love and autism,
-The Dune Review

Eminem – "3am" Video Review

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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.

Eminem Reveals What We Already Knew

Eminem: “I have a secret that’s been building up inside me and I feel now, with my new album coming out, is the time for me to reveal said secret.”

TDR: “What’s up, Slim?”

Eminem: “I use to have a pill problem.”

TDR: “…and…”

Eminem: “That’s it.”

TDR: “…what”

Eminem: “Yup.  Big pill problem.  Surprise!”

TDR: “…*sigh*…goddamnit”

So Eminem decided to come clean to Vibe Magazine and reveal that he had a pill problem.  He also said that because of his addiction, he was able to identify more with his mother.  He claimed that rap use to be his main high, and when he became uber-famous, that high died down so he went to pills.  Now that he’s clean and had a good break, he says rap is getting him high again.  Hence, his comeback album.  So yeah, we already knew he was a drug addict.  When you release a song called “Purple Pills,” we kinda get the hint.  It’s good that he’s clean now, but The Dune Review is still hoping he has better songs in the works outside of “We Made You” and “3am.”

Sorry Ladies, The Goth King Is Taken

Trent Reznor recently got engaged, and it was officially announced on the website of his new fiance’s band, West Indian Girl.  Her name is Mariqueen Maandig and she’s pretty damn cute (if you’re into the whole foreign thing).  In 2005, Trent Reznor was interviewed and he said that his career and drug addiction had delayed the possibility of marriage and kids for him.  Now that he’s been clean and able to focus more clearly on his music and personal life, his relationship with the West Indian Girl singer was able to progress into an engagement.  So ladies, I’m sorry.  I guess you’ll have to put up your white face paint and thick black eyeliner.  The goth king is no longer single.  Good luck with your follow-up: Marilyn Manson.

Sugar Ray Uses Accurate Marketing

Last week, TDR updated you with a list of 90′s bands reuniting so you could relive your embarrassing childhood, and we now have more information on the reunion of Sugar Ray.  The are naming their new, soon-to-be-released album “Music For Cougars.” Cougars, if you don’t know already, is defined as such:

“An older woman who frequents clubs in order to score with a much younger man. The cougar can be anyone from an overly surgically altered wind tunnel victim, to an absolute sad and bloated old horn-meister, to a real hottie or “milf.” Cougars are gaining in popularity — particularly the true hotties — as young men find not only a sexual high, but many times a chick with her shit together.” – The Urban Dictionary

Naming the album “Music For Cougars” is both entirely accurate and a great way for them to poke fun at themselves.  The only problem is, that’s probably the best part of the album.  The owner and music producer of their new label, Pulse Records, approached Mark McGrath with the idea of reuniting the band and making an album on a small budget, using the same type of songs that made them big, and to just have fun and see what happens.  ”Having fun and seeing what happens” is usually the excuse people give for a failure, so don’t be surprised if this album is absolutely terrible and poorly made.  Me: “Hey, why does your album sound like you wrote the songs and recorded the entire album on the same day?” Shitty band: “Well, we all just got together with the goal of having fun and seeing what happens.”  Me: “Well, congratulations, because your fun took the fun out of listening to music.”  FAIL