My Amazon Reviews: Kiss "Creatures Of The Night"

Kiss Figure Out That Being Heavy is a Good Thing.
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The old school fans of Kiss had been drifting away for a period when Kiss reconvened for "Creatures of the Night." Bored by the pop metal of "Unmasked" and left confused by the weird concept album of "Music From The Elder," it was too much even for Peter Criss, who'd already bolted and was replaced by the terrific Eric Carr, and Ace Frehley, who still appeared on the album cover but was replaced on the disc by future Kiss members Vinnie Vincent and Bob Kulick. There's even a funnier story behind Ace's departure/cover shot; allegedly Kiss's contract stated that at least three of the original members had to be in the group or their contract could be renegotiated. Since Kiss's fortunes were on a decline, they faked Frehley's presence as long as they could in an attempt to avoid rewriting the conditions of their contract, ergo their royalty rate.

Even with that scenario in place, Kiss came on strong with "Creatures Of The Night." The title track was one of the heaviest tracks they'd ever recorded, and Carr pummels the drums in a way Criss could never manage. Simmons stops being a demon clown and goes for the jugular for "War Machine." Paul Stanley digs deep for a loverman blues rocker titled "I Still Love You," one he liked enough to include it when the MTV Unplugged reunion happened a few years down the road. Then there was a rock and roll stomper aimed at the same anthemic status as "Rock and Roll All Night" and "Shout It Out Loud," "I Love It Loud."In fact. there's only one true clinker in the batch and that's Simmons, who just couldn't resist one more cliche in "Rock and Roll Hell." But that's a solid 8 out of 9 songs.

Still, "Creatures of The Night" did not return Kiss to previous heights of glory. They'd have to radicalize their appearance (good-bye make up) and keep the tougher sound for "Lick It Up," the real comeback.

     

Passings: James "Jim" Woland

Throwback Thursday or Flashback Friday: I was deeply saddened today to hear of the passing of my High School Drama Coach Jim Woland. There were only a few teachers in High School that I ever thought changed me for the better, and Mr Woland was one of them. I auditioned for my first play in 1976 and was subsequently cast in several others, including a lead and several major supporting roles, plus a few ensemble casts. He was one of the reasons I had a Communications and Theater Arts major when I shipped off to college.

He demanded nothing less than the best of his students, be it in class, the HS Newspaper (where I was a staffer) or on stage. He had many friends in NYC who worked on Broadway and often incorporated their techniques into our performances at PHS. Most of us who worked under him (and many of those who just knew the man) felt he was worthy of Broadway work, yet he was content to work with students and then theater organizations in the Harrisburg area to the delight of all who had the opportunity to work with him.

He also had the uncanny ability to create terrific sets using the bare minimum of supplies that were offered in a High School setting. He took to my father's junk yard for old auto parts once to have rusted mufflers along the stage for a performance of Hamlet, and stage crews could also be seen painting over flats that has seen years and years of cutting, nailing and pasting. He even had me once write some original lyrics for a song used in one of his productions, something that I am proud of to this day. Like I said earlier, he could draw the best work from the barest of bones, and we all loved him for it.

Unfortunately, like many of my High School acquaintances, I didn't keep up with him. I met him once at a random event and came out to him. He was not surprised. The picture of me is from one of Mr Woland's directorial efforts, a production of Story Theater, where I was part of the ensemble, and also sang. Sophomore year, 1977.

My Amazon Reviews: The Tubes "Young and Rich/Now"

Young and Rich; 4 Stars, Now; 3 Stars
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Finally, a sound upgrade for The Tubes' "Young and Rich." Or for that matter, that it's back in print at non-extortion prices. The Tubes got some serious road work in after their first album, and it shows on "Young And Rich." They also had a more sympathetic producer in Ken Scott (over Al Kooper's helming of album one). Scott gave "Young And Rich" a sense of discipline, and you need go no further than "Tubes World Tour" to catch how fast the Tubes had grown under his control in the studio. A tightly wound if somewhat exaggerated account of the mayhem that trailed in the wake of The Tubes' concerts, it has a conciseness that the first album lacked.

The range displayed on "Young And Rich" is also evident on the album's next two songs. "Pimp" and "Brighter Day" feature vocals from Bill Spooner and Roger Steen, giving the individual Tubes a chance to prove they were more than Fee's backers. But Waybill (listed here as "method frontman") struts his stuff admirably. His finest moments on "Young And Rich" come with the progressive opus "Poland Whole/Madam I'm Adam" (where Fee reluctantly is cast as man one in God's creation porno-movie and Cher is his Eve) and the almost Top 40 "Don't Touch Me There" duet with Re Styles.

