Duff McKagan's ESPN Sports Column

ESPN
How can't you love the Seahawks now?
By Duff McKagan

I do know that this ESPN gig is a national thing -- and I also know that some of you mused out loud about me having too much of a Seattle slant from week to week. Well, I'm not sure about next week … but for this one, yes, my column will definitely be about a Seattle team. At least someone will be writing about the The Hawks.

I get it. We are not a big market and we are tucked all of the way up here in the Pacific Northwest, where we are perceived to be still chopping down trees and living in tepees or igloos or whatever … and we are all hippies playing hacky sack, listening to Phish or some such jam-band. Or we still listen purely just to grunge music and/or Heart.

But this medium-market team just took down the defending Super Bowl champions, and now suddenly … this fish-throwing, coffee-drinking town has got a new face and attitude, perhaps best personified by Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch's forearm-shiver delivered to the Saints defense on Saturday. I guess the Hawks just had nothing to lose; they certainly played like it.

If you like your freedom, your Internets, espresso and good rock and roll, well then you should also be a Seahawks fan. Here is why: During World War II, Seattle's own Boeing airplane plant pumped out all of those B-24s, B-25s, and B-29s that helped to win that war. In the 1940s, Jimi Hendrix was born in this great city; his vanguard lead guitar playing eventually influenced so many great rock bands that it is almost impossible to register it all. Lead guitar solos may have very well been set back many years without his genius. In the '70s, Starbucks opened a little shop in the Pike Place Market that eventually informed our whole nation that coffee is dark black and not almost clear -- not to mention, from a can, weak or brownish. In the 1970s, Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft; without which, a home computer would still be the size of, well, a home. The globalization of modern ideas and instantaneous sharing of information could have been a thing that we might still be waiting for. Just think, no ESPN.com or NFL.com … or, God forbid, no Twitter!

A few readers chastised me pretty good for a comment I made about "suddenly wearing my dusty Seahawks jersey" last week after we made it into the playoffs. The truth is though -- I am such a sports fan that if I am bummed out about how the coaching staff or players or front office people are running things -- I will not just sit idly by and root for my team and wear the colors for the true-fan-ness of it all. I have done it in the past and have felt like a moron as, say, my favorite player gets traded or backroom dealings are being done to create space for next season … again!

Have you ever been a fan of a rock band that had a killer first and second record, and then somehow lost you after that? Did you still wear the Styx concert T-shirt after they went into the whole "Mr. Roboto" thing? You may still love the band somewhere deep down inside, but you reserve the right to be pissed-off about what is currently happening. Are you any less of a fan then?

You can read the full article here.

Matt Sorum Says VR Decision Coming This Week

In his latest Twitter posting (Monday, Jan 10), Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum says the band just completed a four-day writing and recording session "with an amazing singer," which led to "nine killer demo tracks." He also said that VR is "going to make the decision one way or another this week."

Matt talked to Noisecreep about how the audition process was going:

"We tried out a lot of new guys, and basically it's quite a process. Scott Weiland is one of the best frontmen out there. And I've been in bands with Axl Rose and Ian Astbury. Those are big shoes to fill. So we're looking for a tried and true individual that can mesh with guys like us that have been out there doing this for a long time.

It hasn't been an easy task, and that's why it's taking a long time. But we don't want to come out half-cocked. We want to create something that people are gonna go, "Wow, that's awesome." We've had a couple situations where we've been with some singers, and we've pulled out of because we didn't feel completely secure in the fact that going forward the guy was the right move.

We tried out some fairly unknown guys and some guys that have been out there a little bit. But the guy we're really excited about know is a pretty known guy. I don't want to say anything yet because we're still in the dating phase. We haven't consummated the relationship or made a gentleman's agreement. So I can't let the cat out of the bag until there's an official stamp of approval on the deal."

Regarding the new singer, guitarist Slash told ARTISTdirect.com "we're gonna have a whole different personality as a vocalist. It's gonna be a lot heavier than anything Velvet Revolver has done so far. 'Cause that was the only thing missing for me — the sort or heaviness of it — in the first two Velvet Revolver records."

Sorum said, "the guy we're liking right now is a known guy. He's a guy we've had our eye on, but the timing wasn't right. He's a little younger, a little stronger, a bit heavier rock 'n' roll than we are, that's all I can say.

Writing is a lot of the way we've been trying out singers, and a lot of the reason we've had trouble trying to pick a guy, because we really need to hear that truth.

We can't just jump out there with any singer. We've got to make the right decision ... a guy who can front a rock band of this caliber and be a strong enough frontman to go out in front of Slash and be that guy.

We need to hear that vocal, that lyric, that melody. It's not an easy thing."

Sorum said the band was impressed that the frontman candidate "has a work ethic similar to ours" and also brings a "modern" edge to the group.

"I've always stressed to the band that we need to be current. I don't want to go out there and make retro-Rock 'n' Roll music. We have to take in the environment and parlay that into a Rock 'n' Roll outlet."

Last month, Matt told Bravewords.com that if something doesn’t happen in 2011 with Velvet Revolver, it might be the end of the group. He was asked if fans could expect an album or a tour from Velvet Revolver next year.

