"Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, co-founders of KISS, have an ambitious worldwide restaurant strategy for their co-owned franchise, Rock & Brews. The dynamic rock titans recently opened their third restaurant and second Los Angeles area location in a year, furthering their plans to open an impressive 100 more in five years.

tanley is excited about the rapid expansion of the Rock & Brews brand.

"We are spreading our tentacles!" Stanley said. "It's a family friendly place where you don't have to compromise your palate. Most of the time when you bring your kids to a restaurant, you are eating cardboard pizza or dried out macaroni and cheese. This is really your place where you can hang out, choose from one of our 80 craft beers, hear quality rock music and have a great night with your friends." [Hollywood Reporter]

Room service, baby I could use a meal.

Continue reading "KISS planning to open 100 restaurants in 5 years"

This letter, signed by a ton of artists and pictured above, is set to appear in an ad in Billboard:

We are big fans of Pandora. That's why we helped give the company a discount on rates for the past decade.

Pandora is now enjoying phenomenal success as a Wall Street company. Skyrocketing growth in revenues and users. We celebrate that. At the same time, the music community is just now beginning to gain its footing in the new digital world.

Pandora's principal asset is the music.

Why is the company asking Congress once again to step in and gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon? That's not fair, and that's not how partners work together.
Congress has many pressing issues to consider, but this is not one of them. Let's work this out as partners and continue to bring fans the great musical experience they rightly expect.

Pink Floyd, Down, Primus, Dead Kennedys (with our without Jello?), Nas, Alabama, Sheryl Crow and many more big major label names signed this (or someone signed it on their behalf). Check out the full list below, and head to fairpayforartists.com for more information on their point of view..

The issue is that Pandora is supporting the Internet Radio Fairness Act which they say will "help end the long-standing discrimination against internet radio". Artists are mad because that possibly means less money for them, but Pandora and other Internet radio providers argue they can't stay in business the way things are now.

Continue reading "A bunch of artists wrote an open letter to Pandora who support the Internet Radio Fairness Act"

photos by Matthew Eisman

Boston Herald: I'm thinking about the Dr. Pepper commercial that's everywhere. Many bands in the so-called indie community think it's abhorrent to sell songs to advertisers, what do you say to those bands?

Paul Stanley: Wake up and smell the coffee. If those indie bands keep that philosophy they'll be flipping burgers soon enough. There's a reason that it's called the music business. Putting your song in a commercial doesn't negate your creativity.

Boston Herald: The concept of selling out is meaningless to KISS, right?

Paul Stanley: Success isn't selling out. We've never had to sell out because we've always done things on our terms. I didn't get into this to have a fan base of 100. I will gladly fly in the private jet to the show and make no apologies for being loved worldwide. Hold on a second. Listen to this from Rolling Stone: "KISS proved why they are the reigning kings of theater rock, delivering an electric two-hour, 21-song set of glam-rock smashes, newer tunes, over-the-top pyrotechnics." Regardless of what the naysayers say, I didn't have to sell out to get these kind of reviews.

Kiss played Jones Beach last night, Saturday, August 14th. More pictures and the setlist from their show, and a few videos, below...

Continue reading "Kiss played Jones Beach (pics & setlist) "

Minus the Bear @ Sasquatch 2010 (more by Chris Graham)

Tickets go on Internet Presale (password = BANCHORY) at 10am for the Belle & Sebastian / Teenage Fanclub show at Williamsburg Waterfront.

Kiss play Jones Beach and PNC Bank Arts Center in August. Tickets are currently on a bunch of presales.

We are Scientists are playing Bowery Ballroom on July 14th and Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 17th after Siren. Tickets are on sale for both shows.

Dragonette play Bowery Ballroom on August 13th. Tickets are on sale.

Electric Six are playing Bowery Ballroom on September 25th (almost 2.5 month after their upcoming Rocks Off Cruise). Tickets are on AmEx presale.

Queensryche are playing Nokia Theatre on August 20th. Tickets are on AmEx presale.

Tickets are on sale for the Deer Tick show at Webster Hall.

Tickets are on sale for the Minus the Bear show at Webster Hall (and for the one at Starland Ballroom).

Tickets are on sale for the Those Darlins / Strange Boys show at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale for the Punch Brothers show at MHOW.

Tickets are on AmEx presale for the Robyn/Kelis show at Webster Hall.

