Mitch Lafon | One on One

Anthony De Lucia, Jr | Alive75.com

Hey there KISS Fans, listen up – This is not just another KISS tribute band…

Alive! ’75 is a live concert concept performance that brings the KISS Alive! album to life within a period-specific 1975 atmosphere. So much more than just guys dressed as KISS playing KISS songs, the overall experience is completely immersive and is designed to take you back to 1975, to see, hear and FEEL what a 1975-era KISS performance was really like.

Think about it – back in 1975, and following almost two years of non-stop touring across the US and Canada, KISS was determined to hit it big. They criss-crossed the country incessantly, playing anywhere and everywhere they were welcome.  And with virtually no radio support to speak of, KISS was finally about to “make it”.  Their double live album Alive!, released on September 10, 1975, proved to be their break-out album.  And now with Alive! ’75 – A Tribute to KISS, you can experience the magic and excitement of this period in rock ‘n roll KISS-tory…

It all starts with the “pre-show” experience.  As you enter the Alive! ’75 theater, you are completely surrounded by elements of 1975.  Blockbuster movie posters and other large-print advertisements and photographs catch your eye.  Classic TV sitcoms, movie trailers and iconic commercials tickle your senses.  The audio-visual displays, wall art, and an overhead soundtrack of “Time Warp – 1975 with Bill St. James” combine to provide a rich sensory sampling of this by-gone era.  And as if that wasn’t enough, character actors provide an additional element of surprise and entertainment to complete the 1975 experience.

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Michael Gallucci | Ultimate Classic Rock

Now that Ace Frehley‘s first album in five years, ‘Space Invader,’ is out and getting tons of buzz, it’s time for the Spaceman to hit the road.

Frehley and band will embark on the first leg of their tour in support of the album with a two-week trip through the eastern part of the U.S. The shows start on Nov. 13 in New Jersey and wind down two weeks later, on Nov. 26, in Pennsylvania. You can see the complete itinerary below.

The former Kiss guitarist’s backing band includes Richie Scarlet, who played rhythm guitar on Frehley’s 1989 album ‘Trouble Walking’ and toured with Frehley during the period, Cult bassist Chris Wyse and drummer Scott Coogan, who’s played with Nikki Sixx’s Brides of Destruction.

A couple weeks before the tour starts, on Oct. 28, a double gatefold 180 gram vinyl version of ‘Space Invader’ will be released. Since the record’s release a month ago, it’s debuted at No. 9 on the album chart, the highest position ever reached by a solo Kiss member. It also marks Frehley’s first Top 10 album since his appearance on Kiss’ 1998 reunion album, ‘Pyscho Circus.’

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Jody Havenot

Join your STRANGE WAYS bros, and special guest DES SHAW from KISSTORY SCIENCE THEATRE for our discussion on The Middle Kids of KISS!! We had a blast taking with Des, and hope you enjoy it, KISS Army!!! This is also the first episode of our new format change..we’re calling STRANGE WAYS WEDNESDAYS!!! We will release a new episode every 2 weeks, on Wednesdays.

So we hope you enjoy this episode, and we’ll see ya in two weeks for our discussion with KEN KELLY!!!

Michael Brandvold

Case Kefer | Las Vegas Sun

Vince Neil finally can exact revenge on behalf of Mötley Crüe.

More than 30 years later, the two rock titans will clash. Neil’s new Arena Football League franchise, the Las Vegas Outlaws, will share a division with the Los Angeles Kiss, owned by Kiss band members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons.

“That’s the fun thing about this; it’s a natural rivalry, Kiss vs. Crüe,” Neil said. “We’re going to play them three times a year and, of course, we want to beat them every time.”

The bands actually made amends decades ago. They co-headlined a North American tour in 2012, and the Kiss executives, having gone through the same process a year ago, have helped Neil and his partners get ready for their inaugural season.

