THE ROCK N’ ROLL HALL OF FAME’S PRESIDENT ON THE KISS DRAMA: “I DON’T LIKE ALL THE SNIPING BACK AND FORTH, THOUGH MOSTLY IT’S BEEN FORTH”

kiss-return Andy Greene of Rolling Stone reports:

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s President and CEO Joel Peresman had to deal with the wrath of KISS frontman Paul Stanley, who has gone very public with his anger over the Hall of Fame’s decision to only induct the band’s original lineup. “I don’t need the Hall of Fame,” Stanley told Rolling Stone. “And if there’s not reciprocity, I’m not interested. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, practically every member was inducted, and virtually all 175 members of the Grateful Dead. Rules need to apply to everybody.”

“I don’t like all the sniping back and forth, though mostly it’s been forth,” says Peresman. “And I totally understand his point of view. What he’s failing to understand is that there are certain acts that are nominated and brought in on their entire body of work, up until the day before the nominating committee meets. They are still evolving bands that are breaking new ground. With KISS, there wasn’t a single person we spoke to that didn’t feel the reason these guys were being inducted was because of the four original members. It’s an incredibly unique situation. I can’t think of another band, outside of Gwar, that has members that are dressed up in costumes. You basically have these new members that are replicating exactly and playing the music that was created by the two other members that are being inducted.”

KISS has invited current members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer to sit at their table, along with former guitarist Bruce Kulick. “I appreciate how Tommy and Eric have filled in and the way they do things,” says Peresman. “They are fine musicians and I’m sure they’re lovely guys, but they are basically replicating the two members that are getting inducted. How could we have asked Ace and Peter to accept the award and then have other people in their guise playing their music? They probably wouldn’t have even come. They were very clear about that. . .Frankly, I’m really, really happy that KISS are being inducted. It should have happened a while ago. The four of them will get up, accept their award, say what they want to say and then we’ll move on.”

Read more at Rolling Stone.

source: rollingstone.com

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GUITAR WORLD’S 11 ESSENTIAL THRASH METAL ALBUMS, SEE IF YOU AGREE

Metallica2010pic2400pix Guitar World lists the 11 essential thrash metal albums every self-respecting metalhead should have in his/her record collection and explain the reasons why, as for 11? “Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it?”

Here is their list. What do you think?

 

Metallica: Master of Puppets

An extraordinary display of the full range of thrash metal’s capabilities. Although Puppets isn’t quite as groundbreaking as the band’s two previous efforts, its huge sound an ambitious scope make it Metallica’s — and thrash metal’s — finest moment.

Slayer: Reign In Blood:

On which Slayer stake their claim as the masters of brutality, bar none. In 1986 this was the fastest and most depraved music in existence. Twenty-eight years on, it still is.

Megadeth: Rust In Peace:

Dave Mustaine & Co. were always touted as the most dangerous band in thrash, but here they show that they earned that title for their wicked instrumental dexterity rather than for their infamous bouts with drugs and alcohol.

Exodus: Bonded By Blood:

An influential and essential early thrash masterpiece. Exodus never received the level of recognition enjoyed by many of their peers, but no band was ever more dedicated to the cause than these Bay Area bashers.

Metallica – Kill ‘Em All:

The sound and Fury of Metallica’s debut sparked the birth of a genre. Powered by galloping tempos and air-tight riffing, Kill ‘Em All rumbles along with the intensity of a well-oiled machine, its menacing ferocity barely concealing the giddy excitement at its core.

Anthrax: Among the Living:

The first half of the record comes close to thrash perfection, comprising as it does four rapid-fire, neck-snapping tunes that are among Anthrax’s best work.

Testament: The New Order

On the group’s second record, Alex Skolnick is a teenage shredaholic happily splattering sweep arpeggios all over the band’s thrashy grooves and singer Chuck Billy’s paranoid, apocalyptic tirades.

Overkill – The Years of Decay:

This is music as cold and hard as the New York/New Jersey streets that Overkill call home.

Possessed: Seven Churches:

Four high school friends conjure the devil in their parents’ garage and in the process give birth to death metal.

