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.
On this day in 2023, June 16 fell on a Friday. As usual, Grab A Stack of Rock was scheduled to go live that night with our very first Iron Maiden episode (which I shall re-edit and re-broadcast in 2025). It was Iron Maiden rarities with Harrison, Aaron and a cameo by Jex Russell.
It almost got cancelled at the last minute. Why? See below.
I’m glad we re-ran the Adventures in Epilepsy episode last week so you can understand how it effects our lives every day of every week of every year since 2008. She fell, and as you can see, she took a faceplant. She insisted the show go on. She never wants to be the reason a show gets cancelled. And so the show went on.
On a brighter note, on this day in 2024, it was a completely different story. Well, not completely: Aaron was there with me once again, as we embarked to Toronto for our very best record shopping excursion to date!
Check out these episodes of Grab A Stack of Rock, and be sure to like and subscribe on YouTube! WordPress is fun but it doesn’t keep the lights on. If you could support us YouTube, it helps a lot!
RECORD STORE TALES #1179: Spring Dinner With Aaron
The clocks have changed and we have beaten winter once again! Though it was the harshest winter for weather since the 1990s, it was the easiest winter for my mental health in decades. And I have you to thank for supporting me through it. Though winter’s not completely over, the darkness that pervaded my evenings is. We’re due for one or two more big storms, but nothing like what we endured in February.
Spring is so close I can taste it.
Coinciding with the clock change, another sign of spring has emerged: that being Aaron of the KMA! Aaron was in town on Sunday, so we met up with him and his lovely wife Cindy for a dinner at my favourite local establishment, Borealis. Shop local, buy local! So that is what we did. Aaron was curious about the “local” aspect. “Does Kitchener have a lot of wild boar?” he asked, only partly joking. All the food comes from Ontario. Aaron and Cindy had the wild trout, while I had mushroom rigatoni and Jen had prime rib. All-Ontario menu! They did serve some foreign spirits such as Absinthe, but we didn’t look too deep into the liquor menu.
Of course there were gifts! I gave Aaron his own copy of Live In Ontario by Max the Axe, and he gifted me a Def Leppard tour shirt (with Journey), a Jacob Moon album I needed, and the new 40th Anniversary edition of Stay Hungry by Twisted Sister.
Dinner was incredible, and we received special service from “Cousin” Luigi, whom we have not seen since before the pandemic. I have been wanting to take Aaron to Borealis for years, so it was a happy circumstance that we had Luigi. We didn’t want to eat upstairs due to Jen’s health conditions, so they opened up the entire downstairs dining room just for us. We had the whole room to ourselves.
And Luigi made sure Jen never ran out of drinks.
A delightful night, and two wonderful reunions in one.
RECORD STORE TALES #1159: The Community is Dead – Long Live the Community!
Once Upon A Time, the old WordPress music Community was an important part of our daily breakfast. It was a wonderful way to connect and talk music with like-minded folks. It was even a good way to seek support in our lives.
Then in 2023, the Community died. I don’t know why, and I no longer care. It’s possibly a “type of feint, or fake technique, whereby a player draws an opposing player out of position or skates by the opponent while maintaining possession and control of the puck.” People just…disappeared. Ghosted. I actually don’t want to know why. “Let the past die,” Kylo Ren said. “Kill it, if you have to.” That is done, but not by my own hand.
I knew it was dead in 2024, when several people from the old Community refused to watch or acknowledge my trip to Toronto with Aaron, the Community’s spiritual leader. It was a shunning, with intent. Rest in peace, Community!
Whatever their issues are, I hope they find peace and harmony, wherever they went and whatever they are doing now. I miss them. But there was a silver lining.
A new Community awaited me. A bigger, more welcoming Community. A Community that stretches from Australia to America, east coast to west, and up north to Canada. A stronger Community. For me it began as the old Community died in 2023. Marco D’Auria encouraged me to work with the Contrarians, and suddenly I started getting invites to appear on other shows, such as Rock Daydream Nation and My Music Corner. With these fine folks, together, we have rebuilt what was lost. Bigger, better, faster, stronger!
I welcome you to the Community! A place where we support each other, collaborate, and celebrate the power of music! A place where you will not be judged for your mistakes, nor shunned.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike, Aaron KMA and Tim Durling
Special Edition Episode: An 8 Track Holy Grail & More
This video is years in the making. More than just an “unboxing” video, this is a fun and informative episode that documents one man’s journey to collect his favourite bands on obsolete formats, and another man’s ability to find them.
About four years ago, Aaron provided Tim with a rare 8-track tape that he needed for his collection. Another one of Aaron’s tapes went to Martin Popoff. But there was one tape that Tim needed to “complete” a specific collection. And this summer, Aaron found that one too. He just has a knack for it, and it seems appropriate that it was Aaron who found this last tape. There’s a story that goes with it, and three tapes that went to me as well!
“Complete” is in quotes, because this video is far more than just an unboxing video. This is a philosophical (and fun) discussion about 8-track tapes, collecting, and genuine Australian bubble wrap. We discuss breaks in the middle of tracks, altered track listings, and for good measure, a little bit about vintage Star Wars toys. We also speculate on one tape that may still be out there, but remains unknown.
This episode is in two parts. It begins with Aaron and I unboxing three beautiful 8-track tapes, and a number of birthday gifts. Also inside that box was Tim’s tape, which I mailed immediately to New Brunswick. The video cuts and picks up with Tim, ready to open his treasure in front of the cameras.
Here is the full photo gallery of every picture I took, hunting for records in Toronto. For all our scores, you will have to watch the video at bottom. Here are the still shots. Enjoy!
(There’s one awesome photo of Aaron as the 9th Bosstone that he will not let me post!)
Aaron and his dad picked me up in Kitchener around 10:00 AM. Of course, I made them pose for a drone photo before we left! BMV in Toronto opened at noon, so we had plenty of time, and conversation was good. The weather was cool, breezy and sunny. It was the perfect day. In fact it may have been the most perfect weather we ever had for a Toronto excursion.
I gifted Aaron a copy of Tim Durling’s Y&T book, Down For the Count, and Aaron gifted me two T-shirts, two CDs, and one Hot Wheels. You will see these in the video that I spent the day filming.
“I’ve never seen somebody so excited for video editing!” remarked Aaron. Of course! When you had a day like we had, you can’t help but be eager to show it to the world! I spent 2.5 editing it on Monday night. The video tells the whole story. We strolled the streets of Kensington Market, and we sifted through the aisles and aisles of CDs. We only planned on hitting two stores: our regulars, BMV and Sonic Boom. We had a bonus stop at Paradisc Bound (first visit since 2012). We scored at every single store!
“We’re going to do best at BMV,” predicted Aaron, who was correct, but we didn’t do poorly anywhere. BMV won for prices and used CD selection. Sonic Boom, unfortunately, has started pricing certain discs according to Discogs highs. An old copy of Iron Maiden’s No Prayer for the Dying was jacked up because the cover art changed on the remastered editions. An out of print Helix Get Up! EP was going for a ridiculous $40 on CD, even though all the songs are duplicated on the Power of Rock and Rollalbum. Used cassettes, the kind that people used to dump in Thunder Bay landfills, were sometimes $10 each — same as they sold for when they were brand new. A Razor album was $200 on used CD. These are things they never jacked up back in 2018 when I was last there. Something has changed, and it wasn’t cool. Ultimately I did pay a lot of money for two used CDs at Sonic Boom. Ultimately I decided I wanted them, even though I was paying way too much.
BMV was just awesome. I scored eleven CDs and four records there, for a total of $107. Some were things I was trying for the first time, others were albums I needed to help complete some collections of certain bands. (One record was a gift that shall not be appearing here, for obvious reasons.) We lost track of time easily. I have no idea how long we were in BMV, but long enough to find what we wanted and then some. Of note: Their old 3-for$10 bin has changed. It is now simple $2.99 each. Perfect!
Aaron’s dad was exploring Toronto on his own, but was waiting for us when we met up for lunch at Pauper’s Pub. There are so many great places to eat in our little area of Toronto, but we hit the Pauper’s Pub every single year. That’s an endorsement. Service was great and so was the food. I had some blackened salmon, and unlike many places, it wasn’t dry and tasteless. It was tender and loaded with flavourful roasted veggies.
We made our way through the sights and smells of Kensington on our way to Sonic Boom. There, a giant Arkells display took up the front window. The band played there two weeks prior, selling copies of their new 7″ single “Big Feelings”, which was sold out in one day and not in stock. In fact they only had one Arkells left in stock, period.
We did well enough at Sonic Boom, though the store is becoming more…corporate? “Like a bigger Sunrise Records,” said Aaron. Lots of Reaction figures, Funko Pops, socks, and other assorted accessories. We were not there for those things. Reaction figures are $30 a pop now and prohibitively expensive, even though they had Phil Lynott, Cliff Burton, Lemmy, the Beastie Boys and more. When we come to Toronto, we focus on the real deal: the music. I bought two “holy grail” items albeit overpriced, that I was hoping to find in Toronto but didn’t expect to.
I grabbed a Mango Pepsi to wet the whistle as we walked back to the car, meeting up with Aaron’s dad along the way. He was a little bit behind so we had to kill 15 minutes. Paradisc Bound was right there, and they had a record that I had been wanting since I first started in music retail back in 1994. It was right there in front of me. It was meant to be! For $15, I added one final score to my tally. The funny thing was, I had just been talking about this record with Jex Russell last week…and there it was. Elvis truly is everywhere. (That’s a clue, though you will see the record in the video.)
The drive home was a little stoppy-starty, as Toronto traffic is. It took us one hour to get back up to Highway 401, and another hour back to Kitchener. Aaron and his dad drove two more hours back to Owen Sound…and they wouldn’t let me pay for lunch! Nice guys, those two. Aaron had to work Monday morning, too!
If you want to see every single thing we scored, check out the video. Can’t wait to return!
RECORD STORE TALES #1133: Mike and Aaron Return to Toronto – Today!
It has been a long, strange last few years, hasn’t it?
Aaron and I went record hunting in Toronto almost annually, for years, ever since 2012. The goal was to buy music. Lots, and lots of music. Records, CDs, whatever. We always did very well, and I began documenting everything for YouTube. The video series has proven to be very popular. But Aaron and I haven’t been to Toronto since 2018. Why?
2018 was our annus horibilis. Jen was sick. Cancer. She survived. Her mother did not. The only reason I went to Toronto with Aaron that summer was because “Mum” insisted. “Go with your friend,” she told me. Within six months of Jen beating cancer, we lost “Mum”. I loved her mom. I don’t say that lightly. We were very close. Because Jen is the kind of person who can sleep in until noon given the chance, her mom and I would patiently sit together, drinking coffee and watching old movies. Our favourite topic to discuss was, of course, Jen! Jen didn’t like this too much. She hated when we talked about her! God, I miss her mom.
2019 was the summer we spoiled ourselves, and I elected not to go to Toronto that year. Jen and I celebrated our 11th anniversary, since we missed our 10th in a hospital waiting room. In 2019 I got fat, grew my hair long, and spent as much time at the cottage as I could. Since 2018 was the year without a summer, I vowed to take advantage of every minute from that moment on.
We all know was happened in 2020, which dragged on into 2021…
I became something of a hermit during this time. Most of my friends would tell you they don’t see me often. The one I’ve seen the most is Rob Daniels. (Watch this space for a video!) I haven’t seen Meat in over two years…Scott Peddle I saw last year…same with Max the Axe. What friends have I seen? Not many. I’m an introvert by nature, and if the pandemic did any damage to me, it was to give me an excuse to burrow into my little hole and not come out. And so I haven’t gone to Toronto with Aaron since then. I did have lunch with him in Port Elgin last summer, but our record shopping excursions remained on hold.
It takes a lot of mental energy for me to force myself out the door and to be social, but Aaron really makes this easy. He does all the driving. He’s pleasant company. So is his dad, Wayne, who also comes with us to Toronto.
So, today, Aaron and I return to Toronto with Wayne. We’ll be hitting up BMV first in the morning. Then Pauper’s Pub in the afternoon, followed by the finale at Sonic Boom. I am not bringing a list. I’m winging it. I am waiting to be surprised and ready to be spontaneous.
Wish us luck. Mike and Aaron are returning to Toronto!
If you weren’t following back from 2012 to 2019, you may have missed all the Mike and Aaron Go to Toronto excursions!
From 2012 to 2015, Aaron and I went to “Taranna” every year to go hunting for CDs, records, books and more. We always made our regular stops: Sonic Boom, BMV and Pauper’s Pub. Some years, we hit up shops like Kops Records, Paradisc Bound, and Moonbean for coffee. I missed 2016 and 2017 to go to TF Con in Toronto instead. There are only so many dollars! Aaron and I returned in 2018, at the behest of my late mother-in-law, who was dying of cancer. “Go with your friend,” she insisted.
After her passing, Jen and I decided to spend the summer of 2019 at the cottage. We were not able to go at all in 2018. We made up for lost time, but in 2020 the pandemic hit! Aaron and I were not able to return to Toronto together since.
I always documented and edited these trips into videos. I recently compiled all these videos (and some bonus stuff) into two live streams that you are able to watch below! Both streams have bonus footage! The first has a musical unboxing from Aaron. The second stream has a brand new chat with Aaron that you have never seen before!
Aaron and I will be returning to “Taranna” in 2024. Watch this space…
Get well soon, Harrison! The Mad Metal Man was unable to co-host tonight’s show with Jex Russell, so what did Jex do? He grabbed the bull by the horns, the guitar by the neck, and the stack of rock by the stones! It was the historic first-ever episode of Grab A Stack of Rock with Mike and the Mad Metal Man…without Mike, or the Mad Metal Man.
Jex, you dapper handsome movie star. I admit, I had it coming. It was not unearned. But vengeance shall be mine. ;)
On with the show: Dressed to the nines, Jex pulled out all the stops tonight. Tonight’s musical physical media included:
Jex with buying tips, some psychedelic rock, Hard Rock Gold, Over 60 Minutes With…, some Vital Idol, Deep Purple, DEVO, Pat Benatar, Ten Years After, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Squier, and Motley Crue ’94!
Jazz, soul & blues provided by Aaron “Mr. Books” of the KMA with: Tobin Sprout (only 1000 made), GBV, Hilliard Ensemble, John Lee Hooker, Prince, Ry Cooder, Simply Red, Gojira, Matt Costa, Oscar Peterson, Rheostatics, Kurt Vile, Live at Leeds, a live album in Toronto, the sound of Starbucks, Phil Collins, Blues Brothers, Hootie, Debussy, Yo-Yo Ma, Hans Zimmer, and dad memes. Sadly no opera and “y’all-ternative country” (with apologies).
John T. Snow from The Collection brought on the hard rock side of things. We had his early thoughts on the new Ace Frehley 10,000 Volts (red transparent vinyl and lentincular cover CD), KISS final show merch and memorabilia, new Collective Soul 8-track (!!), a Canadian gift from Aaron, and new Jeff Scott Soto.
Metal Roger on marital harmony, comedy relief, heavy metal and screamo. He brought some Metallica, Death Cab, Papa Roach, Queen, Guns N’ Roses, and books!
Thank you guys for doing the show and giving me a night to just watch and enjoy. I’ll be back Monday with Tim Durling for a special episode on the complete Journey discography!
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