Celebrating 40 Years of KISS

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their debut album, here's the Top 10 Things I Actually Like About KISS (in no particular order)

1.  The Rock and Roll Over Album Cover T-shirt.  Even if you buy this shirt straight off the rack at Hot Topic tomorrow, people will wonder if you've had it since the '70's.

2.  Ace Frehley's Smoking Guitar.  It shoots lasers too.

3.  Gene's Rad Demon Boots.  By far, the best part of Gene's costume.

4.  Paul Stanley Photo Shoots.  Whenever Paul poses, you can count of a bunch of naked hot chicks being their too.

5.  Peter Criss Beat Breast Cancer.  You don't hear about many guys getting breast cancer, let alone beating it.

6.  The KISS Army.  The coolest name for a fan club ever.

7.  Spitting Blood.  Bass solos suck.  Gene's doesn't.

8.  Breathing Fire.  Somebody get the Firehouse.

9.  Gene Flies.   God of Thunder is always the highlight of any KISS concert.

10.  Ace's Light Up Guitar.  Almost as cool as his badass smoking Gibson Les Paul.

Based on no specific criteria whatsoever, that's my completely random ranking of the 10 coolest things about KISS.  Oddly enough, none of their songs made the list.

Sure, they are shameless hucksters.  And Gene is a pompous jackass.  But they are still one of the biggest rock bands in the world.  Why?  Because no matter how awful their latest album was, you always knew they were gonna put on one helluva show.