Helix

Grant’s Rock Warehaus: Helix – Part Three: Rock It Science w/Tim Durling & Mike Ladano

And finally we come to the present of the Helix saga, currently right up to the “Brother From A Different Mother” single. Thank you Grant for allowing us to bring the world up to speed on Helix. The Trailer Park Boys had a huge impact at this time, and though Helix suffered numerous lineup changes in this period, they also had some triumphant reunions with classic Capitol era members. It also featured some successful collaborations with Sean Kelly among others.

Please enjoy the third and final Helix special on Grant’s Rock Warehaus!

Part two can be found here

REVIEW: Helix – “Brother From A Different Mother” (2022 single)

HELIX – “Brother From A Different Mother” (2022 download single)

In 2021, Helix recorded a new song called “Brother From A Different Mother”, about a good friend of singer Brian Vollmer.  It was released in 2022 as a download, complete with “NFT’s” which…I don’t know what you do with that, but the mp3 file can be downloaded and played like any other!

The song “Brother From A Different Mother” is one of the heaviest Helix tunes.  Fast as a shark, and heavy as a rock!  The chorus is as memorable as any other Helix single, but the guitar playing is stellar.  From solo to riffs, the guitar provides the undeniable hooks.  There’s a slow breakdown in the middle with piano, and amazing gritty backing vocals by Cheryl Lescom.

Brian’s lyrics are heartfelt and sincere.  You can tell this was a friendship he really valued.  Let us hope for a physical release, be it a single or an album.

4/5 stars

Grant’s Rock Warehaus: Helix – Part Two: Back for Another Taste w/Tim Durling & Mike Ladano

Here’s one of the super-secret tapings I’ve been talking about! Helix – Part One was the Capitol Years with Martin Popoff and Tim Durling.  I twisted Grant’s arm and talked him into covering the rest of the Helix story.  In Part Two, Tim and I joined Grant to discuss everything Helix from Over 60 Minutes With… to Live in Buffalo.  There’s a lot of story there, from Paul Hackman’s unfortunate death to the lineup changes that followed.  Some great music too:  Back For Another Taste, It’s A Business Doing Pleasure, Half-ALIVE and B-Sides being some of the highlights we discussed.

In Part Three we’ll finish the story, going from Rocking In My Outer Space to “Brother From Another Mother”.  We will also discuss the first two Helix albums in detail since some killer reissues fall in these years.

Gimme an R and check out Grant’s Rock Warehaus!

#1078: Content Lost

RECORD STORE TALES #1078: Content Lost

It is inevitable, even in this digital age, that things get lost!  I’ve been writing about music since the early 1990s, with my first music reviews posted in 1994.  All of that stuff is gone now.  My earliest reviews were unpublished, just saved onto a disc or printed out and given to friends.  Those discs are long gone now, 5 – 1/4″ floppy discs that went corrupt, and later on 3 – 1/2″ floppies that met the same fate.

The very first review I posted was of the first three songs from Motley Crue’s self-titled album in 1994.  It was posted March 15 1994, the day of release, with a full album review that followed.  These were posted on a local computer bulletin board called the Wanderer’s Rest, run by a guy named Sheldon Parkes.  Incredible that I still remember his name 30 years later, but there are minimal records left.  The Wanderer’s Rest had a problem with its users, who tended to be antisemetic.  I bailed out, and posted Black Sabbath reviews on another board, called Arrakis.  It was run was a local home-schooled kid name Doug Pretorius.  Naturally, all those reviews are lost now.  Amazing how I can remember these guys’ names.  I met Doug once or twice for a few minutes, and never met Sheldon at all.  It would have been interesting to see how bad those old reviews were!  I know my Motley review has not changed in praise or enthusiasm.  I liked it just as much upon release as I do now.  I followed it with a review of Quaternary.  I remember praising the industrial flavours of some of the tracks, and the aggressive lyrics.

In the early 2000s, I began posting my reviews, rants and lists on a website called IAM, under the name Purpendicular.  Unfortunately all those reviews were lost when I deleted my account in 2004.  I don’t remember much of what I posted, but I worked on the content and I know there was some good stuff that I would have re-posted here, if I still had it.

In early 2006, I met and interviewed ex-Helix guitarist Brent Doerner.  That interview is still intact, rescued from a Maxell XLII 110 cassette.  Another tape was not so lucky.  A year or so following this, I talked to Brent’s live band, including guitarist Shane Schedler, now-retired drummer Brian Doerner (then doing double duty in Saga), and the late Ralph “Chick” Schumilas on rhythm guitar.  I lost the tape, and the interview was never transcribed.  I felt like shit.  I remember I wore a suit to the interview, which Brian asked me to take off as it made him uncomfortable!

