the VELVET REVOLVER thread

I think Weiland is a perfectly capable, at times very decent, rock singer

This is bad.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/

Oh dear.

Meanwhile, so Woodstock created the modern music industry, did it?

(Seriously, what a clusterfuck. Here's your taking sides: Audioslave vs. Velvet Revolver.)

xpost haha.

Here's a report from Canadian Press about the VELVET REVOLVER press conference that was held in Toronto this past Friday. The bad days of rock are back. So say the members of Velvet Revolver, a who's-who of modern day rock legends, including crowd-pleasing guitarist Slash from Guns N' Roses. In typical bad-boy fashion, the quintet - also including ex-STONE TEMPLE PILOTS frontman Scott Weiland, former G N' R members bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum, and Dave Kushner, who once played guitar with Dave Navarro's band and WASTED YOUTH - showed up late to a news conference Friday, and chain-smoked their way through 45 minutes of Q&As, using enough curse words to render half their comments unusable to most media outlets. "It's fast. It's ferocious. It's like drinking lightning in a bottle," said Weiland, dressed like a superstar in dark aviator glasses, black velvet hat and white scarf. Velvet Revolver was in Toronto to play a sold-out show Friday night previewing material from their upcoming record, Contraband. "This album has the utmost potential . . . to be influential, to explode and be a massive album just like the Pixies were," said Weiland, who at one point threatened to walk out should reporters ask about his notorious drug addiction and police arrests. The group has reason to be cocky. It has been greeted with open arms, with many critics hailing the quintet a "supergroup." As well, the first single Slither is quickly climbing the radio and video charts and their shows have all sold out in minutes. Their reasoning for all the attention is that young people are once again interested in true rock 'n' roll bands, complete with the rough-and-tumble attitudes and un-boyband looks. McKagan said while he was going back to school a couple of years ago, fellow students often said they felt ripped off by the current landscape of bands. "They'd say, 'Our generation doesn't have a rock band. We don't have rock 'n' roll.' They're buying records that are 20 years old," he said. "There's a whole new young generation that's just starving for something that's pure and unadulterated." The blame, McKagan said, lies with the mega-mergers of media corporations that started in the mid 1990s. "With the advent of these mergers these labels were all owned by a huge umbrella corporation of stock holders. That in turn made all these pop paint-by-numbers garbage (groups). That's what was spoonfed to a whole generation. There will be revolt at some point and there will be change." He signalled out Nickelback and Creed as two bands that offer audiences no passion. "Rock 'n' roll is about a sense of freedom," added Slash. "When the corporate (people) get a hold of it, it becomes very contained, very predictable. It loses its human edge." Velvet Revolver formed in 2002 after Slash, McKagan and Sorum banded to perform a benefit show for their late friend Randy Castillo, a former drummer for Ozzy Osbourne. Kushner, a high school friend of Slash's, joined shortly after. Weiland, who has struggled with drug addictions for years, was recruited as the vocalist after a 10-month search. All members described their union as the best thing that's come along since they formed their first bands as teens. Weiland likened it to a "virgin experience," except they each "know what we did wrong in the past and we know how to avoid certain pitfalls." Slash said it was never about money or fame. "It's been purely about the music. . . . It's hard for people to fathom that. This thing came together organically." As the band prepared to leave the room, Slash promised rock fans a return to roots. "Guitar solos are back," he said with a grin through his long, curly mane.

Wait until it comes out that he has a vested interest in this due to his past history as a lead guitarist. You can't trust anyone these days.

Implying, of course, that he is not.

Well I can see how that...huh?

Velvet Revolver will have to cancel a future tour due to a "near incident" involving Weiland.

Wow! People have an incredible amount of respect for SUPERGROUPS!

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album?id=6072850&pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=triple1

This Dave Kushner guy is pretty fucking pathetic. He's trying to look so badass and all anybody thinks is "I don't remember that dude being in G'N'R."

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story?id=6054693&pageid=rs.Artistcage&pageregion=triple3

I remember seeing Guns'n'Roses playing with Metallica at Giants Stadium in `92. Metallica were on first and -- love'em or hate'em -- they were a force to be reckoned with. When Matt Sorum assumed the drum kit (after a lenghty, lenghty wait between bands -- thanks, Axl), his feeble drum fills sound like a pair of rattle coffee mugs in comparison to Lars' furious, stick-flailing battery.

he played on Spaghetti Incident, which deserves at least as much credit as Appetite

Listen, I'm certain that they're the most masculine band in the world right now, particularly the mascara-clad Weiland.

Ummmm....no.

I'm talking about their name. Guns=Revolver, Roses=Velvet. Though I guess SOUNDgarden and AUDIOslave cuts it kinda close too.

Maybe I'm reaching here.

I think so. I'm guessing one of the following:

- They wrote a bunch of "band related" words on slips of paper and then put them in a bowl. Then they started drawing words until they got a couple that made sense.
- Magnetic poetry on the door of the beer refrigerator in the studio
- Hilarious game of Mad Libs augmented by kilos of premium weed.

Actually, they probably just went to Master-McNeil like everyone else does.

good to see that cock rock is alive and well in the u.s.

ned otm.

If there was a turning point for me over the last year and a half it was the day "Fall To Pieces" was written. The night
before, I had just gotten arrested. It wasn't the first time obviously, but to the point of which I had sunk in my soul had
seemed as if there was a bottomless oblivion that I would never be able to crawl out of. I had lost my wife and children
recently, my old band STP had fallen apart, and now the spectre of losing my freedom loomed over me like dark heavy
wet blankets. The only thing positive in my life was the new band Velvet Revolver.

New blood. New start. The song symbolizes both. It really is the cornerstone of this record for me; if it wouldn't have
happened, the record wouldn't have happened. The only way to be real about the subject matter of the song was to tell the
truth on film. It wasn't hard to sell this to the band, they lived it with me. I felt Kevin Kerslake would be the only director
that could possibly get me to the point of reliving some of those narcotic nightmares and re-drudging some of the pain out
of the old wounds that have healed from Mary's and my 12-year relationship.

In short, it was the most difficult video I've ever done from a fear perspective, yet at times with beautiful, sweet memories
that are chronicled on paper and in the heart and mind. All in all it was somethin' else! "She's still my little Rock-n-Roll."

--Scott Weiland