bax

I can't tell you how many people I've tried to turn on to CD that haven't given me the argument "that's not Guns N' Roses" and refused to even give it a chance. I'm betting that's the majority view. But it really doesn't hold water, here's why.

A band is analogous to a relationship in my estimation. The bonds run very deep. There has to be a pretty intense level of empathy, good communication and trust. So when a member has an issue with the direction the band is headed in, obviously they have the right to assess whether they want to continue. Ultimately, Axl did not fire Izzy, Slash, and Duff. They walked away, totally for their own reasons. So in my opinion, Axl is not Guns N; Roses. But clearly, he runs the franchise. Does it really matter who wrote what and who played what on the CD? No. Every guitar track is properly credited. It captures a moment. Simple as that. Songwriters and performers get royalties for their work. The touring band was hired to interpret the material for a live audience, When you are talking about material with as complex in it's arrangements as CD, it is more about compositions than songs per se. Axl is more of a conductor than a frontman in the traditional sense. If you go to see a symphony, doe you bitch that Beethoven didn't make the gig? Fuck no, you just go with it. peace.

You guys are fucking ridiculous. Maybe you see this as a pointless thread, but it's one more example of how powerful this new line-up is, to completely shift someone's viewpoint like this.

On topic, glad to see you've come around and given the band another chance!

o.k. somebody gets it. so maybe it's not news to some of you-think I give 2 shits? I'm not running for office, just expressing something very significant to me.

Before the tour started and things got so fucking electric, I was seriously down. I made a severely melodramatic post and said adios. I'm back today to say yes, GN'R lives for me. Sure there are issues with setlists and other such trivialities, but ultimately, I am excited to be a Guns fan again.

10/14 FLAC torrent here:

http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=519309

If you'd told me after the Black Album I would ever be able to get into Metallica again I'd have thought you were an idiot. Then on a whim I listened to the live version of Cyanide and felt the need to actually buy the cd. It's not a remarkable album, but it's certainly a good one. My only complaint is that the lyrics aren't that great.

Well this is my take on them:

I've read many reviews (NME, Classic Rock, Q, Rolling Stone) of their past work, and it seems like a band with much potential, who are perhaps a bit held back. Reading last week's NME special on them, the singer said that he could always sing, but he didn't explore his full vocal potential as he wasn't confident with the lyrics. But the new album apparently is a bit more of a 'no holds barred' approach to the topics within the songs.

The track 'Sex On Fire' is a phenomenal tune IMO, really, one of the best songs to come from any band for a few years.

There's plenty of new (2003-present day) bands that have risen above the 'boring indie band' tag or the like such as Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, and many other good Rock bands like Jet, but none have really had succesive great albums. All the above bands had sub-par second albums. The last KOL album explored new directions, and I think the next one might put them at the top of the ladder.

In short, I believe that by the end of the decade, they will have been the biggest and perhaps best band in the world for a long period.

I tend to agree. The new album is amazing. I think the fact that they have a bit of classic rock influence as well as the typical indie sound makes a big difference.

I have to admit that I was 99.9% sure this was going to suck big time, but it kicks major ass. Rick Rubin must be commended for doing the impossible-bringing a band back from the dead. If I had a hat, I would be eating it for dinner.

So any fans of this band on here? For those who dont know this band is the side project of Daron (the guitarist/vocalist) and John (drummer) from System Of A Down. Their new album comes out next week but the whole album is streaming on their myspace. Its not bad it sounds like the last 2 SOAD albums but taken further. Some electronic stuff and some catchy choruses with simple but powerful metal riffs. its different and worth checking out. Id like to hear what other people think:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...endID=103263546

Really solid effort-no filler tracks. It's much better than Elect the Dead, which shows me who the primary creative force in SOAD is.

You really can't go wrong with Miles, but I'd have to agree Bitches Brew is the shit. It's an absolutely mind-blowing album.

Awesome! I hope they're remastered from the analog masters rather than the digital, but I'm not that picky-will sound great either way I'm sure.

I've never checked out any of his posthumous stuff, or any for any band really. Is the Hendrix stuff decent? People seem to rape posthumous releases for their own benefit most of the time, I've always been wary.

It varies. A lot of stuff was put out that I'm sure he wouldn't have approved of, particularly material that was butchered by poor attempts to overdub other musician's parts. Since the Hendrix family regained control of the recordings in the mid 90's, most of the releases have been pretty good. Check out First Rays of the New Rising Sun-it's the album he was working on at the time of his death. It was put together from finished songs and unfinished stuff reconstructed under the supervision of Eddie Kramer who worked on the original sessions. I'm sure it isn't 100% of his vision, but what instructions he did give were followed to a t.

This is kind of a side note to this, but I always get a laugh when I think about it.

Apparently Jimi was jamming with Stills loudly late into the night when there was a knock on the door. They answered and it was a couple of police officers. One can only imagine how they must have felt at that moment-assuming that they were high as one would think they would be. Rather than bursting in and searching the place, the cops asked if it would be o.k. if they sat outside in their car and listened. Of course Hendrix and Stills complied and I'd imagine were quite relieved to say the least.

On topic, Stills is a very underrated guitarist and this promises to be an excellent release. There is so much unreleased material by Hendrix it's unreal, but it's still quite a surprise that something of this importance would've been overlooked for so long.

If you're not that into the early years, the red album would probably be fine. If you're looking for a single cd from that period, I would say Help is your best bet.

Yeah I don't get it-we're not playing trivial pursuit, we're just talking about bands we like. I've been turned onto a lot of music in this section than I would've been without it and I hope others have as well.

