Grab a Stack of Rock / LeBrain Train

REMINDER: New Year’s Eve Drop-In Party TONIGHT

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike & Friends

Episode 92 – New Year’s Eve Drop-In Party

Wow, this year sure didn’t end as envisioned!  If, like millions of Canadians, you find yourself with cancelled plans on December 31, consider spending it with us.

We’ll be going live a little later that usual this week, so we can count down to midnight.  Catch us live this Friday night at 9:00 PM E.S.T.  This will be a drop-in party show with guests coming and going as they please.  Harrison Kopp will be reporting live from 12 hours in the future.  We will be showing off all our Christmas goodies, so yes, this means a solid look at the new Judas Priest 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music box set.

Can’t wait to do it again this Friday night, although I sure can’t believe we’re doing it again this Friday night.  Join us!

Friday December 31, 9:00 PM E.S.T. on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!

New Year’s Eve Drop-In Party

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike & Friends

Episode 92 – New Year’s Eve Drop-In Party

Wow, this year sure didn’t end as envisioned!  If, like millions of Canadians, you find yourself with cancelled plans on December 31, consider spending it with us.

We’ll be going live a little later that usual this week, so we can count down to midnight.  Catch us live this Friday night at 9:00 PM E.S.T.  This will be a drop-in party show with guests coming and going as they please.  Harrison Kopp will be reporting live from 12 hours in the future.  We will be showing off all our Christmas goodies, so yes, this means a solid look at the new Judas Priest 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music box set.

Can’t wait to do it again this Friday night, although I sure can’t believe we’re doing it again this Friday night.  Join us!

Friday December 31, 9:00 PM E.S.T. on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!

Die Hard by Shooting Your Eye Out: The Christmas List LeBrain Train

A great quartet of fellows and a wonderful set of lists!  Tonight’s list of favourite Christmas movies ranged from the 1930s to the present day, and spanned multiple genres.  I’m sure you’ll find something to love here!

Your panel of merry-making Xmas Xperts:

This was the last show until the New Year’s Eve drop-in party on December 31.  If you’d like to participate in that, let me know and I will make sure you get the link to join!  Have a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday!

 

Merry Christmas! Top Five Xmas Films on the LeBrain Train

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 91 – Top Christmas Films

No need to explain this one!  As a followup to the popular Top 5 Horror Films show, we just had to do a list of Top Christmas Movies!

The panel tonight is as epic as the Christmas cheer we will be spreading:

There will also be two bonus lists:  one submitted by Scott Peddle and one by John T. Snow!

This will be the last show until the New Year’s Eve drop-in show on December 31.  If you’d like to participate in that, let me know and I will make sure you get the link to join!  Have a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday!

Friday December 17, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!  (We decided to discontinue Twitter as Facebook is preferred by most.)

The History of the Transformers + Top Five = AstroLeBrainTrain Action!

A long show with lots of visuals tonight, and an absolute treat for fans of robots in disguise!  For those of you who joined Rob Daniels, Harrison the Mad Metal Man and myself — thank you!  From the early Japanese origins, up to the present day, we took you on a guided tour of the Transformers brand.  Plenty of vintage and modern toys on display, and genuine toy ads from back in the day too.  (Facebook copyright strike — they killed the stream.  Sorry about that, but you can still watch on YouTube.)

Show format:  the first hour and 15 minutes are a history lesson.  The lists begin then!  Three lists, 15 picks, and no repeat!

This was an absolute blast.  Thanks for watching.

More Than Meets the LeBrain Train? Top Five Transformers Toys

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike, Rob & Harrison

Episode 90 – Top Five Transformers Toys

Let’s roll out! I know this episode will alienate some of our regular viewers, but it’s been one that Harrison and I have talked about doing for at least a year now. And since it’s Christmas time, it feels like the perfect opportunity to talk about some of our favourite toys.

Transformers toys, specifically. We’ll talk about the history of the brand, and bring us up to the present day. Comics, cartoons & movies will be discussed. But the actual Top Five list this week will be our favourite toys. Expect some show & tell, and I’ll also be running some vintage TV ads!

On the panel:

With two different generations of fans on board, this is sure to be a show of Cybertronian proportions!

