Lydia Criss

Michelle Da Silva | Straight

Shannon Tweed-Simmons and Sophie Tweed-Simmons, wife and daughter of KISS frontman Gene Simmons, respectively, will star in a new reality show filmed in Vancouver.

According to a news release from Force Four Entertainment—a Vancouver-based television production company responsible forThe Cupcake Girls, Border Security, and The Bachelor Canada—production on the unnamed eight-episode series will begin in B.C. in December.

“We are thrilled to be working with W Network and Shannon and Sophie on this series,” John Ritchie, an executive producer at Force Four Entertainment stated November 12.  “They’re a true dynamic duo—outgoing, savvy, enterprising and smart as hell. Their legions of fans will be highly entertained as they rock into the next exciting chapter in their lives.”

The show will reportedly centre on the mother-daughter duo’s close relationship. Shannon, a Canadian, is a former Playboy model and film actor. Sophie, the younger of two Tweed-Simmons children, helps run Sophie’s Place, a children’s advocacy centre in Surrey. The family owns a home in Whistler and spends time in the Lower Mainland.

“It’s amazing the friendship my mom and I have. She’s my rock, my best friend, and even though we are very different, ultimately we agree on the important things in life,” Sophie stated in the news release. “I’m excited to start shooting and give viewers a glimpse into our world.”

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Hayspot

KISS’ Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are set to bring their Rock & Brews restaurant chain to Hawaii.

The hard-rock legends will celebrate the opening of a new franchise of their rock-themed eatery and club in Paia, on the island of Maui, with a two-day event scheduled for January 25 and 26, 2014.

Simmons and Stanley will attend the opening festivities, which will include a January 26 luncheon honoring wounded military personnel and veterans, as well as a bash that same evening that will raise money for the Paia Youth Center.

The new restaurant will include many aspects of other Rock & Brews venues while also saluting Hawaiian culture and history.  Visitors will have the option to dine indoors or in an outdoor area.

The family-friendly eatery will feature murals of rock groups, album art and tour posters, as well as flat-screen TVs and a high-fidelity sound system on which various classic live performances will be played.  Local artists also will be showcased at the venue.

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Examiner

“Rock and Roll Over” is the 5th studio album by American hard rock band, Kiss. It was released in 1976 on Casablanca Records and produced by Eddie Kramer. The line-up for the album was Paul Stanley (vocals/guitar), Ace Frehley (guitar), Gene Simmons (bass/vocals) and Peter Criss (drums/vocals).

Introduction

This is one of the best albums Kiss has put out. While it doesn’t have the impact “Destroyer” had, it packs a rock and roll punch. It isn’t overproduced, giving it more of a raw, 70s feel, when bands were playing for the love of music feel than slick, overproduced albums have. This one is a straight up rock and roll jam.

I Want You

This starts off with a short ballad opener before thundering into rock. The chorus is a bit camp but fun, and somehow works well with the song. Ace’s solo just soars and blows the mind, making it the highlight of the song.

Take Me

This features great vocals on a song that keeps the album rocking. Overall it is a solid song, making it easy to overlook the few cheesy vocals that are included. The guitar work by all just comes together perfectly.

Calling Dr. Love

This is an innuendo-filled classic. The opening power chords let you know you are in for a rocker of a song. With Gene Simmons on lead vocals and female backing vocals, it seems to fit the image of Gene as the ladies’ man. Brilliant drumming by Peter Criss, along with another astounding solo by Ace are what truly make the song work. While some people may not instantly recognise them for what they are, cowbells are used in the song.

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Chris Medek

I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving with family and friends. Sharing their company, eating all their traditional favorites. A special thank you to our members of our armed forces who aren’t able to spend Thanksgiving at home.

Peace,

Chris Medek

Business Wire

Charity Buzz

PROCEEDS BENEFIT: Boys and Girls Clubs of the Sioux Empire

Please note: This lot will close at 12 noon EDT December 5 to be part of a live auction that evening. Please be sure to utilize the Max Bid feature so a Charitybuzz representative may continue to bid on your behalf at the live auction. Should no Max Bid be in place, we will bid your current bid at the live auction. Please contact info@charitybuzz.com or 212-243-3900 for more details or with any questions.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity with Gene Simmons!

