For those of you who otherwise would not tune into the Grammys tomorrow night, and I suspect and I hope that that includes pretty much everybody, maybe this will change your mind.  Radiohead, whose album In Rainbows and single House of Cards are nominated, will be performing.  Rumor also has it that they may be playing the song 15 Step with the USC Marching Band.  I don’t know how likely that sounds, but it will be pretty awesome if it happens.

As far as the “art & literature” thing goes . . . we’re working on it.

I have been skeptical for the years about the release of Chinese Democracy, the highly anticipated new Guns n’ Roses album. As I went to my local Best Buy store, I still had a level of skepticism walking in the door. When I saw that the CD was actually there and on sale I was still skeptical as I put it in my hand.  The case may be empty, I thought. As I placed it into my CD player I thought that maybe the disc would be blank. But thankfully it wasn’t.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the boys from the Sunset Strip. They were the first band that I ever liked that didn’t meet with parental approval, which made them seem all that much more appealing. I remember seeing the boys perform on a music awards show and I specifically remember my mother telling me not to listen to this kind of music because it was made by the devil. Who could resist listening to something when they had that kind of warning in front of them?

So after 17 years without an album of new material, Chinese Democracy is upon us. I’m sorry to say that the results didn’t live up to the time that was spent waiting, but then again how could they? In an industry where a new album is expected every two years, taking that kind of break would kill any career, except that of the infamous Axl Rose, of course.  After about a minute of babble, Axl Rose’s howl breaks through with a slightly lower intonation than the “Welcome to the Jungle” howl that announced the band some 21 years ago. The first song, “Chinese Democracy”, is quite an opener. It has a fierce riff that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on “Appetite for Destruction”.

To me the band is at its best when they break out the straight forward rock. “Paradise City”, “Rocket Queen”, “You Could Be Mine”, and “Used to Love Her” are their finest moments. Here they deliver some of those rockers. “Riad N’ the Bedouins” overcomes its ridiculous title to be a great little rock song. “I.R.S.” is by far the best song on the record. It has the same snarling riff that makes heads bang, and it has very open lyrics. Axl Rose seems to be writing here with more honesty than he has on any of his other songs.

There also some skilled ballads here. “Street of Dreams” is hard to dislike. Any song that can overcome a REO Speedwagon type piano intro has to be good. “Sorry” is also a likeable ballad, but I think it would have worked better with a more stripped down sound.

But sadly the album has some monumental failures. “Madagascar” is one of the worst songs that I’ve ever heard. Axl somehow got the idea that it would be a good idea to combine many famous speeches along with dialogue from countless movies. “This I Love” sounds like Axl trying to channel Barry Manilow at his most sugary sweet. Not so many years ago this same guy was singing about bitch slap rappin’ and cocaine tongues and now this?

The musicians used on the album, including the mysterious Buckethead and former Nine Inch Nails road guitarist Robin Finck, are solid. But Izzy and Slash are missed. Listening to the expressive solo on “There Was a Time” was impressive, but I couldn’t help thinking what Slash could have done with the bending of those notes, or what kind of fills Izzy would have dropped in there.

The production on the album is very muddled. Axl is trying way too hard to incorporate different themes and movements in his music. Listening to the album, I got a mental image of a young Axl sitting in his room wearing oversized headphones, listening to “Funeral for a Friend” for hours on end. The album could have benefitted from a stripped down “Patience” style treatment. The hip hop scratching at the beginning of “Better” is an idea that could have come from Fred Durst. But I couldn’t help but smile when I heard the opening line of “Prostitute”, the last song on the album. “Seems like forever and a day”, that’s right Axl, it does seem like forever and a day.

Even though much of the album is ignorable, this is still a moment in history. The advertisements in Best Buy all bill “Chinese Democracy” as the most anticipated album ever. I don’t know if that is true, but it certainly was the most talked about album in recent history. But this is not the kind of work that will win Axl any new fans. If you didn’t already have your mind made up to buy the album, nothing you hear from your friends stereo will change your mind. But I would like to take this opportunity to let the healing begin. Slash, I know that you can’t be happy working with Velvet Revolver. Axl, I know that you would love to look over and see that beautiful mane of curly black hair flowing out from under the tiny top hat. Come on people now smile on your brother, mend the broken fences and give us the true Guns n’ Roses once more. For the sake of the song.

The long-awaited and oft-rumored, fourteen-years-in-the-making Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy is finally heading to stores this November, and today saw the release of the first single, “Chinese Democracy.”  You can here it on the radio, or click here to stream it now.  I personally don’t think this is the best track from the album, but it is a pretty hard rocker.

According to Rolling Stone and Best Buy, Chinese Democracy the album will be out on November 23rd exclusively at Best Buy.  Nine of its fourteen tracks were leaked earlier this year.  Having listened to Guns N’ Roses since I was five, and having listened to the leaked tracks on pretty heavy rotation for the last three or four months, I’m looking forward to this album more than I’ve looked forward to a new CD since last year’s In Rainbows.  Hopefully this will help put Axl Rose back on the map, and we’ll see some more music before another decade is out.

I was lucky enough to see Beck in NYC last week, thus completing this years musical trifecta: nine inch nails, radiohead, and beck all within a short period of time. The venue for the concert was an old fancy church in manhattan. What can i say? Beck was good, but not great. i think he might have entered his Beatles phase- it would appear that he doesn’t really liking touring (he’s even sporting the long george harrison hair and the black hat). His recorded music certainly has more electricity to it. Maybe it was the poor audio quality of the venue- the sound of the guitars frequently washed out his voice. And the light show was kind of blah and distracting. So, yeah, i’ll blame it on the audio and the lights, cuz his setlist was solid, covering all of his records from mellow gold forward. he even played Loser. Highlights of the night included the more rousing Clap Hands and Guero, and the somber, creepy Chemtrails.

