Author: mikeladano

Metal, hard rock, rock and roll! Record Store Tales & Reviews! Grab A Stack of Rock and more. Poking the bear since 2010.

REVIEW: KISS – Gene Simmons (1978)

Lucky part 13 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!   This time, we’ll look at one of the four solo albums released under the Kiss banner in 1978:  Gene Simmons.

KISS – Gene Simmons (1978)

I’ll admit it: I love much of Gene’s solo album. I didn’t always! I used to think it was too weird, too flaky, not rock enough. Too much annoying funky bass. Now with a few years behind me, I like it a lot more, due to some of the mellow, acoustic songs. When I was a kid I would have given it 1 star just because it’s not rock. There’s very little here that rocks.

The bass (by Neil Jason) is way too funky for my tastes and I never liked it, and I still don’t. But it was the late 70’s, and disco was happening, and we all know how Kiss responded to disco. There’s not enough guitar and too many backing vocals by assorted guests.

But this is kind of the point of Gene Simmons’ solo album. He crammed in as many people as possible to make a cast-of-thousands record suitable to his ego. Cher, Joe Perry, Rick Neilson, Katy Sagal…you can google the credits yourself (or just click the album cover pic above). Interestingly, Gene also wanted Lassie the dog, and the Beatles. He couldn’t get the Beatles, so he got Beatlemania instead.  No kidding.

There’s some truly excellent material on this album. Those songs are:

3. See You Tonite
7. Always Near You/Nowhere to Hide
8. Man of 1, 000 Faces
9. Mr. Make Believe

None are rock songs. “See You Tonite” and “Mr. Make Believe” are Beatles-like acoustic tracks, gorgeous in arrangement and performance.  “Man of 1,000 Faces” is epic, with big orchestra and a point of view more suitable to the Demon’s. (“I can put on any face/You won’t see me but it’s no disgrace/The king of night, he understands.”) It was inspired by Lon Chaney so obviously there’s a little bit of the Demon in it. “Always Near You/Nowhere to Hide” starts off very quietly and then goes into the big “Nowhere to Hide” section, with orchestra and Gene’s falsetto, which I actually like a lot. A lot of this stuff was written pre-Kiss, pre-Wicked Lester.

“See You In Your Dreams” is a remake of the Kiss song. I don’t like it as much as Kiss’ version, and I find the backing vocals distracting and obtrusive. Most of side 1, I find to be too funky and not nearly as interesting as the acoustic stuff. “Radioactive” has some spark, but sounded better performed live by Kiss, with a little more reckless groove.

The final track, “When You Wish Upon A Star”, is exactly what you think it is – Walt Disney and Gene Simmons, together (at last?). Regardless of Gene’s intentions, it’s only there as a novelty. Something to play for your friends if you want to say, “Wanna hear something really funny? You gotta hear Gene Simmons meets Pinochio.”  Maybe something to throw on the end of a mix CD, when you only have 2 minutes left to fill on the disc and you want to end it with a laugh.

3/5 stars for the great material. Beware the rest!

 

Part 79: Physical Product

Loyal rock fans,

You’ve seen me say it here many times:  I love physical product.  I hate being forced to download something.  I hate paying money to own…what?  1’s and 0’s floating on a magnetic disc, a fragile thing that can die just because it wants to.  Know what I mean?

I like packaging.  I like knowing who wrote the songs, who produced them, who played what.  I like artwork, I like lyrics, heck I even like the thank-you’s!  Ever read the thank-you’s inside Def Leppard’s Hysteria?  Extensive and hilarious!  Mostly though, I think you gain an appreciation of an artist’s body of work, the more you know about it.

I like CD’s, and I’m fortunate to have worked in a CD store for pretty much the entire age of CD domination.  When I began in ’94 we still sold tapes, and I was actually still buying tapes, if the price was right.  Cassette was my primary physical product for another year, before I began the slow (still incomplete) process of re-buying all my tapes on CD.

For example, Wolfsbane’s first album.  Still don’t have that on CD, very hard to find in this part of the world. 

My CD collection increased approximately by 50 times, over my years there.  I love physical product!

I like to keep them in good shape, and for that reason, I’m glad about the improved quality of digital media and players these days compared to back then.  I don’t have to haul my discs around with me anymore when I’m heading to the cottage.  I used to pack 15, 20 discs for variety.  Now I just load up a 64 gig flash drive, and throw it in the car.  When I get to the cottage I have my mp3 player at the ready.  I don’t have to worry about breaking the cases, scratching the discs, or anything.

