White Tiger – s/t [Album Review]

White Tiger
1986, EMC Records

1. Rock Warriors
2. Love/Hate
3. Bad Time Coming
4. Runaway
5. Still Standing Strong
6. Live to Rock
7. Northern Wind
8. Stand and Deliver
9. White Hot Desire

Band:
David Donato – Lead Vocals
Mark St. John – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Michael Norton – Bass, Backing Vocals
Brian James Fox – Drums, Backing Vocals

Producer: Mark St. John

After a short drama-filled stint with KISS in 1984 that resulted in the release of Animalize and a handful of live performances before being replaced by Bruce Kulick, Mark St. John set out to form his own band. By January of 1985, St. John had partnered up with singer David Donato and started working on demos. Much like St. John, Donato also spent a small portion of 1984 as a member of a legendary rock band before shown the door. That band was Black Sabbath. White Tiger was rounded out by drummer Brian James Fox and Mark’s brother, Michael Norton on bass.

The music of White Tiger is not too dissimilar from that of what would be heard on the ’89/’90 demos from The Keep. Not surprising since that group that was essentially White Tiger with original KISS member Peter Criss on drums.

One thing I notice is that Mark St. John’s playing seems a bit more restrained (well, as restrained as you can expect and ’80s metal guitarist to be) than it was on Animalize. I don’t mind his playing at all on that KISS album, I consider it to be one of the album’s trademarks, but I would have expected him to be even more showy now that he has his own band, but he doesn’t go down that road. Maybe he learned his lesson from hearing Vinnie Vincent go off the rails when he formed the Vinnie Vincent Invasion after his tenure in KISS.

Donato’s vocals are prototypical ’80s metal singer, but I mean that in a good way because I love that style of singing and he’s obviously talented. Slightly nasal in a Vince Neil fashion (though a much better singer), I also hear similarities to Robert Plant, but it doesn’t sound like he’s trying to ripoff Robert Plant as other singers loved to do during this era.

The music itself is enjoyable ’80s melodic metal. Nothing spectacular, but nothing is terrible either. It’s good background music when you’re in the mood for this type of music. The same year this album was released, EMC Records dropped them after deeming there were no hit singles on this album. The band trudged on and got as far as recording demos in 1988 for a second album, but they decided to call it quits shortly afterwards.

For Black Sabbath and KISS fans, White Tiger is a fun listen to get an idea of what any future contributions from Donato and St. John might’ve sounded like had they stayed in their previous bands.

Highlights: “Love/Hate”, “Still Standing Strong”, “Live to Rock”

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The Keep featuring KISS members Peter Criss & Mark St. John and Black Sabbath’s Dave Donato

The Keep: Michael Norton, Peter Criss, Mark St. John and… um, David Donato..? Michael McDonald?

Peter Criss/The Keep [demos]
Recorded: 1989-1990

1. Love For Sale
2. Between The Lines
3. Do You Know What I Mean
4. (Been A) Long Time
5. All Night Long

Band:
David Donato – Lead Vocals
Mark St. John – Guitar
Michael Norton – Bass
Peter Criss – Drums; Lead Vocals (“Do You Know What I Mean” only)

Producer: Peter Criss

Formed sometime in 1989, the Keep is a very interesting project that never got far off the ground beyond a series of demos and one live performance in May of ’90 at a Guitar Center store in California. The group is notable for including Peter Criss (original KISS drummer), Mark St. John (short-lived KISS guitarist), and David Donato (short-lived Black Sabbath vocalist…. so short-lived he never made it past the demo stage with the band). The bassist was Michael Norton, the brother of Mark St. John. The trio of St. John/Donato/Norton previously played together in the band White Tiger and had released an album in 1986.

The odd thing is that I’ve seen conflicting reports on who sang on these demos and was the band’s singer in general. Some websites list a Michael McDonald as the original vocalist for this group, while other sites say that David Donato used the alias of “Michael McDonald”. There is no doubt that David Donato was in the band, but it’s unclear to me who Michael McDonald was.

In my research for this album, I get the impression that the Keep was more or less a partnership between Peter Criss & Mark St. John, and the demos were initially shopped simply as ‘Peter Criss’. I’m not sure at which point the band decided to rename themselves as The Keep. Reactions to the Peter Criss/Keep demos were not positive and they were not able to score a record deal. This lead to Mark St. John leaving the band in frustration in early 1991 while his brother stayed on with Peter Criss and they formed an early version of the band ‘Criss’ with Phil Naro coming in on vocals.

So now that that little history lesson is out of the way, and taking into account that these are only demos, how does the music of the Keep sound? Well, it was definitely in keeping with the times with St. John’s flashy guitar playing (which drew the ire of Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley when he was briefly in KISS and helped in his exit from the band). “Been A Long Time” is the flashiest track on this album and is unmistakably Mark St. John and gives off that Animalize vibe. “Between The Lines” is my favorite track of the bunch though.

Despite the hair metal tendencies, the old school influences of Peter Criss couldn’t help but slip in with a cover of Lee Michaels’ 1971 hit “Do You Know What I Mean”. Sure, it’s a a slick ’80s metal version of the song, but I think it’s pretty easy to guess who wanted to record this breezy classic rock & pop song.

I’m always down for some glammed up ’80s heavy metal, so it’s a shame this quasi-super group never took off. You’d think someone would have wanted to sign the original KISS drummer along with a KISS guitarist and someone who could lay claim to being the lead singer for Black Sabbath (even if it was only for about six months in 1984/1985 and they never released any material)!

Oh well, The Keep remains an interesting footnote in history for fans of KISS.

Remembering the Bally KISS Pinball Machine from 1979

When I was a kid and would go to the local skating rink (“Skate World”, I believe it was called), there was small arcade section. I remember them having video games like Ikari Warriors and maybe even something like Double Dragon. But then there was THIS…

Bally’s KISS Pinball machine. And it scared me. I was probably 6 or 7 years old when I first laid eyes upon this machine in that smoky and dim skating center that always had the aroma of Cheetos puffs to me (a combination of used skates and the cheese pizzas, I’m sure). The cabinet was first produced in 1979. Ultimately, 17,000 cabinets were made and sold.

I had no idea who KISS was when I was kid. I knew they were a rock band. Well, going by the artwork on this pinball machine, I assumed they were the heaviest and most evil METAL band of all time. They were scary looking. Especially Gene, which is appropriate since he is “The Demon”, after all. Wearing face paint, dressed in black, and having rippled muscles and flames going off all around them, I assumed KISS were Knights In Satan’s Service. I could do nothing but stand in awe and fear whenever I would go into the arcade room. I dared not even touch this machine.

Ace Frehley – Origins Vol. 1 [Album Review]

Ace Frehley – Origins Vol. 1
2016, Entertainment One Music

Buy the album

1. “White Room”
2. “Street Fighting Man”
3. “Spanish Castle Magic”
4. “Fire and Water”
5. “Emerald”
6. “Bring It On Home”
7. “Wild Thing”
8. “Parasite”
9. “Magic Carpet Ride”
10. “Cold Gin”
11. “Till the End of the Day”
12. “Rock and Roll Hell”

Band:
Ace Frehley – Lead Vocals, Guitar, Bass
Chris Wyse – Bass
Scot Coogan – Drums, Lead Vocals
Matt Starr – Drums

Additional Musicians:
Paul Stanley – Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals
Slash – Guitar
John 5 – Guitar
Lita Ford – Lead Vocals, Guitar
Mike McCready – Guitar

Well, cover albums are usually fun, even they do have kind of a throwaway feel to them. But, hey, at least it’s not a live album, right?

Origins, Vol. 1 is a collection of classic rock songs covering the likes of Zeppelin, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, the Troggs, and, of course, KISS. Ace also recruits a number of impressive friends to help out on the album, including his old KISS band mate Paul Stanley (lead vocals on Free’s “Fire and Water”). This album marks the first time Stanley & Frehley have appeared on a studio album together since Psycho Circus way back in 1998.

Having success with “2,000 Man”, I guess Ace figured it was a good time to cover another song by the Rolling Stones. This time he picked “Street Fighting Man”. It’s a song that’s been covered plenty of times over the years, but Ace’s version may be the best of all the cover versions that I’ve heard.

It’s no surprise that this album focuses on rock ‘n’ roll from the 1960s & 1970s, but I did find it slightly surprising that Ace chose to cover thee songs from his old band — “Parasite”, “Cold Gin”, and “Rock and Roll Hell”. Especially so in the case of “Rock and Roll Hell”, which was written by Gene Simmons about Ace and was recorded for the band’s Creatures of the Night album. Although to be fair, despite technically being in the band at that point, he didn’t play on the album at all as he was on his way out the door. It’s a song about him after all, so I guess Ace wanted to put his own stamp on it.

You could say the same for “Parasite” (which sounds FANTASTIC here) and “Cold Gin”. Ace wrote both of those songs but didn’t sing on either one, Gene Simmons did.

Enjoyable listen, as Ace always does well when covering other musicians. Looking forward to a second volume.

Highlights: “White Room”, “Street Fighting Man”, “Emerald”, “Parasite”, “Rock and Roll Hell”

Momoiro Clover Z vs. KISS – Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina [EP Review]

Momoiro Clover Z vs. KISS – Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina
2015, King Records/Evil Line Records

Buy the album

1. “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina”
2. “Rock and Roll All Nite”
3. “SAMURAI SON”
4. “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina” [off vocals version]
5. “Rock and Roll All Nite” [off vocals version]
6. “SAMURAI SON” [off vocals version]

Musicians:
KISS
Paul Stanley – Vocals, Guitar
Gene Simmons – Vocals, Bass
Tommy Thayer – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Eric Singer – Drums, Backing Vocals

Momoiro Clover Z
Kanako Momota – Vocals
Shiori Tamai – Vocals
Ayaka Sasaki – Vocals
Momoka Ariyasu – Vocals
Reni Takagi – Vocals

Additional Musicians:
Narasaki – Guitar
Greg Collins – Synth

Producers: Paul Stanley & Greg Collins

Ordered this one off of CDBaby.com of all places. Never thought I’d see a KISS release on CDBaby! In truth, this is a Japanese import released through Japan’s King Records label and Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina is collaborative effort between KISS and Momoiro Clover Z, a popular J-pop girl group in Japan. Why? As Paul Stanley, “Why not?” It’s a great bit of PR and marketing though as this project was released right about the time KISS went on a brief tour of Japan.

“Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina” is a pretty catchy song. The music is especially good. Momoiro Clover Z handles the lead vocals while KISS helps out in the chorus. Then there’s the cover of “Rock and Roll All Nite”, which again features Clover Z on the vocals with a few musical nods to other KISS songs such as “Love Gun” and “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”. “SAMURAI SON” is a reworking of “Yume no Ukiyo ni Saitemina”, featuring Paul Stanley & Gene Simmons on lead vocals, new lyrics and the Clover Z girls on backing vocals.

The “off vocals” versions are what you’d guess they are: instrumentals.

I know people will laugh at or hate this project because #1: it’s KISS and #2: it’s KISS teaming up with a Japanese pop girl group but the songs are actually kinda fun. It’s a quirky one-off thing and it’s not the band selling out or anything like that. They’ve been at this for 40+ years now, I don’t blame them for wanting to try something different. And this is definitely different. If you’re still longing for the days of Ace & Peter, then go back to your old vinyl record collection but I’m a fan of all eras of KISS and this is an odd yet entertaining release as far as I’m concerned.

The album comes in two different editions. One for KISS and one for Momoiro Clover Z. Of course I picked the KISS version. It’s a pretty nice package with a clear slip cover, nice insert and cardstock featuring credits & lyrics and even the CD’s artwork is pretty cool.

The KISS Album Focus Volumes, 1 – 4 [Book Review]

                                            

                                           

 The KISS Album Focus, Volume 1: Kings of the Night Time World (1972 – 1982)
The KISS Album Focus, Volume 2: Hell or High Water (1983 – 1996)
The KISS Album Focus, Volume 3: Roar of Greasepaint (1997 – 2006)
The KISS Album Focus, Volume 4: Never Enough (2006 – 2013)
by Julian Gill
KISSFAQ.com Publishing

For many years, the website KISSFAQ.com (not affiliated with or endorsed by the band KISS) was the source of a lot of great info on the band. What I found most entertaining and informative was the website’s “KISS Album Focus” series where the band’s recording history was broken down into detail. These considerably lengthy articles were all posted and available for free. Eventually, he Album Focus articles were pulled from the site and were slowly released in book format starting in 2002 (with updated editions being published at various points). As of this writing, the series covers the band beginnings all the way up to 2013.

In addition to KISS albums, these books also focus on what every band member was up to pre- & post-KISS. Various editions of albums and singles are discussed as well.

I’ve read a lot of KISS books over the years and these are some of the best. While this isn’t technically a biography of the band, it does cover every album the band has released (including compilations and live albums) and talks about events during and leading up those releases.

I started with Volume 2 because it covers my favorite era of the band. I think KISS’ run during the ’80s and early ’90s is much more interesting than the classic period. We’ve heard all the stories from the band’s 1970s heyday a million times. so my eyes and ears always perk up when I get to read about what went on post-originals/pre-reunion.

Next I purchased volumes three and four. Volume 3 was interesting because it focuses on the reunion and while I already knew that Psycho Circus wasn’t a true reunion album, I didn’t realize how much of a mess relations were in the band from the get-go. Volume 4 covers the shortest amount of time out of all the books and according has the least amount of pages. I was a bit disappointed with this one because I felt surely there’d be much more to say with the band kick-starting their creatives juices with the releases of Sonic Boom and Monster.

Finally, I picked up Volume 1. I almost bought the $5 Kindle version because the paperback was listed as being out of print and prices on copies of it skyrocketed up around $40. Just a few days earlier the paperback was in stock and had been listed at around $17 or so. I mulled over whether I wanted an e-book to complete the set but after doing that for a few weeks, Amazon got more paperback copies in, so everything turned out okay.

My biggest complaint about this series is that Julian Gill really could’ve used an editor (or a spell-check/grammar check program). Words are omitted, words are misspelled, entire paragraphs are repeated but worded differently… This happens throughout the entire series but seems to happen the most in Volume 1.

I wouldn’t recommend these books to a casual KISS fan that may only pick up a Gene Simmons book for a quick read, but all hardcore KISS fans should read and love this series. These are books I’ll be referring to and re-reading certain chapters for many more years to come!

Ace Frehley – Space Invader [Review]

Ace Frehley – Space Invader
2014, eOne Music

1. Space Invader
2. Gimme A Feelin’ [Radio Edit]
3. I Wanna Hold You
4. Change
5. Toys
6. Immortal Pleasure
7. Inside the Vortex
8. What Every Girl Wants
9. Past the Milky Way
10. Reckless
11. The Joker
12. Starship

Musicians:
Ace Frehley – Vocals, Guitar, Bass
Matt Starr – Drums
Chris Wyse – Bass

Producer: Ace Frehley

There was a sticker on the wrapper that said “Space Ace has out KISSed KISS. This may end up the best KISS album KISS never recorded.” Relax, dude.

Of course, Ace being Ace, you can’t help but pick out the classic KISS sound on a few of these tracks. It’s a part of who he is as a musician. That classic KISS sound couldn’t have existed without Ace playing lead. “Toys” and “Inside the Vortex” have that classic KISS vibe. And “Inside the Vortex” actually sounds like something that fits right alongside “Modern Day Delilah” and “I’m An Animal” from KISS’ Sonic Boom album. “What Every Girl Wants” isn’t a standout track but it has a KISS vibe as well.

It’s the first four tracks that I find to be the best. “Space Invader” is some of Ace’s best guitar work in decades. “Gimme A Feelin'” and “I Wanna Hold You” are kinda like amped up ’50s/’60s rock. Very catchy. Especially “I Wanna Hold You” (which is tied with “Space Invader” as my absolute favorite song from the album). “Change” reminds me of something we might’ve heard from Frehley’s Comet back in the late ’80s.

Maybe it requires further listening but “Restless” strikes me as a bit of filler and Ace’s cover of the Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” is most unwelcome. Not because of Ace’s performance but because the original song itself is terrible.

Ace closes the album with an instrumental called “Starship”, which is worthy successor to the “Fractured” series of instrumentals and done in the same vein. I would not be mad if any and all future Ace albums continued to feature “Fractured”-like instrumental. It would be nice to have a compilation of all of these instrumentals. I’m sure something like that will pop up on YouTube eventually if it isn’t already there. I would have to listen back to know for sure but off the top of my head the song “Immortal Pleasures” (which is not an instrumental) seems reminiscent of the “Fractured” instrumentals.

I don’t feel bad that Ace is not in KISS anymore. He signed his rights away to the character he created and left the band on at least two different occasions of his own freewill and I think he can be just as much of a flaky, egotistical trash-talker as Gene, Paul and Peter can be. I’m saying this to show that I’m not an Ace fanboy and while I thought Anomaly was good, I was only mildly interested in this CD as I figured Ace probably didn’t have enough in the tank to even match the quality of that album. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised to be wrong! This is a great album and blows Anomaly away. Space Invader easily trumps everything, except Ace’s first solo album way back in 1978.

Highlights: “Space Invader”, “Gimme A Feelin'”, “I Wanna Hold You”, “Change”, “Inside the Vortex”, “Past the Milky Way”, “Starship”