L.A. Guns

One of the key bands of the Eighties’ hard rock scene has recently visit Buenos Aires. Tracii Guns and his boys stroke us with a powerful show on September 13 in Super Rock club. They also had time to offer a mini acoustic set for a few fans.

I had the chance to talk with them in the comfortable facilities of The Roxy Bar. Despite being an emblematic figure of international hard rock, Tracii was very friendly and warm at every moment.

When I told him that I was in the legendary performance of the band in Halley club in 1992, he told me that he still got that show recorded on video tape. He also recall that before the show, they played Seek and destroy by Metallica to set the mood and the crowd exploded when they opened with No mercy.

“If you see the band in 92, sixteen years ago, the whole idea behind L.A. Guns is always energy, like a specific kind of rock and roll in-your-face dirty band. But you can’t be a young dirty rock and roll band if you got a bunch of old guys. So what I’ve done in the last few years is to get bunch of young guys to keep that energy the same and the attitude the same”, he says.

For this new incarnation of the band, Tracii called out Marty Casey who became famous by reaching the finals of Rock Star reality show. This choice cause quite a controversy among the fans because Marty is kinda different than the previous frontmen of the band.

His background comes from the American post grunge scene with bands like Nickelback, Foo Fighters or Creed. Marty knows he has to persuade old fans so I guess that’s why he dive into the mosh to sing Rip and tear in the end of Super Rock’s show.

“I think people come in with all different sorts of mind sets towards a new singer of the band. Some people are coming not wanting to like anything that’s a change and I understand that. But when I get on the stage, I like to work hard and deliver to bring people around to it and not giving a single moment to question what I’m doing”, Marty explains.

“You just got to stand and deliver. Do what you do best. The reactions are gonna be their reactions. I can’t control them but I know if I fuckin’ just freak them out and I deliver as much energy as possible and we work together as a band, they’ll come around to understand what this band is”.

“I understand if some people don’t like it but when I know they don’t I will walk out in the crowd and almost choke to try to turn their minds around. And I do nightly. If I see somebody might be talking shit, I try to focus on them and deliver cause when I catch ‘em in the eye they’ve always look away. Then I know they are full of shit”.

The first two records of the band were the foundation of the set list. The songs that I liked the best were Sex action and Electric gipsy. “I love singing them and I try to make them my own. I’m not trying to be Phil Lewis. I’m just being myself within these great songs. Some of them I sing fairly identical of what they’ve done and some I take of my own and try to deliver the energy. To me what this band is now is delivering the energy that those songs had but doing in the way that works for these five guys”, Marty says.

I am a huge fan of Phil Lewis but it seems to me that Marty is a great option for this new era of the band, which according to Tracii’s words is looking for “a more modern and fat” sound. Tracii is amazed with the fact that a huge part of the fan base accepts the changes within the band.

“The appeal in the way my brain thinks is I don’t wanna see the same thing. That’s my problem with AC/DC. I fuckin’ love their music but do I need to see another show? I want to but I know what I’m gonna get. To me a band like Helmet or Biohazard, every time I see those bands there’s something else going on”.

“Trying to be an artistic person, I enjoy people’s new ideas. I think since I been in L.A. Guns for so long, there’s a certain percentage of the fan base that understand me personally and what I tried to achieve artistically and there’s a certain part to almost expect to be different”.

The conversation flowed towards the present of the hard rock scene in the United States. Tracii has a very realistic point of view on the matter. “A lot of people want to believe that there’s a come back or something like that. It’s just not true. People go to see the music that they grew up with. Now the crowd seems a little bit better and bigger because the parents come with their children. It’s an exciting time right now but in America it’s hard to get people in a frenzy because they’ve seen everything”.

Chad Stewart, the drummer who already had been in Buenos Aires with Gilby Clarke, agrees with the diagnosis of Tracii. “People want to get excited and there have been so many stories about the Eighties and the energy, which was a real energy. The one thing that was true about everything that happen in the Eighties is that the scene was alive because people were alive. That sense of danger is different but the kids come to see what it was really about, to get a glimpse of that energy”.

Bassist Jeremy Guns is the ultimate rock star within the band. “If we got to think about putting a show like 1987 the only thing I will be thinking about, is which Ghostbusters lunch box am I gonna pick up this year”, says and the whole band crack in laughter.

Reaching the end of the interview, I told the guys about my blog and Tracii said to me Kiss? Talk to him as he pointed to Chad. The drummer, who played with Faster Pussycat and Pretty Boy Floyd, defined itself as “the resident Kiss fan in this band” and started a great monologue on his personal history with the fantastic four from New York.

“The first person that I wanted to be, when I was old enough to know about such things, was Gene Simmons. The person I continue to want to be is Gene Simmons. So, what kind of influence does he had on me? Profound. On so many different levels I can’t even imagine”.

“In 1993 or 1994, I went to the Revenge tour and I met Eric Singer. I was in college. He and I became friends. Over the course of three or four shows, he was the reason that I met Gene Simmons for the first time. Eric and I remain friends. Years later, I moved to Los Angeles. I saw him at the Rainbow and he remembered me. He invited me to the Big Potato club which is where I met Tracii, Gilby, Slash, the guys from Cheap Trick and everybody that play there on Tuesday nights”.

“The reason why I am sitting with this band right now is because Eric brought me to that jam, got me to know everybody so they knew that I can play. The reason I got in all the bands I’ve been in was because of Eric Singer. So, Kiss is the reason I’m sitting here, literally, today”.

Chad’s eloquence to tell the history seemed to be the perfect ending for this article but Marty had something to add. “I was managed by Doc McGhee and I was sitting in an airport in Chicago. Doc says I have to take a flight to Los Angeles so I pick you up on the jet. I’ve never done that before. So I went to a special terminal, with no security gates or anything. I was sitting there waiting and my name was on a little list so I was OK to be there”.

“I was watching some golf and I got a tap on my shoulder and I look over and it was Paul Stanley. He goes Got in the plane, we’re going. Cause he went to take a piss or a shit or whatever. I go on and it’s Kiss and Doc all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles. Gene Simmons talked the whole fuckin’ time and he didn’t ask one question to anybody. He just told great stories about Ace. It was fun. I wish I had something to add but the stories were far too glorious to say anything. It was a trip”.

Tracci ironically states that his favorite Kiss guitar player is Bob Kulick. And he flatters my ears with a trivia tip that I found particularly charming. His birthday is on January 20, the same day as Paul Stanley.

Gene Simmons

Business Week Magazine has recently publish an interview with Kiss’ bass player. The article shows the industrious side of Gene. As always, he strikes us with a couple of controversial sentences. What do you think?

A conversation with Kiss’ Gene Simmons

The legendary rock star shares his business philosophy, explains why flying economy is OK, and urges aspiring entrepreneurs to become ‘voracious readers’. As the fire-spitting front man for the rock band Kiss, Gene Simmons has put on his kabuki make-up and donned his platform dragon boots for the past 35 years.

But for Simmons, Kiss is just, well, his night job. Born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel, Simmons came to America as an eight-year-old boy and says he has been living the American Dream ever since.

Known for both his music and his business acumen, he’s the force behind thousands of licensed Kiss products and numerous ventures, including his discontinued magazine Gene Simmons’ Tongue, Simmons Records, clothing line Moneybag, and the brand marketing firm Simmons Abramson Marketing, the outfit behind the I am Indy campaign.

He’s also continuing to keep his brand in the public spotlight: His reality TV show Gene Simmons Family Jewels is coming back for a fourth season on A&E, he has a new reality show called Jingles on tap, and in July he released his tome on prostitution, Ladies of the Night.

Simmons recently spoke with staff writer Stacy Perman about entrepreneurship, failure, and all things Gene Simmons. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

Which do you consider yourself first, a rock star or an entrepreneur?
-That’s an interesting question and the simple answer is a bit of both. Nobody does just one thing. But the real difference between being an entrepreneur and everyone else in the world is the ability to monetize. I am an entrepreneur in the classic mold. No matter what I do -outside of sticking my tongue out- I tend to make money, and quite a bit in non-Kiss stuff.

How did you understand so early that you could leverage Kiss into other business ventures?
-When the band was starting off, we noticed that T-shirts and non-music items were earning a substantial amount of money. Kiss quickly became a multi-headed beast: rock band and rock ‘n’ roll brand and the only one to have endured the ages and decades of fads and fashions. Today we have 3,000 licensed products, everything from condoms to caskets. We have you coming and going.

Where would you say got your business education?
-The United States of America. The best school is the street, and most successful entrepreneurs did not go to Wharton. Both Google and Hewlett-Packard were created in a garage. The difference between those that become a Buffett success -and I don’t mean Jimmy- have an innate inborn connection. Their snouts are close to the ground. If you look at the CEOs of some the most successful companies in the world like IKEA, they never fly first class. They always goes economy. Sam Walton of Wal-Mart had a second-hand car and lived in the middle of nowhere.

So are you saying you don’t fly first class?
-I fly economy. I do often fly first class, but I don’t travel with a posse, or bodyguard, or an assistant. I use other people’s infrastructure. For instance, I am going to address the AARP convention in Washington. I will fly first class to New York on AARP’s dime, get into a town car, stay not in a grand suite, but a nice hotel room. I don’t pretend to be poor, but somewhere in the middle is OK.

How do you identify a business opportunity?
-I trust my gut. I have to have an emotional connection to what I am ultimately selling because it is emotion, whether you are selling religion, politics, even a breath mint. If you study Warren Buffett, he only invests in what he knows and he knows what he doesn’t know. Never throw money at what you don’t know. Maybe I’m conservative that way.

Does anything from the experience of being in Kiss translate into being an entrepreneur?
-Besides the fact that fame is fleeting -except for me- it’s also a door opener. Never underestimate the power of being popular in pop culture. You have to be able to do something. You can have a good seat at the restaurant but you still have to pay for the meal. Fame is important, but to be rich is more important.

Most rockers seem content to just make music. What drives you?
-Rockers are idiots, come on. If strapping a guitar around their neck hadn’t worked out, thanks to the grace of God, they’d be putting on an apron and asking the person next to them if they’d like fries with that.

One of the things that distinguishes most entrepreneurs is their ability to fail and pick themselves up and try again. Has that been your experience?
-I fail all of the time. It means nothing.

What would you say has been your biggest failure?
-I haven’t had too many big ones but for the past two years, I’ve been dancing with Gary Bettman (the NHL commissioner), trying to figure out some way to (get him to) hire Simmons Abramson. It hasn’t happened yet.

That’s a failure, your inability to seal a deal with Bettman?
I’m used to being in a meeting and grabbing it. Failure is relative to everyone. In the 1929 stock market crash, people jumped out of buildings although they were healthy and could do it again. In the real world, there is no failure because you are alive. My mother survived the Nazis and she taught me an ideal: If you are alive you’ve won, no matter what.

Who in business do you admire?
The Warren Buffets and the Bill Gateses of the world. They are not interested in putting on big shows, they are real, hard-core capitalists. It’s a very romantic ideal. I am an avowed self-made capitalist. I earned every penny I made and I’m proud of it and I’m hungrier than ever.

With your level of success, you’re still hungry for more?
-There is no such thing as enough. Only small minds put barricades in front of themselves. If you perceive death, it is only a matter of time until you are dead. The guys with the most amount of money don’t get caught up in the trappings. It’s the lottery winners that buy all the stuff. Money, ironically enough, is beside the point. It’s the hunt, not the kill.

At times you’ve been called more of a marketer than a business, what do you say?
-Gee, I don’t know what the difference is.

At one point in your varied career you managed Liza Minelli. She doesn’t seem to automatically come to mind when one thinks of Kiss and Gene Simmons.
All business models are the same: It’s coming up with the price of goods and marketing and trying to make a profit. Capitalism is the same unless you are a charity, and even there you are figuring out how to pay yourself first.

What would you consider to be your best business advice?
Be a voracious reader. When I first came to America, I was blown away and blessed the day the founding fathers gave us free libraries. It was the first time since the Gutenberg Bible that all information became available to all levels of society. Everyone has the same access to information, which is access to power.

Conventional wisdom holds that small business is the engine of the American economy. What do you think?
No, it’s not. It’s big business. Wal-Mart is the largest employer. If Wal-Mart goes out of business, how many millions will be out of work? It is the biggest businesses that run the economy. That is why I say, be nice to rich people. I don’t remember the last time a poor person gave you a job.

Sing with Kiss

Brian Galvin, the franchisee of the Kiss Coffeehouse at Broadway at the Beach, invites Grand Strand residents to enter its “Sing with Kiss” contest.

The winner will sing Forever with Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer at the Kiss Coffeehouse’s day-long second anniversary party on September 6.

Contest entrants should prepare to sing for about a minute, through the end of the first chorus, in their voice mail. Thayer will choose the best vocalist and the winner will be announced September 2 and join Thayer to perform it at Kiss Coffeehouse.

Galvin said Thayer recorded a new instrumental version of Forever for the contest. The song was written by Michael Bolton and Paul Stanley. By the way, let me tell you that Bolton has scheduled a show in Buenos Aires on September 2.

“We’ve got about 200 entries so far”, said Garvin welcoming area residents to put their best voice forward. ”I don’t know if we’ve found a winner yet”.

A long time Kiss fan who joined the band this decade, Thayer said that Forever is kind of out of the heart of the eighties. In 1990, the second hit single from Hot in the shade reached number 8 at Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Ssik

Whitout any shadow of doubt, Kiss is one of the most influential groups of the world and the list of tribute bands grows everyday in an exponential way. Let me introduce you to Ssik, a quintet born in the heart of Mexico. There are hundreds of groups dedicated to recreate the music of Kiss and these guys shine all the way with a very original product.

First of all, the image of the band is the result of a bizarre mix between the members of Slipknot and some star from the Mexican wrestling league. Secondly, the songs are sung in Spanish. As you can guess, this is a very interesting detail for the people who speak this language.

The band members are Miguel “Lagarto” on voices, Felipe Chacon on drums, Israel Espinoza on bass and Agustin Garcia & Omar Ramirez on guitars. The guys from Ssik have just release their debut album and you can listen to some of their tunes in the group’s My Space.

The sound of these songs represents quite conventionally the spirit of 76 but with one very significant differene: the voices vaguely remember to Brujeria. The final result is, at least, singular. The surprise comes from the hand of Comin’ home in which Ssik raise the bet with an exquisite pop version inspired by 1996′s “MTV Unplugged”.

From Mexico with love

In 1981, Mexico became the first country of Latin America to ever receive the visit of Kiss. The band needed to get new markets because their actions in the United States and Europe were in loss. A year before they had untied madness in Australia and with that impulse they went towards the land of the iguanas.

Kiss arrived at Mexico in a promotional plan so there were no live shows. Instead, the band dedicated their time to demonstrate that they weren’t the bad boys of Rock and Roll. During those years, the group was labeled as a threat for the moral in many countries around the world. Here is a piece of the review that made the Revista Rock Pop on this historical event.

… That time, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Eric Carr, arrived at the Benito Juarez airport, in Mexico City, on September 25, and there were some problems between the press photographers and the band’s guards of security, since it was forbbiden to portray them without the make up, although the group members had their faces covered in a bandit style.

They stayed in the Hotel Camino Real, where they offer a press conference answering questions of all type, including one where they were asked if they had been affected by the yellow pages published about them.

“Yes, it affected us. Apparently in Mexico, everything about rock music is related to satanism. It’s a shame that they don’t inform properly of each case because, for example, they adjudged us to be degenerate drug addicts and without at least knowing us”.

The group visited the Orfanato La Asuncion, located in Atizapan de Zaragoza, where near 300 children, politely seated, applauded the group to its arrival. Soon they approached to greet them and Gene Simmons was very emotional.

On the following day, they went to Canal 13 studio to record a program where they were interviewed by Jimmy Fortz and where they also played some of their more popular songs of that time such as I was made for lovin’ you and Charisma. With this showcase, the band concluded its visit to the country promising to return soon…

Jelle Jansen

One of the Web’s most interesting corners is Kiss Related Recordings. This site is an encyclopedia with the detail of the recordings related to the band. A very friendly design takes the visitor through all the colaborations of the members of Kiss, during and after their demurrage in the band.

It also counts with a very complete list of demos and Kiss songs that never saw the light of day. Many of these songs are known by the fans but they appear here in a chronological sequence with very juicy remarks.

There is a place reserved for the tribute albums that have being released around the world since the beginnings of the Nineties. I couldn’t help to notice the presence of Gritalo fuerte, an 1997 Argentine tribute. I’m in touch with many of the artists included in this album, like Satelite 68 or Nepal.

In the “Tribute Bands” category, you can take a look to releases entirely dedicated to Kiss. The Argentine artists are represented here by Kefren and Mars Cofan, another friend of mine.

One section I really enjoy is “Kiss Inpired & Parodies” in which -thanks to a phenomenal research work- you can find Kiss references in other artist’s songs and albums art work, which comes to testify the major influence of tha band in contemporary pop culture.

The band Los Cau is the star discovery of this section. It was a folk band from Argentina that become very popular around 1980 because their members painted their faces emulating to Kiss, in a time that the band was very fashionable here. I hated Los Cau because I couldn’t stand the potential idea of someone mocking at my heroes. I was seven years old back then.

All these ingredients make of Kiss Related Recordings a must see for Kiss fans around the world because it let us explore the amazing history of a band that always manages to surprise us.

In a few words

Jelle Jansen is the webmaster of this wonderful site. He is also a truly die-hard Kiss fan from Holland. He kindly answered my questions and sent me pictures that I want to share with you. Never stop rockin’, Jelle!

-When did you listen to Kiss for the very first time?
It must have been during the school year of 1977-1978. I heard a live recording on the radio, probably Rock ‘n’ Roll all nite or Let me go, Rock ‘n’ Roll (from Alive!) and the beat, the participation of the audience as well as the intro rap or so, got my interest. It was so different to the other Rock music (like Deep Purple or Stones) I’ve heard before. When the DJ said it was Kiss (easy to remember) I went to a record store the same week and found out how they look like. It probably took a few weeks before I bought my first Kiss album, Destroyer, simply because the cover sleeve looked the best…

-So Kiss got you into Rock and Roll…
Before that, I wasn’t much into music but more into race cars, especially F-1. During my early teens, you better could find me at the Zandvoort circuit -which is nearby the place I lived- instead of a record store. To be honest, around the same time, there was a picture of The Tubes in my school agenda. I thought they looked cool but at that time it was hard to find any of their albums, so I had no clue how The Tubes sounded then. Maybe the music prior to Kiss sounded too serious to me.

-What did you feel in 1983 when you heard that the make up was gone?
A little disappointed, but understandable. While I thought Lick it up was a good metal album (and still is) I didn’t like the picture on the cover sleeve, not because of the Kiss unmasked thing but it said nothing about where Kiss stands for. With that vision, the cover of Animalize looks a lot better.

-How many times did you see Kiss in concert?
1980.10.05 at Leiden, Holland
1984.11.04 at Zwolle, Holland
1988.09.04 at Tilburg, Holland
1992.05.21 at London, UK
1992.05.29 at Hilversum, Holland
1996.08.17 at Donington, UK
1996.12.10 at Rotterdam, Holland
1996.12.12 at Oberhausen, Germany
1997.06.11 at Utrecht, Holland
1999.03.13 at Utrecht, Holland
2008.05.09 at Oberhausen, Germany
2008.06.15 at Nijmegen, Holland

-What do you remember of all those shows?
Kiss at Leiden 1980 was the first big concert I went to. At the age of sixteen, I went there alone simply because my friends couldn’t effort themselves a ticket or maybe their parents didn’t let them go. I was at the venue around 12:00 am while the doors would open around 07:00 pm or so. The parking lot was packed. I do remember a little riot when two girls (both wearing kinda Disco clothes) were “undressed” by die-hard metal rockers, ripping these girls their clothes off, simply because in their opinion these girls did not belong there wearing such.

And then what happened?
-When the doors finally went open, the pressure on the door I stood for was very strong, so it fall out of the hinges down the floor and I was in without any (ticket) control. I had a small tape recorder with me to tape both Iron Maiden (opening) and Kiss shows. While I had already bought Iron Maiden’s debut album, I didn’t care much for their show. I was there for Kiss. Just before Kiss started I was nearly up front but half way the opening song Detroit Rock City, I was 20 or so rows back simply because of the pressure of the audience.
After the show coming home, I was disappointed about the quality of the tape I’ve recorded, hearing myself and the audience near me singing above each song so at the time the tape was useless (in my opinion) so I taped over it.
In 1988, during the Monsters of Rock in Holland, I was up front thinking No make up? Man, I never have met a girl with that much make up on in my life. But the concert was good anyway (LOL).

-Did you have the chance to meet any members of the band?
All of them except Eric Carr, Mark St. John and Tommy Thayer. The coolest thing was hanging out with Gene, Bruce and Eric for about an hour in Amsterdam, just after the 1992 TV recording session in Hilversum.

-What is it about Kiss that you like the most?
Their positive attitude in songs and during concerts. See it in a way that I don’t like (better say hate) the Grunge period in music. Kiss is the opposite of it, except for Carnival of Souls.

-What is it about Kiss that you like the less?
The Carnival of Souls album and/or Gene repeating himself during interviews. It’s nearly easy to play Gene because we all knew most of the answers before these are asked…

-Which is your favourite Kiss album?
Hard to say, so here are a couple. The first album. Most songs stands the test of time.
Dressed to kill. The most up-tempo classics.
Destroyer. Masterpiece.
Paul Stanley 1978. Maybe I’ve played this album most over the years.
Unmasked. Probably underrated, I still play this one a couple of times each year.
The Elder. I have a lot of girl memories on this one but also an underrated masterpiece.
From the non make up era, I like Hot in the shade. The best, the guitars sounds close to that 70′s sound…

-Who is your favourite member?
Paul Stanley… My fave voice, song writer, attitude.

-Why do you think Kiss is still alive and kicking?
Maybe, it’s a kind of simplicity we’re all looking for. Watching the news, there’s a lot of shit around us. A lot of bands are too serious (make the planet green or so) mentioning these problems in their songs while others like to “Rock ‘n’ Roll all nite and party”. Others are tired of all these rap acts. After all, we all like to catch up a show once in a while to forget the crap in our live. And with Kiss, even if you’re not into hard rock at all, everybody knows what they can expect. And to be honest, of course the history of Kiss is hyped a bit, so (younger) people like to find out what this all about.

-What do you think about the current line up?
That Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer are now playing with Ace and Peter’s make up on is a bit weird for older fans (like me) of course. On the other hand the current line up is extremely good musically, less mistakes… Nowadays, it’s nearly a (hit) machine playing there on stage which all seems to fit in for about two hours of show time. Check out the Instant Live and Kiss Alive 35 discs to understand what I’m talking about.

-What does Kiss mean in your life?
One of my all time fave songs is My way from Crazy nights. That one says it all for me personally. My parents were (and still are) die-hard Christians. (Not only) because of Kiss I had to leave home at the age of fifteen. Kiss didn’t fit in their vision of life at the time, so on early 1980, my mother broke all my records… Since then I had to do it on my own. Left school without any diploma.
To make a long story short, after all I took the chances I got in life. Nowadays I’m married with the girl I met in 1982. We got a 20 year old son (have a great picture of him together with Gene in 1992) and a 13 year old daughter. Having a good job, still being myself, trying to believe in myself. I have to say after all It’s good being me (LOL).

When I look around, I see people talking nonsense during important meetings trying to make a decision while I still think Keep it simple, stupid.

Thanks a lot Jelle!