KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Hey Guys,

Check out this commercial video from Nordic Choice (Choice Hotels here in the Nordics). KISS is really everywhere! :-)

Cheers,
Sven-Erik Knoff

PETERS BRINGS BACK ICONIC 80’S ICE BLOCK TO MAKE KISSTORY!



‘Lick It Up’ with legendary rockers KISS during their upcoming Monster Tour in Australia

Iconic Australian ice cream brand, Peters, has joined forces with legendary rock giants KISS to make their upcoming Monster Tour even sweeter by bringing back the famous Peters KISS ‘Thunderbolt’ ice block.

In February 2013, Peters will re-launch their widely popular 1980s KISS ‘Thunderbolt’ ice block to coincide with KISS’s Monster Tour in Australia celebrating their 40th Anniversary. Peters and KISS will be encouraging KISS fans to ‘Lick It Up’ while stocks last* and rock out at a concert in their local city.

Alicia Munday, Peters Marketing Manager, said, “The original KISS ice block was such a hit when it first launched that we knew we had to bring it back at some stage. When KISS announced that they were starting their global KISS Monster Tour in Australia we knew we had to make it happen.

“We know the comeback of this ice block will conjure up a sense of nostalgia and excitement for new and old fans and expect the Peters KISS ‘Thunderbolt’ to be a sellout success,” added Munday.

KISS front man, Paul Stanley, is excited by the partnership and can’t wait to ‘Lick It Up’ Down Under. “Getting a chance to revisit our first time here through this awesome Aussie project gives us a taste of KISSTERIA and all that made us a phenomenon back then.” he said.

Gene Simmons, KISS bassist and co-founder, admits-- “I still have 12 original boxes of the ice blocks from the 1980s."

The Peters KISS ‘Thunderbolt’ ice block is a triple threat of three flavours that will take you straight back to childhood – lemonade, raspberry and cola.

The Peters KISS ‘Thunderbolt’ ice block will be one of the first products to be released under Peters’ new Australian ownership and part of a renewed commitment to creating products that Australians want.

*The Peters KISS ‘Thunderbolt’ ice block is available exclusively in Caltex outlets from Wednesday, 6 February and Coles supermarkets from Wednesday, 13 February until sold out.

We've been a couple for many years and thought it was about time we make a baby…well, a Rock' n Roll, baby to be exact!

Of course every couple wants their wedding to be awesome and memorable. And we couldn't have imagined ours to be more perfect.

Traditional ceremonies are fine, but let others do them. We wanted to get married short and sweet with a big bang and make everybody feel like rock stars. And damn did we - with the help of the phenomenal team of the Hotter Than Hell Wedding Chapel. Big thanks to all!

From beginning till end it was all one big rush of excitement and joy. The crowd was cheering, our Mini-ster did an amazing job, and when our maid of honor pulled the shotgun and revealed that Nikki is pregnant the masses went berserk. So, so, so much fun!

We're feeling so fortunate that we shared this with our friends.

David & Nikki Stein
Brooklyn, NY 11218

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Here's German Playboy Playmate Mia Gray's photo shoot tribute to Paul Stanley!

Thanks to KISS News for the images!

Thank you, KISS Army for sending us so many wonderful letters, like the one below, celebrating 40 years of KISS!


I don't have enough space to write about what this band has meant to me in my lifetime. I have been with KISS through all the ups and downs, and have never wavered in my loyalty. From the moment I heard Detroit Rock City played to me over the phone by my best friend, I was hooked. KISS has changed my life, given me a reason to believe in myself when no one else would, and it has showed me what is possible with hard work and patience.

When no one else believed in me, KISS told me that I could believe in myself. I am a professor of English to hundreds of college students per year, and that basic KISS credo of be proud of who you are and you will accomplish your dreams is a message I preach in every class. Thank you for that.

Yes, I'm a freak, and it's a cross I'm proud to bear. Here's a photograph I took at my first KISS concert at the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum in November of 1977. All it was was a hand-held 110 film camera I held up high and clicked. The result speaks for itself.

