Guns N Roses guitarist Slash is suing a real estate broker for misrepresenting a house he and wife Perla Hudson bought in January 2006. He claims that it was sold to them as an ideal home for parties, but that it’s too small and is located on a street with restricted parking:

A Los Angeles judge ruled today (January 23) that Slash and his wife can proceed with a lawsuit against the brokers who sold them their house because it’s not, in their eyes, suitable for parties.

The former Guns N’ Roses guitarist claims that real estate agent Gregory Holcomb and Sotheby’s International Realty misrepresented the Hollywood Hills house, saying it was a good location to hold big bashes.

The couple, who bought the house in 2006 and sold it in 2007, claim that the home was smaller than advertised and is located on a street with parking restrictions, inhibiting their ability to throw large parties. As a result, they are seeking more than $1 million and punitive damages, reports the Associated Press.

NME

Did Slash and his wife Perla fail to look at the house before handing over the money? Did they not view documents giving the exact proportions of the house and the property boundaries?

This may be a case of a real estate agent being called out on their false advertising. Isn’t real estate-speak just some kind of code? ‘Renovators delight’ means unlivable. ‘Street has character’ means the house is located next door to a brothel.

Slash and Perla claim that they have never lived in the home, buying it for $6.25million in January 06 and selling it for $5.725million almost two years later, as they were also concerned about security following an attempt by a fan to enter their home. They have obviously lost money in selling the home, and incurred running costs.

Slash and Perla are shown on 1/18/09 out at Sundance and on 11/3/08 at an event. Credit: WENN

Axl Rose has an odd idea of album promotion. The long awaited Guns n’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy, was released after a 15-year wait on November 23rd. But no one has been able to find Rose for the last 2 months.

Despite all the effort put into one of the most extravagant rock albums of all time, staff could not contact Axl to get him to promote his rock epic.

In fact, they failed to make contact with him from the day he delivered the final cut.

Chinese Democracy’s first week US sales are between 300,000 and 500,000. Yet their 1987 debut album Appetite For Destruction went on to sell a staggering 28million, so they have a long way to go with their new effort.

An insider said: “Everyone knows Axl is a bit of a maverick genius and won’t do anything he doesn’t want to do.

“The label is really glad to have him back. But it is frustrating because the album would have had a much better chance of going to No1 if he had only been prepared to show his face.

“People have been trying to contact him for two months and he’s been completely AWOL.

“You would have thought after spending 15 years on an album you might do a few weeks promotion.”

[From The Sun]

But the reason no one can find Axl may be an even bigger payoff if the rumors are true. Rumor has it Axl is trying to get Izzy Stradlin and Slash back into Gn’R. Stradlin has said publicly that he’d like to see the original band back together and Slash’s group Velvet Revolver is all but kaput. Slash has been putting together a solo album with various featured singers since he knew Revolver was failing. After seeing how well Chinese Democracy is doing, though, even without proper promotion he may be persuaded. There’s a lot of water under that bridge for Axl and Slash, but money has motivated bigger rivals to put aside their differences before.

Axl Rose is shown out on 7/3/06 in London. Credit: Bauergriffin

It turns out that since beginning the recording process in 1994, Axl Rose was actually working on his Chinese Democracy album, to be released under the Guns N Roses name. The album has a release date of November 23rd, which is nothing to get excited about until we see actual copies of the album available for purchase (pre-orders are available, if you like to gamble), but a single has been released, and played, on radio. Who thought this day would ever come? Do we still actually care?

According to The Times, the single is as produced and self indulgent and as 90s hair band sounding as you would have expected after 15 years of work.

Clearly, Axl is not a man in a hurry. There’s 45 seconds of people talking while an orchestra tunes up before the snare drums crashes down and an understated guitar arpeggio joins the warm up. The actual power chord riff that signals that the band is ready to rock doesn’t kick in till the minute mark, and Axl doesn’t let out his trademark scream till 1 minute thirty seconds.

The opening line is “It doesn’t really matter,” which you might think was a bit defeatist after all that preamble, but the song itself is surprisingly lean, mean and to the point, verging on old school power pop with extra twiddling (it sounds like they might have spent most of the last two decades mixing guitars).

Linking onanism and politics, Axl rhymes ‘masturbation’ with ‘rule the nation’, but I couldn’t actually work out what the connection was, or what the song is supposed to be about, but that’s par for the course in the genre. There’s a lead solo at 3.15, the purpose of which seems to be to set the record for the number of notes that can be played per bar. It’s sparky but not particularly memorable. Slash is unlikely to lose sleep.

The song climaxes at 4.20 but then there’s another 25 seconds of fading rumble, presumably while the band catch their breath. The whole thing lasts nearly five minutes, but I only make that about three minutes of actual song, the rest is just a kind of elaborate set of bookends, lending the whole experience an air of self importance. Still, after all that time, you can forgive them for making a meal of their comeback.

London Times

I’m guessing that talking about masturbation and politics together isn’t going to catch on leading up to the election…

Dr Pepper will now have to pony up with their offer of a free can for every American if the album came out this year, and surprisingly enough they have. Of course, when they made the offer the economy was still good.

On the release date you can go to www.drpepper.com and for 24 hours register your details to get sent your coupon, which is valid for a free can until February. Former band members Slash and Buckethead are excluded from the offer.

The New York Times archives has a great article on the convoluted recording process of Chinese Democracy.

Here’s the single:

Axl Rose is shown out at a Versace party on 9/2/07. Credit: Fame

Apparently, the marketing team at Dr. Pepper are fans of rock band Guns N’ Roses. The soft drink company has proposed that if the band’s “Chinese Democracy” CD, which has been more than 15 years in the making, is released within the calendar year 2008, everyone in the U.S. will receive one free can of Dr. Pepper. Well, almost everyone.

Many have tried, but so far nobody has been able to pry the decade-in-the-works Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” from the hands of lone remaining original member Axl Rose.

Now, Dr Pepper thinks it’s up to the challenge. The soft drink company says it will give a free can of Dr Pepper to “everyone in America” (excluding ex-Guns members Slash and Buckethead) if “Chinese Democracy” arrives anytime during the calendar year 2008.

Rose responded on his band’s web site (http://www.gunsnroses.com) that the band was “surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper.” But the offer did not prompt him to rose [sic] to the challenge.

“Chinese Democracy” was most recently scheduled for release in March 2007, but promptly vanished from the schedule without a new date being set. Rose said at the time that all the recording had been completed, but there were some “scheduling difficulties.”

It will be the first album of fresh Guns N’ Roses material since the 1991 sets “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.” Rose has reportedly burned through $13 million in recording expenses for “Chinese Democracy,” and also burned his bridges with the bandmates who helped him turn Guns into one of the biggest rock groups in the world by the early 1990s.

[From Reuters]

I doubt this CD is ever going to see the light of day. Sources that that control-freak Axl Rose is obsessed with it and can’t stop re-recording the tracks to make them perfect. Besides, most people who buy popular music these days probably don’t even know who Guns N’ Roses are anymore.

Who knows – maybe Axl Rose really liked Dr. Pepper and will finally release the CD so he can get his free can. This kind of reminds me of the Taco Bell stunt during the 2007 World Series, in which the fast food restaurant offered to give everyone in America one free taco if someone stole a base during the games. They must have freaked when Boston Red Sox rookie Jacoby Ellsbury stole second- they had to follow through on that offer!

Axl Rose is shown below on 9/1/06, thanks to WENN. He’s seen in the header image performing on 6/1/06, thanks to PRPhotos.

With all these 90s bands getting back together again, I feel like I’ve come full circle and am cool again. Except, it wasn’t exactly cool back then to be a fan of the Spice Girls or Take That or…the Backstreet Boys!

After a two-year layoff and the departure of Kevin Richardson, the all-grown-up Backstreet Boys are readying the release of their sixth studio album for Oct. 30.

The yet-to-be-titled disc will be issued by Jive Records and marks the Backstreeters’ 10th anniversary with the label that launched them to superstardom.

E! Online

Backstreet’s back indeed. On August 27 the new single, Inconsolable, will be shipped to radio. This is their first single since 2005’s Incomplete, and after that I really hope they creat an In-trilogy. Actually, how about Incontinent, since the band are so old? 35! They’re not boys anymore.

Another 90s band doing the cash raising rounds is Guns N Roses. They (only original member Axl Rose) toured recently for the Chinese Democracy album (the album took years to make, at least politics move slow in China).

Now Guns N Roses are thinking about a reunion, after playing this week without Axl!

With the big “Appetite For Destruction” 20th anniversary show behind him, original Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler is looking forward to taking his Adler’s Appetite band worldwide. But he’s also holding out hope for a blowout reunion bash with his former bandmates.

“I believe I made it this far for some reason,” Adler tells Billboard.com. “I want to finish what we started, and … with the love and support I got from those guys, I think we can (reunite). I’m gonna leave it up to Axl [Rose]. That’s gonna be Axl’s call, and I love Axl and I know he’ll make the right call.”

Billboard

Actually, I desperately hope this doesn’t happen. I really like Slash’s new band Velvet Revolver with Scott Weiland, and also don’t want to have to suffer through any GNR concerts with my hair band loving partner. I think I could give Backstreet Boys a miss too, although I am very sorry I’ve failed in my one-woman bid to make my town Spice City.

Picture note by Celebitchy: The Backstreet Boys are shown on 6/14/2005 at a signing session for their “Never Gone” CD. Guns N Roses are shown performing on 6/4/2006 at the Rock in Rio Lisboa Music Festival. It seems neither of these bands really went away. Thanks to PRPhotos for these images.