Forty years ago: KISS Destroyer

Forty years ago, back on this day in 1976, KISS unleashed a monster of an album on the world. Produced by Bob Ezrin, the band's fourth album Destroyer was perhaps the definitive release that epitomized what KISS is. The band's image, songs, sound and performance all came together on this masterpiece and it became their biggest selling album. It has certainly earned its place as one of the all-time classic rock albums, and it's one of my personal favourites.

The whole album:

And some album highlights:

"Detroit Rock City"

"God of Thunder"

"Flaming Youth"

"Shout it Out Loud"

A little song called "Beth" that went on to be a #7 hit single

"Do You Love Me?"

Pic from Amazon.

The musician comes first: Dave Grohl's SXSW Keynote Address

I don't post too much on the state of the music industry or conferences or speeches, even though I used to be part of the industry, and I guess, in some small way, I still am. Here's Dave Grohl at SXSW giving the Keynote Address. It's a funny, entertaining, inspiring, unflinchingly honest look at Dave's experience with the wondrous gift of music.

Dave fronts one of my favourite bands. Foo Fighters are a band that sound like what I always thought perfect hard rock with a good pop sensibility should sound like. It's probably in part because we grew up with the same influences. I even remember the sister of a childhood friend when she got a mohawk. And I loved 70's KISS. I even liked Foo Fighters before I knew that "the drummer from Nirvana" was Foo Fighters.

The main idea: the musician comes first.

Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein", the song that changed Dave Grohl's life.

What was mine? There were so many, but this one came to mind first. Manfred Mann's version of "Blinded by the Light".

And I can't forget KISS. I wanted to be Ace Frehley when I grew up. Here's "Shock Me".

Here's one of the tracks from the début Foo Fighter's album "This is a Call".

Wow, Dave. You've made me nostalgic and made me remember how much I love music. I think I'll dust off the guitar and start building some calluses.

Favourites: KISS my ass

Get yer metal on!

Here's a cover version of KISS' "Calling Dr. Love" from years ago. It's by Shandi's Addiction, who is Maynard James Keenan of Tool on lead vocals, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave on guitar, Billy Gould of Faith No More on bass, and Brad Wilk of Rage and Audioslave bashing the kit.  Now that's a supergroup.  Killer.



And here's Anthrax covering "She", also from years ago.  Some amazingly stupid drumrolls. Oh yeah!  And one of the best guitar riffs ever. Ace Frehley is a guitar god.



Both of these tracks are from a tribute album called Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved that came out in 1994.

Origins: Hüsker Dü

Where to start? Should I reach back to the beginning, when I liked the Village People and KISS? Maybe not. I'd like to start with the music that influenced me most. The music that has formed much of the foundation of what I like today, how I play the guitar and how I write songs.

In my teenage years, I got bored with mainstream music and started branching out. I listened to a lot of classic rock, metal and punk, in addition to a brief foray into dance music. And let's get this out of the way out front - I've always liked a good pop song. I like melody and good songwriting, and yes, I realize that "good" anything is highly subjective. So strong pop songwriting with an original twist is a thread that will likely begin to show itself over some time here.

One band really grabbed me back in the 80s and their effect has been felt for many years: Hüsker Dü. With the release of Candy Apple Grey and Warehouse: Songs and Stories, I discovered Hüsker Dü. I always gravitated more towards Bob Mould's songs. Their lyrics, melodies and structures spoke to me and have been a huge influence. There are a lot of sites out there that will take you through the history of Hüsker Dü, Sugar and Bob Mould. I'll just provide a few songs that are standouts for me.

"Could You Be The One" was the first Hüsker Dü song I learned how to play on the guitar and the first one I played with a band. The sound quality in this version isn't great, but hopefully the song shines through.



Then Hüsker Dü broke up.