LOS ANGELES, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy," an album that has been 17 years in the making, reportedly has gotten a U.S. release date at long last.

Hits Daily Double reported the group's record label, Interscope, plans to release the album Nov. 23, however, MTV News said Interscope representatives didn't respond to its requests to confirm the report by press time.

The music news program quoted the rock band's front man Axl Rose as saying in a 2006 online posting that the band would try to get the record out that year.

"To say the making of this album has been an unbearably long and incomprehensible journey would be an understatement," Rose said in the posting.

"Overcoming the endless and (seeming) insanity of the obstacles faced by all involved, notwithstanding the emotional challenges endured by everyone -- the fans, the band, our road crew and business team -- has, at many times, seemed for all like a bad dream where one wakes up only to find they are still in the nightmare ... For much of the time some form or another of legalities have been taking place that really the best way to deal with publicly was to keep our mouths shut in an attempt to ensure the best outcome and especially one that wouldn't jeopardize the band or the album."

Guns N' Roses to release new album next month By Jonathan Cohen
Thu Oct 9, 6:34 PM ET



NEW YORK (Billboard) - More than a decade after its conception, Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" will finally see the light of day before year's end, sources close to the situation told Billboard.



The set will be a Best Buy exclusive and will be available Sunday, November 23, rather than the usual Tuesday.

In the run-up to release date, album track "Shackler's Revenge" will debut in the video game "Rock Band 2," while a portion of "If the World" is playing over the end credits in the new Leonardo DiCaprio/Russell Crowe film "Body of Lies."

In addition, GNR's seminal 1987 full-length debut, "Appetite for Destruction," will be reissued on vinyl on October 28 via Interscope.

The band's last new studio albums were the simultaneously released "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II" in September 1991. A covers set, "The Spaghetti Incident?," followed in 1993, and featured some of the last GNR recordings from original guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan.

This spring, soft drink manufacturer Dr Pepper offered to send a free can of the beverage to "everyone in America" (excluding ex-GNR members Slash and Buckethead) if "Chinese Democracy" were to arrive anytime during the calendar year 2008. A Dr Pepper spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Reuters/Billboard

Everyone who wants the album already has it. Axl is a prick. Looking Forward to Velvet Revolver's next album more (Even though we don't know who'll replace Weiland yet). Bet it comes out before gnr anyways.

Why am I experiencing Deja Vu?  Is it me...




Ian

i'm not a huge gunners fan, but i have to say, i am more excited to hear this than the new ac/dc cd.

:pullanolte

wrote on Oct 10^th, 2008 at 7:27pm:

i'm not a huge gunners fan, but i have to say, i am more excited to hear this than the new ac/dc cd. :pullanolte

______________________

fireontheplatter, I gotta say, please don't get excited (or hold your breath) about news that Chinese Democracy is once again on it's way. Remember what album we're talking about here.

I have to ask  ...why? AC/DC has been a viable band before Guns N Roses and after Guns N Roses.

Guns N Roses had the potential to be a great band but they just threw that all away and haven't did anything in like 17 years not to mention they had a very short career anyway when things were going good with them. They have long since not been a viable band, and as well not been the same band or really mattered.

I will easily take AC/DC in 2008 over an incredibly unreliable and simply not the same G&R in 2008.

I am truly surprised to see anyone even gives this album (or them) the time of day anymore.


Ian

Ian Billen wrote on Oct 10^th, 2008 at 7:51pm:

wrote on Oct 10th, 2008 at 7:27pm: i'm not a huge gunners fan, but i have to say, i am more excited to hear this than the new ac/dc cd. :pullanolte ______________________ fireontheplatter, I gotta say, please don't get excited (or hold your breath) about news that Chinese Democracy is once again on it's way. Remember what album we're talking about here. I have to ask  ...why? AC/DC has been a viable band before Guns N Roses and after Guns N Roses. Guns N Roses had the potential to be a great band but they just threw that all away and haven't did anything in like 17 years not to mention they had a very short career anyway when things were going good with them. They have long since not been a viable band, and as well not been the same band or really mattered. I will easily take AC/DC in 2008 over an incredibly unreliable and simply not the same G&R in 2008. I am truly surprised to see anyone even gives this album (or them) the time of day anymore. Ian

wait a minute here, back up a second.....you say guns and roses had the potential to be a great band?
for the time they lasted they were killer....what was so wrong with axel wearin womans underwear busting out welcome to the jungle all sweaty and stuff.

i would rather hear this cd and kid rocks new cd before i hear ac/dc's new one.

:pullanolte

wrote on Oct 10^th, 2008 at 8:22pm:

Ian Billen wrote on Oct 10th, 2008 at 7:51pm: wrote on Oct 10th, 2008 at 7:27pm: i'm not a huge gunners fan, but i have to say, i am more excited to hear this than the new ac/dc cd. :pullanolte ______________________ fireontheplatter, I gotta say, please don't get excited (or hold your breath) about news that Chinese Democracy is once again on it's way. Remember what album we're talking about here. I have to ask  ...why? AC/DC has been a viable band before Guns N Roses and after Guns N Roses. Guns N Roses had the potential to be a great band but they just threw that all away and haven't did anything in like 17 years not to mention they had a very short career anyway when things were going good with them. They have long since not been a viable band, and as well not been the same band or really mattered. I will easily take AC/DC in 2008 over an incredibly unreliable and simply not the same G&R in 2008. I am truly surprised to see anyone even gives this album (or them) the time of day anymore. Ian wait a minute here, back up a second.....you say guns and roses had the potential to be a great band? for the time they lasted they were killer....what was so wrong with axel wearin womans underwear busting out welcome to the jungle all sweaty and stuff. i would rather hear this cd and kid rocks new cd before i hear ac/dc's new one. :pullanolte

Allright seriously dude. Kid Rock?...What little credibility you had left is now shot.

fireontheplatter wrote:


"Ian[/quote]

wait a minute here, back up a second.....you say guns and roses had the potential to be a great band?
for the time they lasted they were killer....what was so wrong with axel wearin womans underwear busting out welcome to the jungle all sweaty and stuff.

i would rather hear this cd and kid rocks new cd before i hear ac/dc's new one."

________________________________________

Did you hear Kid Rocks CD Rock N Roll Jesus? Actually, I posted a thread here in which I gave it a lot of praise (and I am no Kid Rock fan). I really enjoyed the album. I was surprised. Good album all the way and one of my real favs within the past year (well except for "Sugar" ...then I remembered it was Kid Rock in which I was digging).

As far as G & R go I really dug them from 88-92. Played Appetite tirelessly (like everyone) and I bought two of their albums (Lies and UYI) the first day they came out. Seen them in 88 before they were totally mainstream. However I cannot call them an actual "great" because they only made three albums worth wild. This is why I wouldn't call them an "over all great" ....how could you? They were hot as can be in their day. They showed real promise of another rock great coming to light but then they simply fell apart and teased us ever since with this Chinese Democracy thing, and Axl being Axl. If they were all the same original members again I would take a bit of interest for kicks but not with this so called group he now claims is still G & R.  I had it with Axl and them a long, long time ago. This is sort of what I am saying.


Ian

I had heard if the news of the release of Chinese Democracy is true, then it was only being sold at Best Buy stores.  Anyone else hear this news?

I thought it was due in May???

No doubt this will be in the "oldies/easy listening" section.

Great article on the rumoured release of the album - it's been touted every year for ages as being close to a release, this time it actually looks promising^




Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy Was Never Meant To Be Heard
Long-delayed LP might finally be released — which means anything is possible.

By James Montgomery

On The Record: W. Axl Rose: The Great Destroyer

There is a passage from Chuck Palahniuk's book "Fight Club" that strikes me as incredibly appropriate this week, given that there is roughly a 60 percent chance that it may actually be prophetic.

"We wanted to blast the world free of history. ... Picture yourself planting radishes and seed potatoes on the 15th green of a forgotten golf course. You'll hunt elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center and dig clams next to the skeleton of the Space Needle leaning at a 45-degree angle. We'll paint the skyscrapers with huge totem faces and goblin tikis, and every evening what's left of mankind will retreat to empty zoos and lock itself in cages as protection against the bears and big cats and wolves that pace and watch us from outside the cage bars at night."

Oh, did you think I was referring to the implosion of our economy, the freefall on Wall Street, the impending sense of doom that looms over us all like a giant, pitch-black penny loafer, or the fact that pretty soon we're going to be left wearing barrels like they did during the Great Depression? No, no, no. I'm actually talking about Guns N' Roses.

