Paul Stanley

REVIEW: KISS vs Momoiro Clover Z – “Samurai Son”/”Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina” CD singles

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MOMOIRO CLOVER Z vs KISS – “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina” / “Samurai Son” (2015 King Records Japan CD singles, sold separately)

Here they are, the new singles featuring the Kiss vs Momoiro Clover Z collaboration.  “Samurai Son” appeared on the current Best of Kiss 40 CD, billed there as the “U.S. Mix”.  That meant there are other versions out there, so I ordered the singles (two separate releases) from Japan.  Even if I did not like the other versions of the song, the single covers were cool enough to keep as collectibles.  As it turns out they are printed on high quality textured parchment style paper, and have stunning inner and outer art.  They also come with transparent outer shells with shiny embossed symbols and writing.  For packaging, it’s 5/5 stars for these singles.

Between the two singles, there are four different mixes from the “U.S. Mix” of “Samurai Son”.  All feature Kiss, to a certain degree.  Here’s how the versions break down, from “Least Kiss” to “Most Kiss”:

5. “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina”.  This is the full-on Japanese version with the spotlight primarily on Momoiro Clover Z.  They take the lead vocals and their elements of the song and style and brought up in the mix.  It’s funny to hear Kiss singing background vocals in English, underneath the Japanese lead vocals!  Who know if the words actually go together in any way.

4. “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina” (instrumental version).  Kiss are the backing band on this track and you can clearly hear Tommy soloing, but the Kiss and J-pop elements are mixed fairly equally here.  These first two renditions of the song are on both versions of the single.

3. “Samurai Son” (instrumental version). From the CD with the artwork emphasizing Kiss.  This instrumental is based on the Kiss rather than the Momoclo version of the song.  Tommy is in the spotlight a bit more on this version, as the instrumental mix leaves more room for his guitar licks to take the spotlight.

2. “Samurai Son”.   From the same CD as the above track, this is a Kiss-heavy version similar to the “U.S. Mix” on Best of Kiss 40…but not quite the same.  It follows the same blueprint of Kiss being up front and the Momoclo girls audible in the background and on the chorus.  It has vocal, guitar and J-pop parts that are not as apparent in the “U.S. Mix”.  Gene’s vocals also sound higher in the mix.  It’s audibly mastered way, way louder than Kiss 40, as you can see from the Audacity waveform below.  Track 3 from the CD is on top, the “U.S. Mix” from Kiss 40 is beneath.

1. “Samurai Son” (U.S. Mix). The Kiss 40 version; the mix that is geared to appeal mostly to Kiss fans.  Logically, it sounds the most like Kiss.  It’s only on Kiss 40; neither of these two singles have this mix which makes it a little more special for Kiss fans.

MOMOIRO CLOVER Z VS KISS_0004There are more tracks, but I’ll be frank — I didn’t even rip them to the computer.  These tracks are vocals and instrumental covers by Momoiro Clover Z of “Rock and Roll all Nite”.  I listened to it; it’s cute.  If you want to try and get your little niece into rock music, this might be the way to do it.  It has some guitars but it’s very cutesy.  (Probably still better than Poison’s version though, Mr. Rockett.)

Finally there is the Blu-ray containing the music video, that I cannot play due to region restrictions.  That’s why they invented Youtube, I think….

I give Kiss credit for doing something different like this and making it accessible to different audiences.  My favourite version is the one on Kiss 40, but that one was custom built for people like me.  These two singles are fun additions to the collection.  It’s one of those conversation pieces you can show that one guy you know who says he has “all” the Kiss CDs.

3/5 stars

SAMURAI SON

REVIEW: KISS – 40 (2015 single CD Japan Commemorative edition)

 

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KISS 40 2015_0001KISS – 40 (2015 Universal Japan single CD Commemorative edition)

Wait a minute, I’m confused — did I just buy Kiss 40, again?

Wait a minute, it’s 2015 now — shouldn’t this be Kiss 41, or something??

Wait a minute, what the hell is “Kiss vs. Momoiro Clover Z”???

Eager to buy anything new from Gene and Co., I got this new single CD version of Kiss 40 without really knowing what it was about.

Now that the CD has arrived at the door, I discovered that Momoiro Clover Z is a Japanese all-girl pop group with similar intentions as Kiss themselves.  They dreamed big dreams for themselves and aimed to entertain and bring a spectacle to the people.  They have colour coordinated members and characters, so perhaps a Kiss collaboration seemed like the next step for them.  I don’t know how the collaboration came to be, but the result was a brand new Kiss song written by Paul Stanley and producer Greg Collins.

