Author: mikeladano

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

Double Feature LeBrain Train Weekend – Dave Lizmi and Tim’s Vinyl Confessions

Two shows lined up for you this weekend!

 

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and T-Rev

Friday – Episode 66 – Dave Lizmi

The Four Horsemen should need no introduction.Β  The only guy to play on all three albums (plus an EP) is guitarist Dave Lizmi.Β  He is a master of the Les Paul and his tone is sublime.Β  Trev and I look forward to asking him everything we wanted to know about one of our favourite bands.

Friday May 28, 7:00 PM E.S.T.Β onΒ Facebook:Β  MikeLeBrainΒ andΒ YouTube:Β  Mike LeBrain.

 

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Saturday – Episode 67 – Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Art Designers – with Aaron and Tim Durling

Please welcome Tim from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions and The Contrarians!Β  I’m so glad to have him on the show.Β  His collection is insane — give him a follow on Instagram and see for yourself.Β  The list this week is a Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Art Designers.Β  This was a challenging list, but Tim knows his stuff and I’m sure he will have a killer set of albums to show off.Β  Joining us for this one will be Aaron who also has a pretty impressive collection.Β  This is a Saturday show, so we hope that you’ll join us!

The Saturday shows are a summer experience in order to include more people.Β  I hope you can make it.Β  As always, it’s best to participate live!

Saturday May 29, 3:00 PM E.S.T.Β onΒ Facebook:Β  MikeLeBrainΒ andΒ YouTube:Β  Mike LeBrain.

REVIEW: Kevin Kiner – Star Wars “Rebels Theme” (Limited edition picture single)

STAR WARS “Rebels Theme” (Limited edition Disney 2015 picture disc single)
Music byΒ KEVIN KINER

You know where I stand on remixes, right?Β  Most of them are shite, especially when you try to dance-ify music that was not intended for dancing.Β  If that kind of remix is your thing, that’s cool.Β  You appreciate something that I do not.Β  I just recommend that you hit the “back” button on your browser right about now, that’s all.

I liked Star Wars Rebels.Β  Although it did come across more “kiddie” than Clone Wars, the era and characters it covered were more to my liking.Β  The Imperial era, not the Republic.Β  Of course, it later grew and merged with Clone Wars into a greater lore, but that is not for this review.Β  Just saying, check it out if you haven’t.Β  It’s on your Disney Plus.

Rebels’ composer, Kevin Kiner, was tasked with coming up with a new theme cue.Β  He did this by incorporating and adapting John Williams’ original cues.Β  It’s almost like a mega-mix of hero themes, in 55 seconds.Β  It’s just a cartoon after all, not a feature film.Β  Kiner’s rendition of these landmark themes is perfectly suitable to the show and honours the era in which it is set, and the spark of rebellion.

Though Star Wars Rebels has two volumes of music available on soundtracks, they were never issued on physical formats.Β  This single is the only place you can get a physical copy of Kiner’s “Rebels Theme”.

Unfortunately, the exclusive B-side of this single is the horrid “Flux Pavilion’s The Ghost Remix”.Β  It adds digital beats, noise and manipulations to the “Rebels Theme” and extends the thing by five times!Β  For the hell of it, there’s some laser blasts, some Wookiee howls, and some yelling.Β  This is utter garbage that young kids might enjoy, but makes me wanna hurl.Β  It deviates so far from the blueprint that it’s clear the ol’ hyperdrive needs some recalibrating.Β  The remix is at least memorable, for whatever that’s worth.

The picture disc is nice though.Β  On the A-side (which is unfortunately the remix side!) it’s hero Ezra Bridger with Jedi Kanan Jarrus and droid C1-10P, aka “Chopper”.Β  On the B-side, the original “Rebels Theme”, you get an Imperial Stormtrooper taking aim to fire (and miss)!Β  One of the coolest things about the Rebels show was that it used old Ralph McQuarrie designs from Star Wars pre-history.Β  Chopper is based on preliminary drawings of R2-D2.Β  Likewise the loveable character of Garazeb Orrelios is based on early designs for Chewbacca.

