The Contrarians

Alice Cooper Deep Cuts – With Marco from the Contrarians, Harrison and LeBrain!

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano and Friends

Episode 107 – Alice Cooper Deep Cuts – Nigel Tufnel Top Ten lists

Tonight, please tune in to a list show over a year in the making!  Harrison the Mad Metal Man has been asking to do this theme for ages now, and we finally got the right trio to do it.  Marco from the Contrarians will be completing the panel tonight as we list off our Alice Cooper Deep Cuts.  No singles, no live concert staples.   Each of us will be listing 11 tracks for the full Nigel Tufnel Top Ten experience.

Think about it a minute.  There are all the classic Alice Cooper Band records, including the obscure opening duo of Pretties For You and Easy Action.  Not long after the classic run, the “blackout” albums that Alice doesn’t remember making.  The late 80s had their fair share of great deep cuts on Coop’s horror-themed Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell.  Then we have Cooper’s entire output for the last 30 years with plenty of hidden gems.  Add in some pretty cool soundtracks and B-sides.  Yes, there will be a wealth of Alice riches tonight.

Your live participation means all the world to us, so I hope you can make it.  Go Leafs?

Friday May 6, 7:00 PM E.S.T.  on YouTube, Facebook and also Facebook!

 

Sunday Screening: The Contrarians Presents “The Worst of Episode 1: KISS – Lazy Nights”

Creating your own “Worst Of Kiss” album is a fun concept.  I could certainly come up with some variations on that theme!  In this Contrarians episode, Marco and Bret each picked five songs for their Lazy Nights: The Worst of Kiss compilation.  Marco did one side, Bret the other.  And Bret is right that you could pick all Gene songs!  But that wouldn’t make for a real Kiss compilation.

Marco and I have some disagreements here.  I’m more in tune with Bret.  See what you think!

 

Sunday Screening: The Contrarians – Episode 63: Def Leppard – Hysteria

It’s the episode I’ve been waiting forever for! Tim Durling vs. Martin Popoff on Def Leppard’s legendary Hysteria!  I’ve been consistent in my love for this controversial album since its 1987 release.  So has Tim!  Meanwhile, Martin gave the album a pounding 0/10 score in Riff Kills Man!  “Hysteria sucks righteously!”

Let’s see how Tim holds up in this episode, shall we?

Tomorrow in the Def Leppard review series, Tim will be returning to talk about the Soundtrack From the Video Historia.  Don’t miss it.

Thanks Marco for letting me participate! The Contrarians Panel: Dark Horse Album #7 – Judas Priest’s Rocka Rolla

Last week, I asked Marco from the Contrarians to sit in with us for our Top Five Tony Martin albums.  Unfortunately he could not join us live due to a taping of the Contrarians that night.  Instead he sent us a great video that allowed him to participate, a highlight of the show.  And as an added bonus, Marco asked me to participate in his Contrarians taping!  My very first Contrarians appearance.  The subject was Judas Priest’s Rocka Rolla, an album I have been playing a lot recently due to my recent acquisition of the 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music box set.  My part is right near the beginning.  After watching the in-depth analysis the group did, I wish I had contributed something a little more insightful.  However, this is such an honour and privilege to participate.  I can’t thank you enough Marco!

List Purposes: Top Five Tony Martin with Mike, Harrison and Marco

Great set of lists tonight from Harrison and Marco as we dug deep on our favourite Tony Martin albums!  With Thorns fresh on store shelves, and the prospect of Martin-era Sabbath reissues, it’s the perfect time to talk Tony.

We also played an old track from Slam Glory, featuring Marco’s uncle Ray D’Auria on lead vocals.  Great band from the Raw M.E.A.T Vol 3 CD.

The comments were terrific once again, and thank you all for watching!  See you next time!

 

Tim, Marco and Meat list the Top 5 Closing Tracks of All Time

Tim Durling from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, and his fellow Contrarian, Marco D’Auria, were the special guests on this week’s LeBrain Train and they absolutely nailed their lists!  The topic:  Top 5 Album Closers of All Time.  This was probably a more challenging set of lists than Album Openers was.  There was very little crossover, but many excellent selections from the mainstream to the obscure.

Insightful and entertaining banter abound.  Watch the show to the end to get the “bonus tracks”:  the runners-up that were just as exciting as the songs that made our lists.  Another bonus:  Our picks for worst album closer of all time!