Friday December 10, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on YouTube, Facebook and now Twitter!

The Replacements: Top Five Singers with John and Harrison

A huge thank-you to Harrison the Mad Metal Man and 2Loud2OldMusic’s John Snow for an awesome show this week.   At John’s suggestion we tackled our favourite replacement singers.  We don’t mean guys like Hagar, Gillan and Dio…those guys already get listed enough.  We wanted to go a layer deeper.

Get a pen to take some names!  We went slightly off the beaten track and came up with 15 unique replacement singers that, in one way or another, kicked our butts!

And if that wasn’t enough, check out our amazing list of runners-up at the end.  The cool thing is that we’ve talked to several of them on the LeBrain Train and Scotch on the Rocks!

See you again next week for another bunch of lists!

Top Five Replacement Singers on the LeBrain Train

Let’s try this again!

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike, John & Harrison

Episode 89 – Top Five Replacement Singers

This Cinco-de-Listo episode was planned for October, but due to circumstances beyond our control, had to be rescheduled.  So here we go!

The first time I posted this, I got so many comments about “Dio!”, “Dickinson!”, “Hagar!” and “Gillan!” that we decided on some ground rules.  Those guys are already well known for what they did.  They are like the Mount Rushmore of replacement singers.  We don’t need to waste valuable space in our Top Five lists on the obvious ones.  So these lists will be the other guys who deserve recognition.  You can name dozens of favourites, but who would make your Top Five?

Joining us tonight will be:

With those two guys, you know we will get a mix of the logical and the unpredictable!  Don’t miss this one.  Please like and share, and join the discussion live with your own lists.  Your lists will go up on the screen for discussion!  It’s gonna be fun, but the most fun can be had by watching live!

Friday December 3, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

Take the LeBrain Train Time Machine back to 1981!

Won’t you take me back to school?
I need to learn the golden rule.
Won’t you lay it on the line?
I need to hear it just one more time.  — Justin Hayward

Truly awesome show tonight as we took our musical time machine back to 1981.  Thanks to the awesome panel:  Harrison the Australia Guy, Eric “Uncle Meat” Litwiller, and Dr. Dave Haslam.  Together we went deep on the following 12 albums from the year 1981 A.D.:

  • Oingo Boingo – Only a Lad
  • AC/DC – For Those About to Rock
  • The Who – Face Dances
  • Thin Lizzy – Renegade
  • Iron Maiden – Killers
  • Blue Oyster Cult – Fire of Unknown Origin
  • Genesis – Abacab
  • John Williams – Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack
  • The Moody Blues – Long Distance Voyager
  • Styx – Paradise Theater
  • ELO – Time
  • Rush – Moving Pictures

In addition, if you indulge yourself to watch the whole 3+ hour show you will also get:

  • an unboxing of the new Kiss Destroyer 45th Anniversary box set
  • history of the year 1981
  • a clip of Eric’s cinematic debut Raiders of the Lost Fart
  • lots of laughs
  • a list of virtually every noteworthy album of the year 1981

This show was a sequel to last year’s retrospective on the year 1980 with Deke and a spinoff of Deke’s excellent followup on albums from 1981.

1981: In Depth with LeBrain and Friends

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and Friends

Episode 88 – 1981 in Depth

For those about to rock, we salute you!

Last year, Deke and I went in-depth on key releases from the year 1980.  This year, Deke did an excellent followup with his friend Muc, on albums from 1981.  When Deke and I tackled 1980, we were still using Facebook Live, with all its limitations and frustrations!  We still did an incredible show, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to do it again.  This time I am able to beef up the panel to four.

These shows have a different format from the usual.  Each of us picks three albums from the year 1981, and we discuss them in depth.  From the facts & figures, to the historical context, and personal impact, we will cover it.  I won’t reveal the 12 albums total we will be discussing, but you won’t be disappointed.  Expect variety.  We will also tackle world history and pop culture of the year, and might even have early video footage of a very young Uncle Meat in his first acting role!

Your panel are as follows:

  • Myself (LeBrain)
  • Australia Guy (Harrison — who was not even born in 1981)
  • Dr Dave (Dave Haslam)
  • Uncle Meat (Eric Litwiller)