Being that the decent B-side is 55 seconds long while the remix is five times that length, the rating for this single cannot be high.

2/5 stars

REVIEW: Bon Jovi – Live 2 (2014 10″ picture disc)

BON JOVI – Live 2 (2014 Mercury limited edition 10″ picture disc)

Live 2?Β  Surely there must be a Live 1.Β  It appears this 10″ picture disc is a sequel to a 1984 Bon Jovi EP called Live.Β  This picture disc, a limited edition of unknown quantity, collects four previously released classic live performances from the New Jersey tour.Β  They are remastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound.

Though all the live tracks were available long ago on other rarities, the nice thing about this disc is that it actually tells you when and where they were recorded — information missing from some other releases.Β  This record is split into two sides — the U.S. side and the International side.

“I’ll Be There For You” (Lakeland, FL, 1989) and the next track were released on the 1993 double reissue of Keep the Faith, featuring a bonus CD also called Bon Jovi Live.Β  “I’ll Be There For You” was track four on that disc; here it is the lead.Β  A little slow, but Jon and Richie’s harmonies are the magic.Β  Sambora’s expressive playing is also outstanding.

Second, it is an electrifying live version of “Lay Your Hands On Me” (Giants Stadium, NJ, 1989).Β  Tico Torres really grabbed this song by the nuts with his opening drum salvo.Β  Songs like this really opened up Bon Jovi’s sound to include more roots.Β  The crowd noise is mixed low because you can tell it’s an endless mush of high-pitched screams!

Flipping to the International side, we are taken to Wembley in 1988.Β  Jon needs a doctor!Β  It’s “Bad Medicine”, of course.Β  “Doctor Bryan! I think I got it bad this time! What do you mean a shot can’t cure it? It’s like the luggage? Oh well!”Β  Never one of Jon’s finest songs, “Bad Medicine” is the upbeat party track of New Jersey, sometimes a necessary evil.Β  Over the years, you’ve just heard it enough times, and there are lots of live versions of “Bad Medicine” on uncountable releases.Β  This one was originally on the 1988 “Living In Sin” EP.Β  Comparatively speaking, it’s superior to the other live versions out there.

Finally, “Runaway” from Paris in 1988 was first made available as the B-side to “Lay Your Hands On Me”.Β  This energetic version is one of the best takes you will hear.Β  There’s a bare rawness to it, but the vocals are crisp and tight.Β  Everything clicks.

Although Live 2 only captures a tiny slice of the live Bon Jovi experience, it collects four key tracks.Β  Three of the four are really excellent examples of classic Bon Jovi live.Β  Not a bad buy if you don’t have them already.

3.5/5 stars

REVIEW: Ratt – Dancing Undercover (Part Three of The Atlantic Years series)

Part Three of Five

RATT – Dancing Undercover (Originally 1986, 2020 reissue β€” The Atlantic Years 1984-1990 box set)

Ratt’s fortunes continued to fall on their third album Dancing Undercover.Β  Their debut went triple platinum and the second album went double.Β  You didnt need an expert prognosticator to predict that the third album would go platinum and no further.Β  Which is still very respectable, but the trend was not good.

Opening single “Dance” was solid, with a poppy melody and stuttery 80s guitar lick.Β  Sleazy pop, rodent style.Β  A stock Ratt prowler comes second, called “One Good Lover”.Β  It packs punch, wicked guitars, and a few decent hooks.Β  Without missing a beat, they accelerate into “Drive Me Crazy” which has a speedy Hollywood-built engine.Β  Drummer Bobby Blotzer impresses with the machine gun fills.Β  Unsurprisingly, the drummer has a writing credit on it.Β  Decent tune, with a clunky arrangement.

The band slides into “Slip of the Lip”, which made for a pretty cool live-style video.Β  It is a clear album highlight, and most successfully nails the sleaze rock vibe that Ratt peddle in.Β  Β  They end the first side on the incendiary “Body Talk”; straight-up Ratt thrash.Β  Probably the heaviest Ratt track ever, even “Body Talk” made for a wicked video.Β  It was hard to picture Ratt pushing it this fast and hard, but they did, and successfully so.

“Looking For Love” had to be a sleaze rocker. The second side doesn’t open on a great song, but it certainly is a Ratt song.Β  You couldn’t mistake it for any of their peers.Β  It does boast a pretty good chorus, even if the rest of the song doesn’t quite nail it.Β  On the other hand, “7th Avenue” has a menacing vibe and not much else.Β  “It Doesn’t Matter” has some life.Β  Unfortunately the second side just doesn’t have enough bite, nor enough good songs.Β  “Take a Chance” borrows a few chords from “Slip of the Lip” but isn’t nearly as good.Β  At least the closer “Enough is Enough” has a nice clean guitar part for variety’s sake, but side two is virtually without hooks.

This edition comes with a single edit of “Dance” as the bonus track, which at least allows the album to end on a good song, albeit a repeated one.

2.75/5 stars

The Atlantic Years 1984-1990:

 

 

REVIEW: ChΓ© – Sounds of Liberation (2000)

CHΓ‰ – Sounds of Liberation (2000 Man’s Ruin)

Almost immediately after his debut solo album Jalamanta, Brant Bjork was back with another new project and album.Β  ChΓ©, featuringΒ former Queens of the Stone Age drummer Alfredo HernΓ‘ndez, and Unida bassist Dave Dinsmore, only made one album.Β  But it is indeed the Sound of Liberation.

“It’s the Ayatollah of Rocka Rolla baby!”Β  Seven songs, 35 minutes.Β Β Brant Bjork on guitar leads off “Hydraulicks” with a sharp, stabbing riff.Β  The laid back vibe of Jalamanta is gone, though its emphasis on repeating simple riffs is put to good use here.Β  A few vocal and guitar overdubs add some brilliant depth to a pretty raw, live-sounding recording.

“Stabbing” is another good adjective to describe the second track, “The Knife”.Β  Or perhaps hammering, as this song doesn’t let up.Β  The chorus is but a brief reprieve from the relentless rhythm.Β  “We can break the knife, so it won’t cut you, never cut you…”Β  But the instrumental “Pray For Rock” has a completely different vibe, a slow Sabbathy one with a Ward-like drum patter.Β  Then it suddenly goes full U2, if U2 were a stoner rock band from the desert.

The title track “Sounds of Liberation” enters.Β  The main three-note riff has some heft!Β  Solid track followed by another solid track, “Adelante”.Β  Hard hitting, choppy, aggressive.Β  Gets the point across.Β  Awesome drums by Alfredo HernΓ‘ndez.Β  But it’s the second-last track “Blue Demon” that really impresses, as a late-album highlight.Β  “Pick a room, man, ’cause they’re all the same,” sings Brant.Β  The riff has a certain electric aura, and the song just grooves.Β  It’s an ode to living free.

The final track is another instrumental, “The Day the Pirate Retired”.Β  The focus is on the riff, bristling with electric energy.Β  The band really jams here, with the fluid bass providing unexpected smoothness.

The CD packaging is interesting, with the front cover artwork on the back tray, and the back covert artwork on the front.Β  Kind of confusing when you see one on the CD shelves for the first time.

4/5 stars

 

 

2nd Sunday Screening: 4 Max the Axe videos for you!

It’s a long weekend in Canada and I chose to spend my Saturday going through video footage on my hard drive.Β  Every Sausagefest I take a lot of video and most of it never gets used.Β  What I discovered was that I had a lot of fun footage that just needed to find a home.