You know something?  When I was a really young fella, like 13 or 14, we used to go to the cottage for 2 weeks at a time in the summer.  When you’re 13, you get bored pretty easily at the cottage, so I began bringing my entire tape collection, my record collection, and my turntable with me.  Incredible!  Granted my collection wasn’t big, it was two cases of tapes and about 5 records, but still.  Today, flash drive, MP3 player.  Done.

But I’ll always keep my physical product, and at home I will listen to nothing else.  I think my buddy Marko Fox at 107.5 Dave FM said it very well:

Technology is my mistress as well…and I love her…but I still must be surrounded by records, tapes and CDs for my soul to survive.

That’s it right there.


I’ve posted this video once before, but I don’t care, it rocks.

Part 78: GUEST SHOT! Meat on LeBrain

Normally I wouldn’t post something so self-glorifying, but I won’t edit a word out of any of my guest shots.  This one comes from the infamous Sausagefester, ex-record store alumnus, and music connoisseur, Meat.  He sent this to me by surprise this afternoon, so I had to post it.   Enjoy.

RECORD STORE TALES PART 78:  Meat on LeBrain

Today is Lebrain’s 40th birthday.  Today seems like a good day to give you all my thoughts  on the man…the myth…the legend…Michael Ladano.

I would have first met Mr. Ladano in I believe late 1998 or early 1999.  I was working at a record store and really didn’t know anyone at other locations.  Since there was a fair amount of phone activity between different stores, it was inevitable that our paths would cross.  I kept hearing about the manager of another store that was something of a music aficionado, and the biggest Kiss fan in town.  Considering myself of the same ilk, and a long-time Kiss fan myself, I was looking forward to the inevitable.  I don’t remember the first conversation we had honestly,  it was probably some sort of inquiry about an Anita Baker stock transfer , but anyways,  I do remember the first time we talked about Kiss.  I remember his genuine enthusiasm hearing that I had seen Kiss on the last tour with makeup (Creatures of the Night) and the first tour without makeup (Lick it Up).  He proceeded to tell me that Ace Frehley was not actually in the makeup on the first aforementioned tour (something I already knew) and a bunch of other obscure Kiss facts.  Needless to say we immediately hit it off.  We worked together only once at his location.  He actually has a better memory of that one shift (Meat’s memory is randomly hazy…gee I wonder why) but I do remember that the shift literally seemed to go faster than any shift I had worked previously.

[LeBRAIN’S NOTE:  I do remember that night very well.  I remember driving Meat home, talking about Metallica’s medley of Mercyful Fate tunes.  As it happens, I had that tape in the car, so we rocked it!] 

I am lucky to know many guys who are self-proclaimed and ordained-by-others as music experts.  The mighty Tom has been mentioned in this blog before.  Others include Scottie Geffros…Scott Hunter and more.  Michael Ladano trumps them all in both knowledge and actual music collection.  No one loves music more than LeBrain.  I certainly disagree with a lot of music that Ladano loves, and have been very vocal to him about that, but I guess that’s just part and parcel with being “LeBrain”.  But most importantly, Michael Ladano’s greatest trait is simply being himself.  If there is someone who is more truly sincere and kind, I have not met them.  No one treated complete strangers better during his record store days than Mike Ladano.  No one loves his wife or significant other more than Mike Ladano.  The truth is  everyone likes Ladano.  As a matter of fact, there are only a very, very select few that I know that don’t like him.  Literally a few select people that all hang together and work together. Not-coincidentally these people are sincerely some of the worst people I have ever encountered in my life.  Truly lacking character, substance and kindness of any sort, they should be ashamed of themselves.  It says something that only the worst people in the Tri-Cities are the select few that don’t like him.

I really enjoy this blog Mike and try to read every entry.  Even old Meatdogs can learn new tricks, and I appreciate reading and learning about musical artists, bands and albums that I thought I already knew everything about.  Your love of music is infectious and impressive,  but not as impressive as Mike the friend, the person and the husband.  Is this blog-entry just alot of over-blown Maudlin? Of course it is. If anyone I know deserves Maudlin, its Sir Michael Ladano.  Remember, when the rest of you are sleeping comfortably at night…LeBrain is rolling in his sleep anticipating the upcoming Kiss and Darkness albums.  You gotta love the guy.

