This is exactly the type of episode I’ve long shied away from, something that could be seen as negative. However, we sure had a lot of fun putting this together, and filming it.
Here, Will sits in TVC Headquarters with me, and Jex and Ladano join us (with some written help from Matt) to cover our personal least favourite Kiss songs. I feel it is worth repeating: we are ALL massive Kiss fans, these are our opinions and no one else’s.
Your comments are welcome but please no personal attacks. None of what we say is meant as an affront to anyone’s personal tastes. Having said that, it was unquestionably fun to have a little dig at those Kiss songs that as fans, have always rubbed us the wrong way (which sounds like a discarded Gene Simmons lyric from the 80s).
RECORD STORE TALES #1104: We Don’t Need No, No No No, Parental Guidance Here
In our house, we always had the utmost support. It didn’t matter if my parents liked the music. Like it or not, they provided it in spades.
My dad fully enabled my early John Williams addiction. I had a good collection of Star Wars and Indiana Jones music. The only way for me to listen to them was on the big family stereo in the living room. My parents had a good pair of headphones, so noise wasn’t an issue. There I would lay, my Star Wars toys scattered about, as I read the liner notes to The Empire Strikes Back, LP spinning at 33 1/3 rpm on the turntable behind me.
Nothing lasts forever but the certainty of change, and in 1984 change was afoot. Star Wars could not last forever without films to sustain it, and the Kenner action figures were scraping the bottom of the barrel for Ewoks, and other creatures with mere seconds of screen time. It was, for all intents and purposes for this child, over.
My exposure to music up to that point had been pretty mainstream. There was an earlier dalliance with AC/DC’s “Big Balls” and some “Mr. Roboto” by Styx earlier, but otherwise I only knew John Williams and whatever MuchMusic was playing those days. Billy Ocean’s “Loverboy” was a big one. (The rock connection there was production by Robert John “Mutt” Lange.) I had Michael Jackson and Culture Club cassettes, but neither were played beyond the big singles. I loathed slow songs. I spotted John Fogerty’s “The Old Man Down the Road” and thought it was pretty cool. My biggest dip into heavy metal to date was Quiet Riot, but that day in 1984 changed the course of my life.
Suddenly the vacuum was filled by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., Motley Crue, Helix, Lee Aaron, Triumph, and Kiss. Especially Kiss.
So what did my parents do? They bought me some of my first music cassettes. Powerslave, Walkin’ the Razor’s Edge, Asylum, Condition Critical, and all those seminal albums that shaped my first year as a real music fanatic. Just as I was obsessed with Star Wars and collecting, now I had a new focus and I was on it like a laser. My earliest purchases in the field of rock music were magazines: Faces, and Hit Parader. I had a Faces Kiss special, catching me up on all the essential facts into 1985. (Interestingly, the Faces special talked of the next studio album, which was to be followed by Alive III, they said.) I taped all the music videos off the Pepsi Power Hour like a maniac, soaking up everything I could that wasn’t too scary. (Venom were scary. So was Motorhead.)
My parents relinquished control of the VCR to me during the Pepsi Power Hour broadcast time. 5:00 PM, one day a week and then later on, two days a week. This was seemingly set in stone. The basement gradually became a music den for me, and Bob Schipper would join me as often as possible as we watched all the latest music I had captured on magnetic tape. Bob would offer his opinions, pro and con. We didn’t always agree. He loved Skid Row, and I was more into Badlands. He was early on to D-A-D, but didn’t really get what I loved about Savatage.
Whatever demons and dragons were on the covers of the albums I wanted, my parents would buy them for me. Whether Ozzy was dressed as a priest on the sleeve, or if a guy in a metal mask was being held in a psych ward, they bought the albums. They never said no. They never blinked at titles such as Live After Death or Screaming For Vengeance. I remember my mom once asked me if it was true that AC/DC stood for “Anti-Christ/Devil-Child”. I kind of laughed. She let it go. I think my mom knew how silly all those stories about “satanism in music” really were. It always seemed so far-fetched, and far removed from the songs I was enjoying in the basement with Bob.
His parents were pretty much the same, except he was older and had to buy his own tapes. They didn’t mind the shirtless Vince Neil poster on his wall. Me, I just wondered if he really had a crossbow launcher on his right gauntlet.
A lot of these rock stars looked like wrestlers or apocalyptic warriors from Mad Max. All these influences poured together in a potpourri of hard rock and heavy metal bands, marketed through the TV and magazines that I was consuming, to appeal to my age group. I was the target demographic, and it was working. There’s nothing particularly “evil” about that. That’s the world of capitalism that I was born into, and that record label executives hitched their wagons to. I suppose my mom had probably endured something similar when she was a young Beatles and Elvis fan. Her younger brother, my Uncle Don Don, had Led Zeppelin records. I was just listening to the next generation of rock down the line.
My parents’ support reached its zenith in 2021, when they bought me the Judas Priest box set, 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music. Easily the biggest music gift I ever received, it just proved how far they’d go to enable my musical habits. They don’t understand it, but they support it. That’s a pretty amazing thing, isn’t it?
Sometimes it’s fun to make a big deal out of something that doesn’t matter.
Let’s figure it out. What should the first song of 2024 be? I just woke up, I have not played any music yet in the new year. This is the kind of thing that music nerds make a big deal out of. The first song of the year! As if it sets the tone for the next 366 days (leap year!), let’s pretend that the first song played in 2024 is somehow really, really important.
How we do make such a decision? Let’s narrow it down step by step.
1. Let’s start easy. Should we play the song currently stuck in my head from yesterday? That would be “Past Life” by the Arkells with the Cold War Kids. Thematically it works. It’s all about moving forward instead of backwards, which works well with the whole “new year” thing. “I’ve been running from a past life, I wanna live this life instead!” Uplifting, and also I get that “scratch that itch” feeling of playing a song stuck in my head.
2. However, 2024 is the 40th frickin’ anniversary of a very significant year in my life. 1984: the year I committed to music as “my thing”, specifically heavy metal. The exact date was December 26 1984, Boxing Day. Perhaps I should play something from that year to commemorate this occasion. “I Wanna Be Somebody” by W.A.S.P., “Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden, “Rock You” by Helix, or “Heaven’s On Fire” by Kiss would be appropriate.
3. Or, we look ahead. There are albums to come in 2024, and we have heard some of the new music already. Judas Priest have released two singles from the forthcoming Invincible Shield. That would be a great way to start the year right — by looking forward.
4. …Buuuut I’d be starting the year by playing a song to which I have no emotional attachment yet, if I played the new Priest. That doesn’t seem like the right note to kick off a new year. Also, do I really want to start the year with a song about a “Panic Attack”?
5. Kiss is my favourite band. I first got into Kiss during that mythical year of 1984. And, the debut album Kiss came out 50 years ago, in 1974.
6. I prefer to listen to albums over songs. 1974’s Kiss gives me an excuse to play a whole album. Playing that debut would be a way to honour both my roots in 1984, and the album’s 50th in 2024.
7. …However, I didn’t know that album in 1984. I was just getting into rock, and I only knew two Kiss songs at that point: “Heaven’s On Fire” (1984) and “Rock and Roll all Nite” (1975).
8. Just a side note: this is the longest I’ve sat at my desk writing with no music playing!
9. The way I see it now, we can go one of two ways. 1984’s “Heaven’s On Fire”, which commemorates its 40th anniversary, and my discovery of heavy metal music the same year. Or, 1974’s Kiss. 50 years of Kiss is a big deal, and they were one of the first five bands I ever liked back in ’84. I prefer playing full albums, and overall I have more nostalgia for it.
10. Flip a coin. Heads: “Heaven’s On Fire”. Tails: Kiss 1974.
First of all: congrats to John of 2loud20ldmusic for making it to the final Kiss show. No surprises in the setlist; just the same songs. They did a Q&A featuring, most notably, Desmond Child. After all was said and done and Kiss finally played the last show of their last tour…now we have the Kiss Avatars.
We knew Kiss would continue in some way. I predicted a “Kiss II” kind of lineup a few years ago. What we are getting is so so so much worse.
These new digital Kiss “avatars” are eight feet tall and animated, composed of pixels and lights. They are inspired by the ABBA Voyage show. Both shows are produced by a company called Pophouse.
It is not yet known where or when we will see the Kiss Avatars next. But we will.
Me, I’ll be waiting patiently for a 50th anniversary box set of the debut album, or Hotter Than Hell, or a 40th anniversary box set of Animalize. I won’t pay to see avatars, of anyone, anywhere. Except maybe the blue kind if the third movie doesn’t suck.
First off, apologies to Jex Russell and everybody I forgot to thank in this video. Still running on the high from Friday night’s show. I went from that, to taping a great Tim’s Vinyl Confessions at 6:30 AM Saturday morning, to video making and editing.
For those who watched, the most grievous error I made Friday night was forgetting to open up this KISS shirt that I got from Aaron KMA.
Please enjoy this video I made in gratitude, and the YouTube shorts from Friday night as well.
Mike unboxes Love Gun shirt from Aaron KMA
“Sammy Hagar” grills Mike on 5150 (by Tee Bone)
Harrison laughs on a loop 5 times
New Grab A Stack of Rock show intro, featuring Jen, John Clauser, and a laughing Australian
RECORD STORE TALES #1076: Weekend Listening At Home
When I have time and the inclination at home, I like to go through dusty corners of the CD collection and finally get them ripped to PC. I take my hard drives with me everywhere, so my music collection is always portable. This weekend I took some deep dives, and sampled the sweet exotic fruits of the E section, a sampling of K’s and L’s, and some new arrivals too.
First of all, the newer stuff.
I’m going to have to re-review Morning Report by the Arkells again! Turns out, I made a mistake in my original review. I said that the deluxe edition had three bonus tracks, but I was wrong. I didn’t realize that there was another bonus track inserted as track #2, between “Drake’s Dad” and “Private School”. This makes all the difference in the world to the sequencing. Now we get “Knocking At The Door”, a new single, as the new track #2. Since “Drake’s Dad” and “Private School” were my two least favourite songs, having something of much higher quality between them really helps the flow.
