kiss

#1103: Tough Decisions! (First song of 2024)

Date:  Jan 1, 2024.

Time:  7:46 AM

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.

Time:  8:07 AM.

Time elapsed deciding:  21 minutes

The coin toss is:  Tails

Kiss it is.  Welcome to 2024.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS: Kiss introduces the Kiss Avatars – A New Era Begins?

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.

Mike opens up his new KISS shirt from Aaron! [Video]

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

#1076: Weekend Listening At Home

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?

 

REVIEW: KISS Starchild “BlownUps!” review with laser light show (Paul Stanley Weeble Wobble)

From the  Dressed To Kill line by Jabberwocky Toys

5/5 star(child)s

#1070: Guilty of Vinyl Abuse (1987) – Kiss Killers (VIDEO)

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.

The cottage could be very boring when you’re a teenager.  I was either 14 or 15.  Typically I packed all my records, all my tapes, my ghetto blaster, my turntable, my microphones, and every piece of equipment I had to bring to the lake when we went for a lengthy time.  I missed my friend Bob.  Normally, we always recorded together.  This is a rare example of some of the only stuff I recorded without him.

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….

Enjoy this blast from the past, brought to you by TDK D90 cassettes, and my new Kenwood tape deck from Max the Axe!

One record was harmed in the making of this video.

REVIEW: Keel – The Right to Rock (Remaster/bonus track)

KEEL – The Right to Rock (1985, 2000 Metal Mayhem Music/bonus track)

From the Gene Simmons Song Factory, heeeeere’s Keel!

Let’s talk about the bonus track first.  Anybody could tell you that “Easier Said Than Done” was a Simmons song, just from one listen.  Surely enough, scan the liner notes, and it’s Gene and Mitch Weissman, whom fans know from 1984’s Animalize album.  Like many Gene Simmons productions, The Right to Rock bears his name on a few writing credits.  “Easier Said Than Done” is right down mid-80s Kiss alley.  What about the remix?  Structurally, it is unchanged.  The drums sound different, and on a whole the track sounds a little brighter.

That’s it for extras.  The booket is only a single fold-out, with no lyrics.  It has a note from Ron Keel, indicating that this is the first CD issue of the album outside Japan.

(The rest of this review was previously published in 2015)

 

The rest of the non-Simmons songs are basically reworkings of tracks from Keel’s first album Lay Down the Law. That album, like Ron Keel’s debut with Steeler (featuring one Yngwie J. Malmsteen) were on Shrapnel. For the A&M Records debut, they pulled out the big guns. They got Gene Simmons in all his wig-ness, and put out a very corny but tremendously fun music video.

It is “America 1989”, and rock and roll is outlawed. “Those who are apprehended suffer severe consequences.” Can our young teenage Keel lookalike get away from the rock police? Quiet Riot did something similar with their “The Wild and the Young” video a year later. It’s corny fun.

The song too is corny fun. I guess it’s a classic now. It has that stock heavy metal riff that you need: something Motley Crue or the Scorpions would be comfortable with. It has that rebellious rock theme that was so prominent in the 80’s. It has a shout-along chorus. “You got it! The Right to Rock!” Hey, I grew up in a Catholic school. I know what this is about. “Don’t let anyone tell you how to live your life!” I had a teacher call me out on the first day of school for wearing a Judas Priest T-shirt. I could relate to this song in a big way when I was 13.

It should be noted that Gene Simmons, as a producer, is not known for his sonics. The Right to Rock sounds pretty good for the period, but the drums ring shallow and weak. There’s not much presence for the bass guitar, and the backing vocals are the typical rock mush. That’s what you get with Gene behind the console.

“Back to the City” has a good Priest-like chug to it. I think Keel were going for something middle of the road with their music, like Priest-meets-Scorps-meets-Crue-meets-Kiss. If so, this hit the mark. Ron’s vocals are overwrought but that’s his style. If you don’t like that kind of vocal, you won’t like Keel.

Kinda stinky is “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. You know, I still gotta give the guys credit. They have made this into a pretty fine pop metal song. If you didn’t know the song, you’d assume it’s an original, in the pop metal genre. So from that perspective, I think it’s kinda cool. Stinky and cool — like good gorgonzola.

