Traction Verse First Week Numbers: Radio stations haven’t embraced Guns n’ Roses first single ‘Chinese Democracy’ but some people aren’t to concerned. “We all expected a situation with the numbers falling off,” says Bob Chiappardi, the New York City-based CEO of Concrete Marketing, has worked with Guns N’ Roses since the Live Like A Suicide EP. “First off, it’s not in every record store in the country, which doesn’t help. But I hope it’s going to follow the same kind of life of the Kid Rock record, where songs keep coming – then we’ll have really good numbers by summer.” Chiappardi claims that Chinese Democracy needs time and nurturing. “The record is like a unicorn – there’s a legend around it,” he says. “It’s hard to explain. I think once the smoke clears, it’ll rise to the top.”

Chinese Democracy has several great singles for the incredibly lame terristorial radio. Here is our song selection for radio:
Sorry, This I Love, Streets Of Dreams, and Better.

Speaking about Guns n’ Roses, the mainstream press is begging for a feud between Axl and former bandmates. In fact, bassist Duff McKagan (Velvet Revolver) in an KISW 99.9 FM. interview said this morning:

“I have, yeah (listened to Chinese Democracy). I think Axl sounds amazing. You know, I’m glad he put out the record he wanted to put out and I think it’s gonna be successful, him going out and touring. People have been talking how the record’s doing. I think it’s a longevity thing; it will do fine for him. And I wish him the best of luck.”

End of The Year Lists: Rolling Stone and their contributors have listed the Best Albums of 2008. Metallica and Guns n’ Roses makes sense, but the Jonas Brothers? See the list here.

Avril Lavigne has fired her manager and management company. Avril is said to be distraught that her latest album and tour proved less popular than her previous efforts, and blames Nettwerk mogul Terry McBride for her lack of success.” Generally speaking, artists blame everybody but themselves. A source said Avril is hoping that new management can help her new album be more successful than the last. Avril has reportedly now signed a new deal with Irving Azoff and his management company, who work with Christina Aguilera, The Eagles and Guns n’ Roses.

Van Halen’s 1982 Tour Rider: Today’s tour riders look like a high school halloween party, maybe you will get a couple of bottles of water, some beer, and some english muffins. The 80’s signified good times, especially if you were superstars called Van Halen. The Smoking Gun got their hands on the 1982 Van Halen World Tour rider, a typewritten and 53 pages long that consists of herring in sour cream,” four cases of “Schlitz Malt Liquor beer (16 ounce cans),” and a total of eight bottles of wine and liquor. The rider’s “Munchies” section was where the group made its candy-with-a-caveat request: “M & M’s (WARNING: ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES).” View the rider here.

Shock: Auto-Tune is a audio processor that uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise inaccuracies and mistakes and has allowed many artists to produce more precisely tuned recordings. Here is a clip of Britney Spears without lip synching and pitch correction.