Uncle Meat

REVIEW: Max the Axe – “Randy” Live at the Boathouse – VinylArt.co custom picture disc

There are plenty of services online for cutting your own music to vinyl these days.  The one that caught my eye was VinylArt.co, based out of Wales.  This company will cut picture discs with your chosen artwork and (legal) music to four sizes:  5″, 7″, 10″ and 12″.  How well does it work?  Read on to find out.

MAX THE AXE – “Randy” (Live at the Boathouse) (VinylArt.co custom picture disc)

“How many times can you say Randy?”

The first thing I need to note is that I didn’t choose a song to put on vinyl for its fidelity.  The prime factor behind me spending my money wasn’t to test the product for review, it was to make something that I wanted for myself.  It had to be something that you can’t get physically — I wanted to create my own physical product for something that only exists digitally.  In 2018, I recorded a song by Max the Axe when they played the Boathouse, and a few people commented that they liked the video.  I think the live version of “Randy” they played that night was outstanding.  It had bite and presence.  Singer Eric “Uncle Meat” Litwiller really gives his all in this version, particularly on the chorus.  I decided to turn that version, recorded on my phone, into an “official bootleg” live record.  Sound quality wasn’t even a concern in that regard.

VinyArt.co seem to market these records as keepsakes more than a way to play music.  For example, you have two packaging options:  a coloured paper sleeve, or a frame.  You don’t buy frames for records you plan on playing.  I planned on playing my Max the Axe “Randy” bootleg.  I wanted it to sound decent.  Does it?

Actually yeah.  It sounds OK for a picture disc.  There is surface noise that you can hear during the fades.  As you can see from the waveform image below, you also lose volume with a picture disc.  By nature it is not going to sound as clean as the original mp3 file that it was made from.  However VinylArt “master” the track as part of the process, and it does sound full and beefy enough for my needs.

Unaltered vinyl at top, original mp3 at bottom

It’s a very easy process.  All you have to do is upload a photo, and a track that you own (or one from their library).  Then you choose the record size.   The smaller the cheaper, but also the less music that will fit.  A 5″ record can only handle up to four minutes, so I had to go with the standard 7″ single.  The records are one-sided with a smooth white finish on the B-side.  With shipping to Canada, the whole thing cost me $55 CAD and took just over a week.  They track the whole process for you, from photo printing to audio mastering to record cutting.

Keep in mind picture discs do not typically offer the same quality as pure black vinyl, but this is something I wanted for myself as a keepsake.  The bass is nice and fat and the vocals clear as a bell.  Except for the fade-in and fade-out, which are noisy, it sounds like a vinyl record should.  About what I expected.

Now Max the Axe can boast that he has been bootlegged to vinyl, and a decent one at that.  I can claim to own the only copy in existence, a limited edition of one!  The rarest record in my collection.

VinylArt.co aren’t going to make your music sound better than the source material, but it will sound like vinyl.  Your music, on a playable picture disc!  I plan on ordering something from them again, so if repeating a sale is a way to judge a company, then VinylArt gets the passing grade.  And so does Max the Axe!

4/5 stars

Friday Live Stream – Music Movie Lists & Guests

The LeBrain Train – 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano
Episode 29

Another week, another list show, and this one comes courtesy of the founder of the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list, Uncle Meat himself.  Music Movies — with one caveat.  No documentaries.  Those would make a fine list on their own.

Lists by:

 

Friday September 25.  7:00 PM E.S.T.  Facebook:  Michael Ladano or Facebook:  MikeLeBrain.  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

 

Highway to Lists: Live Streaming AC/DC Deep Cuts

A huge thanks to Kevin/Buried On Mars for this week’s theme:  AC/DC Deep Cuts!

Your hosts with lists this week were:

Over the course of five lists, you will definitely find some tracks to check out for the first time, or just for a fresh listen.  The discussion was brisk and entertaining as hell.  You might even see cameos from Boba Fett and Thunder Bay’s own T-Bone Erickson.  What songs did we pick?  Was Aaron disqualified?  You’ll have to watch to find out.

In addition to the AC/DC lists, we tackled a few other topics.  Check the video times below to skip to the following:

  • An Amazon parcel & special Sven Gali swag unboxing – 0:09:30
  • Some praise for Max the Axe and Eric Litwiller –  0:26:00
  • The AC/DC lists – 0:30:50
  • For the after-party, general music and current events discussion – 1:55:25

Thanks for tuning in everybody.

 

Friday Rock N Roll Train – Live Streaming AC/DC Lists from Mars!

This week’s episode comes to you from BURIED ON MARS!   I’ve been wanting to involve him on the live show for a few months and now the time has come.  His topic:  AC/DC deep cuts.  Back in June we did a Nigel Tufnel Top Ten AC/DC albums co-hosted by Superdekes.  That was one of our best shows, but now we go deep!  No hits, just AC/DC; songs that we love that you’re not going to hear on the radio.

Your hosts with lists tonight will include:

We hope you will be on board tonight for the “Rock and Roll Train” known as AC/DC!

Friday September 18.  7:00 PM E.S.T.  Facebook:  Michael Ladano or Facebook:  MikeLeBrain.  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

You may have noticed I have finally picked a name for this show.  I hope I picked the right one.  Tonight will be the inaugural (even though I’ve been doing this six months) episode of THE LeBRAIN TRAIN: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano.

Thank you to old pal (26 years) and author Aaron Lebold for contributing new graphics for the show.  I really appreciate it!  This was my favourite of the two he made.  I have more artwork coming along.  I’m very grateful for your help Aaron!  Maybe you can come on the show and discuss your new book Genocide.

