If controversy really does sell CDs, now is the time to be in th record business. Three of the most notorious acts in popular music are unleashing new albums today: Rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, the Dr. Dre cohort currently under indictment for murder; Beavis and Butt-head, the animated MTV twosome whose show has been blamed for everything from arson to the decline of Western Civilization; and Guns N' Roses, the riot-inciting hard rock act whose name has become synonymous with excess and destruction.
Are there any turkeys in this holiday releases? Will anyone other than record store owners be thankful for this bounty? Should parents simply lock up their children now? Here's how the terrifying trio shape up.
In some ways, the worst thing that ever happened to Guns N' Roses was to go from being just another rock act to becoming the spokesband for a generation.
It wasn't simply that these guys were ill-equipped for such a task, though Guns N' Roses is clearly not the sort of group that wears responsibility well; rather, being serious sucked most of the fun out of the band's sound. So where "Appetite for Destruction" was raucous and wry, and "GNR Lies" was poignant and funny, the music on "Use Your Illusion I" and "II" was ardent, ambitious -- and, frankly, a bit of a drag.
So it will probably come as a relief to some listeners that "The Spaghetti Incident?" (Geffen 24617) contains no emotion-packed psychodramas, string-drenched piano ballads or songs about how Axl Rose feels wounded by the world around him. Instead, all it has to offer is straight-forward rock 'n' roll -- the kind GNR owes its reputation to.
"Owes" is the operative term here, and not just because the album consists entirely of cover versions. What "The Spaghetti Incident?" ultimately amounts to is an act of tribute, a way for the band to celebrate some of the music it grew up with.
And that probably would seem no big deal, except for the fact that the stuff that seems to have influenced them most is punk rock.
Surprised? Don't be. After all, the Gunners aren't the only guys on the hard rock circuit who have paid homage to punk. Motley Crue and Skid Row, for example, have both recorded Sex Pistols covers, while Living Colour has remade at least one Bad Brains tune.
