Just back from my latest stop on what has been an amazing Summer tour of sorts for me. This past weekend I visited Bogota Colombia for the first time. I was told so many times that I had a huge fan base there, and now I have seen it first hand! Simply amazing!! Fans at the airport, at the hotel, and jammed into a 500 capacity theater to hear me speak. Just incredible. The theater was so jammed there were people outside trying to get in and they did it as a live stream as well with a translator. I couldn’t believe the enthusiasm and love for this music and my shows and I am very thankful. I also found out TMS hasn’t even aired there since last October (I have no control over where and when the show airs anywhere) as their VH1 is now showing all videos. Hope that changes soon. What was really amazing however was the interest and awareness of my radio show. The FM show is available there as a stream and is super popular which I had no idea about. I also saw many of my books in the audience which people had purchased through Amazon. So cool! It was a short but amazing visit and I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out and all the love. I would have loved to have stayed and signed after my conference speech however security would not allow it. They needed to close the venue and asked that I did not go into the crowd. Not my decision but I understand. Huge thanks to Alejandro Bonilla for working so hard to make this happen and local radio host Andreas Duran, a true music fan and supporter locally based and the interviewer for my conference. Also thanks to La X Radio who had me on almost 2 hours on the AM show. So much fun! Thanks to all, hope to be back soon. Just amazing to me to see so much support in these countries outside the US that don’t even speak English for what I do. Thank you!
The road trips continue! This time with Don & Jim for live stand up shows this Thursday in Vegas at Vamp’d, Friday at The Whiskey in LA, Saturday at Ramona Main Stage in the San Diego area. Books for sale at all. Remember these are NOT TMS tapings but live stand up shows. Hope to see you this weekend.
Live SiriusXM show tonight 6-10P ET and it is packed with guests. Ace Frehley in studio at 6, Slash calls in at 8, Doro along with Mark and Wolf from Accept at 9. Channel 39 TRUNKNation 6-10P ET. Ace’s album out tomorrow FYI as is the Accept.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Joey Kramer of Aerosmith who had a heart procedure. Joey is not only a friend and a great guy but I think one of rocks most underrated rock solid drummers. All the best Joey!
This weeks all new podcast posting this Thursday on Itunes and at www.podcastone.com is with Tom Keifer. Thanks for all the amazing support for The Eddie Trunk Podcast. Very cool to hear from so many around the world who are listening!
21 Responses
My review of Space Invader:
To say that this cd is “out of this world” would be a HUGE understatement! In my opinion this is by far the real spaceman’s best solo effort hands down. Instead of filling the record with a ton of “yeah’s” in every verse and chorus like the last Kiss release, Ace instead plays his balls off and fills the record with tons of hooks, fills and solos! I think this is what Gene Simmons meant on Kiss Xtreme close up when he said you play with your dick! On this cd Ace is hung like a fucking mule! Let’s take a peek at each track shall we?
1. The title track Space Invader launches the album off and one can argue that overall this is one of Ace’s best songs ever. A true gem that shows how Ace has grown as an artist!
2. Gimme A Feelin’, the lead single, has that classic Kiss vibe to it. In my opinion it’s classic Ace from the early Kiss years! It has all the classic Ace licks & leads from the Alive record triumphantly declaring who the original, the real and only Spaceman is!
3. I Wanna Hold You is a unique tune for Ace. I can hear elements of New York Groove in the verse. Some excellent guitar playing throughout as the main riff has a great punk rock feel to it without going to Violent Femmes.
4. Change is a hard rockin tune that despite having a modern edge to it could easily have fit on either of the Frehley’s Comet studio records.
5. One of my favorite tunes, Toys has an insanely monster riff to it. In the key of the lost Kiss classic Almost Human, this track will have any fan of Ace rockin hard!
6. Immortal Pleasures could easily have fit on Ace’s 1978 solo album. Classic Ace, one of the signature tracks that defines the roots of Ace Frehley.
7. Inside The Vortex is yet another great new tune from the real spaceman! Another huge riff with more killer solos and fills. Also the arrangements on this song and all songs on this record are phenomenal.
8. What Every Girl Wants is one of the most fun tunes on the record! A very classic rock riff that will give you much more than a walk in the park!
9. Musically Past The Milky Way is one of the finest Ace songs I’ve ever heard. Dedicated to his fiancé Racheal Gordon, Ace shines throughout and gets his love message out in a way that only Ace can. While many of us men would write a love letter to our wives promising waterfalls, tropical islands and sandy beaches with flowers and chocolate, I think Ace would send Racheal a moon from Venus, a spaceship, oxygen tank and some survival meals and say let’s fly to the moon!
10. Although not a terd, Reckless is by far my least favorite track on the record. It kind of sounds like something from the Anomaly sessions that wasn’t good enough to make the album which makes me wonder how it made this record considering how in my opinion this record blows Anomaly away (and I thought Anomaly was a good, not great, record).
11. A cover of the Steve Miller Band’s classic The Joker has been deemed unnecessary by many. If it was on TMS’ take it or leave it segment, I’d take it. Ace does a nice job of sticking to the roots of the song while at the same time making it his own especially during the solo. I also like the way he incorporates the New York Groove riff to enter the chorus. The cowbell adds a nice touch as well!
12. In traditional Ace fashion, the album closes with a new instrumental that gives a salute to the Fractured family while the Starship takes off into a more progressive, heavier galaxy.
Overall from beginning to end this is Ace Frehley’s best solo effort. My only disappointment was I bought the deluxe edition at 10AM this morning at Best Buy. The deluxe edition has two “bonus” tracks which are just radio edits of Space Invada and Gimme A Feelin’. It also advertises it comes with a poster when in reality it’s the cd booklet that folds out into a mini poster of the album cover. It would have been nice to have a separate poster from the booklet. It also would’ve been nice if Ace would’ve cut the radio edits and replaced them with a DVD of the making of this album, another cover song or two or another original or two.
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest score, I have to rate this record as a 9. Although Anomaly was a good record & a nice comeback for Ace, I admit I was a tad disappointed with it. This time all of the stars aligned and Ace delivered the best record of his career hands down! Ace has shown that fighting & overcoming your addictions, taking the high road and putting your mind to something can lead to fantastic results. Definitely the defining moment of Ace’s solo career. It’s just too bad it took so long for it to happen meaning he was more than capable of putting out records like this for years but his addictions held him back from being the best he could be. I think even the real spaceman would agree with that but as Ace always says, “better late than neva!”
Cool story dude, nobody cares.
Dude, u have been placed on clown status
What’s funny is that I am holding back, the dialect I could engage in would frustrate your intellect so much it isn’t worth it, so I go only so far as to somewhat piss people off. Trust me. : )
Man, you are definitely a fan of ACE. Good review, thanks.
Frank, it’s hard to fault your review, your very vivid imagination notwithstanding! But you obviously have a solid grasp of music, which is nice to read. “Past the Milky Way” is a solid Who song that goes into some modern Southern Rock, just incredible. I like “Reckless,” another Who type chord accent, but that chorus is nice and depraved, but again, cool review, this is one very formidable set of tunes Ace has put out.
I’m sure Ace’s new cd is going to be great. I am expecting my copy to arrive tomorrow (finally!!).
Your comment about Kiss latest is not a good assessment so I didn’t bother to read the rest of your review. How could I take any of it seriously after a comment like that about Kiss last album. Look, I like many of the great metal and hard rock bands (Maiden, Preist, Sabbath, Aerosmith, etc…), and Kiss and Preist are the two out of many that have impressed me with their latest releases. Then you come along and say that the last Kiss album was chock full of “yeahs” in every verse? I call that complete BS! I hope you understand why I didn’t read the entire review. From my perspective, Monster is the best album from Kiss since Revenge. Oh well, sorry to hear all you heard on it was “yeah”!
I noticed the buffet of “yeah’s” on the last Paul & Gene record myself. I’d like to count them but simply do not have the time. Best Paul & Gene album since Revenge? Considering the studio albums since revenge were carnival of souls, psycho circus (two of Kiss’ worst records) & Sonic Boom (which in my opinion was better than Munster), that’s really not saying much and thus I call BS on you. It’s unbelievable that I’d ever thought I’d utter these words but Ace Frehley today is a better singer than Paul Stanley Eisen is.
So you agree with yourself–how comforting. /:
Its funny–I have listened to Monster a few times in my car since I first heard someone criticize Paul’s voice on the album. He still sounds great! In fact, the songs are all excellent. I cant think of it any other way. I don’t know what people expect from Kiss at this point in their career. Monster is excellent from beginning to end and people still criticize it, which leads me to believe its about WHO is in the band wearing the makeup–nothing wrong with the music whatsoever. Music is subjective, yes, but many hear with their eyes and with their minds, and not their ears. Some here don’t WANT Kiss to put out anything good because it works against their agenda of criticizing the current lineup.
Eddie, just heard the Accept interview from last night’s show. VERY interesting to hear that they were rushed to do Stalingrad. I’m dying to get home in a half hour to grab my CD of Blind Rage.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: thank YOU for turning me on to the “new” Accept. You had Mark on right after Blood was released and I got the album the next day. I listened to it non-stop for a YEAR. I think this version of Accept is miles ahead of what they used to be. And it sucks that they feel pressured to play so many old songs. Frankly, the last 3 albums of material FAR out shadows anything they did with Udo. Really, Balls to the Wall is about all I liked from the early stuff. I hate Reckless & Wild.
Anyway, hoping to see them in NY next month! Congrats to the guys in Accept for another great achievement!