Does anyone else wish CD had been more experimental?

[jarmo]

Some of the people at the record company have changed over the years... Jimmy Iovine isn't there anymore for example.



/jarmo

[D-GenerationX]

Hopefully, changes in personnel will help our cause.

[EmilyGNR]

if I remember correctly Axl said he didn't want to loose the old fans with a too-much-modern-sounding-album but he had some other tracks way more experimental

Correct-

From the Kurt Loder interview 1999

Rose: No, and I don't want to be in a situation again where I have to depend on other people and have [to] start all over. So we have material that we think is too advanced for old Guns fans to hear right now and they would completely hate, because we were exploring the use of computers [along with] everybody really playing their ass off and combining that, but trying to push the envelope a bit. It's like, "Hmm, I have to push the envelope a little too far. We'll wait on that." So we got a list of things.
Loder: Are you involved in computer music yourself? Are you playing guitar now?
Rose: A little of both, a little of both.
Loder: How's your guitar playing coming along now?
Rose: It's all right. I just wanted to be good enough to be able to contribute what was needed to this main album. It took working on the majority of these things and at least the couple albums' [worth] of material to figure out what should be on the first official Guns album. I wouldn't say it's like, you know, that we recorded a double album, or that we have all of our scraps to be the second one. There is a distinct difference in sound. The second leans probably a little more to aggressive electronica with full guitars, where the first one is definitely more guitar-based.

[draguns]

I'm not interested in hearing industrial/electronic music from GNR. That's not why GNR became my favorite all-time band. GNR is blues based hard rock. If I want to hear  industrial music, I'll listen to Rob Zombie and Nine inch Nails.

[norway]

  "It was a bummer. Most of the songs that are on the record now were done 10 f*cking years ago. But all the talking heads in the mix were saying, Make 'em sound better! Make 'em sound better!' So we kept redoing this and that. And it ended up coming back down to the same f*cking songs that they were 10 years ago, except that now they were a super-dense mishmash of a bunch of instrumentation."

So, even they realize it.  
Its over then. We won't ever get an honest album from Axl is he is a prisoner of the label.

thar

R&P: We know that Chinese Democracy will be released in June, but we wanted to know what the reasons are for taking so long before releasing the album?

Axl: We hadn't written songs or recorded for many years. There were band changes and there were many changes in the record company. People in the record company had many opinions and they wanted to make the best possible record. Every time that we thought that we had the correct songs, then somebody thought that we could make it better. We started over, we continued adding songs, continued recording and recording. I think that when we release the album, it's gonna be something that I'm gonna be proud of and confident in. Then, we will also have an extra heap of songs. This band has played only been together for six weeks before Rio. So it is still very new for them to play together as band, with Robin (Finck) and Buckethead. That was a surprise. Obviously, that was the correct decision to make, but it was not originally planned to have three guitarists.

R&P: Is your new material more industrial? We hear that it is not very similar to that of your old band.

lol @ dramatic tone btw

[Wooody]

what does ''thar'' mean? or what did you mean to say ?

[D-GenerationX]

I'm not interested in hearing industrial/electronic music from GNR. That's not why GNR became my favorite all-time band. GNR is blues based hard rock. If I want to hear  industrial music, I'll listen to Rob Zombie and Nine inch Nails.

That's been a real dichotomy, I think.

Do you want music that sounds like the Guns N' Roses music that made you a fan in the first place...

...or will you literally accept any old thing they put out, in whatever form?  And so long as it says "Guns N' Roses", than no worries?

I'm sort of in the middle.  I like a lot of the newer stuff, but don't think much of any of it sounds much like what made me a GNR fan 25 years ago.

And some is so far removed (Rhiad) I don't ever listen to it and don't appreciate it on any level.  I don't give a damn what name on the CD cover says.  Its just not good. 

On the other hand, 'Oh My God' doesn't sound a thing like GNR, but I have always dug it.

[jarmo]

I think for some, the style is attached to the name. This is what it's supposed to sound like, and if it doesn't, it's not GN'R to them.

For others, there's no such limits.

Plenty of bands around that keep the first kind of fans happy by not straying too far away from what they're supposed to sound like.
Whether or not that's enough for the bands themselves, who knows.


/jarmo

[D-GenerationX]

Well, all bands (except AC/DC) evolve somewhat.  But there is still a base level of what to expect.

Pearl Jam will never put out a speed metal album.  I'm not going to pick up a Foo Fighters album and find free form jazz.

Yet I get the feeling that there are a lot of fans of this band that would roll with such things.  All depends on the name on the front, seems like.

I've just never been able to decide if that adaptability is more out of necessity than anything else.

[Wooody]

And some is so far removed (Rhiad) I don't ever listen to it and don't appreciate it on any level.  I don't give a damn what name on the CD cover says.  Its just not good. 

On the other hand, 'Oh My God' doesn't sound a thing like GNR, but I have always dug it.

Yeah, but isnt that a case of apples and oranges? Im a big fan of Rhiad, but I really don't like Silworms, Oh My God  I hated at firs now its ? OK, I wanted to like Shackler's Revenge, and some of the vocal melodies are good, but all in all I don't enjoy it.  The rest are closer to Hard Rock.

[D-GenerationX]

Yeah, but isnt that a case of apples and oranges? Im a big fan of Rhiad, but I really don't like Silworms, Oh My God  I hated at firs now its ? OK, I wanted to like Shackler's Revenge, and some of the vocal melodies are good, but all in all I don't enjoy it.  The rest are closer to Hard Rock.

I think there are a handful of songs you can point to that don't sound a thing like the Guns N' Roses that made us fans way back when.

