40 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

This is great.

And I like the guitars better than the original version.

Thanks! I tried to bring in some Robin and Bucket influences there

I forgot to thank both @imsorry and @Rindmelon for some cool insights for the mix. 

20 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Not directly GN'R related, but I wonder if Axl's vocal issues could be of a similar nature (likely not, because Bon Jovi couldn't sing at all, whereas Axl's lower register voice is still strong and relatively intact):

https://loudwire.com/jon-bon-jovi-vocal-issues-touring-future/

Very interesting. As a novice singer who's been taking lessons for a while (but I'm still not great at that lol), I understand that Axl's issues are more related to the abusive nature of his singing style. It's natural to lose some of the mid/high register as you grow old, but in Axl's case it seems that he just can't force it out the mids as he did before because his vocal chords would be less rigid. He still puts a lot of strain in the high notes and those will suffer too. 

I do wonder if Axl could try a similar medical approach to regain some of his power back. I'm not sure what is possible to do.

I bought a Boss IR-2. Seems to be very handy and cool, but I must admit I didn't find the Soldano that useful, at least for my taste.

Really cool. I liked the outro a lot.

On 12/8/2023 at 5:30 AM, MaskingApathy said:

Hey everyone, my band just released a new song a few weeks ago. Hope you all enjoy!

 

 

Very cool. I assume it's you on lead guitar? great tone and solo!

5 hours ago, Rindmelon said:

Dinosaurs on the monitors, probably his home studio. 

Dude that's Godzilla 

Nice reach from Todd at the end:

22 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

I don't really get the "I couldn't name a single song"- it's sort of irrelevant as she sells billions of albums to people who could and has done for the past 18 years. 

Not personally knowing something doesn't mean it isn't a massive part of the musical/cultural landscape. 

I agree. And I believe most of us here are not in her demographic reach. What it matters is if she's relevant for the youth, and I totally believe she is. That's how pop music always worked. 

On 2/3/2024 at 8:43 AM, SoulMonster said:

 It is slow progress now because I have to transcribe a lot of interviews.

Great work, as always. Did you try to use some AI to transcribe those interviews? When I was a journalist, I sometimes used Google Pinpoint with my own interview recordings. It's not perfect, especially considering my field had a lot of technical terms (telecommunications) and most of those interviews were in Portuguese, but it helped. 

https://journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/about

There's several other tools out there that may have better results, tho. 

16 hours ago, Rindmelon said:

This is the instrumental of the song Slash did for that popstar who is going to sing on this album in return. Recorded on the road last gnr tour (Netherlands i think) I'm not saying it as a joke but the drums have clipping 

will remove the link later  if not allowed

https://mega.nz/file/1O9EQBoS#omatNamgcv9txPRw_rIQcYUc7-Kcl4GprmR6Xt7uQ7Y

 

 

So this means that Axl and Caram were just following the latest trend? 

I presume Slash only recorded the solo, right?

Thanks for the link. Is that an official instrumental piece or AI-manipulated? His solo kinda fades away in the ending.

8 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 

"What could've been" is the best way to describe this band. Imagine they actually met the March 6 2007 date and dropped basically another UYI kind of release. 2 CDs, maybe a couple bonus tracks, just clean the slate again.

If they had finished versions of Oklahoma, Tonto or Zodiac, add those somewhere on either album. Going Down definitely should've been somewhere on CD2. OMG and TIL remix could've been bonus tracks. The fact this project dragged on for a decade and Axl's still fucking around with these songs is truly absurd.

2007 was already very late. They had an album before that, with good mixes and a somewhat cohesive soundscape. The late additions by Ron and Frank certainly changed this, but those were not the reason why it wasn't released earlier. IMO, Axl should've managed to release the album at least in 2006, without Ron and Frank. And then release the follow up with both in 2008.

I know, it's just fan-fiction at this point. And we'll sure see a lot of more missed opportunities in the future. It's a shame, because this failed attempts (or lack of) is what causes frustration and even leaks.

