Tag: Ace Frehley

Kiss – ‘Unplugged’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with somethings.

As it says in the liner notes, Kiss has done numerous acoustic performances over the years on radio and TV (excluding MTV unplugged). This compilation takes those performances and puts them in one disc. It covers the time periods of 1990-1994 which makes most of it having Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick. But we do get Eric Carr and Ace Frehley tracks as well. The sound quality if actually pretty good and we get 12 fun and exciting tracks and wildly good time as it shows the humor of the guys as well as these are very loose and crazy performances.

The first track is from The Howard Stern show on February 25, 1993 and you can hear Howard and Robin joking it up with Paul and Gene. They play “Detroit Rock City” and Gene is a cut-up throughout the whole thing. I love it when he points out where all the explosions would be when they play it live. Paul sounds relaxed and vocally is on point. I love seeing the lighter side of the band.

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Kiss – ‘Wicked Lester’ – Album Review (The Kiss Bootleg Series)

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I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with somethings.

Now, to the review…We all know Kiss was started by Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley.  But did you know about the band prior to Kiss?  It all started with Gene (Chaim Witz) and Paul (Stanley Eisen) in a band called Rainbow with Gene’s friend Stephen Coronel.  Paul was the third member and then they brought in a drummer named Joe Davidson. This band didn’t last long at all and hell, the drummer even a shorter time as he was quickly replaced with Tony Zarella.  They only played one show before they had to drop the name Rainbow because that name was already being used by some other band (and no, not the Richie Blackmore band).

And that is how Wicked Lester was born.  After only a couple shows as Wicked Lester, they were approached by a label and were given the chance to record some demos. After listening to those demos, the label decided that Stephen was not good enough and had to be fired. And since Gene and Paul the upstanding citizens they are, they fired Stephen.  I guess you do whatever it takes to make it in this business.  Ron Leejack was then brought in for guitar duties and it was time to record the album.

Now the album would take about a year to complete and upon receiving the album and hearing it, the label were not quite thrilled with it…okay, they hated it.  Hated it so much, they shelved it and it was never released.  Well, never in a full, pure album form.  It has been leaked out as a bootleg and that is what we have here. This particular release has a total of 9 demos of Wicked Lester and it also has the 5 demos done by Eddie Kramer before Kiss did their first album. Lastly, it claims to have 5 songs from Live at the Academy of Music in New York from 12/31/73, but this is not true from what I researched. It is actually 5 songs from the Long Beach recording on 5/31/74.

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The Collection: Ep. 55 – April 2025 Wrap-Up

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As we end another month, it is time to go back and see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection. This is April 2025 and we have lots of vinyl, CDs and even some 8-Tracks. So much to go through including a new Rock Candy collection, new items for the Kiss collection and a couple Box Set collections. Lots of great new albums and old ones to go through and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!

So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, May 5, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

And here it all is if you can’t watch…but please watch!!

The Collection: Ep. 54 – Kiss Bootlegs from John Humphrey’s Collection

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A couple weeks ago, John Humphrey, from the band Seether, sold off his entire Kiss Collection. Well, all but his vinyl. There were some really cool stuff in their and I wanted a piece of it. I lost out on some 8-Tracks, but I did win two lots of Bootleg CDs and they have arrived. We will go through all 38 Bootleg CDs and there is some really cool stuff in there.

So go check it out as it will be live tonight at 7pm, April 28, 2025 on YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Ace Frehley – ‘Now Playing’ (2025) – Album Review

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Ace Frehley has a number of greatest hits album. Do we really need another one? The short answer is No! The long answer is we do need a solid greatest hits album that is a career retrospective of his entire catalog. I would like that very much. In 2025, we get new Ace Frehley comp from Rhino Records and Atlantic and I can tell you with 100% certainty…this is not a career retrospective and is total waste of time and money. “Now Playing” is a generic compilation that is a series and many artist have had one of these comps such as Ratt and Twisted Sister. It is a cheap, low budget comp and it only covers his first 3 solo albums outside of Kiss. Two with Frehley’s Comet and then his solo album ‘Trouble Walkin”. And that is it.

It is only a vinyl issue and was released on March 7, 2025. It is on a very pretty cobalt blue vinyl and that is the only thing it has going for it. Really, that is it. There are no special mixes, live mixes or unreleased tracks. It is simply 4 songs from “Frehley’s Comet”, 3 from “Second Sighting” and 3 from “Trouble Walkin'”. Woohoo…so exciting…NOT!!! The picture on the cover is one we’ve seen a million times, there is no insert, there is nothing special about it at ALL!! Thank goodness it only cost $19. So, why did I buy it? I have every Ace release available on vinyl so I need it to complete the collection ( I do not have every variant as my house isn’t big enough to hold all of them…I believe there were at least 30 from his last album alone). Enough negativity…let’s talk music. What is on it?

SIDE ONE:

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The Collection: Ep. 50 – March 2025 Wrap-Up

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As we end another month, it is time to go back and see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection. This is March 2025 and we have lots of vinyl, CDs and even some 8-Tracks. So much to go through including a new Rock Candy collection, new items for the Kiss collection and a couple Box Set collections. Lots of great albums to go though and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!

So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, March 31, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

The Collection: Ep. 45 – Kiss CD Compilations (feat. Mike Ladano from Grab A Stack of Rock)

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Starting Right Now!!! Come join myself and Grab A Stack of Rock’s Mike Ladano as we go through our CD Collection of Kiss Compilations and let me tell you, there are a lot to get through. We have comps from Japan, Canada, the UK, Spain and so many more. From Double Platinum to Kissworld: The Best of Kiss and everything in between.

So come check out the show as it will be live, February 17, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

The Collection: Ep. 45 – Kiss CD Compilations (feat. Mike Ladano from Grab A Stack of Rock)

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Monday Night at 8 pm, come join myself and Grab A Stack of Rock’s Mike Ladano as we go through our CD Collection of Kiss Compilations and let me tell you, there are a lot to get through. We have comps from Japan, Canada, the UK, Spain and so many more. From Double Platinum to Kissworld: The Best of Kiss and everything in between.

So come check out the show as it will be live, February 17, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Kiss – The Best of Kiss: Green Series (2008) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Universal Music did not care about over saturation of an artist as they released a ton of Kiss Compilations and Canada received the brunt of them. This one was released in April 2008, I believe. It was part of the Green Series that Universal was releasing which had a number of bands. The Green Series means the packaging was all done with recycled paper and even used a plant based ink. Good on them for trying to save the earth, but with the shipping of the product and I am sure was wrapped in some sort of plastic, it was really all for naught. Plus, the cardboard digipak would tend to show wear and tear after awhile. However, the copy I received was in pretty darn good shape.

The album contains 15 tracks and really only covers the 70’s with the minor exception of “Lick It Up” from 1983. The rest is only from the original band members of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. With “Lick It Up”, you add Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent. Wait, this isn’t all entirely true as the song “Cold Gin” is live and is copyrighted from 2001. More on that later. There is a write-up in the booklet by Don Winkley giving a brief history of the band only going up to the reunion (and this was 2008 when released so I would say they missed some years). If you like the 70’s material, then at 15 tracks, not a bad comp…but not a great one either. A pure cash grab from the label. Let’s get to the music…

“Shout It Out Loud” was the first single off ‘Destroyer’ trying to capitalize off the success of the live version of “Rock and Roll All Nite” that was released previously.  The title of the song comes from the Hollies song “We Want to Shout It Out Loud” which Wicked Lester demoed years earlier. The song is sung by both Paul and Gene  and that chorus of “Shout it, Shout it, Shout It Out Loud” is pure rock gold.

Ace is finally on lead vocals with “Shock Me” and might be my favorite Ace song.  The song is based off an incident that is well documented where Ace touched an ungrounded metal railing and had the life shocked out of him.  No, he didn’t die, but he was thrown back a little.  He continued the show with no feeling in his hand and I believe the show was December 12, 1976, at the Lakeland Civic Center in Lakeland, Florida.  Ace having little confidence wanted Gene to sing and Gene, thankfully, talked Ace in to singing.  Ace finally agreed and actually recorded the song lying down on the floor.  I hope that method has changed. The song is utterly brilliant and the guitar work is some of Ace’s best. In fact, he does all the guitar work on this one, both lead and rhythm.  This defines Ace Frehley in my book!!

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Kiss – ‘Legends of Rock’ (2009) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Universal Music was at it again in 2009 with yet another compilation. This one was called ‘Legends of Rock’ and was exclusive to Canada like so many others. They were pumping these out and trying to grab as much cash as they could since Kiss was no longer on their label. I do like the old photograph from the ‘Dressed to Kill’ era that was the cover. It was a decent set with 15 tracks, but nothing really special or unexpected. Same old, same old, you’d say. It is a bare bones set, but at least they had some write-up in the liner notes. It says it is a 4 page booklet, but don’t let that fool you into thinking there is anything cool in there because there is not. The only thing of interest is the songs and even those are not that interesting since most of the tracks are on every other compilation out there. What songs are on it? Let’s go through it and see.

First up is “Heaven’s On Fire” which is Paul Stanly and Desmond Child song and the first single off ‘Animalize’. Paul shows off with a little “Oooh Oooh Oooh” that I’m not sure he could not hit today as it is so high, but it is a perfect way to kick off the song  The song is another rocker and a very typical 80’s sounding song. It was all over MTV and helped propel the album to Platinum status. On radio, it didn’t fare as well not breaking the Top 40 and hanging around #49. The song is one of the few 80’s song to actually get occasionally played live after they went back to make-up which is cool. Now sadly, this was the only video that contains Mark as he was gone before anything else was done, but at least we have this to remember him by.

“Lick It Up” is the band’s first single and first video without make-up and the song only went to #66.  It opens with a nice little riff and a little scream from Paul.  Paul’s second song on the album and it was meant for the radio.  This is a pure 80’s, melodic rock song and no wonder it still gets played a lot.  The video was so 80’s as well.  Real cheesy and had the band in a post-apocalyptic world.  It is a little comical watching it now.  The song, however, is about a guy trying to talk his girlfriend in to doing the nasty so doesn’t really fit with the video. Really cool they kicked things off with 2 80’s songs, but that is all we get. The rest are from the 70’s.

The first song of their debut, “Strutter”.  The song was written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and over the years, this would be a rare experience as they would wind up writing songs by themselves.  The music of the song was based off an old Gene song called “Stanley the Parrot” which was recorded even before there was a Wicked Lester.  The song has a great opening drum fill by Peter and is an uptempo rock song that was inspired by all the sexy women in New York.  There is a great bass riff by Gene why Ace belts out the solo. Paul sings the song and shows all the confidence a lead singer should show.

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