Oh My God
Silkworms
Chinese Democracy
Shackler's Revenge
If The World
Scraped
Rhiad & The Beduoins
Sorry
Madagascar
Prostitute

Some of these I like.  Some, I absolutely love.  Some, I think suck right out loud.

But anyone that grew up a Guns N' Roses fan and told me they didn't sound much like Guns N' Roses, I'm not going to tell them they are wrong.

I'm not going to grab the CD and say "No, no...see?  It's Guns N' Roses.  See right here where it says 'Guns N' Roses'?  So you are mistaken.  This is totally Guns N' Roses."

On paper, maybe.  To your ears?  Not so much, perhaps.

It just comes down to whether you can roll with it.

[EmilyGNR]

Yeah, but isnt that a case of apples and oranges? Im a big fan of Rhiad, but I really don't like Silworms, Oh My God  I hated at firs now its ? OK, I wanted to like Shackler's Revenge, and some of the vocal melodies are good, but all in all I don't enjoy it.  The rest are closer to Hard Rock.

I think there are a handful of songs you can point to that don't sound a thing like the Guns N' Roses that made us fans way back when.

Oh My God
Silkworms
Chinese Democracy
Shackler's Revenge
If The World
Scraped
Rhiad & The Beduoins
Sorry
Madagascar
Prostitute

Some of these I like.  Some, I absolutely love.  Some, I think suck right out loud.

But anyone that grew up a Guns N' Roses fan and told me they didn't sound much like Guns N' Roses, I'm not going to tell them they are wrong.

I'm not going to grab the CD and say "No, no...see?  It's Guns N' Roses.  See right here where it says 'Guns N' Roses'?  So you are mistaken.  This is totally Guns N' Roses."

On paper, maybe.  To your ears?  Not so much, perhaps.

It just comes down to whether you can roll with it.

It's all a thing called tastes are subjective.

And you can love, hate, idolize or despise the songs but you don't get to determine whether they are GNR or not- that is entitled nonsense.

They are GNR songs regardless of opinions.

[jarmo]

Pearl Jam will never put out a speed metal album. 

That's your idea of the comfort zone the band is allowed to wander within.
PJ might not make a full album of one specific type of songs, but there's a bunch of songs on several of their albums that don't sound like anything on Ten.
Several songs on Achtung Baby doesn't really sound like most of what U2 did before that....

The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones... Plenty of examples of bands that doesn't sound all the same through their careers.  



/jarmo

[D-GenerationX]

Is my problem with some here that I'm too accepting of a wider range of opinions?

I don't consider any of the following out of bounds :

- Everything that comes out under the banner Guns N' Roses is Guns N' Roses. The end.
- So long as Axl is involved, its still Guns N' Roses to me.
- Everything post 1993 is "Guns N' Roses" in name only, but I still like it
- Everything post 1993 is "Guns N' Roses" in name only, and I can tolerate it...barely, because I love Axl
- Everything post 1993 is a fucking sham and I will never accept it as Guns N' Roses

I'm cool with all of those.  I'm guessing I lose some of you as we move down that list.

However, I'll be right with anyone that says if your opinions are more towards the bottom of that list than the top, you should probably consider cashing out.

Is that fair?

[jarmo]

You're cool with all of those? Anyway, if your opinion is some of those bottom ones, it's fair to say you're more of a fan of the old band and any fan site dedicated to all eras of the band might be wrong for your needs.

I would also think that someone who thinks things haven't' "gone swimmingly" for about 20 years would've also consider cashing out a while ago... But that's just my opinion.



/jarmo

[Wooody]

You're cool with all of those? Anyway, if your opinion is some of those bottom ones, it's fair to say you're more of a fan of the old band and any fan site dedicated to all eras of the band might be wrong for your needs.

I would also think that someone who thinks things haven't' "gone swimmingly" for about 20 years would've also consider cashing out a while ago... But that's just my opinion.



/jarmo

I dont think he said he belongs to one of those, rather he accepts when people say that.

As for gone swimmingly, I think even Axl would admit that sometimes ''the waves they get so high" 

[D-GenerationX]

I dont think he said he belongs to one of those, rather he accepts when people say that.

Exactly.

I don't feel the need to correct, to lecture, any of that.  Those things aren't important to me.  I find such things to be wastes of time and effort.  Everyone here, at this particular site, we're all on the same team, as far as I'm concerned.

Guy tells me he's still digging what Axl's doing, but doesn't really consider it true blue Guns N' Roses, I'm not going to have a conniption fit and demand he get right with Jesus.

And like I said, I can perfectly accept a guy going with #5 on that list, because that's not something you will ever eradicate.  This band had a lot of fans once upon a time, many for whom cashed out.  But I would then ask that person why exactly he's still paying attention, since the only band he'll accept is long gone, n'er to return.  I think that is a fair question.

Personally, I'm in that #2 or # 3 wheelhouse.  I'm still onboard with whatever Axl is doing, always will be, but this band is not a straight line progression for me.  I see 2 bands, but like both.  I think I run into a lot of disagreements here because of that, and because I just don't get why it would bother you so much.  I would think the fact a guy still likes the band in whatever capacity is enough.  No blood oath required.

[D-GenerationX]

And just circling back to the original topic, I think wanting things to go in an even more experimental direction only splinters us further, and exacerbates the divide.

[OscarAxl22]

Option #4 for me in terms of Music released post 93. 

I still like the live performances post 93, and take a big interest where former classic members have performed . (i,e Duff, Izzy) etc.

[D-GenerationX]

Option #4 for me in terms of Music released post 93. 

I still like the live performances post 93, and take a big interest where former classic members have performed . (i,e Duff, Izzy) etc.

I would say a guy like you is teetering.

You are still in the game, but do so hoping it will change drastically (as in, a reunion).