See, kayleigh, Genesis has a reason for the breast implants: s/he wants to break down the concept of male and female to prevent people from viewing and hating those whom they consider to be different. S/he is using the body as a living sculpture to try to change culture...just like s/he tried to use music to do.

I think Genesis overlooked something important, though, in the decision to get breast implants: the whole idea that "women have plump breasts" is a stereotype (the reality is that there is a wide range of chest sizes for women *and* men)...so I would argue with Genesis that it is his/her own stereotypes rather than human biology against which he/she is struggling.

But he didn't do it to look like women in general.

He did it to look like one woman, his wife.

Oh. He must really admire her then! Now he can get that cuddly feeling even in her absence.

Which is quite often, she died 2 years ago.

Sorry didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable :o:

I am the worst person ever. The way that was worded made me laugh a little :laughing: then I realised how sickening that was :(.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...nH/genesis.jpg
They make a lovely couple

Every day must have been like looking in a funhouse mirror for her.

:laughing: I'm not sure I'd appreciate my boyfriend getting breast implants and facial surgery, just to look like me. I think that would be the final straw :laughing:

No need to worry about her anymore - she died of stomach cancer a couple years ago.

Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge Of Psychic TV Dead - mediabistro.com: FishbowlNY

Ah, I didn't know she had died. That's sad. (Don't worry...I didn't feel uncomfortable :) ). So you mean they *made* a lovely couple, Urban.

Genesis did do a pretty good job of looking like his wife, I'll give him that. I hear married people often end up kind of looking alike (wearing similar clothes, etc.). Maybe he just wanted to speed up the process! Perhaps that was a good thing...since she didn't have a chance to grow old with him.

Oops, I see that Urban had already addressed the death before I did (didn't scroll back before I replied).
But, yeah, as has been pointed out, he does have a reason for having breast implants beyond simply wanting tits.
His reason may sound abnormal but norms are meaningless anyway. I guarantee you that the people that Genesis has surrounded himself with for decades (i.e. New York avant garde artists) will consider the life of Genesis and Lady Jaye to be far more normal than a couple who lives in a house in the suburbs, gets woken up every morning by an alarm clock and drives to a job that they hate - just so they can pay the bills to keep living that way (or in your words, kayleigh: for NO reason). Not to get overly philosophical but that's why I feel that Genesis is not much different than a regular person. It's normal for people to do all kinds of strange things.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...nH/2540055.jpg
Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation

So it's just occurred to me that I have never listened to this album in it's entirety.

I have always been a bit dubious of people claiming that the New York scene 'invented' punk and albums like this one just confirm that for me.
Aside from the two big songs on here, of which I enjoy both (Love Comes In Spurts & the title track) this is basically an album of dire pub rock with rehashed Stones riffs. Either that or the bastard offspring of the New York Dolls & Jonathan Richmond.

Now I happen to enjoy dire pub rock with rehashed Stones riffs don't get me wrong, we'll call it a guilty pleasure. But there was tons of this stuff around in the mid 70s. I don't see why Richard Hell or this album seems to have been put up on a pedestal. Why not Dr Feelgood or Joe Strummer with the 101ers?
In fact you could probably go to any club around London in 1975 and hear something like this.

Listening to this just made me want to listen to the two good songs and then hear it done properly by putting on a New York Dolls album.

I can almost imagine hearing Johnny Lydon laughing his bollocks off that anyone would even imagine he would steal from something this banal.

To sum up I don't think I've missed out a single thing not having heard this album as none of the other songs even approached how good the two songs I had heard were.

Would have made a cracking 7 inch single though.

I always thought, that it was his look and image more than his music that inspired punk and especially Malcolm McLaren.

I’d never heard of Richard Hell & The Voidoids before, so I listened to “Blank Generation” and “Love comes in spurts” (spurts? Hmm....) to hear what makes their music banal.

Since I wasn’t around London in 1975 (I was over on the continent), I must take your word for it that Richard Hell & The Voidoids’ music sounds a lot like dire pub rock commonly played then in pubs.

For what it’s worth, the “Blank Generation” song reminds me of “Stray Cat Strut” by the Stray Cats, whose music apparently has some punk rock elements. I like “Stray Cat Strut” better than “Blank Generation,” though, because “Stray Cat Strut” has a cleaner sound and mentions cats. Cat songs are cool.