2 hours ago, Sweersa said:

That is possible, but I believe in 2011 an album was more of a possibility than anything else, especially since multiple unheard songs were reported to have been played at the 2010 after-party. I think bandmembers have commented on CD2 being a little more strange or weird, perhaps it was Richard. So far with what we have heard from it, I agree. (Especially after the Village leaks) 

Maybe Axl was getting burned out by then, when putting lyrics to the Buckethead songs, thus the simplicity/repedative nature of them compared to some of the more complex/epic or longer 2008 album tunes. Indeed, Perhaps and Atlas, and Hardschool would balance out the Soul Monster, and The General types of songs. 

I think the simplistic lyrics are more from the desire to have catchier songs. Perhaps, Hard Skool and Absurd also have simple lyrics and are pre-Bucket songs. 

If they were really intending for a 2011 album, I don't think they would introduce the first really unheard track of the batch with Tommy Stinson as lead singer. 

1 hour ago, ZoSoRose said:

I just don't believe there ever was a CD2 in the can. If there was, the quality just wouldn't have been up- to- par. I am thrilled we are getting the Chinese Takeout songs, now, but they didn't warrant an album release. This is the best, lowest pressure way to do it imo. I like them, but this album below would have by- far made the weakest GNR album in the discography and would have not done very well-

1. Hard Skool

2. Absurd

3. Going Down 

4. Atlas Shrugged

5. Perhaps

6. The General

7. Monsters

I know an album is not 7 songs, but that right there is just too much filler or less- accessible songs to make the meat of an album. I say that as a diehard fan who likes a good amount of them, too. 

Keep putting these finished songs as singles, and maybe release a website- only vinyl album, and I am happy as a clam. Putting all those out as a record in 2010-2014 would not have hit. CD itself seems like a much more cohesive work than these songs. 

If they finished some of the cooler instrumentals, that would have been another story, but who knows.

 

Hard Skool/Monsters single would have been a great 1- 2 punch, imo . I'm just happy they are both able to be heard, now. Hard Skool is a kickass GNR rocker imo and Monsters is the best overall GNR song since 2008. 

Maybe so, but maybe the tracks would sound more cohesive with that band and it would sound a bit better than what we have now as a package. I believe this tracklist would still need something like Better, meaning a great mid-tempo rock song with a more dynamic structure and some cool vintage Axl's vocals. This would elevate it as an album.

45 minutes ago, THELINESMAN said:

Too fuckin easy

Is everybody trying to please me?

4 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

The best info we have in regard to getting an idea of the content of CD2 is the leaked song list from January 2008: (My notes in bold)

 

**********

Cuban Skies V - Unheard outside of the fan who met Axl in 2003 claiming he played it for him
The General Ch V - Officially released in 2023, leaked prior
Atlas L - Leaked in 2019
Soul M V - Leaked in 2023 as Monsters, heard in 2010 Vienna after-party, excerpt recording leaked in poor quality
Silk H - Silkworks was officially released in 2021 as Absurd, two mixes labeled as Silkworms leaked prior
Thyme L - Leaked in 2019 (instrumental)
Pro2 V - Blood In The Water? or other Prostitute remix
Chi2 D V? - Chinese Democracy remix?
Better2 - Better remix? (3 leaked years ago)
TIL2 V - This I Love remix? (leaked years ago)
Goin Down - Two mixes leaked, one with Axl on backing vocals
Tonto V Br - Leaked in 2019 (instrumental)
Monstrocity V lyr - A song we are aware of under a different name, or a completely new song?
Catcher ? - Officially released in 2008 (Some songs bounced between the first two albums)
Nothin ? - Leaked in 2019
JChan ? - Leaked in 2019 as Hardschool, officially released in 2021 as Hard Skool
?? L editing V - PRL? Otherwise, unknown
Perhaps ? - Leaked in 2019, officially released in 2023
OMG2 ? - Axl talked of a remix of Oh My God, we also have a Bumblefoot and Buckethead leak mix that leaked years after the 1999 official release of Oh My God
4 Heavens. ? Sing - Probably one of the different KOHD versions worked on during the CD era, some of which leaked, both as instrumentals and with an Axl vocal take
Light My Fire - Likely a cover of The Doors song

**********

 

21 songs listed above, obviously too many for one album. That, in addition to question marks after songs leads me to believe at this point they were planning multiple albums/CDs, OR wanted bonus tracks/remixes released in addition to CD2. I wish we had more context of the list.