Meat

REVIEW: KISS – Ace Frehley (1978)

Part 12 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!   This time, we’ll look at one of the four solo albums released under the Kiss banner in 1978:  Ace Frehley.

KISS – Ace Frehley (1978)

The general consensus is that Ace Frehley’s solo album was the best solo album because it was the most rocking and Kiss-like. While I agree that it is a great achievement (and it sold the best, too) I prefer Paul’s.  Hey, just a personal preference.  Ace’s is still great.

Ace’s album was 9 tracks, which breaks down to 8 vocals and 1 instrumental. All but the instrumental were rockers. Anton Fig on drums! The standout songs include “Rip It Out” which would have made a great Kiss song.  Here, it is a strong opener:  a statement of intent, musically, from Ace.  It boasts catchy verses and choruses with a blazing guitar solo.  “Speedin’ Back To My Baby” and “What’s On Your Mind?” are a bit more pop and melodic but with Ace’s guitar they’re never too pop. They’re just rock enough. “Fractured Mirror” is the instrumental I menbtioned, and the first of a series of instrumental “Fractured” tracks for Ace. It’s great. It shows off some intricate fingering that Ace is capable of (think back to “Rock Bottom”) but less known for.

“New York Groove” was the hit single of course, but not a song I’m partial to. To me it sounded the like disco-Kiss that would emerge on Dynasty. I prefer the live versions that Kiss did later on, they had more thunder in the drums and more distortion in the guitars.

“Ozone” was a song that aurally sounds very “spaced” and you can guess what the subject matter is. Foo Fighters, incidentally, did a great cover of “Ozone” back in ’95. “Snow Blind” covers the same lyrical ground. Finally, “Wiped Out” spoofs “Wipeout” by its intro.  It again seems to be about being, well, wiped out. It has some challenging time changes and crunchy chords.

By and large this is a great album. I think some of the songs could have used more hooks. I still enjoy listening to it, and it does stand up as probably the best Ace solo album to date.  Ace’s guitar playing is heavily showcased, without it being a “guitar” album. Anyone who thinks Ace can’t play needs to listen to a song like “Wiped Out”.  It’ll blow their minds.

4/5 stars

Part 77: Psycho-Circus

RECORD STORE TALES Part 77:  Psycho-Circus

If you think back to the late 90’s, the hype surrounding Kiss was enormous.  They’d just completed their successful reunion tour to rave reviews, what was left but an album?

I was excited too, but not as excited as “Kiss Man”….

I don’t remember his name and I never heard from him again, so heartbroken was he.  My staff had a habit of telling annoying customers, “Hey, if you really want to talk about Kiss (or insert-band-name-here) then you should call back and talk to this guy Mike.  He loves Kiss.”

One time, they told a lady I was interested in buying her original Whitesnake cover art painting.  Which I wasn’t.  Anyway, back to Kiss.

This guy had come in talking about Kiss with somebody, and they told him to call me.  So he did.  With two of my bosses standing in front of me, I blindly anwered the phone.  To the best of my recollection, this was the conversation.  Imagine two of my bosses standing in front me alternating between glances and glares.

Kiss Man:  Hi, is this Mike?

Mike:  Yes, speaking.

Kiss Man:  Oh hi, I was speaking with (insert whoever’s name it was) a couple days ago, and they told me you were a massive Kiss fan?

Mike:  Yes, yes I am…

Kiss Man:  Like really big Kiss fan?  Like they said you have the dolls.

Mike:  Yes…I do have some action figures… (the bosses both looking at me now)

Kiss Man:  Are they the vintage ones?

Mike:  Uh, pardon?

Kiss Man:  Are they the vintage ones from the 1970’s.

Mike:  Oh, no.  They’re just the MacFarlanes.

Kiss Man:  Cool, still.  So do you know anything about the new Kiss album coming out called Psycho-Circus?

Mike:  (thinking he was now asking when it was out, how much we’ll be selling it for, etc)  Well, it’s out in a couple weeks, and there’s some kind of special edition cover, and we’ll be trying to get that one in. 

Kiss Man:  So how many times did you see them live?

Mike:  Uhh, just once…I don’t really go to a lot of concerts…

Kiss Man:  Just once?  Like on this tour?

