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

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

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

Finally!Β  Five years since Revenge, a studio album!

But not the studio album that the general public had been expecting.Β  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.Β  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:Β  “Very much a brother record to Revenge,” was a quote he gave to M.E.A.T Magazine.Β  “Head music” was another phrase he used to describe the new album, which was then still called HeadΒ (original artwork from Bruce’s website below).

COSartworkFlameHeadjpg

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

The thing is, I like Carnival of Souls, quite a bit.Β  I absolutely loved it back then.Β  I paid $30 for a bootleg copy (at one point, this was the most heavily bootlegged album ever) back in 1996.Β  I like almost every song, and this record was historic for Bruce Kulick.Β  Not only did he have a whoppingΒ 9 writing credits out of 12 songs, but he also had his first lead vocal:Β  “I Walk Alone”.Β  (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.Β  Anchored by a complex drum & cymbol pattern by Eric Singer, “Hate” is probably the heaviest song Kiss has ever recorded.Β  It is a relentlessΒ 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”.Β  Also known as “Tell Me” on some bootlegs, this is a bass-drivenΒ number, with an actual chorus that can be sung along to.Β  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.Β  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.Β  It is a beautiful, sparse, strictly acoustic piece with a soaring vocal.Β  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.Β  Clocking in at almost 7 minutes, this is the album’s standout song.Β  It is a powerful bass-driven groove, with the kind of anthemic Paul chorus that keeps me coming back.Β  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.Β  Heavy, angry, weird.Β  I love this song, but it’s pretty different.Β  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 thatΒ would have been on an album like Superunknown.Β Β Β “Seduction of the Innocent” continues the slow song pattern.Β  It sounds a little like heavy Beatles.Β  I can hear some of that psychedelicΒ “Tomorrow Never Knows” vibe, but in a heavy context.Β  Gene’s chorus tops the cake.

An epicΒ is up next:Β  Gene’s “I Confess”.Β  The verses sound much like outtakes from The Elder, with strings and a dark vibe.Β  Then Gene’s chorus nails the foot back to the gas pedal.Β  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.Β  It has a killer riff and could have fit on any number of Kiss albums.Β  Imagine it recorded by the original lineup.Β Β If you can picture it in a “I Stole You Love” vibe, suddenly it sounds like something that could have beenΒ on Love Gun.Β  As it is, the guitars are very 90’s in their sound and the drums very dry.Β  It was the fashion.

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

Carnival has two obvious weaknesses:Β  the trendy grungy sound, and the fact that so many songs are slow or ballads.Β  I feel that the ballads are more than made up for by the heaviness of songs like “Hate” and “In My Head”.Β  I think that Paul’s best two songs, “Jungle” and “Master & Slave” make up for any dull moments.Β  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:Β  “Outromental”, which made it onto promo cassettes but was cut from the album itself.

The biggest disappointment with this album was the packaging.Β  The band decided against the original cover art, and to avoid confusion put the bare-faced lineup on the cover.Β  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.Β  The last number of Sloan albums (everything since Between the Bridges basically) failed to grow on me.Β  Or, I failed to devote the time necessary to them.Β  Whomever is at fault…I never got into them.

Then, I got stuck in traffic one night on the way home from work.Β  There’s a certain “sweet spot” in the tri-cities.Β  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.Β  So, I took the long way home and listened to Sloan’s The Double Cross all the way through.Β  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”.Β  ItΒ 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. Β Why not?Β It’s the Dream Job.

For most record stores, I imagine staffing is not an issue. Β Anybody who can Google can tell you where to buy β€œCall Me Maybe”, today.Β  For us though, we were buying and selling used.Β  We could buy 200 discs in one averageΒ 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. Β It was what set us apart from other stores – you didn’t have to wait for a specific person to sell your stuff. Β It would usually take up to 3 months to get a new inexperienced staff member fully trained on everything, including buying.Β  Someone with experience in a record store might get there in a month or two.

Everybody was always shocked when they heard that.Β  3 months?Β  What the hell did it take 3 months to teach people?Β  A lot.Β  A lot of kids were looking for a summer job, but there’d be no point hiring a kid for the summer. Β If we didn’t get a year out of an employee, it wasn’t worth the training involved! Β That was a disappointment for many many kids who wanted to work with us for the summer. Β 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)Β and policies.
  • Replacing cases – when and how?Β  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.Β  This was challenging to those who could not spell/type.Β  I remember training one guy who could not type “Polyphonic Spree”.Β  Nope, he typed everything but.Β  “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. Β 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. Β 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. Β When you get multiple versions of a disc coming in, it could get confusing. Β 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!Β  And God help you if the CD was not listed in the computer and you had to make a “manual” decision!Β  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.Β  When we looked at disc quality, we were probably the most anal store in town. Β The stuff other stores would sell as β€œgood condition” wouldn’t even make our shelves. Β This was a good thing at the point of sale, but very difficult for staff members to deal with when purchasing discs from customers.Β  They had to look at:

