November/December 1995 was freakin’ busy. We sold a lot of discs that Christmas. What we didn’t do was listen to a lot of discs! No; our boss really, really liked Don Henley and TLC. He played them ad-nauseum. Like on repeat three times in a row. I’m not kidding about that. I distinctly remember the repeat. Here are the Top Three Discs I Had to Listen to Until My Ears Bled, December 1995.
3. Boney M – Christmas Album
2. Don Henley – Actual Miles
1. TLC – CrazySexyCool
Trevor on the other hand was introducing me to Oasis and managed to get a few cool discs into rotation:
3. The Beatles – Anthology Vol. 1 (usually just disc 2)
2. Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters
1. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
We were also working with this new guy, Donnie, and we let him pick Dance Mix ’95 a few times. Unfortunately, the Big Shiny Tunes series hadn’t begun yet.
I didn’t get to pick as many discs as the others — the boss didn’t like my picks. When I did, I chose the new Def Leppard – Vault (Greatest Hits 1980-1995).
Looking back, there were also a few albums that I found utterly disappointing that season. They included:
3. AC/DC – Ballbreaker
2. Lenny Kravitz – Circus
1. Savatage – Dead Winter Dead
All three were albums that I was solidly looking forward to, but largely disappointed me. I never did buy Circus. I own the other two, but only because I’m a completest (and I got AC/DC for $3).
Finally there were three albums that really got me through that season. I had just been dumped by my first serious girlfriend and I was really angry about it. Away from work (my boss didn’t want these ones played in the store) these three albums totally spoke to me that Christmas:
3. Alice in Chains – Alice in Chains
2. Ozzy Osbourne – Ozzmosis
1. Iron Maiden – The X Factor
Let me tell you something people: I still fuckin’ hate TLC. I’ll never go chasin’ waterfalls, ever again.
I’ve worked with a lot of accountants over the years. I like accountants. I seem to get along with accountants, don’t know why. The coolest accountant I ever worked with was Jonathan. I like to describe Jonathan’s appearance as being a dead ringer for the actor Romany Malco:
Jonathan always made me laugh. Check out this journal entry:
Date: 2004/06/17 14:09
It was really amusing walking into the office today, and seeing Jonathan singing “Lick It Up” by Kiss.
Very un-accountant like behaviour!
Jonathan was good people. He took a pay cut to work with us, because he wanted to do something he was passionate about. He taught all us knuckle-draggers on the store floors about cash flow vs. profit. He helped us out a lot on the financial side, and he was smart. Plus he loved music.
One time when my mom came into the store to visit, I introduced her to Jon. He said to my mom, “You brought up a good son, Mrs. Ladano.”
I used to drive Jonathan home from work once or twice a week, and it was always good to talk to him. He used to give me advice every time. He encouraged me to better myself. He used to call me “Lifer”. He said, “You’re never going to get out of here. You’re going to work here forever.” But he did it to rile me up, to get me looking for work elsewhere, because he knew the CD store was a dead end for me. He had respect for me, when he called me “Lifer” he meant it to motivate me.
I’d talk to him about girls I liked. There was this girl that worked at the Money Mart next door, but I was too shy to walk in and talk to her. So Jonathan did it for me! Witness these journal entries:
Date: 2004/05/21, 10:08
The one girl at the Money Mart next door is really cute, and I see her out there all the time having a smoke. When Jonathan goes out to have a smoke, he talks to her, give her a light, whatever. I mentioned to Jonathan that I thought the one girl was real cute yesterday. Then today, I TOTALLY got busted staring at her through the window! THEN Jonathan went out to chat it up with her, right after I got busted, to tell her all about me, ask her if she wants to go out on a date with me…Jesus Christ!
Date: 2004/05/22, 09:52
Cheap Trick – Authorized Greatest Hits
Alice In Chains – Jar of Flies
KISS tribute – Kiss My Ass
The Goo Goo Dolls – Gutterflower
Rush – Vapor Trails
Nice thing about working the day alone with no bosses around is that you can listen to whatever the hell you want!
I don’t think Money Mart Girl, who I learned from Jonathan is named Jessica, is working today. So I couldn’t say hi to her even if I worked up the guts!
