Yes, this is a band that is a total and complete sell-out, and exploited every gimmick in the book (probably created most of them too). They followed every musical trend from rock to rock-lite, to disco, proggish concept album, glam, grunge (Carnival of Souls?) before settling on and retiring on the nostalgia spectacle circuit, playing only the 'classics' for the last 20 years.
The argument is that KISS was always meant to be experienced live, rather than be judged purely on their recorded output. They would never be the critics' choice but one could say even at their most simplistic, their worst stuff was never as bad as the worst stuff from other shock-rockers like say Twisted Sister or WASP. They were OK. There were some good cuts. Some glimmers of sophistication. Paul Stanley had one of the great rock voices of all time. Ace had a style that was charmingly goofy, and of course he just looked cool onstage. Gene in my opinion is underrated as a bass player. Though some quarters of the public loathe him for his behaviour & comments, but purely from a musical standpoint, his basslines & harmony vocals are often overlooked, his musical contributions overshadowed by his over-the-top persona. And having read his 'self-help' books, I actually tend to mostly agree with his points of view, though I probably wouldn't put them across so brazenly. I think that's where he gets misunderstood by the public. Because there are also many accounts by his peers and people who have worked with him, of Gene being warm-hearted and generous in person.
I was learning guitar and in my first band right just before the time of the first KISS reunion mania. In fact my very first 2 albums were the non-makeup KISS: Unplugged and Revenge, which in hindsight are really among their best. (Unplugged, for example, is not only the best sounding KISS record, but one of the best 'unplugged' albums ever made by any band, period) I was following their escapades in the rock mags and the fan-sites or "homepages" as they were known in the nascent world wide web.* There wasn't youtube or streaming yet either, and they weren't ever played on local radio (except for a couple of tracks from the MTV unplugged album) so you either had to buy the albums or guess what they sounded like. Eventually I did get all their albums, right up to Psycho Circus, which went back to the disappointing juvenile rock sound. I say disappointing following the promise of the prior Revenge-era lineup with Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer whom I feel kicked the musicianship up several notches, before getting canned for the Second Coming reunion lineup.
* (side note: If you are too young to remember, official websites and facebook pages for bands didn't always exist. Creating a web page of anything required at least some HTML coding expertise, and KISS was probably the band with the most web content made by fans in the early days of the WWW. Though Megadeth is credited for having the first official website for a band.)
The argument is that KISS was always meant to be experienced live, rather than be judged purely on their recorded output. They would never be the critics' choice but one could say even at their most simplistic, their worst stuff was never as bad as the worst stuff from other shock-rockers like say Twisted Sister or WASP. They were OK. There were some good cuts. Some glimmers of sophistication. Paul Stanley had one of the great rock voices of all time. Ace had a style that was charmingly goofy, and of course he just looked cool onstage. Gene in my opinion is underrated as a bass player. Though some quarters of the public loathe him for his behaviour & comments, but purely from a musical standpoint, his basslines & harmony vocals are often overlooked, his musical contributions overshadowed by his over-the-top persona. And having read his 'self-help' books, I actually tend to mostly agree with his points of view, though I probably wouldn't put them across so brazenly. I think that's where he gets misunderstood by the public. Because there are also many accounts by his peers and people who have worked with him, of Gene being warm-hearted and generous in person.
I was learning guitar and in my first band right just before the time of the first KISS reunion mania. In fact my very first 2 albums were the non-makeup KISS: Unplugged and Revenge, which in hindsight are really among their best. (Unplugged, for example, is not only the best sounding KISS record, but one of the best 'unplugged' albums ever made by any band, period) I was following their escapades in the rock mags and the fan-sites or "homepages" as they were known in the nascent world wide web.* There wasn't youtube or streaming yet either, and they weren't ever played on local radio (except for a couple of tracks from the MTV unplugged album) so you either had to buy the albums or guess what they sounded like. Eventually I did get all their albums, right up to Psycho Circus, which went back to the disappointing juvenile rock sound. I say disappointing following the promise of the prior Revenge-era lineup with Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer whom I feel kicked the musicianship up several notches, before getting canned for the Second Coming reunion lineup.
* (side note: If you are too young to remember, official websites and facebook pages for bands didn't always exist. Creating a web page of anything required at least some HTML coding expertise, and KISS was probably the band with the most web content made by fans in the early days of the WWW. Though Megadeth is credited for having the first official website for a band.)
Gibson USA Ace Frehley Les Paul
This is a USA Ace Frehley Les Paul. Always wanted one but could never afford one of the '300' Custom Shop ones when they first appeared in ads in magazines. Just a great rock guitar with the Dimarzio Super Distortions.
1980 Greco Les Paul Custom
A limited Les Paul copy model from Japan 1980, which ties in to the time from at least 1977(Love Gun) to 1981(Elder) when he was consistently using it onstage and in publicity photos. For some reason there must be 100 sunburst versions to 1 black one out there, even though Ace used his black Custom almost as much onstage (especially for the nightly 'smoker' gimmick/effect) This is an Ace tribute model have no doubt about it, not any run-of-the-mill Gibson copy as there weren't any Gibson production models in this style (3-pickup cream-coloured bobbins), seeing as Ace's own was heavily modified in the first place. Not to be confused with the Peter Frampton style with black bobbins.
1980 Aria Pro II "Korina" Explorer
another vintage Japanese copy guitar, this one in particular coming off the craze for 'korina' Explorers, not only owing to the rarity of real Gibson korina Explorers but also due to the fact Eddie Van Halen was using an Ibanez Destroyer copy (later modified into the "Shark" guitar). Lesser known is that Ace Frehley as well was using it heavily on tour with KISS in the late 70s. All these iterations of Japanese copies are similar in that they are not really korina, but rather Japanese Sen Ash wood, finished in a more yellow tint for the korina look (versus the more commonplace reddish-brown mahogany natural Explorers) and were indeed built to a very high level of craftsmanship.
