From the album Live In Ontario, here is the second music video from the CD: “I Don’t Advocate Drugs”. This video was painstakingly animated, using real Lego bricks, by hand. No AI here folks. Bricks were collected to create these characters including all four members of the band: Max the Axe (lead guitar), Uncle Meat (lead vocals), Mike Mitchell (bass), and Dr. Dave Haslam (drums). Depicting a druggy trip and a stage performance by the band, look for several easter eggs referring to past Max the Axe songs, or even Dr Dave’s well-stated hatred of Transformers.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode
Episode 125: Sing Me Away: The Night Ranger Album Review with Tim Durling
With co-host John Snow (The Collection and 2Loud2OldMusic)
Author and Youtuber Tim Durling has been busy. Sing Me Away: The Night Ranger Album Review isn’t even his newest book! More on that later, because tonight we celebrate the California Quintet and Tim’s panel book on them.
Joining us tonight is fellow expert and fan John Snow, who will be prove that you can still rock in America, oh yeah!
Tim is a passionate Night Ranger fan and collector, and we will quiz him tonight on everything that went into this book. The albums, the lineup changes, the amazing tunes, and Tim’s collection. We’ll also talk about the present and what’s happening right now in the world of Durling the author. We’ll do an unboxing and talk about a contest where you can win yourself a Durling book!
Don’t miss this one live, as we love to interact in the comments. We always have fun lined up, and fun will be had!
Friday November 14 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
RECORD STORE TALES #1224: Nov 11: An Uncle Paul Story
November 11 is a very important day in my family. Since my grandfather and his brother both served in Europe during World War II, it was a tradition that I have always known. My grandfather rarely told war stories. It used to make me uncomfortable. At home, my dad would educate me on different battles, and the tanks and the guns and planes involved. My dad’s specialty is the Pacific theater, but he certainly taught me the difference between a Panzer and a Sherman. I knew what the Battle of Britain was. I had seen all the old movies. So when my grandfather seemed…haunted by the war, it contrasted that childish “cool factor” that you get by watching a tank fire its cannon.
From my earliest memories, we went to the cenotaph every Remembrance Day, heard the cannons fire, shivered in the cold and watched Grampa lay a wreath. I was short and could hardly see. Back then, November 11 was a school holiday, so families could go to the cenotaph. Eventually they ditched that holiday in favor of an in-school memorial. This took place in the gymnasium. They’d run a film and I’d just sit there thinking “right now Grampa would be laying his wreath.” We lost him in 1983 but the family always went.
This is where the story deviates from today’s theme. My Uncle Paul and Aunt Maria would also go to the cenotaph with us. They drove in from Stratford. For us, it really was a full family day.
My Uncle and Aunt would come to town for the ceremony at 11 o’clock, but stayed the day to visit. My dad and uncle would go to the local car dealerships and look at the new models. Best of all, they would pick my sister and I up from school at the end of the day! What a treat. Not only didn’t we have to walk home on a cold day, but we got to ride with Uncle Paul and my dad. We would laugh and smile the whole way home. I loved this modification to the old tradition…but there was more. Much more.
Little did I know, but after the Remembrance Day ceremony, the whole family would head over to Hi-Way Market and visit their incredible, legendary toy section. My Aunt and Uncle would buy all of our Christmas gifts right there in one shot. Every GI Joe. Every Atari game. Every Transformer. They were sitting there in the trunk, directly behind us as we rode home from school. Every single gift that I was salivating over, nightly in the toy catalogues. They were right there, mere inches away!
If it sounds like I still can’t believe it, it’s still amazing to me that they did this for years and I had no idea!
Thanks Uncle and Aunt for making every Remembrance Day visit a special one for a kid. And thanks to Grampa and Uncle Gar for doing what had to be done.
At the the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the Armistice was signed, ending the fighting in the Great War. At least, they called it the Great War, or “The War to End All Wars”. Today we just call it World War I, because even greater horrors followed.
My grandfather “Sam” (Crawford) fought in World War II, helping bring an end to the evil of Hitler and Nazi Germany. I think my grandfather would be disgusted today to see Nazis being referred to as “very fine people”. What did he fight for, if we are to casually welcome that evil back to the streets?
“Gar” and “Sam” Winter
We can never forget the sacrifices those soldiers made. My grandfather survived and came home to raise a family with my grandmother. His brother wasn’t so lucky. He lived, but was injured in the trenches and he never walked right again.
I tend to think of the veterans and the soldiers of the present year round. My wife goes out of her way to thank veterans any time she sees one in uniform. I think of them every time I am free to write whatever I want to, in this great land of Canada. Had the Nazis won, there would be no freedom here. On November 11, at 11am, we have a moment of silence to honour all the soldiers from every war in which they fought and died for our freedom. That is an important tradition to keep. But I think we should think of them more often.
