Kiss – ‘Black Diamond: Lafayette Music Room, Memphis, TN April 18th, 1974 – FM Broadcast’ – Album Review (The Bootleg Series)

In my quest to get as many Kiss Bootleg’s I can, I found this one in a local record store, new and sealed. And cheap. This is actually an easy one to get if you are collecting Kiss Bootlegs. I think I paid $25 for it. There is nothing really special about this one, no inserts, no picture sleeves and no surprised in the package like I have received in a lot of my bootlegs. This one is rather generic. For historical reasons though, it is pretty cool. The recording is an FM Broadcast from April 18, 1974 in Memphis, TN at the Lafayette Music Room and is one of the earliest recordings of the band.

Soundwise…well…let’s just say there is sound. This is a recording off a radio broadcast on to a tape. That tape was then copied, which was then copied, which was then copied, which was then copied and keep going for another dozen copies. There is a massive tape drag at several points during the show which slows the song down and it is quite noticeable. That proves that the source material was from an old tape that had been copied many times. Yes, the sound sucks at times and might be on the low end of some of my bootlegs, but I am still okay with it and because I collect them I will buy regardless.

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Kiss – The 8-Track Collection

There is No New Release Post today as new releases dry up this time of the year. We will be back after the first of the year. In the meantime, enjoy…

If you follow this site, you know I’m a Kiss fan. I’m not too fanatical, but I do have a decent Vinyl collection starting up. I have all but maybe a few albums on vinyl, however, I haven’t started down the slippery slope of buying every version of an LP. That is a special kind of fan. If you follow this site, you also know that we are in a great blogging universe with a great set of fellow bloggers that we call “Community”. And that word is crucial for this post.

It all started a few years back when Mr. Books, Aaron at KeepsMeAlive, gifted a bunch of 8 Tracks to another friend Geoff at 1001AlbumsIn10Years. Geoff recently reached out to me and asked if I would like them. What Geoff knew was that I was big Kiss fan. What Geoff didn’t know that over the last year, every time I go in to an Antique Mall or a Record Store and they have 8 Tracks, I have been scouring them looking for Kiss 8-Tracks. To date, I have found ZERO!!!! Thanks to Geoff, I now have 6! And the official collecting of Kiss 8 Tracks has now begun!! In fact, I think I am going to go down a rabbit hole. I am going to try and collect all the 8 Tracks I can, all the cassettes and all the CDs. Why not have one of every format. I don’t think I am going to do to the reel-to-reel as that is uber expensive. When I post a picture of a Kiss album, I want that album to have each format in the picture. I think that would be a lot of fun! Let the hunting begin.

But first, let’s go through the 8-Tracks that Geoff sent. First up is “Hotter Than Hell”. Now, these are old and a little rough around the edges, but no ever though people would be collecting these things. When you look at the track listing you see the biggest problem with 8-Tracks. Look at the track listing for Program 1 and 2. The last song on 1 says “Watchin’ You” (Begin) and the first song on 2 is “Watchin’ You” (Cont.). This means the song faded out in Program 1 and then you hear a click and the song fades back in Program 2. It is AWFUL!! My brother made the comment to me that when he listens to Dynasty now, he expects certain songs to fade in and out and they don’t anymore.

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November 2021 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

Can you believe there is only one more month in the year? It has flown by so fast. And here we are again with another month end wrap-up of the purchases we have made here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music. It was a pretty decent month and another month where CDs outweighed the vinyl. There should’ve been a couple more vinyl in here, but with all the delays in vinyl pressing I have 3 that have been bought that will now not show up until 2022!! Thanks Adele!!!

First up this month are a couple that came in at the end of October after I had done my post. First is the John 5 & The Creatures release ‘Sinner’ and this one is signed. It is an awesome album and it will be interesting to see where this lands on our year-end countdown.

The other item that I received was another stellar box set from Whitesnake. This time around it is the 25th Anniversary of the album ‘Restless Heart’. It is full of demos, remixes and the always cool Evolutions disc that walks you through the evolution of the songs. Sadly, there was no live show added but that is being picky.

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Friday New Releases – November 19, 2021

You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best! The Hottest New Release Day of the Year!! TODAY!!! Man, there are so many great releases today and I can’t wait. I have 3 I will be listening to and one is a Massive Box Set. This also seems to be a day for older established artists releasing new albums or anniversary albums and maybe for you younger listeners you might find some of these older artists totally awesome. Now, go check them out and let me know what you want to hear this week. Also, let us know what we may have missed. My choices are up first and in BOLD! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

  • 91C7w0t0NLL._SX522_  Kiss – Destroyer (45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) – (Universal Music / UMG): KISS!!! Man, I can’t wait for this to arrive. I hope it makes it today. Kiss is releasing a 45th Anniversary of one of their biggest albums. It is remastered and there are a ton of demos and unreleased tracks and it is about time the band did a Box Set like this. Now, they need to go back and do them all with this special treatment. They’d get my money!!
  • 719ZBpfe0eL._SX522_  The Darkness – Motorheart – (Cooking Vinyl): The Darkness is upon us and that makes for a much brighter day for me! I love these guys. Their love of that old glam rock sound makes for a wonderful listen. They bring that style to today’s market and for that we are lucky. I loved their last album ‘Easter is Cancelled’ and if this is half as good as that one, this will be awesome then!!
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October 2021 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