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Melodic Rock

Universal Music are proud to announce the next stage of KISS’ 40th anniversary celebrations, with the release of a Deluxe Edition of the 1977 U.S. platinum album, Love Gun, on 2CD and digital formats.

The band’s sixth studio recording, Love Gun was the first album to feature lead vocal performances from all four original band members, and the last studio album with the original KISS line-up. Love Gun has since gone on to sell more than four million copies worldwide.

The 2CD / digital edition includes the complete original album re-mastered on the first disc, featuring such classics as the title track ‘Plaster Caster’, the song inspired by Cynthia Plaster Caster, the groupie famous for taking casts of rock star genitalia; ‘Shock Me’, written about Ace Frehley suffering an electric shock during a concert in Lakeland, Florida; ‘Christine Sixteen’, and ‘Then She Kissed Me’, the band’s cheeky, gender-switching cover of the Crystals’ 1963 hit penned by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector.

The second disc is made up of rare, previously unreleased Love Gun demos of ‘Plaster Caster’, ‘Then She Kissed Me’, ‘Tomorrow and Tonight’ and ‘Much Too Soon’. Also, the first four lines of the demo ‘I Know Who You Are’ eventually evolved and became the song ‘Living In Sin’. A glimpse into Paul Stanley’s creative process is demonstrated in ‘Love Gun (Teaching Demo)’ with Stanley talking through the various chords of the song after writing the song with the next version ‘ ‘Love Guun (Demo)’ ‘ being the complete demo performance. ‘Reputation’, the only previously released demo, was originally included on this year’s KISS 40 compilation.

Also included is a 1977 interview with Gene Simmons, as well as three never-before-available live tracks from the KISS show at the Capitol Centre, Landover in Maryland U.S.A. from December 20, 1977 ‘ ‘Love Gun’, ‘Christine Sixteen’ and ‘Shock Me’. The package also includes liner notes written by Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, currently on tour with KISS.

CD ONE – Original Album:
1. I Stole Your Love
2. Christine Sixteen
3. Got Love For Sale
4. Shock Me
5. Tomorrow And Tonight
6. Love Gun
7. Hooligan
8. Almost Human
9. Plaster Caster
10. Then She Kissed Me

CD TWO – Demos, Interview & Live:
1. Much Too Soon (Demo)*
2. Plaster Caster (Demo)*
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NJKISSExpo.com

Check out the photo gallery from last Saturday’s incredible New Jersey KISS Expo! KISS Tribute band KISS Nation rocked the house with an unprecedented FOUR sets throughout the day! DJ Lick it Up took requests and kept things going throughout the day. The incredibly famous photographer Lynn Goldsmith shot photos of KISS fans for her upcoming KISS book. Special guests Lydia Criss, Tod Howarth, John Regan and Ken Kelly were gracious and accommodating to everyone. Fans from all over the world attended and there was more KISS merchandise in one place than anywhere else on the Earth!

Click HERE to see the photo gallery

Nick DeRiso | Ultimate Classic Rock

David Greenwald

There was a personal connection when Kiss played a rare acoustic and no-makeup concert on Monday in support of a military museum in Oregon. And it went beyond wanting to honor those who’ve served. The facility is to be named after World War II veteran James B. Thayer, father of Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer.

Kiss’ concert, held in Lake Oswego, helped raise more than $1 million, according to The Oregonian. Among the items auctioned off was a guitar that Paul Stanley had used since 1989, which fetched $20,000. Tickets were $2,500 per person.

Nikki Ibarra | KOB 4 

Albuquerque just got a brand new restaurant. Some would call it an experience – fun atmosphere, good foods and, of course, good music.

What do you expect when two of Rock & Brews founders are Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from KISS?

KOB Eyewitness News 4 spent the morning with the stars, talking all about their new digs on Montgomery, especially about how hands-on they were with the project.

“We’re going to show you how to make a great pizza,” said Paul Stanley. Yes, Paul Stanley made a pizza for KOB. He considers himself a foodie, and had a major role in designing the menu, which has lots of green chile foods. “You can never use too much of these because these are Hatch green chiles,” added Stanley.

“It is actually a profound pleasure and honor to be in Albuquerque,” said Gene Simmons, who said the Duke City was always on their list.

“It’s always been a place, you know, people stop in if they don’t live here and love the community, because it’s a million [people] so it’s just big enough to be a city. Also, small enough to care about your neighbor,” added Simmons.

That’s why they’ve made it a focus to support local products – especially produce. They’ve even hired more than 130 New Mexicans. “We want to be part of the neighborhood. We want to support,” said Stanley.

Mitch Lafon

Legendary (former) KISS guitarist ACE FREHLEY and Queensrÿche guitarist, Michael Wilton, join Mitch on Episode 49 of One On One with Mitch Lafon. This episode was co-hosted by Creatures Of The Net Podcast host Cassius Morris.

In our first interview, iconic guitarist ACE FREHLEY talks to Mitch about his upcoming tour and new album, SPACE INVADER. The pair also discuss Richie Scarlet re-joining him on his upcoming tour, the recording of KISS’ Psycho Circus album, whether of not The Joker was an appropriate song to cover, his upcoming second book, his upcoming covers album, who was/is the best KISS drummer, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, was the Frehley’s Comet CD Second Sighting really a Tod Howarth solo album, the probability of reforming with Four By Fate’s John Regan and Tod Howarth and much more.

In this episode’s second interview Queensrÿche guitarist Michael Wilton talks about the band’s rights in regards to performing the Operation: Mindcrime album, his SOULBENDER band and upcoming Soulbender II album, the release of a live Queensrÿche album with their new vocalist, writing for the next album and more.

The Hollywood Reporter | Etan Vlessing

KISS star Gene Simmons is headed to MIPCOM to launch his new reality format show Coliseum.

Created by Simmons and Chris Philip, CEO of Sierra/Engine Television, Coliseumchallenges contestants to form rock bands with a winning musical voice and performance. The bankable reality star will motivate evolving acts before they perform in front of an audience.

Simmons, as the Rock Caesar, will ultimately decide with a thumb up or down who goes forward in the competition. “Coliseum is a no-holds-barred competition show between musical gladiators in the arena fighting to survive, fighting to be the champion, fighting to curry the favor of Rock Caesar,” said Simmons in a statement.

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Strange Ways

Episode 35 finds your KISS ARMY bros joined by our PODCAST ROCK CITY bro, JOE POLO!!! This time we discussed Robert Duncan’s 1978 KISS Predictions!!!

Ultimate Guitar

Ace Frehley has claimed that Tommy Thayer, who replaced him in KISS, always wanted to be him.

And original “Spaceman” – who recently insisted he could “blow Thayer off the stage” – believes Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons just wanted a business deal with someone who’d play his role.

Frehley tells the Village Voice (via Classic Rock): “I could sense he always wanted to be me. He used to be in a Kiss cover band. He didn’t do anything – he was hired by Paul and Gene to put on my makeup and costume and play my guitar solos – a business deal. If he wouldn’t have done it, they would have hired somebody else.

“What they really should have done is, if they wanted to dress up a guy to play lead guitar, they should have come up with different makeup, like they did with Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent. That’s what the fans are upset about.”

Asked about Thayer launching a limited-edition Spaceman guitar, Frehley responds: “I mean, how big are the balls on this guy?”

In a separate interview, he describes his replacement as “a guy up there copying me.” He tells Eddie Trunk: “What bothers me most is that new fans don’t know it. A lot of people think he’s the original guy that created the makeup, that wrote great songs and wrote all those solos that he’s performing, but he’s not. The real hardcore fans know. But the new fans, a lot of them don’t know.”

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My Fox LA

Los Angeles News | FOX 11 LA KTTV

It was just a couple of weeks ago, August 17th, that the wheels stopped turning on one of Southern California’s most iconic roller coasters to make way for a new wood and steel version of the famous Colossus.

