I’ve never been one for New Year’s celebrations. I was usually asleep. Only once can I remember going to a house party, a Record Store party, which was New Year’s 1999-2000. It was actually at the Bully’s house. She begged me to go out with them after to the bar. Phil’s I think. I was designated driver to get them to the bar. She was drunk. A lot of issues there. She went back to hating me again in the new year — harder than ever in fact. I dropped them off and then went over to visit with my parents and the Szabo family, who had returned from seeing Jann Arden in concert. We counted down to midnight, I went home to check that the computer was still working. It was, and so I went to bed feeling pretty much the same in the year 2000 as I did in 1999. Y2k ended up being nothing, except a footnote and the inspiration for a really bad Queensryche album title.
Really weird, that memory of her begging me to come out with them. Me explaining I was going over to Szabo’s house to meet up with my family. Then bullying me harder than ever in 2000. I don’t think the events were connected but it was just weird how mercurial she was, and not in a good way.
Some of the more memorable New Years I had were spent at the movies. New Year’s Day ’98 I went to go see Tarantino’s Jackie Brown with a friend. I remember she went because her boyfriend was a huge Tarantino fan, and wanted to see it with her. But he fucked up in some way, stayed out too late on New Year’s Eve without her perhaps, and did not attend the film with us. I think this was a jealousy play. She went with me, and I didn’t feel bad about it in any way.
New Year’s Eve 2000-2001, the family went out and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas for lack of options. It was a Ron Howard film and therefore not terrible. We remarked that movies made for a wonderful New Year’s Eve and more people should do it. In 2015, I saw The Force Awakens with old friend Scotty. That was a special moment. Two childhood friends watching a movie they had been waiting for since 1983. 32 years. That’s a long wait for the Force to Awaken. Good thing we saw a matinee so we could nap before the midnight countdown.
Most of the time, I just can’t stay up late. I did for the last couple New Year’s Eve LeBrain Train episodes, but that’s not necessary anymore. Now people are spending their New Year’s Eves doing what they want, and that’s perfect. Me, I spent mine napping!
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.
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 onYouTubeor onFacebook.
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.
It would be ridiculous for any Savatage fan to complain about keyboards, Jon Oliva’s main weapon. However before he really started givin’ ‘er on keys with Gutter Ballet, they employed them heavily on Fight For the Rock with guest Dvoskin on the boards. These keys over-dominate in the mix and sound tacked on and out of place. Fight For the Rock could have been higher in the ranking if the band weren’t chasing hits by their own admission. Nothing wrong with the ballad “Day After Day”, and there are quite a few great Sava-songs on this album. The production tanks it, sadly. The band would never make another album this commercial again.
11. The Dungeons are Calling (1984)
Just a mini-album that followed Sirens. Highlights include the ferocious title track (what a riff!) and the slower, grinding “By the Grace of the Witch”. Some of the other songs are a bit thrashy, a bit chaotic, so it’s all a matter of taste. I don’t think “The Whip” is particularly good but if you wanna get your head bangin’, then go for it. One of the CD bonus tracks, “Fighting For Your Love”, later became “Crying For Love” on Fight For the Rock. Good tune and maybe should have been on this mini-album, but also would have softened it if it was.
10. Dead Winter Dead (1995)
I’m really really sorry about this. I know it’s the iconic album that launched Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I just think they had better concept albums. Not that the concept is flawed but Savatage is a band with four concept albums (or rock operas) and one of them has to come in last. Tracks like “I Am”, “Doesn’t Matter Anyway”, and “Dead Winter Dead” don’t hold up against superior material. There’s also an overly long intro. “This Isn’t What We Meant” and “This Is the Time (1990)” are emotional and awesome though. I remember being disappointed that Alex Skolnick couldn’t stick around to record another album, and I really missed his greasy metal tone. That’s not a slight against Al Pitrelli and Chris Caffery who came in to replace him. It was nice to have the Mountain King, Jon Oliva, back in the band after two albums “officially” out.
9. Sirens (1983)
Not a bad debut by any stretch, with a monumental monolithic title track. “Holocaust” is pretty awesome, as is “I Believe”, a rare song about aliens. “On the Run” ain’t bad. “Twisted Little Sister” is a skip like “The Whip”, but the album ends on a strong note with “Out On the Streets”, another early song re-recorded and polished up on Fight For the Rock.
8. Gutter Ballet (1989)
This is so hard to pick “least favourites”. It kills me to put Gutter Ballet here in this position, since the title track is probably my favourite Savatage song of all time. “When The Crowds Are Gone” would be in the top 10. Banger “Of Rage and War” would make the top 30 list. All of those songs are on side one. Side two is less memorable, though it does feature Savatage’s first foray into conceptual territory. The final three songs, “Mentally Yours”, “Summer Rain” and “Thorazine Shuffle” form a suite about insanity. By the next album they were ready to do a full-blown rock opera.