“Sam”
My grandfather rarely told war stories around the kids, but I do remember one night when he told my dad about looking up and seeing a Panzer tank coming. “I shit my pants,” he said and I think he was being truthful. Imagine those young guys — kids, really — in a country far from home, running from a tank. The bravery is awesome. I can’t even imagine.
My grandfather died (cancer) when I was too young to appreciate what he did. I knew he fought, and I got to watch him lay a wreath at the cenotaph every November 11. I didn’t understand the significance of what it means to be a soldier until I was older. If I were a little older, I would have tried to get him to tell me about it.
Bryan Adams’ 1987 album Into the Fire has the best song about Remembrance Day that I know. This very special track was made into an emotional music video. In 2014, The Trews came out with something almost as good: a song called “Highway of Heroes”. The Highway of Heroes is an actual highway (the 401), given this nickname for the stretch of road on which the bodies of fallen soldiers are brought home. The Trews’ song is a touching tribute.
Check out these two songs and remember why you’re even able to listen to them. Because of the Heroes.
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 25: Visions of the Beast featuring Bob Cesca from Camp Chaos
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #124
Back in 1999/2000, a little video called “Napster Bad!” went viral. You know it, you shared it, you loved it. Well, not Harrison because he was not born yet. Bob Cesca (founder of Camp Chaos) created that video and many others, including official music videos for bands such as Motley Crue, Yes, and…Iron Maiden!
Bob is a talented jack of many trades, and also a massive Rush fan. In this effortless interview, Bob tells us everything you wanted to know about him and Iron Maiden. 2003’s Visions of the Beast double DVD was a massive collection, and Camp Chaos did six music videos for it. These videos mixed animation with the original familiar music video footage. We break them all down in detail, including how to access the Easter Eggs. How was he contacted by the Maiden camp? How much input did Iron Maiden have on his creative process? Why did he choose certain Eddies and settings, and how did he decide what to edit out of the originals to make way for animation? It is a fascinating trip back in time, as current events impacted some of the videos, even though the songs themselves were oldies. Hey…are there 10 ME-109s out of the sun…or not?
Bob also answered all our non-Maiden questions, such as why James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich have no noses in “Napster Bad”?
After Bob had answered all our questions, Harrison and Mike took a deep dive on the rest of the contents of the DVD set. If you owned Visions of the Beast back in the day, own it now, or not yet…you will want to pop it in after this episode.
Please welcome Mr. Bob Cesca to Grab A Stack of Rock, and 50 Years of Iron Maiden! Join us at the premiere in the comments tonight – we love interacting with you!
A big thanks to Tim Durling for introducing us to Bob!
Friday November 7 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy on YouTube.
This great, forgotten Union live album should be added to the collections of any fans of John Corabi or Bruce Kulick. Packed with great songs from Union, Motley Crue, Kiss, the Scream, and even Cheap Trick and the Beatles, this live album delivers on every level. 11 tracks live, plus two bonus studio songs. Power to the music indeed!
There are no specifics about recording dates, but regardless the album has been well sequenced, opening with Union’s own album opener, “Old Man Wise”. Very much a continuation of the Motley and Kiss albums of 1994 and 1997 respectively. Mix them up with riff and groove sauce, you’d get something like “Old Man Wise”. Bruce’s playing is always fascinating and “Crabby” was in top voice. Grit and power are the words of the day. This song pounds, and Bruce absolutely rules. We go straight into the equally grooving but more upbeat “Around Again”. Union had an excellent self-titled album out at the time, and it makes up the bulk of the album. Fortunately the band’s original songs set a high bar. Bruce Kulick doesn’t put out crap. A third song from the debut, “Heavy D…” might be called a ballad, but really it’s a quiet song with heavy parts. Or is it a heavy song with quiet parts? It is performed with gusto in either guise.
“We’re gonna do something from Carnival of Souls! This is called the ‘Jungle’, baby!” Then Jamie Hunting comes in with that rolling bassline, originally played on album by Bruce himself. Kulick’s past with Kiss makes an appearance on “Jungle”, a song Kiss never performed live, so quite a treat. John Corabi’s spin on a Paul Stanley vocal is full of raspy power yet still appropriate. Hearing this makes one wish that Kiss did have the balls to play it live.
