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LA Weekly: Guns N' Roses’ First Female Member Has Become a Rock Icon


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melissa-reese-blue-guns-n-roses-keytar-d

 

 

ROCK ICON.

I just puked.  But I swallowed it so it wouldn't get all over my laptop.  So hot.

I suppose the headphones in the pic above help to drown out the noise of the rest of the kids in the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese.

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20 hours ago, Silent Jay said:

She was hired in March, two weeks before April 1st. So Pitman was fired a few days after he apologized.

This was the most significant thing I got from this article. Chris was involved with GNR throughout 2015 and early 2016 based on his Coachella posts and whatnot. Then early March he posts that nonsense about GNR being nostalgia... So the dude must have been fired sometime in February 2016.... I really wonder what he did.

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4 minutes ago, ohmygod said:

This was the most significant thing I got from this article. Chris was involved with GNR throughout 2015 and early 2016 based on his Coachella posts and whatnot. Then early March he posts that nonsense about GNR being nostalgia... So the dude must have been fired sometime in February 2016.... I really wonder what he did.

About the same time Izzy started acting out on Twitter. My guess is mid- February 2016 the financials started to be worked out for everyone who wasn't Axl Slash and Duff.  Probably when they all discovered they would be making pretty much the same amount of money they made pre-2016. Some accepted it, some didn't.

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1 minute ago, beautifulanddamned said:

About the same time Izzy started acting out on Twitter. My guess is mid- February 2016 the financials started to be worked out for everyone who wasn't Axl Slash and Duff.  Probably when they all discovered they would be making pretty much the same amount of money they made pre-2016. Some accepted it, some didn't.

That's very plausible. 

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On 5/3/2017 at 9:28 AM, Sosso said:

I don't think that most fans hate her. 

But even I am confused about the stuff she adds on the non-CD songs.

That's understandable. As someone who I see proficient in music and has an ear for this stuff, I am able to hear what she adds to the live environment. What she adds is essentially guitar sounding "synth" chords on the piano which matches Slash/Fortus. It makes the sound of the guitars more powerful and adds more sound to it to make the music bigger than it actually is. Lots of bands use it to sound huge. From what I understand she also adds synth underlays to the songs which aren't audible unless you really have an ear for that and it gets buried in phone recordings. It's harder to hear but the band wants it so we just gotta accept it.

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19 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

That's understandable. As someone who I see proficient in music and has an ear for this stuff, I am able to hear what she adds to the live environment. What she adds is essentially guitar sounding "synth" chords on the piano which matches Slash/Fortus. It makes the sound of the guitars more powerful and adds more sound to it to make the music bigger than it actually is. Lots of bands use it to sound huge. From what I understand she also adds synth underlays to the songs which aren't audible unless you really have an ear for that and it gets buried in phone recordings. It's harder to hear but the band wants it so we just gotta accept it.

As far as I know Judas Priest did the same on their concept album Nostradamus. They added synthesized guitar to some of the songs and I always wondered why. Thanks for your answer.

Edited by Sosso
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18 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

That's understandable. As someone who I see proficient in music and has an ear for this stuff, I am able to hear what she adds to the live environment. What she adds is essentially guitar sounding "synth" chords on the piano which matches Slash/Fortus. It makes the sound of the guitars more powerful and adds more sound to it to make the music bigger than it actually is. Lots of bands use it to sound huge. From what I understand she also adds synth underlays to the songs which aren't audible unless you really have an ear for that and it gets buried in phone recordings. It's harder to hear but the band wants it so we just gotta accept it.

100 percent correct.  For most people, they would only notice her if she were to stop playing.  I use to play keyboards in my band many years ago and my girlfriend at the time couldn't figure out what I was playing during some of the songs.  At one of our shows the connection between myself and the soundboard was cut off and suddenly she (and I assume others in the audience) heard a noticeable difference.  I always preferred adding piano parts to synths, but there were times when having synths like strings or an electric bass was crucial to how we sounded live.  

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7 hours ago, downzy said:

I think the most that could be accurately afforded to Melissa at this point is that she plays in an iconic band.  

Other than her aesthetic, she strikes me as a continuation of people like Teddy Zig Zag, Tracy and Roberta, and arguably Pitman.  

Axl is heavily influenced by large and full sound bands and artists, from Queen to Elton John.  Reproducing that kind of sound with one keyboardist isn't possible.  Even with two, several compositions off of ChD require backing tracks if the goal is to faithfully reproduce what's on the record.  If you're only into the AFD sound, I get the objection.  But anyone who has been a fan of GNR and what they have produced the last 26 years shouldn't be too upset or surprised that two keyboardists are required.  

