I like to periodically update the Grab A Stack of Rock show intro, to include content from the latest episodes. One of my favourite “fun” shots in the old intro was when MarriedAndHeels put her leg/heel up on her desk. Well, her last show had an even better shot, with her doing the same, but now I got her synched up to Tee Bone laughing in the song! It was a perfect synch, and that shot definitely needs to stay where it is now!
What do you think of the latest version?
It was a year ago when burnout set in and I took a hiatus from the LeBrain Train for the first time. We did an excellent show with some very special guests. Please enjoy the writeup, and a re-run of the show. One year sure has flown by!
RECORD STORE TALES #935: LeBrain Train Finale and Stats
A week ago we wrapped up the weekly LeBrain Train series to take a nice break. This has allowed me to devote more time to listening and writing and living!
It’s also been enlightening to look at the last 18 months of shows, and the feedback of viewers and my fellow co-hosts. Harrison the Mad Metal Man went to the trouble of graphing everyone’s picks for favourite episodes — 11 lists total. Have a look at the stats and click to zoom in for details.
It’s rewarding to see that most of the shows were on somebody’s favourite list. Even some of the shows I thought were not very good. Even one of the early shows, pre-Nigel Tufnel Top Ten, made a list thanks to Harrison. The very first Tufnel list show was Rush, which showed up on three lists. This must be heartwarming for Uncle Meat, who was the originator of that Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list idea.
In the beginning I was resistant to doing list shows. “I hate lists!” I complained. (Because they’re hard — I could do five Rush lists in one night, all different.) But Meat persisted, and came up with the Tufnel gimmick. The concept, based on everyone’s favourite scene in This Is Spinal Tap, is that we call it a “top ten” but we really go to 11. The gimmick appealed to me, and when we actually went live that day, the Meat Man and I had some great lists. We also had a Rush list from Michael Morwood making it a nice tight three. The next week we did Kiss and brought more people in. The ability to bring in participants this way really appealed to me and the show began to take off.
That Rush list show could definitely use a re-visit….
Votes for favourite shows are clustered on the latter half. The votes focus mostly on shows from late November 2020 onwards. At that point streams starting getting a lot longer with more guests. What do you think is the ideal time for a live show? I think two hours is prime, but we’re a talkative bunch and most of the later shows clocked in over three hours. Viewers seem to like a variety of guests with a lot of conflicting opinions, but keeping it to two hours is impossible!
Another interesting thing about these statistics is the way the interview shows break down. Most of us decided to choose only one show per celebrity — so even though Andy Curran appeared three times, we only picked one each. So it might appear bizarre that some great, great interviews got no votes: Brent Jensen’s first visit, and Andy’s first and third did not make any lists. Only because each of those guys did one show that was far and above some of the best stuff we’ve ever done!
Overall there were six shows tied for first place:
It’s very pleasing to see those last two shows on so many lists. It proves we were doing quality work right to the end. I have no doubt the final episode would have made lists too if we could do it again!
Mostly, Harrison’s graph tells me yet again that it wasn’t for nothing. It meant something to people, and it was consistent if not growing. We didn’t do a handful of great shows. We did a series of consistently great episodes. Peaks and valleys, yes, but lots of peaks.
While the LeBrain Train is no more, we can still enjoy some past shows. This one was special as it was the very first show on the Streamyard platform, 8/14/2020. At the end we had six guests. I called it “the shape of things to come”, and I was right about that! Things only got bigger and better. Not that this show wasn’t big on its own, as you can read below in my original text.
I am sure I will miss the LeBrain Train eventually, but you just don’t get this kind of interaction anymore, where I could snap my fingers and suddenly we have six people on the screen. A moment in history, not to come again.
Enjoy!
History was made Friday night!
For the first time ever, Deke and I have shared the screen with Mr. Books himself, Aaron from the KMA. The subject this week: Top 11 Canadian albums of all time. An absolutely epic discussion unfolded with so many different genres being touched upon. As remarkable as the lists were (five in total), it’s also quite astounding when we talked about all the albums we left out!
