GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 57: Top 11 Albums to Play with the Windows Down – with Jex Russell
Show & Tell on four formats: CD, cassette, LP and 8-track
Long we have waited, but Spring is here and the traditional outdoor afternoon Grab A Stack of Rock is back too.*Jex Russell joins for this happy cottage tradition. Last year, these afternoon outdoor shows were incredible fun! If you were there last year, you know! If you weren’t, join the rock and roll party today at 3 PM E.S.T. It’s our first live show in almost a month, after several weeks of popular re-runs!
The theme this week is a “Nigel Tufnel Top Ten” list: Our 11 favourite albums with play with the windows down! There are so many to choose from, this list is literally wide open. What are you choosing to play this spring with the windows down? Many of my picks are traditional favourites with stories attached.
Now, due to a miscommunication on my part, I will do top 11 albums, while Jex will do top 11 songs! This will give us plenty of variety in the lists. Expect plenty of show & tell.
This episode is dedicated to my late Uncle Paul, whose beloved ‘Cuda appears in the show art. He loved music and cruising, and we spent many summer hours in his car with the take deck going! Will Van Halen make these lists today, or something else? Tune in and join the fun! We always chat with the comments section, live.
What are your top 11 albums or songs to play with the windows down? Drop a comment today, on Grab A Stack of Rock.
Friday April 26 at 3:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 4:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
Thank you to Jex Russell for helping me present this brand new “Faces” shirt from Grab A Stack of Rock! (Shirt pictured provided by Mike Semeniuk.) These have been popular, probably due to the handsome mugs on ’em! This new shirt features some popular guests. In order: Mike Slayen, Johnny Clauser, Peter Kerr, Jex Russell, Dr. Kathryn, Spenny Rice and Harrison Kopp.
Don’t forget, you can choose not just to support me, but the other wonderful creators in this community.
Tim’s Vinyl Confessions
2 Loud 2 Old Music
Visions In Sound
The Contrarians
Grab A Stack of Rock
Every shirt, sticker or coffee mug keeps us going. I say this factually.
Please give the video below a watch – trust me it’s worth it! – and consider supporting us on Teepublic.
Happy birthday to Jonathan Cain of JOURNEY, as we celebrate his discography today with Tim Durling on this very special episode of Grab A Stack of Rock! We look back at the entire discography of the legendary rock band, all the lineup changes, all the big songs, and a bunch of deep cuts as well. On six different formats, I show you the entire catalogue, with help from Tim to fill three holes in the official collection. (There’s still one or two essential things I need to get, but you’ll have to watch the video to find out.)
Tim Durling is what I would call a “Journey expert”. He knows the facts and the sales numbers and the singles, and he was essential in this video coming to be. Not just the live albums I’m still missing, but also the knowledge and personal history. I was late getting into the band, in the late 1990s. Tim had 10 years on me. Thank you Tim for helping me make this video!
Together we presented CDs, cassettes, vinyl, 8-tracks, Blu-rays and DVDs of all the essential Journey. We looked at imports from Japan, Europe, the US, and Mexico as well as different pressings with different bonus tracks. A wide variety of Journey CD editions are here for you to examine.
Thank you Tim and thank you Journey for the music!
Discography included:
Journey (1975)
Look Into the Future (1976)
Next (1977)
Infinity (1978)
Evolution (1979)
In The Beginning (1979)
Departure (1980)
Dream, After Dream (1980)
Captured (1981)
Escape (1981)
Frontiers (1983 and 2023 40th Anniversary editions)
Raised on Radio (1986)
Greatest Hits (1988)
Time3 (1992 boxed set)
Trial By Fire (1996)
Greatest Hits Live (1998)
Arrival (2000-2001)
The Essential Journey (2001)
Red 13 (2002)
Generations (2005)
Live In Houston 1981: The Escape Tour (2005)
Turn the Page (Live Bootleg w/ Jeff Scott Soto (2006)
RECORD STORE TALES #1107: Dark Clouds &; Silver Linings: CD & Vinyl Haul, and Grab A Stack Of Rock spotted on WWE Wrestling
Jen has experienced a few health setbacks. Last week, she took another hard fall. It wasn’t a seizure this time, but a pothole in the sidewalk. She took a tumble, busted her expensive therapy glasses, and ended up with a bruise on her forehead that became its dominant feature. During a moment of levity, I dubbed her Mikhail Gorbachev, which she took to heart with a comedic post on Facebook about her resemblance to the former Russian president. You have to laugh sometimes. Despite this, all the setbacks have taken a toll on my own health, and I really have not been doing well either.
