HAPPY CANADA DAY! Top 11 Canadian Bands (Unknown Outside Canada)

Thanks Jex Rambo Russell for a terrific Canada Day celebration.  Yes we celebrated early, but now you can watch what we did!

We wanted to list 11 Canadian bands that we thought you should know.  I think we did a sweet job of it, with plenty of really cool “Show & Tell” on vinyl, cassette and CD.  Loads of rarities and obscurities here to check out.  We also played some video clips when we could to give you a taste of the music!

Below you’ll also see my photos of the lists, and a graph of the cities from which the bands originated.  Hamilton won handily!

Thanks for watching!  No show next week as I’m doing a super secret taping with Tim’s Vinyl Confessions!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

 

Top 11 Canadian Bands (Unknown Outside Canada) at a special time! Grab A Stack of Rock with Jex and Mike!

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Professor Jexcalibur

Episode 27:  Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Canadian Bands (Unknown Outside Canada)

It’s Canada Day Weekend, and let’s celebrate at a special time! The 3:00 timeslot has been a tremendous success for us here at Grab A Stack of Rock.  Top Canadian Bands unknown outside Canada?  A full Nigel Tufnel Top Ten?  Don’t mind if we do!

This topic comes courtesy of the Jexciter.  Back in the LeBrain Train days, we covered Canadian bands, but that was a long time ago and a fresh perspective is due.  Expect the usual trademark “Grab A Stack Show & Tell” and lots of shenanigans.  And remember:  Even though it’s Friday at 3:00 PM, shirts are compulsory!

 

 

Friday June 30 at 3:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 4:00 P.M. Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook!

 

REVIEW: Ghost – Phantomime (2023)

GHOST – Phantomime (2023 Loma Vista)

As they often do, Ghost have followed last year’s excellent Impera album with an underwhelming covers EP.  Fear not, there’s a deluxe version of Impera coming for those who needed more, but in the meantime, the five song EP Phantomime had better tide us over.

Ghost have diverse taste in covers, as past EPs have demonstrated.  This time, they’re taking on 80’s New Wave, 80’s Metal, 70’s Rock, and 90’s Prog.  Let’s see how it shapes up.  The band are still sounding very much like an 80’s hard rock band on this EP, much as they did on Impera.

Television’s “See No Evil” strikes as an appropriate title to cover.  Ghost do a fine job of it, turning it into a Ghost-like hard rock anthem.  The opening bassline really jumps out, and strikes as something Duff McKagan may have been inspired by early in his career.  Smokin’ guitar solo here.  It’ll sound great blasting from the car this summer.  But something about Ghost doing covers…why are they never as great as their originals?  Papa Emeritus just sounds better singing about Satan, perhaps?

A sped-up “Jesus He Knows Me” is another great title to see on a Ghost record.  There’s nothing of Genesis here, really!  If you played this for anyone who didn’t know the original song, you’d assume it was a metal original.  Lyrically perfect for Ghost, though!

The Strangler’s “Hanging Around” is centred on a big fat organ part that sounds great and beefy on this CD.  Very different from the original, but like the previous songs, it’s Ghost-ified by Papa and the Nameless Ghouls.  For better or for worse!  It is not especially memorable as a cover.

The controversial “Phantom of the Opera” by Iron Maiden is fourth.  Why controversial?  Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno didn’t particular care for it.  I disagree with Paul and think it’s the best thing here.  If Maiden wrote the song today, with their current affectation towards keyboards, it might sound a little bit more polished like Ghost’s version.  Ghost maintain the speed, the riffs, the solos, and all the essential ingredients.  It’s just Maiden, but covered by Ghost, and as such it seems to work better than the other tunes.

Finally we have the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome theme song “We Don’t Need Another Hero” by the late great Tina Turner.  An interesting and surprising choice even for Ghost.  Jury’s still out on this one.  Nerves might still be a little too raw after Tina’s unfortunate passing.  The Ghost version was released just before, but now…let’s just say jury’s still out and leave it at that.

Casual fans, stick to Ghost’s original albums.

