#1037: Grab A Stack of Recap! (And Things to Come)

I’m so glad that Meat suggested this as a format many months ago, and that Harrison agreed to go live without much warning!

October 28 2022.  As I was leaving for work that morning, I suddenly just thought to myself, “You know, I wonder if Harrison or anybody would feel like going live tonight.  Just shoot the shit for an hour.  It might be a fun way to be social on a Friday night and it only has to be an hour.”

He did and the rest is history now.  Meat came on and we talked the new Dio movie Dreamers Never Die, showed off Lego, music, and had a lively and fun discussion.  The shape of things to come!  We didn’t even have a name for the new show yet so I ran the LeBrain Train theme song instead.  In my mind anyway, this was not the Train.  It was something fresh and unstructured and new.

At least it felt that way to me and that’s what I needed to make this fun again.  And it was fun again.

No name?  No problem.  The following morning I wrote the “Grab A Stack of Rock” theme song with Jen and sent it to Tee Bone to fully realize.  By the next show, we had an intro video!  It took under a week, though it was still undergoing revisions.

Show #2, Nov 4 2022, was a cottage show!  Tim Durling and Aaron KMA joined the Mad Metal Man and myself to show off books, rare 8 tracks tapes, box sets and model kits. Tim has since become an integral part of the show’s rotating panel. As for Aaron, he’ll make it when he’s able!

Show #3, Nov 11 2022, featured John T. Snow and a whole boatload of Japanese imports!  Shockingly, John had some Jeff Scott Soto to show off!  Most importantly, this week was the debut of favourite feature, “Ask Harrison”!  We had two enquiries, one from Jeff Taylor and one from Tee Bone Erickson himself.  The feature was a success and continued weekly from there.

Show #4, Nov 18 2022, was the debut of Robert Daniels on this new format, which he mistook for Grab a Rack of Socks! Just kidding.  Rob came in with (of course), soundtracks and stories.  Meanwhile I focused on Star Wars rarities, while Harrison had some nifty triple disc sets to show.  “Ask Harrison” returned with Tee Bone Erickson, but it wouldn’t be long before other viewers wanted in on the action.

Show #5, Nov 25 2022, is where things got serious with this new format.  We decided to hone in on the new Kiss Creatures of the Night box set with Tim Durling and Marco D’Auria of the Contrarians.  We gave the set and its surrounding history a good solid look.  Marco brought the bootlegs and Tim had vinyl, cassettes and a related 8 track tape.  Uncle Meat appeared via video, with his memories of seeing Kiss on the Creatures tour.

Meanwhile on “Ask Harrison”, it was time for viewers to get their questions answered.  Lana Teramae got her question in via Tee Bone, and new arrival MarriedInHeels inquired about Harrison’s haircare secrets — a question he dodged.

After Show #5, I took a week off to appear with Grant Arthur on Grant’s Rock Warehouse, to do a discussion on The Darkness and their discography.  Tim Durling jumped in for that one too, and it was a lively show for all involved.  And it led to later things!  (And I will be back with Grant in February to talk about Stone Gods and Hot Leg.)

With our Creatures show done and dusted, we had to keep going big.  And so we did.  We got the Snowman back and dug deep once again.

Show #6, December 9 2022, was overlong but for good reason.  We took deep dives into two Judas Priest box sets:  50 Heavy Metal Years of Music, and Complete Albums Collection.  Every disc, every album, every bonus item, we dug deep.  Those autographs are authentic, by the way, as we showed.

Unfortunately however, this was our first show since the passing of Christine McVie.  On “Ash Harrison” that week, MarriedAndHeels asked him about Christine, for which he had an excellent answer.  Meanwhile Tee Bone had something he’s always been meaning to ask Harrison about Australia!

Show #7, December 16 2022, allowed me to continue diving into box sets.  The Queen Miracle box turned out to be a favourite.  On this night we were joined by Aaron KMA once more, who had a lot of books!  Mr. Books had books?  Imagine that.  Harrison followed the books with more books, CDs, and a lightsaber.  (Can’t wait for summer when Harrison and I can have duelling lightsabers!)

On “Ask Harrison” this week, Lana returned via Tee Bone, and MarriedAndHeels threw us a curveball by asking Harrison and Mike a question each!  And it would not be the last time she’d pull a trick like that!

Show #8, December 23 2022, was the final show before Christmas and so we invited Tim Durling and Marco D’Auria back on to go out in style.  Marco had some cool Elvis and Mystique items to show, including the new DVD of the film Standing on the Firing Line.  As for me, I continued into the box sets with Rush and Marillion and unboxed a new Savatage vinyl reissue.  For “Ask Harrison”, Jeff Taylor and MarriedAndHeels returned, as did “Ask Mike”! The ever-evasive Harrison remains excellent at dodging questions!

Show #9, December 30 2022, and final show of the year as a drop in special!  With an eye to showing off all our cool Christmas gifts, Harrison and I brought the Lego, the box sets, and more.  I went on a good Guns N’ Roses rant.  Grant Arthur made his show debut with some neat Kim Mitchell stuff.  Brian Richards, who had already done the LeBrain Train previously, returned and showed off some cool vinyl among many other collectible goodies including a signed Bruce Kulick bobblehead.  And good pal Robert Daniels was on board with…shoes?  Perhaps the shape of things to come.

Finally the planets aligned, and I got MarriedAndHeels on to do a whole show.  I’d been wanting to do this since the start.  I knew she’d be great.  I was right.  Happy New Year indeed!

Show #10, January 6 2023, was pre-taped due to scheduling issues, and even so Harrison could not make it this time.  But he was with us in spirit, and even asked his own questions of us – one “Ask Mike” and one “Ask MarriedandHeels”.  Together we showed off Lego, including some brand new sets released just that week!  Of course she had to show off her heels, and we even got a show exclusive:  unboxing her new orange summer heels that I am sure her fans will love to see.

After she shared the show to her social media, it got views that surpassed every rock star interview I ever did.  For that I am very grateful and all I can say is, I hope her fans liked the show as much as I did!

I can tell you this much.

Show #11, Jan 13 2023, will see Rob Daniels, Tim Durling, and Kevin “Buried On Mars” Simister join Harrison and I to talk Star Trek.  What cool things will these guys have to show off?  It’ll also be nice to have Kevin back for the first time on this new format.

Lists will be coming back at some point.  It has been made clear to me that people miss the lists.  So, sure.  Once in a while we can do lists.  Meat will be back for that.

Join us this Friday for another Grab A Stack of Rock With the Mad Metal Man.  It’ll be out of this world!

REVIEW: Ace Frehley – Origins Vol. 2 (2020)

ACE FREHLEY – Origins Vol. 2 (2020)

Three cheers for Matt Starr!  Ace Frehley’s drummer is the “starr” of the show on 11 of the 12 tracks on Origins Vol. 2.  This is evident immediately on the Zeppelin cover “Good Times Bad Times”.  There are plenty of guests on this album, but doing justice to John Bonham ain’t easy.  Starr nails it!  Fortunately the Ace Man himself is also able to tribute Jimmy Page ably on his solo.

In fact the weakest part of the album are the vocals.  As Ace ages, his voice has gotten lower.  Some of these songs are in a lower key than usual to accommodate.  It’s also, quite frankly, difficult to get excited about a second album of covers.  A lot of the same bands are covered, including the aforementioned Zeppelin, Kiss, Cream, Stones, Kinks, and Jimi Hendrix.

It’s an OK covers album.  It’s nice to get so much Ace-sounding rock.  Frehley makes Mountain sound like his own originals, as he does “Kicks” by Paul Revere and the Raiders.  He’s a bit heavy-handed on “We Gotta Get Out of this Place”.  But “Space Truckin'”?  Not necessary, or even wanted.  “Space-Ace truckin’!” he sings and it’s borderline cringe.  “Hey where’s Jendell?”  While it’s good to put your own twist on a song, dropping your own name in doesn’t cut it.  And Ace is no Ian Gillan.  (Ian Gillan is also no Ian Gillan, but that’s beside the point.)

Among the guests, John 5 rips solos on “I’m Down” (Beatles) and the thumpin’ “Politician” (Stones).  He executes both modern and traditional rock and roll guitar solos, but goes wild for the “I’m Down” outro, on which he shreds.  Lita Ford also appears, but not on guitar.  She sings on “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”.  While there’s no denying that’s a classic song that influenced Ace, how many people have covered “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”?  Lita’s voice has barely changed since the 80s and she is easily the charismatic highlight of this overplayed tune, and a highlight of the album as a whole.  One guy whose voice has changed a bit is Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, who sings on “30 Days in the Hole”.  He can still do it with power and range, but you can hear the years.  Speaking of voices, Ace doesn’t sing on the Kiss cover “She” but the vocals are split three ways among the backing musicians, and they capture a reasonable facsimile of that vintage Paul/Gene layered vibe.

The most interesting guest of the lot could be one of Ace’s replacements in Kiss, Mr. Bruce Kulick himself.  Of course, over the years Bruce and Ace have jammed a few times, and it’s sheer delight to hear them together.  Bruce has, arguably, the best guitar solo on the whole album, with “Manic Depression”.  The guy is greased lightning, extra greasy!  It’s warming to see Ace and Bruce put egos aside and just play some music.  Any time, guys, any time.

Giving credit to Ace for one more thing, “Lola” does sound like his kind of tune.  His vocal shortcomings are obvious here but don’t really get in the way.  Whether you like that song or not, Ace has a quirky side that “Lola” fits, just as sweet as Coca-Cola.

Bonus:  the album comes with nice liner notes by Kiss scribe Julian Gill.

Let’s hope Ace has the covers out of his system for now.  Another original album, hell even a live album would be cool, but no more covers Ace, please!

3/5 stars

#1036: Sleeping My Day Away

A sequel to #1029:  Lick It Up (In Bed)

RECORD STORE TALES #1036: Sleeping My Day Away

Insomnia ain’t no joke!  As a long time sufferer (since childhood), I have continually sought new ways to fall asleep.  Last time we checked in, I was looking at using my laptop and a small pair of laptop speakers to play music and rock myself to sleep.  I have since revised the setup and experimented some more, with promising results.  Here’s the scoop.

The idea of keeping my laptop near my bed, next to my alarm clock and night-time drinks, was not ideal.  I’ve spilled plenty of night-time drinks so the laptop was not going to suffice as a long term solution for music in the bedroom.  I’m sure kids today have more efficient ways of playing their music wherever they want, but I also require certain minimum levels of quality.  Gotta have stereo, not a single speaker, for one.  The sound quality has to be slightly better than my buzzy, bass-free laptop speakers.  And I have to be able to play my own music, because Spotify doesn’t have what I want.

I looked around for my old Sony mp3 player, but I couldn’t get it to charge.  I had a second Sony too, but it appears to be lost.  So, my parents bought me a new mp3 player for Christmas.  Yes, they still make them!  It’s an off-brand player called a “AiMoonsa”.  The Amazon writeup said it has an “HD” speaker built in.  I don’t know about “HD”, but it doesn’t sound too terrible.  It does violate my stereo rule.  Gotta have stereo.  Of course, stereo is available through the headphone jack.  What’s nice about this player compared to the old Sony is that it has a removable 64 gig SD card.  Easy to swap in and out, and upgrade if desired.  I find swapping just as easy.  I’ll always put my old Kiss albums on my mp3 player, and the rest of the space can be taken up by other favourite bands and new musical purchases.  The only thing about this player is the controls are a little clunky, and it doesn’t display cover art like the Sony did.  But I also only need it to do the bare minimum of work.  That being, playing mp3 files over a pair of speakers while I try to get to sleep.

I needed new speakers, so I ordered the standard Amazon computer speakers, the Amazon Basics USB speakers for $24 bucks.  This is actually my third pair.  I have a set at the lake and you’d be surprised how far you can hear the music up there.  I also have a set at work.  This third set is for the bedroom.

I needed a power source for the speakers, so I grabbed an extension cord and one of those USB cube charges.  A bit jerry-rigged, but it works.

I loaded up the mp3 player with the aforementioned music, including my entire D-A-D collection as gifted to me by Thor.  Lemme tell something people:  D-A-D is a band with a deep, rich discography of awesome tunes!  Latter day stuff like “Empty Head”, “Something Good”, and “Everything Glows” are great tunes!  I put on the D-A-D compilation Good Clean Family Entertainment You Can Trust, and had a Christmas holiday nap.  And yes, “Sleeping My Day Away” was indeed the first track.

It was perfect!  The music sounded good enough (certainly better than when I used to fall asleep to music on cassette in the 80s).  The D-A-D did the trick, as tune after tune rocked me to sleep.  I fell asleep mid-way through the disc and stayed that way for a couple hours.

Now, who’s to say that I wouldn’t have fallen asleep that day even without the music?  It was a good nap though, and I enjoyed falling asleep that way, like I used to.  Jen came in to nap too, and whaddaya know?  Now she’s a D-A-D fan.

Mr. and Mrs. LeBrain fully endorse D-A-D.  Now go get some!

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.

#1035: New Year, New Tale

RECORD STORE TALES #1035: New Year, New Tale

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!

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.