Part 34 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS: MTV Unplugged (1996)
Kiss had been releasing a lot of product (KISStory the book, a live video and album, and a tribute CD) but not a lot of new music since Revenge. In ’95 they decided to go out and do an “official” Kiss Kovention tour, charging a then-insane $100 a pop, but giving you an acoustic performance for your dollars.
The Konvention tour yielded some great performances, with Kiss taking requests for songs they barely remember and doing their best to play them. “Lover Her All I Can”, “Shandi”, and “Nothin’ To Lose” with Eric Singer on lead vocals were all rolled out. See below for a cool bootleg CD and tracklist from an Australian show on the tour.
Kiss were invited to do MTV Unplugged. What the audience that night didn’t know is that after a full set by Paul, Gene, Bruce and Eric, two “members of the family” would come out: Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. They were greeted with disbelief and joy.
The evening began with the current Kiss, rolling out rarely played classics like “Comin’ Home”, “Got To Choose” (on the Japanese release, anyway) and “A World Without Hereos”. They even tackled “See You Tonite” from Gene’s solo album, and “Every Time I Look At You” (with strings) from Revenge: both firsts.
You can’t complain at all about the tracklist on MTV Unplugged. I raved about the album then, and I still rave about it now. I don’t understand why this wasn’t a massive smash hit across the board. This is a great Kiss album that almost anyone can enjoy. From Paul’s stirring vocal on “I Still Love You” to the classic “Rock Bottom”, this is awesome all the way through.
But of course, they saved Ace and Peter for the end. Out they came to do two of their signature songs: “Beth” for Peter, and the Stones’ “2000 Man” for Ace. Last but not least, Bruce and Eric returned to the stage to form a formidable 6-man Kiss lineup. With everyone but Bruce taking a turn at the lead vocals, they rolled out “Nothin’ To Lose” and of course “Rock and Roll All Nite” to end the show.
Expertly recorded and mixed, my only beef is the cutting short of some of Paul’s raps. I would love a two disc deluxe edition of this one day. Kiss played for three hours that day, doing multiple takes and playing songs that didn’t make the show: “Spit”, “Hard Luck Woman” with Paul on lead vocals, and a country version of “God of Thunder”!
I used to get recognized a lot, from the record store. Work in one place with customers for 12 years and eventually you start to see familiar faces in the streets. It was both good and bad.
For example, the bad: One time I was sitting in the mall, on my lunch break. With my face full of pizza, a man walked up to me.
“I can see you’re eating your lunch, and that’s fine. I’d like to see you later about returning a tape.” Like, dude? That couldn’t have waited?
That was a small minority of times. Often people that recognized you would politely ignore you, or at least be friendly about it.
I’d be walking through the mall, and some guy would nod at me. I’d nod back, not really knowing who the person was, but not letting on. One time I was walking through a park, and these two kids stopped. “Hey look! That’s the guy from the CD store!” I smiled and waved sheepishly. I was a celebrity of sorts I guess?
The most common thing would be being recognized in a rival store. Often I’d be shopping at my local HMV store, or downtown at one of the more collector-oriented places. I’d love it when, in another store, somebody would ask me if I had a CD in stock. I once used a pay phone (no cell back then) to call and ask, but I’d think to myself: Really? You think I have them all memorized or something?
Most of the time though, it was a simple, “Hey man! What are you doing here? Checking out the competition?”
While I did sometimes “check out” the competition (comparing prices and selection), the main goal was always to find rare musical treasures. Besides, a lot of other record store people in town had come selling discs to me numerous times. Usually it was pretty friendly. It was better to have friends at the rival stores than enemies. I even had a buddy at HMV send customers my way, when he knew that something was out of print! So, being recognized in public as “that guy from (insert name here)” wasn’t a bad thing.
Part 33 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! By 1995, Kiss merchandising was in full gear. This was its flagship release.
KISStory, Jeff Kitts, 1995 ($149.99 in 1995, currently $320.70 new/$263.24 used, on Amazon, in CAD)
I got KISStory back when it came out, in early 1995 or so. I ordered it (or, rather, my mom ordered it for me since she had the credit card in the house) back in July of 1994. When it arrived, it took me a couple weeks to go through all the content.
Early pressings were all signed by Eric Singer, Bruce Kulick, Paul Stanley, and Gene Simmons. The second pressing was signed by the original band. Personally I am happy with my copy, as I love the Revenge lineup of the band, which was much shorter lived than the original. As a side note, according to the Firehouse fanzine, Bill Aucoin (ex Kiss-manager) stated that a good number of the copies signed by the original band are actually autopen. For that reason I’m glad I have the Revenge lineup, which was contemporary to the release of the book.
