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!
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.
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!
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!
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.)
“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.
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano
Episode 64 – Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Cover Tunes
This week’s theme comes from your very own Uncle Meat: best cover tunes! And because it’s the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten, that means we’ll each have lists of 11.
As an experiment, and because we have so many special guests lined up, I’ve decided to try doing Saturday shows every once in a while. This will give more friends the chance to participate!
New additions: Tim Durling from the far more popular Tim’s Vinyl Confessions is up on Satuday May 29, at 3:00 PM. You may have seen Tim on The Contrarians — he has done two episodes now. The subject will be best Album Cover Designers. Aaron will be joining us for that one!
We also have a theme for the June 11 show. Best “Blind Buys” — albums you bought without knowing any songs or much about the artists. The panel that night will be Aaron, Sarah, Kevin and, all the way from Scotland, J aka Jim Dead!
While it wasn’t fun being the lone dissenting voice when you’re up against heavyweights like Kevin and Meat, this was one of the best discussions on 5150 that you are likely to hear. And you need a dissenting voice, right? I was happy to play the role of punching bag too!
The Van Halen talk begins at exactly 0:48:00 and runs through to the end. Before that we unboxed some action figures, talked about the new Coney Hatch live album, and a little bit of current events. Watch right from the start to catch all that. We also played three music videos: “Donna (Do Ya Wanna)” by Deadline, “Open Door Piss” by T-Bone, and “Victim of Changes” (Priest cover) by Clockwork Orange.
Enjoy!
May 7: Paul Laine from Danger Danger and the Defiants with co-host John Snow.
May 14: List show by Uncle Meat’s suggestion — Best Cover Tunes — with panel TBA.
May 21:Sean Kelly(Coney Hatch, Crash Kelly, Helix, Lee Aaron, Trapper, Nelly Furtado) joins us with co-host Deke!
May 28: Dave Lizmiof the Four Fuckin’ Horsemen! Co-host will be T-Rev.
June 4: One year anniversary of Harrison’s first appearance. We re-hash the Top 11 Priest Albums and will have Geoff Stephen to graph it! Co-host is TBA.
June 18: Robert Lawson, author of Still Competition: The Listener’s Guide to Cheap Trick. Hosted by Superdekes.
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano
Episode 62 – 5150 Time & a Trifecta of T-Bone
Tune in tonight for beer, some T-Bone (his 3rd appearance) and an in-depth discussion of an album that went to number one 35 years ago this week: Van Halen’s 5150. The complete panel will be as follows:
To quote Pearl Jam, it’s “Five, five, five against one.” I’m the lone dissenting voice that will be highly critical of 5150, while the other five guys will probably take turns punching me in the balls.
The rules were flexible to say the least, but the lists were solid as rock! What 11 albums would you bring with you, if you were stranded on a desert island? And why? Each of us had our reasons and some great lists.
Unfortunately John Snow (2loud2oldmusic) could not make it tonight. He felt terrible about cancelling, but fortunately pinch hitter Aaron from the KMA stepped in at the last minute with a list he made while cooking dinner!
The lists start at 0:25:20, and as always Aaron wrote ’em down. Read ’em at bottom!
The schedule:
April 30: T-Bone returns and we discuss Van Halen’s 5150 in depth. Guests: Kevin (BuriedonMars), Uncle Meat, Superdekes, and Aaron.
May 7: Paul Laine from Danger Danger and the Defiants with co-host John Snow.
May 14: List show by Uncle Meat’s suggestion — Best Cover Tunes — with panel TBA.
May 21: New booking! Sean Kelly (Coney Hatch, Crash Kelly, Helix, Lee Aaron, Trapper, Nelly Furtado) joins us with co-host Deke!
May 28: Dave Lizmi of the Four Fuckin’ Horsemen! Co-host will be T-Rev.
June 4: One year anniversary of Harrison’s first appearance. We re-hash the Top 11 Priest Albums and will have Geoff Stephen to graph it! Co-host is TBA.
June 18: Robert Lawson, author of Still Competition: The Listener’s Guide to Cheap Trick. Hosted by Superdekes.
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano
Episode 61 – Desert Island Discs
This topic has been in the hopper a long time. Contributed by longtime reader Holen, the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Desert Island Discs are the 11 albums you would bring with you if you were stranded on an island (with a hand-cranked record player obviously). Surely a great subject for discussion!
Just as interesting as the lists will be the rationale for inclusion. And remember: it’s more fun when you can watch live and participate yourself! Subscribe to my YouTube and get notified every time I go live, announced or otherwise.
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