Kiss Archives - Page 3 of 6

“You Know That New Sound You’re Lookin’ For?…”

Posted on March 4, 2011 by sexyarmpit

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_jNT3vJai0?rel=0]

*After watching this a few times I realized that the creators of this video omitted some major acts! The Duprees from Jersey City, The Misfits from Lodi, as well as The Rascals who originally formed in Garfield NJ. Just read the comments on YouTube in response to this video and you’ll see about 50 more acts that were not included. I guess the video would’ve had to have been 25 minutes rather than 5.

I was tipped off to this video package by my FB friend Sil Atda BadaBing and it showcases musicians and singers who hail from New Jersey. The video has been making the rounds on the Internet recently and it was produced by Charles Ricciardi and Steven Gorelick for the NJ Hall of Fame ceremony. The Sexy Armpit goes on record as saying that Hall of Fames are dumb and meaningless. KISS not being inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame proves that. Better yet, the fact that Madonna and RUN DMC made it in before KISS is preposterous considering that the first KISS album, which has only gotten better with age, was released in 1974! The NJ Hall of Fame is just another excuse to charge an insane amount of money for a ticket to an event where the elite like to kiss each others asses and the rich stick their noses in the air. F*ck that! Great video on music from the Garden State though. And for all of you New Jersey writers and bloggers, The NJ Hall of Fame treated The Armpit like a 2nd rate citizen a couple of years back, so there is one New Jersey organization that should be tossed out with the rest of our trash. They’ll see, The Sexy Armpit is gonna make like Goldie Wilson and clean up this town!

Greatest Mask EVER…

Posted on October 29, 2010 by sexyarmpit

I was literally stunned to see this mask at a booth at the New York Comic Con this year. For those of you who are not familiar with who this mask is supposed to be, you need to take a trip back to your childhood! The slab of rubbery glory is a triumph for Scooby-Doo fans, well, for me at least. The mask is based off of The Diabolical Disc Demon, a villainous knockoff of Gene Simmons from one of my all time favorite episodes of Scooby Doo: Where Are You? that first aired in 1978. I’m pretty sure The Disc Demon could’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling stoners and their dog! Other classic Scooby villains are also available in case you for some reason haven’t figured out what to dress up as for Halloween.

Click below to read all about The Disc Demon episode and the appearance of KISS on Scooby-Doo in a classic Sexy Armpit post:

Rock and Roll All Nite and Scooby Every Doo!

Top 5 Scariest Things about Bon Jovi: NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 67

Posted on October 19, 2010 by sexyarmpit

It struck me as odd to see a Bon Jovi Halloween T-shirt being advertised at their official web store. A band like KISS can never be questioned for having a Halloween shirt because their whole persona is built on their macabre costumes, especially Gene Simmons. You won’t go to a Halloween party this year without seeing at least one person or an entire group dressed as KISS. Yet, even if you see a group of guys dressed up as Bon Jovi, they will easily be mistaken for “any ’80s hairband,” unless they’re the minority who decide on the “early ’90s Bon Jovi, after they all cut their hair.”

Bon Jovi Jack O’Lantern and Dagger T-Shirt

All of this leads me to wonder about this bizarre Bon Jovi/Halloween correlation they are touting on this cool Jack-O-Lantern T-Shirt which goes for an astounding $29.99! While you’re scrounging up the cash to pay for it, take a look at the Top 5 Scariest Things about Bon Jovi:

5. Sure he’s a talented songwriter but David Bryan’s hair is insanely ludicrous. Listen buddy, it’s time to go to whatever store in France that Bret Michaels did. Shit, even Gene Simmons hair, which looks like licorice flavored cotton candy, is better than that preposterous crown of curls. Dear Dave: this isn’t 18th century Europe!

4. Jon Bon Jovi’s veneers. Those are some humongous white chompers! His childhood dream of becoming the next Dr.Teeth and the Eletric Mayhem band is one step closer to realization, except for the good rocking music of course.