Also, early pressings had a lot of binding issues. Be careful. A friend of mine had his copy of KISStory repaired professionally because his binding fell apart. I have been very, very careful with my book and in the 15 years since, the binding is still OK. But I treat this thing with kid gloves, people.
Each book is numbered and comes in a black case. The book is massive. Absolutely huge. It’s always funny when the advertizing for a book states that it weighs over 8 lbs.
Content wise, it is rich but flawed. There are numerous errors in the book. For example, the book states that five new songs were released on Kiss Killers. Well, we all know it was four new songs. The timeline is a bit mixed up at times, and the 80’s are not covered in enough depth. But let’s face it, you don’t buy a book like this for text. You buy it for the pictures. Text is kind of like…a bonus track. The best text is probably in old newspaper articles and concert reviews contained inside anyway.
Where the book succeeds, it succeeds like no other. However you have to remember, when this came out this was the only authorized Kiss book. Now there are lots, and much cheaper. At the time though, some of these photographs had never seen the light of day before. Newspaper articles, reviews, magazine covers, it’s all here, in massive quantities.
I think my personal favourite things were sketches of costumes and basses out of Gene’s personal sketchbook. Also, early lyrics for songs released and unreleased. There are costume sketches for outfits never made. There are drawings for stage shows that never saw the light of day. Everything you can imagine.
Yes, the price tag is hefty. However, if I sold my copy of KISStory today, I’d make a good profit. This is an investment as much as a book, but I think you’ll want to hang onto yours.
Today, a treat: Part 0 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! Yes, part 0. Today we go right back to the beginning: Wicked Lester.
KISS – Wicked Lester / Eddie Kramer Demos (1972 – 1973, CD bootleg)
Before forming Kiss with Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, Gene and Paul had a five piece band called Wicked Lester that cut one album for Epic. That album has never been released, although a couple tracks turned up on the Kiss Box Set.
You might recognize two songs: “She” and “Love Her All I Can” which were both recorded much harder on Dressed To Kill. One song, “(We Want To) Shout It Out Loud” is a Hollies cover that later inspired the title of the classic hit from Destroyer. The sound is very hippy-dippy and directionless. Flutes and strings and overly sweet harmony vocals mire what might have ended up being some cool songs. Indeed, “She” is about as vastly different from the sludgy version on Dressed To Kill as you can imagine.
The CD bootleg copy that I have is pretty lo-res. It includes as bonus tracks the five songs that Kiss cut on their original Eddie Kramer demo, that got them their record deal. These are fully realized rough and loose versions of the songs on the albums, and once again two have been released on the Box Set. Some are quite a bit longer, with extended solos.
The cover art is the original art that the band were going to use. The boy is supposed to be Wicked Lester, their intended mascot. The artwork was later used by a band called Laughing Dogs.
Part 32 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
VARIOUS – Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved (Official tribute album, 1994)
Kiss My Ass (you just knew they’d use that title eventually) was released in several formats: LP, CD, and a cool almost unrelated DVD too. I’ll talk about it all.
In the 90’s if there wasn’t a tribute album for your band, you didn’t matter. But Kiss had one out before Zeppelin and Sabbath. Kiss put it together themselves, which isn’t a bad thing — Black Sabbath and Robert Plant participated in their own tribute albums, too. Kiss My Ass or A** (available with and without profanity) is an enjoyable, diverse listen from start to finish, leaning heavily on stars from the 90’s, but also reaching back in time to a handful of earlier legends.
Up first is a great, very different version of “Deuce” by Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Wonder. Stevie plays some seriously honkin’ harmonica on the track. It’s completely unlike the original but if you like Lenny Kravitz (which I do), it’s awesome.
The Garth Brooks track is probably the most interesting on the album. Not because it’s Garth — Garth could probably do “Hard Luck Woman” in his sleep, it’s right up his alley and the world knows what a huge Kiss fan he is. It’s his backing band, who appear here uncredited. You may have heard of them. A little band called Kiss. Kiss even performed the song live with Brooks on late night TV.
Anthrax (with John Bush on vocals), who are also diehard Kiss fans and have done many Kiss covers over the years, simply pummel “She” to a pulp, and once again it’s great. Incidentally, produced by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons.
By now you’ve heard three diverse tracks by three completely different bands, so you’ll be excused if you find the ride a little bumpy now.
The Gin Blossoms played it very straight on “Christine Sixteen”, but Toad The Wet Sprocket really shook it up on “Rock And Roll All Nite”. You have to admire their urge to experiment with the most famous of all Kiss tunes, but really, who spiked their water with Valium? I snooze through this one every time. It sucks.
