bumbleslash69

I noticed this a few days ago while being a dweeb and looking. It also has a few placer holder date on other sites now too. The German GNR site says 11/3. For what it’s worth though, maybe these sites have always said this because the record sold out or wasn’t available in those regions. I wouldn’t worry about it until the US site is updated. You can still purchase them there with the expected release date.

I'm far from a Rolling Stones fan, but they've had a ton of good music the past few decades lol. I mean, they're not my cup of tea at all. But if you take off the fanboy shades, GnR is releasing a song that's been known to exist for 20 years, that didn't make CD, was allegedly on an album that was canceled, and is now coming out as the B-side of a 7" on a single with zero promotion of its own existence. It is a B-side in every which way or the word, and it likely is a B-side for a reason. I'm not sure I'd say it has much chance to be an all time song. It's going to be a great moment for NuGnR fans who've known about it forever, other than that the world is going to move on. Heck, this forum is going to move on and get into how Slash probably ruined a solo none of us have ever heard.

The last single was pressed in Germany. SE Michigan is a decently sized distribution hub. I live in that general area and sometimes my tracking orders start out just an hour or two from home, then ship to another state and then ship back to me

Just about T-minus 7 days until the General pops up on streaming services (thanks VPNs) or a record arrives early somewhere and it shows up online.

At least the skepticism about a physical only release isn't totally unwarranted. UMG Italy called Perhaps being delayed before anywhere else. So even though it deleted the copy about the General there is some merit there. It's also, as far as I can tell, the first non-album studio track GnR will have released that's only available as a B-side. Pre-streaming services that usually meant you'd have to wait for a comp to get a widespread release of those types of songs. So I can understand why people are worked up about it. Still, obviously it will be released on streaming services. GnR actually makes money off streaming unlike tons of bands, and everything is about money. No doubt the General will be online next week. The talk about Slash and Duff not being on it, it being an instrumental, it being State of Grace, etc. That's just people working themselves up over nothing.

I don’t think the “Heys” from Eye on You are an indication one way or another about the amount of songs in the vault or if Axl recorded more vocals. I think with these sessions the intention was to always cherry pick the best “elements” from songs to form complete songs. Sort of like a hip hop recording session. As someone else has said Hard Skool could’ve got the Heys in 2004. What im curious about with the General is if the old tour intro is fully a part of the song or not. A 7” record usually doesn’t hold more than 6 minutes of music (it’s possible, Springsteen has a 10 minute song, but I’m not expecting a ton of format maximizing efforts from GnR.) I wouldn’t be surprised if that tour intro was one of those “elements” repurposed from a previous version of the General.

I felt that was the impression the band and those orbiting it gave off. It's what I believed. But with hindsight it doesn't really appear there was much more there outside of CD2. I doubt the tracks on CD itself were selected because of the leaks. My guess is that the CD tracks were the only 14-15 songs that were "done" enough to release at the time and not because of the leaks. We know Atlas was dropped last minute. But some of those CD songs we were told weren't going to be on the album and were anyways. Maybe Axl wanted a smaller track list or what not to help space out 2-3 more albums, but I think we got what was ready to go at that time. Hopefully there are more big guns and the General and future to-be-released unreleased songs really are what the pillars of CD2 and CD3 would have been.

Chinese leftovers? I like as singles. An album is a statement piece. CD2 isn’t the statement this band needs or should make. As singles the songs are fine and harmless. In a perfect world we’d get a few more proper singles like Perhaps with B-sides over the next year or two. We get to eat and put this whole era to bed. We also get to ride the lightning bolt just a bit longer. I feel a full on new album would sort of be the nuclear option to drum up tour hype. I’m not sure there is much left in the well for any of them to bring something cool to the table. I also don’t see it happening because of Axl and they don’t really seem to need any extra help moving tickets.

Pretty much. "B/R-side" is both a literal term as in the back side of a record and a figurative term for "non-album" track. There are not enough Tuesdays left in the year for this forum to come to a consensus on what B/R-side means in context of the General.

Tommy doesn't deserve any bashing at all. It's important to remember at the end of the day, it was a job. These giant bands, especially legacy bands, are businesses. They're not a ragtag crew of people hanging out every day trying to make it big. Tommy took pride in his work, has always praised CD and GnR even if the band and that album aren't "cool" in the eyes of his general audience. Heck, Tommy has alluded to not having much of a present day relationship with Paul Westerberg and he's known him since he was like 12 or something crazy. It's just how life goes. I'm sure plenty of people on here have coworkers from 10, 20, 30 years ago that you haven't talked to but share a lot of good memories with. I think some believe CD and nuGNR were these guys' lives and not just projects and jobs. The band and album were Axl's life. Can't fault a single member of the band for the way they speak or choose not to speak about CD.

