Chinese Democracy

[boxofslice]

Looks like that Guns N' Roses album will finally see the light of day

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7662833.stm

Will be interesting to see how well this will do considering it's been 15 years since the last album. Their debut Appetite for Destruction is still one of the great rock records whereas the follow up Use You Illusion I & II was a so so affair which would have benefited from being reduced down to a single album and the last record The Spaghetti Incident? was really just a collection of odds and sods.
Can it live up to the anticipation and media/internet interest over the years? Will the general record buying public still be bothered?

[trotsky assortment]

Meh. 

I still love 'Appetite For Destruction', but quite honestly, Waxl should give up.  Sure, I'll give this a listening via lastFM or wherever, but I think it's unlikely to set the world on fire and even more unlikely I'll shell out cash for it.  Still, if it turns out to be great, then that's fair enough too, I suppose.

He was never the most talented member of G n' R, was he?  That said, Velvet Revolver left me with a huge feeling of indifference...

So, does Tommy Stinson actually play on 'Chinese Democracy' or did he join the ever-growing list of people who were hired and fired?

[variant]

I was going to start a thread on this myself today as it really looks like it is going to be released this time.

Can it live up to the anticipation and media/internet interest over the years?

Of course it won't. Nothing could live up to 14 years and $13 million of speculation. The problem is, Axl hasn't spent all that time sitting in a studio twiddling knobs trying to perfect the record. He buggered off to China for a bit, there were a couple of world tours and there has been a whole load of legal stuff going on with former management/bandmates. Sure, its taken much longer than it ever should have done to get released but all that time hasn't been spent perfecting and mixing every note to make the 'perfect record'

Will the general record buying public still be bothered?

Is there such thing as a general record buying public anymore? There are hundreds and thousands of Guns fans around the world that will buy this the moment it comes out and will probably become the fastest selling album ever for the first couple of days. How it fares after that will depend on the promotion - if there is tours, videos on music channels and another track or two on Rock Band 3 or whatever (they've already put Shacklers Revenge from Chin Dem on Rock Band 2) then interest should be sustained. If they just put it out and leave it at that I don't think it will sell much after the first week.

From what I have heard of the album* (of the decent recordings - there's a lot of rough cuts, cover versions and poorly recorded live versions floating around the web) then it sounds like really fucking good Guns N' Roses songs and thats all most GNR fans want.

If it does come I out, I fully expect critics (just like the taggers in this thread no doubt) to slate it.

*Tracks I've heard properly are: Better, IRS, Shacklers Revenge, Chinese Democracy, There Was A Time and Madagascar.

[variant]

He was never the most talented member of G n' R, was he?  That said, Velvet Revolver left me with a huge feeling of indifference...

Not the most talented musician to ever be in Guns (that was probably Buckethead) but he is the best songwriter - as VR has shown.

So, does Tommy Stinson actually play on 'Chinese Democracy' or did he join the ever-growing list of people who were hired and fired?

Yep, Tommy's still in the band.

[boxofslice]

Is there such thing as a general record buying public anymore?

I think what i meant by that are the people who wander into HMV on a Saturday and pick up whatevers on the main rack or the people who buy their albums from the supermarkets while doing their weekly shop which does account for large amount of sales these days.

[variant]

In that case then, yes, I think people will be interested just because it is a new album from Guns N Roses. I can imagine a lot of people picking the album up and saying "fuck me, are they still going?" (but a lot of them will probably put it back down and go and buy the Greatest Hits for about £4 instead)

[trotsky assortment]

Yep, Tommy's still in the band.

Not for much longer if the rumoured Replacements reunion happens.

[Goldentony]

I totally lost a lot of interest in this record when Buckethead and Brain both called it a day, and collectively managed to release about 20 times the amount of material this band has done in it's entire lifetime. Hearing what the two of them could have done with such a big world famous band after the stuff they've done together in a band like Praxis was really interesting to me, like the total antithesis of what the band used to be, along with guys like Tommy from The Replacments.

The 2001/2002 live shows were a real curiosity and were one of the reasons i showed an interest - a really odd collection of musicians who barely knew each other all performing under the name of this stupidly huge band, having to live up to fucking thousands of peoples expectations. Getting on the bad sides of a lot of old fans for not 'looking' like Guns 'n Roses, reinterpreting a bunch of the songs in parts for themselves, in turn pissing off more people, and being on tour for the arse end of 2002 when it was obvious to anyone with a mind that this record was never going to come out for a long time, after a riot started off the first show.

They seem like less of a spectacle now, and just like a normal rock band. From building chicken coops inside studios and running over DAT tapes in dune buggies to just regular touring, regular looking guys and regular sounding stuff.

I'll still pick the record up because i'd be lying if i said i wasn't interested still, i'd just have preferred them to remain weird irrational misfit looking bastards.

[thugler]

Haven't they said 'now it's going to be released, really, honest' about 50 times now though?

[Goldentony]

Haven't they said 'now it's going to be released, really, honest' about 50 times now though?

There's only been one set release date before back in 2006 or 2007 after they fired their old manager and he released a statement detailing a load of shit that was supposed to happen but never did. But obviously it never materialised.

But aye there's been a load of situations where they've said it'll happen soon, or this summer or whatever. After all the line up changes and people involved though it shouldn't be suprising it hasn't come out.

[kidsick5000]

Just the fact that its still classed as a GNR album suggest a throwback to the hey day of 80s rock. When bands had more transfers between each other than the Premiership does players.
Its really annoying that it hasnt just come out as an Axl Rose solo record rather than this pretence of a group working together.
If has just half the energy or power of Appetite I'll be amazed

[trotsky assortment]

You may even find it's coming out with the name GnR on the box because that's the only way the record company were interested.  That happens a fair bit.

