NYC Daily News Contraband review

[GypsySoul]

DAILY NEWS (NYC newspaper) Sunday, June 6, 2004
SUNDAY NOW (section)
MUSIC

No Axl or grease
VELVET REVOLVER ?Contraband? (RCA)

Talk about gluttons for punishment.

No sooner do the coherent members of Guns N? Roses break with their loony leader, Axl Rose, than they hook up with the only singer more famous for screwing up: Scott Weiland.

Velvet Revolver is an old-fashioned ?supergroup? comprising the main musicians from GNR (including guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan) with the vocalist of Stone Temple Pilots.  The latter front man has in recent years spent more time in jailhouses and detox centers than in the studio or onstage.

If the group?s union makes sense in terms of personal history, it?s musical connection seems purely opportunistic.  The album is a Frankensteinian freak show, stitching together ill-fitting parts of two bands that long ago outlasted their natural lives.

Some songs sound like low-end GNR (Think: the weakest parts of ?Use Your Illusion?).  Others sound like stuff STP wisely left in the can.  Never does the band hit on a fresh or organic sound of its own.  Mainly, it makes corny L.A. rock only slightly less cliched than the hair metal its members have spent their careers trying to counter.

Lyrically, they exploit their druggy history with words meant to condemn such behavior, but wind up making the group sound more self-glamorizing than ever.

Fans should perform their own intervention on the group by committing their music to the cut-out bins. - J. Farber
end

[SLCPUNK]

Wow, harsh review too. I thought (wrong) that critics would be reviewing with a positive bias.

[dave-gnfnr2k]

Wow, harsh review too. I thought (wrong) that critics would be reviewing with a positive bias.

maybe they are just being honest

[Rockin' Rose]

I wonder if were going to get another f#*k you statement from Scott...?

[badgirl]

Um, just an FYI, "honesty" is totally subjective. There is no one truth to anything, most especially this album. It is ALL your opinion.

[the dirt]

I wonder if were going to get another f#*k you statement from Scott...?

Maybe not...

Didn't Scott release a statement where he mentioned that he won't be communicating to the media anymore?

[starchild_666]

Wow, harsh review too. I thought (wrong) that critics would be reviewing with a positive bias.

maybe they are just being honest

what makes you think so?  

[jarmo]

Thank to a few VR fans, I could once again delete a bunch of stupid name calling posts.

I'll keep doing it until you prove to be intelligent enough to understand our rules. I don't give a fuck if you think I'm being "a nazi" or whatever. I just don't feel like maintaining a sandbox for adults.

You've been told by moderators to stop and yet you manage to ignore it every time. Maybe you're at that age when you do the opposite of what you're asked to do?

So don't come crying to me when you find yourself banned.



/jarmo