Author: mikeladano

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

#1176: End of Isolation

RECORD STORE TALES #1176: End of Isolation

I’ve been in isolation nine days.  A positive Covid test and some weird symptoms have kept me house-bound, and of course Jen was only a few days behind me.  She tested positive with symptoms about four days later.  The true test of a marriage is if one can survive Covid isolation together, twice.  I am happy to announce we are still married!

On Thursday January 23rd, I started feeling an irritation in my throat.  I went home early.  I recorded a 50 Years of Iron Maiden episode with Harrison and Melissa Nee, feeling absolutely wiped out by the end of it.  I went straight to bed.  I woke up the next morning knowing I would not be going into work.  I felt stinky rotten, but without a cough or congestion.  Just my throat, a lot of body pain, a foggy head and fatigue.  I tested myself, and you know how that went down.

While it was longer and harder than my first fight with Covid, it never turned into anything serious.  Fighting the fatigue was the hardest part.  I started working from home on the Monday, putting in full days, but delaying my recovery by not resting enough.

My experience with Covid was not just different physically this time.  Mentally, the toll was different.

During my first round with Covid, I was dreading working from home, but gradually warmed up to it.  On my second round, I was looking forward to working from home, but tired of it quickly.  My lack of enthusiasm might be due to feeling worse this time, but I spent my time differently.  I didn’t listen to any music, at all, while I worked.  I didn’t do any easy chores like laundry while I worked.  All I did was cook the odd meal.  A lot of Spam.  I’m into Spam now.

I didn’t do anything creative for that whole time.  Physically, I didn’t want to continue sitting in that chair (as comfy as it is) any longer once my work day was done.  I did do a quick video with Dan Chartrand on both our YouTube channels – check it out.

It was just a bummer of a time otherwise, as Jen and I learned how to navigate her personal space clashing with mine!  The monotony of the food too; that was starting to wear.  We ordered in a lot.  I had a McBreakfast one day (I ordered so much that it did last the full day).  We tried ramen for the first time.  We got a pizza.  The days blur together.  After I wound up each work day at 4:30 PM, I hung out on the couch for a while, but was starting to feel tired by 5:30.  It was a struggle to stay awake, and I didn’t want to go straight from work to bed.  It is hard balancing what one wants to do, with what one needs to do.

Because I wasn’t able to do much creatively (and also because our next guest also has Covid), Harrison and I paused 50 Years of Maiden.  I think I’m ready to jump back in, but already the show schedule is daunting.

Today I’ve sat down and listened to music properly for the first time in nine days.  I chose the debut by Rose Tattoo, a band we’ll be talking about very soon on Grab A Stack of Rock.  But I’m nervous; nervous that I won’t be able to keep up or maintain my motivation.  I have the Contrarians, Grant’s Rock Warehaus, and Grab A Stack all in the coming week.

Feels good to be negative though.  I plan on going music and Lego shopping today.  Otherwise taking it easy.  Writing this is my creative endeavour for today.  Let’s enjoy the rest of it.  Allons-y!

 

 

Musical Odds n’ Sods: A Grab A Stack of Rock Collection

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 88: Musical Odds n’ Sods: A Grab A Stack of Rock Collection

We have had our first bump in the road with our 50 Years of Iron Maiden series:  Mike had come down with his second case of Covid.  Fortunately, we have been prepared for occurrences such as this, and we have already pre-recorded an episode to buy us a week if necessary.  This is that week:  Welcome to Musical Odds n’ Sods!

In this episode you will see topics including:

  • Fake KISS Autographs
  • Vertigo Records in Ottawa and Japanese Deep Purple imports
  • Record Store Tales
  • A Day in the Life of a Record Store Guy
  • Tom’s frozen winter beater car
  • Hot Wheels ZZ Top Eliminator car
  • Beat Up in a Mascot Suit
  • Metallica’s Fan Can #4
  • Secret method for unwrapping CDs
  • Record Store Photo Gallery
  • Unboxing 7 Japanese import CDs from Discogs
  • Unboxing Sloan Twice Removed box set
  • Dr. Kathryn Ladano “Evil Kirk” animation attempts
  • Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son MuchMusic interview (1988)
  • Easter eggs

I have to admit, I enjoy watching this episode myself.  There is so much variety here to enjoy.  Join me in the comments tonight!

 

Friday January 31 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic.   Enjoy on YouTube.

We interrupt 50 Years of Iron Maiden with this…Covid?

Yes it is true.  Mike is down with his 2nd round with Covid.  He is now in week two, still positive.

For this reason (and we’ve been planning for it), tomorrow’s episode of Grab A Stack of Rock will not be Maiden Japan as promised.  We just need some extra time to build up a few more episodes in the bag before we play that one.  Stay tuned…tomorrow will be fun anyway.

VHS Archives #152: Grumpy KISS Host the Power 20 on MuchMusic (1993)

A bitchy Paul Stanley and a disinterested Gene Simmons walked in to host the Power 30 on MuchMusic, with only Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick to save them.  On the road to promote the new home video KISS Konfidential, Paul starts off by complaining that Kiss never got played on MuchMusic.  (Untrue; all their current videos received ample play, with the exception of the ballad “Every Time I Look At You”, and “Domino” did quite well.  It was so popular with one of the MuchMusic hosts that he even played a clip of it on a rap show.)

Kiss videos played on this episode were “I Love It Loud” (Live), “Heaven’s On Fire”, and “A World Without Heroes”, which was the first time I ever caught the full track played any time on MuchMusic.  These videos are not included in the clip.

Bonus: Paul sings in the intro to “Heaven’s On Fire” live in the studio.

Rock Daydream Nation: Show Us Your Favourite Rock Band T-shirts!

Peter Kerr is back with Joe B, John Clauser, Melissa Nee, Tim Durling and myself for a fun topic:  Favourite rock T-shirts!  While most of the panel got their shirts from concerts, mine were a variety of store-bought and mail order!  As I mention on the show, I was always looking for shirts that no-one else at school had.

Lots of show and tell with this show.  Please enjoy!

 

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 3: Killers with Martin Popoff

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 3:  Killers (1981)

With Martin Popoff

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #87

Here is the episode we’ve all been waiting for:  Author Martin Popoff (Iron Maiden: Album By Album) joins us to talk about record #2, Killers.

With Adrian Smith now in the fold, Maiden settled into the studio with legendary producer Martin Birch to lay down another series of tracks that the band had been working up for years.  “Wrathchild”, “Killers”, “The Ides of March” and more will be broken down, track by track.

Martin will also be telling us a little bit about his forthcoming book, Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible, currently up for pre-order (released April 28 2025).  This book is sure to be a must-have.

We will also discuss the singles, the B-sides, and the tour.  Once again Harrison goes through the Killers tour and tells us the facts, figures and songs.

Don’t miss this awesome episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden, tonight on Youtube.

Past episodes:

Friday January 24 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic.   Enjoy on YouTube.

A Wednesday Off for the Contrarians: Time to catch up on these shows!

We have not had time to prepare for a show this week, so we’re taking this week off.  Planning to be back next Wednesday, live as usual.

In the meantime, why not take this time to check out some of the shows you may have missed in the last three months?

My Contrarians appearances to date:

  1. Minimalist cover art
  2. Brown album covers
  3. Yellow album covers
  4. Albums with Fire and Explosions
  5. Spaceships! Aliens! Robots!
  6. This Album Cover is Hell!
  7. Toys & Games
  8. Dreaming in Stereo:  Beds & Sleep on album covers
  9. Favourite Bands…WORST Album Covers
  10. They Swapped Covers!
  11. Great Album Covers From Bands We Despise
  12. Top 10 NWOBHM Covers

Rest In Peace, John Sykes (1959-2025)

Like many, I first became awestruck by John Sykes via Whitesnake.  The year was 1987, and Much had just started playing Whitesnake stuff in heavy rotation.  While I heard Sykes on all the big 1987 hits, I saw Sykes in the music video for “Slow An’ Easy”.  The guy had it all!  Long flowing blonde curly locks, shirt open, a slide guitar (which I loved), a really cool studded guitar strap, and a way to play a riff.  To paraphrase a movie, I began watching his career with great interest.

