My talented friend and co-host Harrison Kopp has spent the last several months not just working on 50 Years of Iron Maiden, but also his own original animated Lego horror story called Going Ape. Entirely built, animated and scored by Harrison, his first completed Lego animation is 100% his own original work. He felt that for his debut short film, it should be him doing all the creative work. He was obviously right, because it turns out young Harrison is not bad at music either.
The top secret lab setting of Going Ape gives it an impending apocalyptic feel. Just another day at the office? Not this time as things gradually go awry at the San Jacinto Research Laboratory. Not even the solid brick-built walls of the lab can protect the hapless scientists tonight.
Please enjoy Harrison’s first completed animated short, Going Ape. Grab some popcorn!
RECORD STORE TALES #1196: When the Lightning Strikes
Friday night, and we were off to the races. I live for the weekend, and so Friday June 27 was set to be another one for the history books. Fridays are a shorter day at work. We get to go home at 4:00 PM instead of 4:30 which can make a significant difference when it comes to traffic. Jen had bought a couple decent steaks at a cheap price, so that was the planned dinner. Steak is always something to look forward to, even when cooked at home in a cast iron frying pan. (The grill at the cottage is always preferred.) On top of this, I had the night “off” from doing shows. The evening’s episode of Grab A Stack of Rock was a fun re-run featuring my good pal Aaron along with Harrison Kopp and Jex Russell. All I had to do was watch and comment along. A low pressure evening.
In more ways than one…
A minor seizure derailed Jen, but only for an hour and a half. She recovered after a quick nap. We’d have to do dinner after the show, instead of before. No big deal. The electricity in her synapses doesn’t always play nice, but she’s definitely doing much better than she was doing only two or three years ago. New medications have made a difference.
The skies were darker than usual for a summer night in June. According to the radar, a storm was rolling in. It had already hit the shores of Lake Huron a couple hours earlier, as my dad told me.
“The power went out a couple times,” he told me. “The neighbours came over for a visit and they had to stay and wait out the storm, they couldn’t go home.”
Me personally, I never let a little rain get in the way of me leaving a social engagement early, but that’s just me.
“It’ll be coming your way soon,” warned my dad. I love a good rainstorm. The harder the better. A low pressure zone was churning up some thunder and lightning. It should be a good one. The rumble of distant thunder could be heard.
Jen made a couple pretty good steaks with enough left over for breakfast the next day. We settled in for an evening. I was watching classic Doctor Who on Tubi. I chose the high-strung Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, because I like his Scottish sidekick Jamie. I usually watch Doctor Who on my laptop with my headphones, while Jen watches sports on TV. The lights flickered as a power surge hit, followed by a roar of thunder outside.
“Here it comes,” I enthused. The power went out twice total, knocking out the cable, but not Doctor Who. The episode was ending and I removed my headphones.
“Wow is that the rain?” I asked, as I heard the pounding on the windows. “Good storm!”
But there was another sound. I thought I heard loud dripping, inside. I went to check around the front windows, which were soaking wet and dripping all over.
“Holy shit, there’s water coming in through the windows!” I yelled. I could see it dripping in through the top of the window sill. This is actually not as big a deal as it sounds, as the windows are all being replaced in a few weeks. The building itself it currently stripped of its outer siding, as it is being re-finished with a new exterior this summer. It’s no surprise that a storm of that power could drive water right through the walls with no siding. Any leaks will be gone along with the old windows soon. So I was not concerned. I just wanted to stop the water from coming in and dripping all over my stuff.
“Do you want a couple towels?” asked Jen.
“Yeah! Great idea!” I said as I moved stuff away from the wall, out of the drip. There was a lot of water on the window sill, but a couple towels would stop the drip.
I carefully placed the towels along the entire length of the window sill. They thirstily soaked up water, very quickly, indicating the amount of liquid that we were dealing with. My fingers were wet as I pushed the towels into the corners of the window sill.
BANG!
Just like that – like a loud fireworks exploding in my face – lightning struck just outside.
Shocked, I jumped and yelled “WOAH! WHAT WAS THAT?” It was a completely different kind of sound from lightning that I’m used it. More a loud pop; like an explosion. Less a bright flash of light, but more a dark flash of black! And my fingers were deep in the water when it hit. They tingled afterwards for hours; almost a day. My head burst with a headache right at the pointy top of my skull. I have no doubt that I received a mild electrical shock.
