19AT5

2 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

Bumblefoot talking about playing fretless live in Guns N' Roses, including added bits to old songs: (44) 2012.01.20 - Music Radar - Interview with Bumblefoot at NAMM (a-4-d.com)

Cheers for sharing that. I've never been sold on fretless bass or guitar and as well as he plays it... it's still a no from me! They are weird to play but fun. For half an hour or so.

56 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

Shacklers, Chinese are two off the top of my head that involve switches mid song from fretted to fretless. 

He never played the fretless on Heavens door or November Rain. He did use it on some songs like Night train and RQ and for the most part it added to the sound. Some people won't like it but I thought he recreated a lot of cool sounds from the records that you just can't do as well with a fretted guitar in a live situation. 

But 100% they are incredibly difficult to do even the most basic things. I would have turned around and left if I saw a fretless waiting for me... I'm sure I'd get some sounds out of it, but that just sounds like a bad time😄

Haha! Thankfully I had played double bass a few times before and dicked about on the cello. So it wasn't totally new to me. But having had a few beers, the first song or sox were a bit ropey! It wasn't the Jack Bruce masterclass I hoped for, put it that way!!! 😃😃😃

5 hours ago, Tom2112 said:

Considering half the parts he played on Chinese were on a fretless, I think it served its purpose. It was also pretty handy for recreating those weird sounds from AFD and UYI. 

I know in GNR fan world anything that isn't a les paul is against the law though 😜

Was it though? Sure I can hear it played on a few songs? But always felt it was more a gimmick than anything else. Especially on non-CD songs. I'm not sure there is any requirement for a fretless guitar on KOHD, November Rain.

As an aside, they are hellish hard to play! So fair play to him for managing it. I once sat in with a band on bass at last minute and the only bass immediately available was a fretless. Sweet mother of Jesus, that was a baptism I wish to forget!

41 minutes ago, oneway23 said:

Not for nothing, but, if there exists a mountain of more instrumentals with Buckethead solos on them, I also wanna hear them.  I'd rather that from when they were fresh than hear someone else's overdubs on them two decades later.

Again I agree with that too. If there are finished songs with him on there, release them as is. This current approach of updating tracks 20 years later with Slash and Duff is not great.

33 minutes ago, CubanSkies Dummy said:

Oh, hm, uhm, yes...

Hi, Bumblefoot.

Long time no see.

Heeeeeeeey there! <Casually strokes beard whilst pretending to look cool. In a stormtrooper mask.>

On topic of BF... Did anybody else find the double neck guitar totally pointless? I much preferred him on the Les Paul.

23 minutes ago, Jw224 said:

This is legitimately a "what's your personal holy grail" thread you're posting in. 

Yeah okay fair point. I'll accept that! My point was just around seeing the same type of commentary from the same posters constantly. I only pop in now and then and it just amuses me to see the same shit being rehashed time over. 

Objectively, having heard Hard Skool again recently, it's okay. The production is terrible, and the middle section is meh. Still totally dig the chorus. But the school bell intro is a no no no! I quite liked it at first but time has not been too kind. If it was on the Illusions it would be a filler track... if that makes sense.

3 hours ago, Sweersa said:

I hope it leaks, or better yet, the tracks leak in a form prior to the mixes with Bumblefoot on them so we get all of the Bucket stuff.

I could've bet a kidney on this response! Haha! You're like the grown man who can't forget going out with a girl when they were 15! Actually no, scrap that. Who can't forget two other people going out when they were 15! Seriously dude, let it go. Or get yourself a chicken coop! 🤣 Constantly hoping and posting about Buckethead is just weird. I love Tommy Bolin and I love Deep Purple (or certainly did). But I don't live in hope that the next Purple album has a guitar solo by him. Controversially, I listen to his solo material (now that there's much as he's dead but hey ho). Unless this is of course pure trolling and I have just played into it. Oh FFS! 😋😬

5 hours ago, Beto 22 said:

If slash says the drums were intact, he never hearf the leaked version of Hard Skool...

A bombastic drum performance on that track eh. Up there with the best of Bonzo, Ginger, Peart or Copeland! 🤣

He was talking about Absurd.

