Duff McKagan's Loaded - The Taking

Back in 2001, when Loaded released their debut album 'Dark Days', it was always bizarrely referred to as a punk rock album. There were a few punkier songs on there, but they were mainly re-recordings of songs originally recorded for Duff McKagan's cancelled solo album 'Beautiful Disease'. The songs unique to 'Dark Days' were difficult to categorise, but with their dark themes and atmospherics they seemed closer to goth rock than punk rock. All in all, though, the album sounded like they were searching for a sound.
With 2008 and 2009's 'Wasted Heart EP', and full-length album 'Sick' a lot of the darker themes stayed but the dark atmospheric sound gave way to a commercial sheen. This isn't a criticism, as 'Sick' sounded more like a cohesive album, with a band that knew their strengths and had finally found the sound they were looking for before. It was ultimately my favourite album of 2009.

Just two years later, and with legendary producer Terry Date at the helm, Loaded have released their heaviest album yet. Duff has spoken about how people have remarked at this album sounding "more Seattle" than the previous ones, and they're right. This album sounds much more like what the world at large expects when they think of "Seattle music". Right off from the opening track 'Lords Of Abaddon', Duff, Mike, Jeff and Isaac make their mission perfectly clear. They are here to crush your skull. The riff is relentless, whilst Duff shouts down the microphone about the evils of corporate greed (explain that one on your corporate sponsored tour, guys).
The next song is a re-recording of 'Executioner's Song', previously only available on the 'Wasted Heart EP'. I didn't like the idea of them re-doing a song that's already available right up until the moment that I heard it. It was already the heaviest song in their catalogue, but this time with Isaac's incredible Grohl-esque drumming, and Terry Date's trademark production it bursts from the speakers in a way that it never has before. With no offence to Geoff Reading and Martin Feveyear, this is the definitive version of the song. This song leads into the single 'Dead Skin' and anthemic almost Foo Fighters-ish 'We Win' which serve to tone things down a little before three tracks - 'Easier Lying', 'She's An Anchor', and 'Indian Summer' - which revert back to the more commercial style of 'Sick'. Of these only 'She's An Anchor' is a misstep, not because of any songwriting, but because the vocals somehow manage to depower the guitars throughout. It's really strange that the album all seems to have a unified mix where the vocals and guitar are pretty much on equal footing, except this one song. It's a shame, because it could have been one of the highlights of the album.
'Wrecking Ball' segues from the more commercial sound of the previous songs back into a heavier bridge with Ozzy-alike backing vocals, which leads perfectly into the final four songs that remind you of the renewed vigour they opened the album with. 'King Of The World' is a fast-paced song that I feel in the verses is the closest to punk rock that Loaded have gotten since they re-recorded Duff's 'Seattlehead'. 'Cocaine' deals with familiar subject matter to all fans of the band - there has to be at least one song that deals with drug abuse on each album it seems. However whereas the others have been about near-death experiences suffered due to the drug abuse, this one seems to be about the effects going cold turkey has on your body, even after years clean.
'Your Name' begins as a slow-grind with a vocal in the verse that's reminiscent of Layne Staley, which becomes a full-on rock attack by the time you get the solo and leads into 'Follow Me To Hell'. This is perhaps the most aggressive song that the band have ever recorded, and closes the album on a charge of adrenaline... even if you could replace the vocals in the verses with those of 'Fight For Your Right To Party' by The Beastie Boys and not be able to hear the difference.

One of the nicest thing about this album is that as agressive and relentless as the music gets, Duff never manages to lose the art of a catchy chorus. The production by Terry is impeccable, and I feel should really introduce the band to the world stage in a serious way. I know that it's very possible that in two years time they could come out with something that sounds completely different, but I'm going to say it anyway... it appears that Loaded have found their sound!

Sucker Punch

On Saturday, I went to see 300 and Watchmen director Zack Snyder's newest movie, Sucker Punch. A movie that pushed all of the right geek buttons with its debut trailer, and had me excited to see how it turned out. However, early reviews of the movie seemed to be universally awful, so I went into the cinema preparing myself for the first major disappointment since Wolverine.

The absolutely stunning Emily Browning stars as Babydoll, a 20 year old girl who is framed for the murder of her little sister, and institutionalised by her stepfather in order to get his hands on the inheritance her mother left to them. The owner of the asylum (Oscar Isaac) forges the doctor's (Carla Gugino) signature in order to authorise a lobotomy and then that right there is where the story stops making sense.

Without either warning or explanation the movie changes locations to a brothel in which her and four other patients called Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (a very un-blonde Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung) dance to impress potential clients. We're expected to believe that all of this is a figment of Baby's imagination, in order to escape the horrors of her reality, which strikes me as odd considering the entire point of this movie is that she was wrongly put into the asylum, so she shouldn't be suffering from delusional fantasies. Carla Gugino's character (now the brothel's madam) then forces Babydoll to dance, which seems to entrance everybody in the room and send Babydoll and the other girls into yet another set of delusions.

From here, the movie is basically a videogame that you have no control of. A "wise man" informs the girls that to escape the brothel/asylum they will need to collect five items - a map, fire, a knife, a key and a fifth mystery item. So the girls decide to use Babydoll's hypnotic dancing powers to distract people so that they can collect the items. Each dance transports them to the delusion in which all five girls have super powers, wield swords and heavy weaponry and fight swarms of robots, chaingun wielding samurai golems, dragons and steampunk zombie Prussian soldiers. This is where the main focus of Sucker Punch is... the completely over the top action set-pieces featuring sexy scantily clad girls in Snyder's trademark slow-motion/fast-motion. It's all visually stunning, exhilirating stuff that looks to be building up to an ultimate showdown.

But the actual ending is actually just confusing, messy and makes no sense whatsoever. Even in a film that stopped making sense about ten minutes in, the ending left me wondering what the fuck had just happened. And not in a cool Inception kind of way in which you know that that is what Christopher Nolan intended. More in a "look how clever I am" kind of way. A confusing ending is all well and good, but the difference between Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder is that Nolan understands it's not that it's confusing that makes it clever, but that there is actually some level of sense in the narrative which makes extensive discussion of that confusion possible. Snyder thinks his closest narrative peer at the moment is Nolan, when in fact it is Michael Bay... tons of action-packed spectacle, which is tremendous fun when it's not trying to be anything more than it is.

But, despite these criticisms, the good news is that Sucker Punch isn't at all as bad as reviewers have led you to believe. Everyone who saw the trailer knew that what this movie promised was hot girls not wearing much taking part in over the top visually stunning action set-pieces. That is exactly what it delivered in spades, and anyone who expected anything more were obviously deluding themselves. Zack may have made the mistake of putting every single awesome idea he's ever had into one movie, forcing him to try to be clever in order to tie all of these pieces together to create some semblance of story in there, but he's not guilty of under-achieving when it comes to the action scenes. He may have been better served if he pitched the idea to Ninja Theory (developer of PS3 games like Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey To The West) than to Warner Pictures... I'm sure as a game it would have been an incredibly fun, if not entirely original experience. The soundtrack was also a pleasant surprise, featuring Emily Browning's vocals on new takes of songs like Sweet Dreams and Where Is My Mind? (is there anything this girl can't do? I think I may be in love), as well as an incredible cover of The Stooges' Search And Destroy by Skunk Anansie.

SCORE: 6.5/10 - Imagine Japanese "heroic bloodshed" movies like Onechanabra which are basically just films about half naked girls with swords... but add in a $82 million budget and some actual actors, and you get one gorgeous-looking, expensive guilty pleasure that is perfect as brainless entertainment, but is severely flawed when it comes to plot and structure.


If this image alone doesn't make you want to see Sucker Punch, you're either female or there's something wrong with you.

Message To The People Of Japan

I haven't had much to talk about lately, but I thought I'd put this message out there quickly...