A highlight of their live shows, "Don't Touch Me There" sent up girl groups with a Phil Spector wall of innuendo that was at once finely crafted and hilarious. It's the kind of media satire that would be honed to perfection by their next album. In fact, the only misstep here is "Proud To be An American," which plays it too close to "What Do You Want From Life" to come off as clever. Other than that, "Young And Rich" comes highly recommended and shows The Tubes ducking the dreaded sophomore slump.

The same could not be said of "Now," which could be The Tubes' most experimental album. That's not saying the music is all too interesting, frankly, it's not. There was everything here from fusion jazz experimentation ("God-Bird-Change," the main contribution from one album member Mingo Lewis) to a Captain Beefheart cover of "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains." Which was apparently enough to get the Captain himself to sit in on sax for the otherwise draggy "Cathy's Clone," Re Styles' vocal contribution to "Now." On the original liner notes to the LP, The Tubes gave heavy acknowledgement of having recently discovering The Ramones. So in tribute, they nick Dee Dee's trademark "One Two Three Four" kickoff and insert it twice into "You're No Fun."

Fun is exactly what is missing from "Now." There are a couple of Tubes Classics here ("Smoke" and "Pound Of Flesh," in which Fee brags about being a 98 pound weakling with another, more serious attribute). But for a band that made their bones on outrageousness and top-notch musicianship, "Now" comes up short. They'd blow "Now" out of the water soon after with the genius of "Remote Control." Think of it as parallel to Alice Cooper's lackluster "Muscle of Love" before the brilliant "Welcome To My Nightmare" concept.

As a pair, it's worth having just to get the disc of "Young and Rich."

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Tubes "Remote Control - Expanded Edition"

Tube-opia!
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The Tubes were licking their wounds from the dismal dismissal of their highly experimental "Now," when they decided to pool all their strengths and shoot for a concept album. It made perfect sense that they would create a grand satire of pervasive media, since most of their best work lampooned that topic with gleefully broad strokes. This time, however, The Tubes brought on board a secret weapon in the person of Todd Rundgren. He was running hot as a producer at the time, coming off the huge success of Meat Loaf, solo albums, and the breakout of his band Utopia.

What Rundgren did to "Remote Control" was to slicken the sound to a commercial sheen that the band had lacked in the past. For their part, The Tubes came forth with a very strong batch of songs, all tied together with the Marshall McLuhan styled "medium is the message" theme. The protagonist of "Remote Control" wanders the album becoming increasingly absorbed/disillusioned with the fact that his life isn't matching the programs he's watching, from the desire for instant gratification in "I Want It All Now," to the terrific ballad "Love's A Mystery (I Don't Understand)," featuring a superb vocal from Fee.

Perhaps the most interesting moment here is the instrumental "Get Overture," which had the band showing off their musicianship in a way that was only hinted at before (though it also bears the very heavy hand of Todd). It proved once and for all that The Tubes were more than just comical music pranksters and had more to offer than the shocking stage antics of their live shows. It's hard for me to decide which Tubes CD is really their finest, but between "Remote Control" and "The Completion Backwards Principle," I'd give this disc the higher scores for composition. "TCBP" was a sleeker musical effort, but in their desire to land that elusive hit single, had a damper lyrical bite. However, in all things Tubular, you really need both.

The best two things about this re-issue? There are four bonus tracks from the long unreleased "Suffer For Sound" sessions. They show the metamorphosis of the band in transition to what would eventually be their slicker sound. I think "Holy War" is my favorite of the batch. Then there's the sound. Beefed up and sharpened considerably from my old original A&M CD, the disc sounds terrific. Add the story of the album's gestation in the liner notes, and you have the best Tubes issue in their always eclectic discography.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Tubes "The Completion Backwards Principle"

"We're Here Because You're There"
4 Out Of 5 Stars

That quote was part of the original album's liner notes, and it pretty much sums up The Tubes' general attitude. They were irreverent and shocking, with enough playing chops to keep those in the know interested in the music. Put that with the live show that get them banned from numerous venues (in their early days), and you had a band that seemed to be perennially on the brink of making it big. But The Tubes also spent just a little too much time being weird to climb all the way to chartland. "The Completion Backward Principle" saw them almost making it yet again, as David Foster did his best to smooth out the jarring edges and polish the band even more than Todd Rundgren did on "Remote Control." The Tubes did their part by writing some tunes that sounded absolutely Toto-ish, if Toto ever contemplated amnesia, schizophrenia and late night B-Movies as song fodder.

