Videos

Operation: Concept Albums – an epic Nigel Tufnel Top Ten

Concept albums!  A marathon session with a five person panel. The best concept albums in the history of music (the earliest dating back to 1918). Genre busting lists. A rush of inspiring music, from hip to elders.

Aaron kept tabs on the titles and I’ll post them when I get a chance.  There was one album that was a clear winner, and one subject that crossed over multiple albums.  You’ll just have to watch to see for yourself.*

There was some preamble chat about the latest episode of WandaVision, and a bit on Desmond Child.  We hit the lists at 0:21:30 of the stream.

Thanks for checking it out!  Tune in next week for Top Bootlegs with Harrison Kopp, John T. Snow, Buried On Mars and maybe more.  Cheers!

* If you don’t want to see for yourself, you can try to read Aaron’s hand-written notes below!

Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Concept Albums on the LeBrain Train, and the return of Rob Daniels!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 51 – Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Concept Albums

 

This show doesn’t need a lot of preamble.  It’s another list show and it’s another great panel!  “Top Concept Albums” was the topic suggested by Rob Daniels.  A subject so good, I’m amazed it took this long to get to it.  What’s a concept album?  One of those records that tells a story.  We’re keeping the definitions broad.

Please give Rob a warm welcome back to the show for his first appearance of 2021.

Your panel this week:

Whether the lead character of the story is Pink, Kilroy, Torch, or perhaps one of the many nameless protagonists throughout rock history, this is the show you want to catch. By the end, we hope you say “I didn’t know they made a concept album,” to some of our picks.

Friday February 19, 7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

Martin Popoff & the Gang round up their King’s X Top Five

A huge thank-you once more to Martin Popoff for joining us on the show to talk King’s X!  We have been immersing ourselves in the magic trio from Texas:  Dug, Ty and Jerry.  And it has been brilliant.  And these were some brilliant lists.  Martin’s insight on these crucial records will be of interest to diehards and new fans alike.

Want a starter’s kit into King’s X?  Watch this show and listen to Martin.  He comes in at 0:12:45 of the stream.

Martin hung out and chatted King’s X (and a little Rush) for an hour.  Afterwards, we were joined by Kevin from Buried On Mars to continue the musical discussions.  Jacob Moon, Marillion, Def Leppard, Black Sabbath…it was a fun freeform chat that I hope you will stick around and enjoy for the balance of the show.

A huge thanks to Mr. T-Bone Erickson for the new Martin Popoff intro.

Your panel tonight was:

Thanks for Dr. Dave Haslam and KK for your bonus lists!

 

REMINDER: Martin Popoff and the King’s X Top Five lists on tonight’s LeBrain Train

Please give this one a “like” and a “share” — and give Martin your warmest welcome on tonight’s show!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 50 – Top Five King’s X Albums with Martin Popoff

For this very special 50th episode of the LeBrain Train, we welcome back Martin Popoff to talk King’s X!  It is such an honour and a pleasure to have Martin on a second time.  The subject matter:  King’s X’s Top Five albums.  Actually a monumental task.  And you can’t read my reviews and guess how I will rank them.  I will be coming at this with fresh ears and no holds barred.

These are some serious lists, and we’re sitting down with a serious King’s X fan!

Tonight, “We Will Find Who We Are”.  Is this one “Over My Head”?  Let the “Skeptical Winds” blow.  I don’t want to “Pretend”, because “I’ll Never Get Tired” of King’s X.  Please give Martin your biggest welcome, and give it a share, won’t you?

 

Friday February 12, 7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

 

 

KING’X STUDIO ALBUMS + MORE

Part 1 – Out of the Silent Planet (1988)
Part 2 – Gretchen Goes to Nebraska (1989)
Part 3 – Kings of the Absurd (split bootleg with Faith No More)
Part 4 – Faith Hope Love by King’s X (1990)
Part 5 – “Junior’s Gone Wild” (from 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey soundtrack)
Part 6 – King’s X (1992)
Part 7 – Dogman (1994) + bonus “Pillow” promo single review
Part 8 – Ear Candy (1996)
Part 9 – Best of King’s X (1997)
Part 10 – Tape Head (1998)
Part 11 – POUNDHOUND – Massive Grooves from the Church of Psychofunkadelic Grungelism Rock Music (1998 Doug Pinnick/Jerry Gaskill)
Part 12 – Please Come Home…Mr. Bulbous (2000)
Part 13 – PLATYPUS – Ice Cycles (2000 Ty Tabor)
Part 14 – Manic Moonlight (2001)
Part 15 – Black Like Sunday (2003)
Part 16 – Ogre Tones (2005)
Part 17 – XV (2008)