3. Jon Bon Jovi’s acting. If you ever need to kill any vampires, call Jon Bon Jovi: Freelance Vampire Slayer. He eradicates vampires with the power of his jazz hands.

2. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora are Italians from Jersey. (Just in case you were wondering what happened to Alec John Such.)

1. What’s truly the scariest thing about Bon Jovi is that somehow people are buying their newer music. Every time I’m finished doing my business on the toilet, I look down at the water flushing into the black hole, and all I think of is “The Circle,” Bon Jovi’s latest atrocious album. If you happen to be rich and really cool and you decide to give out those ancient relics known as CD’s instead of candy for Halloween this year – don’t bother giving out any copies of Bon Jovi’s “The Circle.” Kids might throw it back at you.

KISS at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ 1976

Posted on August 20, 2010 by sexyarmpit

Nearly 14,000 fans packed into Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium for KISS

“KISS: The Lost Concert” DVD is not authorized by Gene Simmons, but that didn’t stop The Sexy Armpit from getting his hands on it. While the KISSology DVD collection included a ton of rare footage, concerts, and videos that I’m glad to own, that series neglected to include many important shows in KISSTORY. One of those shows took place at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey on July 10th, 1976. Fortunately it was “…discovered, restored, and remastered” by Passport Video in 2003 and it’s a must buy for those of you KISS Army members who are also certified New Jersey geeks like me.

Gene Simmons always mentioned that he had tapes of every KISS show stored in the “KISS Vault.” This may not be true since this “Lost Concert” wasn’t a priority for the band to release to the public, so it is possible that KISS did not have a pristine recording archived of this show. For 34 year old footage, The Lost Concert provides a high quality black and white picture with an excellent audio track. But that’s not the best thing about this DVD, what’s even cooler is that this specific concert is special for other reasons.

On KISS’ “Spirit of ’76” tour, the costumed NYC band was on the verge of becoming permanently embedded into popular culture. It was fitting that they played at Roosevelt Stadium since it was a grand venue for presenting one of KISS’ explosive shows. The stadium, named after Franklin D. Roosevelt, opened in 1937 and was demolished in 1985. There is an elite list of concerts that took place there during it’s existence, and fortunately KISS is on that list. Prior to being KISSED, the stadium was known for holding sporting events ranging from baseball, boxing, and football games, some of which are legendary.

Here’s the set list:

1. Cold Gin

2. Do You Love Me

3. Watchin’ You

4. God of Thunder

5. Flaming Youth

6. Firehouse

7. Black Diamond

Scarlet Carson Quoted The Sexy Armpit!

Posted on August 3, 2010 by sexyarmpit

http://www.scarletcarson.com

Yesterday I spotlighted New York City’s The Dirty Pearls, and today it’s New Jersey’s own Scarlet Carson. The Dirty Jersey Rock and Rollers were ready to open for KISS, as were The Dirty Pearls, but since Eventful’s contest is clearly predetermined it doesn’t look like that will be happening, even though both bands deserve the shot. The bands at the top of the contest rankings literally came out of nowhere and have double the votes than the other top bands. Most of my friends and concert freaks that I know have never heard of the bands that have taken over the lead for the opening slot at the KISS show on 8/20/10 at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ.

Scarlet Carson have an ad out in the local music newspaper The Aquarian to help rally some new votes, and in the top left I was stoked to discover that they quoted from The Sexy Armpit’s review of their latest album! To a guy who has been writing since he knew how to hold a pencil, that is quite a high honor and I greatly appreciate them doing that. I remember when Matt from X-E wrote about how his quote was used on The Ghoulies DVD, and I just thought that had to be the coolest thing in the world and indeed it is!

For one of the best rock shows you will see, you MUST check out Scarlet Carson if you are in the area. The Stone Pony will be welcoming Scarlet Carson opening for Skid Row on Saturday August 28th, 2010. Once again, a big thanks to Scarlet Carson for quoting The Sexy Armpit!

Here they are performing “Not So Innocent”

at 2009’s Bamboozle Festival at The Meadowlands

Shark Frenzy and Sambora

Posted on July 30, 2010 by sexyarmpit

Before he was well fed, getting a street named after him, and sitting on mountains of moolah, Richie Sambora was as hungry for rock stardom as Jaws was for some silly human flesh. You read it right, Woodbridge, New Jersey’s Richie Sambora or “Sambo” wasn’t always the superstar guitarist of Bon Jovi. Like most rockers destined for greatness, when Richie was through with local sports, he paid his dues playing in several bands. In addition to auditioning for KISS and Poison (who, at the time, was known as Paris), and playing guitar for Joe Cocker, Sambora was part of a band of Jersey guys called Shark Frenzy.

Shark Frenzy’s classic rock sound has been compared to ’70s rock bands like Aerosmith and Meatloaf, but I also hear similarities to several other bands such as Free, and Boston. Their music wasn’t officially released until over 20 years later, when founder of the band and grammy nominee, Bruce Foster, had the previously damaged tapes remastered and put out by Sanctuary Records. There was enough Shark Frenzy material for 2 full albums and the CD’s are available at many online shops (even Walmart!) and possibly the few record stores left. Both volumes are available on iTunes for $9.99 each.

On his official website, Bruce Foster reveals more about how he salvaged the music to finally get it released: “This album features Richie’s first time playing and singing in a recording studio. The master tapes of these priceless recordings were erased by the recording studio. I had the mixes on tape which went under 2 feet of salt water and river silt in the flood. Now, over 20 years later, through months of careful restoration, these recordings equal and in some cases exceed their original sonic spectrum.”

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 24: The Fiend Club

Posted on October 28, 2009 by sexyarmpit

On Tuesday October 27th, 2009, The Misfits will premiere their new single “Land of the Dead” exclusively on Sirius-XM radio. In addition to the satellite radio premiere, The Misfits will perform 2 new tracks live at The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ on mischief night October 30th! Tracks from the new album, Land of the Dead, are available through iTunes, Amazon, Misfits.com, etc. The Land of the Dead T-Shirt is available at the Fiend Store. The albums cover art (and the art on this t-shirt) was drawn by Arthur Suydam (Marvel Zombies).

The legion of KISS fans are known as THE KISS ARMY, while fans of The Misfits are The Fiend Club. This weeks 2nd offering for NJ T-Shirt Tuesday is the official Fiend Club T-Shirt available at 80stees.com.

All month long I’ve been playing the Misfits on my iPod in honor of Halloween. The Misfits have never been embarrassed to admit that they are from New Jersey, and that’s awesome.

The Misfits Captcha’d

Posted on October 9, 2009 by sexyarmpit

The Misfits mean different things to different people. Classic film buffs know that it stars Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, fans of animated chick rock bands know them as the dirty whorish rival band of JEM & The Holograms, but they had no devilock, and no dong either. To fans of horror punk, The Misfits are the KINGS. Although, as it stands, The Misfits never seem to get the credit they deserve. Perhaps they’ll be recognized 10 years down the road, in a similar way that KISS has just been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Until that point, it’s the little things that indicate the greatness of The Misfits. The ghoulish band from NJ may not appear on on condoms or caskets, but bet your ass the Misfits have their own CAPTCHA!!!

Forget waiting 20 years, The Captchas were immediately inducted the hall of fame of annoying. Unfortunately, most of us have had a run in with THE CAPTCHAS at one time or another. It’s usually never a pleasant experience. After graduating college with honors, I thought I was moderately intelligent until I had to figure out what the hell these dumb little words said. Some programmer came up with these outlandish combinations and they rarely make sense. You can try to decode them, but most times you just get gibberish. Occasionally, the words are so hard to make out that I had a party when I realized there was a “try another” feature. Why even have a “try another” feature? You should be able to figure out what the words say in the first place. These code words are supposed to beef up security for a transaction but they actually waste our time and make me cross eyed.

The secret words are intended to make cracking security more difficult. It merely results in pissing off the end user who’s just trying to by some f’n Steel Panther tickets. Wasting precious seconds when trying to procure tickets to a venue that only holds 350 people is not a feature any ticket retailer should offer. I remember physically waiting on line for tickets and I never once had to whisper a secret password to the bouncer before he let us through the rope to the ticket window? I especially don’t recall being able to tap the bouncer on the shoulder so he could feed me the secret password in case I forgot it. That would have defeated the purpose of the password to begin with.

Formed in Lodi, NJ, The Misfits will be returning to perform a special miscief night concert in New Jersey at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville NJ. You can also catch Danzig and Gorgeous Frankenstein there in December.

The Misfits – 10/30/09

Danzig and Gorgeous Frankenstein – 12/26/09

Starland Ballroom

Click Here for Ticket Info

KISS: Sonic Boom & Aquarian Cover

Posted on October 7, 2009 by sexyarmpit

KISS is fresh off performing on David Letterman and they’re gearing up for tonight’s Jimmy Kimmel show. I figured it’s a perfect time to throw my 2 cents in about KISS’ new album SONIC BOOM. Aside from “Modern Day Delilah,” the two strongest tracks on the album are Tommy Thayer’s “When Lightning Strikes” and the anthem “Say Yeah.” There’s no denying that the mass of the album was created in the image of classic KISS songs, but these 3 tracks are definitive KISS. If you are unsure whether to buy the new SONIC BOOM or not, I say it’s an absolute YES. I have not been paid in any way to write that, nor have I received the album to review.

In addition to the aforementioned tracks, the album ranks much higher than their last studio album, 1998’s Psycho Circus. After one or two listens you’ll be singing along to the tracks and headbanging to the big drums and loud guitars. The band also made buying this album a no brainer because you’ll get a concert DVD plus the re-recorded greatest hits which was released in Japan a couple of years ago. Forget about buying the import version because it can fetch up to $80 bucks on various online stores and eBay.

If you don’t have in your monstrous hands yet, then head out to Wal-Mart tonight and pick it up. KISS is one of those bands who literally do what their fans want because they know they are the ones to keep the money rolling in. That’s smart and more bands and artists should do that. Look at Bon Jovi, they haven’t made an album tailored to their fans taste since 2000. On the contrary, our wish is KISS’ command.

Pictured above is the cover of the latest issue of The Aquarian. Pick up a copy or read Tim Louie’s awesome interview with The Demon, Gene Simmons, at this link:
http://www.kissonline.com/stream/article/display/id/19240

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 20: Wildwood Part 2

Posted on September 30, 2009 by sexyarmpit

No, it’s not 1990…it’s just Wildwood. What was that I was saying about Wildwood t-shirts being hideously ugly? The last time I discussed Wildwood T-Shirts I made it abundantly clear that you won’t be finding any runway couture on the Wildwood boardwalk.

From the top left:

1) The shirts you’ll see on the boardwalk are so terrible that they have to leetch off of another tourist attractions tag line. “What Happens in Wildwood Stays in Wildwood???” Are they serious? That’s the lamest thing I’ve ever seen, and to make matters worse it’s splattered with neon green, pink, and blue paint because we love that shit.

2) I’m not opposed to Zebra print in any shape or form, but when it’s ruined with Funfetti it just reminds me of a Little Debbie creation.

3) As we move to the top right I’m taking a vivid trip back into the ’80s. It could seriously pass for a title screen on an early ’80s Wildwood travel video.

4) This one should be called DRIPPING NEON KISSES FROM WILDWOOD! Was Paul Stanley the lip model for this shirt? Because I’m pretty sure he was doing a lot of lip modeling during the KISS Asylum days in ’85.

5) Finally a generic Wildwood shirt made for tweens. Unfortunately they had to infuse the entire pastel color spectrum into this one.

6) As ridiculous as this last one is, it’s actually the only one that’s remotely wearable. Dig those Palm trees, huh? You are reading this correctly: palm trees on the beach in Wildwood.

Until next time folks, this has been NJ T-Shirt Tuesday, where things keep getting more neony.