A big thank you to Metal Roger for the topic, and thanks to John Clauser for an awesome show! The topic tonight was Roger’s: Top five albums after a long gap between. There was no crossover on any of our lists. I went mostly mainstream with my bands. Clauser surprised us with a lot of bands I didn’t know, but were popular in the comments. A nice Steve Augeri band too! Metal Roger did industrial, metal, and beardliness.
My list is below, and included two Japanese imports and a couple of special editions with DVDs.
At the end of the day, the mighty Harrison Kopp the Mad Metal Man himself turned up with a list of his own, which surprisingly lacked any Blaze Bayley. A huge thanks to Harrison for coming on last night.
Tune in next week for the Battle of ’84 with Pete Jones: Defenders of the Faith vs. Powerslave!
I cheated.
TIE
KISS – Sonic Boom (2009) – 11 year gap from 1998’s Psycho-Circus
Van Halen – A Different Kind of Truth (2012) – 14 year gap from 1998’s Van Halen III (8 year gap from 2004’s Best of Both Worlds)
Faith No More – Sol Invictus (2015) – 18 year gap from 1997’s Album of the Year
Deep Purple – Perfect Strangers (1984) – 9 year gap from 1975’s Come Taste the Band
Styx – The Mission (2018) – 15 year gap from 2003’s Cyclorama (13 year gap from 2005’s Big Bang Theory)
Extreme – Six (2023) – 15 year gap from 2008’s Saudades de Rock
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 61: Top Five Albums After a Long Gap, with Metal Roger and John Clauser
‘Twas Metal Roger who suggested this week’s topic. What are our Top Five Albums after a Long Gap? Well, Chinese Democracy is an obvious example, but there are many more, ecpecially from the last decade or two. It took 24 years for The Who to release a new album (Endless Wire) and then another 13 years to release the followup Who. For the sake of this exercise, we are arbitrarily saying at minimum, at least a five year wait to qualify an album for this list.
Joining us will be Johnny Clauser from My Music Corner, which is doubly good since Roger has no physical product to show off for his picks! (Come on, Roger!) I have eight picks and have to narrow it down to five, which I will probably do at the last minute.
This will also be John and Roger’s first shows at the cottage. We hope for clear weather and chipmunks! Join us live in the comments. We love to talk to the audience!
Friday May 31 at 8:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 9:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
This’ll get the trolls out! Nothing gets the Motley fans in a tizzy more than critiquing a favourite album, or praising a later one with the wrong lead singer. Our rock heroes are not infallible, and Theater of Pain might be the best example of this. After two screamin’ and bangin’ hard rock/heavy metal albums, Motley made a slight change of image & sound, and left us in a Theater of Pain….
Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation assembled a killer crew for this topic. With Joe B., John Clauser, Steve Deluxe, Melissa Nee and myself, we talk memories, impressions then and now, and most importantly, the songs. We discuss every elephant in the room, from the tragic car crash that ended a life, addictions, and direction (or lack thereof). This tumultuous period of Motley history is full of drama, superstardom, great music videos, and tragedy.
I’m excited to watch this show that I was proud to be a small part of. Theater of Pain is one of my favourite musical topics, and I think we fairly covered all the bases here, and them some. How do you feel about Theater of Pain?
Hot on the heels of the fallout from our Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years critique, I was invited back on Peter Kerr’s Rock Daydream Nation along with John Clauser and Steve Deluxe, to review the debut album by Tuff. I’d never heard What Comes Around Goes Around before, so it was a little “tuff” for me to get up to speed with the other guys. I listened to the album intensely for a week, and then we recorded this show. It is a show of which I am extremely proud.
The goal here was to be fair and honest. I think we were. I will tell you one thing: one of our panel members went in with a negative perspective, but had it changed after playing the album today. I highly recommend you check out this excellent episode. Even if you don’t like the band Tuff, or the hair metal genre in general, what we have here is a thoughtful and sometimes hilarious discussion about music that, for a little while at least, was one of the most popular genres in the world.
This is what Peter has to say about the show.
Rock Daydream Nation featuring John Clauser (My Music Corner), Michael Ladano (Grab a Stack of Rock) and Steve Deluxe (Rock and Metal Invasion) talk about Hair Metal in the 90s and specifically the Tuff debut album What Comes Around Goes Around (1991)…
For those who like it saltier, stay tuned for my written review which goes up tomorrow. It’s a little spicy.
