Gene Simmons

We Hang Out With Kiss at Their New Restaurant in Torrance

Kiss co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons are partners in a restaurant called Rock & Brews, which on Wednesday will open its third location, on PCH in Torrance. "Often this idea of themed restaurants means that it's an excuse for crap food," self-described "foodie" Stanley tells us on-site, as ... More >>

Your Oktoberfest Round-Up: Beer, Brats, Pretzels More Beer

L.A. Oktoberfest -- October 20-21: Bust out the lederhosen for this one, because it's likely to get a little crazy. This two-day festival at the Vanguard in Hollywood sounds like a scene from the movie Beerfest: busty Bavarian babes, beer song sing-a-longs, roving accordion players, stein-holding co ... More >>

Reviews of Wines From Famous Rock 'n' Roll Bands!

See also: Top 20 Hair Metal Albums of All Time Lately we've noticed a lot of bands have their own brands of wine, including Motörhead, Kiss, AC/DC, and Ratt. (Even Warrant has a wine. Warrant.) One of our friends at Wine Spectator magazine showed us the piece they wrote in April about this trend, ... More >>

Kiss Has a New Book That's Three Feet Tall and Costs Over $4000

Yesterday afternoon, before a crowd of media types and clean-cut Sunset Strip'd hard rockers at the Viper Room, Kiss debuted their new book, Kiss Monster. It is huge -- 3 feet x 2.5 feet, and nearly 50 pounds. The thing costs $4250. Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer fielde ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Globetrotting Blues

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.] I am on my way back to Los Angeles, on the second of two flights to get back from Johannesburg ... More >>

Marilyn Manson, Slash, Evanescence - Club Nokia - 4/11/12

Revolver Golden Gods Club Nokia 4-11-12 Better than ... Any hard rock show you'd see on the Sunset Strip nowadays. Music awards shows generally suck. They are most often excuses for industry people to slap themselves on the back and perform crappy performances of songs you don't want to hear anywa ... More >>

Rock & Brews: Gene Simmons, Craft Beers Big Televisions

We're good with Russell, Bill and Richard but as far as Simmonses are concerned, Gene has got to go. With a tongue like an unfurling red carpet and a mouth as wide and bilious as a landfill, the bassist once known as Chaim Weitz has carved out a sizeable entertainment business empire. And now, the ... More >>

Archie Comics Getting Hip? They've Brought in Gay Marriage, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and KISS

What do gay marriage, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and the band KISS have in common? In the crazy world of comics, everything. Newer, edgier titles have been known to push the boundaries of expectation or mesh disparate imagery and pop culture references, but it's a particular nostalgic title that's r ... More >>

Gene Simmons Hacker Suspect Kevin George Poe Arrested (Bummer): FBI Says He's a Member of 'Anonymous'

​Gene Simmons is such a grand a-hole that we almost (almost?) relished his online take-down at the hands of the hacker group Anonymous. You see, the L.A.-based rocker and reality show "star" uttered a death-to-file sharers proclamation ("Take their homes, their cars," he said) last year, and, ... More >>

7 Ridiculously Tacky Commercialized Christmas Tree Ornaments

You know that complaints about the commercialization of Christmas are as unfashionable as figgy pudding when "Your Ad Here"-equivalent Christmas ornaments are popular store items. Companies like Coca-Cola pay big bucks to buy advertising space on billboards and bus stops, but they've cleverly figu ... More >>

Ryan Adams Interview: We Manage To Really Piss Him Off

See also: Ryan Adams performs at Hollywood Forever, October 10, 2011 [Correction: Contrary to what was originally written, Adams did not hang up on reporter Drew Fortune. Rather, Adams cut short the conversation, and the two agreed to continue the next day. West Coast Sound regrets the error. A s ... More >>

The Misfits - House of Blues - 10-04-2011

Javier Cabral​The Misfits and The Dickies House of Blues 10-05-2011 More than three decades in, The Misfits are still doing it, with or without Glenn Danzig. To the orthodox practitioner of punk rock, watching these guys play power chords is as big as watching Black Sabbath or Metallica. It ... More >>