That’s a lot of heavy rock in a row, and to lighten the mood, it’s the Union original “Love (I Don’t Need It Anymore)”, which is dedicated to a certain someone who was involved with a current event in the news at the time. It’s a little more upbeat, a little more “Motley” and absolutely one of the best Union songs from the debut. The chorus kills like a classic from Dr. Feelgood. Corabi then takes us back to his earliest catalogue, The Scream’s “Man In the Moon”. The Scream were a sort of musician’s super group, featuring Bruce Bouillet and John Alderete from Racer X. The Scream was more mainstream than that. This is a melodic rocker with a bluesy twist, and the band do a slamming job of it.
Bruce Kulick takes center stage on another Kiss song that was never played live, and his vocal debut: “I Walk Alone”, which he wrote with Gene Simmons. It begins with a short, Zeppelin-esque guitar exercise from Bruce. As for the vocals, you gotta give Bruce credit for not going back and fixing things. This is Kulick’s voice raw and exposed and imperfect and yet…perfect for the album. In many ways, this is better than the Kiss version, as Bruce adds a really sweet guitar outro.
A fun unexpected cover next: Cheap Trick’s “Surrender”! The backing vocal abilities of the entire band enable them to easily pull this off. You’d look at it on paper and scratch your head a bit, but it’s short work for these pros. It’s all about the vocals.
A dramatic “Pain Behind Your Eyes” brings to the stage another soft/hard hybrid with wicked drumming and vocals. However this is just a prelude to one of the heaviest Motley Crue songs ever: “Power to the Music”. Corabi takes center stage doing some screamin’ and preachin’ to the crowd. The demanding song is handled ably by Corabi, seemingly relishing playing this awesome song live on the stage again. They probably would have blown Motley off the stage doing the same song.
After some band intros, we get some Kulick solo wailing right into the final song “Tangerine”. Nothing like the Zeppelin song, this is a riff-rocking groover with excellent melodic delivery by John Corabi. Union were a melodic band, but John’s approach added the grit and grime that is like rock candy going down. This song slays with a resilient groovy riff.
Bonus studio tracks are two: an acoustic rendering of “October Morning Wind” from the debut, and a Beatles cover that blows away the more well know Oasis version. First up though, the rich acoustics of “October Morning Wind” really bring warmth to a cold subject. “My pain is measured by a sky that is old and grey,” sings John in a song that may well be about seasonal affective disorder. Then, the Beatles cover is handled with ease. “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” benefits from similar acoustic warmth. It sounds live in the studio, and again the lead and backing vocals make it work seemingly without effort!
Union really made a strong impression with their first two releases, the debut and the live album. Was it too soon for a live album? When you look at the setlist, absolutely not. They had enough material with which to build a very strong set of songs, needing only one true cover (the Cheap Trick song). The bonus acoustic tracks are icing.
I was honoured to be asked to join Grant and company for his ongoing Bon Jovi series – Convert the Critic. Our task was to convince Grant on two latter day Bon Jovi albums: Crush and Bounce. I had all my albums and singles ready, and I also listened to some demos from the Bon Jovi box set 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong. Grant was open minded and listened to all of our arguments. Grant’s panel:
Grab A Stack of Rock
The Parish of Rock
The Elder of Rock
David Alpizar
Yes it was another “Of Rock” episode on Grant’s Rock Warehaus! A good time was had by all, some good songs were discussed, and some cheesy lyrics were dissected. Thanks for watching if you caught it live, and if you didn’t, you can catch it below!
RECORD STORE TALES #1223: The Creative Process and Why I Love Editing (The new and improved Grab A Stack of Rock show intro video)
Funny thing about creativity: Sometimes size does matter.
The size of your canvas, that is.
I love editing videos, and my pet project for three years now has been the theme video for my YouTube show, Grab A Stack of Rock. In those three years, I have created over 100 revisions. I have spent countless hours at my deck working on them. My old PC’s fans used to groan in protest when loading the files.
Ever since the old LeBrain Train days, I wanted an opening theme song video that include every guest who had ever been on the show. When we started over from scratch, that was still my goal. Now we have had 50 guests and the old theme song video was getting cramped. Tim Durling extended it a long time ago by looping a chorus, so I came to him for help once again. Creatively, Tim added a guitar solo to extend the song’s length even further. Modestly, Tim said “It should be apparent to anyone listening that a professional guitar player I am not, but it sure was fun.” Hey man, it’s good enough for rock and roll, and it gave me a much larger canvas to play with.
When I had the much shorter video, it was always painful for me to edit when we had a new guest to add to the show. What do I cut, in order to fit the new person in? There were some parts of the video that were synched to the song and were set in stone – Paul Shortino’s cameo, for example, my laugh at the end, and so on. I love editing; it is one of my favourite parts of the creative process. I can sit and edit all day and not realize how much time has gone by. I always pay for it later in cramps.