I can only remember one quote from the whole interview.

Me:  “So Brian, I heard that you were singing lead vocals on ‘Billy Oxygen’ on the last Helix tour, is that true?”

Brian:  “Yah, so??”

I then went on to praise the song, and told him how happy I was that Helix were playing it live again.  That is unfortunately all I can remember.  Maybe I’ll find that tape one day, though I have tried mightily.  I could swear it was on a red TDK.

Even in the digital age, things get lost if you don’t own control of your context.

I recently lost two great interviews that I did with some incredible rock stars, because they were not on my channel, and that channel doesn’t seem to exist anymore.  On September 23, 2021 I interviewed Greg Fraser of Brighton Rock and Storm Force.  Andy Curran and Sean Kelly both dropped by for an episode that you could have called “This Is Your Life Greg Fraser”.  The Storm Force guitarist dropped tons of knowledge and great stories.  What a loss!  If I had known it would disappear, I would have downloaded it for my own records.  The other lost interview was with Slik Toxik’s Nick Walsh, which I called a “bucket list” interview.  This one happened on November 17, 2021 and included great stories about Nick sending his audition tapes to Ratt and Jimmy Page.  All lost forever now.

If I ever do another interview for a channel that is not mine, I will download it, and re-upload it to my own YouTube channel as an unlisted video.  That way, it’ll always be available, even if it’s not publicly available.  I will still be able to watch it and use it for research.

So, as we mourn the loss of content both great and insignificant, we look to the future and saving these things properly.  Loss prevention tactics for the digital age.

 

 

 

Audio From the Archives: Complete Unreleased 2006 Interview with BRENT DOERNER (Helix, Decibel, My Wicked Twin)

This interview, only my second after Eddie Jackson of Queensryche five years earlier, turned into a terrific text article on former Helix guitarist Brent Doener, called Cranking the Decibels.  I am very proud of that, and listening back to the full 1 hour 16 minute interview for the first time since 2006, I had a lot to work with.  Including some pretty cringey questions from me.  But Brent was more than generous with his time and we had a great chat that zoomed around numerous topics.

Highlights for me listening back today:

  • Brent’s heartfelt admiration for artists he loves and passion for music.
  • Clickbait road and studio stories about music legends such as Lemmy.
  • Tom Jones.
  • Brent taking apart his songs for us, explaining the structures and lyrics.
  • His influences from many genres.
  • A moment at 42 minutes and 30 seconds of Brent miming the drum part to his song “Billy Oxygen”.
  • Praise for his band which included Shane Schedler (guitar) and the late Ralph “Chick” Schumilas (guitar), and trying to woo singer/bassist Hills Walter into the fold.
  • Brent had a warm, open nature, never saying no to a question no matter how dumb, and he helped turn this interview into an extended conversation always circling around the love of music.

This interview was recorded on a Maxell XLII 110 minute cassette with one side change midway.  It’s long but unreleased in this form until now.

Bassically Collectables! Rob, Harrison and Mike show off their treasures

The always difficult-to-please Chris Sarre called this a “Top Five” show last night, and I’m flattered but have to agree with him!  Thanks to Rob from Visions In Sound, and Harrison the Man Metal Man for showing off your music and entertainment collectables last night.  From rare CDs, autographs and Australian exclusives, to board games, books and odds n’ ends, we saw a lot of cool items with great stories behind them.

Hightlights:

  • Colm Feore autograph and story
  • Custom Lego minifigs
  • Stop-motion transformations
  • Gimli the Cat
  • Sealed action figures
  • Vintage Atari games
  • Fender acoustic bass formerly owned by the late Don Simmons of Helix

Thanks to all who watched and participated live in the comments.  Apologies for the sniffling.  Those board games were dusty and triggered my allergies.

No show next time, time for a break!  Thanks for watching and we’ll see ya when we see ya!

Cool Collectables + Helix Bass tonight on the LeBrain Train

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

Episode 111 – Cool Collectables!  Helix bass, Rob Daniels and Harrison Kopp!

 

Tonight I’ll be showing off some previously unseen treasures of my collection.  The summer months offer a wealth of riches, including a variety of things at the cottage.  From books and magazines to toys and games, and finally my new acoustic bass formerly owned by the late Don Simmons of Helix, there will be plenty of fun things to look at tonight.  Rob from Visions In Sound, and Harrison the Man Metal Man will be on hand as well with their own treasures.