This edition of Kiss 40 commences with a Kiss-heavy mix of the new collaboration, “Samurai Son”. There are other versions available on two singles and on iTunes, but reviews for those will wait until they arrive at LeBrain HQ.  The good news is that the “U.S.” mix of “Samurai Son” has no problem hanging out on a Kiss greatest hits CD.  Musically, it’s not too much of a departure of the direction from Kiss’ last album, Monster.  It’s just more produced, polished and embellished.  The girls from Momoiro Clover Z come in during the chorus, but it’s not the first time Kiss have had female backing vocals on their albums.  It’s the first time since 1989, but remember old classic tunes like “Tomorrow and Tonight” from Love Gun, and “Sweet Pain” from Destroyer?  Female backing vocals.  The new twists this time are the lines in Japanese, and the very slight J-pop slant.  It’s not too far of a departure.

Collector's card included inside Kiss 40

Collector’s card included inside Kiss 40

It may not be to your taste, but I love “Samurai Son”.  The lyrics address Kiss’ experience of hitting Japan for the first time back in 1976:

“I took a flight into Tokyo,
Into the Land of the Rising Son,
I heard my song on the radio,
Blowin’ my mind like a shot from a gun.”

Paul then proceeds to tear it up all over town, “Livin’ life with no regrets.”  The words suit one of those fast paced Kiss rockers that they’ve been doing of late — think “Hell or Hallelujah”.  There are some cool Thayer licks and you can tell that Gene Simmons showed up for the sessions, because you can hear him singing on the choruses.  The overall impression is that “Samurai Son” is one of those solid Kiss catalogue rockers.  It’s like the new material on side four of Kiss Alive II: pretty good but living in the shadow of the Kiss greats.

KISS 40 2015_0006From this point on, Kiss 40 (the 2015 abridged version) continues with the “best” hits from the full length 2 CD version…but not quite.  There have been some major tweaks to the tracklist, perhaps to maximize the listening pleasure of consumers who just need one CD of Kiss in their lives.  The classic live version of “Rock and Roll all Nite” has been replaced with the studio version from Dressed to Kill.  Same for “Shout it Out Loud” and “Detroit Rock City”, here in their original full Destroyer guises instead of live. I like the way the car crash ending of “Detroit” merges into “Calling Dr. Love”.  “Dr. Love” and “Love Gun” were thrown into the pile here, even though they weren’t on the original Kiss 40 in any form.  A little further down, a different song was plucked from Kiss Killers:  The superior “I’m a Legend Tonight” replaces “Down on Your Knees”.

Moving on from the makeup years to the non-makeup 1980’s, the original version of “Crazy Crazy Nights” replaces that unreleased live version from the double Kiss 40.  That sums up the song substitutions; the album still continues chronologically to the current era.  I’m pleased that even though early songs from the first two Kiss albums were axed, songs from the last two Kiss albums were not.  I think Sonic Boom and Monster are Kiss albums the band should be proud of, so you get “Modern Day Delilah” and “Hell or Hallelujah”, as it should be.  Other albums excluded from this compilation are The Elder, (surprisingly) Creatures of the Night, Hot in the Shade, the live records and the solo albums.

With all these tweaks and alterations, the overall listening experience is enhanced albeit at the cost of some deeper tracks. It’s a give and take, so the overall score for the new Kiss 40 remains:

4/5 stars

#353: Hotter Than Hell

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RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale
#353: Hotter Than Hell

Grade 8 was a shitty year. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of that shitty school.  I had it up to here [holds hand right below chin] with the bullies and teachers.  I had a fight with a bully at the beginning of the year, which at least kept that one off my case for the rest of it.  That was also the year I got mono!  The only thing that really helped get me through was rock and roll, and especially Kiss.  Way back in Part 3 of Record Store Tales, I acquired Hotter Than Hell on LP, in very bad condition.  I almost immediately traded it away for a bunch of other records and swag, but not before dubbing a copy on a terrible Scotch blank tape.  As explained in great detail  in Part 3, I grew to love Hotter Than Hell despite its flaws.  Sonically, it was arguably Kiss’ worst album.  I was listening to a scratched LP via a 120 minute Scotch tape that was prone to stretch and warble.  I had Kiss’ worst sounding album on the worst sounding format!  Yet something about it kept drawing me back.

Sound issues aside, there’s no denying Hotter Than Hell is a powerful record.  Perennial Kiss klassics such as “Got to Choose”, “Hotter Than Hell”, “Parasite”, and “Let Me Go, Rock and Roll” can be found right here.  It also has one of Peter Criss’ best tunes (albeit written by Paul Stanley) called “Mainline”.  I found myself immediately hooked on Peter’s raspy voice.  I surmised that “Mainline” wasn’t a hit, since it neither appeared on Alive! nor Double Platinum.  I couldn’t figure out why.  “If Kiss have songs this good that never became hits,” I reasoned, “the rest of their albums must also be pretty good.”

Right after “Mainline” was another amazing song that I fell for: “Coming Home”.  This Stanley ode to the road was chosen many years later as the opening track for Kiss’ MTV Unplugged.  Back then, to me it was another classic that should have been a hit.  The nucleus of the album became four key songs that I could not get enough of:  “Coming Home”, “Mainline”, “Hotter Than Hell” and “Got to Choose”.  Later on, “All the Way” expanded that list to five.

Those tunes kept me going.  If I was having a rotten day at school, I could hum “Coming Home” to myself and feel better.  For a French assignment, we had to record an introductory paragraph about ourselves, approximately 30-60 seconds long.  We were allowed to do this with music in the background.  I chose the opening riff to “Got to Choose” for mine. First chord — then, “Je m’appelle Michèle…” I talked for the instrumental part, and was finished before the opening line of the song. But I kept the tape running for a moment longer before I did a fade-out: “Baby, you know I heard the neighbors say…” Just so I could work a little bit of Kiss into my French class. I was probably the only one who noticed.

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The bullies picked on me pretty hard in grade 8.  I was assigned “flag duty”, which meant I was the guy who had to put the flag up every morning.  Drawing attention to myself was never a fun thing in grade 8, and I had to do it every morning.  Walking down the hall to the coughs of “Fag Boy” — a clever name derived from “Flag Boy” — was a daily torment.  They also liked to make fun of my boots, which today would have been cooler than hell, since they were vintage, but then just added to misery.  Thursdays were wood shop class, which meant a bus ride to another school downtown.  That bus ride was without a doubt the worst part of each week.  I was prone to getting sick on Thursdays, for some reason….

When I got mono (for real) I missed most of the end of grade 8, but not before being shamed in front of the entire class by my teacher.  “Shame on you!” she said, because I picked the wrong school.  We all had to choose which highschool we wanted to go to.  We were usually expected to choose the Catholic school, but there was no way in hell I was doing that.  You couldn’t have dragged me along with those kids, believe me.  There was just no way.   I chose Grand River Collegiate, which was closer.  Plus my best friend Bob, who was two years older than me, went to that school.  It would be cool to see him every day at lunch time.  We never had any classes together for obvious reasons, but we conspired to get lockers side by side once.  We had a great time in highschool.  Those were the golden years!

Certainly better than grade 8.  I’ve never told all of these stories publicly before.  It is what it is, and all is certainly forgiven now.  The interesting thing is how these experiences collided to really galvanize my love of that Hotter Than Hell album.  Listening to it today still brings back memories of gym class, waiting for it to finally end, humming “Coming Home” to myself.  And that, friends, is why such a terrible sounding record is so important to me!

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DVD REVIEW: KISS – 20th Century Masters: The DVD Collection (2004)

KISS – 20th Century Masters: The DVD Collection (2004 Universal)

These 20th Century Masters DVDs were a fun way to pick up key music videos from major bands at a cheap price.  Today this role is largely filled by sites such as YouTube.  The Kiss edition features five of their biggest from the 1980’s:  One with makeup, four without.  One each from Creatures, Lick It Up, Animalize, Asylum, and Crazy Nights.

“I Love It Loud”, of course, features the band in full makeup and costumes, including Ace Frehley, even though he did not play on Creatures of the Night.  This brilliant video spoofed the popular “rock and roll is brainwashing our kids” fears of the 80’s.  In this video, Kiss use their incredible brain powers to do that very thing.  Gene can even melt objects with his fire breathing, through a fucking television set.

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Let me set the stage for you in the clip for “Lick It Up”:  It is the Future.  Nuclear war has seemlingly reduced America to a wasteland, the population are dressed in rags.  The only human beings left alive are women…and of course the four guys from Kiss (now including Vinnie Vincent on guitar).  Only they can bring salvation (and music) to the surviving ladies.

“Heaven’s On Fire is a pretty standard 80’s video.  The band frolic with babes, Gene wags his tongue, Eric shakes his hair.  This video is however notable as the one and only appearance of guitarist Mark St. John (who replaced Vinnie Vincent) on lead guitar.