Thanks, Paul, Gene, Eric, and Tommy, for keeping the dream alive.

Gary

CLICK HERE to visit our letters page to read more wonderful letters from the KISS Army!

Posted by cGt2099

Written by Chris Ryall
Art by Alan Robinson
Colors by Jay Fotos
Cover Art by Ray Dillon
IDW Publishing
Release Date: January 9, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

Outside of my obsessions for heavy metal, sci-fi, and horror, I habitually find myself gravitating towards two distinct styles of media in entertainment: the dark, disgusting, and macabre; or the stupidity of plain ridiculousness and irreverent humor. So when fellow GoD of Thunder, Dave3, hurled out his list of comics available to review recently, it should be no surprise that my eyeballs became magnetized to a title that read Mars Attacks KISS.

I have been a KISS fan for 26 years, which is way more than half of my current lifespan, and so naturally my first two thoughts were, “Wait! Is this about the band KISS?” and “That is the most ridiculous comic title ever conceived – I love it”.

And it is indeed about the hard rock/heavy metal band I’ve obsessed over for nearly three decades – being faced with the skull-faced, brain-headed, ack-ack-speaking monstrosities from the film of the same name.

To put it guilelessly, when I scored this review for Geeks of Doom, it was like giving a jigsaw puzzle with alphabetized pieces to someone with OCD.

Before we do carry on, I must put my heavy metal historian hat on for a moment, because it does figure into the context of the review. In 1977, KISS was pretty much the biggest band in the world at that point. Like, bigger than Beatles big… As in Godzilla-sized stomping the Beatles flat. You get my drift.

The band was a phenomenon in the United States, appealing to a multigenerational audience. They were a world-shattering change in the music scene in Japan. Europe was blown away by them, and they were so big in Australia that 1 in 14 people had a KISS album. Combining this success with the band’s make-up/costume image with extravagant stage show, evolved into something that, now when looking back, seemed pretty inevitable.

Let’s transform them into superheroes. It was the perfect idea for the perfect time, and Stan “The Man” Lee with Marvel comics jumped at the chance. The very first issue of KISS #1 also contained the band’s blood in the red ink. Yes, truly: it smacked of publicity stunt material; but it was most certainly rock and roll through and through.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the review at Geeksofdoom.com

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Thanks to the Brazilian KISS Army for sharing this KISS Mini Golf TV segment that aired in Brazil.

Forty years ago in January 1973, Paul, Gene, and Peter held auditions for a lead guitarist for their new band. As the band took shape, they chose Ace. Paul suggested the name KISS, and the band was born. Later that month, KISS performed its first show on January 30th at Popcorn, a club in Queens, New York.

Four decades on, KISS is still rocking a legion of fans that number in the millions around the globe! What an amazing ride it has been so far! Now 40 years strong, Paul, Tommy, Eric and Gene prepare for a MONSTER world tour in 2013!

We know that KISS is the soundtrack to so many of your lives. We want to hear from you! Tell us about your 40 years with KISS.

CLICK HERE to share your favorite moments and memories of your life as a KISS fan with us.

AWARDS INCLUDE ALBUM OF THE YEAR FOR MONSTER!

by Matthew Wilkening / Photo Jim Dyson, Getty Images

KISS were the clear champs of our reader-selected 2012 Ultimate Classic Rock Awards, taking home trophies in six of the 11 categories — including Album and Artist of the Year.

It was a very busy year for the greasepaint-wearing legends, who released a “resurrected” version of their classic ‘Destroyer’ album in addition to the brand-new record ‘Monster.’ The former won Best Reissue or Archival Release honors by nearly a four-to-one margin (48% to 13%) over the nearest competitor, Pink Floyd‘s massive ‘The Wall: Experience Edition’ box set.

Meanwhile, ‘Monster’ earned 44% of the vote in the Album of the Year race, easily outpacing Van Halen‘s ‘A Different Kind of Truth’ (14%) and Rush‘s ‘Clockwork Angels’ (10%). The album’s second single, ‘Long Way Down,’ took home the Song of the Year prize with 35% of the vote, with Journey‘s ‘Resonate’ (11%) and Motley Crue‘s ‘Sex’ (10%) also earning medals.