Mike:  No…just once.  I wanted to see them on the Revenge tour though.

Kiss Man:  Have you heard the new single, “Psycho Circus”?

Mike:  No, I haven’t yet.

Kiss Man:  On Q107?  No?

Mike:  No, I…

Kiss Man:  Wow, and they said you were a big Kiss fan.

That one hurt, admittedly.

I eventually brought the conversation to a close, got shit for taking a “personal” call, explained to my bosses that I really didn’t have a clue who that was, and then later interrogated the staff to find up who set me up with the Space Ace.

When I found out, they were disappointed that the conversation didn’t go well, as if they were trying to set with up with a new buddy.  “He’s probably really sad now,” they said.

“Yeah.  He’s probably never going to come back into the store again, because of you,” they helpfully added.

Yeah, well.  It was a lose-lose situation and I definitely lost that time!

REVIEW: Motley Crue – “Sex” single (2012)

SEX

MOTLEY CRUE – “Sex” (iTunes, 2012)

Nikki Sixx – “Sounds like it could have been on our first album.”

LeBrain – “Bullshit!”

Don’t be fooled by the hype.  “Sex” is a good song, but it sounds nothing at all like anything on Too Fast For Love.  It sounds like it could have been on Saints of Los Angeles.   Which is fine, if you like that album.  I do like that album, I think it is a good Motley album.  Not a great Motley album like Too Fast, but certainly better than, say, New Tattoo.

I think what Nikki did with “Sex” was to try, on purpose, to write a single.  A single in a particular style, that being, hard rock Motley Crue.  And I think that is what I don’t like about it, it sounds contrived.

So, that’s what “Sex” is:  An overproduced single with lots of backing vocals, loud drums, and some guitar effects.  The chorus is fine, copping the “woah, yeah” from “Kickstart My Heart”, only not as good.  I’ve heard the song a few times now, for $1.29, it was painless to buy.   It just fails to excite me.  Not the way “Feelgood” did in the summer of ’89, and “Primal Scream” did in ’91.  Those summers, I could not get those tunes off my deck!  I don’t think I will be going back to listen to “Sex” too often, unless there’s something going on here that I’m just plain missing right now.

Having said that, Mick’s solo is cool and I think he’s an underrated player.

2.5/5 stars

(NOTE:  I hate downloads!  I like physical product!  I want liner notes!  Who produced it, who wrote it?)

REVIEW: KISS – Peter Criss (1978)

Part 11 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!   This time, we’ll look at one of the four solo albums released under the Kiss banner in 1978:  Peter Criss.

KISS – Peter Criss (1978)

On September 18, 1978, Kiss became the first band in history to simultaneously release four solo albums.  Each was vastly different from one another.

Peter Criss is not a jazz album, it’s not a country album, it’s not an R&B album and it’s not a rock album. If it’s a failure in the eyes of Kiss fans, it’s only because it’s not a rock album. It falls under that dreaded catagory of “easy listening”: just enough of each genre to make it classified as (in the parlance of our times) “lite rock”.

In all honesty Peter Criss is not a bad album, there are some older folk out there who would love it.  When I was a kid I used to play it to my mom (not sayin’ my mom is “older”, just sayin’), saying “See, you’d like Kiss music too.” That’s what it is: music you can play for your mom.

Peter himself plays drums on most of the album, Allan Schwartzberg plays on the rest. The rest of the instruments are handled by studio musicians with Steve Lukather taking a solo. You can hear quite clearly that Peter loves playing this kind of music, and it suits his voice too. Peter has co-writing credits with his Lips bandmate Stan Pendridge on most songs.

The album kicks off with “I’m Gonna Love You”, a R&B flavoured rock number with a nice horn section and lush backing vocals. This is about as uptempo as it gets. “You Matter To Me” is rendered hard to listen to due to its big fat synthesizer riff. Very outdated and distracting. “Tossin’ and Turnin'” is the old rock and roll standard and similar in tempo and arrangement to “I’m Gonna Love You”. Peter does a great job vocally. “Don’t You Let Me Down” is the first ballad of the album, very 70’s, with more outdated keyboard sounds. Side 1 ends with “That’s The Kind Of Sugar Papa Likes”, a nondescript underwhelming uptempo album filler.

