The new Guns N' Roses, countdown to Chinese Democracy

[bambooneedle]

Don't read this thread if you are not interested.

With the release of the ten-years-in-the-making $13M-in-production-costs Chinese Democracy album now iminent, I've been catching up on the story of it and about the new band, so I'll be posting a few things of interest about it all here as I wait.

The album (the first of three that have been recorded and are slated for release one after the other) has been subject to a series of false starts with big name producers (Bob Ezrin, Roy Baker Thomas, Moby and a few others) and engineers, lineup changes, media rumour and speculation, legal wrangling, and all sorts of other stuff that has plagued it, but many insiders privy to the recording sessions have come away from their involvement tripping over themselves with superlatives saying that it is truly astounding material. Known guest musicians include Brian May ("Axl is magic"), Dave Navarro, Zakk Wylde, Josh Freese among others. Key creative force in the original GNR, Izzy Stradlin, is also rumoured to have had some involvement.

The new band is pretty impressive on paper -- bass player Tommy Stinson from The Replacements, drummer Brian Mantia (ex-Primus, played on Tom Waits' Real Gone, known for his skill in beat programming), guitarist Robin Finck (ex- Nine Inch Nails), guitarist Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal (avant guarde virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist and producer), guitarist Richard Fortus (been in many bands eg. Psychedelic Furs, highly regarded as a Stones type rhythm guitarist), and 2 guys on keyboards and effects - Dizzy Reed (in GNR since 1991) and Chris Pitman, both known as multi instumentalists with programming and producing skills. And of course Axl. Several of the band members constantly have side projects going on. So it's a real creative hub, can't wait to hear the results.

A tentative release date of March 6 has been given for the album though it looks highly unlikely at this point.

More fascinating stuff later...

[Otis Westinghouse]

I read it, but I'm not interested.

[cosmos]

Interesting stuff.....my expectations are pretty low for this, though.

Brian May? Izzy? Wow!

[pophead2k]

I'll believe it when I hear it.

[bambooneedle]

In today's post I present a recent interview (28.7MB) with original GNR rhythm guitarist and now solo roots rocker extraordinaire, the ever humble Izzy Stradlin. He was a pal of Axl's growing up in Indiana before they went to LA and formed the band, hung with the current band last year, and guested with them onstage for a few songs. In his time in the band he was heavily involved on the songwriting end of things. He wrote Patience. Enjoy: http://tunecore.typepad.com/tunecorner/ ... n_int.html




And a special bonus dedication to GNR connoiseur Oily Slick. Yep, they certainly have some rock and roll talent in there. It's a fan-compiled clip of live footage over one of the more straightforward rock n' roll numbers from Use Your Illusion 1, Shotgun Blues (beware, some explicit language).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xihceCntlWE

I read it, but I'm not interested.

Yeah yeah, just keep reading.

[cosmos]

The Izzy interview is very cool!! Thanks for sharing that!

[Otis Westinghouse]

A docu on the TV here at the weekend about the last 48 hours of Kurt Cobain's life featured several bits of an interview with Duff thingy from the original line-up, who apparently was next to KC on his flight back from LA to Seattle. He seemed like a pretty sound bloke - understood where KC was at as a total smackhead himself, etc. Seemed to come out of it with his brain intact.

Regina Spektor's lovely On The Radio refs G'n'R:

On the radio
We heard November Rain
That solo's really long
But it's a pretty song
We listened to it twice
'Cause the DJ was asleep

[not sure how sleeping means it plays twice?]

[cosmos]

I watched some of that, Otis. Duff has never sounded so coherent in his life. I was surprised.

[BlueChair]

Just read on Billboard that this has been pulled from the release schedule. Sorry, bamboo - sounds like you'll have to wait at least a little while longer...

[cosmos]

Not too surprising....

[bambooneedle]

Can't just let this thread disappear into the annals of the ECMB yet...

Apparently Andy Wallace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Walla ... roducer%29 is done mixing the album now (final mix is BIG news for the fans who have been waiting so long) and, while earlier mixes of some songs have leaked recently, nobody knows the final tracklist yet.

I'm trying to not get my hopes up to high too Cosmos, relatively, but I can't help it.

[cosmos]

My hopes won't be dashed. My interest in this project rose when I saw all of the different people who contributed. It could be very interesting. Or it could be the worst album ever.

[bambooneedle]

Due Nov 25! ('08...) At last.

1. Chinese Democracy 2. Shackler's Revenge 3. Better 4. Street Of Dreams 5. If The World 6. There Was A Time 7. Catcher In The Rye 8. Scraped 9. Riad N' The Bedouins 10. Sorry 11. I.R.S. 12. Madagascar 13. This I Love 14. Prostitute


Here's the album cover. So far it hasn't appeared anywhere bigger than this, as on the Best Buy page for the album this last week.

[bambooneedle]

“Axl Rose can finally take a bow” – New York Times

“A great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record.” – Rolling Stone

"The artist is in fine, ever-changing voice throughout, and there's certainly a ton of musical food for thought here, requiring several listens before the nuances are revealed. Worth the wait? Maybe. Worth a few hours of your time? Definitely." - Billboard




http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/c ... an_reviews

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/cd_revie ... ins_vital/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_b ... ew-gu.html

http://onethirtybpm.com/2008/11/18/guns ... democracy/

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainm ... years.html

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/11/21/105618.php

http://news.bostonherald.com/entertainm ... ition=also

http://www.metalsludge.tv/home/index.ph ... &Itemid=42

....

You can hear the album stream on the Guns N' Roses myspace page -
http://www.myspace.com/gunsnroses if it's still working, it's had 8.4 million hits in the last few days...

Itunes Rock chart



Only problem is the album is banned in China, Chinese fans can't even access related sites as their activity is monitored, they have to use codes like chi dem because 'chinese democracy' is considered such a threat.
http://www.gunsnroses.us/news/spip.php?article214 - "The Global Times, which is published by the country’s ruling Communist party, ran an article under the headline "American band releases album viciously attacking China" and said it was part of a western plot to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn".


Some thoughts later, I haven't had it for long. But I'm enjoying it a lot.

[Otis Westinghouse]

THIS is the review you need:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/no ... -democracy

It abounds with lovely examples of Petridis's lovely dry wit:

'You hear the lyrics of If the World - "if the world would end today, all the dreams we had would slip away, there's nothing more to say-ay-ay" - and think: bloody hell, is that the best you could come up with? It's not like you haven't had time to think about it.'

And this is the very best paragraph of all:

'But even if you knew nothing of Chinese Democracy's history, you'd realise something was up. However much of the $13m was spent on mastering, it wasn't enough to stop it sounding like a compilation album. When Sorry recedes into the distance - a joyful event that, while the ballad trudges mirthlessly on, you start to panic is never actually going to take place - it's replaced by IRS, a rocker that conducts itself at a completely different volume, because it's a completely different band, possibly in a completely different decade. It would perhaps be unfair to call the album's lyrics - big on concepts like pullin' through, takin' your time and knowin' you ain't crazy no matter what they say - wildly solipsistic: plainly any listening multimillionare 80s hair metal frontmen struggling to complete a massively overdue, over-budget album are bound to feel a warm, inclusive tingle of identification.'

The only possible reason I would have for listening to this would be to make me laugh harder whilst re-reading the review. And it ain't all bad: 'Rose keeps coming up with fabulous melodies', 'it's saved by something as old fashioned as a good tune'. It even got three stars. But it's a good account of why all of this nonsense is supposed to be some major music event, but in fact is about as interesting as the new Queen LP.

I'd much rather listen to Elvis and Sting play a lovely song like 'Walking on the Moon', thank you!

[ReadyToHearTheWorst]

Methinks Guns n' Roses are a Spinal Tap tribute band.

[bambooneedle]

Axl reportedly punched Bowie once for paying too much attention to his girlfriend http://www.teenagewildlife.com/Interact ... sb=5&part= I don't that it's true that he actually punched him, it remains in my 'so far unconfirmed Axl stories' file.

Here they are in happier times:

[bambooneedle]

Axl has appeared on GN'R fansites in the last 3 or so days breaking his long held silence!

He went on 3 or 4 sites as 'Dexter', verified as Axl by site admins and the official GN'R site in case there was any doubt. Unless he has already appeared again tonight, here are the complete Q&As:

http://www.gnrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?id=5578

The last one there - on the subject of ownership of the GN'R name - didn't include the fans' questions (he wrote in one post so as to let on in paragraphs what was being asked), but someone compiled them with the answers and they're reproduced here on p5 & 6:

http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/boar ... c=55351.80 -p5
http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/boar ... =55351.100 -p6

It's fascinating to see unedited stream-of-consciousness-like replies from the man finally breaking his silence, on so many controversial things that he couldn't before due to the album and he being tied up with legal battles and red tape, posting 100+ replies to fans' questions over (I think) the last three nights !

Btw, it's the best sounding album in years. It's great, still taking it in after about 15 listens and hearing new things and surprisingly liking several darkhorse songs more. No track sounds like any other, and none is a letdown. Some are more epic (Catcher In The Rye - Axl posted about this one, partly about Holden Caulfield Syndrome [HC was the unbalanced character in the book by J.D Salinger of the same name carried by Chapman when he shot John Lennon, and part tribute to JL] and says he thinks the book is trash and shouldn't be compulsory reading in schools, There Was A Time, Madagascar, Street Of Dreams [formerly known as 'The Blues']) but they don't upstage any other, they're just different and work great as a whole, 14 awe-inspiring tracks well sequenced and balanced. Listening from start to finish I feel like I've just seen an awesome movie. It's cutting-edge modern, and has the unmistakeable aura of a Classic (has for years, but now confirmed ). If for whatever reason you just hate Axl Rose and therefore can't even accept the possibility of liking this album, you can't be helped. I bought it on vinyl (2x 180g slabs) & CD. It's mastered with wide dynamic range. Going to the shop to pick it up felt great, I've been anticipating it for so long. Look out for Better, the new single. I'll probaby post it here if/when a video comes out.