Quizzes

Brent’s Back! Leftover People with Ladano, Deke and Brent Jensen

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

Episode 55 – The Return of Brent Jensen

** One Year Anniversary Episode **

 

Brent Jensen is one of my favourite people.  His No Sleep ‘Til Sudbury podcast is essential listening.  I’m currently working my way through the book No Sleep’Til Sudbury, a story I really identify with.  Though Brent is a couple years ahead of me, I really see myself in his story of discovering hard rock and heavy metal in the early 80s.  Seeing bands for the first time, the contrived origins and evolution of Motley Crue, cassettes, video tapes…it is a great read.  One that has me stroking my beard in deep thought, as I am forced to consider heavy metal history from a different angle.

Superdekes will be back as your co-host for what we hope will be another excellent free-form conversation about the subject we all love:  music that makes our skin vibrate.

In addition:  this will be my one year anniversary show!  Ontario went into a state of emergency on March 17, 2020.  I went live that Friday.  And here we are a year later!  To celebrate, I’ll be doing a CD giveaway (details at bottom), and showing clips from the very first show a year ago.

Not only that:  Brent is celebrating four years and 200 episodes of No Sleep ‘Til Sudbury, the podcast!  He just opened a new Patreon membership too, so we will be talking about that and plenty more.  This is an episode you don’t want to miss.  You want to catch it live!

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

 

CD GIVEAWAY CONTEST 

We will be asking a skill-testing question about Brent Jensen on the show.  Submit your answers in the form below.  We will be giving away two sealed CDs:  The Cars’ debut (remastered), and a signed copy of Jim Crean’s excellent Insatiable.  I will be doing a random draw from a hat next week!

WINNER WINNER! Max the Axe CD draw!

“Hey Winner winner, love that chicken dinner, put it in a briefcase to go!” – Max the Axe, “Next Plane to Vegas”

WE HAVE A WINNER the Max the Axe CD draw!  Congratulations to…

LEAH from Waterloo, age 8!

 

Way to go Leah!  She was even able to name Max the Axe by his real name, Mike Koutis!  We’re not saying she had any help with this, but even if she did, it wasn’t against the rules!

Your Max the Axe Status Electric CD and Nancy Vicious button are on their way!*

* Mail strike notwithstanding!

CONCERT REVIEW: Max the Axe and guests, Dec 8 at the Boathouse + CD GIVEAWAY!

The Boathouse was rocked again this past weekend as Max and his legendary Axe stormed the place with heavy riffing, some friends, and a brand new album called Status Electric.

Opening the show was singer was former Max singer Mickey Straight (“from Guatemala” as he was introduced, but I think Guatemala is Toronto).  Mickey has a rock star stage presence and together with Max the Axe, they played some of their oldies such as “Mutant Mind” and “Belljar Party”.  Mickey played bass as a trio with Max and Dr. Dave Haslam on drums, which we quickly learned was going to be a common theme going forward.

Second up was the biggest surprise of the night: Nancy Vicious and the Nasty Bitches.  Punk rock was expected, and punk rock we had (including some Pistols and Stooges with originals).  On drums…the newly rebranded “God Damn Dave” Haslam.  Guitarist Mike “Mitch Bitch” Mitchell surprised us by ripping off his shirt revealing a corset.  But the real surprise was Nancy Vicious herself, a young powerhouse with lungs of fucking stainless steel.  Classic punk mixed with new-breed bands like Dilly Dally.  I learned that Nancy has been playing the bars for years, though only 19 years old.  No CDs for sale unfortunately — Nancy told me their first album was “really bad” but that they are working on a second one with (hopefully) about 13 songs.  They did have merch for sale in the way of stickers, buttons and postcards.

We were under the impression that the Hellen Keller Band had changed their name to the Delusionals.  This was Fake News.  What is the Hellen Keller Band?  An instrumental trio led by Mike Mitchell on guitar, God Damn Dr. Dave on bass, and Eric “Uncle Meat” Litwiller on drums.  Mitchell’s incredible picking was quite stunning to watch.  He’s got chicken pickin’ going on, and plenty of ability.  And it turns out Dr. Dave is even better on bass than he is on drums.  This trio was plenty of fun to watch, as they mixed covers and originals.  They closed the set with a blistering Dead Kennedys “Holiday in Cambodia”.

