axl is such a weird character. more than almost any other rock star on his level, i get the sense that he's a genuinely fucked-up, troubled guy who can't totally control what he does or what he says. if you read his interviews they basically consist of therapy session psychobabble, like, 'i'm really under a lot of pressure right now, i'm struggling just to keep everything under control,' etc. etc. listening to 'AFD' the other day for the first time in a while it struck me how many of axl's lyrics are basically just long strings of tough-guy cliches or lines that sound so hackneyed and artificial they might as well be cliches -- 'take that one to heart,' 'you learn to live like an animal,' 'i'm ready to crash and burn.' yet there's this really genuine sense of rage, resentment, and self-loathing radiating through most of it.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 21:57 (eleven years ago) link
"Rose said that Freese was one of the easiest drummers to work with -- and friendliest. When Spinner spoke to Freese, he took the time to return the compliment. "Everyone always baits me to give them a crazy Axl story," he admits. "I don't really have any. I spent two years in a studio with him (and) I never saw any mood swings. He was never not cool to me. So, I am always quick to defend the guy, even though I know his reality is different than mine. Then again, everyone has a different reality."
that matrix joke might be more truth than joke!
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:00 (eleven years ago) link
axl is doing jimmy kimmel's show on wednesday
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:00 (eleven years ago) link
awesome link matt; awesome post j.d.
― my mansplain songz (some dude), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:05 (eleven years ago) link
Finck’s part was wiped and Jane’s Addiction/Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro was invited to add guitar parts. “There’s no story,” Navarro said later. “They just called me up, and I went down to the studio. I spent about an hour and a half there. I played a guitar solo, and that’s it. There really wasn’t much direction to give me. I think that that’s why they called me.” (Navarro later said that Axl called the studio while he was playing and from the speakerphone had told him to “play with more feeling”.)
*dying*
― Force Boxman (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:12 (eleven years ago) link
so many truthbombs itt
(In 1995 Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet asked the guitarist why just about everyone in the band had made a solo record except Axl. “Axl thinks that Guns is his solo project,” said Slash.)
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:15 (eleven years ago) link
Is it just me or does it seem like this whole thing started because Axl & Duff were butthurt that Slash had written so many songs without them.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:25 (eleven years ago) link
i don't think there was anything anyone else in the band could've done that wouldn't have ultimately resulted in this mess, aside from MAYBE if the other guys had stopped Axl from retaining ownership of the band name
― my mansplain songz (some dude), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:32 (eleven years ago) link
Duff?
― how's life, Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:32 (eleven years ago) link
what should axl have otherwise done with his time though?
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:34 (eleven years ago) link
come up with a cure for fucking cancer wtih that kinda money and time, at least
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:37 (eleven years ago) link
"welcome to the jungle, baby, you're going into FULL REMISSSION!"?
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:44 (eleven years ago) link
xgau on Chinese Democracy is a masterpiece of condescension
Chinese Democracy [Geffen, 2008]Hopeless eccentric spends most of his adult life and a large chunk of his ill-gotten fortune trying to make the perfect album. Succeeds, kind of, on his own totally irrelevant terms. Nobody cares. Since he's no longer capable of leading young white males astray, this effort isn't just pleasurable artistically. It's touching on a human level. Noble, even. I didn't think he had it in him. B+
― Inconceivable (to the entire world) (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:49 (eleven years ago) link
haha i think that's one of the most otm reviews of the album that's been published actually
― my mansplain songz (some dude), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:52 (eleven years ago) link
nice
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:53 (eleven years ago) link
Buckethead is a goldmine of weird
Richard Fortus, a friend of Tommy Stinson was also considered before Axl settled on Brian Carroll, aka avant-garde shredder Buckethead. Axl invited Bucket over on Christmas Day. The guitarist was upset that no-one had given him a certain hard-to-find Leatherface doll he’d been coveting as a gift. As Buckethead later put it: “Got invited to Axl’s on Christmas night; never met him before. Sad about not getting the doll but it is OK, but still sad. Get to Axl’s, he presents this box wrapped up. The Michael Myers version has been out for a while, knew it was the same box. Figured it was Michael Myers and opened it up. There was Leatherface.” To Buckethead it was a sign that Axl understood him – he was in. Another year had passed.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:54 (eleven years ago) link
yeah that xgau review is really something
― Force Boxman (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:54 (eleven years ago) link
aero next time you have to fill out a job description in travel papers or a tax form can you please write 'leading young white males astray'
― my mansplain songz (some dude), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 22:57 (eleven years ago) link
Man that acoustic Welcome to the Jungle is like Little Martha never happened. So painfully bad
― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 00:44 (eleven years ago) link
oh man
Izzy told Classic Rock about how he’d stopped off at Axl’s house around that time. Axl was friendly and then “probably a month later, one night he calls me [and] we got into the issue of me leaving Guns N’ Roses. I told him how it was on my side. Told him exactly how I felt about it and why I left… But, I mean he had a fucking notepad. I could hear him [turning the pages] going, ‘Well, ah, you said in 1982… blah, blah, blah…’ And I’m like, ‘What the fuck – 1982?’. He was bringing up a lot of really weird old shit. I’m like, whatever, man. But that’s the last time I talked to him.”
