Ant

5 hours ago, appetite4illusions said:

You’re right, there are a number of OG GN’R songs where Axl leans on the guitar riff for his melody, but I can’t think of one of the stalwart classics where that’s the case.

I’ve said it before, but the crucial ingredient to a timeless GN’R song is that it is anthemic. This usually means having a big chorus and to have a big chorus...less is more. You mentioned Nighttrain and while Axl settles into the groove of the riff on the verses, he does his own thing on the chorus and it’s the kind of minimalistic thing that works so well:

”I’m on the Nighttrain!...Nighttrain!...Nighttrain!....Never to return!”

It breathes, nice and easy and it has the space and power for everyone to chant it like a prayer.

Now you’ve got:

”But you had to be a fool and do it your way had to be a fool and throw it all away to a school you thought you were here to stay if that were true it wouldn’t matter anyway!!!”

Not the same thing, at all. It doesn’t breathe one bit. It’s delivered like a rant - which is I’m sure how Axl approached quite a bit of songwriting. It reeks of someone with too much to say and unsure how to say it. Kind of like a high school kid who writes his whole English lit paper as one run-on.

Add to that, it is doing the same exact thing as the guitar riff, it comes off as desperate and a little redundant.

I’m not saying Axl should adopt a Motley Crue style of pop choruses, but he needs to realize that in the craft of songwriting, people want something they can participate to when they hear it live. 

Hard School brings back the idea of rocking out - which is sorely, sorely missing from Chinese, but to me, it doesn’t have an element of timeless songwriting on it.

If Axl is going to swing for the fences, he needs to get back in touch with a simpler approach. If the World was one of my favorite songs on CD, because of its simplicity.

A lot of the CD stuff is very verbose... it can be sonically exhausting. 

26 minutes ago, Free Bird said:

To me the "Axl alone songs" November Rain and Estranged are as Axl/Slash songs as Coma and Locomotive are. 

I know Slash isn't credited and to some that's all that matters but im my opinion his guitar parts to those songs are elementery and as important as Axl's input.

Yeah the Estranged riff should have been instant co-credit!

Also his pre-solo is literally the dolphins personified.

2 hours ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Too funny. I never thought of it, but you’re correct, there is resemblence to those late 90’s screen savers. Unfortunately that is a true statement. Given how artistic Axl is as an entertainer you would believe he would be more involved with what is presented on the monitors. This is an area in which U2 excel.

Yeah, man... the 360 tour grossed like 740mill.... the one with the insane claw stage! NITL is going to get pretty close to that by next year (565million and counting). Doesn’t feel like similar production values...

It’s Perla’s fault. Damn those fun-bags.

Even if you’re a fan of these leaks and Chi-Dem songs I’d hope you’d at least want them to record them fresh as a band. 

If the whole Frankenstein approach to music continues with the NITL it will be a travesty... not to mention a pebble drop in the music ocean in terms of lasting impact.

”nice work Slash... we did it... NITL is a massive success... here’s Paul’s tapes... you remember Paul... go figure something out with them.”

Maybe we’d get some volcanic Slash rage-metal GNR... that could actually be cool

4 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

For the most part they are pretty cheesy but have have gotten a little better since 2016.. The reality is that there are cheesy elements to the band this day and age anyway so it kind of makes sense..

I bet they'd be way better if Slash did the art direction (even though even he is not cheese-immune ). 

I liked the SOYL lyric video.

As was said above, it's the low-grade CGI-ness of it that sucks. But whatever! Not a hater... it's the last of my NITL grips .

18 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

 

There is backstage footage of Izzy listening to it back when he was a guest on that tour and he says “there’s that noise again...” Guess he doesn’t like that song. 

 I thought I couldn’t love him more than I do.

On 9/30/2019 at 4:23 PM, appetite4illusions said:

None of those songs

Lord, they were left off of Chinese Democracy, why would any of them be able to cross into the mainstream?

Hard School is the best of a poor bunch of rock songs Axl assembled. You could release that but I’m very sure you would have a situation where it’s quickly forgotten. 

It might get you guys excited but I think it’s more the idea of Axl rocking out...because the song isn’t exceptionally good. I would rate even some of the more disposable stuff on UYI as superior; Bad Apples and Garden of Eden, for example.

If Axl wants a truly successful first single, he should go back to the drawing board. These songs were written a time when the Real Slim Shady needed to please, stand up.

A beacon of GNR wisdom in this jungle.

Slash and Duff can write a sick song in a week if they’ve got something to prove. Lets keep it fresh! Get Fortus and even Frank really invested in coming up with something new. 

None of the CD songs to me sound like a “band.” It sounds like individuals playing parts... I can’t get into it at all. Hopefully the NITL incarnation can find some studio chemistry.

When you're known for your physicality and it starts to shift with age apparently layers become your new best friend. 

I got jackets on denim on vests on tees.... i wanna watch you bleed!!!

16 hours ago, Popcorn crew said:

Yep, I remember in 90 in my high school first year I had long hair and Gnr t-shirt. I was cool. By 93 it was gone, Nirvana and Pearl Jam fans just run over me. I was dinosaur with long hair.

Personally think AFD and Lie's was perfect for me, plus MTV appearance made them big. UYI albums were probably overmixed (RnR must be unperfect, and pretty much all that things that Izzy and Slash said).

But videos tooooooo much. Slash emerging from water. Dolphins. Tanker. Wedding. It is like soapopera.  

I wonder if Gen-Z people can appreciate how uncool the 80’s seemed in the 90’s. Like everything — the cars, the fashion, the music, the hair, the attitude. 

