kiss

REVIEW: KISS – Destroyer (and a word about that 35th anniversary Resurrected thing)

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:

  • Detroit Rock City
  • King of the Night Time World
  • Shout It Out Loud
  • God of Thunder

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:

  • “Sweet Pain” — not a big fan. I find it dull.
  • “Flaming Youth” — again, not a big fan. I think Ezrin got carried away with production on this one, and to be honest I’ve never been a fan of the “Mad Dog” riff in the middle.
  • “Great Expectations” — never liked it. Always thought it was a novelty even moreso than Beth. But the live version on Alive IV is stunning.
  • “Do You Love Me?” — I have no idea how this song continues to be played live. Maybe when Nirvana covered it, it got a new life? It’s just too simple.

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!

Part 72: Sloan

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!

 

REVIEW: KISS – Dressed To Kill (1975)

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

REVIEW: KISS – “Hell or Hallelujah” single! (2012)

Stepping out of continuity: Part 5 of my series of Kiss reviews, this time on the BRAND NEW SINGLE, leading up to the release of Monster!

Yes, I know I forgot part 3.  It’s coming.  I just forgot to publish Dressed To Kill!

KISS – “Hell or Hallelujah” single (download only, 2012)

If you’re still hung up on Ace and Peter not being in the band anymore, just go away.  Get over it.  This sounds like Kiss.  Pure and simple Kiss.  Like the 70’s crossed with the speed of the 80’s.  Picture a song like “Take Me” with the velocity of “Under The Gun”.

Sticking to the seldom-broken formula of having a Paul song be the first single, “Hell or Hallelujah” kicks ass from start to finish.  I can’t say I prefer it to the first single from the previous album, “Modern Day Delilah”, but it’s certainly heavier.  I love the sound of Gene and Paul singing together.  The riff is retro-Kiss, and Paul is singing great.

Tommy Thayer shines, with a guitar solo that is less Ace and more Tommy.  Rather than rip off a bunch of Ace licks like he did last time, this solo reminds me more of something like Bob Kulick would have done back in the day.  Still Ace-like enough in general sound, but with much more dexterity.  Having said that I don’t think it strays too far from the classic Kiss sound, and it’s about time Tommy got to really show off his chops.

Clocking in at 4:06, and selling for $1.29 on iTunes, I can’t wait for a better sounding format.  The CD has to sound better than this!

4/5 stars

REVIEW: KISS – Alive!

Part 4 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!

KISS – Alive! (1975)
For the record I would recommend the Alive Box over this, simply because you get the first 3 Alives in one set with extra material. Buut we’ll get there evenually.

Kiss Alive!…what can you say? Greatest live album of all time? Not really live? Who cares! It sounds amazing and 35 years later people are still buying it. The same cannot be said of many live albums from the era. Live At Last by Black Sabbath was recorded around this time, nobody buys that record now. It’s one of a handful of classics. Frampton Comes Alive, and Live & Dangerous (Thin Lizzy) are up there with it.

Is it live? Sort of. Paul’s guitar playing and singing was not up to snuff for the live album that producer Eddie Kramer wanted to make (too much jumping around) so a lot of it was done in the studio. Can you tell? Absolutely not. You can’t tell at all.

The sound: Epic, loud, superior in every way to the studio albums. The songs: Played faster, more intense, solos are crazier and longer. Paul’s stage raps became popular because of Kiss Alive! Now everybody knows the rap about “a taste of alcohol” (“Cold Gin”), and the big middle section to “100,000 Years”.

You can’t fault one single song inclusion on Kiss Alive!, and indeed this version of “Rock And Roll All Nite” has become more well known than the original. Sure, there are other great Kiss songs that didn’t make it here, but when a live album becomes too long it also becomes harder to listen to.

This (or the Alive Box) should be your first Kiss purchase if you’ve never bought one before.

6/5 stars!

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 64: Niagara Falls

RECORD STORE TALES Part 64:  Niagara Falls

I never was the traveling kind, so when I had to spend a weekend working Niagara Falls, I wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect.  I warmed up to the idea after I met Mike and Greg, the new owners of our latest franchise.

