Just In Time For Halloween - New Monsterous Music From Prof. Morte And The Silver Scream Spookshow

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Source: Timothy Price

Many a movie studio, and movie buff, has pondered the question, "How do you build a perfect monster?"

Well it seems that Prof. Morte, his sidekick Retch and all the other ghoulies from Atlanta's famed "Silver Scream Spookshow", have embarked on a musical journey to accomplish the monumental task for the CD, "Building the Perfect Monster."

The tracks on this new album pays homage to many of the classic monsters who have graced movie theaters around the world in a style that is similar to Blue Oyster Cult's hit from the 70s, "Godzilla."

Timothy Price from Silver Scream Spookshow explains, "Homage's to all monsters show up on their quest (Morte & Retch) to build this album. The album has already received airplay in Atlanta on "The Pop Culture King Show" and the CD is available on-line and at many different music stores through out Georgia.

All songs are classic rock to metal, surf to rock-a-billy to good ol' rock and roll. We've even included a remake of Green Slime! All mechanical licensing has been acquired for the four covers on the album. 13, yes 13 songs total. "

Fear not Japanese monster fans, one of the tracks is about your favorite creature genre, but not necessarily about Godzilla or Gamera per say.

Price adds "The album does take us to Japan as well in the "The Atomic Stomp" and I guess it could be about any number of Kaiju...Hmmm."

The troupe from Silver Scream Spookshow features some of Atlanta's top talent, including Shane Morton (Prof. Morte) who has worked on special effects for Rob Zombie, Jon Waterhouse (Retch) the host of the "King Of Pop Culture" radio show and who is also a writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and maybe most notably, actress Amy Dumas (Pandora), who is also known as the WWE wrestler, Lita.

Here is one of the tracks from "Building the Perfect Monster" called "Lon Chaney", which, as you probably have already guessed, is an homage to the actor of a thousand faces.



I honestly can't wait to hear that "Green Slime" cover myself.

KISS Celebrates 35 Years In Music With A Sonic Boom

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Source: BBC News

It may be hard to believe, but the iconic hard-rockers, "KISS", a band that many have written off as a novelty act, are still making music after 35 years. That's right! 35 years! To mark this hefty milestone, the band has released it's first studio album in nearly decade entitled "Sonic Boom."



"Sonic Boom" reportedly hearkens back to the classic sound that the band produced back in it's early years, way back in the 1970s. Though the bands members, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer, are excited about the album, they initially had reservations about stepping into the studio again after so many years.

"Gene and Paul were a little ambivalent about doing a record," says guitarist Tommy Thayer, "but the live shows were going great, and we thought it would be cool to do something to acknowledge our growing resurgence of fans."

"We've got so many teenagers coming to our gigs now," adds Simmons, "as well as people in their 40s and 50s and we wanted to give them all some classic Kiss."

"This is about four guys playing and writing their own songs, and not worrying about fads or fashion or what's hip, " comments Simmons. " This is about pure rock and roll."

'We didn't listen'

"There was no pressure of outside influences, "says Thayer.

"We wrote songs we felt great about, we didn't listen to management or agents, and no one was trying to write a hit single or a ballad."



KISS originally formed in New York city in 1973 from the ashes of the band "Wicked Lester" which included present day band members Simmons and Stanley, plus former drummer Peter Criss. Guitarist Ace Frehley joined the band after responding to an add in Rolling Stone and the rest is Rock and Roll history.

Though KISS's music was often times underrated, it was their live show theatrics that brought them fame and hordes of KISS Army members (the name of the band's fan club).

"Kiss started as a dream of ours," explains Simmons, who also doubles as a reality television star along with his family on "Gene Simmons Family Jewels".

"All the bands we ever saw on stage played the hits we wanted to hear, but were devastatingly poor in their visual live performance."

"We made Kiss, with our look, all the pyrotechnics of our live show, the epitome of everything we wanted from a band," Simmons adds.

The band even made their own television movie, with the help of cartoon makers Hanna-Barbera, called "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park". The film featured several live performances and each member of the group was given super-hero powers through a magical talisman, in which they used to fight monsters and other baddies. Though the ratings for the film, were decent, it was truly an awful affair.

Though Criss and Frehley left the band in the early 80s, KISS continued to draw fans and release albums. In the mid-1990s the duo once again joined the group for a new album, "Psycho Circus" and a reunion tour, then a farewell tour, which to this date has never stopped to say 'farewell'.

With Simmons and Stanley both pushing 60, KISS continues to 'Rock-and-Roll All Night'.

Simmons concludes, "I think we've released one of the best records of our career."

The Presets: Apocalypso - Great New Music!

The Presets are a Sydney-based electronic duo, consisting of Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes. In September 2005 they released their debut album, Beams, to positive critical response. That same year Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes also toured with The Dissociatives, which is co-fronted by Daniel Johns of Silverchair and Australian dance producer Paul Mac. Johns also played guitar on Presets single "Cookie". Hamilton and Moyes are also members of Sydney instrumental group Prop. Hamilton has also recently collaborated with Perth based band End of Fashion on their second album "Book of Lies"



The Presets are signed to Sydney record label Modular Recordings, home of The Avalanches, Cut Copy and Wolfmother. The Presets are set to go on tours in 2008 around the UK and the US. They have gained increasing amounts of publicity around the US and UK, are gaining popularity around the globe.

The Presets released their first EP "Blow Up" in 2003. It was fairly popular and started out The Presets' career. As a follow up to that EP they released another EP, named "Girl and the Sea" in 2004. Around that time the Presets got small gigs around nightclubs etc.

Due to great critic response, The Presets released their Debut Album, "Beams" on the 20th of May 2005 and was a huge success. To further promote the duo, they decided to release a single named "Are You The One?", which was a great success in the dance scene. After that, The Presets toured around the UK and the US for 3 years, promoting their band. While in the UK, Kim and Jules released "Down Down Down" and "I Go Hard, I Go Home" in 2006 but they were only available in the United Kingdom. The tour was another success.

Towards the end of the Tour, The Presets released another UK only Single, named "Truth & Lies". It featured two songs, which were averagely popular, but majorly successful. Towards the end of 2007, The Presets released "My People" which was huge in Australia and then eventually in the UK and US. Due to the good response to it, they released their second album, Apocalypso which was on the iTunes number 1 spot for weeks and months in Australia and was huge. It is still currently on the top 10 list and is number 1 on the Electronic genre of music albums. In May 2008, The Presets released an EP, Single and a All Remixed Edition for "This Boy's In Love" which the song of the same name was still becoming used and played on the radio before its release on a Single/EP. As of May, The Presets are still on their UK and US tour and have released their third single from "Apocalypso", Single/Ep "Talk Like That".

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