KISS

Kiss: Kissology Volume II 1978-1991

KISS have always had an approach to their fans that on the one hand could be seen as ridiculously crass and on the other as truly generous. And this release, with its three expertly mastered and crammed DVDs--issued with three separate bonus discs--could easily support either view. The second installment in KISS's Kissology DVD series will sort out the casual fans from the true members of the KISS Army. The material included here, after all, begins in 1978, when the band released four separate solo albums at once and their massive popularity began to wane. It continues on through the controversial makeup-free period and ends in '91, as KISS struggled to cope with the ascendancy of grunge over the hair metal style they'd experienced a second boom with. The concert films are pretty great, but the full-length Tom Snyder Tomorrow show appearance is flat-out brilliant, as is their live performance on the short-lived sketch comedy show Fridays. And the highlight of the set has to be the "European theatrical version" of their made-for-TV film KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. All those who've suffered through poorly degenerated video bootlegs will glory at this wonderfully restored piece of rock and roll camp. --Mike McGonigal

KISSology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection, Vol. 1: 1974-1977

As KISSology - Vol. 1 (1974-1977) announces loudly, all the chutzpah and bombast that made KISS so huge--the fire-breathing, the blood-dripping, the kabuki-mask make-up and platform shoes, the synchronized head-bobs--were in place from the very beginning. KISS's 1974 concert in San Francisco is virtually identical to their 1977 concerts in Japan and Houston, at the peak of their popularity. For hardcore fans, this opportunity to bask in the nuances of five performances of "Black Diamond" and six performances of "Firehouse" is essential viewing, but for the less committed the pleasures of KISSology lie in the bizarre collisions pop culture is heir to: Gene Simmons, in full costume, declaring himself "evil incarnate" on The Mike Douglas Show; Margaret Hamilton, done up in her Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch of the West garb, introducing KISS to the ever-cackling Paul Lynde on Lynde's 1976 Halloween special (the footage from this special doesn't include the tender ballad "Beth", undoubtedly due to the estrangement of drummer Peter Criss, who sang the band's highest charting U.S. single); and the truly surreal incident where KISS went to Cadillac, Michigan, and had breakfast with the entire city council wearing full KISS makeup before the band made a spectacular exit by helicopter. Rock & roll is full of strange phenomena, but KISS is one of the most inexplicable: An adolescent fever dream of superheroic hedonism that somehow achieved world-wide stardom and kept its career alive for over 30 years. KISS started as a deliberate cartoon, became a bad joke, and have re-emerged as a fond memory, still cranking out pyrotechnic spectacle. Three volumes of KISSology is probably excessive, but why stop the excess now? --Bret Fetzer

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: KISS
Title: VOL. 1-KISSOLOGY-1974-77
Street Release Date: 10/31/2006
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP

Kiss - Kissology - Volume 1 (1974-1977)

As KISSology - Vol. 1 (1974-1977) announces loudly, all the chutzpah and bombast that made KISS so huge--the fire-breathing, the blood-dripping, the kabuki-mask make-up and platform shoes, the synchronized head-bobs--were in place from the very beginning. KISS's 1974 concert in San Francisco is virtually identical to their 1977 concerts in Japan and Houston, at the peak of their popularity. For hardcore fans, this opportunity to bask in the nuances of five performances of "Black Diamond" and six performances of "Firehouse" is essential viewing, but for the less committed the pleasures of KISSology lie in the bizarre collisions pop culture is heir to: Gene Simmons, in full costume, declaring himself "evil incarnate" on The Mike Douglas Show; Margaret Hamilton, done up in her Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch of the West garb, introducing KISS to the ever-cackling Paul Lynde on Lynde's 1976 Halloween special (the footage from this special doesn't include the tender ballad "Beth", undoubtedly due to the estrangement of drummer Peter Criss, who sang the band's highest charting U.S. single); and the truly surreal incident where KISS went to Cadillac, Michigan, and had breakfast with the entire city council wearing full KISS makeup before the band made a spectacular exit by helicopter. Rock & roll is full of strange phenomena, but KISS is one of the most inexplicable: An adolescent fever dream of superheroic hedonism that somehow achieved world-wide stardom and kept its career alive for over 30 years. KISS started as a deliberate cartoon, became a bad joke, and have re-emerged as a fond memory, still cranking out pyrotechnic spectacle. Three volumes of KISSology is probably excessive, but why stop the excess now? --Bret Fetzer