  • Scratches – very carefully.Β  Anything visible? Β How deep?Β  Can they be buffed out?
  • Can you feel the scratch with a fingernail? Β If so, it cannot be buffed out without taking the chance of destroying the CD.
  • Top scratches – the most deadly of all scratches. Β They are on the thin top of the CD and actually cut into the aluminum.Β  Cannot be fixed, but can be seen shining through bright light.
  • Pinholes – don’t usually effect sound quality unless massive. Β Can also be seen shining through with a bright light.
  • Packaging – are all elements present? Β Front cover, back cover?Β  Any water damage or rips?
  • Is anything missing? Β 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, β€œHow many copies do we have? Β How many copies do our other stores have?Β  Do we really need to spend time buffing scratches off a Spin Doctors disc, when another store has 4 copies? Β 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!Β  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 onlyΒ stay 3 months!

REVIEW: KISS – Greatest Hits (European import 1997)

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

KISS – Greatest Hits (1997, Europe only)

Wait a minute — wasn’t the last review I did a Kiss compilation from 1997 called Greatest Kiss?Β  Yup!Β  Welcome to Kiss – the compilation years.Β  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.Β Β  My employers wondered what the hell was wrong with me, spending $40 for 20 songs that I already had.Β  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.Β  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,Β 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.Β  Puzzling the general public even more, the next album didn’t have the original lineup.Β  TO BE CONTINUED…

2/5 stars

QUEENSRYCHE UPDATE: Things Are Gonna Get Messy…

First there’s this.Β  Queensryche make Tate sound like a total douche, but the future of their music is exciting.Β  And that 2013 “Return to History” tour sounds totally cool.Β  Read it:

http://www.billboard.com/features/q-a-queensryche-talks-lawsuit-plans-return-1007826952.story

Then, there’s this news!

http://www.bravewords.com/news/188719

2013 QUEENSRΕΈCHE Anniversary Tour featuring an All-Star lineup, starring Geoff Tate, “the longtime creative and driving force behind the band, whose vocals can be heard on every Queensryche song ever released!” [NOTE:Β  Didn’t DeGarmo sing on “All I Want”?]

Yeah, this is definitely going to get messy.Β  2013 will be an interesting year as two entities seemingly calling themselves Queensryche attempt to do an anniversary tour.Β  Can’t imagine who the hell is in Geoff’s “all star lineup” though.

 

If you like Queensryche, check these out:

Mike Ladano: Exclusive EDDIE JACKSON interview, part I

Mike Ladano: Exclusive EDDIE JACKSON interview, part II

Mike Ladano: Exclusive EDDIE JACKSON interview, part III

Mike Ladano: Exclusive EDDIE JACKSON interview, part IV

Part 93.5: Recognition

Missed part 1?Β  Click here.

Part 2

Even though half a decade has passed, sometimes I still get recognized from the CD store today. Just two weeks ago, I was at a lunch with some friends of my wife. One guy recognized me. β€œDo you still work at the CD store?” he asked as I said hello to everyone. He was an old regular. Not all regulars still recognize me. An older gentleman, Charles, my best classical customer, didn’t recognize me when he bought classical discs from my garage sale last summer.

Today, I tend to get recognized not for my face but for my name. Rather, my nickname: LeBrain.

I never mentioned how that handle came to be. After winning my umpteenth 4 O’clock 4-play on 107.5 Dave FM, Craig Fee dubbed me with that name. β€œMike Ladano and his massive brain…his massive LeBrain!” The nickname stuck, and that is how I became LeBrain. Next thing you know it, we had an entire “Stump LeBrain” week where I guested at the station for a week, and a full month (“LeBrainuary”) of my own 4-play quizzes.

I was first recognized in person by the owner of the local UPS store, while picking up a parcel. β€œAre you that guy from the radio?” he asked me. Turns out he was a fan. He’d listened to all of LeBrainuary in his store.

I was also recognized by some of the younger chaps at Sausagefest, who thought my voice was familiar. β€œI know that voice…is that LeBrain?” they said.

I buy a lot of stuff off eBay (you’ve seen much of it here on the blog!), and the girl at my local post office now knows me as LeBrain. She is always excited when my parcels come in. β€œWhat’s in this one?” she’ll ask.

