Before Chinese Democracy

It's getting pretty tough to answer the question, "When's the album coming out?" I attempt to cough and cover up and say, "Ahem, mmm, aherm, patapos na, ahem, ahem, cough cough." I mention it because, I think it might set a record, being second only to Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy, for most times that a release date has been moved.

Chinese Democracy is getting on around ten years and still nothing really in sight. I'm loading a supposed single from the album on youtube, but well, there's still nothing on the record rack. We've already seen most of the GnR move to superband Velvet Revolver, but that only further piques our interest in what Axl will come up with.

I get to talking about GnR because I've just picked up the greatest hits. What I've really been looking for is some 20th century anniv rerelease of Appetite for Destruction, but you take what you can get. I've been wanting to get it so that I could let Cha have a good listen.

One of the cool things about a recent party that we went to was that thanks to her exposure to Guitar Hero 3 she's gotten very very interested in heavy guitar rock. It's a cool feature in our relationship that we both love music very much, but we've been listening to very different kinds of music. Thus while she teachers me about classical music and jazz and the formal elements of music theory, I'm getting her to listen to The Beastie Boys and RATM, and GnR.

Listening to GnR brings back a lot of memories. I remember watching that concert video from Use Your Illusion over and over when I was in high school. That stuff was so awesome, it really helped to define my concept of rock and roll. Of course there are some things that are more cerebral or more technically proficient, but it's hard to find a band with the loud, raunchy, bash down the doors sound of GnR.

If anything though, this purchase of yet another greatest hits album shows the lack of great stuff at the record store. There are some beautiful albums that are out there, but they aren't sold at our local music stores (bibili na nga ng orig, wala naman dito)so there you go, another argument for piracy and downloads. And it goes to show that finding some great guitar rock is so difficult these days.