 

Over Our Heads? Top Five King’s X Albums with Martin Popoff on this week’s LeBrain Train!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 50 – Top Five King’s X Albums with Martin Popoff

For this very special 50th episode of the LeBrain Train, we welcome back Martin Popoff to talk King’s X!  It is such an honour and a pleasure to have Martin on a second time.  King’s X was the subject broached (by Uncle Meat, thank you) and Martin challenged us to hone down our usual Nigel Tufnel Top Ten lists to a tight Top Five.

Topic decided, it was only after the fact I realized how difficult this was going to be!  But I think I have my top five ready.  These are some serious lists, and we’re sitting down with a serious King’s X fan.

Friday night, “We Will Find Who We Are”.  Is this one “Over My Head”?  Let the “Skeptical Winds” blow.  I don’t want to “Pretend”, because “I’ll Never Get Tired” of King’s X.  Please give Martin your biggest welcome, and give it a share, won’t you?

Friday February 12, 7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

KING’X STUDIO ALBUMS + MORE

Part 1 – Out of the Silent Planet (1988)
Part 2 – Gretchen Goes to Nebraska (1989)
Part 3 – Kings of the Absurd (split bootleg with Faith No More)
Part 4 – Faith Hope Love by King’s X (1990)
Part 5 – “Junior’s Gone Wild” (from 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey soundtrack)
Part 6 – King’s X (1992)
Part 7 – Dogman (1994) + bonus “Pillow” promo single review
Part 8 – Ear Candy (1996)
Part 9 – Best of King’s X (1997)
Part 10 – Tape Head (1998)
Part 11 – POUNDHOUND – Massive Grooves from the Church of Psychofunkadelic Grungelism Rock Music (1998 Doug Pinnick/Jerry Gaskill)
Part 12 – Please Come Home…Mr. Bulbous (2000)
Part 13 – PLATYPUS – Ice Cycles (2000 Ty Tabor)
Part 14 – Manic Moonlight (2001)
Part 15 – Black Like Sunday (2003)
Part 16 – Ogre Tones (2005)
Part 17 – XV (2008)

T-Bone and the Gang are Done With Mirrors on the LeBrain Train

What can you say about a show that does all the following in one night:

  1. An in-depth, track by track analysis and critique of Aerosmith’s Done With Mirrors
  2. A tribute to Christopher Plummer (R.I.P.)
  3. CD unboxing and beer de-canning
  4. A world premier music video
  5. The sound of the real toilet flushing
  6. Awesome rock and roll chit-chat for almost three full hours

Why, it could only have been the LeBrain Train!  And this week, far more than 2000 words were said about Done With Mirrors.  This album generated so much passionate and sometimes dispassionate discussion that it would have been a shame if everybody didn’t get to speak their piece.  This album isn’t as polarizing as you might think.  We all found something enjoyable, we just didn’t always agree on what was enjoyable.

Your panel tonight was:

To skip ahead to the parts you may be interested in, go to the following points in the video:

  • Beer de-canning:  0:26:40
  • Encore Records unboxing:  0:28:10
  • Christopher Plummer tributes at:  0:18:30 and 2:34:50
  • Done With Mirrors discussion:  0:34:05
  • World premier music video of Current River’s Rock’n in a Rubber:  2:38:45

 

Thanks for watching and leaving the awesome comments, folks!  Tune in next week when Martin Popoff returns with his King’s X Top Five!

 

T-Bone Lets The Music Do The Talking on tonight’s LeBrain Train

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 49 – “The Return of T-Bone”

 

Layin’ down some facts for you:

  1. T-Bone is one of my favourite people,
  2. “Let the Music Do the Talking” is one of my favourite songs,
  3. but Done With Mirrors is one of my least favourite Aerosmith albums.

It’s been a mere two months since T-Bone last graced our show with his presence, but this time he’s coming locked and loaded with a special album deep discussion:  Aerosmith’s Done With Mirrors.

