Meat gave this to me.
“You’re the collector, not me,” he said.
That’s really not a good excuse to give away an autographed Rush disc, man. But, as Burgess Meredith said so wisely in Clash of the Titans, “A divine gift should never be questioned, simply accepted.” And are Rush not gods of rock?
Thank you Meat Man.
Part 9 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
Produced once again by Eddie Kramer, this is taken from multiple shows in 1977, plus 5 studio tracks. The crowd noise (probably from the Japanese shows) is a bit shrill and the overdubbing of Paul Stanley’s voice is much more noticeable than it was on the first Alive.
The problem that Kiss had in Alive II was to avoid repeating any songs from Alive!, which was only two years prior. That resulted in a truncated tracklist, and then Simmons had the idea to tack on a fourth side of studio material. He says this was inspired by the ZZ Top album, Fandango! That idea turned out to be pretty smart, as the five new songs are by and large very decent.
Two other songs were recorded at rehearsals or soundchecks: “Tomorrow And Tonight”, and “Hard Luck Woman”. Crowd noise was overdubbed and the songs sweetened in the studio.
Once again, it is hard to argue with the track selection on Alive II. There are very few songs I would have excluded in favour of others. The concert opens with the double salvo of “Detroit” and “King of the Night Time World”. “God of Thunder” is played at a faster tempo and I generally prefer this version to the original. Ace’s “Shock Me” is here, and Peter Criss sings on “Hard Luck Woman” and of course “Beth” (sung to backing tapes as always).
Ace also had a lead vocal on “Rocket Ride”, one of the new songs. Let’s talk about those a bit.
“All American Man”: I like the riff a lot, and I find this to be one of Paul’s coolest songs. I have also felt it had a similar vibe to the stuff they’d later record for Killers, 4 years down the road. But who’s that on lead guitar? Bob Kulick. Kulick replaced Ace Frehley on lead guitar, on four of the five studio tracks on Alive II!.
“Larger Than Life”: A Gene plodder. Another pretty strong one. I think you can guess what he’s singing about in the title.
“Rockin’ In The USA”: Gene loves the USA which has given him so much. The lyrics are pretty bad, but it’s basically Gene’s love song to America, much like the Beach Boys had done.
“Rocket Ride”: Ace’s track. Ace plays all guitars and bass, Peter Criss plays drums, and the other two only contribute vocals. An Ace classic which later appeared on his solo Live + 1 EP.
“Anyway You Want It”: I have a soft spot for Kiss covers like this Dave Clark Five track. I think Kiss did a great job with it, particularly with the vocals. Paul plays all guitars.
I must stress, I think you should buy the Alive Box rather than this version. You’ll get four Alives, and some rarer tracks.
5/5 stars. Might not be very live, but it sure is very rock.
Part 8 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Love Gun (1977)
Love Gun, the 7th album by Kiss in a brief 3 year period, was the end of an era. It would be the last album by all four original Kiss members (Alive II was missing Ace Frehley on four songs, Dynasty featured Peter Criss on only one track). Yet at the same time, it also featured Ace Frehley’s first lead vocal on “Shock Me”.
Not terribly different from Rock And Roll Over, Love Gun is nonetheless a glossier package. “Tomorrow And Tonight” for example featured female backing vocals, and “And Then She Kissed Me” was a Phil Spector cover (the Crystals actually, with genders reversed).
Incidentally, I made sure I had “And Then She Kissed Me” played at my wedding!
Like Rock And Roll Over, there’s a little bit of filler on here. I’m not a big fan of “Almost Human” even though Gene is, and some people dislike “Hooligan” although I love it. I could also take or leave “Got Love For Sale”.
The classics here are among Kiss’ all time best. “Shock Me”, “I Stole Your Love”, and “Love Gun” are still played in Kiss’ set circa 2012 (with Tommy Thayer singing lead on “Shock Me”). “Tomorrow And Tonight” and “Christine Sixteen” were on Alive II and were often in the live set. (“Christine”, in this writer’s opinion, contains Peter Criss’ best-ever drumming. He channels Charlie Watts and plays the most interesting fills and beats of his career.) “Plaster Caster” was covered by the Lemonheads. Even “Hooligan” got played live by Kiss on the Love Gun tour.
