KISS

I shared a ticket with my brother, watched it later. Made it halfway through, as neither really like KISS and switched over to Alcatrazz followed by random Youtube videos. Going to watch the second half tomorrow.
 
Zare said:
I don't like Kiss. I don't dislike them that much either, it's just that 70s American music tends to escape me. Simmons is a character that I didn't like but nowadays I find him amusing and kinda hilarious in a positive sense. Also the guy put down some great bass lines, so he's not all makeup.
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I was thinking about this when making my original post. Kiss is a weird relic of a mostly forgotten period of 70s American glam rock. That scene died quickly and most of those bands either disappeared or found their way into the NYC punk and new wave scene. Kiss got famous while that evolution was happening and didn’t start adjusting their musical style until they were past their peak in the late 70s. And by that point they were trying things like disco, prog rock, and later glam metal. Their music is criticized pretty heavily in a lot of hard rock/metal circles, but it makes sense because they don’t really fit that style despite being lumped in with a lot of hard rock. They have more in common with The New York Dolls than Deep Purple. Alice Cooper is kind of similar here.

And yes, Gene is a remarkable bass player. With the exception of Peter Criss, the people who have been in Kiss are (or were) very good at what they do.
 
Curious fact:

Dynasty Tour is famous for being the only tour to feature songs from all four member's solo albums - ''Radioactive'' (from Gene), ''Tossin' And Turnin'' (from Criss), ''New York Groove'' (from Ace) and ''Move On'' (from Stanley).... Gene and Criss songs were replaced with more familiar songs early in the tour. Paul's song was a regular in the setlist for the whole tour.

This tour also featured (for the first time) the flying stunt by Gene and Ace's lighted guitar (+ rocker-shooting guitar and smoke-spewing guitar).
 
Expect lots of propaganda about the current lineup being the best Kiss lineup etc etc. I’m curious to watch though, should be entertaining regardless and I’m not sure if there’s an official Kiss documentary that covers their entire history. Extreme Closeup might be the last one and that was around the Revenge era and was under an hour iirc.
 
You can watch the full documentary on this YouTube channel: click here

Volume 1 - 22 Parts
Volume 2 - 20 Parts
[*approx. 4 minutes each part]

-> At last a Kiss documentary that covers their entire history.

... sadly without Ace and Peter (because they refused to participate), but at least old interviews with them are featured.
 
Well put together, but the narrative felt kind of slanted. A better name for it might've been 'Paul Stanley is perfect and has never done anything wrong.'
 
Mosh said:
I'll play, just my favorites from each album though
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I'll play too:
KISS (1974)
the whole album without the instrumental.

Hotter Than Hell (1974)
Parasite
Let Me Go, Rock 'N' Roll

Dressed To Kill (1975)
Getaway
Rock Bottom
C'mon And Love Me
Rock And Roll All Nite

Destroyer (1976)
Detroit Rock City
Flaming Youth
Shout It Out Loud
Do You Love Me

Rock And Roll Over (1976)
Calling Dr. Love
Makin' Love
Mr. Speed

Love Gun (1977)
I Stole Your Love
Shock Me
Tomorrow And Tonight
Love Gun

Dynasty (1979)
I Was Made For Lovin' You
2,000 Man
Sure Know Something
Magic Touch

Unmasked (1980)
Is That You?
Shandi
Talk To Me
Tomorrow
Two Sides Of The Coin

Music From ''The Elder'' (1981)
The Oath

Creatures Of The Night (1982)
Creatures Of The Night
Rock And Roll Hell
I Love It Loud

Lick It Up (1983)
Lick It Up
Gimme More
A Million To One
Fits Like A Glove

Animalize (1984)
I've Had Enough (Into The Fire)
Heaven's On Fire
Get All You Can Take
Thrills In The Night

Asylum (1985)
the whole album without track #8

Crazy Nights (1987)
Crazy Crazy Nights
I'll Fight Hell To Hold You
My Way
Reason To Live
Turn On The Night
Thief In The Night

Hot In The Shade (1989)
Hide Your Heart
Read My Body
Forever
Silver Spoon
King Of Hearts

Revenge (1992)
Unholy
Take It Off
God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You
Domino
Heart Of Chrome
I Just Wanna

Carnival Of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)
none

Psycho Circus (1998)
Psycho Circus
I Pledge Allegiance To The State Of Rock & Roll
Into The Void

Sonic Boom (2009)
Modern Day Delilah
Never Enough
All For The Glory
When Lightning Strikes
Say Yeah

Monster (2012)
Hell Or Hallelujah
Eat Your Heart Out
All For The Love Of Rock & Roll
Outta This World
 
I just want to say real quick that Carnival of Souls is unbelievably bad.

Also good list @Kalata . The Oath, Sure Know Something and Silver Spoon are among my favorites too. Also I think Asylum and Monster are great albums.
 
Carnival Of Souls is a good argument for party rock sometimes being the best direction. I think there was an interview with Paul Stanley somewhere in which he said that there was a fundamental problem with a bunch of rich guys trying to make moody grungy music. I think he’s right about that, I also think the style was intrinsically against everything that was Kiss (and other arena rock acts).

The post Kalata quoted is 8 years old and doesn’t really reflect my current tastes. It has been a few years (at least) since I really listened to any Kiss though.
 
Gene is a big Beatles fan and the song ''See You Tonite'' from his 1978 solo album definitely shows this:

- the song was part of the setlist for the Kiss Unplugged concert.

 
KISS will release a 45th-Anniversary Edition of one of their best albums - Destroyer (1976)

This edition will contain some curious things (unreleased material too):

- original album remastered.
- live in Paris 1976 (16 songs).
- ''Detroit Rock City'' (with different vocals).
- ''Beth'' (acoustic version).
- ''Sweet Pain'' (with the original solo of Ace).
- ''Doncha Hesitate'' (Paul demo).
- ''God Of Thunder And Rock And Roll'' (Paul demo with him on vocals).
- ''It's The Fire'' (Paul demo).
- ''Love Is Alright'' (Paul demo).
- ''Bad, Bad Lovin'' (Gene demo).
- ''Man Of A Thousand Faces'' (Gene demo).
- ''I Don't Want No Romance'' (Gene demo).
- ''Burnin' Up With Fever'' (Gene demo).
- ''Rock N' Rolls Royce'' (Gene demo).
- ''Mad Dog'' (Gene demo).
- ''Night Boy'' (Gene demo).
- ''Star'' (Gene demo).
- ''Howlin' For Your Love'' (Gene demo).
- ''True Confessions'' (Gene demo).
- Outtakes, Alternate Versions / Mixes, Single Edits, Live Rehearsal Instrumental.

 
Curious story: Ace thinks Creatures Of The Night is a great album and he probably wouldn't have left if the album was recorded in 1981.

''I thought Creatures was a good record. It was really the record that I would have enjoyed recording instead of Elder. Because during the recording of Elder, I kept telling Paul and Gene that this is the wrong record at the wrong time. We should be doing a heavier hard rock record. That's what the fans want, that's what the fans expect. We all know what happened and how the Elder was received.''

I agree with him (he even made a cover of ''Rock And Roll Hell'' in one of his solo cover albums). Not that Elder was so bad (I think it's a nice album), but it was not suitable for Kiss. Creatures is a classic.
 
Seems like a lot of revisionist history to me and typical KISS puffery (all four of them do it). He was still in the organization while the album was being made and even participated in some of the promotional touring. It seems pretty clear that musical direction wasn’t his reason for leaving.
 
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