Perfect Crime

Shackler's Revenge to debut on "Rock Band 2"

2008-07-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

Nobody knows if Chinese Democracy is close to being released anytime soon, but if what happened Monday is any indication the more-than-a-decade-in-the-making album may finally be on its way to hitting store shelves.

Video game company Harmonix announced that the second installment of its hugely popular "Rock Band" series will be debut an exclusive new Guns N' Roses track from Chinese Democracy, titled "Shackler's Revenge". The news was confirmed later in the day on http://www.gunsnroses.com/

A decade and a half after releasing its previous album, Guns N’ Roses plans to put out a new song in September — on the video game Rock Band 2. MTV expects to announce on Monday that the sequel to its popular Rock Band game will include “Shackler’s Revenge,” a track from the Guns N’ Roses album that has been in the works for more than a decade, said people familiar with the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity because the arrangement has yet to be announced.
The inclusion of the song on a game suggests that the Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” will come out this fall, after years of delays. Axl Rose, who has selected replacements for the other original members, has said that the album is finished, but a release date has not been announced.

Axl Rose writing Autobiography

2008-06-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

Next to "Chinese Democracy" actually being released in stores, an autobiography from Axl Rose has to be the next most sought after item by most Guns N' Roses fans.

According to Sebastian Bach, who has basically become Axl Rose's flunky and voice to the public told Rolling Stone that Axl is currently in the midst of penning an autobiography. Of course, when it will be finished and how big it will be is anyone's guess.

When Rolling Stone spoke with Sebastian Bach about the alleged Chinese Democracy leak, he reported that he’s heard “at least four albums’ worth” of finished Guns n’ Roses tracks, recalling a night in January 2007 when Rose rolled out new songs from midnight to 6 a.m. at New York’s Electric Lady studios. He says Rose told him that a slow, grinding track called “The General” is “the sequel to [Use Your Illusion II’s] ‘Estranged,’ that goes to the parable that Del James wrote of the trilogy” (James penned the short story that inspired the “November Rain” video). “He’s like the George Lucas of rock,” Bach marvels. “I know for a fact it’s not him saying, ‘Let’s wait and work on [Chinese Democracy] some more. He has a whole new business team. Irving Azoff is in control, along with Andy Gould. They are trying to figure out the best way to put the music out.”

In addition, Bach implied Rose is working on an autobiography. “I was saying to Axl one day, ‘I’m going to write a book.’ He was like, ‘Cool. How many pages you got?’ I go, ‘I’ve got six pages.’ He starts laughing and goes, ‘Yeah, I started my book a while back. I’m up to 12,000 words at this point,’” Bach says. “He’s very prolific. He’s just not motivated by fame at all. He’s had enough of it. He gets excited by making music, by putting on a concert. Making albums, he loves doing it.”

It would be exciting to hear Axl Rose's take on his life, his career, the rise and fall of the original lineup of Guns N' Roses and the entire Chinese Democracy saga. We've already seen a book from Slash and I think it would be nice to read Axl's take on how things went down to get a chance to compare the two.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!

2008-06-19T22:48:00.001-07:00

Hey, did you guys hear that Chinese Democracy leaked yesterday?

The news has already made pretty big waves around the entertainment industry and there are plenty of reviews and stories about the leak already out by most major media outlets.

I'm going to post my own track-by-track review of the leaks in the coming days, but I figured it would be nice to round up a list of some of the stories and reviews that have already been published in regards to Chinese Democracy.

Rolling Stone breaks the story.
MTV chimes in with its take on the news of the leak.
San Francisco Chronicle reports on Guns N' Roses firing back at those providing links to the download of the album.
Reuters reports on the leak and provides a brief history of the album.
Pitchfork Media gives its take on the news, hopefully with a review forthcoming.
SPIN Magazine reports on the news of the leak.
National Post gives a track-by-track review of the leak.
Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork and Time Out Chicago gives a less than favorable review of the leaks.
AntiMusic discusses the response of Axl Rose's lawyers to last night's leak of the record.

Those are the major reports on it, but it's only been a day, so there should be plenty more to come. ESPECIALLY if Axl Rose addresses the leak publicly.

Chinese Democracy has leaked

2008-06-19T02:13:00.000-07:00

The elephant in the room has finally left.

Except, not by choice, it seems that it was pushed out against its will.

Yep, the day that Guns N' Roses fans and music fans in general have waited more than a decade for has finally come to pass.

The whole album isn't out, but NINE completely mastered songs from "Chinese Democracy" were leaked to the Internet late Wednesday night.

The songs are:

- The Blues
- Better
- IRS
- There Was A Time
- Madagascar
- Chinese Democracy
- Rhiad and the Bedouins
- If The World (Would End Today)
- This I Love

The first six have all been heard in some form over the years, mostly as unfinished demos.

The songs are particularly amazing and I won't post a link here due to the cease and desist orders being fired out by GNR management, but anyone who wants a link can contact me. "If The World" is my personal favorite. It's a really unique jazz influenced song that uses a flamenco guitar, which is often heard in spanish music.

This is a monumental day in music. The gigantic, $13 million album is out and available for everyone to hear. Of course, the whole album hasn't leaked, but enough of it certainly has that for Axl Rose to continue to delay its release any longer would be ridiculous. In fact, every second he keeps the record hidden from here on out is just wasting money that he could be recoupping for all the money he spent working on it over the years.

The reception seems to be positive thus far. It's not too late to make "Chinese Democracy" the hit record it was destined to be, but that window of opportunity is closing quickly.

$1,000 for Chinese Democracy

2008-06-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

It was just a couple of months ago that Dr. Pepper announced they would give a free can of soda to everyone in America should Axl Rose release the more than a decade-in-the-making album Chinese Democracy.

But what about the people who aren't particularly fond of Dr. Pepper and perhaps prefer Pepsi or Sprite? Or the people who think one can of soda just isn't enough? Or the ones who flat out don't drink soda?

It's pretty clear to most fans that Axl Rose wasn't biting and the stakes needed to be raised.

One man has stepped forward to up the ante, well, at least for Axl. According to the same blog that announced Dr. Pepper's "free soda for all" scheme, a disgruntled Guns N' Roses fan is offering $1,000 to the charity of GNR's choosing if he is given an unreleased demo of Chinese Democracy.

According to that blog, the man was quoted as saying..

“I am willing to pay one-million dollars to charity if Guns N’ Roses, their management or other ‘interested parties’ provide me with a previously unleaked demo off of the band’s long-awaited Chinese Democracy. It must be in its entirety – and with Axl’s vocals. I am willing to pre-pay in advance via Paypal.”

The word now is that he's actually only offering $1,000 and not $1 million, which means nothing will likely come of this. Not that anything would have in the first place, because I doubt Axl Rose has been holding onto this album for the last decade just waiting for some guy to come along and offer him a big fat check for.. $1,000.

As hard up for money as Axl may be right now, after having reportedly spend more than $13 million recording to the album over the last ten years, I don't think $1,000 or even $1 million is really an enticing enough offer. In fact, I don't know if any amount of money will be able to pry the album away at this point. It's not really about money as much as it is about Axl Rose just getting in a place mentally where he's ready to release a new album with a new band and welcome whatever positive and negative reactions will come from it.

It's a nice gesture, and certainly more enticing to me than free cans of Dr. Pepper, but in the end it's probably a fruitless effort. Can't fault the guy for trying though.

WHAT is this?

2008-05-23T23:59:00.001-07:00

This is a blog about Guns N' Roses. If you don't know who Guns N' Roses are, you should visit their Wikipedia page or something.

Why blog about Guns N' Roses? Well, they're my favorite band, so that's why I decided to blog about them. Aside from that, I think the story is interesting. They were once the biggest band on the entire planet, with two of the most recognizable rock stars in history. Then, the lead singer goes bat shit crazy and it all falls apart, leaving most wondering what could have been.

On this blog, I will post news about the band and the (hopefully) impending release of the 14 years in the making "Chinese Democracy", as well as information about the history of the album, the history of the band, bio's on old members and new members, stuff about their music, etc.

If you're wondering, the blog is named "Perfect Crime" after the song off the "Use Your Illusion I" album.

And with that, I end the first official post on this blog! Here's a live version of the song. It's not great quality and it's hard to understand the words, but it shows how certifiably insane Axl Rose is and why the original band was probably awesome as shit to see live.