To the people of Japan... I've been hearing a lot about your calm and understanding in the face of a major crisis. Other places in the world would be like a war zone full of looters by now, but you've managed to hold yourselves together and keep your dignity. You should be proud of yourselves. I hope that people around the world see the beauty and humility in your culture that I have seen for a long time. I wish the best for you all and know that you'll pull through this like you have before, and hope that others will learn from your example.

The Guns N' Roses Experience (via Aerosmith)

Believe it or not, I wasn't always the music-obsessive that I am now. In my early years, my music tastes included Michael Jackson and whatever I heard on the radio/TV that didn't include bass so low that I don't know which is more likely - my head exploding, or an involuntary bowel movement (I'm looking at you UK Garage and Drum N' Bass!).

Surprisingly, my first introduction into a larger musical world was watching the short live TV version of the Pepsi Chart Show on Channel 5 in the summer of 1998. That week featured the release of two big budget movies... Lost In Space, and Armageddon. I was strangely intrigued by Apollo 440's take on the Lost In Space theme, but the next song made me sit up and take notice. It was the video premiere for Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, and by the end of the song my mind was blown. I began looking for anything related to Aerosmith, and talking about the band to everyone who would listen. I would since find out that many rock fans hate I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, but I still maintain that it's a great song, and it's still the song I credit with opening my mind to music that I had before not known existed. (Note: technically, I'd heard The End Is The Beginning Is The End by The Smashing Pumpkins the previous year, but as much as I liked the song, it for some reason didn't have the same effect on me).

A year passed, and thanks to recommendations from my brother and cousins, I'd started listening to bands like Nirvana and Iron Maiden, but my favourite band was still Aerosmith. This changed however, when a friend of mine who I had pulled kicking and screaming into the world of rock music with me came to my house with a new purchase that he had made. The cover featured five skulls wearing various forms of headgear placed evenly around a crucifix. Above and below the crucifix were two banners which said 'Guns N' Roses', and 'Appetite For Destruction'. "Put this on", my friend said, "I've heard it's quite good".

So, in the CD goes into the player, the play button is pressed and by the time the intro of the first song is over, I am already blown away. For the next fifty minutes or so, the two of us are mesmerised by the sounds coming out of the speakers - both very shocked when the ninth song plays and we recognise it. Everything about the album exuded a confidence that most bands ordinarily do not have when they're recording their debut album - Aerosmith certainly didn't show it on theirs, despite some standout tracks showing their potential - but the thing that stood out to me the most was that voice. How does someone sing like that? during 'Welcome To The Jungle', quickly gave way to that can't be the same guy during 'It's So Easy', but through every song you got the impression that this was a man who meant every word he sang, and a man for whom not saying what was on his mind was just not an option.

Over the years, I would buy every Guns N' Roses album and marvel at their refusal to be pigeon-holed. 'Use Your Illusion' went in so many directions over the course of two and a half hours that a lot of critics like to dismiss it as an unfocused mess, but they miss the point. By this time everybody in the band had matured as songwriters, resulting in a lot of the songs on those albums actually being better than the ones on 'Appetite For Destruction'. There were a few near misses, but overall the 'Use Your Illusion' albums are an epic masterpiece that take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions that leave you exhausted by the time you end. I think the reason that these albums draw a bit of scorn from some people is that they are uncomfortable with "anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced" (thanks to Fox Mulder for that quote).

It will probably seem strange to everyone now, but I didn't get a computer until the summer of 2000 with an internet connection following that October. One of the first searches I did on the internet was for 'Guns N' Roses', and what did I find? Axl Rose was the only person left in the band, and that the new line-up of the band will be making their live debut on December 31st of that year. This was my introduction to the saga that was the wait for 'Chinese Democracy'... I remember long long hours of downloading bootleg recordings on Napster of that performance and the one at Rock In Rio a couple of weeks later, being annoyed when the connection was cut off and I had to start again. The new tracks that they debuted at those shows were different, but I was excited. Even moreso when a European was announced. It was cancelled (twice!), but it didn't dip my enthusiasm.

It wasn't long after that that former Guns N' Roses members decided to form a band with each other, and went on a six month search for a lead singer. When the front-runner for the role was Sebastian Bach of the awful Skid Row, I decided that I'd completely lost interest in what these people were doing. And then I heard that they were actually teaming up with Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots... this could actually be interesting! And interesting it was... 'Contraband' was released, and it featured the same kind of intensity that I remembered upon first hearing 'Appetite For Destruction'. This band were completely different to Guns N' Roses musically, but even so, the band came out with something to prove and they came out fighting, exactly as Guns did all those years ago. Even the frontman seemed to have the same attitude as Axl did back then, taking all of the anger he could muster and unleashing it in a way that made this album one of the most exciting rock albums in recent years.

Did I mention how much of a stereotypical emotional wreck of a teenager I was? The victim of all of the jokes at school, I was amongst the group of people who had to stick with each other because no one else was going to. That is really the point of the whole thing, because beyond the actual music, they were (and are) also the band that gave me the balls to carry on. I'm not an overly confident person still, but what little confidence I do have - the little bit that keeps me honest, and allows me to say what's on my mind and not give a shit what everyone else thinks - I at least partially need to credit to this band, who really don't give a shit what people think. All of them make decisions that I - and other people - don't like at times, but the refreshing thing is that these are the few musicians left who will say "I know you don't like this decision, but I don't care".

The last few years I have actually gotten to know Duff McKagan, thanks to his appearances at Music Live, as well as his tours in the UK (and Amsterdam) with his band, Loaded - who I spoke about in an earlier article. It's strange, because I didn't know whether or not to refer to him as a friend until this past saturday when we met at the Birmingham Guitar Show, and he introduced myself, my fiancee and a friend of ours as "my friends". Duff actually writes columns for the Seattle Weekly newspaper, and that day I found myself co-writing a column... if you told me twelve years ago that the bass player on the record that has just changed my life will a) give a shit about me, and b) let me co-write a feature with him, I would have said you were crazy. People may ask if this is a bizarre experience... honestly? No. Back in 2007 when I'd only met him once, it definitely would have been. But the man is so easy-going that to me he's no longer "Duff McKagan, former member of Guns N' Roses, and member of Velvet Revolver and Loaded" to me.... now he's just "Duff" - not Michael... NEVER Michael.

The column I wrote with him can be found here...

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2011/03/a_meeting_of_the_minds.php

P.S. - I have seen people suggest that Duff doesn't really write this column, and he hires a ghost-writer (the evidence basically being their own perception of his intelligence). Well, I can now say without a doubt... unless he credits anything to someone else, he writes every word himself.

Akira: Please Don't Let Hollywood Screw This One Up

This is Shotaro Kaneda, the lead character of the 1988 anime Akira. Contrary to popular belief, Akira himself doesn't play a big role in Akira - though he is central to the storyline.
Kaneda is the leader of a biker gang called The Capsules in the city of Neo-Tokyo (built just across the way from the crater that used to be "old school Tokyo"). It is established within the movie that Kaneda and the rest of the Capsules are students of a school for juvenile delinquents under 15 years old.

A few years ago, Warner Bros. along with another production company owned by Leonard DiCaprio purchased the rights to turn Akira into a big budget live action Hollywood feature, with DiCaprio himself in the role of Kaneda. I thought that this was a strange decision, but there was a time when DiCaprio could pass for a 14 year old... granted, that time was 1997. In fact, if this movie had happened back then, it could have been just the role Leo was looking for to prove that he was more than just the pretty boy love interest - an image he got himself by making Romeo + Juliet and Titanic back to back. And what's more, it could have been the runaway hit that The Matrix was by beating that movie to the punch. Anyway, a few years has past, and it seems that DiCaprio isn't involved in the project any more. Hollywood bosses seem to have decided that without Leo, the role should go to an already established big name actor... the names talked about so far? James Franco and Brad Pitt....


Here's James Franco... not going to be passing for a 14 year old any time soon, is he.

But is there anyone who could be worse in the role of a 14 year old biker gang leader than the 47 year old Brad Pitt?


