ToonGuns

I missed this I think. What happened here?

Poor. It’s a thin sound given the limitations of 7” anyway, but seems to be an average pressing, then once you add the poor mixing / mastering etc to that it’s just a bit muddy overall. Then you look at the artwork and realise they cocked that up as well. There is a very good song in there somewhere, but needed a different song structure, production, mixing and mastering. It should have been a 12” 45rpm.

Review of the vinyl: Packaging - 3/10. Boring front cover and print quality even worse. It’s a poor resolution cheap job. Paper inserts as well (although that’s fairly standard for 7”). Song - 8/10. Not GnR’s best song but up there. Love the angry vibes of the chords in the chorus. Production - 4/10. A good song doesn’t make a good song, if you know what I mean. This could have been a 10/10 epic but just feels rushed and copied and pasted in the studio. The mixing is poor, I have decided I don’t really like the drum loops, and there’s just not a lot of thought gone into it. The intro could have been longer, the outro should have been extended to let slash shine more, and the dynamics need a bit of work. Mastering - 2/10. On my reasonably decent hifi set up it sounds like a muddy mess. I was listening to Johnny Winter from 40 years ago earlier and that sounds far better.

My vinyl just arrived in the post. It was packaged terribly (just in an envelope - no shrink wrap or anything) and the vinyl itself also looks terrible - “Perhaps” on the front cover is pixelated and looks horrendous. Maybe it is supposed to be like that but never noticed it before.

Melissa should lay down some sub sub bass. To sit below Pitman’s sub bass.

I find UYI pretty iconic. Personal view of course.

I must admit I never ever really got into the Rolling Stones. Aren’t there like 40 variants of the new album? Mental. Now and Then has terrible artwork. Surely the Beatles could have done better than that?! Recently picked up: - Porcupine Tree - new live album on preorder

Haha, yep 100%! Pleased to make your day. To be honest that Snakepit album is one of my favourite all time albums. I really wish that lineup had done more together. Slash never sounded as good. The blend of rock and blues suited him perfectly. Out of interest what were the three tracks? The original album was 12 tracks plus four: there were two bonus tracks on the Japan release (Rusted Heroes, Something About Your Love) and two unreleased tracks from the original promo (What Kind of Life, Bleed) so 16 in total as far as I know. Just want to make sure you’re not missing one.

“The masses” desire nothing more than a legacy act performing the hits. What we have at the moment, as poor as it is, satisfies the desire of the masses. I don’t care what the masses desire though - if I’m steering that ship I’m doing so to support the fans, build a legacy beyond nostalgia, respect the musicians old and new, and create good music. $$$ are a distant priority - they’ve already made enough money for 1000 lifetimes.

In no particular order: 1. Fix Slash’s live guitar tone. 2. Stop tarnishing the legacy with tat like kids books and tonka trucks. 3. Build relationships with the fan base. Create working groups to help get direct feedback on what fans want, to positively influence merch, archive releases etc. 4. Properly archive the recordings. Having a management team that have never heard of infamous demos is a joke. Fully archive everything. 5. Show respect to former members. Whether people like it or not you can’t airbrush out years of history. Get Bucket back for a few live guest spots, just to give him the chance to play TWAT and Better solos live once. Also shows respect to former members / brilliant musicians. 6. Play arenas. 7. Convince Axl to sing lower on certain songs. 8. New album of entirely new recordings. 9. Release the Chinese Democracy vault in a boxset format. 10. Official live “bootleg” series, respectful of all lineups (similar to DP or Kiss). 11. Start band interviews on radio, TV etc. Proper interviews, not weird ones like the China centre. 12. Get Brain or Matt back on drums.

Haven’t heard the Iggy album, but that Eddie Vedder album is very over-processed. The dynamic range is appalling. Compare the sound of it to any of his prior albums.

We probably should debate this in a separate thread to keep this one on topic, but as a reply there’s a lot wrong with what you’re saying here, and additionally we are now muddying different things. I prefer to stick to facts. Lossless is better than lossy, yes. A digital vinyl transfer is different to AAA, yes. VHS quality is worse then HD, yes. But vinyl is also lossless so it’s not true to say, as a blanket fact, that a lossless digital will always sound better than vinyl, which is also why the VHS v HD comparison is very flawed as HD is better quality than VHS (factually, measurably), but vinyl lossless as an input v digital lossless is essentially the same (arguably vinyl is true AAA so actually better). Then we need to factor in that most people don’t stream or listen to lossless audio, whereas vinyl is always lossless. And you’ve also got variations of speaker quality, cables, amp, tone arm, room ambience etc which can impact both lossless digital playback quality just as much as vinyl. No point in a lossless input if the output is poor. And there are other elements as well to consider such as the mastering quality - often the mastering is different for vinyl for good reason which can improve the audio (which is why I specifically referenced Tool’s recent release above as the vinyl is significantly better than the lossless digital). Music genre also has a part to play here. This is entirely my own opinion, but classical and ambient sound better digitally; blues, rock and jazz (in particular) sound better on vinyl due to the inherent warmth. Yes, if a cheap / poor quality vinyl has been pressed poorly and / or is simply a digital transfer then it will sound poor. If the input is good (ie good vinyl, good recording, good mastering etc) then vinyl is “super high quality” even in 2023. It’s probably worth saying - personally I’m not pro vinyl and anti digital at all, I just prefer a fact-based balanced argument and like good quality sound and music regardless of input.

Yes agree 100%.

Forgive me, but if you genuinely believe this then I suggest you do some more research, as this has been written from a position of ignorance. Yes there are bad vinyls. But there are also bad CD’s and digital files, poor mastering, low stream quality etc. Solely highlighting possible issues that can impact vinyl without highlighting issues that can impact digital music is a flawed argument. Good vinyls (whether old or new) will, in general, sound better than their digital equivalents. I’ll point to Chinese Democracy (to keep it on point) and Fear Innoculum as two very good examples of this.

The notes on that listing are pretty funny… CD, SHM CD The long-awaited new single "Pahaps" announced in August this year will be released to the general public in SHM-CD format only in Japan! Guns N' Roses' new single "Pahaps", suddenly released in August this year, will be released to the general public in SHM-CD format only in Japan. This is their first new single since "Hard School", which was released in 2021. It was released digitally simultaneously worldwide in August this year, and a limited 7-inch analog single was only sold on official website of the band, but it was decided that it will be released to the general public in SHM-CD format only in CD format. Japan. It was suddenly decided that a CD single will be released only in Japan, combining the popular "Pahaps" and another new song "The General".

Never heard of that “10 Percenter” song listed on the 2000 Intention listing.

I tend to agree. Not sure if it is a good thing (variation) or a bad thing (difficult to sync into an album etc). I suppose it’s to be expected as the songs are essentially Frankensteined versions of songs created over a 20+ period with endless writers and 20+ band members through the revolving door. The only real way to avoid this would have been to re-record everything from scratch in one session - the songs would have originated from different places but would have at least been sonically the same. The issue currently is not only are the songs different styles but then the production / mixing / mastering / drum sound etc etc is also completely different which compounds the issue.

A few comments: - a 9 min song will sound dreadful on a 7”. Hopefully they’ve had the common sense to upgrade to a 45rpm 12” single. - as great as it is to have Slash and Axl back together, this kind of makes me (even more) realise “what could have been”. Why oh why not release this in 2004-2010. The reunion would have come anyway. - this makes me still want a CD boxset at some point. Empty the vault. Doesn’t need fancy packaging, but I would pay $$$ for it. - I know I’ll get slaughtered for this, and I love the Slash + Axl combo, but I’d love to hear those screams towards the end of the songs with Bucket shredding underneath. I originally thought it was Bucket but have since reassessed as Slash.

The intro to The General sounds like that Halloween Horror album Slash did a few years ago.

Like both songs. Think I prefer the general - the chorus is killer and outro excellent. Not a fan of the programmed drums but they get a pass for that. In terms of who plays on it - I definitely think Slash is playing the solo on Monsters. It also sounds like him on the intro to The General. But the outro is far too fast for Slash - it’s either Bucket or Fortus trying to sound like Bucket. Monsters could possibly be sped up a bit to make it more rocky - bits of it sound almost Britpop-esque (oh, it’s over now but) partly due to the pace.

It’s like a Friend's end of season cliffhanger, except daily. In the last season cliffhanger Ross and Rachel have just about got back together, yet despite the episode being shit you tune in for the new season in the hope they got together and lived happily ever after and it’s a good episode, only to find out they are on a break again and it is still shit.

I was in Austin Texas recently and went to Waterloo Records. Man what a fantastic place. Picked up some Johnny Winter and Dave Brubeck. Possibly best record shop I’ve been too - prices very good but even the fact that it is open until 9pm is legendary compared to what I am used to. Only regret is I had a second Johnny Winter in my hand and put it back thinking I already had it, turned out I didn’t which was a miss. Ah well, next time.

I’d like to know his honest views of Buckethead. What was it like to work with and play with him.

He strips the soul out of the bands he produces. They end up sounding like paint-by-numbers imitations of themselves with the heart ripped out. Also his albums tend to be processed within a midges appendage of their lives - loud and unpleasant. I haven’t heard the Stones record so this is my view having heard the Eddie Vedder one (listen to Earthling compared to all prior Eddie solo material) and Ozzy.

Matt Laug is a great drummer with excellent swing. The drumming on Ain’t Life Grand was fantastic. I’m sure he’ll nail it.