7. Power of the Night (1985)
Raise the fist of the metal child! The major label debut, produced by Max Norman. Similar in strength, speed and heaviness to Sirens and The Dungeons Are Calling, the previous two releases. Heavier than either due to sharp, lethal production work by Norman. Some killer songs here: title track, “Warriors”, and “Unusual” are all top tier. “Washed Out” could be one of the heaviest songs they ever did. Demonstrating their diversity, it ends on a decent ballad called “In the Dream”. Really strong album, front to back, with a variety of heavy metal styles.
6. Hall of the Mountain King (1987)
It’s hard to believe that Fight for the Rock came in between Power of the Night and Hall of the Mountain King! The two are brother records and it sounds impossible that anything came between them. Mountain King was the breakthrough, with that incredible music video for the wicked title track. Now produced by Paul O’Neill, the album sounds crisp and heavy. Nary a wasted track here, with perhaps only the thrashy “White Witch” deserving the skip button. “Strange Wings” could be the top track, with then-Black Sabbath singer Ray Gillen on backing vocals. Top five Sava-tune territory. But then there’s also “Beyond the Doors of the Dark”, very Sabbathy itself (Tony Martin era). “The Price You Pay”, “Devastation”…what an incredible album!
5. Handful of Rain (1994)
Tragedy strikes. Founding Savatage guitarist Criss Oliva was killed in a traffic accident. His original snake-like style, tone, and compositional sharpness would never be heard again. Ex-Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick came in to do the album and tour, and ex-singer Jon Oliva worked behind the scenes playing virtually everything Alex didn’t. The band “Savatage” didn’t really play on it. Doc Killdrums, Steve Wacholtz, was pictured on the sleeve but it was Oliva who played drums (and bass and rhythm guitar). Lead singer Zack Stevens did an admirable job all over this album loaded with memorable songs. Perhaps the best of the new songs was the operatic “Chance” featuring Savatage’s first foray into counterpoint vocals: layers of different lines singing different lyrics and melodies, but all complimentary and building to an explosive climax. Meanwhile “Taunting Cobras” and “Nothing’s Going On” covered the heavy side of things. The closing track, “Alone You Breathe” is easily the most emotional. It revisits parts of their magnum opus Streets: A Rock Opera for added hair-raising impact.
4. Poets and Madmen (2001)
The final Savatage, and fourth conceptual album. Zack Stevens departed and Jon Oliva sang all the lead vocals himself for the first time since Streets (1990). By this time we were used to big Savatage counterpoint epics, and this time it’s a 10 minute track called “Morphine Child”. What a massive, plutonium-heavy riff! All backed by a dramatic, emotional song. While we did miss Stevens, Oliva more than handled the complex job with a host of backing singers similar to Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This final album is about an asylum, but it’s more complex than that. Many great tunes: “Commisar”, “Drive”, “I Seek Power” and “Awaken” all slay. At least they went out on a high note. That counterpoint is the bomb!
3. The Wake of Magellan (1997)
Don’t see the storms are forming, don’t see or heed the warning. Third conceptual album, and probably a hair better than Poets and Madmen simply because it has both Stevens and Oliva on lead vocals. Brilliant songs with a nautical theme. “Turns to Me”, “Complaint in the System”, “Paragons of Innocence”, “The Hourglass”, all great songs. Not as heavy as their trashy past but many magnitudes more brilliant. This time the big counterpoint song is the stunning title track, and it is the pinnacle of their counterpoint experiments. The rapid-fire lead vocals are challenging, exiting and chill-inducing. The band themselves found it difficult to perform. A stellar album, lyrically and musically. Stevens really went out on a high. He was replaced by a singer named Damond Jiniya who unfortunately never recorded with the band before they went inactive.
2. Edge of Thorns (1993)
Jon Oliva left Savatage. A shattering loss. But behind the scenes, he wasn’t gone. He still wrote and played keyboards. He just didn’t want to tour, so Savatage brought in a new lead singer named Zack Stevens. At the time he was compared to Geoff Tate and James LaBrie, but he soon came into his own. Oliva personally selected him and trained him. Taking their time, Savatage honed a fantastic album called Edge of Thorns, with a cutting-edge piano-riffed title track that took the fans by storm. Sounding like a natural followup to Gutter Ballet, the album was stacked top to bottom with great songs both soft and heavy. The lighter side included the piano ballad “All That I Bleed”. On the heavy side, we have an epic called “Follow Me”, a thrashy scorcher called “Lights Out”, a dark stomp called “Skraggy’s Tomb” and another called “Conversation Piece”. Not a conceptual album, but one that ebbs and flows just like one. Zack’s best.