Really Hollywood? I suppose there is an argument that can be made about the scripts being written to make the characters older, but then the counter-argument is this... that is not Akira! The story is about ultimate unlimited power in the hands of some serious teenage angst issues (basically Dawson's Creek with explosions, superpowers and graphic violence... and who wouldn't want to see Dawson explode into a grotesque mess?). If you're going to make it about middle-aged men with ridiculous salaries blowing things up, you might as well just not attach the Akira name to it.

Fear not, though Hollywood, for I have the answer to this predicament. You may have to wait another couple of years, but seeing as film's been stuck in "development hell" for years already that shouldn't be too much to ask... Jaden Smith. You can keep the general synopsis of the movie, by merely combining the Japanese biker gang culture with the LA street gang culture, and BAM! You have yourself a movie, featuring a kid who was a star before he was even in a movie thanks to his already famous parents. And you wouldn't have to worry about whether he'd be credible in action scenes... he's already the Karate Kid! (Well, Kung Fu Kid really, but that's a whole other issue).



This is Kei. The female lead of Akira. The big female name that has been connected to this role is Mila Kunis. I could actually see this working... sure, she's currently 27 years old, but I always got the impression that Kei was quite a bit older than Kaneda who was infatuated with her and followed her around. I dunno... maybe it's just my hormones speaking, as I currently believe that every movie should feature a Mila Kunis nude scene... maybe playing the lead role in the also in development hell live action Ghost In The Shell movie would be more appropriate for her.
The problem I have with what Hollywood seems to have in store for this character, though? I've seen the description of the role as "sexy, smart government agent". Government agent? Once again guys, if you're going to change everything about the movie, take the Akira name away from it!

You see, Akira is set in the year 2019. The Japanese government has taken the destruction of the original Tokyo in 1988 (obviously these dates will have to be changed) as an opportunity to take away all civil liberties, and the upcoming Olympic games set to be hosted by Neo-Tokyo is to be the country's big statement to the rest of the world. Rumours persist that it wasn't an enemy attack that destroyed Tokyo, but a mystical being known only as Akira who gained unlimited power and used it for destruction. These rumours have led to increasingly violent cults dedicated to the worship of Akira, and the actions of the government have led to an underground resistance group that plans to uncover the governments secret experiments and overthrow them. Kei is a member of this resistance group. Turning her into a "sexy, smart government agent" is making this the complete opposite of Akira.

That's the end of my rant about a movie that might possibly never come to fruition. I certainly hope it lingers in development hell just long enough for someone in Hollywood to get a clue as to what they are dealing with here... both storywise, and the fact that Akira is undoubtedly the most popular anime movie of all time (discounting Dragonball Z and Pokemon), and screwing it up will result in no one going to see it.

A Break From Talking About Music... Let's Talk Batman Instead

I may be a couple of weeks late with this, seeing as the buzz from the announcement Tom Hardy (Inception) will be playing Bane in next year's The Dark Knight Rises is already dying down, but I thought I'd talk a bit about the character of Bane. Fans of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies that don't read the comics may have felt a sense of trepidation at the announcement, as - unlike The Scarecrow, The Joker and Two-Face - Bane is a relatively unknown character outside of the comics. He made appearances in a couple of episodes of the excellent Batman: The Animated Series, the only other portrayal of the character was in the awful Batman & Robin, in which he was a mindless mutant with a tiny vocabulary following Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy around and doing all of her dirty work.
When you consider this awful representation of the character, it's easy to understand why people wouldn't be particularly excited about the character appearing in the sequel to a movie that featured Heath Ledger's Joker. However, I'm confident that Christopher and Jonathan Nolan know what they're doing, and will bring more of the comics into their version of the character.

Bane first appeared in the Batman comics in 1993, a prisoner in a South American prison - forced to carry out his father's sentence after his father escapes. Within the walls of the prison, Bane becomes obsessed with learning and bodybuilding, seeking an education from fellow inmates. With his mixture of brains and brawn, he eventually becomes the self-appointed "king of Pena Dura prison".

