A bright end to a crummy week! Jen is a trooper once again. She may have taken a spill again, but as always, she insists the show must go on. If she didn’t, then we wouldn’t have had this wonderful Friday night to remember. Thank you Jen.
I need to thank my special co-host and guests tonight. They all brought the lists, with Roger cheating a little bit (taking a bit from the Harrison playbook) and everyone adding a unique spin.
Tim Durling of Tim’s Vinyl Confessions proved to be the expert on all things Bob & Doug McKenzie, which came in handy on my #5 pick. We also took a look at Tim’s new Y&T book, Down for the Count! Please, get yourself a copy on Amazon.ca or your local version.
Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation provided an Australian pick and a number of familiar favourites. Check out Peter’s channel for an interview with Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad, and many awesome videos. He is also one of the contributor’s to Tim’s new book.
John Clauser of My Music Corner surprised us all with some great picks, some obscure ones, and one very special #1. I did not see this one coming.
John the Music Nut, Clauser’s co-captain, also provided some brilliant and unique picks this evening. John recently contributed to Tim’s Y&T book as well.
Metal Roger went outside the box on a number of picks, and also provided comedy relief for pretty much the entire night!
Additionally, we have some excellent lists from Harrison Kopp and Uncle Meat. These provided some great discussion topics.
As far as physical product goes, we saw some mail-order-only Marillion and a very cool lenticular album cover that I must acquire somehow.
Merry Christmas one and all! This is the last show before the big day, as the 22nd is a night off for Jen’s birthday. Don’t worry though – we have a re-run scheduled, of a great show from the summer: Arkells appreciation with Aaron and Nurse Kat.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 44: Our Top Five Favourite Christmas Tunes
Are you ready for Christmas? If not, our cast of characters will provide for you the Top Five best Christmas songs that you need to play this year. We searched far and wide for the best of the best of the best, so please welcome our crew this week:
Special guest co-host: Tim Durling of Tim’s Vinyl Confessions! We will also be unboxing his latest book, Down For the Count, all about Y&T…who never recorded a Christmas song to my knowledge!
Every once in a while, we do a show that was so much fun, that I literally can’t sleep afterwards. That was tonight.
Some context. On October 28 2022, Harrison and I went live to grab some stacks of rock.
Tonight, Harrison and I celebrated the anniversary live with some friends. Since it was our one year anniversary, the theme was Top Five Songs About the Number One.
Peter Kerr from Rock Daydream Nation once again broke new ground with some artists who have never been featured on the show, one in particular. Quite a few stonkers! There may or may not have been a “Little” drama, regarding whether or not I bribed Judge Reed when we did our Vinnie Vincent episode. The jury is out.
All the way from Birmingham Alabama, 1st timer John Clauser from My Music Corner gave us a sneak peak at that new 7 Savage W.A.S.P. set with one of his picks. Johnny definitely brought the metal! Thank you so much for coming on, John — we will do it again.
Robert Daniels from Visions In Sound brought a couple soundtracks, of course, but he was not the only one tonight. He also picked a “royal” one that I liked a lot. Thanks Rob for celebrating tonight.
Tim Durling from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions had 8 tracks, 7″ vinyl, and Canadian content – the trifecta! He also gets bonus points for poking Jex Russell in the side with his #1 pick.
Harrison the Mad Metal Man represented Australia with the majority of his picks. He also audibly laughed when I announced my #1 pick, and the proof is on video and I might just have to make a loop of it and play it on repeat.
Tee Bone Erickson, our music guru, submitted an “Ask Mike” question at the top of the show, and probably his best video for us yet: in the guise of “Sammy Hagar”! Tee Bone also submitted his own unique Top Five list: Top Five Van Halen songs with “One” in the title, in chronological order! He also asked Mike to list his Top Three Van Hagar songs, which I did.
Fun fact: Two of the albums picked tonight had some of us thanked in them: one thanking me, one thanking Johnny Metal!
Rest in Peace to W.A.S.P. and L.A. Guns drummer Steve Riley. That was not fun news to break to Johnny Metal today. We spoke a moment about Steve at the top of the show.
We’re taking a couple weeks off to work on some secretive side projects. However, we will be back November 17 with a brand new guest. It will be Jex and PLA here on Grab A Stack of Rock, and there will be dancing!
