Tag Archives: GNR

Jul 20 2017
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Ramblings

12 Days Until I See GnR Live, And I Still Haven’t Fully Reviewed CHINESE DEMOCRACY

I’m not going to start his post with the question, “Does anyone still read this blog?” Even though I really want to, I’m going to avoid the question, mostly because I think I know the answer (and does it really matter?). I’m less than two weeks out from seeing Axl and Slash play together on their Endless Money For All Eternity Tour and I thought it would be a good idea to write something before my emotionally charged concert review (summation?) post that will be coming post-GnR concert.

It’s a little bit funny (this feeling inside?) that my last post was on a Natalie Imbruglia covers album. I feel like many of the people who follow/randomly stumble upon this website don’t get that I’m not exactly the world’s biggest Guns N’ Roses fan and that the title of this website is a bit tongue in cheek. I’m also pretty sure that some of the people on Facebook that follow the Defending Axl Rose Facebook Page think I’m Axl. God bless, ’em, each and every one of them.

Anyway, I have tons of things that I’d like to write about: songs, albums, concerts, the like…but I’ve been mostly unable to get any writing done due to some life changes and the fact that my toddler doesn’t allow me to use my home computer (which I need to write these posts). I am pretty stoked to see GnR and wonder if they will be able to compete with the awesome spectacle that was Metallica. Time will tell. Part of me wants to look up setlists from previous shows on this tour, but I kinda want to be surprised. I do want to hear “Rocket Queen” and “My Michelle.” If you’ve seen them and they don’t play those, please don’t post a comment below telling me they don’t, let my disappointment come naturally.

mean to axl

This is super mean, but I can’t help but laugh each and every time I see it.

So that’s it for now, just a quick check-in. I’d like to review this country album and maybe talk about the latest Cheap Trick record. I don’t know exactly when I will get to those, but you can definitely count on a post-GnR concert write-up. I learned my lesson with Metallica and will consume less alcohol, so my notes/memory of the event should be better, thus resulting in a better post.

If you’re going to the Denver show, hit me up on Facebook or leave a comment and maybe we can meet up.

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Dec 23 2013
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CHINESE DEMOCRACY, Songs & Singles

DEFENDING AXL ROSE: Part 2 “Shackler’s Revenge”

Welcome to part two of a fourteen part series in which I go track-by-track through CHINESE DEMOCRACY. It’s been over two years since I did the first installment on the first song…but I’m back defending Axl Rose!

I’d heard several songs off CHINESE DEMOCRACY prior to the album’s official November 2008 release, but “Shackler’s Revenge” was the first officially-Axl-sanctioned track I heard. The song was previewed in the Harmonix rhythm game Rock Band 2, which came out a month before CHINESE DEMOCRACY was released. I remember playing the game for hours the day it came out trying to unlock the song. When I finally got a chance to play “Shackler’s Revenge” I was pretty disappointed. Unlike the rough leaked tracks I’d heard, “Shackler’s Revenge” had a gritty industrial feel. I was also taken aback by the song’s production, which was busier than most hard rock songs. This negative reaction was repeated when I bought the album a month later.

For the record: not my score, not my Xbox ID, and not screen cap.

For the record: not my score, not my Xbox ID, and not screen cap.

Five years and many listens later, I like “Shackler’s Revenge” much more than I did when I first heard it in Rock Band. That said, this track is probably the most over-stuffed/produced track on the album. Everything about “Shackler’s Revenge” is big. The song has the most credited writers of any song on the album (five in case you were wondering). The song has multiple guitar solos and multiple guitarists. And despite this largeness, the song is the second shortest track on the record, clocking in at three and a half-minutes in length.

The track is an epic, aggressive romp through burning fields of an apocalyptic hard rock landscape. The song might not have struck me as very Guns N’ Roses-like the first time I heard it, but “Shackler’s Revenge” actually has all the main ingredients of a great GNR song. The song features lead and backing vocals from Axl, where are layered on multiple tracks creating a creepy Axl-choir. “Shackler’s Revenge” is angry and defiant with an absolute killer chorus that seems to wag a finger at all of Axl’s doubters.

GNR’s songs are also known for their guitar and “Shackler’s Revenge” does not disappoint on this end. The song features interesting guitar work from the avant-garde guitarist Buckethead and the band’s other guitarist Bumblefoot. I’m not 100% sure which one of these guitarists did the solos, but they’re fantastically explosive. I also really like the dying Galaga machine-like quality of the guitar tone.

The song’s dark, apocalyptic nature recalls the band’s previous “Oh My God.” That track, which came out on the END OF DAYS soundtrack in 1999, almost seems like a proto-“Shackler’s Revenge.” Axl has publically stated that “Oh My God” was released unfinished due to time constraints relating to the release of the film End of Days. A comparison of the two tracks is a fascinating: both have an aggressive, industrial metal feel but whereas “Oh My God” seems to be an endless gushing rant, “Shackler’s Revenge” has a methodical, demonic groove. The more refined “Shackler’s Revenge” is a testament to Axl’s tireless perfectionism. I’m not a big fan of sub-genre that the song mines, but the song has grown on me over the years. That said, releasing “Shackler’s Revenge” as the album’s first single was probably a mistake. From a business perspective, it makes sense to release the shorter more dynamic track but for my money the album’s third track “Better” would have made a better single (pun intended.

But I’ll write more about that when in the next installment of my track-by-track review of CHINESE DEMOCRACY.

