Is there anything fundamentally wrong with being a nostalgia act?

[wasted]

I don't think any of these bands are nostalgia bands really. Other than U2 who just rape nostalgia over and over. They all have an element of it but all do enough. It's not a perfect reconstruction in sepia tones.

The Stones show now and Guns is similar nostalgia wise. They arent Abba by a long chalk line of white powder.

The fuck you been?

In the mountains with my Sensei polishing my shit posting man of mystery skills.

[magisme]

Never been more ambivalent about a poster than I am about wasted.

[dalsh327]

A "U2 nostalgia tour" would be Bono growing a mullet, ditching the glasses waving a white flag, diving into audiences, or the band dressing like cowboys and just doing Joshua Tree era setlists.

I haven't even gotten into punk bands - The Damned never broke up, but what about Dead Kennedys and Black Flag, or the Keith Morris fronted Flag? Rollins said they are nostalgia acts to him, even as an observer and a fan of Black Flag before he joined. Jello still performs but I don't know how much of the material is Dead Kennedys. He DJs and does the spoken word tours. Sex Pistols was being tongue in cheek about nostalgia touring but he didn't perform the songs the same way he would have in 1976, and it's a given the vast majority of concertgoers never saw them back in the day.

[Powerage5]

Where are people on AC/DC being a "nostalgia act"?

AC/DC, currently is not a "nostalgia act", is a parody act, in nuGnR fanshion... Touring with ONE member who recorded their best album (LTBR), without its arguably 3 most important members, I don't see much differrence between what they're doing and what Axl is doing... And I don't care that that RoB is their best record since foever (it really is), line was crossed IMO.

Only thing are better is that they sell its better than nuGNR, as casual fans think that guy in school uniform is their "leader", and guy with funny cap is the one who sung Highway To Hell, same as GnR casual fans think it was all about Axl and Slash, forgetting about that third guy who wrote all those amazing songs, but didn't appeared on tabloids. BTW- I HATE term "casual fans"...If someone doesn't know basics about band history, and doesn't buying album, IMO is not any "fan" at all..."Casual listener" would be better word.

BTW- sorry for poor english, its not my first language...

I respect your opinion, but there's absolutely no way you can compare present day GN'R to present day AC/DC. First off, your use of "best" album choice is completely subjective - to me their best album is Powerage. If you're going to talk about the number of members still in the band from a certain era, you'd be better to go with "most successful" because it is factually evident; in this case it's Back In Black, and there's three members in the band from that era. If you use subjective criteria, that could lead to such ridiculous statements as "Well, it really stopped being AC/DC when Dave Evans was fired". If you're using subjective criteria, you can't tell them they're wrong (Which I know is hypocritical since that's exactly what I'm doing here, but I'm pointing out why you need different criteria to make an argument).

But, moving beyond the technical stuff. AC/DC isn't a revolving door of musicians with one central member - the current "core" members of the band (Brian, Cliff, Angus) have been in the band for 35 years, 38 years, and 42 years, respectively. So you've got 2 "new" members both of whom have been in the band before (Granted, Stevie was only a touring member in the past). The thing is, nothing could have prevented what happened to Malcolm, and everyone (Band and fans alike) unanimously agrees that Phil is in no shape to be in the band right now and he only has himself to blame for that. This isn't one guy that consolidated rights to a band name and replaced everyone from the old days, this is a long-standing group of musicians making the best of a really shitty hand they got dealt. But here's the real kicker; Malcolm fully supports and actively encouraged the band to continue without him. Way different than former members of GN'R.

I don't think any of these bands are nostalgia bands really. Other than U2 who just rape nostalgia over and over. They all have an element of it but all do enough. It's not a perfect reconstruction in sepia tones.

The Stones show now and Guns is similar nostalgia wise. They arent Abba by a long chalk line of white powder.

The fuck you been?

In the mountains with my Sensei polishing my shit posting man of mystery skills.

Folks, we're looking at the 2015 Shit Poster Of The Year.

[dalsh327]

A lot of AC/DC band decisions were family - George, Angus, and Malcolm with George being the senior adviser and Malcolm being the "CEO", maybe the guys who run Albert Productions having some say in it because of how far they all go back. Family run business. I'm sure George and Malcolm had long conversations about the future of AC/DC without him. Cousin Stevie went to school with them and he's probably been involved in some of the behind the scenes stuff with the band and was probably at a lot of the sessions when they created those classic songs. Having that kind of history makes him a natural fit.