Eventually, the prison controllers force Bane to take part in an experiment with the brand new drug known as Venom. Venom is basically a fast-acting super-steroid that greatly increases his size and pysical strength. The drawback however, is that Venom is incredibly addictive, and he requires a new dose every twelve hours (fed to him via tubes that pump the drug directly into his brain). After these experiments, Bane and a few other inmates escape and make their way to Gotham City.

The reason for the trip to Gotham is simple. In prison, Bane had heard tales of the city and its mysterious protector known only as Batman. Plagued with nightmares involving bats since childhood, he has concluded that the bat in his dreams are a literal representation of Batman, and recognises that Batman holds the same position in Gotham as he did in the prison. As such, he sets about making his plans to usurp Batman's throne and gain control of Gotham City.

The first stage of his plans involves staging a full frontal assault on Arkham Asylum, freeing all of the inmates. This begins the first major Batman storyline I ever read... Knightfall. With the likes of the Joker, the Scarecrow, Victor Zsasz, etc. embarking on a crime-spree around the city, Bane simply sits back and waits for three months as Batman runs himself to exhaustion in an attempt to round them up. In the meantime, he also managed to deduce that Batman is Bruce Wayne. He finally made his move by waiting for Batman to return from a night of patrolling in Wayne Manor...

The exhausted Batman stands no chance against Bane dosed up on Venom, and after a long drawn-out fight in Wayne Manor - extended by Bane holding back until the last second - the issue ended with Batman's spine being broken on Bane's knee. After throwing the broken Batman onto a busy street, he immediately seized control of all organised crime in the city.

As one of the few villains to actually beat Batman, the treatment that he received in Batman & Robin was even more insulting to his character than he would have been otherwise. I'm not sure about all of the backstory, and the Venom angle, but a steroid-using criminal genius? That would definitely fit into Christopher Nolan's Gotham City, whilst at the same time keeping true to the comics. My reservations aren't with the character, but whether Thomas Hardy will be able to pull off the look of the character. Sure, he has beefed up before for his role in Bronson, but Bane has always been even bigger than that. Unhealthily large, in fact. Though they could use clever camera angles to exaggerate his size.

Oh... and if you want to know how the above story played out, read on... if not, then don't.

Bruce Wayne passed on the mantle of Batman to a newcomer named Jean-Paul Valley (aka Azrael), who became increasingly unhinged and violent. After adapting the costume into a high-tech suit of armour (think an amalgamation of Batman and Iron Man), he eventually took on Bane, and beat him to a pulp. A few years later, when Bruce Wayne had returned to the series, Bane reappeared as the right hand man of Ra's al Ghul. The long-awaited grudge match ended with Bane's defeat... and the outcome has been the same every time the pair have clashed since. So I guess that Venom isn't as helpful as he thinks, and his big victory was entirely down to only taking on his target when he was on his lowest ebb.... maybe he's a pussy after all.

Duff McKagan's Loaded Ready To Return

So last night, saw what might turn out to be the premature unveiling of the album art and tracklisting for the new album by Duff McKagan's Loaded. I say prematurely, because a comment from guitarist Mike Squires after I posted it on Facebook was: "Well, I guess it's out there now". For those who may not have seen it, here it is...

1) Lords Of Abaddon
2) Executioner's Song
3) Dead Skin
4) We Win
5) Easier Lying
6) She's An Anchor
7) Wrecking Ball
8) King Of The World
9) Cocaine
10) Your Name
11) Follow Me To Hell

Japan gets their obligatory 3 bonus tracks: 'Indian Summer', 'Runaway (acoustic)' and 'King Of The World (acoustic)'.
The majority of people reading already know me, so will already know about this band, but I'm just going to go on as if nobody else has heard of them anyway.

If you're wondering why you should be excited about a solo project from the former bass player of Guns N' Roses right now? Let me enlighten you... Loaded is not just a solo project. They started off this way when they formed in 1999 to tour behind Duff's soon to be cancelled solo album 'Beautiful Disease', going through numerous line-ups until they eventually split in 2002, just after releasing their own debut album 'Dark Days' - Duff had just gotten a call from Matt Sorum and Slash regarding forming a new band together, which would become Velvet Revolver.

