A Rock Daydream Nation Panel Show! Tim Durling (Tim’s Vinyl Confessions/The Contrarians), Michael Ladano (Grab a Stack of Rock), Dan Chartrand (Off the Charts) and Peter Wicks (Wixxyleaks).
This one surprised me. These two ZZ Top albums are often considered a pair, with one superior and one inferior. Our panel provided some surprises and a lot of fun over this hour! I surprised myself and changed my mind a couple times. Check out the show!
Episode 162: Operation: Mindcrime III [Geoff Tate] Review/Rant with Tim Durling
Q: What do Geoff Tate and Helix have in common in 2026?
A: They both made their new studio albums frustratingly hard to buy physical copies of in Canada.
Tim Durling from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions is tonight’s guest host, and he’s gonna tell you all about it!
Geoff Tate won the performance rights to Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime I and II as part of the settlement made for the Queensryche band name. Tate has always taken pride in his rock opera epic, and so expanded the series to a trilogy with his new solo album. Interestingly enough, Operation: Mindcrime III is not a third part to the story. Instead, it is a re-telling of the first album, but from the perspective of the evil Dr. X.
Tim will tell us about each of the songs, and the experience of just trying to buy a copy in Canada. Get ready folks – for a price he’d do about anything, except mislead you about Operation: Mindcrime III. Is it any good, or is it the proverbial weak link in the trilogy? Find out tonight, on Grab A Stack of Rock with your host, Tim Durling!
Click above for the link to our streams.
Friday Sept 25 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
Episode 161: On Spec: Best “Blind Buys”
Ever looked at a CD or a record and said “What the heck is this? Looks interesting…I’ll buy that”?
We have! Many times. And tonight we’ll tell you ALL about it. Join special guest Alex Winter and a mystery host! Mike and Harrison are enjoying a deserved break, so Alex and Host will run the show tonight.
Our crew will show you the records, tell you the stories, and explain what these were good purchases (or not)! It’s going to be a good time tonight on Grab A Stack of Rock.
Click above for the link to our streams.
Friday Sept 18 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
Episode 160: Top Ten Songs of The Doors
Both Mike and Harrison are taking the month of September off. Stepping in for hosting duties tonight will be show co-founder Uncle Meat, with a topic of his choice: The Doors! Meat knew that Mike and Harrison would not do a Doors episode if left to their own devices.
On “physical product duties” tonight is returning guest Alex Winter! And newcomer Scott Peddle (super Doors fan) will also be joining. Scott appeared a few times on the old show, LeBrain Train, but this is his Grab A Stack of Rock debut!
Get ready for the Top Ten Songs of the Doors, tonight on Grab A Stack of Rock, with a cast of fans that’ll make you break on through to the other side!
Click above for the link to our streams.
Friday Sept 11 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
Episode 159: Mike’s Complete Atari 2600 Collection
Grab a stack of GAMES! This episode is a sequel to #151: Vintage Video Games. Mike has dug up his entire Atari 2600 games collection, and it was a task and a half! Faced with a variety of boxed games, empty boxes, and games without boxes, Mike had to go through them all and match them back up. It was an “Adventure”, as you’ll see. (Did you get the pun?)
The stunning artwork that Atari put into each box can only be matched by the artwork inside the booklets. Some of these instruction books remain, and we’ll have a good look inside at the art and even the stories that went with the games themselves. Yar’s Revenge has an intact comic book!
This episode is filled with nostalgia and incredible images from the Atari age. Games from Mattel, Parker Brothers, Sega and Activision are also included in this deep dive! We’ll also have a look at some lesser-seen controllers.
Don’t miss this one if you love nostalgia!
Friday September 4 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
We’re baaaaack! After a long 10 month gap, we finally worked up the courage to listen to another pairing of Bon Jovi albums: Have A Nice Day, and Lost Highway.
As the Parish of Rock pointed out, Bon Jovi kind of had a comeback trilogy of albums in the same mold: Crush, Bounce and Have A Nice Day, with Lost Highway being a left turn that had many feeling, well, lost! In this episode we broke it all down! The good (Sambora’s guitar, Tico’s drumming), the bad (too many ballads) and the ugly (fiddles and nu-country). There is much to be praised here, but also much to critique. Our panel did an awesome job.
Yes it was another “Of Rock” episode on Grant’s Rock Warehaus! Grant even played two songs for us: both title tracks. Thanks for watching if you caught it live, and if you didn’t, you can catch it below!
A few weeks ago, we interviewed Tim Durling on his new book On Record: The April Wine Album Review. Tim has also been doing Deep Dives on each album with guests from his book. On the episode for Animal Grace, Tim recruited both myself and Robert Lawson. It’s a great chat so have a watch – I will be posting my written review of the album tomorrow!
NOW on TVC!
Episode 158: Appreciating John Williams with Robert Daniels
It is time. At long last, this episode is finally happening! And what a monumental task it is.
John Towner Williams: 27 Grammy Awards, 5 Academy Awards, 7 BAFTA Awards, 3 Emmy Awards and 4 Golden Globe Awards. Also an honorary Knighthood. Everyone with access to media has heard John Williams’ music at some point in their lives, on TV, the movies or radio. How do we tackle this man’s career in just an hour?
Answer: We call up Rob Daniels from Visions In Sound!
A lifelong fan who has examined the music of Williams on his show for over 25 years, Rob is the man when it comes to film scores. Tonight we’ll look at our CD collections (and a cassette), and appreciate the best of the very best: John Williams!
Click here for the link to our streams.
Friday August 28 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode
Did you ever have a Where’s Waldo book when you were growing up? Or, perhaps you knew a niece or nephew who enjoyed finding the bespectacled Waldo on a joyfully printed page full of activity? Here at Grab A Stack of Rock, we are no strangers to these illustrated search books. Now you can get an Iron Maiden version: Where Is Eddie? by Fantoons.
Featuring artwork interpreted from several key Iron Maiden albums and singles, your task is to find Eddie in each. There are also numerous “easter eggs” to find on each page, with Maiden references deep and obscure. Can you even find the band members? It’s not that hard, but it sure is fun.
As Harrison continues his hiatus, this episode comes courtesy of Mike with Harrison’s understudy. We hope you enjoy this little bonus episode! When Harrison returns, the next episode will be #35 Legacy of the Beast. Until then, have a look (not too spoiler-y) at this art book that goes from the 1980 debut up to The Book of Souls. Up the Irons and see you again soon on 50 Years of Iron Maiden!
Episode available now, click image above!
Past episodes:
Handy YouTube Playlist:
Episode 157: In Defense of Hair Metal with Dan Chartrand and Ashley Geisler
Does any genre of music endure as much derision and mockery as hair metal?
For this episode we have Dan Chartrand, something of an expert on the genre, and Ashley Geisler gathered together to discuss and defend!
We’re going to look at it from multiple angles: Influence, Image, Musicianship, Lyrics, and much more. We won’t be backing down as Mike asks the hard questions about sexism and debauchery.
Once again, former Helix drummer Archie Gamble has brought commentary on three drummers that are important in their own ways to the hair metal scene. Archie brings great insight and recognition.
As always we will have examples from our extensive collections to show you! Don’t miss this one, live!
Friday August 121 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
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