As you can imagine, racking up wins in all those big categories also made it pretty clear that KISS was the Artist of the Year in the eyes of our readers, and indeed they beat Van Halen (14%) and Aerosmith (10%) out for that honor by capturing 42% of the vote.

The makeup-wearing marvels also took home prizes for Commercial of the Year (although we wonder if even they might agree Rush and Eddie Money got robbed there) and Photo of the Year, for a series of shots unveiling the latest versions of their famous stage costumes. Together with summer tour mates Motley Crue, KISS also came in second place in the Tour of the Year category.

The Winners' History of Rock and Roll, Part 2: KISS

How four men in face paint made rock real for a nation

By Steven Hyden

"We got wars going down in the middle-western states." —The Hold Steady, "Knuckles"

"I am a fan of Middle America. Remember, it was mass culture that created rock 'n' roll. Our tastes happen to coincide with theirs." —Gene Simmons, 1977, in Rolling Stone

The video begins — the 17-minute-and-18-second version that's posted on YouTube, anyway — with a medium close-up of a carnival barker carnival-barking at a group of gawkers outside of a freak show. The tape is blurry but the metaphor is clear to the point of obviousness. And yet Edwin Newman, the unflappable veteran reporter carved out of hickory and tweed who has been dispatched by NBC News to get to the bottom of this evening's investigation, isn't afraid to underline it several times. He alludes to P.T. Barnum and the suckers who are born every 60 seconds. He warns against a "vast machinery of hype" threatening to sucker the suckers of today — which in the video is 1977 — into mindless oblivion. Even by the murderously lax standards of the network-news hatchet job, Edwin Newman has dispensed with all subtleties. He is out to bust balls.

Hype is this newsman's primary concern. Hype is the subject of his special report, helpfully titled Land of Hype & Glory. Suddenly, the setting shifts to a rock concert, and we meet Newman's Exhibit A. "These four men have been performing for four years. In that time they've been responsible for selling records worth $30 million," he intones grimly. "By some accounts, they are the favorite rock group of American teenagers. Their name, for no reason immediately apparent, is Kiss."

Kiss is playing "Black Diamond," the final song on the band's self-titled 1974 debut. "Black Diamond" is sung primarily by drummer Peter Criss, the Catman, but the Catman is the one member who is not in view. Instead, we see Gene Simmons stomp from stage right to stage left like Frankenstein doing the funky-chicken. We whizz by Ace Frehley playing a guitar solo with his Gibson held at a mathematically precise 45-degree angle. We venture to the outskirts of Paul Stanley's black forest of mossy chest hair.

The visual stimuli serve as the backdrop for Newman's brisk overview of Kiss's history — sorry, Kisstory — and performance aesthetic. "From the beginning Kiss emphasized style over substance," he says. "They went heavy on trappings. Makeup came first. It set them apart from everyone else and gave them an aura of mystery … Costumes were next, complete with black leather, aluminum studs, and eight-inch platform heels." Newman talks about Kiss's elaborate staging, which includes a battery of 40 amps and 150 speakers — "more than any other rock band has," he notes — pumping out 130 decibels. ("In technical terms 130 decibels may be described as loud," Newman clarifies.) He estimates that 1.7 million people buy tickets to see Kiss every year. That makes Kiss an incredibly vast hype machine for Newman to explain to the viewers at home. But Newman's studious manner suggests that he is the right 58-year-old person for the job.

"In the eyes of their fans, they are more than musicians, more than celebrities — they are superstars," Newman says incredulously. He is now incredulously questioning the band, which sits on a stage after a photo shoot. Newman turns to Gene Simmons and references Kiss's recent profile in Rolling Stone, the first major piece the magazine has done on the band. The most memorable part of the article is when writer Charles M. Young likens Kiss to "buffalo farts" (favorably!), but this is not what interests Newman. Instead, he refers to a quote that Simmons will give in different variations in countless other interviews for decades to come: "We're not a great rock band. The musicianship is average, maybe even below, but in a year we're going to be the biggest band in the world."

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story at Gartland.com

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

Hello KISSonline!

You never know where KISS will show up! A few days ago, a band in Greece called Onirama had a new song released called "Eutixos trelathika" (translation: Fortunately I got crazy) and in the official music video of this song two comedians pretend to be KISS! Here's the link of the song, hope you enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2MokjmyoFQ

Greetings from the Huge Greek KISS Army!

Tonia

LETTERS

KISS IS EVERYWHERE!

This is the cover and a few inside pages of the new "KISS in Argentina" Poster Magazine released by Efecto Metal. (Argentina - January 2013)

Thanks to Marcelo García & Diego Ferreyra of KISS Army Argentina, and Alex Menghi for sending the images to KISSOnline!

KISS Action Figures Series 3 Complete Set of all 8" and 12" Figures

The tongue-thrusting vampire bassist known as "The Demon" is highly detailed and features 16 points of articulation. The Demon's face paint and stage outfit were derived from KISS's “Sonic Boom” album that was released on October 6th, 2009. His highly detailed legendary style comes complete with his armored chest and arm plates, and extremely detailed dragon platform shoes!

The glittering guitarist and lead vocalist known as "The Starchild" is highly detailed and features 16 points of articulation. The Starchild's face paint and stage outfit were derived from KISS's “Sonic Boom” album that was released on October 6th, 2009. His star-studded style comes complete with his one piece leotard with a star studded style, as well as his iconic platform shoes.

The "Out of This World" guitarist known as "The Spaceman" is highly detailed and features 16 points of articulation. The Spaceman's face paint and stage outfit were derived from the KISS's “Sonic Boom” album that was released on October 6th, 2009. His futuristic style comes complete with his vest and arm cuffs, as well as his atmospheric platform shoes!

This lion-maned drummer known as "The Catman" is highly detailed and features 16 points of articulation. The Catman's face paint and stage outfit were derived from KISS's “Sonic Boom” album that was released on October 6th, 2009. His feline style comes complete with his vest and leather pants, as well as his platform shoes!

Clamshell packaging allows you to open the packaging to see the figure. Each 8 inch figure comes with a commemorative "Sonic Boom" mini 2 X 2 inch album cover! 12 inch Figures comes with a Mini Concert T-Shirt!

CLICK HERE to pre-order for a release date of the third week of January 2013! If you order this along with other items that are in stock, your entire order will wait until all pre-order items have arrived.

IDW's MARS ATTACKS KISS comic book is available in stores now!

Kiss is goofy fun that can be combined with weird things to a sometimes entertaining outcome. Archie Meets Kiss turned out to be a blast. Kiss vs. Lou Gherig’s Disease, not so fun.

So what about Kiss meeting those hyper encephalitic green invaders from Mars?

Okay. Maybe.

Last year IDW had Lovecraft monsters invading all their comics. This year, they have Mars Attacking all their titles. While neither sound like much fun, I am willing to give the Kiss/Mars Attacks crossover a chance. The two books consistently provide tongue-in-cheek fun. Hell, Mars Attacks is a downright hoot.

There’s a chance that this may work.

And it does.

She, the envoy of the Elder (source of all goodness) has a nasty run in with a saucer full of Martians out in space. Down on Earth, Dizz the aged hippy wrestles a band of aliens. Four youths pass by and offer help; in return, Dizz offers them the emblems of the Four Who Are One.

But the Martians intercept the emblems and become the Kiss avatars. The green bastards lay waste to all by evoking powers to turn ordinary poodles into snarling beasts in Kringer to Battle Cat like transformations.

The Kiss foursome, on the astral plane, fights their green skin possessors. The result is an ending you won’t see coming.

The silliness of the issue never devolves into stupidity. There’s a whole lot of fun, but be sure never to take yourself too seriously when reading this issue. No, this comic doesn’t look to be something groundbreaking or serious, but it does want to make you smile and amuse you for a while.

- Carl Boehm