[Backstage With Slowdive]

In that case then, yes, I think people will be interested just because it is a new album from Guns N Roses. I can imagine a lot of people picking the album up and saying "fuck me, are they still going?" (but a lot of them will probably put it back down and go and buy the Greatest Hits for about £4 instead)

Mr Tesco and Mr Sainsbury will offer 2-for-1 deals to shift the new one.

Nathan Barley will love this as well.

[Backstage With Slowdive]

You may even find it's coming out with the name GnR on the box because that's the only way the record company were interested.  That happens a fair bit.

If it's Axl and your granny on crack, it's Guns'N'Roses.

[Pepotamo1985]

Haven't they said 'now it's going to be released, really, honest' about 50 times now though?

Axl or one of his faceless interchangeable session musician lackeys have said on innumerable occasions that it's 'incoming' over the past decade, I'm fairly certain. Then again Rose is quoted as saying "it's not going to be released" just as frequently. I've always thought that the threat a new GNR album was just a way of keeping fans interested and ensuring GNR were afforded the occasional burst of attention in the mainstream music press, whilst Axl relentlessly pissed all over the GNR legacy to keep himself in leather, lots of leather - surely the whole motivation behind calling it 'Chinese Democracy' was implying that it was never going to happen? I'm amazed that anyone still gives a semblance of a shit about Axl's tawdry excuse for a band, and it's certainly a testament to how utterly braindead the Axl Rose idolotary are that they're still wetting themselves with anticipation at the prospect, and buying tickets to his every show/onstage nervous breakdown.

[non capisco]

The only good thing about the rubbish band Offspring is that they tried to bring out an album called 'Chinese Democracy (You Snooze, You Lose)' before Waxl threatened legal action.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I doubt they'd even get to court with that, there's no copyright on words in the English dictionary, and "Chinese Democracy" isn't a phrase that GnR invented anyway.

[dmillburn]

I doubt they'd even get to court with that, there's no copyright on words in the English dictionary, and "Chinese Democracy" isn't a phrase that GnR invented anyway.

Reckon that's the case as US metallers Warrior Soul have got their their new album, also called Chinese Democracy, coming out tomorrow. Admittedly they aren't exactly a big act these days but there's been a fair bit of press about it so I'm sure if Axl was able to stop them releasing it he would have.

[Paaaaul]

Reckon that's the case as US metallers Warrior Soul have got their their new album, also called Chinese Democracy, coming out tomorrow. Admittedly they aren't exactly a big act these days but there's been a fair bit of press about it so I'm sure if Axl was able to stop them releasing it he would have.

If anyone wants a decent rock and can't be arsed waiting for G'n'R, get yourself a copy of Warrior Soul's Space Age Playboys - rock heaven.
(NB - The new Warrior Soul album is by Kory Clarke, their singer, and a bunch of session musicians.)

[trotsky assortment]

Same with the recent White Lion.  Not that you'd want to buy that.  So far, one of the worst releases of 2008.  A total waste of plastic.

[dmillburn]

If anyone wants a decent rock and can't be arsed waiting for G'n'R, get yourself a copy of Warrior Soul's Space Age Playboys - rock heaven.
(NB - The new Warrior Soul album is by Kory Clarke, their singer, and a bunch of session musicians.)

Space Age Playboys is a good album (my favourite after their debut) but that album was pretty much Kory and a bunch of session musicians - only Pete McClanahan on bass remained from the original line-up by that time, Johnny Ricco and Mark Evans having left after Chill Pill, so not really that different from the current situation. Having said that I doubt I'd be interested in hearing new material unless Ricco was back on board and that will never happen.

[Goldentony]

Pretty interesting video for anyone who wants more on the ludicrous process for the recording of this album. Brain Mantia discusses how he had to re record Josh Freese's drum parts -

http://eqmag.tv/index.html?req=1&station=eqtvbrain&video=eqtv/inthestudio/eqtv_l07_braincd

And a tracklist has appeared on the BestBuy website for pre orders -

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

That's 10 out of 14 already leaked in some form.

[thugler]

Pretty interesting video for anyone who wants more on the ludicrous process for the recording of this album. Brain Mantia discusses how he had to re record Josh Freese's drum parts -

http://eqmag.tv/index.html?req=1&station=eqtvbrain&video=eqtv/inthestudio/eqtv_l07_braincd

Thats ridiculous! The vid about his work with tom waits is interesting also.

[boki]

Reckon that's the case as US metallers Warrior Soul have got their their new album, also called Chinese Democracy, coming out tomorrow. Admittedly they aren't exactly a big act these days but there's been a fair bit of press about it so I'm sure if Axl was able to stop them releasing it he would have.

I'd imagine there's quite a few 'Chinese Democracy's by now. The Kowalskis (see tag down there) put one out quite a while ago.  I don't know why the fuck Axl doesn't just release it as a solo album, it's not like calling it GnR really matters that much by this stage.

[variant]

Chinese Democracy (the song) has been sent to loads of different Radio stations around the world and Radio 1 have started playing it today for anyone who's interested. Let the slating commence...

[Goldentony]

Listen - www.gunsnroses.com

[Beagle 2]

God knows I fucking hate Guns n' Roses, but that actually quite cheered me up, from the ludicrously pompous start to how painstakingly overproduced every second of it was. Heheh.

[Goldentony]

Possible there's 4 guitarists on that, Bumblefoot/Ron Thal says he played fretless rhythm on it, and that Buckethead does the solo, add the fact there's also Robin Finck and Richard Fortus and hey presto, madness

[trotsky assortment]

So, er, who's in the band again?

[non capisco]

Listen - www.gunsnroses.com

Not enough cowbell.