“I would like to say ‘yes’ as a guarantee and the only reason I’m saying that is because if it doesn't happen by 2011 we're definitely going to pack it up.

But it will happen - because that’s our goal.

We’ve known each other for over 20 years and it’s like a gentlemen’s agreement. It’s like ‘OK, let’s do this’.”

Axl Rose / Kurt Cobain

It's well-documented that the two icons desperately hated each other, and as the two biggest groups of the early '90s — they were Often pitted as rivals. The British music weekly New Music Express, once called Nirvana "the Guns N' Roses it's okay to like" (apparently, NME perceives every popular American band exactly the same). The groups even got into a minor shoving match at the 1992 MTV Music Awards, although that altercation can probably be blamed on Courtney Love's hypocritical idiocy.

Axl initially loved Nirvana (he wore a Nirvana baseball cap in the "Don't Cry" video and wanted Nirvana to serve as the opener for the ill-fated '92 Metailica/Guns tour), but Cobain essentially thought Rose was a doofus, so Axl decided Kurt was a queer (or a poseur, or a pretentious asshole, or some damn thing that he probably would never say now that Cobain is dead). But these two guys share a lot of similarities — certainly more than either was ever willing to recognize. Besides strikingly similar facial features and an overlapping audience, they both offered an image that specifically appealed to lost kids with inexplicable rage, Axl did this first, and his tools were hostility and confusion, Cobain came a few years later, and he used personal angst and sexual tolerance (ultimately, Kurt's methods proved to be more effective).

Comparing the two men is kind of like comparing a black-and-white photo with its negative – both are totally opposite, yet they're completely the same. What they shared is a human element; they seemed real. There was a certain depth to their character. Granted, this is partially due to their popularity; when the media covers a rock band, they really only cover the vocalist, so singers from the most popular bands always have more opportunities to seem interesting (the third person to follow in this lineage was Eddie Vedder, and for many of the same reasons). But this process works both ways. During their first months in the spotlight, there was something about Rose and Cobain (and, to a lesser extent, Vedder and Trent Reznor) that made me want to know more about them. It was an undefined fascination that I did not feel for people like Tom Keifer or Dave Pirner; though I liked Cinderella and Soul Asylum very much, my interest did not go too far beyond the musical product. Almost instantaneously, Axl Rose came across darker, more dangerous, and more credible than his peers. That's partially to his credit and partially due to my own naivete. He put himself in a position where I could comfortably lionize him. Rose was hard rock's equivalent to U2's Bono.

-Chuck Klosterman, 2002

Steven Adler & Matt Sorum Share Stage for "Paradise City"

via Blabbermouth



Camp Freddy brought in the New Year at the world-famous The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California this past Friday night (December 31) with a show that featured former GN'R drummer Matt Sorum introducing original GN'R timekeeper Steven Adler for a version of the Guns classic "Paradise City."

Adler's performance with Camp Freddy came only a few months after Steven slammed Sorum in a interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com. Adler was kicked out of GN'R in 1990 due to his drug use, and when asked how he felt when he heard that Sorum would play on the band's 1991 Use Your Illusion records, Adler said, "his were just half-assed, crappy versions. Nothing personal against the guy, but he's like a goddamn drum machine. He's got no heart; he's got no soul; he's got no feel. And as life and the years have shown, obviously, I'm not the easiest drummer to replace."

Adler added that he thinks the Use Your Illusion albums would have been bigger than the band's 1987 debut, Appetite For Destruction, if he had been on them.

Steven subsequently apologized to Sorum during an August 2010 appearance on the "Good Day LA" television talk show, explaining that "the words just came out wrong." He added, "I think you're [referring to Matt] amazing and I love you, man. Sorry about that."

Sorum told The Pulse of Radio a while back that if the original GN'R band reunites, they should perform with both him and Adler. "If it's me on drums or Steven or whatever, if it happened, it'd be great, you know," he said. "I would actually say to them, 'Hey, bring both of us back,' you know. Let me play the other stuff. We'll have two drum kits. I don't care. If Appetite sounds better with Steven playing it, have both guys up there. They can afford it."

Camp Freddy is the Los Angeles-based "jam" group featuring Dave Navarro, Billy Morrison (ex-bassist for The Cult, current Circus Diablo vocalist), Matt Sorum, Donovan Leitch (son of legendary folk singer Donovan), and Chris Chaney.

Camp Freddy's lineup for Friday's performance included Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens and The Cult bassist Chris Wyse due to Navarro and Chaney being out of town.

GN'R to "lay some tracks" on Facebook in 2011

http://twitter.com/gunsnroses/status/21989029692047361

Izzy Stradlin Recording Again with Timo Kaltio

Thanks to Gisela over at the Izzy Stradlin board: beenafix.com for finding this news.

Timo Kaltio (guitarist & songwriter on Fire, Concrete and Smoke) said that he was recording with Izzy Stradlin during the first half of December 2010, in California.

He said that he was recording two tracks a day, with Izzy, Taz Bentley (drums) and JT Longoria (bass).

Some pictures:




These two songs are from Fire, both co-written by Timo Kaltio and Izzy Stradlin:

Happy New Year