Aaron

A Year to the Day: Rest in Peace, Eddie Van Halen

‘Twas only a year ago I wrote these words:

There will never be another Van Halen.  No player before or since will have the ingenuity and influence he did.  From modifying his own guitars and amps to achieve the perfect “brown sound”, to brutalizing the strings with a drill, he was an innovator.  He was the most important of all the guitar innovators. And he sheepishly grinned through the whole thing as if to say, “Who, me? I did that?”

A year later, it’s only more certain that there will never been another Eddie.  You can read my full memorial here:  Rest in Peace to the greatest guitar player of all time.

The week Eddie passed, we did a tribute to him on the LeBrain Train.  You can watch that tribute below, starting at the 20 minute mark.

As if that wasn’t enough, we followed that with another Van Halen show: VH deep cuts!  One thing for sure, Eddie certainly inspired a lot of conversation on the LeBrain Train over the past year.  You can watch the deep cuts below, starting again at 20 minutes.

Let’s all take a moment to reflect, and play some Van Halen tonight.  Tonight, I’m going to go with “Dirty Movies” from Fair Warning to spotlight the greatest gee-tar picker of all time.  What song or album will you play for Eddie tonight?

Awesome Show & Tell! Top Music We’d Save From a Fire on the LeBrain Train

Let’s have a huge round of applause for our awesome panel tonight!  Showing off all our most beloved treasures, this show was a bounty of beautiful musical mana.

We didn’t stick strictly to the idea of saving “albums” from a fire.  We just made it “music” and in some cases it was “musical memorabilia”.  All good — all valuable in their own way.  Some valuable in serious monetary ways!  Wait until you hear how much some of these things cost today!

Special features tonight included:

  • Tons of show & tell! – Gene Simmons’ Vault, Metallica’s Fan Can #4, autographs, vinyl, cassettes, CDs & VHS!
  • The return of “The Author Reads“, the first in over 16 months.  This time I read Record Store Tales Part 19:  “The Rules” which directly related to my #1 pick.  (2:55:00 of the stream.)
  • Great stories from Aaron about his awesome Nana and B.B. King.

 

Thanks for watching and the awesome comments.  See you next week!

 

 

FIRE! What Music Would You Save? Join the discussion on the LeBrain Train

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and Friends

Episode 80 – Nigel Tufnel Top Music We’d Save From A Fire

We’ve all heard the question while hanging with pals over a couple drinks.  “What albums would you save from a fire?”  Nobody even wants to think of it!  But as a fun exercise, tonight we’ll tell you our Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Albums We’d Save From A Fire!  Whatever gets saved, you can be you’ll hear about some treasures that are very near and dear to our hearts.

Your panel this week:

Expect lots of show & tell.  John owns The Vault… I own a Fan Can… will these items make our lists?  What will be left to burn?  Find out tonight.

Friday August 20, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

SCHEDULE:

  • Greg Fraser of Storm Force returns!  Friday September 24 7:00 PM

 

Marathon List Show! – Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Blind Buys

Ever bought an album without knowing much of anything about it?  That’s a “Blind Buy” and we have 55 of ’em for you to check out!

Your panel:

This could be the first list show with entirely unique picks.  There was no overlap among the 55 albums selected!  It was also one of the most diverse sets of lists.

We started the show with some new action figures (including Lemmy, who turned up on one of our lists), then did a quick interview with J, before diving into the lists.  The lists start around the 0:42:00 minute mark!

This was a long show, but the audience hung in for the whole thing and dropped some amazing comments.  Check it out.

 

Don’t forget to check out Andy Curran on the Saturday show!

Saturday June 12, 1:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

 

Surprise Guest & Lists! Top Cover Art Designers with Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, Aaron…and DAVE LIZMI!

I’ve said it time and time again:  the LeBrain Train is a show you have to see live.  Why?  Because you never know what is going to happen.  Case in point:  last month we managed to hook up an unplanned meeting between Andy Curran and Mike Fraser.  This week’s surprise was a drop-in from Dave Lizmi of The Four Horsemen!

As you may know, Dave was scheduled for a Friday night interview but had an emergency with his dad.  Saturday’s show was a planned Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list show with Aaron and Tim Durling.  We were talking about the Greatest Cover Art Designers.

As I was beginning the show, Dave messaged me to reschedule the interview, and at the spur of the moment, I asked him to sit in on the list show as well.  Dave went for it, and managed to come up with his own list with no preparation time.  Epic!

Your panel this week:

  • Yours truly (LeBrain)
  • Aaron (KeepsMeAlive)
  • Tim (Tim’s Vinyl Confessions)
  • Dave Lizmi (The Four fuckin’ Horsemen)

I can’t believe I just typed that.

History made today as a rock star joined a Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list for the very first time.  How cool is that?

Thank you Tim, Aaron and Dave for a great set of lists and a fun fun show.  From famous big names like Derek Riggs, Mark Wilkinson, Hugh Syme and Hipgnosis to more obscure artists, this was a great bunch of lists!  Lots of show & tell!

