The Ace Frehley Challenge, Part 1

Recently I've alluded to the difference in musical tastes between myself and Drummer Boy.

Specifically, he is all amped up about former KISS - wait, I have to go look this up - lead guitarist Ace Frehley's new solo album, and I'm excited that Precocious Daughter has put the Buzzcocks in heavy rotation on her personal playlist.

To be fair, DB and I love a lot of the same music. It's just that this particular disparity is pretty striking and frankly pretty hilarious. I'm not sure the shared fanbase of Ace Frehley and the Buzzcocks is much larger than I could comfortably fit in my dining room.

Not certain which camp these folks fall into.

Yesterday, DB gave me a present: A copy of Ace's new CD, Space Invader.

This is the cover. Because of course it is.

Now, I don't hate KISS. I don't love them, but when I was growing up, pretty much every kid in the world thought KISS was cool, whether you liked the music or not. Hey, I owned a copy of Destroyer (yeah, it was mostly for "Beth," but still). I had KISS trading cards! Did I sit through the absolute crapfest that was "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park"? You bet I did!

I'm going to add "did NOT appear in 'KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park'"
to my resume, because I think it gives me a competitive advantage
over anyone who actually did.

Despite all this childhood goodwill, a solo album by a former member of the band is not something I would ordinarily seek out. But this was a gift, and a gift from someone who makes me feel squishy inside, at that. So I promised, with a perfectly straight face, to give it a listen.

And to show you in what high regard I hold DB, I did.

I decided to listen to it while driving home from work, because these days my car contains my highest quality CD player. That's not saying much, but hey, it's the 21st century.

If it can't fly, at least it can play CDs with reasonable fidelity.

So right before I left the office today, I sliced into the shrink wrap on my Space Invader CD. It was pretty quaint. And when I opened the case, I saw...a guitar pick! An Ace Frehley guitar pick right there in the CD case! Like a present to me for listening to Ace Frehley's CD!

Ace, if you were trying to bring a smile to my face before I ever heard a note of your album: mission accomplished. Not that you care, but I'm going to give it to Precocious Daughter for her guitar practice.

By the way, Ace, she says it feels
a little cheap compared to the one
she typically uses. Just a heads-up
from a fellow musician.

Eschewing my usual feast of doo-wop on SiriusXM's 50's on 5 station, I loaded Space Invader into Benedict Cumberhatch's CD player.

And...

...I'll give you my review of the album tomorrow, in Part 2.

And then in Part 3 I'll explain why there was a Part 2.

If God is merciful, there won't be a Part 4.