Includes:

• On a mutually agreed upon date, you and a guest will fly to Los Angeles and stat at the Beverly Hills Hotel with the flights and hotel stay paid for.
• You will be transported, blindfolded and via Private Security to the Home of Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed-Simmons. You will get at tour of his famous office from his hit television show which is a literal KISS Museum.
• Take photos with Gene while he shows you the coolest KISS collection on the planet.
• After your tour, Gene will join you for dinner in Beverly Hills at a restaurant of Gene’s choosing.
• Winner receives an autographed BASS guitar that will be played by Gene.

This package also includes 2 coveted seats to THE Fundraiser– an epic event being held on December 5, 2013 at The Orleans Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Those attending the event will meet Gene Simmons at the event where he will present you with your autographed BASS and get a photo with Gene.

Donated By: Gene Simmons of KISS

KrazyKnights1

Eric Yates

Here’s 4 recent pictures of my KISS car. I’ve added a hood scoop, spolier, and ground effects. Thanks, Eric Yates

Something Else!

On those particular dates, Gene Simmons says in this Kiss Kruise Q&A, the two bands were sharing a bill at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco with the Tubes — a band managed by venue owner Bill Graham. To perhaps no one’s surprise, the Tubes had a huge array of snacks, while Rush (then just breaking into the national scene on their Fly By Night tour) were roundly ignored.

The headliners stepped in: “You’re going to feed these guys,” Simmons told the promoter, “or we’re not getting up on stage.” Everybody, he adds, got fed.

“They were nobody,” Simmons says, in the clip above. “Nobody knew them, and they were from Canada, too. In those days, Canada meant: ‘We don’t care.’ We liked them. ‘Working Man,’ you know that song?”

Simmons goes on to do a dead-on impression — not just of Lee’s distinctive sky-high voice, but also the classic Rush track’s distinctive rhythmic signature — to huge laughs. Kiss bandmate Paul Stanley interupts then to say: “Hold on, Geddy’s on the phone,” to still bigger laughs.

Anonymous

Found this poster on a bulletin board at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa the other day. It’s an advertisement for a play that was being held at their campus theater. The 7th president, Andrew Jackson, must have been a KISS fan… 🙂

Cassius Morris | Creatures of the Net

Ara Ajizian | Musician’s Friend

During his tenure in KISS, Paul Stanley has played more guitars than any of us can imagine, and gleaned from each what makes an instrument truly exceptional. Combine that with his keen sense of visual design and you get the Paul Stanley Signature Series from Washburn. We sat down with this knight in Santa’s service to discuss these stellar instruments, and how gear has evolved over 40 years of being in the hottest band in the world.

Musician’s Friend: Tell us about your longstanding relationship with Washburn, and how the line of Paul Stanley Signature guitars came to be.

Paul Stanley: The idea of being able to create my own guitar has always been a dream. I think it’s everybody’s dream, especially when you’re growing up and you draw the ultimate guitar. Unfortunately, when you’re a kid and you draw a guitar, it looks like a ray gun. Given the opportunity to really design something, I found myself leaning on the past. The past is what got us here. Tradition is at the core of everything I try to design. I went through a couple of different companies, but ultimately I found my way to Washburn. The thing I love there is that they’re really great craftsmen, but you don’t have the red tape of a company where someone has to call someone else who has to clear what you did, and five months later you get a prototype that’s completely wrong. I went through that. When I started working with Washburn, I sketched something out and within six weeks I had a finished guitar to look at. We’ve had a great relationship.

I’m really proud of the guitars we do because they hearken back to the golden age. There’s a reason why people have always wanted vintage guitars. They were well crafted, the combination of woods and pickups was right, and that’s at the core of what I try to do. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, just put my own spin on it.

MF: You’re a visual artist as well as a musician. How does your sense of visual style find its way into your guitar designs?

PS: The idea with this guitar was to create something classic, something that echoes things that were here before, but improves on them. Whatever guitars this may remind you of, quite honestly, this kills ‘em. It’s better balanced, the tone is tremendous, the neck, the radius, the action, the playability, everything about it. It’s great because you can have it around your neck and let go, and it stays horizontal, whereas other guitars, because of heavy tuning pegs and other things, just dip and hit the ground. The abalone and mother-of-pearl inlays are something that I’ve done over the years. Classic big frets. This is the guitar I always wanted, that never was.

MF: Some of the models in the series are equipped with mini humbuckers. What is it about the tone of the minis that earned them a spot on these guitars?

PS: Mini humbuckers are something tried-and-true, and I try to keep that in the equation when I’m designing a guitar. Something that’s been around for a while has been around because it works. The great thing about my relationship with Washburn is that they pretty much give me the freedom to run amok, and I hold their hand to the fire to make sure that we stay true to tradition. I’m a big believer that the greatest guitars were made already, and all we can do now is emulate them. There’s no secret to making a great guitar; anyone can do it. All you need is great components and great woods, and the rest is just about craftsmanship.

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David Konow | TG Daily

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, in this writer’s humble opinion Kiss absolutely deserve to be in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. You can’t compare them to Nirvana in a million years, it’s like comparing apples and oranges, but both groups, on completely opposite ends of the spectrum, have made major rock history, and deserve their place in the hall.

Now as Blabbermouth.net tells us, Kiss has actually come out in the lead to be inducted in the rock hall. Kiss fan votes are at 15.2%, Nirvana is right behind at 14.87%, third is Deep Purple at 11.89%, and Yes are at 10.52%.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony will be held next April, and we’re willing to bet that Nirvana will be inducted for sure. We also have the feeling that the bourgeois snobs and critics may not be able to hold Kiss back from being inducted as well.

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James Jahnke | Detroit Free Press

KISS!!!!!!!!

Gene Simmons and the boys gave a shoutout to the Cadillac football team on the band’s Facebook page today. Along with a picture of Kiss with Cadillac football players in 1975, the post read: “Good luck to our friends, the Cadillac HS Football team as they play their 3rd playoff game tonight. They are 12-0 so far this year! We go way back!”

(The Vikings actually are only 11-0 heading into tonight’s 7 p.m. Division 4 regional final at Comstock Park. And if Son of Swami is right, 12-0 isn’t in the offing. But still, pretty cool.)

A little background on the Kiss-Cadillac connection:

Back in 1974, when the powerhouse Cadillac Vikings started the season with two losses, assistant football coach Jeff Neff had the idea of playing Kiss music in the locker room as a motivational tool. After all, the music was fast and loud, and, in football, as he explains, Kiss stands for “Keep it simple, stupid.”

Once the Kiss songs started flowing, the Vikings won the last seven games of the season.

In the midst of those victories, Neff got in touch with Kiss and eventually heard directly from its members. “My chair is located in the same place where Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons called me,” Neff told the Free Press in 2012.

That started a connection between the band and the school that, in 1975, led to a famous visit. Kiss, scheduled to play around that time at a Michigan college, accepted Neff’s invitation to come to Cadillac High for homecoming.

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KISSmuseum.com

Two new recent series of limited, numbered Ace Frehley artwork canvases are up for auction this week – both #1 of 18.

Beautiful works of art created by the Spaceman himself on professional 12″ x 16″ canvases mounted on a wooden frame. We have done a second series of “Rocket Ride” pieces like last year, with the difference being this new series is on a larger canvas. Acealso designed a new concept for his most famous song of all time, “Shock Me” – a design he came up with on the spot just to do something different, and with great results!

Read more about the pieces on the auction pages:

Ace Frehley Rocket Ride artwork #1 of 18
Ace Frehley Shock Me artwork #1 of 18

Chuck Yarborough | Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — If Rock Hall voters follow the their counterparts on public polls at cleveland.com/Plain Dealer and the Rock Hallitself, three bands are shoo-ins for induction in New York City ceremonies next spring.

Those three are Nirvana, KISS and Deep Purple.

The biggest surprise, though, is that KISS has overtaken Nirvana – thought by many to be the lock for the Rock Hall for the ground-breaking influence of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic and grunge music — in the Rock Hall’s poll.

A month ago, the Rock Hall announced a list of potential members of the Class of 2014 that included Nirvana, KISS, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, Link Wray, the Replacements, Linda Ronstadt, Yes, the Zombies, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, LL Cool J, N.W.A., the Meters and Cat Stevens.

In the cleveland.com/Plain Dealer poll, Nirvana remains atop the heap with 14.94 percent of the more than 30,000 votes, followed by KISS, Deep Purple and (shocker) Hall and Oates.

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