 

 

 

Double Feature LeBrain Train Weekend – Dave Lizmi and Tim’s Vinyl Confessions

Two shows lined up for you this weekend!

 

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and T-Rev

Friday – Episode 66 – Dave Lizmi

The Four Horsemen should need no introduction.  The only guy to play on all three albums (plus an EP) is guitarist Dave Lizmi.  He is a master of the Les Paul and his tone is sublime.  Trev and I look forward to asking him everything we wanted to know about one of our favourite bands.

Friday May 28, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

 

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Saturday – Episode 67 – Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Art Designers – with Aaron and Tim Durling

Please welcome Tim from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions and The Contrarians!  I’m so glad to have him on the show.  His collection is insane — give him a follow on Instagram and see for yourself.  The list this week is a Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Art Designers.  This was a challenging list, but Tim knows his stuff and I’m sure he will have a killer set of albums to show off.  Joining us for this one will be Aaron who also has a pretty impressive collection.  This is a Saturday show, so we hope that you’ll join us!

The Saturday shows are a summer experience in order to include more people.  I hope you can make it.  As always, it’s best to participate live!

Saturday May 29, 3:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

Epic Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Tunes Lists!

“I think it was safe to say that was by far my most favourite show.” – Chris T

Thank you Rob, Aaron, T-Bone, Harrison and Meat Man for tonight’s amazing panel.  The theme was Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Tunes, brought to you by Meat.  Six lists, 66 songs, and very little overlap.  Having said that, there was one tune that made three lists, from an album that made four lists.  Watch the show to see what it was, or read Aaron’s notes below!

The lists commence at 0:20:30.

Incidentally, this show was record setting in terms of audience participation.  So many amazing picks and comments — most of them made in on screen, so check them out.

Once again your panel for this show was:

Ripping the Covers Off: Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Tunes…tonight on the LeBrain Train

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 64 – Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Tunes

This week’s theme comes from your very own Uncle Meat:  best cover tunes!  And because it’s the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten, that means we’ll each have lists of 11.

Your panel this week:

Expect a very, very special beer de-canning tonight.

As always, it’s best to tune in live so you can participate!  Subscribe to my YouTube and let’s push it to the 1000 mark!

Friday May 14, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE AND NOTES:

As an experiment, and because we have so many special guests lined up, I’ve decided to try doing Saturday shows every once in a while.  This will give more friends the chance to participate!

New additions:  Tim Durling from the far more popular Tim’s Vinyl Confessions is up on Satuday May 29, at 3:00 PM.  You may have seen Tim on The Contrarians — he has done two episodes now.  The subject will be best Album Cover Designers.  Aaron will be joining us for that one!

We also have a theme for the June 11 show.  Best “Blind Buys” — albums you bought without knowing any songs or much about the artists.  The panel that night will be Aaron, Sarah, Kevin and, all the way from Scotland, J aka Jim Dead!

All aboard!

Marathon T-Bone Show – 5150 is Dissected and LeBrain is Pummelled

Hold onto your seats, folks, because T-Bone will blow you away with his 5150 knowledge and insight. In fact, all six panel members tonight brought it!

While it wasn’t fun being the lone dissenting voice when you’re up against heavyweights like Kevin and Meat, this was one of the best discussions on 5150 that you are likely to hear. And you need a dissenting voice, right?  I was happy to play the role of punching bag too!

The Van Halen talk begins at exactly 0:48:00 and runs through to the end.  Before that we unboxed some action figures, talked about the new Coney Hatch live album, and a little bit of current events.  Watch right from the start to catch all that.  We also played three music videos:  “Donna (Do Ya Wanna)” by Deadline, “Open Door Piss” by T-Bone, and “Victim of Changes” (Priest cover) by Clockwork Orange.

Enjoy!

May 7:  Paul Laine from Danger Danger and the Defiants with co-host John Snow.

May 14:  List show by Uncle Meat’s suggestion — Best Cover Tunes — with panel TBA.

May 21:  Sean Kelly (Coney Hatch, Crash Kelly, Helix, Lee Aaron, Trapper, Nelly Furtado) joins us with co-host Deke!

May 28:  Dave Lizmi of the Four Fuckin’ Horsemen!  Co-host will be T-Rev.

June 4:  One year anniversary of Harrison’s first appearance.  We re-hash the Top 11 Priest Albums and will have Geoff Stephen to graph it!  Co-host is TBA.

June 18:  Robert Lawson, author of Still Competition: The Listener’s Guide to Cheap Trick.  Hosted by Superdekes.

All aboard!

 

Trifecta of T-Bone…5150 Time!

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 62 – 5150 Time &  a Trifecta of T-Bone

Tune in tonight for beer, some T-Bone (his 3rd appearance) and an in-depth discussion of an album that went to number one 35 years ago this week:  Van Halen’s 5150.  The complete panel will be as follows:

To quote Pearl Jam, it’s “Five, five, five against one.”  I’m the lone dissenting voice that will be highly critical of 5150, while the other five guys will probably take turns punching me in the balls.

Friday April 30 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.