So that’s the name…The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano.  Or, just The LeBrain Train.  Jen came up with the LeBrain Train, and rock journalist Mitch Lafon suggested the 2000 Words or More part.  Thanks to everyone who dropped a suggestion!  I liked them all except for James Kalyn’s — “The Lebrain Eats A Worm And A Stick YouTube Hour”!

See you tonight!  Rock N Roll Train!

Epic 3+ Hour Live Stream! Concerts, Guests, Unboxing and Stories

That. Was. Epic.

Three (or four, or five, or six?) guests. Six lists. One unboxing. A marathon live stream like none before. Bear witness to the greatest Nigel Tufnel Top Ten list ever as we rhyme off our favourite concerts.

For the unboxing, go to 0:05:30 of the stream.

For the start of the lists, skip to 0:32:10.

Thank you Mom and T-Bone for your lists!  Thanks to Meat, Mr. Books, and Superdekes for co-hosting.  Special thanks to Rob Daniels for joining us at the end!  And as always thanks to YOU for watching!

 

A Real Live Friday Live Stream

This week’s topic comes to you from the originator of the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten series of lists, Uncle Meat himself.

Top 11 Favourite Concerts of All Time!

We may have listed “best concerts” before, but this will be special.  Meat, Mr. Books and Superdekes will be joining me Friday night at 7:00 PM E.S.T. with as many facts as we can recall about our favourite concert experiences.  There will also be one “surprise” list that will blow you away.

Now fuelled by Streamyard, the shows keep getting better and better!  There have been so many great list ideas that we have not got to yet.  We have new guests lined up.  Critical to this growth has been Kevin/Buried On Mars who hooked me up with Streamyard, vastly improving the quality of the show.  I’m very fortunate to have Uncle Meat by my side with his Nigel Tufnel Top Ten concept.  I think if Meat didn’t come up with that idea, these live streams might have ended a long time ago!  And of course Superdekes, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty on multiple occasions.  He doesn’t have to do this, but he loves doing it!

Join us 7:00 PM E.S.T. for the big show!  Facebook:  Michael Ladano or Facebook:  MikeLeBrain.  YouTube:  Mike LeBrain.

 

Epic All-Canadian Live Stream featuring Mr. Books

History was made Friday night!

Please welcome 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:

  • Derek from Thunder Bay
  • 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.

The Greatest Live Albums of All Time – Counting ‘Em Down Again!

We thought we were counting down the next 11 live abums of all time —  Nigel Tufnel’s Next Top Ten, #12 to 22 — but I received so many lists from people new and old that we actually did plenty of 1-11 lists too.  Confusing?  Maybe.  Fun?  Absolutely!

With live album lists from:

You’ll find a tremendous variety of material in these lists, from several sections of the record store. Some truly out of the box lists here, and I hope you’ll be inspired to check out some of these albums.

I also did a new release unboxing from John T. Snow.  To skip directly that, watch from 0:08:40 of the stream.

For the commencement of the lists, skip to 0:10:55 of the stream.

Attention Aaron:  Go to 0:19:35 of the stream!

To see a neat video of underwater rocks that I was uploading as the stream began, check out 0:02:50.

 

 

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES!

After some viewer feedback and discussion, I’ve decided to make some changes for the next streams.  While I’m thrilled beyond words that this has become a popular thing, 10 lists is a record.  I’d like to scale things back again to the earlier days of the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten lists.  Five lists?   Six tops?  That’s a good number, and it’s perfect for the viewer to absorb.  The featured lists would belong to the two co-hosts, and the rest to contributors.  There have been so many list submissions from such a variety of people that I hate to have to exclude anyone at all, but I need to keep it manageable.

I’m not sure how to decide what lists to use if 10 people want to submit lists again.  When I do a show on soundtracks (this is being planned) then obviously I need to feature a Rob Daniels list.  It’s also a delight to get new names included, so first-timers have to be considered too.  Suggestions on deciding these things are welcome.

We have time to figure it out.  Deke is an eager co-host, and I love the Thunder Bay perspective that he brings to his episodes.  He has some cool ideas that I am excited about, and next week’s show could be a completely different format.  There have been plenty of list idea submissions too — I think we have at least 10 or 12 more to do.  There will be other co-hosts in the second seat as well.  Glitchy as it may be at times, Facebook Live continues to be the best platform for these live streams.  (Fortunately for the non-Facebookers, I can get the Youtube video up the next day.)  I’ll be continuing to use it in the foreseeable future.  The screen sharing ability is terrific.  If Zoom can be used to stream openly on Facebook (which has my biggest audience) then please comment below.  Otherwise I’m going to use the Facebook Live screen-sharing ability for cohosting duties.  It seems only certain mobile devices have this ability; you’ll know if you see a green prompt informing you that you can join the stream.

Leaner.  Meaner.  Streamer.  Let’s keep this summer rocking.

 

 

Choppy Ballady Live Meat Stream – Friday Live Show

Happy 4th of July to my American friends and neighbours!

Apologies for the awful quality this time.  Perhaps due to an overheating device, perhaps because of the whims of the Facebook gods, I could not keep a good stream going.  It’s worth enduring the video for the awesome lists.  Uncle Meat and I counted down the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Ballads, with six lists submitted by:

Dozens of songs from multiple genres.  A couple lists planted firmly in rock.  Enjoy the ballads!

To skip straight to the countdown, start at 0:22:00 of the stream.

 

Sunday Chuckle: The Wisdom of Uncle Meat

This is an excerpt from the Saturday May 23 live stream.  Uncle Meat let us know what he learned that day, specifically about people who play with Star Wars action figures.  I’m sure you’ll find it as enlightening as I did.

 

 

Incidentally, this is the picture that really drove him nuts, the one of Baby Yoda eating the leaf.  He describes these pictures as “creepy, like Weekend at Bernie’s“.