Billy Cundy

Kind soul, feeling better already x

Make me

Duff’s a wicked bass player. His lines give it a lot more life and personality. And slash gives it some 70s gunslinger swagger that makes Guns sound like Guns. ultimately however, it stylistically remains a relic of the bleak, dreadlocked early 2000s. As claustrophobic, hook-free, and joyless as anything else from the Chinese Democracy era. Sorry. Just my opinion.

It doesn’t tho

Imagine starting a band in your 20s, and a time traveller telling you that in 40 years there’s going to be a website full of devoted grown adults bitterly arguing about everything you do and you’ve ever done. What a bizarre life Axl Rose has led. (yes, karice, feel free to use this idea for a chapter of your deeply unsettling but oddly sweet fan fic.)

Wheels are coming right off this thread haha

This verbose gentleman is, as the kids might say, ‘spitting facts’. Shit don’t float. They put their worst foot forward with Absurd, and the follow ups haven’t been quite good enough to capture anyone outside of the fan bases’ attention.

Yeah, it’s silly. True connoisseurs know the band was truly done the second they got rid of Ole Beich. 👑

Agreed, at the end of the day, it is just pop music. No one is going to die if it doesn’t come out. Most people have bigger and better things to worry about. by that same logic, Team Axl should be more chill about getting these tracks heard sooner. But yeah. In the grand tapestry of life, this is but a thread. Your favourite band fumbles releases and can’t stick to a schedule. We’ll survive

The GNR model is almost engineered for disappointment: 1) axl/insider allude to new material in interview (CD II) 2) wait 20 years 3) leave enough opportunity for unfinished, subpar version to leak 4) fumble actual release 5) by the time the song is actually ready to come out, the discourse and anticipation is bigger than the track itself. 6) song is released and is unable to live up to ludicrous preamble. … annnd the cycle repeats

There’s a hint of Beach Boys/Brian Wilson to Axl’s story.. slipping in and out of depression and reclusion.. work on ‘Smile’, the long awaited follow-up to record smashing Pet Sounds, grinding to a halt, often attributed to Brian’s maniacal perfectionism and spiralling mental well-being… the scrappy, patchy post-60s career and in-fighting amongst band members. The erratic behaviour being attributed to legitimate mental illness. Abuse at the hand of a parent (murry Wilson was a nasty POS by all accounts). Even Brian’s triumphant return to form mirrors Axl’s in 2016. there are even parallels between Brian Wilson and Eugene Landy’s strange conservatorship relationship and the Axl/Beta/Yoda dynamics… though I doubt Axl and Beta are quite that toxic.

The Eagles in their prime released 6 albums, each peppered with wonderful enduring singles and equally satisfying deep cuts. they reunited and released a full album of brand new material. they released an incredible 2 part documentary, in which every member, past and present, contributed talking head interviews. You’re being incredibly generous comparing GNR to the eagles.

The history of the recordings and the reasons as to why Axl can’t seem to release music in the 2nd half of his career are far, far more interesting and engaging than any of the music itself. hell, this fan-forum, the people within it, the conduct and the lore surrounding the new releases is FAR more entertaining and fascinating than any of the actual songs. tail wagging the dog. Looking forward to a few critical listens and then never really listening to any of it ever again, just like Hard Skool and Absurd.

Rogan’s had his moment. There was a period when he was interviewing huge names like Robert Downey Jr, political heavy hitters like Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang.. along with a smattering of compelling scientists and rock stars.. then Covid hit and he became the spokesperson for vaccine skepticism… he became a face in the tribal culture wars… then his big Spotify deal (which I think has contributed to his declining popularity)… he was inescapable. That’s all died down now, and he seems to be far less in the cultural consciousness. coupled with the fact every c*nt has a podcast now, the long form conversation is now no longer a novelty in media. I mostly dislike how we are now subjected to morons like Chris Delia, Bryan Callen, Brendan Schaub, Tom Segura, Andrew Santino and other unfunny ‘bro’ comedians who rogan kicked the door open for. Theo Von and Tim Dillon are quite funny though. I appreciate people are put off by his pseudo-bro-intellectualism. I can’t stomach too much of it. But I’d never say no to a long-form interview with Axl, just because I don’t agree with the hosts views on topics. I also don’t understand people saying ‘our sweet virtuous prince axl wouldnt associate with Joe rogan’… he literally invited Joe on stage to watch a gig for free. And if we are to believe rogan, chatted warmly with him in a restaurant.

