Hey all, how's it going? I've been really busy with recording etc, I haven't been keeping in touch.
Outside of working on the record things have been quiet. No VR updates as of this writing, but I'm anxious to see something happen with an amazing frontman for the band in the not too distant future, whoever that might be.
My gig at the Quart Fest is coming up in Norway, June 30th. Which, is starting to come together. I'll post who all's playing next week, but it's a great line-up & the songs so far are shaping up to be a really great set.
As far as the record goes, we're almost done with vocals, 2 more songs left & a couple odds & ends. Then, I can stand back & see what we've got. It is a fucking awesome ensemble, that much I do know, with brilliant performances from each & every singer. I do hope to have a release date soon, but I can assure you, as I said before, it won't be this year. It will, most definitely, be out be very early in the new year. Even though the recording process is almost done, the legal logistics involved with so many different artists takes a minute to iron out.
When the record is released I plan on posting what gear was used on what songs; guitars, amps etc. Although, most of it was done with one guitar & 2 amps. A lot of interesting mike set-ups though. The record is being recorded anolog as well, this might be one of the last rock & roll records to be recorded that way, no joke. So, of course, I have to release it on vinyl, as well as cd.
Right then, I guess that's it. I'll have the Quart Fest line-up for you guys next week & anything else that comes up as well, have a good one.
The Philadelphia Inquirer Head Strong: It sounds familiar but looks different OPINION by Michael Smerconish
For many of us, Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of Summer and the launch of the concert season. The slate of bands stopping in Philadelphia, Camden, and Atlantic City this year looks mostly the same as it did 25 years ago.
Jimmy Buffett. Jackson Browne. Chicago. The Allman Brothers. Def Leppard is touring with Poison and Cheap Trick. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Eric Clapton is out with Steve Winwood. The Doobie Brothers. Peter Frampton. REO Speedwagon. Fleetwood Mac. Aerosmith.
Many of the bands hitting the road this summer - Styx, Yes, Foreigner, and Guns N' Roses - remain household names. But see them live and you'll notice a difference onstage, and not just the expanding waistlines. Many bands are back for an encore, even if the musicians in them aren't. It was inevitable, but many of rock's most successful acts over the last three decades aren't half the bands they used to be.
Seventies and '80s progressive rockers Styx are playing the Borgata this summer, even though guitarist James Young is the only original member remaining. Chris Squire, Steve Howe, and Alan White of Yes are touring again, though lead singer Jon Anderson isn't. Nor is keyboardist Rick Wakeman. His son Oliver is sitting in.
What's left of Foreigner - guitarist Mick Jones is the only founding member of the band still around - will land at the Tropicana Showroom in Atlantic City on July 31.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is still tragically star-crossed (bassist Donald "Ean" Evans died of cancer earlier this month). But that never stops "one more from the road," even though Gary Rossington is the only founding member still on the bus.
Most of the original funk-makers from War are on the road, they're just playing in different bands. Lonnie Jordan anchors the most recent incarnation, but the other original members have moved on to the Lowrider Band.
Not to mention Guns N' Roses, headlining Europe even though lead singer Axl Rose is the only guy you'd be able to pick out of a lineup. The rest of the original GN'R is missing in action, unless you count Slash's appearance in that Guitar Hero commercial.
It's worse for the real oldies, acts like the Coasters ("Yakety Yak") and the Platters ("Only You"). Today it's common practice for tribute bands to capitalize on famous names even though none of the original members is present or approving. There could be as many as 50 incarnations of the Coasters, for example, touring the country today. It's so bad that on three dates this summer the Coasters will be opening for the Coasters.
That explains the Truth in Music Act, which has been passed in more than 30 states - including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and which is working its way through Oregon's legislature. The legislation makes it illegal for performers to use the name of a band if the act doesn't include at least one original member.
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, singer in the group Sha Na Na and lead proponent of the Truth in Music effort across the country, told me that bands' original members are the ones hit hardest by tribute bands masquerading as the real deal.
"It's a double whammy," he said. "The consumer, the fan, is paying good money. If it's going to be a tribute show, call it a tribute show. And people will pay their prices accordingly ... Don't be claiming you're the group if you're not the group."
That trend is now seeping into the acts of the '70s and '80s. And what it all amounts to is a severed connection between the music we grew up listening to and the people we're actually paying to see perform it today. The songs might sound the same and the set lists might look similar. But Foreigner without vocalist Lou Gramm? Just plain foreign.
Still, many of us keep shelling out big bucks to see musicians playing the songs we grew up on. Even though today albums aren't bought and collected. They're cherry-picked for one or two songs that fit into a playlist. Cover art has become an iTunes graphic. Liner notes? Killed off by Lyrics.com. These days, getting to know a band means becoming its fan on Facebook.
Then again, I remember something Gary Bongiovanni, the editor and founder of the music-industry trade publication Pollstar, told me last year about the bands still making a killing decades later. "There's a lot of demand to see these classic rock acts," he said. "I mean, they're really kind of the heritage of the rock music business."
Maybe it's that sense of nostalgia keeping the same old band names in business. After all, we're clearly still willing to play along for a night, even if it means holding up a cell phone in lieu of a lighter.
Where the Hell is Axl Rose? by Dave Everley, Kerrang! Magazine (21 August 1999)
Last month, a quarter of a million people gathered in a field in Upstate New York to witness Woodstock '99, a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the legendary hippy festival.
The lineup was astonishing: Metallica, Korn, The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine were just a handful of the bands who played.
However, one band were noticeable by their absence.
In April, it was rumoured that Guns N' Roses were to be making their long-awaited comeback at the festival. After an absence of six years, it was suggested that GN'R were returning to preview songs from their equally anticipated new album.
And then, in typical Guns fashion, the whole thing fell through.
The rise and fall of Guns N' Roses is one of the most intriguing tales in the history of music. For six years during the late '80s and early '90s, they were the biggest band on the planet. To many, frontman Axl Rose was Guns N' Roses - a flame-haired wild card as enigmatic as he was unpredictable. It was partly his antics that led GN'R to be crowned "The Most Dangerous Band in the World."
And then they disappeared.
Or rather, Axl did.
While his bandmates were spotted out and about in LA or touring with their respective side-projects, Rose retreated to the solitude of his Malibu mansion. Once the most recognizable rock star on the planet, such was the effectiveness of his vanishing act that only one picture of him has been seen in the past six years.
Latigo Canyon road, a long and winding stretch of grey tarmac that runs through the barren, fire-scorched Malibu hills, leads to the home of Axl Rose. Although it is possible to walk up the road, the huge security gates that stand in front of the singer’s residence make it clear that visitors are not welcome.
According to insiders, Axl rarely emerges from his house, and when he does it's only to buy sundries at the beach-side shopping malls in the presence of his matronly housekeeper.
Over the past six years, Rose’s public appearances have been few and far between. In April 1996, he turned up backstage at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at the LA forum. "He'd cut his hair short and grown a beard", recalled Chili's drummer Chad Smith. "I didn’t recognize him."
Such was his anonymity that when Rose attended a Radiohead show he had to undergo a thorough body search by the venue's doorman. Three months later, in March 1998, he was spotted on the balcony of the Hollywood Palladium, watching Tool.
Sightings by members of the public are more common, though not always as reliable. In December 1997, Axl was reportedly seen at the Universal Film Studios in Los Angeles with a child and a Hispanic woman. Another sighting placed him buying popcorn at a cinema in Century City, Los Angeles, while further sources claim to have seen him as far afield as New York, apparently sporting black or brown hair that looked suspiciously like a wig.
Indeed, the only public sighting that can be properly verified occurred in February 1998, when he was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, for disorderly conduct at the local airport.