There's only a few gimmicks, but the audience loves it and expects it.

[Seb91]

One of the main differences between AC/DC and Guns is that they have a much bigger back catalogue so have more hits to choose from. Hell, they don't even need to release a new record before every major tour but they do. As for the lineup argument - as has been stated unfortunately it's unavoidable about Malcom and Phil. It's a very different situation to Guns where Axl continued as the sole member of the classic lineup under the guise of wanting to make more experimental music than the other guys wanted only to release one album and play the GN'R hits.

[downzy]

Guys,

Once again, personal attacks will not be tolerated at this forum.

Attacking specific points people make is more than fine; attacking the person who makes them will result on disciplinary action by the admin/moderating crew.

There's nothing wrong with heated language so long as it's directed at the topic of conversation.

If you find that one or more posters is insufferable and you'd rather not read their posts, I encourage you to change your account settings to have the system block their posts from your feed. Before I became a mod and admin, I use to have several posters on my ignore list and it made my life so much better.

We don't expect everyone to like each other (hell, I'm sure many don't like me). But if you have problems addressing the content of those posts by others you are not fond of, please don't respond at all.

If you're wondering what I'm talking about in reference to this thread, the offending posts have been removed.

Thanks!

[GUNNER PT]

(hell, I'm sure many don't like me).

Problem is, regular users can't ignore staff members

[downzy]

(hell, I'm sure many don't like me).

Problem is, regular users can't ignore staff members

True, but if they set the system to ignore my posts, they would miss my general warnings in any given threads when one is called for. We don't want anyone to be able to plead ignorance

[Apollo]

sometimes people start to drift off the real point of this topic.

There is NOTHING wrong with being a nostalgic act.

Why it bugs people with Axl taking this road is because the man (and The Beta) have state on numerous occasions that there is a TON more music in the vault that is damn near ready to be released. Axl himself said he didn't go through all the work to NOT release it. Beta said something about 80 songs. Axl said something about 24 of 39 songs being worked on (something like that), Axl said there were TWO COMPLETED ALBUMS IN THE CAN, same time next year, round one, etc.

Axl has talked about new music for a decade. That's why people are annoyed with the nostalgic act that GnR has become.

If Axl came out and said "this is it, fellas. No more new music, we're just touring the hits." Then people wouldn't be complaining (as much) about it. But he hasn't. He has lured us in with promises of new music.......

[RussTCB]

sometimes people start to drift off the real point of this topic.

There is NOTHING wrong with being a nostalgic act.

Why it bugs people with Axl taking this road is because the man (and The Beta) have state on numerous occasions that there is a TON more music in the vault that is damn near ready to be released. Axl himself said he didn't go through all the work to NOT release it. Beta said something about 80 songs. Axl said something about 24 of 39 songs being worked on (something like that), Axl said there were TWO COMPLETED ALBUMS IN THE CAN, same time next year, round one, etc.

Axl has talked about new music for a decade. That's why people are annoyed with the nostalgic act that GnR has become.

If Axl came out and said "this is it, fellas. No more new music, we're just touring the hits." Then people wouldn't be complaining (as much) about it. But he hasn't. He has lured us in with promises of new music.......

B I N G O.

A lot of people hold Axl to decades old statements like "I wanna bury Appetite" and so on. Stuff like "You'll get some songs, followed by more next year and the year after that" (or whatever) doesn't help. Then all the claims from inside the camp about how deep and great the vault is. Every time we turn around, it seems someone associated with GN'R is telling us how great the future is and how much music is coming.

If Axl wants to tour on GN'R's past, I couldn't care less. However, he and everyone around him keep saying otherwise. That's where a lot of the problem comes from. So many people around forums like to call others haters or whatever just because they're frustrated with the current state of GN'R. I don't think it makes someone a hater just to be disappointed that Axl hasn't followed through on any promises. I think it makes them understandably disappointed.

In short; is there anything wrong with being a nostalgia act? No, I don't think so. The problem lies in someone claiming that they aren't when they clearly are.

