This fun subject is courtesy of Martin. Amps, microphones, tape decks…whatever goes into making music, if it’s on the album cover, it counts! I will be bringing out some big heavyweight albums for this special episode tonight.
What are some of your favourite albums with amps and recording equipment on the cover? Or perhaps in some cases, the entire packaging? Stay tuned!
Watch live and comment! Martin always tries to address the comment section.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Special Edition Episode: “Hey, You Like Records!” – Grab A Stack of Free Records
One day, Jen came home from bowling with a stack of records from a near-stranger! “Hey, you like records don’t you?” said the person as he dumped all this ancient vinyl in her hands. She knew I’d be able to make a video of them, if nothing else. So that is what we did.
Join Harrison and I for a look at some musty records with a couple surprises. Apparently, if you like Led Zeppelin, the Who and the Beatles, then we discovered the Canadian equivalent of those bands for the “over 25” crowd. Please welcome…the Moms and the Dads!
Gospel, Hans Albers, Wurlitzer, Bill Haley & the Coments, songs about cats and dogs…we got it all on this weird bonus episode of Grab A Stack of Rock!
This episode is live on YouTube now! Hit up the channel, like and subscribe!
The Multiverse Saga has been moving at a glacier’s pace. We’re umpteen movies and series worth of content into the 2nd saga, the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse Saga, and the Avengers still haven’t assembled! The pieces are finally moving into place for this to happen, hallelujah, in Captain America (4): Brave New World. We’re also finally seeing some resolution to events set in place during the Eternals (2021), Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) and even The Incredible Hulk (2008). It also sets up the sure-to-follow Mutant Saga. None of this is spoiler territory as we’ve seen these reveals in trailers and casting.
Fans are sick of the setup, and movies have to stand on their own. Captain America 4 doesn’t really do that; it really helps if you’ve seen the above films. It is, however, a better than average Marvel movie. Some issues that have plagued recent ones have been improved upon. It still feels like one piece of a larger puzzle, which wasn’t so much an issue with Phase One’s Captain America films.
Captain America is now Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), and the movie recaps that Steve Rogers entrusted the shield to him. Carl Lumbly returns as Isiah Bradley, the forgotten super soldier that was ill treated by his country. Just as there is a new Captain America, there is also a new Falcon: Joaquin Torres played Danny Ramirez. Those who haven’t seen or don’t remember much of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be lost as to who these characters are. New to the team is Harrison Ford as now-President Thunderbolt Ross. Controversially to some, this role was recast after the death of William Hurt. Harrison’s take on the character is far more Ford, but I had forgotten how much I like the guy as a baddie. Ford’s role was large, and he was great in every mood of the mercurial president. Also new to the multiverse, Shira Haas was terrific as the former Black Widow, Ruth Bat-Seraph. Giancarlo Esposito was a fine secondary villain as Sidewinder, but we have all seen Esposito chew the scenery with far more vigor in other famous roles. He brought the chill, but not so much the fury.
Since Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam is more accepted as Captain America, but still suffers from self doubt and questions whether he should have taken the super soldier serum or not. He is given perspective from the supporting characters, but ultimately feels like he has something to prove. It’s not as emotional or satisfying a character arc as he had in the TV series. Mackie, of course, plays the role with the passion we expect from the actor. He is certainly his own Captain. Steve Rogers was more quiet and reserved. He spoke softly, but knew he could back up his words. Mackie’s Captain is a little more fun loving, a little more brash and loud, and a blast to watch, especially in intense one-on-one scenes with Ford.
The cloak-and-dagger plot isn’t too complex. It all comes down to a personal vendetta to take down President Ross and expose him as the monster he really is. There’s worldwide tension over Celestial Island, a massive statue in the middle of the Indian Ocean that was created during the events of the Eternals and barely referenced since. Why? Probably because the celestial named Tiamut is not just made of rock, but also contains Adamantium. The same stuff Wolverine’s bones are made of. With Adamantium introduced into the storyline, we have even more setup for the eventual X-Men. Turns out this stuff is even more valuable than Vibranium, and stronger too. America and Japan are at the edge of war after an incident involving a stolen shipment of Japanese-owned Adamantium. In an eerie case of prophecy, America and its allies are falling apart. This, and some scenes with Ross losing his temper to his upper staff, felt…ominous.
Ultimately, at the end of the film, you know what Marvel wanted to show you: Captain America vs. the Red Hulk. There are plenty of action scenes before that, but this is where Marvel may be learning something of a lesson. If you look at something like Black Panther 2, or the Marvels, the action scenes had way too much going on with so much visual noise. They were hard to follow, and in many ways, nonsensical. These action scenes are scaled down. In fact, the battle of Celestial Island featured primarily just four combatants: two jets, Captain America, and the Falcon. There were missiles and big fleets of ships, but the action was kept to mostly those four elements. The Red Hulk segments also felt scaled back slightly, and easy to follow and enjoy. We saw the film in IMAX, and the Red Hulk looked great. The action wasn’t as CG-ish and washed out as we were used to. The giant Celestial made a cool backdrop for a battle, but I would have liked to have seen more.
The soundtrack was interesting. While I liked the score by Laura Karpman, it didn’t feel like it fit the mood of several scenes, including the opening.
There is one character design that deviated far from the original comic material and looked creepy enough, but might have missed the mark of what could have been.
There is one post-credit scene. Everyone in the theater stayed. They knew the drill. It was a cool little sequence that hints at the big things we know are coming in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. It feels like we’re finally getting closer to the ending.
Rating the four Captain America films, you just cannot top The Winter Soldier, or Civil War. That’s not going to happen. Brave New World is a welcome continuation of the legacy. It’s light on big emotions, but it does satisfy for action and furthering the adventures of the heroes who will one day soon be known as the Avengers again. Bring it on.
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 5: The Number of the Beast
With Jex Russell
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #91
Enter: The Air Raid Siren. “Bruce Bruce”. Paul Bruce Dickinson to his mum. One of the greatest lead vocalists, frontmen, songwriters and lyricists in heavy metal: Bruce Dickinson. None of that is hyperbole.
It’s one of the greatest “replacement singer” success stories in heavy metal. Not just anyone could replace the beloved Paul Di’Anno. What Iron Maiden did with Bruce took the band to a whole new level. They tightened the songwriting, sharpened the production and put out one of the best albums of their lives. The Number of the Beastpushed Maiden to a new level, and hinted at how they would grow album by album in the future.
In this episode, Mike and Harrison discuss the full track listing, including “Total Eclipse” and the live B-side “Remember Tomorrow”. We’ll talk about the different coloured covers, the different track listings, and of course the tour! Also included, an interview clip with Bruce Dickinson on assumptions made about heavy metal at that time. This in-depth episode is our longest to date at just over an hour. It is filled with praise and critique, but by the end you will understand why this is considered by some to be “the” Maiden classic.
Jex Russell’s favourite Iron Maiden album is The Number of the Beast. He was thrilled to find that no-one had snagged this slot yet. Please welcome Jex back to the show!
This week I didn’t choose the subject, but I did pick the title! Martin Popoff liked “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Hipgnosis!”, based on the old margarine ads “I can’t believe it’s not butter!”
Yes, this week we are tackling album covers that look designed by Hipgnosis…but are not! This will be a lot of fun, and I have my ten picks lined up with lots of Canadian content.
I haven’t been writing much lately, which is a choice I made in order to avoid the burnouts of the past, and to focus on giving 100% to 50 Years of Iron Maiden. Doing this series has been a healthy and rewarding experience.
In the last week, my town has been hit with roughly 70 centimetres of snow. I had not seen snow like this since the 1990s. It’s quite remarkable! On Saturday morning, Jen and I went out on a junk food run to stock up for the holiday weekend. (The junk food lasted about 36 hours.) We noticed that a lot of the snowbanks were taller than the humans on the sidewalks. That was before we got hit with another 40 cm.
But here I am, sitting indoors and just marvelling at the winter wonderland. That is where we break this story down into a mental health detour.
I had to find a new counsellor again, which sucks. I really like my counsellor now, but she has another maternity leave coming, and it is hard finding a good match. I did however find a new counsellor earlier this month that I think is going to work out. I am optimistic.