Just enjoy the tones-if you want to dig deeper into a particular artist or their influence on other musicians go ahead. It's just not fair to judge other fans of a band you're into as ignorant just because they haven't done their doctoral thesis on musicology yet.

dont get me wrong, i wasnt having a pop at em, far from it, i'm genuinely saying they know/knew their shit and i thought that was pretty cool is all...just kinda did a double-take on the Adnan thing cuz he struck me as quite a...straightforward fella

It wasn't directed at you bro or Zint for that matter.It's just that factual knowledge of music will never replace it's emotional impact on fans, whether very casual or hardcore. Don't take offense-there are plenty of cool people with well-thought out opinions posting here and you're definitely one of them.

Yeah I don't get it-we're not playing trivial pursuit, we're just talking about bands we like. I've been turned onto a lot of music in this section than I would've been without it and I hope others have as well.

Just enjoy the tones-if you want to dig deeper into a particular artist or their influence on other musicians go ahead. It's just not fair to judge other fans of a band you're into as ignorant just because they haven't done their doctoral thesis on musicology yet.

the best sound quality of each format ranked from worst to best:

-mp3

cd from digital master

cd from analog master

vinyl from digital master

vinyl from analog master.

(I'm leaving off cassettes and 8-tracks, but they are both better than mp3s)

I reached this conclusion purely by listening to the same album in different formats.

I took Coheed and Cambria's NWFT on cd and compared it too the same title on lp. Even though they were both mastered digitally there is a pronounced difference in warmth and low end when listening to the lp.

Next I took Band of Gypsys on lp and compared it to the same title on cd. The vinyl is so much better it's clear even to casual music fans. Just close your eyes and it's almost like being there.

The disadvantages of lps such as crackling and hiss are mostly due to neglect. If the album is kept clean and unscratched the noise will be negligible. I know everyone wants something easily portable and that's why mp3s are so popular, but I know I'm not the only one here that despises them.

Whenever I order an album online now I always look to see if it's available on lp first, and a surprising number of recent releases are. Go out and see for yourself.

Most certainly. Have you heard Tusk?

No I haven't-I just got into them recently, but I'll check that one out as well.

Probably the quintessential pop album of the 70s. Buckingham and co. demonstrates an excellent musicianship, just listen to that perfect rhythm om "Dreams". It also contains the ultimate diss song - after the break-up between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Buckingham wrote the song "Go Your Own Way" and even made Stevie sing it. Some cold shit right there.

I used to prefer Tusk to Rumours actually, but Rumours has really started to grow on me for the past six months or so. It's very understandable that this album has sold more than 25 million copies, it's pop music as it should be made. I's just too bad that it didn't influence future music more.

It's a work of genius. I used to dismiss them as cheesy-that was before I heard Rumours though. I bought it on vinyl and it sounds amazing. I really think you have to listen to the whole album and not just the radio hits in order to appreciate it fully.

in the US you get alot of weird looks blastin' Elvis at the stop light.

it seems that the UK and Europe hold him in far higher esteem than the douche bags here in the US.

also, i dig My Chemical Romance alot.

i also listen to Ennio Morricone soundtracks.

old "rhythm" music, like Jackie Brenston, the Clovers, Wilson Pickett, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas, Sam & Dave, Ray Charles (Atlantic era) etc.

Bear Family records from Germany has this "Blowin' The Fuse" series of compilations of old black music from the '40's on through 1960 and it's just an absolute treasure. google "Bear family records" if you dig old blues, country, r&b, etc.

The people I know that dislike Elvis are basing their opinion on the 70's "fat Elvis" era-you have to admit some of that material was pretty bad. His early stuff is amazing though-I love the Sun Session and wish he'd done more stripped down stuff like that.

I just got the Million Dollar quartet session and there's some real gems in there. I even like some of the later stuff like In the Ghetto, but it's way overproduced. Basically the Col castrated him.

I know that he never wrote his own material or at least never performed it publicly, but I've often wandered if he did write some stuff at some point and it's remained hidden up until now-is that even a possibility?

guns n' roses appear to be extremely uncool amongst "music fans". casual music fans like them but those who think they are 'in the know' about music, usually hate them, mainly cos of axl. then there are the die hard fans, i don't know too many in real life

So very true-fuck all the music snobs. If some emo kid wants to hate them that's probably due to ignorance, but the people I HATE are the older crowd that listened to AFD as a teen and have to pretend they don't like them anymore because it's not hip.

He's an amazing slide player, but no one should compare him to Duane-I'm sure Derek would agree. His playing on his solo stuff is better than his work with the ABB because he displays a lot more varied influences, particularly jazz and Eastern sounding stuff. I have to say it's something to be experienced live and not on cd though-he's not much of a songwriter and the vocalist in his solo band is cheesy as fuck.

Johnny Cash, Elvis, Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins. You don't even have to listen to it to know that it'll be good.

Sounds amazing-thanks a lot, I'll get that ASAP.

Thanks a lot guys-I'll be checking that stuff out.

The Million Dollar Quartet - December 4, 1956, Sun Record Studios

The only bootleg recording you'll ever need.

That sounds familiar-who's on it? I'm sure if it's from Sun it's something special.

I've never gotten into classical much-I'm somewhat familiar with Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, etc. although I could never identify their pieces by name. I've heard a lot in movies and such that I really dig and I'm trying to expand my horizons a bit. Any suggestions of lesser known composers or standout pieces by popular composers would be welcome.