Hey, Axl Rose sat down for an interview last night! Well, it wasn’t an interview as much as it was lots of posts on two Guns N’ Roses-related message boards—mygnrforum.com and Here Today, Gone To Hell—and who knows whether the poster was really Axl, or whether it was someone who just figured out that his password was d0lphin1 and who decided to have some fun, but either way, I’m sure Rolling Stone is fuming over not getting the exclusive. After the jump, a few highlights from Axl’s late-night posting spree, which, we learn, was transmitted via PC, although he sometimes uses a Mac as well.
A.K.A the secret story of how you almost didn’t get to hear the new Guns N’ Roses album, after all. As told to Jess Harvell by Axl himself. (No, I swear.)
Chinese Democracy has been out for a day-plus now, and the reactions have been rolling in from all around the globe! Here’s a sampling of what some non-music critics out there think about Axl Rose’s magnum opus:
The Communist Party Of China: The Party-published tabloid Global Times printed a piece today entitled “American Band Releases Album Viciously Attacking China” that accused Axl Rose of being a pawn of the U.S. government who was helping Washington use the idea of democracy as “one of their game pieces to control the world.” The WSJ is quick to note, however, that this piece technically doesn’t constitute any sort of official smackdown of Axl: “The tabloid format newspaper is published by the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, but isn’t thought to always represent official views, like its parent operation and certain other major media.” And there’s even a site geared toward Chinese audiences that is streaming the whole thing for free, although I’m pretty sure it’s unsanctioned by any Axl or any government entity. [WSJ China Journal]
Reactions from other notables and semi-notables, including Duff McKagan, after the jump!
One of the strangest narratives surrounding Sunday’s release of Chinese Democracy is that the music itself is something of a non-event, thanks to the circulation of live nu-GNR bootlegs and leaks of in-progress tracks. In fact, enough questions have been answered about how Chinese Democracy sounds that a bigger question looms: Why now? Why, out of all the dates on the calendar, would Axl Rose decide that November 2008 felt like a good time to drop an album?
ARTIST: Guns N’ Roses
TITLE: “This I Love,” “Street Of Dreams,” “Sorry,” “Scraped,” “Catcher In The Rye”
WEB DEBUT: Oct. 30, 2008
Axl’s first salvo at radio from the more-and-more-likely-to-actually-come-out-no-I-can’t-believe-it-either album Chinese Democracy hit the active rock stations of America hard last week, and this week brought a few news outlets claiming that the title track was, in fact, a bona fide, many-years-in-the-making hit. But is it?
In a move that’s part and parcel with the continued “verticalization” of the music industry, the Ticketmaster is buying a controlling interest in Irving Azoff’s Frontline Management, which counts Christina Aguilera, The Eagles, Neil Diamond, and, oh yeah, Guns N’ Roses, among its clients. Azoff will continue on as manager of these acts. The move is a push-back against the growing management/promoter/ticket vendor chimera that is Live Nation–if Live Nation can get into the ticket-selling game and the ill-advised 360-deal game, the logic seems to say, well then so can Ticketmaster get into the management game. Seeing as how today has been “all GNR all the time” around here, I have a theory as to the timing of this move.
ARTIST: Guns N’ Roses
TITLE: “Chinese Democracy”
WEB DEBUT (OF THIS VERSION, ANYWAY): Oct. 22, 2008
After weeks of speculation, and a Best Buy pre-order page that apparently went live too early, it’s official: Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy will hit the racks of your local Best Buy on Sunday, Nov. 23. The 14-track album will be available on CD ($13.99), vinyl ($19.99), and digital download (via Best Buy’s Rhapsody-assisted store, I assume); the production credits are being given to W. Axl Rose and Caram Costanzo, who’s also been credited on records by Matthew Sweet, Pearl Jam, and Stone Temple Pilots. Full release, with lots of executives talking in all caps and using words like “historic” and “monumental” a bunch, after the jump.
Kevin “Skwerl” Cogill, the Antiquiet proprietor… More »
