Hookers 'N' Blow, the band led by Guns N' Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed, and Love/Hate will team up for a 2008 tour.
Jizzy Pearl will be performing the music of Love/Hate for the first time in North America in over 15 years, including the MTV hits "Blackout In The Red Room", "Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?" and "Spinning Wheel".
Dizzy Reed of Guns N' Roses will also be on the bill with his ultra-fun side project Hookers 'N' Blow, who will be performing a mix of covers as well as, for the first time new music from Reed, including songs off "The Still Life" soundtrack, which he recently scored.
Hookers 'N' Blow / Love/Hate tour dates:
Mar. 28 - Myrtle Beach, SC - The Sound Garden
Mar. 29 - Raleigh, NC - Volume 11 Tavern
Apr. 03 - Richmond, VA - Toad's Place
Apr. 04 - West Springfield, VA - Jaxx
Apr. 05 - Philadelphia, PA - [to be announced]
Apr. 11 - Palmer, MA - Crossroads
Apr. 12 - Fitchburg, MA - The Compound
Apr. 13 - Farmingdale, NY (LI) - Crazy Donkey
Apr. 15 - New York, NY - [to be announced]
Apr. 16 - Akron, OH - Barfly Akron
Apr. 17 - Detroit, MI - [to be announced]
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/dizzynjizzytour2008.
Source: Blabbermouth
Friday, February 1, 2008
Hookers 'N' Blow, Love/Hate Tour Dates Announced
Axl Mentioned In Stephanie Seymour Tribute
The Telegraph reports: Katie Grand, editor-in-chief of influential British fashion magazine POP, pays tribute to a catwalk maverick. The entire current issue is devoted Axl Rose's former girlfriend Stephanie Seymour. A few excerpts:
At 14, the Californian girl known as Daddy Longlegs entered the Elite agency's Look of the Year contest. She didn't win, but two years later she was living with John Casablancas, the head of Elite. Not long after splitting up with him, she had a fling with Warren Beatty, who was cool back then.
Then there was her three-year affair with rock's wild man, Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses and she appeared in the band's videos for November Rain and Don't Cry. There were rumours that the wedding that took place between her and Axl during the former was - unbeknown to her - legally binding. Whatever the status of that union, in 1994 she married the art-collecting, racehorse-breeding publisher Peter Brant, with whom she has had three children.
Click here to read the full article.
Source: The Telegraph
LAist Interview: Marc Canter - Best Friend of GN'R
LAist recently got the opportunity to sit down with Marc Canter, author of "Reckless Road; Guns n' Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction." Not only is he still best friends with Slash, but his family owns the infamous Canter's Deli on Fairfax. Over a cup of coffee and some delicious treats from the bakery, we talked with Marc for almost three hours about L.A. in the 80's, his amazing collection of memorabilia, and the rise of one of the best rock bands to come out of Los Angeles.
LAist: So how did this all start?
Marc: I grew up as a big Aerosmith fan. I decided that I would document Slash the way I would document Aerosmith because I saw he had the talent and everything else. I always knew he would make it as a guitarist, I would tape record the performances even before GNR, just because I wanted them. If he goes and plays a party, he’ll play and it’ll be gone, so if you record it, you’ve got it.
So for a dollar, you put a tape in, you got it. Taking pictures was just a fun thing that I learned how to do. I saw how it started to mold especially after we met Axl, and I saw more of the same coming from different sources. Then I knew if that if they would stay together they would make it. Now I got stuff or myself and for the world, because I wish someone would do for Aerosmith.
LAist: So did the guys consider GN'R a metal band?
Marc: They considered themselves an Aersomith/ Zeppelin / Stones type of band just doing their version of that. Slash has these dimensions that he can see, like 12 bars into the future. The first time you hear the lead from Welcome to the Jungle or Paradise City, it’s the same as the record. How could that possibly be? He would hear the song and come up with a solo just like that. It would end up being on the record the exact same way as the first. His guitar sings. There’s something about the sound; some people thought it was a special amp. Twice he played here (at Canters) where he just came up and plugged in with the band. Within 15 seconds he’d warm up and you’d hear that it was Slash. But it wasn’t him that made the band. You needed everyone involved to make what it was. You know they were young 21-23, living on the streets, some of them angry, tough, so they had things to write about. Not only did they have talent, but they had the lyrics. Later, they weren’t writing about the hard times on the streets so you lost something just based on the fact that they have houses and aren’t writing in the same room.
