John Clauser

The Contrarians Live: It’s A Piece of Art!

This topic comes from the mind of Jamie Laszlo.  Album covers featuring other piece of art!  It’s our first Wednesday live show after a brief two-week break.  Good timing there since I had Covid for the last two weeks, and wouldn’t have been up to do a show anyway.  Tonight I get back in the saddle.

My Contrarians appearances to date:

  1. Minimalist cover art
  2. Brown album covers
  3. Yellow album covers
  4. Albums with Fire and Explosions
  5. Spaceships! Aliens! Robots!
  6. This Album Cover is Hell!
  7. Toys & Games
  8. Dreaming in Stereo:  Beds & Sleep on album covers
  9. Favourite Bands…WORST Album Covers
  10. They Swapped Covers!
  11. Great Album Covers From Bands We Despise
  12. Top 10 NWOBHM Covers

Watch live and comment!  Martin always tries to address the comment section.

THE CONTRARIANS – It’s a Piece of Art! – Wed. February 5 – 7:00 PM EST

A Wednesday Off for the Contrarians: Time to catch up on these shows!

We have not had time to prepare for a show this week, so we’re taking this week off.  Planning to be back next Wednesday, live as usual.

In the meantime, why not take this time to check out some of the shows you may have missed in the last three months?

My Contrarians appearances to date:

  1. Minimalist cover art
  2. Brown album covers
  3. Yellow album covers
  4. Albums with Fire and Explosions
  5. Spaceships! Aliens! Robots!
  6. This Album Cover is Hell!
  7. Toys & Games
  8. Dreaming in Stereo:  Beds & Sleep on album covers
  9. Favourite Bands…WORST Album Covers
  10. They Swapped Covers!
  11. Great Album Covers From Bands We Despise
  12. Top 10 NWOBHM Covers

Grab A Stack of Chat with Johnny Metal: A Special Post-Show Tribute to Grandmothers and Iron Maiden

A post-show chat with Johnny Metal was in order after our great Iron Maiden (1980) episode on 50 Years of Iron Maiden.  In this special chat, Johnny and I discuss some addition Iron Maiden content not covered in the actual episode, such as an album with Dennis Stratton (Lionheart) and some compilations with almost every Maiden member pre-Killers.  (Even the keyboard player!)

I also unboxed a very cool, very rare CD from Mike Slayen.  Check this out!  A true rarity.

Finally, one reason I wanted to do this post-show chat was that I needed to be social last night.  My 100 year old Grandma is sick again, and I was having such anxiety during the day, that I thought it would do me some good to tell some Grandma stories with Johnny Metal.  I hope you find these as heartfelt and amusing as I do.

Thanks for watching!

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 2: Iron Maiden (1980) and “Women In Uniform” with John Clauser

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 2: Iron Maiden (1980) and “Women In Uniform”

With John Clauser (My Music Corner)

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #86

Welcome to the big leagues, as Iron Maiden are signed to EMI and release their first singles and album!  New members Clive Burr and Dennis Stratton are now on board with Steve Harris, Dave Murray, and Paul Di’Anno.  We cover it all on this second episode of 50 Years of Iron Maiden.

Joining Harrison and I is John Clauser from My Music Corner!  We bid you welcome to this special pre-recorded look at Iron Maiden’s self titled debut album.  Because we always aim to go in depth as possible, we’ll discuss the entire album track by track, the artwork, and all the singles and B-sides.  As an added bonus, we’ll also take a look at the standalone single “Women In Uniform”, a Skyhooks cover that the band have somewhat disowned.

A new feature to the series debuts tonight as well:  Harrison Kopp will take the spotlight every time we talk about a studio album, to go over the tour in detail.  Harrison will provide the facts, the figures, and the dates, while also analysing the setlists.  This segment is a highlight of the show.

This episode premieres at 7 o’clock PM exclusively on YouTube.  (Sorry Facebook – we are trying some new things with this Maiden series.  The live episodes will still be streamed to Facebook, but not these recorded ones.)

One of us will try to be in the comments tonight, so if you want to take part in a discussion, please don’t miss the premiere!

Past episodes:

Friday January 17 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic.   Enjoy on YouTube.

The Contrarians Live: Top NWOBHM Album Covers

This is a topic for which I’m no expert, but others on the panel will be.  Martin sure knows his NWOBHM!  Guaranteed, we will see some cool heavy metal album covers tonight on the Contrarians.  Looking forward to it.

My Contrarians appearances to date:

  1. Minimalist cover art
  2. Brown album covers
  3. Yellow album covers
  4. Albums with Fire and Explosions
  5. Spaceships! Aliens! Robots!
  6. This Album Cover is Hell!
  7. Toys & Games
  8. Dreaming in Stereo:  Beds & Sleep on album covers
  9. Favourite Bands…WORST Album Covers
  10. They Swapped Covers!
  11. Great Album Covers From Bands We Despise

Watch live and comment!  Martin always tries to address the comment section.

THE CONTRARIANS – Great Album Covers from Bands We Despise – Wed. January 15 – 7:00 PM EST

The Contrarians Live: Great Album Covers from Bands We Despise

We’re back!  We had a couple weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s, but we’re back LIVE tonight to talk about some more album covers.

Today’s challenge comes again from the mind of Martin Popoff.  Pick 10 great album covers from bands we despise.  This was challenging in two respects.  First, do we really want to say we “despise” a band?  That’s a strong word, so we had to choose carefully.  Just because I don’t listen to a band doesn’t mean I despise them.  Second, I hate to say it, but many bands I hate have terrible covers.   It was hard finding 10 good ones.  But I did, so tune in tonight for some Contrarians fun with Martin, Grant, Peter, Jamie and myself.

