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Talking Metal

In the latest episode of “Talking Metal”, recorded at the Channel 4 Pub in New York City’s Rockefeller Center, hosts Mark Strigl and John Ostronomy participate in the second-to-last installment of their countdown to one of the world’s most anticipated albums, GUNS N’ ROSES‘ “Chinese Democracy”. Topics include the official “Chinese Democracy” listening parties, Bumblefoot, Chris Pitman and Best Buy.

The podcast can be downloaded at www.talkingmetal.com.

“Chinese Democracy” will be released in the U.S. on November 23 exclusively through Best Buy. The 14-song set will be available on CD, vinyl, and as a download. While singer Axl Rose has remained silent, co-managers Irving Azoff and Andy Gould said in a statement, “The release of ‘Chinese Democracy’ marks a historic moment in rock n’roll. We’re launching with a monumental campaign…that matches the groundbreaking sound of the album itself. GUNS N’ ROSES fans have every reason to celebrate, for this is only the beginning.”

One new song, “Shackler’s Revenge”, debuted on September 14 through the Rock Band 2 video game, while another, called “If The World”, can be heard in the new film “Body of Lies”.

“Chinese Democracy” is the first album of new material from GUNS N’ ROSES since 1991’s “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II”.

source: blabbermouth.net

Guns N Roses

The title track to Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy hits radio today, and with the album officially slated for release on Nov. 23 (through an exclusive deal with retail giant Best Buy) comes the beginning of the end to a 15-year GNR drought. But at what cost to the band’s label, Interscope?

Music industry veteran Matt Pinfield, a former MTV VJ and Columbia Records VP of A&R who now hosts New York station WRXP’s morning show, estimates the recording process alone easily ran in the millions. “I would imagine it’s the most expensive rock record ever made,” he says. But according to GNR’s current manager, Azoff’s Andy Gould, you can’t rush the magic of rock. “Art and commerce have always made strange bedfellows,” Gould tells EW.com. “When they asked Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel, they didn’t say, ‘Can you do it in the fourth quarter?’ so they can make their numbers. Great art sometimes takes time.”

Indeed, as recently as 2002, the same year singer Axl Rose closed out the MTV Video Music Awards with a surprise performance, some 300 DAT tapes sat in a studio cabinet — bits and pieces of Rose’s “masterpiece,” according to an ex-Geffen Records staffer: “As the dollars got bigger and bigger, there was even greater hope [to get the album finished]. But it got to the point where that hope went over the edge, like ‘This will never happen.’”

Pinfield says, “Working on records at Columbia, I’d come across people coming off the project or going on, and they would say that Axl was just taking his time — that he wasn’t satisfied with certain things.”

With less than a month to go until fans can judge the final product for themselves (pending approval of the album’s artwork, which, Gould hinted, could have its own complications), the anticipation — and pressure — is most certainly high, especially considering early predictions that AC/DC’s new album, Black Ice, could top 250,000 in first-week sales. “Rock music has always been strong when there’s turmoil and unrest,” offers Pinfield, “whether it’s the voice of reason, an accompaniment to what’s going on or a form of escapism. And look at the situation we’re in now with the economy and the world. The game has changed, with artists like AC/DC selling through Wal-Mart and Guns at Best Buy, but Chinese Democracy, without a question, will be a No. 1 record.”

source: Entertainment Weekly

Axl Rose

According to Hits Daily Double, the companion web site of music industry tip sheet HITS, GUNS N’ ROSES‘ long-awaited new album,“Chinese Democracy” (Geffen/Interscope) finally has a release date. The CD will hit all Best Buy stores, where it is an exclusive, on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, November 23, giving it a full seven days on sale before entering the chart on December 2. Best Buy’s sales week runs from Sunday through Saturday night. 

GUNS manager Andy Gould reportedly told 900 Best Buy employees at “vendor convention” held by Best Buy last month in Dallas that a newGN’R song called “If The World” will play under the closing credits of “Body of Lies”, the new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe due out on October 10. That news was confirmed online at film web sites whose representatives had attended a press screening of the flick. “If The World” will not appear on the film’s soundtrack album.

“If The World” features the guitar work of Robin Finck andBuckethead, who have both since departed GUNS N’ ROSES. 

Another new GN’R song, called “Shackler’s Revenge”, appears on theRock Band 2 video game. 

“Chinese Democracy” has been more than 13 years in the making, with every original member of GUNS N’ ROSES except for frontman Axl Rose long since gone from the lineup.

source: blabbermouth.net

Axl Rose

The latest rumors regarding the release of Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy have been swirling around message boards this week. The first rumor is that the long-awaited album will be released exclusively through Best Buy on November 25th. The source of the multi-tiered rumors is a supposed “vendor convention” that Best Buy had on Wednesday in Dallas, Texas. Reportedly, Guns manager Andy Gould told the 900 employees the news about Chinese Democracy before previewing three songs from the album. Cellphone recordings of the event were later distributed through GNR fan forums. Gould also reportdly alerted the crowd that “If The World” would also be featured in the closing credits for the upcoming Leonardo DiCaprio/Russell Crowe film Body of Lies, which was confirmed by message boarders on movie websites (like IMDB) who happened to catch a press screening of the film yesterday. The number of witness accounts, evidence and message boards involved makes it hard to believe this is all just a hoax, but this is Axl Rose we’re talking about, so we’ll believe it when the press release reaches our inbox. Still, we’re cautiously looking forward to Chinese Democracy and free Dr. Pepper on November 25th.

source: rollingstone.com