Mitch Lafon

There are only ten days left to pledge for the KISS 40th Anniversary Tribute Album for Cancer Care.

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/kiss40thtribute

This album will not be sold via iTunes or Amazon – THIS is the only way to get it. It features the following artists:

1. Bumblefoot
2. Bill Leverty
3. Russ Dwarf
4. Terry Ilous w/ Sean Kelly
5. Willie Basse
6. Rex Brown & Mark Zavon
7. Ron Keel
8. Doro Pesch & Johnny Dee
9. Slaves On Dope
10. Don Dokken11. Mark Tornillo12. Honeymoon Suite
13. Jeff Paris
14. Phil Naro
15. Phil Lewis
16. Chris Van Dahl
17. Ron Young
18. The Feckers
19. Sass Jordan & Brian Tichy (SUN)
20. Eric Carr – featuring his demo track: Eyes Of Love
21. GEOFF TATE
22. Chris Buck

Mitch Lafon 

Rock Reporter & photographer

KISS 40th Anniversary Tribute album for cancer care: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/kiss40thtribute

Gibson

KISS bassist Gene Simmons appeared in an unusual venue this past Saturday. Gene’s fans are used to see the monster rocker in full makeup spitting blood and fire on stage with KISS, but this past weekend Simmons made a surprise appearance at a Sioux Falls benefit concert for Sioux Falls Boys & Girls Clubs members.

Simmons spoke on the importance of music as a way to boost self-esteem in kids, as reported by Billboard: “It doesn’t matter if you become a star. If you don’t believe in yourself and get up on stage, everybody is watching. You can feel the power … and it helps you get through life, especially when you’re impressionable.”

Motley Crüe singer Vince Neil was also at the event, speaking on the same issues as Simmons: “Say you finish your first song, it could be `Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ it doesn’t matter, but at least it’s something you’ve played, and I think for kids, they could go into a whole other direction because they accomplished something.”

Cassius Morris

by: Christopher Franchi

On Tuesday, April 2, 2013, the worldwide KISS community lost not only one of the best retailers, but one of the most genuine, honest, friendly, and well-liked people in the KISS world. Hans Paulson, the owner/operator of kiss4sale.com passed away, at the young age of 45. He leaves behind his loving wife Angie, and children Cameron, Alyssa and Zak.

I met Hans when I was a guest at the New York KISS Expo back in 2003. We immediately hit it off and were friends from that day forward. Who could not like a guy with a 24 hour smile, so full of energy, a love for what he did, a greater love for his wife and kids. Just an amazing guy. Instantly likable from the moment you’d meet him.

We went on to become close friends. Even though we were separated by Lake Michigan, we always talked on the phone, sometimes for hours, while I had to endure the sound of his loud tape gun, as he would be busy packing KISS collectibles to send out to the world. It was a sound I grew to love, and the sound that ensured the stability of his wonderful family. This was how Hans made his living. His love for KISS grew into a business, and there probably isn’t a KISS fan out there that hasn’t at one time or another, bought something from Hans’ website. He had it all, and if he didn’t have what you wanted, he’d get it. That’s just the kind of guy he was, and this is why his customers came back again and again.

While KISS was on the World Domination Tour, I was scheduled to shoot the Detroit show for the band, for use in their magazine. I requested a second VIP pass for Hans, who would double as my assistant for the day. He didn’t know squat about photography, but

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theHim.net

Bruce Howard Kulick (born December 12, 1953 in New York) is an American guitarist, musician and a member of the band Grand Funk Railroad. Previously, Kulick had been a longtime member of the band Kiss.

I caught up to Bruce on-line for my 10 question interview:

 At what age did you discover that playing the guitar was for you?

When I first saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964, I was amazed at what they did. From that moment on, my life has been filled with Guitars and all things Music!

How did you land the gig with Blackjack?

From my being around the NYC area, Michael Bolton was from Connecticut . Easy for us to hook up and then he got a record contract, but needed a band. He asked me to be the guitarist. I really learned a lot about what it was to tour and record on a higher level than before.

Most people know your KISS story, so I won’t go down that road again, though I have a few KISS related questions

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Grant Segall | Celveland.com

Glickman, 86, died Thursday, March 28, at the Cleveland Clinic after several years of complications from kidney disease.

“He could be a demanding, tough businessman, yet he was everyone’s favorite landlord,” said lawyer Jerry Gold, a long-time friend and tenant of Glickman at the Leader Building. “If someone was behind in rent, he’d say, ‘Well, try to catch up.’ He picked up checks everywhere.”

With other investors, Glickman built shopping strips around the country, bought the Leader and Huntington buildings, owned leasehold rights for Terminal Tower, built the parking garage at the Minneapolis airport and joined many other ventures.

He was reserved and independent. He chaired Ohio’s Democrats for Reagan in 1984, supported the first George Bush’s presidential victory and met privately with them in D.C. He backed both Dick Celeste and James Rhodes, Ohio governors from opposite parties.

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Access Hollywood

Access Hollywood

Guitar World

The following content is related to the May 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in ouronline store.

If the Kiss Army were to appoint a general, it would have to be the band’s lead guitarist, Tommy “Spaceman” Thayer.

Long before he donned Ace Frehley’s iconic makeup and became the band’s official ax master in 2003, Thayer had already developed an impressive service record with the group, included writing and recording demos with Gene Simmons, managing the 1995 Kiss Worldwide Convention Tour and working as producer and editor on the Kiss films The Second Coming, Detroit Rock City and The Last Kiss.

