Grab a Stack of Rock / LeBrain Train

🅻🅸🆅🅴 In-Costume Celebration: Top Five Band Costumes & A Tribute to Ace Frehley tonight!

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man

🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode

Episode 123:  Happy Halloween – Top 5 Band Costumes & A Tribute to Ace Frehley
With Mike, Harrison, Johnny Metal and Rob Daniels – IN COSTUME!

Happy 3rd birthday to Grab A Stack of Rock (Oct 28 2022)!  We have a special show tonight.  Not only do we have an excellent panel of returning guests, but we have a fun, Halloween-themed gimmick-laden episode to satisfy!  And of course, for the physical media crowd, we will have lots of CDs (rare, imports) and some music merch to look at!

The show topics tonight are three:

1. Our panel will be dressed in costumes!  Some many be dressed in two costumes!

2. Mike will run down his top Ace Frehley songs of all time, from his Kiss, Comet and Solo careers.  Knowing Mike, expect deep cuts and non-album tracks.

3. Top Five Band Costumes from the panel.  Any band, any costume qualifies.  Literally anything from the matching Beatles suits to Gwar.

Don’t miss this special episode, coming to you LIVE on YouTube.  Join us in the comments – we love to interact!  Best of all, we plan to be done in time for you to catch the World Series game tonight.

 

Friday October 31 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

My Music Corner: Monday Night Metal & Ghost Stories 10/27/2025

John Clauser is back with his Monday Night Metal chat!   Tonight we will be telling ghost stories!  Halloween is near and spooky season is upon us!  All of us will take turns telling some fun stories that are not too dark.  Just right for your hot chocolate by the screen tonight.

Joining Johnny this episode:

  • Dan Chartrand from Off the Charts
  • Sidney Cini from Slogan’s Rock and Metal Extravaganza
  • Jake Not from State Farm
  • Metal Roger

Enjoy this episode!

Monday Oct 27, 6:00 PM EST at the link below.

🅻🅸🆅🅴 Spinal Tap II: The End Continues with Uncle Meat and Dan Chartrand

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man

🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode

Episode 122: The End Continues with Uncle Meat and Dan Chartrand

In September of 2024, Marco D’Auria, Dan Chartrand, and Uncle Meat joined us to celebrate 40 years of This Is Spinal Tap.  This comprehensive and loving analysis needed a followup episode once the sequel, The End Continues, had come out.  Now it has, and we have all seen it.  Dan and the Meat are back tonight to discuss the sequel, and the sequel soundtrack!  Tonight we’re gonna rock ya tonight!

Though we have not had 40 years to study up like we did last time, we have done our homework and will be addressing the below topics and more:

  • What were your hopes and fears going into this movie?
  • Where and when did you see it?
  • The new drummer – our impressions.
  • Favourite scene.
  • Favourite cameo / callback.
  • Soundtrack thoughts:  New songs, old songs, and CD vs the movie.
  • The big question:  Did it live up to the Spinal Tap legacy?

Please join us live tonight in the comments.  There will be blood to let!

Friday October 24 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 24: Eddie’s Archive and Edward the Great

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 24: Eddie’s Archive and Edward the Great

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #121

Post-Brave New World, Iron Maiden were back on top.  With the struggles of the 1990s well behind them, Iron Maiden forged forward with new releases such as Rock In Rio, Edward the Great, and Eddie’s Archive.  Rock in Rio was a double-live, the likes not seen since last Bruce was in.  We covered this in our previous episode.  The latter two were Iron Maiden collections aimed at two very different groups of fans.

Edward the Great was a “hits compilation” aimed at new fans.  As a single disc compilation, it was limited by its length, and an interesting selection of tracks.  As a whole, it offered nothing besides new artwork for the seasoned Iron Maiden fan.  They were advised to save their money and buy the massive, limited edition Eddie’s Archive instead.

The Archive was a generous six-disc collection of three:

Discs 1 & 2 – BBC Archives.  We covered the first four songs in this set on our debut episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden, so we won’t be tackling these again tonight.  These discs span professional BBC recordings from 1980 to ’88.

Discs 3 & 4 – Beast Over Hammersmith.  Episode 6 of 50 Years of Iron Maiden was dedicated to this double-live album, so there is little need to repeat our praise.

Discs 5 & 6 – Best of the B’Sides.  We already critiqued all of these songs on the relevant albums, so our commentary here is focused more on value to the fan.

Mike and Harrison will break down the above releases, including Edward the Great, and have lots to show as well.  The goodies on display include two complete Eddie’s Archives:  One pre-ordered and delivered back in 2002, with rear sticker still intact, and one “Archive of Theseus” that Harrison will explain the origins of.

This magnificent metal episode is brought to you by the letter E, not to mention Mike and Harrison.  Please check out the premiere tonight if you can!  We love to interact in the comments section.

Friday October 17 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.  Enjoy on YouTube.

Past episodes:

Handy YouTube Playlist:

REDEMPTION: Interview with RICK HUGHES – Sword, Saints & Sinners and Solo!

When I received an offer to interview Rick Hughes of the band Sword, about his forthcoming new album called Redemption, I immediately contacted my buddy Dan Chartrand from OffTheCharts to do it with me.  Turns out, he received the same offer, so we joined forces.  This is good, because Rick’s new album is bilingual, and so is Dan!  We recorded the interview on Thursday October 9, and it will debut Monday October 13 (Thanksgiving Day) on Dan’s channel.

Hey Dan…I get the next one, OK?

With Rick, we broke down the many guests on his new album including Robby Krieger, Tommy Aldridge, Rudy Sarzo, Brad Gillis, Sean Kelly and Jacob Deraps.  (Great stories from Rick here!)