However, in 2008, after things in Velvet Revolver soured, the band's 2002 incarnation of Mike Squires, Jeff Rouse and Geoff Reading regrouped as a fully fledged band. Confusingly, this was when the 'Duff McKagan's' prefix was added to the band name - a record label enforced name change for a mixture of legal and marketing reasons. I believe that this gives the wrong impression. Duff believes that this gives the wrong impression, but that's now the name they're stuck with.

That Autumn, the band released the 'Wasted Heart EP' as well as played a well-received tour of the UK, including a gig in the smallest room of Nottingham's Rock City that became one of the best live performances I have ever seen from any band. Jeff Rouse - who had previously been a member of Alien Crime Syndicate, and had toured four years previously with Duff's replacement in GN'R, Tommy Stinson - is one of the best bass players in the world. His unquestionable ability combined with his hyperactive stage performance make him a true hidden gem in rock n' roll. Mike Squires is another Alien Crime Syndicate veteran - who unfortunately had left the band before the Tommy Stinson tour - and his guitar playing is easily on a par with any other guitarist Duff has played with (and yes, I do mean any). And Geoff Reading was an absolute monster on the drums. Needless to say, this was the moment in which I went from Guns N' Roses fan interested in a former members' other band to a full-fledged Loaded fan.

The following year saw the release of 'Sick', their first studio album for eight years, which quickly became my favourite album of 2009. It's not aiming to be anything groundbreaking, but what it is aiming to be is a kick-ass rock n' roll record, which it delivers in spades. The album had a much more commercial and light sound than it's predecessor, 'Dark Days', which really lived up to its name, but still dealt with some pretty serious subjects like Duff's close-call with death thanks to his partying days ('The Slide'), and the political situation in the US ('Translucent'). All the while, though, it's mainstream production never stops the album being fun, no matter how dark it gets. The summer of that year saw the band extensively tour Europe, ending in a fantastic performance in the blistering heat of Amsterdam's Melkweg. Unfortunately, this would turn out to be Geoff Reading's last show with the band, replaced with former Loudermilk/Gosling drummer Isaac Carpenter.

It wasn't long before Isaac proved himself to be more than capable of filling Geoff's shoes, showcasing some absolutely insane drumming on a UK tour opening for Black Stone Cherry - somehow at the London show, he managed to lose his shoe - followed by a tour of South America.

Not only are they one of the most fun rock n' roll bands in the world currently, with some truly awesome live performances that showcase Duff in his element when it's all close, sweaty and intimite, but they are also some of the nicest people I have ever met. They will stick their neck out for their fans, and for each other. When I first met Duff in November of 2007, I expected him to hate me, because of my tendency to speak my mind - which when I was younger may have crossed the line more than once, but instead he was extremely friendly, and over the last few years we've developed a... I don't want to call it a friendship, as that may sound presumptious, but definitely a mutual respect. We can give little digs to each other, and let each other know when we think they're wrong about something without either of us taking it personally. There is none of the pretense arrogance that a lot of people - myself included sometimes - associate with rock stardom (and in some cases, ever being a member of Guns N' Roses in particular). And the other members of the band all have a similar mindset and outlook on life, which is important when you spend a good proportion of their lives stuck on a bus with each other.

All of these things are reasons why, when Duff briefly joined Jane's Addiction last year, and whenever news of Velvet Revolver nearly finding their new singer arises, I begin to worry for the future of Loaded. They may have an extremely small following - which will hopefully grow significantly in 2011 - but to that following they mean the world. The track 'We Win' was released on iTunes and radio late last year, and I had no doubt upon hearing it that this new album would be just as good, if not even better than 'Sick'.

So there you go... that is why you should be excited for a new album from Duff McKagan's Loaded. If anyone still doesn't believe me, if they come to a venue near you this year, go. See for yourself what the fuss is about.

The Taking will be released on April 16th in Japan, April 18th in the UK and April 19th in the US.
You can stream three tracks ('Cocaine', 'We Win' and 'Dead Skin') at this location... http://tinyurl.com/4u9sxxy