For me, it's Kiss. By this, I mean every album right up to and including Creatures of the Night. I guess Ace and Peter must've been the glue that held them together somehow. Oh, I know, they're just plain ridiculous and embarrassing in a lot of people's eyes. But, to me, they are only ridiculous and embarrassing in the way most musicians are: dumb lyrics and big egos. Big cartoons.
But musically, they had so many different styles, each singer doing his own thing, with about 100 catchy little pop tunes. As an added bonus, for the most part they had really good production with really great guitar and bass tones, a perfect drum sound (not too high, not too spongey) and a crisp, separation of sound that managed to remain warm and thick without sounding too muddy (Hotter Than Hell and Double Platinum are the two big exceptions). Ace's solos were brief, but man did he have a psychedelic sound. Put on a pair of headphones and listen to that shit closely; it's like lightning in a bottle. Maybe that's why he had the lightning bolt guitar strap. "Incendiary."
People always say their playing is so simple and simple-minded, but I've had a lot more success aping the styles of Hendrix, Metallica, Stooges and Sonic Youth, personally. I've never heard a band that supposedly "sounds like Kiss" actually sound anything like Kiss. Kiss's weird little dual-guitar licks teetering on a bass line bouncing on a snare drum punctuated by a hihat have more to do with organic clockworks sound of The Beatles and Rolling Stones than the pulsing, indelicate uniform sonic movements typically found in heavy metal, glam metal or punk. Get together with your friends and try to play what might be the simplest Kiss ever: Cold Gin. Play it like Kiss plays it, don't take the easy route by speeding it up and making it "harder/punker" and therefore "cooler," because it won't be; you'll simply have that "indelicate uniform sonic movement" sound I was talking about. To sound like Kiss, you need lots of little precise sounds coming from different instruments all playing together yet easily discernable, not power chords blaring away over a plodding beat.
I know I haven't changed any minds here, but now it's your turn to whine about a band you like.
― Nerd Balance, Saturday, 7 January 2006 04:02 (twenty years ago)
― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Saturday, 7 January 2006 05:41 (twenty years ago)
― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Saturday, 7 January 2006 14:04 (twenty years ago)
COUNTING CROWS
― sean gramophone (Sean M), Saturday, 7 January 2006 14:13 (twenty years ago)
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 7 January 2006 15:20 (twenty years ago)
I love them unabashedly, unironically. Not many bands can write a song as catchy as Take It On The Run, or Roll With The Changes.
What they lack in hipness, they more than make up for with a strong melodic sensibility that other bands of that era (granted it was a shitty era) could not compete with.
― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Saturday, 7 January 2006 15:22 (twenty years ago)
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 7 January 2006 15:39 (twenty years ago)
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 7 January 2006 17:54 (twenty years ago)
― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Saturday, 7 January 2006 17:58 (twenty years ago)
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 7 January 2006 18:01 (twenty years ago)
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― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 7 January 2006 19:38 (twenty years ago)
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 7 January 2006 19:50 (twenty years ago)
Do Whatever You Want... [IMPORT]Acid Mothers Temple "Tilting the Globe from Red to Purple, June 22, 2004Reviewer: A music fanThe Acid Mothers have succeded in crossing the rainbow bridge of consciousness, and they are sending back live and moist transmissions. Where we once wandered lost on a dark path strewn with the remains of those who failed to embody the sublime, we now have the Acid Mothers, and this CD set in particular, to flash purple lights on the way.
Rather than taking a serious or heavy tone, Acid Mothers and friends lift and lilt the listener softly, slowly and oh so subtly before assaulting himorher with monumental guitar borne pahantasms, while maintaining a childs joy and excitement at the wonder of the process.
The only thing this CD can properly be likened to is perhaps a childs eye view of early Tex Avery Bugs Bunny cartoons (why were they so psychedelic anyway?)
Buy this CD. It changed my life. It is awesome. See them live too if you can. They are better than KISS."
So funny! This is exactly what I'm talking about. Is this person saying that Kiss is so awesome and believe it or not AMT is even better than that? Or, more likely, I suspect the reviewer is tossing off a no-brainer kind of joke that he probably thinks goes without saying. But what does Kiss have to do with AMT? Why would you even compare the two?
I suppose the thing that got me thinking along these lines was reading how one ILMer recently was checking out the time of a Green Milk From The Planet Orange show in front of a club to see if he could find the time to catch a little bit of the show when some guy mockingly called out to him as he walked away, "Pretty WEIRD, eh?" I suppose this is just a variant of the too often cited "rockism" so prevalent out there.
― Nerd Balance, Sunday, 8 January 2006 18:28 (twenty years ago)
― don't start a RYE-OTT! (plsmith), Sunday, 8 January 2006 18:39 (twenty years ago)
― Soukesian, Sunday, 8 January 2006 18:39 (twenty years ago)
Absolutely Freak Out and Anthem of The Space are two fantastic AMT albums.
― Nerd Balance, Sunday, 8 January 2006 19:00 (twenty years ago)
― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 9 January 2006 02:45 (twenty years ago)
― deej.. (deej..), Monday, 9 January 2006 02:46 (twenty years ago)
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 9 January 2006 02:52 (twenty years ago)
What Kiss album is "Live It Loud" or "Love It Loud" ("right between the eyes") on?
― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 9 January 2006 02:58 (twenty years ago)
Kiss' unique groove is because of Peter Criss, that guy is a second only to Ringo for being able to play an odd shaped straight drum lick. Maybe it was because of the platform heels, I don't know.
The stuff that I like that is totally uncool, but I think is pretty wicked is jazz fusion groups like Return to Forever, Mahavishnu, Weather Report and even Al DiMeola's first couple of albums. Something like "Race with the Devil on the Spanish Highway" is totally over the top, but what a crazy sound.
― earlnash, Monday, 9 January 2006 05:04 (twenty years ago)
Though Ace is featured on the cover and in the video for Love It Loud, he had pretty much nothing to do with the band at this point and had never played that song. He just agreed to stick with the band to launch one more album so it wouldn't look bad to the fans. For the tour, Vinny came out with his ankh face paint, but by the next album, they had decided to drop the makeup.
― Nerd Balance, Monday, 9 January 2006 05:39 (twenty years ago)
I love that stuff. Maybe that's why I'm a nerd?
― Nerd Balance, Monday, 9 January 2006 05:40 (twenty years ago)
"High Life" is totally one of the best songs...ever..
Most of This Desert Life and Recovering the Satellites is great.
― Tape Store (Tape Store), Monday, 9 January 2006 06:07 (twenty years ago)
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 9 January 2006 13:12 (twenty years ago)
― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Monday, 9 January 2006 13:27 (twenty years ago)