Rose's trial took place exactly one year later. He didn't attend the hearing, and was fined $500 in his absence. A police photo taken at the time of his arrest shows him with short hair and Five o'clock shadow. This is the last picture anyone outside of the Guns camp has seen of him.
Details on new GN'R material are equally vague. Those working on the album have been sworn to secrecy about its contents and the working methods surrounding it. What we do know is this: Sometime between 1993 and 1997, Axl jettisoned virtually all of the other members of Guns N' Roses. Guitarist Gilby Clarke was the first to go ("the cheques just stopped", he claimed afterwards. "I took that as a hint."), followed by Slash, Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum.
In their place Axl began working with a series of "name" musicians, including former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde, Nine Inch Nails drum programmer Chris Vrenna, ex-Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abruzzese and even original Gunner Izzy Stradlin.
Between 1994 and 1998 these various lineups rehearsed at LA recording studio The Complex, where they would work 10 hour shifts running from 9PM to 7AM.
By April 1998, the lineup had finally settled down and the band were said to be making their first tentative steps towards actually recording a new album. As well as Axl and long-standing keyboard player Dizzy Reed, GN'R also featured guitarists Paul Huge (a buddy of Axl's from Indiana who played on the Gunners' last recording, their cover of "Sympathy for the Devil" for the Interview with the Vampire soundtrack, and the man largely blamed for Slash's departure), and former Nine Inch Nails man Robin Finck, ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and Vandals drummer Josh Freese. Production duties were being handled by Marilyn Manson / Pantera associate Sean Beavan, after Axl had approached Appetite for Destruction producer Mike Clink, Killing Joke bassist Youth and techno guru Moby.
Over the next 12 months, the band apparently recorded 30 songs for the album, continually reworking them. Tracks recorded were said to include "Prostitute," "Cock-a-Roach Soup," "This I Love," "Suckerpunched," "No Love Remains," "Friend or Foe," "Zip It," "Something Always," "Hearts Get Killed" and "Closing in on You." Depending on who you believe, they veered from techno-industrial rock to old-style Guns sleaze.
Matt Sorum revealed Axl's love of samples and loops; contrarily, Chris Vrenna stated: "I have a feeling it's gonna be more like Appetite, than anyone is expecting."
When the Sex Pistols were rehearsing for their 1996 reunion tour, Pistols main-man John Lydon claimed to have heard "some folky nonsense" emanating from the next room, only to discover it was actually Axl and Co., hard at work. Basketball-player-turned-rapper Shaquille O'Neal supposedly appears on one track, after befriending Axl while recording in the same studio.
Interestingly, sources even suggested that the album already had a title - possibly Cockroach Soup or, more realistically, 2000 Intentions.
And then ... nothing.
August 1999, and there is still no sign of a new Guns N' Roses album. The band's record company, the Polygram / Universal group, say that they have tentatively scheduled its release for the end of this year, although sources admit that it has been on the schedules several times before and the band have consistently failed to meet deadlines.
Speculation has mounted that Rose has forced the band to re-record the entire album three times, and that the process has already cost more than a million dollars. One certainty is that Robin Finck has left the band and returned to Nine Inch Nails. The guitarist had signed a contract to join GN'R for two years; when it expired earlier this month, he had done nothing other than record guitar parts that have yet to see the light of day.
However, earlier this month, the rumour mill sprang into action once more regarding a "new" GN'R song.
The closing credits of the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy features Guns' classic "Sweet Child O' Mine." Halfway through, it segues into what appears to be a completely different version of the same song with Axl’s original vocals over the top. The most common theory is that the latter was recorded by the most recent lineup, although no one seems to be able to confirm or deny that fact. Moby has added further fuel to the fire, claiming that there is a completed version of the album and suggesting that Axl should simply release it immediately, regardless of circumstances.
