Uncle Meat

Long Live the LeBrain Train

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:

  • Tee Bone (x 2)
  • Rob Daniels
  • Uncle Meat (x 2) – special cameo appearance
  • John T. Snow
  • Scotty Peddle
  • and me (x 2)

We also had plenty of special features!

  • Harrison’s Top Albums He’d Save From a Fire (0:08:00)
  • Brand new Tee Bone song “Ode to Darr” (0:29:00)
  • 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!

‘Til next time….

Raiders of the Spielberg Lists

Ahoy, movie fans!  When we are fortunate enough to get Geoff Stephen to graph our lists as they happen, it adds an element of excitement.  We see certain picks take early leads, only for some to be wiped out when the big guns come out at the end.  In terms of graphing and trends, the Spielberg film lists were the most thrilling yet.

Your panel:

We also had bonus lists from Rob McKinnon and Sarca Sim.

On a personal note this was one of the most fun shows yet.  Erik was a fantastic addition to the panel with his encyclopedic knowledge of cinema.  And most of us will be back next week when we tackle Top Animated Films, a topic suggested in the comments by Harrison the Mad Metal Man.

Birthday Rockin’, Skin Vibratin’, Guest Laden List Show

Another trip around the sun is always worth a celebration, and tonight we celebrated several birthdays!  Most notable those of Harrison and LeBrain.  As I say “happy birthday, to the Mad Metal Man”, I also thank Tee Bone for his two new music videos!  Tonight we premiered his latest hit “Fuck Pants”, and “HBD to the Mad Metal Man”.  Above and beyond the call of duty my friend!  Both songs were played multiple times during the show, so you can be sure not to miss them!

Party goers that were in for the long haul included:

We also had special surprise drop-in guests:  Scott Peddle, Michael Morwood, T-Rev, John Snow, and Brent Jensen himself!  Since the theme of tonight’s lists was “songs that make our skin vibrate”, we had to have Brent on, who contributed his own cool list.

Also thank you to Geoff Stephen, Deke, Kevin & Sarah, and Mike Slayen, who would have been on tonight if there were able.  And a huge thanks to Chris Thuss, who tabulated the panel’s picks at bottom.  Thanks buddy!

A great time was had by all, thank you for watching.  See you next week for Polychuck!

 

 

 

The LeBrain Train “Music That Makes Your Skin Vibrate” Birthday Party Extravaganza

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and Harrison

Episode 76 – “Music That Makes Your Skin Vibrate” Birthday Party Extravaganza

 

Both Harrison and LeBrain have chosen to celebrate their birthdays tonight, with the online party to end all online parties.  Because of this special occasion, we’re going with a Nigel Tufnel Top Ten theme of Harrison’s design this time.  In an effort to be inclusive, he picked a broad topic that anyone can contribute a list for:  music that makes our skin vibrate!  That phrase was originally coined by author and friend of the show, Brent Jensen.  And we couldn’t do a show about music that makes our skin vibrate without him.  Fortunately, Brent was available and he will be dropping in tonight!

It will be a fully packed, fully caffeinated show, and therefore tonight’s format will be a little looser than the usual.  Although we will be going in our usual rounds, we will also pause when surprise guests drop in to wish us happy birthday.  I expect this one to be a long, lively and dynamic show, with surprises.  Including two brand new songs by Tee Bone himself!  I can tell you right now that at least one of them is bound to be a hit.

Confirmed panel members include:

and, in her show debut…

Additionally I look forward to a visit from Brent and whoever else can make it!  While we’re at it, let’s wish Aaron and Sarca happy birthdays as they are both celebrating this week as well!  (Unfortunately Aaron is too busy partying in real life to make it tonight, but we wish him happy birthday just the same!

A huuuge thanks to Tee Bone for the music videos we are going to premiere tonight.  These are songs he wrote specifically for this show.  Videos he curated for your own entertainment.  Music that will hopefully make your skin vibrate.

See you tonight!

 

The Show Must Go On! Favourite Concert Memories on the Friday LeBrain Train

Dave Lizmi was a no-show, but that can’t stop the LeBrain Train from rolling.

We’re good at improvising, so tonight’s show was a discussion of favourite concert memories and rock star encounters.  Encounters such as:  Rush, Kim Mitchell, Cyndi Lauper and more.  Have you heard the story of Lauper asking T-Rev for directions in Sarnia?  Or Uncle Meat blowing pot smoke in Geddy Lee’s face?  You will after watching this!

Thank you T-Rev for your understanding, and thanks to Uncle Meat for pinch-hitting at the last minute.  Apologies to you for the change of plan.  I talked to Dave a few days ago, and he was good to go.  I don’t know what happened.  But we rocked it anyway!

Also — a couple of minor announcements were made, although as we’ve seen, anything can change.  Let us know what you think.

 

What are the Top Debut Albums of All Time? Our panel decides!

Fascinating lists tonight, and a clear winner emerged!  This fantabulous list show was brought to you by:

This epic show included some surprises, including about 25% CanCon and none of them named “Rush”.  Even the picks that were only selected once included some pretty massive albums.  Check out the lists, and the graphs by Geoff, and let us know what you think about our picks!

 

Top Debut Albums of All Time — We’ll List ‘Em on the LeBrain Train Tonight!

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

Saturday July 9 – Episode 75 – Top Debut Albums of All Time

 

Our audacious panel is tackling a big list topic this week, brought to you by Kevin:  Top debut albums.  The graphic above is a mere tease.  Some of those albums might be on lists, some might not…you never can tell what you’re going to get with a rogue’s gallery like this:

In a show first, this will be Geoff’s debut as a participant and not just the scorekeeper/grapher!  This will be a lot of fun for us, and hopefully you as well.  Get ready with your own lists — this show’s gonna rock.

Friday July 9, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

Double Show Weekend! Friday – Robert Lawson & Saturday – Jacob Moon

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and Deke

Friday – Episode 71 – Robert Lawson

 

Robert Lawson is the author of some excellent listener’s guides:  Still Competition (Cheap Trick), Wheatfield Empire (The Guess Who), and Razama-Snaz! (Nazareth).  Join Deke and I as we quiz the writer on these books, the experience of writing them, and rock fandom in general.  This show is guaranteed to be a fun hang.  Make sure you catch it live — have your questions locked and loaded for Robert!

Friday June 18, 7:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

 

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

Saturday – Episode 72 – Jacob Moon

 

“Jacob is an incredible Canadian talent.” — Andy Curran

If you only know Jacob Moon from his jaw-dropping Rush cover of “Subdivisions”, then you are in for a treat.  That viral video catapulted him to Youtube fame, but he is about so much more than just covers.  With nine albums to his name (so far), Jacob has been around.  When guys like Andy Curran sing his praises, you know he’s seriously good at what he does.  He has also won the admiration of Rush, Marillion, and many more.  What’s it feel like performing a Rush song in front of Rush?  Let’s find out from Jacob himself!

Saturday June 19, 1:00 PM E.S.T. on Facebook:  MikeLeBrain and YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

 

2nd Sunday Screening: 4 Max the Axe videos for you!

It’s a long weekend in Canada and I chose to spend my Saturday going through video footage on my hard drive.  Every Sausagefest I take a lot of video and most of it never gets used.  What I discovered was that I had a lot of fun footage that just needed to find a home.

At the same time, I have been making videos for Max the Axe songs, so I can use them on the LeBrain Train.  I like having music videos to play so we can take breaks, and I need things that won’t set off copyright strikes.  All of this footage I’m discovering is helping me kill two birds with one stone.  Or, as Ricky might say, get two birds stoned at once.

“Gods On the Radio” is the first one I made, for the Friday May 14th show.  It’s Max’s favourite.  It doesn’t have any previously unseen footage in it; it is just a video I made to play that night.  All the footage was simply edited down from the Sausagestfest 2019 video.  Dave Haslam approved of the editing and that inspired me to make more.

I didn’t want to keep recycling old footage that everybody has seen, so I started exploring the hard drive for “Next Plane to Vegas”, which was debuted on the Friday May 21 episode of the LeBrain Train.

One of my favourite Max songs is “Overload” from the EP of the same name.  Problem is:  it’s short.  Too short for me to play on the show and still get enough of a break to make a coffee.  So I had to extend it.  I found some cool footage of Uncle Meat singing and drumming “New Orleans Is Sinking” in 2014, accompanied by Max on backing vocals.  This served as a good intro to extend the video.  Bonus:  rare footage of Max playing bass.  60-70% of the footage has never been seen before.

Another goodie but shortie is “I Don’t Advocate Drugs” from Trillion Dollar Threats.  Mickey Straight sang this one with Max at the Boat House, so although Ted Moore is credited on the album, I used a little bit of Mickey footage that I had a few times in this clip.  The video is about 60-70% previously unseen video.

 

BONUS!

I took the most footage at Sausagefest 2015, where this video was performed.  We had multiple live bands jamming and I got video of a lot of it.  Unfortunately, the audio on most of it was completely unusable due to a problem with the camera.  Also, very few songs were captured in full, thanks to a rapidly draining battery.  I did, however, capture this unique version of “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes, played improvisationally, on the fly.  Though wobbly at times, the vocal is solid, the bass outstanding, and the take on it is unique.  The soloing in the long outro is smokin’.  I’m glad I recorded the whole thing.  If you stay tuned to the end, you’ll hear Bucky complaining that he forgot the snare drum.  That was true.  “Seven Nation Army” and every other song that weekend was performed without a snare!  (It sounds like they were about to go into “Iron Man” at the very end.)

Epic Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Tunes Lists!

“I think it was safe to say that was by far my most favourite show.” – Chris T

Thank you Rob, Aaron, T-Bone, Harrison and Meat Man for tonight’s amazing panel.  The theme was Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Tunes, brought to you by Meat.  Six lists, 66 songs, and very little overlap.  Having said that, there was one tune that made three lists, from an album that made four lists.  Watch the show to see what it was, or read Aaron’s notes below!

The lists commence at 0:20:30.

Incidentally, this show was record setting in terms of audience participation.  So many amazing picks and comments — most of them made in on screen, so check them out.

Once again your panel for this show was: