REVIEW: KISS – The Very Best Of (2002)

Part 40 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

KISS – The Very Best Of (Universal, 2002)

My 1 star review is not based on the music. Clearly, these are all classic songs, each of which needs to be included on a Kiss hits CD. Rather my 1 star is based on what this CD represents.

The Very Best Of was the first release by Universal after Kiss’ contract was over. They could then release as many hits albums as they wanted, with no new material required, and they have. Many more times albums like this came out, some better than others, and most better than this.

No liner notes, no input from the band, and a tracklist that is largely repeated on CDs such as Greatest Hits and Greatest KISS. At least this CD was in chronological order and not scattershot like the previous two that I mentioned. It was also nice to finally see “Forever” on a hits CD as that was a huge hit for the non-makeup version of the band. Weird thing though, the then-current Kiss never played that one live.  It was nice that “New York Groove” (an Ace solo track) is on here, as well as “Lick It Up” which were being played live by the band at that time.

Otherwise, this CD was unnessesary then, and is very unnessesary now. As mentioned, at the time there were plenty of similar Kiss hits discs out, and now there are literally at least a dozen. This one stands out in no way anymore.

1/5 star. For diehards who have to own everything, or newbies only.

1. Strutter
2. Deuce
3. Got To Choose
4. Hotter Than Hell
5. C’Mon And Love Me
6. Rock And Roll All Nite (live)
7. Detroit Rock City
8. Shout It Out Loud
9. Beth
10. I Want You
11. Calling Dr. Love
12. Hard Luck Woman
13. I Stole Your Love
14. Christine Sixteen
15. Love Gun
16. New York Groove
17. I Was Made For Loving You
18. I Love It Loud
19. Lick It Up
20. Forever
21. God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II

Part 96: Aerodouche Dandy

RECORD STORE TALES Part 96:  Aerodouche Dandy

The year:  2003. Aerosmith were in town, playing a private party for Research in Motion.  I know a few people who went.  But I also know someone who ran into Steven Tyler downtown that day.  (As an historic footnote, the opening act for that party was Barenaked Ladies.  Thanks to Melvin Lapandano for that information.)

The person who bumped into Tyler was “Dandy”, one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever worked with.  And that doesn’t even bother him, he used to be proud that he was a dick.  Once he dropped his façade and showed his true colours, I had no use for the guy.  He was the kind of lazy disinterested employee who knew when he was safe to screw the pooch and when he had to work, and who to kiss ass for brownie points.  He was an expert at keeping up appearances.

The only time Dandy did anything (arguably) funny was the time met Steven Tyler downtown.  But he was still a dick.

Aerosmith’s last album, Just Push Play was pretty dismal, loaded with pop, ballads and samples.  Even Joe Perry says it’s his least favourite album.

So, Aerosmith are in town to play the private party.  Dandy’s walking downtown, acting like a douche (that part is speculation, but it’s probably true), when he bumps into Steven Tyler.  The conversation went like this.

Dandy – “Hey!  You’re in Aerosmith, right?”

Tyler – “That’s right, how are you doing man?”

Dandy – “I’m OK.  You guys kind of suck now don’t you?”

Tyler – (frowns and walks away)

Dandy – “Cheers.”

Then, to conclude the story, Dandy told me, “Later on I saw the bass player too.  But I didn’t say anything to him.  He’s just the bass player, so it already sucks enough to be him.”

What a douchebag!

REVIEW: KISS – The Box Set (Deluxe mini guitar case edition!)

Part 39 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

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KISS – The Box Set (Deluxe mini guitar case edition, 2001)

These days it’s pretty common to see deluxe versions of box sets, for the mega-fan who just has to have everything.  In 2001, it was less so.  Am I giving Gene Simmons credit for creating the concept?  Kind of, yeah.  This, the very first KISS box set, was available in three editions.  First I’m going to discuss the one that I chose — the mini guitar case edition — and we’ll go from there!  Gene is pretty much a business genius, and he knows if he makes something available, people will buy it.  “If you build it, they will come.”  I don’t blame him in the least and I’m the last person who’d call him “Greed Simmons”.  He’s not taking our money — we’re giving it to him.

So, leave it to KISS to package one version of their first box set in a miniature replica guitar case.  Granted there have been much cooler box looking sets before and since (see: ZZ Top, Pink Floyd) but everybody needs a KISS box set in a case like this, don’t they?

Well, I did.  It’s a handsome sturdy black case, with handle and silver KISS logo emblazoned on the front.  If memory serves it cost me about $250.  I got it from the American Amazon site, I had it on pre-order and I was so stoked to get it.