When I ranked all the Aerosmith albums, I placed it at #11.  I gave it a 3.5/5 when I reviewed it separately, but I blame Deke for that.  He was whispering things in my ear.  “36 minutes of classic Aerorock,” is what he said.   That was six years ago, and I have not listened to Done With Mirrors much since.  So it will be interesting to see what we have to say this time out.  Deke and T-Bone are big fans.

Besides Deke and T-Bone, we’ll also be bringing in Uncle Meat and Buried On Mars.  They are coming into the discussion with fresher ears than I, so it’ll be interesting to hear their takes.

Also:  Special beer “de-canning”!   Music unboxing from Encore Records!  New Current River music video!  All coming to you live…tonight!

 

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

 

 

Scheduling Notes:

Martin Popoff will be back next Friday, February 12, for a King’s X Top Five show!

We are also hard at work on plenty of list shows and returning guests.  Rob Daniels and Mike Slayen will be returning when we do the Top Riffs of the 80s.  Harrison the Mad Metal Mad will be back when we tackle Top Maiden Album Covers, and a few other topics that we have cooking up.  And for a special 1st Anniversary show on March 19, Brent Jensen is going to talk about music that makes our skin vibrate one more time!

 

 

Mike Fraser takes us inside the recording studio on an epic LeBrain Train

“What happened to the guitars? Well put them back the way they were!” – Jimmy Page

A huge, huge, huge thanks to Mike Fraser for hanging out on a Friday night!  Growing up a young rock fan in Canada, we heard legend of Little Mountain studios in Vancouver.  Tonight, Superdekes and I got to ask the questions we wanted to know for over 30 years.  And Mike delivered!

Krokus.  Loverboy.  Honeymoon Suite.  AC/DC.  Aerosmith.  Bryan Adams.  The Cult.  Coverdale-Page.  So much more!  We tackled some of our favourite albums and a few cult classics.  From the Stone Gods to Canadian folksters The Rankin Family, we tried to explore the slightly obscure corners of Mike’s discography.  And we had a blast!  We took a few viewer questions, and if Mike comes back to the show again in the future, then maybe we can ask him the rest.

As I often do, I started early with an unboxing.  Start the video from the beginning if you want to catch that.  If you’re only interested in Mike (couldn’t blame you) then skip to 0:08:00 of the stream.

Make sure you watch all the way to the end to catch the brand new music video by T-Bone Erickson:  “Balls of Steel”.  This song is a tribute to Superdekes, who hooked us up with Mike Fraser for this show.  Thank you Deke, and thank you T-Bone for this awesome premiere video!

Feedback has been saying that this was the best LeBrain Train yet.  Do you agree?

REMINDER: Mike Fraser, Engineer Extraordinaire, on tonight’s LeBrain Train

Just a reminder that Mike Fraser, who has either engineered or mixed just about every album you love, will be on the show tonight!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 48

In preparation for tonight, Deke and I have been doing our research, listening to records, and listening to other podcasts that Mike has been on.  While you can count on some AC/DC questions (and other major bands that Mike has worked with) Deke and I have some queries about some other albums off the beaten track.  You can check out some of Mike’s credits at his website.

Please give this a share to your rock buddies, and show Mike a warm welcome on tonight’s LeBrain Train!

January 29 2021. 7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

Note:  Thank you T-Bone for your understanding.  We original had T-Bone Erickson on the schedule for tonight to debut the latest Current River music video.  That show will now be pushed back to February 5.  T-Bone has graciously agreed to be bumped so we could talk to Mike Fraser.  Mighty fine dude!

Engineer Extraordinaire Mike Fraser joins the LeBrain Train – Friday Jan. 29 7:00 PM EST

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 48

Ever wanted to know what it was like making records with AC/DC, Aerosmith, The Cult, Coverdale-Page, Joe Satriani, Blue Murder and many more? If so, make sure you tune in to this Friday’s episode of the LeBrain Train.

Mike Fraser has worked on so many classic rock albums that your head will spin. There is a 99.999% certainty that you know and love at least one record he’s been involved with. For some of us it’s more a matter of the ones we haven’t heard yet!

A huge thanks to Mike for agreeing to come on our lil’ show and chat music, and an equally big thank-you to Superdekes for hooking it up. This is going to be fun.

January 29 2021. 7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain