Thank you to Jex Russell for helping me present this brand new “Faces” shirt from Grab A Stack of Rock! (Shirt pictured provided by Mike Semeniuk.) These have been popular, probably due to the handsome mugs on ’em! This new shirt features some popular guests. In order: Mike Slayen, Johnny Clauser, Peter Kerr, Jex Russell, Dr. Kathryn, Spenny Rice and Harrison Kopp.
Don’t forget, you can choose not just to support me, but the other wonderful creators in this community.
Tim’s Vinyl Confessions
2 Loud 2 Old Music
Visions In Sound
The Contrarians
Grab A Stack of Rock
Every shirt, sticker or coffee mug keeps us going. I say this factually.
Please give the video below a watch – trust me it’s worth it! – and consider supporting us on Teepublic.
If you weren’t following back from 2012 to 2019, you may have missed all the Mike and Aaron Go to Toronto excursions!
From 2012 to 2015, Aaron and I went to “Taranna” every year to go hunting for CDs, records, books and more. We always made our regular stops: Sonic Boom, BMV and Pauper’s Pub. Some years, we hit up shops like Kops Records, Paradisc Bound, and Moonbean for coffee. I missed 2016 and 2017 to go to TF Con in Toronto instead. There are only so many dollars! Aaron and I returned in 2018, at the behest of my late mother-in-law, who was dying of cancer. “Go with your friend,” she insisted.
After her passing, Jen and I decided to spend the summer of 2019 at the cottage. We were not able to go at all in 2018. We made up for lost time, but in 2020 the pandemic hit! Aaron and I were not able to return to Toronto together since.
I always documented and edited these trips into videos. I recently compiled all these videos (and some bonus stuff) into two live streams that you are able to watch below! Both streams have bonus footage! The first has a musical unboxing from Aaron. The second stream has a brand new chat with Aaron that you have never seen before!
Aaron and I will be returning to “Taranna” in 2024. Watch this space…
The Jexter Bunny brought an early Easter surprise this year. Unbeknownst to me, Jex Russell and Uncle Meat had conspired to surprise me with Meat’s first live appearance on Grab A Stack of Rock since 2022! The topic: Top Five Albums from our birth years! The presence of Uncle Meat enabled us to do albums from three consecutive decades.
Uncle Meat drew 1969
I had lucky 1972
Jex had a rocking 1985
Additionally, Metal Roger sent in a thrashing guest list covering 1988, while Harrison Kopp submitted a Blaze-heavy list spanning 1998-2000. Because he’s our unicorn.
We looked at a variety of vinyl releases, CDs, and box sets. I brought multiple copies of mine. The genres ran from doomy to thrashy, Beatles to Black Sabbath, soul, progressive rock, and beyond. We had a great discussion on a classic album cover, and went in-depth on a Deep Purple album that was just reissued this week for its 50th anniversary. Meanwhile, I had a nice 40th anniversary edition of that album to show off.
One of my picks from 1972 enabled me to rewind to an old clip from my earliest YouTube days, featuring Uncle Meat. The irony is I picked this clips days ago and certainly not before I knew he was showing up live on the show! Jex really slammed it out of the ball park with this surprise. And Jex knows I don’t really like surprises! Thank you Jex Russell for setting up this epic and surprising reunion. Long overdue. The man who essentially inspired this show to exist in the first place is beloved here, and I will always love him. Thanks for doing this Meat Man.
Finally, Jex…Jex Jex Jex! When I took my headphones off for 30 seconds to change my shirt, you happened to take to a shot at my former chesty co-host from last year’s Good Friday show. Well played, sir. Well played.
Next week is a re-run of the last two Mike and Aaron Go to Toronto trips, with brand new content with Mike and Aaron in the present day. Hope you enjoy this week and next week’s shows!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 56: Top 5 Albums from Our Birth Years with Jex and Mike – Special Time!
An Easter tradition! Jex Russell and I will be going live this Good Friday afternoon, in the Second Annual Good Friday Afternoon Show! Jex came up with this subject for us to tackle and I don’t mind telling you it’s not an easy one.
What are our Top Five albums from our birth years?
We will be looking at 1972 and 1985 for great records. There are plenty to choose from. Many landmark albums will have to be eliminated. So what will be on our list?
This is our first afternoon show of the year, a favourite timeslot of mine on a Friday. They were plenty fun last year.
Don’t be a Machine Head! You don’t have to be an Exile in a Theater of Pain! Check out this episode this Good Friday afternoon and join us for some musical shenanigans! We always enjoy interacting live with the comments section!
Friday March 29 at 3:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 4:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
I was so pleased to be able to collaborate with YouTuber D’Arcy Briggs. He has a great channel all about physical media and music, and my favourite new feature of his is called “What’s Good”. It’s just him and a guest literally talking about whatever’s fresh and good that they want to share. This is only the second episode of “What’s Good”, following the debut with Jex Russell!
For me, I had three unboxings and a Gene Simmons set to show. The unboxings are brand new and exclusive to this show! This is the first reveal of these treasures to come into my collection.
D’Arcy had some cool stuff included new music by Jack Antonoff, jazz rock fusion, the complete English Beat, some vinyl, and a parcel from Ontario! We took four turns each but you’ll have to watch the show to see what we brought.
