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jess_mango's review
4.0
Former Spin magazine editor, Doug Brod has created a detailed inside look at a very particular pocket of 1970's American hard rock. He follows the trajectory of 4 bands: KISS, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, and the lesser known Starz. Brod covers how the groups were formed including bands that the band members were in before these groups. We see how they are connected through producers, collaborators and more. There are friendships and rivalries, and of course competition at various levels. There is mention of the expected rock star life style and how that impacted their careers...Gene Simmons grandstanding and the toxicity of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. While all of this 70's rock was a bit before my time (I was but a babe in arms), I remember the Cheap Trick, KISS, and Aerosmith of the 80's, 90's and beyond. The book discusses how the bands morphed and reinvented themselves after the dawn of MTV and later 80's glam/metal and the grunge rock of the 90s.
I am not a big fan of KISS but growing up in Boston already knew a bit about Aerosmith due to the local connection. I've even run into Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer at a frozen yogurt shop (sooooo Rock & Roll!). Despite not being a mega fan of these groups, I still enjoyed learning more about them and this corner of American music history. I recommend this to any fans of rock music!
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!
I am not a big fan of KISS but growing up in Boston already knew a bit about Aerosmith due to the local connection. I've even run into Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer at a frozen yogurt shop (sooooo Rock & Roll!). Despite not being a mega fan of these groups, I still enjoyed learning more about them and this corner of American music history. I recommend this to any fans of rock music!
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!
theillumiletty's review
3.0
I am just happy that Starz is finally getting the recognition they deserve. "Subway Terror" is a masterpiece.
neilsarver's review
3.0
This was an enjoyable enough book, but I don't think it quite justified being a book rather than a rather long article. In the end, it amounts to rather cursory accounts of the history of each band, with only suggestions of answering the quite intriguing notion promised by the title.
randombookgrl's review
4.0
As a life-long music lover who remembers being devastated when her older sister (who didn't even like the band!) received a puzzle of the KISS Destroyer album, there was no way that I could pass up a book featuring not only KISS, but also beloved bands Cheap Trick and Aerosmith (my first concert!). I had never heard of Starz, but I figured that if they were being mentioned on the same breathe as those bands, they had to be good also. I'm very happy to state that this book did not disappoint! Although it took me awhile to get through, that was mainly due to constantly going down rabbit holes, looking up people, events, and all kinds of things that were talked about...thank goodness for Google! There is honestly so much history within this book that I never had any clue about. The connections between the bands and their music- including management and producers- was fascinating to discover. It was also interesting to read of how those bands influenced so much of the music and artists that came later, especially in the 80s. which has also been my favorite era (hello, hair metal!).
There were some parts of the book that were dry and kinda dragged along (hence the 4 star rating), but overall, it was a well-researched and written exploration of music that has managed to survive and thrive over the course of four decades.
There were some parts of the book that were dry and kinda dragged along (hence the 4 star rating), but overall, it was a well-researched and written exploration of music that has managed to survive and thrive over the course of four decades.
bent's review
2.0
Full disclosure - I'm more a child of the '80s than the '70s, so that may have effected my reaction to this book. I had heard of Starz because [a:Martin Popoff|34704|Martin Popoff|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1331675676p2/34704.jpg] has written about a couple of their albums in his Ye Olde Metal series. That's where I've also heard of Angel. But otherwise, I would never have heard of either of these bands, and now that I've checked out their music a bit, I don't think I missed much. I had never heard any Cheap Trick before my first year of university when their video for their cover of "Don't be Cruel" was in heavy rotation. At some point, I picked up their greatest hits, along with those of Foreigner and Bad Company, and didn't really find much on it to my liking beyond "Dream Police."
I didn't know KISS were still around until they took off their makeup. I remembered when they first got big when I was a kid, but by the time I was listening to music, they weren't on my radar, so taking off their makeup kind of put them back on my radar. I had Double Platinum and a few of their '80s albums, and have seen them twice - once without makeup and then once again with. I had Aerosmith's entire back catalogue at one point, up to Pump, although I think that was more of me being a completist than actually being a huge Aerosmith fan. I have read bios and auto-bios of KISS and Aerosmith before.
I'm not really sure why this book caught my eye - maybe it just seemed that it would be interesting. There's an overview of the careers of each of the bands, although I noticed at one point that less time was spent on Aerosmith than the other four. There's a lot of random stories, some interesting, some less-so. The connections between the band seem very forced at times - "Gene Simmons' gardener once sat next to Brad Whitford in a barber shop" kind of thing. Not that incidental, but some of the connections were pretty close.
At one point (pg. 183), Brod, in talking about these four band, says: "... all of them were just a bit ... different. So were a few other American bands at the time. Alice Cooper, the Tubes and Sparks, to name three, all trafficked in theatrics and humor. But with the exception of Cooper's, their music was too brainy and their appearance to outre to garner any lasting mass success." This sounds like a bit of a suspect statement, considering that Starz also failed to garner any lasting mass success. So are the forgotten Starz more relevant than the forgotten Sparks and Tubes? I actually remember hearing a Tubes song, "She's a Beauty" on rotation on the radio, which is more than I can say for Starz.
The argument that these four bands remade rock & roll is a little suspect - Brod seems to base it on the fact that a lot of members of bands that came later were fans of these bands. Besides naming later bands that cited these bands as influences, he never really delves any farther into trying to prove that these four groups rewrote the rules. Presumably, these later bands had other influences, or other members who Brod doesn't quote brought different musical inspirations along. His whole argument to justify this book seems more like artifice to connect a bunch of random band stories than anything with any solid grounding in fact.
Some chapters - a chapter on rock journalism, a chapter on booking agents - seem just randomly thrown in and a little boring. The book does seemed padded at times, and there are parts that seem to be just there so Brod could include a story - I'd read certain paragraphs and think "why?"
If this is your era, you'll probably get more out of it than I did. There's some decent stuff here, but nothing compelling or life-changing. Definitely more of a supplementary material type of book than a must-read.
I didn't know KISS were still around until they took off their makeup. I remembered when they first got big when I was a kid, but by the time I was listening to music, they weren't on my radar, so taking off their makeup kind of put them back on my radar. I had Double Platinum and a few of their '80s albums, and have seen them twice - once without makeup and then once again with. I had Aerosmith's entire back catalogue at one point, up to Pump, although I think that was more of me being a completist than actually being a huge Aerosmith fan. I have read bios and auto-bios of KISS and Aerosmith before.
I'm not really sure why this book caught my eye - maybe it just seemed that it would be interesting. There's an overview of the careers of each of the bands, although I noticed at one point that less time was spent on Aerosmith than the other four. There's a lot of random stories, some interesting, some less-so. The connections between the band seem very forced at times - "Gene Simmons' gardener once sat next to Brad Whitford in a barber shop" kind of thing. Not that incidental, but some of the connections were pretty close.
At one point (pg. 183), Brod, in talking about these four band, says: "... all of them were just a bit ... different. So were a few other American bands at the time. Alice Cooper, the Tubes and Sparks, to name three, all trafficked in theatrics and humor. But with the exception of Cooper's, their music was too brainy and their appearance to outre to garner any lasting mass success." This sounds like a bit of a suspect statement, considering that Starz also failed to garner any lasting mass success. So are the forgotten Starz more relevant than the forgotten Sparks and Tubes? I actually remember hearing a Tubes song, "She's a Beauty" on rotation on the radio, which is more than I can say for Starz.
The argument that these four bands remade rock & roll is a little suspect - Brod seems to base it on the fact that a lot of members of bands that came later were fans of these bands. Besides naming later bands that cited these bands as influences, he never really delves any farther into trying to prove that these four groups rewrote the rules. Presumably, these later bands had other influences, or other members who Brod doesn't quote brought different musical inspirations along. His whole argument to justify this book seems more like artifice to connect a bunch of random band stories than anything with any solid grounding in fact.
Some chapters - a chapter on rock journalism, a chapter on booking agents - seem just randomly thrown in and a little boring. The book does seemed padded at times, and there are parts that seem to be just there so Brod could include a story - I'd read certain paragraphs and think "why?"
If this is your era, you'll probably get more out of it than I did. There's some decent stuff here, but nothing compelling or life-changing. Definitely more of a supplementary material type of book than a must-read.
booksuperpower's review
4.0
They Just Seem a Little Weird by Doug Brod is a 2020 Hachette Books publication.
Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird.
Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away, ay, ay, ay.
The title of this book caught my eye and made me give it a closer look. At first, it confused me- Starz? What does a cable movie channel have to do with seventies arena rock?
Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird.
Surrender, surrender, but don't give yourself away, ay, ay, ay.
The title of this book caught my eye and made me give it a closer look. At first, it confused me- Starz? What does a cable movie channel have to do with seventies arena rock?
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