Included are 5 CDs (around 6 hours of music), an awesome hardcover book with loads of liner notes and rare photos, and 31 rare or unreleased tracks.  Some have been released on singles or compilations before, which I will discuss in greater detail, but most are previously unheard.
The box doesn’t hold the CD jewel cases all that well when you open it, so be careful.  Under one of the CDs is a secret compartment, with a thing of silica gel (“DO NOT EAT” helpfully written upon it) and keys for the case!

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Before I go through the discs, I’ll mention a few things that KISS fans often moan about when it comes to this box set:

  • “Gene promised the entire Wicked Lester album, and it’s not here.”
  • “There was supposed to be entire early KISS show would be in the box.”
  • “Gene said there’d be a video or a DVD.”
  • “The Elder demos are not on here, and Gene said they would be .”
  • “Where’s ‘Rip And Destroy’ and the acoustic version of ‘Beth’?”
  • “I have bootlegs of this stuff already, and it sounds better on the bootlegs.”

Since the release of this set, KISS have released ample DVDs (the KISStory series will be hitting 4 volumes this year) so I think that point is moot.  When questioned on other points, Gene always responds, “Be patient.  It’s coming.”  A buddy of mine, Mike Lukas of the band Legendary Klopeks, actually asked Gene some of these exact questions in person, and Gene said, “I know.  It’s coming.  Be patient.”  I’m sure that will bear out to be true.  As for the sound quality issues, I have bootlegs of some of this stuff on CD already, and none of them sound better than this box set, so I don’t know where people got that better sounding stuff.  And plenty of this stuff has not been bootlegged before.

Onto the music!

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DISC 1:

This CD starts off with a whopping 12 rare tracks before you even delve into the first KISS album.  The first two, Eddie Kramer demos of “Strutter” and “Deuce”, have been released before on singles and compilations, but many casual fans did not have them until now.  These tracks just smoke, with “Strutter” being quite a bit longer.  They are raw and have great playing from Ace.  Three tracks from the Wicked Lester album are included.  Wicked Lester was Gene and Paul’s original band, which transformed into KISS when they fired the other three guys.  Many Wicked Lester tracks were later recorded by KISS.  Yes, it would have been nice to have the whole album.  Maybe it will be released officially one day, maybe we will have to live with the crap-sounding bootlegs.  If it is never released, I won’t blame Gene.  It’s pretty terrible.

More demos abound including an early Gene song and an early Paul song.  Both hint at some directions they would explore within KISS and their solo albums.  A live take of the unreleased song “Acrobat” follows (essentially: “Love Theme From Kiss” melded with an unreleased song called “You’re Much Too Young”, which contains an early version of the “Detroit Rock City” riff — whew).  From here, there are nine tracks from the first three albums, ending with “Rock And Roll All Nite”.  Not a terribly generous slice of music from those first albums, but it does prevent too much duplication with the songs already included as demos.

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DISC 2:

Live tracks from Alive! kick off this disc, which is mostly made up of songs from the 4th through 6th KISS studio albums.  One really cool track is “Doncha Hesitate” which was completely unknown to me  previously.  It is especially cool because unlike later KISS demos, it includes all four members.  Plus, it is actually a really great song!  It just didn’t fit in with the direction of Destroyer; it is clearly in the mould of early KISS, which is why it never made the album.

Paul’s “God Of Thunder” demo is here (Paul’s lead vocal and alternate lyrics about Aphrodite), as well as an early version of “Dr. Love” called “Bad Bad Lovin'”.  The disc ends with another previously unheard song, a Gene demo called “Love Is Blind” which reveals his crooning Beatles roots.

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DISC 3:

This disc chronicles KISS’ decline in popularity in the early 80’s.  It starts out with a bang, “Detroit Rock City”, which is out of chronology.  Some tracks from Alive II and the solo albums (with another Gene demo) take us into the disco years.  The demo and live versions of the disco tracks reveal the harder edge intended when those songs were written.  Not many rarities on this disc, although “Nowhere To Run” is included, one of my all time favourite songs from KISS Killers, an import-only hits compilation with bonus material.

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DISC 4:

There are even fewer rare tracks on this disc, which is strange because there are tons of demos from the 80’s floating in collector’s circles.  I guess they’re probably just not that good.  This CD covers Lick It Up (1983) through to Hot In The Shade (1989):  The non-makeup part of the 80’s.  “Ain’t That Peculiar” is one of the best rarities here, an Eric Carr demo of what would become “Little Caesar”.  There is also a demo of Paul’s “Time Traveller”, a keyboard-based pop rock song which has not aged well.  Unfortunately, due to squeezing so many albums onto this CD, Lick It Up is criminally underrepresented.  It had many more great songs than just the two singles presented here.  “Let’s Put The X In Sex” should have been dropped in favour of “Exciter”, “And On The 8th Day”, or “A Million To One”.

