Author: mikeladano

Metal, hard rock, rock and roll! Record Store Tales & Reviews! Grab A Stack of Rock and more. Poking the bear since 2010.

#1031: Dream Girls

RECORD STORE TALES #1031: Dream Girls

I was notorious.  Every few months, I would say that some girl who walked into the store was my “dream girl”.

When I was first hired, I was breaking up with a girl.  My new boss was good consolation.  He had loved, lost and loved again.  Loved some more and seemed none the worse for wear.  When I walked into the store one day saying I’d just been dumped, he had a great response.

“You’re going to meet a lot of girls here,” he reassured me.  It was like a promise; like a perk of the job.

Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way for me.

I don’t know what his secret was.  Never once did I meet a girl through the Record Store.

The first customer that I declared my “dream girl” showed up in early ’96 at the brand new store that I was managing.  She was looking for the new Jewel (Pieces of You), and unlike a lot of other customers that came in looking for music, she actually bought it.  She was blonde and I remember I liked her shoes.  They were just regular white sneakers but she looked good in them.  I never found out her name.  I lost interest when she came in with some dude.  She did shop with us loyally for a couple years though.  Through the whole time, I never managed to say anything beyond the following:

  • Can I help you find anything today?
  • That’ll come to $–.–, would you like a bag for that?
  • And $–.– is your change, have a great day.

Absolutely pathetic but I never claimed to being good at talking to girls.

There were several that I proclaimed as my new “dream girl” until I knew it was stupid to make such proclamations.  Sometimes it was based on taste, other times the attraction was purely physical.  There was a Star Trek geek girl, but I never managed to figure out what to say.  I was never interested in the ones shopping exclusively in the rap/dance section.  I knew that was a non-starter.  There was this one who I liked that had two nose rings.  I thought, hey, that’s unique.  Two nose rings.  She was quiet, never wanted any help finding anything, and always bought something.  I don’t think I ever caught her name either.

I wonder if I was creepy.  I was certainly awkward, and that can be misinterpreted quite easily.

No, I never met a girl through the Record Store as the boss had promised me.  I did meet friends though, such as Aaron from the KMA, who strolled through my doors around the same time as the Jewel girl.  No to romance, but yes to a heck of a long-lasting bromance.  That’s a lot more valuable, both as a human being and a collector.  We’ve enjoyed each other’s company and sent dozens of CDs back and forth over the decades.

So, to the “dream girls”, I’m sorry it didn’t work out.  It simply was not meant to be.

NEWS: Scott Rockenfield opens his own online store

The (former?) Queensryche drummer who seems dedicated to chaos just opened his own RycheShop.com selling crap artwork.  This is not to be confused with the official Queensryche store.

Bonus:  If you spend $250 or more, Scott will give you a personal phone call.

What would you ask Scott?  I have a few ideas. Maybe ask about that sweet new neck tat.

 

Youtubin’: The Fourth Doctor intro theme – Doctor Who

I grew up with two Doctors as my Doctor Who:  Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.  The third, and fourth Doctors. Of the two, Baker was my favourite.  Perhaps it was his long scarf, which I begged my mom to make for me.  And she did!  It could also be his long curly brown hair, or his somewhat comical eyes.  Whatever the case, it cannot be denied that the iconic Doctor Who theme was something that drew kids in.  I was no exception.  I love the time-tunnel visuals as well.  I remember sitting in front of the TV with a little Fischer-Price tape deck to record the intro theme from mono speaker to mono microphone.

Here’s the Doctor Who show intro of my formative years.

 

Grab A Stack of Rock – New intro theme – Dec 17 2022

I can’t stop tweaking this video, and I’ll continue to update it as we continue to have fun shows together.

Tee Bone’s reaction shot is priceless.

A Miracle of a Show! Aaron KMA and Harrison the Mad Metal Man Grabbed Stacks of Rock!

That was a blast (as always!)  By popular demands, Aaron returned!  True to form, the man known as “Mr Books” presented…books!  Leonard Cohen, Charlie Watts, a certain black guitar wielded by David Gilmore, and more!  As for Harrison, he too had some books to show, as well as some interesting discs by Concrete Blonde and a smashingly cool lightsaber!

I unboxed the new Queen Miracle box set, a Black Sabbath Sabotage, and a Def Leppard From London to Vegas.  We took a look at the contents of each.  The Queen box set is suitably majestic, featuring a lovely hardcover book and loads upon loads of music to listen to.

“Ask Harrison” returned tonight, with questions from Lana (via Tee Bone) and California Girl, and a bit of a curveball “Ask Mike” as well.  Warning:  there could be more “Ask Mike” coming in the future!

Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you next week.