3/5 stars

VHS Archives #139: Queensryche! Geoff Tate, Chris DeGarmo, Eddie Jackson, Michael Wilton and Scott Rockenfield do the Pepsi Power Hour with Dan Gallagher (1991)

An unusually playful and jovial Queensryche joke around with Dan Gallagher while waiting for chicken wings at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo!  The band show a rare comradery here and are absolutely having a blast laughing it up with Dan.  It’s quite refreshing.  Unfortunately, the whole interview is tinted in blue, because the 90s.

Topics discussed:

  • The Empire tour’s stage show.
  • Suicidal Tendencies opening.
  • The upcoming “Seattle Sound” and why Queensryche don’t sound like that.
  • Rock In Rio II.
  • Howard Ungerleider and Jaymz Bee.
  • Changes in songwriting.
  • Fulfilling their dreams on stage.

VHS Archives #138: Chris DeGarmo and Geoff Tate of Queensryche with Erica Ehm (1991)

Fall, 1991.  A shy Chris and Geoff dropped by the MuchMusic studios to talk Empire with Erica Ehm.  Topics addressed:

  • Being homesick for Seattle
  • Canadian connections – DalBello, Howard Ungerleider, Jaymz Bee
  • Playing Operation: Mindcrime on the Empire tour
  • What is the stage show like?
  • “Another Rainy Night (Without You)”

With 20/20 hindsight, it’s funny to hear Geoff Tate talk about the live Mindcrime set being a one time only event, considering how much he’s milked it since then!

#1067: The Distance

A sequel to #322:  Highway to Hell

RECORD STORE TALES #1067: The Distance

Regardless of “improvements” on Highway 401 and King St. in Kitchener, commuting continues to be a highway to hell.

I was spoiled for many years with pretty easy commutes.  During my first two years (1994-1996) at the Beat Goes On in Stanley Park Mall, I was able to walk to work.  Talk about the dream situation!  Working at a music store, coming home with amazing used CDs every week, and only a 10 minute walk home!  No wonder I was so skinny.  However, working part time buying and selling used CDs wasn’t sustainable forever, and I sought advancement.

Though I was skipped over on the first managerial promotion, I was selected to run our new Fairway Road location in 1996.  This was especially exciting, because it was the biggest store yet.  I admit I let this go to my head.  I boasted a bit.  This new store had six listening stations for customers, each equipped with a five-disc CD changer.  Our store was to be 95% used CDs, with a small selection of charting new releases.  The only thing I didn’t like was the location.  Across from Fairview Mall, it was kind of…trashy, in terms of clientele.  There were jazz snobs and strippers in equal measure.  It was only a ten minute drive from home though.  Not bad, though I only walked to work once.

In 2004 I was transferred across town to Highland Road.  This is where I really learned to driving to work.  I experimented with different routes to and from, eventually coming up with an optimal way to, and another one from, work.  The accountant Jonathan lived near one of my routes and gave me tips.  I improved my musical arsenal by putting a Discman in the car.  The commute was now about 20 minutes each way, but unfortunately now I also to do pickups and drop-offs as part of the relocation.  My old location was the hub store, so I didn’t have to do a lot of pickups or deliveries.  This commute was more prone to disruption by construction, weather and accidents, but hey…I had a Discman in the car now.

I quit the hellhole in 2005, with my final day coming in January 2006.  I worked a number of jobs in 2006, before settling in at United Rentals, which I loved.  They had music piped in on the radio, which was my introduction to the great local rock station Dave FM.  Hard to believe that relationships I made there are almost two decades ago now.  That was life changing, but the commute was the thing.  10 minutes, with a Tim Horton’s right on the route, and all back roads too!  Never any traffic issues.  I had a new car too, with a factory CD player.  Another quantum leap for me!

United Rentals was probably my peak happiness for driving to and from work.  Now I work in Cambridge, and have done for the last 17 years.  My commute used to be 10-15 minutes.  Now, it’s pure agony.

Construction is perpetual.  Every way I go, I run into construction.  There was a brief four month reprieve, where one of my routes had no construction.  That oasis of good driving has now ended.  To get home from Cambridge, I need to not only cross over Highway 401, the busiest in Canada, but also the Grand River.  And guess what?  The Grand River bridge right around the corner from my place is now needing repair.  They’ve already blocked truck and bus traffic.  Next year, it’ll be out of service.  That means I’m going to be forced to take the 401 to and from work every day.  Which I already do anyway, now that construction has resumed on King St.!

Now, of course, I have my 2T hard drive in the car, so I can listen to literally everything I have ripped to PC.  That helps to alleviate the tension a little, but the drive home is still a nailbiter several times a week.

Still waiting on that flying car!


Video filmed by the Grand River bridge

Grab A Stack of Lost Cassettes! With Jex and Mike on a Surprise Saturday Stream

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Jex

Episode 26:  Lost Cassettes Unboxed!

SURPRISE!  The first two-show weekend since 2021!  Thank Jex!

I thought I lost all my cassettes from my youth:  I assumed they were all thrown into a dumpster here in town, or up north in Thunder Bay.  There was one box (Journey – Niacin alphabetically) that I discovered in my parents’ basement.  Let’s have a look inside with co-host Jex Russell on a surprise Saturday morning show!

What we found inside was a variety of home made and store bought cassettes.  The astounding thing is just how much effort I went to on some of the artwork!  You will have to see for yourself, but a sampling of some cassette spines can be seen in the gallery below.

I used coloured paper, computer software, fine marker pens, coloured pencils, scissors, paste and photocopiers to create all the cassette art you see here.  I’m pretty proud of all this.

What’s most remarkable is that I still had most of my original Kiss and Judas Priest cassettes!  In some cases, I played these tapes at the cottage for the first time back then, and today unboxed them in the same location!

SHOW NOTES:  

  • If you need context for our opening “topless” sketch, read this first!  All is meant in jest and not to be taken as anything else.
  • If you don’t want to see us topless, you can buy a shirt at teepublic.com!

A Triumphant Arkells Appreciation Friday with Mr. Books and Nurse Kat

A massive thank you to Nurse Kat for spending her Friday night with Aaron and I, talking Arkells!  Though none of us could be called hardcore Arkells veterans, our passion certainly came through.  Since falling in love with the band roughly 18 months ago, Kat has seen Arkells 13 times.  From New York to LA to Glasgow, she had a lot of cool stories to tell.  Meanwhile, Aaron filled us in on the early years, as he saw them even before the Jackson Square debut album was out.

A common theme for this show was the power of music to connect with the human heart.  Kat and I both had some pretty emotional experiences to an Arkells soundtrack.  This is a band that really seems to have a direct line to the mind and soul.

I presented my Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Arkells songs (from the albums I own) and Kat provided some cool live clips and photos.  We hope you enjoy!

 

 

Mike’s Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Arkells tunes:

 

11. “Savannah” from Morning Report – acoustic anthemic awesomeness.

10. “Passenger Seat” from Morning Report – what a falsetto!  So much passion!

9. “Hung Up” from Morning Report – “The gatekeepers are keepin’ me out!” – what a hook!

8. “Coffee” from Michigan Left – Powerful lyrics with personal meaning.

7. “On Paper” from Michigan Left – killer chorus, powerful rock.

6. “Whistleblower” from Michigan Left – as hard as Arkells songs get, based on that riff.

5. “Michigan Left” from Michigan Left – “Decorations won’t be wasted” – one of their best choruses!  And that percussion!  Oh man.

4. “Come to Light” from High Noon – channeling 80’s Bowie?  You be the judge.

3. “Leather Jacket” from High Noon – the song that got me to buy the album in the first place.

2. “11:11” from High Noon – so hard to narrow things down to only four songs from High Noon, but this one is just hook laden and nostalgic.

1. “Fake Money” from High Noon – This song is pure hooks, from start to finish, with an angry bent.

Honorable mentions – “Cynical Bastards”, “Crawling Through the Window”, “Book Club”, “Drake’s Dad”

Jen’s #1 – “Leather Jacket”

BONUS

Tune in 9:00 AM Saturday morning for an extra weekend live stream with Jex Russell!  Cassette fans, don’t miss this bonus episode!