β€œOh, that one is a rare Maiden 12” single,” I’d say.

β€œCool! That’s awesome!” One time, she knew one of my parcels had arrived immediately, because the seller had put a Kiss sticker on the box. I walked into the post office, and she said, β€œI know which parcel is yours!” with an excited tone in her voice. She explained that she heard me on radio earlier as LeBrain.

So, to Post Office Girl: Sorry, I don’t even know your name. I would like to dedicate this blog to you, and my 15 minutes of fame!

REVIEW: KISS – Greatest Kiss (1997 European, Japanese, North American versions)

PartΒ 36 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!Β 

KISS – Greatest Kiss (1997 European, Japanese, North American versions)

The Reunion Tour was a tremendous ongoing success.Β  As Kiss hit different markets, different releases were prepared.Β  Europe got Greatest Kiss first,and I paid almost $30 for it with tax on import from an HMV store in early ’97.

While we, the fans, were not happy that it had been five years since the last studio album, we still bought this new compilation for one “new” track:Β  A live version of “Shout It Out Loud” from the Reunion Tour.Β  I’ve heard though that the song was recorded in the studio or at rehearsal, not the live Detroit concert as claimed.Β  Either way, this song was released as a promotional video, so it was nice to have a CD version of it.

Also, much as You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!! was a taster for the remastered live albums, Greatest Kiss was a taster for the remastered studio albums, about to be released through 1997 in groups of three.

The CD is otherwise made up of your standard original era hits.Β  Both North America and Japan had their own track listings, and I ended up getting all three:

Here’s the most familiar around here, the North American version:

1. Detroit Rock City
2. Hard Luck Woman
3. Sure Know Something
4. Deuce
5. Do You Love Me
6. I Was Made For Lovin’ You
7. Calling Dr. Love
8. Christine Sixteen
9. Beth
10. Strutter
11. Cold Gin
12. Plaster Caster (yes! nice to see this on a compilation)
13. Rock And Roll All Nite
14. Flaming Youth
15. Two Sides Of The Coin
16. Shout It Out Loud (Live ’96)

Europe had 20 tracks, adding “Black Diamond”, “God of Thunder”, Β “She”, “Love Gun”, “Goin’ Blind”, “”Shock Me”, and puzzlingly “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II” which was not by the original band.Β  Europe lacked “Flaming Youth”, “Two Sides of the Coin”, Β and “Christine Sixteen”, however.

Japan also had 20 tracks.Β  Their CD is almost identical to the European one, withΒ Β “Flaming Youth”, “Two Sides of the Coin”, Β and “Christine Sixteen” missing.Β  They subbed in “C’mon And Love Me” and “Rock Bottom” instead of “Cold Gin” and “Plaster Caster”.

Personally I’m not partial to this CD.Β  The one “new” song is now available on the Kiss Box Set so there’s nothing exclusive.Β  Today the novelty of the Kiss remasters project is old hat, so there’s not much here to entice a buyer.Β  There are other compilations on the market, and I’m going to discuss them all.Β  If you only want original Kiss, then this one works as well as any.

2/5stars

REVIEW: KISS – You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!! (1996 vinyl, Japanese import CD)

Part 35 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
SAM_2209

KISS – You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!! (1996, Japanese import, bonus track)

When this compilationΒ album came out, it was the first and only time we had two Kiss albums on our store’sΒ front rack simultaneously!Β  It followed hot on the heels of MTV Unplugged,Β only aboutΒ 3 months prior.

Kiss had just announced their big reunion tour and this album was tied in to promote that. It is a milestone in a few ways. It was the first musical product released by the reunited original lineup Kiss. It was also the third (or fourth depending if you count Kiss My Ass) consecutive non-studio album release in a rowΒ by the band, which had never happened before. It would also not be the last, with Greatest Kiss and the UK-only Greatest Hits soon to follow.

It was a dark time for the Kiss army craving new music.

You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best!! (one comma and two exclamation marks: punctuation is important) was a live compilation of:

  • 8 hits from KISS Alive! and KISS Alive II
  • 5 previously unreleased live versions (including the bonus track “New York Groove”)
  • 1 interview with the entire band by Jay Leno, 17 minutes long

The previously releasedΒ songs were all remastered for the first time, a sneak preview of the Kiss remasters to start coming in 1997. Β New liner notes were provided by Robert V. Conte, who would later do all the liner notes for the Kiss Remasters series. Β Judging by his use of certain adjectives, I’m guessing he was pretty much told what he could and could not write!