In the end, Jonathan had to split. He had three kids and being an accountant for a CD store wasn’t going to cut it anymore. He took an offer he could not refuse, and bid us farewell.
I’ll always remember good times working with Jonathan, a true character, and the guy who got me thinking about my future.
Thanks for checking out my 88 underrated albums from the 1990’s that I believe deserved a second look. There were a few albums that, had I written that series of articles in the 1990’s, would have made the list. Today, they just don’t cut it.
Here’s a selection of albums that I felt were under-appreciated at that time. Today, these very rarely get any play in my house. The shine obviously wore off the apple.
Once again, this is alphabetical.
BIG WRECK – In Loving Memory Of… (T-Rev teased me about it…it’s half decent, but only half)
BUSH – The Science of Things (good song: “The Chemicals Between Us”)
JERRY CANTRELL – Boggy Depot (Alice In Lite Chains)
CINDERELLA – Still Climbing (Never even upgraded to CD from cassette)
ALICE COOPER – A Fistful of Alice (Dunno…never play this anymore! Good song: “Is Anyone Home?”)
EDWIN – Another Spin Around The Sun (Good song: “Alive”. The rest? Suckiness.)
GEEZER – Black Science (only decent, certainly not great)
IOMMI – Iommi (too modern sounding, has some great tracks, but not enough)
MEGADETH – Cryptic Writings (T-Rev and I were into this big time! I can’t play it anymore)
METHODS OF MAYHEM – Methods of Mayhem (I fucking bought this one!)
MR. BIG – Hey Man (“Take Cover” is a good song…the rest I can barely remember)
ALDO NOVA – Blood On The Bricks (I’ll review this at a later date, just doesn’t cut it anymore)
NUNO (Bettencourt) – Schizophonic (One customer will never forgive me for recommending this)
SCORPIONS – Pure Instinct (pure lite-rock)
TWO – Voyeurs (sorry Rob, this just wasn’t a good idea)
STEVE VAI – Fire Garden (perhaps it’s just too dense for me)
VAN HALEN – 3 (no comment…)
VARGA – Prototype (I was trying to get into industrial metal. I grew out of it!)
VICTOR – Victor (Bought because it was Alex Lifeson, therefore my civic duty)
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).
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.
RECORD STORE TALES PART 89: Prank 3.0 – The Case of the Disappearing Mars Bar
Rewind to 1994.
It was just one store, and just the three of us: Trevor, myself, and the owner. We had an awesome comraderie back then, and it was based both on mutual respect and humour. At the time I doubt there would have been a better more knowledgeable staff at any store in town than us three.
But we joked around a lot. It wasn’t beyond us to “tag” another one with a magnetic security tag somewhere on their clothing, setting off alarms everywhere. It was all in good fun.
I showed up for work one night with a small bag, just a soda and a Mars bar inside. I always came in early to check out what was newly arrived. As I unpacked, my boss looked at my sorry excuse for a dinner and admonished me. Always health conscious, he asked me about the Mars bar and if I knew how much sugar that was and so on. “How can you eat this crap?” he finished. I chuckled; I was 22 and hadn’t given it any thought. He was mostly just ribbing me anyway.
Meanwhile, the boss was going through the cash register to decide what we needed in terms of small change. Then, he sent me to the bank to do the change run, before he packed it in for the day. When I returned with the change, he left me with instructions for the evening and departed. I went about my business picking out discs to listen to that night. (Based on the period I calculate with 97.8% certainty that one of those titles would have been Superunknown by Soundgarden, Balls to Picasso by Bruce Dickinson, or Jar of Flies by Alice in Chains.)
It was a slow night, and a couple hours later I had the munchies. My Mars bar…it was gone!
I looked everywhere for it. It could have fallen behind the counter. Or maye I left it on top of a pile of discs? No luck. It didn’t turn up. I know I brought it because I talked about it with…with my boss!
I had fallen victim to the classic “Steal the Snacks” game. It wouldn’t be the last, and it’s a game I took to playing myself. I love the way he blindsided me with the health talk on the Mars bar. I didn’t even see it coming!
Next time on Record Store Tales…
mikeladano.com 