My initial thoughts are that it has the potential to be a really good hard rock song. The blues riffs of old are weaved around Rose’s trademark growl/high-sung duet. The groove marries well with melody lead by a syth-filtered rhythm guitar, giving the song a flavor of grunge-ish proportions. Really, there is no mistaking that this is a GnR song.

The drawbacks? It’s feels too short and too long at the same time. How can that be , you might be asking yourself? The complete song clocks in at 4:42 but is really around 3:33. There is an 46 sec intro that give an impression that this song is part of a concept CD. The same could be said for the 23 sec ending. Now, in the context of a concept CD, these parts might make more sense to remain. A more judicious hand on the production board might’ve helped in making this song a tighter (and better) track.

Overall, Chinese Democracy, the song, is a decent one and should get its fair amount of airplay. But as a single, especially one that their fans have been waiting for over a decade and half to pull their leathers out for and to rock out to, an in-your-face, immediate impact was needed and with this unneccessary padding, the might of GnR gets somewhat lost in the shuffle.

To listen for yourself, the single is located the Guns N’ Roses imeem site.

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These Brooklyn clowns call themselves Goes Cube and they have a new EP available at InSound: Beckon the Dagger God. You should get it post haste.

But be warned! I can tell you from first-hand rocksperience that there’s legitimate rocking involved. So proceed only with the ability and desire to raise the devil horns. I’m going to take the easy way out and say if you like your Fugazi/Drive Like Jehu/At the Drive-In/Hum flavored with a spritz of Nirvana, these guys will be your favorite new band of the ever. Even Dethklok themselves might call it “brutal.”

You can read more about em here, here, and here. They’re also touring coast to coast soon. If they come to your town, drop in to witness the unstoppable shreddery, and ask Matt to regale you with his version of the Doobie’s “What a Fool Believes.”

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Primarily known for his late ‘50s and early ‘60s doo-wop hits, both solo and with the Belmonts (“I Wonder Why,� “Love Came to Me,� “Runaround Sue,� “The Wanderer�), Dion has always been a far more versatile and gifted artist than history has recognized. One of the best rock singers of all time, Dion was also rock’s first true chameleon, recording a body of work that includes doo-wop, folk, a “Wall-of-Sound� masterpiece of an album (Born to Be With You with Phil Spector), gospel, and finally, with his fantastic new release, Bronx in Blue, the blues.

According to Dion, the blues was his first true musical love, and he rips through 12 covers and 2 originals on Bronx in Blue like a master. The production is beautifully sparse – think Johnny Cash’s Rick Rubin produced albums – featuring only Dion on surprisingly skillful acoustic guitar, minimal drums, and the singer’s greatest instrument: his voice, which thankfully, is right up-front in the mix. Not having faded like Brian Wilson’s or Neil Diamond’s, Dion’s voice can still make words soar, and he uses it to great effect here, giving every track an emotional urgency, be it playful, angry, or melancholy. From the album’s stomping opener, “Walkin’ Blues,� to quieter songs like “I Let My Baby Do That,� Dion’s obvious love and enthusiasm for the material is infectious, and it helps turn each song into a minor gem. The result is an album that stands among his best work; Bronx in Blue reestablishes Dion as a musical force to be reckoned with, and when placed alongside his previous albums, adds a brilliant layer to an already rich catalog of music.

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Best Music of 2005

1. Edan – Beauty & the Beat
From out of nowhere, this crazy dude unleashed the nuttiest, most weirdly playful and ferocious musical missive of the year. Old school beatery and psychedelia meet in a ’60s garage and something new is born. Has to be heard to be believed.

2. Animal Collective – Feels
A wonderfully puzzling and beautiful drifting haze of a record that grooves where you don’t expect. It takes some patience, but is more often than not quite stunning. Sounds like nothing else ever and begs to be listened to over and over. Genuinely dreamy!

3. Black Mountain – Black Mountain
I love the sound of this. It’s like some ’70s stoner rock group added more instruments, some ladies, and decided to soak up Appalachia. Deft, surprisng, and elaborate heavy sonic sludge folk. Or something.

4. MIA – Arular
Take the Missy/Tim template, add some dub, some spare/funky beats, an earful of hooks, and you get this fantastic dose of brand new pop.

5. New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
Guitar pop so ridiculously calculated and baroque that it should collapse under its own self-conciousness — except these guys have more magnificent, unbelievably huge hooks and harmonies PER SONG than some bands are able to muster in their whole career. Their best, most consistent record to date.

Kudos also to:
-Lightning Bolt – Hypermagic Mountain: The aural embodiment of shred. You will be rocked…into FUCKING DUST.
-Blood On the Wall – Awesomer: Gloriously unassuming and unpretentious rock that mashes together Pavement, Sonic Youth, and the Pixies into one glorious whole.
-Kanye West – Late Registration: Yeah, yeah, it’s pretty wonderful. Overlong and uneven, but contains a generous amount of undeniably incredible, soaring “how the hell did he do that?!?” moments.
-Sleater-Kinney – The Woods: “The Fox” makes my head want to explode with awesomely huge guitar delight.
-Beck – Guero: Ok, there are some serious deadspots here, but overall Guero is remarkably close to great. “Girl,” “Rental Car,” and “Earthquake Weather” are particularly glorious in their gloriousness.

Fie!

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The set begins with Lennon’s last truly great song, the joyous “(Just Like) Starting Over,� taken from 1980’s Double Fantasy. The rest of the usual suspects are here as well, including, of course, “Imagine� (a classic, granted, but also hard to swallow, considering Lennon wrote, “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can,� while sitting in his mansion), the wonderfully melancholy “Jealous Guy,� and the still-exhilarating “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On).�

But it’s the inclusion of songs that aren’t well known that make this the best Lennon collection ever released. “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out)� (from 1974’s Walls and Bridges) may be the best song of Lennon’s entire solo career. Masterfully produced, it contains some of his most honest lyrics, great slide guitar, a soaring middle eight, and would’ve been at home on The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album). Also present is Mind Games’ beautiful “Out the Blue,� Plastic Ono Band’s relentless “Isolation,� and the excellent, Cheap Trick-backed version of “I’m Losing You,� (from 1998’s Lennon Anthology box set of outtakes).

Like any best-of, there are some head-scratchingly absent tracks. Imagine’s “Crippled Inside,� a raving country send-up, featuring George Harrison on dobro, is essential Lennon, and should be here. Lennon’s jaw-dropping Ronettes cover, “Be My Baby,� the standout track from Lennon Anthology, also deserves to be here. Even more perplexing, due to these absences, is the presence of half-baked songs like “Intuition� and the mind-numbing “Woman is the Nigger of the World.�

Ultimately, Working Class Hero has all the ups and downs that marked Lennon’s solo output, which makes it a fitting retrospective. The best moments — “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out),â€Â? “Isolation,â€Â? “I’m Losing Youâ€Â? – and the worst moments – “Power to the People,â€Â? “Woman is the Nigger of the World,â€Â? “Intuitionâ€Â? — show that for those who possess it, genius is just a series of moments that sometimes come in spades, or sometimes don’t come at all. It was true for McCartney, and it was true for Lennon.

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Though slightly uneven, Tracks on Wax 4 is home to some of the guitarist’s greatest work. Opening number “Trouble Boys� is a deliriously good rockabilly stomper, and would’ve fit comfortably on his masterpiece, Repeat When Necessary. “Readers Wives,� another screamer, falls flat, but the pulsating Buddy Holly tribute “Deborah� rights the ship, showcasing Edmunds at his best, with crystal clear (but not overdone) production, masterful guitar, and an exhilarating vocal.

Twangin’ was Edmunds’ next-to-last album of straight up rock n’ roll before he entered the wilderness of the Jeff Lynne-produced synth years (which is saying a lot, considering this critic is a monster ELO fan). The joyous “It’s Been So Long,� with its insanely catchy call-and-response chorus, almost dares you not to sing along, and the heartbreaking “(I’m Gonna Start) Living Again If It Kills Me� somehow does the same. The John Fogerty cover, “Almost Saturday Night,� shows that when Edmunds picks the right material, there’s no stopping him; this version is better than the Fogerty original.

Tracks on Wax 4 and Twangin’, while not opuses like Repeat When Necessary and Get It, were Edmunds’ last records to have that perfect mix of clean garage band production and quality songs of all genres. Though Edmunds is mostly a cult favorite at this point in his career, these albums remind us why he deserves to be remembered. For those who don’t know his work, they’re the perfect place to discover a lost legend.

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