One of the items I was proud to show was my autographed copy of Angie Moon’s first book, Crime of the Century. You can find out more and buy your copy by clicking this link. crazyonclassicrock.com/buy-crime-of-the-century
Crime of the Century is an original book idea about the connections between classic rock and roll and true crimes! Some are less known than others. The Band and Jack Ruby? The Kink and John Wayne Gacy? DEVO and John Hinkley Jr.? I didn’t know any of this before. I can’t wait to dig in and talk to Angie on Grab A Stack of Rock. She came from right here in the WordPress community and it’s awesome to see her out with her first book!
Check out the episode below, and subscribe to D’Arcy’s channel if you already haven’t!
Johnny Metal and John the Music Nut over at My Music Corner have been relentlessly going through the Judas Priest catalogue, from Rocka Rolla to Invincible Shield. This week they tackle the 11th Priest album Turbo. A very divisive album: Priest go synth! Yet also a crucial album as it garnered them some newer, younger fans. Where do we fall on this album? We go through the album track by track, before the Music Nut dives deep into the Fuel For Life tour. We talk background and fallout.
Thank you to John and Johnny for having me on. This was a blast to record. Good memories, good music, and good guys.
On this episode of The Year of the Priest, we look at 1986’s Turbo. This was a bit of a divisive album for Priest fans! How do we look at it?
A longer episode, but worth it: A treasure trove of memories unfurled on Friday night. How did we discover heavy metal music? What did we listen to before that? What were our earliest metal records? Johnny Metal (My Music Corner on YouTube) came prepared with stacks upon stacks of rock (and Johnny Mathis). Metal Roger brought a younger perspective, highlighted by Elvis Presley and Slipknot. Reed Little left us spellbound by the stories he weaved of his Heavy Metal Origins! Growing up watching MTV and MuchMusic, together we reminisced about Kiss videos, getting music from friends, finding our musical identities and generally rocking out to heavy music. Family man Jex Russell joined in shortly after, with stories mix CDs, buying a turntable in 2004 (way before it became trendy again) and hearing the Heavy Metal soundtrack.
Several artists came up repeatedly. W.A.S.P., Dio, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Accept. Regardless of some of the age differences here, certain albums were common to our stories. Reed and I share a background involving a love of science fiction and discovering Kiss at an early age. We also shared an aversion to rock music that was from a prior generation, for “old people” such as…Deep Purple! Obviously we all grew in the years since, but when we first discovered metal, all of us went head first, all-in.
I hope you enjoy this show and this exceptional panel. See you in two weeks with Jex Russell on Good Friday at a special afternoon time!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 55: METAL: Point of Entry
We are back to live streaming this week! Tonight I am joined by John Clauser of My Music Corner, Metal Roger, Reed Little of the Contrarians, and Jex Russell joining in a little later at 8 PM! The topic tonight is a simple discussion: What was our “Point of Entry” into Heavy Metal music?
It’s an important question. We are all passionate about the music we love. We all have a story about how we got there. What’s yours?
We will show off some old records, and talk about how we discovered and fell in love with this genre of music. I will run some old promo clips from MuchMusic to illustrate our stories, and the fun will flow like molten lead!
Topics to cover:
What music did we listen to before metal?
What metal band or song changed that?
What were our first metal albums?
What were our earliest memories of listening to metal?
There will be vintage MuchMusic clips and lots of records. All this and more with our fantastic panel!
Friday March 15 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube,or (HOPEFULLY) Facebook!
Two weeks ago, Rhino Records released a stripped-down version of Gene Simmons’ The Vault box set. For only $80, you could get all 11 CDs including such hits as “My Uncle is a Raft” and “Eskimo Summer”! That’s all I ever wanted. As a collector of physical media, I would love to have, but cannot afford, the full $1500 Vault with all the bells and whistles. For that, head on over to 2loud2oldmusic and have a gander at John Snow’s copy!
This box also includes the famous Van Halen demos for the Love Gun album. To finally have them is unbelievable!
The book is huge and packed with liner notes. But don’t take it from me…watch the video!
Sort of a followup to our controversial roundtable discussion on The Decline of Western Civilation Part II: The Metal Years, this time Peter Kerr invited me back to talk about a band I never listened to before: Faster Pussycat.
John Clauser went into this show with a negative opinion after some not-so-great live gigs. I went in with almost virgin ears. I knew the songs Faster Pussycat had in the movie, and I liked them. Peter challenged John and I to listen to the whole album and discuss our conclusions. The results may surprise you!
See if you can spot my subtle jab at Tuff singer Stevie Rachelle who accused us all of being “probably Rush fans” when he didn’t like our Decline episode.
Here’s Peter’s description of the episode:
Rock Daydream Nation featuring John Clauser (My Music Corner/The Contrarians) and Mike Ladano (Grab a Stack of Rock) go back to 1987 and put a spotlight on the self titled debut album from ‘Faster Pussycat’. Is this the best Hard Rock Debut album you’ve never heard of? Part classic rock with a dash of glam with a hint of blues…. We do a song by song analysis and talk all things Faster Pussycat…Remember, don’t change that song and check out the show! (There is even a Faster Pussycat video on the show)
I bought the CD specifically for this show, and my written review will go up Monday the 11th. Enjoy the show!
mikeladano.com 