I packed the Deep Purple box set in the car, a box of pepperettes, and hit the highway.  I arrived at the store on a bitter cold Saturday morning, and we worked the day away.  It was a tiring day, as we bought and shelved a lot of merchandise that day.  We were constantly pricing discs.

The best thing about Niagara was the co-owner Mike.  He was a funny guy.  Great stories.  Massive Kiss fan.  Great stories about meeting Gene and being promised all sorts of things on the forthcoming Kiss box set.  Mike also played bass.  He was a long, long time Record Store Guy.

Mike was in this insane punk band called The Legendary Klopeks.  He wore a blonde pigtail wig and went by the name of Lemon Kurri Klopek.  The lead singer, Josh, was Sweet Pepper Klopek.  He is quite legendary today as an extreme…well I dunno what you call it but he bleeds a lot and he wrestles and he is a Guiness’ Book record holder for something that nobody should really do.

Their lyrics were hilarious.  Take, for example, “Ric Flair”:

I wanna (something something?)

I wanna do a “woo” (“WOOO!”)

I wanna be like Ric

’cause he’s so fucking cool

I want a son

who doesn’t suck

That’s the only thing that’s wrong with Ric

So who gives a fuck?

He’s the king, the king of the ring,

He’ll fuck you up just like it ain’t no thing.

Every song on the sophomore album Straight To Hell ends with the words, “Fuck you!”  Even the short ones, like “Where’s My Soup?”  The lyrics to “Where’s My Soup?” are as follows:

Where’s my soup?

Fuck you!

The other owner, Greg, did merch for Blue Rodeo and in fact when he said this, I realized I’d seen him at the last Blue Rodeo gig that I attended.  I bought a shirt from him!

Because of the Legendary Klopeks, Niagara had a bit of, I don’t know how to put this…an entourage, maybe?  All interesting characters.  The most interesting was Gary James Dean. Otherwise known as The Deaner.

The less said about the Deaner, the better.  But I will say this.   He liked to tell people that he masturbated with his Justin Timberlake doll.  And he phoned about 25 times a day.  Not even exaggerating about that.

Anyway, Niagara was a fun store to work in.  They always played good music, and they had great stories.  Today Mike tours with Steve Earle, doing his merch, and I am insanely happy for him and jealous at the same time.  He’ll post a picture on Facebook like, “Me and Steve eating sushi.”  Stuff like that.

The best score that I got from that store was actually a gift from Mike.  It was the Bruce Dickinson CD single for “All The Young Dudes”, the Mott the Hoople cover.  (B-sides:  the acoustic “Darkness Be My Friend”, and the AC/DC cover “Sin City”.)

I’ll always remember good times in the Falls:  Rock n’ Roll, the Klopeks, sushi, and the Deaner!

REVIEW: Black Sabbath – Seventh Star (deluxe edition)

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BLACK SABBATH featuring TONY IOMMI – Seventh Star (2011 deluxe edition)

The only Black Sabbath album with Glenn Hughes on vocals. The only one released under the somewhat silly name “Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi”. The first one to feature no original members except Tony himself, with Geezer and Bill departing after the disasterous hiring of a new singer named Dave “Donut” Donato, a male model. That bore no fruit, and Iommi instead toiled away on what he intended to be his first solo album….

Finally, Seventh Star has been given the Deluxe Edition treatment. I’ve been waiting for some kind of official release of the music video remix of “No Stranger To Love” for 25 years. Finally it is available on this Deluxe Edition, along with a pretty good live show featuring the late Ray Gillen on vocals. I already have a Ray show on bootleg (a very common one called The Ray Gillen Years) but this is a completely different show, with a different setlist.