Tickets are on sale for the Outside Lands Festival.

No ticket info yet for Spiritualized at Radio City Music Hall.

by Ryan Barkan

Tracy Morgan & Stevie Wonder (picture via Hipster Runoff)

Super Bowl XLIV (44) took place Sunday night in Florida between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. The Saints semi-upset the Colts to win the big game for the first time in the franchise's history. This post is a special edition of the long lost "Week In Music Licensing" post and as such, that's the last you will hear about the game. Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, many videos and more below...

Continue reading "music & commercials of Super Bowl XLIV (Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, The Who, Mini Kiss, The Heavy & more) "

Regular tickets are now on Eventful Presale (Password = 'Eventful') for the upcoming Kiss shows including October 10th @ MSG.

No password necessary for the "Meet & Greet Experience" tickets which will only set you back $995 a person (plus fees). But it's worth it. In addition getting to meet Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, it includes:

- Personal photograph with KISS
- Autographed 8X10 photo
- Official KISS Concert Shirt
- Collectible KISS Tour Poster (limited edition, numbered)
- KISS Tour Program
- Official Meet and Greet Laminate
- Set of KISS guitar picks
- $100 voucher to the official KISS on-line store

All dates HERE.

Continue reading "Presale & $995 'Kiss Meet & Greet Experience' tix on sale "

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons has posted a brief review of NINE INCH NAILS' August 10, 2009 concert at Fort Canning Park in Singapore.

Simmons, who was in Singapore on business, wrote in an apparently sarcasm-filled posting on his Facebook page, "Went to see Trent Reznor's [NINE INCH NAILS mainman] band. About 1,000 people attended the outdoor event. On other days (it's a three-day festival), it's LADY GAGA and KEANE. Band was solid. Good lights. Lots of smoke in every song. Couldn't see the band. But, boy, was there a lot of smoke. Terrific drummer, who played in perfect time with the tape loops. Good stuff... I loved it."

Reznor stated in a recent interview that he'd "never want to be Gene Simmons, an old man who puts on makeup to entertain kids, like a clown going to work." [Blabbermouth]

Nine Inch Nails played Webster Hall in NYC last night (8/23). Their next show is Tuesday at Terminal 5. I'm sure Gene will be happy to see them go (sort of, maybe).

Kiss have announced a North American tour...

This incredible show will feature a new stage set, pyro effects that only the "hottest band in the world" could deliver, and all-new costumes. KISS ALIVE 35 North America also marks the first leg of the world's first fan-routed tour - in which more than 10,000 individual cities across Canada and the U.S. mounted their own unique campaigns to bring KISS to their towns.

SONIC BOOM - KISS' highly-anticipated album, and its first new material in 11 years - will be released exclusively at Walmart, Walmart.com and Sam's Club retail locations beginning October 6.

Exclusively at Wal Mart... Rock!

Tickets for shows at MSG & Nassau Coliseum & other shows go on sale Saturday, August 29th at 10:00 AM. There are also about a zillion presales (my favorite is the "Buckcherry Presale"). All dates below...

Continue reading "Kiss - 2009 Tour Dates (MSG & Nassau Coliseum)"

Trent also said that, "What I specifically said or meant to convey is that NIN as a touring live band or live band that's on the road all the time is stopping. I've just reached the point ... where it has invaded every other aspect of my life. Also I think creatively, my time would be better spent on other stuff that could be NIN or outside NIN. Some of it may be collaborative things. I have a number of projects that are not music-related which I have put on the back burner for a long time..." [said Trent Reznor to Inquirer.net (via)]

photos by Ryan Muir

1349 is a black metal band hailing from Oslo, Norway. The band's music is purposely similar in style and construction to that of bands from the Second Wave of Norwegian black metal of the early 1990s, and does not incorporate synthesisers. As a result, 1349 have been compared to the early incarnations of Enslaved, Emperor, Burzum, Gorgoroth, Darkthrone, Immortal, and Mayhem, being described as much heavier than most other black metal bands. The band has so far, rejected the more commercial style of black metal exhibited by some bands.