The clip for “Tears Are Falling” isn’t the best.  It’s a better song than a video, but there’s a cool part where Bruce plays a guitar solo in the rain.  It’s too bad that Kiss chose the Asylum period for a garish set of sequined covered bathrobes, a popular 1985-86 trend.

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“Crazy Crazy Nights” boasts some pretty big production values and the debut of the “new” late-80’s KISS sign.  I hated the softening of the musical and visual direction of Kiss in this video.  This is the beginning of Paul Stanley merely dancing with his guitar in videos, rather than playing it.  Watch the video.  At no point is Paul doing anything more than wearing or dancing with his guitar!

Eric Carr was the drummer on all tracks, rest his soul.

3/5 stars

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REVIEW: KISS – Love Gun (2014 Deluxe Edition)

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KISS – Love Gun (2014 Universal Deluxe edition, originally 1977 Casablanca)

Mrs. LeBrain picked this CD up for me on Friday November 7 at the local HMV store, an adventure in itself that we will tell in a future Getting More Tale installment.  Love Gun is the first ever Kiss Universal “Deluxe Edition” to be released, hopefully the first of many.  You can understand why it would have been chosen first.  In 2012 they already released the newly remixed Destroyer (Resurrected), and the second most beloved studio album in Kisstory may well be Love Gun.

Like other Universal deluxes, Love Gun is a 2 CD digipack, with liner notes, rare photos, a fresh remastering and bonus tracks.  One of these bonus tracks is previously released.  The demo “Reputation” was only released a few short months ago on the commemorative Kiss 40 compilation.

First, let’s talk about disc one, the remastered Love Gun.  This sounds about as definitive as it gets.  The cymbals sound nice and crisp to me, not fizzling out in the distance.  I am very pleased with the sound.  You can see that it is not overdriven.  You can hear plenty of nuance in the instruments.  I hope this is about as close as you can get to the sound of listening to Love Gun in the studio control room.

GOT LOVE FOR SALE

2014 remaster of “Got Love For Sale”

For a more detailed review of the original Love Gun album, you can check out my original from my 2012 Kiss review series.  I rated it 5/5 stars.  From that review, “The classics here are among Kiss’ all time best. ‘Shock Me’, ‘I Stole Your Love’, and ‘Love Gun’ are still played in Kiss’ set circa 2012…’Tomorrow And Tonight’ and ‘Christine Sixteen’ were on Alive II.”  On the other hand I also said, “there’s a little bit of filler on here. I’m not a big fan of ‘Almost Human’ even though Gene is, and some people dislike ‘Hooligan’ although I love it. I could also take or leave ‘Got Love For Sale’.”  Since writing that, I’ve changed my tune on “Got Love For Sale” which I like a lot more today.

And yes, I did have “And Then She Kissed Me” played at my wedding.  I’m very proud of that fact.

The rarities here include some goodies that I have never heard before.  “Much Too Soon” is a slower Beatles-esque rock ballad.  Although I think it’s a pretty cool Gene Simmons experiment, it was clearly not suited to the heavier material on Love Gun.  If Gene had released it on his 1978 solo album, it would have been one of the stronger tracks.  The aforementioned “Reputation” is another decent tune from the Love Gun sessions.  In my review for Kiss 40, I said, “You can hear that aspects of this song later made it into other Gene Simmons compositions such as ‘Radioactive’.  This is one of those song titles I’d read about for years, but have never heard until now.  Cool.  While the song is definitely a demo, and not quite as good as most finished Kiss songs, it does boast a cool dual guitar solo and rocking piano a-la ‘Christine Sixteen’.”  The third and final unreleased song is called “I Know Who You Are”, which is actually a demo version of “Living In Sin” from Gene’s solo album, with a different chorus.  The verses are the same, and I think I might prefer it to the overly funky “Living In Sin”.

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Other unreleased goodies on the deluxe are 1977 demos of familiar songs.  “Plaster Caster” is pretty tight in terms of how the final version went.  Paul’s “teaching demo” of “Love Gun” is interesting.  He’s naming and recording the chords from the song as he goes, presumably to show the other members how to play it.  It’s in inessential track, interesting only to fans, but cool nonetheless.  This leads directly into an unreleased band demo of the song.  You get to hear the evolution in motion.  This band demo is all but identical to the final version, right down to the shimmering Frehley chord effects.  Then there’s a great instrumental demo for “Tomorrow and Tonight”.   Of the demo tracks, this is probably the greatest treasure.  I love hearing the bare guitars and drums of the four classic Kiss guys just playing together as only they can.  Ace Frehley’s solo is a work in progress but some of the key hooks are already in place.

Three 1977 live unreleased tracks are also quite the treat.  These are from December 20 1977, in Landover Maryland.  This was the second of a two night stand there.  If you ever wished the Alive II album wasn’t as polished sounding as it is, then you will be happy with these three tracks.  Yes, you get “Love Gun” four times, but who freakin’ cares?  It’s “Love Gun”.  You also get “Christine Sixteen” and Ace Frehley’s “Shock Me” complete with guitar solo.  So suck on that.

LOVE GUN DELUXE_0006The final audio bonus is a 7-minute Gene Simmons interview from 1977, from a radio station in Montreal Quebec.  It’s an interesting interview, but I’d be happier if more demos were on the CD rather than an interview.  However, let’s be honest — reasonable Kiss fans know that the Simmons/Van Halen demo of “Christine Sixteen” was not going to be on here.  Like Eddie and Alex want that to happen.

The packaging is great, with commentary from the musicians and writers involves, and artist Ken Kelly.  (These comments are re-printed from other sources.)  Also included is Ken Kelly’s original concept for the cover art, which was rejected for not being as grand and large as Kiss felt they were.   Finally there’s a two page essay by Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, who says he’s seen them play “Love Gun” live over 40 times, so I’d say he’s qualified.  Elliott waxes nostalgic about the days when bands used to release two albums a year.

A final note:  The Love Gun deluxe edition is supposed to come with a fridge magnet, but many have been opened and found to be missing the magnet.  I have already contacted Universal about a replacement.

4.5/5 stars

BOOK REVIEW: C.K. Lendt – KISS and Sell: The Making of a Supergroup

KISS AND SELLC.K. LENDT – Kiss and Sell: The Making of a Supergroup (1997 Billboard Books)

Chris Lendt used to be an accountant for Kiss’ management company (from ’76-’88), and according to him, quite close to the band. He spent a lot of time on the road, with the band, keeping track of the money.  The story he tells is amusing at times, off-topic at others, but also often critical of his former bosses.

Lendt distills Kiss’ legacy to profit/loss diagrams. At the same time, he tells a lot of stories about excess, touring, and groupies, but not a lot about rock and roll. If you are looking for the nitty gritty details about Kiss and the music, this is not the book for you. For that book, check out Black Diamond by Dale Sherman. If you want one person’s account of the inner workings of the Kiss business, then read on.

Lendt describes parties, extravagent budgets, and stage shows. Where things get really interesting in this book is when things start to go sour for Kiss, right around the time of the Dynasty tour in ’79. He desribes Gene’s plan for “Kiss World”, a traveling amusement park that was to play outside of Kiss’ concerts on that tour. Needless to say it never happened, but it’s not something that’s well covered in other books, at least in this level of detail. He talks about recording budgets, about Ace Frehley building a gajillion dollar home studio that was never used (and later turned into a swimming pool), about wigs (Gene’s), about gurus (Paul’s), and about desperately copying every move Bon Jovi made when they hit it big in ’86, before his company was fired by Kiss in ’88.

He also spends a bit too much time talking about Diana Ross, whom his company was also managing. There are too many pages about investments, stuffy boardroom meetings, profit margins, and budgets. While this book is very insightful, covering many details that nobody else was privy to, it’s not enough about rock and roll. I can’t even tell if Lendt really likes rock and roll. Certainly, he liked working for Kiss in the early years, and the touring, but the later years are marked by constant criticism.  (A bit like my own Record Store Tales, I guess.)

Pick up Kiss and Sell cheaply, read it and enjoy it; but please also pick up Dale Sherman’s Black Diamond, and Kiss’ own Behind The Mask. Both books are more about the music, and both books are actually surprisingly critical as well. All three together will be a very well rounded reading of the hottest band in the land.

3/5 stars. More if the author would stick to the topic!

REVIEW: KISS – Alive 35: Live at Credit Union Centre, Saskatoon SK, Nov 10 2009

ALIVE 35_0001KISS – Alive 35: Live at Credit Union Centre, Saskatoon SK, Nov 10 2009 (Concert Online)

I would buy any “instant live” type CD by Kiss — that’s a given. The sheer quantity available means I will never own a complete collection of them. What I chose to do was buy a handful, selectively. I was most interested in Canadian shows, and of course concerts where new songs from Sonic Boom were performed.

Kiss’ concert in Saskatoon on November 10 2009 fit the bill perfectly.* Something about Paul Stanley shouting, “SASKATOON!” The new songs performed that night were “Modern Day Delilah” and “Say Yeah”, both personal favourites. As a bonus to me, there’s also a version of “Shock Me” with Tommy Thayer singing. Some Kiss fans have taken exception to Tommy singing this song in addition to wearing Ace’s costume. I’m not going to get into that. All I will say on the matter is that I would rather hear “Shock Me” live than not.

ALIVE 35_0003The concert opens with four 1974 Kiss classics in a row: “Deuce”, “Strutter”, “Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll” and “Hotter Than Hell”. “Let Me Go” seems to fall apart, giving the show a raucous flavour.  It doesn’t get any more retro than that.  That’s four of my favourite Kiss songs in a row; four songs I never tire of. Paul’s voice is sore, cracking in several places.  The job still gets done with the backing vocals of Eric Singer, Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer. Eric definitely pulls a lot of weight vocally. As much as I wanted to hear new songs, “Say Yeah” suffers a bit vocally.

Highlight: Undoubtedly, a 16 minute version of “100,000 Years”. Eric Singer does his drum thing, and then Paul and Tommy both pick up their guitars and do a call-and-response jam, throwing in a few Zeppelin licks.  You don’t think of Kiss as the kind of band that executes 16 minute extended jams, but it works in a primitive, primordial way.

Paul Stanley’s stage raps are absolutely classic. Paul knows Canada. He knows that all he has to do is say “Montreal” and he gets the crowd going. Just before “Rock all Roll all Nite”, Paul informs the crowd that Shannon Tweed is in the house! The fellow Canadian is greeted warmly by the people of Saskatoon. However my favourite rap is this:

“There’s so much trouble in the world. If you came here tonight to hear some band tell you how to end global warming…if you came here tonight to hear some band tell you how to end world hunger…you are in the wrooong place tonight! I’ll tell you something, we all came here tonight to escape from the world! Tomorrow morning when we get up it’ll be just as screwed up as it is today. We might as well have a little fun! And you know if somebody says to you…’You outta be a little more socially conscious, you outta be doing what you can to help save the world.’ You say to them, ‘Listen to me. Tonight’s my night off and I wanna Rock and Roll all Nite and party every day!'”

Hard to argue with that, Paul!

4/5 stars

 *I still want a CD from a European show where they performed “I’m An Animal”, however.

REVIEW: KISS – 40 (Japanese import with bonus track)

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KISS – 40 (2014 Universal Japan)

Alright people. I got a question for everybody here (and I didn’t forget about you people upstairs neither, woah yeah!).  How many of you people believe in rock and roll?

If you believe in rock and roll, like you say you believe in rock-and-ro-oh-oll, then you know that 2014 is the 40th anniversary of the very first Kiss album.  Gene Simmons believes in rock and roll.  So does Universal music.  They believe in rock and roll’s ability to fill their pockets again and again.   As fans, we have learned to accept this.  You don’t have to buy every re-package and reissue that comes out; we all choose which releases to buy based on our wants and budgets.

Unreleased music is a top priority for me, so seeing Kiss 40 coming out with a number of unreleased tracks, I was excited about this release.  I bought the Japanese edition from the folks over at CD Japan, for the Japanese exclusive bonus track.  I’ll talk about that track in a bit, for now I want to express how happy I am with Kiss 40, as a compilation aimed at fans both new and old.

Sets like this are tricky.  You have to include familiar versions of familiar hits for the people buying their first Kiss CD.  You have to include value to the cantankerous old fan, and present the old songs in novel ways.  What Kiss and Universal chose to do was include one song from every Kiss album, including every live album.  Sprinkled into that are the unreleased songs.

High points:

I love that they used the Paul Stanley version of “God of Thunder”, the fast one.  Marko Fox has been using that as his theme song on his show for a while, and I’ve really grown to love this version.  All four solo albums have a song included.  (I would have preferred a harder song from Paul’s album, but “Hold Me, Touch Me” was the single after all.)  Killers is represented, via “Down on Your Knees”.  Not a bad song.  I’m glad to have the radio edit of “Jungle”, finally.  I never had that before, and “Jungle” probably wouldn’t be on the album if it wasn’t edited down from its full seven minutes.  (Although not stated, “Psycho-Circus” is also edited to remove the “circus” intro.)

Low points:

The goal of including Kiss songs from every album also means that you have to hear “Let’s Put the X in Sex”.  Although this would have been a great place to use a rarer remixed version, it’s just the same one from Smashes, Thrashes & Hits.  Another total miss that is here is the dreadful “Nothing Can Keep Me From You”, from the Detroit Rock City soundtrack.  Whyyyyy.

Nitty gritty details:

The first rarity is a 1977 Gene Simmons demo called “Reputation”.  You can hear that aspects of this song later made it into other Gene Simmons compositions such as “Radioactive”.  This is one of those song titles I’d read about for years, but have never heard until now.  Cool.  While the song is definitely a demo, and not quite as good as most finished Kiss songs, it does boast a cool dual guitar solo and rocking piano a-la “Christine Sixteen”.

KISS 40On the second CD are the rare live tracks.  In addition to live songs sampled from You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!!, Alive IV: Kiss Symphony and The Millenium Concert, there are rare ones here from Instant Live CDs.  Instant Live CDs are live albums you buy at the concert, immediately after the concert — a souvenir of the show you just saw.  Extras are then sold online.  I have a handful myself, but nobody has all of them (at least, nobody I know of!).  “Deuce”, “Cold Gin”, and “Crazy Crazy Nights” are all from these Instant Live albums.  “Crazy Crazy Nights” is the one I was most interested in.  Live performances of that song are scarce in my collection.  It is from the Sonic Boom tour, and it’s pretty solid.  The song is played in a lower key to accommodate Paul, who does pretty good anyway.  Eric and Tommy help him out on the chorus.  Thayer simplifies the original Kulick solo, adapting it to his style and keeping the key hooks intact.  The result is a tasty guitar solo which is a cross of both players.

Finally, those lucky lucky fans in Japan got a brand new live song:  “Hell or Hallelujah” recorded at Budokan.  Although the song itself smokes, Paul’s voice is really sore on this one.  (Both the intro and outro, which could have been neatly edited out, are really harsh.) The song includes the line, “No lies, no fakin’,” and that is totally appropriate, because this sounds 100% live and untouched.  Gotta give ’em credit for not trying to fix Paul’s voice in the mix.

Notable omissions:

“Love Gun”, “Creatures of the Night”, “Hotter than Hell”, “I Stole Your Love”, “Rocket Ride”, “Sure Know Something”, “Hide Your Heart”, “Domino”.

The verdict:

Buy this CD.  The concept of “one track per album” creates some interesting listening results.  The ratio of rarities to hits keeps it fresh all the way through.  And if you’re a Kiss fan absolutely get the Japanese version.  Just go to CD Japan and order it.

4/5 stars

Disc One

  1. ‘Nothin To Lose’
  2. ‘Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll’
  3. ‘C’mon and Love Me’
  4. ‘Rock And Roll All Nite’ (Live)
  5. ‘God Of Thunder’ (Demo)
  6. ‘Beth’
  7. ‘Hard Luck Woman’
  8. ‘Reputation’ (Demo) – Previously Unreleased
  9. ‘Christine Sixteen’
  10. ‘Shout It Out Loud’ (Live)
  11. ‘Strutter ‘78′
  12. ‘You Matter To Me’ (Peter Criss)
  13. ‘Radioactive’ (Gene Simmons)
  14. ‘New York Groove’ (Ace Frehley)
  15. ‘Hold Me, Touch Me’ (Paul Stanley)
  16. ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ (Single Edit)
  17. ‘Shandi’
  18. ‘A World Without Heroes’
  19. ‘I Love It Loud’
  20. ‘Down On Your Knees’
  21. ‘Lick It Up’
  22. ‘Heaven’s On Fire’

 

Disc Two

  1. ‘Tears Are Falling’
  2. ‘Reason To Live’
  3. ‘Let’s Put The X In Sex’
  4. ‘Forever’ (Remix)
  5. ‘God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II’
  6. ‘Unholy’ (Live)
  7. ‘Do You Love Me?’ (MTV Unplugged)
  8. ‘Room Service’ (Live)
  9. ‘Jungle’ (Radio Edit)
  10. ‘Psycho Circus’
  11. ‘Nothing Can Keep Me From You’ (Detroit Rock City soundtrack)
  12. ‘Detroit Rock City’ (Live)
  13. ‘Deuce’ (Live 2004) – Unreleased commercially
  14. ‘Firehouse’ (Live – 1999/2000)
  15. ‘Modern Day Delilah’
  16. ‘Cold Gin’ (Live 2009) – Unreleased commercially
  17. ‘Crazy Crazy Nights’ (Live 2010) – Unreleased commercially
  18. ‘Hell or Hallelujah’
  19. ‘Hell or Hallelujah’ (Live in Japan 2013) – Japanese bonus track

Gallery: LeBrain Birthday Bonanza (including Food Porn)

First up to bat, my good buddy Aaron, (who as you all know loooooooves Mastodon) decided to rectify the situation that I didn’t yet have their latest album Once More ‘Round the Sun. Which I can tell you, is awesome. Mastodon have a lot of what I liked best in metal, and this album lives up to the hype. I’m really into track 6, “Asleep in the Deep”, which has a very cool chiming Voivod-esque riff.