Happy Johnny Ramone Weekend! The Top Five Musicians Buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (At Least In Spirit)

The Hollywood Forever Cemetery has become synonymous with rock 'n' roll thanks to great live shows (recently, Patrick Wolf and Jens Lekman) and its popular Cinespia screenings. But its headstones are what makes it sacred ground for music fans. Even Morrissey says he wants to be buried there. Holl ... More >>

The Power Of The Riff: Skip The Smoke Break For These Five Bands

Nathaniel ShannonPentagram vocalist Bobby Liebling​Last year, The Power Of The Riff festival packed hundreds of metal kids, hardcore kids, and old geezers that remember the tape-trading days of the 1980s into the Echo and Echoplex, partly due to the ability to offer free admission thanks to a ... More >>

In Honor of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" Jacket Selling for Almost Two Million: The Most Insane Music Memorabilia Someone Out There Would Buy

Peter BrookerThe Jacket​Somehow a person with a shitload of money decided to plunk down $1.8 million (think Dr. Evil voice) for Michael Jackson's iconic "Thriller" jacket this past weekend, which marked the two year anniversary of his death. We won't speak on the fact that the proud new owner, ... More >>

Anthony Wiener Take Heart! The Four Greatest Penis (and 1 Boob) Exposures In Rock

Does this remind you of anything?​What a weird week it's been for fans of penises and liberal politicians alike. Last Friday, NY Democratic Representative Anthony Wiener's Memorial Day weekend plans were ripped asunder when a weird dickpic was posted to his twitter account. Weiner claimed the ... More >>

Paul Landers Of Rammstein: "We Love to Surf. L.A. Puts Us in a Good Mood"

BrownL - R Riedel, Landers, Lorenz, Lindemann, Kruspe, Schneider​ Rammstein is finally back in America and they've brought all of their toys with them. Sorry Gene Simmons, even all of the flash you picked up from Trump can't put KISS's show ahead of what these guys have in store. You can sti ... More >>

Top 10 Most Recycled Women of Rock (Only Three Call Themselves Groupies!)

Jena Ardell​ Everyone has had a crush on rockstar before, but these woman actually pursued and conquered rockstars. In order to make our Top 10 Most Recycled Women of Rock list, these ladies had to have dated (or bedded) six or more famous musicians. There's one musician who appears on four o ... More >>

Top 10 Strangest Rock Star Action Figures (In Honor of the "Hard Rock Barbie" Lawsuit)

Tiny Rockers! 10 Best Rock Star Action Figures (Not Including HorrorPops' Lawsuit Lovin Bassist)

Rob Zombie Now Selling... Coffee?

​If you had any doubts that Rob Zombie is the modern world's Gene Simmons--that is, a shlocky shock rocker who turned his cartoonish persona into a marketing bonanza--, well, here comes Rob Zombie Hellbilly Brew! Comes in French Roast Organic and Peru Organic varieties.

Couple With Ties To Los Angeles Claims Nearly 5,500 Sex Partners As Part Of 'Therapy' Business

mizozo.comSarah Moore and Geoff Daniels -- true professionals.​If we did this we'd be called a man-ho or something worse. But it turns out a woman who lives part-time in L.A., along with her husband, claim to have had "surrogate" sex with 5,485 people. That's like Wilt ("The Stilt") Chamberla ... More >>

Gene Simmons vs. the Meme Makers - Spoiler Alert: the Meme Makers Win

Meme GeneratorA photographic love letter to Gene Simmons and every rocker who ever worried about panty lines.​Ah, Gene Simmons -- the biggest asshole in rock 'n' roll history? Arguably. We'll always remember him fondly for his uncomfortably misogynistic interview with public radio's Terry Gros ... More >>

Movie reviews: Get Low, Life During Wartime

Also: Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno and more

Nightranger: Ritual de lo Rock Show

Top Ten Musicians Who Cannot Tour Arizona Without Proving They're "Legal"