One night last week, I was so stressed out that I slept for 10 hours and still woke up feeling like a zombie. My head banged and every limb ached. I really struggled to come down after some of the recent events and scares.
However, as always, there are good things amongst the rest.
I took Jen to the eye doctor after her fall, and killed some time at the local Record Store. They had a bunch of cool Marillion and Fish in stock, so I snagged all of it.
Marillion – “Incommunicado” 5″ CD single – damaged packaging, but this is a duplicate CD and will be donated to a worthy friend
Marillion – “Freaks” (Live) 5″ CD single
Marillion – “Hooks In You” 3″ CD single
Marillion – “Uninvited Guest” 3″ CD single
Fish – “Big Wedge” 5″ CD single
Fish – “A Gentleman’s Excuse Me” 5″ CD single
Boston – Greatest Hits CD
Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast 40th anniversary LP
I’ve been wanting a complete collection of classic 80s Derek Riggs Iron Maiden on vinyl, so why not. I remember when Sam the Record Man had Powerslave, brand new, for $5.99. Beast was $39.99. Holy moly. The total haul was $92.
New music is good for the soul, so this haul, expecially the 3″ discs, was especially satisfying. I did notice a few things about the Record Store.
Back in my day, there was a “not hats” rule. That was hard and fast. I had bad hair a lot of days and couldn’t hide it under a hat. On this visit, one guy had a touque, the other a baseball hat.
Neither guy asked me if I wanted any help. That also used to be a hard and fast rule. You had to ask every single person who walked in the door. Give ’em a minute, and ask. Neither guy bothered. Things sure have changed in the last 20 years.
I had to laugh at a couple things though. An older man came in and asked about a movie on DVD. The guy at the counter told him the movie was still new in theaters. I remember having that very conversation in my days at the Record Store.
I also observed people coming in with boxes and tubs full of CDs, movies and videos games, reminding me of my busier Saturdays in the days of yore. I really didn’t enjoy buying used CDs by the tub, but in came the discs regardless! By the tub, bag or box, the CDs came in a never-ending stream of media. I spotting a woman bringing in a Tragically Hip Phantom Power CD from 30 feet. I still got the skills.
I think I did well at the store today. I did even better after. Cooler than a CD haul at a Record Store though, was the surprise that Johnny Clauser had for me.
John Clauser, from My Music Corner on Youtube, is one of my favourite music people. He was off to a televised WWE event, Road to Wrestlemania Smackdown, in Birmingham Alabama. Johnny had ringside seats. Rumour had it that Dwayne “The Rock Johnson” was going to be there that night. He was.
On national television, John Clauser can clearly be seen, wearing his Grab A Stack of Rock shirt. It’s there for the world to see.
When the Rock enters, it appears he sees the shirt, and stares at it for a few seconds. John says he was staring directly at the shirt…the Grab A Stack of Rock shirt! You can see it happen on video.
Regardless of the rumours, John planned two weeks in advance on wearing my Grab A Stack of Rock shirt to the event. I didn’t know of his plan until he started sending me pictures from ringside. By the next day, people were sending me screenshots and video clips of John at ringside, on national television.
John, I cannot tell you how much this means to me. To see my shirt on your chest on national television. To have this image of the Rock and my shirt together…it is beyond words. I cannot express my gratitude to you. It’s beyond measure, sir. I’m sure John has plenty of shirts. Thank you sir, for making my day a little sunnier.
As it turns out, the sun came out Saturday for the first time in many days. It was glorious to behold.
Spring is closer and closer. Better days ahead. I smell the what the future is cooking!
Happy Friday, folks! Grab A Stack of Rock has been rollin’ without a week off since September 1! I was going to take this week of for a break, but then Harrison and Jex said “We wanna do a show without you on Saturday night!” I said “OK!” Stay tuned tomorrow for those details.
Next week is a special one for us. It will mark one year since that fateful morning on October 28 2022 when I said to Harrison, “Are you free, and do you feel like going live tonight?” To celebrate one year of Grabbing Stacks of Rock, I’ll be recapping all the episodes since January 5 2023, and we will have a special anniversary episode on the 27th. Special theme, special guests (including at least one new one!), and all the party favours.
That’s all I can say for now! Stay tuned; the action’s just getting started!
Be like Paul Shortino, and Grab A Stack of Rock with us!