While this episode will be less focused on music than usual, it will be 100% zoomed-in on fun.

NOTE:  I am not a musician, so no song requests on the new bass!  I am a casual fan just looking to fart around to some records this summer on the porch.  We will be taking a nice close look at the bass but I will not be able to play you a song.

As always, your participation is encouraged and desired.  As David Lee Roth said, “It ain’t no good without an audience” so please like, share and join us live!

Friday June 1, 7:00 PM E.S.T.  on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!

 

#987: The Summer Awakens

RECORD STORE TALES #987: The Summer Awakens

It’s official:  the earliest swim on record for any summer at the lake is May 13!  If you don’t believe in global warming, then I can tell you that past weekends in early May, we were snuggled up in jackets and long pants.  This year, early May was as warm as early July used to be.  What an incredible weekend.  Clear and sunny until late Saturday.  By then we were indoors waiting for the Toronto Maple Leafs to once again exit the playoffs in the first round.  But I’m jumping head of myself!

Traffic was light but the music was heavy.  Albums for the drive up:

As expected, both were awesome on the road.  There was no clear winner.  Interestingly, Jennifer liked “Roots In My Boots” by Scorpions, which I considered a bit of a throwaway.  Regardless, both albums did well on the highway and rocked us safely to the cottage in two hours.

First music on the porch:

  • Kathryn Ladano – Open

Not a new release, but since the good Doctor was next door, it felt right to serenade her with some of her best music!

From there we settled in with the first hot dogs of the year, and I began to prep for my show that night (Top 11 Star Wars movies) by watching The Phantom Menace.  10 years ago, the only way to do that would be to bring a DVD and watch it on the laptop.  If we wanted to watch a Star Wars movie 30 years ago, we needed to bring the tape and a VCR!  Everything is so easy now, but dependent on a good internet connection.  That connection enabled me to do the first cottage show of the year, and a success it was.  I experimented with some new lighting and it worked way better than last year after sundown.  A successful show — and one of the best we’ve ever done.   Certainly one of my favourites.

It’s always hard to sleep after a caffeinated show like that.  I got four or five hours, and was up and at ’em early Saturday.  It was so quiet.  Most cottagers have not opened yet — their loss!  They were not able to listen when I rocked Kiss on the front porch on Saturday.  Kiss albums this weekend included Dynasty, Kiss, Hotter Than Hell, Peter Criss, and Rock and Roll Over.

I made fish for breakfast (trout) and went to go pick up my new bass from neighbor Donna.  Her brother was Don Simmons of Helix, and this bass used to belong to him.  It is my honour to play it on the porch in his memory.  Although I use the word “play” very loosely.  I have never played bass before and can only “barely” play guitar as it is.  It took some time to get used to the size of the body.  Even the neck felt huge.  But it sounded great and really rumbled the porch.

I made chicken and steaks on the barbecue and burned up a bunch of old wood — without losing my glasses this time.  After being on my feet all day Saturday, I took it easy in the evening, missing the bright orange sunset.  I had been on my feet all day and it felt good to rest up in the evening.

We departed for home early Sunday.  Albums for the road home:

These albums, Priest especially, gave me some serious retro vibes, as if I had stepped into a time machine and was 16 again.  I had this happen numerous times last year, and I wrote about that feeling in multiple previous chapters.  It’s a very intense feeling, as if I was no longer living in the year 2022, but had stepped into 1987 again.  It felt as real as the steering wheel in my hands.  Looks like this summer will be no different.  Lots of flashbacks in store!

An excellent start to what I hope will be an amazing year.

VIDEO: May 13-15 Weekend / Max the Axe “Space Marine”

Amazing weekend at the lake once again, and you can see it all right now, to the tune of “Space Marine” by Max the Axe from Trillion Dollar Threats!  This short metallic blitz of a song is a condensed and concentrated rewrite of “Hard Drive” from their 1995 EP Bodies of Water.  It’s a fantastic tune from Max with another killer riff.

This year represents the earliest “first swim of the year” on May 13, a record.  A sign of a hot summer to come.

In this video you will see my new Fender acoustic bass.  This originally belonged to Don Simmons of Helix and I am fortunate enough to have bought it from his sister Donna.  This will provide many hours of summer entertaining at the cottage as I slowly become acquainted with this lovely instrument.  Tomorrow you’ll get the full story of the weekend in Record Store Tales #987:  The Summer Awakens.