I’ve said it time and time again here on the blog as much as the website about my diehard appreciation for that which is KISS and since the teaser poster for their upcoming documentary film was just released and shared across the Interwebs via the mighty Facebook I had to make sure to toss my coins into the fountain, or is that the best use of my two cents? Anyway, here is the poster. Looks sweet yes?
Continue reading “You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best” KISS Documentary Poster Revealed
Today marks the 40th Anniversary of the first gig of the legendary KISS; Yep, on this day back in January of 1973, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley performed together under this name for a mere handful of people at a place known as the Popcorn Club. This venue would later be renamed to The Coventry which is very familiar to those who know their KISStory. The band wore garish makeup and each of them was a character of their own design with The Demon, The Starchild, The Cat and the Space Ace and it was a shock to the Rock and Roll system of the time when they all appeared together in this manner.
Continue reading Happy 40th Anniversary to KISS!!!! (1/30/1973-1/30/2013)
Artist: KISS
Title: “Discoveries”
Label: Island/Mercury Records
Release Date: 7/8/2008
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 3/5
In 2011 I reviewed a KISS “Best Of” compilation called “45: The Complete Collection” and while it was a nice grouping of tunes it was by no means “complete”. It was available as a digital only release which was great for the new generation of music fans who are glued to their iPods or Droid devices and keep connected to their music that way. With that being the case I never expected to find this collection broken up into three separate products now entitled “Favorites”, “Classics” and “Discoveries”. I took my original text about the complete release and expanded upon it lightly for the sake of this review.
This third and final grouping of tracks from the original larger release is actually very interesting to see placed all together based on the fact that so many of the tunes have videos for them. Unless I am mistaken, fourteen of the fifteen inclusions all had videos. That is pretty awesome to find being the case. Tune wise we get two selections from the now unmasked men with “Lick It Up” and three from “Asylum”. There’s two from “Crazy Nights” which is now an album that brings a smile even if it didn’t at the initial time of release and the “hit” from the “Smashes, Thrashes, Hits” compilation that the boys released in the late 80’s. We touch both “Revenge” and “Psycho Circus” with two tracks apiece and I think that the second track from each could have been swapped for something else in my humble opinion. Another interesting aspect of this is the fact that the band had been unmasked during almost all of the tunes until when they give us “Psycho Circus”. By the time that song was historically done, the original members had reunited and once again donned their famous face paint. Of course since then a lot more has changed. Such is life in Rock and Roll.
Continue reading “Discoveries” by KISS
Artist: KISS
Title: “45 Complete Collection”
Label: Mercury Records/Universal Music
Release Date: 6/10/2008
Genre: Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
Rating: 4.25.5
If you are trying to convince someone about your appreciation of the band KISS and they are not a fan of the physical CD medium and instead are one of those online only purveyors, then “45 – The Complete Collection” is an amazing thing to help you in this mission. The “45 Collection” should be clarified before going any further as not an actual complete collection of the bands work but instead forty five solid tracks that span the bands career from its beginning in 1973 to around 1998 when the original members had reunited and released “Psycho Circus”. In looking at the presented tracks I think this is a damn fine place to start. I’ll briefly speak about each “segment” of tunes and please pardon my breaking it up into the term CD, since these are MP3 downloads only but would be on contiguous discs had this been released in the physical. The first group of tunes are the earliest winners and while I have not a single issue with a track felt that fine tunes like “Let Me Know” or “Coming Home” would have been nice inclusions or surprises to someone discovering the band. Especially when it comes to the first segmentation of tunes. The first segment actually has six full tunes from the band’s debut which makes me wonder if it was just a better idea to purchase the full album. Let’s talk about the other sections for a moment and see what they are about in terms of the hits.
Continue reading “45 The Complete Collection” by KISS
Artist: KISS
Title: “Icon” (2CD Edition)
Label: Universal Music
Release Date: 8/31/2010
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 3/5
Before I begin this review I would like to get a couple of things off my chest which I present to you readers in my open letter to those fine folks at Universal Music.
“Dear Universal Marketing Powers That Be; On behalf of all KISS fans that have the “Simmons Implant” in their brains in terms of it creating a MUST BUY impulse to purchase anything with the bands branding on it, I am asking you to please, please, please stop issuing “Greatest Hits” packages”. Thanks very much, an ardent fan. PS: Feel free to re-release the remastered catalog provided you add bonus tracks to each of them”
Continue reading “Icon” (2CD) by KISS
