Swords and Spaceships

You remember this one, don't you? Basically, you're a kid aged 17 named Little Mac (your mother hated you) who has no business stepping into the ring with some of these guys. Some are in your weight class. Most are not. Granted, I don't know a hell of a whole lot about boxing, but I'm sure a guy like Bald Bull could have knocked Mac's head clean off his shoulders and onto some lady's lap with a good right hook. Speaking of Bald Bull, weren't the 1980s such a simpler time? An 8-bit package of stereotypes was this game. A weak Frenchman, a Russian with red skin, and a sneaky German, plus other stereotypes. I'll bet you a dollar you couldn't get away with that now. But hey, Nintendo games had lots of crazy shit like that born out of the Cold War. Rush'n Attack, anyone? First you fought Glass Joe. If you blew it on this guy, you sucked and had no business holding an NES controller in your hands. You were better off playing Sorry! Von Kaiser was next...

"yes you are, you'll be stone dead in a moment!" Yeah, I know. Eleven days, no update. On the intarweb, that's like, eleven years. This weekend will see a new update, either about Buffy the Vampire Slayer's first three seasons or a review of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. I'd use the exclamation points that are supposed to be there, but I don't feel like it. I noticed something on the Blogger Dashboard about using some space here for Google ads. You, my faithful readers (all five who have visited about 46 times each) will never have to see them on this page. I started this to fill the need for a retro site WITHOUT ads all over the main page, and they'll never have a spot here unless Blogger forces them on it. My word is solid. Unless they start paying $10 per click. :)

Here it is- my favorite early KISS album. I like it better than pretty much any other KISS album. The sound quality isn't the greatest, but I think it was recorded this way in an attempt to capture KISS' live sound, short of doing a live album (which they wouldn't do until the next year.) There's a great 1-2-3 punch of songs that just floor me everytime- Parasite, Goin' Blind, and Hotter Than Hell. I like the rest of the songs too, though All The Way and Mainline seem like filler that slightly weigh the album down. The album is all around heavy, heavier than the album before it, and was the heaviest until Rock and Roll Over came out in 1976. (Then they went on to make a couple of really f'n heavy albums in 1982 with Creatures of the Night and in 1992 with Revenge.) My favorite track on the album has to be the Ace Frehley-penned Parasite. As great as it is on this album, it's even better on Alive! I suggest checking both versions out and deciding for yourself...