Examiner

Local rock band, REBELMANN®, has exploded onto the rock music scene with fiery instrumentals and strong vocals. They have caught the attention of the iconic, Gene Simmons, who along with Paul Stanley, formed “the ultimate rock band,” KISS. The band and it’s rock idol connected at Rock ‘N Roll Fantasy Camp last year, when REBELMANN backlined Gene Simmons. In the past year, a NoiseCreep article about REBELMANN was linked to Gene Simmons’ personal website. Mr. Simmons also tweeted at the band to send him their demo, when they inquired about his label.

REBELMANN is a band of brothers. Front man and youngest brother, Clayton, is a young man with a booming voice and powerful stage presence. Twins, Bryce and Johnathon play the drums and lead guitar. Bryce creates his own rythm with his skill and speed on the drums. Lefty lead guitarist, Johnathon, is one of few guitarists who uses his pinky finger when rocking out. Tim Joyce fills in as studio bassist. The brothers are accomplished musicians, write their own music and are committed to “keeping real music alive.” REBELMANN’s mentor is Bruce Kulick. He played lead guitar for KISS for 12 years.

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Pacific University Oregon

Pacific University Legends Thank You from Pacific University on Vimeo.

A celebrity lineup turned out in Portland on Sunday night to support Pacific University student-athletes.

Pacific University Legends, hosted by Beaverton native Tommy Thayer— guitarist for the legendary rock band KISS — was an evening of fabulous food, rollicking fun and a rocking concert.

The light drizzle that started the day came to a stop in plenty of time for guests to enjoy the elegance of Waverley Country Club, on the banks of the Willamette River, where they enjoyed a gourmet meal, sponsored by Pac/West.

Guests enthusiastically raised their paddles throughout the evening’s auction, making it the most successful Legends auctions ever. Bidders took home everything from a unique guitar signed by the members of KISS to vacation packages for Bali, Costa Rica and South Africa.

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Peter Arquette | KISSasylum.com

Strange as it may seem, it appears the acclaimed 1982 KISS album, Creatures of the Night, was inspired by a 1979 children’s book of, (partially), the same title.

Not only are the huddled faces with the glowing eyes strikingly similar but so is the title font and even the cobalt-blue and pink color scheme. That enough would give you an almost definitive answer that the concept for the album cover was taken from this child’s reader. But what makes this truly bizarre is that the title of the book was used not only for the title of the album, but the title of the first song on the album as well. Really? How do you get from children’s book to one of the hardest rocking songs KISS has ever written?

Who was the one who looked at this book and suggested the band should write a song about it? Art director, Dennis Woloch? Photographer Bernard Vidal? One of the two writers of the song, Paul Stanley or Adam Mitchell? So who was visiting their niece or nephew and saw this laying among the scattered kiddie toys and said, “hey, this rocks…”.

These are nothing but speculations, but the more I think about it the more I’m lead down a deeper and deeper tunnel of unanswerable questions. If anyone has any insight or inside info on this mystery and would like to write a follow up to this post, please, be let me know!

1979, Troll Associates. Written by David Cutts, illustrated by Jean Chandler. 8.5″ x 5.5″. Paperback, 54 pages. Out of print.

A few copies are available for sale HERE at KISSmuseum.com

Paul Cashmere | Noise 11

The legendary Engelbert Humperdinck spent the day in the studio with Kiss founder Gene Simmons laying down a track for his Duets albums. Engelbert is nearing completion of the album which features songs with Willie Nelson, Elton John and Smokey Robinson and now Simmons.

Engelbert exclusively announced the Simmons duet in his interview with Noise11. “There’s Elton, there’s Smokey Robinson, there’s Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and Neil Sedaka and it goes on and on and on. It is very exciting names on this particular album. I’m so thrilled that everyone has responded and wanted to work on the album with me and I think it has been a very exciting project,” he said.

Last week he also announced 60s British pop star Lulu would also join him on the album.

Today Engelbert told fans via Facebook, “What an absolute pleasure to meet and record with this giant of a Rock God! A fantastic day with Gene Simmons and his gorgeous wife Shannon.”

Witch House

Hennemusic

KISS frontman Paul Stanley performed the national anthem Sunday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles before the baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and video of the event has surfaced.

Stanley was sporting a new LA KISS shirt for the occasion, as KISS recently announced the launch of their own Arena Football League team.

The news brings professional football back to Los Angeles after a five year hiatus.

“Season tickets are now on sale for what we know will be some of the most action-packed games ever played at the Honda Center,” said Stanley.“Arena Football is played at a fast and furious pace and making season tickets available now for the budget-friendly price of $99 gives a whole new meaning to bang for the buck.”

As a bonus, all inaugural LA KISS season seat holders will be invited to a free KISS concert to take place at Honda Center in 2014.

“As a fast-paced, high-action band this partnership with the AFL was an obvious fit for us,” added Gene Simmons. “With Arena Football, you are much closer to the action – sitting in the front row is like putting a folding chair on the hash mark of an NFL game – and it’s one of the only sports where you can experience this level of intensity. Attending an LA KISS game in 2014 will be similar to a live KISS show, with thrilling, heart pounding action.” 

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Sophia Charalambous | Mail Online

Farrah Abraham was back wearing her favourite ensemble, a bikini, as she enjoyed yet another day on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The 22-year-old Teen Mom star drew people’s attention in a two-piece adorned with Gene Simmons’ iconic The Demon face from ’70s hard rock band Kiss on Sunday.

Her revealing low-triangle bikini top was printed with the painted black and white face of the rock legend’s on-stage persona whilst the Brazilian bottoms were embellished with Simmons’ stuck out tongue.

 Farrah’s pose mimicked her outfit by Betty Bangs Bikini, who hand-make all their pieces from their base in Miami, Florida.The Teekini, as it is advertised on the boutique’s website, costs a pricy $265 and appropriately named Kiss My Ass.Farrah’s tiny frame was accentuated in the velvet black and white piece, with leopard tie-sides, which was also embellished with with over 110 Swarovski crystals.Mother-of-one Farrah looked every inch a beach babe, her body tanned and toned down to the last inch.

But not one to appear underdone, Farrah completed the look with a simple pair of stud earrings and a full face of make-up, black eyeliner, mascara, nude pink lip gloss and blush.

She pranced and jumped around the beach enjoying the sea breeze in the city where she is studying for her Bachelor’s degree after graduating from culinary school.

Boutique Betty Bangs Bikini who have created this new type of swimwear called the Teekini, described it as a: ‘Perfect fitting custom or limited edition swimsuit made from T-shirts, hand-studded or embellished with pronged-on Swarovski crystals.’

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Tim McPhate | KissFAQ

Fans of Ace Frehley’s 1978 solo album are in for a treat with today’s Back In The Solo Album Groove interview with engineer Rob Freeman. Rob has gone into extensive detail about his experience working on the album. There’s lots of insight about working with Ace, Eddie Kramer and Anton Fig, lots of technical details and tidbits about songs such as “New York Groove” and “Speedin’ Back To My Baby,” a fun story or two, and a couple of never-before-seen photos. If you love Ace’s solo album, you won’t want to miss it…

Award-winning engineer details everything you want and need to know about Ace Frehley’s solo album, including the sessions at Plaza Sound, capturing Frehley’s guitar

sounds and vocals, recording the hit single “New York Groove” and the nuances behind tracks such as “Fractured Mirror,” working alongside the legendary Eddie Kramer, and more

KissFAQ: Rob, what do you recall about getting the invitation to participate as the recording engineer on Ace Frehley’s 1978 solo album?

Rob Freeman: I got the call to work on Ace’s solo album sometime in June 1978. I’m not sure if it came directly from Eddie Kramer, with whom I had previously worked, or from someone in the KISS organization. Either way, I was thrilled to get that call because I had a sense that recording that album was going to be a big step forward both for me and for Plaza Sound, the studio I had been working so hard to advance. By the summer of ’78, I had already recorded some noteworthy albums at Plaza Sound with a variety of artists — among them, The Ramones’ first album, “Ramones”; Blondie’s first two albums, “Blondie” and “Plastic Letters”; and Richard Hell and the Voidoid’s “Blank Generation” — but these were mostly “downtown” New York artists, and, at least back then, my work with them hardly garnered the kind of worldwide recognition that a KISS album would.

KF: Was this your first KISS-related project?

RF: Yes, Ace’s album was the first. I guess the other KISS band members and the rest of their organization liked what I did for Ace because after that they called me to work on the “Music from the Elder” and “Lick It Up” albums as well as to put a number of radio and television commercial spots together for them. I also designed and installed a home recording system in Paul Stanley’s uptown NYC condo.

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Chris Alexander | Fangoria

Last year, FANGORIA published the official KISS Monster Magazine (issue #1 is still available in our store here, while the 3D issue #2 is sold out) and it’s no secret that this writer/editor is obsessed with but two things: horror movies and yes, KISS. It was a fixation that locked in preschool, and it was seeing Gene Simmons with fangs, leather, metal and bat wings on the cover of 1977’s LOVE GUN that drew me to Dracula. After the swoon of discovering garish and bloody perversions of gothic horror ebbed, I later fell in love with KISS’ patented brand of trashy 70’s rock n’roll and it’s that adoration of Paul Stanley’s scream and Simmons’s stomping, spitting persona that I’ve carried with me and will keep close to my heart until I die, whenever that may be.

And though I swear I know everything about the band—I’ve written about them extensively, and have met them all on multiple occasions—I’m really just an amateur compared to some. Compared to Ken Sharp, I’m positively Cro-Magnon. Sharp has been interviewing KISS (and many other noted classic rock figures) and putting pen to page about their ever-morphing legacy for three decades-plus and along with writer David Leaf, wrote the official authorized KISS biography BEHIND THE MASK a decade ago—a tome widely recognized as the most thorough collection of KISSstory facts yet published. This September, Harper Collins is publishing Sharp’s latest investigation into the band’s legacy with NOTHIN’ TO LOSE: THE MAKING OF KISS (1972-1975), created in collusion with Simmons and Stanley. And man, is it an epic.

The book indeed charts the salad days of Simmons, Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. From the first meetings of a hirsute, heavy and arrogant Simmons (then Gene Klein) and the scrappy teenage Stanley (then Stanley Eisen), to their session time at NYC’s Electric Lady Studios while sculpting the KISS prototype band Wicked Lester, to their first ill-attended gig at the Coventry nightclub, this is in essence a sex and fantasy soaked story of the American Dream trying desperately to turn its motor over and eventually succeeding beyond all expectation.

Sharp’s task with this book is not an easy one. Serious fans of the band have heard the narrative arc of KISS’ rise before. Of Gene’s love for horror movies and comic books defining his physical presence and worship of Paul McCartney informing his evolving “walking bass” style. We know of Paul’s unfettered addiction to Led Zeppelin. Ace’s mis-matched sneaker demeanor and sci-fi tinted outlook. Peter’s “dirty livin” and love of Gene Krupa. It’s all here; their Alice Cooper influenced experiments with make-up design and shocking, cinema-stained stage antics, the flop of their first three albums even while concert arenas were selling out, the climactic release of their game changing 1975 monolith ALIVE! and all the feast, famine and post-60s excess in between.

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Steve Jones | Myrtle Beach Online

Erin Burge

MYRTLE BEACH — A multi-year downward trend in business has led the owners of KISS Coffeehouse at Broadway at the Beach to decide to close the store around the end of September.

An exact date for the closing has not been set yet, said Matthew Goldschmidt, the store’s general manager.

KISS Coffeehouse has been a staple at Broadway’s Celebrity Square for seven years. KISS co-founder Gene Simmons came to Myrtle Beach for the opening of the Coffeehouse.

“It’s not that we didn’t do well,” Goldschmidt explained the reason for leaving, “it was just a steady decline.”

Goldschmidt said that everything in the store, which includes KISS memorabilia, is marked down to sell.

Jen Christianson

Wisconsin Team ‘Mudlicious’

We’re friends. We’re sisters. We’re girls. We’re bad ass. We love to get dirty. We’re Kiss fans. Most of all, we’re pissed off at that ugly, damn disease called cancer. Therefore, it was very fitting for our “Team Mudlicious” to run this years WI Dirty Girl Mud Run with the theme of “Kiss Off Cancer!!” Our bad ass selves donned on the makeup, had a fabulous time constructing our costumes and perfected sticking out our tongues as far as they could go. And yes, we ran the course in costume and got very, very muddy!

