That Kiss A&E Documentary

 Because I am a sucker for such things, there was no way I wasn’t going to not watch A&E’s two night four-hour Biography on Kiss.

I’m just a bit too young for the prime Kiss years. In a way, they were the remanent of older brother’s music- like the Village People and the Bay City Rollers. I was at the age where MTV was now important and it truly flipped a switch from bands like Triumph, Rush and April Wine to the MTV pop of Culture Club, Duran Duran and Madonna. Yes, there was metal -and it was no doubt influenced by Kiss- with bands like Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister.

But Kiss has always been there and to their credit, their longevity is amazing. They never had a long run of singles - certainly not the chart success of say, Aerosmith or Bon Jovi- but they have always had their name in the headlines.

Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons think they are the best band in the world, and listening to the lifelong friends, it’s hard not to get sucked in to their train of thought. It’s clear they wanted to be the American Beatles, and they mostly succeeded.

There is something purely rock about the early ambitions. It is interesting that though they took cues from the New York Dolls and Slate, they kind of took their own concurrent path as the Punk and Metal scenes.

I largely missed on the early hits as a teen, and decades later, am familiar with the biggest “hits” but never really sat down and listened to the albums.

There are some great songs. The populist approach of Kiss meant they didn’t get the critical acclaim of the Ramones. They are of course, two very different bands, but we can’t underplay the influence of Kiss, which is emphasized here by large time given to super fans Tom Morello and Dave Grohl. I do actually love some of the raw rock of those early pre-Ezrin days.

The armchair critic in me sees some similarities between Kiss and the Dictators, and trying to work the numbers, you can see both bands are fairly independent of each other. Famously, Peter Chriss and Jerry Nolan were childhood friends. But of course, the critical approach to both is different and it’s commented on here, but Kiss never strives to be critics darling. Yet, I cannot also discount their own style of being young, loud and snotty.

Kiss always had their eye on filling stadiums with an awesome concert experience. Those early years are fascinating and were surely frustrating. Being a great live band didn’t (and likely still doesn’t) drive radio play, and we know without radio play, there’s going to be a ceiling for record sales and for homes reached.

The setup of this documentary is that Stanley and Simmons are able to craft their own narrative in this doc- and so are also able to scoff at “Meets the Phantom of the Park” and “Music from the Elder” but how could it be otherwise?

“I was made for Loving You” is a double edged sword, even more so than “Beth”. Kiss did need radio hits. I actually think “Made” is a fantastic song. Perhaps you don’t want to get too excited about a song that works equally well as rock and disco, but dang if it doesn’t.

The band downplays the 80s hair metal days. Although the band skips over nearly everything post- Lick it Up- I would have rather seen them celebrate it. It’s clearly that they are taking a ‘victory lap’ so why not embrace the full career.

Sure, they did go a bit off the rails (Gene’s acting career, for example) but I think diehards would disagree and a fuller story would have been nice (Revenge gets a bit of in depth detail, but most everything else gets skimmed over).

I mean it’s a better story to spend time on the Unplugged success and the reunion tour, which leads to a denouement of riding into the sunset.

That said, It is almost a disservice to Kiss, because they always kept themselves in the spotlight, even if their intentions sometimes missed their mark (comic books, symphonic orchestras, arena football). There isn’t a very long length of time that Kiss wasn’t in the headlines for something.

The doc had to rely on interviews from Ace and Peter to get their side of the story, as they did not want to take part. Surely, we only get one side of the story, which is likely not fair. I suspect we might forgive rock stars for wanting to be rock stars, whereas Paul and Gene act like CEO and CFO of Kiss, Inc.

Overall, though, you can’t beat the infectious enthusiasm of Simmons and Stanley and they sincerely believe they are The Best and spending time with them, you might even end up concurring.

Raised On Radio: ZZ Top

 It seems appropriate to write about the death of Dusty Hill of ZZ Top. A bit unexpected as I classify them with Van Halen as some of my most favorite of the truly mainstream bands.

Eliminator of course was huge and as I have said before, it fits with VHs 1984, Synchronicity, Born in the USA and Heartbeat City as albums I alternately love and am completely sick of.

I can’t help but think of ZZ Top in that same category of artists and how Warner Bros, Columbia Records and others would (when they had a big hit) sell their older albums at a reduced cost. It’s funny of course, because as a young fan, these records felt like off brand cereal. 40 years later, I realize the diamonds in the proverbial rough. (As an aside I absolutely love that the new John Mayer album has the “Nice Price” sticker. )

Now, Eliminator was the perfect 80s album. Throw it in a Rock or Pop or even dance mix and it holds. The band would be chasing that sound for another ten years, but even those ensuing singles were pretty good.