Or, more specifically, the fact that — after more than a decade of false starts, empty promises and litigious gymnastics — GN'R's long-awaited Chinese Democracy album could actually be foisted upon us as early as next month, exclusively at your neighborhood Best Buy.

If the reports are true — and given that W. Axl Rose is involved, there's a very good chance they might not be — then Chinese Democracy is coming, and its release would be an event unlike any other in the history of rock music. The sun would be blotted out, the gates of heaven would open, and we'd all be reduced to grunting, screaming primates. It would be like every bank in the United States failing simultaneously, only more so, because it would involve die-hard Guns N' Roses fans getting drunk in Best Buy parking lots at midnight. It would reset the clock, empty the reservoirs, crumble the towers. It would be rock-and-roll Year Zero (which is not to be confused with Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero.

This is because Chinese Democracy was never supposed to happen. It was destined to be the eternal punch line, a $13 million albatross and an ongoing testament to the will, ego and insanity of Axl Rose. There is perhaps no rock-and-roll album as starstruck or anticipated in history — eternally promoted by disastrous world tours, tinkered with by no less that five producers and featuring contributions from God-knows-how-many musicians. Democracy has been in the works since at least 1998, victimized by infinite false starts (the industrial mess of "Oh My God," featured in the industrial-size mess that was Arnold Schwarzenegger's "End of Days," Rose's winded performance at the 2004 Video Music Awards, Buckethead) and promised (threatened?) to be released more times than I care to recall. (Resident metalhead Chris Harris attempted to do so in a blog post earlier this year.) It's become a FEMA-level catastrophe at this point, and the fact that the entire saga has played out before our eyes only makes its actual conclusion seem all the more improbable. This is an album that we were supposed to speculate about, snicker at but never — ever — hear. This just wasn't supposed to happen.

But now, apparently, it is. And frankly, I'm not sure if we're prepared. If and when the first crate of Democracy is opened in a Best Buy storeroom, it'll represent the moment when all bets are off, when anything can happen, music-wise. Will it come bundled with a copy of Dr. Dre's long-delayed Detox album? Will it inspire My Bloody Valentine or the Pixies to drop new albums? After Democracy, will we finally get to hear Pink Floyd's Household Objects or the Who's Lifehouse? The answer to any of those questions might very well be "yes," if only because, like Democracy, no one really believed any of those albums would see the light of day either. In short, it would be entirely possible that we would never not hear anything ever again.

And when it has finally moved from the storeroom to the shelves, will there be mass chaos? When GN'R fans — half-crazed with anticipation, half-dazed from spending the past 48 hours sleeping in line outside an electronics retailer — actually catch a glimpse of the album, will they summarily combust? And are we prepared, in these darkest of times (I'm speaking in terms of the music industry, not Wall Street), for an album that's unlike any this decade? It could be an honest-to-goodness event, a surefire blockbuster that will cause music fans to behave like music fans, cueing up for midnight sales, throwing the album on in their cars, celebrating the release of a dozen or so pieces of recorded music. We will be transformed into savage rock-and-roll animals. Again, this isn't supposed to happen.

Oh, and about those pieces of recorded music. They're insignificant in all this, because really, there is absolutely no way that anyone is going to be happy with the content of Chinese Democracy. It's just not going to happen. Anticipation is too high, we've lost a little bit of faith in the all-knowing Axl, and to be honest, the stuff we've heard from the album (none of which, to be fair, might actually be on the album) has been spotty, to say the least. The exception to this is, of course, "Shackler's Revenge," the just-released (via "Rock Band 2") track that is most certainly on the album, and in addition to having a title that reminds me of a National Lampoon film, is also pretty terrible. (OK, it's really terrible.)

But again, none of that matters, because people are still going to buy the ever-loving crap out of Chinese Democracy, even though they know they're ultimately going to end up disappointed. They will be strangely compelled to do so, if only because, well, they have to buy it. Likewise, critics will slay the album, because that's their job, but they will do so knowing that nothing they write will matter in any way, shape or form. None of this has ever happened before. Nothing will be the same ever again.

