Kiss News

By ALAN SCULLEY - For the North County Times

The previous Kiss studio album, "Psycho Circus," did little to prove that the band still had creative life in it.

The disc was billed as the return of the original Kiss, since it came in the midst of the reunion of guitarist/singer Paul Stanley and bassist/singer Gene Simmons with the two other original members, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss. "Psycho Circus," though, ended up being a lackluster effort on a musical level, and far less than advertised when it came to being called a triumphant return of the classic Kiss lineup.

Instead, Frehley and Criss hardly played on that 1998 CD, with studio musicians handling what ostensibly were their parts. The band also had several outside writers contribute to roughly half of the songs.

So Kiss had something to prove when the band decided last year that it wanted to make a new studio CD. For one thing, this was a new lineup for Kiss, with guitarist Tommy Thayer making his full-fledged debut, and drummer Eric Singer, who since 1996 has been the band's drummer whenever Criss wasn't in the lineup, back on board.
By ALAN SCULLEY - For the North County Times

The previous Kiss studio album, "Psycho Circus," did little to prove that the band still had creative life in it.

The disc was billed as the return of the original Kiss, since it came in the midst of the reunion of guitarist/singer Paul Stanley and bassist/singer Gene Simmons with the two other original members, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss. "Psycho Circus," though, ended up being a lackluster effort on a musical level, and far less than advertised when it came to being called a triumphant return of the classic Kiss lineup.

Instead, Frehley and Criss hardly played on that 1998 CD, with studio musicians handling what ostensibly were their parts. The band also had several outside writers contribute to roughly half of the songs.

So Kiss had something to prove when the band decided last year that it wanted to make a new studio CD. For one thing, this was a new lineup for Kiss, with guitarist Tommy Thayer making his full-fledged debut, and drummer Eric Singer, who since 1996 has been the band's drummer whenever Criss wasn't in the lineup, back on board.

Interestingly, the band decided that if Kiss was going to fail on this album ---- the newly released "Sonic Boom" ---- there would be no one to blame but the band members themselves, as Stanley took the reins on the project.

"I think the most important thing that I noticed about this record was it was really done well; one, there was no outside producer," Singer said, commenting in a recent phone interview about Stanley's role in the CD. "I think working with great producers can be a really great thing. People can get you to think outside of the box or think of things differently than you might ordinarily do it, and sometimes bring a certain type of performance out of you that you might not be able to get yourself. ... But ultimately at this point, nobody knows how to make a Kiss record better than Kiss. I think that was kind of the mindset."

But it wasn't just Stanley who went into "Sonic Boom" ready to step up to the plate.

"Everybody went in with the attitude of hey, we know what we want to do," Singer said. "We want to make a rock 'n' roll record. We want to do it organically, which means us recording the record live, everybody playing on the record, no outside writers, no outside musicians ---- do it the right way, the real deal, like the way records were originally made."

The decision to keep "Sonic Boom" an in-house project has paid off. The new CD has been greeted by many reviewers as the best Kiss album since such classic early releases as "Dressed to Kill," "Destroyer" and "Love Gun" ---- and a CD that actually sounds much more like the work of the original Kiss than "Psycho Circus."

The success of "Sonic Boom" represents a welcome turn of fortunes for Kiss. The reunion tour of 1996-97 with the four original members was a major success as a live venture, but by the end of the decade, it appeared the band's days were numbered. In early 2000, the band announced it would do a farewell tour that would run from that summer into 2001. Before the tour was over, Criss split with the group, and Singer, who had joined the group after the 1991 death from cancer of drummer Eric Carr, rejoined Kiss to finish the tour ---- which, of course, turned out to be far from a final jaunt.

By 2002, Frehley had also played his final gig, with Thayer filling that slot. When the band returned to the road in 2003 to co-headline a tour with Aerosmith, Criss had been brought back, prompting Singer to say he would never again play with Kiss. This time, Criss lasted only for about a year, and as shows became sporadic during the next four years, it truly looked as if Kiss might actually fade from the scene.

But in 2008, with the 35th anniversary of the band's formation in New York City looming, Kiss announced it would begin the "Kiss Alive/35 World Tour," with Singer and Thayer joining Stanley and Simmons. Singer said he was angry at the band after it brought back Criss in 2003, although he had no complaints about the group cashing in by reuniting the original lineup. Before rejoining Kiss, Singer said he cleared the air with Simmons and Stanley over the band's handling of firing, re-hiring and firing again.

"I told Gene how I feel about how they dealt with me in certain things," Singer said. "I always understand the business side of things. It's not called music friends. It's called music business. I'm fully aware of that. I've been doing it for a long time. I get it. The only thing I ever said was, there is a way to do it, you know? I'm a big boy and you should just tell people your intentions when you want to do something, just be aboveboard. That's the best way to deal with it. That way you keep the door always open. And Gene, he respects my opinion about it.

"But you know something, the relationship I have now with Gene and Paul and the band is the best it's ever been for me," the drummer said. "They get along really good now, and they've had their ups and downs. ... How can you not have a relationship and expect it to not be peaks and valleys? But once I came back, I remember saying if I'm going to come back, then it's got to be under the right kind of situation. I don't want to keep playing, literally, musical chairs. But I think when Paul called me up and said come back, he basically said, 'This is what I want to do. I want you to play drums.' And that was it."

Playing drums with Kiss is exactly what Singer is doing as the "Kiss Alive/35 World Tour" continues, stopping Nov. 27 at the San Diego Sports Arena. The stage show continues to be as spectacular as ever. In fact, Singer noted, the band has an entirely new stage with high-tech video screens and the usual array of visual effects.

Of course, some traditions continue.

"There are certain things that have become synonymous with Kiss, Gene breathing fire or Gene flying and spitting blood," Singer said. "Those kinds of things you have to do. ... it would be a cardinal sin to not have those certain Kiss staples, just like certain songs that have to be in the set. It wouldn't be right without them."

On the early part of the tour, the band played almost the entire 1975 "Alive" album. But Singer said the set is evolving to include "Sonic Boom" material.

"As we get into fall, we're going to start gradually working in more new songs off of 'Sonic Boom' and morphing the set list, tweaking it as we go along," he said. "But it's a work in progress. We kind of (always) figured it was going to be 'Kiss Alive 35' eventually morphing into the 'Sonic Boom' tour."

The spectacle and 'Sonic Boom' are in full force.

By Steve Appleford
Photo by Rob Grabowski

The KISS Army shows no signs of surrender in 2009. Nearly four decades after the pop-metal quartet first emerged amid fireballs and kabuki makeup, the fans still come. And they bring fresh recruits in the form of teens and toddlers, many in the same black-and-white face paint.

In the lobby of the Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, veteran fans watched the parade as they awaited KISS' explosive arrival onstage.

"This is huge! KISS is my whole life," declared Robert Edmondson, 43, of Monrovia. His smiling face was painted in the style of "The Demon," worn by singer-bassist Gene Simmons. He had a long, black wig over his hairless scalp. "My mom took me to a concert in '77 and I flipped. I wanted to be Gene Simmons. Look at me," he added, rolling out a long tongue. "We have something in common."
The spectacle and 'Sonic Boom' are in full force.

By Steve Appleford
Photo by Rob Grabowski

The KISS Army shows no signs of surrender in 2009. Nearly four decades after the pop-metal quartet first emerged amid fireballs and kabuki makeup, the fans still come. And they bring fresh recruits in the form of teens and toddlers, many in the same black-and-white face paint.

In the lobby of the Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, veteran fans watched the parade as they awaited KISS' explosive arrival onstage.

"This is huge! KISS is my whole life," declared Robert Edmondson, 43, of Monrovia. His smiling face was painted in the style of "The Demon," worn by singer-bassist Gene Simmons. He had a long, black wig over his hairless scalp. "My mom took me to a concert in '77 and I flipped. I wanted to be Gene Simmons. Look at me," he added, rolling out a long tongue. "We have something in common."

As a big-time rock act, KISS is in a category all its own, the ultimate critic-proof band, and its appearance Tuesday night was less a concert than a circus of music, pyro and costumes, proudly focused more on spectacle than songs. This is what KISS does, and the KISS Army loves them for it.

Riffs, not rants

"You know we got trouble in the world," singer-guitarist Paul Stanley noted late in the two-hour performance. "If you came here thinking a rock 'n' roll band could tell you how to end global warming . . . you're in the wrong place tonight!"

The best of the old songs were still catchy and delivered a nice cheap thrill as Simmons shouted "Rock and Roll All Nite" to an exploding cloud of white confetti. "Black Diamond" erupted with dependably crashing hard-rock riffs.

At or near 60, bandleaders Simmons and Stanley remain a lively presence on stage, kicking up their platform shoes and maintaining the same commitment to grand gestures, stunts and fire-breathing. The makeup shields the band from the obvious passage of time, preserving its image just as it was in the glittery 1970s.

Two of the original members -- drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley -- are gone, but longtime replacements Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer filled those slots, respectively, with enthusiasm and ease.

With the notable exception of the band's 1983 hit "Lick It Up," most of the night was devoted to KISS' '70s heyday.

The new 'classic'

But the quartet also performed songs from "Sonic Boom," its first studio album in 11 years, which was released exclusively through Wal-Mart.

The album, produced by Stanley, was aimed at reconnecting with the thundering rock hooks of the band's most popular era, and fans were not unhappy. New songs included "Say Yeah," a catchy, anthemic tune that had the crowd singing along, as the many video screens on stage filled with the faces of fans wearing KISS makeup. Thayer unleashed a heavy riff on "Modern Day Delilah" as huge flames of orange, yellow, red and green exploded behind him.

Stanley had at least one new message for the KISS Army on duty: Buy that new album. "Get your butt down to Wal-Mart and pick up a copy," Stanley urged. "It's good. It's classic."

By GUSTAVO TURNER

It's not an unfamiliar L.A. story.

Paul Stanley is co-founder and part-owner of an endlessly diversifying entertainment company called KISS. As "The Starchild," he sings, plays rhythm guitar and writes songs for the band. There's a new album to promote, Sonic Boom, which Stanley's really proud of, and a world tour that brought him to Staples Center last night.

Born in the middle of the baby boom, Stanley Eisen turned 12 when the Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show. He grew up in Queens, New York, and attended the High School of Music and Art, alma mater of entertainers, hip designers, real-life Mad Men and MAD magazine luminaries. Stanley studied art there, though he also dabbled in rhythm guitar and was under the heavy sway of those first, unstoppable Zeppelin albums.

By GUSTAVO TURNER

It's not an unfamiliar L.A. story.

Paul Stanley is co-founder and part-owner of an endlessly diversifying entertainment company called KISS. As "The Starchild," he sings, plays rhythm guitar and writes songs for the band. There's a new album to promote, Sonic Boom, which Stanley's really proud of, and a world tour that brought him to Staples Center last night.

Born in the middle of the baby boom, Stanley Eisen turned 12 when the Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show. He grew up in Queens, New York, and attended the High School of Music and Art, alma mater of entertainers, hip designers, real-life Mad Men and MAD magazine luminaries. Stanley studied art there, though he also dabbled in rhythm guitar and was under the heavy sway of those first, unstoppable Zeppelin albums.

Eventually, he went into showbiz, partnering with a driven Israeli immigrant who calls himself Gene Simmons and rising to the top of his profession.

There were highs in the '70s, some lows in the '80s, but the band soldiered on in spite of critics and naysayers. Stanley had been visiting Los Angeles for work since the early '70s. In the '90s he left the East Coast for good, had a kid with a gorgeous actress and bought a big place in Beverly Hills.

Fast-forward to 2001: The actress turned into a complicated divorce, and Stanley turned to his first love, art, for "therapeutic reasons." At the age when Sinatra was brooding about the September of his years, Stanley kept fit (give or take a heart scare or two), kept working at his day job, took up painting and rebuilt his home life with a lawyer he met at ritzy Italian restaurant Ago on Melrose Boulevard.

Now 57, Stanley is still very wealthy and still working hard for the band he started. He's happily married to his second wife, with whom he has two small children. Beverly Hills magazine described their small 2007 wedding at the Pasadena Ritz-Carlton as "magical."

Stanley travels a lot for work, and when we caught up with him on the phone he was in Saskatoon, Canada, nursing a sore throat. He couldn't wait to get back to his family and beloved adoptive city.

"I really like to unwind in L.A.," he says. "Since I got kids of all different ages, I do different things. With the young ones - I have a 9-month-old daughter and a 3-year-old son - I like to go to Paradise Cove [in Malibu]. We sit around and play in the tide pools. There' nothing I like better than that.

"But then with my 15-year-old son," he continues, "we go to McCabe's and play with the guitars there." It's easy to picture Stanley - the hip, older dad with the long hair - and his teenage son, Evan, driving to the venerable Santa Monica music store on the weekends, the latest Raconteurs (he keeps up with classic-sounding new bands) or old-school Humble Pie blasting from the stereo. "I love McCabe's," Stanley adds raspingly on the phone from his hotel room. "It's very old-school, reminds me of the guitar stores I used to go to in New York in the '60s." This doesn't mean he's averse to Guitar Center, where he and Evan continue their bonding sessions over expensive vintage gear.

Another thing Stanley loves about the city is high-end cuisine, particularly Italian. "I really like Cecconi's [in West Hollywood] and Osteria Mozza. Italy has my favorite food and it's my favorite place to go on vacation." While others, like boisterous business partner Simmons, spend the spoils of success on gaudier stuff, for art-crazy Stanley an ideal family vacation is renting out a Medici villa.

After years in the showbiz mecca ("Man, Sunset Boulevard! It just blew me away. When I first arrived, I thought the Rainbow on Sunset was the closest I had come to rock & roll church!"), this Queens boy is now enjoying the kind of personal L.A. renaissance experienced by many successful men his age as they move past the September of their years into uncharted Octobers and Novembers.

And he has even started getting attention for his paintings. The efficient lady who arranges Stanley's press appointments tells us that one day some people came over to his house, noticed the framed artwork and started raving about it. "After that, he starting showing it in galleries and it's made about $3 million in sales," she says. Not bad for a side gig begun as an exercise in post-divorce solace.

Still, the painter's life will have to be put on hold while Stanley minds the store. His main career in showbiz is what's paying for the very comfortable life of the Beverly Hills gourmand, the rented villas and the art supplies.

After all, Stanley Eisen plays rhythm guitar and writes songs for the world-famous band KISS.