We also talked about the new songs, including an amazing soft rocker called “The Will of the Gun” and the bangin’ “Ca va Brasser”.  Rick also finds redemption with one of his old songs finally recorded by the guy who wrote it:  “Someday”.  A different version of this song was a hit for Aldo Nova in 1991, co-written by Jon Bon Jovi.  Great stories here!

Of course we had to talk about Sword, so there are a couple stories there about Sword opening for Motorhead and Metallica in the 1980s.

Do not miss this incredible interview with Rick Hughes, one of the most positive rock stars on the planet.

 

🅻🅸🆅🅴 50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 23: Rock in Rio

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 23: Rock in Rio

Special 🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #120

It was with great joy that we anticipated Iron Maiden’s first live album since Donington 1992:  Rock In Rio!  A decade had passed, and with it, three new studio albums, all of which are represented in the live set.  The new six-man Iron Maiden lineup was on fire, and little did we know it would become the most stable lineup in the band’s history.  Though they had released live B-sides from the Ed Hunter tour, Rock In Rio was the first full live album with the new lineup, and of course, new songs!  We even got a live DVD out of it.

In Rio, Iron Maiden played to approximately 250,000 people; the second largest crowd of their entire career, only topped by the 350,000 people who saw them in Rio in 1985.  They hit the stage with a setlist generous on new songs, classic hits, and respectful nods to the Blaze era.

Harrison and I will break down the album, produced by Kevin Shirley, track by track in tonight’s special live episode.  Don’t miss this one as we always enjoy interacting with the comments, and we can do this best when we are live.

Much like Iron Maiden, we are best when we are live.  Check it out tonight!

Friday October 10 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

Past episodes:

Handy YouTube Playlist:

🅻🅸🆅🅴 Harrison’s Box Sets and Mike’s Whitesnake

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man

Episode 119: Harrison’s Box Sets and Mike’s Whitesnake

Time for a Maiden break this week, as Harrison and Mike have their ears full of live Maiden preparing for the next two shows!  In the meantime, Harrison has acquired a good sized collection of box sets, while Mike is only one Whitesnake box away from completing his collection of Coverdale’s boxed compilations.  Not much else to say except we will dive deep on some cool collections tonight!

“Ere’s a box set for ya!”

This is possibly the last cottage show of the season, and an indoor one this time due to the early sunset.  Join us tonight live for this special look at some expensive beauties.

 

 

Friday October 3 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

 

 

My Music Corner: Monday Night Metal 9/29/2025

‘Twas my honour to be back on My Music Corner with Johnny Clauser on Monday night!  Well, to be fair, I invited myself, but it was a free for all, so that’s allowed!

Joining Johnny this episode:

  • Dan Chartrand from Off the Charts
  • Sidney Cini from Slogan’s Rock and Metal Extraganza
  • Jake Not from State Farm
  • Ashley Geisler from Ash’s Concerts and Video Showroom

Johnny asked us all of a series of questions including:

  • How did we discover this online music community?
  • What does the community mean to you?
  • What music death hit you the hardest?
  • What was the last concert that blew you away?

Enjoy this episode!

VIDEO: @darcyska – Why I Love Movie Soundtracks

Once more I had the pleasure of doing a show with D’Arcy Briggs from the YouTube channel @darcyska.  A few days ago, D’Arcy asked me if I’d be up to record on a topic of my choosing.   My first thought was “movie soundtracks”.

D’Arcy prepared a series of questions for me and off we went!  Topics include:

  • First loves in soundtracks and childhood memories.
  • Top Five Soundtrack list.
  • An underrated soundtrack (for Jex Russell).
  • What makes a good score?
  • Listening to curated song soundtracks.
  • Fictional movie band soundtracks.
  • A recent TV series’ soundtracks.
  • Has streaming changed how we listen to soundtracks?
  • Discovering bands via soundtracks, and gatekeeping by the old  fans.

While we were at it, we took a good look at some physical CDs, soundtracks from my collection and D’Arcy’s too.

Check out the video below!

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 22: Brave New World with Davey Cretin

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 22:  Brave New World

Special Guest:  Davey Cretin from Cretin Classics

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #118

How do you move on from a special interview with former Maiden frontman Blaze Bayley?  By going to the next album, of course!  After the wildly successful Ed Hunter reunion tour, the new six-man Iron Maiden lineup of Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Janick Gers, Adrian Smith and Nicko McBrain were tasked with creating a new Iron Maiden studio album.  With new producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley at the boards (whom they tested out on “Wrathchild 1999” – see Episode 21), the band had to capture their classic sound with modern production and a new three-guitar configuration.

The band toiled away in the studio as fans speculated.  Finally we were given a preview of the new Maiden sound on the first single “The Wicker Man”.  This was followed by the rapturous release of Brave New World on 29 May 2000.  Together, with the legendary Davey Cretin of Cretin Classics, Harrison and Mike break down the album’s 10 tracks in incredible detail.  You simply will not find a better analysis of this album anywhere else on the internet.

We don’t just dive deep into the album.  As usual, you can expect us to tackle all the live B-sides from “The Wicker Man” and “Out of the Silent Planet”.  We will also look at some very rare CD singles, including the elusive remix of “The Wicker Man” with additional lyrics.  We will also have a good look at the album and singles artwork, and even a special edition DVD of the Wicker Man movie with Edward Woodward and Sir Christopher Lee.

Before we’re done, Harrison will take us through the Brave New World tour, the setlists and the performances.  Expect the level of detail, analysis and pure love that you have come to know from 50 Years of Iron Maiden.  It’s all here as we enter the brave new world of the Maiden reunion era!

 

Friday September 26 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.  Enjoy on YouTube.

Past episodes:

Handy YouTube Playlist: