All the fruit lined up

I came late to Kiss (at left; actual artistic stature shown) fandom (23). I watched the then-latest video tribute thingy and when, during "I Stole Your Love" footage from Phantom of the Park, flashpots went off at the obvious wrong time and the tempo sped up, yes, so did my heart. In the early days of immersion, I went from knowing nothing about them and being irritated at their pervasive influence to waking up mornings and thinking to myself in Paul Stanley's voice, "Hmm, time to call Gene."

Scales have, over the years, been re-lifted from my eyes (indeed, the group's dents on my consciousness have receded; not for nothing is the first volume of my imaginary autobiography [birth through 1989] called Ralph Lauren Was My KISS) as they went from the exciting and necessary original 1996 reunion to the Real Two Plus Ace's Guitar Tech and Eric Carr's Replacement In Makeup Playing Steve Ballmer's Birthday Party Fun Band. Stop it! For the love of God.

Then, yesteday, the NME reports the non-story that Paul says they "may record new material." That the "new" Thayer/Singer-equipped lineup (been at it since, what? 2002?) was exciting! This despite Gene recently intoning that they would record no new material until Internet file-swipers were put down! Until the Internet DRIED UP! Or something.

As if, were they to have even one "anthem" that could arouse the masses (before being quickly repurposed at a princely sum for, I dunno, the NHL) they wouldn't break land speed records to get to the studio.

Oy!