Lists submitted by:
With Deke coming in from Lake Superior, Aaron from Georgian Bay, and myself on the shore of Lake Huron, we had three massive bodies of water covered. What should we call ourselves? The Great Lakes Consortium?
For a look at the shape of streams to come, check out the end of the video. We brought in Uncle Meat, Rob Daniels from Visions in Sound, and Kevin/Buried On Mars. While six at a time is a lot, it sure was fun to see everybody together for the first time!
I can’t help but take a little bit of pride in all this. My very first live stream was March 20, the week lockdown began. Eager to make connections with others in isolation, I hit that “live” button on my Facebook app just to see what would happen. It ended up being a lot of fun and it so happened that others liked it too. A few weeks later, we figured out how to get Uncle Meat to co-host and he came up with the now infamous “Nigel Tufnel Top Ten” format.
But there were limitations, because we had to use a Facebook phone app if I wanted to have a co-host. This reduced the scope of awesome people available to share the screen with me. Finally Kevin directed me to Streamyard which solved numerous problems. After months of trying to figure out how to stream to Facebook (where my audience is) without having to use Facebook, Streamyard worked. For the first time after many months of trying, Aaron has finally co-hosted a show. A milestone! So yeah, I’m proud of myself and proud of the awesome friends who have co-hosted along the way. We made something here that is catching on with people. I owe Meat a huge debt for being the first co-host and coming up with the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten concept.
Look at the first stream below, and look where we are now. We’ve come a long way.
‘Twas only a year ago I wrote these words:
There will never be another Van Halen. No player before or since will have the ingenuity and influence he did. From modifying his own guitars and amps to achieve the perfect “brown sound”, to brutalizing the strings with a drill, he was an innovator. He was the most important of all the guitar innovators. And he sheepishly grinned through the whole thing as if to say, “Who, me? I did that?”
A year later, it’s only more certain that there will never been another Eddie. You can read my full memorial here: Rest in Peace to the greatest guitar player of all time.
The week Eddie passed, we did a tribute to him on the LeBrain Train. You can watch that tribute below, starting at the 20 minute mark.
As if that wasn’t enough, we followed that with another Van Halen show: VH deep cuts! One thing for sure, Eddie certainly inspired a lot of conversation on the LeBrain Train over the past year. You can watch the deep cuts below, starting again at 20 minutes.
Let’s all take a moment to reflect, and play some Van Halen tonight. Tonight, I’m going to go with “Dirty Movies” from Fair Warning to spotlight the greatest gee-tar picker of all time. What song or album will you play for Eddie tonight?
RECORD STORE TALES #935: LeBrain Train Finale and Stats
A week ago we wrapped up the weekly LeBrain Train series to take a nice break. This has allowed me to devote more time to listening and writing and living!
It’s also been enlightening to look at the last 18 months of shows, and the feedback of viewers and my fellow co-hosts. Harrison the Mad Metal Man went to the trouble of graphing everyone’s picks for favourite episodes — 11 lists total. Have a look at the stats and click to zoom in for details.
It’s rewarding to see that most of the shows were on somebody’s favourite list. Even some of the shows I thought were not very good. Even one of the early shows, pre-Nigel Tufnel Top Ten, made a list thanks to Harrison. The very first Tufnel list show was Rush, which showed up on three lists. This must be heartwarming for Uncle Meat, who was the originator of that Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list idea.
In the beginning I was resistant to doing list shows. “I hate lists!” I complained. (Because they’re hard — I could do five Rush lists in one night, all different.) But Meat persisted, and came up with the Tufnel gimmick. The concept, based on everyone’s favourite scene in This Is Spinal Tap, is that we call it a “top ten” but we really go to 11. The gimmick appealed to me, and when we actually went live that day, the Meat Man and I had some great lists. We also had a Rush list from Michael Morwood making it a nice tight three. The next week we did Kiss and brought more people in. The ability to bring in participants this way really appealed to me and the show began to take off.