This will be a controversial one.  It is already.  One of the covers I said was too crappy to include, was picked by Jamie.  (At least we both despise the same band.)  So we’ll see!

My Contrarians appearances to date:

  1. Minimalist cover art
  2. Brown album covers
  3. Yellow album covers
  4. Albums with Fire and Explosions
  5. Spaceships! Aliens! Robots!
  6. This Album Cover is Hell!
  7. Toys & Games
  8. Dreaming in Stereo:  Beds & Sleep on album covers
  9. Favourite Bands…WORST Album Covers
  10. They Swapped Covers!

Watch live and comment!  Martin always tries to address the comment section.

THE CONTRARIANS – Great Album Covers from Bands We Despise – Wed. January 8 – 7:00 PM EST

The Contrarians Live: They Swapped Covers! – Tonight at 7:00 PM EST!

Today’s challenge comes again from the mind of Martin Popoff.  Pick two bands – and swap their album covers!  For example, Martin went with Uriah Heep and XTC.   I chose two bands that are a little more similar.  This was by far the most challenging list to date.  We could do one way swaps, or two way swaps – I chose two ways, all the way.  I like a challenge.  It seemed do-able, so I went for it.

For those keeping track, this is my tenth week in a row on the Contrarians.  The subjects thus far have been:

Tune in tonight and comment!  Martin always tries to address the comment section.

THE CONTRARIANS – They Swapped Covers! – Wed. December 18 – 7:00 PM EST

Sad Wings of Destiny for Cross Purposes

  • Fairly obvious – the wings of the angel works for Sad Wings, and the angel on Sad Wings is holding the Judas Priest cross.

Black Sabbath for Angel of Retribution

  • The haunting woman on the Sabbath cover could be our “angel of retribution”.  Meanwhile, if that Priest angel had been on an album called Black Sabbath, I sure would think my doom was at hand.  His cross gesture with his arms works with the religious connotations of the word “Sabbath”.

Never Say Die for Hell Bent For Leather

  • The pilots outfits must have leather in them.  Meanwhile, the mask/face/helmet concept on Leather evokes a Never Say Die attitude.

Jugulator for Dehumanizer

  • Two robotic characters, who cares which is which?  The robotic reaper could be a Jugulator, and the Jugulator could be a Dehumanizer.  Who knows!

Paranoid for Stained Class

  • The sword in the head sure works for Paranoid!  Meanwhile, the sword guy is abstract enough that it could go with Stained Class just as well as a chrome head.

Technical Ecstasy for Turbo

  • Look at the turbo cover and tell me that’s not some technical ecstasy.  Meanwhile, the robots on the Sabbath cover could be turbo charged in a very 1970s way.

Hero Hero for Tyr

  • The barbarian on Hero Hero can surely represent The Battle of Tyr, from the Tyr album. He’s not a Viking, but close enough for heavy metal, right?  Meanwhile the Tyr cover is astract enough to be called Hero Hero, I guess.

Heaven and Hell for Point of Entry

  • Point of Entry – the sky is heaven, and that eternal strip of printer paper surely is hell!  Meanwhile, the angels are smoking – their point of entry to bad behaviour!

Forbidden for Ram It Down

  • The reaper on the cover of Forbidden needs to ram all those ghosts back down that hole!  Meanwhile, the fist pounding the Earth just screams the word FORBIDDEN to me!

Born Again for Redeemer of Souls

  • I’m really really stretching it here.  That baby definitely needs its soul redeemed.  And that redeemer of souls…if he’s redeeming souls, doesn’t that make them Born Again?

The Contrarians Live: Favorite Bands… WORST Album Covers – Tonight at 7:00 PM EST!

Tonight’s topic comes from the mind of Martin Popoff.  The rock and roll wordsmith has plenty of good ideas, but 10 Worst Album Covers by 10 Favourite Bands is kind of a double whammy.  Not only does it give us a chance to showcase some bad album art, but it also allows us to list our 10 favourite bands.  This will be a fun, fun night.

For those keeping track, this is my eighth week in a row on the Contrarians.  The subjects thus far have been:

Tune in tonight and comment!  Martin always tries to address the comment section.

THE CONTRARIANS – Favorite Bands… WORST Album Covers – Wed. December 11 – 7:00 PM EST

My Music Corner: Up to the Limit Episode 14 – Accept: Blind Rage (2014)

NOTE: My text review of Blind Rage by Accept will go up in the coming days.

Johnny Metal and John the Music Nut have been breaking down, in detail, every Accept studio album.  I jumped on board with Blind Rage, the third album with Mark Tornillo.  I chose this album since I had the Japanese import and I wanted the two Johns to have a chance to cover a rare bonus track on their show.

In this episode, we break down the album track by track, with a high level of agreement between us.  The Music Nut then goes through the tour in detail, discussing all the songs that were played live, and how often.  Some are still played live today.

If you want a sneak preview into my Blind Rage review, watch this episode, as I tried something new here:  reading my review aloud (not easy).  I may have even done some singing.

Check out the show, and look for my text review in a few days.

The Contrarians Live: Dreaming in Stereo – Beds & Sleeping on Album Covers – Tonight at 7:00 PM EST!

I’m very excited to finally be doing a show with Martin Popoff this week.  Martin is back on the Contrarians live Wednesday chat!

For those keeping track, this is my eighth week in a row on the Contrarians.  The subjects thus far have been:

This week, a joint suggestion from Tim & Jamie:  Album covers with beds, or sleeping.  Lots to choose from this time.

THE CONTRARIANS – Dreaming in Stereo  – Wed. December 4 – 7:00 PM EST