I’m going to tell people that I was hit by lightning. Why not? That’s where the electricity came from. It conducted through the water in the ground into my fingers. We live in a basement apartment and the window is at ground level. That’s how I got shocked. It was mild, yes – but I’m going to use it as a boast anyway.
I felt really crappy all night. I didn’t sleep well. I did, however, test something myself.
Lying in bed, I stretched my arms up towards the ceiling fan. Stretching out my fingers, and using only the power of my mind, I made an effort to move the fan with my new electricity-based superpowers. Failing that, I tried to make the lightbulbs explode. That didn’t work either, so in a last ditch effort, I attempted to levitate myself out of bed.
Nothing.
I sighed and slumped back into a restless night, dreaming of flying over the landscape using my new superpowers, and zapping people I don’t like with lightning. But no superpowers manifested. I was ripped off!
The rain pattered on and off through the night, but no more water leaked in. Soon there will be new windows through which no water shall leak. Lightning seldom strikes the same place twice, and very few people are hit more than once, so I hope my dance with Lady Electric is over. One of my fingers still tingles a bit. My chance at being a superhero has passed me by, but I’m still here to write the tale.
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode:
Collections! Stories! Maiden on Vinyl, Bottlecaps & More!
With special guest Aaron “Mr. Books” KMA and Jex Russell
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode
Originally run: June 16 2023. Now edited with new content.
This special bonus episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden may be an old show from 2023, but most Maiden viewers never saw it, so I re-edited it and we’re running it again! This episode was a special fun one that we did with Aaron “Mr. Books” KMA, showing off parts of our Maiden collections.
Aaron, being Mr. Books, had one of Bruce Dickinson’s novels on hand. He also had a near-mint collection of Trooper beer bottle caps, and a rare Iron Maiden menu from Toronto. Harrison tended to focus on CDs. He had some rare bootlegs, including a DVD. For myself, I was eager to show off my Maiden vinyl collection at the time, including coloured vinyl, picture discs, some sealed records, and much more. Early on, Jex Russell showed up just to crash the party!
Speaking of books, we also took a look (for the very first time) at a Maiden book that features Mike himself. Chances are, you’ve never seen this book before. You definitely have never seen it on 50 Years of Iron Maiden before.
This was the infamous night that Jen had a seizure, fell, and almost broke her jaw. I’ve edited most of that stuff out but some remnants remain.
Friday June 27 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy onYouTube.
RECORD STORE TALES #1195: No Smoking? No Second Date!
Disclaimer: I have never held it against anyone, be it a friend or girlfriend, who smoked. Very rarely, I expressed my distaste for the habit, which was met with angry rebuttals, but I never practised any kind of discrimination based on smoking. I even allowed smoking in my car. We’ll get there, and you’ll understand why when we do.
Working at the Beat Goes On, lots of the employees smoked. The breaks were frequent, but I let it slide. It did bite one of my employees, Matty K, in the ass one day.
Matt’s parents were British, and his mum had the most lovely accent. She called for him one day while he was out having a cigarette.
“I’ll go get him, he’s just outside having a smoke,” I informed her. She thanked me, and I went outside to hand Matt the phone.
After he completed his call with his mother, he told me that she didn’t know he smoked. Until now.
Hah. That’s still funny. I don’t know what happened at home after that, but I can say that it was I that outed him to his mother.
Truth be told, I can’t remember who smoked and who didn’t, but it seemed like all of them smoked with the exception of a few. OK…I admit to one thing. I was always jealous that they got to go outside for a break, a seemingly pleasurable experience, and I didn’t. I felt like pretending to take up the habit just to get breaks when I wanted them, but knew I couldn’t fake it.
T-Rev was a smoker, and I lived with him for six months. I couldn’t have hated smoking that much. I lived in a smoking house. I did have to clean out his ashtrays myself.
In 2000, the Kitchener-Waterloo region banned indoor smoking, in a test project that would be adopted province-wide in 2006. I thought it was a great idea, though some of my co-workers sure didn’t. Bingo halls and bars saw a temporary decline in sales, but the bounce happened quickly. Now it’s so natural to see people smoking outside, we don’t even think of it anymore. In 2000, however, it was new and unique to my region.