1. Streets: A Rock Opera (1990)
Grown from the seed that was “When The Crowds Are Gone” from Gutter Ballet, Savatage and Paul O’Neill conceived their first rock opera. Leaning heavily on the piano, it was a startling change. Yet song for song and word for word, this is Savatage at their most powerful. Delving into Christianty, addiction, and miracles, the album was a surprise trip that really captured the imagination. It’s more than just the story of a down and out rocker named D.T. Jesus. It’s a story about believing and forgiveness. The whole thing culminates with “Believe”, a top five Sava-track for certain. Most of the highlights have ballady qualities, such “A Little Too Far”, “Can You Hear Me Now”, “If I Go Away”, “Heal My Soul” and “Somewhere In Time”. Meanwhile “Sammy and Tex” covers the thrashy side. Many songs had to be cut so it could fit onto one CD. “Stay” and “Desiree” were later released as bonus tracks on other releases. Also available is “D.T. Jesus”, a slower more soulful version of “Jesus Saves”. There is also a narrated version of the album including a cut track called “Larry Elbows”. Though the album was a bit of a flop for Savatage, and many fans expressed disappointment in the softening sound, those kinds of albums often turn out to be the special ones. Streets certainly is. It’s so powerful it’ll give you chills.
In the Christmases of youth when families were bigger and healthier, it was close to a week-long celebration. December 27 was a day we looked forward to annually.
Before I started working at the Record Store, we would depart for Stratford Ontario mid-day on the 27th for an early birthday celebration. My sister’s birthday is the 28th, and she would have a second party that day too! Stratford has a lot of really cool stores, especially if you’re looking for comics, books and board games like I was. There was a small record store as well, and my sister and I would hit up these stores while my mother and aunt shopped for clothes and knick-knacks for what felt like hours upon hours. One thing I know for sure: we were the ones waiting for them, and not vice-versa!
I acquired many treasures in Stratford in those days. After shopping, we would head to my aunt and uncle’s place for warming up. My sister would receive her gifts, and we would eat treats while waiting for the main course to arrive: garlic spaghetti, agio e olio, my absolute favourite. Then we would settle in for a movie (always a comedy). It was always a special day even though it wasn’t my birthday.
Even when we were young, I remember we were allowed to play some of our new tapes on my uncle’s big stereo during dinner. I can recall listening to Kiss. Smashes, Thrashes & Hits? Dynasty? I can’t remember – could have been either, or both, but I know we listened to Kiss during dinner (or dessert). My uncle made us listen to someone named Juice Newton.
In the Record Store days, I would only be able to make it for dinner and not the fun shopping part. Stratford is a little colder and snowier, and I recall having to step over massive snowbanks to get to parked cars. The cool shops made it worth it. I came home with Stratford with Transformers comics, Star Trek comics, loads of science fiction books, and rare board games. There was also a Scottish-themed shop where I bought Billy Connolly CDs and DVDs, Jaffa cakes, and other treats.
“Peak Stratford” would have been Dec 27 1990: the year I found Kiss On Fire at the book store. All those bootlegs! I sat and read during dinner amazed at all the records I now knew I had to collect! What a score for a kid.
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.
Boxing Day (December 26) is for relaxing. After all this activity, we need a break. That’s my opinion. For others, including my wife, it’s for shopping for crazy bargains. In her defence, she doesn’t do that anymore, but I used to question her sanity. After all, I remember working Boxing Day…many Boxing Days…and it was definitely one of the worst days of the year to have to work at the Record Store.
Christmas Eve wasn’t so bad. There was usually lots of cheer in the air. Many customers were pre-spending Christmas money on themselves. By the end of the day though, the shelves were so damn bare. I’d look at them and wonder just what the hell we would have left for sale when we had our big “Buy Three Get One Free” sale on the 26th. Yet people still found things to buy.
After working straight the month of December with only a couple days off, having one day’s break on Christmas Day wasn’t enough. The 25th was always busy. Multiple visits with family, lots going on, lots to do, and no time to actually rest. Then I had to go to bed on time to be up for the Boxing Day sale. That’s exactly how I spent my last Christmas at the Record Store. I even gave up one of the days off in December to a co-worker who wanted to go see a concert. Why? Because I was a nice manager. A good manager. The kind of manager you wanted to have. Yet that guy stabbed me in the back years later when he took issue with my side of the story in Record Store Tales. I should have taken the day off and made him work! Ah well. Didn’t Green Day say that nice guys finish last?
Working on Boxing Day always felt depressing. You didn’t want to be behind the counter working 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. I would be powered by caffeine and saddened that the cheer in the air that was so obvious a few days earlier was all gone. Now it was replaced by bargain hunting. Deals. Surly door-crashers and people unhappy with the gifts they did receive. It was a different kind of day compared to Christmas Eve, and it was long. And worst of all, there was nothing to look forward to after the 26th. Just going back to work on the 27th for what was essentially a normal back-to-the-grind day, except with loads of returns. After the high of Christmas, the comedown of Boxing Day was just brutal.
I’ll never miss it, and I’ll never shop on Boxing Day. I will not contribute to that culture. I remember when stores had to be closed on the 26th. In fact the first Boxing Days at the Record Store, we were closed. The second one, we opened illegally, and working was on a voluntary basis. It was voluntary for the first few years. Then it became near impossible to get it off, though I did get it off for most years that I was manager. The rule of thumb was you could have Christmas Eve or Boxing Day off, but not both. Yet that last year I worked both. Because I was a sucker I guess. Merry Christmas motherfucker.
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