Tuesday
Mar022010
Preview Slash's Solo Album
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 12:01AM
Slash will be released in April via EMI. As you already know, a slew of guest stars helped Slash record his debut solo effort including Dave Grohl and Duff McKagan. The first single is "By the Sword" and it will hit radio in a couple weeks. Check out "By the Sword."
Here's a behind-the-scenes trailer for Slash. Looks and sounds cool if you ask me!
Reader Comments (15)
Fergie? That unrock dude from Maroon 5?
Unbelievably, tho, this is a clever ploy -- Slash having 'em singin' on his record in order to move some CD's, I gotta say, it's a gamble that sounds like it's actually gonna pay off, not just on a calculatedly commercial level, but astonishingly, on a purely artistic level, as well...
Normally, I can't stand obnoxo Fergie with her weird semi-ug face projecting a persona of bizarro forced "sexiness" and undeserved self-entitlement (saw her perform at a club in the Hamptons in 2007 where she acted like an absolute A*shole of the first order), but there's no denying this Slash cut will be awesome.
Astoundingly, Fergie just wails on it in the clip and it's enough of a soundbite to deduce that this will be the best thing she has ever done.
I always thought Madonna shoulda cut a Hard Rock record a la Hole. This is what it woulda probably kinda sounded like, but since Fergie's a stronger singer, with more b*lls, so this is gonna be better than that ever would be.
Woulda, shoulda, coulda!
And it even sounds like Slash's collaboration is gonna work with Adam Levine and that other Maroon 5 dude. Same with Kid Rock, who looks like he's gonna finally be singin' a straight ahead b*lls out rocker with out the white trash homey schtick, well, at least the homey schtick, hahaha!!!
Hey, I was raised semi-white trash by an old couple on a farm in Maryland, so I'm not totally knockin' it. And I'm totally into white-trash chix, as well, tho, preferably if they are mean Metal Chix, age 18-37, to boot... Tho, I will take mean Metal Chix, 18-37, who are actually loaded ($$$-wise, ahahaha!!! I've been through the other way, no thanx, Glam Ma'am!), if they are only faux white trash...
Sorry for digressing with the white trash sidetrack (including the ridiculous age requirements)...
So, anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, Iggy and Ozzy are killer and it's especially cool Slash brought in that Wolfmother dude, too! Maybe, quite possibly, the coolest touch about the whole thing.
Too bad he couldn't have brought in in other "classic" people besides Ozzy and Iggy... like Steven Tyler, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Dio, Vince Neil, Brian Johnson, Robert Plant or Robin Zander, as well as more "newcomers" like Jack White, or that dude from Buckcherry, etc...
And of course, I would have totally flipped had he brought in singers from bands like Crash Diet, Vains of Jenna and Miss Crazy.
Or how about having real b*lls and putting on Adam Lambert. Hey, whatever we wanna say about that dude or that he may be regarded as too Pop by the Rock Cognoscenti, it still duzn't detract from the fact that the boy can sing!
It would have been more outrageous than any other choice if Slash had gotten Lambert on there, since a lot of the real rockerz couldn't deny how great Lambert can be given the right circumstances, which it appears this album will prove with Fergie and other normally unrock choices sounding so totally killer.
It's a mindf*ck of the first order and to be commended as such!
Equal effect would have been snagging the new unknowns like that dude from Big C*ck, Robert Mason, for example (okay, he's not that unknown, or new, but I'd have to look up his name again, and I'm too lazy), or whatever...
But the problem with Slash, I'm willing to bet, is he duzn't realize he should be seeking out those kinda singers. He coulda peppered in a couple of "unknowns" (by him), c'mon. I'm afraid he's just as bought and sold as the all the rest, having bought into the whole "superstardom" fallacy just like everyone else, the one exception being his selection of that Wolfmother dude, Andrew Stockdale.