The only flaw with this CD is that there’s no cardboard love gun inside like there was in the vinyl. Otherwise it’s a great sounded disc, with cover art once again by Ken Kelly. Man I gots to get me some vinyl!
5/5 stars
What happens at Sausagefest stays at Sausagefest. That’s been the rule since day one, 11 years ago. Having said that, I can talk about some of my own experiences this year, the best Sausagefest I’ve experienced to date.
For more photos please go to GALLERY: Sausagefest 2012
Sausagefest 2012 has come and gone once again. This year for me was full of new music, new flavours, and new faces. There were still four alumni from my record store days. Older, wiser, maybe a little fatter, definitely a little greyer. All four of us sported white somewhere on our heads….
Meat and a few others has spent the previous night seeing Tenacious D. I’m hoping I can get him to do a concert review because that’s a tale in itself. Suffice to say, I can’t imagine a better preface to Sausagefest than a Tenacious D show.
Meat, myself and a first-timer named Chris made the trek in my vehicle (Dougie Carmore) rocking to the “D” and stopping only for beer and ice. We arrived at our hallowed, sacred meeting place in record time and began setting up camp.
For me, that was pretty easy since I have chosen to sleep in my car most years. The new PA system was set up and shortly thereafter, the rock began.
The countdown was different this year: A top 75 instead of 100, culled from the 31 submitted lists. In addition, 31 tribute songs, one for each submittee! A total of 106 songs plus comedy sketches and about 10 “LeBrain” bits about the tunes, trying to do my best Jeff Woods impression. The countdown took two evenings and I don’t know how many hours….
But it was solidly amazing all the way through. That first night, we heard my tribute song which was my #1 this year: “Strutter”. We also heard plenty of Rush, tool, Sabbath, and everything else too. And that was just the first night. Saturday, we’d hear the top half…
The equipment was (mostly) put under a tarp, and we all went to our respective sleeping places. I say “mostly” because not only did Meat leave all his clothes outside, but he also seemed to have soaked his laptop charger. I awoke in the middle of a thunderstorm. I think the storm lasted about three hours.
Then, I discovered that my car stereo was out. Kaput. How? Must have been the storm. But it wasn’t a fuse. We went into town for an amazingly greasy good breakfast and hit up a car parts store for fuses. It wasn’t a fuse. At presstime it isn’t fixed yet. So my car stereo is busted, and Meat still doesn’t have a charger for his laptap. Would we trade the weekend in for anything else?
Of course not!
Check back later for part two.
Part 7 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Rock and Roll Over (1976)
After 1976’s Destroyer, Kiss had a choice:
a) continue down that road and see what they could see with the epic, orchestrated sound that Ezrin got out of them, or
b) return to their rock roots
On Rock and Roll Over (for better or worse) they chose b).
I love Rock and Roll Over, and I consider it a slightly stronger album than both Destroyer and Love Gun. Check out the tracks:
“I Want You” – Acoustic intro, electric riffage, classic song.
“Take Me” – Paul co-wrote this album cut with Sean Delaney. A lost klassic.
“Calling Dr. Love” – I was never a huge fan of this song, but obviously it always goes over well with the fans in concert.
“Ladies Room” – Peter Criss plays some fun drum rolls on this Gene rocker.
“Baby Driver” – The weakest song on the album, which Peter Criss claims is due to Kiss playing it at the wrong tempo. He does get to scream his butt off though.
“Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em” – Gene’s motto? Either way a great Kiss tune.
“Mr. Speed” – Another Stanley/Delaney classic. Best song on the album! I wish Kiss would play it again!
“See You In Your Dreams” – I prefer this version to the later one on Gene’s solo disc.
“Hard Luck Woman” – Peter Criss has never sounded so raspy and good. Truly, a song for everyone. Simply perfect songwriting courtesy of Paul, with some sweet 12 string.
“Makin’ Love” – Like a stick of dynamite in your ear.
Interestingly Ace had no songwriting credits on Rock and Roll Over. I recall reading that he did write a song called “Queen for a Day”, that he intended on singing, but it was dropped.
Kiss regrouped with Eddie Kramer (Led Zeppelin, Hendrix) to co-produce this album. Kramer previously did the original Kiss demo and Alive! They recorded it as live as possible in a theater. While it does not sound like a live album, it does have a lot more life than Destroyer.
5/5 stars
Also, check out this weird bootleg I have from the Rock and Roll Over tour, simply titled Kiss Army! It’s obviously supposed to look official. Although no exact date is given, it purports to be recorded live at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo Japan, 1977. (Check out how “rhythm guitar” is spelled on Paul’s page.)
It has come, and it has gone. It was epic. I will post more details later. For now, enjoy the gallery.
For the record, the #1 song this year was “Gardenia” by Kyuss, and the mix tape features guest appearances from Jeff Woods, Craig Fee, and Stephen Hawking (although I’m pretty sure that last one was fake).
My good buddy pen-named: Statham, who I met through the record store, has kept in touch via email over the years. We share many common interests, one of which is collecting music. We’ve helped each other find many treasures over the last 15 years.
I thought it might be a fun change of pace (instead of listening to me all the time) to get his perspective on the record store days!
For a view from the other side of the counter, here’s Statham!
RECORD STORE TALES Part 73: Crank It Up! by Statham
Mike asked me to write up something about any memories I have of the old days, back in the record store where he worked. I’ll give it a go.
I do not recall my first-ever visit to Mike’s store. My first memory of that particular company is of taking a shoebox full of old CDs I never played to their other location. But when I moved across town, Mike’s store was my mainstay. I was in there all the time.
You should know, I live in record stores. Always have, since I was old enough to buy my own music. I love the thrill of the hunt, the rare find, the new-to-me disc that branches my brain out into whole new fields of things previously unknown to me. Everywhere I’ve lived, I’ve haunted the record shops. And mostly the used-CD places… the new-CD corporate shops were good for new releases, not usually much else.
You should also know that I make it an unofficial habit to befriend at least one person in the shops that I like. Not in a needy way, not in a go-for-drinks sort of way, and definitely not in a creepy stalker way. Just a friendly thing, get to know them, and over time they learn my tastes too. It’s amazing how often they’d set aside stuff they thought I’d like (which I’d usually buy). And I’ve learned a ton from them, too. I’ve lived lots of places so far in my life, and have maintained this practice. Record store guys can be cool. Like Mike. Always super-helpful, to a fault sometimes. VERY knowledgeable. And his enthusiasm was absolutely infectious. Also, Mike’s a Sloan fan. And in my experience, this is generally the mark of a bright, caring and solid person. Hooray for Sloan!
Specific memories of the shop? Man, that was 16 years ago. But let’s see if I can cough up a few dusty recollections…
– Mike sold me my first Jon Spencer Blues Explosion CD (Now I Got Worry). He wasn’t convinced I’d like it, but he let me play it on the headphones, and I took it home. I am a lifelong fan of those guys now. If I don’t have everything they did, I have most of it. And it’s all awesome.
– I sold off all my Zeppelin albums one time. I just never played them, was probably listening to punk at the time and found them bloated, and I also probably needed the money. Mike was incredulous, tried quite hard to dissuade me. He eventually took them but still told me I was nuts. I probably was.
– One I definitely regret: I sold my Gits albums to Mike. I was in a different phase (probably jazz), and figured they were easy to replace. Ha! Have you any idea how many years I looked before getting most of those back again, when I realized my blunder? Remember, the internets were not then what they are now. And hey, I still need an old original CD copy of Frenching The Bully, too, so if anyone reading this has a good source, please leave a comment, thanks!
Statham selling his stuff
– I bought the Jewel record (the one with Hands on it) off Mike one time, when it was a new release. I think I just had that song in my head. Mike was sure I’d lost my mind. He told me he wouldn’t take it back in trade from me until at least one week had passed. Trust me, one week and one day, I took it back. He was right.
– I remember picking up the Black Crowes Sho’ Nuff box set for Mike, as I was going to Toronto anyway (and getting one for myself). No worries there, mate.
