Grab a Stack of Rock / LeBrain Train

Over Our Heads? Top Five King’s X Albums with Martin Popoff on this week’s LeBrain Train!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 50 – Top Five King’s X Albums with Martin Popoff

For this very special 50th episode of the LeBrain Train, we welcome back Martin Popoff to talk King’s X!  It is such an honour and a pleasure to have Martin on a second time.  King’s X was the subject broached (by Uncle Meat, thank you) and Martin challenged us to hone down our usual Nigel Tufnel Top Ten lists to a tight Top Five.

Topic decided, it was only after the fact I realized how difficult this was going to be!  But I think I have my top five ready.  These are some serious lists, and we’re sitting down with a serious King’s X fan.

Friday night, “We Will Find Who We Are”.  Is this one “Over My Head”?  Let the “Skeptical Winds” blow.  I don’t want to “Pretend”, because “I’ll Never Get Tired” of King’s X.  Please give Martin your biggest welcome, and give it a share, won’t you?

Friday February 12, 7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

KING’X STUDIO ALBUMS + MORE

Part 1 – Out of the Silent Planet (1988)
Part 2 – Gretchen Goes to Nebraska (1989)
Part 3 – Kings of the Absurd (split bootleg with Faith No More)
Part 4 – Faith Hope Love by King’s X (1990)
Part 5 – “Junior’s Gone Wild” (from 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey soundtrack)
Part 6 – King’s X (1992)
Part 7 – Dogman (1994) + bonus “Pillow” promo single review
Part 8 – Ear Candy (1996)
Part 9 – Best of King’s X (1997)
Part 10 – Tape Head (1998)
Part 11 – POUNDHOUND – Massive Grooves from the Church of Psychofunkadelic Grungelism Rock Music (1998 Doug Pinnick/Jerry Gaskill)
Part 12 – Please Come Home…Mr. Bulbous (2000)
Part 13 – PLATYPUS – Ice Cycles (2000 Ty Tabor)
Part 14 – Manic Moonlight (2001)
Part 15 – Black Like Sunday (2003)
Part 16 – Ogre Tones (2005)
Part 17 – XV (2008)

T-Bone and the Gang are Done With Mirrors on the LeBrain Train

What can you say about a show that does all the following in one night:

  1. An in-depth, track by track analysis and critique of Aerosmith’s Done With Mirrors
  2. A tribute to Christopher Plummer (R.I.P.)
  3. CD unboxing and beer de-canning
  4. A world premier music video
  5. The sound of the real toilet flushing
  6. Awesome rock and roll chit-chat for almost three full hours

Why, it could only have been the LeBrain Train!  And this week, far more than 2000 words were said about Done With Mirrors.  This album generated so much passionate and sometimes dispassionate discussion that it would have been a shame if everybody didn’t get to speak their piece.  This album isn’t as polarizing as you might think.  We all found something enjoyable, we just didn’t always agree on what was enjoyable.

Your panel tonight was:

To skip ahead to the parts you may be interested in, go to the following points in the video:

  • Beer de-canning:  0:26:40
  • Encore Records unboxing:  0:28:10
  • Christopher Plummer tributes at:  0:18:30 and 2:34:50
  • Done With Mirrors discussion:  0:34:05
  • World premier music video of Current River’s Rock’n in a Rubber:  2:38:45

 

Thanks for watching and leaving the awesome comments, folks!  Tune in next week when Martin Popoff returns with his King’s X Top Five!

 

T-Bone Lets The Music Do The Talking on tonight’s LeBrain Train

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 49 – “The Return of T-Bone”

 

Layin’ down some facts for you:

  1. T-Bone is one of my favourite people,
  2. “Let the Music Do the Talking” is one of my favourite songs,
  3. but Done With Mirrors is one of my least favourite Aerosmith albums.

It’s been a mere two months since T-Bone last graced our show with his presence, but this time he’s coming locked and loaded with a special album deep discussion:  Aerosmith’s Done With Mirrors.