Perhaps because of that optimism, I had a revelation the other day. It goes back five years, to when Covid began.
We were all forced to adapt. We were all stuck indoors. Some of us had to work from home. Everyone bought webcams. Anyone that could work from home during that time, probably did at least once. Now, working from home policies are pretty standard.
And thus it occurred to me: storms like this don’t have as big an impact on me anymore, because I can just stay home and work. That is a game changer as far as my winter disorder goes. I don’t have to go fight the roads just to get to work alive. I can stay home, and eat pretty much anything I want to. That’s thanks to Covid. So there you go. Perspective. Five years ago I said I’d have loads of perspective. There’s one angle.
Of course, for me, working from home recently meant a drop in creativity. One of the cardinal rules of working from home is: “Thou shalt not use your creative space as your work space.” It’s just not good for mental health to mix the two, but I have no choice. So, as a result, when I’m done sitting in this chair for eight or nine hours of work, I don’t choose to sit in it again for an hour or two more. It’s not healthy.
I will say one thing, which is that I bought a disappointing Rod Stewart CD this past weekend that I should have spent more time reading the sticker. You’re In My Heart: Rod Stewart with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Cool, Rod with a symphony. All my favourite songs like “Reason to Believe” and “You’re In My Heart”. New versions, I assumed. Unfortunately, I discovered it’s just another Drastic Symphony. Except for two new recordings, it’s just old Rod classics with strings dubbed in, just like Def Leppard. Disappointing!
So, writing hasn’t been a priority when I have this stuff going on, but not everybody watches YouTube so it’s nice to touch base like this once in a while. Hope you’re doing well.
Please join John T. Snow and I on his excellent channel, The Collection! Snowman and I have always had a friendly competition over KISS. He was the first to get the Vault (the BIG Vault!), and lately he has been collection KISS compilations on CD. There are many, as you shall see in this episode. Even with our collections combined, there are still a couple out there that elude us both.
We went chronologically, starting with the first compilation that you can buy on CD: Double Platinum! We then went through the entire collection, including Japanese imports, remasters, promos, oddities, Canadian compilations, and weird stuff that only Snowman could tell you about!
As usual, I changed up some songs at the last minute. This started as an easy task, but ended with more difficulty as there are albums that just didn’t hit me and others that I haven’t spent enough time with. But here they are, and here are the songs I liked best.
Welcome to another episode of Favourite Song From Each Album. In this series we look at the catalogue of an artist and pick our favourite song from each studio album chronologically. Today Mike Ladano from Grab A Stack Of Rock joins me to talk Marillion. Last time we picked our favourite songs from the first 8 studio albums (link below). Today we come back to cover the rest of the catalogue (1997 – 2022). Enjoy!
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 4: Maiden Japan, Live!! + One, Live at the Rainbow
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #90
Closing out the Di’Anno years, Harrison and I take a deep dive into the live releases that accompanied them. Live!! + One was an exclusive Japanese EP that featured “Women In Uniform” (covered in Episode 2), and three live tracks, two of which were exclusive (and awesome). Maiden Japan, of course, was the live EP that you know and love. Live at the Rainbow was an excellent home video that featured Paul on vocals. We tackle all this on tonight’s episode.
You will see our copies of these releases (but not Live!! + One since I didn’t buy it the one time I saw it), and hear about them in detail. This episode is our sendoff to Paul Di’Anno, and we discuss his reasons for leaving. And in came a young upstart named Bruce Bruce…
This short and energetic episode features just Harrison and myself, but we’ll be back next time with a new special guest, and a new lead singer!
The Multiverse Saga has been moving at a glacier’s pace. We’re umpteen movies and series worth of content into the 2nd saga, the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse Saga, and the Avengers still haven’t assembled! The pieces are finally moving into place for this to happen, hallelujah, in Captain America (4): Brave New World. We’re also finally seeing some resolution to events set in place during the Eternals (2021), Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) and even The Incredible Hulk (2008). It also sets up the sure-to-follow Mutant Saga. None of this is spoiler territory as we’ve seen these reveals in trailers and casting.
mikeladano.com 