Thanks to Tim and this ever-expanding song I now have more canvas, and I’ve been playing with it even more.
“It needs more Dan Chartrand,” I said at first, and so I added more Dan, and just for kicks, more Jex too. Game Show Host Jex, with the jacket.
There was also one shot in the original video that always bugged me. It’s one of the oldest shots, but it is from a Christmas show that included Brian Richards as a guest – his only show as a guest. But it was a static shot and always stood out for that reason. It hasn’t looked right for a long time, so I took this opportunity to replace it with a moving shot of Brian waving. I also wanted more Nurse Kat, since she did two episodes with us, and more Archie Gamble since he did three. In a fun happenstance, I got one shot of Archie synched up to the chorus, so it looks like he’s singing Grab A Stack of Rock. I also wanted more Davey Cretin, so a chose a shot from our Brave New World episode that has me holding stacks of Maiden during the chorus.
I hope this brief glimpse of a day’s work gives you an idea of why I love working on editing videos. There is almost always something you want to fix, but the process of doing so either becomes so impossibly tedious that I say, “That’s it, this work is done.” Not done – abandoned!
I have been working in the video medium, as an amateur, for 36 years. I like editing to music. I like placing my edits at key moments of songs, or at least with the beat. It gives me a framework and enhances the visuals. I’m obviously just a hack; this isn’t a “how-to”. I’m just expressing what I love and why I drink my coffee until it is stone cold, sitting here trying to perfect that magical “final” edit.
And then I wait, because now I can’t wait for the next guest to arrive and be added to the showcase.* We still have several more to come!**
One day I’d like to do some more animation, but that is mostly an outdoor summer activity for me. For now, I will continue to enjoy doing this for myself, because at the end of the day, nobody else notices all the minute little tweaks and changes I make to my passion projects.
*We’ve already added Lana Teramae, and another new addition, Bob Cesca, will join us this week on 50 Years of Iron Maiden.
**Two more guests are coming on 50 Years of Iron Maiden: Ryan Murphy from RushFans, and D’Arcy Briggs from darcyska. We also have plans with author Robert Lawson, and an interview with a musician that I am not ready to disclose.
Written by Mike Ladano, Jen Ladano, and Tee Bone Erickson. Recorded and performed by Tee Bone, guitar solo and remix by Tim Durling
Blaze Bayley
Harrison Kopp
Mike Ladano
Eric “Uncle Meat” Litwiller
Aaron KMA
Tim Durling
Rob Daniels
John T Snow
Marco D’Auria
Grant Arthur
Brian Richards
MarriedandHeels
Kevin Simister
Dr. Kathryn
Jen Ladano
Grace Scheele
Jex Russell
Spencer “Spenny” Rice
Nurse Kat
Peter Kerr
John Clauser
Erik Woods
Jason Drury
Pierre-Luc Allard
Len Labelle
Reed Little
Metal Roger
John the Music Nut
Mike Slayen
Pete Jones
Todd Evans
James Kalyn
Angie Moon
Ryan Gavalier
Chris Preston
Dan Chartrand
Glen “Archie” Gamble
bicyclelegs
Davey Cretin
Melissa Nee
Sidney Cini A
Ashley Geisler
Martin Popoff
Bert Blotto
F Lee Harvey Blotto
Bowtie Blotto
Broadway Blotto
Jake Not From State Farm
Bob Cesca (Camp Chaos)
Lana Teramae
and (briefly) Max the Axe
Plus Daisi the Dog, Gimli the Cat (RIP) and Galadriel the Cat
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode
Episode 123: Happy Halloween – Top 5 Band Costumes & A Tribute to Ace Frehley
With Mike, Harrison, Johnny Metal and Rob Daniels – IN COSTUME!
Happy 3rd birthday to Grab A Stack of Rock (Oct 28 2022)! We have a special show tonight. Not only do we have an excellent panel of returning guests, but we have a fun, Halloween-themed gimmick-laden episode to satisfy! And of course, for the physical media crowd, we will have lots of CDs (rare, imports) and some music merch to look at!
The show topics tonight are three:
1. Our panel will be dressed in costumes! Some many be dressed in two costumes!
2. Mike will run down his top Ace Frehley songs of all time, from his Kiss, Comet and Solo careers. Knowing Mike, expect deep cuts and non-album tracks.
3. Top Five Band Costumes from the panel. Any band, any costume qualifies. Literally anything from the matching Beatles suits to Gwar.
Don’t miss this special episode, coming to you LIVE on YouTube. Join us in the comments – we love to interact! Best of all, we plan to be done in time for you to catch the World Series game tonight.
Friday October 31 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
mikeladano.com 