MUSIC REVIEW: Kiss - Sonic Boom

KISS - Sonic Boom
by Cody Clarke

KISS has had some seriously bad album covers. In a career spanning 35 years and counting, they've had only four that are attractive: Kiss, Destroyer, Love Gun, and Alive. Each of those covers are gorgeous, and not just in comparison to the ugly ones. They are iconic, and capture the spirit of the band perfectly.

Excluding their work between '74 and '77, every bad album cover KISS has put out has had equally bad music accompanying it. Though there are a few diamond in the rough songs that serve as exceptions to the rule (such as I Was Made For Lovin' You and Crazy Crazy Nights) for the most part the rule is solid, and only proven more so with KISS' latest release, Sonic Boom.

If the songs on this album represent KISS' definition of a sonic boom, I have reason to believe that they are deaf and pulling a Hollywood Ending-esque bluff. You couldn't create blander rock if you programmed a robot to do it for you. The only positive thing I can say is that Simmons' and Stanley's voices are still strong, no doubt due to the lack of booze and drugs throughout their career.

Stick to singing the classics that everybody loves. Who knows how much longer your voices will still be worth a damn? You wouldn't sing garbage from The Elder on your new tour, so don't waste your gift with this either.

Movie Review: Fruit of the Vine

Fruit of the Vine

A Super 8 Film by Coam Nichols & Rick Charmoski

Approx. 50 Min.

(out of 5)

What Am I Doing With This Movie
I did a favor for a friend who had a film released by Plexifilm, so he gave me a few Plexifilm DVD’s to repay me, and this was one of them.

What I Know About Skating
I don’t know very much about skating. Most of what I do know about it, I learned from the first few Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games— which is to say I know names of tricks and well-known skaters, as well as what they’d look like rendered in polygons. Everything else I know is pretty much common knowledge: Tony Hawk did a ‘900’, Stacy Peralta discovered some skaters in ‘Dogtown’, the black stuff is called grip tape, etc. Now you know where I’m coming from.

What I Learned From This Movie
There are a lot of abandoned or unkempt pools in southern California in poor neighborhoods that used to be white middle class neighborhoods. Skaters sneak onto these properties, clean up the pools, and skate in them. Sometimes they don’t get caught, sometimes the owners or police get angry at the skaters, and a few times the owners are cool with them skating in the pool, because they’re polite and clean up the pool.

What’s Cool About This Movie
There’s a lot of good Super 8 footage of pool skating, and it’s a decent slice of life.

What This Movie Lacks
It’d be nice to know more about the dudes you’re watching skating, but you learn basically nothing about them. Also, it drags in parts, and could have been fleshed out a bit more. I’m assuming they were just doing what they could with the footage they had, but the pace is off. Feels unfinished. I don’t really feel any pull to watch it ever again, and if I did, I’d probably just put it on for vibe.

What Else
The catalog number is 002, so I’m assuming this is the second Plexifilm release.
They use the font Impact a lot in this movie.
Watching a skater skate a fish pond is funny.