I guess he felt it necessary to throw in the obligatory rapper, but is it really? Oh, well, I guess it's kinda Ice-T-ish, so it might work in a Body Count/Rage Against The Machine kinda way, sorta maybe...
But, c'mon, he really coulda skipped that or devoted that slot to somebody way cooler, like bringin' in ex-Pantera vox, Phil Anselmo, Tony Bennett, John Lydon, Bruce Dickinson, Tom Jones, Betty Boop, Rumplestiltskin, Salman Rushdie, Jeff Bridges, Captain Sensible, Ted Poley, Jerry Jones, The Dali Lama, Shaq, Bruce Willis, Shamu the Killer Whale or Pee Wee Herman or somebody really cool because their uncool like that...
And thank the Metal Gawdz he didn't pick Dick Cheney or Bono or anyone like that...
If only Slash could tear himself away from "Iron Chef" long enuff to find out what's really going on out there in the Real Rock'n'Roll World...
Will buy it even if i don't have any pets for Ozzy to kill. HA!
And it's a sad day in hell when Slash has to resort to Frank Sinatra Duet tactics but it's worked for others such as Iommi and Jimmy Page with his "Outrider" project... or should I say, "kinda worked", when it comes to the latter.
Regardless, and speaking of hell, MC 666 (Soundz like you could be the Metal Rapper from Hell with that moniker, if you desire shortening your present name to that, bro) is righter... It's most likely gonna be killer... especially Ozzy, Iggy, the unlikely Fergie (hahaha!!!), and even more suprisingly those Maroon 5 pop rock dudes.
Also, a bit of Rock/Metal trivia, Slash has worked before with Iggy. He appeared on Pop's killer 1990 album, "Brick by Brick", additionally co-writing one cut, "My Baby Wants to Rock and Roll". His guitar work really shines on "Butt Town", the standout track in my view, all "hits" aside.
Slash is always on the fringe of rap, I guess, most recently having appeared on the Grammy's with T-Pain and Jamie Foxx, rehashing his old guitar lead for "November Rain" or one of the boring "Use Your Illusion" cuts, which is nearly the whole 2 CD's, IMHO.
Slash is makes sure to use popular representatives from all the current musical trends and flips 'em to rock out and it kinda makes a statement, "See, I can make anyone Rock Out!".
It's kinda cool, really, the more one thinx about it.
But one thing we really don't need is a cover of the overplayed and, let's face it, monotonous, "Paradise City" on this CD. It comes off like rehash and filler. He'd be better off with Jerry Lewis or Joan Rivers in one of his duet slots performing another new original song.
Here's the drill...
Slash set out to do a by-the-numbers "duet" project, hittin' all the buttons to ensure airplay by collaborating with popster Adam Levine, along with his gopher/guitarist, from Maroon 5, that rapper dude and Fergie, thus selling albums and movin' massive amounts of iTunes downloads, etc.
But the results appear to be beyond expectations, with these singer's voices really bringing something unexpected and actually rockin' out on the material (with the xception of the rapper, who is really just their to appeal to those who think the whole homey thing is legit music, which it is not, generally, IMHO)!
Wild!
p.s. Of course, he's covered himself off with Rockstar and Reality Show sensation, Osbourne and Punk/Alternative National Treasure, Iggy Pop, to make sure he keeps the Hard Rock/Metal and Alternative/Punk crowds in tow.
Brilliant! Slash has undoubtedly hit all the right buttons with this album and in this case, dialed "H-I-T"!!!
I have always respected and admired Slash's flexibility in playing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Boz Scaggs to Iggy Pop. This is much more admirable than Axl's "I'm taking the GnR name all for myself and going home" mentality.
Sure, the tracks with Ozzy, Lemmy, and Iggy will rock out, but I even think the track w/ Fergie sounds good, and I am FAR from a far of her "music". I do have to give credit where credit is due, though: Did anyone catch Fergie singing the backing vocals on 'Gimme Shelter' with Jagger and U2 during the recent Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame anniversary concerts? She tore it up.