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DISC 5:

Eric Carr’s final recording (and Eric Singer’s first with KISS) was “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II”, which kicks off this disc.  Eric Carr was sick with heart cancer, and was unable to play drums on the track.  He did sing the background vocal, which is a highlight of the song.  Eric Singer, who had played with Paul Stanley on his 1989 solo tour, was called to replace Carr for the sessions.  Sadly, that replacement would have to become permanent when Carr died in November of 1991.  I would have preferred the original mix of this song, from the Bill & Ted soundtrack, personally.

As far as rarities go, there is not much on this disc.  A Gene demo of “Domino” is neat, but underwhelming.  “Got To Choose” from the Japanese version of MTV Unplugged is very welcome, but where is the live take of “New York Groove” from the Japanese version of You Wanted The Best?  I would really like to have that in a digital format — I only have it on vinyl.

“It’s My Life”, from the Psycho-Circus sessions, was an old KISS song written back in the 80’s and first released by Wendy O. Williams on an album written and produced by Gene Simmons.  KISS finally released their own version of it many years later on this box, and it purports to include the entire original band playing on it.  I am skeptical of this, but it does definitely have a verse sung by Ace Frehley, while Gene sings the main part.  “Nothing Can Keep Me From You” is on here, a terrible song from the Detroit Rock City movie, and actually more of a Paul solo song since no other members appear on it.  The unreleased full-length version of “Childhood’s End” from Carnival of Souls (featuring a coda called “Outromental”) round out the non-album stuff.

A bad song choice or two from Revenge, some of the wrong tracks from Carnival of Souls, and a few too many from Psycho-Circus are the main flaws with this disc.  A track from Alive III would have been nice.

The box set ends with the “live” (not really though, actually dubbed) version of “Shout It Out Loud” from the Greatest KISS album, and a “preview track” from what was intended to be the forthcoming Alive IV:  “Rock And Roll All Nite” (the only song to be repeated).  This version of Alive VI ended up getting shelved in favour of a symphonic live album, which was then dubbed Alive VI: Kiss Symphony.  The original version of Alive VI has since been issued in another KISS box set.

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As I said earlier in the review, I am sure that KISS will release more rare stuff in the future.  It has already started to happen with the afforementioned KISS Alive Box, and KISSology DVD sets.  As Gene said, be patient, it’s coming.  On the whole, quibbles aside I very much enjoy listening to the KISS box set.  It is quite interesting to hear the band evolve, and you gain an appreciation for their charisma and songwriting.  Regardless of what the critics say, Kiss are quite talented songwriters.  Often simple, but we’re still listening to them almost 40 years later.  And they said it would never last six months.

The liner notes are quite insightful if not entirely accurate (Peter Criss did not play on any tracks from Psycho-Circus except one, no matter what the notes say).

I mentioned there were other versions available.  There is a basic version, with a softcover version of the book, in a simple black box.  It retails for around $100.  That’s the version most people should grab.  The only difference is the box it comes in, and the softcover book vs. hardcover.  Oh, and the guitar box also came with a print of a  note in what appears to be Paul Stanley’s handwriting, talking about the long awaited set.  Not a huge deal.

Then, for the ultimate fan, there is the box set that actually came in a full sized guitar case. The Premium Gold Edition. It appears to still be available.

It comes with an RIAA gold record of Kiss Alive!  and apparently “hand written” liner notes in gold ink on parchment paper.  Retail price to us Canucks:  $850 smackaroos!

For the music itself, I rate this one:

5/5 stars

REVIEW: KISS – “Psycho Circus” CD/VHS single

Part 38.5 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

KISS – “Psycho Circus” (CD/VHS single, 1998)

Unfortunately, the 3D wasn’t nearly as good in 1998 as it is now.  This video probably represents that best that we could do at the time.  However, it’s a part of KISStory now, and worthy addition to your collection for a couple reasons.

The video itself contains two versions of “Psycho Circus”. It has the regular 2D version, which doesn’t hurt your eyes to watch, the 3D version, and the glasses. If you concentrate really hard, you can kind of imagine everything looking 3D. It’s a gimmick I guess, Kiss were experimenting with 3D images live in concert at the time. I didn’t see that tour but everybody who told me about it said that the 3D didn’t work.

The video comes with a CD single. There were four different CD singles printed, each one with a different Kiss member’s face on it. They were random and collectible, but every copy I have ever run across had Peter Criss’ face on it. I’ve never found anybody else. So, that means either: a) Peter was packed more per crate than other members (a common strategy used in trading cards and action figures), or b) fans snapped up all the Genes, Pauls and Aces very quickly. Personally I think it’s a). If you find a copy with any other member’s face on it, I think you have something collectible.

The CD single contains the rare track “In Your Face” written by Gene and sung by Ace. This is probably the easiest place to find that song.  It was initially released on the Japanese version of Psycho-Circus.  It’s not a bad song, and since it’s sung by Ace is it valuable to Kiss fans for that reason.