Welcome to the next installment of Purchases as we run through the monthly purchases here at 2 Loud 2Old Music. And this was a good month…a really good one. This would be a quality month over quantity although the quantity was still there. The month started out with a visit to one of my favorite stores Noble Records. It was Dillion’s 2nd Anniversary as a Brick & Mortar store and he was putting out some holy grail items for sure. I’m not one of crowds at the moment so I knew it was going to be packed so I waiting until later in the day before I showed up. There was nothing I was really looking for so going early didn’t matter. I was there to show some support.

The first thing I found were some great 7″ Singles. 2 from Quiet Riot and one from David Bowie. I nice score for me and I will take it…

And there was still more. Now, I didn’t really find a whole lot. But I found something I had never seen before so I grabbed it. It was an alternate cover for the Scorpions debut, “Lonesome Crow”. And it is a cool cover. It turns out, this was a reissue of the album from 1982 or 1983 and it had came in a translucent brownish, yellowish, orangish color…wait…maybe it is gold. Who knows, but I know I loved the cover and sold!!!

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Ace Frehley – American Tour 2021 (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre, October 7, 2021) – Concert Review

I have been a huge Ace Frehley fan since I was probably 8 years old. He was my very first guitar hero. I had only seen him play with Kiss and I have never seen him love as just Ace Frehley. When I saw he was opening for Alice Cooper, I couldn’t click the purchase ticket button fast enough. This was also the first concert I had attended since Covid began around 19 months ago so it was even more exciting.

The concert began at 7:30pm on October 7, 2021. We arrived in plenty of time because I was damn well sure going to make it to see the opening act, because, well, as was the opening act. We stand in line to get stamped with proof of vaccination (or proof of negative covid test) and then go in line again to go through the metal detector and all good so far. I don’t know why I said “so far”, because we ran in to ZERO issues all night. It was supposed to rain…None! The weather was a little chilly, but felt great. We hit the restrooms (TMI) and then went and bought some bottled water…except…they don’t sell bottled water anymore…WHAT!!! Nope. It is now in a can…huh???

Yes, Liquid Death is the name of the Water!! I’ve seen it all now.

Yes, they sell water in a can now so I guess non-drinkers don’t get harassed for not drinking as it looks like a beer can. I have to admit, it looks pretty damn cool for water. We then hit the merch table and there were a ton of Alice stuff and only a little Ace, but I saw Alice 3 years ago almost to the day, so I went with the Ace Shirt. They were already out of XL size, so I went 2XL and I hope it shrinks…

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August 2021 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

Wow, how time has flown. Summer is winding down, school is back in session and we had a big month here at the 2 Loud 2 Old Music home life. Our oldest daughter turned 18 and moved off to college the very next day. A very happy and sad time in our life. And my youngest became a freshman herself in High School. Man, they grow up so fast. And usually when I have these big moments that make me happy and yet sad, I drown that sad part in purchases and I have to say, there were a few this month and so we might as well get to it…

To start it off, the first album on the list this month is one that came out on July 30th, but I didn’t get the album in time for the July post so it kicks off this month’s post. The brand new album by Needtobreathe called “Into the Mystery” and my copy is CD. I also have the Vinyl on order but due to delays we won’t see that until November which is why I have the CD now.

Then my daughter and I were out and I picked up a few random items. First was bought at Manifest Disc in the used CD section and was something I have already, but didn’t. It was a limited deluxe edition CD with a 64 page mini-magazine of Kiss’ Monster. I have this one on vinyl, but this was too cheap and cool to pass up.

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July 2021 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

We are about to the end of July so time for another wrap-up of my purchases for the month. We had a little quieter month and some things I am so happy to have in my collection. The vinyl was limited this month, CDs ruled the month and I even have a nice new book to read. I would say it was a really great month of finds.

We will start off with some simple finds from when my kids and I hit up Manifest Discs and a little shop called 2nd & Charles. At Manifests, I found a couple of Velvet Revolver CDs that were in my collection at one time, but we won’t go in to that right now, I am just happy to have them again. The one on the left, ‘Contraband’, is the one my brother-in-law was the engineer on so yes, he worked with Slash and Scott Weiland!! Pretty cool.

Then we went down the street to 2nd & Charles and my daughter picked up 7 Volume set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novels and I grabbed a couple CDs. These were two more that were in my collection years ago and now they are back as well. A nice Richard Marx one and Chickenfoot. And Richard Marx will come up again soon…

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Kiss – All Kiss Posts in One Spot!!

