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After 17 years, Chinese Democracy by Guns n Roses hit the shelves at Best Buy.
For my money this is not a Guns n Roses album. Gun n Roses broke up years ago. This is an album that Axle Rose made with a lot of side players and for commercial reasons (very smart reasons) he is calling it Guns n Roses. As you know, from my previous post, I am not a big fan of Axle Rose. I said I wouldn’t be buying this CD. And I haven’t. But the album was available for streaming on Myspace. So I listened to it a few times.
Can I be objective and just listen to the music in spite of what a crybaby I think Axle is?
First of all I didn’t listen to the album as much as I normally do before I do a write up for this site. I also never listened to it with the lyrics since those where not available to me.
I probably listened to the whole thing about twice, which is how much I think most music critics who have to write tons of reviews on a weekly basis listen the music that they are assigned. Just enough times, so that they can describe what this music sounds like without venturing to far as weather of not they really liked it.
I can say after 2 listens that the music on Chinese Democracy is good. And that I might get to like it even more with repeat listens (My normal rule is at least 3 listens and at least one listen while following along with the lyrics….provided they are included).
The only thing that weighs this album down is Axle’s need to make every song on this album sound like it will become an epic signature song for them. Picture if you will if Led Zeppelin tried REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, HARD to make an album where each song is Stairway to Heaven and you will get the idea. There seems to be no room for just a fun Rock’n'Roll song on this one. I also feel pretty confident that what is left of Axle’s once legendary voice is now being filtered though auto tune for these recordings, but once again it doesn’t that the music isn’t good.
Because it is good. And it might even be great. But I am not going to take the time to find out. Ove the years Axle has been unprofessional in how he has treated his audience and his former band mates, so I have no qualms about being unproffesional in how I write about his CD.
I know how sensitive about even the most remotely negative citicicism Axle can be (This guy has actually cancelled shows because he didn’t like what that city’s newspaper said about him).
So congratulations Axle. You made some good music. I still think you’re overrated and spoiled little child,. And I am still not buying this CD just on a matter of principal……I am sure your crying all the way to the bank……I can hear your empire crumbling now.
Artist: Michael Ubaldini
Albums: Acoustic Rumble & Street Singin’ Troubadour
Worth Buying: Yes, Both Albums
You will be interested in these albums if you are a fan of: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Brian Setzer, Johnny Cash, Roots Rock’n'Roll, Americana
Tell Me More: When Bruce Springsteen first hit the music scene there where those who called him a poor man’s Bob Dylan. When John Mellencamp first hit the music scene there where those who called him the poor man’s Bruce Springsteen. But when Micheal Ubaldini released Acoustic Rumble in 1999, LA Times critic Mike Bohem wrote “Better then Springsteen at probing the national soul”.
As a musician working the local scene, I wasn’t aware of any of this. But people would say to me “Have you heard Micheal Ubaldini?”. No I would reply, figuring that I better start.
That start began with Acoustic Rumble. The title implied that this would be a stripped down acoustic album. It also implied that it would rock. It didn’t dissapoint on either count. Starting with the album first track The Seventh Trumpet with it’s mean rock groove and lyrics shouting out at me:
Well it’s a death sentance if you have sex in the morning time You wanna be a celebrity or a hero? commit a heinous crime! Where we gonna go, yeah where we gonna go, when the 7th trumpet blowsBefore this song even ended I was thinking, “This guy could be the next Bob Dylan”.
Acoustic Rumble is sparse with usually just two acoustic guitars playing together, some occasional lead guitar, some subtle bass guitar, and light percussion. But it rocks. It rocks with conviction, It it rocks like a young man who is hungry and anxious to get his message out.
I am not always sure if he always intended it to be an acoustic album. Sometimes I wonder if he just didn’t have the resources to record a full band album, or if he was just in a hurry to get his musical statement out and doing it acousticly was the best way to achieve that. Either way it worked. Because when I listen to Acoustic Rumble, it feels like the band is there. Rocking right alongside him.
