Movie Night: KISS Loves You

Hello Friends,

Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night again on Vinyl in the Valley!

Tonight we're watching a 2004 documentary about the self-proclaimed world's greatest rock & roll band and their loyal legions of devoted fans, KISS Loves You.

The film begins in 1994.  Its been over 10 years since the band toured with their makeup on and even longer since the four original members performed together.  KISS cover bands and KISS conventions become a sort of cottage industry for fans nostalgic for the music, the kabuki makeup, the comic books and the pyrotechnics.

All this changed by 1996 when the original members of KISS decided to reunite, don their makeup and go on a massive world tour-- putting the novelty of a lot of the cover bands on the back burner.  (Also, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were pretty aggressive in putting an end to unauthorized KISS conventions... jerks!)

Speaking of jerks, one of the film's most memorable stories has to do with Ace Frehley-imitator, Bill Baker.  Bill played the Spaceman in a pretty solid Ace Frehley tribute band, "Fractured Mirror". He talks about how through the years he and Ace actually became sort of friends.  Ace would hook him up with an old guitar or some old costumes and Bill would help his "friend" Ace out occasionally as well. He'd help him move, lend him money, etc.  When KISS reunited, Bill called Ace to see if he could get him some concert tickets and, you guessed it, Ace dropped him like a hot potato!  Poor Bill, you've been Aced!

The documentary is pretty interesting.  Its a DIY, low budget affair that has some great interviews with various fans and musicians like Dee Snider, Sebastian Bach, Handsome Dick Manitoba and Jerry Only.  The film is at its core an ode to fandom and fans of KISS just happen to be some of rock & roll's most fanatical!

We give this one two raised cocktail glasses!

We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)

The Life and Times of KISS

Chuck Klosterman (a favorite of ours here on Vinyl In The Valley) has written perhaps the best article we've seen on KISS for the website, grantland.com.

Check it out here:

http://grantland.com/features/chuck-klosterman-kiss-hall-of-fame/

\m/

Pull The Trigger of My Love Gun

KISS - "Love Gun" (1977) - Casablanca

Hello Friends,

You better be locked & loaded because we've got the Love Gun out tonight!  

Love Gun is an important album in the KISS canon because it would be the last to feature all four original members playing on all of the songs.  Its their sixth studio album and its followed up by a live album (Alive II), the four KISS solo albums and 1979's Dynasty which would feature drummer Anton Fig, instead of Peter Criss, playing drums on most of the tracks!  

It also important because its the first KISS record to feature a song with Ace Frehley on lead vocals!  And its about time!

Things get kicked off with the great, Paul Stanley-penned "I Stole Your Love" (which also became the opening song on the Love Gun tour!)   Never to be undone, Gene Simmons follows up with the super creepy, "Christine Sixteen" with lyrics like, "She's been around / But she's young and clean / I've got to have her / Can't live with her" it reads likes a pedophile's journal entry!

Gene's "Got Love for Sale" follows featuring yet another great Frehley solo.  

And speaking of Ace, "Shock Me" is Frehley's song which recounts an incident on the Rock and Roll Over tour in which he was electrocuted before taking the stage.  Its not the first song he wrote for the band, but its the first one that he wrote and sang lead on. Arguably, the album's best!  

Side One is rounded out by "Tomorrow & Tonight", a Paul Stanley song that seems a bit similar to the earlier hit, "Rock And Roll All Nite".

Side Two begins with the incredible, hard-rocking anthem, "Love Gun"-- a staple at KISS live shows ever since! 

Side Two also gives us two more sleazy Simmons' rockers, "Plaster Caster"-- an ode to famed groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster who became famous for making plaster molds of rock stars' penises(!)-- and the scary-sounding, "Almost Human".  Peter Criss contributes the song, "Hooligan", which is just eh.

The album ends with an unfortunate cover of the Phil Spector/Crystals song, "Then He Kissed Me" which of course is changed to "The She Kissed Me".  No Homos here!  Good grief!   

Despite the lackluster conclusion, Love Gun is another KISS Classic! 

Great cover art by Connecticut's own Ken Kelly, who previously did the album artwork for 1976's Destroyer.

RATING: 4.5 tokens of my love for her collection out of 5