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 01:22 (eleven years ago) link
Izzy actually wrote a couple songs with nuGNR, one of them is a finished song according to Axl
― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 01:24 (eleven years ago) link
yeah the paragraph right before that says that Izzy and Duff made a bunch of demos for the band in '95
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 01:26 (eleven years ago) link
Izzy has toured with nuGnR in recent years
― set the controls for the arse of your mum (sic), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 01:59 (eleven years ago) link
well yeah the Classic Rock article is a few years old
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 02:07 (eleven years ago) link
In the fall, a new A&R man was hired to help bring the project into completion. He was someone who specialised in providing the ‘final push’ for albums nearing completion: legendary Alice Cooper/Lou Reed/Pink Floyd producer Bob Ezrin. As Alice Cooper told it later,”To this day, really good songwriters that are ready to finish an album call me up and go, ‘Do you have Bob Ezrin’s number?’…Bob’s not going to be a yes man. He’s going to go in there and tell you how many (decent) songs you actually have… He did it with Guns N’Roses.
“I know Axl called him up and said, ‘I want you to listen to Chinese Democracy and tell me what I’ve got [that’s good].’ Bob listened to it and said, ‘Three songs.’ This is after seven years [of songwriting].”In mid-September, retailers were notified that Chinese Democracy was projected to be released in November, which does seem to support the notion that the record was essentially done, and – prior to his negative assessment – Ezrin was merely called in for some final pre-release tweaks.
haha so Ezrin was really the guy who spooked the groundhog for 8 more years of winter
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 03:14 (eleven years ago) link
after which point there were STILL only three songs on the final album
three songs that Ezrin liked
― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 03:16 (eleven years ago) link
and that guy made Music from "The Elder", so his word is bond
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 03:17 (eleven years ago) link
those were axl's pained cries on 'the kids'
― bansplain (electricsound), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 03:50 (eleven years ago) link
the thing that stands out is how everyone involved from early on til the end said how good the material they heard was.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 03:57 (eleven years ago) link
they wanted to believe
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 03:59 (eleven years ago) link
haha true
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 04:00 (eleven years ago) link
even beyond ego or lack of objectivity, i feel like really good studio monitors can give you such an unrealistically flattering idea of what a work in progress will sound like once other people put it on their humble commonplace speakers/headphones
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 04:01 (eleven years ago) link
well pro tools ruins everything as any fule kno xpost
― bansplain (electricsound), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 04:01 (eleven years ago) link
the final album was more like a mosaic of the work that went into it...i have always been interested in how it would have been on the first pass of the album, minus so much overworking
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 04:03 (eleven years ago) link
Do you feel welcome?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_Gm06C04U0
― earlnash, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 04:16 (eleven years ago) link
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, October 24, 2012 4:03 AM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I bet there was a lot of stuff that sounded like Oh My God (which I like a lot fwiw). The hugely negative reaction to that led to a lot of overcooking.
― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 04:25 (eleven years ago) link
the really strange one is that so many people involved really loved Prostitute, which sounds like just another ballad on the album version
― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 04:28 (eleven years ago) link
It took me to the 2:54 mark to think that that Bridge Concert video might not be St. Sanders' subtlest piece yet.
― Mike Dixn, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 06:11 (eleven years ago) link
"I bet there was a lot of stuff that sounded like Oh My God (which I like a lot fwiw). The hugely negative reaction to that led to a lot of overcooking.
― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, October 24, 2012 12:25 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink"
there are interviews around--i'm looking for a link, but can't seem to find any--that basically confirm this without directly saying it. Axl was really high on that sound for quite some time
― don't trust the lil b in apartment 23 (fadanuf4erybody), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 06:24 (eleven years ago) link
omg thank you earlnash
Axl saying "you know where you are? you in the jungle baby" in the Bridge School performance sounds uncannily like Mr. Hankey The Christmas Poo
― burrito smalls (some dude), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 11:27 (eleven years ago) link
Also a lot like Dr. Rockso.
― how's life, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 11:41 (eleven years ago) link
hahah, i was just checking in to point out Axl's likeness to Mickey Mouse in that bit, but both of your suggestions are better. i swear Axl was sucking on helium balloons before the performance.
having re-watched that clip after a day gone without, it's transcended from laughably bad to almost surreal.
― charlie h, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 12:03 (eleven years ago) link
I could never have prepared myself for this travesty. He's surely finished now. This can't go on.
― Mule, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 12:18 (eleven years ago) link
Still not convinced this isn't one of those "shreds" videos.
― pplains, Monday, October 22, 2012 4:50 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark
thats exactly what i thought
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 12:33 (eleven years ago) link
2:46 is the bit where i really start to feel sorry for him. he's so far out of his depth trying to recreate the song it's not funny, and he obviously realises that he has to step up his game and sing this part with effort and sincerity. but as yet another trainwreck moment, it becomes emblematic of his struggle as a whole.
― charlie h, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 12:51 (eleven years ago) link
it's probably the only performance i'll ever watch where a singer forgetting the words is the least of his problems.
― charlie h, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 12:57 (eleven years ago) link
Yee-haw
― grandavis, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 15:46 (eleven years ago) link
Can't wait to watch this.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 24 October 2012 17:14 (eleven years ago) link
It fucking hurts.
― Mule, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 17:15 (eleven years ago) link