I got some Whitesnake.  I got some Tygers of Pan Tang.  I bought the Blue Murder.  And then I discovered Thin Lizzy.  While it’s no secret that I’m not much of a Blue Murder fan (though I loved the idea on paper), I really dug John’s work with Thin Lizzy.

“Cold Sweat” was the name of the track, and I squealed in delight when John’s guitar squealed in the riff!  Even better was a song called “Bad Habits”.  This one merged the old-tyme style of Jailbreak with the production and guitar shred of 1982.

Though he hadn’t released any new music in a spell…we’re all going to miss John Sykes.

Rest in Peace.  F cancer.

#1175: Tie Dye

By request of Dan Chatrand from Off the Charts

RECORD STORE TALES #1175: Tie Dye

Bob Schipper was the instigator.  He was always the one with the creative ideas.  From making our own spiked wristbands from juice tins and black electrical tape, to sketching our own original video games, he was usually the one with the kernel for the idea.  I provided the energy, and was able to spin his ideas off and expand them into entire universes.  On this day in question though, Bob had the idea that we could make our own tie dye T-shirts.

I don’t know where he got the idea.  Probably someone from school.  There was one hippy kid in his grade that I would later work with at the grocery store.  Massive Grateful Dead fan.  The idea probably came from him.

In our world, tie dye wasn’t big.  Metal bands rarely wore the stuff, and we didn’t go back to Zeppelin.  Our horizons were much more recent.  In my world, wrestlers like Superstar Billy Graham were my inspiration.  He was known for his tie dye, and he looked incredibly cool.

We were not able to make tie dye as fancy as Superstar’s.  We were only able to mix a couple colours.  Our methods were simple.  We went to the local Zeller’s store, bought a few colours of fabric dye, and four of the cheapest, plain white T-shirts we could find.  Then, we would walk home and set up in my mom’s basement.  With no regard for other people’s clothes or the mess we were making, we dumped the dye into the big basement sink, and mixed it up. Then, we carefully twisted the shirts up, trying to create a spiral effect.  Once satisfied, we fastened everything with elastic bands, and dipped the shirts spiral-side down into the dye.  We repeated the process with another colour, and let everything dry.  Of our shirt experiments, maybe one out of every two attempts turned out.

The dye started to wash out after two washes.  The shirts wore thin and ripped easily.  One evening, Bob and I were wrestling in the park, when he grabbed and lifted me, and my favourite tie dye shirt ripped.  I had no choice but to finish the job.  “Rip it off like Hogan!” encouraged Bob.  With a roar, and a lot of effort, I ripped the shirt off my body and threw it to the ground.  “Raaaah!!”

Meanwhile at home, Mom was trying to get splashes of dye off of every surface in the basement.  She was absolutely furious with us.  No wonder Bob wasn’t allowed to do stuff like this at his house!

 

Sea of Tranquility: The Review Crew – Albums from 1990

I have made my debut on Sea of Tranquility!  Thank you to Jamie Laszlo for inviting me.  The Review Crew topic is Albums from 1990.  35 years ago!

I am taking a big, big chance with my first time on S.O.T.  I’m reviewing an artist they normally wouldn’t touch.  I’m going for it because it’s a topic I can discuss confidently and passionately.  It’s also a concept album.  It’s Jon Bon Jovi’s Blaze of Glory, today on the Review Crew.  It was nerve wracking bringing such an album to this channel, but I stuck to my guns, spoke passionately, and I think it shows.

A personal highlight was having the chance to converse face to face with Phil Aston regarding his pick, Deep Purple’s Slaves and Masters.

Check out this epic show and and cast!