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Nov 07 2012
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I Read The News Today Oh Boy, News Like Item, Ramblings, Sort-of-Music-Related

The GnR Poster Too Risqué For Las Vegas

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has yanked down a city-wide ad for the historic (sorta) Guns ‘N Roses concerts taking place in Las Vegas this month after a bunch of anger/complaints from the citizens of Las Vegas.  The poster, which incorporates artwork from painter Robert Williams* bizarre sci-fi painting titled “Appetite for Destruction,” has a lecherous robot in a compromising position with a defenseless, splayed woman.  Oh, and her shirt is ripped open and her panties are around her ankles.  You know, typical Disney stuff.

This is not the first time that the band’s use of this painting has caused controversy.  Back in 1987, retailers refused to stock GNR’s debut album APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION because Axl & Company wanted to use it as the cover art.  In the end, the band fell to label pressure and alternate artwork was used.  The painting is more batshit-stupid than rocking.  At least, that’s my opinion.  I don’t understand GNR’s continued insistence on using it to represent themselves, to be honest.

I’m astounded that the bean counters over at the Hard Rock actually agreed to run the ads.  What better way to convince people that your brand is fun for the whole family than a leering, rape-y robot?  To be clear, I hate this painting and I wish GNR/Axl would get over their massive hard-on for it...however Las Vegas is known the world-over as “Sin City.”  We’re not talking about Orlando, Florida or Branson, Missouri.  We’re talking about the smutty-ist, gambling capital of the country. A place where shady looking dudes hand out flyers of chicks you can legally pay to know (like in the Biblical sense).

I can’t imagine the ad was the most misogynistic thing the fanny-pack wearing masses of Las Vegas are being subjected to in a city where selling women is mostly legal.  I was recently in Times Square and that place was stuffed to the gills with super-porny clothing ads.  I know it’s not the same because none of the Gap ads were violent, but as we all know sex sells and this shit is everywhere these days.  Again, I’m not saying I think this ad should be plastered at the airport, welcoming families to Las Vegas (which it was), but I think Las Vegas needs to check itself.  I mean, this is Las Vegas we’re talking about.  And this poster is a drawing.  It doesn’t depict actual human beings, unlike the prostitute ads.

In the end, I can’t help but think that this is just a publicity stunt.  This controversy was not only foreseen  but wanted, I suppose to generate interest in the concerts and get us all talking–in which case: mission accomplished. Las Vegas should take a long look in the mirror and GNR should put “Appetite for Destruction” (the painting) to rest.

Lovely.

*Not that Robert Williams

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Nov 06 2012
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I Read The News Today Oh Boy, News Like Item, Ramblings

Axl Rose On Jimmy Kimmel: My (Delayed) Reaction

I understand that this is now old news at this point, but I’ve been unable to write about Axl Rose’s recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel.  Part of the reason was that I was horribly stranded in New York City during the recent super-storm/clusterfuck.  But another part was my brain’s slowed reaction to the appearance.

Axl was appropriate for the entire interview, except for his stupid hat.

On one hand, I found Axl’s first major TV interview to be a colossal disappointment and a great relief.  It was disappointing because Axl looks like someone’s bloated dad.  Look, I’m a fat, nerdy music writer so I can say it:  Axl used to be a rock adonis, and now he’s pudgy old guy.  The hat was also stupid.  I know it’s not cool to be balding or whatever is going on under that hat…but for crying out loud Axl, that hat makes you look insane.  It’s easy for me to say own your baldness when I still have a head full of hair, but I think it’s pretty vain when rock stars refuse to take off their hats/headbands.  You know who my all-time rockstar hair hero is? James Taylor.  James Taylor went bald and took it like a man. He didn’t bother with any coverup or conspiracy, he was like “this is what my head looks like.”  Kids today might not think it ballsy but there was a time when James Taylor was known for his giant mane of hair.  He wasn’t a hair-metal guy by any stretch, but he did have nice hair.

Enjoy all that sexy hair, 1970’s James Taylor, cos it won’t last…

But I digress. This post is not about hair.

So Axl’s gotten old, I can deal with that.  The bigger disappointment was also the thing that gave me tremendous relief: Axl Rose wasn’t insane or weird (hat not withstanding).  He was plainspoken, friendly, and engaged in talking with Jimmy Kimmel.  Kimmel even made a point of saying how surprised he was that Axl was talking to him during the interview.  The pictures of Axl’s Halloween Tree and his story about how he likes to see kids freak out when they see it was cool.  Some might say that the critical and commercial failure of CHINESE DEMOCRACY has humbled Rose, and that’s why the man we see is so down-to-earth and normal.  But I don’t see it that way.  The way I see it, Axl without all the bullshit is just a normal dude like you or me.

I’m sad that he wasn’t bizarre and we didn’t get some crazy sound bytes out of the appearance–but mostly I’m glad to see that Axl isn’t the douchebag the media have portrayed him to be.  On a side side note, I was glad to see The Whigs perform later on in the episode (I’ve seen them live a few times and they’re awesome) but I was REALLY REALLY sad that Guns ‘N Roses didn’t play a song instead.  How awesome would that have been?

Lastly, the reason we got this odd bit of Axl publicity: the Vegas shows.  Had I not just spent all my money and remaining vacation time stranded in NYC, I think I’d actually go out and catch one of the GNR Vegas shows.  In a perfect world, the last show of the band’s month-long stand would be televised or streamed online AND we’d get a Live Album released next year.  But the reality is: after these shows, the US probably won’t see Axl or Guns ‘N Roses for a while.  Maybe I’m wrong, I hope I am.

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