The Dirty Girl Mud Run series is a women’s mud 5K run event, with more fun, more obstacles, more girl power, more creativity, more high fives, more excitement and, of course, more mud than any other mud run can muster. Additionally, Dirty Girl Mud Run continues to support Breast Cancer awareness and research, donating more monetary support to this worthy cause every year.

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Podcast Rock City
 

Tim McPhate | KissFAQ

KissFAQ  has launched Back In The Solo Album Groove: The KISS Albums. 35 Years Later…, an ambitious multi-week retrospective dedicated to arguably the biggest milestone in KISStory: the 1978 KISS solo albums. Today, the site has published an interview with renowned bassist Will Lee, who played three tracks on Ace Frehley’s 1978 solo album: “Wiped-Out,” “I’m In Need Of Love” and “Ozone.”

The following are excerpts from Lee’s interview with KissFAQ’s Tim McPhate:

On a “She Loves You” moment during the album’s recording:

KF: By the time you came onboard for the album, several tracks were cut at the Colgate Mansion in Connecticut. So I believe the sessions you participated in would have been at Plaza Sound.

WL: That’s where we were. Plaza was really cool, it was right above Radio City Music Hall. It was in the same structure as that building. And I remember having this moment, I didn’t have this reference point at the time [because] I hadn’t really heard the story about the Beatles track “She Loves You.” But when they were at Abbey Road recording that in the studio, they were surrounded by women. And you can hear the confidence and the excitement and the testosterone that’s going on when you hear “She Loves You,” you can just imagine that [and] you can really understand where all that incredible spirit came from. There was energy surrounding the building. On the Ace project, we had the Rockettes looking in the window at our session.

KF: The Rockettes?

WL: Yeah, Radio City Music Hall had these chicks called the Rockettes. They’re like a bunch of chorus girls. They had heard what was going on upstairs, “Oh God, one of the guys from KISS is upstairs making an album!” So they’d come upstairs and you’d see them peering through the doors and it was like, “Yeah, this is our ‘She Loves You’ moment.”

On Ace Frehley’s attitude during the recording of his album:

KF:  It seems Ace took people by surprise because everyone — from the band to the label — wasn’t sure what he was going to bring to the table with his solo album. And Ace ended up turning in this great, guitar-heavy album with lots of attitude and some slamming tracks from the likes of yourself and Anton. And on top of that, he scored the lone hit from the solo albums with “New York Groove.”

WL: Yeah, I think he said, “Fuck everything. I’m going to just go for it.” And he did.

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Ultimate Guitar

Founding members of Kiss, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley hope to establish a similarly broad fanbase with their newest project, a partnership with the Arena Football League as owners of an Anaheim-based expansion team known as “LA KISS,” USA Todayreports.

“The whole idea of an alternative to what has perhaps become a corporate sport is very intriguing, and resonates with us,” Stanley told USA Today Sports by phone. “We’ve always tried to be a band that relates to everybody, and the AFL is built on that whole premise.”

Though the band’s logo will be incorporated into the team’s uniforms, and though Stanley and Simmons hope to bring their understanding of live performance to the team’s home games at the Honda Center, the pair emphasized that they aim to create a true football experience.

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Jim Carchidi | Orlando Business Journal

Petey Mangelli brought his 4-year-old daughter Adrianna to her third KISS concert. Mangelli, whose company manages Orlando’s annual Spooky Empire horror convention, is a lifelong KISS fan. – photo credit, Jim Carchidi

As a kid, KISS kinda scared me. At an age when I was just learning about the world through the harsh realities of the grade school playground, seeing the Destroyeralbum cover was enough to steer me away from heavy metal for a couple of years. It wasn’t until I was able to listen toDetroit Rock City all the way through that I was able to understand – these guys weren’t just a bunch of nightmare clowns in ridiculous boots, they were a band.

As I got older, the nightmare clown thing became more appealing. How could it not? But what really blew my mind was the way these guys infiltrated every aspect of pop culture. Not only did they have their likenesses on everything from T-shirts and toys to coloring books, they actually printed a comic where the red ink was mixed with the band members’ blood. And it kept growing. From Gene Simmons’ TV show to a cruise with the band to a coffin.Yes, a coffin.

It figures KISS would be a part of ArenaBowl weekend. The indoor football league’s party atmosphere combined with the “rock ’n’ roll all night and party every day” band would make for a big weekend. Church Street venues like Harry Buffalo and Paradise Island Cafe had their share of KISS fans in face paint and T-shirts making their way through the door. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem like there were many ArenaBowl fans at the show. In fact, none of the people I met were planning on going to the game. Granted, I didn’t talk to everyone there. I even met one guy who wasn’t a KISS fan. He just figured a KISS concert was something everyone had to see at least once in their life.

Hey, if a band can inspire loyalty from people who don’t even like them, I’m shocked KISS isn’t invited to be a part of every major event.

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Ryan Reed | Rolling Stone

Fred Tanneau

Nothing says football like face paint and hard rock riffs, so it’s about time Kiss got into the gridiron game. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have bought their own Arena Football League expansion team, the Anaheim-based L.A. Kiss, which will participate in the league’s 2014 season, ESPN reports.

Q&A: Kiss’ Paul Stanley on New Album ‘Monster’ and Defining Rock & Roll

Simmons tells ESPN that buying the franchise was a logical move, given the similarities between a high-intensity football game and a crazy Kiss show.

“As a fast-paced, high-action band, this partnership with the AFL was an obvious fit for us,” Simmons said. “Attending an L.A. KISS game in 2014 will be similar to a live Kiss show, with thrilling, heart-pounding action.”

L.A. Kiss will use the band’s glammy, iconic logo, and season ticket-holders will be treated to a free Kiss concert. But, as Simmons and Stanley emphasized to USA Today, L.A. Kiss won’t simply function as a cheap band promotional tool.

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Something Else!

Kiss Gene Simmons dove head on into the controversy surrounding the replacement of Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, saying they once were part and parcel of what he and Paul Stanley did in Kiss — before they threw it all away.

Frehley was Kiss’ founding guitarist, serving from 1973-1982; he then returned for a reunion that lasted from 1996-2002. Criss, the group’s initial drummer, left in 1980, returned from 1996-2000, and then again between 2002-2004before splitting for good.

“Two of the original guys who started off were equally as important as Paul and myself,” Simmons says to applause during this fanfest Q&A. “We were four guys — all for one, one for all. But they succumbed. They decided to go far right or far left. They succumbed, and it’s not even original, to the cliches of rock ‘n’ roll: Drugs and alcohol, the quickest way to the poorhouse — other than bad luck.”

Frehley has most recently been replaced by Tommy Thayer, who had worked with Kiss as far back as 1989′s Hot in the Shade before officially taking the guitar chair in 2003. Eric Singer has been the band’s drummer since 1991.

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Miami Herald

Gene Simmons of Kiss has been at the forefront of the rock world since the mid 1970s, and he’s still going strong in 2013.

A true visionary, he and his original bandmates transformed rock and roll into something no one had seen before: a dynamic stage show full of fire, explosions, lights and straight up rock. Critics were stunned. Radio didn’t know what to do with them. But the fans loved it — and probably will again when the band plays Seminole Hard Rock Live on Saturday.

Been a long time since the New York City days. What was that like back then?

We were four bums off the streets of New York who dreamed like everybody else and were lucky to be in the right place at the right time with the right thing. And you say privately, when you have dreams, “Dear God, just give me a chance, just one chance. I promise I won’t screw it up.”

Still get excited about selling out every night?

Sure. The first time we played at the Garden, the first of three nights, back when nobody was doing that stuff, Kiss was three years in a row the no. 1 Gallup Poll band. Two and three went between Zeppelin, Beatles and Bee Gees. And in 1978, 20th Century Fox had the rights to do licensing and merchandising, and the no. 1 and no. 2 biggest licensed products were Star Wars and Kiss.

Impressive.

It is. We started in 1974, New Year’s Eve . . . . And within a year and a half we’re playing Anaheim Stadium. Before cell phones, cassettes, 8-tracks, before anything. Before Rock Concert, before Midnight Special, before MTV, before any of that.

Was there one particular moment when you knew you were going to succeed?

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NJKISSEXPO.COM

The New Jersey KISS Expo is proud to announce KISS lead guitarist Tommy Thayer as our featured guest for 2013!

We return this year to the NJ Convention and Exposition Center for our largest show yet!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

NJ Convention and Exposition Center, at the Raritan Center
97 Sunfield Ave, Edison NJ 08837

$10 DISCOUNT TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE

For tickets, directions and all other info, visit www.njkissexpo.com