Several notable songs missing by name from the above list, including: Zodiac 13, Quick Song, Eye On You, State Of Grace, Seven, and Berlin or Oklahoma, and several other titles from the Village leaks. So these songs are listed under different names (Monstrocity, ?? L editing, etc.) or were intended for the third album, or scrapped altogether. 

Not counting Catcher, the remixes or leaked instrumentals, and including Oh My God and Going Down, we have 9 of the above songs, with Axl vocals. In other words, we have heard a decent chunk of songs that were intended or considered for CD2 as of 2008. Overall, I would say CD2 has a quality and style similar to the 2008 album, perhaps a tad darker, and also simpler. I think if released between 2006-2014, it would have been a Buckethead and Robin heavy masterpiece, and is a personal holy grail of mine. 

I'm not interested in debating the legitimacy of the CD2 list because I know it to be real, as do a few others who had it well over ten years ago.

I know about this list. But I meant the style of writing. Like you said, a tad darker, but also simpler - considering only the tracks we know. There's a less emphasis in mid-tempo ballads, although we still have Atlas and Perhaps, and both are 1999-ish. Maybe Thyme and Nothing evolved into a ballad? Not a lot of fast tempo rockers either, much like CD1. 

OMG, Absurd/Silkworms and Going Down are a different thing to me. Those were all in the alt-setlist in 2011, which to me indicates that those could possibly be in a remix album/EP as bonus "new" songs. 

33 minutes ago, downzy said:

I could not get through this album.  I appreciate she's trying to do something new, but it just didn't work for me.  It got plenty of great reviews, but I think its audience is pretty niche.

Yeah, I didn't think about that.  We were certainly spoiled in that respect in North America.  Though, I still remember paying someone in Brazil to send me the GNR Tokyo DVDs back in the early 2000s as they weren't released in North America. 

I do agree that some bands didn't get the attention they deserved because of the system that was in place in the 80s and 90s.  There were bands like the Pixies that didn't get a ton of radio play during their prime (though alt stations are all too happy to play "Where Is My Mind" and "There Goes My Man").  But it didn't feel like a full time job like finding new music does not (at least for me).  

Sorry, just realized you're from Canada. 

Yeah, I remember those DVDs. It had some problems, though. Can't remember exactly, but was one of them out of sync? 

And I believe you wanted to say Here Comes Your Man.  

One of the early 2000s band that I discovered back then was Placebo. Sure it had a single on a the Cruel Intentions movie, but besides that, it wasn't well known. Even Muse was not really mainstream rock here in the Plugin Baby era. 

32 minutes ago, Sweersa said:

That's because they are. Even in 2008-2010, CD2 probably sounded more or less as bloated and overproduced as the 2008 album. NITL ripping those songs apart and adding their parts, mixing and mastering them poorly (has largely been the case so far), doesn't help them any. 

I honestly can't understand what was Axl's vision for CD2, style-wise. From the two unheard songs we got - The General and Monsters - I got the sense that it would have a more Bucket/Brain backbone, but it may have some older songs like Absurd, Hard Skool and Perhaps too, but this mix is frankly a lot like CD1 already. But we don't know if those 1999 instrumentals were all still on the table. Heck, we don't even know if they would still use Hard Skool and Perhaps if those were not leaked (I assume they would, but who knows).

23 minutes ago, Rindmelon said:

In which way?

We're also in a parallel dimension.

14 hours ago, downzy said:

Yeah, the few artists that have caught my ear the last 10 or so years have all been in that genre, plus indie-folk.  

Hozier, Vampire Weekend, The Black Keys, Lord Huron, Alt-J, Nathaniel Rateliff, Fitz and the Tantrums, The Lumineers, Børns, Future Islands.  There are certainly artists in this genre that have put out some decent tunes in the last 10-15 years.  But other than a few albums by Vampire Weekend, Nathaniel Rateliff, and the Black Keys, there aren't that many artists where I will listen to their entire albums.  Most put out one or two decent tracks, but too often songs start to blend into one another and I lose interest.  You can't say the same about artists like Guns N' Roses or, say, Radiohead.

Really?  In the 90s you just had to turn on the radio or maybe read some reviews in a music magazine.  Gatekeepers kept a lot of the bad to mediocre artists off the airwaves (though, I'm sure a few great ones got lost in the shuffle).  As a result we were exposed largely to the best out there.  

The barrier to entry to make music is so low these days.  Forget about learning music theory or even an instrument - people can now create music with a computer, a beat generator and some MIDI packs.  And no one needs a record deal anymore to get distributed.  I read that somewhere around 100k new songs are uploaded to Spotify every day.  As you said, there's way too much music to sort through now.

The other problem is on the listener's side.  Music is so accessible these days; there's no real cost other than our time to listen and digest what we're hearing.  Prior to the internet, access to music was a rare but valued thing.  You'd buy an album/cd and listen to it for a week or month straight because you couldn't afford to buy another one right away.  Music was an investment.  Songs that might not have hit right away were given time.  Now it's so easy to skip to the next track.  Music has become more disposable but we also treat it like it's disposable.  

Well, it depends. I really liked Meg Myers 2018 Take me To The Disco album, or HAIMs 2020 Women in Music Part. III. Full albums, with maybe a filler or two. Or Fiona Apple's Fetch the Bolt Cutters. Those are some from the top of my head and only from female singers/band. Sure, it's only my taste.

About the gatekeepers: that was my main problem. You may feel different because I assume you're from US, but growing up in the 80s and 90s here in Brazil there would be your gatekeepers and then our gatekeepers filtering everything. Plus, we of course have our local music too, which is great and it's a lot more popular. There was simply not room enough for everything, so it was really hard to get exposed to great English-based content. I used to discover some stuff on MTV really late at night with shows that introduced me to stuff like Pixies, Live, Beck, Regina Spektor and even Fiona Apple. 

But yes, I agree that music is treated as a disposable product now. The Top 10 artists from streaming is not something to look for at all. 

2 hours ago, downzy said:

Some of these choices are absurd.  Didn't mean this post to turn into a rant but here it goes.  

Twisted Sister's "We're Not Going to Take It" over Van Halen's "Panama"?  Not a chance.

How do they give it to the Crue's "Home Sweet Home" over Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69"?  Adams song dominated the charts in a way that was no way comparable to HSH.  It still gets way more radio airplay than anything Motley Crue has made.  Not saying that HSH isn't a good song.  But Adam's song is iconic (even if it's overplayed).

And while Pour Some Sugar On Me is an anthem, I have a hard time understanding how they chose it over Sweet Child O' Mine.  GNR's track went #1 on the Billboard Hot 100; PSSOM topped out at #2.  SCOM has over 1.7 billion streams on Spotify; Def Leppard's track has just over 400 million.  SCOM has one of the most iconic intros of all time, not to mention its solo.  And while Axl's lyrics may not win any Pulitzers with this track, PSSOM has what I think is some of the worst lyrics in all of rock music ("Listen, red light, yellow light, green-a-light go, Crazy little woman in a one man show," "Do you take sugar, one lump or two.").  This isn't even a contest (and SCOM isn't even in my top five favourite Guns tracks).

Personally, for 1994 I'd take either "Black Hole Sun" or "Interstate Love Song" over Green Day's "When I Come Around."  Black Hole Sun is incredibly unique in terms of its chord arrangements (name me another hit song that starts with a sus chord).  I think "Interstate Love Song" is one of the best songs written of all time.  

I get it's arbitrary, but how they chose White Zombie's "More Human Than Human" over Alanis's "You Oughtta Know" is crazy.  The Zombie's track has a cool guitar riff, but that's all that song really is.  There's not much of a melody.  You Oughtta Know was a monster with a killer chorus that dominated airwaves for months, if not an entire year.

And while I really like Hole's "Celebrity Skin," there's no way it deserves more credit than Foo Fighter's "My Hero."  Not a huge Foo Fighter's fan, but that's one of the better written songs of the decade.

It's hard to take a list seriously that doesn't include Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" for 1997 (wasn't even included as a runner-up).  It is night and day better than any of the songs listed.  Crazy.

And I agree that it's hard to accept Creed as having released the best rock song for any year, the fact that it won for 1999 just goes to show how bad rock music was during this period.  I guess you could argue that RHCP's Californication album was decent, but that's not saying much.  The turn of the century was a dark time for rock music.  And while I personally enjoy Oh My God, I think we need to be honest that outside of the hardcore GNR fanbase, no one else did.  

2002 was a much better year, but they went with the weakest of the included tracks.  "Cochise" by Audioslave is fantastic.  Same with "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age.  I really don't need or want to hear "All My Life" by Foo Fighters ever again.  "Get Free" by the Vines should have been included for 2002 as well.  Killer track.

The last rock song to still have cultural relevance is Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes.  It still gets played everywhere (movies, tv shows, literally every sporting event).  But whoever wrote this list gives the nod to "Bring Me Back to Life" by Evanescence.  Sure Jan.

[rant]
It's amazing how irrelevant rock becomes after 2005/2006.  Paramore, Five Finger Death Punch, Halestorm, and a bunch of bands I had never heard of and likely few others outside of diehard rock fans have.  And no offence to Ghost fans, but if Dance Macabre was the best rock song in 2018, that's not saying much for rock music.  It's not a bad track, but it sounds like a b-side from the early 80s (like Loverboy). 

This is a big reason why I generally don't listen to new music anymore.  At best, it's mediocre.  There's a reason why 70 percent of streams are from back catalogues.  I've come to the conclusion that most great songs have either been written or it's just too hard to mine for more gems at this point.  Rock music use to have catchy melodies that were sung over interesting and diverse chord progressions or time signatures.  Artists tried to incorporate their influences but to do their own thing, make their own sound.  Now they all sound the same.  It's just strumming 1/8th notes in drop d tuning with little concern for giving audiences a hook.  It has grown so stale that I can't be bothered to listen to hundreds of mediocre songs every month to find the one or two that do anything for me.  Once in awhile I'll come across an artist or song that I missed that catches my attention (Børns's "10,000 Emerald Pools" is a good example, and it came out nine years ago), but it's few and far between.  It feels like most artists today are less concerned about writing catchy melodies with hooks.  They're too wrapped up in a sound as a crutch for their inability to write a decent song.  

[/rant]

I agree with most of what you said. I would just add a thing to your rant: maybe that's true about rock music, but the alternative/indie scene is still pretty good IMO. I've been listening to a lot of new artists thanks to some great algorithms on Spotify, although I understand people's reservation with the platform. 

The problem is also on those platforms, as the back catalogue is too easy to access, and people often get fed by the most famous singles from those classic bands, which doesn't help at all. But people need to have a better understanding of that and actively search for new stuff, which isn't harder than back in the 90s. Also a problem is that there is too much stuff out there, it gets hard to get to know some new song and get used to it if it's not made to be catchy.

4 minutes ago, Free Bird said:

Have you been there?

No, I had personal stuff going on so I couldn't attend. But I saw some videos on IG.

32 minutes ago, Uncle Bob said:

Yeah. There's even a comparison of the original render vs the AI thing. Which still doesn't look very good but better.

The start of the video seems that still has some CGI on it, although AI-fied.

To be honest, reading this reminded me of situations where at work after weeks working on something I would be told to stop and do some dumb changes to it. I want to believe they just did what they were told but still didn't really enjoy being told to do that.

 

Don't think i saw that comparison, but I believe the CGI would at least fix my main issue with the whole thing, which is the constant moving parts and lack of focus. I'm being serious: the video should have a warning for photo-sensitive persons.

Don't Damn Me got played again yesterday here in São Paulo. Seems like it's been a staple at least for the LATAM leg.

23 minutes ago, Uncle Bob said:

How Guns N' Roses Used AI to Create Wild New Music Video 'The General'

Design studio Creative Works London turned to Stable Diffusion to create the Guns N' Roses video’s unsettling, dreamlike visuals.

https://decrypt.co/215062/how-guns-n-roses-used-ai-create-wild-new-music-video-genera

So this article confirms Fernando pushed for this crap. 
These guys are still acting and talking about the whole thing like it's something outstanding and out of this world. 

I have nothing against them, only about the their unprofessional way of responding to negative reactions.

This website where this was posted is some cryptobro website by the way. Not surprising.
"Demystifying Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the decentralized web. Follow us for clear crypto news and explainers."

So they were making it with Unreal Engine and scrapped it to use AI? It would be 10000x better.

1 hour ago, bmus1 said:

Is Antiquiet all pre-BBF? I’m trying to nail down what he added to every song.

Yes. Those are probably from 2005/06 batch of Andy Wallace mixes.