3/5 stars. A curiosity, it’s kind of fun to watch the video, if you still own a VCR.

REVIEW: KISS – Psycho Circus (1998, Japanese and Australian versions)

Part 38 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

 

PSYCHOKISS – Psycho Circus (1998)

I have a really hard time rating Psycho-Circus.  I played it every day when it came out, but I like it a lot less now than I did in 1998. Once I got over the novelty of “finally, a new album by the original Kiss,” I stopped listening to it.  I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Gene and Paul are essentially the only members of the original Kiss on most of it.  That’s the biggest problem.

On all but one song, drums are by Kevin Valentine (ex-Cinderella), a good studio drummer.  Guitars are handled by Tommy Thayer (who fits into the story later) on all but two songs.

The other problem is it’s way too overproduced and I lay that blame at the feet of Bruce Fairbairn, rest his soul.

Fairbairn was a great producer for Bon Jovi and especially Aerosmith in the 80’s, but he was the wrong guy to produce Kiss. I think he wanted to make a dense, lush album as if it were 1998’s version of Destroyer, and he failed miserably. Paul wanted Bob Ezrin to produce…oh, the album that might have been.  Paul and Fairbairn clashed in the studio regularly over the direction of the album.

The title track, though is amazing!   Vintage, anthemic Paul Stanley. The solo is great, also very vintage…but it’s Tommy. I don’t mind Fairbairn’s production here, the circus noises suit the song, however the drums sound way too plastic.  This is the case with almost the entire album.  The drums sound like samples throughout.

Gene’s “Within” follows, which I believe was a Carnival Of Souls outtake. (Two other COS/Psycho-Circus outtakes, “Sweet & Dirty Love” and “Carnival Of Souls” itself ended up on Gene’s solo album.) “Within” is a slow dirgey ditty.  It’s a good song with lots of atmosphere, but it has nothing to do sound-wise with the rest of this album.  It would have been more suited to Creatures or Carnival, but not so much this album.

The cumbersome Paul title, “I Pledge Allegiance To The State Of Rock & Roll” is next. I hate this song. It’s a fast one, nothing special, a little stock, and to me is nothing but pure filler.

Then there’s finally a real Kiss song with all four members playing: Ace’s “Into the Void”. It is definitely one of the best songs on the album, with a riff that only Ace could play and the drums sound a lot better here.  It’s quintessential Kiss.  When I think of Kiss, I thik of songs that sound like “Into the Void”.

“We Are One” is a Gene song, and it sounds a lot like his 1978 solo album. It’s a nice song, I think it’s a tad slow, but it’s got that late 70’s vibe.  Maybe like a “Great Expectations” too.

The second side of the album starts with “You Wanted The Best” which was clearly written by Gene as a Kiss “comeback” song. It’s neat in that all four members sing lead for the first time ever, but really that’s its only selling point. Fairbairn overproduced once again, and the guitars sound a lot more processed than they should. The solo is definitely Ace, though. I think “You Wanted The Best” is another one of those Gene songs that had been presented to the band and rejected from previous albums like “Within” was.

Paul Stanley takes the next track with “Raise Your Glasses”, which is yet again overproduced and also a bit too pop sounding. It sounds like something from Hot In the Shade or that general era.  Paul sings some nice harmonies with himself in the middle, but the demo version of this is better (from the “Psycho Circus” CD single pictured below).

Since Peter Criss’ material was allegedly deemed too poor for this album, Paul and Ezrin wrote I “Finally Found My Way” for him to sing. It was meant to be the next “Beth” but I don’t need to tell you what happened there (nothing). It’s a piano ballad (that’s Ezrin on Fender Rhodes) and it’s a nice song, maybe it is was for Neil Diamond to sing. It’s just too darn soft, and Peter’s voice lacks the rasp.  The rasp would have given it some edge like Kiss ballads of yore.  He sounds great harmonizing with Paul on the bridge though.

Paul and Bruce Kulick wrote the next song, “Dreamin'”, which was ripped off of “I’m Eighteen” by Alice Cooper. It is basically the same song, and I believe Alice beat them in court too.

The most interesting song was saved for last, Gene Simmons’ epic “Journey Of 1,000 Years”. I don’t know what this could be compared to.  Although it wasn’t popular with the Kiss fans I know, I think it’s the best song here. Overproducing worked on this song. It is loaded with strings and who-knows-what, and Gene’s chorus is just mindblowing. “Can you hear me calling, can you hear the sound? Can you hear me calling, or is the voice of the crowd?” If this song was on The Elder, it would have fit in better.  It’s majestic and I think a good example of what Gene is capable of when he sets his mind to it.