My bad if I missed it. But was the consensus that this is the General playing in the Hollywood Bowl promo/short/reel? Minus the swooshes, whooshes, and cheering used during scene transitions? There are some military sounding sound effects added on too. They seem to love their sound effects. Sort of checks with Hard Skool's school bell. Reminds me of the old tour intro and Evader's recreation. Plus they seem to only use original GnR songs for most of their promos. This is definitely the most excited I've been in a long time for any kind of release though. I can't wait to get the record, listen a few times, and then get on with life lol.

I mentioned it in the General thread. But Tommy is Tommy. He's an old punk rocker showing his age. I wouldn't be surprised if his listening habits are left of the dial of today's mainstream rock. I think he's happy to talk about Guns, but I don't think he cares enough or remembers enough to give too insightful of answers about anything Chinese Democracy related. It seemed very much like it was a gig and far in the rear view when I've seen him and not something he lived and breathed.

I've done Tommy meet and greets and Q/As before. I don't mean this as a dig, but he's very much showing his age and lifestyle. I loved seeing him and would go again. But anything Guns related was meant with generic answers or very appreciative/complimentary answers towards Axl and the project as a whole. I've heard he doesn't care for some of the former band members, but he never mentioned that. Couple tour stories and stories about his audition. That was all we got. The way I took it was he talked about Guns like how any other mid-50s guy would talk about a job he had 20 years ago. There weren't a lot of details. Would be awesome to hear him comment more on the intricacies of the recording process and the unreleased material. But again, not to sound like an ass, I don't think he has a ton of insight that people from this forum would find fascinating.

I would also guess there are entire "tape trading" communities that collect demos and rarities from more legit sources (storage lockers, studio employees, etc.) than message board users that may have unreleased music. These songs are likely out there, maybe not in the hands of GnR fans though. At least not GnR fans willing to lose their place in the greater tape trading community.

I'm not sure there is a comprehensive list on what RTB recorded. But, in 2018 Rolling Stone did a piece on CD's 10th anniversary. It said that Sean Beaven recorded 35 songs with the band and most of the vocals on CD were recorded by Beaven in 1999. Following Beaven's split with the band RTB came in and primarily used Axl's vocals but had the band re-record their parts. Particularly this was the period Brain re-recorded Josh's drums. If we stick with that 35 number, subtract the four recent releases, Atlas, State of Grace, and the CD album, that gives us 15 unaccounted for songs. So basically the guts of CD2 would've been worked on at some point by RTB if the remaining 15 songs had vocals. Cuban Skies, Tonto, Quick Song, Oklahoma/Berlin, Soul Monster, Zodiac, PRL, Thyme, etc. Think demos and recordings post 2000. Some of the Village sessions have work by RTB on them and were instrumentals. My apologizes for the Steiner math. Basically RTB would've worked on the majority of the songs we know exist in some fashion that aren't in circulation.

It's always impressive to me how quickly GnR news can spread. Pretty clever to wait to announce a show (that wasn't a well kept secret) while they're dominating the news cycle following this weekend's festival performance. There are already articles up on news sites about these Hollywood Bowl shows. After watching NuGnR sputter out and how little attention a lot of legacy bands get nowadays for even doing full album rollouts, it's nuts to see GnR somehow remain this relevant since the reunion. They definitely have branding down to a science right now.

Those were previously released songs and not quite “B-sides” in the sense they’re non-album tracks or only available on a single. It’s not a bad thing to be a B-side. A lot of bands’ best songs are non-album tracks.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not played live anytime soon. We can’t lose track that it is a B-side. Traditionally, B-sides and non-album tracks aren’t performed live. Hard Skool and Absurd didn’t have actual B-side tracks. And Perhaps isn’t being promoted as Perhaps/The General. It’s very much all about the A-side with the promotion there. Likewise wouldn’t be surprised if the next B-side isn’t performed live. Maybe the plan is to put the more unconventional NITL Guns songs as B-sides just to release them Obviously it’s GnR and anything goes. The mystique of the song, Richard’s quote, and the setlist mentions seem to indicate it’ll be played live. But if it was any other band I wouldn’t hold my breath on a B-side being played live.

