You are not logged in. Please register or login.
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
Re: Slash Basically Blaming Axl
Another thing, CD has been out about 5 months or so... I don't think u can properly judge an album's greatness in 5 months.
There have been albums I thought were amazing the first year, 10 years later, U coudn't pay me to play them
so saying an album that is 5 months old, is better than an album that is 22 years old, really isn't valid because u aren't factoring the newness into the equation.
Everyone has worn out appetite 500 times over. so in 20 years, if u still love CD, then we have a case.
but in 5 months, I don't think u can say that.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Slash Basically Blaming Axl
Great thread...too much to reply to at once...so here's a few things....
Was it artistic expression for Axl to spend thousands and thousands of dollars tapping Brian Mantia to play drums, so that he could have him sound like a 400 dollar drum machine?
My understanding is that he hired brain because he played with a certain feel and he wanted that on the album.
That's artistic expression in the 'design' of the album. Was it sucessful? Well if you think it sounds like a drum machine then that means perhaps it didn't work. But that doesn't mean the artistic intent wasn't there.
Then you apparently didn't read my post, that called Axl out too. They were ALL has beens.
I'm just saying that if Tommy is a nobody, and Axl is a has been, then Slash, Duff & Izzy were too.
It depends how you look at it.
The distinction I think is in what people mean by "has been". That implies that a person used to be famous but now no one cares.
IMO that is NOT the case with Axl or Slash. VR made a lot of noise about starting an album - but it was picked up heavily because people care
about them - due to their past works. If i made a big noise about starting a band I wouldnt get 1 billionth of the coverage. Likewise...Axl has a turbulent relationship with the media...but when he gives them something to work with..it tends to be widely reported...for good or bad.
I wouldn't say Tommy was a nobody in the same way one of us is, BUT his level of fame was massively below that of the VR guys in the pubic perception.
He might have some achievments that a number of people respect, but it's not on the same level as having worked on SCOM or PC or one of those
songs that almost everyone knows now from popular culture even if they don't follow the band.
I think CD is a great album, another fantastic album from Guns N' Roses, because I look at it as for it to be the LEGENDARY CLUSTERFUCK that it is, and still come out THIS GOOD, is astonishing.
I disagree with part of that:
I also feel CD is a great album but to me it's not astonishing, actually none of the events really surrpise me.
No disrespect to Axl or the band but a level of trouble has always been associated with every version of GNR, but the one constant in my mind is that if you can get through all the bullshit, Axl always ends up delivering great music...whatever else has gone down.
So I'm not astonished that CD is a good album.
Anyway...we're agreed in that I also don't think it's delusional for a person to prefer CD.
I'm not one of those people...i tend to like them all equally but I can see they can exist.
If you think about GNR as a whole...the only common element on each album is Axl. So then it comes down to comparing apples and oranges. Of course some people will prefer one guitarist to another. Some people prefer the kind of arrangments found of AFD, other UYI and other's CD.
It's all prefrences and a prefrence can't be delusional in that context.
- Intercourse
- Rep: 212
Re: Slash Basically Blaming Axl
I like my drums a bit louder than they are on cd, but I'm getting used to all the things like that, that bugged me before.
Its too bad Axl couldn't have harnessed the energy on Madgascar at Rio into the studio. He should have booked studio time immediately after that performance and told Brain and Bucket, "Now do THAT on tape".
Every time I watch Brain and Bucket footage on youtube(and I watched quite a bit last night while downloading a ton of albums) it just shocks me that Axl was unable or unwilling to see what these guys bring to the table. While Chinese Democracy is a good album, none of it is truly at the level those two are capable of going.
[youtube]wHCpI_hLRaU&feature=related[/youtube]
It goes on and on.
I still think the album could have been mixed better, the outro to Catcher is really bad. Brains going nuts but you have to strain, focusing your ear to get into the drums. Those damn guitars are to loud and are away in a world of their own.
Catcher in the Rye is almost unlistenable. Its actually painful to my ears.
I'd love to hear a mix of this album with Bumble drowned out(exceptions being the title track and Shacklers Revenge) and the Fat Boys hip hop beats removed from the entire record.
Re: Slash Basically Blaming Axl
I think Axl very much realized what Bucket brings to the table. Otherwise they wouldn't have handed him a blank check in 2006 to return.
I truely believe Bucket is crazier than Axl... and that scares Axl.
Bucket is far too much of a wild card for his tastes. Kind of ironic isn't it?
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Slash Basically Blaming Axl
I think Axl very much realized what Bucket brings to the table. Otherwise they wouldn't have handed him a blank check in 2006 to return.
I truely believe Bucket is crazier than Axl... and that scares Axl.
Bucket is far too much of a wild card for his tastes. Kind of ironic isn't it?
I actually have a question about bucket here. Hopefully some of the bigger bucketfans around here can help me out. And I have to phrase this carefully as I don't want it to sound disrespectful - believe me I love the guy - the solos i've hear him play on some of his solo albums just drop me...but my question is....
How much of bucket's craziness do we know is real? Are we sure it's not a gimic? I would have zero problem with it if it was a gimic, all peformers have some kind of act or costume. No one's stage personality is what they are at home. But what sign is there that he's crazy? Sure he dresses up funny, only gives intervies with a hand, and does funny shit when being video taped like rolling around on the floor or rocking against a wall....but is there like any accounts of him acting crazy in a non-work enviroment? it's not like he's been arrested for waking around nude at the zoo or something. Like everything that says he is crazy is all connected with his workplace?
Re: Slash Basically Blaming Axl
Its definitely a gimmick. At first I was a bit put off by it because the character is a tad on the absurd side, but you eventually realize its a gimmick and just roll with it. He backs it up with amazing music and luckily he does because if he didn't he would be laughed off the planet.
The guy has been poised for superstardom for years but it just never happens. You mentioned in a different thread that Ron can be the "Slash" of new GNR. Sorry to burst that bubble, but there's only one guy who could have legitimately replaced Slash and he wore a Bucket on his head while sniffing dog shit and watching porn and Axl squandered the massive opportunity at a reboot of the GNR brand.
Now he's stuck with nameless/faceless guitarists no one in the public cares about.
To paraphrase Sinead O Connor.....
There's no more Troy's for Axl to burn.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Slash Basically Blaming Axl
You mentioned in a different thread that Ron can be the "Slash" of new GNR. Sorry to burst that bubble, but there's only one guy who could have legitimately replaced Slash
Musically I'm right with you....Bucket has the skills to pull off anything.
But my idea in the other thread was about replacing two things lost when slash left:
#1 : the musical street cred (bucket has this no question)
and
#2 : the media skills and verbal ability to be the 'nice' spokesman of the band as a counter balance to Axl's rants and etc.
IMO Bucket was not the man for #2 because his own gimick means he's unable to freely chat to the press.
I figure the old GNR worked cos Axl called people motherfuckers and pulled off the Rock attitute excellently, while Slash was friendly enough to take care of the PR side enough so that you didn't get years of wierdness like we do now. Like shit went wrong with the old band, but you didn't feel they were a freakshow...dangerous yes, but not odd. Bumble can bring back the 'normalness'.
I totally agree about Bucket's skills though. I know everyone loves TWAT but to me I feel he could have done so much more in GNR. And probab;y would have if it had all worked out better.
Like stuff like Soothsayer and Notthiham...i'd kill to hear a solo that powerful structured into Axl's stuff.
Re: Slash Basically Blaming Axl
#1 : the musical street cred (bucket has this no question)
and
#2 : the media skills and verbal ability to be the 'nice' spokesman of the band as a counter balance to Axl's rants and etc.
IMO Bucket was not the man for #2 because his own gimick means he's unable to freely chat to the press.
Guess what the two biggest stories were at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards?
Axl reemerging with Guns for the "surprise" performance
The Buckethead segment with Kurt Loder.
Also, at some awards show(Oscars? Grammys?), Bucket and Bootsy were together and it caused quite a stir, even had gossip and fashion hound Joan Rivers commenting on it.
This guy brought everything to the table in spades. Like Axl, when he's on the scene, you cant look away.
If Bumble, Fortus, Tobias, Finck, or Ashba went to these events, they'd have to create a crisis by holding the people hostage to get anyone to take notice.
