Tag: KISS

July 2020 Purchases – Vinyl & CD

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Another month gone by and a lot more purchases.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed but my CD purchases have skyrocketed over the last few months.  I have been to a bunch of shops that have CDs and have them cheap so I can’t help myself.  However, this first batch of CDs is not from a shop. They are mostly from Amazon as my kids gave me an Amazon gift card for Father’s Day as they weren’t sure what I didn’t have (which is a valid point).  So with these cards I continued my Jeff Scott Soto Collection and picked up 6 more discs (okay, one was from ebay).

I picked up Jeff Scott Soto – “Essential Ballads”; Soul Sirkus – “World Play”, W.E.T. – “W.E.T.” and “Earthrage”, SOTO – “Orgami” which is the last of the SOTO collection, and Talisman – “Talisman”.  This brings me up to over 20+ now in the JSS collection and still about 20+ more to go.

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Next up, my wife wanted to run back to 2nd & Charles as she needed  some books and I of course wanted to tag along as they have a great used CD collection and I always find something interesting and this time was no different.  I picked up a Bootleg Robbie Williams 2 CD compilation from Japan.  It is called Sexed Up and it has been outlawed for sale by Discogs, but I saw one an eBay for about $30+.  I payed about $3.  It is an HDCD, whatever that means.

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But that wasn’t the only thing I bought from there as they had a sale where you buy 2, get one free.  I picked up 8 more discs including 2 more Robbie Williams CDs, 3 Oasis CDs, Ozzy’s Just Say Ozzy E.P., Candlebox’s “Lucy” and Jude Cole’s “I Don’t Know Why I Act This Way”.  Not a bad haul.

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And on the way home, my wife saw Noble Records and asked if I wanted to stop in, and of course I said yes.  She is so awesome!!  I did a little damage there as well. I picked up 2 more CDs – Cheap Trick’s “At Budokon: The Complete Concert” CD set and Thriving Ivory’s “Through Yourself & Back Again”.

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I did get vinyl while I was there as well. I picked up Deep Purple’s ‘Machine Head’ and ZZ Top’s “La Futura” because I saw the documentary on Netflix and needed this album as I didn’t have it as I’m now on a ZZ Top kick.

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The next thing that was purchased was neither vinyl nor CD.  I have started my new obsession, Kiss Tour Books and first up is this one…not going to talk about it as I already have a post coming in August going in full detail…

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And that is it…until next month

Kiss – ‘The Originals’ (1976) – Bonus Edition (The Kiss Review Series)

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In the last two weeks, I have talked about special Kiss albums or singles in my Big Box of Vinyl and that continues one more time.  This time in my big box of vinyl there was one more special Kiss album.  Now I bring you ‘The Originals’.  This was released on July 21st, 1976 which actually turns out to be 44 years ago just two days ago!  Why didn’t I schedule this for Tuesday…who knows.  Sometimes I am stupid.

‘The Originals’, as noted on the album cover, are “the albums that touched off a Rock & Roll explosion.”  It was a special edition re-release of the albums ‘Kiss’, ‘Hotter Than Hell’ and “Dressed to Kill” in one package.  With the overwhelming success of the live album ‘Kiss Alive!’ and ‘Destroyer’, Casablanca Records wanted to take advantage of that success and re-release the albums in one glorious package.

The album comes with a 16-page history booklet, a color Kiss Army sticker, and a sheet of six trading cards.  It looks something like this…

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Kiss Kompendium – The First Complete Collection

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I was out vinyl digging with my two daughters and we stopped by an Antique Mall as the girls love to look at all the old antiques. I don’t argue as there are numerous booths with vinyls that I can check out and heck, you never know what else you are going to find.  The girls didn’t find anything, but I certainly did…and it wasn’t vinyl.

It was this 3″ thick book called ‘Kiss Kompendium: the First Complete Collection’.  I knew instantly what it was when I saw it…okay, I think my daughter saw it first and told me “look dad, a Kiss book”.  Yes, a Kiss book.  One I had been looking to find for quite some time and Wow!! There it was.  I immediately grabbed and carried it around the store until I could pay for it.  And let me tell you, that was a mistake.  By the time we walked up and down the rest of the aisles, my arms were jelly.  This book is not light in the very least.

What is the book you ask.  It is the complete collection of Kiss Comic Books.  Now, I don’t own a single comic book and don’t really care for them all that much. Nothing I don’t like about them other than I collect music, not comic books.  But I also collect Kiss and this fits that bill nicely.

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Kiss – Special Kiss Album For Their Summer Tour (1976) – Bonus Edition (The Kiss Review Series)

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Welcome back to the Kiss Review Series.  Today we are doing another bonus edition.  As I am going through the band’s releases, I am going to throw in different items from my collection that aren’t part of the band’s normal album releases.  Singles, promos or whatever I can come up with.

Since we just talked ‘Destroyer’ in the last album review, these last two posts are specifically related to that album.  The first was the 45 Single of the song “Flaming Youth”.  This one is a Special Promo promoting their Tour in support of ‘Destroyer’. Now, I am cheating here again as I wrote a review on this years ago, so I am redoing it here so it is now a part of the Kiss Review Series.  I hope you like it.

In the further adventures of my box full of vinyl, there was yet another Kiss collectible included that I cherish deeply.  It was a 33 1/3 Vinyl Single in support of their tour for the 1976 Destroyer Tour.  I believe the album was released to radio stations for promo and not available for resale.  I actually know it was not available for resale because it says it on the Label of the album.

The album jacket actually says “Not For Resale”, but has been removed from my cover…very strange. The person that removed it was very careful and didn’t cut fully through the front cover…see below.

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Kiss – “Flaming Youth” – The 45 Single (1976) – Bonus Edition (The Kiss Review Series)

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Welcome back to the Kiss Review Series.  Today we are doing a little bonus edition.  As I am going through the band’s releases, I am going to throw in different items from my collection that aren’t part of the band’s normal album releases.  Singles, promos or whatever I can come up with.

Since we just talked ‘Destroyer’ in the last review, these next two posts are specifically related to that album.  The first is this 45 Single of the song “Flaming Youth”.  Now, I am cheating here as I wrote a review on this years ago, so I am re-doing it here so it is now a part of the Kiss Review Series.  I hope you like it.

I had this big box of vinyl that I found in my attic that started my new vinyl obsession about 4 years ago.  This is another 45″ Single in that big box of vinyl and it is from the Kiss album ‘Destroyer’.  The song was “Flaming Youth” and it was only a promotional single and not intended for resale.  How we ended up with it or where we got it, I am not sure.

The B-Side of the single is also “Flaming Youth” which I find interesting because the true B-Side of the Single released for the album was “God of Thunder”.  Both sides of the disc say Side A. Maybe I have a nice collectors piece…if so, I wish it was in better shape.

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Kiss – ‘Destroyer’ (1976) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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With the success of ‘Alive!’, Kiss was saved and in turn, so was their record label Casablanca.  With that new success, the band signed a brand new contract with Casablanca after the band’s manager had threatened to walk.  This time though, Kiss was only given a two album deal which really isn’t a very long contract in those times and showed that maybe the label didn’t have much faith the band would have continued success.

While the band was touring the album ‘Alive!’, they started rehearsing for the new album.  Their success was able to land them a high-end producer in the likes of Bob Ezrin.  His success with Alice Cooper had garnered him some notoriety and was going to take Kiss in a whole new direction. Thankfully, the band was still in tact with Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, Ace Frehley and Gene Simmons.

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Kiss – ‘Alive!’ (1975) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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With ‘Dressed to Kill’ out and sales only slightly better than ‘Hotter Than Hell’, the only thing the band really had going for them was their live shows.  Their record label was nearly bankrupt and Kiss was about to lose their record deal and it was about to all coming to a crashing halt. The band had yet to receive any royalties after their pittance of an advance and their manager, Bill Aucoin, along with the band were ready to sue and get out of the contract.

In a last ditch effort to save the label and the band, Neil thought a Live album was the way to go.  The Live shows is where people finally understood what Kiss was all about.  With Gene Simmons spitting blood and breathing fire, with Ace Frehley’s electrifying guitar solos, Paul Stanley’s charm in his dialogue to the crowd and Peter Criss’ drum riser and solo, Kiss was a Live band that needed to be heard LIVE!!  Plus, this was cheaper than an album, so they could afford to do this route.