Finally the game of Musical Chairs came to the end when Max the Axe hit the stage.  Lineup:  Max on lead guitar, with Eric Litwiller’s voice, Dr. Dave’s drums and Mike Mitchell’s bass.  He played his entire new album, the stellar Status Electric in sequence with a break in the middle.  Now, we’ve been quite clear here how great Status Electric is.  Hearing it played live for the first time?  Brilliant.

Litwiller opened up his powerful lungs on “River Grand”, a grungy rocker.  He blasted consistently through all of “side one” while Max ripped hot licks on his Axe.  After the vocal tour-de-force “Sick of Living”, they played “Mexican Standoff” from Trillion Dollar Threats, some Black Flag, and then gave Litwiller a break as Mickey Straight was invited back for two oldies.  “Daddy Was a Murderin’ Man” and “I Don’t Advocate Drugs” (also Trillion Dollar Threats) were a treat.  The final side of the Status Electric album was then laid out, with “Gods on the Radio” and “Scales of Justice” being the obvious best tracks.  Unfortunately by this time all four band members had already played full sets with other bands, and they flubbed a few lines in “Uptite Friday Night” and “Scales”.  Not that this detracted from the show.  It seemed everybody was aware of how hard these guys had been playing all night!

4.5/5 stars

 

CD and MERCH GIVEAWAY!

WIN YOUR OWN COPY OF STATUS ELECTRIC!  Bonus NANCY VICIOUS STICKER AND BUTTON!

 

How, you ask, do I win?

It’s simple!  Just answer the easy question below by submitting it directly on the form.  All correct answers will be put in a hat and one lucky winner will be drawn at random!  Please remember to include your complete mailing address so we can send your prize!*

QUESTION:  Name all four current members of Max the Axe.

This contest will run for one week, from December 10 to December 17, when we will draw the winner.

Good luck!

*Disclaimer:  Canada Post is on strike and we can make no delivery guarantees.

QUIZ ANSWER: What was in LeBrain’s Bag?

The startling conclusion to What’s in LeBrain’s Bag?

You had a picture and five clues:

 

  1. There are two records in there.
  2. One is a double, one is a single.
  3. One is a new release, one is a reissue.
  4. One is Canadian content, the other is not.
  5. You can kinda make out one.

 

And we had a winner, immediately.  A man who knows his metal like he knows his haggis.  SCOTT, your HEAVY METAL OVERLOrD correctly guessed the first record (the new release, non-Canadian double LP) and wins a picture drawn by me!

It was…ACCEPT – The Rise of Choas.

I did what any sensible shopper should do before buying the album.  I looked it up on CD Japan to see if the Japanese version had any bonus tracks.  They did not, so I grabbed the double vinyl.  10 tracks, 2 records, orange and blue swirl vinyl, limited to 700 copies.  Those numbers add up for me!  I can’t wait to sink my needle into those.

 

 


Scott’s picture is a Schnauzer on an airplane!

The second LP (which I didn’t seriously expect anyone to guess) nicely fills a gap in my collection.  You see, I have CD remasters for every Rush album from the first one to Test For Echo…except one.   Roll the Bones continued to elude me,  so instead of CD, I opted for something possibly better:  200 gram vinyl LP remaster.  As far as I can think of, this is my first 200 gram vinyl purchase, though I own a few 180 grams.   Aaron correctly guessed Rush (with an initial guess of VoiVod) so I offered to draw him a picture of a cookie.  Sadly it turned out looking more like vomit (even when I added the cookie fumes), so I hope you will excuse the lack of a prize.

RUSH – Roll the Bones 200 gram remastered LP.  Now I have all the Rush remasters!

And now, the conclusion to the “How did Mike get the Max Webster The Party box set?”

