I remember when Beck decided it would be cool to… More »
What were the 80 most important musical recordings, artists, trends, events, and performances of 2008? What were the eight things this year that broke our hearts—or, at least, our ears? We’re happy to announce 80 ’08 (and Heartbreak), Idolator’s year-end overview. The list is below the jump.
I was never much of a Star Wars fan, so the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments that accompanied the forever-awaited release of The Phantom Menace passed by me at the time. But when I finally sat down with Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy—a long-awaited follow-up to a cultural moment that, for better or worse, defined my adolescence—I finally got what my Star Wars friends were all up in arms about, namely the casting of a newer, harsher, and daresay aged light on a once-cherished talisman.
OK so this is pretty much the perfect Idolator… More »
Axl Rose’s foray into handling his own press continued on Sunday, when he dropped by the Guns N’ Roses fan site MyGNRForum.com to answer fans’ questions. The end result is half extended rant, half one-sided interview (he picked out questions from a list), with lots of talk about his tussels with Slash, how the real inspiration for “Sweet Child O’ Mine” was Lynyrd Skynyrd, and how a W. Axl Rose solo album would be “much more experimental and instrumental.” There’s a lot more, including some talk about the legal wrangling over the GNR name:
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.
So, last week’s 79% drop in sales (261,000 to 57,000) for Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy seems like kinda-bad news for Axl Rose, Best Buy, and anyone who was hoping that gobs of free press and a long-awaited record would add up to sales, no? Well, Bob Chiappardi, a marketing consultant who claims to be one of the few people who’s worked with GNR since the Live?! Like A Suicide days, thinks that the album’s best days are actually ahead of it! Chiappardi believes that Chinese Democracy is going to be a slow-burning hit like Kid Rock’s Rock N’ Roll Jesus, which overcame sorta-soft initial sales to move 2.5 million copies. Reason 1? He just serviced Chinese Democracy to strip clubs! But I’m not so sure about Axl’s long-awaited opus overcoming its Thanksgiving-turkey status anytime soon. More »