Japan got a bonus track written by Gene called “In Your Face”. He wrote it for Ace to sing, so it has become a little bit of special song, a lost Kiss gem. The production is a little more sparse and though it is not a great Kiss song, Ace’s vocal sets it apart a bit. Worth having.

I have a couple versions of this album.  I bought the Japanese version first, for the bonus track, and it was not cheap!  The packaging here is cumbersome, but superior to the fragile lenticular jewel case that North America got. It is a digipack whose front cover opens like doors to reveal the Psycho Circus “clown” inside in 3D. Typical gradiose Kiss and I love it.

Australia got a 1999 reissue with a 6 song bonus disc called Kiss Live.  It contains 3 classics and 3 newbies.  So, in other words, you can get versions of these songs played by the original lineup.  This is worth having.  Track list:  “Psycho Circus”, “Let Me Go, Rock and Roll”, “Into the Void” (with guitar solo), “Within” (with drum solo), “100,000 Years”, and “Black Diamond”.

When you hear Psycho Circus, you can’t help but think that Kiss blew a monumental opportunity to create history. In the end, it’s “just another Kiss album”, and not a particularly great one. It certainly inferior to the first 7 studio albums at best.  It has a leg up on some of the 80’s records, but it just doesn’t rock hard enough!  The right producer could have made this sound like Kiss, not Aerojovi.

3/5 stars

Part 95: Pierced and Scarred

RECORD STORE TALES Part 95: Pierced and Scarred

When you walk into a CD store today, you might see all sorts of colourful characters.  Maybe you’ll see a mohawk, purple hair, piercings and tattoos.  Something about the music scene attracts that sort of style, and young folks in CD stores often emulate their rock star heroes.

Well, not in our store!

When I first started in ’94, the rules were clear:  No weird hair colours, no piercings (not even ears, on men), no visible tattoos.  In a music store.

The rationale behind this was that we were a mall music store – we catered to mall rats who listened to Nine Inch Nails, but also to grannies looking for the new Anne Murray.  We couldn’t scare off the old ladies with an earring.  It all came down to personality really.  The man who called the shots and paid the bills as well as the paycheques didn’t like earrings on men.  He was a pretty clean cut, physically fit, unpierced chap and earrings on men were the opposite of his vision for a record store.

I know.  I know how weird that sounds, for a music store, but rules are rules are rules.

Then in ’95, we hired a girl with a visible back tattoo, so the tattoo rule quietly went out the window.  Guys were still not allowed to have earrings.

In ’97, one of our guys spent the summer in England.  He returned in the fall with a nose ring.  He knew the policy and didn’t care.  The boss decided to bend the rule, since he had “already spent the money” to have the piercing done. This opened the door a crack.  Before too long we had girls with nose rings, guys with eyebrow rings and visible tattoos, and I decided to get my ears pierced.  I put up with a little grief over it (“Why would you want to do that to yourself?”) but the policy was no longer in effect.  We were finally starting to catch up with the rest of the world in general, and music stores specifically!  Our new policy stated that facial piercings were allowed as long as they were not “excessive”.  “Excessive” was never defined, but it was understood that a couple were OK.

I decided I wanted a lip piercing, and later on a nose piercing.  I became very active in the body modification community, making friends in tattoo shops.  (Some of those friends are LeBrain readers today.)  I never went hog wild.  To date I only have two tattoos, and one earring left.  However as I went from my 20’s to my 30’s, working in a music store, I was able to explore different looks.

By 2004, there was a rollback of the piercing policy.  Sales had been slumping thanks to downloading, and changes were made.

While girls were still allowed to keep their nose rings, guys were not.  I was given direct instructions to remove my lip and nose piercings, immediately.  I protested.  “What about our policy?  The policy states that facial piercings are allowed as long as we don’t go into excess, and I only have two, which is less than others.”

The response was, “I know.  The policy was a mistake.  We’re changing the policy back, effective immediately.”

Our Niagara Falls store owner, Lemon Kurri Klopek, was very active in his local tattoo community, and even a tattoo shop overseas, which enabled him to tour there with his band, the Legendary Klopeks.  He sent some reading material written by Shannon Larratt my way, on why allowing piercings in the work place is good for morale and good for a unique store image.  I left these reading materials for my boss, who “filed” them.  I don’t know if he read them or not.  My piercings grew in.

In the long run, this policy change was a good thing.  Don’t get me wrong – it did nothing to fix sales slumps.  It did nothing to herd in old ladies by the gaggle, to purchase Anne Murray discs.  It did succeed in making me ask questions.  One question was, “Since I can’t have the piercings anymore, why don’t I just look for a normal 9-5 job?” The piercings were already out, it only made sense to make a new resume and make some serious life changes.

