Before Chinese Democracy, before the finger-licking photos, before the giant yellow coat, Axl Rose was the brilliantly overweening frontman of a band that made decent music. Today is Axl's 50th birthday: wish him well with some heroin or casual racism. more ›

It certainly says something about the state of the music industry that perhaps the biggest music story of the week is the placement of some tunes in a video game. But what tunes! At the E3 conference out in LA, Harmonix announced the 80+ songs that will appear in the upcoming sequel to the plastic instrument rock sim. While the list overall is excellent, hitting many genres from the last 5 decades, there were some interesting standouts. Sure, it was a surprise to see a Turn on the Bright Lights-era Interpol track make the cut, and even more shocking to see a 30 year old Bob Dylan classic among those ranks. But who woulda thunk a GnR Chinese Democracy track would make it on here before seeing store shelves? Axl has decided to debut a track from the vaporware album in the game before anyone has even ever heard it -- this may be a legit sign that this album will actually come out before the end of the decade. more ›