Maximum Mike

The Old Noggins' a Bubblin' and a Churnin'

2009-12-04T02:51:00.000-08:00

Rookies,

So I have a few ideas floating around for themed shows. The first one is going to require your help as there are simply too many to choose from. I want to a Rock Movie Soundtrack thingy. What are your favorite movie related rock songs (i.e. Bryan Adam's "Anything I Do, I Do For You") Songs made and written for movies or at least made famous by movies. So do me a favor and send me your favorite movie rock songs to rock4rookies@gmail.com . I'll compile all your requests and make a sweet show out of it.

In more up coming news, Prof William Kolbrener (check out his blog here) will be joining me in the studio some time soon to go over his top ten list of greatest rock songs ever. Sweet.

In case your curious, here is the play list for this weeks show. One of the best parts was my surprise guest who showed up at the studio and that I got to play Goatwhore (Who suck!).

AC/DC - Highway to Hell
The Presidents of the United States of America - Lump
Stratovarious - Hunting High and Low
Static-X - I'm With Stupid
The Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet
Smashing Pumpkins - Zero
Coheed and Cambria - Crossing the Frame
Smash Mouth - Beautiful Bomb
Drowning Pool - Reminded
Matchbox Twenty - Push
Rammstein - Wo Bist Du
RHCP - Breaking The Girl
Better Than Ezra - Extra Ordinary
Nickelback - Hang Nail
Saliva - Ladies and Gentlemen
Uriah Heep - Birds of Prey
Hootie and the Blowfish - Hold My hand
The Muppets - Bohemian Rhapsody
Blink 182 - What's My Age Again
Ill Nino - I am Loco
Theory of a Deadman - No Surprise
Goatwhore - Blood Guilt Eucharist
Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Collective Soul - Shine
Testament - Return to Serenity

Don't forget to check out the music videos posted below the show.

As always, check out the rest of the shows on www.rock4rookies.com.

Maximum Mike

The Times They Are a Changin

2009-11-29T02:02:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the Rock Shop,

Its been a few months since the last posting which mean much had changed while a lot has stayed exactly the same.

Starting with myself, I'd have to say that my "network" has grown of late, I've been trying to get more interviews (which I've succeeded in getting) and I have a bunch of wicked ones on the way. So far I've done Useless ID and Kill The Drive. In the next few weeks I have the winner of the Global Battle of the Bands (which all my listeners thought was an Israeli high school music competition) Umlala!! I was at the final competition and Umlala were fantastic, they were great performers, got everyone laughing and dancing. Well see if they speak as well as they sing probably next week on the show. Also coming up are Got No Shame, Carusella, and Metallica.... fine, not Metallica but if they knew Rock 4 Rookies exsisted. they would totaly be on the show.

All these interviews have added a whole new spin on to Rock 4 Rookies which was kinda the point, as at some point, things tend to grow stagnant. New voices, co host Dj's, and themed shows, all do their best to keep the show fresh, of coursae, brand new rock also helps.

Recently Ive been doing my best to bring several new bands to the show every week, a taste of something new. Again, I have to add that these aren't always brand new bands but simply bands that I've never played on Rock 4 Rookies. I managed to do that very well a few weeks ago on a
"Protest Song" themed show, of which the highlight was, in my opinion, a beautiful rendition of Bob Dylan's "The times they are a changin" sung by the Pearl Jam great, Eddie Vedder!!

Now before I put out the playlist for this weeks show, it would be amiss if I didn't pimp the other shows on the Rock 4 Rookies Network. Country Love and the Indie Insurgence have been putting out solid shows for months now and so stand as the peak of those specific generes of music!! A special shout out to the Electronic Voyage for an amazing Spy Show a few weeks ago and Poprox, the reason I don't watch MTV anymore, the best music without annoyance!

I will of course keep eveyone updated as I am inspired but life is not with out its little quirks like work and school so the blog, unfortunetly, remains on the back burner.

Right now, its the play list for November 29th, 2009.

Billy Ido - White Wedding
Bayside - Devotion and Desire
Blacksabbath - Supernaut
Slipknot - Dead Memories
Boxcar Racer - Tiny Voices
Them Crooked Vultures - Scumbag Blues
Interpol- Obstacle
Norman Greenbaum - Spirits in the Sky
Notimefor - Dress Up To Get Down
Fuel - Bittersweet
Smoking Popes - My Lucky Day
Slayer - Scarstruck
Puddle of Mudd - Spaceship
Fall Out Boy - From Now We Are Enemies
A Day To Remember - The Down Fall of Us All
Anvil - Jackhammer
Chickenfoot - Learning to Fall
Steel Panther - Death to All But Metal (I'm Sorry about this song guys)
3 DoorsDown - Right Were I Belong
Stick To Your Guns - A Badge A Brand
Burn Halo - Save Me
The Strokes - The Modern Age
Sick Puppies - You're Going Down
Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness
Pop Evil - Jupiter in June
Eric Clapton - After Midnight
Protest the Hero - Goddess Gagged
ACDC - Fire Your Guns

As always check out this weeks show. Andif you ask, Ill definetly put up the playlist of whatever episode you want.

See you at the show.
Maximum Mike

Episode 80 and the Chaos That Reigns

2009-08-18T06:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight I go live on Rock 4 Rookies for the 15th time. I have traveled back and forth from my home in the center of Israel to the capital 15 times. I have fretted, worried, and sweated on my way to the Rusty Mike Radio studio. I have also laughed, smiled, and rocked on the road to the live show.

Now I don't want to polish my own statue but sometimes I feel like I'm running my own online radio empire at www.rock4rookies.com !! Keeping things running smoothly isn't easy, its like being in charge of the UN,but we don't hate Israel. Its like organizing different races with different religions but in this case, the religion is music, the race is simply being different people with our own lives. Its hard to keep the herd grazing smoothly and I had help obviously (Thank you Web Master D) but the herd have grown. Our trance/electro show the Electronic Voyage has been picked up by another web site hence bringing hundreds of more listeners. Country Love with Ilona is now being broadcast on www.rustymikeradio.com, the home of my live show. We also have the Indie Insurgence, slowly but surely gaining ground in its fight against the mainstream. Finally in the last few months we've picked up a new show, the bubble gum Pop Rox, playing the best in pop music.

All of this...this Online Radio Empire, began 80 weeks ago with my first Rock 4 Rookies show. Its funny but when I go back to listen to that first show in the archives, I shudder at how bad I was as a Dj but I still love my music choices, it was and still is my favorite playlist.

So what is Rock 4 Rookies to me right now? Its every thing I wish I had a few years ago, all the music I wish people had been introducing me to. Now its your chance.
Join me tonight at 8pm Israel time(1pm New York) by click here to listen to my live show.

Graduation Day

2009-04-19T13:18:00.001-07:00

Yo Rookies,
So in two days I start my first gig at www.rustymikeradio.com an internet radio station and its going to be live.
Many of you dont know how I make the shows youve heard on www.rock4rookies.com but Ill give you a clue, it involves a lot of editing and a lot of swearing. Ive invented curse words to describe how I feel when I have to repeat an entire speech cause Ive flubbed words or just lost track, or worse, finished and then realize I forgot something important. (My wifes inventive curses are great, she hates listening to me repeat things!!!)
So here we are on Tuesday, at 8pm I will begin something new, something I hope will be amazing and as usual, without you guys, itll be nothing! I hope that you all join me as I try to balance a brand new audience while still keeping you guys satisfied!! Everyone who has been with me up until this point, you are no longer rookies, you are now Veterans but I hope you continue on with me to get your Masters in Rock N Roll
See you at the show!
Playlist for Sunday April 19th 2009
1. Scarecrow Hill – Middle of the End
2. Ram Jam – Black Betty
3. Lamb of God – Redneck
4. David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World
5. Saving Abel – Running From You
6. Freedom Call – Warriors
7. Korn – No Place To Hide
8. Limp Bizkit –Hot Dog
9. Cake – Never There
10. Jethro Tull – Living in the Past
11. James Hetfield - Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit has Done Got Out of Hand
12. Seether – Careless Whisper
13. Pop Evil – 100 in a 55
14. Marylin Manson – You Spin Me Right Around
15. Something Corporate – Konstantine
16. Better Than Toast – Cringe or Smile
17. Deep Purple – Lazy
18. Aerosmith – Fallen Angels
19. 3 Doors Down – Loser
20. Sum 41 –What I Believe
21. Sum 41 – Motivation
22. Sum 41 - We’re All To Blame
23. Sum 41 – Walking Disaster

POP-ROCK and Drop It

2009-03-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

Show 58

This week, my time in the army will give me a lot of time to come up with a new playlist but this show will definitely hold you over till Marnina blows your mind this coming week on http://www.rock4rookies.com/rock4rookiesfull.html
1. Trashmen – Surfin’ Bird
2. Bowling For Soup – Almost
3. Black Stone Cherry – Lonely Train
4. American Hi-Fi – Hell Yeah!
5. Mori Teitz Anuchi – Stand Me Down
6. Less Than Jake – Never Going Back to New Jersey
7. Third Eye Blind – Jumper
8. Static-X – Love Dump
9. Avril Lavigne –Sk8er Boi
10. The Dandy Warhols – We Used To Be Friends
11. Off By One – Torn – (Natalie Imbruglia Cover)
12. Pennywise – I Come From A Land Down Under
13. 36 Crazyfists – Destroy the Map
14. The All American Rejects – Gives you Hell
15. Nickelback – This Afternoon
16. Dashboard Confessional – Vindicated
17. Nine Days – Story of a girl
18. Rise Against – The Approaching Curve
19. Houston Calls – The Better Part of Valor
20. Weezer – The Good Life (Pinkerton)
21. Weezer – Hash Pipe (The Green Album)
22. Weezer – Keep Fishin (Maladroit)

