Videos

Robert Lawson & the School of Jazz – Saturday LeBrain Train

Tremendous fun and a lot of learning tonight in the School of Jazz!  Author Robert Lawson has a jazz collection to die for and we got a small taste of it tonight.  The panel for Saturday Jazz consisted of four experts and one newbie:

  • Yours truly (LeBrain – jazz novice)
  • Uncle Meat (jazz expert)
  • Dr. Dave (an actual doctor)
  • Aaron (Keeps Me Alive resident jazzbo)
  • Robert Lawson (serious author and hardcore jazz collector)

As the talk veered from Miles Davis to Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and more, my wishlist grew and grew and grew.  Stay tuned to the end to see some of Robert’s most enviable box sets.

As we often do, we started the show with some unboxings.  Check it all out below!  See you next week.

Upcoming schedule:

Friday March 11 – The 10 Year Anniversary Show – Record Store Tales and mikeladano.com (with Harrison and Tim Durling)

Friday March 25 – 2 Years of the LeBrain Train (with Tee Bone and Robert Daniels)

Friday April 1 – The Prank Show (With Chris Thuss and Michael Morwood)

Saturday Jazz featuring Robert Lawson on a special LeBrain Train

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

Episode 100 – Saturday Jazz

 

When a guy with the musical intelligence and credentials of author Robert Lawson asks if he can participate in your Saturday jazz show, you say yes!

Much like Donnie in The Big Lebowski, I’m out of my element here.  A casual jazz fan like me cannot compete with the knowledge of the guests this week.  It’s a Cinco de Listo Top Five Jazz records and the panel consists of:

  • Yours truly (LeBrain – jazz novice)
  • Uncle Meat (jazz expert)
  • Dr. Dave (an actual doctor)
  • Aaron (Keeps Me Alive resident jazzbo)
  • Robert Lawson (serious author and hardcore jazz collector)

Saturday March 5, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!

Upcoming schedule:

Friday March 11 – The 10 Year Anniversary Show – Record Store Tales and mikeladano.com (with Harrison and Tim Durling)

Friday March 25 – 2 Years of the LeBrain Train (with Tee Bone)

 

VHS Archives #123: Poison’s Bret Michaels and Rikki Rockett talk to Steve Anthony on MuchMusic – 1988

I love this vintage interview clip. If anyone in rock holds the title of “Captain A.D.D.”, it would have to be Poison’s Bret Michaels! This scattershot blurb on good press vs. bad press goes about a million miles per hour, but it’s all fun.

VHS Archives #122: Rockhead – Ear to the Ground

CBC had a music program called Ear to the Ground in the early 1990s.  Their Rockhead episode aired at the tail end of 1993 (judging by the New Year’s ads).  Rockhead, of course, included producer extraordinaire Bob Rock on lead guitar — and as a writer and musician, he’s as good as the bands he produced.  But what made Rockhead special was not Bob himself.  It was the singer he discovered, Steve Jack, a new screamer who could easily compete with the big boys on the scene.

Apparently Bob Rock experienced some resistance from people who thought being a successful producer should be enough.  This is discussed alongside some killer live and rehearsal footage.  Drummer Chris Taylor and bassist Jamey Kosh also get some camera time to talk about the boss!  Other topics:

  • Four years of effort to get the record out
  • Going from unknowns to opening for Bon Jovi in Europe
  • Being true to your roots
  • The evolution of the songs and trying to say something “a little more deep”

The problem with the show Ear to the Ground was that they played a lot of music, but not complete songs.  This meant it was both light on interviews, and light on music.  Sort of a soupy in-between.  You be the judge.

I left in one ad for the Kids in the Hall!  Enjoy.

 

Tim’s Vinyl Confessions Ep. 353: Journey Talk with Mike LeBrain

I did another taping with Tim Durling on early Saturday morning, my favourite time on my favourite day.  The subject:  a band that just announced the title and tracklisting of their new album Freedom:  Journey!

It’s been a crazy time for Journey, with plenty of lineup upheaval and uncertainty. Tim and I address all this while going through our favourite Journey rarities from the catalogue. We discuss every Journey lead singer: Greg Rolie, Robert Fleischmann, Steve Perry, Steve Augeri, Jeff Scott Soto, and Arnel Pineda. Enjoy this chat as we gear up for the next chapter of Journey!