Proceedings got off to an unofficial start yesterday at noon. We do a monthly lunch out at work regularly, and this one fell on the Friday before my birthday. My co-workers bought me lunch at Beertown, which was very very good. Above, some beer & cheddar soup, as well as some lovely truffled sweet potato fries.  I also had some battered calimari.

Jen and her mom always gets me the best T-shirts.  Above, two Big Bang Theory T’s, the infamous Walter White, and a spiffy Led Zeppelin swearshirt that will definitely be worn to next year’s Sausagefest.

They also bought me Transformers.  FansToys are making some absolutely astounding G1 Masterpiece-class Dinobots right now.  Scoria aka Slag is a beautiful, heavy figure.  He looks great next to MP Grimlock and MP Prime.  If you like Grimlock, you will love this figure.  Thank you to Jen’s mom for this amazing figure.  I will definitely be getting Swoop.  Jen also got me the new Generations Skrapnel/Shrapnel and Reflector, which I also like a lot, for a Scout-class figure.

We went to Mother’s Pizza for dinner tonight.  Thanks Dad!  I had the small “Grandmother’s”.  It tasted a lot like I remember it tasting almost 30 years ago.  It had lots of olives and mushrooms, which I topped with double cheese.

Neil DeGrasse-Tyson’s Cosmos on Blu-ray is an absolute treat.  Thanks Jen.  I hope you don’t mind watching the whole series, over again with me!  She also picked up Paul Stanley‘s Face the Music, which I hear is a great read!  And who doesn’t like jellybeans?

 

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes.  It was a great, laid back day!

REVIEW: KISS – Destroyer (Resurrected) replacement CD

My original Kiss – Destroyer (Resurrected) review can be found here.

SAM_0347KISS – Destroyer (Resurrected) (2012 Universal, replacement CD)

Good day, loyal LeBrain readers.

Back in 2012, Scott your Heavy Metal OverloRd informed me of a flaw in Kiss’ Destroyer (Resurrected) CD.  As he noted then, on the song “Flaming Youth”, there seemed to be a skip or some music missing: “It’s only about 4 seconds in just before Paul sings ‘Whoa Yeah’. It’s like there’s a half beat missing or something.”

When I noticed what he was talking about, it did effect my enjoyment of the CD. Once you hear it, you cannot un-hear it. I haven’t played Resurrected much in the last year and a half. Even iTunes downloads were affected by the flaw.

Then, recently, Scott informed me that Universal were replacing defective CDs for those who bought them. I didn’t realize this, in fact I read nothing about it on the numerous rock sites I read daily. Scott found a contact email for a gentleman at Universal who was in charge of the replacement CDs. I contacted him, and he responded to me within 24 hours with instructions to provide a proof of purchase, which I also did. He then told me he would send out the replacement CD as soon as possible. No fuss, no muss!

I received my replacement copy today. I was surprised to see that Universal sent me not just a CD (as sometimes is the case) but a sealed CD in jewel case. This replacement copy was obviously different as soon as I popped into my computer: the track time of “Flaming Youth” is 3:00 instead of 2:59…and the skip is gone!

I’m enjoying revisiting Destroyer (Resurrected). It is less glaringly different sounding now than it was a year and a half ago. I think I’m actually enjoying it more, for what it is. I’m also enjoying the booklet and liner notes (by Bob Ezrin) once again.  Now that I finally have a copy without that annoying flaw, I think this will become the version of Destroyer that I listen to most.  The reason is, after enjoying the original Destroyer for decades, this sounds fresh and surprising to my aged ears.  When you listen to music that you know and love, you expect every note and every sound exactly as they always have been.  When an album gets a subtle facelift like this, the songs continually surprise me.  Every time I notice a difference, it forces me to pay attention.  When it’s a bad remix, that’s annoying.  When it’s a good remix, it’s enjoyable.

One final note:  Universal sent me an American pressing, and it is very different looking than my old Canadian version!  I don’t know if the design of the CD art was changed specifically for the “fixed” pressing, or if all American pressings have always looked like this.  Where previously I had a silver CD with a Casablanca logo and designed to look like an old LP, this version has a black CD — both sides!  The Casablanca logo is still there, but the design is otherwise different.   Instead of silver artwork with faux-LP grooves, it’s a plain black disc.  It’s uber-cool looking and I like it a lot.

Revised score:  3.5/5 stars

And thanks to Aaron at Universal