Thanks to Frank Hagen of KISS Mask for digging up all this great footage of KISS in Argentina this week.
Daily Archives: November 9, 2012
First-Ever Interview With Bill Finneran, The Maker Of “The Elder” Door
Tim McPhate | KissFAQ
Veteran prop maker discusses building the door used for the album cover for KISS’ 1981 concept album “Music From The Elder”
In conjunction with KissFAQ’s month-long NovElder retrospective, Manhattan Model Shop’s Bill Finneran discussed the creative process and construction of the door prop used for the album cover for KISS’ 1981 “Music From The Elder.” This marks the first time in KISStory Finneran has commented on his role on the project.
The following are excerpts from Finneran’s interview with KissFAQ’s Tim McPhate:
Getting involved with the project:
KF: I spoke with Dennis Woloch, who was the art director for “Music From The Elder.” Dennis mentioned he got in touch with you to work on the project. Do you remember anything about your initial conversation?
BF: Yeah, he was a big tall guy. We talked on the phone first and then he came down to the studio and we talked about what he wanted to do. From our point of view, [the job] was very straightforward, in terms of the technical aspects of it. It was like a lot of props we had made. We were not technically involved in doing album covers. It was rare that anyone wanted to make a prop for an album cover. You know, they were almost always location shots with talent. So it was an unusual thing, but we were quite interested in doing it. The techniques we used we had used in other similar projects. The nice thing about our business for all the hundreds of years we’ve been doing it is it’s rare that the same thing comes up twice. The projects are always quite unique. They share certain technical categories with other similar projects but they’re all very different. And this one was the same, it was very different. We never did anything like it again. I don’t think we ever did another album cover, to be honest with you. I can’t think of one.
About “The Elder” door’s construction:
KF: But the actual door is wood, correct?
BF: Yes, it’s wood. It’s white pine wood. It’s soft. Typically a door like that would be made out of a hard wood, like oak or ash. But this was easier for us to manipulate. And we’re not looking for durability, we’re just looking for “a look.”
Peter Criss Stabbed a Guy, Gene Simmons Stinks: Filthy Riffs From KISS Drummer’s Tell-All
David Marchese | Spin
You wanted the best, you got — well, we don’t know if Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of KISS (Scribner), drummer Peter Criss’ memoir, is the best at anything other than being what it is, but the book does deliver some primo rock sleaze. Here are our picks for the Catman’s gnarliest anecdotes:
(The easily offended should probably stop reading now.)
Sweet Pain: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was a rough place in ’60s, when Criss was growing up there. He fit right in, and not in some charming bygone outer borough way. Early in the book, Criss describes a gang encounter that quickly escalates into a blood bath. “This Puerto Rican kid was right behind me and he grabbed a garbage can lid and started beating my head in with it . . . I popped my switchblade out, turned around, and boom, the blade went right up his armpit and out through his shoulder.” Don’t worry though. “He was the first and only guy I’ve ever stabbed.”
Rip It Out: As Criss tells it, lethargic KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley’s Spaceman persona wasn’t much of an act. At the latter’s first audition with the band, “He told us his name was Ace and he was from the Bronx but he really was an alien from a planet named Jandel.” Perhaps even more disconcerting was the fact that Frehley “wasn’t lazy, however, when it came to beating his meat. Every chance he got, he’d jerk off.”
Gene Simmons still rocking and roaring with KISS
Melissa Ruggieri | Access Atlanta
Brian Lowe
Ask Gene Simmons how he’s doing and the response is, “deliriously happy.”
Why?
“Because I get to be Gene Simmons for another day,” he replies.
What better opening from one of the proud lions of rock ‘n’ roll?
He’s a showman, a shrewd businessman, a wily TV star. Of course he’s delirious.
Simmons and the rest of KISS –singer Paul Stanley, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer – just wrapped a 40-plus-date summer tour with Motley Crue (it played Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood in July), but don’t even hint at KISS taking a break.
The band released “Monster” on Tuesday, its 24th studio album. And it’s a firecracker. KISS hasn’t sounded this pumped or tight since “Rock and Roll Over,” and songs such as “Freak,” “All for the Love of Rock and Roll” and the Simmons-sung “The Devil is Me” should rattle the roofs of the arenas on the 60 shows they’re planning for South America and Europe (expect a U.S. return in about a year) to promote the release.
The always-entertaining Simmons, 63, checked in recently from Boston to talk “Monster,” life beyond the now-ended A&E reality show, “Gene Simmons Family Jewels” and what items in the world can still be KISS-ified.
Q. You’ve said in the past that it drove you crazy that bands weren’t interested in putting on a show, and how they’d stand up there and stare at their shoes. Do you still think that’s the case?
A. It baffles me. I just don’t understand it. You’re a woman and if you’re going out, why wouldn’t you put on your makeup and do your hair? Same thing. Why would you go on stage looking like a bum? There is only one personality [currently] who totally has the goods and that’s Lady Gaga. She’s not classically a rock act, but she’s the real deal. She cares about the shows and the appearance. That’s what you want a star to be. Maroon 5 has great songs, but I don’t want to look at them.