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Seventh Star as an album probably never should have been released under the Black Sabbath name. It’s truly a solo album that Warner Bros didn’t want to release as a Tony Iommi album. So here it is, an official Sabbath album. If that didn’t occur, would Sabbath as an entity even have continued in the 1980’s? I doubt it. Sabbath here consisted of:

Tony Iommi – guitars
Glenn Hughes – lead vocals
Dave “The Beast” Spitz – bass  (*brother of Dan)
Eric Singer – drums
Geoff Nicholls – keyboards

Only Iommi and Nicholls remain from previous Sabbath lineups. You know Glenn Hughes of course from his soulful wail in Deep Purple, and Eric Singer from his later work in Kiss. Here, the five musicians coalesce into a more commercial version of Black Sabbath. The hard hitting riffs are still there, the frenetic solos, the mystical lyrics, the pounding drums. Yet these songs are more melodic. Glenn infuses them with a soulful touch never heard before on a Sabbath album. Whether that is to your taste, only you can decide. Personally I love almost every song on this album. I find the standouts to be “In For The Kill”, “Seventh Star”, “Angry Heart”, and “No Stranger To Love”. Only “Heart Like A Wheel” bores me, a slow blues that doesn’t really go anywhere.

As mentioned, the video version of “No Stranger” is included, which I have never found anywhere else. For years I had it on VHS and I thought there were female backing vocals. This remaster reveals that it’s actually Glenn — I could never hear them clearly enough before to discern this.

The remastering on this CD is quite excellent. The drums have a fullness that wasn’t there before. The guitar absolutely sizzles. The liner notes are nothing new, just recycled from a previous edition of the CD, as are the included photos.

The bonus live show with Ray Gillen on vocals exists due to Glenn’s vocal and drug problems.  Ray Gillen was hired when it was clear that Hughes was in no shape to tour.  This CD reveals that Ray was really trying to be Ronnie James Dio. Personally I find Ray’s renditions of the Sabbath classics to be very overwrought, especially on “Black Sabbath”. Only two songs from Seventh Star are played. (You can get Ray’s version of “Heart Like A Wheel” on the Ray Gillen Years bootleg, as well as “Sweet Leaf”.)

While Ray’s tenure in Black Sabbath was brief, it was still important historically.  Ray did one tour and recorded an album.  There are some singers in Sabbath’s history that are not documented at all.  (One TV broadcast exists with Dave Walker singing “Junior’s Eyes”, and there’s a demo of Dave Donato singing an early version of “The Shining” called “No Way Out”.)   This live show, while not stellar, is an important piece of the Sabbath puzzle. It is the first (but not final!) official release of any Ray Gillen material with Sabbath.  The sound quality is slightly better than bootleg which is fine by me.

This remaster is not for Sabbath snobs. You know the kind. “Sabbath suck without Ozzy!” or “Dio is the best!” Sabbath’s history is far longer and richer than that, and there’s room for all kinds. Just one question:   Is Headless Cross going to get the deluxe treatment too?…may as well wish for the moon!

4/5 stars

Yup…that’s Star Trek TNG’s Denise Crosby in the “No Stranger To Love” video!

NOTE: If you like this album, Hughes and Iommi hooked up twice more: On the Iommi solo albums The DEP Sessions, and Fused.

REVIEW: KISS – Kiss (1974)

I’m going to publish reviews of every Kiss album, including compilations, gearing up for the 2012 release of Monster!

KISS – Kiss (1974)

KISStory began in 1973 when Ace Frehley joined Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Gene Simmons. The band rose from the ashes of Wicked Lester, a 5-piece band featuring Stanley and Simmons who cut a record for Epic. The record was never released but some of the material here originated in the Wicked Lester days.

Produced by Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise (as was the next album, Hotter Than Hell), Kiss lacks that “oomph” of guitar that the band would become noted for later on. Most songs, even powerful fast ones like “Deuce”, rely on rock-and roll-guitars with a little more jangle to them. The tempos are often a bit slower than the versions the band would play (see:  Alive!)  but the spirit is there in this basic rock recording.

The first song, “Strutter” introduced Kiss to the record-buying public. Everybody knows “Strutter”, just as strong today as in 1974. “Nothin’ To Lose” is next, one of my all time favourite Kiss songs and is sung by Gene, Paul and the catman himself Peter Criss. It’s a rock-and-roll song made special by the three vocalists, a gimmick which I wish Kiss would have used more often. “Firehouse” follows this, complete with sirens, and is quite a bit slower than live versions and plods a bit. Ace’s song “Cold Gin” is next, sung by Simmons, a man who never gets drunk which always struck me as an odd pairing. It’s another classic, again a bit slower than live versions but with that great riff intact. Side 1 ends with one of Paul’s earliest songs “Let Me Know”. It was previously known as “Sunday Driver”, which features in the first line of the song: “Let me be your Sunday driver, let me be your Monday man.” Gene sings the verses and Paul sings the bridge. It features a coda that Kiss often played live attached to other, later songs such as “She” or “Watchin’ You”.