LAist: So were you into the partying scene with the band at all?
Marc: Not at all. Slash was always a drinker; there were a couple of them fooling around with stuff that they shouldn’t have. I mean once you fool around with them you’re married. They took a dark path down for a while. The funny thing was, whatever Axl experimented with, he was done with in 4 or 5 months. By June of 86, he was completely done. He just did it because everyone else was doing it. So it wasn’t like they were a bunch of drug addicts, but they did go out and have a good time.
LAist: I know that you were around all the time documenting the group, but how did the band deal with the real media?
Marc: They dealt with it. But for me, after they made it big, I still recorded their shows. Right around when they started touring with Metallica was when I stopped. I had what I wanted and the band had been captured. I just wanted to watch and enjoy the show.
LAist: Well being a young person born and raised in LA, its really great to be able to see what the scene was like.
Marc: It was totally an exciting thing because they started their own scene. Suddenly everyone started looking like they did. Everyone had that glam going on while they played rock and roll. There were always flyers all over the street. It just kind of took off. I mean at the time they had very little air play. But then MTV was ready to play Welcome to the Jungle one time at like 4 in the morning on a Sunday night, and the switchboard blew up. All the sudden Slash calls me and says that they’re in the top 10! Jungle stayed in the top 10 for months, then Sweet Child o’ Mine came out, and they showed what they could do as a rock band as well as show their softer side, which went onto the radio and TV. That’s what set them a mile ahead of everyone else. We have another Zeppelin, we thought, not just some band that would make one album and then disappear.
LAist: Which is what some of the Geffen people were starting to see, at this point.
Marc: Yeah they were late though, I saw that they had what it took at the first Street Scene when they were opening up for Social Distortion. Nobody knew who they were, they came there with makeup and so forth, looking like the New York Dolls. People were spitting on them, throwing beer, but they maintained the stage. They only played 4 or 5 songs but they finally broke through. That was when I saw the power of the band. Every time I saw them play I would get butterflies in my stomach. However, every time I went to a show to take pictures, you lose a little something.
LAist: So you basically made a sacrifice for all the fans. We should be thanking you for it!
Marc: At the time I didn’t see it that way because I couldn’t believe no one else was taping the shows. I just didn’t let it go. There was only one show that I missed. (Points to a map in the book) And this map will be online, where you can roll over the different spots and look at the history. The whole point is that I want this book to be relevant 100 years from now.
LAist: Well now that Velvet Revolver is around, are you doing the same sort of thing?
Marc: In terms of the book, I didn’t want to mention Velvet Revolver because I didn’t want to take the reader out of the moment. I mean I may mention that the band ended up in VR or something, but this book is mostly about the rise of the band, and mentioning VR would sort of take you out of the time capsule. So you know I’d take a few shots of the Whiskey even though it would say Velvet Revolver on the sign, but I didn’t include it in the book. But in terms of the Strip, I do have some great shots of Axl sleeping under the stairway at Tower Records (on Sunset, where he worked) Every now and then he’d crash there when he didn’t have a place to stay.
So for the website for the book, we’ll have about four photos from each show going up there. I think this will change the way people read, you know, if they can get more immersed in the content than they already are. I think when it gets out and it goes big, it’ll be like a Time magazine story, just based on the blending of books and internet.
LAist: Especially now in LA, there’s a huge nostalgia for that period.
Marc: Right. Everyone that sees the book goes crazy! I took it to Book Soup one time and the owner wasn’t there. I just said I wanted to give you 5 or 6 on consignment, and if you sell them, just buy more. I was there for 1 minute and someone flipped through it and bought it!
LAist: No way!
Marc: So we have a few to sell here at Canters. We sold 10 books on Christmas day. Now for me it’s like a little project. I can stand near the register and see what kinds of people flip through the book and eventually they’ll just spring for it. I get a pleasure to watch somebody come here and unexpectedly walk out with a book. The people that come in have no idea that they’ll leave here with a book. That’s the way I know I completed my goal. All the hours and hours and hours I spent doing this book, that’s the best reward.