I always buy something after doing a show on Grant’s Rock Warehouse. This time, it was the Stone Gods. I’ve acquired the single for “Burn the Witch”, which comes with two awesome non-album songs: “Breakdown”, and “Heartburn”! “Breakdown” is exactly like Thin Lizzy, to a tee, except with Richie Edwards on lead vocals. “Breakdown” is of equally high quality, a light and humorous tune about Pepto-Bismol and Gaviscon. Expect a review at some point in the future.
Finally, I sampled some April Wine, from Over 60 Minutes With…All the Rockers. People ask me “Why do you not own any April Wine?” I said “I never grew up with April Wine, my friends didn’t like them, so I never bothered.” Well Tim Durling said I need April Wine. I will evaluate this at a later date, but I have some April Wine now.
The next batch of discs was from the last part of the E section, five discs that had escaped ripping to the PC all these years. It could be 20 years or more since I have last played some of these. Earth, Wind & Fire, nothing need be said here, that’s essential. I was surprised at the quality of Elf, as boogie-woogie isn’t usually my thing. The Rik Emmett CD is cool because it has 2001 live versions of some of his old Triumph classics. Episode Six runs the gamut from quaint to psychedelic. “UFO” is one cool such song, a spoken word bit over drums, that reads from UFO sighting reports. But that’s Ian Gillan and Roger Glover on the front cover, yes indeed! Finally, the Eric Singer Project (ESP) was the weak link in this batch. Just a bland covers album to me.
Next, over to the K section. I noticed that none of my Kula Shaker music was on PC, and I have a lot of Kula Shaker. That’s the entire collection below, in fact.
Look! The 2 CD edition of debut album K with a cool remix of “Tattva”. Two CDs of “Govinda” singles with B-sides and remixes. “Grateful When You’re Dead/Jerry Was There” CD single with two non-album tracks. The highlight of me of these was “The Leek”, a quiz show style radio appearance by bassist Alonza Bevan. (A distant cousin of Roger Glover, in fact.) Really funny stuff. To me, anyway! Two CDs of “Hush”, the Joe South cover (also covered by Deep Purple Mk I) with lots more non-album tracks. Then we have the Summer Sun EP, which has four of the previous B-sides and two songs I didn’t have elsewhere. The second album, Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts spawned a CD single called “Sound of Drums”, both of which are here. More non-album tracks on that as well.
Well, it turns out, I still love Kula Shaker! Like, a lot. That Britpop sound, mixed with 60s psychedelia and far Eastern influences just tickles my fancy. There were a couple tracks I really loved, but none more than “108 Battles of the Mind” from the second album. What a cool, manic track that definitely benefited from the Austin Powers era.
One thing about Kula Shaker that needs to be addressed: the stellar musicianship. These guys can jam! Special notice to drummer Paul Winterhart who is absolute monster. Incredible band. Once I start re-absorbing these songs back into my memory, I may have to catch up with what they’ve been up to since 1999, where my collection ends.
Continuing through K, and into L, the listening continued on Sunday morning.
Kyuss is a band that I don’t think was summed up well by compilation. I will have to dig further. I have their split EP with Queens of the Stone Age, which has “Fatso Forgotso” on it, but I think Kyuss were an album band. The two Kulick albums are excellent. Corabi is on Transformer, which is signed! I didn’t know I had a signed copy! The James LaBrie solo disc also sounds great from what I sampled! Very Dream Theater, in a good way. Some heavy, some soft. Then we have Life Sex & Death, also called LSD. Their gimmick was their lead singer “Stanley” who was supposedly homeless (but wasn’t). This 1992 album is one that needs more exploration. What I heard was heavy, gritty and riffy while retaining some melody. To be further examined in the future.
As far as I got on the weekend, this just scratches the surface. Look at all this stuff that is still sealed in my collection. Time or inclination just haven’t lined up with the proper mood yet. Some are newer arrivals, like Metheny, Hollywood Vampires and Eric Carr. Others have been sitting around for years. The Kiss compilation may as well stay sealed for collector’s purposes, but The Boxed Life by Rollins…that could have been waiting a decade on these shelves. The Garth Hudsons have been here since 2020. The Etta James and Beatles since 2018. They were in Jen’s mom’s collection.
Wish me luck as I continue to delve into these unheard corners of my collection. What would you be playing first if you stumbled onto these discs?
RECORD STORE TALES #1070: Guilty of Vinyl Abuse (1987) – Kiss Killers
Not much backstory here to tell! I was a bored kid at the cottage, away from my best friend Bob. We had an ongoing (and absolutely terrible) series of comedy sketch tapes called Mike & Bob. The video you are about to watch contains some audio from Mike & Bob Vol. II, and some explanations as to what you’re hearing.
We did a lot of really bad sketch comedy but some of the listenable ones were parody ads. In this one, I advertise Casablanca Records & Tapes…for those who don’t have money to buy the best. I abused my copy of Kiss Killers in order to do this. My only excuse is boredom.
That summer, my sister’s friends were renting the cottage next door. They figure in at the end of the video, if you choose to go that far….
Dressed To Kill line by Jabberwocky Toys
mikeladano.com 