News Ticker: Slash, David Bowie, Miley Cyrus

In a new interview with the New York Post, Slash calls Chinese Democracy "the perfect Axl record." He adds that the LP was "exactly what I would have expected from the final years of us working together, and seeing where he was headed musically. It's very heavy; sort of a dark, depressing record. He's fucking phenomenal."

The track list for Manimal Records' David Bowie tribute album has been updated, according to Consequence of Sound, who spotted a press release on Duran Duran's blog. The two-disc set includes MGMT covering "TVC 15" and Charlift performing "Always Crashing in the Same Car."

Miley Cyrus tells MTV her next album has "more of a techno vibe." She adds that her duet with Bret Michaels on "Nothin' to Lose" (slated to appear on the Poison singer's next solo album) came about because she's a big fan. "He was the first concert that I ever went to, and it's great when you can find people you can jive with and get along with."

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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