I just heard KISS’ new song “Modern Day Delilah.” It’s the first single from 2009’s “Sonic Boom,” KISS’ first new album in 11 years.

Listen to the mp3 here or download it if you like … but I have to say …

It is tough being a KISS fan these days.

I appreciate their tenacity. They refuse to go away. Love it. But “they” isn’t KISS anymore. History repeated itself after their big reunion tour in 1996 when band leaders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley gradually became alienated again from their 70s bandmates, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley.

By the time the band recorded 1998’s “Psycho Circus,” it was back to things as normal, with studio musicians replacing allof Peter’s drumming and much of Ace’s guitar playing. Granted, Peter wasn’t really up to snuff,so I gave ‘em a pass.

Some of the tunes had the old school KISS flavor (some just outright sucked) and my band at the time, Ultimate Fakebook, even covered the title track to show our stubborn support for the old school rocking that KISS was still putting out there.

Now Ace and Peter are gone again, replaced by Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer (who are currently wearing the Space Ace and Cat-man make-up instead of going “unmasked” like KISS was in the 80s and early 90s). Sure, they sound tight. Yes, it sounds professional. Yes, it’s “bluesy” and “rootsy.”

But it ain’t KISS. It sounds like some approximation of what Paul and Gene think will get them played on rock radio now.

It’s as stagey and fake as “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” a “reality” show with completely scripted scenarios and contrived plot twists. (Yet I still tune in from time to time to see how my old 70s hero/demon is doing. And I think his family is cool. I’m unhealthily obsessed. After all, KISS is responsible for my entire rock “career.”)

It’s safe. It’s boring. Most of all, it’s no fun.

Yet I will probably be there for the next tour waiting for that curtain to drop so I can see Gene and Paul don the costumes and see the glorious explosions that come just after the opening riff of “Deuce.”

Sad, but true.

By the way, this post has nothing to do with movies, even though this site is all about them, so here ya go:

“Detroit Rock City” is an underrated and overlooked gem of a film that approximates all the energy and excitement of what it was like to be a rock n’ roll fan when you were a kid. Rent it even if you don’t like KISS. It’s that good.

Gene Simmons is in the new Mike Judge (”Office Space,” “Idiocracy”) movie “Extract,” which stars Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Ben Affleck, and Kristen Wiig.

OK.

Tags: 2009, album, boom, day, delilah, download, First, free, gene, kiss, listen, modern, modern day delilah, new, paul, simmons, single, song. mp3, sonic, stanley

2/12 UPDATE post with more video here– Phoenix on Letterman, rap performance

OK, I don’t know if the little amount of text I’m actually going to write for this blog justifies its own entry, but this is just too bizarre.

You read the headline correctly. Casey Affleck is directing a documentary that follows Joaquin Phoenix’s self-imposed retirement from acting to pursue a career as a rapper. Today in Las Vegas, Phoenix is making his debut performance as a rap singer. Affleck’s cameras sart rolling today. Sean “Diddy” Combs will reportedly produce the documentary.

What I can’t tell is if this is a joke or not. It could be the most elaborate put-on in the short history of the mockumentary genre. If Phoenix played a rapper like Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat, everybody would recognize him and know it’s a joke. But if the actor plays himself pretending to want to be a rapper, everyone is forced to believe it and the illusion can then be successfully mined for laughs. It could be an Andy Kaufman-style hoax; one that Phoenix has been working on since he announced his retirement back in October.

Even in this video where he announces his retirement, it kinda looks like Affleck and Phoenix are acting for the camera. The interviewer doesn’t even believe him. Could be a set-up for the movie!

Andy Kaufman’s wrestling antics were all pre-planned hoaxes. See him on “Letterman” above.

It has to be a hoax for the sake of a funny movie, because otherwise why would Affleck think that this is anything worth filming? If it is for real, and it’s a disaster (and Affleck is counting on this for his movie), then he’s going to mine Phoenix’s misery, and that wouldn’t be cool for two friends. (Casey is married to Joaquin’s sister Summer Phoenix.)

Then, there is the other possibility: Joaquin Phoenix, the man who earned an Oscar nomination playing Johnny Cash (and singing his songs in the movie), is a bad-ass, talented rap artist. It’s just that nobody knows it yet. Wow. Really?

UPDATE: Here is video of Phoenix’s performance in Vegas, which seems to confirm my suspicions. You heard it here. I called it first! Not sure what they were thinking; it’s too hard to get away with hoaxes like this if you’re also using your celebrity. That’s why Sacha Baron Cohen is in disguise. Kaufman did it, I suppose, but his stuff was slightly more in character for what people expected of him than Phoenix rapping. Also, media was not nearly as advanced and immediate in the 80s.

Tags: album, career, casey Affleck, chronicling, direct, documentary, hoax, Joaquin Phoenix, mockumentary, music, rap, rapper, release, singer, to