By: Andrew Marten

I’ve been on a Kix kick as of late.

Kix - The Cereal

Also, before I continue, I want to address the cereal of the same name. Downhill. Completely downhill. This was a quality cereal until they delved into Berry Berry Kix and most recently, Honey Kix. Why not Chocolate Kix? Does anyone remember when McDonald’s actually had chicken cutlet parmesan on its menu for a hot minute? General Mills, McDonald’s, and all these companies consistently try to branch out while forgetting what brought them to the dance.

Anyway, enough about food, because few are as passionate about cereal as Mr. Marten. Okay, so, I’ve been on this Kix kick. Jason Jones’ shirt started it all. I started getting instant messages and emails about the band. As I was driving a few nights ago, Darius sent me a text raving about “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” I think even some people left comments about the song. Our listeners are slick and pick up on this stuff. I decided to go back and listen to each and every Kix studio album.

Kix - The Band

I was partying like it was 1983. As far as I’m concerned, these are some fun, high quality rock records. Glam metal, pop metal, whatever you want to call it, this is some good stuff. As a piece of a trivia, I owned Blow My Fuse on cassette thanks to BMG Music Service. At that time, I just fast forwarded to “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and forgot about the rest. I was a kid. Forgive me. If you’re a fan of Ratt, Quiet Riot and the like, check out Kix. You won’t be sorry. I’ve seen plenty of live footage on YouTube and Steve Whiteman’s voice is killer live, even to this very day. Below, I attached “Midnight Dynamite” from their third release, Midnight Dynamite, and a live version of “For Shame” which appeared on their second release, Cool Kids. The footage is from Dexter’s in New Jersey back in 2008.

** Also possibly of interest...**

• April 19, 2009 -- Don’t Close Your Eyes (2)