Wish he would get away from this "fuller sound" -- neither the original band, the critics, or a majority of the fans care for this bloated sound.

I don't think he realizes that the band actually sounds better with a 5 or 6 man wrecking crew (including Dizzy). :shrugs:

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18 minutes ago, RONIN said:

Wish he would get away from this "fuller sound" -- neither the original band, the critics, or a majority of the fans care for this bloated sound.

I don't think he realizes that the band actually sounds better with a 5 or 6 man wrecking crew (including Dizzy). :shrugs:

And when did Axl ever do anything for the critics or what he thought most fans wanted?

To each their own.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but I prefer the band sounding as big as possible (to a point).  I'm a bigger fan of the Illusion albums than AFD; I'll take all the layers, strings, synths Axl wants to give us.  

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I can't believe people are playing up so bad about Melissa being called a rock icon. It's just someone's opinion, lol. As to those who think she is useless in the band, she was requested to play. Honestly, who would knock that kind of offer back? Besides, i think she is much more palatable than Pitman, and she seems quite a lot nicer too.

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Like many have already said in this thread, I have nothing against Melissa. I'm sure she's talented enough and a really good person. She just doesn't belong in Guns N' Roses. To quote the great and powerful Wizard of Oz, "not no way, not no how!"

Perhaps if AXL dumped the dead and useless weight otherwise known as Melissa and Dizzy, he could afford to pay IZZY what he wants w/o having to take $$ out of the pockets of any of the big 3. Just a thought.

Edited by thunderram
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she's getting too much heat.  she was offered a great gig and took it as we all would have.  most older bands have someone like her backing them up sound-wise - the rolling stones, green day, kings of leon, bruce springsteen, etc...

for me it comes down to two reasons.  1.) it allows the band to fuck up and make mistakes and have it forgiven by being buried in "the sound", you try running around like slash, duff, axl, richard and not fucking up a chord or vocal at some point.  so she backs "the sound" up and also gets axl's back vocally when he's out of breath and needs to hit a note that otherwise would be impossible under the circumstances.  2.) i think she's added a good vibe to this tour… i wonder if she's been a buffer of some sort between the big three, thus playing a role, however small, in allowing these guys to get along again, they all seem to dig her.  

the "icon" part is LA Weekly writing a clown headline, she didn't write the headline nor did the gnr camp ask for it (a sane person would assume).

even if axl wasn't forcing me to listen to his solo material during shows, i think melissa would still be there… i would even bet a real gnr show, with the real line-up, will have melissa, and while i would prefer the five guys alone, stripped down and fucking dangerous, i understand and would accept melissa in the background, so long as they don't try and sell her as a real member.  like the stones don't sell me Chuck Lowell (keyes, synths) or Daryl Jones (bass) as actual members of the band.  chuck and daryl are touring employees and amazing exceptional ones at that.     

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Sunset Gardner said:

so long as they don't try and sell her as a real member.  like the stones don't sell me Chuck Lowell (keyes, synths) or Daryl Jones (bass) as actual members of the band.  chuck and daryl are touring employees and amazing exceptional ones at that.    

But she actually is a band member. There is no reason to doubt that. And I think that she will play a big role in the studio, in regards of co-songwriting, recording and production.

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Just now, Sosso said:

But she actually is a band member. There is no reason to doubt that. And I think that she will play a big role in the studio, in regards of co-songwriting, recording and production.

i respectfully disagree kind sir, there IS absolutely reason to doubt she is a member… which record did she play on?  which songs did she write or co-write?   she was hired by Fat Elvis to say yes exactly at the same places pitman was hired to say yes.  she's a touring employee until she contributes something to the band on the same level as say… Mick Taylor or Ron Wood did for The Stones.  i like bands like Zepplin that actually BREAK UP instead of replacing and hiring a new person... because THAT is rock n' roll, that is loyalty, that is real.  

agree to disagree, and please don't get me wrong, i like her and have no problem with her being there and certainly put the "icon" talk on LA Weekly, not her.   

and i certainly don't disagree that she could have an impact on a new record, the same way i feel about fortus.  i would love to see a "richard fortus period" for guns if izzy can't be there to play ball.  

 

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29 minutes ago, Sunset Gardner said:

i respectfully disagree kind sir, there IS absolutely reason to doubt she is a member… which record did she play on?  which songs did she write or co-write?   she was hired by Fat Elvis to say yes exactly at the same places pitman was hired to say yes.  she's a touring employee until she contributes something to the band on the same level as say… Mick Taylor or Ron Wood did for The Stones.  i like bands like Zepplin that actually BREAK UP instead of replacing and hiring a new person... because THAT is rock n' roll, that is loyalty, that is real.  

But that's not the way how GN'R manage those things. 

Edited by Sosso
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