It was 1:30pm … firefighters got the call… about 30 were sent out including teams from Hazmat and Urban Search and Rescue. Six Flags officials say workers from AA construction company hired by Magic Mountain were working on disassembling the ride. There was flame, a lot of smoke and, although park engineers didn’t think it was the case, firefighters were very concerned about the possibility of collapse. The center of the fire was on what’s called a lift-hill. So, they decided not to put firefighters up there until after they knew it was safe. They also fought the blaze defensively aiming streams of water to each side of the fire to keep flames from spreading while trying to knock it down.

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Blabbermouth

Slash has commented on a story in Paul Stanley‘s autobiography in which the KISS frontman claimed that he had to teach the former GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist a basic lesson in rock and roll diplomacy more than 25 years ago.

In “Face The Music: A Life Exposed”, Stanley recalled the time he was asked to meet with the members of GUNS N’ ROSES, who were about to start work on their now-classic debut album, “Appetite For Destruction” album. Although Stanley claims he wasn’t all that impressed at first, describing guitarist Izzy Stradlin as “unconscious, with drool coming out of the side of his mouth,” and Slash as “half-comatose,” the KISS guitarist-vocalist was nice enough to show Slash how to tune his guitar in the five-string open-G method preferred by Keith Richards, and offered to put the GN’R axeman in touch with people who could get him free guitars. Paul then went to go see GUNS N’ ROSES play two small Los Angeles-area club shows, which he described as “stupendous.” According to Ultimate Classic Rock, it was an incident at the second of those concerts that created the initial rift between Slash and Stanley. “They weren’t happy with the guy mixing their sound,” Stanley wrote in his book. “And Slash asked me out of the blue to help out. Decades later, Slash‘s recollections of the night would be faulty at best. He liked to pretend I had dared to meddle with their sound.”

Stanley continued: “Immediately after my interactions with the band, I started to hear lots of stories Slash was saying behind my back — he called me gay, made fun of my clothes, all sorts of things designed to give him some sort of rock credibility at my expense. This was years before his top hat, sunglasses and dangling cigarette became a cartoon costume that he would continue to milk with the best of us for decades.”

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Ultimate Guitar

“While I have nothing but respect for Gene, he couldn’t be further off the mark. Yes, the rock ‘n’ roll ‘business model’ that helped KISS (and my band for that matter) achieve fame and fortune is most certainly long dead and buried, but rock ‘n’ roll is alive and well and thriving on social media, in the streets, and in clubs and concert halls all over the world. And the bands playing it are more genuine and heartfelt than ever because they are in it for one reason: the love of rock ‘n’ roll.

“Spend some time seeing and listening to these incredible young bands and their rabid fans and you will know that rock ‘n’ roll couldn’t be more alive. Yes, it’s not the same as it was for the first 50 years of rock’s existence, but the fire definitely still burns.”

Explaining what actually killed rock in his opinion, Snider added, “And it wasn’t some 15 year old kid in Saint Paul, Minnesota (to paraphrase Mr. Simmons) who killed the rock ‘n’ roll goose that laid the platinum egg… it was greedy, big city, record company moguls who made their own velvet noose to hang themselves with. It was they who took advantage of the consumer (and the artist for that matter) and drove them to use an alternative source of music presented to them.

“For example, take the bill of goods the record industry sold the mainstream public when introducing the CD format. ‘We have to charge more for it, because it’s a new technology and there’s a cost to setting up the infrastructure to produce them.’ The consumer believed them – it made sense – so they paid a $18.98 list price for a product they had been paying $7.99 list for previously. After all ‘you can’t break a CD with a hammer!’ (Remember that?)

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NJKISSExpo.com

Tickets only $10 in advance!
KISS Tribute band KISS Nation playing in full makeup and Dressed to Kill suits!
Photographer Lynn Goldsmith shooting fans for upcoming KISS book!
Huge after show party with all your friends, old and new, at the Hilton Garden Inn

Visit NJKISSExpo.com for all tickets and Information!