oneway23

If Axl ends up guesting on the new Schenker record, that's going to be a brand new performance, but, the "new" songs for his own band have 20-25 year old vocals What bizarro land BS is this?

Even better. People should love it even more then

Why would anyone compare rough mixes to commercially released studio tracks though? Of course there's no comparison. It's apples & oranges. Completely misses the point, IMO. There's no telling what the Village Leaks would sound like mixed and mastered to a commercial standard because we have no idea what artistic choices they would have hypothetically made. I think they're viewed fondly by many because it's cool to hear the people who actually wrote the songs play them, as opposed to the current band flying in modern pro-tools session overdubs on top of them. As much as I love Duff & Slash, what fkn emotional connection could they possibly have to Silkworms & Hard School?

2:15-2:30

As others have said, If the World was one of the better examples of Axl trying to modernize, IMO. Great playing, great groove, great vocal performance. Scraped is one where I do get why people don't like it, but, that still always surprises me a little bit. Sure, the intro is not everyone's thing, but, the main riff is tough, the solo is good, and the bridge, as brief as it is (sadly) is one of the most "old school GN'R" sounding sections on the entire album.

Have maybe listened twice each since they came out. If I want to hear anything CD-related, I'll occasionally throw on some Village Sessions.

I'd say we're officially...scraping the bottom of the barrel now! Eh? Eh? No? OK

Really enjoy the speculative "what could have been" discussion on CD2. We will never know, of course, unless a fully-mixed version of an already in the can album leaked one day, otherwise, it's impossible to discuss the quality of unheard/non-existent songs. Having said that, based on what we currently have access to, had some form of this come out in 2012, I believe it would have been really difficult to see these songs making any sort of genuine impact whatsoever. There wouldn't even have been the anticipation hook that CD had going for it as the first new GN'R record in 17 years. In terms of the material itself, sure, you have maybe one or two "A List" tracks here that could replace a song or two from CD that would have potentially made the first CD stronger, but, otherwise, these songs sound like what they essentially are: the "B list" from CD; much of the same formula, with songs that, by and large, aren't as good. Again, just one opinion.

Savage

I genuinely think Ol' Baz may have confused TG with Monsters, just like we did for a while there. His description more accurately matches the bridge bit in Monsters, imo.

Not for me. I'm glad fans are into it, and that he has a successful creative outlet, but, it's a all just a little too middle of the road for me.

To be fair, none of them on their own have produced anything remotely close to the heights of their heyday, but, I'd take Better, The Blues, TWAT, TIL, and Madagascar over anything any of them have done since 1993.

For real..."Daddy don't" might be the chicken pleading with the butcher to not hack his head off

Ladies & Germs, the gig's up...Confession time...I'm actually Paul Huge, and, look, all of the songs actually sounded better when I played on them. Happy Holidaze...Oh, and 4Tus is a hack.

This is a really good point. As I said the other day, I adore Chinese Democracy, and, I love the band that Axl assembled to make it...I thought it was great that he put together an all-star band comprising members of bands which he loved, because, shoot...I love all those bands too! Here's the thing...none of the people he nabbed, other than Bucket, really, were the primary songwriters for their respective bands. NIN is pretty much all Trent, just as all of The Replacements tunes were, by & large, all written by Westerberg; sure, Tommy wrote a couple, a few outtakes, and, he had Bash & Pop and Perfect, a'course, so, he could definitely pen a tune and was probably one of the stronger writers in the band, but, still, as much as I love Thomas Eugene Stinson - and...I do! - he's probably not the guy to shoulder that burden. I own countless records with Bucket and Brain on them, and, Bucket has definitely written a few stunners, but, he does a lot of genre exercises, too, and, you could also make the argument that he's done his best work in ensemble bands with other strong writers. Brain is a sick beat/loop maker, but, he wasn't really a writer during his time in Primus or Praxis. Freeze has written a few cool tunes, but, he's a studio guy. Pitman....is Pitman? Pretty harsh reality there, but, it's a fair post.