Plus, the tracks with Kid Rock and the singer from Wolfmother should be pretty cool too. I can do without the "rap-take" on Paradise City, but every CD always has a dud or two...
As for Fergie, I saw her do Barracuda with Heart on TV a while back, and she absolutely tore it up! It surprised the living hell outta me, 'cause I didn't think she'd even be in the same Zip Code as Ann Wilson, who in my humble opinion has one of the greatest voices in Rock, male or female, of all time.
I agree with you and Gary. I really am impressed with Fergie despite the fact that she seems equally, or more so, impressed with herself.
Regardless of what I thought of her when she acted like a total evil diva during her half-a*sed appearance at Whitehouse, a nightclub in the Hamptons in '07, she can sing her fat a*s off, for sure.
Too bad she really never has the chance to rock out in that Pop trap she has to live in. Maybe that's why she can come off like such a b*tch. She is not allowed to Rock in the Mainstream Music World as it is today.
Thank the Metal Gawds, she has had the chance to display her chops with Jagger and Heart so she could come to the attention of Mr. Slash.
And, regardless of the fact, just as Gator expressed, I am so not into Fergie's stuff, either solo or with the Black Eyed Sneeze, tho I have been known to act like I am when I'm faux-dancing with one of thoze hottie club airheads at Mynt or some other poseur palace in South Beach.
Remember when there were Rock Clubs (i.e. Hammerjack's) with Real Rock Chix?! Where are all the Rocket Queens today? Don't answer that, it'll shatter my memories of Shauna and Trixie circa '89.
Anyway, I digress. And Gator, look Shadow's right, as killer as this album will be, it will not be perfect, and there's really no reason for it.
Go figure, the Fergie track sounds like it could be killer and same with the others, except the rap track. Slash is just covering a base to fulfill the record company formula with that one.
He woulda been better to think about making a perfect record like, as Shadow points out, Boston's first record was, or as I'll claim Accept, "Metal Heart" or Riot, "Privilege of Power" is... Or Aerosmith, "Rocks"... Or Led Zeppelin, "Presence" (yeah, you're right, I know, pretty much all of their albums are perfect with the exception of "In Through The Outdoor", obviously)...
Or "Who's Next"... Or... the New York Dolls first one... Or the Ramones first one... Or the Sex Pistols, "Never Mind The Bullocks... Or Motley's first one... Or "Appetite Destruction"... Or Poison's first one, hahaha!!! I can't believe I just said that, but I guess it is, when you are aiming at the lowest common denominator.
Look, it's a ridiculous argument, I guess, since Slash ain't tryin' to top "Appetite for Destruction", but he woulda gotten a lot closer to it had he skipped the rap thang...
I mean, if he can deliver us Fergie and let her chops shine as they did at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Jagger or as she did with Heart on Sarah Failin's theme song Caribou Barbie tried to steal, as the boys point out, why stop there?
That should have easily paved the way to just nail every track. But Slash just didn't elect to take that road, even though he probably thought he was.
Still, if the trailers and teasers are any indication, this album seems like it's gonna rock, almost track for track (xcept the rap number won't effect), like nothing has in years, Velvet Revolver and whatever else you kidz wanna throw at it, included.
This will be Album Of The Year in my book (and it's only the beginning of March), unless someone like Page (who's supposedly working on something) can pull an even bigger stunt in the next 10 months.
Here's hoping that the Slash CD will be the closest CD in a long time to contain no "duds" - throwaway rap track not withstanding...
"Master of Puppets", not exactly my cup o' tea primarily cuz I can't stand Ulrich, so anything he's on suffers my disdain of him, which is not fair to the music and the rest of the boyz!
Yeah, I got "MOP" on vinyl the day it came out and I still have it. It really is a no-dud record if you go in for this sort of thing. Personally, I'll take Accept, "Metal Heart" over this kinda stuff any day. But that's just me...