Friday, August 14, 2009

Classic Rock Magazine confirms the title "Sonic Boom" (August 14)

Classic Rock can confirm that the new Kiss album will be called Sonic Boom – and we’ve got the full tracklisting. Not only that, but we’ve heard six of the album’s 11 songs!

Classic Rock’s Geoff Barton was invited to an exclusive preview of the new Kiss album this afternoon, in the convivial company of Doc McGhee, the band’s manager.

“Kiss promised to deliver a back-to-their-roots album and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Barton reports. “Recorded in the old-fashioned, analog way, it sounds spectacularly good – no ProTools nonsense in evidence here.

“The interesting thing is, it’s not simply a homage the band’s first few albums. There are even nods to records such as [1982’s] Creatures Of The Night, which had Vinnie Vincent, Bob Kulick and others guesting on guitar. Kiss seem to have cleverly combined the best of all their eras into a single winning package.”

McGhee confirmed that Sonic Boom will be available exclusively through Wal-Mart stores in the US, as part of a package including a disc of re-recorded Kiss classics (already available in Japan) and a live DVD. The album is due for release on October 6.

“I actually wanted to make Sonic Boom available as a download for a dollar, but I was overruled,” McGhee chuckled.

“I still think it’s a great idea. Millions of people would’ve downloaded it, I guarantee. At just a dollar a throw, it would’ve been the bargain of the century.”

McGhee is delighted that Kiss decided to play to their strengths on Sonic Boom. “It’s exactly want people want: the classic Kiss sound played by the band looking like they’ve always done. Kiss are like James Bond or Mickey Mouse. They’re an amazing brand and they’ll likely go on forever.

“When I took over management of Kiss in the mid-1990s, that was my major plan: to get the band back to basics.

“I mean,” McGhee laughed, “when Kiss had a squirrel in their line-up – what was the hell was that all about?”

The full tracklisting of Sonic Boom is:

1. Modern Day Delilah
2. Russian Roulette
3. Never Enough
4. Yes I Know (Nobody’s Perfect)
5. Stand
6. Hot & Cold
7. All The Glory
8. Danger Us
9. I’m An Animal
10. When Lightning Strikes
11. Say Yah

Here’s our quickfire reaction to the six songs we heard:

Modern Day Delilah
Based around a lumbering, War Machine-style rhythm, Paul Stanley’s vocals sound top-notch and timeless, almost like they’ve been sampled from Kiss Alive! Meanwhile, Tommy Thayer’s guitar work is straight out of the Ace Frehley riff book. At a concise 3:35 in length, this is a perfect slam-bang beginning to the new album.

Russian Roulette
Gene Simmons takes the vocals on this one; it’s an archetypal lumbering, grumbling, pummelling offering, made all the better by the addition of a signature ‘ah-ah-ah-ah’ chant-line. The lyrics are simplistic but effective: ‘This is Russian Roulette… one pull of the trigger is all you’re gonna get… you feel the hunger and it’s much too much… go on take a bite.’ To a fan of classic Kiss, that’s sheer poetry.

Never Enough
You’re know you’re on to a winner immediately as this one begins with a time-honoured Stanley shout of… wait for it… ‘Woah yeah!’ This is a much jauntier offering than the preceding two tracks, recalling the more commercial, 1980s side of Kiss. The song has a real reach-for-the-sky spirit, full of uplifting phrases such as ‘rules just for breaking’, ‘life for the taking’ and (you guessed it) ‘love ’til I’m shaking’.

Yes I Know (Nobody’s Perfect)
Another three minutes of perfection. A light-hearted, hyper-commercial tune with Simmons at the mic-stand again, offering a gruff ‘YEAH’ (capital letters, natch) followed by the inevitable invitation: ‘C’mon baby, take off your clothes.’ There’s no word on whether Simmons kept his T-shirt on, however.

Stand
Our favourite so far; a proper anthem recalling the crowd-rousing grandeur of God Gave Rock’N’Roll To You. Stanley delivers the words ‘Stand by my side, I’ll be next to you/Stand by my side, we’ll make it through/Stand by my side, we’ll get by, you and I’ with consummate Starchild passion. This one just grows and grows… and then offers a neat false ending with some soft, CSN&Y-style harmonies (yes, really) before picking up the pace once more.

I’m An Animal
Full of giant, stalking menace, this is based around a dense, Zeppelinesque riff. Thayer plays a marvellous slick-but-stumbling Frehley solo, and you can rest assured the lyrics – ‘I’m an animal and I’m free… I’m an animal in the street’ – don’t refer to an old lady with her poodle off the leash. Late in the song, the band issue the urge: ‘Stand up, raise your fists.’ Little do they know, we’ve been doing that since track one…

Ace Frehley and Bruce Kulick comment on Les Paul's passing (August 14)

"He was an inventor, amazing guitarist, and contributed so much to our industry. Glad I met him a few times. RIP." - Bruck Kulick



"The music industry has lost a giant! I'm very saddened by the news of Les Paul's passing. I was lucky enough to have known Les as a friend, and admired him as a musician and innovator. He forever changed the way we listen to music." - Ace Frehley

Thursday, August 13, 2009

RIP Les Paul (August 13)


Kinda KISS related Ace loved this man.

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Guitar legend Les Paul has died at 94

Inventor changed course of music with electric guitar, multitrack recording


NEW YORK - Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, many with wife Mary Ford, died on Thursday. He was 94.

According to Gibson Guitar, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital. His family and friends were by his side.
He had been hospitalized in February 2006 when he learned he won two Grammys for an album he released after his 90th birthday, “Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played.”
“I feel like a condemned building with a new flagpole on it,” he joked.

As an inventor, Paul helped bring about the rise of rock ’n’ roll and multitrack recording, which enables artists to record different instruments at different times, sing harmony with themselves, and then carefully balance the “tracks” in the finished recording.
With Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records and 11 No. 1 pop hits, including “Vaya Con Dios,” “How High the Moon,” “Nola” and “Lover.” Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that Paul the inventor had helped develop.
“I could take my Mary and make her three, six, nine, 12, as many voices as I wished,” he recalled. “This is quite an asset.” The overdubbing technique was highly influential on later recording artists such as the Carpenters.
Electric guitar began with ‘The Log’
The use of electric guitar gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of rock in the 1950s.
“Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important part of music,” Paul once said. “To have the dynamics, to have the way of expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an unamplified instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn’t think of singing a song on a stage without a microphone and a sound system.”
A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called “The Log,” a four-by-four piece of wood strung with steel strings.
“I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut.” He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a traditional guitar shape.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Some Peter Criss news!! (August 9)


RECORDING NEW ROCK ALBUM:

Peter is making good on a promise he told me in 2007 that his next album will indeed be a rock album.

A departure from his 2007 release, ONE FOR ALL, this new album will be an all out rock and roll record from
the CATMAN.

Peter is now the process of recording, laying down 10 tracks, for the disc which is slated for release April 2010.

http://kissmaskwebzine.blogspot.com/2009/08/peter-criss-recording-new-album.html