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‘Alive!’ was recorded over four stops on the Dressed to Kill Tour.  You had May 16 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan, naturally; June 21 at Cleveland Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio; July 20 at RKO Orpheum Theater in Davenport, Iowa; and July 23 at Wildwoods Convention Center in Wildwood, New Jersey.  With four shows recorded, they could piece together a perfect live album…well…maybe not!

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June 2020 Purchases – Vinyls & CDs

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Welcome to the June Purchases wrap-up and what a month it was.  After not visiting an actual record store in 2 months due to the Covid Stay at Home Orders, I was out in force when the opened back up.  And this time it wasn’t just vinyl and CDs, there were a couple other surprises that were music related.  And then there were a stack of albums I picked up that I didn’t have to buy which is always cool.  Let’s get started.

First up was my trip to Repo Records and Noble Records as they were two of the first to open. I wanted to spend a little at both to show my support and I did just that.  First up was Repo. I was worried we would have to wear masks and gloves, but thankfully neither store required but we could if we wanted to do it.  Which I didn’t because we left the masks at home on the counter.  I didn’t really find anything at Repo’s until I stumbled across a brand new copy of Tesla’s Psychotic Supper.  It was new and sealed so no real deal on it, but it was cheaper than what Amazon was offering and since it is on a list of albums I want, I got it.

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Kiss – ‘Dressed to Kill’ (1975) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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When the band completed ‘Hotter Than Hell’, they quickly went right back on tour.  That album only had the one single, “Let Me Go, Rock & Roll”, which quickly fell from the charts. That wasn’t the only thing that fell quickly, so did the album sales.  Their label, Casablanca, was hemorrhaging money with Kiss on Tour and the album doing poorly.  As a result, the band was yanked off tour to record a new album.

When they get in the studio, the producer for the record was no longer Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise as Casablanca had no money to pay anyone.  So the owner of the record label, Neil Bogart, stepped in and recorded the album.  Which isn’t really a problem as he has a ton of experience…in the pop and dance music world.  Not in Rock & Roll.  And it would be evident as the heavier sound of the band on the first two albums, was a little more pop sounding on this one.  Don’t fret, it still rocked out, but not as hard.

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Imagine you are in a band and you are now starting to write your third album in about a year’s time.  You have to be one heck of a writer to come up with that much music in such a short time.  Well, Kiss didn’t have the songs.  So, what did they do.  They pulled a couple songs from their Wicked Lester Days and re-worked them.  Now, only 8 more to go.  Paul wrote three of them, Gene got two, Ace got one and then Paul & Gene wrote one together and what a song it was.  More on that in a minute. Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Dressed to Kill’ (1975) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)” →

Kiss – ‘Hotter Than Hell’ (1974) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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After the poor sales of the debut Kiss album and the fact that Casablanca was bleeding money on the tour, Neil Bogart wanted the band to get back in to the studio to record their next album.  While on Los Angeles for a show in August of 1974, Kiss started recording their follow-up.  The band’s line-up was unchanged and the producers were unchanged as Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise were behind the boards again.  And yes, they are to blame for the awful sonics on this record, especially the dull drum sound.

Let me tell you, the band was not thrilled with doing this album in L.A.  These guys are New York guys and this whole new environment was foreign to them and not home.  Put that along side the fact they have had zero time to write new songs, they weren’t being setup to succeed.  They plowed through and by October 22, 1974, the album was released and actually performed worse than the debut album which is no easy feat as that one did poorly.

Before we go in to the music, can we talk about that cover?  Of course we can, it’s my blog.  I remember seeing this cover as kid of maybe 7 or 8 and thinking how cool this was with all the Japanese writing (now not sure I really knew it was Japanese, but it was still cool).  The album concept was done to mimic the look of Japanese comics and if you notice that little character at the bottom…

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That character stands for the word “Chikara” and if you know that then you know that is the name of a greatest hits package by the band that was only released in Japan in 1988.  It is on my grail list to get a copy.  If you are interested, “Chikara” means power. And there were other Japanese lettering on the album cover. The lettering in the top right corner of the album actually means “the shout of hell” which isn’t the same as “hotter than hell”, but not sure if that was the intent or not. Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Hotter Than Hell’ (1974) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)” →