TheSeeker

There's a version of Atlas with Audacity-removed vocals floating around

Who's going to the brave soul and sing it at a karaoke bar (and film the reaction)?

Come on you pussies

On the topic of Axl copying and pasting guitar solos - I read an Eddie Van Halen interview where he admitted to doing this himself on albums.

The problem was then when Eddie had to learn to play the solos live, he would be like "how the fuck do I get my hands from here to there on the fret?". Copying and pasting leads to some unnatural progressions for guitarists.

9 hours ago, Voodoochild said:

Did Axl admit he used vocal tuning tho? I don't remember that. I'm sure he have, but I just don't remember any quotes about that besides when he denied using it in live performances.

He admitted to using autotuning on his vocals in the 2006 interview with Eddie Trunk - Baz brought it up and Axl got kind of weird about it

There's also the Osaka 2002 in-ear mix where Axl starts yelling at the monitor guy to take the filter off his voice - so there's that as evidence that he was using something on his voice during live shows

"Curly Shuffle" might also have lyrics/vocals if it's just a cover of this song as has been speculated:

2 minutes ago, Lio said:

I wonder what's Axl's been doing all those years if 26 songs were as good as finished 13 years ago, and written almost 20 years ago.

Just now, surforia said:

Pretty sure The General was written and recorded by then, as well.

It's on the list

Just now, Gackt said:

For those, my guess is

• Soul Monster / Leave Me Alone
• Thyme
• Seven
• Perhaps
• Quick Song

Down By the Ocean *probably* has lyrics since Izzy wrote it, but who knows

Axl quote from January 2006:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060208021431/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9155514/axl_rose_breaks_his_silence/

Quote

After all, before he lends his talents to others' projects, Rose has one of his own to finish, and he says it's getting there. "We're working on thirty-two songs, and twenty-six are nearly done," he says. Of those, thirteen are slated for the final album. Among Rose's favorites are "Better," "There Was a Time" and "The Blues."

So we can narrow down the 26 "nearly done" tracks from 2006 to songs confirmed with vocals that were either officially released or leaked as demos:

Atlas Shrugged (demo)

Better

Catcher in the Rye

Chinese Democracy

Going Down (demo)

Hard School (demo)

If the World

I.R.S.

Madagascar

Oh My God

Prostitute

Riad N' the Bedouins 

Scraped

Shackler's Revenge

Silkworms (demo)

Sorry

State of Grace (demo)

Street of Dreams

The General (fan recording)

There Was a Time

This I Love

That's 21 - so by my count there's 5 songs left that have vocals

I highly doubt Axl was writing any new lyrics after 2001

And remember too the '99 demos of TWAT and IRS that leaked years ago had worse fidelity than anything off the antiquiet leaks - all the pre-Zutaut stuff that's on Tom's locker discs might not have been mixed the same as the later stuff

1 minute ago, WhazUp said:

Probably because it is a more rough mix than any of the other songs such as the CD demos we got that had finished vocals.  Those were really getting to "release mode" at that point? this is probably more of a track expressing an idea as opposed to laying down final vocals or mixes

It is for sure Axl, and I can't imagine it not being a legit clip.  It is 100 percent him

A lot of the tracks on the Zutaut discs could be untouched from before Tom started working on the project - he could just have been keeping the most-complete versions of those tracks around for reference

They're not scratch lyrics, y'all are just bad listeners

State of Grace 

When did you think you would tell me?

How long you think I could wait?

Oh no, but

I've got a notice that I'm all fine

Now I'm here back in your face now to let it in

Catcher in the Rye being sourced from a cassette tape for the 2006 leak could mean either

-A hoarder purposefully wanted to degrade the track to preserve its value

-Someone playing the CD had to dupe it fast and the only way to do so was by throwing a cassette tape into an attached deck and recording onto that

Second scenario would match the "strip club DJ" theory to a tee

6 minutes ago, Gackt said:

I'd guess #5/6 was an early version of Shackler's.

If the "Better" leaks from 2006 (instrumental and non-instrumental) came from the disc that would also fit the description - they kind of magically appeared online without explanation a few weeks after Axl mentioned the track's name in that Rolling Stone article in early 2006

So either the hoarders got scared since they knew their track would soon be worthless, or Axl leaked it himself (?)

Whatever happened, it was very weird

Eddie Trunk posted this online in 2003 after GNR's legal team contacted him because he played "IRS" on his radio show:

Quote

 

Quick update on the GN’R news. Today's NY Post has a story about the airing on my show, and tonight, MTV will run a story on TV about the exclusive airing. It is also already on just about every major music news site! The buzz just keeps getting bigger on this!! Piazza and I have been blown away by the response. Please email me through this site for press requests, etc. I have been HAMMERED with email from all over the globe regarding my exclusive airing of the new Guns N’ Roses track ‘IRS’ this past Friday. This has become a MAJOR story, and I'm trying to get back to as many people as I can, but simply can not respond to everybody. Here is the latest on what went down:

My friend and occassional co-host Mike Piazza paid a visit to the show close to Midnight. As you could imagine, Mike gets a tremendous amount of fan mail, and being a hard rock and GN’R fan, lot's of CDs in his mail. Mike came in with a CD that was labeled as new Guns. It was packaged anonymously. Mike wasn't sure if it was legit, but we put it on the air, and the phones went nuts. The song was called ‘IRS’ and sounded like Illusion era GN’R, with a few modern touches (loops, samples in intro). I don't think it was 100% complete, but sounded pretty close. We took live calls about it, and people were blown away at the exclusive they just heard on my show (not to mention it was a star baseball player that came up with it!). I like GN’R, but I'm not a fanatic, but I must say, the song was really good. There were other tracks and music on the CD as well, but I only had a chance to listen to them on the ride home. Mike left the CD with me, so I could determine what to do with it from there. Questions of how legit this recording was were quickly squashed when I started to get calls and email from the bands management on Saturday. This was VERY legit!

A few facts here:

It will NOT be played again! Now that I know it was legit, I have co-operated completely with the bands management, and have been asked to turn over the CD, which I did. I no longer have it. It was not labeled in anyway, it was just a burned CDR.

The song will not be included on the replay show. I have been forced to edit it out (another reason why my show is best heard live!). There are legal issues if you don't comply, and I will be served with papers to prohibit the repeated airing even if I still had it and wanted to!! It will not be heard again until it is an official release.

The rest of the CD was also cool. It sounded like a total of 3 songs, with instrumental versions of each of the 3, making a total of 6 tracks (I think). The last track, which I did not play, was the best. A great rocker, with tons of shredding guitar from Buckethead. I don't know what the title was, but I kinda wish I had the chance to play that one as well. Mike & I didn't really know what we had, so we just played the first track ‘IRS’.

We have no idea where this came from. Mike threw out the packaging when he went through his fan mail weeks ago. I would say it was somebody that works in a studio, or perhaps an intentional leak to build buzz. Of course I'm just thrilled they picked my show and Mike to send it to! If you remember, there were also reports a couple months ago of Axl playing this music in strip clubs, maybe another source? Again, we have no idea!

Again, I have co-operated fully with the bands management. It will not be replayed and I no longer have it. Like I always say, you never know what's going to happen on the show! This is just another reason why you should be hammering your local stations to carry my show live. It is available anywhere in the US. Your voice counts! If you don't get the show, tell your local stations program directors you want it!! Piazza hung out for a couple hours total, and the always hysterical Jim Breuer dropped by after a Metallica club show. Just a great way to kick off the labor day weekend. A great mix of music, talk and giveaways, and of course, exclusive music!”

 

So the tracklisting on this CD was

1. IRS

2. IRS (Instrumental)

3. Unknown

4. Unknown (Instrumental)

5. "A great rocker, with tons of shredding guitar from Buckethead"

6. "A great rocker, with tons of shredding guitar from Buckethead" (Instrumental)

Could Track #5 and Track #6 have been "Hard School"? Maybe Track #3 and Track #4 were "Better" since both a demo of that and an instrumental of that leaked in 2006?

This is supposedly the story of the 15-second Hard School/Checkmate leak in 2006:

Quote

 

RazZ claims that someone approached him with a CD he apparently stole from the GnR studio.

RazZ contacted GnR management who told him that if he co-operated with them and helped them catch the thief they would give him VIP treatment at the Hammerstein gigs.

RazZ apparently helped them and they caught him (I think?) but GnR management didn't live up to their side of the bargain.

So RazZ decided to screw GnR management by playing Checkmate on his radio show and people have been crazy over it since.

That is what was posted on the boards back in 2006. Also Razz only got that one clip as proof the theif had the cd in hand

 

I've been thinking about this a bunch in the past couple days - who from the studio would have been mad at Axl and also known Mike Piazza was a GNR superfan in 2003? 

2 minutes ago, djones1225 said:

I'm thinking someone in the GNR team possibly Axl is leaking these, like people have said after 20 years were finally hearing these tracks, weeks away from when the tour starts back up, rumors of a new song in a movie, rumors of an EP this year, shit doesnt add up...

Well whatever secret plan they have to drub up publicity isn't working since no one outside of the fan forums gives a shit about any of these leaks

2 hours ago, Azifwekare said:

I really wanna know the story behind this photo...

There used to be a Chris Pitman fansite called EatMySilkworms.com - I think that pic is of Axl with the owner of the site:

https://web.archive.org/web/20070127200135/http://www.eatmysilkworms.com/

1 hour ago, soon said:

Thanks, so I guess then guns/management forgot about the locker when they left the space?

The band probably didn't even know he had a locker

As for the CD's - they probably just assumed Tom had possession of them but knew he would never be able to do anything with them because of legal reasons

It sounds like outside of the band members/management/Team Brazil no one else would have had access to the master tracks - Tom was the first one to go through and compile them to disc for reference

Maybe someone can write Tom and confirm how often he did that - for all we know that was just the November 2000 edition of his CD compilation and he had been making a new CD set every month up until that point

Or maybe the label was demanding to hear what had been worked on and Tom threw the CD set together for them to hear?

Lots of unknowns

1 hour ago, soon said:

Did Tom sell the locker? Or did Tom abandon the locker and someone else sold his locker?

Either way it seems rather edgy of Tom to let these get out?

When Tom was fired he was no longer allowed on the premises to retrieve his belongings (or he didn't care to)

I'm guessing GNR had a "you can't take our music off the property" policy and Tom put his CD's in one of the lockers for safekeeping

It's kind of amazing that Axl firing Tom Zutaut in 2001 led to the album being delayed, and now 18 years later the set of CD's he was forced to abandon has led to Axl's vault being emptied

Can we all agree firing Tom was one of Axl's biggest mistakes

Just now, 2020_Intensions said:

All I could ever make out is the end "it slips aways..." ?

If I have a chance I'll try and isolate it and slow it down (and lower the pitch)

Has anyone figured out what high vocals Axl is singing during the bridge?

Hearing that for the first time on the House of Blues proshot was a revelation, but he uses like a baby voice and you can't understand what he's saying

This is awesome and you can't tell me otherwise

Also makes me question what the hell Pitman did for this song live in 2001 other than press "play"

1 hour ago, DarkLotus1111 said:

Holy shit... "Estranged" with Buckethead? 

All I can think of is Axl made Buckethead do it as his audition

And "GNR car video" gives away that everything on that list is from Pitman - Pitman used to control the video screen via his laptop

Probably that stupid drag racing video from 2001-2002 that played during You Could Be Mine

Or it's all fake (likely)

6 minutes ago, Live Like a Suicide said:

Not all are pop rock, but they are all super popular songs. I think Atlas, being a softer rock song with a poppy tempo/melody and softer vocals, would do relatively well among this competition. Indeed, i think it would be more of a mainstream hit than Hardschool would be (even though i prefer Hardschool over Atlas at this stage).

Why should we care? Well, this is a band we all love and follow. It would be great to hear it on the radio and see it charting well, no? Of course there are other determinants of success, but just because there are, shouldn't mean we can't have this discussion on how well a reworked Atlas may chart.

He should give the song to Pink and let her take it to #1

Completely serious when I say that

GNR is never going to have a hit song again