The secret is out! This show was a month in planning. We have been wanting to do a tribute to AARON from the KMA for some time now, due to his passion for Community. And tonight we finally did it, surprising him with a blindside like no other!
For the last month, Tee Bone has been secretly toiling away on his new magnum opus, like a Mr. Holland gone mad, with late nights and early mornings.
Now we can reveal the truth: the Community that Aaron nurtured has repaid him in song. The new track “Community” features our contributions and our tributes to the man. The very first duet with Tee Bone and Meat together, and the first vocal contributions from LeBrain and Geoff Stephen in a Tee Bone song! And we got to spring the surprise on him live! His reactions are on video for you to see yourself.
We had a full house tonight with Harrison, Kevin, Sarah, Geoff, Meat, Deke, John Snow and Tee Bone all in the house with James and Aaron! A first!
Key points:
Interview with Aaron and James begins at 15:30.
The surprise is sprung at 46:30, followed by the debut of the “Community” music video.
If you were able to watch live, thank you for helping making Aaron’s party something truly special!
You will be able to buy “Community” on Bandcamp next week. Wahoo!!
If you are reading this, then you are a part of the community! The Keeps Me Alive guys were here first, rocking us since 2006 with their passion for music. James is the “concerts guy” where reviews are concerned, and this is his very first time going live with us. Harrison will be grilling James on just why he wanted me to eat a worm and a stick for $7. Meanwhile, I’ll be asking about beginnings. Why did these two guys decide to start writing about music anyway? And what’s the secret to their longevity?
This show has been a long time coming! I have wanted to spotlight the KMA for a year and a half now. Tonight will be a good time, I promise you.
The list format returns! It’s another “Nigel Tufnel Top Ten”, and this time it’s a doozy. How do you narrow down the top albums from an entire country, and arrange them on a list? I dunno, but there are some of us that are going to try. Wish us luck.
How you get in on the mayhem? It’s easy. Just go to Facebook: MikeLeBrain on Friday August 14 at 7:00 pm E.S.T. There you can participate in the fun with your commentary, as we count down…
THE TOP 11 CANADIAN ALBUMS OF ALL TIME
No greatest hits; all genres permitted. A monster of a task indeed. Four lists have been submitted. Co–hosts have been booked. If all goes according to plan (which it should due to an hour-long test stream last week) we will have two of the most knowledgeable Canadian music fans on board for what promises to be an epic discussion.
Gratitude to Kevin / Buried On Mars for helping me get started with Streamyard. Thanks to the insightful Mr. Mars, and thanks to the perseverance of Mr. Books, today we accomplished a few goals:
Successfully test streamed with the one and only Aaron of the KMA on board, full video and audio, for the first time ever.
Cleared up some other issues when streaming with a co-host, such as mirrored images and working from a PC.
This test stream went on for an hour as our impromptu chat developed. We talked music, guitars, the Community, Covid, school, Paul Rudd, and Skip the Dishes. This little unofficial bonus episode is now available for you to watch below. But the significance is huge to me. Now I can have up to five additional co-hosts on future shows. The game has changed. The sky is the limit!
You gotta give Aaron from the KMA credit for several things. One, for bringing the Community together. Two, for his thoughtful and generous nature. And three, apparently, for clairvoyance.
Long before I decided on this week’s KISS theme, Aaron sent me a birthday gift. You won’t believe it. Clairvoyance? Obviously!
This was an action-packed show and to help you navigate, here are the highlights:
I included the pre-show portion of the stream in this video. To hear two awesome Max the Axe tunes, “My Daddy Was a Murderin’ Man” and “Magnum P.I.“, go to 0:01:20 of the stream.
For the epic Aaron Unboxing, check out 0:12:20 of the stream.
To begin 80s KISStory, go to 0:18:20 and rock!
For a sneak preview of a comedy bit that I recorded for Sausagefest 2020 (spoiler free), skip to 0:25:00.
To check out a host of cool ReAction figures, go to 1:26:00. They Live, Ghost’s Papa Emeritus, Aliens, and the Transformers.
Saturday’s show was not without its difficulties but it ended with another tremendous list. The main event this week was a Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list for superhero movies. The special guest for this epic segment was for the first time, the one and only Holen MaGroin! We had lists submitted by Harrison the Mad Metal Man, John T. Snow, Rob Daniels, and of course Holen and myself.
I was excited because I knew, especially with guys like Rob and Holen, we were going to get interesting and diverse lists. I expected Harrison to go mental, and I somewhat got that. John Snow also came in with some out-of-the-box suggestions. The lists were magnificent and it is fair to say that the overall winner was Batman, but in so many configurations that you will have to watch for yourself. Honorary mentions to Christopher Reeve and Robert Downey Jr. Enjoy the lists! Start the stream at 1:24:20 if you only want to see the lists.
In another feature I tried to hook up with both Deke from Arena Rock and KMA‘s Aaron in his live stream debut! Although I had difficulty hearing Deke, this brief segment can be found at 0:59:50 of the stream.
I also unboxed my latest musical arrival, Gordon Downie‘s Secret Path, both the CD and the graphic novel. Because they were shipped separately, the unboxings can be found at 0:47:45 and 1:11:55.