The buff job paid off, with The Tubes' first across the board Album Radio hit, the tough strutting but uncharacteristic "Talk To You Later." The band then hit late night TV and began showing up in swim flippers performing "Sushi Girl" in a wading pool from the stage of the Tonight Show. Radio took notice and the ballad "Don't Want To Wait Anymore" snuck into the lower reaches of the Top 40. Fortunately, Foster wasn't completely able to tame these yahoos. "Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman" was sci-fi silly in a manner that only The Tubes could make credible, and the punchy "Mr. Hate" was the confrontation of a shattering personality that the band executed perfectly on stage. "TCBWP" is likely The Tubes' most consistent album musically, but misses five stars because it was too slickly over produced, and the band never regained their experimental edge after this (unless you count the second half of "Love Bomb").

   

My Amazon Reviews: Original Broadway cast (Featuring Green Day) "American Idiot"

Green Day Make Their American Tommy

4 Out of 5 Stars

The concept of the Rock and Roll Stage Musical is nothing new. "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Hair" made that world safe decades ago. "Grease" and "The Wiz" modernized them slightly, but it wasn't until "Tommy" that the revolution started. The Pete Townsend took his 1969 album to Broadway in 1993, he did something that had not been done before; took an entire album and based the play around it. "Beatlemania" may have been its closest cousin, but that was watching a live evolution of The Beatles had they remained a convert playing live entity. "Beatlemania" is better noted as the grandfather of all Jukebox Musicals, where an artist's catalog becomes fodder for a story either about the band ("Jersey Boys") or some random hodgepodge of a storyline having little or nothing to do with the music ("Mama Mia," "We Will Rock You" or even the snatching of songs from an era that is "Rock of Ages").

"American Idiot" jerks the lineage in a whole new direction. Like The Who's "Tommy," it is based on an album (or two, if you coun't the couple of songs from "21'st Century Breakdown") and the band had a hand in the story. But unlike these other rock musicals, the time from original album to stage was relatively short. Green Day's "American Idiot" was released in 2004, the first version of the play opened in Berkeley in 2009. The songs have changed very little, other than being sung by stage pros that Billie Joe's punky-yowlp. In several instances, this helps the songs.

The original "American Idiot" was such a rampant mix of styles as played by a single rock band, that it was easy to overlook just how melodic and well structured the songs sometimes are. In particular, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "21 Guns" pull ahead of their originals, and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" matches Green Days hit version. Strings and solo pianos add the kind of stagey emotional depth to several of the songs as well. Heck, Billie Joe has even taken the role of St Jimmy for several weeks of the show. You can bet Bono and The Edge aren't going to be onstage for their Spiderman show.

There will be two schools regarding "American Idiot" and the original cast. If the thought of big crunchy guitars of Broadway intrigues you, you'll cheer when the Glee-cast sounding version of the title track kicks in. If you are annoyed the 90's Punk Rock would cross to mainstream stages (whether from the elitist viewpoint of a Punk-Snob or Stage-Snob), this will sound like the second horseman of the apocalypse. Me? I'm all for it. I anxiously await an Alice Cooper musical, Styx's Paradise Theater or Kilroy was Here, and the mind that eventually will dream up The Tupac Vs Biggie show.
 

     

A great night of theater

Joel and I have been season ticket holders for The People's Light and Theater for several years. As a Theatre Arts major in college, I still have an appreciation for well done stage work, and this organization has maybe let me down twice in the last seven years. But last night was a special treat. The current run is a parable called "Nathan The Wise," set in 12 Century Jerusalem. What we didn't know was that the lead for this production was David Strathairn. For those that don't know, Stathairn was nominated for an Oscar as Edward R Murrow in the excellent bio-pic, "Good Night and Good Luck."

When we first walked in and saw the array of head-shots and actors on the lobby wall, my first thought was "it can't be that David Strathairn. But when he walked on stage, I realized it was. As I would list him the class of actors that would include Paul Giametti or Liam Neeson, seeing him perform in a theater that holds maybe 500 people (and was about half full) all but gave me goose-bumps. It certainly helps that the ensemble crew that People's Light usually has on stage is top drawer, and "Nathan The Wise" is no exception. I strongly recommend anyone in the Philadelphia area get to see "Nathan The Wise" before the production wraps on Oct 11.