Month: July 2021

Kiss – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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We are finally to the end of the Kiss Review Series. And like I like to do at the end of each series is Rank the Studio Albums from Worst to First and we aren’t going to do it any differently here. There are 24 Studio albums and since there are so many, I am keeping the summaries brief and no videos as I usually like to post a video with each album, but just way too many to do this time around.

Kiss began in 1973 and are still around today, but the last studio album was in 2012. It started with the original four – Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. Then came Eric Carr who replaced Peter Criss; then Vinnie Vincent who replaced Ace Frehley; then Mark St. John to replace Vinnie and then Bruce Kulick replaced Mark; and it continues with Eric Singer replacing Eric Carr after his death and then Peter & Ace came back in and out after the reunion and then finally Tommy Thayer replaced Ace for good. Lots of changes, but Gene and Paul are always the consistent formula that has kept Kiss “Alive” all these years. For the diehard fan, remember, this is my opinion and your favorites are probably going to be different, but it is okay as we both love Kiss. For the newbie, this is a good guideline on where to focus.

Now, if the band ever decides to do another Studio album, I will gladly come back and update this, but it doesn’t look like that will ever happen. If you want to check out the review of each album in detail, there are links at the bottom to all the reviews in the series and there were only 72 of them!! It took me almost 14 months to get through them all and it is still the most fun I have had on the site.

Thanks for spending all this time with me going through the Kiss catalog and my Kiss collection. I hope you enjoyed it. Enough chit chat as there is a lot to get through so sit back, grab a coffee or a beer and enjoy!!

WORST – ‘PETER CRISS’ (1978):

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My Sunday Song – “Tell the World” by Ratt

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For My Sunday Song #256, we will tell the world about the song “Tell The World” by Ratt off their 1983 debut E.P. simply called “Ratt”. The song was written by Robbin Crosby and Stephen Pearcy and would later wind up on the band’s greatest hits album ‘Ratt & Roll 81-91’ which was probably when I first heard it as I didn’t get in to the band until their debut album. The song was never released as a single but was one of the better songs on the E.P. and therefore worth making the greatest hits cut.

Lyrically, the song seems to be about a girl that was using the singer and he was starting to catch on so she told him to leave. He has realized her games and is moving on. He is growing stronger and ready to take on the world and keep her out of his life. As he gets more famous he knows he will get used, but he is ready so tell the world that he won’t be played for a fool. I don’t really know what it means exactly, but that is what I get out of it. You can get out of it what you want.

“Tell the World” is the opening song on Side Two of the E.P. and is very raw and rough track which is the very reason I like it.  It isn’t over-produced and left for what it is.  The guitars and sound feel like Ratt that you know from “Out of the Cellar”. It has some pounding drums from Bobby Blotzer and the guitar work of Warren DeMartini and Robbin Crosby sound both gritty and hungry. I also like Stephen’s scream during the song which is followed by the guitar solo.  It is a great little rock track and shows the real potential of what was to come with the band.

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You Pick It! – Which Album To Review in August?

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You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple!

There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – The Wallflowers – ‘Exit Wounds’

  Never Heard Before – The Sex Pistols – ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’

  Not My Normal Genre – Wu Tang Clan – ‘Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers)’

  From My Collection – Black Sabbath – ‘Paranoid’

  From My Collection – Twisted Sister – ‘Under the Blade’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in August, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

Friday New Releases – July 16, 2021

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Things are heating up as we are now in the middle of Summer and if you think it is hot outside, just look at the heat on this list of new releases. There are 44 albums set and ready to go so there is something for you I am sure. We have metal, rock, pop, folk, country, world, r&b, alternative, indie and probably genres I’ve never heard of until now. There are 2 I am interested in hearing, but not so much buying just yet. They are marked in Blue as usual. Let me know what you want to hear or what I may have missed as I am sure there is still something out there I don’t know about. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all stay cool and have a wonderful weekend.

