VELVET REVOLVER – Contraband [20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition] (2024) *HQ*

VELVET REVOLVER‘s debut album, ”Contraband”, originally released in 2004, will receive tomorrow its 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition featuring several bonus tracks including cover songs of Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Pink Floyd, and more.
”Contraband” mixed elements of hard rock, post grunge, and alternative to create a sound that was truly groundbreaking. The collaboration between iconic musicians . Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses, alongside the late Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots and Dave Kushner – brings a fusion of unparalleled talent and experience.
Featuring hits “Fall To Pieces”, “Slither”, and “Dirty Little Thing”, ”Contraband [20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]” also include an acoustic version of “Fall To Pieces”, along with five covers.

Velvet Revolver formed when Guns N’ Roses Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), and Matt Sorum (drums) combined to play at a benefit concert for fellow musician Randy Castillo in 2002. They decided to form a band and recruited guitarist Dave Kushner who had previously played with Suicidal Tendencies, Wasted Youth, and Danzig.
The quartet then set about recruiting a lead singer with the recruitment process filmed by VH1. Several lead singers auditioned including Josh Todd of Buckcherry, Kelly Shaefer of Neurotica and Travis Meeks of Days of the New.
Scott Weiland had become friends with McKagan and had played on the same bill as Kushner when Stone Temple Pilots were known as Mighty Joe Young and Kushner was in the Electric Love Hogs. Weiland heard the material and offered his services as the lead singer and the band clicked. Slash suggested the name Revolver for the project while Weiland suggested Dead Velvet Revolver which was shortened to Velvet Revolver.

Velvet Revolver recorded its first track “Set Me Free” for ‘The Hulk’ movie soundtrack in 2003, later incorporated into the album’s track listing, along with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Money” for other movie, ‘The Italian Job’, which was later released as a B-side and now included into this deluxe edition.

The band played their first live gig at the El Rey in Los Angeles in June 2003, before recording thier debut album. A song recorded at that very first gig, – ‘Bodies’, a Sex Pistols cover – is one of the bonus tracks here.
They recorded Contraband in the latter part of 2003, where Slash recorded opener ‘Sucker Train Blues’ with a Fender Telecaster 1956 and a Fender Stratocaster 1965, despite being a Gibson Les Paul endorser.

While ”Contraband” has an alternative and even post-grunge sound, the core derivates from classic hard rock, as the band’s several covers demostrate. And Slash style is pure Seventies influenced, as usual.
So ”Contraband” appeal a wide spectrum of tastes / ages, and still sounds great today.
Highly Recommended

01 – Sucker Train Blues
02 – Do It For The Kids
03 – Big Machine
04 – Illegal i Song
05 – Spectacle
06 – Fall to Pieces
07 – Headspace
08 – Superhuman
09 – Set Me Free
10 – You Got No Right
11 – Slither
12 – Dirty Little Thing
13 – Loving The Alien
14 – Fall To Pieces (Acoustic)
15 – Bodies (Live at El Rey Theatre, LA, June 19, 2003) (Sex Pistols cover)
16 – Surrender (Cheap Trick cover)
17 – No More, No More (Aerosmith cover)
18 – Negative Creep (Nirvana cover)
19 – Money (Pink Floyd cover)

Slash – lead guitar, backing vocals
Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals
Matt Sorum – drums, backing vocals
Scott Weiland – lead vocals
Dave Kushner – rhythm guitar

Pre order:
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