Last night was a bounty of success, except for poor Mr. Jex, who suffered from wi-fi issues all night. Thank you to Jexciter for showing up and playing along! Rob Daniels, John T. Snow, and special surprise guest MarriedAndHeels all joined in last night for a casual chat!
We successfully streamed to Rob’s Facebook, and the 2loud2oldmusic & Jex’s Vinyl World pages! This will help us reach more viewers in the future.
Unfortunately, Tim Durling could not join us, which is a real shame since he was responsible for two of the albums I unboxed, both Japanese imports.
John had some rare Whitesnake and Bon Jovi to show us, Rob had a book and a Helix-related soundtrack, and Jex some Judas Priest and monster movies.
The California Girl known as MarriedAndHeels showed us her new Nike’s that took her on a 12.5 mile run earlier this week!
We had a lively discussion about Richie Sambora/Bon Jovi, Kiss’ Farewell Tour, Star Wars and a myriad of topics!
Thanks for watching, and if you haven’t, then please give it a watch below!
TAKE 2. Last week was cancelled due to plague. This week…hopefully all will go well?
Streamyard has introduced some new features, so if all goes according to plan, we’ll be going live tonight at 8:00 PM to test ’em out.
If this works, Mike and his cohorts tonight (Jex? Rob? Tim? Harrison?) will have a casual chat about music and other goings-on. Plus, I have four discs to unbox! Pay attention, Durling!
Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode!
Friday March 24 at 8:00 P.M. E.S.T. Enjoy onYouTubeor onFacebook…or elsewhere TBA!
It has been a crazy last couple of weeks. Our last show was way back on February 3 with MarriedAndHeels, a great show by most accounts. I intended to go live the following week and then take a short break, but things got crazy. One family member had a heart attack, one had Covid, and one had cancer surgery. All of them are well into recovery now, but that was a lot to absorb in a short period of time. There were other gut-punches to go along with it, but I think we’re past the worst.
The tentative plan for the next couple weeks is this:
February 24 7:00 PM E.S.T. – the debut of Jex Russell (plus other guests! – Tim? John?) on a casual episode of Grab A Stack of Rock. The Mad Metal Man will be with us again! No topic, just looking at whatever music we have lying around.
March 3 3:00 PM E.S.T. / Noon Pacific – MarriedAndHeels returns for Round 3! (No Mad Metal Man this time.) This popular guest has been like a breath of fresh air for the show and she always brings the heat! We should almost change the name to Grab A Stack of Heels!
See you then?
Everything I create is free. I have never asked for money for any video or story. I pay for WordPress and I pay for Streamyard out of pocket, and advertising dollars do not bring in enough to cover even half of the cost. Therefore, if you’d like to buy me a coffee on Ko-fi, I would muchly appreciate!
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!
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
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:
One Hit Wonders. Probably due to Max the Axe’s hilarious appearance that night.
Andy Curran/Mike Fraser double header. A magical moment when the two guys got to talk to each other while Deke and I just sat back and smiled.
Paul Laine. Truly a special interview and special moment for John Snow and I.
Top Spielberg Films. A recent show. The velvety voice of Erik Woods had a lot to do with this! But it was also truly a great set of lists.
Top Animated Films. Another recent show (with Woods!) and one I went into with barely any knowledge of animated films at all.
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:
Deke
Mr. Books
LeBrain
Darr
Dr. Kathryn Ladano
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.
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?”
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?
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:
One Hit Wonders. Probably due to Max the Axe’s hilarious appearance that night.
Andy Curran/Mike Fraser double header. A magical moment when the two guys got to talk to each other while Deke and I just sat back and smiled.
Paul Laine. Truly a special interview and special moment for John Snow and I.
Top Spielberg Films. A recent show. The velvety voice of Erik Woods had a lot to do with this! But it was also truly a great set of lists.
Top Animated Films. Another recent show (with Woods!) and one I went into with barely any knowledge of animated films at all.
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:
Special Sausagefest 20 highlights & video from Uncle Meat (0:31:15)
Lego LeBrain Train diorama & Easter Eggs with Harrison (1:01:30)
Not one but two new LeBrain train intros, adding new faces
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!
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