Uncle Meat

Max the Axe – Rocks the LeBrain Train on a Thursday Night

We promised you tunes, and we brought the tunes!  With a special interview with the guy himself, kinda a big deal, Max the Axe!  It was not an uptite Thursday night at all.  This loosey-goosey interview covers Max’s discography and history as an independent musician for over three decades.  Find out about his origins, see rare photographs, and watch the band play live!  We even get to look at the cover art and title of the new EP.  (Added bonus:  running commentary by drummer Dr. Dave.)

Straight outta lockdown, Max the Axe jammed together again for the first time in about a year.  The lockdown session was filmed and tonight we played for you three tracks:

  1. “River Grand”
  2. “Pygmy Blowdart” (NEW SONG)
  3. “Scales of Justice”

For a band who hadn’t practised in a year, filmed on a crummy cell phone that apparently only does vertical video, these were some fine tracks.  Enjoy the show!  Rock on, Max the Axe!

 

LATER TODAY

Don’t forget – the Easter special streams April 2 at 7:00 PM E.S.T.   It’s pure nostalgia as we pull from a grab bag of great memories.  Don’t miss it!

 

*Two more unaired songs were played during the session – “Uptite Friday Night” and the new “Oktoberfest Cheer”.

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)

The Riffs of the 80s Live on the LeBrain Train

Awesome, fast-paced show tonight!  We picked our favourite riffs of the 80s, and Mike Slayen did his best to play some of ’em for us.  A big round of applause for Mike, please and thank you!

Your Riff Merchants tonight were:

Added extra bonus:  Lana Teramae and Harrison the Mad Metal Man both submitted lists, read towards the end of the show.  Aaron also wrote ’em all down if you wanna read ’em.

For me personally though, the highlight of the show was the brand new music video by T-Bone.  I have been waiting two weeks to play this.  If you’d like to catch this new song, a wonderful tribute to our own Uncle Meat, then go to 0:14:00.

See ya next week when I return with Harrison, Deke and Aaron with some Iron Maiden cover art lists!

Top Riffs of the 1980s tonight on the LeBrain Train – Mike Slayen returns!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 53 – Top Riffs of the 1980s

 

The last time we talked riffs, San Diego-based guitarist Mike Slayen was there to show us how to play ’em.  Tonight, Mike will be back to talk the 80s.  The era of Van Halen, Scorpions, Motley Crue and Metallica.  Mike is gonna have his hands full — literally!

Added bonus:  This time, Rob Daniels from Visions In Sound will be joining us with his own 80s rock perspective!  The panel is seven, so we will be doing these lists very quickly with minimal jabber:

Added extra bonus:  Lana Teramae submitted an 80s list and I’ll be reading it at the end!

There are additional surprises lined up, so take it from someone who knows:  you don’t wanna miss this week’s show.  You want to catch this one live.

7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain

Martin Popoff & the Gang round up their King’s X Top Five

A huge thank-you once more to Martin Popoff for joining us on the show to talk King’s X!  We have been immersing ourselves in the magic trio from Texas:  Dug, Ty and Jerry.  And it has been brilliant.  And these were some brilliant lists.  Martin’s insight on these crucial records will be of interest to diehards and new fans alike.

Want a starter’s kit into King’s X?  Watch this show and listen to Martin.  He comes in at 0:12:45 of the stream.

Martin hung out and chatted King’s X (and a little Rush) for an hour.  Afterwards, we were joined by Kevin from Buried On Mars to continue the musical discussions.  Jacob Moon, Marillion, Def Leppard, Black Sabbath…it was a fun freeform chat that I hope you will stick around and enjoy for the balance of the show.

A huge thanks to Mr. T-Bone Erickson for the new Martin Popoff intro.

Your panel tonight was:

Thanks for Dr. Dave Haslam and KK for your bonus lists!

 

T-Bone and the Gang are Done With Mirrors on the LeBrain Train

What can you say about a show that does all the following in one night:

  1. An in-depth, track by track analysis and critique of Aerosmith’s Done With Mirrors
  2. A tribute to Christopher Plummer (R.I.P.)
  3. CD unboxing and beer de-canning
  4. A world premier music video
  5. The sound of the real toilet flushing
  6. Awesome rock and roll chit-chat for almost three full hours

Why, it could only have been the LeBrain Train!  And this week, far more than 2000 words were said about Done With Mirrors.  This album generated so much passionate and sometimes dispassionate discussion that it would have been a shame if everybody didn’t get to speak their piece.  This album isn’t as polarizing as you might think.  We all found something enjoyable, we just didn’t always agree on what was enjoyable.

