I Have Had It With These Motherfuckin' Guns N' These Motherfuckin' Roses!!

First things first; from now on if you comment have the courtesy to sign your comment. Last entry someone left a comment saying that RATM was better anyway. I'm not mad 'cause they disagreed, I just wanna know who's disagreeing. I'm pretty sure it was Danielle, but from now on spare me the trouble of tracking you down and let me know who it is. Now then...

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Guns N' Roses announced that the planned March 6 release date for Chinese Democracy was no longer realistic, but swore on a stack of Bibles (actually a stack of copies of previous GN'R albums) that the long awaited album was imminent. The good news is that recording was complete and that the trouble lay in mixing the album. Earlier this month a album track entitled "Better" made its way onto the internet before quickly being pulled by the band's management, comparing the leaked song to an unfinished piece of artwork.

I'm gonna go ahead and admit it; I am still excited for this album. I think I'm the last person alive who is, but I truly cannot wait to hear Chinese Democracy.

Yes, I know that it's taken over a decade for this album to be released. Yes, I know that Axl Rose is the only original member left, as the rest of the lineup joined Scott Weiland on Velvet Revolver. Yes, I get it. I should be making fun of this latest inevitable setback. But I'm not. I'm still excited.

I blame my excitement on what I call the Snakes On A Plane Effect. When word first got out about Snakes on a Plane in early 2006, the general response thought the idea was a joke, and that it was doomed to fail. But over time, as people started talking about it, as word of the infamous line (which I adapted as the title of this entry) leaked and the release date grew closer, the excitement reached a peak, even though the expectations got no better. From a critical standpoint, expectations for SOAP were so low that it was almost impossible to see it and not be in some form or other pleasantly surprised with the outcome. And when it came out, and people saw it, they were pleased, and it made oodles of money. Hollywood caught lightning in a bottle, a bottle they picked up on the side of a dirt road. But it didn't matter.

I see the same thing happening with Chinese Democracy. It's taken 14 years and $13 million to produce, and during that time all the original members went on to bigger things (whether Velvet Revolver is better remains to be seen). The release date has been set and postponed countless times, and the tour promoting it has been marred by controversy and fighting, just like in the days of classic GN'R. Expectations on this album could not get lower; people expect more from the next K-Fed album than they do from Chinese Democracy, and that fact just might save Rose & company. The expectations are so low that at this point the band just needs to release the record by the end of 2007 and they'll be successful. It doesn't matter how good or bad it'll be, because in the end we weren't planning on it to even exist. Axl Rose could puke all over the record, and if it's out by year's end, I'll be satisfied.

Give me a firm release date, Mr. Rose. I've got twenty bucks sitting aside for you.

==TJ==

UPDATE: It would appear that Guns N' Roses management did not do nearly as good a job removing the "Better" leak as you'd think. Good for you, bad for them. The link below will take you to a sendspace site which will have the link to download the track. Trust me, it's legit, I use it all the time, and the track's really is pretty solid. I'm seeing that in order to get my blog noticed I need to upload tracks to go along with it, so here you go.

Guns N' Roses - Better