Side 2 began (on reissue versions) with the cover tune “Kissin’ Time”. This song was released as a single first, and added to the album later. It’s nothing special even though it does again feature all three singers. (Frehley would not sing a lead until Love Gun.) “Deuce”, which should have kicked off side two, is a song everybody knows.  It is Gene’s signature song, a tune which Ace played as a solo artist as well, simply because he loves the song.  This version is almost asgood as the Alive! version. Next, “Love Theme From Kiss”; a meandering instrumental.  It was once called “Acrobat” and featured a second part known in fan circles as “You’re Much Too Young”. That part was chopped before the studio version was recorded, and later became the main riff to “Detroit Rock City”.  “100,000 Years” begins with a trademark Gene Simmons bass slide, and then goes into that great groove with Paul taking the lead vocal.  This is as grooviest as Kiss ever get, although again the Alive!version is superior.  The album ends with the first Kiss epic, “Black Diamond”. It starts with a mellow acoustic opening, Paul’s smooth vocal, and “ooh ooh” backgrounds. Then there’s a countdown, Paul yells “Hit it!” and the whole band kicks in. Peter sings the rest of the song. It is an absolute classic and one of Kiss’s very best.

On the album cover:  You’ll notice some rare things.  Ace has silver in his hair, and Peter’s makeup is completely different. The reason given is that Peter had a professional do his makeup for the cover whereas the rest of the guys did their own. I’m not sure why Ace’s hair is silver but I’m sure it was impractical. If it wasn’t for these oddities, I think this cover image would be more iconic in Kisstory, because it is otherwise very cool.  They were going for that iconic Meet the Beatles type of simple image, and they came close to nailing it.

The first three Kiss albums share a common “rock-and-roll” sound with less distortion and more jangly guitars. Most fans consider the Alive! versions to be superior. I would tend to agree.  Still, this was the start:  it’s remarkable just how many of these songs would become Kiss classics and would be played live through the years. In fact by my counting there are no less than 8 out of 10 songs here that are bonafide classics in Kisstory.

5/5 stars

Part 55: Groupies

Hello, all, when we last met, we were talking about a weird record store stalker.  Today, we’re going to be talking about record store groupies.

Now, I dunno about other guys.  I didn’t have too many groupies.  (Spoogecakes does not count as a groupie, as she was not a customer, just a psycho employee.) Some of the girls did.  I remember Ashleigh had a couple admirers that we fondly referred to as “the Trekkies”.  Me, on the other hand…I had Tall One and Short One.

Problem:  If memory serves, Tall One was about 15, and Short One was about 16.  I was about 30.  

But the really weird thing is that Tall One and Short One had both simultaneously shitty, and awesome musical taste.   It was like…Schrödinger’s taste.  In the same transaction, they would purchase both Steve Vai, and the Moffats.  They later graduated on to Kiss.

Second weird thing.  That was a decade ago, and bizarrely through Facebook we re-contacted.  Tall One even came to my pre-wedding garage sale and bought some of my crap!  A lot of my crap, actually.

Everybody used to give me a hard time about Tall One and Short One, because they used to come in all the time, but I couldn’t be mean to them.  Well, I was mean a couple times, I had to tell them to get lost I was busy.  But then other times, they would come in with a huge box of Crispy Creme donuts.  That time, I remember I ate four in a row.

“You ate four in a row?” Short One later said.  “Do you know that each donut is like eating two Big Macs?”

“Uhhh…no?” I said.

“Congratulations, you ate eight Big Macs.  Those were for everybody!  Did you share?”

“Uhhh…a couple.”

So there you go.  I’m sure other record store guys have better groupie stories.  But did they get Cripsy Creme?  Exactly!