REVIEW: KISS – Carnival Of Souls (The Final Sessions) (1997)

Part 38 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

KISS – Carnival of Souls (The Final Sessions) (1997, recorded 1994-95)

Finally!  Five years since Revenge, a studio album!

But not the studio album that the general public had been expecting.  The average person on the street would have expected an album by the original Kiss, since they’d just finished a long worldwide smash hit reunion tour.  Carnival of Souls was an album by Paul, Gene, Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer; the album they had finished just before the reunion tour was announced.

Prior to the reunion tour, Gene hyped the new material:  “Very much a brother record to Revenge,” was a quote he gave to M.E.A.T Magazine.  “Head music” was another phrase he used to describe the new album, which was then still called Head (original artwork from Bruce’s website below).

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With 20/20 hindsight, I think it’s obvious that Kiss were choosing to evolve by jumping on the grunge bandwagon.  The producer was Toby Wright, best known for cutting two records with Alice In Chains.  The riffs were downtuned, heavy, and obviously not from the streets of New York like classic Kiss.  These sounded like riffs from Seattle.

The thing is, I like Carnival of Souls, quite a bit.  I absolutely loved it back then.  I paid $30 for a bootleg copy (at one point, this was the most heavily bootlegged album ever) back in 1996.  I like almost every song, and this record was historic for Bruce Kulick.  Not only did he have a whopping 9 writing credits out of 12 songs, but he also had his first lead vocal:  “I Walk Alone”.  (Today, Bruce sings lead vocals on his excellent solo albums — check out the BK3 album featuring Gene & Nick Simmons.)

Ironic that Bruce would indeed walk alone in early ’96, having been a driving force of this record.

Kicking off with a lot of noise, feeback, and Paul’s backwards distored vocals, “Hate” opens Carnival of Souls.  Anchored by a complex drum & cymbol pattern by Eric Singer, “Hate” is probably the heaviest song Kiss has ever recorded.  It is a relentless Soundgarden-ish assault with a drum pattern straight out of the Matt Cameron book of tricks.

Paul’s “Rain” is another good, grungy song, but it is nothing compared with “Master & Slave”.  Also known as “Tell Me” on some bootlegs, this is a bass-driven number, with an actual chorus that can be sung along to.  Kiss fans latched onto this one as an early favourite.

“Childhood’s End” is the first epic ballady type song on the album, a Gene title stolen from an Arthur C. Clarke classic.  Lyrically unrelated, this song features a children’s choir and probably could have been on an album like Revenge had Bob Ezrin produced.

Perhaps unwisely, this is followed by a true ballad, Paul’s “I Will Be There”, a song written for his son.  It is a beautiful, sparse, strictly acoustic piece with a soaring vocal.  Bruce’s intricate solo sends this one into the net for a goal.

Closing this “side” of the album is “Jungle”, the only single from Carnival.  Clocking in at almost 7 minutes, this is the album’s standout song.  It is a powerful bass-driven groove, with the kind of anthemic Paul chorus that keeps me coming back.  I love this song, and when I played it in the store, people loved it too.

The second “side” of the album opens with “In My Head”, probably the weirdest Gene song on the album.  Heavy, angry, weird.  I love this song, but it’s pretty different.  Lyrically, musically, this is unlike anything Kiss have done before and I’m at a loss to compare it to something by somebody else.

“It Never Goes Away” follows “In My Head”, another slow one, this one very powerful and perhaps like something that would have been on an album like Superunknown.   “Seduction of the Innocent” continues the slow song pattern.  It sounds a little like heavy Beatles.  I can hear some of that psychedelic “Tomorrow Never Knows” vibe, but in a heavy context.  Gene’s chorus tops the cake.

An epic is up next:  Gene’s “I Confess”.  The verses sound much like outtakes from The Elder, with strings and a dark vibe.  Then Gene’s chorus nails the foot back to the gas pedal.  The song alternates between heavy choruses and quiet verses, much like the popular music of the time….

Paul’s final song of the album, “In The Mirror”, is a scorcher.  It has a killer riff and could have fit on any number of Kiss albums.  Imagine it recorded by the original lineup.  If you can picture it in a “I Stole You Love” vibe, suddenly it sounds like something that could have been on Love Gun.  As it is, the guitars are very 90’s in their sound and the drums very dry.  It was the fashion.

Carnival of Souls ends with what ended up being Bruce Kulick’s swan song, his first and last lead vocal:  “I Walk Alone”.  This fan favourite has a very tentative lead vocal, he’s noticeably improved in the years since.  Still, it’s a nice ballad, and when Gene joins him singing the end, it’s perfect.  Strangely enough, this song never made any of the bootleg discs out there.  Perhaps it was never meant to be on the album?  I don’t know the answer to why.