I don’t think we have such drastic shifts of taste anymore? Like if I was my 2009 self in 2019 I wouldn’t really miss a beat. But take someone from ‘85 and put them in ‘95.

30 minutes ago, Gordon Comstock said:

WASP and back-alley caviar deals... I gotta listen to that interview again at some point

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=00306151165957523884 (clip of just that story).

Baz can spin a yarn. 

Sugar Cane.

4 hours ago, uruguns said:

State of grace/Eye on you/Atlas/Perhaps/Nothing

Your subjective preferences are wrong. 

Wrong!

I can't even hate a song as dumb as Sugar Cane when the guitar is front and center. It's insane how many cool chugging riffs on the low E Slash has managed to create. 

2 hours ago, Ralphelmo said:

Slash is great as a blues player if it comes to soloing. His roots are undeniable, he'll release a blues album one day and it will be magnificent.

You ever see that video where BB King is telling Slash he plays really well but he tells him he's playing so quiet / shyly  . So funny when you think of shirtless Slash playing his goldtop running 15mph jumping off the stage ramp.

Bring on the blues album!

49 minutes ago, Tom-Ass said:

aside from KOHD.. That version is pure garbage.. 

What is it with KOHD.... first the album version with the phone call, then the UYI reggae, followed by the interminable NITL version...

The actually mixing/mastering aspect of the production is separate from the scale/arrangements of the songs.

With Izzy and Steven being checked out, they weren't ever going to get that 5 guys in a room interplay that makes AFD such a unique thing. With that in mind UYI makes perfect sense, scale wise.

The only thing that sucks is the glossy tinny sound and some of the extraneous layers... Like said above Pretty Tied Up is such a cool song, an Izzy classic, buried by production choices. It should feel loose lean and tossed off.

Man I wasn't too keen on some of Slash's recent extended solos... serving up the noodles...

But that solo was intensely good. I got emotional! Perfect mix of speed, emotive quality and constantly shifting themes...

Has Fortus always added that country-sounding warble to the Jungle intro? That was weird haha (Jungle was the only vid I could find ) . Axl sounded great. The band seemed pretty stiff in terms of moving around but I’d take the sound over that.

I would love to see Nightrain from this show, it’s always the benchmark for me.

On 9/11/2019 at 4:01 PM, Stiff Competition said:

That's an answer based on personal preference. Personally,  I am a huge STP fan and won't go anywhere near one of the current shows.

They seem more like a tribute band with 3 original members than anything.

Successfully replacing a singer is when it happens like Brian Johnson or Bruce Dickinson. When you put out an album, play one or two songs a night from it but really just rely on the material from your original singer, you didn't really successfully replace him. Someone is just playing his part.

Yeah man.

Frontmen need to establish credibility to really own the stage. You need to have hits that you sing on. If you can do that, then dipping into the back catalog comes off a lot better. 

Otherwise you're always going to be a diminished figure... and in rock music that just doesn't work. You might be able to tour and make money on nostalgia, as many bands do, but that's a totally different (and inferior) musical universe. 

Matt was smart to know that cycling through all those unknowns was a bit of a lost cause, as well. You can't bring in an unknown into a band of guys in their 40's and make a huge splash. Rock is a young mans game... so if you're going to do it in your 40's you've gotta be battle tested and have some scars to bear, if you want people to go along with you. Not to mention the power imbalance throws off the whole vibe. 

Now we're like 15 years on from VR's inception and rock is so deep in the ground dead irrelevant... the only way for these guys to make any kind of splash is to do something with GNR and spin out interesting solo projects or collabs. 

48 minutes ago, Fourteenbeers said:

I doubt Axl has anyone close to him who would do that. I'm guessing people around him are walking on eggshells.

Exactly right.. and Ezrin has proven chops and a hell of a resume, he’s not some forum troll. Combined with no skin in the game and an admiration for Axl’s talent, he gave his view. Isn’t that respectable?

Someone said he wanted co-writing credit? It was a cynical money making scheme? I mean, maybe? Maybe he desperately wanted a second beach house? Or maybe he just had a track record and was established enough to call a spade a spade and walk away. No reason to trash him. 

Ezrin wasn’t wrong from a commercial appeal prospective. That doesn’t have to diminish Axl’s work as a creative expression. But the label was fronting all the money and giving a ton of breathing room... are they not supposed to give any feedback? Or get some third party appraisal of their investment?

In a world and business full of hangers-on, yes-men and obsequious hired hands, the biggest favour you can do someone is give them the unvarnished truth as you see it. Props to him. 

So for someone who hasn't kept up over the last couple weeks... what's the thinking on the impetus for the leaks? Do people think they're from official sources to gauge fan reaction? Or did someone sitting on them just get sick of not sharing them all of a sudden?

16 hours ago, Shacklermyrye said:

that fink vids a bit deep isn't it. quite enjoyed that.

Glad you watched / dug it! 

Check out that whole series if you like guitar music in general. The Johnny Marr one is great, Mick Mars... Steve Lukather... Kirk Hammet...even Paul Stanley's was rockin.

11 minutes ago, DarkLotus1111 said:

 meets Our Lady Peace

Man it does sound like Our Lady Peace, haha. So random. Feels pretty messy... meandering...  Finck is the best thing about nu-gnr. 

Axl really was bored a.f. with blues rock.

I just saw this with Finck it's pretty sweet: 

I think Anastasia benefited from a few things.

- Being the first "epic" of Slash's solo career,

- The fact that it was a springboard for his live solo spots

- That main riff is classic Slash ala Rocket Queen and Locomotive. 

- World on Fire and Living the Dream weren't around when it came out... most of Apocolyptic Love doesn't really stand up to his more current stuff.