That Rush list show could definitely use a re-visit….
Votes for favourite shows are clustered on the latter half. The votes focus mostly on shows from late November 2020 onwards. At that point streams starting getting a lot longer with more guests. What do you think is the ideal time for a live show? I think two hours is prime, but we’re a talkative bunch and most of the later shows clocked in over three hours. Viewers seem to like a variety of guests with a lot of conflicting opinions, but keeping it to two hours is impossible!
Another interesting thing about these statistics is the way the interview shows break down. Most of us decided to choose only one show per celebrity — so even though Andy Curran appeared three times, we only picked one each. So it might appear bizarre that some great, great interviews got no votes: Brent Jensen’s first visit, and Andy’s first and third did not make any lists. Only because each of those guys did one show that was far and above some of the best stuff we’ve ever done!
Overall there were six shows tied for first place:
It’s very pleasing to see those last two shows on so many lists. It proves we were doing quality work right to the end. I have no doubt the final episode would have made lists too if we could do it again!
Mostly, Harrison’s graph tells me yet again that it wasn’t for nothing. It meant something to people, and it was consistent if not growing. We didn’t do a handful of great shows. We did a series of consistently great episodes. Peaks and valleys, yes, but lots of peaks.
The weekly LeBrain Train has come to an end after 18 solid months. I’ve done what I wanted to do — keep you entertained and connected during this pandemic. I’ve not missed a week, but my fuel tanks need refilling and now’s the time to take a break. But not to fear — as we announced, there is an alternative.
Darr Erickson said, “What about re-running classic episodes instead of going live?” So that’s what we’re doing! Special and well regarded past episodes will be repeated on Friday nights at the regular time and regular place. The shows aren’t necessarily easy to find so we’ll do the searching for you, and play the best of the best one more time.
Next week tune in for the ZZ Top Deep Cuts episode, which made many lists tonight.
Oh right, the lists! Joined by Harrison the Mad Metal Man, we listed the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten episodes of all time. Lists submitted by:
We also had plenty of special features!
Watch the video to learn who’s who in this Lego diorama by Harrison!
Discussion in the comments was lively and made me wonder if more people are still home on a Friday night than I assumed. I hope you enjoy next week’s repeat of the ZZ Top episode. With Dusty’s recent passing, it will be interesting in retrospect.
And we’ll be back with Superdekes on September 24 to talk to Storm Force one more time. Our first interview was Storm Force so it’s full circle. Stay tuned for plenty more list and theme shows. The ideas flowed in the comments section so there is no shortage of potential themes!
‘Til next time….
Lego by the awesome Harrison
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano
Episode 81 – A Retrospective
When you put as much into something as I have with this show, you eventually need a break. I said I would keep doing this every week so long as Covid is keeping people stuck at home with nothing to do on a Friday night. I think I’ve done that. While not 100% of us are back to situation normal, it’s clear that most of us have had other things to do on the weekends. And that’s awesome.
Given that the landscape has changed, and I’ve been at this for 18 solid months, changes are coming. This show is to honour the past and look to the future.
Tonight, Harrison and I shall discuss our Nigel Tufnel Top Ten LeBrain Train Episodes of all time. We’ll also run down the show’s history from its debut on March 20, 2020 to the present. The fun, the ambition, the setbacks, the wins, the losses, and the memorable. And what is to come! We have something very, very cool planned. You have Darr Erickson to thank.
I’ll be back September 24 with Superdekes to talk to Greg Fraser of Storm Force. And we’ll be back again and again, any time a bunch of us want to talk about music on a Friday night.
As Ozzy would say, “Thank you, goodnight, I love you all.”
And you know about Ozzy and farewells.
Friday August 27, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook: MikeLeBrain and YouTube: Mike LeBrain.
