Mariecar Mendoza | Los Angeles Daily News

Enjoy Sunday Funday with rock legend Gene Simmons at his restaurant Rock & Brews off the PCH.

The Kiss frontman and his wife, Shannon Tweed, plan to join diners and football fans at the rock-themed eatery at its Redondo Beach/Torrance adjacent location at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 as part of Rock & Brews’ ongoing NFL Sunday Ticket promotion.

Simmons opened Rock & Brews with fellow Kiss band member Paul Stanley opened the 6300 S. Pacific Coast Highway Rock & Brewsrestaurant in May. It was the third Rock & Brews since the chain opened its first establishment in downtown El Segundo in 2012. A second Rock & Brews opened in March in Los Cabos, Mexico. Another local incarnation opened at the Los Angeles International Airport just last month.

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Ultimate Guitar

After recently expressing his pessimistic stance on the current state of rock music and mildly ripping late Nirvana frontmanKurt Cobain, Kiss bassist Gene Simmonsonce again shared a similar attitude, acknowledging Kanye West‘s comments and putting Foo Fighters and Green Day on his “not superstar-worthy” list of performers.

During a chat with the Metal Hammer Magazine Show, Simmons was initially asked to comment on Kanye’s statement that rap is the new rock ‘n’ roll and that he’s the world’s No. 1 rockstar.

“I know Kanye and he’s playing the game and he’s got you wrapped around his finger because you are talking about him and we’re actually more about guitar and drums,” Gene said. “He’s right of course in the sense that rock has become a pale thing to what it once was.”

After denying that rap can be considered as the new rock, the bassist once again“played the game” of comparing the 1958 – 1983 era to post-1984 period. “Foo Fighters – great band. Green Day – great band. Iconic superstars? No,” he said. During the rest of the interview, Simmons discussed his recent US National Anthem performance, pointing out the importance of sticking to the original melody and paying the country respect it deserves.

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Jo Polo | Podcast Rock City

Krazy Knights

KISS Army Nation TV

Billy Dukes | Ultimate Classic Rock

Frazer Harrison / Paul Kane / Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Almost eight months after opening its doors with a superstar week of rock music, the Brennan Rock & Roll Academy is lining up more talent to raise money for the music school. Alice Cooper and Kiss will be there again, as will Vince Neil, Rob Zombie and others.

The Brennan Academy is located in Sioux Falls, S.D., but the Dec. 5 fundraiser will take place at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Tickets go on sale Oct. 11 at the venue’s website. Reserved seats cost $100, with proceeds going to a school known for offering free music lessons and instruction to kids who otherwise can’t afford them. Rock instruments are the focus.

The school’s founder, Chuck Brennan, is a former concert promoter and friend of both Cooper’s and Kiss’. In March, Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger and Sebastian Bach were part of a week-long celebration at the school that also included sets by comedians George Lopez and Louis Anderson. (Recently, Slash jammed with the kids from Brennan.)

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Michael Sedon | Staten Island Advance

photo – Jan Somma-Hammel

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — KISS’s Peter Criss is a rock ‘n’ roll legend — a man’s man teens idolize and men want to be.

But for a year, he kept a secret because he didn’t know how fans would view him.

Criss is a breast cancer survivor.

“It was embarrassing to talk about, because it’s not a man thing,” Criss told more than 100 students and faculty members gathered in St. John’s University’s Kelleher Center on Thursday for an event to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

After discovering a painful lump while working out six years ago, he visited his doctor, who initially told him it was nothing to worry about before diagnosing him.

“I was freaked out,” Criss said. “Immediately, I went ‘What? Men don’t get breast cancer.'”

Because it was caught in the beginning stages, the growth was removed by
surgery, avoiding the painful regiment of chemotherapy.

For the next year, Criss didn’t tell anyone of the ordeal because he felt embarrassed as a man to have had the disease.

But once he began noticing that there really were not any prominent figures — or any figures for that matter — raising awareness that men can get the disease, he decided to speak out.