As for why Richard Hell might be put up on a pedestal as a shining example of early punk rockers, maybe it's because “Hell was an originator of the punk fashion look, the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins,” at least according to a friend of mine, whom I’ll call "Wikipedia."

There is one thing I like about Richard Hell & The Voidoids, though (other than safety pin fashion): the lead singer’s first name. That’s a nice name, isn’t it? I've always liked the name Richard...though I think its abbreviated version must cause some embarrassment for shy individuals. If I had been Richard, I probably would have just faced it head on and called my group, "Dick Hell & The Voidoids."

Robert Quine's extraordinary guitar work on that album is what sets it apart. One second he sounds like a spot on, out of tune train wreck, the next he's highly technical and sweet, IE. "The Plan". Quine's got it totally together and is the high-light of this record.

sorry to break the topic so much, but that almost sounds ripped from the pages of fight club. not that fight club was anything overly original to start with, and many other philosophical ideas have said similar concepts, its just the most famous iteration of it i know as a male who read it in the teens. as for the concept of breaking down social norms, it does seem very strange to see, but more because a love that strong existed that he would make permanent, and drastic, changes to his body in a time when marriages carry very little weight

Yea - I wasn't trying to be clever, just making a point about the subjectivity of social norms. As you pointed out, this is not a new notion or a new way of saying it, rather it's a "famous iteration" (I like that phrase) of the idea. Still, it's an idea that hardly anybody takes seriously. That's why we get cathartic joy from literature like Fight Club and the "freakishness" of Genesis's boob implants. I was just saying that living outside of social norms is not necessarily an out of reach ideal that we only read about in fiction or philosophy books. Some people actually live that way.

I'm not sure I understand your point but if you're saying that Genesis's plastic surgery is a more drastic and possibly more meaningful expression of love than marriage is, then I agree with you.

yeah... thats the point i was making. we see it as ridiculous at the same time as talking about how love is blind and love conquers all

URBAN'S REVIEWS FOR PEOPLE WITH A.D.H.D.

In a continuing series which will probably continue for a week or so until I get bored of doing it I shall attempt to sum up what I think of an album in the most constructive way I can in as little words as I can.
To start this off I shall be reviewing....

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/45830.jpg
No 1 - Trumans Water - Fragments of a Lucky Break - 1998

'Hmmm, shall we rip off Miles Davis, Sonic Youth or The Fall'
'Fuck it... Let's do all three at once'

I quite enjoyed this, dragged a bit towards the end though.

7/10

Sounds like a quarter of my hard-drive then!

^ This is all just so sweet. Really.

MORE!!

Wombles and Blondie in the same post? Debbie Harry is definitely one of the prettiest ladies in music. ++++ points.

One of the things i wanted to do in this pitiful attempt at a journal was at some point to review a tribute album. I've always enjoyed listening to tribute albums because they're such a mixed bag. Usually the first thing you look for is your favourite songs and usually when you end up hearing them they're nearly always disappointing and it's usually the obscure gems done by artists you're not familiar with that end up grabbing your attention the most.

My first choice album for doing this was originally going to be Hard To Believe : A Compilation Of Kiss Covers, The Kiss covers album that came out in the early 90s that's most well known for featuring Nirvana's cover of Do You Love Me? But after listening to it I decided against it given that all the songs on it are pretty much covered by grunge bands and although I enjoy the album it's not really interesting or diverse enough for me to muster the energy to write about it.

Then on my online travels I came across this album. Released in 1998 it's a part of a series released by John Zorn's Tzadik label that also includes tribute albums to people such as Burt Bacharach & Serge Gainsbourg. Having looked at the weird & wonderful list of artists that appear on the album I decided this had been the album I had been looking for to write about and so here we are.

Arto Lindsay & Marc Ribot - Childern Of The Revolution
Both Arto Lindsay & Marc Ribot are artists who although I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan of I do see their names popping up with alarming regularity on records I enjoy. Also this was one of the first T Rex songs I had ever heard so I was hoping this would start the album off with a bang. I wasn't disappointed, this rocks.
It's pretty much a straight 'rock' cover but Lindsay & Ribot turn it into a bombastic monster that someone like Motorhead would be proud of. Towards the last couple of minutes of the song it just turns into a wall of noise but the base of the song is so firm that it never descends into chaos. Basically this is a pretty awesome cover and a great way to open the album.

Rebecca Moore - Telegram Sam
I didn't know who Rebecca Moore was so I looked her up.

"Rebecca Moore is a musician and actress. Known mostly for being the lover and onetime muse of Jeff Buckley as well as her participation in experimental theater productions and experimental music. She is the daughter of noted art photographer, Peter Moore and his wife, Barbara, an art historian."

So, I thought to myself. This is going to be a really slow version of the song with a load of electronic effects going on in the background.

I started listening to the song

It's a a really slow version of the song with a load of electronic effects going on in the background.

I beginning to think that for every tribute album planned it says in the contract that there must be at least one rock song performed by a female artist who will slow it down & turn it into some kind of ballad. And it get's on my bloody nerves every time. Any swagger that the original song had has been turning to some monotonous dirge.

Horrible.

Kramer - Get It On
The Smurfs do dance music.
It actually rather works.
I enjoyed it anyway.

Melvins - Buick MacCain
If you've ever heard the original song and you've ever heard the Melvins you pretty much know what you're going to get.
It's slow, it's heavy, it's noisy it's the Melvins.

This is the Ronseal track of the album

Medeski, Martin & Wood - Groove A Little
I'm a little familiar with Medeski, Martin & Wood. I heard one of thier albums last year sometime and although it didn't exactly blow me away it sustained my interest till the end. Their take on this is similar to one of those kind of 'Joe Smith plays the hits of the day on his hammond organ' type albums that i'm sure people over the age of 30 will remember their parents owning in their childhood. Thankfully they decided to keep the riff of the song and make it sound dirty as hell which keep things ticking over nicely to the end of the song.

Lo Galluccio - Cosmic Dancer
Another female jazz / avant garde singer so you know exactly where this song is going.

Yep .... Dronesville


zzzzzzzzzz


Fantômas - Chariot Choogle
Although Mike Patton gets on my tits this is a welcome break after the last song. I don't remember the original song sounding anything like this but it's loud, it's fast, it's weird and it's over before you get bored of it.
Exactly the kind of thing the album needs at this point.


Tall Dwarves - Ride A White Swan
I would say that it was this song that I held out the most hope for before I listened to the album, and thankfully I was right.
This is pretty much a straight cover of the original with a little extra bounce & energy and all the better for it. It's one of those songs that you stick on a compilation to save you the effort of having to listen to the rest of this album.
Easily the best track on the album so far.


Chris Cochrane - Rip Off
Starts off with a heavy bassline, a bunch of electronic noise & lots of guitar distortion and goes into some kind of average so-so electronica track. Then just as I am beginning to wonder if I should skip to the next track halfway through the song all this is ditched and it's just a guy singing the song playing the banjo. By the time you've adjusted to this you think perhaps you should give the song a bit longer to see how this plays out and while you're doing that the song goes back to the electronica hum-drum it started as orginally & reaches it's climax.
Bizarre.

Gary Lucas - Daboraarobed
Deborah is one of those songs thats so catchy even an idiot could cover it and it would sound good.
This is a pretty decent cover it's done acoustically (like the original) and played at about twice the speed and it's great.

However for some bizarre reason they decided to swamp the track with a droning buzzsaw type electric guitar in the background which comes to the fore at the end of the track, and it's really really irritating.
I'd love to hear a version of it without that because it would be perfect.


Ezster Balint - Mambo Sun
This was a surprise hit on the album for me. When the song started it started slowly with crackles of guitar & cheap synth sounds and i'm wondering if i'm about to hear chick snoozefest No 3. But there's just something about the same that you just know it's going to kick in at some point. Then suddenly the song explodes into a typical 90s female fronted alt-rock song. Think something like the Breeders or Throwing Muses if you want a comparison.
As i'm listening to the song i'm wondering who this Ezster Balint is. I read that she's also a violinist and as if on cue she knocks out this killer noise ridden violin solo before the song reaches it's climax.
Pretty good in all.


