I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-MTV Unplugged (1996).

Ever ones to jump on a bandwagon, Kiss did an Unplugged special in 1996.  They had been laying low for a while.  Conventional wisdom says they were working on the follow-up to Revenge (and the successful Alive III tour) when they got called in to do this Unplugged.  (The follow-up Carnival of Souls would eventually be released to little fanfare).

And so here we have Kiss in an unplugged setting.  The big surprise for this show was that Peter Criss and Ace Frehley were invited back on stage to play some songs.  And things went so well (and there was clearly money to be made in a reunion) that the original guys got together, made an album and even toured it (which I saw).

But to me the real surprise is what a great set list this is.  I would love to go to a Kiss show and hear these selections because the diversity is fantastic and there’s very few of the obnoxious hits that I’m tired of.  It’s true that the bulk of these songs are their more mellow offerings (which is smart since the heavier ones wouldn’t work so well with the big acoustic guitar sound), but the choices are so unexpected.  I mean look what they start with.

“Comin’ Home” a deep cut off of Hotter Than Hell that, well I won’t say Kiss fans wouldn’t know, but that contemporary Kiss fans may not know.  And it sounds fantastic in this recording.  The heavier songs don’t sound quite as good with the big acoustic guitar treatment—so “Plaster Caster” seems a little odd.  However, “Goin Blind” (however absurd the lyrics) works great in this setting (you can really hear the complex bass that Gene plays).  Surprisingly, “Do You Love Me” falls a little flat here because in the studio version the choruses are so big, but here they are gentle and it kind of undermines the intensity.  I keep reiterating how much I really dislike “Domino” lyrically.  But musically it’s pretty interesting and it works fine in this setting.

The biggest musical surprise comes with “Sure Know Something” from Dynasty.  Even though the original is very discoey, the acoustic treatment sounds great.  “World Without Heroes” is another huge surprise and it also works very well in this setting (I’m trying to imagine how all of them needed to relearn all of these songs).  With the intro to “Rock Bottom” being a sweet melody the acoustic version works well.  Surprisingly the louder part works pretty well here too.  And then woah, “See You Tonite” from the Gene solo album!  They pulled some crazy things out for this show. I suppose this set wouldn’t be very exciting in the full makeup stage show, but it would be very cool to hear these tracks live.

“I Still Love You” is an aching ballad that works well in this context because really the main feature of the song is Paul’s voice which sounds great here.  “Every Time I Look at You “ is a cheesy ballad which of course is tailor-made for Unplugged.

And then comes the surprise—Peter and Ace.  It’s the first time they’ve all played without makeup and the first reunion in years.  And as a nice treat they play “2,000 Man” the track that Ace sang on Unmasked (surprising that they didn’t do “Shock Me,” but that is not really right for an Unplugged).  “Beth” is not really a surprise as it is Peter’s song, although it is surprising to hear it on guitar which changes the song quite a bit and makes it sound quite good.  The real treat is “Nothin’ to Lose” in which everyone comes out on stage and takes a verse.  It’s always fun to hear how into it Peter is.  The set ends with “Rock n Roll All Nite” and even in this more stripped down setting the song sounds good (although they must be so tired of singing this song).

Unplugged albums tend to get forgotten in artist’s catalogs, but this is a really enjoyable set and a must for any Kiss fan.  Incidentally there are some “uncut” versions of the show online that are worth checking out for the extra tracks.

[READ: September 17, 2013] “The Exiled Queen”

This is the kind of story that makes me wonder why someone would write about the things they do.  Not because it’s bad or not worth writing about, I just can’t imagine where the idea came from.  This is a story about a boy named Filippino who is an art prodigy.  He could draw a Madonna before he knew what a Madonna was.  He learned to paint and gild frames before he could talk and his work was impeccable.

This was a challenging story for me to read because there are no paragraph breaks (and I love my paragraph breaks).  It is just an endless stream of prose about this painting prodigy.  But some details do come through the verbiage.

It is 1469 (!), the boy’s father has died, and he was soon taken under the wing of the great painter Battigello.  And Battigello began to teach him more and more, but young Filippino would learn so quickly.  he could just watch the master’s arms and imitate his brush strokes.  We later learn that Battigello would come to be called Botticelli.

Eventually the young boy assisted Botticelli in painting a chest that was to become a present. He painted one of the panels and it proved to be one of the most divine panel anyone had seen.  While everything was done in the master’s style, Filipino decided to use his own unique gift to make the central figure Queen Vashti somewhat more enigmatic.

When the second paragraph finally comes (with only a few lines left in the story), we learn that the chest was broken up and the panels sold off individually.  This panel was called “Queen Vashti Leaves the Royal Palace.” And it was later sold at an astounding price.

This is all so strangely created and historically detailed about a fake (I assume) person.  What a strange idea…how did he come to decide to write this?   I also am very curious about what else is in this piece as it is but a tiny excerpt from Seiobo There Below a 440 page book.  The book and this excerpt are translated by Ottilie Mulzet from the Hungarian.  I’d like to read a summary of the novel, but I won’t be reading the whole thing.

For ease of searching, I include: Laszlo Krasznahorkai