REVEALED! Top Five Ballads and the secret identity of “X” on the LeBrain Train!

An unprecedented episode with six killer lists and a mystery to boot!  Top Five Ballads.  As an added twist, tonight we added a secret guest to the panel, and the rest of the guys had to guess who this person was on their list alone!  Although I was worried they would guess the guest quite easily, that isn’t how it went down.

Who’s “X”?  Watch and find out!

Unfortunately this episode was also Chris Sarre’s least favourite show due to the big reveal, and he says he will never watch again!  Everyone else seemed to love it and I think we will try this again some time.

Thanks to everyone for hanging out tonight, it was a show I’ll remember a long time.

 

 

 

Top Five Ballads Remastered…with a touch of mystery! Tonight on the LeBrain Train

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

Episode 99 – Top Ballads…Remastered

On July 3 2020, we did the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Ballads on the LeBrain Train with six sets of lists.  And it was great!  We had lists from Meat, Harrison, Holen, Darr, and Len Labelle.  Unfortunately due to Facebook Live and a bad internet connection, I find this show impossible to watch today.  Harrison and I have been trying to talk Meat into doing a “remastered” version of the show in the new Cinco De Listo format for a long time, and we finally twisted his arm.  The new panel tonight:

“X”?  That’s right.  This week’s show is not just a list show.  There will be a sixth panel member, and that member’s voice and likeness will be obscured for the whole countdown.  It will be up to the others to figure out who “X” is, and they have five songs with which to do it.

I love a mystery and I’m really looking forward to this!  Tune in tonight for six lists of awesome ballads, and a little Friday evening mystery too.  Where’s Mulder when you need him?

 

Friday February 25, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!

 

 

VHS Archives #121: Hurricane’s Kelly & Jay show off new mascot

A quick clip with Kelly Hansen and Jay Schellen of Hurricane, talking about following trends and showing off their new mascot.

VHS Archives #120: Blue Rodeo – “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” live at the 1994 Juno Awards

Please enjoy one of Canada’s greatest bands, live or in the studio:  Blue Rodeo!  Pay special attention to master bassist Bazil Donovan, the elegantly complex slide work of Kim Deschamps, and ex-Andy Curran dynamo Glenn “Stumpy Joe” Milchem on drums!

Hosting the Juno Awards on this night was Roch Voisine.  Though they were nominated for three awards including Group of the Year (which they lost to the Rankins), Blue Rodeo went home empty-handed.

This was, in my humble opinion, the best lineup the band has ever had. I was fortunate enough to see them in this incarnation on the Tremelo tour in ’98.

Jim Cuddy – vocals/guitars/mandolin
Greg Keelor – vocals/guitars
Bazil Donovan – bass
Glenn Milchem – drums
Kim Deschamps – pedal steel
James Gray (RIP) – keyboards

VHS Archives #119: Rik Emmett of Triumph’s Solo MuchMusic Debut

The final of my three epic Rik Emmett interviews in the VHS Archives.

August 1990:  It was the Magic Summer Tour and the Perfect Gentlemen were opening for New Kids On the Block at the CNE in Toronto.  That was the big news.  With all that teenage hype looming outside the big glass MuchMusic windows in the form of young girls, in walked Rik Emmett with his first solo material since leaving Triumph in 1988.  Nobody knew what to expect!

Interviewer Steve Anthony is his usual goofy self and loosens Rik up with a few joke questions about New Kids, Perfect Gentlemen and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, before diving into the big ones.

Topics discussed:

  • What artistic expression was he not able to fulfil in Triumph but now can as a solo artist?
  • The new album Absolutely and the response from Triumph fans and the music industry.
  • The writing process.
  • Hair production.
  • The Judas Priest trial.
  • His (awesome) new six piece band.
  • Being a guitar player vs singer/songwriter.
  • The new song and video “Big Lie”.

That’s it for my Rik Emmett treasure from the Archives, I hope you enjoyed them.

 

VHS ARCHIVES #25: RIK EMMETT OF TRIUMPH – THE HOLY GRAIL OF VIDEOS – POWER HOUR 1987 LIVE PERFORMANCE
VHS ARCHIVES #109: RIK EMMETT – THE AXEMEN COMETH (1988)