BONUS: Not part of the live stream, but I did get some video of a chimpmunk playing hide & seek with me. For Ladano’s Wild Kingdom, hit up 0:19:08 of the stream!
I hope you enjoyed this week’s fun, and hopefully next time I won’t have as many technical issues!
As you know, I’ve been live streaming on weekends during lockdown. Well that’s not all!
Maybe you’ve caught a live instalment of Ladano’s Wild Kingdom too? I get these massive earthworms on the front lawn, and since we’re locked down with nothing else to do, people have been watching live streams of worms! For your Sunday Chuckle, here’s an episode of Ladano’s Wild Kingdom.
It’s an historic episode too. It’s the first one where James Kalyn offered me $7 to eat a worm and a stick!
Aaron of KMA fame is known far and wide for his generosity and creativity in finding the perfect gifts. He was worried about this one. Sending a digipack CD in a bubble mailer doesn’t always guarantee safe arrival. He threw some plastic wrap around it as an extra layer of protection from the elements. His precautions did the trick and now I am the happy owner of a signed copy of Alice Cooper’s Paranormal!
A great album, Paranormal is a fully-loaded deluxe double CD with a smoking live disc. And now I have a signed copy to top it off. Aaron and I briefly discussed what the hell would make someone trade in a signed Alice CD? I didn’t have anything signed by Alice, until now. This is a first for my collection. Whatever the circumstances, I’m glad to be the benefactor.
Thanks Aaron — you know my “Paranoiac Personality” very well!
Anyone who reads these pages regularly knows what I’m talking about. Good friends who also love music are crucial to an ever-growing CD collection. When you have friends in different parts of the world, it’s even better. Today we’re paying tribute to one such friend who has done so much for my music collection. That man is Regina’s own James Kalyn.
Funny thing: I’ve never met James. I know James through mutual friend Aaron. (Together, James and Aaron are The KMA.) Aaron talked about this guy who loves Sloan and music in general, and figured we would get along. Shit got serious when Sloan started releasing limited edition fanclub live albums and boxed sets. James would pick up three copies each time: One for him, one for Aaron and one for myself. Thanks to James I’m a proud owner of things like the Twice Removed box set.
In addition to Sloan vinyl, James has also acquired for me a number of Record Store Day limited editions. Sometimes I can’t, or just can’t be bothered, to go. James has an “in” with his local record store guy, and often knows what they’ll be carrying and how many copies. Last year he scored me Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes’ Live at Jones Beach. I couldn’t find one locally, but his guy had it. A few days later, I did too, packaged with care by James.
There are few things that James failed to find for me. As a collector, I put a limited scope on what I’m hunting for. If there is a release with exclusive music on a physical format by an artist I collect, then I want it. In 2016, Alice Cooper released a very limited Record Store Day single called Live From the Astroturf. This was a single from a special concert featuring the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper group: Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith. Sitting in for the late Glen Buxton was Ryan Roxie from Cooper’s current band. It was heartbreaking for me, but even James couldn’t get me a copy. Prices on Discogs were insane. I guess I would just have to do without it.
Unexpectedly, 2018 offered a surprise: a full album release of Live From the Astroturf! Not just two songs, but the full set! I collect the music more than the releases, so I would be perfectly satisfied with this. Guess what happened?
James came through!
It wasn’t cheap. It was $80, but James tells me “there’s stuff inside” (a poster and a 16 page booklet). Plus the record inside will be one of 12 random colours! “Collect all 12,” says the ad on the front. Let’s do the math on that.
12 x $80 = …holy shit. $960 bones! And that’s if the random inserted vinyl colours don’t happen to be the same. You’d blow through a thousand bucks and more trying to collect all 12! But somebody out there has done it, I’m sure.
I haven’t opened mine yet. I’m just going to stare at it a while. Maybe tomorrow I’ll open it.
Aaron and I have returned safely from Toronto, with treasures in hand! He has posted to the KMA a non-spoiler update regarding the trip. We both did very well. As a “Taranna First” I was providing live photographic updates of the trip via social media.
As I did on the previous two trips, I took plenty of photos and video with the intent of creating another great trip video! With that in mind, we don’t want to spoil too much about our adventure, so this is just a brief preview. Of note, Aaron bore gifts, and one of them is a book that I am just as happy to get as I am some of my musical finds. Aaron also helped add to my 6″ Stormtrooper army!
The sad news: Even though I was quite confident that we would find at least one item from somebody’s KMA Holy Grail list, we did not. I was sure that we would at least be able to find one of Sarca’s, such as the Ray Lyell CD. I was surprised that we didn’t. I might have an easier time finding it locally.
Having said that: I encourage you to check out the KMA Grail list and add your own long-sought albums to it. Though we did not have luck with it this time, we did look hard. The more people who participate in the Holy Grail list, the better, so as my buddy Aaron would say GIVE’R!
Enjoy the photo gallery, and if you missed the videos from the 2012 and 2013 trips, you can check those out below.
LeBrain (who, I am glad to say, did not fart once in Aaron’s car this time.)
mikeladano.com 