Oh right didn’t see that. Cool! Fingers crossed then

Metropolis prides itself on Mastering, it’s their big USP… he’s likely their mastering/mixing, rather than recording.

Yeah bless him. Hard old life being an international rockstar. Poor little dab has to mix his 20 year old new single on the road 😂 well, he has to watch someone else mix it. Whilst drinking stella. filtered stella, no less

If this band drop an album, everyone’s going to be so overjoyed that no one’s going to listen to it objectively for at least 3 years. They’re kind of the band equivalent of the delinquent divvy kid in school who is an arse all year, but gets heaps of praise when they actually do a bit of work.. whilst hardworking normal students get ignored.. it’s like when they played PTU and Bad Obsession on this tour, we were all hanging out the flags and lavishing them with praise 😂 it’s almost a clever business move.. do the bare minimum and whatever you do release will be treated like the second coming of Christ.

It would be interesting to see if an original member coming back would have a positive effect on ticket sales. You’re probably right that its appeal is limited to keen fans of the band, but there are plenty of keen GNR fans out there… we’ll probably never know!

People are rightfully serious annd discerning about music. You can’t underestimate the importance of things a layman might consider ‘minutiae’. Adlers feel was remarkably important to GNR. The devil is often in the detail. Great art wasn’t built on ‘close enough’. Just my two cents. I know what you mean, but in music, it’s better to be a select few’s ‘shot of whiskey’ than a great majorities ‘cup of tea’.. i appreciate what you’re saying from a business standpoint - they’re making money with the musicians they’re currently using. But to deny the impact of the original musician’s alchemy is… not really in the spirit of what made GNR so exciting. Frank doesn’t have the same feel as Adler or Sorum, and some songs suffer for it. It’s not just neurotic fanaticism … it’s a widely unanimous observation from musicians and people who care about musicianship. Which I think we all should. It’s a beautiful and powerful art form.

I go through a GNR phase once a year, normally after seeing them live. To be honest, the older I get, it becomes less about the music and more about the human interest story (Axl), but I do enjoy a week or two of re-evaluating and listening back to their meagre catalog. Something from AFD or UYI will often creep into my gym playlist too. however.. one song I cannot forgive, nor will I, a song even in my peak GNR obsession back in high school that I couldn’t listen to… is So Fine. God I hate that song. There’s something about Duff’s slack jawed delivery of those hilariously bad lyrics, over the bloated Meat Loaf-esque production job of UYI that honestly makes my skin crawl. Hate it, don’t think I’ve ever listened to it all the way through.

The woke libtard elite don’t want you to know that the silica gel packets are totally delicious and edible!

The difference between these guys and GNR is VH and Billy Joel each have expansive catalogues and multi-decade long periods in which they put out singles/albums and material to a regular release schedule, resulting in a cohesive body of work. GNR did that once … AFD. The rest is just weirdo releases like Lies, Spaghetti Incident and the absolute historic anomaly that is CD. Even UYI is a strange double-double album format, full of oddities and curios. I get they were trying to do stuff ‘differently’ but from the vantage point of hindsight, i find it very scrappy and unsatisfying, especially compared to a legitimate catalog band like Zep, Van Halen, AC/DC etc. maybe I’m OTT about it but I love bands where you can listen to their catalog front to back and track the progression and changes… GNR‘s catalog is too fractured, with huge gaps and weird choices (Lies/Spaghetti Incident)… please note I am not commenting on the quality of the music/content within GNR’s releases, I obviously love a lot of it.. I’m commenting more on how it has all panned out and how it is quite dissatisfying compared to the other artists being discussed. before you start defending your sacred cows, please note in the China Exchange interview, Axl even himself corrects a fan talking about ‘all the music they’ve released’ with ‘in the very little music I’ve released’. He knows it’s a scrappy catalog.

Haha comparing Brian who wrote and sang on one of the highest selling, and greatest, rock albums of all time to Richard Fortus, a jobbing sideman who is only the fourth best guitarist on the one GNR album he played on from 2008.

No one’s come out particularly well in this, except Slash.