Thanks Tim and Marco for spending your time with Eric and I tonight.  We had a blast.  Let’s do it again!


 

Top 5 Album Closers with Tim and Marco

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and the Meat Man

Episode 84 – Cinco De List-O: Top 5 Album Closers with Tim and Marco

A couple weeks ago, the LeBrain Train charted the Top 5 opening tracks of all time.  (Thanks to Harrison Kopp for your participation in that episode!)  That set of lists inspired Tim from Tim’s Vinyl Confessions to suggest a logical followup — Top 5 closing tracks!

The Meat Man and I decided to invite Tim and his fellow Contrarian, Marco D’Auria, to go up against the two of us for this list show.  (Sorry Harrison, but you will be back soon!)  We have not talked to Marco since March so we have a lot to catch up on.  We’ll ask him for an update on his film project about the band Mystique, and congratulate Tim for fully funding his book Unspooled:  An Adventure in 8-Tracks!

 

Friday October 15, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

Lists Bloody Lists: Marco the Contrarian boards the LeBrain Train with some Black Sabbath lists!

Thank you Marco from The Contrarians for your appearance Friday night!  The subject was Black Sabbath songs.  Three Nigel Tufnel Top Ten lists from three die-hard fans.  Do the math — that’s like a million tons of metal right there.

Marco is one of the most knowledgeable guests we’ve had on the show.  We couldn’t let him off without asking him some questions about Marco.  The first part of the show features a new segment that we call “Lightning Round – Getting to Know You”.  We’d like your feedback on this part of the show.  We had a lot of fun with it and so did the live viewers.  What did you think of this new feature?  Let us know in the comments.

Finally, we did a Contrarians style discussion on my favourite Black Sabbath record Born Again.  This was very enjoyable and I hope we did the Contrarians justice with our version of the format.

Finally Finally:  Marco mentioned a film project he is working on about a Canadian metal band called Mystique that is very close to his heart.  Check out their Youtube channel by clicking here.  This subject really grabbed the imagination of the live viewers who started looking up their stuff on Discogs!  ($377!)  You’ll also hear about a band called Slam Glory that I liked a lot back in the 90s.

All this and more on the LeBrain Train.  Thanks for watching!

For the statisticians:  Of the 33 songs on our lists, only five overlapped.  They were:

  • Cornucopia (Meat and Marco)
  • Sign of the Southern Cross (Mike and Meat)
  • Hand of Doom (Meat and Marco)
  • Disturbing The Priest (Marco and Mike)
  • Children Of the Sea (Mike and Meat)

Crossover! Contrarian Marco joins the LeBrain Train for some Black Sabbath shenanigans

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano…and Meat!

Episode 56 – Contrarian Marco talks Black Sabbath

In a crossover event sure to melt the structure of reality, we have Marco from The Contrarians here with us tonight!  Their excellent YouTube show, featuring Martin Popoff, is the place you want to be for some real in-depth heavy metal album discussions.  It’s all about people like us who pick odd-duck albums as their favourites.  Which is something I’ll be doing tonight as well!

Without spoiling all the fun, here’s what we have in store.  Uncle Meat and I will be asking Marco some questions so we can get to know him a little better.  Then the three of us will break out the lists!  It’s the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Black Sabbath songs.  As if that isn’t enough epic-ness, we will also be discussing contrarian-style my favourite Sabbath record:  Born Again.

Additionally:  I will be announcing the winners of our CD draw from last week’s One Year Anniversary show!  This will happen in the pre-show segment before 7:00 PM.

Announcements:  Next week is already Easter.  I’m considering doing two shorter shows that weekend:  One, featuring a Max the Axe live rehearsal with four songs.  These “Straight Outta Lockdown” sessions include a new tune.  The second show I am considering would be Easter memories.  Guests are on a volunteer basis if you’re interested.

Following that:

April 9:  Please welcome the legendary Andy Curran of Coney Hatch to the show!  With co-host Superdekes.

May 7:  It’s Paul Laine, Canadians singer extraordinaire, formerly of Danger Danger and currently with The Defiants!  With co-host John T. Snow!

Are you excited?  Because I sure am!  Thanks to Deke and John for booking these awesome guests.