The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano
Episode 39
It’s One Hit Wonders this week! We’re keeping the definitions loosey-goosey, but still diving into those songs that never had a followup hit. This week’s topic was brought to you by Max the Axe, although I believe Holen suggested it some months ago as well. Either way, there has been demand for a show about One Hit Wonders. So here ya go!
One reason you don’t want to miss this one: A record NINE participants will be appearing!
As usual there will be a special unboxing for the early birds who show up before 7:00 pm. Otherwise, check out the One Hit Wonders All-Star Special on the LeBrain Train, Friday November 27.
Thank you to Sarah and Kevin (Caught Me Gaming and Buried On Mars respectively) for co-hosting, and for some amazing Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Led Zeppelin songs lists! Thank you to Aaron (Keeps Me Alive) and Uncle Meat (no affiliation) for adding your lists to the mix. We heard about some brilliant songs tonight with some personal touches of what makes them so special.
But the hero of the night is Graph Wizard Geoff from 1001albumsin10years! Thanks to him, we can call some clear winners or losers in this race!
Or can we? You’ll just have to watch to find out!
If you don’t feel like watching the whole thing, you can just check out Geoff’s cool graphs below!
A hearty thank you to Kevin / Buried on Mars, Aaron / Keeps Me Alive, and Eric / Uncle Meat for appearing on this episode of the LeBrain Train! (Conceiving, in Kevin’s case.) And a salute to Derek Kortepeter for submitting a cool list as well. The subject was Van Halen deep cuts and we brought ’em to ya. Any that we forgot came up in viewer comments. And a great show was had by all!
At the start, Kevin and I killed some time looking at some new arrivals, and talking about the forthcoming new punk EP by Max the Axe. (I have a copy and it is killer.) If you want to skip that and go straight to the lists, then start at 0:20:25.
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!
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.
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
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.
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”!
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!
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!
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.
mikeladano.com 