After typing that last sentence, I got so freaked out that I hid underneath my desk for a good 20 minutes. Eventually, I mustered up the courage to uncurl myself from the fetal position, climb back up into my chair and re-read everything I've written so far. And here's what struck me more than anything: Basically everything I've written about Chinese Democracy is interchangeable with this country's current economic collapse. The idea of the album being released once seemed as impossible as banks failing or massive, multinational brokerage firms filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, yet both are happening. The results of both are relatively terrifying, if only because they mean that, really, nothing is certain anymore. Both involve large sums of money and ego being handled irresponsibly. And both — be it the sinking feeling that Democracy will be rather bad or the proposed $700 billion bailout currently flailing on Capitol Hill — are accompanied by some rather unpleasant side effects. Also, after our economy disintegrates, it's entirely possible that China might actually buy us, creating an actual Chinese democracy. Marinate on that.

And all of that either proves that Axl Rose is: A) a genius;  a prognosticator; or C) the rock-and-roll version of T. Boone Pickens, because he's seemingly omnipresent, insanely wealthy, kind of creepy and is trying to pitch you something that seems legit, except you can't shake the lingering feeling that you're being conned, because, well, the dude's an oil baron (you know, that and his ties to the whole Swift Boat thing). Either way, he's terrifying. He's going to bring society to its knees. He's going to change the world forever.

Get your barrels ready. Chinese Democracy could be right around the corner.

:-*Yawwwwwwn..........really who cares.  As someone put it Axl is a jerk.  No wonder everyone left him. I'll go to AC/DC before I go to their show. :howefun

How on Earth does anyone ever figure they'll get 1/10th of their money back?

wrote on Oct 10^th, 2008 at 8:22pm:

what was so wrong with axel wearin womans underwear busting out welcome to the jungle all sweaty and stuff.

It was kind of ghey.

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy now available on Demonoid for those who are interested and want to keep their money or get it now, and buy it later...
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1695922/7889066/

Pdog wrote on Nov 19^th, 2008 at 5:41pm:

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy now available on Demonoid for those who are interested and want to keep their money or get it now, and buy it later... http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1695922/7889066/

Hows it sound, is it worth a shit?

It's awesome.  The new GnR is FAR better than the hackers of old.  And having seen AC DC more than a dozen times since 1981 (and just last Sunday) and GnR three times since 2002, I can assure you that GnR puts on a more powerful show.

am I being Punk'd?

Pdog wrote on Nov 19^th, 2008 at 5:41pm:

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy now available on Demonoid for those who are interested and want to keep their money or get it now, and buy it later... http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1695922/7889066/

Its gone Pdog.Just like whatever cred Axl had left............OOps thanks Pdog....found it..course I wont download it illegally.....

downloadable versions--none of which include all the cuts or any in their final form (even now)--have been available for years

not to mention, they've performed most of them live in the last eight years....this was all covered--including the BestBuy pre-sale (which started several weeks ago)--in another thread

Some Guy wrote on Nov 20^th, 2008 at 7:40am:

am I being Punk'd?

That's what Slash and Duff are saying to themselves...

It comes down to Axl's voice, his ability to write songs and do what a real band leader can do... Arrange a band and the music to make something really great. I'm not saying the album is great, but it good... and they were really, really good live!
Top notch production value too, the mastering is great... no loudness or sounding compressed!!! Rare nowadays!

I want my free Dr. Pepper!

you shall receive one---the Pepper people confirmed it!

Jizzy!  I was in Jamestown Saturday.
Went to McQuade's Marketplace, wicked pissah!

it's nice there this time of year, none of those stinking New Yorker tourists like all summer....did you see Dylan (he has a place there and has even been known to jam at the bar on a winter night) ?

Stop the presses, I did not know this.
No, we did not get to spend much time there,
however, it does warrant a repeat journey.
We had lunch at Brick Alley Pub in Newport, where
I found a cousin's son's Harvard football shirt
on the wall......

Bob bought a place on Jamestown back in the early 90's.....he splits time between there and that new castle he bought in Scotland and also in upstate New York, and I think he still has his place in Malibu?  A ramblin' man of sorts...

Nellcote wrote on Nov 20^th, 2008 at 9:16am:

I want my free Dr. Pepper!

I'd Download a soda right if I could!

I'm a Pepsi guy, but Dr. Pepper's good sometimes.....neither mixes particularly well with alcohol, however....