Because, oh yes, I did get it.

Sunrise had it for $64.99, but I had trouble cancelling my Amazon pre-order at $89.99.  I bought my Rush and Accept records, and drew a prize:  a new fidget spinner!  (I think I have four now?)  I went home and kept trying to cancel my Amazon order.  An email said that the issue should be resolved in a few hours, so I sat tight.

Around 4:30 that afternoon, I got the email that my pre-order was successfully cancelled.  I hopped in my car; four minutes later was back at Sunrise.  I grabbed Max Webster, and drew another prize:  a Transformers mini-comic!

So, really, everything went down about as perfectly as you could imagine.  I got The Party box set and an extra prize for coming back.

The Party is very bare-bones for packaging.  There are no booklets, but the discs are housed in mini-LP gatefold sleeves with inner graphics.  For that reason, I am going to hang onto my remastered Max Webster debut CD on Rock Candy, which has an extensive booklet.  A buddy of mine named Scott has dibs on the rest of my old Max Webster collection.  Hey, it’s a lucky day for guys named Scott!

I have a lot of listening to do, which will hopefully lead to a little reviewing.  Hope you enjoyed this game!  Back to reviews tomorrow.

QUIZ: What’s in LeBrain’s Bag?

Saturday September 30th was Sunrise Records’ “Grand Re-opening” across Canada.  I’ve been shopping there for months now, but the 30th was a ceremonial event.  They had prizes and sales, but as usual I came for music.

Brother Tom sometimes asks me, “Why do you go to Sunrise?  Go to Encore Records — a real record store.”  I get what he means.  Encore has long reigned as the Best Music Store in Kitchener-Waterloo.  Even back when Tom and I were in the business, we knew Encore had the game all sewed up in this town.

I like going to Sunrise for a number of reasons; one is location.  I got there in four minutes.  Two, I want them to do well with this re-opening.  The mall needs a record store.  A mall without a record store is just a Walmart with a food court.

On to the quiz:  What is in LeBrain’s Bag? Examine the picture at top and post your answer in the comments.

Clues:

  1. There are two records in there.
  2. One is a double, one is a single.
  3. One is a new release, one is a reissue.
  4. One is Canadian content, the other is not.
  5. You can kinda make out one.

The Prize:

I WILL DRAW A PICTURE FOR YOU, yes that’s right I WILL DRAW YOU A PICTURE!

Guess just one record and I will draw a picture for you, probably of a Schnauzer, but you never know.  Airplanes are also cool.

Guess both records and we will send you to Dr. Peter Venkman to be tested for ESP ability.

The big new release this week was the long awaited 8-disc Max Webster box set, The Party. It’s all their albums (except the “greatest hits” Diamonds Diamonds), a disc of unreleased rarities and the Kim Mitchell EP too.  Encore Records had it — 15 copies.  Sunrise had it too.  My copy was on pre-order from Amazon, for $89.99.

When I arrived at Sunrise, I nearly shit my pants.  They had it for $25 cheaper — only $64.99.  I jumped on my phone immediately, logged into my Amazon account and tried to cancel my pre-order.  It was already staged for shipping.  The cancellation wouldn’t go through?

What happened?  Was I able to cancel my Amazon order?  Would Sunrise still have the box set when I came back?  Tune back later today for the answer to today’s quiz and the conclusion to the story!

QUIZ WINNER! The Merciless Book of Metal Lists!

WE HAVE A WINNER!

 

The fastest win in contest history goes to…

WARDY!

 

The correct answer to the question was JINGLE CATS!

The answer was found on Record Store Tales Part 167:  Top Five Discs that Got Us in Shit at the Record Store

Well done Wardy!  Your Merciless Book of Metal Lists is in the mail!

QUIZ: Win a copy of The Merciless Book of Metal Lists!

Wanna win a brand-spankin’-new copy of this awesome book?  “The Merciless Book of Metal Lists (by Howie Abrams and Sacha Jenkins, retail price $21.95 Canadian) is a highly opinionated compendium of the most random, funny, and challenging information about Heavy Metal from the last forty years.”

