“If Beavis & Butt-Head had a music podcast, this would be it.”
Welcome to episode 23 of the podcast Dropping The Needle, October 22, 2012. In this episode we put on our KISS geek hats and we talk “Monster”.
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In this episode Michael Brandvold and Mitch Lafon geek out on KISS and talk about the new KISS album “Monster”. Not so much a song by song review of the album, but a discussion of our feelings. Do we like that album? Yes, but listen for some great discussion.
Dropping The Needle is the podcast where all music from all genres is discussed. New releases, classic albums, rediscovered music, signed and unsigned. No ass kissing, just two guys talking about music. Dropping The Needle is hosted Michael Brandvold from Michael Brandvold Marketing and Mitch Lafon from PureGrainAudio.com.
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Michael Brandvold is a freelance music industry consultant based in Northern California. Having launched Michael Brandvold Marketing to leverage his years of experience to provide direction to large and small clients in the areas of online & social marketing as well as e-commerce and customer acquisition and retention. Gene Simmons of KISS first tapped Michael’s skills as a pioneering online marketing strategist to launch and manage all aspects of Kissonline.com’s multi-million dollar enterprise, including their ground-breaking VIP ticket program. Michael has also managed the online efforts for Andy Gibson, Alexa Carter, Greg Kihn, Motley Crüe, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne, Madonna and Britney Spears to name only a few.
Mitch Lafon is a professional music writer located in Montreal, Quebec (Canada). His career started in 1980 when at the age of eleven he interviewed The Demon of KISS, Gene Simmons. In the ‘90s he did studio work with various artists including LA GUNS and worked on an Ace Frehley Tribute album. Over the years, his work has appeared in Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles Magazine as well as Metal Hammer (US) and Classic Rock (UK). Currently, PureGrainAudio.com and Roadie Crew magazine from Brazil are where his interviews can be found. He is well-respected by artists who often request him by name (when they are ready to grant an interview).
Michael, I appreciate your honesty. While Mitch’s intentions may be good, I think he lets his fan bias get in the way. I’m a long-time but disgruntled Kiss fan who is embarrassed for them when I see them still performing the same old schticks live and (the ultimate sin) carrying on when Paul simply can’t carry the load anymore. Add four new songs to the show? Please, no! Even when I was lying to myself about the band’s abilities (like Mitch does) I always feared new live songs because they never sounded good. Why ruin the integrity of a strong recording by performing it so miserably live? Case in point: Find one — just ONE — live recording of “Crazy, Crazy Nights” that sounds even remotely as clean as the original. Ain’t gonna happen. One thing that I wished you guys would have discussed a bit more is that I can play any of the great old Kiss class ic albums at full blast, and they sound great. (I remember a Billboard review for Love Gun said something like “the vocals are crystal clear, sometime too clear considering Kiss’ lyrics.” ) What bothers me most about Monster is that it doesn’t sound good loud. I feel like the vocals get lost when I turn it up — too much fuzz or something. So I think production is poor. It’s a shame, too. I find myself humming the tune to “Long Way Down” quite a bit. Then I try to blast the song, and personally, I think it sounds awful — as does the majority of the record when played loudly. Do you agree? Thanks for tletting me babble on for a bit.
Thanks Mark. Mitch’s opinions are just as valid, because it is all just personal to each of us. CCN sounded great prior to 2009, 2009 is when Paul’s voice went south. Paul’s voice is just gone at this point, sad, but it happens. I am not sure I ever want to see them now as I don’t want to remember him not hitting the notes. I do agree there is something about the vocals on Monster. They sound “hot” to me. The only vocal that I really loved by Paul was Right Here Right Now.
I have been a KISS fanatic since ’76. I LOVE this band. Like Mark, though, I must admit to being somewhat disgruntled for the past several years. First, I totally agree that Paul’s voice is basically shot. Not Paul’s fault of course (though a few less years of those CCN-high vocals might have been wise??), it happens to most of us naturally as we age. This is just one more reason why I feel the ONLY solution to allow KISS to continue to survive in its current state is to do two things, which will benefit fans of the band AND the band itself, as well as giving Paul’s voice the needed rest: CHANGE the set list!! In order to do this, Eric and Tommy MUST be given at least the 2 original songs each that you guys just discussed in this podcast. Gene also has to take on a few extra songs. But either way, for goodness sake–mix it up a little!! KISS talks about their repetitive set list and explains that it’s what their fans want. It is NOT what we want. Look at any of the KISS websites, chatrooms, and facebook pages, and you will clearly and quickly see the fans BEGGING for different songs in the set list. We have had all the Rock N Roll All Nite and Beth we can stand. What the fans DO want, is for KISS to once again carry themselves with the balls and innovation that got them to the pinacle of their careers back in the 70’s. Take a look through KISStory and you will find that when the band had the courage to try new things for the right reasons, the fans DID respond positively. MTV Unplugged is a perfect example. The band seemed to have briefly realized after the MTV show, judging by their own comments in interviews at the time, that the fans very much enjoyed and were surprised by the song choices–Coming Home, See U Tonite, Rock Bottom, Sure Know Something, etc., which either were FINALLY being played live, or were being played live for the first time in many years. THIS is what the fans want! I will not be attending KISS shows anymore, simply because, after seeing the band 3 times, I can find no evidence that I’m going to see anything different, or better, than I already saw.
What would get me to go again, though? Hearing a new set list!! Give me something more obscure. Give me a better mixture. Give me what I LOVED about the band to begin with–four lead vocalists to choose from, balls to try something different and original (which they haven’t done in at least a decade or two now), and a new experience with the stage performances, which have now been nothing more than a rehash of what came before for WAY too long. This is really a fairly simple matter to resolve, and one that I think would SHOCK the band when they saw how positively the fans would respond. GIVE US SOMETHING DIFFERENT KISS! PLEASE!!! Yes, still play Shout It Out Loud once in a while! It’s a GREAT song!! But with WELL over 200 songs to play for us, PLEASE stop choosing from the same 25 songs EVERY SINGLE TOUR!!! You are boring us to death!! Also, as Mitch suggested here, play songs from Monster!! These are great songs! From a great new album! PLAY THEM!!! Play more from Psycho Circus! Play a few from Sonic Boom! Represent the band’s entire history for a change!! With Tommy and Eric in the band, there is nothing from the band’s history that should be off-limits, musically speaking. Tommy and Eric can handle anything KISS has ever recorded in the studio, from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, all the way to the albums they’ve now been a part of! So WHY limit the song selection to mostly the stuff Ace and Peter could play live on the Farewell Tour?? Nobody wants to keep hearing those same old songs every time! Nobody! For that matter, play what YOU want to hear from the band for a change! Like you did for Unplugged!
We would LOVE to hear that!
Thank you so much for the great comment.
“What the fans DO want, is for KISS to once again carry themselves with the balls and innovation that got them to the pinacle of their careers back in the 70′s. ”
My response is… that is not all the fans. And those fans online discussing the band are not the majority of fans. You need to remember they are selling out shows to fans who are not diehards. Those fans are coming to see the makeup and hear the hits. The band is now delivering a show filled with memories of the past.
Now I do want the same as you, but I only speak for myself and not for most fans attending the shows.
Thanks so much for the reply!!
And while I might agree with your response, at least partly, I have to respectfully point out that most of the comments I’ve seen have been from fans who are still going to the shows, then getting online to complain about being subjected to the “same old songs, again and again.”
I saw the band twice on the Farewell Tour myself, seeing them with the makeup and original members for the first time, and I very much DID appreciate that set list being used at the time. But that was a tour designed to celebrate the past, with Ace and Peter, before saying goodbye to them. So it was perfectly fitting to play all of the overdone classics at that point. Fine. Great! Now, two new albums later, two different band members later, take a chance every once in a while. Don’t get me wrong, I know they won’t. I just got so excited watching you guys debate all these things about the band, that I had to get a little bit of my chest too. haha Thanks!! 🙂
Most fans going to the shows are not actively leaving comments and talking about the band online. Those that are, are die hards. Most at shows are just casual fans.