Aaron KMA Grabs a Stack of Rock with Mike and the Mad Metal Man

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK…with Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 7:  Special guest Aaron KMA

Aaron‘s back!  Due to popular demand, the big guy has agreed to return for another hour of rock.  Tonight, I plan on unboxing my Queen The Miracle box set, and others with time permitting.  I have two sealed Rush box sets (Hemispheres and Permanent Waves) and a sealed Metallica (Master of Puppets) that could be opened tonight.  It’s up to you — whatever you want!

Harrison the Mad Metal Man and Aaron always have something interesting to show and tonight will be no exception.  So let’s wait and see!

We also have the popular “Ask Harrison” returning tonight, with Lana (via Tee Bone) and MarriedandHeels offering up a pair of questions and a curveball.  Hopefully we will learn a little about the elusive Australian madman and his homeland tonight.

Friday December 16 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook.

#1030: License to Drive

RECORD STORE TALES #1030: License to Drive

I was re-watching Mike and Bob’s Cross Kitchener Adventure the other day.  This old film that we made in highschool chronicled an afternoon of touring Kitchener in Bob’s car.  (Haven’t seen it?  Check it out.)  One thing that came up, repeatedly, was the fact that I didn’t have a driver’s license.  I was 18 years old with no license.  Bob teased me pretty hard about that.

I had no incentive to learn to drive.  Much like today, I didn’t really go anywhere!  Everything I wanted (except Sam the Record Man) was with walking distance.  (And I walked downtown to Sam’s once!)  School was a 10-15 minute walk.  The mall was 10 minutes.  The only incentive I really had was for Bob to stop teasing!

I can remember when I turned 16, my mom paid for driving lessons through the highschool.  I never went.  Why?

The truth is, I was scared of driving.

I remember having a dream one night that I owned K.I.T.T., Knight Rider’s car, a high-tech modified Trans-Am.  But in my dream I didn’t know how to drive either, so the car went into reverse out the driveway and hit somebody.  It was a really realistic dream.  I had another dream where I literally killed someone!

When driving classes started at school, I skipped (or “bagged” as the slang of the day went).  I had a lot of anxiety about it.  I had no idea what classroom it was in, so it was pretty easy to avoid.  My mom was pretty unhappy with me when she found out.  Which was long after the fact.

Getting in shit and getting teased didn’t change anything, but in the fall of 1991, I had to make a choice.  I had just started university up in Waterloo.  My choices were these:  1) Learn to drive, get a license, and drive yourself to school in dad’s old car.  2) Take the bus.

I chose 1).  Busses were a far worse option!  So I sucked it up and got lessons, and learned to drive.  And like anything else at that age, I became a know it all!

I barely passed my driver’s test.  The tester thought I was too hesitant at the lights.  I was really good at parallel parking though!

What I learned first and foremost however, was how awesome it was to have 100% say in the music selection!

I wish I could tell you for certain what album I played on my first solo drive.  I do know that I got my license in November of ’91 and focused on new releases during my first year as a driver.  The new Tesla, Europe, Poison (double live), Queensryche (single live), and Guns N’ Roses tapes were often in the deck.  I put them on my dashboard like a “now playing” sign to show off how cool I was.

I had night classes twice a week.  Sociology on Mondays from 7:00 – 10:00 pm, and Anthropology the same time on Thursdays.  I loved Anthro; didn’t care much for Soc.  The best thing about Sociology was meeting my pal Rob Vuckovich for the first time.  We talked about music a lot and became friends.  He told me of his incredible record collection that he refused to part with.  He would tape a track or two for me, but would not sell a single record.  Later on, when he decided to sell, he would only do so if I bought the entire collection.  Which I could not.  But he was a good guy.  He didn’t live far from me, so I drove him home after school.

I thought I would impress him by playing my newest acquisition from Columbia House:  Purple’s Perfect Strangers, featuring non-LP bonus track “Not Responsible”.  He was only mildly impressed.  He said something about how it was better than Bon Jovi or Poison.  Driving Rob home was something I looked forward to and I always chose the Monday night music specifically for him — to get some kind of reaction, positive or negative.

It’s funny how much I avoided driving until I absolutely had no choice.  My parents complained that I always left the stereo on reaaaaaally loud, but that’s just how I made the drive worthwhile!

 

#1029: Lick It Up (In Bed)

RECORD STORE TALES #1029: Lick It Up (In Bed)

When I was a kid I used to rock myself to sleep with music.  I missed doing that in my adulthood.  I don’t find headphones or earbuds comfortable to sleep in, and I’ve never found a really good device like that to fall asleep in.  I have a pair of “sleep headphones” which are basically little speakers inside a headband.  But I basically have to tie something tight around my head to get the little speakers close enough to my ears to be effective, and then the whole thing becomes too uncomfortable.