  • 61-OCosgt3S._SX522_  John Mayer – Sob Rock – (Columbia Records / Sony): The new Mayer album intrigues me especially with an album cover that celebrates an old Richard Gere movie. I heard that this might be where Mayer turns into Clapton with his sound or maybe even yacht rock, but I will have to wait and hear it.
  • 81bHDtPZ5kL._SX522_   Ida Mae – Click Click Domino – (Vow Road / Thirty Tigers): Ida Mae is a British band that plays American roots music. When I saw them open for Needtobreathe, I was hooked by their sound. The husband and wife duo are great together. I can’t wait to hear the new one and see what new they have to offer.
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Kiss – “Off the Soundboard: Tokyo 2001” (2021) – Album Review ( The Kiss Review Series)

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After over a year of reviewing everything Kiss and pretty much everything in my collection, we are finally to very last Kiss record in the collection…I am sure it won’t be the last as they will release more over the years to come and I will add them to the series. For now, this is it though. Kiss has finally realized they can make money on these Kiss Bootlegs that are out in the wild by finally releasing their own Bootleg Series called “Off the Soundboard”. First up for them is the show from Tokyo 2001 which is a short era of the band that has little to no representation anywhere else. It was with the line up of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, of course, but also features Eric Singer on drums and Ace Frehley on lead guitar. This line-up was only around a very short time right after the first Farewell Tour that was really a farewell to Peter. And it is this line-up that is the major selling point which is why they highlighted it on the front cover.

The album came out last month on June 11, 2021 and it is great to go out on the Review Series with a new release, but do note, I would’ve bought it no matter what. The packaging is really fantastic and yet very simple. Kiss brilliantly gave the set a look like it was really a bootleg. It looks like cheap cardboard box with everything just stamped on to the box. It looks cheap and yet it is that cheapness that is the brilliance. The vinyl are on a white label that looks like the info was also stamped and typed on to it which gives it even more of a bootleg feel. If it is going to be an official bootleg, make it look like one and they did. I hope this is the beginning of a lot of great shows that are out there in the bootleg world and yet we will get a cleaned up mix with some great sound and this one is a perfect start.

The show for this release was on March 13, 2001 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. This was actually part of the Farewell Tour and really close to the end. As I mentioned earlier, by the time this show was done, Peter was gone and Eric Singer was brought in. This set list is impressive. It contains 21 songs and includes all the solos, the great Paul Stanley banter and all mistakes which is exactly what you want from a bootleg. The show is over 2 hours long and does cover 3 LPs. Kiss didn’t skimp on this release in the least.

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Billy Idol – “Hot In The City” – 7″ Single (The Billy Idol Series) – Bonus Edition

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If you remember my discussions last week, while at a record show here in Charlotte, I came across that Billy Idol Picture Disc for “Eyes Without A Face”, but that wasn’t all I found. I also found a couple 7″ Singles from Billy Idol as well. First up was this release of “Hot in the City” with the B-Side “Catch My Fall”. The release was actually done in 1987 to promote the release of the classic Idol album ‘Vital Idol’. This version is the U.S. version of the single and nothing overly special, I like collecting all of Billy’s singles and if you get one with a half way decent picture slip cover, it is worth grabbing…in my opinion.

“Hot in the City” is about Billy’s time in New York and his love for the city.  It is a slower dance track with some lovely ladies assisting with background vocals.  He uses some synthesizers on top of the fantastic bass and drum rhythm section.  It is really a stellar track and his scream of “New York” towards the end is epic. The version on this single is straight off the debut album, ‘Billy Idol’ from 1982. This is not a remix and it is not on the album ‘Vital Idol’ so a little strange. It is the same front cover as the original single back in the day, but the cover has the ‘Vital Idol’ album and not the debut, plus a different B-Side.

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Judas Priest – ‘Turbo’ (1986) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series)

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After the ‘Defenders of Faith’ Tour, the band took it easy for a little while. They didn’t jump right back in to the studio. There was no tour planned in 1985, but did do one live show that year. Of course that was to play at Live Aid on July 13th, 1985. They played in Philadelphia at around 11am in the morning. Rob said that was a good time to play because it meant he could spend the rest of the day just drinking. Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing, Ian Hill and Dave Holland rocked the world that day and then went back to record an album.

By this time they had already started recording their follow-up album. They started recording in June 1985 down in Nassau, Bahamas at the Compass Pointe Studio. It was a beautiful place to record, but it was also a bad time for Rob Halford whose drinking and drugs were getting out of hand. Rob also got hepatitis during the recording of the album and was sick from that for a little while. Then around Christmas 1985, Rob finally checked in to rehab to get clean and he actually succeeded. He made it look easy which of course we know it never really is. Now with Rob clean, they finally finished the album around February 1986 which they finished up at the Record Plant in Los Angeles.