Valentines Day Massacre Show

2009-02-11T04:04:00.000-08:00

Rookies,
So the show went up on Sunday and Valentines Day is Saturday so this show is to get you in the mood. Looking through the play list you can see there aren't many love songs because I am sick to death of them. Instead of a day for Love lets make it a day for love of rock!!! Thats why I saluted Slayer, I just love them. Also, take special notice of Halowreck this week, they hail from Haifa and they are bad ass!!!
See you next week.

1. Three Days Grace – Pain
2. Flyleaf – Perfect
3. Sum 41 – In Too Deep
4. State of Shock – Breathe Again
5. Ben Kweller – Wasted and Ready
6. Eve 6 - Leech
7. Green Day – Working Class Hero
8. Hinder – Without You
9. Halowreck – Minister of War
10. The union underground – Across the Nation
11. Metallica – My Apocalypse
12. Story Of the Year – Anthem of our dying day
13. Nickelback – Too Bad
14. Dust For Life – Poison
15. Staind – Raining Again
16. Simple Plan – Promise
17. SOAD – Inner vision
18. Pearl Jam – Off He Goes
19. Slayer – Die By The Sword
20. Slayer – Raining Blood
21. Slayer - Disciple
22. Slayer – Eyes of the Insane

ROTMAN REQUEST SHOW

2009-01-31T10:13:00.000-08:00

Without a doubt one of my favorite poeople and the most die hard listener to the show, Aryeh Rotman sent me a full playlist, including a salute for the show and I was more than Happy to play it.

First of all it gave me the week off (no compiling a playlist) and secondly he knows his rock so you guys were in safe hands!!
Aryeh is the third from the left!!!

The Show can be found at: http://www.rock4rookies.com/rock4rookiesfull.html

1. James Brown – Living in America
2. Nightwish – Amaranth
3. Linkin Park – Don’t Stay
4. The Offspring – Shes Got Issues
5. Bon Jovi – Dry County
6. Dire Straits – Romeo and Juliet
7. Nirvana – Come As You Are
8. Iron Maiden – Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter
9. Jonathan Coulton – Skullcrusher Mountain
10. Weird Al – Jurassic Park
11. Metallica – All Nightmare Long
12. Meat Loaf – Paradise by the Dashboard Light
13. Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Requiem (The Fifth)
14. Korn – Fight The Power
15. Sabaton – Metal Crue
16. Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
17. My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade
18. Led Zeppelin – Immigrant Song
19. Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song
20. Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
21. Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven

Rock 4 Rookies Lip Sync Competition

2008-11-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

So I'm really excited about this whole contest thingy. To me, rocking out has always been about more than listening to really good music, it's also been about staring at yourself in the mirror as the opening chords to ACDC's "Back In Black" come on and then rocking out while imagining yourself in front of thousands of screaming fans!!!!!!
Well this, kinda, is your chance to do that except you don't have to worry about being able to sing or knowing how to play an instrument. Let the rock stars do it for you.

The Rules are simple. You have three weeks to record and send me a video of you singing to any rock song you want!! Air guitars welcome!! It can be heavy metal, acoustic or piano rock, punk, rap metal, pop rock, classsic rock, anything rock related! Dance, actually sing, do a fake duet, do a whole Jam band, the possibilities are endless!!
At the end of three weeks, November 30th, everyone will watch all the videos and vote for their favorite one. The top three winners will receive ROCK 4 ROOKIES t-shirts!! I'm still trying to think of other things to give away but the t-shirts is what I've got so far.
The video must be over 2 minutes in length and under 6 minutes.
E-mail me the video to maximum@rock4rookies.com or send me link to your video on youtube.

For any questions feel free to e-mail me or message me on Facebook.
Im gonna start out the competition myself with a little ditty by Limp Bizkit

