Videos

Youtubin’: The Darkness – “Last Of Our Kind”

A month ago, Grant Arthur and I spent an hour talking about the Darkness. In another month, we’ll talk about Hot Leg, Stone Gods and British Whale!

One of the songs/videos that came up in our chat was their epic rocking “Last Of Our Kind”, certainly one of the best songs in their repertoire.  What a striking video, and their first with drummer Rufus Tiger Taylor.  Emily Dolan Davies played on the record and in the first video for “Open Fire” but left to be replaced by Taylor.  He found his own way to stand out visually, as you’ll see.

It’s unusual but not unheard of for bands to recruit their fans as extras.  But nobody did it like the Darkness.  This video is a hoot, and there’s one somewhat bulky man in a Darkness shirt who hams it up and steals the show.

I have a a couple favourite parts in this video:

0:38 – Mystical Frankie
1:13 – Spinny spinny!
1:34 – 1:38 – “Then there were none”

The whole video is brilliant and we really need to give a shout out to Justin Hawkins for his dancing.  The man can move.  He can sing, he can play, and he can move!  If he wasn’t so damned ugly they’d be the biggest band in the world.

Musical Hauls! With Mike, Harrison, Grant, Rob and Brian!

Awesome musical treasures tonight!  Thanks to Grant Arthur, Rob Daniels, Brian Richards and Harrison the Mad Metal Man for spending a Friday night showing off some amazing hauls.  Some highlights:

  • A couple very interesting vinyl versions of Creatures of the Night.
  • A look at the Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion box set and a rant about Axl Rose.
  • A beautiful hand-stitched piece of Star Wars art.
  • Avro Arrow…shoes?
  • Some pretty killer Lego sets.
  • Kim Mitchell rarities from Grant.
  • A guest video from Tim Durling with his musical hauls.
  • A signed Bruce Kulick bobblehead.
  • Much much more!

Thank you friends for hanging out tonight, and thanks for watching!  See you next week.

Drop-In Special: Showing off our gifts with Mike and the Mad Metal Man – special guest Grant Arthur

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK…with Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 9:  Post-Christmas Drop-In Special with guest Grant Arthur!

Mom always told us it wasn’t polite to show off.  Still, when you’re a music fan with music gifts, you can’t help it!

Tonight Mike and the Mad Metal Man host a drop-in show.  All are welcome to stop in and show off their Christmas hauls.  Grant from Grant’s Rock Warehaus will be with us tonight to discuss the gifts that rocked his Christmas.

Confirmed guests:

  • Grant Arthur
  • Rob Daniels
  • Brian Richards

Personally speaking, I was a bad boy and spent a lot of post-Christmas money.  That package has now arrived and it’s a big one I’ll be opening up for you tonight!  I also have one more down in my quest to get all the Marillion box sets, some Kiss vinyl, and some Triumph to show.  Then we’ll get to the rock clothes!  Meanwhile on Ask Harrison, maybe we can get him to reveal a little bit more about himself and his homeland this week.

Tonight could go long so strap in and get ready to rock.

Friday December 30 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook.

 

Youtubin’: My #1 song of the year

I didn’t make any lists this year, but click the link to find out my #1 song of 2022.

2022 was the year of budget cuts here at LeBrain HQ.  The cost of living goes up as does the price of plastic.  New albums by Queensryche, Lee Aaron, Skid Row and Envy of None went unheard here this year.  However, new releases before the cuts including Journey, Tony Martin, Ghost, Scorpions, ZZ Top and Def Leppard were enjoyed year ’round.  We are grateful that in 2022, bands I love are still making new music and touring.

My #1 song is an uplifting tune that I could not get out of my head.  I sang it aloud in the car, at the beach and in the woods with not a care in the world.  That’s how picking a #1 was so easy.  It could only have been one song.

2022 in a nutshell.

Video: LeBrain Christmas 2022

No need to go into a lot of detail here as the video tells all.

Musical acquisitions:

Journey – Live In Concert At Lollapalooza (CD/DVD)
Triumph – Just a Game (2003 CD reissue)
Marillion – Holidays In Eden (3CD/1 Blu Ray box set)
Kiss – Destroyer (180 gram vinyl reissue)

Christmas Day viewings and listenings:

Mystique – Black Rider 30th anniversary CD
Standing On the Firing Line – The Story of Mystique DVD
Star Wars marathons all weekend long.

A perfect Christmas with perfect food and also dogs.

Tim Durling and Marco D’Auria deliver the pre-Christmas treasures with Mike and the Mad Metal Man

Extra special surprise tonight as Marco D’Auria joined us to show off the new Mystique DVD and some Elvis treasures: magazines, books and records!  East coast radio legend Tim Durling also came by with some tapes, records and CDs of his own.  As for me, I unboxed Rush’s Permanent Waves deluxe set, a beautiful Savatage Poets and Madmen vinyl reissue, and showed off a complete set of all four Fish-era Marillion studio box sets.

Meanwhile, Harrison the Mad Metal Man dodged a question and a half, while Mike revealed what his stripper song would be.

Have a safe and happy Christmas!  We will see you next week on Dec 30th for a drop-in special!

Tim Durling reveals pre-Christmas treasures with Mike and the Mad Metal Man

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK…with Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 8:  Tim Durling returns!

East coast radio legend Tim Durling returns tonight to reveal 11 new arrivals!  Mystery goodies!  We have no idea what he has in store for us.  8 track tapes?  Could very well be.  I guess you’ll just have to tune in tonight to see for yourself.

Just in time for the show is a vinyl copy of Poets and Madmen by Savatage – glow in the dark!  I’ll also be unboxing the rest of the box sets we didn’t get to last week, or as many as time permits.  Permanent Waves by Rush is on deck, as is Master of Puppets by Metallica, Fugazi by Marillion, and Restless Heart by Whitesnake.  You will have a say in what gets unboxed tonight.

Harrison the Mad Metal Man will be there to answer questions!  For “Ask Harrison” tonight, we have Christmas greetings and questions from California Girl.  There may even be an “Ask Mike”!  Meanwhile Jeff Taylor has a question about Australia.

Friday December 23 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook.

Youtubin’: The Fourth Doctor intro theme – Doctor Who

I grew up with two Doctors as my Doctor Who:  Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.  The third, and fourth Doctors. Of the two, Baker was my favourite.  Perhaps it was his long scarf, which I begged my mom to make for me.  And she did!  It could also be his long curly brown hair, or his somewhat comical eyes.  Whatever the case, it cannot be denied that the iconic Doctor Who theme was something that drew kids in.  I was no exception.  I love the time-tunnel visuals as well.  I remember sitting in front of the TV with a little Fischer-Price tape deck to record the intro theme from mono speaker to mono microphone.

Here’s the Doctor Who show intro of my formative years.

 

Grab A Stack of Rock – New intro theme – Dec 17 2022

I can’t stop tweaking this video, and I’ll continue to update it as we continue to have fun shows together.

Tee Bone’s reaction shot is priceless.