Carnival has two obvious weaknesses:  the trendy grungy sound, and the fact that so many songs are slow or ballads.  I feel that the ballads are more than made up for by the heaviness of songs like “Hate” and “In My Head”.  I think that Paul’s best two songs, “Jungle” and “Master & Slave” make up for any dull moments.  As for the sudden defection from rock n’ roll to grunge?

Well, keep in mind that this is the band who went disco in ’79.

There was one outtake from this album, which is on the Kiss Box Set:  “Outromental”, which made it onto promo cassettes but was cut from the album itself.

The biggest disappointment with this album was the packaging.  The band decided against the original cover art, and to avoid confusion put the bare-faced lineup on the cover.  But there’s no booklet, no lyrics, and only a couple pictures.

4/5 stars

REVIEW: Sloan – The Double Cross (2011)

SLOAN – The Double Cross (2011 CD and iTunes editions)

This is an album that grew on me.  The last number of Sloan albums (everything since Between the Bridges basically) failed to grow on me.  Or, I failed to devote the time necessary to them.  Whomever is at fault…I never got into them.

Then, I got stuck in traffic one night on the way home from work.  There’s a certain “sweet spot” in the tri-cities.  If there’s an accident right where the 401 meets highway 8, it has the potential to tie up traffic in the tri-city area.  So, I took the long way home and listened to Sloan’s The Double Cross all the way through.  Twice.

The album grew from a 3.5/5 to a 5/5 in those two listens.

Two tracks stand out immediately: Chris’ “Follow he Leader” and Patrick’s “Unkind”. Both are incredible songs. Both remind me of what made me go nuts for Sloan a long time ago. Both have really immediate choruses, but both also really capture a vibe. You’ll know what I mean when you hear them.

I also quite like “Shadow Of Love” which sounds new wavy to me, like something Elvis Costello would have written. Little bit of moog on there. I also quite like Patrick’s “I Gotta Know”, a melodic punk-like rocker. Jay’s “Beverly Terrace” is like a disco song, no kidding, and it’s great. I also like Jay’s “The Answer Was You”. The closer “Laying So Low” is quite good as well, a slower one which ends the album on a bittersweet note.

There are two bonus tracks worth grabbing: iTunes had “Then Again”.  It is my third favourite song on the record overall, a Chris song with a dark almost heavy metal vibe (although the song is not a metal song). The iTunes pre-order only track, “Jesus Loves Me”, is a Patrick rocker with a heavy distorted riff like something Weezer might have done.

For best results, play loud. In traffic.

(Don’t like the cover art though. I love a lot of Sloan covers like One Chord and Navy Blues, and you can see they’re going for that two-colour-portrait look here, but the gold and purple are kinda putrid. Not really a cover that jumps out at you at the record store. But then again, who browses record stores anymore? Sigh.)

5/5stars

Part 94: Staffing

Everybody and their little brother wanted to work in a record store.  Why not? It’s the Dream Job.

For most record stores, I imagine staffing is not an issue.  Anybody who can Google can tell you where to buy “Call Me Maybe”, today.  For us though, we were buying and selling used.  We could buy 200 discs in one average day, and might have to look at 600 just to find 200 good ones to buy, plus all our staff were required to be qualified buyers.  It was what set us apart from other stores – you didn’t have to wait for a specific person to sell your stuff.  It would usually take up to 3 months to get a new inexperienced staff member fully trained on everything, including buying.  Someone with experience in a record store might get there in a month or two.

Everybody was always shocked when they heard that.  3 months?  What the hell did it take 3 months to teach people?  A lot.  A lot of kids were looking for a summer job, but there’d be no point hiring a kid for the summer.  If we didn’t get a year out of an employee, it wasn’t worth the training involved!  That was a disappointment for many many kids who wanted to work with us for the summer.  Some just lied and said they would stick around, but bailed at the end of the summer anyway.

Here’s a brief list of things we had to tackle before we even got into buying:

  • Simple things like, how you approach a customer to see if they want help without being annoying.
  • Getting an idea of our quality standards (the highest in town) and policies.
  • Replacing cases – when and how?  You don’t want to waste fresh cases for no reason, and we replaced hundreds a day.
  • Checking and cleaning the CD before selling it – then double checking again to make sure you put the right disc in the case!
  • Looking stuff up inventory, in multiple ways – artist, soundtrack, etc.  This was challenging to those who could not spell/type.  I remember training one guy who could not type “Polyphonic Spree”.  Nope, he typed everything but.  “Polyphonic Speer” was one memorable variation
  • Looking up stuff online for more information. (We had to use Allmusic but I found Google and Wiki more useful – shame that use of Google was blocked on our system for fear of “mis-use”!)
  • Finding that stuff on the shelves once you know it’s in stock.
  • Filing CD’s away in the correct sections.
  • How to handle overstock.
  • How to do the data entry of entering new titles.
  • How to check other stores in the chain for inventory.
  • How to do cash, credit and debit transactions.
  • How to count change properly (if you wanted to balance at night, you had to teach it)!
  • What to clean, when to clean it.
  • Cashing out – how to do it, and how to balance.

