Grab a Stack of Rock / LeBrain Train

One Hit Wonders or Not? You decide on this week’s epic LeBrain Train!

Nine participants.  Epic lists.  Utter chaos!

The theme for this week’s Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list was One Hit Wonders!  This was a special “no disqualifications” matchup so anything went.  Are Toto a one hit wonder band?  Max the Axe thought so even if the majority disagreed.

You panel this week:

  1. LeBrain (me)
  2. Max the Axe (He’s kind of a big deal)
  3. Sarca Sim (Sarah)
  4. Burned On Mars (Kevin)
  5. Mr. Books (Aaron)
  6. Rob Daniels (Visions In Sound)
  7. 2loud2oldmusic (John T Snow)
  8. Uncle Meat (Eric Litwiller)

With special appearances by:

  1. Superdekes (Thunder Bay Arena Rock) & Vinnie Vincent (KISS)

I wrote down all the songs chosen, so when given some time I’ll post all the lists for you to examine in more detail.  But after an almost three hour show, I need to go get something to eat.

Added bonus:  A quick look at the new Thin Lizzy 6 CD rarities box set called Rock Legends.

It’s a long show, but fucking hilarious.  Enjoy.

 

 

 

The Biggest Panel Yet, and the Wildest Lists Ever: One Hit Wonders on the LeBrain Train

Everybody wants to come on board this week!

 

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 39

 

It’s One Hit Wonders this week!  We’re keeping the definitions loosey-goosey, but still diving into those songs that never had a followup hit.  This week’s topic was brought to you by Max the Axe, although I believe Holen suggested it some months ago as well.  Either way, there has been demand for a show about One Hit Wonders.  So here ya go!

One reason you don’t want to miss this one:  A record NINE participants will be appearing!

  1. LeBrain (me)
  2. Max the Axe (THE Max the Axe!)
  3. Sarca Sim (Sarah)
  4. Burned On Mars (Kevin – acting as tech support)
  5. Mr. Books (Aaron)
  6. Rob Daniels (Visions In Sound)
  7. 2loud2oldmusic (John)

With special appearances by:

  1. Superdekes (Thunder Bay Arena Rock)
  2. Uncle Meat (Eric)

As usual there will be a special unboxing for the early birds who show up before 7:00 pm.  Otherwise, check out the One Hit Wonders All-Star Special on the LeBrain Train, Friday November 27.

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

Awesome Music That Makes Your Skin Vibrate: Two Hours of Brent Jensen on the LeBrain Train

A million thank-you’s to Brent Jensen, the author of No Sleep’Til Sudbury, Leftover People: A Journey Through Post-Rock & Roll America and All My Favourite People Are Broken.  Chatting music is what we love to do here, and it was a privilege to speak with someone so saturated with musical knowledge, stories and connections.  When you watch this show, I hope you feel the kinship that we music diehards share.

Obscure format junkies:  Check out 0:24:10 of the video for info on a format Sony were working on called “The Cube”.  It would have been a six-sided format around the time of the compact disc.

You can buy Brent’s books at Amazon, and you can check out his podcasts at nosleeptilsudbury.libsyn.com.  (I’ll be checking out the Sandy Horne from the Spoons episode ASAP!)   If you’d like some merch, contact him directly and he’ll hook you up.  Details at the end of our video.

A million more thanks to Superdekes for setting this episode up.  My brother from Thunder Bay should be known as “Superfan” after his meticulous homework and attention to detail!

There will be no sleep tonight as I hit the web looking for all these tunes!  From Saxon, to Kick Axe, to Maiden (with and without Blaze), to Priest (with and without Ripper), please enjoy the music that makes our skin vibrate.

 

 

For those who missed it, here is the 11 minutes that Youtube missed, but Facebook had. Unboxings: Jeff Scott Soto, John Norum, The Black Crowes, Frank Zappa, Def Leppard.

Brent Jensen and Music That Makes Your Skin Vibrate – Tonight on the LeBrain Train!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 38

Music writer Brent Jensen is the author of No Sleep’Til Sudbury, Leftover People: A Journey Through Post-Rock & Roll America and All My Favourite People Are Broken.  He also hosts the excellent No Sleep ‘Til Sudbury podcast, which, believe me, is a a rabbit hole with (currently) 184 episodes.  Brent does a lot more than just talk about music.  He digs deep into the history, the stories and most importantly the people.  It is going to be an honour and privilege to talk music and pick the brain of Brent Jensen on tonight’s show.

Tonight’s guest host Superdekes has challenged me to come up with five songs that “makes my skin vibrate”.  After several days of brainstorming, changes and second-guesses, I think I have done just that.  It might get heavy!

It truly is an honour to have Brent on our little show.  I mean, this is a guy who has interviewed Ron MacLean at least four times.  Can you say “we’re not worthy”?!  Either way, tonight is going to be awesome.  Get ready to dig deep into tunes that make your skin vibrate.

Tune in tonight at 7:00 PM E.S.T.!

Bonus for early birds:  Regular viewers know that I usually go live before the show officially starts at 7:00 — usually around 6:40 PM.  This is so I can do some unboxings and new music reveals before the guests arrive.  Tonight I’ll be unboxing a parcel from CD Japan and showing off my latest purchases from Encore Records!

Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

Whole Lotta Lists! Sarca, Mars, and Mike with our Led Zeppelin favourites…and graphs by Geoff!

Thank you to Sarah and Kevin (Caught Me Gaming and Buried On Mars respectively) for co-hosting, and for some amazing Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Led Zeppelin songs lists!  Thank you to Aaron (Keeps Me Alive) and Uncle Meat (no affiliation) for adding your lists to the mix.  We heard about some brilliant songs tonight with some personal touches of what makes them so special.

But the hero of the night is Graph Wizard Geoff from 1001albumsin10years!  Thanks to him, we can call some clear winners or losers in this race!

Or can we?  You’ll just have to watch to find out!

 

If you don’t feel like watching the whole thing, you can just check out Geoff’s cool graphs below!

 

We’re Gonna Groove: Led Zeppelin Lists & Guests!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 37

In case you didn’t know, Sarah and Kevin (Caught Me Gaming and Buried On Mars respectively) just finished a massive Led Zeppelin review series.  Separately, they reviewed each Zeppelin album, from Zep I right to Coda.  They did a fantastic job of it, so with that completed, I had to have them on.  We’re going to do the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Led Zeppelin songs, with a few bonus guest lists in the hopper as well.

“But Mike!” you say.  “I have a hard time keeping up with all those lists, and remembering how many times certain songs or albums were picked.”

You’re right; I have a hard time keeping track too.  So this time, finally, we’re bringing in Geoff from 1001albumsin10years.  Geoff is the graph master.  You give him any subject you can think of, and he’ll come back with some kind of graph.  If anyone can keep track of our Zep stats, it’s him.  I feel the countdown will be in good hands with Geoff.

Tune in tonight at 7:00 PM E.S.T.!

Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

 

 

Storytime with Frank Loffredo on The LeBrain Train

He came; he talked; he rocked!  Frank Loffredo of Thunder Bay’s legendary Crocks N Rolls joined the LeBrain Train to tell story, after story, after story.  Drawing from a broad palette of musical love, Frank talks punk, reggae, jazz, Canadian music, and everything in between.  How do you nurture a music scene in an isolated town like Thunder Bay?  Listen and find out.

As I often do, I began the show with a special unboxing.  If you want to see that, you can start the stream from the beginning.  If you just want to watch the interview with Frank, then start the stream at the 0:07:00 mark.

Thanks everyone for watching and asking your questions, and thanks to Frank for giving us two hours of your time!

Crocks N Rolls Friday with Frank Loffredo on the LeBrain Train

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 36

 

We have a special show lined up for you tonight — one I have been waiting six months to do!  Please join Deke, Mars, and myself tonight as we host the legendary Frank Loffredo, from Thunder Bay’s fine establishment Crocks N Rolls.

Last month, for a limited time, a documentary film by Kirsten Kosloski called Five Bucks at the Door: The Story of Crocks N Rolls was available to stream for free.  We were blown away by the musical history at Crocks, and also the guy at the centre of it all:  Frank.  This is a guy who put every band he could get on the bill, from Quiet Riot and King’s X to Sloan and Deke’s own Current River.  You don’t want to miss the stories that he has to tell.

Join us at 7:00 PM E.S.T.  

Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

 

Halloween Memories with your host, “Max the Axe”!

Thanks for joining me, “Max the Axe”, for this special episode of Halloween Memories! Where’s Pablo? I’m kind of a big deal. Three yolks, two whites, that’s how you make Hollandaise sauce.

If you watch the video below I’ll give you a sneak preview of the new song “Oktoberfest Cheer” and we’ll visit with special guests “Mean” Gene Simmons and Dr. Kathryn Ladano!

To hear “Oktoberfest Cheer” which I played twice, go to 0:02:35 or 1:31:15. Chose your sound quality — shitty or shittier!

To hang out with Dr. Kathryn, go to 0:13:40.

To see what Mean Gene Simmons has to announce, check out 0:34:05.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Take Your Whiskey to the Dirty Movies, it’s the Van Halen Deep Cuts Show!

A hearty thank you to Kevin / Buried on Mars, Aaron / Keeps Me Alive, and Eric / Uncle Meat for appearing on this episode of the LeBrain Train!  (Conceiving, in Kevin’s case.)  And a salute to Derek Kortepeter for submitting a cool list as well.  The subject was Van Halen deep cuts and we brought ’em to ya.  Any that we forgot came up in viewer comments.  And a great show was had by all!

At the start, Kevin and I killed some time looking at some new arrivals, and talking about the forthcoming new punk EP by Max  the Axe.  (I have a copy and it is killer.)  If you want to skip that and go straight to the lists, then start at 0:20:25.