Vernon Reid - Jeepster
You know how at the beginning of this review I said that the songs that you look forward to before you hear the album are nearly always the most disappointing ones.
Well here it is.
The best thing about the original of the song was that it was up-tempo bouncy & catchy and it forced you to want to clap your hands along with the song.

Sadly all of this seems to have escaped Vernon who slows the song down and makes it heavier.
Basically this song now sounds like it was performed by an early 90s grunge band with Vernon showing off his guitar histrionics in the background. And once you realise that the song is going to be at this pace until the end you just want it to be put out of it's misery.
Awful

Danny Cohen - Lunacy's Back
Didn't like this one at all. It sounds kind of halfway between a country song & a lounge song.
Regardless of that it was really the vocals that turned me off. He sounded like he was going to burst into tears at any moment.
No idea who Danny Cohen is and a google search revealed nothing so i'm guessing he never really did much after this.


Elysian Fields - Life's A Gas
Life's A Gas is one of my favourite ballads of all time & if there's one song on this album that could be done justice with a female singer it's this one. The music on this is pretty minimalist, a few jazzy bits, a soft unintuitive guitar solo. The main focus on the song being Jennifer Charles's vocals, and the song is all the better for that.
Another album highlight.

Yuko Honda & Sean Lennon - Would I Be The One
I had high hopes for this one. Around the time this album was released in 1998 I bought Sean Lennon's first solo album Into The Sun (Which people here really should check out) . And I played that album to death for years.
I was hoping that this song would be in a similar vein to that album with it's kind of laid back summery pop that wowed me back in 1998 and i'm glad to say it does just that.
Apparently Lennon was unhappy with the cheap recording of this song & re-did it on his 2006 album Friendly Fire.
So now I have another album to get hold of.
This was great though.

Cake Like - Love Charm
Didn't know much about this band so I did some finding out. Apparently they're a female 3 piece who were signed to Neil Young's record label because he liked the cover of their debut album. The music itself is your typical 90s grungy alt rock. Not terrible but not mindblowingly great either.

Trey Spruance - Scenescof
Crap

Buckethead - 20th Century Boy
I was really dreading this one.
20th Century Boy is the most obvious 'Rock Anthem' on this album
And it's being covered by a 'Guitar Hero'
I also quite like this song
This can only end in tears.

I suddenly noticed that the song is over 7 minutes long and it soon became apparent why.
It starts off with a 2 minute widdly widdly guitar solo that almost sent me to sleep.
When the song finally starts you realise that this sounds like some crap (With much emphasis on the CRAP part of the description) hair metal band covering the song in the 80s with extended guitar hero histrionics
I have 80s hair metal band The Cult wannabes Bang Tango covering this song on an album somewhere.
It's a damn sight better than this awful crap.

Lloyd Cole - Romany Soup
I know of Lloyd Cole, I know he had some success in the 80s although I can't recall a single song by him. My main memory of Lloyd Cole is him being dissed by Mark E Smith at the beginning of Cruisers Creek on the Peel Sessions collection.

It's kind of inoffensive laid back electronica with even more laid back vocals. It's extremely repetitive and you never really get the impression that the song is going anywhere. Seems an odd choice of an album closer to me.
Not terrible but doesn't really set the world on fire either.


An interesting collection with lots of John Zorn known associates showing up. There are more misses than hits but there is some good stuff to be found here. Which is exactly what i predicted at the beginning before I'd heard a note.

Highlights
Arto Lindsay & Marc Ribot
Tall Dwaves
Ezster Balint
Elysian Feilds
Yuko Honda & Sean Lennon

Lowlights
Rebecca Moore
Vernon Reid
Trey Spuance
Buckethead

There's a good mate of mine who lives nearby, and every time he comes over to have a few drinks, he always berates me for not having anything Marc Bolan-related on my iTunes except for Born To Boogie. I think I might just have to get hold of this so I can dumbfound him next time :D

Tribute albums are interesting ones and, as you point out, it's always the songs you really want to hear covers of that turn out the most disappointing. I'd be lying if I said I had many of them though. Just We Were So Turned On to David Bowie, the I'm Your Man live album to Leonard Cohen, Almost You to Elvis Costello and Return Of the Grievous Angel to Gram Parsons. It's pretty much that exact case with all of them though.

Good to see this journal back in business by the way.

URBAN'S REVIEWS FOR PEOPLE WITH A.D.H.D.

This week

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...uns_cover2.jpg
No 2 - Stick Men With Ray Guns - Some People Deserve To Suffer - 2002 (Recorded 1981-87)

A bunch of hillbillys start a punk band and decide to become a Flipper tribute band.

Fun piece of trivia : Lead singer Bobby Soxx's party piece was to shove the microphone up his own arse at the end of their set.

Did I mention this album is awesome.

9/10

You said something about Flipper and ADHD. I'm interested.

I have A.D.H.D. I thoroughly enjoyed your review. I hope to go to Florida soon.

Hm, for some reason that review made me want to download that album.

Then I saw the one review for it on amazon:

Now I really want to get it

10. Dr. Dre - I Need A Doctor (feat. Eminem & Skylar Grey)

Nice to know that after all these years Eminem still sounds like a petulant teenager who's whining about being grounded. The video is hilarious. He looks like a little kid lost on some sci fi movie set. I was half expecting some guy in a clipboard to come into shot and lead him away to where his mummy was waiting for him in the wings
This is over slick, over glossy, over expensive, over produced garbage.
This is to hip hop what November Rain was to rock music.
You hit a moment where you think to yourself ...WHY?
Don't you have anything interesting left to say?
Where's the attitude?
Where's the energy?
Where's the balls?
Hip hop now reminds me so much of how hair metal was circa 1990, just lost in it's own extravagance, fat & bloated just waiting to die.
Now if only something would come along & kill it.


09. Rihanna - S&M (Come On)
Boom
Thud
Boom
Thud
Boom
Thud
(Parpy 80s synths)
Boom
Thud
Boom
Thud
Boom
Thud
(Parpy 80s synths)
Boom
Thud
Boom
Thud
Boom
Thud
(Parpy 80s synths)
Rihanna is wailing away over the top of this about how she's such a kinky bitch or something.
Just like that last female pop singer who said the exact same thing probably using the exact same beat & tune maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago.
I couldn't watch the video to this. It's too dangerous for my virgin eyes apparently and I couldn't be bothered signing up an account on Youtube just for this shit. Which is quite funny considering her titties have been splashed (literally) all over the internet and viewable just about everywhere.
Still at least I know who she is which is more than I can say for....

08. Katy B - Broken Record
Like one of those anonymous club anthem one hit wonders from the 90s
Katy B ladies & gentlemen 2011's Olive
everybody sing along with me
"Youuuuu are not alllllloooone"

07. Jessie J - Price Tag (feat. B.o.B)
Why is it that every music producer seems to think that sticking a rap in the middle of a song that clearly doesn't need one makes it sound hip?
Do something different for fuck sake
How about a kazoo solo?
How about a marching band?
How about a stadium full of people with vuvuzela's
How about an entire fucking orchestra made up of people with down syndrome?
Anything but another fucking rap

B.o.B .. You're not needed on this record
Fuck off.

06. Wiz Khalifa - Black And Yellow
The best tribute to Stryper I have ever heard
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...nH/stryper.jpg

05. Nicole Scherzinger - Don't Hold Your Breath
No please do hold your breath.
Preferably for around 5 minutes or so.
Let us know how you do

04. The Black Eyed Peas - Just Can't Get Enough
Fortunately I did however get enough of this autotuned peice of shit, somewhere around the 20 second mark.

03. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock
Timmy Mallet retro cool
Actually forget that, It makes it sound much better than it actually is.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/tim.jpg
Spot The Difference

02. Adele - Someone Like You
This song breaks all the laws of physics. Time seems to ground to a halt, The concept of infinity becomes a revelation in your mind. The understanding of it rushes over you and you realise that you are a part of something never ending (this song). Adele quite literally has invented something that will go on forever. i bet she's still in a recording studio as we speak still singing it and whether it be 100 year, a million years, a million million years this song will still be going on in a seemingly endless loop for all eternity.
Or at least it felt like it anyway.

Dull

01. Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor ft. Pitbull
Booty shaking club anthem taken from her forthcoming concept album based on the life & works of Russian poet & playwrite Vladimir Mayakovsky and his concepts of Russian futurism entitled A Slap Of My Arse In The Face Of Public Taste.
Pitbull says "Yeah, Yeah" a lot.

Eminem grates like nails on a chalkboard for me. I loved the guy when I was a kid, and I think there's something of a fire in the belly of his first two albums, but to say I've turned on the philandering cunt over the years would be an understatement.

That Rihanna tune is just knockoff garbage. It's unabashed Gaga-lite, as if the world needed any of that.

Listening to Adele is like listening to paint dry...I'd sooner be caught listening to fucking Enya.

And as for the Black Eyed Peas, they seem to exist for the sole purpose of finding me new reasons to hate them every week.

Urban the ADHD review was brilliant. Love the music, it's like a whisky and a pack a day version of David Yow on vocals.

Ridiculous Moments In Music History

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/01.jpg
1. Introducing your teacher with the matching moustachioed/afro permed combo Mr Richie.


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/02.jpg
2. Introducing the blind chick, here seen acting giving the brush off to another equally moustachioed fellow student.


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/03.jpg
3. Lionel thinks 'Mmmm I'm gonna get me some of that'


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/04.jpg
4. Lionel decides that stalking her in a ridiculous jumper is the best policy.


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/05.jpg
5. Blind chick takes solace in a giant lump of clay.


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/06.jpg
6. Lionel decides to stalk her some more.


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/07.jpg
7. Blind chick is disturbed by a phone call in bed.
Who could it be?????????.......

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/08.jpg
8. It's Lionel!!!!!
And he's decided that singing to her down the phone will get into her panties.


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/09.jpg
9. But then decides to hang up after one line


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/10-1.jpg
10. Blind chick decides ' Most romantic thing EVAAAAAA' And then goes to sleep dreaming about Lionel's matching moustache & afro.


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/11.jpg
11. The next day Lionel is back, hard at work probably writing Dancing On The Ceiling or something.


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/12.jpg
12. When he's informed of a commotion in the art room.....


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/13.jpg
13. The blind chick reveals her masterpiece, A bust of a neanderthal Tom Selleck


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/14.jpg
14. Lionel informs blind chick that he has something else she can touch if she so wishes, and they both live happily ever after.

I thoroughly enjoyed that. I hope there are more exciting true stories to come.
My only critique is the mustache on the bust of big Tom S is not nearly bushy enough.

No matter how many times I watch that video that clay bust always cracks me up.

Please, in the future, Dancing in the Street. :laughing:

That look at the UK charts was the first time I've seen the top ten in years and how depressing it is. Thanks for adding humour to an otherwise morbid read.

For a long time I have wanted to do something with Kiss's solo albums but never really thought much about it and as a result I been holding this off for ages.

Last Christmas my sister bought me Larry Harris's book '...And Party Every Day' which is about his time being 2nd in command at Casablanca Records in the 70s. With Kiss being Casablanca's main act and a large portion of the book being dedicated to them I found out quite a lot about the behind the scenes workings as to how the 4 solo albums came about now with that extra info at my disposal I feel motivated enough to give this a shot and to look at all four of those Kiss solo albums released all on the same day on September 18th 1978.

The allowance of solo albums had been a part of Kiss's contract with Casablanca but it wasn't until late 1977 after 6 straight albums & tours in 4 years that the label began hearing mutterings of certain members of the band wanting to do other things.

Peter Criss & Ace Frehley were the most vocal about this feeling that they were secondary to Gene & Paul. They because less involved with the band and more interested in various substances and all the other trappings that fame & fortune gives you.

Both Gene & Paul were against the idea at first, wanting to carry on releasing Kiss albums but when things started fall apart badly during the filming of Phantom Of The Park with Ace Frehley going AWOL during filming and Peter Criss getting into a serious car accident while drunk they decided that some time apart would do the band more good than harm.
The band reached a compromise that they would all release solo albums, all on the same day, all under the Kiss banner and all dedicated to the other 3 members of the band.

Casablanca Records were against the idea, they had already been bailed out of debt and just been taken over by Polygram Records. This kind of stunt was just the sort of thing that put them in debt in the first place, plus solo albums never sold well and were worth half an album on Kiss's contract. Meaning that 4 solo albums would mean that Kiss would have to deliver Casablanca 2 less albums to fulfil their contract. The label told Kiss manager Bill Aucoin they wouldn't do it, Aucoin told them that things had fallen apart in the band so badly if they didn't allow it to happen by the following year there wouldn't be a Kiss.

On the run up to the albums releases both the band & the record company got together to discuss the details. The record company wanted to press 500,000 copies of each album thus certifying them gold. Kiss wanted one million copies of each album pressed meaning they could say each album had gone platinum. As Kiss's last release had sold around the 5 million mark up to that point the record company relented and in total around 4.3 million copies of the albums were pressed.

It was a total disaster, each album barely scraped around 500,000 sales meaning that Casablanca were looking at over 2 million albums being unsold & thrown into bargain bins across the world. The company lost millions on both getting the albums out & promoting them heavily, Polygram were furious, Other record were furious as well because all their top stars would now want to know why their record companies wouldn't give them the same kind of deal that Casablanca gave Kiss.

Despite all the predictions that Gene & Paul's albums who would sell the most it was actually Ace Frehley who sold the most copies of his album (Just a few thousand more than Paul Stanley's) off the back of his minor hit single 'New York Groove'. Even more amazing when you consider that up till that point the only song Frehley had sung on with Kiss was 'Shock Me' on the Love Gun album.

Although the albums were a total failure I think you have to admire the balls to do something different. Despite what some people thing there is some great stuff on these albums. so I think I shall dig a little deeper into them.........

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/166650.jpg
Peter Criss

First of all I have to say that it's almost impossible for me to take an album seriously that has a song on it entitled That's The Kind Of Sugar Papa Likes' on it, let alone listen to the damn thing. But I shall persevere.

Now, I'm not going to start this having a full blown rant about Peter Criss, I feel that's unfair. He's a bit of a fall guy for the band. I'm not even going to give him shit for doing 'Beth' either. As a matter of fact I happen to like a couple of songs Peter Criss did for Kiss. There's Black Diamond, probably one of the highlights on the debut album. He didn't write it, Paul Stanley did. But that's not the point.
I also happen to think that Hard Luck Woman is a pretty decent Faces type ballad, which is understanding really when you realise that it was written with Rod Stewart in mind originally. Peter does his best Rod Stewart impersonation and manages to pull it off pretty well. OK he didn't write that either (Paul Stanley did) but that's not the point.

Actually this isn't really going anywhere, let's start again.

I quite like the song Peter wrote & performed on the Dynasty album, Dirty Livin' and there's another one he did on the Unmasked album too which is pretty good, but it's so long since I listened to that album I can't remember which one. But the point is I'm not here to bury Peter Criss I'm willing to give him a fair shake, so let's listen to this album.

God this is awful

The first thing that really grabs me about this album is the total lack of danger. Everything about this album is 'nice'. And I don't mean that in a good way. There's no edge to anything on this at all. All the ballads are just mawkish cheesy rubbish and all the 'rock n roll' songs sounds like they were performed by some musical theatre company. It's just this collection of bland wishy washy 70s soft rock.

Apparently a lot of these songs were written in 1971 for a band called Lips who Criss was a member of back then. Given by that point Kiss had released 6 studio albums and Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley raided their old band Wicked Lester for a load of songs on the first couple of Kiss albums you'd think that maybe they might use a couple of Criss's old songs too. Having listened to most of this crap I think it's painfully obvious why they didn't and why Lips never got signed and why these songs were sitting around for 7 years doing nothing .... BECAUSE THEY'RE FUCKING AWFUL.

Highlights of this album? Well if you're really going to put me at gunpoint to name one there's always Criss's cover of R&B singer Bobby Lewis's Tossin' & Turnin' Which did make it into Kiss's live tour when they got back together again after this.
Not that I want you to think it's any good, it's just not as terrible as the rest of the album in the same way that shitting yourself if you are wearing boxer shorts isn't as terrible as shitting yourself if you are wearing boxer shorts AND trousers.
It really is that bad.

There, a whole review of Peter Criss's solo album without once mentioning kitty litter.
That has to be worth something.

Rating: http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...H/hairball.jpg