Why was Snakepit never bigger than it was?

[ssiscool]

So Snaepit was formed as we know if '95. Not too long after the culmination of the UYI Tour. Slash was Riding high. But Snakepit never really took off. It could of easily been a huge band, but always seemed to lack something. What do you guys think is missing?

[Sweersa]

I listened to it all the way through a few times, I just didn't dig it. I'm not sure how much better it would have been with Axl. 

[ToonGuns]

Grunge, Nu Metal etc.

95 onwards, "classic rock" was dead.

Ain't Life Grand was / is a fantastic album with a great line up, but also too early. It wasnt until 2004 ish (funnily enough when VR came onto the scene) that classic rock returned to the mainstream.

Edited January 8, 2021 by ToonGuns

[ssiscool]

1 hour ago, ToonGuns said:

Grunge, Nu Metal etc.

95 onwards, "classic rock" was dead.

Ain't Life Grand was / is a fantastic album with a great line up, but also too early. It wasnt until 2004 ish (funnily enough when VR came onto the scene) that classic rock returned to the mainstream.

I aggree Aint Life Grand is a solid album. Much stronger than 5 o clock. But even if it had been released in 2004, I don't think it would of made much of impact as Slash would of been out of the limelight for too long. 

With 5, he was still extremely famous and big. 

[Sydney Fan]

I just think there wasnt much promo by the record company. According to slashs book the distribution of aint life grand was bad.

Slash was interviewed quite alot in  certain music mags here in oz when five oclock was released.

I wouldnt have known anything about aint life grand if i wasnt an actively going to the unofficial site snakepit.org. that was a good website.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Sydney Fan

[DK6]

What was missing?

Decent songwriting for a start.

[ToonGuns]

1 hour ago, Sydney Fan said:

I wouldnt have known anything about aint life grand if i wasnt an actively going to the unofficial site snakepit.org. that was a good website.

I loved that site!

Edit: just checked and it still going!! A proper old school website "Copyright 1993" lol. Complete with Slash puzzles, photos of tattoos and all sorts. I miss the early internet days. Things were so much simpler, yet somehow more exciting.

Edited January 8, 2021 by ToonGuns

[Alejandro GNR]

4 hours ago, ssiscool said:

So Snaepit was formed as we know if '95. Not too long after the culmination of the UYI Tour. Slash was Riding high. But Snakepit never really took off. It could of easily been a huge band, but always seemed to lack something. What do you guys think is missing?

Cause Axl wasnt there

[ChineseDemocracy2004]

Ain't Life Grand is one of the best albums Slash has ever made.

Edited January 11, 2021 by ChineseDemocracy2004

[Rovim]

both singers were kinda boring, the material sounded dated at the time, the tunes weren't strong enough imho. A lot of cool riffs and ideas and Slash's playing was great though.

[ToonGuns]

18 minutes ago, Rovim said:

both singers were kinda boring, the material sounded dated at the time, the tunes weren't strong enough imho. A lot of cool riffs and ideas and Slash's playing was great though.

Rod Jackson is my favourite Slash singer, in-form Axl aside.

[Rovim]

51 minutes ago, ToonGuns said:

Rod Jackson is my favourite Slash singer, in-form Axl aside.

it's a matter of personal taste of course, and I don't mean to shit on anyone's preference, but I think Slash never found the right singer for his solo projects/bands. Scott was the most interesting to me and he didn't really have the vocal range but I'm not sure what is worse: bone headed singers that come up with lyrics like "do you like the way I murder your heart" or Myles The Generic and the neverending tepidness.

[Euchre]

GNR & hence Slash was deeply unpopular at the time - or at least where I was in Oz.

’93 they were riding high but by ‘94/‘95 bands like Pantera were the rage and GNR sounded weak by comparison. I remember 2 things distinctly from that era. One was I had started collecting GNR vinyl a few years before and I tried to sell the 12” It’s So Easy PD in ‘95 and I couldn’t sell if for half what I’d paid a few years before.

the other was photos in a magazine of Donnington ‘95 I think it was, where Slash played and how out of place/dated he looked compared to all the other bands. It just looked wrong.

actually I remember a third but can’t remember the year. Hole was playing a festival in Oz and covering Sweet Child and the crowd booing at the concept of GNR and Courtney Love telling the crowd to shut up and that GNR were a great band.

It was quite a few years before I noticed people warming back up to GNR again and it’s just kind of kept building for that classic era.