Thayer’s signature Epiphone Spaceman continues his tradition of stellar contributions to the Kiss legacy. It’s a souped-up tour de force of tone and certainly one of the most thrilling and well-balanced Les Pauls created in recent years. In addition to featuring a pair of Gibson’s hotter 498T pickups, it has an ultra-cool retro-style silver-flake finish. Epiphone is making only 1,000 of the limited-edition Spaceman, and at a street price under $700, they’re sure to go fast.

Corey Dieterman | Houston Press

In 1979, disco was all the rage. For all the kids who had never bothered to pay attention when their parents would talk about it, it was sort of like dubstep. It was ubiquitous on the radio and even rock bands were vying to get in on the action so they didn’t get left behind in the new revolution. Sort of like how Korn did that album with Skrillex, only a little bit less horrible.

Even punk bands were reluctantly dragged into it. In 1978, Johnny Rotten launched his post-punk band Public Image Ltd., which, for all its punk cred, did employ a number of disco beats. Around the same time, two of the biggest rock bands in the world were planning new records and silently plotting to work on their own disco singles.

Those bands? Pink Floyd and KISS. And oh boy, what those plans wound up wreaking.

In early 1979, Pink Floyd was hard at work sifting through the mess of demos Roger Waters had recorded during their break after the Animals tour concluded. The mostly acoustic demos were high in number and low in quality. If you’ve ever heard them (they’ve been bootlegged for years), it’s a wonder Floyd was able to parse an album out of them at all.

A whole album ended up on the cutting-room floor and became Waters’ first solo record,The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. Some other cuts ended up on The Final Cut and one or two made into the film version of their upcoming album, but were ultimately left off of what would become The Wall.

However, one track in particular got some special attention from Waters, lead guitarist David Gilmour, and producer Bob Ezrin. It was a three-song suite called “Another Brick in the Wall,” at the time simply a rough acoustic-guitar demo with Waters whispering over it. But more on that later.

While Floyd was in France working on that, an entirely different band was in New York, working on their own demos for an upcoming record. KISS was making what would eventually become the Dynasty album, hot off the heels of the second volume of their Aliveconcert-recording series and simultaneously=released solo records by all four members.

By this time, Peter Criss was being replaced regularly by session drummers and the remaining KISS members were looking outside themselves for songwriting ideas. They had come about as far as they could on the pure “rock” sound, and both Gene Simmons, ever the consummate businessman, and Paul Stanley were looking into what they could do to keep up with current trends.

Enter Stanley with a legendary idea. “Let’s write a disco song. How hard could it be?” he said. (Okay, I don’t know if he really said that, but it’s as close to the truth as necessary.)

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Leader Post

Alejandro Pagni

REGINA — KISS is ready to unleash a monster in Canada.

The rock and roll legends confirmed Tuesday that its Monster tour will play 19 dates in Canada this summer, including shows at Saskatoon’s Credit Union Centre (July 14) and Regina’s Brandt Centre (July 16).

Tickets for the Regina date will go on sale at 10 a.m. on April 5. Tickets are $80, $100 and $140 (plus applicable fees). Tickets are available by phone (1-855-985-5000) and online (www.ticketmaster.ca).

2013 KISS CANADIAN TOUR DATES:
July 5 – Save On Foods Memorial Center (Victoria, BC)
July 6 – Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena (Vancouver, BC)
July 8 – Prospera Place (Kelowna, BC)
July 10 – Enmax Centre (Lethbridge, AB)
July 12 – Rexall Place (Edmonton, AB)
July 13 – Scotiabank Saddledome (Calgary, AB)
July 14 – Credit Union Centre (Saskatoon, SK)
July 16 – Evraz Place (Regina, SK)
July 17 – Keystone Centre (Brandon, MB)
July 18 – MTS Centre (Winnipeg, MB)
July 23 – Sudbury Arena (Sudbury, ON)
July 25 – Scotiabank Place (Ottawa, ON)
July 26 – Molson Canadian Amphitheatre (Toronto, ON)
July 27 – Budweiser Gardens (London, ON)
July 29 – Bell Centre (Montreal, QC)
July 31 – Harbour Station (Saint John, NB)
Aug 1 – Metro Centre (Halifax, NS)
Aug 3 – Mile One Stadium (St. John’s, NFLD)
Aug 4 – Mile One Stadium (St. John’s, NFLD)

Comprised of Gene Simmons (bass/vocals), Paul Stanley (guitar/vocals), Tommy Thayer (guitar/vocals) and Eric Singer (drums/vocals), KISS is touring in support of Monster, its 20th studio album, which was released on Oct. 9. It’s the first studio album for KISS since Sonic Boom, which was released Oct. 6, 2009. Two singles have been released from Monster — Hell Or Hallelujah and Long Way Down.

To date KISS has sold 100 million albums worldwide. The band has released 43 albums — 20 studio albums, 10 live albums and 13 compilation albums — with 21 albums earning gold status for sales of 500,000 units.

Stanley feels the band is quite capable of meeting the demands of its rabid fan base.

“We’re a band at this point in our career where we can live up to our own legend,” Stanley said in a press release. “Legends can be confining because they’re cloaked in myth. I’ve Continue reading →