Pantera: Cowboys From Hell:

Pantera are perhaps the one band revered equally by old and new-school metalheads, and Cowboys, their major label debut, was as influential in the Nineties as Kill ‘Em All had been in the previous decade.

Kreator: Coma of Souls:

Often overlooked by thrash fans on this side of the Atlantic, Kreator are another classic thrash band who many would say are churning out the best albums of their career now. That said, it’s tough to beat the pummeling riffs found on 1990’s Coma of Souls.

source: guitarworld.com

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SEASON 13 FINALE OF VH1 CLASSIC’S “THAT METAL SHOW” WELCOMES GUITARIST JOE SATRIANI AND COMEDIANS ARTIE LANGE AND JIM BREUER

Thatmetalshowlogo That Metal Show wraps up its latest season, lucky number 13, with a guitar player’s dream episode. Guitar virtuoso and instructor to some of music’s finest players, Joe Satriani, stops by the set to chat with hosts Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson, and Jim Florentine. Joe shows off his upcoming release: the complete music anthology contained inside a USB mounted miniature replica of Joe’s head, and trademark sunglasses. Joe updates the hosts and audience about his upcoming tour, future plans, and the status of his latest band Chickenfoot; with Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Chad Smith. Joe also engages the hosts in the rapid-fire Q&A segment, Put It On The Table. His answers include the songs he wishes he wrote and the other bands he would have liked to have been a part of. The season finale of That Metal Show airs this Saturday, April 5th at 11:00PM ET/PT.

Comedians Artie Lange and Jim Breuer join the illustrious panel to discuss their love of metal and comedy. Artie discusses how he always seemed to watch “That Metal Show” while in rehab (a clinic favorite), and Jim treats the crowd to some of his finest metal impersonations, not to mention an amazing Jim Florentine impression. Episode twelve also features the hosts’ Pick Of The Week, a Throwdown pitting the AC/DC classic songs For Those About To Rock and Highway To Hell” against each other, and a TMS Top 5 discussing the Top 5 Desert Island Hard Rock Albums. This week’s Stump The Trunk finds Eddie ending the season with the audience testing his knowledge of all things Satch, with some less than victorious results, which of course brings out everyone’s favorite Miss Box Of Junk, Jennifer.

Guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen returns to That Metal Show for the season finale, after shredding the walls down in episode 11. He is the only guest musician to perform twice this season. Yngwie wows the crowd with his fretwork and even shares a story of him and his colleague, Joe Satriani, playing together in the past.

Season 13 of That Metal Show premiered on January 18th with guests M. Shadows, Zakk Wylde and Jason Hook. This season brought some of the biggest names in hard rock and heavy metal to the show including members of Kiss, Alter Bridge, Lamb of God, Living Colour, The Winery Dogs, Motley Crüe, Sevendust, Anthrax, and Megadeth. Season 13 also featured some of the best performances in the show’s history, with the likes of Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Joel Hoekstra, Charlie Benante, and Lita Ford, among others.

This season marks some monumental changes for the show as it returns to New York City for Season 13. Previously, the show was taped over several days of one week out at Sony Studios in Los Angeles. The new season is shot at Metropolis Studios on Tuesday nights for broadcast that Saturday. Season 13 also consists of 12 new episodes making it the longest season in the show’s history. Fans can also catch the complete season 12 and brand new exclusive bonus clips at ThatMetalShow.VH1.com and in the new VH1 app. New episodes of season 13 launch on the web and in the app every Sunday morning following the show’s on-air premiere.

TMS Week 12 (Colin Douglas Gray)640
photo credit: Colin Douglas Gray

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GUITARIST JAKE E. LEE DISCUSSES HOW HE WROTE “BARK AT THE MOON”

Jakelee Guitarist Jake E. Lee (Red Dragon Cartel, Ozzy Osbourne, Badlands) participated in a half-show/half-question-and-answer-session at the Lava Cable stage in Owasso, Oklahoma on March 13th.

Lee, who wrote Bark At The Moon” the title song of Ozzy Osbourne’s 1983 album of the same name, revealed how he wrote the tune to be played originally and how it is consistently wronged by tabs all across the web today. Watch video footage from Lava Cable’s Strike A Chord below.

Jake E. Lee’s new band, Red Dragon Cartel, released their debut album on January 28th and are currently on tour. See dates below.

