Grab A Stack of Rock

Top 10 Rock Songs from the year 1984! With Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation on Grab A Stack of Rock

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 67: Top 10 Rock Songs from the year 1984 with Peter Kerr

We are back!  Following three weeks of chilling at the cottage, Grab A Stack of Rock returns with a roar, and a familiar face!

Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation suggested this topic for his return to the show.  1984 was the year I got into rock music.  That coincided with MuchMusic’s premier in Canada.  All of a sudden, there were all these videos!  Kiss, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Helix…and I was there with my VCR, recording everything.  For me personally, this will be a list of nostalgia…but not entirely.  After all, it was Peter who got me into Prince in 2023.  It was Tim Durling and John the Music Nut who got me buying Y&T albums recently.  It remains to be see what will make my final list, because 1984 was a completely epic year for rock music.

Peter Kerr was last on the show back in May when we unboxed the new Arkells album.  An album on which they covered “Dancing in the Dark” by Springsteen…a song released in 1984.  (It’s like poetry; it rhymes!)  Who knows what will be picked?

If you join the show from the start, you will also catch some unboxings.  Don’t miss this show, live, as we always respond to your comments!

Friday August 16 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic.   Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook!

#1145: Goals 2024

August approaches!  So much still to do this season!  Yet, goals have been achieved:

  1. Numerous Amazon deliveries to the front porch, including my new cottage desk for outdoor work.
  2. Lots of animal footage, including a couple shots of the fox.
  3. Several episodes of Grab A Stack of Rock and Tim’s Vinyl Confessions recorded and streamed from the new porch (and new desk).
  4. Drones drones drones.
  5. Two epic birthdays done.

If summer ended tomorrow, I’d say goals have been achieved and the season was a success.  Yet there is more to be done!

  1. Finish (or at least continue to make progress) organizing the music collection.
  2. Take the drone even further for more videos.
  3. Animation – haven’t done any animation videos in a couple years.

What would you like to see this season that we have not done yet?

 

 

A Friday Hang with Johnny Metal & Mike Ladano – Classical Music, Quiet Riot, Lego Jazz, Movie Props and more!

Thank you to John Clauser of My Music Corner for joining me for an impromptu Friday afternoon!  I wanted to finish showing off my birthday hauls, because there was some cool stuff still to be seen.  Possibly the coolest of them was a Star Trek:  Strange New Worlds plaque made by the propmaster on that show and purchased directly from him.  I also received a replica lamp from the Star Wars series Andor, and a Tchaikovsky CD.  This led to an informative back-and-forth about classical music in the comments, led by Pete Jones.

John Clauser brought with him some personal stories and rare copies of his own music.  One is an album that he played some guitar on, one is an album of his own making, and another is a live DVD recorded at a coffee house!  He also has a demo tape of his early W.A.S.P.-influenced solo music.

Quiet Riot was an artist that John spotlighted, with a bonus Randy Rhoads bootleg.  He also brought a double live Accept — a prelude to his next big deep dive series on My Music Corner!

The final thing I had to show off was my Lego Jazz quartet, which ironically, Aaron received for his birthday a few days ago.

Thanks to everyone for the lively comments.  This is why I love going live.  See you next time!

Surprise Friday Stream – Johnny Metal & Cool Music

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 66:  Surprise Friday Stream with John Clauser

SURPRISE!  John Clauser from My Music Corner and I will be live at 3:00 PM this afternoon.  That’s just three hours from this posting!

John & felt like being social this Friday, so come one and all and join the conversation.  I have some new things to show off, including birthday gifts and cottage treasures.  John will have some cool stuff to show as well.  Perhaps we’ll even discuss his Twisted Sister series and what is to come next at My Music Corner.

Join us today at 3:00 for a classic cottage afternoon show.  These are always a blast.  Welcome to the cottage John!

Friday July 26 at 3:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 4:00 P.M. Atlantic.   Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook!

The Best Birthday Party Ever! Thank you Jex, John, Tim, Jen and a cavalcade of guests for an awesome Grab A Stack of Rock celebration

The birthdays keep coming, relentlessly as the tides, but Jex Russell ensured that this one was special and different indeed.

This birthday, I was joined by Jex, John Clauser and Tim Durling for a fun Friday afternoon that turned quite epic by the end.  Before that surprise unfolded, we took a look at my new shelving and a large chunk at my CD collection.  We discussed favourite birthday memories and a movie in its 40th anniversary this year:  The Last Starfighter.  (This led into a side discussion on Howard the Duck.)

Jen joined us for gifts at the halfway point of the show.  She gifted me with two new releases and one deluxe live album.  You’ll have to watch the show and see!  (Clue:  royal rodents and the Phoenix lights.)

As a finale, Jex unveiled his surprise.  With the assistance of Tim Durling, it was like an episode of “This Is Your Life”, or a Cameo with all my favourite people.  Jex’s presentation included friends both famous and infamous. There was even an acoustic version of the Grab A Stack of Rock theme song performed by Johnny Metal himself. Thank you, John!

Here is Jex’s presentation:

By the end of it, I was flattered and honoured, and maybe my eyes were a little wet.  I’m not crying, you’re crying.  All my reactions to the kind words and surprise guests are live and unfiltered.

I’m the guy who usually has all the words.  I don’t have any this time.  If a picture is worth 1000 words, just watch my face.

Thank you everyone for everything.  Here’s to another year.

Celebrate Mike’s Birthday on Grab A Stack of Rock – Live!!

