Posted on: June 9, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Before Bruce Kulick became a fixture on the speed dial of legendary rockers like KISS (who proudly called him their lead guitarist for 12 years), Meat Loaf (Kulick was a member of Meat’s Bat Out Of Hell touring troupe), or Grand Funk Railroad (with whom he has toured the country for most of the last decade)…Before he became one of the most sought after
guest musicians in the world…Before he garnered praise from press the world over as a Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp counselor to be both respected and feared…


Before all of that, Bruce Kulick was a fan of great rock music…Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Yes, The Who…you name it, Kulick knew it.

“I always tell people, when they ask me how to get better at their instrument, that the best way to do that is find other players in your neighborhood,” says Kulick. “To that end, after I’d been playing a while, I found a guy who lived in the next building over from me, in the Jackson Heights area of Queens, New York. His name was Mike Katz, and he was a
bass player who loved all of the same bands I did. We started jamming, and, because we already spoke the same language musically, it was just magical. We found a drummer named Guy Bois who rounded out the picture, and we formed a group that we envisioned as a cross between Cream and Yes.”

After months of rehearsal in the Bois family basement, the band (which, although called “KKB” today never really had an official name) entered New York’s Sudden Rush recording studio in September of 1974 armed with a handful of songs. As with many young, upstart bands, things didn’t progress from there as the three members had hoped, and eventually Kulick, Katz, and Bois went their separate ways. The reel-to-reel tape of those sessions sat gathering dust, until a garage sale find in 2006 (a TEAC reel-to-reel player in great condition, and a steal at $35.00) lead to its rediscovery…

“I put that tape on, and I was blown away,” says Kulick with a smile today. “It was like a time capsule, but at the same time, there was such passion and fury in the music. It was funny, too, how I recognized so many elements in that tape from almost 35 years ago that are still in my guitar playing today.”

As enjoyable as it was for Bruce to journey down memory lane, it was playing the tape for friends and other musicians that led him to consider releasing it to the public at large. “Everyone I played it for said the same thing, which is that I needed to put this stuff out. Mike and I talked about it, and he was all for it as well, so I began the process of getting
this old tape transferred into a digital format.”

While there was a bit of repair work and mastering done by Bruce and producer/engineer Jeremy Rubolino to the tape to get it up to digital standards, no overdubs or new music were recorded. The “KKB” sessions
appear on the CD exactly as they were recorded.

“Oddly enough, even though this was recorded in 1974, it’s right in line with some of the more ‘analog’ music that’s come out in the last few years…bands like Wolfmother and the White Stripes who go for that vintage sound and feel,” marvels Kulick. “But, beyond all of that, I just felt, after talking to everyone who heard it, that this music still had relevance,and it stands on its own.”

KKB – 1974 is available on Compact Disc directly from Bruce Kulick in a strictly limited hand-signed and numbered edition.

http://www.kulick.net

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