Put SMKC Aside

[MaskingApathy]

4 hours ago, WhazUp said:

I totally get not being into their songwriting, but autopilot? Like, I just am not seeing it personally - they put on energetic live shows and all that.

 

 

Yeah their shows last week were anything but autopilot.

[Zeppelin]

On 2/20/2022 at 11:58 PM, Chuerta86 said:

Not really. You forget Slash was alive durong that period and has been playing that style of music for most of his life. It's like complaining that Steven Tyler released a solo album and it sounds like 70's era Aerosmith or even yet how people complained about KK Downing solo album sounding like Priest when that music has been engrained in their DNA.

You didn't answer my question. What other generic modern band sounds like SMKC? What other singer sounds like Myles Kennedy? 

If you don't like the style or music that's fine to each their own but saying they sound like every other modern band is just absurd.

I have no problem with it being in his DNA. That's all normal, and it's going to come out that way no matter what. But the riffs are boring. Slash has done better, and can do better. It's derivative. I'm not saying people sound exactly like Miles. I just think he sounds bad. Much like many other retro-inspired rock bands. And yes, there are plenty. Black Stone Cherry, Rival Sons, Danko Jones, Dirty Honey, etc. I've named a few for you there. No, they don't all sound the exact same, but they're part of a movement of horribly derivative rock clichés. Slash is better than all that. He was around before these clichés came about, and yet, he's fallen into them. It's sad to see for me, and I'm a big fan.

I never said they all sound the same. I said that they all go for that vibe, and SMKC is no different. I just wish they did it better. And yes, I get it. If I don't like it, I don't have to listen to it. But like I've said, Slash is just so much better than this. I'm not expecting some ridiculous late-career renaissance here, but from what I've heard off the new album, it's not anything I haven't heard from him before. And he's done it better in the past. If you enjoy it, that's all good. I just wish he would push himself harder, because it's just not an inspiring sound to me.

On 2/17/2022 at 12:07 PM, WildStar said:

Fair enough if you don't like it. But people who like music other than what Axl sings enjoy it. They haven't had a bad release for me.

Zep are a decent band I'll give you that one fella. Imagine if Myles had ended up singing for them. What would have chose razorblades or a noose?

I'd rather not imagine that, but thank you.

[Zeppelin]

On 2/17/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ralphelmo said:

Speak for yourself

I was? I don't see anyone talking about their first three albums. Fair enough, people want to talk about the newest offering. But I haven't seen anything that's resurrecting any meaningful discussion of their first three albums. Probably because they're all bland.

[SoulMonster]

1 hour ago, Zeppelin said:

I have no problem with it being in his DNA. That's all normal, and it's going to come out that way no matter what. But the riffs are boring. Slash has done better, and can do better. It's derivative. I'm not saying people sound exactly like Miles. I just think he sounds bad. Much like many other retro-inspired rock bands. And yes, there are plenty. Black Stone Cherry, Rival Sons, Danko Jones, Dirty Honey, etc. I've named a few for you there. No, they don't all sound the exact same, but they're part of a movement of horribly derivative rock clichés. Slash is better than all that. He was around before these clichés came about, and yet, he's fallen into them. It's sad to see for me, and I'm a big fan.

Perfectly articulated exactly what I feel about Slash and how he has stagnated as a musician. Well, stagnated isn't really the right word, either, because when Slash laid down the guitars for Appetite it was innovative, it was fresh, it was pushing the envelope of what the music scene was back then. Now he has reverted to writing riffs and music that is a weak imitation of Appetite. Maybe he needed someone else to push him a bit, the dynamics of Izzy or the input of Axl or Duff? Or maybe he had it in his youth but it is gone now and he is struggling to just remain at a certain level? I tend to lean towards the former: Now that he can make all decisions he goes for the low-hanging fruits of riffs and arrangements, he is not forced to push himself in a band setting where he gets pushback and have to adapt to others' ideas. That's why we are not getting another Mr. Brownstone or Estranged, but just endless "identical" songs with different names. It will be incredibly interesting to see what he comes up with on the next new GN'R songs.

[ShadowOfTheWave]

IMO 4 is the most inspired Slash has been in a while. I think it's objectively the most diverse set of songs he's released since the 2010 solo record, they are far from identical. It's just that Myles has ruined another album with his Shinedown-lite radio rock.

[El Guapo]

8 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Perfectly articulated exactly what I feel about Slash and how he has stagnated as a musician. Well, stagnated isn't really the right word, either, because when Slash laid down the guitars for Appetite it was innovative, it was fresh, it was pushing the envelope of what the music scene was back then. Now he has reverted to writing riffs and music that is a weak imitation of Appetite. Maybe he needed someone else to push him a bit, the dynamics of Izzy or the input of Axl or Duff? Or maybe he had it in his youth but it is gone now and he is struggling to just remain at a certain level? I tend to lean towards the former: Now that he can make all decisions he goes for the low-hanging fruits of riffs and arrangements, he is not forced to push himself in a band setting where he gets pushback and have to adapt to others' ideas. That's why we are not getting another Mr. Brownstone or Estranged, but just endless "identical" songs with different names. It will be incredibly interesting to see what he comes up with on the next new GN'R songs.

The question is: How is the dynamic between Axl and Slash now when they are piecing the "new material" together?

Does Axl reject Slash's offerings for the CD stuff? Does he tell him "That solo you recorded for The General isn't quite there yet, maybe try something else?"

And is Slash willing to do it?

My guess is, Axl just takes whatever Slash sends him and Slash doesn't push himself any harder than for his own stuff. That's totally the vibe I'm getting.

[ShadowOfTheWave]

2 minutes ago, El Guapo said:

Does Axl reject Slash's offerings for the CD stuff? Does he tell him "That solo you recorded for The General isn't quite there yet, maybe try something else?"

If the reunion had happened 15 years ago that's definitely how it would have gone down. Axl just doesn't give a shit anymore, I doubt he even pays attention to the stuff Slash and Duff write, just lets Caram do his thing.

[Free Bird]

1 hour ago, SoulMonster said:

Perfectly articulated exactly what I feel about Slash and how he has stagnated as a musician. Well, stagnated isn't really the right word, either, because when Slash laid down the guitars for Appetite it was innovative, it was fresh, it was pushing the envelope of what the music scene was back then. Now he has reverted to writing riffs and music that is a weak imitation of Appetite. Maybe he needed someone else to push him a bit, the dynamics of Izzy or the input of Axl or Duff? Or maybe he had it in his youth but it is gone now and he is struggling to just remain at a certain level? I tend to lean towards the former: Now that he can make all decisions he goes for the low-hanging fruits of riffs and arrangements, he is not forced to push himself in a band setting where he gets pushback and have to adapt to others' ideas. That's why we are not getting another Mr. Brownstone or Estranged, but just endless "identical" songs with different names. It will be incredibly interesting to see what he comes up with on the next new GN'R songs.

The reason why we don't get another Brownstone or Estranged isn't really because of Slash, as he does what he ever did. Myles is not a 25 year old Axl. Izzy had an important part in the songwriting... who am I telling this... you know all that.

Now imagine a young Axl writing piano parts and vocals for Fall Back To Earth while Izzy, Duff and Slash would do the arrangement. The guitar melodies are already there... et voilà... there you'd have your new Estranged.

Slash does what he always did. The other guys are missing because every single member was responsible for specific parts of the songs that made them to what they are.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Free Bird

[SoulMonster]

1 minute ago, Free Bird said:

The reason why we don't get another Brownstone or Estranged isn't really because of Slash, as he does what he ever did. Myles is not a 25 year old Axl. Izzy had a important part in the songwriting... who am I telling it... you know all that.

Now imagine a young Axl writing piano parts and vocals for Fall Back To Earth while Izzy, Duff and Slash would do the arrangement. The guitar melodies are already there... et voilà... there you'd have your new Estranged.

Slash does what he always did. The other guys are missing because every single member was responsible for specific parts of the songs that made them to what they are.

I am not entirely sure Slash just does what Slash always did. I feel that the quality of his lead guitar was better back then than it is now, for most part. More succinctly, back then he was innovative and came up with genuinely fresh leads, now it just feel derivative and same-old-same-old. He has settled in a rut. He shouldn't try to just do the same thing as he has always done, he should do what he did back then which was to push rock further, to come up with something that sounds as fresh today as Appetite did in 1987. Appetite was genuinely a breath of fresh air in a stagnate music scene. Granted, this is very difficult to do and I won't for a second criticise him for not being able to do it, but it doesn't seem like he is really trying to push himself anymore. In SMKC he has taken the path of least resistance and instead of trying to be interesting and appeal outside of the chosen genre, he is jus churning out bland generic rock, which is of course great for all fans of that style of music but again, I feel he has the chops to do better and he has proven that he can be better. 

[VampireSoul]

On 2/16/2022 at 10:47 PM, WildStar said:

You must have a very small music collection 

Quite the opposite, I just don't care for those bands/projects/music 😄🥱

[WildStar]

48 minutes ago, VampireSoul said:

Quite the opposite, I just don't care for those bands/projects/music 😄🥱

My mistake you said you have no interest in anything that doesn't have Axl on vocals. That means you have a huge collection with all of Axl's albums. I just can't keep count

[Nice Boy]

As I recall, Izzy was totally against having a frontman singer figure in The Project/VR and wanted him or Duff to do vocals. Slash wanted to be another Aerosmith Rocks album band. Izzy was never going to be a long term partner in it realistically. Slash likes his Conspirators band because he’s the boss and creative director. That wouldn’t be the case in GnR writing , he’d be a partner so conceding to some of Axls wishes just as during the illusions writing. As he said it was a case of everyone saying they’d only do one person’s song if that person agreed to do theirs.

[Gordon Comstock]

There's always a couple songs on SMKC albums that I like, but at this point with the poor production and Myles being the most predictable rock singer out there, there's nothing on this album that's worth going back to. As always there's some cool guitar parts, but there's also some re-hashed or generic parts too. I'll give the Studio 60 performance another listen when it gets a proper release but the actual album is a dud.

[El Guapo]

The main problem to me is really Myles.

He almost always goes for the most standard melody lines and safest style of rock singing. It's so fucking boring that the music underneath becomes basically irrelevant. Imo, of course.