SIX DEGREES OF KISS: CRASS

Fistful of Dave I accept your challenge and will connect CRASS to KISS in six steps or less.

Crass were a politically active DIY peace-loving feminist environmentalist anarchist punk band. How on earth can I connect them to KISS in six steps or less? Like this:

1. Crass was a tough nut to crack! They didn't use producers or outside songwriters and they didn't do covers, but luckily for me NYC "antifolk" artist Jeffrey Lewis released an album in 2007 entitled 12 Crass Songs on which he covered, uh...yeah, duh: twelve Crass songs.

2. In 2005 Jeffrey Lewis recorded an album with his brother Jack entitled City and Eastern Songs which was produced by Kramer, full name Mark Kramer, founder of Shimmy Disc Records (he released the first Gwar album, Hell-O, along with albums by Daniel Johnston, Ween, and others). 

3. In addition to running Shimmy Disc and producing other artists Kramer was a founding member of underground indie psych band Bongwater.

4. Another founding member of Bongwater was actress and performance artist Ann Magnuson. She was in Desperately Seeking Susan.

5. The 1990 album Third Eye by California punks turned rockers Redd Kross featured a song called "Annie's Gone" which was written about Ann Magnuson and Ann Magnuson appeared in the video for the song.

6. Redd Kross opened their 1984 album (or is it an EP?) Teen Babes From Monsanto with a raucous cover of the song "Deuce" which originally appeared on the self-titled 1974 debut album by a band called KISS.

And there you have it.