Rumour from Blabbermouth.net

[duga]

This is a comment to todays Velvet Revolver news:

'from a friend who works for a well known music mag...Geffen was presented with the finishe chi-dem disc on 3/1/04 after only 2 hours the disc and a note saying FIX THIS were returned to the bands reps....It seems Geffen found too many songs about news articles that the average guns fan would not remember nor care about. guns were given a 45 day deadline to present a " useable" finished cd or face a breech of contract etc.... the story goes on to say that neither the band nor geffen were available for comment at this time the a"rticle comes out next week in a major music publication'

[kockstar99]

WOW if there is any truth to this at all ... all i can say is WOW..


I wonder what magazine...can you post a link to this??

and what the fuck is  "FIX THIS"  

[Cristina]

That sounds... weird.

Excuse my complete ignorance on the matter... but IF a cd was delivered, can it be a breech of contract? Does a contract say a "useable" cd?    

[kockstar99]

never mind the link i found it... im gonna email this dude and see what i can find out.....

[norway]

Wasn't the master good enough?
Do they wan't to recreate oldgnr style? Sounds like something that's coming from blabbermouth... oh wait, it IS something from blabbermouth.

Hope GH will not delay CD afterall. If this didn't happened before though

[twitcher]

This is a comment to todays Velvet Revolver news:

'from a friend who works for a well known music mag...Geffen was presented with the finishe chi-dem disc on 3/1/04 after only 2 hours the disc and a note saying FIX THIS were returned to the bands reps....It seems Geffen found too many songs about news articles that the average guns fan would not remember nor care about. guns were given a 45 day deadline to present a " useable" finished cd or face a breech of contract etc.... the story goes on to say that neither the band nor geffen were available for comment at this time the a"rticle comes out next week in a major music publication'

to me (who knows nothing) that sounds a load of crap.

since when do record companies have any editorial control over the subject of songs, unless is perverted or paedophilia etc.

[kockstar99]

I emailed the dude and asked him what magazine it would be in... sounds like bullshit but if its even 1/10th true...

[Izzy]

Sounds very strange....and very implausible

Why would Geffen care what the songs were about? Old articles? Is every song like get in the ring?

File under 'B' for bullshit

[duga]

Sounds very strange....and very implausible

Why would Geffen care what the songs were about? Old articles? Is every song like get in the ring?

File under 'B' for bullshit

Of course its bullshit, but it is interesting enough to mention here.

[John Daniels]

Geffen would refuse to accept the songs like Madacascar, The Blues, Chinese Democracy (and the big guns) ??   It's bullshit!!

[matt88]

Geffen would refuse to accept the songs like Madacascar, The Blues, Chinese Democracy (and the big guns) ??   It's bullshit!!

Good point

[pilferk]

This is a comment to todays Velvet Revolver news:

'from a friend who works for a well known music mag...Geffen was presented with the finishe chi-dem disc on 3/1/04 after only 2 hours the disc and a note saying FIX THIS were returned to the bands reps....It seems Geffen found too many songs about news articles that the average guns fan would not remember nor care about. guns were given a 45 day deadline to present a " useable" finished cd or face a breech of contract etc.... the story goes on to say that neither the band nor geffen were available for comment at this time the a"rticle comes out next week in a major music publication'

B.S.
 
And, furthermore, whoever "created" the rumor knows little about recording industry contracts.  If CD was delivered to the label, whether the label liked the material or not, means they can not sue for breech.  They can excercise the "first right of refusal" clause...that's certainly their right (meaning, they can pass on publishing the material), but they can not sue for breech.  GnR would have satisfied the stips of the contract.

[Jonx]

Sounds like crap, not that i know anything about record labels though!

While we are on the record label subject, i found this interview with Travis Barker, he sheds some light on Geffen and the way in which they conduct their buisness, its quite interesting and maybe sheds some light on why Axl has been allowed to take ages on his record.

Here is an extract from the article, the bold text is what i found most interesting:

Bobby: Blink182 have been through many bumps since Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. You almost broke up after Tom's back injury and with Box Car Racer. How did you battle through all those troubles?

Travis: We were never ever going to break up. There were rumors, people started rumors when me and Tom did Box Car but people have got to understand that Box Car was an experiment. Like we were never supposed to even tour. What happens is "The Monster" started happening, which was MCA, which we're not on anymore. But we wanted to put out a record, that's all. Like let us put out a fucking record and let people hear this music. But of course, the record label, a major record label like MCA with a dick head for a president, Jay Bovark thinks: "They have to tour this record because we have to make money." And all this bull shit. No, it was just supposed to be a record and they fucked up and had to do other stuff. But thank God for our new label. Like that's one thing I have to say about Geffen: Geffen is the coolest record label I've ever dealt with in my whole life. Man, those people gave us no deadline with our new record, let us do our own artwork, let us pick who we want to do our videos, pick our singles; like that's the way it should be. They never talked to us about money, politics, all that bull shit that we don't want to hear about anyway. We just want to be creative, you know what I mean? You never want to walk into a record label meeting and talk about your record and have someone tell you how much records you need to sell in order for them to be happy. Where as that's what Jay Bovark at MCA would do. I used to walk out of meetings, like in the middle of a meeting I would just walk out because I couldn't stand hearing bull shit from somebody like that. You know what I mean?

This is certainly a possible explaination as to why the new album is taking so long who knows? Just thought i would post it as it is slightly relevant

James

[EET_FUK]

More than likely BS...but could it could be Geffens' way of burying Axl for all his shit over the years.  I can see it so clearly in my head...it goes like this:

Axl walks into the Geffen offices, CD in hand, whislting the melody from "The General" and a BIG smile on his face.  He goes "Here it is...7 years of blood, sweat, tears, botox and frozen snicker ice cream bars."  70 minutes later, the all-knowing record company execs hand CD back to Axl and say "This is unacceptable.  Please go back to the studio and fix this crap...you have 2 months!!"  Axl procedes to kill everyone in the room then himself.  And the world will NEVER hear Chinese Democracy.   THE END.

[holidayidol]

Playing to the pretense that this is true:  

1. I think it's obvious that an album called Chinese Democracy is going to be a political album, very thick with a decade of newsworthy inferences. I would expect nothing else. And you know that the "label" would know ahead of time what to expect.

2. Axl and Geffen have been taking stubborn blows to each other throughout 2004. One party says "finish, or we'll put out the GH". The other party says "If you put out the GH, then we'll procrastinate even further".  Now that the GH is already out, Geffen takes the next blow, by insulting Chinese Democracy.  Whether its buying time, for more GH hype and sales, or whether its just petty insults to Axl, who knows.

Playing to the pretense this is not true:

1. It's Blabbermouth. They did write about Bucketheads departure before it was published anywhere else....BUT they've also made very careless GNR mistakes before.

2. Where the hell does Geffen fit into "approving" anything with this album?!? This should be strictly Sanctuary/Interscope/Universal (correct?). Geffen, of course, had the Greatest Hits, but I don't see how Geffen has anything to do with Chinese Democracy.

[TyRod Tulip]

Well, I find it hard to believe that a record company that has put, by some accounts, $13 million into this project hasn't heard the material before now.  As a matter of fact, there is no way in hell anyone or any company puts up $13 million and doesn't have rights to review the progress of the project.

This rumour is bullshit, but I still believe that maybe part of it is true.  That being that the contect of CD just isn't good enough yet to release.  I know I keep coming back to this, but I cannot figure out any other plausible reason why the material hasn't been released yet except for the fact that someone (Axl or Geffen) just doesn't think it is very good.

-TyRod-

[Izzy]

This rumour is bullshit, but I still believe that maybe part of it is true.  That being that the contect of CD just isn't good enough yet to release.  I know I keep coming back to this, but I cannot figure out any other plausible reason why the material hasn't been released yet except for the fact that someone (Axl or Geffen) just doesn't think it is very good.

To be fair i can kinda understand the delays - i'm trawling through 5 essays for my degree, and even when their done u keep going over and over them again to try and improve them - the stakes are high, and for Axl their astronomical

The material is most likley great, but when there's that seed of doubt in your mind it never seems that way.

[SLCPUNK]

This is a no brainer.

Somebody needs to send this BS rumor back to the person who started it and tell them to "Fix it".

[Booker Floyd]

1. I think it's obvious that an album called Chinese Democracy is going to be a political album

I doubt it.  The title track isnt political and none of the other songs have been political.

I would imagine that Geffen would be happy to get anything finished at this point, and whatevers on there cant possibly be bad enough to send back to the drawing board.  I doubt they care about the actual music as long as theres three good singles.

[madagas]

You already have three decent singles in the Blues, Maddy, and Chinese. All three could be radio songs. I believe the Blues and Maddy are better ballads than Like a Stone and I am the Highway by Audioslave, both of which get tons of airplay. Let's just face it, Axl is too fucked up and unstable to let go of the album....quality of material will not be an issue in my opinion.