At the same time, I have been making videos for Max the Axe songs, so I can use them on the LeBrain Train.Β  I like having music videos to play so we can take breaks, and I need things that won’t set off copyright strikes.Β  All of this footage I’m discovering is helping me kill two birds with one stone.Β  Or, as Ricky might say, get two birds stoned at once.

“Gods On the Radio” is the first one I made, for the Friday May 14th show.Β  It’s Max’s favourite.Β  It doesn’t have any previously unseen footage in it; it is just a video I made to play that night.Β  All the footage was simply edited down from the Sausagestfest 2019 video.Β  Dave Haslam approved of the editing and that inspired me to make more.

I didn’t want to keep recycling old footage that everybody has seen, so I started exploring the hard drive for “Next Plane to Vegas”, which was debuted on the Friday May 21 episode of the LeBrain Train.

One of my favourite Max songs is “Overload” from the EP of the same name.Β  Problem is:Β  it’s short.Β  Too short for me to play on the show and still get enough of a break to make a coffee.Β  So I had to extend it.Β  I found some cool footage of Uncle Meat singing and drumming “New Orleans Is Sinking” in 2014, accompanied by Max on backing vocals.Β  This served as a good intro to extend the video.Β  Bonus:Β  rare footage of Max playing bass.Β  60-70% of the footage has never been seen before.

Another goodie but shortie is “I Don’t Advocate Drugs” from Trillion Dollar Threats.Β  Mickey Straight sang this one with Max at the Boat House, so although Ted Moore is credited on the album, I used a little bit of Mickey footage that I had a few times in this clip.Β  The video is about 60-70% previously unseen video.

 

BONUS!

I took the most footage at Sausagefest 2015, where this video was performed.Β  We had multiple live bands jamming and I got video of a lot of it.Β  Unfortunately, the audio on most of it was completely unusable due to a problem with the camera.Β  Also, very few songs were captured in full, thanks to a rapidly draining battery.Β  I did, however, capture this unique version of “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes, played improvisationally, on the fly.Β  Though wobbly at times, the vocal is solid, the bass outstanding, and the take on it is unique.Β  The soloing in the long outro is smokin’.Β  I’m glad I recorded the whole thing.Β  If you stay tuned to the end, you’ll hear Bucky complaining that he forgot the snare drum.Β  That was true.Β  “Seven Nation Army” and every other song that weekend was performed without a snare!Β  (It sounds like they were about to go into “Iron Man” at the very end.)

Sunday Screening: Trapper – “The Warrior”

This week we had Sean Kelly on the LeBrain Train. In order to highlight one of his many fun works, here is his version of “The Warrior” performed by Trapper with Emm Gryner on lead vocals.Β  The classic Scandal cover features a great guitar solo — a “composition within a composition” as Sean might say.Β  Check it some Trapper!

Sean Kelly Rocks the LeBrain Train

No preamble needed here! Just sit back, grab a drink and enjoy the entire 1:45 chat with Sean Kelly below. We tackled just about every project he’s ever been in, from Lee Aaron to Helix to Trapper to Coney to Crash Kelly, 69 Duster, Nelly Furtado, and more.Β  What’s this about Motley Crue figures?Β  And hear about the new upcoming Coney Hatch Live in Germany LP, Lee Aaron’s new tunes, and a hell of a lot more.

Sean’s enthusiasm for music and especially rock and roll is contagious.

The interview with Sean begins at the 0:17:30 mark.Β  Tune in and enjoy!

 

A big thanks to Sean for taking his time to talk to us, and also to Deke for hooking this one up.Β  You guys rock.

Happy long weekend, Canada!

 

Sean Kelly boards the LeBrain Train, Friday at 7:00 PM!

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and Deke

Episode 65 – Sean Kelly!

Sean Kelly is a busy guy!Β  He was in fact one of the very first guests to agree to come on the show, back before we had even done anything notable.Β  We finally got him on the schedule just in time to celebrate two new albums.Β  One is Lee Aaron’s upcoming Radio On, with its insanely catchy debut single “Cmon”!Β  Β The other is Coney Hatch’s brand new Live at the El Mocambo.Β  As if that wasn’t enough, he recently worked on a new Helix song called “Not My Clowns, Not My Circus”.Β  Did I mention he’s a busy guy?

