Pre or post face painted KISS? Also what is their best song?

Pre or post face painted KISS? Also what is their best song?

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Ironic shitposting is still shitposting, you know.

no one cared about us until we put on the makeup.....

Let me know or 100000 Years

>what is their best song
This field recording: youtu.be/8GgZEz0GG8Y

Dressed to Kill [Casablanca, 1975]

I feel schizy about this record. On the one hand, it rocks with a brutal, uncompromising force reminiscent of a slicked-back, heavied-up Dave Clark Five or MC5, and the songwriting is very much improved over albums one and two. On the other hand, the lyrics dimly recall the liberal fantasy of rock concert as Nuremberg rally, with sexism at its cruelest hinted at in songs such as "Room Service" and "Ladies in Waiting", a situation made all the more ominous by the band's refusal to bare the grinning faces beneath the clown makeup. That may be just the effect they intend, although for the worst of reasons. You damn well know that if they didn't have their eye set on maximum commerciality, they'd call themselves Blowjob. B-

Alive! [Casablanca, 1975]

This live album rescues from the sludge such unacknowledged hard rock classics as "Deuce" and "Strutter". There are others who feel that it is the sludge. I fall into neither category, applaud the drum solo on "Black Diamond", and take in the whole thing with bemused curiosity. The several million kids who are buying don't fall into either category either. B

Destroyer [Casablanca, 1976]

Like most hard (not heavy) bands wildly favored by young teens (Alice Cooper, BTO, etc) these guys have always rocked harder than adults are willing to admit. Pro producer Bob Ezrin however only adds bombast and melodrama. Their least interesting record. C+

Rock and Roll Over [Casablanca, 1976]

Those who dismiss them as unlistenable miss the point--they write tough, catchy songs and if they had a sly, Jagger-like singer up front, they'd be a menace. But they aren't a menace--as my sister and nieces/nephews assure me, the kids get off on the burlesque. I mean, when the cartoon hero in makeup tells the kids to whip out their rocket, don't they know this is a caricature of sex and macho sex at that? Maybe so, but I'm not getting on my knees to find out. C+

Meltdown [1980s]

Everything Rocks and Nothing Ever Dies [1990s]

KISS were a joke of a band. Just dumb buttrock for 12 year olds in the 70s. Put on Alive! while playing with your pet rock and your Pong machine.

The makeup-less KISS lost their identity as a band; they just became one in a sea of generic LA spandex cockrock bands.

New York Groove t b h

Ace F best member

Well, they were one of the major influences on 80s rock along with Aerosmith, but only for the first six albums, not for anything afterwards.

so he gives mediocre-low scores, yet has almost nothing but positive things to say about them. hmmm

None of the band's later albums ever managed that same tightness or chemistry of the first six.

No need to rethink anything. They were what they were. They made some top-notch singles, which I love, and were competent enough as musicians. Their albums typically have some clunky by-the-numbers filler, but that's OK. They put on a great show although I wasn't particularly into that kind of thing.

I wasn't allowed to know anything about KISS as a youth, largely because my (overly simplistic) mother didn't understand it and thus we weren't allowed to understand it either. I remember being super-fascinated by their appearance, as was their intent, and my mom trying to kill my interest by telling me they stomped kittens to death as part of their stage act.

As an adult, I enjoy KISS plenty for what they are and made it a point to nail down a set of all four Mego KISS dolls (so there, Mom).

However - "Christine Sixteen" creeps me the fuck out and I don't know how anybody can get behind that one.

you must be one old fuck then

Aiy. I was in middle school when KISS were at their peak and loved them like pretty much all my peers did. Like most of the fanbase, I'd outgrown them by the time the 70s ended. I saw them in 96 during the reunion tour, mostly for a nostalgia buzz. The music itself aged like sour milk and Gene Simmons's dirty old man act didn't exactly do anything for me.

KISS might actually be one of the worst financially successful bands of all time. If you are a KISS fan, stop. Give up. It isn't too late to stop embarrassing yourself.

>However - "Christine Sixteen" creeps me the fuck out and I don't know how anybody can get behind that one

Big deal, ZZ Top and Aerosmith had songs about 13 year olds.

They weren't bad for the time. The 80s unmasked period was meh, but I do give them credit for being able to resurrect their career on a slightly more modest scale.

When I listen to the 70s albums, I find myself impressed by the giant hooks, catchy choruses, and hard rock force of them. They were a real hard rock band, something between heavy metal and basic blues rock like Ted Nugent and Foghat.

People liked to jibe that they couldn't play. As a guitarist myself, I can't say Ace Frehley is the best axeman in terms of technique or expressiveness, but his solos almost always managed to be catchy and memorable.

Hotter than Hell is the most underrated of the classic six albums.

The drum sound on HTH is fucking terrible. Dressed To Kill has a far better drum sound but the album is half filler.

Christine Sixteen isn't any weirder than Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen...unless you think that Gene Simmons singing it is creepier. ;)

KISS were an ok meat-and-potatoes hard rock band, not much more than that. They were good at writing simple, but catchy party rock songs that appeal to a lot of people. Nothing really wrong with that. They were ok up to 1977, then ran out of gas. It's easy to tell when a band starts phoning it in and they hit that point by the late 70s. I thought "Rock and Roll Over" was their peak, certainly it was the first time they really felt like they fully realized their vision as a band. The guitar sound on that album is face-melting.

Kiss are good with or without the make up.
Best song: Rock and Roll All Night!

BTW, check out some concert footage/bootlegs from the early days in 1974-75. KISS could rock with the best of them back then. Those early shows had some blistering rock and roll in them.

By the time Rock and Roll Over came out, they seem to have lost some of their live energy. They had big, high budget stage props and elaborate costumes now, but the music wasn't as intense as it had been two years earlier. I guess by 1977, they knew they'd made it and lost most of their hunger, plus the exhaustion of recording two albums a year and gradually bigger, more ambitious tours.

3.5/10

Got me to respond at least

I like everything up to Lick It Up. After that, forget it. LIU started out as a makeup album and then they took the makeup off for the tour, so it serves as a nice bookend. Plus, from what I've read, that was the last time Gene Simmons gave a shit until Revenge. He really pushes his vocals to the limit on LIU, which he'd never done on previous albums.

This band barely existed here in the UK--no hits, no press, no album sales, nothing--and I can't say I miss them at all. Back in the day, they were laughed at as a silly bunch of American clowns whose music was completely inappropriate for the Britain of the Seventies. Who wanted to see some fellows in makeup singing about shagging slags when we had breadlines and IRA bombings?

The 80s was a huge wasteland for them. They just became another hair metal band...ugly Day Glo costumes, Gene Simmons' attempted movie career, just bad decisions all around. Even worse was Smashes, Thrashes & Hits...everything from the retarded remake of Beth with Eric Carr singing to the two new songs that Paul Stanley has since disowned. And they got a big hit out of Forever, yes, but having to use Michael Bolton as a co-writer is pretty far to sink.

They had a good sense of what appealed to teens and particularly 70s teens, so you have to give them credit for that.

Disagree. They had some good 80s songs here and there.

>Hell or High Water
>Secretly Cruel
etc that would have fit well on any of their 70s albums if they didn't suffer from 80s wind tunnel production. With Hot in the Shade, they tried going back to a somewhat more basic and less overproduced sound, but even there they blew it by using a drum machine to cut down on recording costs.

I'm not a musician but I think Gene is one of the very few instantly recognizable melodic bass players. How many bass player you can tell in 5 seconds? With Gene you know it's him right away.

Aside from Cliff Burton, Jack Bruce, Geezer Butler, Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee, John Entwistle, and too many others to mention?

tbf it's hard to tell anything since Gene is AWOL on a quite a few KISS albums.

Eh? Gene was only AWOL on some of their 80s albums. On every other album they've recorded, he plays bass on every track except Ace Frehley ones.

Gene is an underrated bassist, but I'm pretty sure Paul Stanley plays bass on "I Was Made For Loving You".

I'm pretty sure I remember hearing Paul address this before. All of the tracks where Paul/Ace play bass, it's extremely obvious that it's not Gene on there.

And FTR, you're incorrect, Gene definitely is playing on IWMFLY.

Paul is playing the bass on Love Gun, I'm almost 100% sure of that. The list of KISS tracks that Gene doesn't play bass on is very short.

I don't think much about KISS at all, they always seemed like a show band more than a real music act to me, even so, the fact that Simmons and Stanley have somehow avoided learning how to play their instruments despite decades on the road irks me. I just can't take them seriously as musicians.

Gene isn't Steve Harris by a long shot, but he's a more than adequate bassist, and Paul is also an underrated rhythm player, check out some of the riffs he lays down on Revenge.

Jaco, Jah Wobble.