“Easier Said Than Done” was written by Simmons/Weissman, the same team responsible for much of the Animalize album. The lyrics even reference “Russian Roulette”, a song title Gene had been toying with for years. (A song called “Russian Roulette” was finally released on Sonic Boom.) So, guess who “Easier Said Than Done” sounds like? That’s right — it is a dead ringer for Simmons-style Kiss. And it’s actually a pretty good song. The problem is Ron’s Gene impression. I can’t help but chuckle at his dead-on Gene vocals. I dare you to refrain from a giggle yourself. Same deal with “So Many Girls, So Little Time”. Kiss fans will recognize that’s a line recycled from the Kiss song “Burn Bitch Burn”.

Onto side two, “Electric Love” is a Keel original, but you immediately notice that the song isn’t as immediate as the two previous Simmons tunes. “Speed Demon”, another original, sounds exactly as the title implies. Quality-wise, it’s only at “Priest outtake” level (Defenders of the Faith era). Then it’s back to Simmons outtakes, with “Get Down”, the weakest of the Simmons songs by a long shot. “You’re the Victim (I’m the Crime)” is a Gene-like title, but this too is a Keel tune. It’s in the same vein as “Speed Demon”, and the same level of quality.

It’s fun to revisit The Right To Rock periodically…but sparingly.

3/5 stars

REVIEW: KISS – Off The Soundboard – Poughkeepsie NY 11.26.1984

 – Off the Soundboard – Poughkeepsie NY 11.26.1984 (2023 Universal)

Are you getting sick of reading all the same complaints about the new Kiss Off the Soundboard CD from Poughkeepsie NY 1984, the fifth in this series?

Me too!

If you can’t appreciate the historical value of a Mark St. John show with Kiss, then I can’t help you.

If you didn’t know Kiss played these songs at lightspeed in the 1980s, then you never saw Animalize Live Uncensored.

And if you don’t know what an official bootleg is, then this CD is not for you anyway.

Actually, the only thing I’m really sick of is typing “Poughkeepsie”!

There are Kiss bootlegs with Mark floating around out there.  I can’t vouch for the audio quality on those.  This, I can tell you, is soundboard quality, which in my opinion is the best way to hear a live album.  Unpolished, the way it was that night on the board.  I love hearing the band make mistakes.  I have no problem with the fact you can barely hear the bass on some tracks, and too much on others.  The vocals are clear and each member is distinct in their singing.  Whether you think Paul is too “erratic” or not, that’s personal taste.

The setlist is similar to Animalize Live.  You won’t hear any Animalize deep cuts that were not on that video.  Two songs are incomplete (“Young and Wasted” and “Rock and Roll all Nite”) due to tape issues but are included for their historical significance.  No issues here.  In fact, “Rock and Roll all Nite” might be better this way…it often drags on too long at the end of a show!

The jazz-influenced Mark definitely added his own style and twists to the solos, even simple ones like “Detroit Rock City”.  There, he inserted an extra note or two to make it his.  Mark was a shredder, and that was the direction Kiss wanted to go in at that time.  It was the 80s.  Bands had to have shredders if they wanted the kids to take them seriously.  Mark wasn’t even Kiss’ first shredder, but he was certainly unique.  There’s a lot of whammy bar, and some pretty wicked licks on songs like “Fits Like a Glove”.  Now, before you get too excited, the “Guitar Solo” listed on the back cover is Paul Stanley’s familiar solo that he was playing during that era.

Mark aside, Eric Carr is a star on this album.  He was a busier drummer than Peter Criss and he goes to town on songs like “Cold Gin” and “Under the Gun”.  Fox fans will not want to miss this CD in their collection.  Peak Eric.  His drum solo will be familiar, yet will also most likely sound better than any version you currently own.  Unfortunately he stops singing on part of “Young and Wasted”, which is one of the partial songs anyway, so no big deal.  We have him singing that on Animalize Live.

Paul Stanley’s performance is pure rock and roll, and especially expressive on “I Still Love You”, but many have complained about the F-bombs dropped during his intro to “Love Gun”.  Hey…check out the Animalize Live version for something naughtier than an F-bomb!

If you’re Kiss collector, this is ending up in your library regardless.  Choose your format and go wild like the animals.

3.5/5 stars for the quality

3.5/5 stars as a “Kiss show”

5/5 stars for historical value and significance to the Kiss army