Your panel tonight was:

To skip ahead to the parts you may be interested in, go to the following points in the video:

  • Beer de-canning:  0:26:40
  • Encore Records unboxing:  0:28:10
  • Christopher Plummer tributes at:  0:18:30 and 2:34:50
  • Done With Mirrors discussion:  0:34:05
  • World premier music video of Current River’s Rock’n in a Rubber:  2:38:45

 

Thanks for watching and leaving the awesome comments, folks!  Tune in next week when Martin Popoff returns with his King’s X Top Five!

 

The Riffs Kept A-Rockin’ on the LeBrain Train

Dude!!  What a show that was!  Technical difficulties aside, another excellent Nigel Tufnel Top Ten.  Hottest Riffs of the 1970s was the topic at hand.  The lists went far and wide and everybody came out of it with huge smiles on their faces.  Rush, Van Halen and Black Sabbath received a lot of extra love tonight, but you’ll have to watch to find out!

Your panel:

It was a tremendous amount of fun to actually hear some of these riffs instead of just talking about them.  A huge thanks to Mike for doing this with us.  And he will be back when we talk about the 80s.

The less said about this show, the better, because who wants spoilers?  Not you, trust me!

To jump straight to the lists without all the preamble and introductions, go to 0:21:00 and enjoy!

Top Riffs of the 1970s tonight on the LeBrain Train – special guest Mike Slayen

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 47

 

In October 2020, we did one of my favourite LeBrain Train episodes:  Van Halen deep cuts.  Shortly after, I was contacted by guitarist Mike Slayen about how much he enjoyed the lists.  He asked me if there was any way he could participate and I “sure DUDE!”  See, Dude is the title of his excellent instrumental acoustic CD.  But Mike knows not just acoustic, but also the sweet siren song of a fully electrified six-string.  Why not talk about Top Riffs?

Kevin, Aaron, and Uncle Meat were interested.  But it was quickly obvious that the scope was too large, so we decided to break it down by decade.  In the future, we’ll reconvene to talk about riffs of the 80s and 90s, but tonight, we talk about the greatest time ever (perhaps) for guitar riffs:  the molten 1970s.

Tonight’s panel will be five:

Mike Slayen is a guitar teacher, so what I am hoping is that he can demonstrate how some of these riffs are played.  This is going to be a fun night with plenty of great picks for you (and I) to check out.  See you tonight, and please share with your music buddies!

 

 

 

 

Martin Popoff chills with the Three Amigos at the Rock and Roll Highschool

Thank you Martin Popoff for a thunderous rock and roll chat on a locked-in Friday night!  Confronted by three Top Five Popoff lists, Martin threw it down!  From his books to his Youtube shows, we tried to cover a bit of everything.  Thank you Martin for giving us an hour of your Friday night.  If you haven’t read one of his terrific tomes yet, check out what’s available at martinpopoff.com.  Money well spent!

We decided to take a three-pronged approach to the discussion by focusing on three Top Five lists:

  1. Deke – Top Five Martin Popoff Books
  2. Mike – Top Five albums I bought because of a 10/10 review in Riff Kills Man
  3. Eric – Top Five Martin Popoff YouTube appearances

From there the discussion flowed like a gin & tonic.

Hope you enjoyed the show!

 

 

REMINDER: Martin Popoff on tonight’s LeBrain Train!

The LeBrain Train:  2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano

Episode 46 – A Chat With Martin Popoff

Join SuperDekes, Uncle Meat and myself TONIGHT as we talk to the guy who, frankly, got me writing reviews in the first place!  It was Riff Kills Man that inspired me, a book that I’ve been re-reading this week only to find new revelations.  I love when I feel validated by a review in one of Martin’s 90-odd books.

Martin’s extensive bibliography (he is the Isaac Asimov of Heavy Metal) includes definitive tomes on Accept, Rainbow, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and just about every other band with legendary status.  As my re-reading this week has shown me, Martin has a way of describing music that just resonates.  It’s a talent that I have long envied.

Please spread the word, and welcome Martin Popoff to the LeBrain Train tonight!

7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook:  MikeLeBrain  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain