Chinese Democracy a "toe-tapper". Early Guns N' Roses guitarist Tracii Guns said he thought it was "over-indulgent, sterile and not that exciting". "Chinese Democracy"'s protracted recording process attracted extensive media coverage. According to "Spin", a cottage industry grew around covering its development; "the only way the record could have lived up to its legend would have been to never come out at all". Five years after its release, "Grantland" journalist Steven Hyden wrote: "For years, it was widely assumed "Chinese Democracy" would never come out; in retrospect, the delay is all anybody cares about ... As music, "Chinese Democracy" is merely the
The Long Winters by a month of shows in the USA and Canada. In July 2008 the band went back into the studio to work on their fourth (yet untitled) album. In mid-2009 through early-2010, a satiric "quasi-weekly" 9 episode series by Roderick entitled "13 Songs with John" was made available through YouTube ostensibly focusing on the work he was doing in the studio. None of the episodes actually featured Roderick working in the studio. Through 2011, Roderick, through The Long Winters website, continues to promise the long-awaited new album will be released "soon." The Long Winters released a split single with Spiral