A few weeks ago, we interviewed Tim Durling on his new book On Record: The April Wine Album Review. Tim has also been doing Deep Dives on each album with guests from his book. On the episode for Animal Grace, Tim recruited both myself and Robert Lawson. It’s a great chat so have a watch – I will be posting my written review of the album tomorrow!
NOW on TVC!
Today on TVC, Tim Durling finally gives in to the alien force that is Angine de Poitrine! Joining him is superfan Mike Ladano, and music archivist Robert Lawson who recently saw AdP in concert. Yow!
What is it about Angine de Poitrine? At 333 years old (each), they have come to Earth to show us “Music 2”, the natural successor to “Music”. Many have decried the gimmick: whacky costumes, microtonal bass and guitar, loops and alien “vocals”. Is that enough to make someone play the album on repeat at work? Watch the episode and find out.
What we discovered is that all three of us have different levels of appreciation for Angine de Poitrine, but that there is something special and unique about this band. It goes beyond the quirks. Something about this bizarre music is catchy and contagious. It scratches an itch you didn’t know you had. Robert speaks of a concert vibe that he’d never witnessed before. Even Rufus agrees!
I for one welcome our new alien overlords.
Later today on TVC!
Bonus Episode: Summer HQ Tour with Grab A Stack of Rock!
Tonight, Mike is recording an episode with Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation, so a pre-recorded episode is on deck! One of my all-time favourites in fact. As a sequel to last week’s bonus episode, a tour of Grab A Stack of Rock HQ, this week we’re doing the tour of Stack Summer HQ!
As we did last week, we’ll take a look at the memorabilia here at Summer HQ, and hear the stories. Some will be familiar to original readers, but most will be previously unseen and unheard. There is a lot of personal music history in these woods, going back to Grandpa’s original backyard parties with his turntable and massive speakers playing “The Gambler”! There are also plenty of cool books and collectibles, art and animals. Animals? Indeed – when one tours Grab A Stack of Rock Summer HQ, one must be prepared for chance encounters in the wild. One such encounter happens in this amazing video.
Please join tonight! This is an episode you don’t want to miss. Since I am recording with Rock Daydream Nation, I will not be in the comments section, but we’ll be back with your regular Stack soon!
Friday June 19 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
Bonus Episode: A Tour of Grab A Stack of Rock HQ
With last week’s 150th episode out of the way, and Harrison taking a break, it’s time for two fun bonus episodes! In the first, this week we’re taking a tour of Grab A Stack of Rock home HQ.
Friends always want to take a tour of the home office. Now you can! Check out my memorabilia, collectibles, box sets, discs, tapes and more. You’ll even see a unique music format that has gone unseen on this show since the LeBrain Train days. Join me as we dig through stacks of rock to find nuggets and memories beneath. Books, instruments, clothing, Lego, figurines, toys…when you have this much rock, space becomes the problem! So we stack and stack, until one must dig to find it.
This is a fun episode. Join the premiere so we can chat!
Friday June 12 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
Episode 150: Top Ten KISS Songs Not About Love! With Johnny Metal…and more?
Welcome to the 150th (“officially numbered”) episode of Grab A Stack of Rock! It is only suiting for the 150th episode that we do something special: my favourite band of all time, KISS. It’s so strange that we have only done one Kiss episode on Grab A Stack of Rock. (NOTE: On the old LeBrain Train in 2020, we did our Top KISS albums.) Back on Episode 5 of Grab A Stack of Rock, Tim Durling, Marco D’Auria and the Mad Metal Man dissected and analyzed the Kiss Creatures of the Night box set. We’ve never done a proper Kiss list show on Grab A Stack, or anything spotlighting my favourite band since. I am not entirely sure why that is, except possibly that I’ve already done many Kiss lists on other shows. For this one, I think we’ve come up with something unique.
Johnny Metal from My Music Corner (and perhaps others!), will be joining me at the cottage for a special outdoor episode: Top Ten KISS Songs Not About Love! For Johnny and other potential participants, this was a difficult task. For me, it was a matter of elimination. I hope you like what we’ve come up with.
Excluded from this list: Solo albums, covers and instrumentals…maybe.
For the purposes of this show, we will have CDs on display for physical product, some never seen before on the show.
How many Kiss songs can you name that are not about “love”…or sex? Let’s rock and roll. Join us live and get your weekend started right. At the cottage, with Johnny Metal and I.