Side 2 begins with one of the best tune on the album, the acoustic ballad “Easy Thing” which goes into a strong string-laden chorus. It’s quiet yet epic at the same time. “Rock Me, Baby” is another R&B song, uptempo with lots of female backing vocals but otherwise filler. “Kiss The Girl Goodbye” is another acoustic ballad, a little too quiet and laid back, very folk sounding, and there are no drums on this track at all. “Hooked On Rock N’ Roll” brings the tempo back up before we go to the last and very best song on the album, Sean Delaney’s “I Can’t Stop The Rain”. It’s a piano and strings ballad, similar in scope to “Easy Thing”.

It’s a shame in a way that Peter was so out of touch with Kiss’ core audience, and had such an inflated ego, that he thought making this album was a good idea at the time. The record turned off Kiss fans in droves, although many have rediscovered it in the warm light of nostalgia.

I think the bottom line is this is a nostalgia CD. I can’t imagine new young Kiss fans getting into this at all, but they may want to play it for mom.

2/5 stars

Jon Lord: 1941-2012

When I was a (really) young kid hearing Deep Purple for the first time, I thought the keyboard player looked so cool, with his glasses and moustache.  So, naturally, I drew a picture of him.  With a machete.  And I called him Street Lord!

As an adult, Jon Lord’s playing and writing has shaped my experience as a music fan.  I shall dearly miss his musical contributions to the world.  I considered Jon Lord to be one of the most talented, if not the most talented, musician in rock.  It is truly a shame that now, 44 years since their inception, there can never be a reunion of Deep Purple Mk I, II, or III.

Rest in Peace Jon.

Part 76: Free Sh*t

You shall not pass, nor get anything for free

Record store employees get a lot of free shit.  From shirts to discs to posters to the oddest promotional merchandise you can think of, they get a lot.

Used record store employees, like myself, do not!

Reason being?  The word “used”.  The record distributors automatically assumed we would sell everything that we got for free.  Which we didn’t, because we didn’t want to hurt our already tenuous relationship.  This is where my personal experience differs from the average record store guy.  I got very, very little free stuff over the years.   

Sometimes you’d see the odd promo disc arrive, but it was either something completely unknown that nobody wanted, or something like Much Dance 2002, that nobody wanted.

I did get a few things.  Most of this stuff isn’t around anymore, either given away or wrecked.  Here’s a complete list of everything that I personally ever got for free from a record label during my 12 year tenure at the store, and it ain’t much!  This stuff would just show up in boxes of discs that we ordered.

  • A Jon Bon Jovi golf ball, to promote his solo album Destination Anywhere.  Ended up selling it at a garage sale for 25 cents.
  • A very nice Green Day Nimrod sweatshirt.  It too was green.  Don’t know what happened to it.
  • I had to fight for this one:  A nice black Kiss sweat shirt.  The higher-ups didn’t want me to get it.  (Don’t know what they wanted it for!)
  • A Jann Arden “Insensitive” baseball hat. 
  • A Vince Gill blue denim hat.
  • Two rolls of Star Wars stickers to promote the DVD release of the Original Trilogy.  These have lasted a long time and I still have a partial roll.  You’d be amazed how many things look better with Star Wars stickers on them
  • A bunch of Yoda buttons to promote Attack of the Clones.  Gave these away to kids.
  • A bunch of Lord of the Rings buttons, to promote Fellowship.  Also gave these away to kids.

Of these things, all I have left are the stickers and the Kiss sweatshirt, slowly fading from many washes.  Not a lot to show for 12 years of the record store grind, but as I said, the record companies really hated giving us anything for free.  The funny thing is, other people (DJ’s, employees at other record stores) would come in and sell us dozens and dozens of promotional discs that they got for free.  So the irony is, even though we played by the rules, we got stiffed.  The other people who broke the rules got free shit all the time!  Ain’t it the way?

GALLERY: ZZ Top – Eliminator Monogram model kit & Hot Wheels!

NOTE:  July 21, 2013 – I posted new pics with a better camera here.  Thanks!

I just dug up this old model kit I made in the 80’s.  It is, of course, ZZ Top’s old car Eliminator.  It’s been sitting for 25 years, so, quite dusty.  To clean it will take a lot of work.  Back then, I remember painting the engine logo was really tough. If you want to see a nice professionally painted rendition of this kit, click here.

The Hot Wheels toy, I’m sorry, I have no memory of where I got this!  It’s very cool too,  Definitely from the 80’s.

Video and photos below, enjoy.