It’s hard to argue with the selection of hits. “Rock Bottom”, “Parasite”, “Firehouse”, and “Rock And Roll All Nite” (the definitiveΒ version)Β from the first Alive! were definitely highlights of that album, but then again you couldn’t have gone wrong with any selections fromΒ Alive!Β  From Alive II it’s “I Stole Your Love”, “Shout It Out Loud”, “Beth” (really? ugh), and “Calling Dr. Love”. (Interesting: no “Detroit Rock City”.) All are pretty monumental Kiss songs that the band were playing live that summer.

The unreleased material was interesting. They purport to be from the same concerts that Alive! and Alive II were taken from, but it is clear that at least the lead vocals were recorded in 1996. Since the voice changes naturally with age, you can tell it’s not Paul Stanley 1975 singing. Having said that, even though I’m bitter that KissΒ tried to pass these off as vintage live songs, they are really good versions. I’ve always liked both “Room Service” and “Two Timer” as deep album songs from Dressed To Kill. I especially like “Let Me Know”, one of the earliest Kiss songs ever, and one of my personal favourites.

Exclusive to vinyl and Japanese import, is a live version of “New York Groove” from Australia 1980 and with Eric Carr on drums. This is the same version of the song as the Kissology 2 DVD. Since KISS could have gone with “Shock Me” from Alive II if they were trying to include an Ace vocal track, I choose to think of this inclusion as a little nod to Eric Carr and thanking him for keeping the band going during the 80’s. I think this version was also released in Australian markets so, I am sure this was also aΒ nod to the fans there for patiently waiting for Kiss to come back. Kiss would of course play “New York Groove” live on the 1996 tour as well.

SAM_2212The 17 minute interview with Jay Leno is interesting and fun, though I have to be honest, its inclusion here makes this album one that I don’t listen to often. Jay’s a funny guy and there are lots of laughs here (almost all at Gene’s expense!) but don’t expect any revelations you’ve never heard before.

In addition to containing “vintage” songs that weren’t exactly that, You Wanted theΒ Best was to includeΒ “photos from the Kiss vaults” inside according to the sticker on the front.Β  There’s nothing inside apart from a skimpy booklet. Β The CD did have a neat-o coloured jewel case, as you can see from the photo gallery.

Essential only to the diehards. Everyone else pick up Alive! and Alive II, or even better…the 4 CD Alive box!

2/5 stars

REVIEW: KISS – MTV Unplugged (and a word about the Konvention Tour)

PartΒ 34 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!

KISS:Β  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.Β  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.Β  “Lover Her All I Can”, “Shandi”, and “Nothin’ To Lose” with Eric Singer on lead vocals were all rolled out.Β  SeeΒ below for a coolΒ bootleg CD and tracklist fromΒ an Australian show on theΒ tour.

Β Β Β Β  Β Β Β Β  Β Β Β Β 

Kiss were invited to do MTV Unplugged.Β  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:Β  Peter Criss and Ace Frehley.Β  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”.Β  They even tackled “See You Tonite” from Gene’s solo album, and “Every Time I Look At You” (with strings) from Revenge:Β  both firsts.

You can’t complain at all about the tracklist on MTV Unplugged.Β  I raved about the album then, and I still rave about it now.Β  I don’t understand why this wasn’t a massive smash hit across the board.Β  This is a great Kiss album that almost anyone can enjoy.Β  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.Β  Out they came to do two of their signature songs:Β  “Beth” for Peter, and the Stones’ “2000 Man” for Ace.Β  Last but not least, Bruce and Eric returned to the stage to form a formidable 6-man Kiss lineup.Β  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.Β  I would love a two disc deluxe edition of this one day.Β  Kiss played for three hours that day, doing multiple takes and playing songs that didn’t make the show:Β  “Spit”, “Hard Luck Woman” with Paul on lead vocals, and a country version of “God of Thunder”!

5/5 stars

 

Part 93.0: Recognition

Part 1

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.Β 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. β€œHey 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.Β  I’d love it when, in another store,Β somebody wouldΒ ask me if I had a CD in stock.Β  I once used a pay phone (no cell back then) to call and ask, but I’d think to myself:Β  Really?Β  You think I have them all memorized or something?Β 

Most of the time though, it was a simple, β€œHey man! What are you doing here? Checking out the competition?”

While I did sometimes β€œcheck out” the competition (comparing prices and selection), the main goal was always to find rare musical treasures.Β Β Besides, a lot of other record store people in town had come selling discs to me numerous times.Β  Usually it was pretty friendly.Β  It was better to have friends at the rival stores than enemies.Β  I even had a buddy at HMV send customers my way, when he knew that something was out of print!Β  So, being recognized in public as “that guy from (insert name here)” wasn’t a bad thing.

To be continued