[Trin9498]

Well said -

What cracks me up even more is when people say (usually on other forums) "Axl said they are working on it....why would he say that if it wasn't true? You must be a trolling!

History dictates - how many times did he say CD was coming out? That only came out because of the leaks.

Edited March 27, 2015 by Trin9498

[Apollo]

sometimes people start to drift off the real point of this topic.

There is NOTHING wrong with being a nostalgic act.

Why it bugs people with Axl taking this road is because the man (and The Beta) have state on numerous occasions that there is a TON more music in the vault that is damn near ready to be released. Axl himself said he didn't go through all the work to NOT release it. Beta said something about 80 songs. Axl said something about 24 of 39 songs being worked on (something like that), Axl said there were TWO COMPLETED ALBUMS IN THE CAN, same time next year, round one, etc.

Axl has talked about new music for a decade. That's why people are annoyed with the nostalgic act that GnR has become.

If Axl came out and said "this is it, fellas. No more new music, we're just touring the hits." Then people wouldn't be complaining (as much) about it. But he hasn't. He has lured us in with promises of new music.......

B I N G O.

A lot of people hold Axl to decades old statements like "I wanna bury Appetite" and so on. Stuff like "You'll get some songs, followed by more next year and the year after that" (or whatever) doesn't help. Then all the claims from inside the camp about how deep and great the vault is. Every time we turn around, it seems someone associated with GN'R is telling us how great the future is and how much music is coming.

If Axl wants to tour on GN'R's past, I couldn't care less. However, he and everyone around him keep saying otherwise. That's where a lot of the problem comes from. So many people around forums like to call others haters or whatever just because they're frustrated with the current state of GN'R. I don't think it makes someone a hater just to be disappointed that Axl hasn't followed through on any promises. I think it makes them understandably disappointed.

In short; is there anything wrong with being a nostalgia act? No, I don't think so. The problem lies in someone claiming that they aren't when they clearly are.

[dalsh327]

It's a bad idea to dangle the 'we have more music' carrot in front of the fans. Anything that's a work in progress isn't a "song". Anything that's not mixed and mastered isn't a fully formed song ready for release. They probably have enough to put a 7 song album out, including some of the songs that almost made it onto CD.

I still think they should do a coffeetable book on the making of ChiDem, a "Smile Session"-like box set with the unfinished music and let the fans mess with the mixes.

The story on the making of the album and the mythology surrounding it would make for a great read.

[tomfriend]

I know no one really needs reminding, but since 1992 we have had one album of original material. One in almost a quarter of a century.

Even taking from when Axl began bigging up how great what he had been working on was, around '99, I believe, that's 15 songs (C.D. + OMG) released in those 15 years or so. One song a year.

But yeah Beta, he has 80. Yeah Bach, he has 3 or 4 albums worth. Yeah yeah yeah, Axl, it's all being worked on. At a rate of, at a very generous estimate, about 4 minutes worth of content per year by the looks of things.

And still we get this same BS over and over again, just in ever more pathetically diluted quantities....'2-3 new songs next year on tour guyz!!!1'...well, hold up a fucking second, I thought you had 2-3 ALBUMS sitting there? Why are we all starving when you've got a feast sitting in the kitchen going cold?

Because it's not true, is the only reasonable conclusion at this point. The emperor has no clothes.

[maynard]

IMO, there's something VERY wrong with being THIS kind of nostalgia act, if you know what I mean:

[Nosaj Thing]

IMO, there's something VERY wrong with being THIS kind of nostalgia act, if you know what I mean:

I forgot about that picture. Ridiculous.

[Silent Jay]

IMO, there's something VERY wrong with being THIS kind of nostalgia act, if you know what I mean:

Where the hell is Axl? Probably he was sleeping.

[DieselDaisy]

IMO, there's something VERY wrong with being THIS kind of nostalgia act, if you know what I mean:

Where the hell is Axl? Probably he was sleeping.

Looks like Stinson had a good session the night before and is now suffering for it dearly.

[Forsaken]

IMO, there's something VERY wrong with being THIS kind of nostalgia act, if you know what I mean:

What has always annoyed me is the fact that Axl, the frontman and lead of this band, rarely EVER takes pictures with the actual band. He's always missing and the band is taking pics without him. To me this has always looked bad for the current "image" this reincarnation is trying to put together. It isn't a good look.

[DieselDaisy]

IMO, there's something VERY wrong with being THIS kind of nostalgia act, if you know what I mean:

What has always annoyed me is the fact that Axl, the frontman and lead of this band, rarely EVER takes pictures with the actual band. He's always missing and the band is taking pics without him. To me this has always looked bad for the current "image" this reincarnation is trying to put together. It isn't a good look.

He does not turn up for recording sessions. He does not turn up for shows until three hours late. He does not show up for photo shoots.

[Apollo]

IMO, there's something VERY wrong with being THIS kind of nostalgia act, if you know what I mean:

I'm not one who gets caught up in the "name" thing. For me it's always been about the music, not the name of a band.

But this picture.......man. It just sort of sums it all up, doesn't it.

[RockerRoller]

Yes

[wasted]

Where are people on AC/DC being a "nostalgia act"?

AC/DC, currently is not a "nostalgia act", is a parody act, in nuGnR fanshion... Touring with ONE member who recorded their best album (LTBR), without its arguably 3 most important members, I don't see much differrence between what they're doing and what Axl is doing... And I don't care that that RoB is their best record since foever (it really is), line was crossed IMO.

Only thing are better is that they sell its better than nuGNR, as casual fans think that guy in school uniform is their "leader", and guy with funny cap is the one who sung Highway To Hell, same as GnR casual fans think it was all about Axl and Slash, forgetting about that third guy who wrote all those amazing songs, but didn't appeared on tabloids. BTW- I HATE term "casual fans"...If someone doesn't know basics about band history, and doesn't buying album, IMO is not any "fan" at all..."Casual listener" would be better word.

BTW- sorry for poor english, its not my first language...

I respect your opinion, but there's absolutely no way you can compare present day GN'R to present day AC/DC. First off, your use of "best" album choice is completely subjective - to me their best album is Powerage. If you're going to talk about the number of members still in the band from a certain era, you'd be better to go with "most successful" because it is factually evident; in this case it's Back In Black, and there's three members in the band from that era. If you use subjective criteria, that could lead to such ridiculous statements as "Well, it really stopped being AC/DC when Dave Evans was fired". If you're using subjective criteria, you can't tell them they're wrong (Which I know is hypocritical since that's exactly what I'm doing here, but I'm pointing out why you need different criteria to make an argument).

But, moving beyond the technical stuff. AC/DC isn't a revolving door of musicians with one central member - the current "core" members of the band (Brian, Cliff, Angus) have been in the band for 35 years, 38 years, and 42 years, respectively. So you've got 2 "new" members both of whom have been in the band before (Granted, Stevie was only a touring member in the past). The thing is, nothing could have prevented what happened to Malcolm, and everyone (Band and fans alike) unanimously agrees that Phil is in no shape to be in the band right now and he only has himself to blame for that. This isn't one guy that consolidated rights to a band name and replaced everyone from the old days, this is a long-standing group of musicians making the best of a really shitty hand they got dealt. But here's the real kicker; Malcolm fully supports and actively encouraged the band to continue without him. Way different than former members of GN'R.

I don't think any of these bands are nostalgia bands really. Other than U2 who just rape nostalgia over and over. They all have an element of it but all do enough. It's not a perfect reconstruction in sepia tones.

The Stones show now and Guns is similar nostalgia wise. They arent Abba by a long chalk line of white powder.

The fuck you been?

In the mountains with my Sensei polishing my shit posting man of mystery skills.

Folks, we're looking at the 2015 Shit Poster Of The Year.

I dedicate this award to Chinese Democracy II.

[Bono]

IMO, there's something VERY wrong with being THIS kind of nostalgia act, if you know what I mean:

I'm not one who gets caught up in the "name" thing. For me it's always been about the music, not the name of a band.

But this picture.......man. It just sort of sums it all up, doesn't it.

A bunch of guys pretending to be something they are not. I don't even know how these guys could have ever posed for a picture like this and not felt complete and utter embarrassment. In fact I really wonder if you were a fly on the fly what a coversation between these guys sounds like from time to time. I bet they mock the situation badly. They know the whole thing is a farce. They know they are pay check musicians only. They know they are NOT Guns N' Roses.