I have not had time to put together a new cottage video yet, due to the insane amount of photos and footage I’ve accumulated.
It was another very busy five day weekend! I did two shows (one Grab A Stack of Rock, and one Tim’s Vinyl Confessions). We listened to a lot of music – Arkells, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Y&T, Night Ranger, and more.
In this photo set you can see:
My recording location for Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, by fireside.
Jen and I jamming some acoustic bass on the porch.
Back when Harrison and I first launched Grab A Stack of Rock in late 2022, we needed an intro song. Jen and I had written some lyrics and a melody, but Tee Bone Erickson turned them into a song. I am proud to have now turned his song into a record. I decided to have a custom Grab A Stack 7″ picture disc cut by vinylart.co. I’ve done this before with two other songs (one by Max the Axe and one by Dr. Kathryn Ladano) and though the sonic results are below par, I don’t care as I didn’t have the records made to play them.
Because I’m an idiot, I had this particular record made so I could use it in the new intro video.
Yeah.
That was $60 right there. For roughly nine seconds of video.
We artists…not only do we suffer for our art, but we also go broke for it too.
I don’t make any money here, folks. I do it for fun.
Doing this intro video (over and over again) was a true labour of love. For our first show, we didn’t have the name yet, so I just ran the LeBrain Train intro video. By the second show, we had the song but no video, so I made a quickie vid using old LeBrain Train shots. As the show went on Friday after Friday, I kept updating the video (sometimes weekly) to include new guests and clips. The version below is the 40th revision! I’ve done more revisions than shows!
Now, finally I was able to let go of all the old LeBrain Train clips, as good as they often were, and use only fresh Grab A Stack content. It has been quite an odyssey to get to this point, but…as always…I’m proudest of this version. I think it’s the best one yet. Jex and Tim both ham it up a bit in this, while a stoic Harrison looks on, stoically.
Friends like these in the video are the reason I keep doing this. I love it. I love us! I love watching us do our thing, in a “greatest hits” kind of video.
I think this is the best one yet, until the next one.
*pictured above: Gimli, the secret star of the show
Folks, I am so proud of this new show intro! Grab A Stack of Rock is almost at 30 episodes, so the show intro should consist of entirely original footage, should it not? Yes it should! I’ve finally removed all the old footage and guests from the LeBrain Train shows (I think?) with two exceptions; both clips of original music videos that we still play frequently today.
There are more clips and less photos – the new version is faster and far less static. This means it takes an hour or so to load all the files into my editor, but it’s worth it when the results come out this good.
Our fans and Sarre have spoken, and they want more music and more lists on this show. We’re gonna bring ’em to ya baby.
I want to thanks Harrison Kopp for being awesome support and my rock of a co-host. I wanna thank Jex Russell for bringing a new energy to the show. I wanna thank Rob, John, Tim, Aaron, and Marco for helming some great episodes with me. Dr. K, Grace Scheele, Spenny Rice and Nurse Kat have been generous with their time and made their own episodes something really special to watch. Uncle Meat sparked the concept of this show and he’s in the new theme video too. He did after all make some cameo appearances on special occasions. Also a special thanks to Grant Arthur for welcoming me on his Rock Warehaus and helping me stay focused.
Spoilers: There’s a new revision coming in a couple weeks with a new opening, but I’m waiting for a specific “prop” to come in the mail. You’ll see!
Awesome show tonight hosted by Harrison and Jex! Top Five Alice Cooper albums, plus a nice collection from Harrison for bonus show & tell. Harrison has three Alice Cooper albums that I would like to steal from his house. Which ones? You’ll have to watch to find out. But you can check out the boys’ Top Fives below! And as a bonus, I’ll throw in my Top Five as well. Check ’em out!
This was one of my favourite shows to watch! Thank you to Harrison and Jex for doing such an amazing job! This was a great set of lists, and some awesome show & tell from Harrison. My list will be drastically different from theirs!
Thanks for watching and we’ll see ya next week for my birthday!
JEX
5. Special Forces (1981)
4. Trash (1989)
3. Constrictor (1986)
2. Killer (1971)
1. Flush The Fashion (1980)
HARRISON
5. The Last Temptation (1994)
4. Welcome To My Nightmare (1975)
3. Flush The Fashion (1980)
2. Dirty Diamonds (2005)
1. Special Forces (1981)
LeBRAINLESS
5. Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)
4. Killer (1971)
3. Love It To Death (1971)
2. Welcome To My Nightmare (1975)
1. School’s Out (1972)
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