Thank you for watching, and let’s make this second year as fun as the first…or even top it. Rock n’ roll!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Episode 40: Happy One Year! Top Five Songs About the Number One
Our one-year anniversary happens to coincide with Show #40! One year ago (on the 28th, to be exact), I was feeling the itch to go live once again, and so I messaged Harrison that morning. “Are you free if we decide to go live tonight?” We didn’t have a name, a theme song, or a plan. Grab A Stack of Rock was born. Despite the highs and lows of 2022-2023, it was a bright spot our of weeks for the last year. I can’t wait to see what another year will bring.
We started out as a casual show to show off our music collections. It’s currently more than that, with lists and special guests once again. In fact this week we’ll have a new one who has never been on the show before, John Clauser from My Music Corner. Harrison and I will also be joined by Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation, Tim Durling, and Robert Daniels. Because it’s one year, we’re doing Top Songs About the Number One.
Thanks for Grabbing a Stack of Rock. Hope to see you celebrating with us!
LIVE Friday Oct 27 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook!
Show #31, Aug 11 2023, featured another Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list! Harrison said to me, “I think we need to get Rob Daniels back on.” Rob said “OK! How about TV Show Themes?” With Harrison and Rob, we counted down our Top 11 Themes. List shows are proven to be popular, but this one was really cool. Jex Russell sent in his own list to read, and we had minimal crossover. You’ll be shocked to learn that Star Trek ranked high on my list. For “Ask Harrison”, we featured the debut of musician Jazz King asking the question!
This was a very busy period, and I had no choice to take some time off the show so I could do some other significant collaborations.
Show #32, Sept 1 2023, allowed me to bring on Rock Daydream Nation’s Peter Kerr for the first time. Also for the first time: two Australians in one show! The topic, chosen by Harrison, was What Bonus Tracks Should Have Been on the Album? A very popular list show, this one also had Jex Russell on board. Peter shared the link far and wide which helped with the views. I personally think it’s one of the best lists we’ve ever done. Lots of love for Black Sabbath here. We also unboxed the second edition of Tim Durling’s book, Unspooled! You can get yours on Amazon right now.
Show #33, Sept 8 2023, was another personal favourite. It took place on the cottage porch on a beautiful afternoon, with Jex Russell! The subject this time, in honour of Durling’s second edition, was music books! I hauled up to the lake a huge box of my music books, hardcover and softcover alike, signed and unsigned: Sean Kelly, Martin Popoff, Michael D. LeFevre, Robert Lawson, Dale Sherman, Neil Peart, Aaron Lebold, and so many more! Jex didn’t have any of his books on hand, so instead we ran an old video from his YouTube channel CineBrosSupreme featuring his collection.
Show #34, Sept 15 2023, featured a first-timer! All the way from Ramsgate UK came interviewer and soundtrack specialist Jason Drury! I’ve been trying to work with Jason on a live show for over three years, but the time zones made that difficult. Finally, he was back in Canada and we got him on board with his friends Rob Daniels and Erik Woods. For Erik, it was his first time on the new show as well! Harrison joined us for a fun discussion about Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and more. Jason provided his Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Star Wars movies (basically ranking them all in order) to go with the lists that the rest of us did in 2022. It was wonderful to finally get to chat with Jason in real time. Another very popular show.
At this point, my hair was getting unruly. I hadn’t cut it since March and it was time. Therefore, I planned a stunt. A repeat stunt albeit, but a stunt indeed: I shaved my head live on the show!
Show #35, Sept 22 2023, came as a surprise to Kevin the Mars Man who was not informed in advance of my shenanigans! All he knew was that we were doing another list show: Top Five Bald Artists! Harrison couldn’t attend this afternoon cottage show, but I honoured him by putting Blaze Bayley at the very top of my list. Kevin and Jex also brought awesome lists. Importantly, we spotlighted the courage it takes for an artist to go bald publicly, like Joe Lynn Turner did.
Show #36, Sept 29 2023, was a night off for me! I relaxed at the cottage while Jex and Harrison went “LeBrainless” again! Harrison wanted to get the show “back to basics”. Grabbing and showing off stacks of rock! I popped on at the very end to show off my Aerosmith Greatest Hits 6 CD set from Japan, which took a healthy critiquing. Jex and Harrison showed off some Twisted Sister, Paul Di’Anno, Alice Cooper, Concrete Blonde, Slade, Judas Priest and a batch of DVDs. A lot of interesting items in this stack of rock.
Show #37, October 6 2023, was largely in honour of Eddie Van Halen who we lost three years prior to the day. John Snow had his new Hagar Years box set on hand. Tim Durling and Rob Daniels also joined Harrison and I, with rare books, 7″ picture sleeves, rare soundtracks, and…José Feliciano!? You never know what you will see on Grab A Stack of Rock!
Show #38, Oct 13 2023, was a special one to commemorate Friday the 13th! Harrison, Rob and I were joined by Peter Kerr for our Top Five Songs about Monsters. We chose actual classic monsters, and some metaphorical monsters as well. Jex Russell had a written list, as did John Snow. Greed, addiction, werewolves, space aliens and more! We hope you like our choices. We tried to go outside the box and bring you songs you might not have thought of yourself, though Ozzy and Alice were expected and did appear!
Show #39, Oct 21 2023, was the third LeBrainless episode, at a special time. Jex had spent the day with Tim Durling at a Record Faire. Meanwhile, Harrison had recently attended a record show too. On a Saturday night, with Aaron “Mr. Books” on hand, the pair showed off some of their recent finds. There was some cool stuff here, on CD, cassette, DVD and vinyl. I came on at the very end to unbox the new Sven Gali Bombs and Battlescars, and a disc by Toronto’s Evil Elvis! A fun way to finish off the last cottage weekend of the season
…And that’s it for recapping, as we look towards the future. We have lots planned, and no intention to quit this time.
Our one-year anniversary happens to coincide with Show #40, October 27 2023. One year before (on the 28th, to be exact) I was feeling the itch to go live once again, and so I messaged Harrison that morning. “Are you free if we decide to go live tonight?” We didn’t have a name, a theme song, or a plan. Grab A Stack of Rock was born. Despite the highs and lows of 2022-2023, it was a bright spot of our week for the last year. I can’t wait to see what another year will bring.
We started out as a casual gathering, to show off our music collections. It’s currently more than that, with lists and special guests once again. In fact this week we’ll have a new one who has never been on the show before, John Clauser from My Music Corner! Tim Durling, Peter Kerr, Rob Daniels and Harrison will also be back.
Because it’s one year, we’re doing Top Songs About the Number One.
Thanks for Grabbing a Stack of Rock. Hope to see you celebrating with us!
I’ve been busy! But I’ve wanted to work with John Clauser for a long time, so when Symbol of Salvation came up in his Armored Saint series, I asked to be included.
I almost bit off more than I could chew! In the same week I had Grab A Stack of Rock and an episode of Grant’s Rock Warehaus. Not to mention, studying up for the Anthrax/Armored Saint battle! After immersing myself in the music for a few days, I think we came up with an interesting and thoughtful discussion.
Praise for John Bush was universal. Which album do you like better?
Join Johnny Metal, John the Music Nut, Roger & myself for this thrashin’ discussion!
On Friday night, immediately after Grab A Stack of Rock, I had the honour of joining Peter Kerr, Reed Little, John Clauser and Tim “Unspooled” Durling for another amazing episode of Rock Daydream Nation! The subject this time was a comparison of Rainbow’s Bent Out of Shape, and Deep Purple’s Slaves and Masters. They have a lot in common, and a few differences as well. In common: a few blokes named Ritchie Blackmore, Joe Lynn Turner, and Roger Glover.
From five perspectives, we went around discussing our first impressions of these albums, tunes that we would spotlight, and then the big question: Is Slaves and Masters the followup to Bent Out of Shape?
This is what we were up to Friday night, hence no episode of Grab A Stack of Rock. Worth it! I had a great time on Rock Daydream Nation with Peter Kerr, Tim Durling, John Clauser, and Reed Little.
This time we took a fairly deep dive into Coverdale-Page, the 1993 album and project featuring Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and David Coverdale of Whitesnake. We discussed the history, the rumours, the tour, the performances, and of course the songs. Was it more Led than Snake, or vice versa? What were our first impressions when we heard Page and Coverdale were teaming up? What songs would we choose to spotlight?
We also spent a moment honouring the fallen Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake). Rest in peace, Bernie.
I’m thrilled to be joining another Rock Daydream Nation show about another super-secret topic, this time with a serious cast of characters! Tim Durling, John Clauser, Reed Little and I will be alongside Peter to discuss one of the most talked-about albums of the early 90s. A personal favourite. In fact, Deke and I interviewed the co-producer several years ago, on the LeBrain Train.
I’ve narrowed it down for you…now it’s time to guess!
Another reason I’m excited is that this is my first official show with John Clauser, who I like very much and have been looking for a chance to work with. Can’t wait to chat, John! Check out John Clauser at My Music Corner on Youtube. This outta be good.
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