Guns n’ Roses album ‘Chinese Democracy’, 14 years in the making and almost as many law suits, is being released tomorrow. You can stream the entire thing here.

AC/DC - BLACK ICE

For those who continue to rock - we salute you!

Being relevant is a poison chalice. Those who seek it lose themselves on their journey. Take Metallica for instance (bear with me), they struggled with the demons within (anyone?) and tried to return to their roots to remain relevant. In the process they released an album of shredding sans songs. Oh, and they released it on a playstation game. Relevant? Riiiight. 

AC/DC on the other hand haven’t tried to recapture anything. They used to make kick arse rock and roll albums. This year they made a kick arse rock and roll album. And you can’t buy the tracks individually, so it remains an album. Sure, AE/DC ( little chord progression gag for you there folks!) could be dismissed as an old dog with an old trick. But fans will surely reply ‘So?’. 

Dacca write straight up rock songs about drinkin’, rootin’ and fightin’. Don’t get fooled by the song titles on Black Ice. ‘Skies on Fire’ , ‘Stormy May Day’ and ‘War Machine’ could lead you to believe that maybe global warming or America’s spiralling war has crossed their lyrical horizon. Fret not (second guitar gag – woohoo!) I’m pretty sure the machine in ‘war machine’ is, like, your love piston.

I could get all high falootin’ on you with the ‘less is more’ argument. That it takes great skill to write a rock song that relies on tried and tested structure. Anyone can be original, but try doing the same thing for decades and still get kids to pay for it.  But I wont.

Brendan O’Brien has delivered an album that will make every AC/DC fan remember why they love the Dacca. In an era when not only musical instruments have been forsaken, but also melody, maybe a fifty-something yr old man in school shorts still has a lesson or two to teach. 

THINK: Vintage AC/DC. The good stuff
READ: The above
BUY: Black Ice at JBI HiFi Now (why wait?)

EDIT: Black Ice has topped the album charts in 29 countries!

AC/DC - Rock ‘n’ Roll Train

It comes to this: In a further attempt to alienate our loyal readership I’m going to heap a self indulgent love upon injury. I could have sat back on my laurels having successfully implied that you aren’t cool,  but that’s not how things around here work.

I need to send mixed signals, the corner stone to any long term relationship. (Even that sentence is alienating more readers still!) And the cherry to top this sundae of patronising and slightly sarcastic amateur (and getting more so) prolix?

The new AC/DC single - Rock ‘n’ Roll Train!

ROCK!

Metallica - Death Magnetic

Metallica confirmed the tracklist for their Rick Rubin produced September release ‘Death Magnetic’. The hirsute cover image was unveiled weeks ago at Mission Metallica (!) and is supposed to be iron filings in magnetic fields - presumably death magnetic fields. ROCK!

In a world first, songs from Death Magnetic will be available to download and play on Guitar Hero III the day the album is released. DOUBLE ROCK!

You can even buy a cool box set, shaped like a coffin! That’s less ROCK than I’d hoped. Really should have thought that one through. Anyway, the Tracklist:

“That Was Just Your Life”
“The End Of The Line”
“Broken, Beat & Scarred”
“The Day That Never Comes”
“All Nightmare Long”
“Cyanide”
“The Unforgiven III”  (TRIPLE ROCK!)
“The Judas Kiss”
“Suicide & Redemption”
“My Apocalypse” 

The thing is, I’m quite happy that they’ve gone all out 80’s. That whole ‘work through your anger’ nonsense has no place in ROCK!. Only ROCK belongs in ROCK!

So lets ROCK!

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

You may remember The Hold Steady from the Top 10 of 2006, where ‘Boys and Girls of America’ came in at Number 3. So it would be fair to say that I was expecting big things from ‘Stay Positive’ and in a way, I got exactly what I expected.

 I reckon Confucius did his best work early on, when he came up with ‘Careful what you wish for…’ and The Hold Steady follow suit. ‘Stay Positive’is filled with drug and alcohol soaked rock songs about fitting in, choosing not to, and ‘townies’ who throw parties and pack bowls. Just as I’d hoped, and they do it as well as they did on ‘Boys and Girls’.

And that’s my problem with this album. You can’t help think you’ve heard it before. They try and mix it up a little with a harpsichord ( a la The Stranglers), and some heavier use of the distortion pedal, but you can’t shake the feeling that these songs would have sat just as nicely on their 2006 album. It’s a fine rock album, with all the qualities that made their earlier release the third best release in 2006, but ‘Stay Positive’ should have been named ‘We’re still the boys and girls of America’

THINK: ‘Boys and Girls’ companion disc.
READ: The Hold Steady Home Page
WATCH: Sequestered in Memphis
BUY: Stay Positive at Amazon