– I even applied to work at Mike’s store one time, too. They had this test you had to do, to try to see how much you knew about music. I guess they were weeding out the wannabes. Hell, I listen to music and pay attention to it constantly, and half of the stuff they had on there, I had no idea. So I got playful. I developed a “File Under” system. Like, Carole King was File Under: Stuff Your Mom Likes. And for ones I didn’t know, I made something up based on the band name or album title. I really was just taking the piss. Apparently, the manager wanted to interview me based on my results, but I’d just gotten another job anyway. To this day, I wonder how my life would have been different if I’d gotten that job.
I’m sure there are other memories that will come to me, now that I’m thinking about it. Maybe enough for a second instalment, if Mike would have me back as a guest. You know, to this day I still own many of the CDs I bought off Mike. I’ve lugged these things halfway across the country and back. It’s a sign of respect, man. Hold on to the good ones – both the albums and the good guys that sold ’em to you. I always do.
Part 6 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! See the end for a bit of a preview of the forthcoming Destroyer: Resurrected too.
KISS – Destroyer (1976)
DISCLAIMER: I’m not the biggest fan of Destroyer. I loved the cover as a kid, and that cover led me to expect the album to be heavier. Also worth noting: I got mono real bad around the time that I got this album, so upon initially hearing it, I was constantly sick.
I strongly like four of the tracks today, which unfortunately have become overplayed:
And let’s face it, Kiss fans can take or leave “Beth”. Unfortunately for Peter Criss it was the only hit that he had a hand in writing, and during the reunion got way overplayed. It was nice hearing it again at first, since it had been dropped from the set for about 17 years. I’m sick of it now. We’re all sick of it. Kiss felt the song was a throwaway, and it kind of is. A novelty.
Other tunes:
Ezrin’s production is probably too sweet for my tastes. On the Alice Cooper stuff he was a little bit more rock, a little bit more raw. As I said, “Flaming Youth” is drenched in production. Calliope? Why? I don’t know.
Having said that, Ezrin pulled a few tricks out of the bag on this album that are really cool:
1. Grand piano subtley doubles the guitar riffs on most songs. It is audible on “Shout It Out Loud”, but you can hear it if you really listen on the other tracks. It gives the riffs a little extra BOOM!
2. The sound effect intro to “Detroit”, and the walkie-talkies on “God Of Thunder”. Genius atmospheres. No wonder this guy would later produce Pink Floyd!
3. Songwriting. Ezrin really helped Kiss learn about songwriting craft, and Kiss would never be the same.
So there you go. It is undeniably a classic, but it does not represent what Kiss really sound like. Maybe if Kiss had continued down this road immediately and tried some production stuff on their own, without Ezrin, they would be a different band today? But they didn’t, and Kiss returned to rock and roll on the next album, which I like better.
3/5 stars
AND NOW!
Destroyer: Resurrected (35th Anniversary Edition)
This baby is coming in August. A full-on Bob Ezrin remix of Destroyer, plus unheard demos. Now I know a lot of you don’t particularly care for remixes, but if Ezrin is helming it, I believe there will be a point to it. Ezrin is a producer of integrity and I don’t believe he would waste our dollars or time if this remix wasn’t somehow going to be worth it. I don’t know if the original mix will be included. But who cares? Everybody owns that and it’s not being deleted.
Ezrin pulled the tapes from the vaults and painstakingly remixed the entire album, enhancing the sound and bringing out its rich texture and vibrancy, while keeping the integrity of the original recording intact. Destroyer: Resurrected will also include rare and unreleased recordings rediscovered during the remixing process, plus the originally intended cover artwork.
I’m now hearing it’s only going to be 1 disc, but with the original Ken Kelly cover art (Alive! costumes), read more here!
One thing I hate: Drama queens. Especially now that I am older. Now that I am older I have zero time for drama queens. People who bring drama with them just need to stay away.
Unfortunately in my experience, there’s always a drama queen or two at a record store. Even worse when they’re in a position of power. Such was my experience in seeing one of my favourite Canadian bands: Sloan.
It was February 2000, and Sloan were touring behind their latest release, the underrated Between The Bridges album. I bought it twice, I liked it so much: On September 12, 1999, I received my pre-order from HMV, which contained two exclusive trading cards (still sealed today). Then in October, while seeing Phantom of the Opera in Toronto (Paul Stanley, woo!) I picked up the Japanese import which had two bonus cuts: “Summer’s My Season”, and “At the Edge of the Scene”.