Johnny Metal and John the Music Nut over at My Music Corner have been relentlessly going through the Judas Priest catalogue, from Rocka Rolla to Invincible Shield. This week they tackle the 11th Priest album Turbo. A very divisive album: Priest go synth! Yet also a crucial album as it garnered them some newer, younger fans. Where do we fall on this album? We go through the album track by track, before the Music Nut dives deep into the Fuel For Life tour. We talk background and fallout.
Thank you to John and Johnny for having me on. This was a blast to record. Good memories, good music, and good guys.
On this episode of The Year of the Priest, we look at 1986’s Turbo. This was a bit of a divisive album for Priest fans! How do we look at it?
A longer episode, but worth it: A treasure trove of memories unfurled on Friday night. How did we discover heavy metal music? What did we listen to before that? What were our earliest metal records? Johnny Metal (My Music Corner on YouTube) came prepared with stacks upon stacks of rock (and Johnny Mathis). Metal Roger brought a younger perspective, highlighted by Elvis Presley and Slipknot. Reed Little left us spellbound by the stories he weaved of his Heavy Metal Origins! Growing up watching MTV and MuchMusic, together we reminisced about Kiss videos, getting music from friends, finding our musical identities and generally rocking out to heavy music. Family man Jex Russell joined in shortly after, with stories mix CDs, buying a turntable in 2004 (way before it became trendy again) and hearing the Heavy Metal soundtrack.
Several artists came up repeatedly. W.A.S.P., Dio, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Accept. Regardless of some of the age differences here, certain albums were common to our stories. Reed and I share a background involving a love of science fiction and discovering Kiss at an early age. We also shared an aversion to rock music that was from a prior generation, for “old people” such as…Deep Purple! Obviously we all grew in the years since, but when we first discovered metal, all of us went head first, all-in.
I hope you enjoy this show and this exceptional panel. See you in two weeks with Jex Russell on Good Friday at a special afternoon time!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 55: METAL: Point of Entry
We are back to live streaming this week! Tonight I am joined by John Clauser of My Music Corner, Metal Roger, Reed Little of the Contrarians, and Jex Russell joining in a little later at 8 PM! The topic tonight is a simple discussion: What was our “Point of Entry” into Heavy Metal music?
It’s an important question. We are all passionate about the music we love. We all have a story about how we got there. What’s yours?
We will show off some old records, and talk about how we discovered and fell in love with this genre of music. I will run some old promo clips from MuchMusic to illustrate our stories, and the fun will flow like molten lead!
Topics to cover:
What music did we listen to before metal?
What metal band or song changed that?
What were our first metal albums?
What were our earliest memories of listening to metal?
There will be vintage MuchMusic clips and lots of records. All this and more with our fantastic panel!
Friday March 15 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube,or (HOPEFULLY) Facebook!
Hot on the heels of his excellent interview with bassist Bob Daisley, Peter Kerr suggested we run through the Top Five Ozzy Osbourne solo songs, and a brilliant idea it was! Ozzy’s solo career is rich, especially in the early years, with beautiful ballads and incendiary metal. There are heavy progressive moments, advanced arrangements, and brilliant lyrics. We gave Ozzy’s career a solid listen this week and extracted our lists, and not without difficulty!
John Clauser of My Music Corner, with a guest list from Jake Not-From-State-Farm.
The “Dude” Mike Slayen, from San Diego, home of Jake E. Lee, and that little bit of extra guitar knowledge we needed.
I bought a guest list from Jex Russell, and the combined six lists covered a lot of ground! Hits, deep cuts, lots of ballads, and almost every lead guitarist who played with Ozzy. Lots of love for Randy and Jake here especially. Besides the first two classic Ozzy records, there was a lot of respect here for No Rest for the Wicked. The Ultimate Sin, Ozzmosis, No More Tears and Scream were mentioned multiple times. There were a number of B-sides mentioned, and one track that almost got me disqualified!
Stay tuned for some cool honourable mentions!
Thank you everyone for watching tonight, and we’ll see you Monday with brand new guest Len Labelle, and a run through the discography of Brighton Rock. See you then!
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!
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