King Crimson

 

King Crimson was a rock band founded in Dorset, England in 1969. The band has been labeled as a progressive rock group (prog-rock) but included influences and instrumentation from jazz, folk music, classical and experimental music, psychedelic rock, hard rock, heavy metal, new wave, gamelan, and electronica.

The band has been influential on many contemporary musical artists and has a cult following despite the fact that they had little radio or music video airplay.

Founded by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield, the band initially focused on a dramatic sound layered with Mellotron.

The band's lineup centered on guitarist Robert Fripp, but has changed over the years with 18 musicians and two lyricists. The debut lineup of the band was influential (and well-received by critics) but short-lived, lasting for just over one year. The band was later fronted by Adrian Belew.

In the Court of the Crimson King (subtitled An Observation by King Crimson) is their debut studio album released on 10 October 1969 by Island Records. The album is one of the earliest and most influential of the progressive rock genre, where the band combined the musical influences that rock music was founded upon with elements of jazz, classical, and symphonic music. The album reached number five on the UK Albums Chart and number 28 on the US Billboard 200, where it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Barry Godber, a computer programmer friend of Sinfield's, painted the design for the iconic first album cover (shown above). He used his own face, viewed through a mirror, as the model. Godber died shortly after the album's release and it was his only album cover. The original painting is now owned by Robert Fripp.

Several sources (including the band website at http://www.elephant-talk.com) give the band's name origin as coming from the original lyricist Peter Sinfield. Sinfield says, "The name King Crimson was mine. I wanted something like Led Zeppelin, something with a bit of power to it. Anything better than Giles, Giles, and Fripp. King Crimson had arrogance to it."

King Crimson can be considered a synonym for Beelzebub, the prince of demons, which is an anglicized form of the Arabic phrase B'il Sabab. Fripp has said that the Arabic means "the man with an aim" but it literally means "with a cause".

A more common etymology of "Beelzebub" is that it is Hebrew for "Lord of the Flies." In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Beelzebub was Satan's chief lieutenant among the fallen angels. He is often portrayed as a red (crimson) figure and is the King of the Underworld.

ALBUMS

• In the Court of the Crimson King
• In the Wake of Poseidon
• Islands: 40th Anniversary Series
• Red 30th Anniversary Edition Remastered
• Lizard (CD + DVD Audio)
• Larks Tongues in Aspic - 30th Anniversary Edition Remastered

Kinderhook Creek

Early Kinderhook Creek promo photo

Kinderhook Creek was a popular New Jersey country rock band in the 1970s and 80s. They kind of created a live bar band market for country rock music in the Jersey/NY club scene. They had a devoted following of fans that literally followed them from gig to gig.

Early Kinderhook Creek press photo

They may not be well known nationally, but Kinderhook Creek (later shortened to just Kinderhook) was a band I knew well. Jerry Kopychuk (banjo, guitar, lead vocals) was a friend in high school and we both went to Rutgers College. There I met bass player Andy Fediw and I recall acoustic sessions in our Tinsley dormitory with a rotating group of other students. 
They were serious enough about music in 1973 to leave school for a time and give the music business a full-time chance.

The other founding members were Yuri Turchyn on guitar, violin, and vocals and Stan Taylor on pedal steel guitar. Craig Barry came on later on the drums and when the rest of us were graduating a few years later, Joe Breittenbach was added on lead guitar.

They played a regular circuit of venues (most of which are now gone) including The Wooden Nickel, Widow Brown's, The Gypsy, The Final Exam, Dodds Crest, Dodds Orange, Creations, The Beach House, the famed Stone Pony, the Royal Manor, Baby-O's, and The Joint In The Woods.

They later opened for The Flying Burrito Brothers, Conway Twitty, Pure Prairie League, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Outlaws, Richie Havens, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Commander Cody, Poco, and others in larger venues.

The word "kinderhook" might be Dutch for “children on a hill” but the founding band members have Ukrainian roots and Kinderhook Creek was a popular place for Ukrainians in New York state (near Albany) and hence the name was chosen.

Though a record contract and national tour eluded them, they played six nights a week for almost nine years and were arguably the top-drawing band in the state.

Kinderhook was the only unrecorded act to play at the Central Park Schaefer Music Festival (1975), opening for Poco before 25,000 people.

They reunited in 2010 and are playing gigs in New Jersey.

The current band lineup (with occasional guest players) is Jerry Kopychuk - Vocals and acoustic guitar, Andy Fediw - Bass, Craig Barry - Drums, Jim Ryan - Pedal Steel, Gary Oleyar - Fiddle and guitar and Jack Kurlansik - Electric Guitar

Kinderhook 2010   Photo: Christina Kotlar

Kinderhook at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ    9-20-13

An Empty Bottle, A Broken Heart & You're Still on My Mind; Still Feeling Blue; Diggy Liggy Lo

• Official Kinderhook Website   
• See Kinderhook on Facebook for news and upcoming shows.
• Here is a video of the reunited Kinderhook performing in March 2010 in New Jersey on a bill with the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Lineup: Yuri Turchyn, Craig Barry, Andy Fediw, Jerry Kopychuk, John Greenaway and John Korba. Video by ​Christina Kotlar. 

Post updated August 2022

KMFDM

    

An email from Rene in New Zealand came in last week to "correct" a reference I made on the site. Unfortunately, he was correcting an old version of this blog that I no longer have access to for editing. (Read about all that here.) His correction is about a band that I know very little about called KMFDM.

KMFDM is an industrial metal band led by founding member Sascha Konietzko, who started the group as a performance art project. There have been a number of line-up changes over the years, including a temporary disbandment from 1999–2002, with Konietzko being the only constant.



The initials stand for "Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit" which loosely translates as "no sympathy for the majority." Supposedly, when Englishman Raymond Watts joined the band he couldn't pronounce the name, so he just started calling it by the initials.

After working the Hamburg underground music scene and releasing albums on European labels, the band began its long-standing relationship with Wax Trax! Records when their 1988 album Don't Blow Your Top was licensed to the label for US distribution. Watts left the band at this time to start his own project, Pig.

Since their founding in 1984, they have released sixteen studio albums.

WWIII (World War III)
Nihil
Angst
Hau Ruck
Skold Vs. KMFDM
Xtort (+ 1 Bonus Track)

    

KISS

       

The American hard rock and heavy metal band KISS formed in New York City in January 1973.

The band is easily identified by its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting, smoking guitars, and pyrotechnics.

According to Paul Stanley, Kiss just sounded dangerous (as in "kiss of death") and sexy at the same time. KISS - whose name is stylized in all capital letter which suggest an abbreviation - denies the rumors that the name stands for "Kids In Service of Satan" or the saying "Keep It Simple Stupid."

Kiss has been awarded 24 gold albums to date in the USA. The band has sold over 19 million albums in the United States, and their worldwide sales exceeded 100 million albums.



The Very Best of Kiss
Destroyer
Kiss
Alive!
Lick It Up
Love Gun
Crazy Nights
Dynasty
Hotter Than Hell
Animalize
Alive! Box Set
Sonic Boom
Creatures of the Night
Dressed to Kill
Rock and Roll Over