So people now see Slash’s book where he thanks me, and it points to my book and that’s how people start knowing about it. You know its marketing itself. And I have a Myspace and everything, and people email me and tell me how much they love the book. So it makes my endorphins race in my body when something like that happens. Its my drug to make someone happy. It makes me happy when I look at it, so knowing that it makes other people happy is my drug. I get chills when I hear this stuff.
You can check out more from "Reckless Road" at Enhanced Books.com.
Read the entire interview here.
Source: LAist
Metal Mike: "GN'R can totally turn rock around"
Michael O'Brien of Australia's The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak (Painmuseum, Halford, Sebastian Bach). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:
On touring with Guns N' Roses for nearly a year:
"I think it has to do with us really liking what we do because it's our excitement. You've seen the fans and in L.A., L.A.'s seen everything so when we play our shows and the fans are so into it we get excited by it. We're kind of like a bunch of little kids who can't wait to go and play really! Sebastian's [Bach] like a 14 year old boy who never grew up. We just don't really know anything else. There's nothing else I would really want to do outside of it so for me it's just like this is how I keep going you know?"
...
"Guns N' Roses are one of the greatest bands of all time. They are a band that is capable of totally turning rock around. Even though now heavy metal and hard rock are really big they could be responsible for making things big. They have a huge dedicated fan base. The other thing that has blown me away about them is that the kids are so young you know? Most of these kids weren't even alive when 'Appetite for Destruction' came out!"
Read the entire interview at The Metal Forge.
Source: Blabbermouth
Slash Worried About Hall Of Fame Induction
The November Rain hitmakers will become eligible for induction in 2010 - but guitarist former Slash fears a Van Halen-type mess.
The rocker and former Guns 'N Roses stars Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum joined forces with Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar to pay tribute to Van Halen last year when the band themselves failed to show.
Eddie Van Halen was in rehab and frontman David Lee Roth refused to perform with his successor, Hagar.
And now Slash fears his old band's big night in two years time could become be another classic anti-climax.
He tells Billboard.com, "I never even thought about it until we had to do that. Somebody asked me, 'Do you think you guys will be able to show up for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (induction ceremony) in five years?'
"I was like, 'Oh, I guess we're eligible.' It never dawned on me before then. If this comes up, I'd hope we'd be mature enough to get up and do that, but I have no idea."
Slash, McKagan and Sorum currently perform together in Velvet Revolver while Guns 'N Roses frontman Axl Rose is famously estranged from his former bandmates.
Source: Starpulse
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Appetite For Destruction - Defiant and Deconstructed Review
-Lonn Friend, from "Life on Planet Rock"
In July 1987, the music world was introduced to a band of a rag tag group of musicians who consisted of two guitarists with fuel injected talent, a rhythm section that pummeled your ear drums and a lead singer who was possessed with feral untamed determination who shook the music industry to its foundations. All of this gelled and created a hard rock architecture that has been modeled and copied hundreds of times since but has never been topped. Like a tornado sweeping up everything in its path, the debut album from Guns N' Roses, 'Appetite For Destruction' landed twenty-years ago in a gust of X-rated gale force so crushing that the paths they destroyed are still felt.
'Appetite For Destruction' is nowhere near as ambitious as their follow-ups, 'Use Your Illusion I and II" but it is a once in a generation album that is dark, dreary, grandiose, maddening, rumbling, ethereal and jolting. There's no blueprint for an album of this stature, it could only come about through a deviant birth. The hot-blooded youthfulness aligned with the feeling of fire and desperation in your veins is embodied within these twelve compositions. What made Guns N' Roses so intriguing is you felt this was a passionately precocious band that was ready to erupt at any second. We were mesmerized by their penchant for obliteration. Their lack of inhibition worked to their advantage, only Nirvana cared less. They walked a fine line where women lusted after them and guys wanted to embody them right down to the top-hat and headband. I am not sure if there has ever been a more unforeseen commercial juggernaut than 'Appetite For Destruction' which became the foundation for every hard rock and metal album released in the last two decades. But none of these albums which followed 'Appetite' had the aura of danger or mystery that encircled it. We've all seen the "Behind the Music" episodes where an A&R executive pats himself on the back and they say something along the lines of "From the moment I saw them I knew they would be the biggest band in the world". What they don't show you is the list of artists they felt the same way about but drifted into obscurity quicker than you can say "Nightrain". Tom Zutant said such a thing on the Guns N' Roses "Behind The Music" a few years back and while I am sure he felt that way deep down inside, I somehow doubt he really envisioned this album selling sixteen-million albums ( and that's just in the US). No one could have foreseen these five misfits erupting and leaving ramifications from their destruction which can still be felt two-decades later.