From there, of course, through FM Radio or wherever, one hears Tush, La Grange Waitin for the Bus, Cheap Sunglasses and a good helping of other older hits.

They are infectious and quite timeless. Although these songs were from the 1970s- ostensibly music from parents and older siblings- yet these songs seem to exist in a period of their own. Indeed, Sharp Dressed Man which has had multiple lives, less a product of a time where it shared the charts with Men At Work, Culture Club and the Jane Fonda Workout, and more of some timeless record that exists outside such things.

Like many bands, that initial euphoria levels off when you realize that unless you go back to the first caveman, nothing is original, and at some point, you realize that ZZ Top owes a debt to John Lee Hooker, Slim Harpo and Elmore James among other blues men.

That said, over time, it is easy to forgive bands who appreciated the music and brought it to the mainstream. ZZ Top certainly forged a path all their own and they are plenty of fun to listen to.

Album Review: The Go! Team

 I’m nostalgic for the early 2000s, some years that I rank with some of the all time creative spurts, and you couldn’t find a much better album than 2004’s Thunder Lightning Strike by the Go Team!

Dropping a needle somewhere in those years, I can give you a whole bunch of artists from that time frame (Grandaddy, The Hives, Modest Mouse, Beck, The Rakes, Kimya Dawson, Neutral Milk Hotel, Daft Punk, Beck) and yet TGT! seems to mostly exist outside of them all.

The Go Team like so many bands with impressive debuts, continued (and continue) to make new albums. None of these particularly received bad reviews, like any band approaching Album number six, it’s more of a case of buzz fizzling out.

Get Up Sequences Part One seemingly more than any recent GT! Album recalls the style of Thunder Lighting Strike. Now LGT is a deep record. There’s probably 5 songs on that 13 track album that would really punch up any mix tape. GUSP1 won’t pull that average but it’s got it moments. “Pow” ranks up there as does “A Bee Without its Sting”- two songs that could hang with TLS.

But as a whole record, there’s really no complaints to be had. For example, closer “World Remember Now” doesn’t flow as effortlessly as the previous songs I mentioned, though I suspect it might be a favorite for other listeners.

Cleaner vocals replace the noisier experimental style of 2017’s Proof of Youth. Naively, one thinks that they could sneak one of these songs along Top 40 songs- a mixture of urban and rock sounds punctuated by the bands seemingly raison d’être- an anthemic cheerleader style sound.

If you somehow missed The Go Team in the past 17 years, here’s your jumping on point.

Naked Raygun- Over the Overlords

All bands eventually reform right? And this year is another banner year.

I honestly don’t have a great feel for the true popularity of Naked Raygun. They eluded my radar which was activated in high school, and at that time I picked up the obvious bands- Husker Du, Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys, but extended to band like Flipper, Suicidal Tendencies and The Minutemen. But once I was a bit older and around Chicago-centric circles, clearly I was taken by the band.

NR was at the end of their career when I discovered them. Pegboy spun off (via guitarist John Haggarty) and similarly produced great music limited to an indie label audience.

Time seemed to be cruel- Chicago was a ‘scene’ town now and the Alt press fawned over Liz Phair, the Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt and Urge Overkill among others. One can only imagine that the wave just missed NR.

But the post punk sound of NR - working class, informed by Heavy Metal doesn’t lend itself to hero worship. They would have to settle for influencing David Grohl and thus changing music forever. It is certainly difficult to picture the existence of Emo without a band like Naked Raygun.

The new album could be thrown into a band mix and fit right in. Different songs recall the various moments from more melodic Buzzcocks pop to the pretty standard Dag Nasty/Government Issue/Youth Brigade 80s hardcore bands you would line them up with.

While that’s unlikely to excite all but the most devoted fans, in the wake of a lot of other recent albums of a similar nature, it’s a pretty solid compliment.

I’m not sure if Paul Barker produced the whole thing or just the single remix that is featured here, but the album does capture the crunch which is the best sound for the band.

There’s probably nothing here that tops “Treason” or “Home of the Brave” but a couple of songs are in the area, and (perhaps naively) one could believe that someone who had never heard the band, only it’s successors would be blown away. That this could even make inroads to unheard ears, well, let’s say Pitchfork reviewed the new Peppa Pig album, but didn’t pick up this one.

But this one is pretty good, check it out.