Red Dragon Cartel Tour Dates:

3 Philadelphia, PA The Legendary Dobbs
4 Amityville, NY Revolutions
6 West Seneca, NY Rock & Roll Heaven

May:

30 Vienna, AUS Szene
31 Munich, GER Backstage

June:

5 Norje Solvesborg, SWE Sweden Rock Festival
15 Donnington, ENG Download Festival
19 Seattle, WA El Corazon
21 Idaho Falls, ID Rock The Falls

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KISS’ PAUL STANLEY ON VINNY VINCENT AND ERIC CARR’S MAKEUP/NEW CHARACTERS: “PEOPLE DIDN’T BUY IT,” PLUS 18 OTHER TIDBITS ABOUT THE BAND

kiss-return Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone reports:

1. KISS may have gotten the idea for their makeup from two other acts. “We loved the New York Dolls,” says Peter Criss, who grew up with the Dolls’ drummer, Jerry Nolan. “But when we tried that, we looked like four old drag queens. Then we saw Alice Cooper one night at the Garden, and thought, wow, he’s the only guy up there wearin’ somethin’ – what would it be like if four guys wore it?”

2. The current and former members disagree over the definition of “rock & roll.” Ace and I were wilder, we were rock & rollers,” says Criss. “We wanted to be at the parties, we wanted a lot of girls, we wanted to cause trouble, we wanted to wreck rooms like Keith Moon. It’s not a science – maybe the chord’s off a little, or maybe you speed up a little, or you maybe you slow down.”

Retorts Paul Stanley, “Once Ace was playing guitar in the studio with rings and a bracelet on that were just hitting the guitar. And I said, ‘Ace, you’ve gotta take that stuff off, it sounds terrible.’ He goes, ‘That’s rock & roll.’ I go, ‘No, there’s rock & roll and then there’s awful.’ You can’t use rock & roll as an excuse for doing something that’s sub-standard or not good or out of tune, or not showing up on time. That’s not rock & roll, that’s just fucking up.”

3. Ace Frehley, who quit the band in the early Eighties, doesn’t like to be lumped in with Peter Criss, who was fired a couple years earlier. “They talk about me as if it’s the same as what happened with Peter,” says Frehley. “I get a bad rap. So a lot of times I’d rather distance myself. I love Peter to death, but, you know, I’m a different guy with a completely different story.”

4. When Gene Simmons was 12 years old, his hero was Jiminy Cricket (he covered When You Wish Upon A Star on his debut solo album): “I saw this little bug singing, ‘Fairy tales can come true, they can happen to you,’ and I’m thinking, ‘Me?’ It was a religious experience. Jiminy Cricket was my Christ. This kind of dawning of consciousness of, ‘I can be great.'”

5. Frehley always knew he would be famous. “By age 16, I knew I was going to be a professional musician and be successful,” he says. “If I wouldn’t have been successful with Kiss, I would’ve been successful with somebody else. Because I just had the drive. I used to go see the Who and Led Zeppelin and Hendrix and there was always a voice in my head saying, ‘You can get up there and do that.’ I used to tell people in my family, I used to tell my friends. And they used to say, ‘What are you, crazy?'”

6. KISS’ founders see the band’s fans as proud outsiders. “I always looked at our fans as the big heavy kids in the back of the room bein’ made fun of,” says Criss. “Or the kid who had long hair in the neighborhood when no one had it. And those are the kids who really needed a hero.”

7. The British band Slade (who recorded Cum on Feel the Noize years before Quiet Riot covered it) are often cited as a major influence on KISS, but Stanley feels that’s exaggerated. “That gets kind of taken out of proportion,” says Stanley. “I loved Slade because of the sing-along directness of their songs. I loved Noddy Holder as a front man. My mirrored guitar came from seeing him with a mirrored top hat. But I don’t believe they were part of the blueprint.”

8. Frehley believes he had a Keith Richards-like ability to function under the influence. “No matter how crazy or fucked up I was, I could still deliver,” he says. “I knew I could get drunk in the afternoon and snort a couple lines of coke and then I’d be fine for the show. It wasn’t the healthiest thing to do, but I didn’t want to let down the fans!”

9. But now Frehley is proud to be an example of sobriety. “My greatest days are when I’m doing an autograph session and a guy walks up to me and he says, ‘Hey, I got six months sober because of you.’ Because I used to get fan letters from kids, and they’d say, ‘We heard you smashed up your car. I smashed my car up last week, Ace! What do you think of that?'”

10. Criss had to re-learn the band’s catalog from scratch when KISS reunited in 1996 ­­– but he says anyone would’ve had to do the same. “I really forgot all the songs after 17 years,” he says. “I was so frustrated at needing to relearn Peter Criss. Like, why did I put that intricate part in there? And now I’ve got to redo that part! I would go home, I kid you not, and watch old shows from the Seventies like a football player.”

11. Simmons has little sympathy for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. “I don’t think it’s sad at all,” he says. “He was white in this racist world. He was fuckin’ rich. And he was a movie star. If you wanna take your life, good luck to you. You know what’s sad? A loving husband or mother who crosses the street and gets run over by a truck. That’s sad. Because you didn’t have anything to do with it.”

12. For all their hard living, both Frehley and Criss are in good health. “I just got the cleanest bill of health I’ve had in 10 years,” says Frehley, 62. “I don’t have any damage to my internal organs. I’m the luckiest guy. As long as I stay sober, I’m good for easily another 20, 25 years.”

Adds Criss, 68, “I’ve never been in better shape. I take no blood pressure medicine. I don’t have diabetes, thank you, Jesus. I don’t have cancer anymore. Recently, I had a hernia finally taken out after 15 years ’cause it was like an alien, you know the movie Alien?”

13. Stanley has long had a gift in mind for Simmons: “My joke used to be that for a birthday present, I was going to have a device made for him that was headphones with a mirror and a microphone so that he could watch himself talk all the time.”

14. The band thought their infamous mess of a concept album, Music From The Elder ­was a masterpiece – until they started playing it for people. “We were so off course that we really thought we were creating genius,” says Stanley. “The record company heard it, and it was like a scene from The Producers. We might as well have been singing Springtime for Hitler, you know? So we were delusional. And we spent the better part of a decade saying ‘We’re sorry’ to the fans. And they don’t forgive you that easily.”

15. Stanley thinks it was a mistake to try to introduce new characters in the band – in a short-lived Eighties incarnation of KISS, guitarist Vinnie Vincent was the Ankh Warrior, and the late drummer Eric Carr was the Fox. “People didn’t buy it,” he says. “And that was another reason that the fan base started to dissipate. It lost its believability. It became a menagerie – we could have had Snail Man. And we saw a decline that started gradually, but quickly we fell off the edge of the cliff. To go from doing multiple nights in an arena to, next tour, not being able to sell out a theater, is stark.”

16. Stanley loved taking off the makeup in 1983. “I wanted that recognition,” he says. “It was a big disappointment in the Seventies when I realized that going without makeup meant we couldn’t go to, like, awards shows. It was like I was living this dual life, and just sitting on my sofa at home.”

17. During one of the band’s reunion tours, Ace Frehley punched the band’s then-road manager, Tommy Thayer, who would go on to take Frehley’s place as Kiss’ guitarist (and wear his Spaceman makeup). “In his book he says he decked me or knocked me out or something, which is far from the truth, really,” says Thayer, who had chastised Frehley for breaking band rules by having his girlfriend in the band’s dressing room after a gig. “Ace said ‘fuck you,’ and under my breath I said something like ‘you’re an asshole,’ and I turned around and started walking away. He came up and just, like, hit me in the back of the head, just took a cheap shot, and I kind of lost my balance a little bit. And from then on, things really took a turn for the worse.”

18. With some help from Rob Zombie’s guitarist, John 5, Peter Criss has resumed work on a solo album he put aside in 2008 after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. “It’s heavier than anything I’ve ever touched,” he says. “My music always owed more to R&B because I grew up on Motown. But this is different. I really went for what they’ve been wantin’ from me forever, with a heavier approach, big guitars. And they’ll still hate it, and then they’ll go, “Why don’t you go back and do the pop?” [Laughs] Trust me, I’ve got the craziest fans on the planet earth!”

source: rollingstone.com

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