“Calling Dr. Love” is performed by supergroup Shandi’s Addiction: Tom and Brad from Rage Against The Machine, Billy Gould from Faith No More on funky bass, all topped by the unique vocals of Maynard James Keenan. How much more 90’s can you get? None, none more 90’s. I can’t say this track is a winner but it sure is different. You’re forced to keep listening out of sheer curiosity. It sounds like a mash of all three bands which is pretty unimaginable.
Dinosaur Jr. turn up one of the best performances on the disc with a dour, lush “Goin’ Blind”. This mournful version is true to the spirit of the muddy original, and J. Mascis just nails it. Heh…Dinosaur Jr! Yeah, it must have been 1994.
At this point, I’m realizing that Kiss My Ass is just as much a tribute to the bands of the mid-90’s as it is to Kiss!
Extreme turned in a slowed down but groovy version of “Strutter”, complete with Nuno’s own sweet harmony vocals. Great track by a great, underrated band.
I could do without The Lemonheads’ version of “Plaster Caster”, but it is very faithful to the original song. Once again, kids today will ask “Who are the Lemonheads?”
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones really had balls to open “Detroit Rock City” the way they did. It opens with a phone call from Gene Simmons explaining that they could not perform “Detroit”, as Ugly Kid Joe and Megadeth were already fighting over who was going to do the song. Gene advises them to pick another song, right before that bone-crushing opening riff kicks in. And this is truly a great version, if you dig the Bosstones’ unique style of vocalizing. Ironically neither Megadeth nor Ugly Kid Joe made the cut for this album. Nor did Nine Inch Nails, who recorded “Love Gun” (still unreleased).
The final track on the domestic CD is a beautiful orchestral version of “Black Diamond” by someone called Yoshiki (X Japan). This is a great instrumental, and the ideal way to end an album such as this. The album, diverse all the way through, ends on a very different note from that which it began!
Import and LP versions have a bonus track, “Unholy” by some German industrial band. I haven’t heard it because I never opened my LP, but for those interested, it is the only non-makeup song included on the album.
I mentioned a DVD release. It’s badass. It’s basically a third DVD, along the lines of Exposed and X-Treme Close Up. It’s loaded with vintage clips and has some interviews with Paul, Gene, Bruce, and Eric. They briefly show Anthrax in the studio cutting their Kiss cover, as well as Gin Blossoms. There’s even a preview of the cover artwork for the forthcoming Kiss album to be called Head…
Lastly, I even have a rare, rare, really really rare promo Kiss My A** On the Radio CD. I have no idea what this sucker is worth today. It is the only audio release of some of the best live tunes from the Kiss My Ass DVD, seven of them, along with tons of Gene and Paul talking.
4/5 stars all around.
The track lists can be found within the photo gallery below:
We’d always done radio ads. They weren’t mindblowing, but a lot of people responded to them. You’d get people calling every single week saying, “I heard your ad on the radio. You buy used CDs?” Radio ads were also expensive, so obviously you wanted to hit a home run every time.
What I didn’t know is that we had a radio jingle. I didn’t know until I started getting prank called by kids. I’d pick up the phone, hear a couple kids giggling, and then recite this jingle to me. Then they’d laugh some more and hang up. I was perplexed. I had no idea what they were singing.
I went to one of the people in Operations. “These kids just called me singing this song with our store in the words. What the hell was that?”
“Oh that’s our radio jingle. Haven’t you heard it before?”
Hell no! If I had I’m sure I would have spoken my mind. Later on I heard the actual jingle. It wasn’t…bad…it was just…not good. Today, it still haunts my darkest dreams.
Back in the day, the boss used to always ask our opinions on our ads. “What do you think of this one?” We’d throw in our two cents. As the company grew we weren’t consulted anymore. I’m not sure who was consulted, but it sure wasn’t us! We had no issues being honest, positive or negative, and maybe we just said “that sucks” one too many times in the past. Either way our opinion wasn’t sought. But mine sure was given after the fact. When kids start pranking you making fun of your jingle, that’s probably not a good sign.
The funny thing is, Meat already came up with a much better jingle.
Him and Tom used to eat at this greasy spoon place in (I think) London. Tom used to say, “Man, the food here isn’t good, but it’s cheap.” Meat would respond, “Yeah, just think about the money you save on the food.” And that turned into a jingle.
In his best Michael McDonald voice, Meat would close his eyes tight and croon, “Think about the money you saaaaaave on the food!” It was hilarious.
