2015

#459.5: 2015 Year-End Lists, part 5 – site stats!

2015

GETTING MORE TALE #459.5:
2015 Year-End Lists, part 5 – site stats!

In the annual tradition, let us have a look at the mikeladano.com site stat highlights for 2015!

 

I was really hoping that one of those legendary Joey Tempest Conspiracy (™) posts would have made the Top 5 posts of the year by hits. Sadly, none did — but one did make it to #6!  So close!

Even though they did not come in with the #1 spot, 2015 was clearly the year of Van Halen.

Top 5 posts of 2015

REVIEW: Trailer Park Boys – Season 8 (Netflix) 1 3,414
GUEST REVIEW: Van Halen – Tokyo Dome Live in Concert (2015) 2 3,397
REVIEW: Van Halen – Zero (1976) 3 3,078
REVIEW: KISS – Greatest Live Hits (2015) 4 2,361
REVIEW: Van Halen – Tokyo Dome Live in Concert (2015 – LeBrain’s review) 5 1,576
GUEST REVIEW: Europe – War of Kings (2015) by Jesse A. Jones 6 1,293


2015 kiss

 

In 2015, there were 370 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1,707 posts!  Despite my pledge to slow down, that’s still a post a day on average.

The most commented-on post in 2015 was GUEST REVIEW: Europe – War of Kings (2015) by Jesse A. Jones, with 162 comments from a, err, variety of interesting and possibly unstable personalities!

Top 5 most active commenters of 2015

A big thanks to everybody who dropped even just one comment here!  Especially Joey Tempest…I think.  But seriously, thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  I don’t always have time to respond to every comment but I appreciate them all!

2015map

Top 5 personal highlights of 2015

  • It is always a pleasure to be asked to be a guest on the radio.  I love doing radio and this year my highlight was appearing twice with Rob Daniels on his program Visions in Sound, talking about Star Wars music.  I’m happy to announce that I’m booked to do it again this month for Rob’s anniversary show.
  • 23 of the biggest music fans on the web participated in the Top 15 on the 15th, a collection of top 15 music lists from around the world.  What a fun experiment that was!  (Thanks to Geoff Stephen & Aaron for coming up with it!)
  • A Holy Grail item was acquired at a reasonable price.  I have not discussed this publicly yet (two people know what it is), but there will be a review in 2016!
  • Sausagefest 2015 was another successful raging boner of rock.
  • Every year, you can count on the Mike and Aaron go to Toronto expeditions.  This year was probably my most fun yet.  I say that every year!  But I think it’s true.

Final words

I predict that 2016 will be a simply destructive year!  #gnr2016

#459.3: 2015 Year-End Lists, part 3 – LeBrain!

GETTING MORE TALE #459.3:
2015 Year-End Lists, part 3 – yours truly, LeBrain!

Unlike my companions in rock, Tom and Uncle Meat, I’m going to be a bit more verbose here with my top lists of 2015.

I thought I had my top five albums down.  I didn’t expect any changes, but then a couple respected writers started praising the new Def Leppard album.  I decided, against my better judgement to go ahead and buy it.  What can I say?  Those reviewers were right.  It’s a good album.  Def Leppard 2015 cracked my top five list, necessitating a top six.

LeBRAIN’S TOP SIX(!) ALBUMS of 2015

6. Def Leppard – Def Leppard
5. Stealth – …listen
4. Queensryche – Condition Hüman
3. The Darkness – Last of Our Kind
2. Faith No More – Sol Invictus
1. Iron Maiden – The Book of Souls

2015

LeBRAIN’S TOP FIVE TV SHOWS of 2015

I actually watched enough TV this year to make up a list!

5. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
4. The Big Bang Theory
3. Star Wars: Rebels
2. Better Call Saul
1. American Dad!

BIG BANG

LeBRAIN’S TOP MOVIES of 2015

As far as I know, only one movie came out this year, right?

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

FORCE

2015 IN SUM

The high quality of new albums by returning bands continues to amaze me.  The last band I expected a quality album from this year was Def Leppard.  Of course, on the flip side of that, we have Bon Jovi who choked to death on pop dreck.  Given what was coming out this year, and what the stakes were (a possible final album from Iron Maiden, the first Faith No More CD in 18 years), you couldn’t have realistically hoped for better than we got.  Meanwhile on the new music front, it is hard to find a better debut than …listen, by Stealth.  Not rock in any way, but more mind-expanding than anything else I heard in 2015.

And talk about high stakes on the movie front!  The most anticipated movie of all time is going to be the most successful movie of all time, thanks to it pushing all the right buttons while moving the story into its next phase.  Because of my wife’s health condition (epilepsy) I don’t go out to movies very often, preferring to wait for the blu-ray.  Age of Ultron and Ant-Man pleased me immensely.  But worth more than just an honourable mention is Mad Mad: Fury Road.  Unlike Star Wars, Mad Max rebooted while going off into a startling new direction.  It was probably the most impressive film of the year…but even so, my 2015 was only about Star Wars.  Just trust me — see Mad Max: Fury Road.  See it many times.

Finally:  Rest in peace Lemmy Kilmister, Philthy Animal Taylor (that’s 2/3rds of the classic Motorhead lineup, wiped out), Scott Weiland, Chris Squire, Ornette Coleman, Ben E. King, Percy Sledge, A.J. Pero, Andy Fraser, and of course, B.B. King.

Happy New Year, everybody!

 

fnm