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This party is unique in that it has been taking place at the Hard Rock Cafe Miami every October since 2011 when the very first KISS KRUISE was launched. This has therefore now become a beautiful tradition…a tradition we hope you will join us for and be a part of.

You are all cordially invited to attend what is sure to be an AMAZING evening. This is no ordinary party, it is a Benefit for a very worthy cause, the Wounded Warrior Project. 100% of the proceeds from raffles/auctions will go to them.

It is also a chance to get to know fellow KISS fans from far and near in a very special way while sharing the excitement of kicking off what is sure to be the voyage of a lifetime~The KISS KRUISE!

Special Guests:

The one and only….BRUCE KULICK (KISS Guitarist 1984-1996)

MARIA CONTESSA (KISS’ Original Costume Designer; 1974-1983.

Live Performances by:

PRISS (All female KISS tribute band/Winner of “Hottest Tribute Band Contest 2013”  (picked by KISS themselves as well as hundreds of KISS KRUISERS)

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Roman Fernandez

Miami venue hosts KISS KRUISE III Pre-Party to benefit Sophie’s Place, Child Advocacy Centre.

Miami, FL – On October 28th, legendary rock band, KISS, will take their show to the high seas for the third year in a row. However, October 27th will see a twelve hour “KISS KRUISE” Pre-Party at Will Call Miami, with all net proceeds from ticket sales to benefit Sophie’s Place, Child Advocacy Centre.  Sophie’s Place is a program of The Centre for Child Development in British Columbia named after its patron, Sophie Tweed-Simmons – daughter of infamous KISS frontman, Gene Simmons, and Canadian model turned actress, Shannon Tweed.

Sophie’s Place, Child Advocacy Centre is focused on providing specialized services to physically, mentally or sexually abused children in a child-friendly designed setting.

“It’s really important that kids have a place to go where they can be taken seriously, and where they can express what’s happened to them in a safe environment”, says Sophie Tweed-Simmons.

The full day festival will include KISS-related special guests, Q&A’s, meet and greets, raffles, activities, food, themed drinks, and live music. Amongst the special guests are KISS producer and studio guitarist, Bob Kulick; author of new KISS biography, Ken Sharp; Alan Parker, director of KISS documentary film in production, You Wanted The Best… You Got The Best!; model and TV personality, Megan McCracken; and recording artist, Lyn Christopher, whose debut album in 1973 saw the first appearance of KISS’s Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley on a major record label release.

The raffle will include an autographed bass guitar by Gene Simmons, a cabin upgrade aboard the Norwegian Pearl on this year’s KISS KRUISE, autographed copies of the new KISS biography, Nothin’ to Lose, and other band related items. Live music will include Mr. Speed, voted best KISS tribute band of 2012 by the very members of KISS, Lyn Christopher, and local rockers: The No. 13’s and The Super Fuzz.

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Chris Erskine | LA Times

David Livingston

Visionaries like you and me scoff at such thinking. Of course, visionaries always seem a little nuts.

Appreciate for a moment that a sport born and nurtured in America’s steel towns now has a team called the KISS, sponsored by rock legends famous as much for their makeup as their music.

Dull, backward-thinking traditionalists see the Arena Football League as a tacky offshoot of real football. I see real football as a brutal, bloated, family-hostile sport in need of some healthy competition. Every business needs that, even raging successes like the NFL.

And if you prefer monopolies, look what an outstanding job the NCAA does. Can’t wait till someone proposes an alternative to that, with a real playoff system and trust funds for players.

Till then, I say bring on the Arena Football League. Season seats sell for $99 for a package of 10 games, in the lower bowl of the Honda Center. Which, of course, technically means they are the Los Angeles KISS of Anaheim — sound familiar?

“Our best seats are like putting folding chairs on the hash marks,” brags co-owner Brett Bouchy.

That could hurt, but OK. Note that KISS execs are considering painting the field black.

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KISS Navy

KISS Navy Invades Miami Sat Oct 26th , Holiday Inn 340 Biscayne Blvd 6PM-12AM for a great cause, (Breast Cancer Research Foundation) come one all, (free to get in) Raffles All night for KISS goodies.  100 Percent of the $$$ made will go to the charity. If you can’t make it you also can donate by PayPal KK3BCRF@Comcast.net

Thanks for helping Us KISS Cancer Goodbye! – Denise Hopkins, Jeff Hopkins,Andy Moyen,Lydia Criss, Dj Andrew Noiz, John Friedrich

Jeff Giles | 103.7 The Loon

Brenda Chase

You could fill half a dozen documentaries with behind-the-scenes stories from Kiss‘ career. Unfortunately, now that there’s an official movie in the works, ongoing bitterness will keep two former members from sharing their Kisstory.

Classic Rock Magazine reports that Alan G. Parker, director of the band-sanctioned upcoming film ‘You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best,’ has had his interview requests turned down by guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss.

Founding members of the band whose stormy on-again, off-again tenures have coincided with some of the most successful music in the Kiss catalog, Frehley and Criss are important parts of the group’s story, but their ongoing feuds with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are keeping them from participating.

“There’s been so much bitchiness down the years, and so much said about and done to Ace and Peter, that they interpreted the request to be in the movie as a favor to Gene and Paul,” explained Parker. “Because of that, they won’t go anywhere near it. The negotiations were interesting, to say the least.”

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NJ KISS Expo

THANK YOU Tommy Thayer for giving us such a memorable experience and staying extra long to sign for everyone. THANK YOU Keith Leroux for organizing and running the autograph event so smoothly. THANK YOU to our long line of guests – Lydia Criss, Lyn Christopher, Ken Kelly, Len DeLessio, Jim Cara, Carol Ross, Eddie Solan, Binky Philips and Ken Sharp. THANK YOU Phil Dieli and your henchmen for maintaining order the whole day. THANK YOU Kristen and the two Jens for your hard work at the front ticket desk. THANK YOU to all the KISS Dealers who you know were really the main attraction and most of all THANK YOU TO ALL THE 1,500 KISS FANS FOR COMING TO OUR EVENT! See you next year – the date has already been set and will return to the same venue:

New Jersey KISS Expo 2014 – Saturday, September 13, 2014
NJ Convention and Exposition Center, at the Raritan Center
97 Sunfield Ave, Edison NJ 08837

See the NJ KISS Expo photo gallery HERE.

Guests, ticket sales, events and all other info will be posted HERE at NJKISSexpo.com later on this year. Mark your calendar now and see you then!

Lucy Hobson | Star Pulse

Kiss star Gene Simmons has joked the passengers on the Kiss Kruise worship Satan.

The 64-year-old bassist and his bandmates Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer are set to host the third annual cruise for fans from October 28, during which they will play an acoustic show without their trademark make-up and celebrate the spooky holiday Halloween.

Gene claims one of the leisure activities on offer to paying passengers is a ceremony celebrating Hell-dweller Beelzebub – who, according to the Christian faith, is an evil fallen angel who rebelled against God and wishes to lead humanity away from moral behavior.

In an interview with UK station Absolute Radio 90s, Gene said: “We’ve been touring the world for two-and-a-half years, on and off, and we’re going to Japan in about a week and a half, and right after the Japanese tour, we do the Kiss Kruise. It’s four or five thousand crazed fans who gather on a ship and worship Satan. We do all kinds of crazy things, wear make-up and all kinds of fun stuff.”

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Peter Arquette | KISSasylum.com

Click HERE to see the entire gallery of yesterday’s record-breaking event! If you attended this event, please email us your photos HERE at our news link to add to this gallery, thanks!