47 minutes ago, mystery said:

The album really should have come out in 2006 and it would've been an interesting album to promote on a show like Story Tellers. That Spring-Summer period in 2006 had releases by Pearl Jam and RHCP so they would have fit right in.

Yes but by 2006 it was the longest standing joke in the music industry. I get what you're saying but the nu-Guns-era really didn't stand a chance in the general press after the 2002 MTV VMAs and the success of Velvet Revolver. Which is ironic because they played a bloody helluva show at Rock Am Ring (I think). But still no album so... reap what ya sow I guess.

19 minutes ago, mystery said:

Could've been about the stuff they've already released. Stories about Appetite or the UYI songs being put together but I realize that would be a no-go since Axl was still on bad terms with Slash and probably wouldn't want to bring him up. 

But that was literally a different band? Who would want to watch an interview with CD members talking about albums they had nothing to do with?! I'd be interested in a documentary with all the CD members talking about the making and recording of CD though. But that ain't gonna happen.

1 minute ago, Spoon87 said:

Absurd not at all, Hard Skool from time to time, mainly to feel a throwback to the time around the Checkmate leak after that Trunk Radio Interview, I think it was. Still a cool song tho.

I think the chorus in Hard Skool is friggin' tremendous. And I like the guitar work too. Delighted that God awful cheesy intro is gone from the leaked version. I actually can't listen to it though I will say Axl sounds better on the leak. Don't get everybody's beef with the drums being replaced. It was hardly like the original leak version had John Bonham pounding on the skins!

15 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

I have listened to many of his tracks, and they are magical. They are only missing Axl.

Well then, possibly time to face reality... he ain't in the band today, and is unlikely to be in the band tomorrow! 🙂 The chances of any extended meaningful Buckethead tracks appearing on any future GNR recording whilst Slash is in the band are slim.  Perhaps you could do some Axl/Buckethead mash ups?!

15 hours ago, mystery said:

Would've loved to have seen the 2006 band on something like VH1 Storytellers or AOL Sessions which were popular at the time. 

Telling what story exactly?! They hadn't released anything and were generally ridiculed in the press.

1 hour ago, Sweersa said:

Yes, absolutely!  I'll take as much Bucket guitar as I can. 

Okay well as a suggestion... go listen to one of the many hundred Buckethead albums then?! The dude literally performed a handful of shows 20 years ago and appeared on one album, released well after he left the band! He's a great player but his work with GNR is literally a smidgen of his recorded output. Hoping a wee guitar lick leftover from those years appears on any future GNR recordings is bizarre at best, when he has such an extensive catalogue out there. Go on, you can do it... 🙂🙂

52 minutes ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

OMG is a good song with a bad mix (kinda like Hard Skool) but it was released, played live and forgotten 20 years ago. It would be a shame if they wasted their time releasing a re-worked OMG instead of something we haven't heard.

I'd agree with that. I actually think it's q banger of a track but it didn't land well so no point resurrecting it now. Bizarrely I didn't mind the weird mix either. Used to listen to that a lot as a 14/15 year old. Loved it!

Just now, mystery said:

Howerdel and Freese never played live though and there was only 1 album (which has a mix of musicians) and 1 TV performance from the 2000-2002 band.

Sorry I was being sarcastic! 🙂 Should've included emojis. 

4 minutes ago, The Matinator said:

For the love of god I just hope whatever they release has updated vocals so we can put an end to this being every thread.

Hahahaha! Touche. Been a while since I dropped in and I was both astonished and concerned that the same shit was getting spouted on most threads... 1999 vocals, Buckethead appearing on the next album, the vault debate etc. It's like a mental institution! Except without the good bits!!! 

4 hours ago, Sweersa said:

Slash did say something like "for the most part" so perhaps there's still a little bit of other guitar parts there. Our best bet though are more leaks, or some special edition or box set or whatever full of Bucket stuff. 

It's been a few months since I've been here but I'll give you this... yer consistent with yer Buckethead love! Seriously though, even if the new album contained 5 seconds of Buckethead on an intro or whatever, is that really worth getting excited about? Like is it not just easier to go and actually listen to Buckethead albums? There's plenty of them! Some are quite good too! But there is a fuck tonne to choose from! Maybe you could splice some Axl vocals over the top?! 