So, the next logical step was, “Think about the money you saaaaaave on the tunes!” Perfect!
LeBrain will always be straight with you when he doesn’t know something. I have had a few requests for a write up on Steel Panther. The problem is, I’ve never actually listened to Steel Panther. Maybe I should change that.
So I asked the infamous T-Rev, aka Trevor from the Record Store Tales to see if he could do a review. He could, and he did. Enjoy.
STEEL PANTHER: Feel the Steel (2009) & Balls Out(2011)
Steel Panther: Your New Favourite Band, by T-Rev
Michael Starr, Satchel, Lexxi Foxx, and Stix Zadinia are Steel Panther. The X-rated, Spinal Tap-esque modern day Hair band. Intent on bringing back Heavy Metal , with a sound that will impress any fan of the “hair” genre. Formed with ex-members of various metal bands in the 1990’s ( Rob Halford’s Fight, Paul Gilbert’s Racer X, and L.A. Guns!) originally as Metal Skool (yes…Metal’s Cool) in the early 2000’s, and a brief stint as Danger Kitty (getting some recognition on MTV and the Drew Carey Show). Feel the Steel, the first album as Steel Panther, stands out because of its period-correct guitar assaults, its bandana wearing 4-armed drummer and the spandex covered, lipstick sporting, teased hair bass player, (reminding me of Warrant circa Cherry Pie mixed with some early Motley Crue attitude!) and of course, its lyrics!
Feel the Steel has it all, killer riffs (often mimicking classic tunes of the past like “Fuck All Night, Party All Day’s” intentional resemblance to Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer”) Hilariously refreshing lyrics (like the first time you ever heard “Fuck Her Gently” by the D) throw in some top notch guest star clout (Justin Hawkins duets with Michael Starr) and top it off with manufactured “rock star” personas (a la Spinal Tap), and you’ve got all the best parts of what a hair metal band should be…SEX & DRUGS & ROCK ‘N’ ROLL! Crazy stories of sex with asian hookers, sex with fat girls, sex with neighbours, and copious amounts of “blow”, all done in a way you’d never expect…even though it feels strangely familiar. Sounding like it came from 1989, but containing enough modern relevance to remind you it’s current. After about the first verse, I knew I was a fan for good. “Eminem can suck it, so can Dr. Dre, or they can suck each other…just because they’re gay” screams Starr on “Death To All But Metal”. “Two in the pink, one in the stink”describes the “Shocker” to newcomers. And “You’re the only girl that I like to screw…when I’m not on the road,” Michael reassures his girl on “Community Property”.
Balls Out, their sophomore effort, continues where F.T.S. left off. A lot of the same sexual scenarios, but the music seems to have picked up another gear, with more focus on riffage (bigger, faster, louder). The lyrics, however, are lacking the furious onslaught they had on F.T.S. Perhaps because the initial shock is over, now I expect it! There is more celebrity name-dropping than before…mentioning that Charlie Sheen “is winning in the bedroom upstairs”, and that Tiger Woods thinks “3 holes are better than a hole in one”. A good album upon first listen…just didn’t have the impact that Feel the Steel did on me. Having said that, this album grows on you…big time! Like any good album…it takes a while for their sauce to mix with yours!
I should also discuss Starr’s instrument…this guys voice is classic, vintage, powerful, cheesy, awesome, hilarious, and adaptive! Vocal range that would bring a tear to Dio’s eye, heartfelt (x-rated), ballads on par with anything Bon Jovi or Poison ever did, rockers that could have appeared on stage with the great Bon Scott! I don’t mean to come across as though I consider this band “flawless”, but, these guys are PRO’s! Certainly impressive musically…sometimes though, they sway over the cheese line a bit, and even take the lyrics too far, but all in all, I do love these albums. Afterall, isn’t it the cheese that we now love about 80’s metal?
You really get the feeling that these guys are true fans of metal, not just cashing in on the novelty of wearing spandex and makeup. Much like the ribbing the Darkness took during their invasion, some people misunderstood the flattery for ridicule. True fans see past the hair and hear the talent in the music…every time I listen to them, they get better! Like a drug that you can’t get enough of…you want to hear it again and again. In a world where Justin Beiber and Nickelback win music awards, this is a welcome addiction. A perfect mix of metal and comedy! Destined to become a staple at everyone’s annual “sausagefest”
There were some discs that we were never short of. We always had them. Cheap. Add your staff discount to that, and you could get a lot of stuff dirt cheap. But the discs themselves were so common, they were always in stock. Therefore they never were a priority for me at the time. Soundtracks and compilations were a great example of this. Last Action Hero, Super Mario Bros, these could be had for super cheap, any time, and they all contained exclusive music by cool bands like Megadeth, Anthrax, Extreme, and so on.
One disc that I never picked up before was the soundtrack to a bad horror movie called Shocker, by Wes Craven. The soundtrack had numerous stars on it – members of Kiss, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, Whitesnake, Van Halen, and more. The title song was a Paul Stanley rocker performed by Paul and Desmond Child in an all-star band called The Dudes of Wrath, and it wasn’t a bad song. There was also another Paul tune on here called “Sword and Stone”, recorded by a band called Bonfire.
(Now, here’s the interesting thing about “Shocker”, the song. Desmond Child wrote the guitar lick, a very Platinum Blonde-esque part that is almost identical to the one in a Kiss song released at the same time, called “King of Hearts”. And who wrote that? Paul and Desmond Child. It’s the same freakin’ thing.)
Anyway, long story short: I never pulled the trigger while I was at the store. I’m still today in the process of replacing my cassettes on CD, and this is one. The CD was just too common, it was always in stock and I always had better things to spend my money on. I could have got it for $4 at any point over the years. I should have.
Look at this one, that I paid $12 for from Amazon Marketplaces. The spine is cut as a promo. The front is scuffed. The CD has some scratches on it. This is all stuff that wouldn’t have happened in my store. Even if it was a cut promo, every case was replaced if not already like new. Not to mention I had complete control to be picky about quality before I bought. Not to mention that in the past, I had numerous chances to get Shocker uncut. Now, unfortunately, the disc is less common.
Part 31 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Alive III (1993)
I like Alive III, but I don’t think any fan can say it’s as good or better than I or II. How could it be? Artificial or not, Kiss Alive! is one of the greatest live albums of all time. Alive II was a contender. Alive III simply could not live up to either.
If it didn’t sell well, I don’t particularly blame Kiss. It was the summer of “live albums”. Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, and Iron Maiden all had double live discs out that summer, and that’s a lot of money to be spent by the devoted rock fan.
Although the first two Alives avoided song overlap, Alive III does contain some old Kiss songs that were previously played on one of the first two:
“Deuce”
“Detroit Rock City”
“Rock And Roll All Night”
“Watchin’ You” (given a funkier touch here by Bruce)
Everything else is a more recent vintage, and rightfully so. Kiss hadn’t done a live album in 16 years at this point, so there were lots of new songs to play. “Creatures Of The Night” had been a setlist staple for ten years at this point.
Performance wise, this is really good. With Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer in the band, Kiss had evolved to a sleeker machine. The songs were played much more expertly, and not as loose. A critic would use the word “mechanically” but it’s just different, and a matter of taste. Bruce Kulick at this point was not playing his solos with as much 80’s trickery, and was now much more suited to playing Ace Frehley’s songs. Eric Singer seemed to master a nice middle ground between Peter Criss and Eric Carr’s styles. He is in fact my favourite Kiss drummer because of his creativity on the kit.
All songs are sung by Gene and Paul, although Eric sings very nice backups. There is one instrumental, Bruce Kulick’s guitar showcase on the “Star Spangled Banner”, never recorded by Kiss in studio form!
On the negative side, I don’t like the production, once again by Eddie Kramer who also helmed the first two. It sounds too polished. The audience sounds artificial, pasted on. When Paul raps, the audience just screams through, there’s no reaction.
Interestingly, there are a total of five songs from Revenge (including the Japanese/vinyl bonus track “Take It Off”). That shows how strong the new material was, and why there aren’t more Kiss oldies. It is a shame that today Kiss doesn’t sprinkle that much new material into setlists.
A point of trivia, at one point the inclusion of a brand new studio song called “Carnival Of Souls” was discussed. It was finally released a decade later on Gene’s solo album, Asshole. So this is the time period from which that song originated. Astute fans will recognize it as the title of an eventual studio album.
A Gene song was even selected as the first and only single: “I Love It Loud”. Personally I feel that even Eric Singer can’t play this song like Eric Carr did. And it’s way too overplayed now.
Alive III is not as essential as the first two, but if you pick up the Alive Box, which is the route I stronly suggest you take, you’ll get them all (with the exception of the symphonic Alive). Listening to I, II and III in a row will reveal growth and a strong catalogue of songs not immediately noticeable otherwise.
4/5 stars
With the long-awaited Alive III now behind them, Kiss began work on a number of new projects, including their own tribute album, a studio album to be called Head, and an acoustic “konvention” tour. Check this space again for all that and more.
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