Additionally, Kelly is known for his work with Crash Kelly, Trapper, and 69 DusterΒ  You might also be familiar with his collaborations with Gilby Clarke, Nelly Furtado, Emm Gryner, and Carole Pope.Β  As if that wasn’t enough to do, he also plays classical.Β  On the side, he put together an EP to go with a book he wrote called Metal On Ice!Β  Will we have time to ask him about all this activity?Β  We’ll try!

Superdekes is the guy who asked Sean to come aboard, so let’s give him a round of applause while we’re at it! This is another show you’ll want to make sure you catch live.

Friday May 21, 7:00 PM E.S.T.Β onΒ Facebook:Β  MikeLeBrainΒ andΒ YouTube:Β  Mike LeBrain.

 

UPCOMING SCHEDULE:Β  All times are Eastern Standard.

Friday May 28:Β  Dave Lizmi of The Four Horsemen (co-host T-Rev)Β  7:00 PM

Saturday May 29:Β  Top Cover Art Designers (with Aaron and Tim Durling from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions)Β  3:00 PM

Friday June 4:Β  Top Judas Priest Albums (with Harrison, John 2loud2oldmusic, and Geoff on graphs)Β  7:00 PM

Friday June 11:Β  Best “Blind Buys” (with BuriedOnMars, Sarca and J)

Saturday June 12:Β  Andy Curran of Coney Hatch returns for round 3 (co-host Superdekes)Β  1:00 PM

Friday June 18:Β  Author Robert Lawson (co-host Superdekes)Β  7:00 PM

Friday June 25:Β  Brian Hamilton of Storm Force (co-host Superdekes)Β  7:00 PM

 

WTF Search Terms: Π΄ΠΈΠΏ ΠΏΠ΅Ρ€ΠΏΠ» edition

WTF SEARCH TERMS XLV: Π΄ΠΈΠΏ ΠΏΠ΅Ρ€ΠΏΠ» edition

 

  • ΠΊΡƒΠΏΠΈΡ‚ΡŒ Π±ΡƒΡ‚Π»Π΅Π³ΠΈ Π΄ΠΈΠΏ ΠΏΠ΅Ρ€ΠΏΠ» Π½Π° сд 

It’s so rare that you see anything other than the English alphabet in search terms.Β  This one translates as “buy bootlegs deep purple on cd” but sadly none of my music is for sale.Β  I’m just blown away that Googling it led to my site.Β  As for the below….

  • home urinals?

I’m not surprised that Googling this leads to me.Β  At all.

  • what color eyes does joey tempest have
  • long big hair band joey tempest gay kiss

I’m convinced that Joey Tempest has the most obsessed fans in the world.Β  And not in a healthy way!

  • steve augeri shirtless

If former Journey singer Steve Augeri has shirtless photos out there, they are not to be found here.

  • quiet riot band sex tape

Again…not to be found here.Β  Why would you want this?Β  Even Kevin DuBrow didn’t want to see Kevin DuBrow naked.

  • is rogu roger son

It’s complicated but the simplest answer is “yes”.Β  I’m just proud that this one led to me!

  • trailer park boys europe parents guide
  • thank santa’s tits tpb

Trailer Park Boys search terms always make me chuckle.Β  A “parents guide”??Β  Oh my God, somebody out there thinks there is a parents’ guide!Β  As for “Thank Santa’s tits”, that’s one of Ricky’s memorable quotes from the show.

And finally, my favourite search term:

  • superbad the singer jimmys brother actor

That would be Michael Cera, who performed the greatest version of “These Eyes” ever sungΒ  by anyone.Β  You remember.Β  My brother drove all the way from Scottsdale Arizona to be here tonight, and you’re not gonna sing for him?Β  You sing, and sing good!