'Appetite' was not on most people's radars until mid-1988 when "Sweet Child O' Mine" soared across the radio and MTV breaking barriers and exhibiting to the world that a rock ballad could have balls. Here is what makes the success of Guns so staggering; they broke every rule in the book and is specifically why this album still feels authentic, genuine and truthful two decades later. 'Appetite' is much like the first person you fall in love with; you may have prettier, smarter and more loving ones later in life…but you never forget your first love and in some ways we measure every relationship we have for all eternity to this first love. Much the same could be said about 'Appetite' as rock fans have heralded new genre's of metal and artists over the years, but do you listen to any of them as much as Guns N' Roses? Probably not. The twelve songs that encompass 'Appetite' surge from one to another like hemi-powered drones on a Jersey highway and rumble like an apocalyptic earthquake. The chaotic narrative is broken into two distinctive sides and it's essential that these songs penetrate your senses in running order to fully clench the brilliance that is 'Appetite For Destruction'.
The opening line of this masterpiece is an ambitious artistic statement but even more prevailing than the lyrics is the coupling of Slash's revelatory teasing guitar riff and the Axl's opening bleating screeching howl that initiates a thunderous wall of primal sound unlike any other in the rock pantheon. "Welcome To The Jungle" would be the song that launched a metal revolution that stands unmatched in the two-decades since its release. From the sleazy "Jungle" we're taken on an epic journey to the raw gusto of "It's So Easy" led by the most simplistic but essential bass intro ever laid down on record. Rumors were abound that Slash sang the vocals because no one could believe the monotone delivery was really Axl's. The pulverizing "Nightrain" accentuated by Adler's cowbell opening raged with metallic fury before moving onto the belting "Outta Get Me" before the rhythmic addictive minimalist swagger of "Mr. Brownstone" which makes your veins ache for a fix before climaxing with the relenting surreal and dreamlike anthem "Paradise City" which serves as a remedy for the torture and obliteration of the preceding five songs.
The rudimentary supremacy of side one detonates your senses in a way few albums can match, but it's the flip side I find transfixing with its infuriating look at love which finds the Guns romantic, jealous and yes…briefly optimistic. Side two opens with an endearing medley of rebellious proclamations of love initiating with the achingly, brutal and belting "My Michelle" which has a saccharine chorus and viciously penetrating verses that swaps between the sweet and sour. Obsessive fervor takes us over on "Think About You". At its core, there is a romantic sincerity to this song and while it may not seem as vital as the other eleven tracks, it's a power pop anthem that prompts you to think of Joey Ramone's voice; "Think About You" is the greatest song the Ramones never recorded.
The languid and gorgeous "Sweet Child 'O Mine" may be the most unlikely number-one single ever recorded. Where's the piano, the big epic chorus accentuated by a string section and a phrase like "Baby I Need You"? All are absent in this achingly emotive love letter. When Axl gently belts "She's got a smile that seems to me, reminds me of childhood memories" we know EXACTLY what he's singing about, we can feel it and we immediately begin to think a specific time, place or person. There is innocence to the song that truly puts us in a place and time where the world stands still. This is why 'Appetite' has sold sixteen-million copies. How often can you find a song that encompasses the emotional complexities of love? Virtually never. The luminosity of "Sweet Child 'O Mine" is that after Slash's blistering solo they chant "where do we go now". Unlike other bands of the time that provided us the happy ending, GN'R wasn't going to tie anything up in a nice bow, but are asking a tough question of love. What happens when you get the girl and you realize that it's not what you thought it would be? Love is a feeling that can not be defined and is much more convoluted than anyone could ever imagine and one whose journey lasts far longer than a six-minute song.
