Velvet Revolver - Contraband 6/8/04
 

VH1.com is streaming it and I did not realise that it comes out today. :banana:

I was really looking forward to this album but after hearing it it just sounds kind of generic. I'm pretty disapointed.

Need to hear some more. The first single is average...was hoping for a different sound but it was not there and the solo was about as generic as a white box that says cereal. The missing piece in this band is Izzy.

I have read mixed reviews...some are very good and some are very bad. I have a feeling that I will not like it that much.

I am looking forward to it.

A word of advice to Scott Weiland: If you don't want to be perceived as a strung out junkie, don't go out of your way to look like one in your videos.

But dude, that look is SO cool.

I picked this up at Best Buy this morning for $9.99 but haven't got a chance to listen to it yet. I'll post some impressions later.

Well admittedly, I wish I could get and stay that skinny but I don't know if the drugs are worth it :)

Had to stop streaming after three songs. This is the worst GNR tribute band I've ever heard.

It had so much potential yet fell so flat on its face. If they stick together hopefully the next effort will be praiseworthy. Yet I would still go see them live if I had the chance. Maybe this will be one of those albums that grows on me the more I listen to it but I doubt it.

They don't interest me-sounds like another STP.

sounds pretty blah... hopefully the live show is where it's at.

Crap, was hoping on not hearing bad words about this one. I'll still pick it up this week though.

I streamed a few songs last night and somewhat concur that they seem average at best, but I do like their first single and think it shows some good potential. I'll wait till I pick it up to judge the rest. As Flashback mentioned, it would be so cool to have Izzy involved, but I seem to remember hearing that he had a hand in writing some of the songs. He had no wish to go back out on the road, I believe. By the way, if you don't have Izzy's 1992 release Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds, you owe it to yourself to pick it up. That is the best post-GNR release by any of its members.

Are they taking bets on how long before Weiland's next drug bust? What I've heard of this album sounds painfully average and lacking in creativity.

STP and GnR... two bands that could have been great had their frontmen not imploded.

I thought that the current GNR was the worst GNR tribute band ever.

I think STP was great. It's a shame their career was cut short. I think they had some good albums left in them.

Does this cd have some type of funky copyright protection on it? I always listen to my cds at work on my computer and it plays funky on my computer. It sounds like it's skipping and playing at a faster speed. I place it into a regular cd player and it plays fine. This is strange!

I strongly agree with this.

Though I never heard his follow-up album.
Is that one any good?

I felt that his first album was the better of the two, but it has been a while since I've played it. However, I just learned today that Izzy has three more albums out than I realised, with another one on the way. His third album and up was recorded in Japan and are available as imports.

http://www.izzy-stradlin.com/index2.htm

Yeah. When you insert the cd, it prompts you to agree to a EULA, then it downloads "Digital Keys" so you can listen to the songs. It allows you to listen to the cd (but not the actual cd, just the WMA files at 128kbps) or download the WMA files that have DRM and encoded at 128kbps. It really stinks.

This is probably the best part. From their FAQ:

"What are the benefits to having Digital Keys installed on my computer?:
1. Each time you place the CD in your computer, your music will automatically begin to play. "

Really, don't CDs normally do that? -ohbfrank-

I would like to know what songs he is a part of (if in fact true) and check them out. I hope it wasn't the first one for reasons I wrote above.

And I will also say the JuJu album is pretty good.

This really does suck. Does this mean I won't be able to copy my cd to my mp3 player?

Nevermind, I found a way around this whole thing. It was really easy to disable that stupid copy protection driver and now I can listen to it on my computer.

The new Rollingstone game the album 4 stars. I give it 1. It's pretty bland stuff, the single being the best track on the album.

I would rather listen to STP.

Well, I have been listening to the VH1 streams and have been less than impressed. I was looking foreward to this, but now am not sure I will even buy it. Like most have said here already, pretty bland, nothing stands out. :(

Jesus. I don't understand you guys.

This CD is great. I love it.

sounds great to me. very good album.

I'm with you on this one. Sounds like the GNR band w/Scott Weiland singing. Exactly the way I thought it would be. I wonder if everyone was expecting a radical departure from both GNR and STP. For me, it's just fantastic to hear the GNR band members back together. Slash's guitar tones are fantastic, Duff's back with his trademark bass-style, and Matt's drumming is tight. I think Scott was an excellent match with these guys. I only hope that he makes a sincere effort to keep himself clean. I think they could write some amazing material to follow up this debut.

Good rock.

I would have to agree that it is a great cd. I really like Sucker Train Blues. The rest are good but that one really sticks out to me. I don't really care for Loving the Alien. I was really disappointed with the copy protection crap on it since I like to copy my cds to my nex II (mp3 player) so I can take it to the gym. I was glad to find out how to get around that copy protection. I'm going to their concert tomorrow night, really looking forward to it.

Nothing wrong with that...you like it and that's all that matters...just like I don't like what I have heard so far (it's not awful just not that good IMHO)....it will not stop you from enjoying it....just opinions :)

I love the album, but I have always loved STP and GNR so its a good fit.

I like it as well. It's not great, as there are no stand out tracks IMO, but all the tracks are good. Just good, simple rock music.

I didn't have high expectations for this, I love STP (which is why I bought it) but never cared for GnR at all, so I had reservations. Thus I guess I was pleasantly surprised that it sounds more like STP than GnR to me.

I bought this album yesterday, and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm glad to see regular rock making a comeback.

Anyone else think that Weiland sounds a bit like Alice Cooper in his Poison days?

Nevermind, I found instruction on how to do it, here they are for anyone else.

Start with a Windows 2000/XP system with empty CD drives. Be sure to reboot the computer first to ensure MediaMax is not running.

1. Click the Start button and select Control Panel from the Start Menu (or just right click My Computer, hit properties and then go to step 3).

2. Double-click on the System control panel icon.

3. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.

4. Configure Device Manager by clicking "Show hidden devices" and "Devices by connection," both from the View menu.

5. Insert the CD into the computer and allow the SunnComm software to start. Observe that the SbcpHid device driver is added to the Device Manager list when MediaMax runs for the first time.


Next, follow these additional steps to disable MediaMax:

1. Select the SbcpHid driver from the Device Manager list and click "Properties" from the Action Menu.

2. Click the Driver tab and click the Stop button to disable the driver.

I dunno - it seems kind of like Tenacious D, only without the irony.

It definitly sounds like a cross between GnR & STP, but not quite as good as either - the sum is less than the parts.

The lyrics are horrible. Slash still sounds good though.

Well, I should note that I never really like STP that much, nor Weilands voice so that is why I think I was not too impressed with this.

I'm a really big fan of GN'R and specially Slash, but not that big of STP and Weiland. I'll still buy the CD, but mainly to complete my collection and to hear Slash and the other GN'R guys.

Anyways, this morning I tried 2 Best Buy's, 2 Circuit City's and 1 Target stores and the album was sold out in all of them. At best buy one of the sales persons told they might get it back in stock by Saturday :(

I'm exactly the opposite, GnR are one of my top 5 favorite bands ever, but STP have never been more to me than just pretty good. They were one of the better 90s bands that emerged in the early 90s, but that's about it for me.

I don't think any of the songs on the VR album are all that amazing, but "Slither", "Big Machine", and "Sucker Train Blues" are my favorites. The album to me isn't all that different from Slash's Snakepit stuff. The only real difference is that Scott is a better singer than any of the vocalists Slash had in his band. It doesrock, you can say, but to me it's not all that exciting or unpredictable. At times it just seemed like generic hard rock with some great solos and Weiland's artsy-fartsy stylings thrown in here and there.

I definitely think that it was Izzy and Axl who were the better songwriters in Gnr, so that is lacking somewhat with VR. Although some of his stuff with STP was great, Scott can also write some really lame and pretentious shit (most likely when he's high off his mind on smack). I really think this band could have been so much better if Izzy had been involved (I heard he was at first when it was called "The Project"). The JuJu Hounds record and 117 degrees are both great rock albums.

But overall, I'm definitely happy to see VR getting some good press. It's nice to see Slash and Duff back in the spotlight again and looking good. I did get irritated with Scott's cheesy rock star posing and wasted look in the "Slither" video, but I'm kinda used to it with him. I just hope he stays clean, for himself and for the guys in the band who are depending on him to be there.