The original concept of the album was to be a double album called ‘Twin Turbos’. The record company did not agree with that concept and ended up taking the more commercial songs and putting together a single album simply called, ‘Turbo’. The band also changed up their sound to match a little more of what the glam rock scene was doing at the time. The band got a little lighter sound, no where near as heavy, and they introduced guitar synthesizers in to the mix. So for some fans, this was sacrilege. The band was abandoning who they were as a heavy metal band to fit mainstream. Right or Wrong, the band still had success with the album as after its release on April 14, 1986, the album quickly went Gold and eventually went Platinum about a year later. The album reached #17 on the US Charts and only #33 on the UK Charts.

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You Picked It! – Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘One Hot Minute’ – Album Review

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Alright…You Picked It! And this one was really, really close. It was back and forth between Red Hot Chili Peppers and Styx for most of the time and then Bruce made a run at it, but the winner pulled away at the end and was Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘One Hot Minute’ which is one in my collection. The votes were as follows:

  1. Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘One Hot Minute’ – 7 votes
  2. Styx – ‘Paradise Theater – 5 votes
  3. Bruce Springsteen – ‘Born to Run – 5 votes
  4. Robert Johnson – ‘King of the Delta Blues Singers – 2 votes
  5. Maroon 5 – ‘Jordi’ – 1 Vote

Thanks to all for participating. The August choices will be up on Saturday!

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – ‘ONE HOT MINUTE’

I only have three Red Hot Chili Peppers albums in my collection. One’s a greatest hits and the other two I didn’t actually buy as were given to me when a neighbor was giving away his collection. And the thing is, I like the Chili Peppers so I am not sure why I don’t have more in the collection. I think it was a little from burnout on them, but regardless, I am a fan and so I was excited that this album was chosen because it is an unusual album in the band’s catalog. Unusual in that is the first album with lead guitarist John Frusciante and the only album to feature his replacement Dave Navarro from Jane’s Addiction (and Ink Master).

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My Sunday Song – “Mother Blues” by Ratt

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For My Sunday Song #255, we talk through the song “Mother Blues” by Ratt of their interesting 1997 album ‘Collage’. “Collage’ was an album of alternate recordings, B-sides and versions of songs from the band’s early period of Mickey Ratt. “Mother Blues” was written solely by Stephen Pearcy and this was originally an early Ratt demo that Stephen would later released with his band Arcade back in 1993 after Ratt disbanded for a short time.

The song is pretty deep actually. It seems to be about a man who never knew his father and for that, he feels he will never know truly who himself until he understands his dad. Why did he do the things he did, the choices he made and he was incomplete until he knew the story. I think there might be some truth to it in that understanding where one comes from helps you see the path on where you are going.

The song is an acoustic, blues song and it is sensational.  It drips with the blues and too bad the band didn’t dive deeper down this road. The sonics and vibe of this song shows a real maturity the band has never really had prior.  I am not truly convinced it would’ve really worked on any Ratt album which is probably why it was never released.  However, it would’ve bee cool exploring that side more. It is one of my favorites on this album.  Stephen’s vocals really fit the blues as he has a voice that sounds like it has been through a lot. Stephen would later release this song once again on his 2007 solo album Rocky Kandy.

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Friday New Releases – July 9, 2021

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We had a slow week last week and this week is a little bit better but neither up to the pace of what we have been seeing and will be seeing in the coming weeks. But there are releases which is always a good thing. I have two I am interested in hearing and maybe even buying. I have highlighted those in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear or what I may have missed that is out today and not on the list. That way everyone can know what all is out today. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful and wild weekend!!

  • 81jltAMY-WL._SX522_  The Wallflowers – Exit Wounds – (New West Records): It has been way too long since the last Wallflower album. The last one from Jakob Dylan and company was way back in 2012 so we are talking 9 years ago…crazy. I am excited to have them back on the scene and this will be the first thing I listen to this morning. Can’t wait to see how they’ve changed since the last one and still hoping for that classic Wallflower sound though!!
  • 81NV-pVM5zS._SX522_  Almost Famous Original Soundtrack (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) – (Geffen Records): In what might be one of my all time favorite movies, I am excited it see this massive deluxe edition out for the soundtrack. The digital is out today and the 2CD set I believe. The big deluxe albums won’t be out for a few more weeks and they will be 5 CDs or 6LPs worth of music. There will be all the songs from the movie including all the Stillwater tracks plus the demos of those Stillwater tracks with the songwriters singing (such as Nancy Wilson). This should be sweet!!
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