There have been a few concert going events in my life that I value above almost anything else in my life. Sonic Youth at the Wiltern, the Who at Irvine Meadows shortly after the death of John Entwistle, Arcade Fire at the Greek, and now My Bloody Valentine at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

For those unfamiliar with the band, they were a shoegazing quartet based out of the UK in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher on guitar, Debbie Googe on bass, and Colm O’Coisoig on drums. They played loud, furious music that influenced such groups as the Smashing Pumpkins. After two critically acclaimed albums, Loveless and Isn’t Anything and a break-up between Shields and Butcher, the band dissolved amid a mix of apathy and procrastination. They were all quiet until Shields contributed the soundtrack to Lost in Translation in 2002. A reunion was in the air.

The Santa Monica Civic is not really a place where a lot of concerts take place. The last time I was there was for an antiquarian book show, where a man that looked like David Crosby gave my brother and I a lecture about California history books. To think that I’d be seeing a shoe gaze band there less then a month later was a little confusing. But I did find out, by talking to a guy wearing a Sonic Youth t-shirt in line, that it was the place of a legendary David Bowie show in the early 70’s. The show was recently released after years of bootleg copies to rave reviews.

The show itself was a triumph. When you walked in the door you were greeted with complimentary ear plugs. I’ve never been to a show where I was given ear plugs before, or even been to a show that was so loud that I needed ear plugs. But from the first drum beat, it was clear that ear plugs were a neccesity.

They tore through their well known songs, opening with I Only Said, the classic off of Loveless. Shields and Butcher almost whisper their lyrics into microphones that are turned down. The lyrics are very hard to discern, I only picked up a line here and there unless I knew the song by heart, which in many cases I did. Shields, looking like he just rolled out of bed onto stage, stood tall at stage right with Butcher on stage left. The band said very little to the crowd, thank you a few times and a thanks for coming before the last song.

After tearing through my favorite song, Feed Me with Your Kiss, they started You Made Me Realise. I read in an article about the legendary wall of sound that they used to created in the middle of the song. Sure enough, the wall of sound emerged. During the 10 to 15 minute wall of sound section, in which all the band played the same chord repearedly, the sound got louder. It was rumbling the entire room. At one point I closed my eyes and let my hands fall to my side and I noticed that my clothes were shaking. I was litearlly vibrating on the ground. It’s hard to describe the sound other then saying it was heavenly and also unsettling. I would probably say it sounded like an satanic orgasism with angelic undertones, but as my friend Vanica so eloqently put it, it sounded like her ears were being raped, but in a good way.

This is one of those shows that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’m sure the final noise must seem strange to those of you who weren’t there. I’ll end with this thought, once when I was playing music with some friends, I hit an especially loud chord that caused a wall of feedback. My friend Clark famously said, “Play something that doesn’t hurt.” But I’m reminded of what poet emeritus John Mellancamp said, “Hurts so good, come on baby make it hurt so good.”

A few months ago, I posted a topic on the Faraway forum trying to get Faraway members to list their favorite albums. Not many responded, and I think I know why. Musical taste is always changing and evolving. An album that you hold in high regard currently might make you sick a few weeks down the line. Although I stand by my choices on that post, there were bound to be additions. Such an additon came the first time I heard Brian Eno’s first album, Here Come the Warm Jets.

Eno is a well known figure in popular music mainly because of the albums he’s produced. Most notably he co-produced along with Daniel Lanois, the groundbreaking and best-selling U2 album Josuha Tree. But he has collaborated with and produced other acts as veried as Devo and Paul Simon. Eno got his start in a band called Roxy Music, one of the first British glam bands to make an impact. Conflicts arose between Eno and Roxy Music lead singer Bryan Ferry, which caused Eno to branch out on his own. Every member of Roxy Music, besides Ferry, made contributions to Here Come the Warm Jets, which may say more about Eno’s opinion of Ferry that he was intending too.

The music on the album is a breath of fresh air. It is way ahead of its time in style of production and songwriting. It combines the glam rock sound of Roxy Music with the ambient touches that would dominate Eno’s later work. Eno has been quoted as saying he is a non-musician, which is hard to believe but it does say something interesting about the album. Would a classically trained musician hear and play music the way the Eno so groundbreakingly did in 1973?

The songs themselves are ten masterpieces. Eno doesn’t have the best voice, he would retire from singing lead a few years later but he gets the job done. Needle in Camel’s Eye starts the record off with a bang, an incindiary glam stomp over a wall of distortion. The lyrics of Baby’s on Fire are reminescent of the modern day obsession with celebrity, it also features a burning guitar solo from King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. Driving Me Backwards sounds like it was written in Hell. Eno lays down an evil sounding piano riff that sounds like it’s being played in reverse.

i’ve only recently discovered the album, a girl I was dating played a song off of it for me a few months back and I wasn’t able to get it out of my head until I’d heard it about 100 times on the CD. I’ve been listening to at least part of the album once a day. This week I was given the great news that Eno and David Byrne are about to release a new record together, their first colaboration in over 25 years. I’m eagerly awating the time when I’ll be able to pop that into my CD player. But for now I can get by on the genius of that debut record.