Whether that happens or not is in the hands of Axl Rose. Hidden away in his Latigo Canyon retreat, he’s fully aware of the pressure to deliver something truly spectacular - something that will return GN'R to their position as the biggest band on the planet. The last six years have offered only rumour, gossip and hearsay, both about the band and Axl himself. Some of it is feasible, some is downright ludicrous. But separating truth from fiction is only one part of the puzzle. The big question is: what will Axl Rose do next? And at the moment, there’s only one man who can answer that ...
Monday night, current Guns N' Roses lead guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal updated his Twitter status with this message:
Duff McKagan's LOADED 8pm Tue May 19 2009 Blender Theater 127 E23 St NYC. (I'll be there, maybe with guitar in hand for a song or two....?)
This sounds like fun to me and should be a pretty cool gig.
I'll be updating this page later on with any eyewitness reports / video that surfaces.
Here are some pictures, thanks to shepoutsherbest at CD.com via gunns5 at MYGNR
"Ron played the last song with them, it was a Medley of 'I Wanna Be Your Dog,' some Journey song, 'Tush,' 'Living After Midnight,' 'T.N.T.,' and 'Wild Horses.'
I am sorry to say that they played no GN'R songs, but Duff did play 'Dust N' Bones,' 'It's So Easy,' 'So Fine,' and 'Attitude.'"
Rolling Stone Hard rock ruled the heartland this weekend as Mötley Crüe, Slipknot and Alice in Chains headlined Rock on the Range. For its third year, the Columbus festival drew 38 bands and sold a two-day total of 56,000 tickets, according to L.A.-based promoter Del Williams. A mixed crowd — college kids in baseball caps to bikers — partied under dreary skies on Saturday, and were energized and ready to toss the devil horns on sunny Sunday.
On day one, before he joined Alice in Chains for a haunting rendition of “Rooster,” Velvet Revolver’s Duff McKagan played a side stage, fronting his band Loaded. “The thing about Rock on the Range, I didn’t understand it until Velvet Revolver played here a couple years ago,” explained Duff backstage between appearances. “It’s in Columbus, a little college town — how big a festival can you have here? But people come here from Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, Cincinnati, Indiana, West Virginia, from Kentucky, Tennessee. They all converge, and this is the big thing of the summer.”
Alice in Chains returned in full force with new co-vocalist William DuVall (formerly of Comes With the Fall), opening the set with the murky anguish of “Rain When I Die.” Singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell led the reconstituted Seattle quartet, who bulldozed through choice cuts like “Dam That River,” “Again” and “Man in the Box.” By the mesmerizing set-closer “Would?” the crowd was roaring approval. DuVall isn’t a clone of deceased singer Layne Staley, and though he didn’t hit the notes in quite the same way, he hit them all the right way.
The set was one of just two American summer shows before the band unveils a new album. Slated for September release, the as-yet-untitled disc has a strong buzz. After his set, McKagan called it “the best rock record he’s heard in the last 15 years.” Cantrell — who had nearly twice as many writing credits as the late, great Staley on previous albums — said the record represents the entire AIC spectrum from electric dynamics to unplugged angst. Though the group’s set didn’t feature any new material, DuVall hinted at a subtle new lyrical direction.
“I think there’s always been a little bit of death trip element [and a] survivor element,” said DuVall. “I think maybe the percentage has been a bit inverted [on the new album]. Where some of the records might have been more Scarface, this one is more Shawshank Redemption.”
you all will witness a world premiere nao. i present to this hollow pale cold world......American Communism, the remaster-remix of Chinese Democracy with a few nice extra nuggets in between.
22 remastered/remixed tracks of the RB2 no guitar rips (by CoBrA2168, cheers) and ogg files of Shackler by unknown and some of my own stuff added.
153MB RAR file, no password, from fastest to slowest download speed (for me at least):
if i disappear into a torture camp in the near future, you all should know i did it for teh lulz :3 ========================================================== pees chicken_dinner/the L
