LOOK, AXL SAID SOMETHING NICE ABOUT ALTER BRIDGE!

Speaking of Slash: Vince and I caught his solo tour last month, and, for me at least, the big surprise of the evening — besides Vince’s brilliant revelation that Slash should start transitioning from rock and metal into blues as he gets older — is that Myles Kennedy is actually pretty awesome. He’s got a terrific set of pipes and a really incredible amount of range, and he’s a great front man. I think I read somewhere that he turned down the chance to be the new singer for Velvet Revolver, which is a bummer, ’cause he’d clearly do a great job (to say nothing of the fact that he’d be able to help them play old GN’R tunes that require a higher vocal register than that of Mr. Scott Weiland, which is all I really care about at this point anyway).

So for now, we have to settle for Kennedy being the frontman for Creed without Wife Beater instead of Guns without Rose. And Alter Bridge’s latest, the cleverly titled AB III, is now streaming here.

I’m listening to it even as I type this, and while I’d be lying if I said I think it’s “good,” I’d also be lying if I didn’t admit that I like it far, far more than I have anything I’ve ever heard by Creed. That may very well be virtue of the fact that I think that Scott Stapp, one of the ultimate moose rawk singers, is worth about as much as the pubes sprinkled along the rim of the toilet — but I actually think there’s more to it than that. The songwriting here is, no joke, a hundred times better than it ever was for Creed. At least Alter Bridge make something that’s recognizable as music, y’know? It may not be my scene, but I hear worse bands approximately five times every hour of every day.

So, there ya go. To all the people who have been e-mailing me about this band for almost four years now: There, I said something complimentary about them. Now leave me the fuck alone.

-AR