Grammys: Inside Clive Davis' Annual Gala
In case you missed it, here are some notes from record mogul Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA, where booze got drunk, chicken got ate, songs got performed, and tushes got kissed.
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Kiss, 'Sonic Boom' (Kiss)
In the 11 years since releasing the patchy Psycho Circus, Kiss have marketed kaskets, opened a koffeeshop, and released krappy solo albums, apparently on a mission to make everyone but diehards forget that, for a few LPs running, they were the greatest rock band of the '70s.
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Kiss, 'Sonic Boom' (Kiss Records)
In the 11 years since releasing the patchy Psycho Circus, Kiss have marketed kaskets, opened a koffeeshop, and released krappy solo albums, apparently on a mission to make everyone but diehards forget that, for a few LPs running, they were the greatest rock band of the '70s.
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The Upper Crust, 'Revenge for Imagined Slights' (Camp Street)
For hard-rock jokers with one very specific gag -- performing as puffy-shirted dandies -- this Boston quartet keeps coming up with great punch lines.
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Marilyn Manson, 'The High End of Low' (Interscope)
Not that anyone but that kid serving you at TCBY was counting -- but after a seven-year break, goth rock's funniest creep welcomes back guitarist Twiggy Ramirez for this collection of 15 necromantic vamps, mass-murder ballads, and stormtrooper anthems (including the stupendous "Arma-goddamn-mother-fuckin-geddon," where Manson's glorious glam roots are showing).
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Peter Doherty, 'Grace/Wastelands' (Astralwerks)
The seemingly constant rehabs, arrests, and prison stints. The romp with Amy Winehouse and a filthy handful of newborn mice on YouTube. It's all too easy to dismiss Pete (now Peter, for a touch of class) Doherty as nothing more than a smack-addled wretch. But there's little denying the former Libertine and current Babyshamble's talent as a songwriter and, well, presence.