Now almost 10 Years later (and after releasing several albums with songs ranging from Rock, Blues, Rockabilly, Country, and Roots) He appears (at first glance) to be returning to Acoustic Rumble with his latest CD Street Singing Troubadour. Like Rumble, Troubadour is an acoustic album, but the similarities end there.
Troubadour is quieter. It is the quietest album he has ever done. It is also the darkest album he has ever done, and a whole helluva lot more reflective. This time it’s just one guitar, one voice, and occasionally a harmonica. If Rumble is stripped down, then Troubadour is the skeleton. For all I know, he might have recorded each one of these tracks live, and if he did, so much the better, because the performance is startling. And even though this is very much a folk album, it is still able to convey feelings of anger and outrage at society’s ills, and tell stories about life, as well as any rocker could. But then Ubaldini is a Rocker, and this is his folk album in the tradditional sense of the word.
Acoustic Rumble is an acoustic album that rocks you. It rocks you physically and intellectually. Street Singin’ Troubadour does not rock. But take the time out from your busy schedule to really listen to it, it will move you in quieter more subtle ways that will surprise you.
I will close out this review with first lines of lyric from the first song from Street Singin’ Troubadour
Kingdoms are slowly falling The sky’s fire evil and despair River waters overflow with anger Winds of Fire Burn Terrain everywhere The voice of anger is rising with the sonnets of the sage The voice of truth the four winds rage ringing out with the sound of the ageListen to (and buy) Acoustic Rumble
Country music is country music. Sure there is a lot of modern pop and rock influence going into it these days, and sure a lot of the “pop stars with cowboy hats” stuff doesn’t even sound like country music any more, but country music is still country.
Same goes for Jazz. Jazz has probably weathered attempts to modernize (once again by adding pop influences) a whole lot better than Country, but it’s still Jazz
Classical….well, it’s Classical. It doesn’t change. Because some things need to be timeless. .
But Rck is the hybrid.
Rock started as a hybrid. Blues musicians where trying to amp up the blues, and country musicians where trying to play the blues and rock happened.
From that starting point rock became the genre where we mix in blues, pop, country, folk, classical, soul, jazz and more.
Rock can be soft, & rock can be hard, it can sound folksy, funky, or just plain weird. Rock can silly and rock can be deadly serious. In rock you can write a 45 minute concept piece about the afterlife, or you can write a 2min and 30 sec song about how red hot your girl is.
Rock is political and rock is about your car. Rock is about love and rock is about hate. Rock can be about values and stability and rock can be about reckless abandon.
Rock can be anything we want it to be.
And this is why I love it and this is why it is my favorite.
A while back I was playing at a resturaunt. A new waitress who had just started working there, gave me a compliment on my playing, and asked me if I had ever played the Rock Star Video game.
I had seen people trying this game at the electronics stores. You have this controller that’s shaped like a guitar but it’s just a controller and not a real guitar I realized that this girl was just trying to find some way to relate to me as a musician, but for me it was like knowing how to drive a car and having someone who doesn’t know how, ask you “Hey, have your ever driven a big wheel”? I didn’t say any of this to her or course, because she was only trying to be friendly (She was also terribly cute).
So I just said politely “No, but I already know how to play a real guitar”. She told me that (the game) is really fun and that I should try it some time. A waiter who obviously saw the absurdity to what she was saying, jumped in and said (referring to the controller)”It’s 3 buttons”! I laughed, and she suddenly became embarrassed (I think it suddenly hit her how silly this was) and she sheepishly retreated saying “I wanna learn how to play a real one”.
Just recently South Park did an episode where Kyle and Stan are playing this exact game (to the music of Kansas’s Carry on a wayward sun) at Stan’s house. All their neighborhood friends are there too and they are all impressed by this. Stan’s father comes home and sees this. He pulls out a real Gibson guitar and amp and asks the kids if they want to see something really cool? He plays the same Kansas song but he is really playing it. The kids tell him that his playing the guitar is gay. The rest of the episode follows how a record label decides to sign Stan and Kyle after they score X number of points on the game. It was hysterical, but it made me remember that conversation with the waitress a while back and I had to wonder if South Park was that far off in their satire. And this got me back to my previous comments on music education in schools and I have to wonder if there are kids who can’t tell or appreciate the difference between a video game controller that is shaped like a guitar and a real guitar?
Artist: Motley Crue
Album: Saints of Los Angeles
Worth Buying: Most of the songs are (more on this in a moment).
You will be interested in this album is you are a fan of: Metal, Hard Rock, Pop Metal, Motley Crue
Tell Me More: Motley Crue was one of those bands that lost it’s way for a number of years. But now they have made an album that actually sounds like they are hungry. This is probably one of the best albums they have done since Too Fast For Love and Shout At the Devil. I wouldn’t say that it’s right up with those two, but it’s damn close.
The album opens with a little spoken word piece that sounds a bit too much like the opening of Shout At the Devil. for that reason I skip this track on repeated listenings. For the first 5 songs the album just kicks ass. Whats more the first 5 songs are almost like a mini little concept album, with the band chonicling their early years of struggle. I kept thinking that this was their eqivalent to Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album. In the album’s opener Face Down in the Dirt, the band sings about the rebelliousness of youth with so much conviction, that I really felt myself getting in touch again with my inner 18 year old again.
yeah, all i ever heard as a kid was I’m born to lose
all i ever wanted was a shot at breakin the rules
i wanna make a lot of money
but i don’t wanna go to school
i don’t wanna get a real job
i don’t wanna be you
I’d rather be dead, yeah I’d rather be dead
I’d rather be face down in the dirt with a bullet in my head
The remaining songs deal with the decedent heavy metal lifestyle that was prevalent back in the 80’s. These remaining tracks are good, but for me none of them where on the same level of intensity and passion as the albums first five songs. Of these remaining songs, I deleted two off my play list. Track 10 Chicks = Trouble and the closing track Going Out Swinging. For me the album became immediately stronger once I did. But with only two tracks that I didn’t enjoy this is a pretty strong album. This is aggressive Hard Rock with strong chorus’s, but not Pop or Pop metal. One other thing that I want to bring up is Singer Vince Neil’s diction. There are no lyrics included but I was able to understand the lyrics with no problem. I went back and listened to Shout at the Devil to make a comparison and found that clearly the man has done something to improve his enunciation’s.
What about the packaging? Standard Jewell case. It comes with a sleeve cover, but the sleeve cover offers no additional artwork. The insert is a fold out poster.
What if I am not ready to buy the whole album? Check out the opening track Face Down In The Dirt
Guest Writer: Robert Kinsler
Artist: Glen Campbell
Album: Meet Glen Campbell
Worth Buying: Surprisingly yes.
You might be interested in this album if you are a fan of: Gram Parsons, Neil Diamond, Jerry Reed.
Tell Me More: Meet Glen Campbell is surely one of the more unusual surprises of 2008. In a year that has seen an abundance of strong albums, the latest studio release from singer-guitarist Glen Campbell will immediately draw unfair comparisons with several early-‘00s releases from Johnny Cash that boasted reworked covers of modern day material. Whatever individual listeners think of the overall approach, Campbell has built a long and successful career out of reinterpreting others and it works magically on his latest disc. At 72, the Delight, Arkansas native’s voice and guitar player continue to shine. And the emotive, real world-styled vocals he brought to classics such as “Gentle On My Mind” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” is just as pleasing when singing Travis’ “Sing,” U2’s “All I Want Is You” and the Velvet Underground’s “Jesus.” Although it might come as a shock to fans of modern rock, Campbell’s strong vocals bring some added emotional weight to the Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These” that I didn’t hear in the original 2003 recording. It’s no wonder that guests such as Jason Faulkner from Jellyfish and Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen joined Campbell in the studio earlier this year to work on this wonderful project. This is a rare effort that truly juggles traditional country-western and modern folk-rock together perfectly.
This is an album that sounds as stunning listening to it with headphones and eyes closed, or cranking it up while driving on a lonesome freeway 100 miles east of L.A. Great stuff and one of the best albums of 2008.
