WE’VE HAVEN’T REPORTED A TOTALLY UNSUBSTANTIATED CHINESE DEMOCRACY RUMOR IN AWHILE…

…but some of us (e.g., me) do enjoy reading them from time to time, so: antiMusic is reporting that “Axl has turned in [Chinese Democracy] to Geffen at long last but no release date is in sight because Axl and the label can not agree on the marketing of the album.” The site admits that this is only a rumor, and it must be a pretty weak one, because as I write this, the message boards that serve as the hub for so many of the Democracy-obsessed are not currently aflutter with the non-news.

Actually, I’m almost dumb enough to believe this one: Del James, Axl Rose’s official biographer/tour manager/author of the “November Rain” video/general hanger-on, revealed last year on the band’s official site that recording of the album was finally complete and that mixing with Andy Wallace had begun (of course, GN’R’s official site has no archive, so now I can’t find the story). Assuming the album is done by now, Rose is certainly enough of a control freak (and certainly has enough riding on this album) to get into a fight over something like marketing.

ANYWAY, this is probably all just b.s., so, uh, here’s a bunch of dudes playing “Sweet Child O’ Mine” on the sitar.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/OHwsV5IqhZs" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

-AR