Guns N’ Roses Brings ‘Chinese Democracy’ to ‘Rock Band’

Guns N’ Roses Brings ‘Chinese Democracy’ to ‘Rock Band’

Axl Rose may have spent 15 years fine tuning the 14 tracks on “Chinese Democracy,” but it only took five months for the entire album to make its way into the “Rock Band” video game franchise.

“Chinese Democracy” will be released in its entirety into the Rock Band Music Store on April 14 and gamers will be able to download and play all 13 songs from the record, Harmonix and MTV Games announced Friday.  “Shackler’s Revenge,” the first track to emerge from the album, made its debut in the “Rock Band 2″ release.

Gamers who use the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 gaming systems will be able to purchase the entire album and individual tracks, while Nintendo Wii players can only buy the tracks individually.

In an exclusive interview, Axl Rose told Billboard that the game’s producers felt the album’s multiple layers and tracks needed extra programming to sound and play correctly.  “They felt the record - based on the nature and complexity of the depth of instrumentation - deserved a bit more attention and some more involved elements than they’ve generally dealt with,” he said.

“Chinese Democracy” was released in November 2008 and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. The album has sold 570,000 copies to date according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Axl Rose says Slash is “a cancer”

Axl Rose says Slash is “a cancer”

The handful of optimistic Guns N’ Roses fans still holding out for a reunion of the band’s classic lineup can probably call it a day.

In a newly published interview, singer Axl Rose describes former bandmate Slash as “a cancer,” elevating his distaste for the top-hatted guitarist to a new level.

Rose is the only original member left in Guns N’ Roses, whose first studio album in 17 years, “Chinese Democracy,” bombed badly last November. Slash quit the band in the mid-1990s, with both sides offering different reasons.

The mercurial singer barely promoted “Chinese Democracy,” and has given just a handful of interviews.

In his latest public interface, published on Friday at AOL Music’s spinner.com website, Rose sat down for a friendly interview with his pal, songwriter Del James.

The duo sidestepped the commercial failure of “Chinese Democracy,” and the topic of a reunion inevitably came up. Rose said it was “highly doubtful for us to have more than one of the alumni up with us at any given time.”

“I suppose (former bass player) Duff (McKagan) could play guitar on something somewhere but there’s zero possibility of me having anything to do with Slash,” Rose said.

“In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided — and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters the better.”

Rose was not even a fan of Slash’s guitar playing, claiming he has lost his edge and seems to be more passionate about being “a whore for the limelight.”

As for the other former bandmates, Rose said rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin’s recent guest turns on stage with the band were fun, but that his old Indiana buddy was not the most reliable collaborator.

And drummer Steven Adler, who was fired in 1990 for excessive drug abuse, brings “assorted ambulance-chasing attorneys … One gig or even a couple songs could mean years of behind-the-scenes legal aftermath.” The drummer, who successfully sued the band for royalties, was recently seen on the VH1 reality shows “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” and “Sober House.”

Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy

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Guns N Roses – Chinese Democracy

“Grunge. Techno. Boy bands. Both President Bushes. These are just a few of the things Guns N’ Roses has improbably outlasted in the 17 (!) years since its last album of original music. Almost ever since, lone original member Axl Rose has been working on “Chinese Democracy,” which reached mythic status as the album many thought would never materialize. Lo and behold, here it is (as a Best Buy exclusive, no less).

Apparently to make up for lost time, the set is frontloaded with huge-sounding, heavily produced rockers coated in an ultra-modern sheen that contrasts starkly with the stripped-down, freewheeling material of GNR’s glory days. Tracks like “Riad N’ the Bedouins” have “Appetite for Destruction” bones but exoskeletons dipped in chrome. Rose eventually backs off and lets the songs breathe, with promising results. “Scraped” is a riffy monster in the vein of “Mr. Brownstone”; “Catcher in the Rye” is pure, major-key classic rock; and “This I Love” is a grandiose ballad you can picture Rose playing with a candelabra on the piano lid.

The artist is in fine, ever-changing voice throughout, and there’s certainly a ton of musical food for thought here, requiring several listens before the nuances are revealed. Worth the wait? Maybe. Worth a few hours of your time? Definitely. — Jonathan Cohen”

Exclusive: Jimmy Iovine Talks Axl, U2, Dr. Dre, Eminem

When Universal Music Group pushed highly anticipated albums from U2, Dr. Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent from the fourth quarter to 2009, it seemed like a final stake in the heart of music retail this year.

But Interscope-Geffen-A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine refuses to apologize for the decision, which he says he made to ensure the projects would be the best they could be. And it’s not like the company doesn’t have some big album coming before year’s end: All-American Rejects, Soulja Boy, Keyshia Cole and, of course, Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy,” which arrived yesterday (Nov. 23) as a Best Buy exclusive.

Iovine spoke exclusively to Billboard about the release schedule, retail exclusives and what parts of his business are growing.

Yesterday was an exciting day for a lot of Guns N’ Roses fans. What are your thoughts now that this record is a reality?

Axl delivered a great Guns N’ Roses album. Period. He did. It took him a long time for whatever reasons. I am sure there were many different reasons. Bottom line is, he did it. It’s hard to say if something is worth the wait, because how the hell do any of us know? I judge it based on what it is. Does it sound better than 99% of the rock records out there? Yes. I’m just thrilled for him.

The proliferation of retail exclusives like Guns N’ Roses with Best Buy has been one of the biggest stories of the year. What are you thoughts on how this has developed?

With the confusion and how much media is spread out and how hard it is to market things to a mass audience right now, I think you’ll see the labels needing marketing partners to drive this music, whether it’s a song, an album or a new configuration. In this case, Best Buy gave this album a great deal of marketing that we couldn’t have gotten any other way. Now we have the press on our side as well, which is extraordinary.

But what about indie retailers who throw their arms up because of deals like this? Is there a silver lining for them?

I don’t know the answer to that. But when a guy works that hard on a record, you want to give it the best possible chance it has. We found a great partner in Best Buy, and Axl’s new management felt it was a good idea. It looks like it’s going to do really well. I mean, really, really well. Beyond anybody’s expectations.

So, let’s move from a record that is coming out this year to some that aren’t, like U2 and Eminem.

I met with the guys in U2, and they say to me, ‘You know what? This album needs two more songs, and it will be exactly what we have in mind.’ I go there and I listen, and I agreed with them. It’s a great record, but it deserves the time. Labels need to work with artists to help them achieve their best work, not to jam records out that are half-baked or three-quarters baked.

I’ll tell you about Eminem. We only tried to put him out this year to replace Dr. Dre, but we got into a quagmire. Eminem was always coming next year. But what happened was, I lost Dr. Dre to Eminem. Dre had to stop making his album to finish Eminem’s album. Eminem hit a streak, and when a guy like Eminem gets on fire, you stop everything. That’s how we lost Dre.

So what’s the status of Dre’s record?

Dre’s going back in in January. He’ll be finished with Eminem by then, and he’ll finish his album.

There’s a rumor in the retail world that Eminem might be an exclusive as well.

No. There’s no truth to that.

What parts of your business are growing?

Well, our Pussycat Dolls tour has sold 150,000 of 160,000 tickets, with eight weeks to go until the tour. That’s big. Other than Miley Cyrus, I don’t know a label that has something like that. We’re doing really, really well with licensing. Our 360 deals are working. We have that with Lady GaGa. Dr. Dre’s headphones are doing really, really, really well. It’s a fabulous product. We’re building a lot there. We’re building out some of our management stuff.

I’ve always felt, and this is just in general, that there’s an oil well for the record industry in their music videos, and so does Doug Morris. Universal Music Group had 3 billion views on YouTube and we are so underpaid for those videos. Now, we’ll set up an infrastructure, and Doug’s in charge of this. We’ll make a deal where we really see the value. We have the most perfect content for the Internet. People love to watch them and they watch them over and over again. If “Saturday Night Live” gets 100,000 views on the Internet, they throw a party. Soulja Boy, on his site alone, got 500 million! It’s nuts. The Lady GaGa video has 25 million views.

This is all going to be turned back toward the labels. That value has to be achieved.

Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Chinese Democracy’ Streaming On MySpace

Guns N’ Roses is streaming its long-awaited Black Frog/Geffen album “Chinese Democracy” on MySpace ahead of its Sunday (Nov. 23) release exclusively via Best Buy.

The album, which was debuted for fans at New York and Los Angeles listening parties earlier this week, has already leaked online. An avalanche of “Democracy” reviews have gone to print, including a nearly 2,000-word treatise from Chuck Klosterman in the Onion. (For Billboard’s review, click here)

The album’s title track debuts this week at No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band’s first appearance on the chart since “Sympathy for the Devil” in 1995.

MySpace users can also listen to “Electric Arguments” (ATO/Red), the new album by Paul McCartney’s side-project group The Fireman, which is released Nov. 25.

Guns N’ Roses Leaker To Plead Guilty

A man accused of illegally posting songs on the Internet from an unreleased album by Guns N’ Roses has agreed to plead guilty, a federal prosecutor said today (Nov. 11).

Kevin Cogill will enter his guilty plea to one federal count of copyright infringement at a hearing on Dec. 8, said Craig Missakian, assistant U.S. attorney.

The FBI said Cogill posted nine tracks from the highly anticipated Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” on the Web site Antiquiet.com. The album will be released on Nov. 23 exclusively in Best Buy stores. They did not disclose how Cogill, who has no known direct connection to the band, obtained the songs.

Cogill was arrested in August at his Los Angeles home and released on bail. At the time of his arrest, authorities said he faced more than three years in prison if convicted.

Missakian declined to discuss details of the plea deal that Cogill reached with federal prosecutors.

Slash Exercises Freedom With Solo Album

A solo album or the third Velvet Revolver album — or possibly both — are on Slash’s docket for 2009. The guitarist tells Billboard.com that he’s “at the very tail end of the demo phase” for the solo project, which he hopes to start recording early next year.

He began coming up with material during Velvet Revolver’s last tour and says that while it will have references to his work with that band and Guns N’ Roses, “there’s really no particular direction. I just wanted to take a little bit of a break from all the politics and the democracy that is a band and just sort of do my own thing for a little bit. There will be a lot of stuff I don’t have the freedom to do in a band situation.”

Slash plans to use different singers for each of the album’s songs but isn’t divulging who’s on the list yet. “They’re all sort of well-known singers,” he says. “It’s sort of like how I go play on a lot of other people’s records, so other people will just play on this one.”

Slash cautions that the solo album could be interrupted if Velvet Revolver finds a replacement for Scott Weiland in the near future, however. The group has turned down offers to conduct the search via a reality TV show — “There’s such a huge lack of integrity in that process,” Slash says — but is looking at a variety of possibilities, including some established singers whose interest has surprised the band.

“There’s been a couple that might have been interesting,” Slash says, “but with any of those ‘name’ people … it’s really hard to make something sound original if you’ve got somebody people are so familiar with hearing somewhere else. But I must admit the bar has been raised; the quality of the singers we’re getting is much better.”

Slash has also kept himself busy in the studio; besides a version of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise” on “Les Paul and Friends: A Tribute to a Legend,” he also plays on Alice Cooper’s “Along Came a Spider,” Edgar Winter’s “Rebel Road” and the upcoming album by Cypress Hill.

In addition, the guitarist will perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s American Music Masters tribute to Les Paul on Nov. 15 in Cleveland.

Radio Reacts To Guns N’ Roses Single “Chinese Democracy”

U.S. rock radio outlets from Jackson, Miss., to Springfield, Mass., started their morning with the new Guns N’ Roses single, “Chinese Democracy,” and reaction to the band’s first new song in nine years is running the gamut.

“A number of GNR catalog titles test well but it’s not a foregone conclusion this song makes it beyond the starting gate,” says WMMR/Philadelphia’s Bill Weston. “We’ll expose the song on-air for a week and closely monitor listener reaction to determine further spins. The release of the record (finally) is an event but in Philly there is much resentment towards Axl Rose, due to his famous no-show concert. The long gestation period along with the fits and starts of leaked songs over the years do not help in setting up the song.”

“This is what we’ve waited 15 years (or however long) for?,” asked MD/morning host Matt Murray on WHTG/Monmouth-Ocean, N.J. “How long did we wait for the third Boston album? Remember how that turned out?,” said KISS/San Antonio’s John Lisle.

“I admit, it took a couple of listens, but ‘Chinese Democracy’ is really good,” says PD Michael Cross at KFMW/Waterloo-Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “It’s something that could have easily been on ‘Use Your Illusion.’ Much like ‘It’s So Easy,’ with Axl’s trademark screams and higher pitched vocals mixed underneath his lower vocals, the track rocks. Instant phones!”

Recalling that it has been 16 years since he last saw Guns N’ Roses live, KISS/San Antonio PD LA Lloyd says, “It takes almost as long to get into the meat of the song as it did to get it out. I was hoping for more but who wasn’t? I am putting this one on the air and (letting) the listeners decide. I hope the outcome is good. My prediction: 2010, Axl and the original members get back together for the biggest reunion tour ever.”

According to Broadcast Data Systems, “Chinese Democracy” had been spun 49 times from its 5 a.m. ET digital arrival at stations through 11:20 a.m. ET. WAAF/Boston had played it five times, while WQXA/Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, Pa., was next with four.

“Chinese Democracy” the album arrives Nov. 23 exclusively in Best Buy stores, a move finally confirmed today by Guns N’ Roses manager Irving Azoff. “The release of ‘Chinese Democracy’ marks a historic moment in rock’n'roll,” Azoff and co-manager Andy Gould said in a statement. “We’re launching with a monumental campaign developed by Gary Arnold and the Best Buy team that matches the groundbreaking sound of the album itself. Guns N’ Roses fans have every reason to celebrate, for this is only the beginning.”

New Guns N’ Roses Single Hits Radio Tomorrow titled “Chinese Democracy”

The title track from Guns N’ Roses’ new album, “Chinese Democracy,” will be available to download by U.S. radio outlets at 5 a.m. ET tomorrow morning (Oct. 22). Although some album tracks leaked this summer, this is the first authorized new music from the group in nine years.

As previously reported, “Chinese Democracy” the album is due Nov. 23 exclusively via Best Buy. The 14-track set includes only three songs that have not either been performed live or leaked online in recent years.

Guns N’ Roses was last on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart in 1999 with “Oh My God,” its contribution to the “End of Days” soundtrack. The song peaked at No. 26. Prior to that, it hadn’t appeared on the tally since 1994, when its cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” from the “Interview With a Vampire” soundtrack reached No. 10.

Alleged Guns N’ Roses Leaker Pleads Innocent

A man accused of placing unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on the Internet pleaded innocent yesterday (Oct. 20) in Los Angeles federal court.

Kevin Cogill, 27, is charged with violating federal copyright law. No date has been set for the trial, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The FBI says that Cogill posted nine tracks from Guns N’ Roses’ upcoming album “Chinese Democracy” on the Web site antiquiet.com. Cogill was arrested in August at his Los Angeles home and released on bail the same day. He faces three years in federal prison if convicted, and five years if the court finds he posted the songs for commercial gain.

Guns N’ Roses said in a statement at the time of the arrest that while it did not condone Coghill’s actions, “our interest is in the original source” of the material. Mrozek declined to comment on whether there would be any additional arrests.

“Chinese Democracy” is due Nov. 23 exclusively in Best Buy stores. The project has been delayed multiple times over the years as singer Axl Rose shed all his original bandmates.

 

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