I loved “Summer’s My Season”. Besides being a great Chris song, it contains my favourite Sloan lyric of all time:
You must remember this
Kiss is still just Kiss
Their style is denial
I’ll meet you when we’re older
Consider it a race
But who would be the one to paint their face?
Ace!
When Sloan hit Lulu’s Roadhouse in February we all bought tickets. We grabbed a table on the left side of the massive bar (world’s longest when it was open, actually) and enjoyed an opening set by The Flashing Lights.
Myself and Trev and a couple others sat on the stage side of the table, facing the stage (somewhat obviously). Some of the girls sat on the opposite side of the table, also facing the stage. Now, logically, this means we were not facing each other. Normally when you go to a concert you want to look at the stage.
Sloan came on, and played all of Between the Bridges. They played a lot of Navy Blues and One Chord, too. They were friggin’ amazing. Weirdly, they played absolutely nothing from the EP, nor Smeared, nor Twice Removed. Not even “Underwhelmed”. While this surprised me, I was hardly disappointed, especially when Chris came out and played “Summer’s My Season”. I sang (shouted) along to every friggin’ word even though nobody else in the hall seemed to know the song. I didn’t care. It’s a fucking concert! It’s like Dee Snider says…are you worried about somebody laughing at you at a fucking concert?
Besides, how likely are we ever to be treated to all of Between the Bridges again? Probably not too likely, especially with “Summer’s My Season” intact. Not an experience to be taken for granted.
Anyway, I rocked out, hard, played air guitar, air drums, sang, shouted, had an awesome time. The girls, apparently, did not.
The following Monday at work, one of them spilled the beans. “Sloan sucked. That was one of the worst concerts I’ve ever seen.”
OK, whatever, that’s a matter of opinion I guess. Sloan had just released the double live 4 Nights at the Palais Royale less than a year earlier so I was fully saturated with live versions of the old songs. I wanted new songs and I got them.
But this was more than a matter of favourite albums. Apparently, I was told, “You guys were being total snobs, too.”
“What? Snobs? What you are talking about?”
“Well, you guys ignored us all night. You didn’t even talk to us.”
Oh. My. God. It was a fucking concert, not a visit to the fucking mall! It was 115 dB that night! Are you fucking kidding me? And don’t you remember me talking to you afterwards about what a great time I had? I vehemently denied all accusations but it was absolutely no use.
This led to a week of cold shoulders, snitty comments, and silent treatments. Always a good time, particularly when it involves people with more seniority than you, too! Drama. Never was a big fan of it. But even though this behaviour soured the whole experiece for me (believe me, even when stuff smoothed out, the concert was never brought up again), I still love that era of Sloan, that album, and all the songs they played that night. Just that I never even entertained the idea of going to see a concert with that group of people again!
Part 3 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Dressed To Kill (1975)
Dressed To Kill is an interesting album. While it contains the best known Kiss song (“Rock N’ Roll All Nite”) it also contains quite a few album classics that a lot of people don’t know (“Getaway”, “Anything For My Baby”, and “Two Timer” being good examples). This is one I play frequently. I never tired of it. It just has “vibe”. Listen to “Two Timer” for example. Kiss were obvious more than the sum of their parts, and this album was pretty heavy for 1975.
“Room Service” is an upbeat Paul opener, and I think we all know what kind of service Paul was getting. “C’Mon and Love Me” has a killer riff, one of the best Paul’s ever written. “She”, of course, goes back to the Wicked Lester days. It’s one of Gene’s sludgier moments. Even standard album tracks like “Love Her All I Can” and “Anything For My Baby” are entertaining enough. They might not be classics, nor complex, but they sure get the foot tapping.
The first and only album produced by the Casablaca label president Neil Bogart, Dressed To Kill retreats from the weak but more metallic sound of Hotter Than Hell, and goes back to the more rocky feel of their debut. The songs are every bit as good. I particularly like “Two Timer”, “C’Mon and Love Me”, and “Rock Bottom”. “Rock Bottom” features a beautiful acoustic intro by Ace Frehley.
The album cover is also classic — a shot of the band wearing ill-fitting suits, given to them by manager Bill Aucoin. It’s perfect.
5/5 stars
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