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#161 Re: Guns N' Roses » Brain talks Chinese Democracy » 870 weeks ago
Points I picked up on: Brain really dug being a part of GNR until he bascially became Josh's stand in.
Read Josh's and Brain's joint interview from 2001 for more information on that.
Brain started as Josh's stand-in, because Josh'd laid down the drums for most of the existing tracks by the time Brain got in. I'd say Brain was set to replace Josh's work from fairly early on. He started hanging out in the studio in spring/summer '00, with the album set for a fall release. Once the thing with Bob Ezrin happened, the album was pushed back and Axl ordered more work to be done on the album, which is when Brain was called to replace Josh's stuff.
When the band worked on tracks beyond the Sean Beavan/Josh -era, Brain obviously had more input in the creative process and actually had the chance to have the band's sound grow around him, instead of trying to adapt himself to the pocket Josh had vacated. In that sense, I think it got a bit more rewarding in a studio setting for him in the long run.
And Roy Thomas Baker was much more involved than what people were lead to believe (that he was fired before recording a single note). And that GNR is the most unstable, unorganized, weird-ass band on the planet.
Never heard of RTB being fired before doing, well, anything. From Spring '00 to Christmas '01, he was in the studio almost every day with the band, recording alternate takes and sending them to Axl for his perusal. After Zutaut came along, him and RTB started eventually finishing instrumentals, rounding up the album.
Even so, nothing from that period makes me feel the least bit different about the fact that at the time, as a working environment, the GNR studio space was a session musician's haven, surrounded by bad management, lack of communication and overall chaos.
#162 Re: Guns N' Roses » Chinese Democracy Official Tracklist » 871 weeks ago
ps I am still fucking brilliant though..
And we love you for your modesty, you mean old fart.
#163 Re: Guns N' Roses » Best Buy Posts Album Artwork for Chinese Democracy » 871 weeks ago
all of this points to the fact that the main album was indeed done and ready to go in '02...i wonder why it didn't....and what have they been doing since then...?...maybe the other discs will reveal that one....
Ax just kept tinkering with it. It was supposed to have been ready by the Eurasian tour, so that they would've done the VMA's to launch both the album (with a 09/02/02 date) and the North American tour. But they kept adding orchestrations (Buckmaster & Beltrami), Fortus recorded some bits and pieces, etc.
My opinion is that Paul Huge left because he felt the album was 'done', meaning his work with Ax had also been completed. He probably didn't want to do long, strenous world tours once the album'd launched, so he opted to bow out as everything was finally looking peachy.
#164 Re: Guns N' Roses » Australia to get Democracy Nov 22? apparently... » 871 weeks ago
It may be one of those unofficial cashgrabs like 'Axl Rose - The Prettiest Star'.
#165 Re: Guns N' Roses » Best Buy Posts Album Artwork for Chinese Democracy » 871 weeks ago
Wasn't the cover artwork was originally shown at Vegas 01.01.01 ?
Hong Kong, 08/14/02.
The Vegas '01 show posters featured my avatar, I think.
On 08/14, at the tour opener in China, Axl proved the cover art was indeed ready.
"Before [GNR] played [CD], [Axl] told a little anecdote why the new album is called 'Chinese Democracy'. He said it was because he saw a photo taken in Hong Kong, which he's using as the new album cover. And then he showed it on the video screens, and it was a black and white picture of a bicycle with a basket, and in the wall behind it, someone had grafittied 'Guns N' Roses'!!! He said 'I didn't paint that myself, so one of you motherfuckers out there must have did it!'" (Fan review)
"At one point, that was going to be the cover of the record - I'm not sure if it's now. This one guy... he was my keyboard tech at the time... Michael... and I mean he was in China at the time and he saw that and took a picture and showed it to Axl." (Dizzy, Metal Sludge, 01/29/06)
- 2002
#166 Re: Guns N' Roses » Brain talks Chinese Democracy » 871 weeks ago
That's fucking crazy. 8 months to track drums.
So Freese recorded 30 songs, then Brain re-recorded them. Who's going to be on the album, Brain or Frank?
Brain on most tracks, I take it.
Frank on two or three.
Freese has been absent from the record since 2001.
#167 Re: Guns N' Roses » New Song Title: Lies They Tell/Scraped » 871 weeks ago
That solves a mystery.
"In terms of the tracklisting on Chinese Democracy, what is your favorite track on the album?
umm... I don't know... last year Brain had this song called 'the General' that was really cool... and another song called "we were lying [not sure if thats the name he said]" ... I don't know [Dizzy shrugs]" - Dizzy, 2006
#168 Re: Guns N' Roses » Chinese Democracy release date? » 871 weeks ago
Since Best Buy finally put the SKU numbers on their website, I began to look at them.
looks like Best Buy has some Chinese in their system...here are their sku numbers, probably three different colors before anyone goes apeshit.
What struck me is that the last two numbers should flip when comparing the same version with different prices; as in, Version 1 should appear with codes ending at 16 and 61.
Well, not so.
Version 1, for instance, has the Cover A on the CD version, but the Cover C on the vinyl. If it's the completely same thing as the CD version, why bother switching the covers to match some other art version of the CD?
9111016 - Chinese Democracy 'Version 1' - $13.99
9111016 - Chinese Democracy (Cover A) (Bb) [CD]9111061 - Chinese Democracy 'Version 1' - $19.99
9111061 - Chinese Democracy (Cover C) (Bb) [Vinyl]
9111034 - Chinese Democracy 'Version 2' - $13.99
9111034 - Chinese Democracy (Cover B) (Bb) [CD]9111043 - Chinese Democracy 'Version 2' - $19.99
9111043 - Chinese Democracy (Cover A) (Bb) [Vinyl]
9111052 - Chinese Democracy 'Version 3' - $13.99
9111052 - Chinese Democracy (Cover C) (Bb) [CD]9111025 - Chinese Democracy 'Version 3' - $19.99
9111025 - Chinese Democracy (Cover B) (Bb) [Vinyl]
First SKU's from GNRSource, the seconds from BestBuy.com
#169 Re: Guns N' Roses » RUMOR: Best Buy buys 3 million CD cd's upfront? » 871 weeks ago
Well, I'd be all for the following:
Version 1 (the fall 2000 album): Axl / Robin / Paul / Tommy / Josh / Chris / Dizzy, with contributions from Bucket & Brain. Produced by Sean Beavan, with additional work by Roy Thomas Baker.
Version 2 (the 2002 album): Axl / Robin / Paul / Bucket / Tommy / Brain / Chris / Dizzy, with contributions from Fortus. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker, with additional work by Axl.
Version 3 (the 'final' album): Axl / Robin / Fortus / BBF / Tommy / Brain / Chris / Dizzy, with contributions from Paul and Frank. Produced by Axl and Curt Cuomo, with additional work by Caram Constanzo.
The 2002 version would probably be the best, IMHO.
#170 Re: Guns N' Roses » Chinese Democracy release date? » 871 weeks ago
Plans change, as ever in the GNR world.
I'm not going to got out of my way to testify that there will be three separate albums released at once. Just saying it's a possibility, as Axl also mentions in the Trunk show that they do have around 2½-3 albums worth of material in the can.
We'll know better soon enough.