[Free Bird]

The Snakepits are his strongest projects post Guns if you are a true rock n roll fan. If you tend to call rock n roll 'dad rock', than they're probably dated. To me 5 o'clock is even stronger than ALG without a doubt.

Kerry Kelly or Ryan Roxie, one of them named Ain't Life Grand as Rocks biggest secret or something. I can't find it nowhere though.

 

 

[Rovim]

16 minutes ago, Free Bird said:

The Snakepits are his strongest projects post Guns if you are a true rock n roll fan. If you tend to call rock n roll 'dad rock', than they're probably dated.

what.

[Chester 524]

10 hours ago, Rovim said:

it's a matter of personal taste of course, and I don't mean to shit on anyone's preference, but I think Slash never found the right singer for his solo projects/bands. Scott was the most interesting to me and he didn't really have the vocal range but I'm not sure what is worse: bone headed singers that come up with lyrics like "do you like the way I murder your heart" or Myles The Generic and the neverending tepidness.

definetly agree.  I remember I bought the 5 o'clock somewhere CD before hearing any of it and was really dissapointed with Eric Dovers voice.  my friends I played the CD for told me I wanted my money on that CD. to be clear, I thought the instrumental parts were great but singer and lyrics sucked. 

 

Slashs Bluesball was cool but never meant to be a big band 

 

Snakepit 2 had a bad record label and I guess management sucked too.  I remember how hard it was to find Ain't Life Grand in any record store.  they had very little publicity and what they were doing wasn't going to get them on any mainstream TV/ radio in the era of Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. I really did like the 2nd album though. But Rod probably wasnt the strongest fit for Slash, but IMO had the best voice (see his solo stuff ie "Better Half")

 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Chester 524

[Sweersa]

The only post-GN'R work I like of Slash's is his 2010 solo album. Funny how we can still say "post-GN'R" because after 4+ years of Slash being back in GN'R, no new material has been released. 

If the upcoming (hopefully) GN'R album sounds like a mix of CD era stuff and Slash's 2010 solo album, I'd be really down with that!

[Ericstacey]

I loved the album at the time because it was something new GNR related, and it was so different that all the alternative stuff at the time, but listening to it now, it dosen't hold up that well for me. As others have said, it was in the height of alternative/grunge.  I think the fact that Matt and Mike Inez played on the album but didn't tour may have hurt general interest in it

[rocknroll41]

On 1/8/2021 at 6:05 PM, ToonGuns said:

I loved that site!

Edit: just checked and it still going!! A proper old school website "Copyright 1993" lol. Complete with Slash puzzles, photos of tattoos and all sorts. I miss the early internet days. Things were so much simpler, yet somehow more exciting.

I just checked the site too! Wow! Talk about an ancient relic!!

[Ant]

19 hours ago, Rovim said:

it's a matter of personal taste of course, and I don't mean to shit on anyone's preference, but I think Slash never found the right singer for his solo projects/bands. Scott was the most interesting to me and he didn't really have the vocal range but I'm not sure what is worse: bone headed singers that come up with lyrics like "do you like the way I murder your heart" or Myles The Generic and the neverending tepidness.

this is it

That doesn't mean they're not all technically proficient and good singers, either. I love both Snakepit albums, I saw VR and liked them lots... I see SMKC often. 

But it's always been the vocalists holding Slash back. Singers write lyrics, vocal melodies and are the face of the band. Myles, Rod, Eric... they're not rock stars of the vein that capture mainstream attention. And no band with the most famous member being the guitarist really sustains mass appeal. 

People wonder why rock is dead but honestly if someone like Harry Styles got a little debauched and had a band like GNR backing him and songs to match, rock would be back in an instant. It's the right frontman that gets you stratospheric fame. 

There were lots of good bands even in the 80's and in rock's heyday that didn't get anywhere because they didn't have frontmen who could sell it. 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Ant

[ToonGuns]

On 1/9/2021 at 8:14 AM, Rovim said:

it's a matter of personal taste of course, and I don't mean to shit on anyone's preference, but I think Slash never found the right singer for his solo projects/bands. Scott was the most interesting to me and he didn't really have the vocal range but I'm not sure what is worse: bone headed singers that come up with lyrics like "do you like the way I murder your heart" or Myles The Generic and the neverending tepidness.

Yeah music is 100% personal opinions so no shit on my preference! My wife likes horrible latin pop shit. She's wrong of course, in my personal opinion.

Personally I'd rate the singers Rod > Myles > Snakepit 1 singer (off hand can't remember his name) > Scott.

Some of the stuff on the "Slash" album was really good - Lemmy, Chris Cornell, the Japanese guy spring to mind. An album with Alice Cooper would have been off the charts as well. Off topic but that Japanese language song he did was fantastic, never understood why that was only available on a mega rare import.

I never really took to grunge, never listened to STP (had never heard of Scott Weiland when VR first started - dunno if they had just never made it in the UK or whatever but I never came across them, and I was big into music) and agree Weiland didn't really have the range. I also thought the cap was a copy of early Axl. That said, at the time, I absolutely loved VR. Don't listen to them much now.

I've never been a lyrics guy. Never listen to them. As a drummer I've always paid more attention to the overall sound, timbre, rhythm, dynamics etc. Lyrics comes distinctly last.

I wish they'd done a second album with the Snakepit 2 line up.

I remember when Alter Bridge's first album came out in 2004 I was thinking then - this singer would be fantastic with Slash. Range, power... just fantastic. For whatever reason Myles hasn't quite hit the heights with Slash in terms of quality of output... I'm not sure if it is the way he is being recorded in the studio, but the timbre of his voice has changed. That said, I still love those albums, particularly WOF.

I think one more SMKC album then find a new challenge. Maybe a Blues Ball album.

[Rovim]

1 hour ago, ToonGuns said:

Yeah music is 100% personal opinions so no shit on my preference! My wife likes horrible latin pop shit. She's wrong of course, in my personal opinion.

Personally I'd rate the singers Rod > Myles > Snakepit 1 singer (off hand can't remember his name) > Scott.

Some of the stuff on the "Slash" album was really good - Lemmy, Chris Cornell, the Japanese guy spring to mind. An album with Alice Cooper would have been off the charts as well. Off topic but that Japanese language song he did was fantastic, never understood why that was only available on a mega rare import.

I never really took to grunge, never listened to STP (had never heard of Scott Weiland when VR first started - dunno if they had just never made it in the UK or whatever but I never came across them, and I was big into music) and agree Weiland didn't really have the range. I also thought the cap was a copy of early Axl. That said, at the time, I absolutely loved VR. Don't listen to them much now.

I've never been a lyrics guy. Never listen to them. As a drummer I've always paid more attention to the overall sound, timbre, rhythm, dynamics etc. Lyrics comes distinctly last.

I wish they'd done a second album with the Snakepit 2 line up.

I remember when Alter Bridge's first album came out in 2004 I was thinking then - this singer would be fantastic with Slash. Range, power... just fantastic. For whatever reason Myles hasn't quite hit the heights with Slash in terms of quality of output... I'm not sure if it is the way he is being recorded in the studio, but the timbre of his voice has changed. That said, I still love those albums, particularly WOF.

I think one more SMKC album then find a new challenge. Maybe a Blues Ball album.

I think SMKC is too perfect of a solution for Slash as a vehicle for his ideas and as a reason to tour with pretty much total control/no bullshit to just kill it after one more record and find a new challenge. Slash doesn't seem to be interested in challenging himself too much artistically or to go the instrumental/covers route imo. He strikes me as an old school, fairly straightforward kinda guy, Slash just wants to rock and make money.

I'm always excited to hear the next SMKC record cause it's Slash, but he's such a brilliant guitar player that it feels like he deserves a much better singer with more freedom to be a larger part of the music but I guess Slash knows what he wants and he has a certain way he likes to approach it. Not as ambitious as I would have liked, but that's the way it is.

the only time post Guns where Slash really went for it was with VR. It took them a long time to find a singer and the result sounded nothing like Snakepit. Instead it was way more commercial to my ears with way less lead playing from Slash. After the shit that went down with Scott, maybe Slash didn't want to deal with lead singers anymore.

now Slash can make money with Gn'R and his deal with Gibson and maybe in the future collaborate again with Axl but no biggie if it doesn't happen and in the meantime do his thing with SMKC.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Rovim

[F*ck Fear]

I only like a few songs between the two records. 

They're not very good, imo.

[ssiscool]

On 1/8/2021 at 11:05 PM, ToonGuns said:

I loved that site!

Edit: just checked and it still going!! A proper old school website "Copyright 1993" lol. Complete with Slash puzzles, photos of tattoos and all sorts. I miss the early internet days. Things were so much simpler, yet somehow more exciting.

Seems it was last updated in 2010. But certainly a very 1999/2000 feel to it

[ShadowOfTheWave]

Eric Dover has a shitty voice and is a shitty songwriter. Rod Jackson is great but rock n roll was dead by 2000.