We've waited 17 years for a full length album of new
Guns N' Roses material, and this stretch of time was made all the more ridiculous after all the delays, firings, and apparent breakdowns by Axl Rose, the band's only remaining original member, and his ill-fated project:
Chinese Democracy. As more and more time elapsed, as release dates were pushed back further-and-further, the expectations for this album became higher or lower, depending on how you look at it. Some might say that it couldn't possibly be good because Axl is totally off his rocker and has made simply putting out a rock n' roll record into something far more difficult than it needed to be. If you're a rock optimist praying that G n' R will shock everyone by jumping right back into the forefront of hard rock after a decade and a half in the dark, then you may be excited to break the seal on this disc and dive right in.
In case you haven't heard, G n' R is cross-promoting by making their latest release only available at Best Buy, and further promoting soda by allowing purchasers of the album to send away for a free Dr Pepper. Sure, it's ridiculous to wait all that time for a rock record to come out, but it's equally stupid to send away and wait a week for a soda. Now, I don't have time to wait for that bottle to come, so I just bought the record at Best Buy the other night and bought a bottle of Dr P. at a gas station just now. Today, I'm breaking that seal on my Chinese Democracy disc, but I'm also breaking the seal on a bottle of Dr Pepper. But, which experience is more enjoyable/worth the wait: the soda or the record. As not only a fan of Guns N' Roses, but a firm believer that they were not only one of the greatest American rock bands of all time in terms of embodying rock n' roll by eating, sleeping, and breathing the rock seemingly instinctually, I feel real bad about comparing their latest effort to a carbonated beverage. However, by waiting 17 years and basically squandering the band, they (he) opened the door for such a review.
Twilight star Kristen Stewart has been tapped to play rock icon Joan Jett in a forthcoming biopic about the 1980s star. The 18-year-old actress will take on the role in new film The Runaways, depicting the all-girl band's rise and fall from the limelight. 