The unanswered questions of "Sweet Child" segue into thorny emotional fervor on the final three songs on 'Appetite' which deal with a covetous and scorned lover who retreats from their inner emotive self and heads down a path of annihilation on "You're Crazy". Moments earlier Axl was singing from his heart and here he's launching into an assault on someone who has wronged him. Love has turned into raging fury. Moments earlier, GN'R were drowning in their own romantic sincerity and sentimentality but there is a immediate jolting transition which can be heard on the titanic fuzz of "You're Crazy", a anthem in which they are vilifying a former lover. Instead of emotional fervor, they're unleashing introverted emotions like an eruption. The final suite of 'Appetite' is about deconstruction and destruction. After an initial feeling of being saved by the potential of love earlier on side-two, the Guns are now determined to be scorned and ready to destroy the world and everything in their path.
On the album's penultimate track, "Anything Goes" you can hear the acrimony and vivid chaos continue where a hunger is unleashed; the narrator is no longer proclaiming love but is walking to the swaggering beat of their own drummer. They dueling guitar solo on this song is just stupendous. Slash and Izzy, twin sons from different mothers, find a way to channel the anger, frustration and feeling of revenge into a mind-boggling solo where they trade licks as if they trade off twins during a date.
The concluding song, "Rocket Queen" is a proclamation of independence. The ills life offers are led by a bare-knuckle drum beat that is demonic. The ideals of love have been slashed and no sugar is left on the lens for the listener as Axl displays his velveteen rasp, howl and swagger.
The lyrics speak of their naivety while simultaneously proclaiming their independence and ultimately their appetite for destruction. Just when you think apocalypse is fleeting moments away, they pull a 180 and "Rocket Queen" switches gears from a disorderly and disparaging tale into a melodic decree of love. Side two embodies the sweet and sour life has to offer. It's grueling and taxing, but beneath all of the anger, aggression and rebellion is romanticism which can be summed up on the last lines of "Rocket Queen".
Say you'll always be there
All I ever wanted
Was for you
To know that I care
How could an album so deeply rooted in chaos and destruction end on a positive note? Call it eternal hope. In 1982 Bruce Springsteen released an acoustic home demo as an album, 'Nebraska'. What Springsteen did with the characters he threw in the car on "Thunder Road" and "Born To Run" and found out where they were seven-years later and he did not paint a pretty picture, in fact some would say it is a bone chilling cold album full of desolate tales. However, the album's final track is entitled "Reason To Believe". Despite the disappointments and desperation of life…he found a glimmering ray of hope, it was a small one but sometimes all it takes is a spark to start a fire. This is exactly what the end of "Rocket Queen" is all about. Beneath the acrimony and drama there is a hopeful romantic in all of us. Many people may focus on the big radio hits, but the brilliance of 'Appetite For Destruction' is encompassed in these final lines.
Whether its aggravation, angst, jealousy, love or hope we find ourselves in these songs and hopefully let Axl, Slash, Izzy, Duff and Steven bang the anger and aggression out for us so we can take that next step in life…into the jungle where we'll hopefully not just survive but find internal peace of mind in our own "Paradise City".
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and can be found at The Screen DoorGuns N' Roses Classic Mistaken For Death Threat
The Associated Press reports that a school custodian's impromptu after-hours karaoke performance prompted a police response when a teacher thought she was being threatened over the loudspeaker.
State police say a teacher at Booth Free School in Roxbury, Connecticut barricaded herself inside a classroom Wednesday when she mistook someone singing a GUNS N' ROSES song over the public address system for a threat.
She was working after hours and thought no one else was in the building. Then she heard someone say over the loudspeaker that she was going to die.
Six troopers and three police dogs showed up and found three teenagers, one of them a custodian at the school, who had been playing with the public address system.
Police say one of them sang "Welcome to the Jungle" into the microphone. The song contains the lyrics "You're in the jungle baby; you're gonna die."
The teenagers were cuffed on the ground for about 15 minutes while police investigated. They were released after being questioned and state police Sgt. Brian Ness said they did not realize the teacher was in the school and will not face charges.
"These things happen," Van Ness said. "Luckily it was humorous. You kind of have a gut feeling. As soon as we got there, we spoke to the three kids. They understood."