Doing all this stuff took about 3 weeks.  There was a lot to remember without hammering them with buying CDs and all the different pricing schemes involved. When we taught our kids how to price discs and what to offer, we had a pretty good layout, but our pricing lookup in our computer system was limited in its usefulness.  Any time a CD got reissued, it got another listing in our catalogue. Some of these reissues might have been physically identical, so for kids to figure out which discs they were looking at was very tricky.

Our computer system had no pictures and no track lists and only a limited amount of info available.  When you get multiple versions of a disc coming in, it could get confusing.  A listing could look like this (but without the helpful but hilarious cover art):

  • Ladano, Mike – LeBrain’s Greatest Hits (1995 1 CD remaster Capitol Records)
  • Ladano, Mike – LeBrain’s Greatest Hits (remaster reissued)
  • Ladano, Mike – LeBrain’s Greatest Hits (14 tracks)
  • Ladano, Mike – LeBrain’s Greatest Hits (2002 remaster)
  • Ladano, Mike – LeBrain’s Greatest Hits (bonus DVD)
  • Ladano, Mike – LeBrain’s Greatest Hits (original)

So imagine some guy coming in with a box of CDs, and every second or third disc you look up had that kind of info for you to sift through – all different prices too!  And God help you if the CD was not listed in the computer and you had to make a “manual” decision!  And lots (lots!) of great music was not in our computers.

You can’t just teach this stuff – it has to come from experience and seeing the same thing come in over and over again.

And none of that even touches on quality.  When we looked at disc quality, we were probably the most anal store in town.  The stuff other stores would sell as “good condition” wouldn’t even make our shelves.  This was a good thing at the point of sale, but very difficult for staff members to deal with when purchasing discs from customers.  They had to look at:

  • Scratches – very carefully.  Anything visible?  How deep?  Can they be buffed out?
  • Can you feel the scratch with a fingernail?  If so, it cannot be buffed out without taking the chance of destroying the CD.
  • Top scratches – the most deadly of all scratches.  They are on the thin top of the CD and actually cut into the aluminum.  Cannot be fixed, but can be seen shining through bright light.
  • Pinholes – don’t usually effect sound quality unless massive.  Can also be seen shining through with a bright light.
  • Packaging – are all elements present?  Front cover, back cover?  Any water damage or rips?
  • Is anything missing?  For example, was it supposed to be a two CD set, but a disc is missing and case changed?
example of pinholes

example of pinholes

And that doesn’t even factor in such things as, “How many copies do we have?  How many copies do our other stores have?  Do we really need to spend time buffing scratches off a Spin Doctors disc, when another store has 4 copies?  None of this stuff can be taught overnight.

So, when kids used to ask me for a summer job, and I would say no – this is why!  I’m sorry I let you down back then, but there was no way I was training you on all this shit for 3 months for you to only stay 3 months!

REVIEW: KISS – Greatest Hits (European import 1997)

Part 37 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

KISS – Greatest Hits (1997, Europe only)

Wait a minute — wasn’t the last review I did a Kiss compilation from 1997 called Greatest Kiss?  Yup!  Welcome to Kiss – the compilation years.  This is why fans such as me were losing their patience.

Yet, I paid $40 to order this from Europe, wanting my Kiss collection to be as complete as possible.   My employers wondered what the hell was wrong with me, spending $40 for 20 songs that I already had.  I guess it’s hard to understand if you’re not from the Kiss Army!

Greatest Hits was released in Europe hot on the heels of Greatest Kiss. For the fifth time in a row, Kiss had released a non-original, non-studio album. This had never happened before. (For the record, the four before this one were Alive III, MTV Unplugged, You Wanted The Best, and Greatest Kiss.  And this doesn’t include Kiss My Ass.)

The tracklisting is actually a little interesting. Greatest Kiss only had one non-makeup song (“God Gave Rock And Roll To You II”) and this one has three: “Crazy Crazy Nights”, “Lick It Up”, and “God Gave”. That alone was unexpected and I remember listening to this CD, glad that Kiss weren’t totally disregarding the 80’s.

Aside from this, it’s a pretty ordinary compilation and covers a lot of ground already on Greatest Kiss. I did detect one bad edit between tracks, where a fade did not end completely. This was dissapointing to me, and combined with the lack of any sort of liner notes in the packaging, smacked of a rush-job and cash-in.

Thankfully, Kiss were listening, and finally released a studio album next.  Puzzling the general public even more, the next album didn’t have the original lineup.  TO BE CONTINUED…

2/5 stars