The Network

2008-09-10T00:46:00.000-07:00

I love sitting and watching the numbers jump from zero to 150 in two days in Jonny's "Electronic Voyage" Facebook group.
Really!
It's good to see people flock to his show like that. For exactly a second I felt a bit annoyed that he did in 2 days what took me 5 months but I buried that feeling quickly.
Lets start off with what the purpose of www.rock4rookies.com was in the first place.
Every day, I would wander my University campus with Metal music blaring from my headphones. I got a lot of crazy looks and a lot of people telling me the rock music is just mindless screaming. This bothered me more than anything! There is no way someone could hear Serj Tankian of System of a Down, singing his heart out with intermingled bursts of screaming, doing his high pitched jabber voice, and all this to electric mandolin, and consider it all noise!! Impossible.
I finally started the show up with help from the amazing David Leitner (who manages the site) and Jonny, who was not only my on call encyclopedia, he also wrote the article for the "Rocking Chair"!! I surrounded myself with people who were willing me to accomplish the rock show, not just out of loyalty to me, but because they actually cared about the music!!
During all that time, my wife was pushing me to continue, pushing me to ignore the people that joined the Facebook group and left just as quickly. You guys only have to listen to the show once, my wife hears it fifty million times as I am putting it together.
Several times in the first months I had Jonny guest star on the show with me or even replace me when I was unable to do the show because of the one thing that would stop me, Miluim!! (Army Reserves)
But there were others who always had comments for me or bits of advice and tips. All of you are amazing but out of them all, 2, besides Jonny, approached me and asked if they could get involved. At the time I was unsure how because both were not CRAZY about my music, they both had Genres that they loved more.
After having a conversation with Jonny about Electronic Music, something I know nothing about but happen to love. (My time in the army exposed me to a lot of trance music).
A few days later my Father surprised me with an amazing gift, my own server. He said, "Consider this my helping to further the music cause." It was amazing. You have to understand, he was the one who when first hearing my idea, left the room and went ahead and immediately bought the ROCK4ROOKIES address! He's amazing. He hates the music but still, amazing.
With this new server I approached those who had approached me and the Rock 4 Rookies Network was born.
There are so many types of music out there and so many incorrect ideas about them. Electronic music is not just a massive base beat playing over and over again. Country music is not just hicks complaining about their dogs dying! Indie music isn't just....okay that one didn't work but still, Jon's music grows on me, because its basically rock that pushes the limits. I am all for pushing the boundaries. That's what I thought my rock was.
So, now that the Electronic Voyage will soon bypass, the original Rock4Rookies group, I'm okay with that. Jonny was there at the beginning and I hope hell be there for along time to come. Please, listen to Jonnys show, listen to all the shows, learn something. Put away old feelings and prejudices about certain music. Nobody listens to everything, they say they do, but they don't, not for real.
But now you can listen to it all, on the Rock 4 Rookies Network.

PS: Anybody want to do a rap show?

Together and Apart for the First Time in Chaos

2008-08-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Im not really sure why I decided to start this blog.

To start with I have Rock 4 Rookies, my radio show where I can basically say whatever I want because its mine. But that's not really true is it?

From the very beginning I set down rules for myself and for the show. So far, off the top of my head I can think of three rules.

1. No matter what i discuss or play, it needs to be rock related
2. No really bad cursing.

Well that's all I could think about for right now but the point is that the first one is a doozy! First off, there are always things I would like to add and tangents about rock I would like to go off on b ut I cant. I cant because Im stuck in a format. That should be the number one rule when deferring to Rock and Roll, NEVER HAVE RULES. I have my set number of songs because chaos scares away the listeners.

Sure, every week I finish recording my show, finally listen to myself and wonder how my wife can bare to be seen with me in public. On the other hand perhaps I think myself more of a rebel then I really am. Either way, listening to myself say stupid things is always great. I am vain. One has to be vain to listen to their own voice.

So as bold as I feel when I make strange voices or start singing out my dedications on the show, when I look back, I realize that there are other things going on in my life or ideas that float in between my ear tunnel that I need to get off my chest, and that's what this bloggie device here will be used for. Not speeches or sermons or lessons, just ideas or rants.

Now I do hope that the post will be relevant to Rock 4 Rookies and my handle MAXIMUM MIKE, because if its not then this blog is seriously misnamed. So yes, this is probably the best time to announce that Metallica's first single is now available on the their site. http://metallica.com/index.asp?item=601119

Im going to take it as a sign that the new song is now available as is this blog because Metallica is the band that gave me my first taste of non radio mainstream rock. 12th Grade of highschool, found me with my friend Yair playing the song TURN THE PAGE and I would like to Share it with you.
I hope that the song inspires you to not let yourself get stuck into what you think are your only options.

I am a fan of the phrase "Letting you hair down", god knows I say it often enough on the show but what Im asking is that you do more than that, I'm asking that you let a little chaos into your life, the kind of chaos you don't usually expect. Sure we have crazy exams and our cars break down and we're late by no fault of our own, but thats regular chaos. The kind I'm talking about is the type that you make yourself, just to know your alive. Say whats on your mind, let people know what your thinking. Do it for you and do it for them. Don't go out and insult people, that's not what I'm saying. Just dont stay quiet. So many people I know have so much to say and so much to show off but they stay in their little shells. BREAK OPEN!!!! Thats what this Blog will be for me, a ... a nutcracker of sorts.
As I emerge, I hope to make this blog about all of us toeing the line together, no matter how far apart we may be.

oh, ps, Im still going to try to stick to the whole no cursing thing but if I slip, please forgive me.