What about the packaging? The CD comes in a digipak that includes several new photos and there is a nice color booklet inside that includes lyrics for all the songs
What if I am not ready to buy the whole album: Sing
Sample and purchase in mp3 format
Artist: Jen Bye
Album: Jen Bye
Worth Buying: Yes the whole album
You will be interested in this album if you like: Alanis Morrisette, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Liz Phair
Tell me more: Jen Bye is an LA based independent artist and this is her self titled debut from 2002. It’s only 6 tracks, but it is 6 GREAT tracks. And to be honest, I would rather hear a short album with outstanding tracks then a longer album with a lot of medicore filler that I would just delete from my player anyways. The album opens with an excerpt of an angry and impassioned preacher warning his listeners about the evils or Rock’n'Roll. This clip is clearly taken from the 1950’s, as no modern preacher would say anything like this today. It might seem out of context with a modern album, but it seemed to lead perfectly into the album’s opening number Bloody Fingers
Stylisticly Jen’s music has the ethereal and surreal quality you would associate with Fiona Apple, but with the aggression of a woman who wants to Rock. Even a slower tempo song like Take Me As I Am
What about the packaging? This album is no longer available on CD but Listen to samples and purchase in mp3 format here
What if I am not ready to buy the whole album? Hey El Cheapo, It’s only $5.94 on Amazon. But If I could pick only one song it would be the opening track Bloody Fingers
Pitchfork Media has just posted their top 100 albums of the 70’s
There are a lot of ideas here for new/older music that you might want to explore.
How many of these have you heard?
Which ones do you want to get around too?
There is a recent article from the Age.com written by Michael Coulter entitled: A word to the stealing generations Downloading music is wrong - even if it’s from rich bands such as AC/DC.
While I don’t agree with his statement that piracy will make the entertainment industry unviable. I do like the way he describes why you should value music and why it is immoral
Internet piracy, & Illegal file sharing is not a subject that I have touched on much. While I don’t like the way the RIAA has handled this situation and while I don’t think that suing your customers is a good idea, I do (of course) believe that you should purchase your music legally and only through legal download services that compensate the artist.
This is a complicated subject with a lot of misconceptions that I think I will be writing about more in the future.
Artist: Damone
Album: Out Here all Night
Worth Buying: Yes, except for tracks 4 & 8 (More on this later)
You will be interested in this music if you are a fan of: Glam Metal, Pop Metal, Poison, Def Leppard
Tell me more: When a genre of music becomes in Vogue with radio programmers, you soon have tons of imitators jumping on the bandwagon hoping to cash in. But once it falls out of favor with radio programmers, all you have left creating the new stuff is those who truly love it.
Such is the case with Damone’s “Out Here All Night“. This band loves a big shout along chorus. They love a big pop sound, with big crunchy metal guitars and fast guitar solos. They don’t care if this kind of music is out of favor with radio, and the labels cause it’s the kind of music they want to do….got it?
These are anthemic pop metal songs written and played by a real band that loves this stuff and can play it well. The lead vocals provided by Damone’s female rhythm guitarist is a large part of what gives the album it’s pop sheen. In fact her vocals sound so clean and the production is so sleek that at first listen ,I might have just dismissed it as yet the latest production team driven “flavor of the week”. This is by no means the greatest album I have ever heard, but it sure is fun, it sure did make me feel like a teenager, and I certainly enjoyed it, especially since it falls into a genre that I normally don’t like (pop metal) . I enjoyed every song except for tracks 4 & 8. For me, These songs did fall into the “Great production but mediocre song” category that most of those aforementioned “flavor of the week” artists fill their entire albums with. Once I got those songs off my ipod the album really rocked!
What about the packaging: Standard Jewell case. No lyrics booklet. The insert folds out into a poster.
What if I am not ready to buy the whole album: Check out the title track Out Here All Night If this track doesn’t win you over, nothing else by them will.
Bonus: You might also want to try their acoustic cover of the Iron Maiden song Wasted Years This is a great cover and their rendition really lets this band shine.