LATEST NEWS ON THE GUNS N' ROSES "CHINESE DEMOCRACY" ALBUM!

I cannot reveal my sources . . . okay, it's the Wikipedia.

First, I find it amusing that if you search for Chinese Democracy on the wiki, you get the actual page about the progress of liberalization/revolution in China, followed by this helpful note:

This article is about the political movement in China. For the Guns N' Roses album, see Chinese Democracy.

But here's some interesting quotes from the oddly exhaustive Wikipedia article:

------

1. On April 1, 2006, critic Chuck Klosterman wrote a tongue-in-cheek review of Chinese Democracy at SPIN.com. It was an April Fool's Joke.
2. According to a March 2005 New York Times article, production costs for the album have reached $13 million, probably the most expensive recording ever. Mercuriadis, however, refuted the article in a letter and claimed that the newspaper's sources for the article had not been involved with the project for "six to nine years."
3. During a backstage interview at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards on August 31, 2006, Axl once again stated that Chinese Democracy will be released this year.
4. Sebastian Bach stated that Axl had played the album in full to poolside guests in his mansion after the September 23rd concert.
5. In September 2005, the Finnish band The Dogshit Boys released their fifth album, also bearing the name Chinese Democracy.

------

All this to say, in many circles, CHINESE DEMOCRACY carries the combined pop heftiness of the Elvis Comeback Special, The Beach Boys' 15 Big Ones, The Beatles playing on a rooftop, and the recent joint announcement by Bono and Eddie Vedder that they aren't going to suck anymore (OK the last one didn't happen, but, hey, I can dream).

Just put it into perspective: APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION was a legendary album. It is one of the greatest rock albums ever made - the ironic soundtrack of my fifth grade year*. GNR became a phenomenon, and had the audacity to release two CDs as a followup, both of which hit the top of the charts. Then they disappeared. Axl got fat, the rest of the guys got drugged up, Axl got drugged up, and fourteen years later, after that hideous Velvet Revolver fiasco, Guns and freaking Roses are back (minus the rest of the guys).

And according to Axl, certainly one of the most charismatic and disgusting band frontmen of my lifetime, we may have this album, which he has been talking about for the last eight years, in our hands by December.

Did I mention that Sebastian Bach is involved? Does this make you more excited, less excited, thoroughly creeped out? Discuss.

Things are going to change, I can feel it.

Get the Klosterman April Fools Joke here

* - Imagine a gangly, awkward, thick-glassesed eleven year old playing Gyromite and being nervous about going to church, rocking out to PARADISE CITY.