I remember my mom had this “pillow speaker”.  You could plug it into your Walkman, and it would convert the stereo signal down to mono, and you’d put this little speaker in your pillowcase.  But that wasn’t really a good solution either.

The best way to fall asleep then was with a tape or CD in the deck, and let your speakers rock you off to la-la-land.  Having a spouse might put a cramp in that tradition, as it has mine.  But nowadays, with Jen’s different health issues, we are on vastly different sleep schedules.  I’m usually in bed by nine and up by six.  She might be in bed by 2:00 AM, after all the late night hosts have signed off.  I might try returning to the “rock myself to sleep” method as an experiment.

I took a Saturday afternoon nap, but I was just too wired to get a good solid sleep.  I brought the laptop into the bedroom, put on “Lick It Up”, and tried to get some shuteye.  Unlike my youthful days, I didn’t fall asleep during the album, though I did doze off shortly after.

Sure enough though, memories of childhood came rushing back.  I think got Lick It Up for Christmas of ’85, the same year I was given my dual-deck Sanyo with detachable speakers.  I remember the Sanyo came with a sample cassette.  It had “Spanish Flea” on one side, and the other was blank for recording.  I think I tried to put “And On the 8th Day” on the second side, and I think it just fit.

Back in those days, I didn’t know most of the words to the songs, so I just kind of made up my own.  It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know the words.  In fact, only on the recently released Creatures of the Night box set can I clearly hear all the words to “Not For the Innocent”.  Otherwise, it was cool to hear Lick It Up, in bed like when I was a kid, but with perfectly clear sound, no tape hiss, no side change, and at perfect speed with no drag.  If only my 13 year-old self could have imagined that.  The sound quality, with my little laptop speakers, wasn’t great so I ordered another pair of small externals from Amazon.  That’s the next step of the test.

Lick It Up has been a favourite for a long time.  Back when I only owned one or two cases full of cassettes, it received frequent spins.  I remember accidentally dropping it into a bucket of wallpaper water.  My dad thankfully bought me a brand new copy.  I’d buy it again if Kiss offer another deluxe box set as they have recently.

We’ll see how my sleep experiment goes, but I definitely picked the right album for the first try.

REVIEW: Extreme – “There Is No God” (1994 CD single)

EXTREME – “There Is No God” (1994 A&M CD single)

Extreme’s underrated (extremely underrated!) fourth album Waiting For the Punchline was released in January of 1995.  Yet it was preceded by the 1994 single “There Is No God”, a three track disc with two B-sides included.  Waiting For the Punchline was Extreme’s “back to basics” album.  After the sprawling three sided magnum opus, III Sides To Every Story, Nuno desired to strip things back and funk things up.  Waiting For the Punchline was more raw and groovy, but not as the expense of quality.  Criminally underrated!

The A-side is technically still a non-album track!  The album cut of “There Is No God” is over six minutes; this one is a 4:25 edit.  The opening stuttery guitar remains.  What an awesome drum sound!  Paul Geary played on most of the album (you can tell which ones) and he just had a full, impactful drum sound on this album.  Meanwhile Gary Cherone was singing and writing as strong as ever, turning up the anger dial.  Nuno utilises minimum guitar overdubs (if any) and sounds absolutely wicked here.  His solo is exotic, and there’s no rhythm guitar behind him.  Just Pat Badger laying down the bottom end.  What a killer 90s rock tune, and you don’t really notice the edits until the fade-out.

Second up is a tune called “Never Been Funked”.  Nuno’s using a treatment on his guitar here, giving it an electronic moog-like sound.  This is a basic groove, punchy and to the point.  Not a lot in the way of hooks, just that guitar of Nuno’s, zigging and zagging.  As expected, his soloing and fills are just as bonkers.

The third and final B-side, “Better Off Dead”, is a completely different direction.  Waiting For the Punchline wasn’t a ballad album.  “Better Off Dead” would not have fit, although it has the same ambience as the album.  With minimal accompaniment, Gary and Nuno sing together through the opening.  When the band kicks in, it sounds like Mike Mangini on drums rather than Paul Geary.  (There are no credits.)  It’s a lovely song if a bit meandering.  It’s the longest tune at 5:40.  The outro guitar sounds like Jimmy Page!

Great single to pick up if you’re a fan of Extreme.  Especially if you love Waiting For the Punchline.

4/5 stars

Youtubin’: One Hit Wonderland – “Your Woman” by White Town (Todd in the Shadows)

I admit, I am one of the many who wrote off White Town back when he occupied the bargain bin at the Record Store. I figured he ripped off John Williams’ “Imperial March” and faded away into deserved 90s obscurity.

I was wrong.

As usual, Todd in the Shadows does impeccable research and this was an enlightening episode about an artist that I knew only a little about before.