From Earwigs to Spiders… t’s a line from WEST SIDE STORY, when one of the characters turns to another called Action, and warns him to cool it – “Easy, Action!” Those lines, and others from WEST SIDE STORY appear in Still No Air, the third song on the Alice Cooper album, Easy Action. Released nine months after their debut (Pretties … Read More
Art Before Cock. t wasn’t exactly crap. Yet Alice Cooper’s debut album, Pretties For You, was not exactly the theatrical cock-rock the group would become renowned for. Having ingested over a decade of Alice Cooper’s mainstream output (starting with Love It To Death – what I thought was their debut album), suddenly being exposed to the band’s rare, little-known first … Read More
Killer on the loose! lice Cooper’s fourth album Killer expands on the ambitious rock-opera direction the band started on Love It to Death. There are still vestiges of the avant-garde they flaunted on their first two bizarre albums, but producer Bob Ezrin’s mighty hand guided them like wayward sheep through the horror forest. On the cover, a constrictor – a … Read More
One golden glance of what should be… Get me to sing anything, write me anything and I will sing it and I will leave you as much as I possibly can. — Freddie Mercury to Queen. or Don McLean, “the day the music died” was when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper were killed in a 1959 plane … Read More
A melody black / Flowed out of my breath… rapped in a dark room. From out of the blackness swirls a delicate piano and an unsure voice, quaking, lamenting, “I couldn’t tell if the bells are getting louder / The songs they ring I finally recognize…” Something ominous this way comes… “I only know / Hell is getting hotter / … Read More
Rock and Roll Over Beethoven. ISS versus The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in a battle to the Bach. KISS Symphony: Alive IV is sold in a One-Disc or Two-Disc format, the single disc version omitting a few songs (tabulated in the sidebar). It’s a magnificent concert, hearing classic KISS juxtaposed with classical instruments! The audio is excellent, the vocals are tight, … Read More
It won’t kill you, but it might hurt you like a girl slap. irstly, Jesus! The assface record company could not come up with a more clichéd name? Killers is the 18th overall release for KISS, and their 2nd Greatest Hits compilation. And also the name of Iron Maiden’s 2nd album (1981). And Killer was the name of Alice Cooper’s … Read More
Vengeance is theirs. Alive! for GeneratioNext. nice clean desk tape with crowd noise overdubbed. D’oh! Truth or fiction? You decide. The 26th overall KISS album, Alive III is the 3rd Live album from the New York foursome whom many fans and critics had dismissed as irrelevant after their uneven studio effort Hot In The Shade (1989). But after the … Read More
Dinosaurs… with sharp teeth! he problem is: I’m old. And so are you. And so is KISS. Pondering the 20th studio album of a band 38 years old is a daunting task when we’ve come so far together, across mountains of metal and deserts of disco; through the shadow of The Elder, borne on a cross of Crazy Nights; weighing … Read More
Quadruple Fantasy, Together As One. y definition, The Best Of The Solo Albums should be a super collection. It is. Many fans feel it should have been the 1978 KISS album after Love Gun, rather than the extended, drawn out cavalcade of four Solo albums. This collection was not released in the United States, but in Europe and the Antipodes … Read More
KISS Kollider-scope. On September 18, 1978, the four members of KISS each released a Solo Album. No band in history had ever done this before. Released by Casablanca Records under the KISS banner, the albums had a unified look, with the KISS logo emblazoned in the top left corner, each album dedicated to the other three members of the band, … Read More
Manilow Monday. On September 18, 1978, the four members of KISS each released a Solo Album. No band in history had ever done this before. Released by Casablanca Records under the KISS banner, the albums had a unified look, with the KISS logo emblazoned in the top left corner, each album dedicated to the other three members of the band, … Read More
Jazz Cramp. On September 18, 1978, the four members of KISS each released a Solo Album. No band in history had ever done this before. Released by Casablanca Records under the KISS banner, the albums had a unified look, with the KISS logo emblazoned in the top left corner, each album dedicated to the other three members of the band, … Read More
Shock Me. And everyone else! On September 18, 1978, the four members of KISS each released a Solo Album. No band in history had ever done this before. Released by Casablanca Records under the KISS banner, the albums had a unified look, with the KISS logo emblazoned in the top left corner, each album dedicated to the other three members … Read More
The self-fulfilling prophecy of Casablanca’s favorite sons. erfectly rounding out Classic Era KISS, their 9th overall album Double Platinum showcases all the “hits” that made kids paint their faces, pick up guitars and worship the devil. Or the gods that were KISS. Notwithstanding their two live albums, which were basically Greatest Hits overdubbed with crowd noise, Double Platinum is technically … Read More
Riding the rocket larger than life… hey were once “the hottest band in the land.” Now – with the release of Alive II – KISS is “the hottest band in the WORLD”! Between the last Alive! (Sep 1975) and this one, the rollercoaster had only gone up. And up and up. In Feb 1977, KISS had at last graduated to … Read More
Rock And Roll Over-coaster. he ramrod powerful 5th studio album from KISS, Rock And Roll Over, puts them over the top. Critically acclaimed, platinum status and #11 on U.S. Billboard charts. Without the Western World realizing it, this band from New York (Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss) with the painted faces and the firebomb concerts had become, … Read More
Capturing Lightning in a Love Gun. ove Gun is the 6th KISS studio album – to date selling over 4 million copies – and the last of the legendary “first six albums”. These are the renowned KISS albums that, if used correctly by Mankind, could wipe out world hunger. These are the six albums that, if wielded by sane and … Read More
Sounding better, looking worse (the Who-Dressed-Gene? album)… he 13th studio album from KISS, Asylum, is guitarist Bruce Kulick’s first tagalong! Wait– another guitarist?! The Guitarist Revolving Door comes to an eventual stop when Bruce takes over from Mark who took over from Vinnie who took over from Ace. Asylum continues the “hair metal” ethos started with Animalize: heavy enjoyable rock, … Read More