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Now that’s the Axl I know and love.  Nobody got their free Dr. Pepper when GNR released Chinese Democracy; the website crashed, you couldn’t get through on the phone, so Axl’s lawyers are filing pissed off litigious complaints: “In and of itself this campaign brazenly violated our clients’ rights in numerous respects. Unfortunately, Dr Pepper has now magnified the damage this campaign has caused through its appalling failure to make good on a promise it made to the American public.” That’s called getting bitch slapped.  Surprisingly the lawsuit didn’t take 17 years.  [AdAge]

This might be the last time we feel obligated to write about Axl Rose’s magnum opus Chinese Democracy. But today is the day you can sign up for a free Dr. Pepper because GNR released Chinese Democracy before 2009. Good luck though, since it seems everybody loves Dr. Pepper.  It’s struggling under the traffic right now.  Also, in case you were wondering how it takes someone 17 years, $13 million and “a battalion of musicians, producers and advisers to deliver” one album then you might want to read this NY Times article.  Regardless, you can buy the album today at Best Buy or in front of their computers.  Or you could just steal it, I suppose.  Idolator has a timeline of events that transpired from the album’s genesis to its physical release today.

Here for yourself.  It’ll warm your cockles since hell has frozen over.  It’s been getting good reviews, but so far my brain can’t wrap itself around the album.  There are good songs for sure, and some bad ones, but really I can’t figure out how this took 13 years to make.  [Myspace]

Well, we know that Rolling Stone gave it four stars and now it seems like heavy metal-pop culture savant Chuck Klosterman is drinking the kool-aid too.  Is it possible that the album is actually good?  Well, if it’s more polished than the version we’ve been listening to and trimmed away the fatty bad songs, then yes, it is possible that Axl’s magnum opus is good. As they say, “no one is more exhaustively qualified to review this album.” [AV Club]

Rolling Stone has posted its review of Guns N’Roses long gesticulating album Chinese Democracy. They give it four out of five stars.  “The first Guns n’ Roses album of new, original songs since the first Bush administration is a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record. In other words, it sounds a lot like the Guns n’ Roses you know.”  I’ll beleive it when I hear it, but until then I’m still skeptical; especially given the whelming feeling the early leaked tracks produced about a year ago.  [Rolling Stone]