And, for some reason, I couldn’t seem to find a local girlfriend. They were all long distance. As an added bonus, most of them didn’t drive. However, I did have one date with a girl from Toronto who drove. I was working at our Cambridge store at that point in the story, which was T-Rev’s store. Meanwhile, T-Rev was in Ajax building a new store. With hindsight it was a pretty messed up way to run your staff. You had a perfectly good store manager in T-Rev, who was familiar with the layout and the clientele, but they shipped him off to a town two hours away to work with his hands. Trevor was made all kinds of promises about how he wouldn’t be working behind a counter anymore, and he’d be building 10 new locations a year. Yet they hedged their bets, and didn’t hire a new manager for his store. Instead they had me manage two at once. I was exhausted, but this girl from Toronto was willing to meet me after work and go out for dinner. She drove! How could I say no to that?
I remember being a little freaked out, that for all I knew, she could be a dude, but I decided that I was just being paranoid.
She was not a dude. She was taller than me, with black hair in a short bob. She was definitely out of my league. She had a black leather jacket. It was spring, and it was still warm outside. We met up in the parking lot of an East Side Mario’s nearby. We did the customary hug and headed to the restaurant.
She turned to me and asked, “Can we get a table in the smoking section?”
“No such thing!” I told her. “Indoor smoking is banned here.”
“WHAT.” I’ll never forget that. Just a totally flat, unimpressed WHAT.
To make up for the lack of indoor smoking, I joined her outside when we wanted a cigarette.
It didn’t help. There was no second date. And I blame the no smoking, despite being out of my element.
Of course, we all know the happy ending to the story. I married a smoker, but Jen eventually quit in 2008. Her dad was very proud of her. She hasn’t had one since.
I’ll tell you a secret that I’ve never shared with anyone before. My parents do not know. This is new information for the world.
When we were dating, I got sick and tired of the frequency of her smoke breaks. I remember putting her through Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and she smoked every 15 minutes, I kid you not. Every 15 minutes.
Driving to the lake, she wasn’t so bad. She could go 30 minutes. We stretched it to 45, but eventually I got so sick and tired of having to stop for smoke breaks, that I just let her smoke in my car. My new car. My new leased car.
Are you ready to level up in your photography or drone flying game? The brand new Ruko U11MINI 4K is the drone for you. Best of all, it weighs under 249 grams, which means you don’t need a license to fly it. Just open the package, read the manual, charge the batteries and launch.
Opening the box, I was delighted to find not one, but two paper manuals! The full User Manual, and a Quick Guide. This is a huge step up from having to read a pdf file on your screen. The inclusion of a paper manual will make all the difference to some users. Also included are two batteries (roughly 32 minutes flight time each) and all the USB cables needed to charge and fly, no matter what kind of phone you use. The controller is sleek and features two comfortable and detachable control sticks. It comes in a handsome and sturdy carrying case for storage and transport. It also has a plastic camera cover to protect the 4K camera (EIS with gimbal, like a 3-axis brushless gimbal with EIS). You will be able to capture 8K pictures and 4K@30fps video. All you need to provide yourself is a smartphone and a micro SD card to record all that lovely video you’re going to get. And don’t forget to download the appropriate app to your device!
An important step is to make sure your phone is set for USB file transfer mode. Google the steps for your phone to do this. Your phone mounts sturdily to the controller, and connects via the included USB-C cable. You can transfer photos and videos straight to your phone. When powering on and pairing, be sure to calibrate the GPS and gyroscope. Give it time for the GPS to lock on.
With this powerful camera at hand, you can record hi-definition video or photos at the touch of a button. Thanks to the camera’s clever gimbal, it will always take level photos no matter the wind conditions. No need to straighten and crop videos or photos with this drone. It can even record audio!
For what I have been used to, this drone is far more powerful, and I am not talking about the camera. The motors are faster and can go way further: 394 feet altitude, which is double what I’ve flown before. Without obstructions, it can transmit a signal up to 20,000 feet distance. I will be able to fly further, and see clearer, than ever before! There is even a 5x digital zoom available. It is far faster than my old drone, so be careful with your velocity!
With the app on your phone, you will unlock a multitude of features for this drone. GPS follow, and path planning are two such features. Auto return and setting your own custom maximum altitude and distance will help keep your drone safe as you learn. You can also have it return to a safe home point when the battery is low. You can even program a path with up to 16 checkpoints. Feeling uncertain about landings? This drone has an AI takeoff and landing system (using GPS, barometric altitude hold, optical flow, and TOF positioning) for smooth takeoffs and landings. Like all drones, one must be careful in heavy wind. Due to unseasonable bad weather here in Canada, I have not had many great days to fly safely in the spring of 2025. As I fly the drone and experiment with its abilities, I will add more videos to this space. Bookmark it and check back for more videos.
Some tips:
1. Keep the drone in sight when flying to avoid getting lost.
2. Don’t fly too close to the surface, to water, or to trees.
3. Use a large open area to fly in, with good GPS reception.
People are loving my drone footage from the Ruko U11MINI 4K! From Owen:
“You’ve really got me considering purchasing this drone, Mike. I love your footage in both videos, it’s under 249g. Beautiful shots, Mr. Ladano.”
Take it from me, you’re going to love the Ruko U11MINI 4K drone.
GEDDY LEE – My Favourite Headache (2000 Atlantic, 2024 Anthem reissue)
As a Rush fan, Geddy Lee’s solo album My Favourite Headache never quite clicked. The lyrics seemed inferior and the music immemorable. In 2024, Geddy reissued the album with two bonus demo tracks. This is a perfect time to revisit the album and see if time has been kinder than I was in my original review. It has been a number of years since last listen; perhaps even a decade.
The phrase “my favourite headache” means making music to Geddy Lee. The art of crafting songs is a headache, but he would not trade it for the world. That is what the title means. For historical context, this album was made when Rush were on a serious hiatus. Neil Peart was dealing with tragic loss and nobody knew if the band would ever reunite, including Neil. From that soil grew My Favourite Headache, which Geddy recorded with drummers Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, and Jeremy Taggart of Our Lady Peace (on one song). Geddy plays the lion’s share of instruments with Ben Mink and other guests also contributing.
As it should, “My Favourite Headache” opens with some heavy bass, Geddy’s fingers flying. Then, it degenerates into a dissonant and hard guitar riff with throws the listener for a loop: it’s not at all like Rush. It might be the bass player and singer from Rush, but this does not sound like Rush. Which is good; which is the point. It takes a moment to adjust. “My Favourite Headache” slows to a lush section with piano, violins and violas by Mink. The lyrics are fascinating. “I watch TV, what do you want from me?” There is a lot to unpack here now that Geddy is able to express himself verbally in his music.
More Rush-like is “The Present Tense”, a song about living in the now. It bounces from heavy choruses to softer acoustic verses, which is perhaps a different approach from a Rush one. Perhaps by doing something more streamlined, Geddy wrote a catchier song here. His bass sings full, but not over-dominant. Cameron is an apt companion on drums; while not attempting to play like Peart, he is more than capable of navigating the tricky changes and fills.
“Window to the World” has a more exotic feel in its light chords, and Geddy uses his bass to deliver some delightful trills and hooks. It has some of those jarring dissonant guitars from the title track, but not as prominent. This song is melodic, largely easy to digest, and it delightfully careens from soft to hard, with interesting keyboard textures.
Heavier is “Working on Perfekt”. This might be the most enticing of all Geddy’s songs. Tense verses are broken by a sparser chorus. Electronic sounds aside, this is a very Rush-like song. You can almost image what Alex and Neil would do with it, but as Geddy’s song, it is rich in tones and deep, tense hooks.
“Runaway Train” is one of the brightest, most upbeat songs. Mink’s keys and violins add a light, airy feel above Geddy’s hammering bass. His playing is always eloquent and entertaining, if you choose to focus on the bass. Between the electronics and Mink’s rich contributions, there is a lot you can listen to. Or just enjoy the song. It’s a good one. Perhaps I misjudged this album before.
The first mistep might be “The Angels’ Share”, which some may love, but fails to launch for me. It’s a lighter song, but Geddy’s bass ensures it’s like lead. Ben Mink provides some really interesting soloing and backing, but the song itself never quite takes off. In hindsight it sounds like Clockwork Angels-era Rush. While we are in this perceived rut, Geddy throws his worst lyric out in the next song: “Say goodbye to suburbia, you don’t have to cut the lawn.” That’s from “Moving to Bohemia”, which is actually a pretty catchy song. It’s pretty upbeat for this album, and Geddy’s bass playing is at its most thumping.
Geddy turns up the funk on the magnificently weird “Home on the Strange” (with Taggart on drums). What the hell is this? It’s crazy, it’s like Geddy pulled out all funkiest records in his collection and combined them. The lyrics here are also quite fun: “He’s a Canadian icon, he sleeps with his clothes on.” Is it autobiographical? “And he don’t like change, you may think he’s deranged, but he’d rather be home, home on the strange.” Once you get used to its groove, this song won’t let go.
Back to the light, with “Slipping”, which relies on acoustics and piano for a gliding kind of feeling. This is followed by “Still”, which is unusually sparse and simple. An acoustic ballad, with an upbeat tempo, it’s a beautiful song. It certainly sounds autobiographical. “Still halfway up that hill, my fingers may bleed but I’ve got to get there still.” This song strikes me as the best, musically and lyrically, on the album. Strange that it never jumped out at me before.
Closer “Grace to Grace” remains an exceptional song, and one that really ends the album on familiar territory. A burning guitar and driving bass are the focus, as if to say “Hey guys, I’m always going to rock. Thanks for joining me on this trip. Here’s a song I think you’ll like.”
Of course, on this new reissue, Geddy treats us to two previously unreleased demo versions. If you haven’t bought the album before, you may as well go for this edition. True, I usually criticize albums for being a bit on the long side, and My Favourite Headache is a bit long, but demo bonus tracks are added value that you don’t have to include if you just want to listen to the “album” for the experience. There doesn’t seem to be any recording information about these two demos, “My Favourite Headache” and “Home on the Strange”. These are full realized arrangements, though without all the vocals. “My Favourite Headache” might surpass the album track for its live sounding rawness. Maybe it should have been an instrumental with only a chorus? The demo is great. Same with “Home on the Strange”. These tracks are worth the listen, and the re-buy.
Ultimately, My Favourite Headache requires the listener to set aside any thoughts of Rush, no matter how much Geddy and his bass will always sound like Rush. It’s a challenge, but once you get there, it is easier to appreciate the songs and the experiment. It takes time to absorb, as it is actually a very dense production, even for Geddy. Ben Mink’s contributions are priceless textures that help transport yourself away from a Rush mindset. Listen to those; focus on Mink and appreciation will come.
3.5/5 stars
Check out my autographed copy of My Favourite Headache by clicking the thumbnail.
Check out Grant Arthur and Davey Cretin as they get this album all wrong on the Warehaus tonight. 8 PM EST June 23 2025
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 15: Fear of the Dark
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #105
In the spring of 1992, Iron Maiden returned with new music, less than two years since No Prayer for the Dying. Album #2 for Janick Gers, and final album (for a long time) with Bruce Dickinson. It was also the final production before retiring for longtime Maiden compatriot, Martin “Black Knight” Birch. An historic album, significant in the discography, but of mixed reception. We tackle Maiden’s direction(s) on this album, the first of the “grunge era” which found bands like Iron Maiden with diminishing sales. We also had to address the new artwork by Melvyn Grant, the first Maiden album cover without Derek Riggs.
Eeeeewhhh-ZACH! Maiden began to explore current events in their lyrics, along with some different musical directions, from ballads to Zeppelin-like dirges. Were they chasing trends? Harrison makes some arguments for this, while Mike bluntly states what he likes and does not like about each of the 12 album tracks.
There are more than just the 12 album tracks to discuss: a variety of B-sides are included, such as covers of Montrose, Budgie and Chuck Berry songs. There are comedic novelty songs (plural!) for fans only, and there are live tracks, plus one rare remix. We tackle all of them.
As usual, Harrison discusses the tour, and how many of the songs were actually played live. You can count on us to give you a complete picture of every era of Iron Maiden, and Fear of the Dark is one that makes for good deconstructing. You can also count on our honesty, and Fear of the Dark is an album that divides fans…again.
Tell us what you think tonight on 50 Years of Iron Maiden.
Friday June 20 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy on YouTube.
BONUS! We also unboxed Martin Popoff’s new book HALLOWED BY THEIR NAME: THE UNOFFICIAL IRON MAIDEN BIBLE in a bonus episode earlier this week!
50 Years of IRON MAIDEN bonus episode: Unboxing Martin Popoff’s Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode
Welcome to a special “teaser” episode! At long last, Martin Popoff’s Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible, called Hallowed By Their Name, has arrived at Grab A Stack HQ! Check out this monstrosity in the bonus video below.
This is a gorgeous book, and heavy as the metal it represents. Looking much like an actual hardcover bible, this book covers the entire 50 year history of the band, with loads of full colour pictures and 666 fully loaded pages.
Check out the unboxing video and let’s look forward to talking to Martin about this incredible book in the future.
mikeladano.com 