20 illinoisentertainer. com january 2017
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By Mike Meyer
photo by Steven Cohen
ay what you will about the record industry death harbinger known as Chinese Democracy-- The New York Times once called it " the most expensive album never made "-- the 2008 GN ' R album without Slash and Duff that has somehow maintained its footing in the fickle populist rock vocabulary. Who would have guessed that Slash and Duff would now be busting out " Chinese Democracy " and " Better " alongside Axl Rose to millions of Guns N ' Roses nostalgists around the globe? I panned the thing when it finally crawled out of Rose ' s spider tank, recoiling from the obsessive editing of digitized nuclear blues taken from 14 recording studios over 14 years. The same songs " were watershed, neo-grunge breakthroughs," I wrote in a 2006 live review. It seems Chinese Democracy will live forever: " And to all those opposed / Hmm / Well..."
It ' s easy to forget the individual musicians washed away by Rose ' s compulsive nu process and the second coming of the group ' s classic " Not In This Lifetime " lineup. But Tommy Stinson( ex-The Replacements) spent over 15 years of his life in Guns N ' Roses. He ' s credited with playing bass on most of Chinese Democracy, even co-writing " Street Of Dreams " with Rose and Dizzy Reed. The 2014 live release Appetite For Democracy, culled from the pre-reunion band ' s 2012 Las Vegas residency, features not only the amalgam of Appetite For Destruction and Chinese Democracy favorites, but a GN ' R rendition of a cut off Stinson ' s 2004 solo album Village Gorilla Head. This " Motivation " is the stripped-down sizzle that Chinese Democracy lacks, an amped-up punk palate cleanser taking cues from Sticky Fingers from the Rolling Stones, like all good L. A. glam.
Stinson acknowledged his departure from Guns N ' Roses about a year ago, when a reunited classic lineup became public. He has since revived Bash & Pop, the early ' 90s group he fronted after The Replacements first broke up and before Guns N ' Roses started Chinese Democracy. Bash & Pop ' s 1993 debut, Friday Night Is Killing Me( Sire / Reprise), is due out on vinyl for the first time Jan. 24. New album Anything Could Happen( out Jan. 20 on Fat Possum) sees Stinson as lead singer / rhythm guitarist and bassist-- with help from drummers Joe Sirois( The Mighty Mighty Bosstones) and Frank Ferrer( GN ' R), lead guitarists Steve Selvidge( The Hold Steady) and Luther Dickinson( North Mississippi Allstars),
bassist Catherine Popper( Ryan Adams & The Cardinals), and multi-instrumentalist Justin Perkins( Screeching Weasel), among others. His touring lineup includes Selvidge, Sirois, and Perkins. IE recently had a chance to ask Stinson about all things Bash & Pop and Guns N ' Roses. Though the artist now sees Guns N ' Roses in the rearview mirror from upstate New York, he raised the fascinating possibility that the " Not In This Lifetime " reunion actually happened because of him.
IE: Guns N ' Roses fans who heard your solo song " Motivation " performed at GN ' R shows might be surprised by the country in tracks like " Breathing Room " and " Bad News " on Anything Could Happen. You played the punk in Guns N ' Roses. Are you the punk in Bash & Pop? Tommy Stinson: With Guns N ' Roses, the idea was more to play something upbeat and fitting, and that was more of a punk kind of vibe. But this Anything Could Happen record is really not even that much of a departure songwise than my solo records. [ The songs ] just executed differently with a band and have a particular flair about them. That may be a little more rootsy, maybe some country influence, I suppose. But, you know, I am a little bit of everything that you ever heard me do. A little bit of this, a little bit of that.
IE: More than anything, Anything Could Happen is melodic without sounding commercial. New sing-alongs for the old-bar jukebox. With everything trying to be so damned hard in punk rock, it ' s easy to forget how melodic punk could be and once was. There are songs that to my ears are equal parts Stiff Little Fingers and Wilco(" Not This Time," " On The Rocks "). TS: These days, a lot of punk rock has gotten lost on the hardness and not the hook, the melody, the song. I mean, shit, think of fucking Buzzcocks. Those are some of the catchiest fucking songs in punk rock, if you want to call them punk rock. People kind of forget. I mean, Green Day have got a pretty good handle on keeping it fresh and punk rock. They remember there ' s a fucking hook here, and a chorus, and a lyric.
IE: What ' s the one question everyone asks? TS: Everyone is wanting to know why the hell I call it Bash & Pop. And it ' s a good question, it ' s a good question. A lot of people just don ' t think it makes any sense at all.
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