October 7, 2009
Remember, It’s Not Axl’s Fault. That’s The Important Part
A quick update on the whole GNR copyright infringement case. I told you yesterday how Axl is being accused of lifting whole sections from two of ambient synth-gazer Ulrich Schnauss’ songs. I even provided audio clips to prove that GNR fully sampled the songs, apparently without approval. Well, today we hear that Axl has finally done the honorable thing in this situation. He blamed someone else. GNR’s manager said in a statement, “The band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorized samples on the track. The snippets of ‘ambient noise’ in question were provided by a member of the album’s production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately. Artists these days can’t read the minds of those they collaborate with and therefore are unfortunately vulnerable to claims like this one. While the band resents the implication that they would ever use another artist’s work improperly and are assessing possible counterclaims, they are confident this situation will be satisfactorily resolved.”
Which one has to assume means, “We’re going to add another million dollars to the price tag of this record by paying off some sad-sack, synthesizer noodling Kraut because there’s no way the crap I just said flies in a court of law.”
Temple Of The Dog Reunion (Screw You LA)
It’s been talked about for decades now and it has yet to happen. I think if a poll were to be taken by the rest of the country, 98% would be in favor of it. And it would have nothing but a positive influence on the rest of the world. So the question is why, oh why, hasn’t Los Angeles broken off and fallen into the ocean? Hell, Sony bought time on every network in the country to show you exactly how great it would be with clips from their new movie 2012. When they showed that trailer in the theater before Harry Potter a few months ago people became so excited by the prospect of Los Angeles exploding before cracking off and slipping into the Pacific that theater goers started having spontaneous fits of orgasmic pleasure. Parents complained because there were children in the theater at the time, but when the cops showed up to remove the writhing, spasming masses, they glimpsed LA in its final throws on screen and they too were rendered ecstatically immobile. I only bring this up because… eff LA, that’s why. I’m sick of them getting cool stuff all the time. And why? Because some movie people tried to escape being taxed by moving to the desert and erected a jungle of strip malls for 12 million maniacs to shoot each other in? There’s no other good reason for it! You know who likes LA? No one. Even the people living there would prefer that the Earth do them a favor and swallow them whole. Yet it has yet to happen, which is why once again LA got to witness something that just about any music loving city in the world would kill to see: an on-stage Chris Cornell/Pearl Jam reunion. Cornell came out to tear some faces with a live performance of “Hunger Strike” proving once and for all that if he really wanted to still shred, he could because his voice hasn’t slipped at all since ‘91. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Jerry Cantrell joined Pearl Jam on stage LATER THAT NIGHT to solo on “Alive” while Mike McCready skipped around on stage throwing handfuls of guitar picks at the first five rows.