Grasping at straws but it could be referring to the line ”when it sits wrong and the road gets rough” from Atlas. On accounts the skeleton seems to be sitting in a stadium chair near a desert road leading to some kind of town. Also could be someone lost in the desert then dies (ie could’ve used an Atlas.) The artwork though is very GnR whether fan made or AI generated. It looks like it could’ve been a lithograph during the tour.

It's interesting it made it on to Discogs. The guy could be a troll, for sure. But generally the people who use that site are more hobbyist than internet clowns. However it should be be noted that the person posting also had comments on a random Japanese Gn'R bootleg. So take it with a grain of salt. Could there be an Atlas Shrugged 7" though? Yeah. It's more than likely to get released at some point. Whether the cover art and story is made up or not is sort of irrelevant when trying to "predict" something that's likely. You'll see this a lot with GnR (especially back in 06-08) and lots of artist. Fans try to use context clues to make predictions on likely to occur events to gain internet clout. We know Atlas Shrugged made it past the Village sessions. We know the band re-recorded the more polished Chinese leftovers. We know the band has released 7"s with "new" songs the past few years. It's an easy conclusion to draw that Atlas Shrugged is on deck. My best guess is this person is an internet troll, knows GnR fans are maniacs, and knows Discogs carries a bit of clout with its listings even if they are user submitted.

I like Tommy a good deal, but it's important to remember he's a storyteller though first and foremost though. Have seen him in person a handful of times. Even came to a local library for a Q&A thing a little while back. He's definitely his own dude and not afraid to speak his opinion, but he's also very diplomatic with his answers around all things GnR and Replacements. He's promoting his own solo work currently and a huge Replacements remix/remaster for their album Tim btw. That's why he's given so many interviews the past few weeks. I'm almost surprised he hasn't given more GnR related soundbites. I'm not surprised he views Chinese Democracy so favorably or feels that the mainstream view on it will look at it as the quintessential GnR album. He also feels the same way about the last Replacements album, All Shook Down. Which was even more of a solo album than CD. I think he looks for and gets something else out of music than most people do. Which I'm sure is pretty similar for most recording artist and lifelong musicians. In his mind and in his circle of life, Chinese Democracy may have more clout than what it does in the actual mainstream world. Obviously, it's not the best Guns album. But I'm not surprised he would say it is.

Perhaps was to release August 11, but was allegedly delayed last minute. Not in time to get it off every service, such as Touch Tunes. Then it dropped on radio the following week before GnR announced its release on August 18 with the full rollout of merch. I'm not sure the band even recognized that Perhaps was played on radio a day or so before they announced it. Where there is a smidge of credibility to the whole General physical ordeal is the first place to report Perhaps was coming out August 18 and not August 11, was Universal Italy. Same subgroup of UMG that has copy on their site saying the General will be physical only. They played Perhaps live for the first time August 18. The whole thing was a little murky as par the course.

There is so much mystery left in the leaks. If there were more songs then from the sessions that spurred the 2006-07 leaks like Perhaps, the General, Hard Skool, Atlas, etc. I'd be absolutely amazed nothing popped up. Even a 10 second clip. Because the people leaking and trading music back then loved to let everyone know they had songs the public didn't. Even a song like Silkworms has an absurd history. Played in 01, a clip leaks post-CD, and then we didn't hear a proper studio demo until the Village sessions (right? I was out of the loop 2010-16.) If it was out there that whole time, you'd of thought we'd of heard it. Who knows! Fascinating stuff all around. I'm excited to listen to the General a handful of times and then check out on GnR for the foreseeable future. I'll always be interested and come back by though when something from that CD era pops up.

In a cruel twist of irony, I received a beautiful boxset of a remaster of an album from the Replacements (Tommy Stinson) in the mail. And I was curious why it didn't have a new mix of a song on it. Come to find out, the new mix of that particular song is exclusively on a 7" that wasn't a part of my order. Luckily there were still two other versions of that song on the boxset! But go figure.

Fascinating. I've often wondered about the ownership of the music. I was under the impression that "Guns N' Roses" was an imprint for Geffin since Geffin and UMG are still listed on materials and GNR was still on the UMG roster. Is it possible that the the label owns the music and rights while the Guns n' Roses imprint is in place so the band has more control over the distribution of the music? Such as pressing their own records? It's all stuff out of my wheelhouse but pretty interesting. Appreciate the insight you shared.