Peter Arquette

Phil Fiumano | NY Rocks TV
 

WFJA Classic Hits

KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley has revealed when fans can expect to get their hands on his hotly anticipated book about his life.  On Thursday, Stanley posted a photo on his official Twitter account showing him looking at what appears to be a roll of negatives along with a message that reads, “Going through 60 years of photos to choose some to include in my autobiography coming out this spring.”

The news comes just a few weeks after the publication of Nothing to Lose: The Making of KISS (1972-1975), the book about the rockers’ formation and early years that Stanley co-wrote with band mate Gene Simmonsand veteran rock writer Ken Sharp.

KISS, meanwhile, is preparing to head overseas next month for a brief tour of Japan that is mapped out from October 19 to October 24.  The band also will be taking part in the third installment of their KISS Kruise, which runs from October 28 to November 1, and will follow that up with a November 8 show in Calgary, Canada.

Paul Grimshaw | Weekly Surge

Erin Burge

Because my favorite KISS song is “Beth,” the sticky sweet power ballad that played against type, becoming a not so rock ‘n’ roll hit in 1976, I’ll probably be shunned by many hardcore KISS fans. Even before “Beth” shot to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that year, becoming the band’s highest charting single, I had been witness, as a teenager, to KISS’ garish, gaudy and ghoulish world debut a few years earlier. My friends and I thought of the band as an oddity, a comedic group of twenty-somethings from New York City with a few catchy rock ‘n’ roll tunes, destined to sell a bunch of Halloween costumes, fade out, and not be heard from again. Boy, were we wrong. KISS went on to define theatrical rock ‘n’ roll and marketing savvy in ways that few bands, if any, before or since, have matched, including the KISS Coffeehouse right here in li’l ol’ Myrtle Beach.

By the time the tongue-wagging, blood spitting, fire-breathing KISS bassist Gene Simmons came to Broadway at the Beach, with Starchild Paul Stanley, to open the KISS Coffeehouse in the summer of 2006, I had gained a new respect for the juggernaut and marketing genius that was and is the KISS empire. Simmons, the primary business mastermind behind the realm, has led the band-turned-brand through murky waters, highs and lows, and back to highs again. Along the way the KISS Army, the so-named troops in the official fan club of the band, bolster profits as they pay for annual memberships (currently $45), snap up merchandise, attend conventions, and fill concert venues. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice enlisted in the KISS Army in 2008. Yep.

Thousands in the KISS Army (officially or unofficially) have visited the one and only KISS Coffeehouse, located at Broadway at the Beach, in Myrtle Beach, but perhaps too few loyal troops graced its funky counters to make its registers rock year-round. Serving a damn good cup o’ Joe, locals and visitors enjoy snacks and real barista-made coffee drinks at this curiosity that is part KISS merchandise retail store, part museum, and part demon-possessed Starbucks. Several weeks ago fans, casual to rabid, were saddened, though maybe not complexly surprised, to hear that the KISS Coffeehouse would close its doors forever. Word spread that Broadway at the Beach, and the Grand Strand, would no longer enjoy its most obvious link to the world of KISS.

Original reports had the store closing at the end of this month, but Weekly Surge has learned that the Coffeehouse will stay open through Dec. 31, complete with a proper send-off, tentatively including: a Dec 28 party with a KISS tribute band, a meet-n-greet with an undetermined member of KISS, and fire sale deals on any remaining stock.

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New Jersey KISS Expo

An authentic Eric Carr owned Floor Tom Drum will be the main prize of this year’s raffle. Raffle tickets are only $1 and you can buy as many as you like at the front ticket desk.

In mid 1991, LUDWIG sent a complete ebony with Silver Chrome finish drum set, as a gift to ERIC CARR of KISS to his home address:  630 First Ave, Apt 28E New York City, New York 10016. It has been in storage for over 20 years and is in perfect, beautiful condition. Even comes with the original shipping box with Eric’s name and address on the side!

The drum and other items from the raffle will be on display all day – a unique chance to win a unique item!

All info for the Expo is HERE at njkissexpo.com