KISS - The Second Coming

Kiss: The Second Coming is a band-sanctioned hagiography focusing on the profit-minded 1996 tour that found the '70s heavy-metal icons back in full-bore makeup and costumes for a time-trip back to their Alive II heyday. At 122 minutes, Second Coming is an hour too long for all but die-hard devotees, and peaks with its opening recap of the band's early fire-breathing years. After that, it's a quick run-through of good-days-gone-bad clichés before the long haul of backstage shots and gee-it's-great-to-be-back-on-the-playground testimonials takes over. Little insight is present, though there is a bit of comic myth-mocking during a sequence demonstrating the inflation of the stage show's gargantuan inflatable figures of Gene, Paul, Peter, and Ace. Three tour performances, including music videos for "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout It Out Loud," alleviate the boredom. --Rickey Wright

For over a quarter century, Kiss has shaped the face of popular music and rock culture. The "Kiss Alive Worldwide" tour saw the rebirth of rock's most incredible band. Who are these masked men and where did they come from? What did it take to reclaim their title as "The Hottest Band in the World?" After 18 years apart, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss and Gene Simmons overcame their past differences, finally reuniting the powerhouse original Kiss lineup that wrote rock and roll legend. This is Kiss and this is their story.

Kiss - eXposed

Ah, the '80s! A time of hair bands and their ludicrous MTV videos filled with spandex-clad band members and skimpily clad bimbos. Kiss: Exposed returns us to that forgettable era, as Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons show how to desperately try to remain cock rock's elder statesmen. This 1987 compilation serves up several now-hilarious video clips from Kiss's '80s "unmasked" period, including "Tears Are Falling," "Heaven's on Fire," "Lick It Up," and "I Love It Loud." (Count the fires burning in these classic video relics of days gone by!) Also on hand are Stanley and Simmons themselves, looking properly embarrassed as they act out rock's biggest fantasy: lounging by the pool with a bevy of (mostly) bare beauties. The saving grace is the generous selection of vintage live performances: hearing the band do "Strutter," "Detroit Rock City," "Ladies Room," and "Deuce" in its late-'70s prime is worth wading through the outdated '80s-style power pop... if you're a real Kiss fan, of course. --Kevin Filipski

Kiss - Konfidential & Xtreme Close Up

Kissology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection, Vol. 3: 1992-2000

Kiss - Rock the Nation Live

The rock band Kiss--four guys in full face makeup, black spandex, and six-inch platform shoes--achieve a kind of sublime ridiculousness that other rock bands can only dream of. Kiss--Rock the Nation Live! mixes lavish concert footage with brief but entertaining backstage clips of the band members putting on their makeup, cavorting with their fans, and going bowling. Though only two of the founding members remain--Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons--Kiss is exactly the same as ever: The most shamelessly pandering band in the history of rock, a heavy metal/pop confection marketed as ruthlessly as any boy-band. All the trademarks--fire-breathing, blood-spitting, pyrotechnics, etc.--are presented with impressive zest, particularly since Stanley and Simmons are in their fifties (one of the advantages of full face makeup is that your audience can't see how old you are). The topics of their lyrics are sex, partying, and sex--which, nowadays, is kind of refreshing. Kiss eschews the narcissistic morbidity that marks so much contemporary hard rock; this band will never whine about how hard life is or how depressed they are. The way they aggressively woo their fans has contributed to their success at least as much as their music. By the end of the show, the riffs and exhortations to "Let me hear you!" start to blur, but the audience enthusiasm never wanes--and the camera spends a lot of time ogling big-breasted young women in "Kiss Army" t-shirts (and thongs). The dvd features several songs in "Kiss Powervision", which allows you to focus on your favorite band member (a bit of technology developed, appropriately enough, for porn dvds). --Bret Fetzer

From their formative years in the early '70s to the present day, KISS is regarded as one of the most influential rock and roll bands of all time. Now their legacy continues to grow, as KISS is stronger and more vital than ever, commanding huge audiences in stadiums and arenas around the globe. KISS Rock the Nation Live! is an unprecedented look at KISS onstage and off, including fiery live performances of rarely-performed KISS classics, previously unseen footage of the group at soundchecks, in their dressing room, traveling, photo sessions and much more! But most importantly, you'll see a band not content to rest on their lofty laurels but committed to forgin head-on into an exciting future. CUTTING-EDGE BONUS FEATURES: Seven Select-A-KISS Songs - Choose the band member you want to watch! Six Behind-the-Scenes Documentary Segments Intimate and In-Your-Face KISS Footage shot at the band's Palais Theater performance in Melbourne, Australia Never-Before-Seen KISS Backstage Rehearsal Footage FEATURED SONGS: Love Gun, Deuce, Makin' Love, Lick It Up, Christine Sixteen, She, Tears Are Falling, Got to Choose, I Love It Loud, Love Her All I Can, I Want You, Parasite, War Machine, 100,000 Years, Unholy, Shout It Out Loud, I Was Made for Lovin' You, Detroit Rock City, God Gave Rock & Roll To You II, Rock & Roll All Nite

KISSology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection, Vol. 2: 1978-1991

KISS have always had an approach to their fans that on the one hand could be seen as ridiculously crass and on the other as truly generous. And this release, with its three expertly mastered and crammed DVDs--issued with three separate bonus discs--could easily support either view. The second installment in KISS's Kissology DVD series will sort out the casual fans from the true members of the KISS Army. The material included here, after all, begins in 1978, when the band released four separate solo albums at once and their massive popularity began to wane. It continues on through the controversial makeup-free period and ends in '91, as KISS struggled to cope with the ascendancy of grunge over the hair metal style they'd experienced a second boom with. The concert films are pretty great, but the full-length Tom Snyder Tomorrow show appearance is flat-out brilliant, as is their live performance on the short-lived sketch comedy show Fridays. And the highlight of the set has to be the "European theatrical version" of their made-for-TV film KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. All those who've suffered through poorly degenerated video bootlegs will glory at this wonderfully restored piece of rock and roll camp. --Mike McGonigal

Kiss - Symphony: The DVD

KISS bassist/chief provocateur/world-class swagmeister Gene Simmons once infamously claimed that his cartoon shock-rockers were more influential than Dylan, though the driving sentiment behind this double-disc DVD chronicle of the band's liaison with the Melbourne Symphony seems to paraphrase "Love Minus Zero": "There's no success like excess / and excess is the best success of all." The history of the fusion of rock bands and orchestras is a long and notoriously spotted one, though matters of decorum have seldom concerned--or deterred--KISS. Disc 1 outlines the genesis of the project, with an earnest and typically irony-free Simmons meeting with perpetually bemused conductor David Campbell to discuss mutual musical quandaries, like synchronizing explosions and whether the orchestra can get their KISS makeup on with due haste. Rehearsal and preparation footage display an unusually affable orchestra and band, a mood that carries over into its pyrotechnic-punctuated greatest hits set with the band (Tommy Thayer ably filling the platforms of the departed Ace Frehley). It all works surprisingly well, if at some pitched, Vegas-showroom-in-hell level of bombast. It's a technically impressive show and package, if one that feels distinctly padded as a double-disc (the performance of the "Symphony"'s Act III is repeated on both discs). Less is more? Not here. --Jerry McCulley