Friday June 5 at 3:00 PM EST, 4:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode
If we knew only one thing about Harrison, it is that he loves live music. Like many fans of live music, Harrison has attained quite a collection of Maiden bootlegs. Simply put, Harrison’s goal (and Mike’s as well, though not nearly as complete) is to get a live album or bootleg from every Iron Maiden tour. In the perfect world, we’d both own live versions of every Maiden song ever played live. There are many, such as “Caught Somewhere In Time”, that were played live but never recorded or released live. And that where bootlegs come in.
In this episode we look at our “Maiden boots”, all CD unfortunately. We always like to have a variety of audio formats to show you, but this time all we have is CDs. But a lot of them, we do have!
Please join us for the premiere – we love to interact in the comments! See you tonight.
Friday May 29 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
SHOW NOTES: We only have a couple episodes left to do, but will be taking a break from 50 Years of Iron Maiden for a short time. Grab A Stack of Rock will continue regularly, and 50 Years of Iron Maiden will return as soon as possible.
Past episodes:
Handy YouTube Playlist:
Handy YouTube Playlist:
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK episode 149
Harrison and Mike are racing to the end of 50 Years of Iron Maiden! After the Book of Souls studio album, Iron Maiden reliably provided us with a Live Chapter to mull over. Featuring a host of new songs and a clutch of classics, The Book of Souls: Live Chapter is a fine retelling of these stories in the live setting. This one was released in audio and video form, but Maiden declined to release a DVD or Blu-ray. Instead the live show was given to us for free on YouTube. Still, we have already had so many live albums and videos to discuss. What will this Live Chapter offer us this time?
As usual, Mike and Harrison will break down the album track by track. Harrison will discuss the tour, what songs were played, dropped and never seen again. Expect our usual thorough approach and maybe a surprise too!
Join us live in the comments – we always appreciate your participation!
Friday May 22 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
Past episodes:
Handy YouTube Playlist:
Handy YouTube Playlist:
Episode 147: When the Live Version is Our Definitive Version! With Joey Suto of Rock Show Critique
Please welcome Joey Suto of Rock Show Critique to the cast! We have a fun and varied show for you tonight, with lots of physical product. Expect CDs, vinyl, and maybe some tapes too. Tonight we’ll be looking at songs where the live version is our definitive version! This is a topic right up the Mad Metal Man’s alley!
Surely, you can name a few yourself. Some will be appearing in tonight’s show! Think about songs where the live version is always the go-to for you. And which live version? A newer one? A vintage one? We’ll hear 30 picks tonight, not including overlap. (Disclaimer for the pedantic: We don’t care how much of a recording is “live” for this exercise.)
Join us live, as we love to interact in the comments!
Friday May 15 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK bonus episode
2026 sees the release of the official Iron Maiden documentary Burning Ambition. This milestone certainly deserves its own episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden.
Fortunately, Johnny Metal saw the film on May 7. He came to us with his thoughts, and we’d like to share them with you today. This afternoon, May 8, we are doing our first Grab A Stack of Rock afternoon cottage show of the season. Johnny will be joining Mike to share his review of the film. (Meanwhile, Harrison will slumber in Australia, preparing for a weekend of recording.)
Please join Johnny and Mike, live this afternoon, to talk Burning Ambition!
Friday May 8 at 3:00 PM EST, 4:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
Past episodes:
Handy YouTube Playlist:
Handy YouTube Playlist:
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #142
Another Maiden live album? Another 50 Years of Iron Maiden live episode. Hitting the skies in a brand new Ed Force One jet, our heavy metal heroes embarked upon “the road” once again. With the new space and science fiction-themed Final Frontier album providing new Eddies and new songs, the Maiden live show evolved once again. With six new songs (including intro “Satellite 15”) and an alien hybrid Eddie, Iron Maiden roared into Santiago, Chile intending to record a live DVD and Blu-ray. Recorded on this day, 15 years ago, April 10 2011, history was made and documented. The album was released almost a year later, on March 26 2012.
Join Mike and Harrison live, as we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the En Vivo! concert. Another double live CD and DVD or Blu-ray set, we will take you through the entire track list song by song. The visual aspects of the show will be accounted for, and the unique split-screen editing will be assessed. The bonus DVD includes a music video (and a short behind the scenes clip) and a 90 minute documentary called “Behind the Beast”. We will take you through each in our usual detailed manner.
Is this just another Maiden live album? What tracks stand out? How does it compare to other live albums? We’ll assess the whole thing and let you know.
Please join us live if you can. We love interacting in the comments, and these live albums give us an excuse to do these Maiden episodes as live ones. You make it worth it!
Friday April 10 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
Past episodes:
Handy YouTube Playlist:
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