The name 1349 comes from the year the Black Death reached Norway. [Wiki]

I saw them at SXSW, at night in a field which was also a VICE party with not many people, but with very drunk people. The band takes the scary act to the next level. The scary faces never leave their faces, so between the scariness on stage and the scariness in the crowd, it was overall kind of scary scary (but very entertaining). Now the band is on tour with Carcass and that brought them from their lair in Norway to the heavily guarded and corporate Nokia Theater in NYC on Saturday night (Sept 6). Black Bubblegum was at the show and his full review is coming soon, but I can tell you now that he was less than impressed with 1349. Ryan also found them hard to take seriously, but did admit they do a good scary (and a good Kiss). More pics below...

Continue reading "1349 @ Nokia Theatre, NYC - pics "

Okay, so the blood part is just a rumor (that I just started)....

Continue reading "new comic book printed with Tori Amos' blood..."

* American Music Awards
* VNV Nation is at Music Hall
* Ani Difranco is playing Town Hall
* The Bird and the Bee are @ the Gramercy Theatre
* Buck 65 was moved from Bowery Ballroom to Mercury Lounge

The American Music Awards are on tonight, The White Stripes (friends of Beck) are up for Favorite "Alternative Rock Music" Artist. Their competition? Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance (only three artists are nominated in each category). Nickelback, Maroon 5 & Linkin Park are competing for "Favorite Band, Duo or Group". I guess there's no reason to watch that one. Performers include Duran Duran (who were recently affected by the Broadway strike) and Rihanna (who appears on a new disc of Def Jam rarities). Slash (who has a new book out) and Gene Simmons (who doesn't care about Radiohead) are both presenting awards.

Speaking of awards, below you'll find a bunch of videos from the mtvU ones (including one of Spank Rock live-blogging). What else?

Continue reading "What's Going on Sunday? (American Music Awards)"

Billboard: IT HAS BEEN NINE YEARS SINCE WE'VE SEEN A NEW KISS ALBUM. ANY PLANS TO GET BACK INTO THE STUDIO?

Gene Simmons: The record industry is in such a mess. I called for what it was when college kids first started download music for free -- that they were crooks. I told every record label I spoke with that they just lit the fuse to their own bomb that was going to explode from under them and put them on the street.

There is nothing in me that wants to go in there and do new music. How are you going to deliver it? How are you going to get paid for it if people can just get it for free? I will be putting out a Gene Simmons box set called "Monster" -- a collection of 150 unreleased songs. KISS will have another box set of unreleased music in the next year.

The record industry doesn't have a f---ing clue how to make money. It's only their fault for letting foxes get into the henhouse and then wondering why there's no eggs or chickens. Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning. Those kids are putting 100,000 to a million people out of work. How can you pick on them? They've got freckles. That's a crook. He may as well be wearing a bandit's mask.

Doesn't affect me. But imagine being a new band with dreams of getting on stage and putting out your own record. Forget it.

BUT SOME ARTISTS LIKE RADIOHEAD AND TRENT REZNOR ARE TRYING TO FIND A NEW BUSINESS MODEL.

That doesn't count. You can't pick on one person as an exception. And that's not a business model that works. I open a store and say "Come on in and pay whatever you want." Are you on f---ing crack? Do you really believe that's a business model that works? [more]

Radiohead is releasing their album on ATO Records in the U.S. on January 2nd.

DOWNLOAD: Sue Schnitzer - Halloween Party (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ministry - Everyday Is Halloween (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sonic Youth - Halloween (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Danny Elfman - This Is Halloween (NMBC) (MP3)

* NY Mag has a 2007 Halloween Guide
* And some 2007 Halloween Parade pointers
* The Forms are playing Cake Shop
* Pianos turns 5 with a free show
* Free comedy @ Heathers w/ Todd Barry
* The Weakerthans are at Webster Hall!
* Awesome Color is playing Glasslands
* Chromeo, Dan Deacon, Kudu, NY Magazine
* David Bazan is playing Southpaw
* Salt & Samovar are playing Mercury Lounge
* Lykke Li is playing Mercury Lounge too
* Cypress Hill are playing Nokia Theatre
* The Black Crowes & Patti Smith are @ United Palace
* Jenny Scheinman is at Barbes
* Joan Jett & farm animals @ Home for Halloween
* Throw away your fake plastic teeth
* Look for people dressed as Amy Winehouse

What else?

DOWNLOAD: Cypress Hill - Can U Handle This (MP3)

(CRED)

(CRED)

continued below....

Continue reading "more photos from Vegoose 2007"