Just answer the simple trivia question below.  The answer can be found somewhere on mikeladano.com.  You just have to find it.

Here are the rules:

  1. Do not leave your answer in the comments.  Don’t spoil the contest!  Leave your answer by filling out the form below which will be directly emailed to my top-secret address.
  2. You may enter as many times as you like.
  3. But the first right answer and only the first answer gets the prize.
  4. This shouldn’t be too hard, but the contest master might be cajoled into giving out a few clues if this goes sideways and takes forever.
  5. The winner will be required to provide a mailing address for the prize to be sent.

Ready?  Here is your question.

this-picture-is-a-clue

The answer, which you can find somewhere on mikeladano.com, may surprise you.  Good luck!  Let’s see some entries!  GO!

 

 

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QUIZ WINNER Scott goes Rogue, receives prize

 

Scott works hard for his prizes!  When he said that Lego Album Cover Quiz #3 was his “entire afternoon” he wasn’t kidding.  That’s what makes a winner!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hand over Scott’s prize (a new copy of Whitesnake’s killer Saints & Sinners CD, featuring “Here I Go Again” and “Crying in the Rain”).  We met up and saw Rogue One which gets better upon further viewings.

There are more QUIZZES and more PRIZES coming in 2017!  Stay tuned, watch this space, or better yet, sign up for daily notifications so you never miss a chance to win some cool rock.

 

 

 

 

QUIZ WINNER! Lego Album Covers 3!

We have a winner!

Congrats to Scott Peddle for cracking the Lego mosaic quiz and winning a CD of Whitesnake’s fabulous 1982 album Saints & Sinners featuring the original versions of “Here I Go Again” and “Crying in the Rain”.

Scott identified all five albums!  “That was my afternoon. Obsess much?” he asks.
1. JOE SATRIANI – Shockwave Supernova

2.  MONSTER TRUCK – Sittin’ Heavy

3. HONEYMOON SUITE – The Singles

4. HELIX – Rockin’ In My Outer Space

5. HAREM SCAREM – Mood Swings

Congrats Scott and enjoy your new Whitesnake!

scan_20161217-5

Runner-up for “most original answer” is Scott the Heavy Metal Overlord, for the below response:

 

1. THE BOABYS – Show Us Yer Boaby
2. SUMS DOG – 2 + 2 equals woof
3. IMHOTEP – s/t
4. SAMMY HAGAR – Butter on my Biscuit
5. MARILLION – Fuck Christmas and Run: Christmas CD No. 367.5

Thanks for participating you guys!

QUIZ: Lego Album Covers 3 (Win a free CD!)

WE HAVE A WINNER!

 

 

Wanna win a free CD?  This brand new copy of Whitesnake’s fantastic 1982 album Saints & Sinners (featuring the original versions of hits “Crying in the Rain” and “Here I Go Again”) can be yours if you can just solve the quiz.

scan_20161217-5

All you have to do is identify five album covers that have been converted into Lego mosaics.  It’s easy!  

Please be sure to read the rules below:

  1. Do not leave your answer in the comments.  Don’t spoil the contest!  Leave your answer by filling out the form below which will be directly emailed to my top-secret address.
  2. You may enter as many times as you like.
  3. But the first right answer and only the first answer gets the prize.
  4. You must provide the correct artist and title for all five albums.
  5. This shouldn’t be too hard, but the contest master might be cajoled into giving out a few clues if this goes sideways and takes forever.
  6. The winner will be required to provide a mailing address for the prize to be sent.
  7. An alternate prize (DVD movie(s) from a selection) will be available upon request.

Prize will be mailed after Christmas.  Fill out the below form with your answer.

Ready?  Set?  Each of these covers is a forthcoming album review at mikeladano.com (that’s a clue).  IDENTIFY and GOOD LUCK.  GO!

1.

lego-1

2.

lego-2

3.

lego-3

4.

lego-4

5.

lego-5