REVIEW: KISS – Hotter Than Hell (1974)

Part 2 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!

KISS – Hotter Than Hell (1974)

Hotter Than Hell was my first Kiss album. I had it on a scratched up piece of vinyl that I don’t have anymore. Because of the condition of the record and my turntable at the time, I had no idea just how bad Hotter Than Hell sounds. And it does sound bad. Kids these days, used to ProTools and gloss, are gonna find it unlistenable.

Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise produced once again, two guys who didn’t know how to achieve the heavy rock that Kiss wanted, but tried anyway. The result is a murky impenetrable sound with drums that sound like Peter’s banging away on wooden blocks. The cymbals are nearly impossible to hear. Yet this white noise serves only to make the album heavier and darker to these nostalgic ears.

“Got To Choose” kicks off the album, a Kiss classic. I remember playing it to my 8th grade class much to the teacher’s dismay. Gene and Paul sing harmonies together, but this is a Paul song. The acoustic version from MTV Unplugged is also quite excellent. “Parasite” follows, an Ace song that Gene sings and one of the fastest tunes Kiss were to do in the early days. The Alive! version is more fully realized. A ballad of sorts, “Goin’ Blind” follows. This is a Gene song from his pre-Kiss days, previously known as “Little Lady” and co-written by his Wicked Lester bandmate Steve Coronel. This version doesn’t do it justice, but lines like “I’m 93, you’re 16” hint at territory that Gene would revisit later in other songs. The title track, “Hotter Than Hell” is a Paul song and one of the best on the album if not in Kisstory. The riff and coda are both so memorable. (I miss the days when Kiss used to tack on these extra riffs as codas, they were always so heavy and cool.) Side 1 ends with “Let Me Go, Rock And Roll”, a fast rock n’ roll Chuck Berry guitar number which I always found comical due to Gene high voice at the beginning. The Alive! version has become a classic today.

Side 2 begins with a “lost” album cut called “All The Way”. It’s not played live often but it has one of my favourite choruses. You just can’t get the melody out of your head. Plus it has cowbell! “Watchin’ You”, a Sabbathy Gene song, follows. This song was even revisited for Kiss Alive III in a funkier guise. “Mainline” is a Paul song, sung by Peter Criss. It’s a little more rock n’ roll again, but with that great chrous melody. “Comin’ Home” is another Paul song that ended up on MTV Unplugged. Strange how many of these songs sounded great acoustically! It was always an album favourite of mine with great lyrics. The album ends with the dirgey “Strange Ways”, an Ace Frehley written song, but sung by Peter Criss. This is probably the only song on the album I don’t like very much, even though it is so heavy and Sabbathy.

Rumour has it that Peter recorded a lengthy drum solo, and demanded that it be included in the song, or he was going to quit the band.  (This is according to Gene Simmons.)  The solo was not included, and Peter stayed.

Given the upcoming deluxe remixed edition of Destroyer coming this year (remixed by Ezrin!), I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hold hope for a remix of Hotter Than Hell.   Maybe, though, it should never be remixed.  Maybe the shite sound is part of the charm?

If that sound issue doesn’t bother you, then delve in and discover a true Kiss classic. Just look at how many songs keep popping up on setlists to this day. That’s the sign of a classic album.

5/5 stars

Check out my review for the live bootleg Kissin’ Time in San Fransisco by clicking here!

Part 68: The Fucked-Up Tooth

You think you’d remember something like losing a tooth at work.

So it was weird one day, when while cleaning the store, I found an old rotten tooth behind the counter!  Like, way behind the counter, like where the dust bunnies multiply at the edge of carpeting and corner.

I didn’t know it was a tooth when I picked it up.  I thought it was a stone.  I picked it up and turned it over and half of it was black and/or missing and it was obviously a molar.   But where the fuck did it come from?  I was perplexed!  This is the store that I opened, have always helmed, I knew everybody that worked here, ever.  Where the fuck did this tooth come from?

I mean, we were a CD store!  It’s pretty straightforward.  Lots of discs, lots of cases, lots of paper sleeves.  Not a lot of teeth.

Today, I can only really see one plausible scenario.  Since we bought and sold discs, when we bought ’em, they often came in big boxes or bags that have obviously been sitting around.

So, imagine this:  Scuzzy crackhead man or woman walks in with a big brown cardboard box full of shitty scratched up Steve Miller discs.  In the bottom of the box, God knows how, but in the bottom there’s an old rotten tooth.  When the staff get the boxes in, they often temporarily stash them behind the counter, right up against the wall where the dust bunnies roam.  Tooth gets dislodged, only to be found on the next thorough cleaning…

That’s just my theory.  You’re welcome to come up with your own.  Bottom line though, how the fuck does an old rotten tooth end up in the carpeting of a CD store?  That’s the biggest mystery I ever encountered.

The answer now is probably lost to the sands of time.  Like the tooth.  Which I threw in the trash seconds later!

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

DUAL REVIEW: Foo Fighters 7″ singles! “Best Of You” & “All My Life”

You lucky, lucky readers! Today you get two reviews for the price of one. Since I’m currently transferring my vinyl to CD, let’s talk about two 7″ singles from…

FOO FIGHTERS!

“All My Life” numbered limited edition 7″

While I like the tune, “All My Life”, I wasn’t big on the album One By One.  So it’s little surprise that I’m not into the B-side, “Sister Europe”, a Psychedelic Furs cover.  I do like the Ace Frehley guitar slashes in the song, but otherwise…blah.  You can also get “Sister Europe” on one of the CD singles for this song, which I don’t have.    Never run across them.

The record is numbered though; I’m 1375! (Out of how many? I don’t know.)

3/5 stars.

“Best Of You”

I was much more into “Best Of You”, and its album In Your Honor.  I can still still remember the first time I heard it.  One of the guys had forgotten his keys and couldn’t lock up the store.  He called me and I raced in to lock up for him.  I turned on the radio, and was immediately assaulted with “Best Of You”, a classic Foo rocker, an anthem really.   My passion for the Foo Fighters was immediately reignited.

I went out and bought both CD singles for “Best Of You”, each with its own unreleased bonus tracks.  I was also sent a copy of the UK version of the album by my good buddy Dan Slessor of Kerrang! magazine.   The UK edition had a bonus track, too.

This 7″ single with “Spill” was the final piece of an amazing puzzle of music.  It’s a hard, fast, underproduced raw rocker.  Taylor Hawkins hits the drums so hard, you can really hear it.  Great song, equal to anything else on In Your Honor.

Not a limited edition, but I give “Best Of You”:

5/5 stars

Ex-Queensryche’s GEOFF TATE UPDATE: Still a douche

I’ll let Geoff say it all.

Q: How about musically? Were you guys seeing eye-to-eye on the sound of the band at this point?

A: “Well, this is kind of a weird situation too. In the press release they said there were “creative differences.” But to have creative differences, you have to have two entities or more offering up creative ideas. And that just wasn’t the case. Queensrÿche has always been my idea, starting from the first record. Queensrÿche is about albums. It’s about concepts and themes, and those concepts were mine. [Laughs] I started out with The Warning, bringing those ideas in for Rage For Order, Operation: Mindcrime… all the albums. I write 81% of the music and the lyrics. Of the 144 songs that Queensrÿche has released, I’ve written 116 of those. I am the creative energy in the band, especially since Chris left. When he was in the band it was more of a shared thing between him and I. But once he left, the burden was on me. I don’t consider it necessarily a burden. That’s what I do. I’m a creative person. I write everyday and I’m constantly coming up with creative ideas. I present them to the other guys and they go, “Yeah, sure, that sounds good to us.”

This guy is so full of himself, it’s not even funny.  It is undeniable that Geoff Tate has written some great songs.  It also seems apparent from recent developments that the band just wanted to get back to playing progressive metal again.  And what is wrong with that?  And the video footage of Tate spitting on Rockenfield live in concert?  Disgusting.  Geoff will one day have to apologize to his old bandmates, mark my words.

Also, Geoff says:

For it to end in such a hostile way, it’s just mind-boggling.

DUDE!  Mind boggling?  You were the one holding the friggin’ knife, man!

More Queensryche:

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 67: Klassic Kwotes VIII!

1.  “Can I return this CD?” said the man who handed me an empty CD case.

2.  One Boxing Day, I helped a lovely family of four (dad, mom, two boys) pick out roughly $100 worth of music.  They got gift certificates for Christmas.  It took about an hour to help them, as (of course) they wanted to listen to everything first.  I collected all the discs from the players, rang in the order, and they handed me a gift certificate for a different fucking CD chain.  When I explained to them, “Sorry, no, we’re not that store.  We’re [insert name].”  A perfectly reasonable response would have been, “Oh man, sorry…sorry to have taken your time.”  But no.  No, the response this time was, “Well how the hell was I supposed to know that?”  Well, maybe by looking at the fucking sign out front before you walk in!

3. Once, we caught a little thief trying to sell us discs that he had just stolen from HMV an hour before.  Tom was on the phone with a cop at the HMV when Tom asked, “Hey, uhh, while I’m talking to you, do you have any Willie Nelson over there?” 

4.It was always kind of funny when people pronounced names wrong, in certain cases.  So when a guy asked me if I had any Bruce Cockburn, I can tell you that it rhymed with clock-burn.  Figuring that I should probably tell him how to pronounce it so he doesn’t go around all over asking for the CD that way, I politely corrected him.  His response was, “Yeah, great, thanks that’ll come in handy next time I talk to him.”

5. “How do I get in there??”  This desperate question was asked by a woman, banging on our windows, not 10 feet away from our actual entrance.

6. “Can I get each of these in a separate bag?”  A guy bought 10 empty CD cases.  He wanted each one bagged on its own so it didn’t get scratched.

7. “Can I ask you a question?  Are you a believer?”  We were also frequently handed pamphlets from Jehova’s Witnesses.

8. “Got bad news for you buddy.  Somebody ripped you off.”  The customer then opened a CD case and showed me there was no disc inside.  Apparently he didn’t notice the signs that said, “All cases are empty”, nor all the discs in storage behind me.

9. That “All cases are empty” sign was more trouble than it was worth.  Multiple times, people would say to me, “So, I have to pay $12 and I just get the case?  Where am I supposed to get the CD?”

10. “Can I use your phone for a sec?”  A common question, in the pre-cell-phone days.  But this guy used the phone for 10 minutes!  And then when the call waiting went off, instead of handing it to me, he answered it!

VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Queensryche’s Promised Land (CD-ROM)

QUEENSRYCHE’S Promised Land (CD-ROM for Windows, Windows 95, or Mac) (1996)

Promised Land is my favourite ‘Ryche album, so when this came out I had to have it.  Somewhat a companion piece to the album, it is also a game on its own.  There are two discs:  One, a virtual tour of the cottage where the band recorded the album, and Two, the Promised Land video game.

The object of the game:  Explore five different fantasy lands (one “world” for each member) that “reflect the thoughts, dreams, nightmares, humor and values of the members of Queensryche.”  There are puzzles in these areas and a lot of places where you just get lost, but there’s also cameos by the band members and snippets of original music.  The goal of the game is to find all five pieces of the Queensryche totem.  They’re hidden, one per world, and if you get them all you unlock a Queensryche song called “Two Mile High”.  This song, a brief acoustic number with an electric DeGarmo solo, was recorded specifically and exclusively for this game.  Unfortunately you won’t unlock it in any worthwhile format, you’ll sit and watch a Quicktime video instead.

screen shot 2

The other part of the Promised Land package is a lot cooler.  On the disc labelled Big Log, you can explore the cabin studio where Queensryche recorded the album.  You can move from room to room and click objects to unlock videos.

Unfortunately, with Geoff Tate out of the picture, it seems unlikely that a DVD release of these video segments would be high on the priority list for the band.

Anyway, it seems kind of pointless to give a rating to a game like this since it’s unlikely you’re currently rushing out to buy a 1996 PC video game.  If I had to put myself back in the day and how I felt when I got it, I’d rate it like this:

  • Game – 1/5
  • Big Log disc – 4/5
  • “Two Mile High” song – 3/5 

Screenshots from AdventureGamers.com.

Check out the unintentionally funny game trailer below:

More Queensryche:

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 66: The First Time I Heard Marillion

 

RECORD STORE TALES PART 66:   The First Time I Heard Marillion

Winter – spring, 1999.  The last couple of years had been a messy string of bad dates, break-ups, and bad music.  Heavy metal, at least in this town, spent most of the 90’s in a coma.  I had been stretching out and selectively buying different kinds of music, just due to the sheer lack of quality and selection in new metal music.  I don’t think that really changed until Iron Maiden roared back with Brave New World.  I noticed a seismic shift, a growing pulse, in metal at that time.

Working in the store, I got to try anything I wanted.  I had explored Brit-pop, Australian indi bands, a little electronica, and a lot of mainstream stuff, as long as it had some guitars or aggression to it.

One day, the same guy who sold me that rare Oasis live album  walked in.  He had a whole bunch of remastered albums for sale, among them three Marillion discs:  Script For A Jester’s Tear, Fugazi, and Misplaced Childhood.  These were the remastered versions with the bonus discs.  Absolutely impossible to find in town.  Even hard to get on the leading websites, such as HMV.com and CDnow.

Now, I had definitely heard of Marillion, but never heard Marillion.  I had read about them in M.E.A.T Magazine, and my buddy Tom had a dozen Marillion posters on the wall.  I thought they would be my kind of band, just I had never stumbled upon them before.

I called Tom.

“Tom!  I just got three Marillion remasters in.  Misplaced, Fugazi, and Script.  Do you want?”

“Oooh…he didn’t have Clutching at Straws, did he?” Tom asked.  I replied in the negative.

“Listen,” Tom said.  “You have three great albums there, but if you want to try some Marillion, go for Misplaced, before you try the other two.  You’ll like Misplaced.  The other two can be kind of dense at first.”

I took Tom’s advice, and bought Misplaced.  I brought it to the cottage with me that weekend, and listened to the whole thing on my boombox.

What an experience, immersed in the music at the lake, nobody around, hearing Fish’s smooth voice and sometimes jagged enunciation.  This Fish guy, I didn’t know what he was on about yet, but I was intrigued by three things:

  1. He looked cool.
  2. His lyrics were very poetic, unlike any I’d heard before.
  3. He was Scottish, just when I was starting to get interested in my own Scottish half-background.

“Kayleigh” jumped right out at me on the first listen, but soon “Heart of Lothian” followed.  Then “Lavender”, “White Feather”…the album really spoke to me!  I get it!  It’s about girls, right?

In the same Oasis article mentioned above, I talked about being an obsessive compulsive collector.  Well, after buying Fugazi and Seasons End in short order, I was off to the races.  I went to their website and bought everything.  Every friggin’ thing.

Everybody at work hated Marillion.  Everybody!  I remember being at a record store party once.  This guy named “German Mike” was there, he was somebody’s friend that had flown in.  From Germany.  Anyway, they were on the topic of whatever new bands were happening at the time.  I broke in, saying, “I’ve actually been going back to discover old bands.  I’m really into Marillion right now.”

“Fuck Marillion,” said German Mike.  He later puked potato chips all over his shirt.

Nah, sorry German Mike.  I’ll stick to Marillion, but maybe you should cut the chicken chips!

Pre-Marillion:  douche. 

Marillion is good for you!  

Girlfriend!  Thanks, Marillion! 

REVIEW: Ozzy Osbourne – Mr. Crowley / Live E.P. (1982)

OZZY OSBOURNE – Mr. Crowley / Live E.P. (1982 CBS)

Ahoy, Ozzy fans!  I am finally in the process of getting all my vinyl into mp3 format.  I chose this E.P. first.  This was never released on CD, never on iTunes, never as a bonus track nor on a box set.  There’s even one tune here that is not available anywhere else, in any form, whatsoever.  It is called “You Said It All”.  Most extrordinarily, this E.P. has Randy Rhoads.  Rare Rhoads, folks!

Mr. Crowley (or just Live E.P., since that’s what’s on the cover of my copy) is a nice little package featuring two Blizzard of Ozz classics:  the title track, and a clipped version of “Suicide Solution” that fades out during the guitar solo.  The third track is the afformentioned “You Said It All”, and I don’t know the story behind this song or why it’s such a rarity.  All I can say is that it is credited to the writing quartet of Osbourne/Rhoads/Daisley/Kerslake.  Which may actually explain everything right there.  Sharon is notoriously at war with both Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake over writing credits and royalties.

According to the back cover, this was recorded in October of 1980 during the band’s first UK tour.  While the recording is not as electrifying as Randy Rhoads Tribute for example, it’s fine for a low-key release such as an E.P.  Most importantly, “You Said It All” is such a great track.  The riff is catchy, the melody is excellent, the song memorable.  Maybe it’s not as great as the 9 now-classic tracks on Blizzard, but it certainly would have made a great 10th track, if it was even ever recorded in a studio.

I’ve always loved this one. Gotta give this:

5/5 stars

Oh incidentally this was also released on cassette, I used to have that too.

Part 65: Vinyl

RECORD STORE TALES Part 65: Vinyl

We’d always dabbled in vinyl.  We didn’t do a lot of vinyl, it was the 90’s after all, and vinyl was dead.  We didn’t buy it used, but sometimes something big came out on vinyl that we had to carry.  For example:

In 1994, Pearl Jam released Vitalogy on LP a week earlier than the CD.  We stocked five and they sold out on day one.