When I ranked all the Aerosmith albums, I placed it at #11.  I gave it a 3.5/5 when I reviewed it separately, but I blame Deke for that.  He was whispering things in my ear.  “36 minutes of classic Aerorock,” is what he said.   That was six years ago, and I have not listened to Done With Mirrors much since.  So it will be interesting to see what we have to say this time out.  Deke and T-Bone are big fans.

Besides Deke and T-Bone, we’ll also be bringing in Uncle Meat and Buried On Mars.  They are coming into the discussion with fresher ears than I, so it’ll be interesting to hear their takes.

Also:  Special beer “de-canning”!   Music unboxing from Encore Records!  New Current River music video!  All coming to you live…tonight!

 

7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

 

 

Scheduling Notes:

Martin Popoff will be back next Friday, February 12, for a King’s X Top Five show!

We are also hard at work on plenty of list shows and returning guests.  Rob Daniels and Mike Slayen will be returning when we do the Top Riffs of the 80s.  Harrison the Mad Metal Mad will be back when we tackle Top Maiden Album Covers, and a few other topics that we have cooking up.  And for a special 1st Anniversary show on March 19, Brent Jensen is going to talk about music that makes our skin vibrate one more time!

 

 

Mike Fraser takes us inside the recording studio on an epic LeBrain Train

“What happened to the guitars? Well put them back the way they were!” – Jimmy Page

A huge, huge, huge thanks to Mike Fraser for hanging out on a Friday night!  Growing up a young rock fan in Canada, we heard legend of Little Mountain studios in Vancouver.  Tonight, Superdekes and I got to ask the questions we wanted to know for over 30 years.  And Mike delivered!

Krokus.  Loverboy.  Honeymoon Suite.  AC/DC.  Aerosmith.  Bryan Adams.  The Cult.  Coverdale-Page.  So much more!  We tackled some of our favourite albums and a few cult classics.  From the Stone Gods to Canadian folksters The Rankin Family, we tried to explore the slightly obscure corners of Mike’s discography.  And we had a blast!  We took a few viewer questions, and if Mike comes back to the show again in the future, then maybe we can ask him the rest.

As I often do, I started early with an unboxing.  Start the video from the beginning if you want to catch that.  If you’re only interested in Mike (couldn’t blame you) then skip to 0:08:00 of the stream.

Make sure you watch all the way to the end to catch the brand new music video by T-Bone Erickson:  “Balls of Steel”.  This song is a tribute to Superdekes, who hooked us up with Mike Fraser for this show.  Thank you Deke, and thank you T-Bone for this awesome premiere video!

Feedback has been saying that this was the best LeBrain Train yet.  Do you agree?

REMINDER: Mike Fraser, Engineer Extraordinaire, on tonight’s LeBrain Train

Just a reminder that Mike Fraser, who has either engineered or mixed just about every album you love, will be on the show tonight!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 48

In preparation for tonight, Deke and I have been doing our research, listening to records, and listening to other podcasts that Mike has been on.  While you can count on some AC/DC questions (and other major bands that Mike has worked with) Deke and I have some queries about some other albums off the beaten track.  You can check out some of Mike’s credits at his website.

Please give this a share to your rock buddies, and show Mike a warm welcome on tonight’s LeBrain Train!

January 29 2021. 7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

Note:  Thank you T-Bone for your understanding.  We original had T-Bone Erickson on the schedule for tonight to debut the latest Current River music video.  That show will now be pushed back to February 5.  T-Bone has graciously agreed to be bumped so we could talk to Mike Fraser.  Mighty fine dude!

Engineer Extraordinaire Mike Fraser joins the LeBrain Train – Friday Jan. 29 7:00 PM EST

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 48

Ever wanted to know what it was like making records with AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Cult, Coverdale-Page, Joe Satriani, Blue Murder and many more? If so, make sure you tune in to this Friday’s episode of the LeBrain Train.

Mike Fraser has worked on so many classic rock albums that your head will spin. There is a 99.999% certainty that you know and love at least one record he’s been involved with. For some of us it’s more a matter of the ones we haven’t heard yet!

A huge thanks to Mike for agreeing to come on our lil’ show and chat music, and an equally big thank-you to Superdekes for hooking it up. This is going to be fun.

January 29 2021. 7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

 

The Riffs Kept A-Rockin’ on the LeBrain Train

Dude!!  What a show that was!  Technical difficulties aside, another excellent Nigel Tufnel Top Ten.  Hottest Riffs of the 1970s was the topic at hand.  The lists went far and wide and everybody came out of it with huge smiles on their faces.  Rush, Van Halen and Black Sabbath received a lot of extra love tonight, but you’ll have to watch to find out!

Your panel:

It was a tremendous amount of fun to actually hear some of these riffs instead of just talking about them.  A huge thanks to Mike for doing this with us.  And he will be back when we talk about the 80s.

The less said about this show, the better, because who wants spoilers?  Not you, trust me!

To jump straight to the lists without all the preamble and introductions, go to 0:21:00 and enjoy!

Top Riffs of the 1970s tonight on the LeBrain Train – special guest Mike Slayen

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 47

 

In October 2020, we did one of my favourite LeBrain Train episodes:  Van Halen deep cuts.  Shortly after, I was contacted by guitarist Mike Slayen about how much he enjoyed the lists.  He asked me if there was any way he could participate and I “sure DUDE!”  See, Dude is the title of his excellent instrumental acoustic CD.  But Mike knows not just acoustic, but also the sweet siren song of a fully electrified six-string.  Why not talk about Top Riffs?

Kevin, Aaron, and Uncle Meat were interested.  But it was quickly obvious that the scope was too large, so we decided to break it down by decade.  In the future, we’ll reconvene to talk about riffs of the 80s and 90s, but tonight, we talk about the greatest time ever (perhaps) for guitar riffs:  the molten 1970s.

Tonight’s panel will be five:

Mike Slayen is a guitar teacher, so what I am hoping is that he can demonstrate how some of these riffs are played.  This is going to be a fun night with plenty of great picks for you (and I) to check out.  See you tonight, and please share with your music buddies!

 

 

 

 

Martin Popoff chills with the Three Amigos at the Rock and Roll Highschool

Thank you Martin Popoff for a thunderous rock and roll chat on a locked-in Friday night!  Confronted by three Top Five Popoff lists, Martin threw it down!  From his books to his Youtube shows, we tried to cover a bit of everything.  Thank you Martin for giving us an hour of your Friday night.  If you haven’t read one of his terrific tomes yet, check out what’s available at martinpopoff.com.  Money well spent!

We decided to take a three-pronged approach to the discussion by focusing on three Top Five lists:

  1. Deke – Top Five Martin Popoff Books
  2. Mike – Top Five albums I bought because of a 10/10 review in Riff Kills Man
  3. Eric – Top Five Martin Popoff YouTube appearances

From there the discussion flowed like a gin & tonic.

Hope you enjoyed the show!

 

 

REMINDER: Martin Popoff on tonight’s LeBrain Train!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 46 – A Chat With Martin Popoff

Join SuperDekes, Uncle Meat and myself TONIGHT as we talk to the guy who, frankly, got me writing reviews in the first place!  It was Riff Kills Man that inspired me, a book that I’ve been re-reading this week only to find new revelations.  I love when I feel validated by a review in one of Martin’s 90-odd books.

Martin’s extensive bibliography (he is the Isaac Asimov of Heavy Metal) includes definitive tomes on Accept, Rainbow, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and just about every other band with legendary status.  As my re-reading this week has shown me, Martin has a way of describing music that just resonates.  It’s a talent that I have long envied.

Please spread the word, and welcome Martin Popoff to the LeBrain Train tonight!

7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain