OK, Eric Tarn has once again inspired me to blog, the grand muse that he is. 2 topics today:
1. The Auto Industry
2. Guns N Roses
Lets start with Axl and co. I’ve been a fan of the GNR since I was a wee lad. I can distinctly remember going into my 4th grade classroom wearing my white Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion T shirt, thus becomming a lifelong fan. My mom wouldnt even let me buy the album, because of the “Explicit Content” sticker, fuck you very much Tipper Gore. Shortly after, the spaghetti incident was released, and shortly after, nothing happened for many a year. What was a fan to do? For one, we got on with our lives. We listened to new and exciting music, old and undiscovered jams, and many in between. What was Axl doing during this time? Fuck if i know. My point, before we get to the music is this- The process of waiting for this album was ridiculous. Ri. Dic. U. Lous. Velvet revolver made some good music and broke up in this time. I and Everyone I know entered middle school, high school, and college in this time. Children were born, who are now nearly driving cars. Its fucking stupid axl, come on. The pressure is huge.
But now lets get to the serious business, the music, which I have listened to steaming at Myspace.
Its not so bad. Its pretty good. Every review ever will say this, but its true- If we were able to remove context from this album, its pretty good. Better is a great song, it has that urgency of the better parts of Use Your Illusions. But my greatest concern lies in an obvious place- The Guitar Playing.
Buckethead….really dude…come on. Me and the TB and the DB have seen the Bucket many a time, and its always entertaining. He shreds like a fucking cuisinart on stun. But is it necessary ALL the time? no, its not. You dont need to play a billion fucking notes. Come on dude, just play at least a whole note SOMEWHERE, not everything needs to be like 128ths or something. For Cryin Out Loud.
I’ve heard some crazy ass stories about this record. The drummer Brain gave an interview with a recording magazine, talking about the recording process. Axl originally hired Josh Freese, a serious studio drummer, flawless, innovative, all around kickass. But in the process, he recorded all the songs with Freese, then changed his mind, hiring Brain (most well known for his work with Primus). So brain gets to the studio, the producer is Roy Thomas Baker (look up that guy, Night At The Opera Anyone?), and they say “i want you to play what josh played, but with your feel” so brain gets to it, and they stop him and say “no, play EXACTLY what josh played” This is not easy on any instrument, but for nuance, it might be most difficult on drums because strictly by listening, its not the easiest to separate the individual elements. So he takes the music to the Sony Classical division to transcribe, and practices for weeks in the studio (probably costing 2,000$ a day). Well, thats the kind of excess that went into this shit.
Also, the use of autotune is a little silly. Its no secret Axl uses that shit live, somewhere there is a video comparison of “Night Train” from the Use Your Illusion Tour and his most recent fake GNR tour, and on the recent version, its like an octave higher. Listen to “Street Of Dreams” the use of Autotune is just silly man, that sustain is just completely unnatural. When you think about it, this entire album was conceived and started, long before autotune even existed. Its gone through format shifts in recording technology so drastic, I cant even imagine the through process. It started on the earliest version of Hard Disk recording, and now you can easily alter the pitch and time of anything.
So in conclusion, I will buy the album, but I may not be happy about it.
OK, back to topic 1- The Auto Industry
I work closer with the automotive industry than I would prefer. I deal with these jackasses every day, from most manufacturers, making terrible commercials. Let me summarize TB’s point, then respond: The American auto industry is stupid as hell, the most innovative product they have is a hummer, and they spend millions on advertising to support a government bailout, rather than make new cars. I agree. Really, its a lose lose situation for everyone. These people are fucking stupid, they want to sell cars based on Patriotism, yet the cars suck. I’m not going to break down on the side of the highway going to work because I fucking love America, ok? My dad has been a Ford Explorer guy since i can remember, and last year, the transmission just went. Randomly, for no reason, and was not under warranty.
Really, do you know anyone who drives an American car? Only a jackass would buy a ford or some shit.
Now, allow me to get patriotic. This is fucking America. We’re the fucking best. America, Fuck Yea. We have a kick ass black dude for president, what more could you ask for? And we’re the worlds WORST auto maker? really???? We fucking invented the car and we’re the WORST at making it? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT? Can’t we give them a provisional bailout that says they can only have it if they stop making cars that run on gasoline? and if they come out with another Hummer, lets just take a collective shit on them.