Carlos Santana: Papers please!​We don't know if you're aware of this, but Arizona has recently passed a little law demanding that every cop, security guard or random person in some kind of uniform and in possession of a Tazer stop anyone "suspected" of being an illegal immigrant and demand tha ... More >>

Warren Beatty Made It With More Than 12,775 Women, Book Claims

​A biography of Warren Beatty that's due in stores next week claims the actor slept with more than 12,775 women. If you're keeping score, that's way more than Gene Simmons (4,600), but less than Wilt Chamberlain. In any case, Beatty's camp is distancing itself from the tome (but, apparently, ... More >>

Paul Stanley: Portrait of the Therapeutic Artist

Slit-eyed Ladies, Edible Willies, and Evan Dando Up Your Nose: Deep Inside the World of Crap Lyrics

Rod the Mod (#7) once fell in love with "a slit-eyed lady" (not pictured)​For every "Blowin' In the Wind"and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" there's a "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Muskrat Love." There's never a shortage of lists out there of good and bad pop lyrics. And who among us hasn't ... More >>

Countdown to Lambertgeddon! (Day 12): "Gene Simmons is a dick!"

Candis"Hot & Wet," Fan Art by Candis​The official Adam Lambert website is previewing our hero's upcoming Q&A with Rolling Stone magazine! We're so excited! We just can't hide it! We're about to lose control and we think we like it! Among the revelations: * Adam is upset that Gene Simmons qu ... More >>

Extract Preview: Punching the Time Clock with Mike Judge at the Aero

Nicole CamposMike Judge has something to live up to with his new comedy Extract, if the testimonial of an audience member during Saturday night's Q&A following a preview screening at the American Cinematheque at the Aero was anything to go by. Without naming the expert in question, the fellow point ... More >>

All in the Family With the EC Twins and the Boulet Brothers

Plus: Kidrockers playdate

Freakshow Follies and Circus Stunts: Getting Hammered with Devils Playground's 'Sexy Sideshow Girls' @ Bordello

(All photos by Shannon Cottrell. Click images for entire Devils Playground slideshow.)Amy Amnesia gets hammeredNot many conversations begin with the question, "So when was the first time you ate broken glass?" Last Saturday night, however, that was exactly how I struck up a conversation with art cur ... More >>

KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, Night 2: Vampire Weekend, Snow Patrol, Scott Weiland, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab For Cutie, Paramore, The Killers, The Cure

By Siran Babayan (All photos by Timothy Norris. Click images for entire KROQ slideshow.) In my worst nightmare, the Cure would be upstaged by Kanye West. Yes, the two would share a bill; West making a surprise appearance and leaving the crowd in a frenzy, the Cure headlining the show and making ... More >>

Best Metal Die-Hards: Steel Panther at the Key Club

The Breast of Times: Go Topless Protest Day

And other things to do in L.A., August 22-28

Gene Slicing

Gene Slicing

Cherry Bomb: Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's Ultimate How-To for Budding Rock Chicks

Mrs. Chris Vrenna has composed a tome for women who fancy their boys scrawny, not brawny

Chelsea Handler

Horizontal hostess

Bookworm in a Tequila Bottle: 2007's Most Intriguing Music Books

Oh, those bed-wetting, penis-injecting, 43-person gangbang days of yore

Breaking the Trance

The unexpected Burning Man soundtrack

Mashed Oates

The once-mustachioed member of a legendary duo reflects on their influence and their collaboration with Gym Class Heroes

Dance Into the Fire

By Randall Roberts If it's true, as many haggard hipsters have dismissively opined, that 'Nobody goes to Burning Man anymore,' then who the hell are all these people? The unofficial verdict among many regular burners is that this year is going to be huge, and although population estimates are n ... More >>

Theater Reviews

Including White Trash Catholic Circus, Toyer and this week's pick, the Latino Laugh Festival

Tiara Girlz

Where the Balls Are

Bowling with L.A.’s alley cats

Bliss Factory

Is That Edward Gorey in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to Seam Me?

Edited by Kateri Butler

Cosmic Cuckoos

Julian Cope and pagans against the machine

Looking for Blood

The Donnas: Lean, mean teens