Toilet Boys Open For Guns N' Roses @ Webster Hall (The Ritz) on Feb. 15

Toilet Boys will open for the legendary Guns N’ Roses at their sold out show at The Ritz (Webster Hall) on Wednesday, February 15th in New York City. Ironically, The Ritz (Webster Hall) was the location of Toilet Boys last big New York show prior to their European tour in January 2003 after which Toilet Boys disbanded and went their separate ways. Now almost 10 years later after reuniting, Toilet Boys return to perform in the iconic location of their last major NYC show.

Toilet Boys are the infamous neo-punk Glam Rock band that has toured the US, Europe, and Asia with Blondie, The Ramones, Rancid, The Damned, Joan Jett, Motorhead, The Donnas and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The last great NYC rock n’ roll band, Toilet Boys grew out of the iconic club scene of Don Hill’s and CBGB’s where legends were born.

With one foot in a limo and the other in the dark heart of the NYC club scene, Toilet Boys have whipped crowds into a frenzy everywhere from the bullrings of Spain to the kinkiest, sexiest parties in the US to Madison Square Garden.

Revered by the New York Post, LA Times, and Rolling Stone, Toilet Boys have been deemed “a New York Rock Legend”. The UK’s NME states, “Miss Guy and the boys made rock history with their first visit to London."

Having reunited in Spain at the 2010 Azkena Rock Festival where they shared the stage with KISS, Bob Dylan, Slash and The Hives, Toilet Boys are currently writing new music and working on a cutting-edge stage show. A sight to behold, Toilet Boys are back!



Links:
Toilet Boys

Idols Are Dead - "Mean" Press Interview, NYC, May '10

Italian thrash metal band Idols Are Dead were in town last month to make their NYC debut at Lit Lounge. Unfortunately though, the show never happened due to equipment logistics. I did have the chance to catch up with the band before they left town.



Idols Are Dead's debut disc Mean was released in 2008 (though it is just now getting US distribution) and the band is now currently finishing up their sophomore disc. In a previously posted CD review, I described Mean as falling somewhere between Testament's The Ritual, Metallica's The Black Album and Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion while retaining an underlying thrash-metal sound. Taking a page from the fore-mentioned bands, Mean combines fist-pumping riffs with melodic guitar shredding, singer Mana's "John Bush style" gruff vocals and melodic vocal harmonies on the choruses.

Links:
Idols Are Dead

Idols Are Dead - Mean CD Review (Scarlet Records)

Idols Are Dead is a five-piece melodic, hard-rock band that just released their debut CD Mean. The band's sound falls somewhere between Testament's The Ritual, Metallica's The Black Album and Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion while retaining an underlying thrash-metal sound. Taking a page from the fore-mentioned bands, Mean combines fist-pumping riffs with melodic guitar shredding, singer Mana's "John Bush style" gruff vocals and melodic vocal harmonies on the choruses.

Idols Are Dead formed in Italy in 2006 and came out of the gate swinging. The band won the Heineken Jammin Festival Contest in 2007, beating the other 2273 bands, and shared the main stage with Slayer, Iron Maiden and Stone Sour.

(There is a video from the Heineken Jammin Festival on YouTube but it is just fair quality. This video from 2008 shows what the band really sounds like live.)



Idols Are Dead's music should strike a positive chord with fans of the "Big 4" and the band covers Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy" midway through the new disc.

Links:
Idols Are Dead

Do Unfinished Albums Really Leak? My Views on the Buckcherry and Guns N' Roses Leaks...

Just to put some context around this post, I'm still playing catch-up with some releases and just got around to listening to the new "leak" that surfaced in June of nine tracks from Guns N' Roses' forthcoming Chinese Democracy CD.

With the new Buckcherry "leak" having been traced back to the band's manager, this seems to prove a point that I made about a year ago re: the Spring '07 "leaked" Chinese Democracy tracks. (see previous post)

I STILL don't believe that these types of leaks are anything more than attempts by someone in or associated with the band to generate publicity. I think the Buckcherry "leak" is a closed case so we won't go down that path. Can you really tell me that, when major labels are starting to send music bloggers watermarked CDs (to tell where any potential leaks are coming from), finished studio tracks continue to 'drift' out of the Guns N' Roses camp and no one has any idea who the source is. I just don't buy it...

If this happened once or twice, I would consider the possibility that the leaks are coming from disgruntled ex-employees or members. Now that June's "leak" marks the 6th or so leak since last year...what is the reality of the situation?? Are there mysterious men from Spain uploading tracks from a seemingly endless master reel (see Idolator for details) or is this a planned attempt at viral publicity??

(From GunsNRoses.US) Here is a blow-by-blow history of the Chinese Democracy leaks:
"In September 2003, radio DJ Eddie Trunk played a new Guns N' Roses song titled "I.R.S." on his syndicated radio show Friday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk. The band's management issued a cease-and-desist order against Trunk, leading him to strip replays of his broadcast of both the song and references to it. In February 2006, full studio demos of the songs "Better", "Catcher in the Rye", "I.R.S.", and "There Was a Time" leaked online. Brian May confirmed on his blog that he recorded guitar for the "Catcher in the Rye" demo in 1999. On February 20 2007, a new version of the song "Better" was leaked onto the Internet. The song was confirmed real by Dizzy Reed. However, he also said it is not the final studio version. The next day, March 29, 2007 a full studio version of the song "Madagascar" leaked onto a GN'R fan website and is still in circulation. On May 4, 2007, three more tracks leaked from "Chinese Democracy"; the albums title track "Chinese Democracy", "The Blues" and an updated version of "I.R.S." All three tracks had previously been played live and the track "Chinese Democracy" had been partially leaked in March. An updated version of "There Was a Time" was along the 4 songs sent and was leaked on May 6, 2007. On June 2008, a set of nine songs were released online, including never-heard-before demo version of Prositute, Rhiad and the Beduins and If the World."

If the above wasn't funny enough, here is the latest leak (from July):

Are Video Games the Future of the Music Industry?

Every year there seems to be another gloom-and-doom article on the decline of the record industry (below is a snippet from an '07 WSJ article).

"In a dramatic acceleration of the seven-year sales decline that has battered the music industry, compact-disc sales for the first three months of this year plunged 20% from a year earlier, the latest sign of the seismic shift in the way consumers acquire music."

If the CD is dead and iTunes has trained consumers to buy single tracks rather than full-length CDs, maybe Rock Band and Guitar Hero are on to something.

There seemed to be a bit of shock a week or so ago that Guns N' Roses was releasing a new track ("Shackler's Revenge") via Rock Band 2. I'm not too shocked as I was reading a recent Ad Age article that stated that all but one of the bands that have songs on Guitar Hero III saw a 100 - 300% increase in sales of that track. One of the cited example was that Alice Cooper's "School's Out" sold 12,000 copies in a one week period last December which the article says was a 453% increase. I guess it is unlikely that the full length School's Out CD sells anywhere near that number of copies.

As an old Alice Cooper fan, the question becomes "What becomes of the other 8 tracks on this disc? Does a great album fade away into one hit single?"

Over the past few years, I've met a number of musicians who have licensed new music to "Grey's Anatomy", "CSI", etc. If Guns N' Roses start a trend and Guitar Hero and Rock Band become the next vehicle to release new music, CDs might end up being nothing more than a compilation of previously released singles (though licensing issues will probably prevent this from happening).

It looks like a crazy time to be in the music industry...

Postscript: If 62 of the 63 bands on the Guitar Hero III game saw a 100+% increase in sales of their single, anyone want to guess which band sucks and will never get invited onto another video game? (The article didn't include the answer so all I can do is guess as well)

My Views on Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy MP3 Leaks

I am finding all these (supposed) leaks pretty funny as I don't believe for a minute that this is anything more than promo attempts for the "forthcoming" release.

Earlier today, Blabbermouth reported that:

A studio mix of another new GUNS N' ROSES song, "There Was a Time", was leaked on Sunday, May 6, making it the fourth new GN'R track in two days to be released via the Internet ("The Blues", "Chinese Democracy" and "I.R.S." were leaked two days earlier). "There Was a Time" (also known as "T.W.A.T.") was played live only twice — at the first New York City warm-up show on May 12, 2006 and Madrid, Spain on May 25, 2006 — and was mentioned as one of GN'R singer Axl Rose's favorites in an interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine in January 2006. All tracks are rumored to be set for inclusion on GUNS N' ROSES' upcoming album "Chinese Democracy".

Let's get real -- is the band or someone from the band's camp leaking these songs or are there shadowy figures in Spain who are selling songs from the completed CD for $2,500 per track. (see story in idolator). The only concession that I'd be willing to give is that these "shadowy figures" could be from the record company and they are trying to recoup lost expenses.

Eagles of Death Metal Booted Off Guns N Roses Tour

Picture from The Cleveland Leader









I caught one of the Guns N' Roses - Hammerstein Ballroom warmup shows earlier this year and thought the band was pretty good (not great). It is hard to take the band too seriously with Axl being the only original member and Chinese Democracy now being about 10 years behind schedule. (Can anyone say Boston - Third Stage?) Guns N' Roses still put on a pretty good rock show but they are nowhere near the caliber they were when they headlined stadiums in the early 90's.

I was quite amused to read that Axl is kicking the Eagles of Death Metal off the tour after just one show as the GnR audience didn't respond well to the band. Blabbermouth reports that Axl reportedly said something to the effect of, "So how'd you like THE PIGEONS OF SHIT METAL? Don't worry, that's the last show they're playing with us."

Let's compare...Josh Homme has been consistently building his chops by recording and touring with both the Eagles and Queens of the Stoneage. Sebastian Bach hasn't done much of anything (outside of the Rocky Horror Pipcture Show) since being kicked out of Skid Row and The Last Hard Men has to be one to the worst CDs that I have heard in the last few years. The Suicide Girls are just strippers who strip to punk tunes.

So...what is the lesson here? On a tour where punk strippers are one of the "opening acts" and are scheduled to go on right before the headliner, any opening band has to question whether the audience will be receptive anything they can't drunkenly sing along to.

OpEd: I saw the Eagles of Death Metal headline CBGB just about two years ago and the crowd couldn't get enough of the band. Hopefully the Eagles will find better acts to tour with.