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 65:  Celebrate Mike’s Birthday on Grab A Stack of Rock – Live!!
(There will NOT be cake)

I was going to take the day off, and just chill on my birthday.  No Friday show.  “I deserve a break,” I reasoned.  We had the Great CD Avalanche of 2024, a physically & emotionally & financially taxing event in recent weeks, and it will be many weeks more before all the CDs are alphabetized again.  So, my birthday was going to be spent going out to a quiet lunch with Jen, and then watching Doctor Who and the Acolyte at home.

Then I started to think, that sounded a little too lonely.  I wanted to celebrate with my friend Jex.  So, I asked.

“Brother, whatever you want to do on your birthday, show or no show, I support you man!” came his response.

I thought about it for two days.  I decided that I wanted to celebrate my birthday with Oojaboojagan.

Today’s show is a no-list, no-pressure, just chill-and-join-us event!  I’ll be stuffed full of food by that time, and I may even have a birthday drink, so you never know what you will get!  There is no theme, but I promise you this much:

  1. Grant Arthur from Grant’s Rock Warehaus plans to attend.
  2. I will open my gifts from Jen live!  (She shopped at Encore Records.)
  3. Jex has “something” planned.
  4. You will get the first look at the new show backdrop, with my new shelving, and I will be able to show you a whole bunch of CDs if you want to see them.  They’re not all alphabetical yet, but I’m in good shape to retrieve most things from the collection.  This is the first episode of Grab A Stack of Rock to feature the new hardware, and I’m excited to have my music looking good again.

Join us this afternoon at 3:30 PM E.S.T. for “Operation:  Oojaboojagan”!  Seriously, I have no idea what Jex has planned.

Friday July 19 at 3:30 P.M. E.S.T. / 4:30 P.M. Atlantic.   Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook!

Extend-a-mix! Thanks Tim Durling for helping with the new Grab A Stack of Rock intro video

Even since the LeBrain Train days, I loved a good intro video to a live show.  Not too many YouTube shows do intro videos these days, but it has always been something I liked.  Even back in the Train days, I wanted an intro video with every guest we ever had appearing in it.  That carries over to Grab A Stack of Rock.  The only problem is, the intro video was 1:14 minutes long, and it was getting harder and harder to cram everyone in.  I had to sacrifice a lot of Harrison’s Lego art in order to fit everyone.

The other problem with the intro video were the lyrics.  There was one line that was relevant when the show started, but not anymore.  I figured the only thing I would be able to do was hire a band (I had one in mind) to re-record the entire song from scratch.

Fortunately, audio wizard and author Tim Durling had a quicker, easier, and cheaper solution. He made some minor edits to the original track and voila!

This new version of the song is extended by nine seconds, an absolute eternity in some ways, and enough to pack in a lot more Lego art and show cameos.  The new version includes the latest guest to appear on our show, Mr. Matt Phillips.

With this new show intro, we’ll be able to keep adding guests for the next year.  Thank you so much Tim for doing this.  As Johnny Walters used to say, “the cheque is in the mail!”

Please enjoy and let me know your feedback!

 

#1129: Summer’s Here and the Time Is Right

Last summer was different.  I felt like I had something to prove.  I lost the co-host that was responsible for the lion’s share of my views, and I wanted to pivot back to music.  Grab A Stack of Rock was envisioned as an “easy” show, where I didn’t have to do any prep or homework.  I was ready to work hard again and I think we did that.  We brought back lists and deep dives and the show was so much better for it.

This year is a little different in another way, which is my old co-hosts are occupied.  Harrison is busy focusing on his health.  Other co-hosts have their own shows now.  Others still are focusing on family.  I can’t blame them for that.  In a way, my show has been a bit like the Alice Cooper backing band.  Just as he launched the careers of Kip Winger and many more, my show has launched others into the Youtube-sphere.  That show out of Thunder Bay Ontario wouldn’t exist without my rocket boosters.  With that in mind, I think this summer will be something of a slowdown.

This week we’re back at the cottage with John Clauser and Metal Roger.  It’ll be their first cottage show.

What will the summer bring?  Fewer shows perhaps, but Grab A Stack of Rock will still continue, perhaps with a few different faces that we didn’t have last summer.  Some familiar ones as well.  Grant from the Rock Warehaus wants to hang out on the front porch again this summer.  I’m also thinking of doing a midnight outdoors show.  We’ll see what the summer has in store, but one thing I don’t need to do is prove anything to anyone.  We did that last year and we’re better off for it.

The Best Music Videos, and a Stack of Nostalgia with Dr. Kathryn and Jex Russell

And the Oscar for Best Music Video Re-enactment goes to:  JEX RUSSELL!

Folks, Jex could not make it to the show live tonight, but he prepared his list in advance and appeared by video.  And folks…Jex knocked it out of the park this week.  That’s all I’m going to say.  Jex also provided physical product in the shape of vinyl for his picks.

Between Jex, Dr. Kathryn and I, we ended up covering some of the best music videos for:

  • Canadian content
  • Impact and influence
  • Cool factor
  • Mid-80s metal icons
  • Pop classics
  • Obscure gems

What we didn’t cover, the comments section did!  Thank you for watching and commenting on this show.  On a personal note, this was a technical challenge this week as I had to manage 21 individual video files for presentation, but fortunately it went off with very few glitches!

If you watch only one thing today, watch Jex Russell’s #1 pick.

See you next week with D’Arcy Briggs and Nurse Kat as we celebrate the release of the new Arkells album Disco Loadout!