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RECORD STORE TALES #908: Practice Practice Practice
Time for another confessional!
After our amazing interview with Paul Laine a little while ago, I finally have the confidence to say that I feel like a good interviewer. I didn’t always feel that way. My very first interview, with Eddie Jackson of Queensryche, was 20 years ago. That was a great interview, but I didn’t think I was a good interviewer yet. I felt like I needed a few more under my belt first. My next interview didn’t go nearly as well, and I stopped pursuing them.
Here’s the truth. I don’t care how stupid this sounds. You go and interview Paul Laine yourself if you think this sounds stupid.
When I was younger…I used to practice interviewing rock stars in my room.
Paul Stanley. Ace Frehley. Bruce Dickinson. I made up questions and I practised asking them. I worked on my cadence and imagined loose, fun interviews. I pictured myself improvising followup questions. I practised!
This continued into my 20s. Listening to albums. Reading interviews. Thinking, “I could do better than this.” Pondering the questions you really wanted to know the answers to.
I’m happy that I’m now well past the point of practising. Only experience can be my guide now. If this shtick comes naturally to me, it’s only because I practised at it for years!
RECORD STORE TALES #896: Plans
Plans. Gotta make ’em, but sometimes nothing goes according to them.
Winter is over. We made it through. I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (appropriately acronymed as SAD), so winter is always a hard time. It feels good to be on the other side of it, and not have to put on layers of warmth just to take out the garbage.
Last fall I made some plans to make it through the winter. I completed some, and I left others unstarted. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles, and what was winter 2020/21 but a shitty stale crumbled up cookie?
As we hunkered in for the winter, I gave myself a couple projects to keep me occupied. One was continuing with the VHS Archives. I accomplished very little on this. I did not play any video tapes at all this year, and only uploaded videos I already had on my hard drive. This season I only posted six videos.
I also wanted to teach myself Photoshop this winter. I didn’t get anything done there. As it turns out, I didn’t really have to, thanks to the generosity of friends. Good ol’ T-Bone has donated his time and made plenty of great artwork for the LeBrain Train live show. Plus our artist friend Saige did some great work too. I’m so lucky that we have built such an amazing community of artists and writers together.
Speaking of the live show, I had one plan that I thought would be easy, but never came to be. As a proud Canadian boy, I wanted to show some of our American friends (especially the one in Hawaii!) what a Canadian winter looks like. I planned on doing a live show outdoors in a snow storm. I thought that would be an absolute hoot. The weather never really aligned with a good live stream day. It was kind of a mild winter compared to others.
Looking back at the goals from the fall, there are two I did accomplish. One was to make a dashcam video of a shitty winter drive, set to the music of Max the Axe. I did that with “Magnum P.I.” and it is a great example of a typical winter commute. The second mission accomplished was to keep on live streaming. I still haven’t missed a week — knock wood.
I couldn’t have done it without my friends. You know who you are. Chances are if you’re reading this, you’re one of ’em.
Thank you Brent Jensen for appearing on the show a second time! Although the conversation veered wildly from Cinderella to Raven and back again, we orbited around Brent’s mahogany box of cassettes. Maybe you had one like it. But was your stuffed alphabetically from Accept to W.A.S.P.? Take a look inside Brent’s tape collection and listen to the amazing stories that unfold.
The chat with Brent commences at 0:23:00 of the stream.
As my One Year Anniversary Show, we are doing a CD giveaway too. Next week we’ll draw a winner from a hat. See bottom for the trivia question and submission form!
The trivia question was: What is the tagline on Brent’s No Sleep ‘Til Sudbury podcast? Watch the episode for some pretty obvious clues and submit your answer in the form below. Really, really, really obvious clues. Really obvious.
A winner will be drawn next week!
NEXT WEEK
Marco the Contrarian joins Uncle Meat and I for the Blackest of Sabbaths, only on a Friday!
mikeladano.com 