19 hours ago, CubanSkies Dummy said:

That Finck/Buckethead/Tobias/Stintson/Howerdel/Pitman/Reed/Mantia or Freese lineup was the greatest.

So many good gigs, albums, TV performances and general good memories. Those were the days when GNR ruled the world. 

25 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

I feel your pain there. Sometimes it seems more noticeable than others. I hope to God they are mixed and mastered properly if they make an eventual album. It would be dreadful if the entire album sounds like those two tracks. Hopefully they were just rushed as singles, and will be polished on an album. Or maybe they will not be included at all, or maybe alt versions will be on CD2. It would be cool if they use the Village versions on the next album, with some refinement.

Still hoping for a bit of Buckethead I take it?! The Village sessions are demos mate. You've got them, enjoy it! Besides, the new version of Hard Skool smokes the old Village Session version. Okay, granted, the mix and production is piss poor. 

Listened to both tracks over new year with friends for the first time in ages. Everybody was in agreement that Absurd is utter fucking dogshit of the highest calibre. Appreciate some folks might like it, but to these ears... There is literally hee haw good or enjoyable aboot it. Hard Skool I'm more favourable towards, but a lot of the boys think it is GNR by numbers. The middle section is still a bit weird and doesn't really fit. Though I do think the chorus in HS is killer though, but that alone isn't enough really. I've just accepted that following a band like this is just not really worth it as there is very little return. These releases wouldn't make me jump up and want to listen to or buy a new GNR album.

First time I've popped in here for a while due to one or another. Good to see this thread still going with a strong contingent of the same arguments getting made in pretty much the same way by the same groups of people! Lads... go get laid or something, seriously! Some of the comments gave me a laugh. Until I realised it's just the same shit on repeat. Where you get yer time from!?

10 minutes ago, Rovim said:

I like it when Gn'R sometimes gets in a certain vibe and a song is punky, short, to the point and dark like It's So Easy. Absurd works for me in the same way. It's a part of Gn'R that I'm glad Axl has not neglected and I'm optimistic about what Slash did with other tracks thanks to his guitar work on Absurd and also what Duff played just sounds right.

So I think we likely agree more than we initially realised! Totally take on board sentiment around ISE (love that song a lot, let's not touch the lyric topic there though :P). Agree that there is a defo punk streak in GNR DNA, no issues with that either. And I now get your point around Absurd falling into that category. It just so happens, I am don't happen to like it! But that doesn't mean diddle squat! That said, in a live environment, I think I would enjoy a lot more. Perhaps it's just that studio version I don't like?! Who knows, I'm open though. Glad we chatted.

3 minutes ago, Rovim said:

you're right, my mistake. my reply was in jest anyway, but you did have a pretty difficult time understanding why I liked something you didn't and you assume Axl was lazy writing the lyrics cause Absurd contains only 1 repeated verse. Surely you can see that's ridiculous.

Perhaps (nae, clearly) I didn't articulate myself well... what I am more interested in is finding out why somebody finds something interesting that I don't. Like it takes me multiple listens to sometimes understand/get a track. Case in point (and we'll keep it GNR themed), I can't stand November Rain. Never liked all the flutes, bells and whistles stuff, so wrote it off. I heard the acoustic version again the other day and I enjoyed it. So now I feel I 'get' that song, a bit more, if that makes sense. If somebody thinks something is great and I think it's crap... I find that interesting! Sorry I'm one of those annoying analytical fuckers that always wants to know more about stuff!!! 

But Jeso, in no way would I prescribe what is good or bad. But I will poke/prod to find out more. That's the whole point of this! That's all. I promise.

2 minutes ago, EvanG said:

This is subjective, but... the way I look at songs like Absurd (short, simple, energetic songs) is that repeating lyrics make more sense than having a lot of lyrics. A lot of punk music has repeating lyrics too. It's easy to dismiss it as laziness, but it actually serves a purpose, ya know? I kinda see it as announcements... short and to the point. It wouldn't work in long and epic songs like November Rain, Coma and Estranged, but in songs like Absurd it does serve a purpose in my opinion, and I think that's what he was going for. So it's an artistic choice, not laziness. Doesn't mean anyone has to like it, of course.

Okay I understand more now. Thank you for explaining. I think my use of the word 'lazy' in this instance was ironically, eh... lazy!!!!!!!