After just finishing the Kiss Review Series, I have come to realize I have a ton of posts that are about Kiss. I figured (thanks to the help of Mike Ladano) that putting all the links to every Kiss Post in one post might be convenient for the readers of this site. I have everything from Album Reviews, to Book Reviews, to Concert Reviews to almost anything you can think of, I’ve probably written about it. And the good thing is, I will continue to have Kiss Posts as I find more vinyl I don’t have in my collection, more videos, more books, more bootlegs, more tour books and more of well…Kiss. So, I will continually be updating this post with the latest Kiss posts. You might want to bookmark this page for easy reference.

As of right now there are 155 Posts of Kiss…This might take you a while to go through so sit back, grab some coffee and enjoy!!

The Kiss Review Series:

  1. Wicked Lester and the Progeny Demo Sessions (Bootleg)
  2. Kiss – Kiss (1974)
  3. Kiss – Hotter Than Hell (1974)
  4. Kiss – Dressed to Kill (1975)
  5. Kiss – Alive! (1975)
  6. Kiss – Destroyer (1976)
  7. Kiss – “Flaming Youth” 45 Promo Single – Bonus Edition (1976)
  8. Kiss – Special Kiss Album For Their Summer Tour (1976)
  9. Kiss – The Originals (1976)
  10. Kiss – Rock & Roll Over (1976)
  11. Kiss – Love Gun (1977)
  12. Kiss – Alive II (1977)
  13. Kiss – Double Platinum (1978)
  14. Kiss – Paul Stanley (1978)
  15. Kiss – Gene Simmons (1978)
  16. Kiss – Peter Criss (1978)
  17. Kiss – Ace Frehley (1978)
  18. Kiss – Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park Movie (1978)
  19. Kiss – Dynasty (1979)
  20. Kiss – “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” (1979) – 12″ & 7″ Singles (Bonus Edition)
  21. Kiss – Unmasked (1980)
  22. Peter Criss – Out of Control (1980)
  23. Kiss – Music From The Elder (1981)
  24. Kiss – Killers (1982)
  25. Kiss – Creatures of the Night (1982)
  26. Kiss – Lick It Up (1983)
  27. Kiss – Animalize (1984)
  28. Wendy O. Williams – WOW (1984) (Bonus Edition)
  29. Kiss – Animalize Live Uncensored (1985)
  30. Kiss – Asylum (1985)
  31. Kiss – “Tears Are Falling” 7″ Single (Bonus Edition) (1985)
  32. Kiss – Creatures of the Night (1985 Re-Issue)
  33. Vinnie Vincent Invasion – Vinnie Vincent Invasion (1986)
  34. Black N’ Blue – Nasty Nasty (1986)
  35. Ace Frehley – Frehley’s Comet (1987)
  36. Kiss – Exposed VHS (1987)
  37. Kiss – Crazy Nights (1987)
  38. Kiss – “Crazy Crazy Nights” – 12″ Single (Bonus Edition)
  39. Kiss – “Reason To Live” – 12″ Picture Disc (Bonus Edition)
  40. Kiss – Chikara (1988)
  41. Kiss – Smashes, Thrashes & Hits (1988)
  42. Kiss – Hot In The Shade (1989)
  43. Kiss – “God Gave Rock And Roll To You II” (1991) – 12″ Picture Disc
  44. Kiss – Revenge (1992)
  45. Kiss – Alive III (1993)
  46. Kiss – Konfidential VHS (1993)
  47. Kiss – Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved (1994)
  48. Kiss – MTV Unplugged (1996)
  49. Kiss – You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best!! (1996)
  50. Kiss – Greatest Kiss (1997)
  51. Kiss – Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)
  52. Kiss – Psycho Circus (1998)
  53. Kiss – The Second Coming Documentary (1998)
  54. Eric Carr – Rockology (1999)
  55. Mark St. John – Mark St. John Project (1999)
  56. Eric Singer Project – ESP (1999)
  57. Bruce Kulick – Audiodog (2001)
  58. Kiss – Kiss Symphony: Alive IV (2003)
  59. Gene Simmons – Asshole (2004)
  60. Kiss – Rock the Nation Live! DVD (2005)
  61. Kiss – Alive! The Millennium Concert (2006)
  62. Paul Stanley – Live to Win (2006)
  63. Kiss – Kissology: Volumes 1 to 3 (2006-2007)
  64. Kiss – Jigoku-Retsuden (2008)
  65. Kiss – Sonic Boom (2009)
  66. Kiss – Monster (2012)
  67. Kiss – The Casablanca Singles 1973-1982 (2012)
  68. Kiss – Kiss 40 (2014)
  69. Kiss – Kiss Rocks Vegas (2016)
  70. Kiss – Kissworld: The Best of Kiss (2017)
  71. Kiss – Off the Soundboard: Tokyo 2001 (2021)
  72. Kiss – The Albums Ranked From Worst to First (2021)
Continue reading “Kiss – All Kiss Posts in One Spot!!”

Kiss – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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):

Continue reading “Kiss – The Albums Ranked Worst to First”