In 1996, Soundgarden came out with Down On The Upside LP a week earlier than the CD, so we stocked that.  I can’t remember how many we stocked, but I do remember it took years to sell them!

My copy, still sealed...that's my handwriting too.

My copy, still sealed…that’s my handwriting too.

A bit later on, my buddy Tom opened his own branch and decided to stock used vinyl.  He was the only one to try it, he had a vinyl room in the back.  They phased the vinyl out rapidly after Tom moved on, as he was the chief expert buyer.  However during the period that Tom carried vinyl, I filled so many gaps in my collection.

Here’s some examples.  You have to remember that at the time, these might not have been out on any digital format at all, and downloading hadn’t hit us yet.

  • Ozzy’s Live EP, still unreleased on any digital format today.
  • Helix’s first two, Breaking Loose and White Lace & Black Leather albums, autographed by the late Paul Hackman.  I think these were in Tom’s 25 cent bin.
  • Hear N’ Aid, Ronnie James Dio’s 1986 charity LP featuring exclusive tracks from Kiss and others.
  • Guns N’ Roses 12″ single for “Patience” with an exclusive interview with Axl on the B-side
  • Kim Mitchell, the legendary Max Webster frontman’s first solo foray from 1982.  Easily my favourite record of his entire storied career, and impossible to find on CD under $100.
  • Max Webster’s Live Magnetic Air from 1979, a hard find on CD for sure.

That’s just a sampling, there were many more.  And that’s just that stuff that I bought.  I’m sure Tom saw many a rare disc float his way.

There was one record I’ll never forget.  This sucker was worth $100 right there.  It was by a band from Oshawa Ontario, called Christmas.  It had a tank on the cover.  I guess they had this cult following and only a small quantity of records were made, let alone survived.  And musically, it wasn’t bad.

I’m glad that vinyl is back in a fairly significant way again.  I enjoy buying it, and I enjoy playing it.

I want a USB turntable for my birthday.  I accept gifts.

MOVIE REVIEW: God Bless Ozzy Osbourne

God Bless Ozzy Osbourne(blu-ray, 2011, 135 minutes)

The best metal documentaries are the ones with genuine emotion in them (Anvil, for example), and God Bless Ozzy Osbourne is loaded with all sorts of emotion.  Produced by the man’s son, Jack*, this blu-ray runs the gamut of emotions.  From hilarious stories with Tommy Lee to some genuine anger and pain from Oz’s family, this movie goes deeper into the man himself, than the music.

The movie starts with Birmingham, and Black Sabbath.  Some of the classic footage from 1970  is incredible.  Ozzy was one of the most loved frontmen of the decade for a reason, and these clips show why.  They also reveal a young fiery Black Sabbath, playing tight fast versions of classic songs, Bill Ward hammering away on his kit like he is trying to destroy it.

After Sabbath, things become less about the music and more about the family man and the wild man.  You know those stories — the Alamo, the bat, the dove, the gross-out contests.  What’s new here is the raw emotion.  Rudy Sarzo recounts a particularly powerful moment the day that Randy Rhoads is killed.  New and old interview footage with Ozzy reveals deep wounds.

The Jake E. Lee years are pretty much completely skipped except for Ozz critiquing a few old videos from the 1980’s.  Zakk is barely mentioned at all.  In fact, another late Ozzy member, Randy Castillo, appears in many clips and is never even named.  And I’m sure it comes as no surprise that Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake do not appear at all.

From there we go to more downs, booze, pills, assault, pain, The Osbournes, more pain, and Ozzy’s eventual sobriety, 5 years straight when filmed.  Through it all, Ozzy remains one thing consistently: the clown.

Ozzy is constantly saying and doing things to keep people in stitches.  There’s a certain innocence in it.  Ozzy never seems to really mean to hurt anyone.  He’s just trying to entertain, whether to distract from his own insecurities or just because he was born to entertain, I can’t say.  Probably both.

Athough the movie isn’t overblown with big name cameos, you will hear from artists such as Henry Rollins, Tommy Lee, and Black Sabbath.

Bonus features:

  • Q & A with Ozzy and Jack
  • Deleted scenes
  • Tribeca film festival

4/5 stars.  More about the solo music would have been great.

*I want to briefly mention Jack’s struggle with multiple sclerosis, revealed this past Monday.  Being friends with a person who has MS, I sympathize with the Osbourne family and Jack, but I also know that this is an illness that can be fought!  There are many ways to be a part of the fight, but here’s a pretty cool one that might win you a bike.

http://www.freedomridetoendms.com/