Stuck In Thee Garage #132: May 27, 2016

Let's face it, when the robots become self-aware, we're all screwed. But until then, we can enjoy some of the many songs about robots, some of which I played today on Stuck In Thee Garage. So when your Roomba turns against you, you can at least remember back to the good ol' days.

Hopefully your Roomba doesn't look like this:

This playlist has come from the future:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Thin Lips - Total Separation/Riff Hard
Car Seat Headrest - 1937 State Park/Teens of Denial
A Giant Dog - Sleep When Dead/Pile
Nothing - Vertigo Flowers/Tired of Tomorrow
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Gamma Knife/Nonagon Infinity
Desert Mountain Tribe - Feel the Light/Either That or the Moon
Speedy Ortiz - Emma O/Foiled Again EP
Adia Victoria - Dead Eyes/Beyond the Bloodhounds
Left and Right - Ringer/Pivot Foot
Future of the Left - White Privilege Blues/The Peace & Truce of Future of the Left
Gordon Downie - Canada Geese/Coke Machine Glow
Gordon Downie - Figment/Battle of the Nudes
The Tragically Hip - No Threat/Yer Favourites
The Tragically Hip - At Transformation/Now for Plan A
The I Don't Cares - Dance to the Fight/Wild Stab
Bob Mould - Daddy's Favorite/Patch the Sky
David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away/Blackstar

Hour 2: Robots
Kraftwerk - The Robots/The Man-Machine
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1/Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Andrew Bird - Not a Robot, But a Ghost/Noble Beast
Red Red Meat - Robo Sleep/Red Red Meat
Phinedroids and Ferbots - Phinedroids and Ferbots/Phineas and Ferb
Flight of the Conchords - Robots (Live)/The Distant Future
Riverboat Gamblers - Robots May Break Your Heart/Underneath the Owl
The Redwalls - In the Time of the Machine/The Redwalls
The Saints - Do the Robot/(I'm) Stranded
Queens of the Stone Age - These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For/Queens of the Stone Age
Rush - The Body Electric/Grace Under Pressure
Four Tet - Iron Man/Everything Comes & Goes: A Tribute to Black Sabbath
Gary Numan - M.E./The Pleasure Principle

It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken

Too often of late I've been blindsided by horrendously shitty news. Just a month ago, it was the sudden death of Prince and before him, it was Bowie and Lemmy. This morning, I saw a Facebook post from The Tragically Hip, which I presumed was to announce more information on their upcoming album and tour. Instead, it was just about the worst possible news imaginable: Frontman and Canadian icon Gord Downie has terminal brain cancer. Holy fuck.

The guy's only 52 and has been very active in the last few years. The last Hip album, Now for Plan A, came out in 2012, followed by Downie's excellent collaboration with the Sadies in 2014 and then a Hip tour playing the band's 1992 classic Fully Completely front to back. The new record, Man Machine Poem, is due out next month and as part of today's sad announcement, the Hip said they would do one last tour with Downie this summer. A press conference was held a few hours later at which Downie's physician said the singer's brain tumor has been reduced in size after radiation and chemotherapy, which means while he'll be able to tour, at some point the cancer will return. It could be a few years, but the diagnosis is still terminal.

It sounds as though the tour will be in Canada only (dates will be announced tomorrow), which is disappointing, but jeez, it's hard to complain given the circumstances. I've been lucky enough to have seen the Hip nearly every time they came through town since 1991, everywhere from the Orpheum and House of Blues to the tiny confines of the Paradise and Bill's Bar on Lansdowne. And I've seen Downie play solo at the Sinclair and TT's. His yelping vocals, herky-jerky dance moves and abstract lyrics are ingrained in my brain like signposts as I moved through my adult life. Downie and the Hip are so Canadian that they appeal to that part of me that will always remain a Canuck, even though at this point I've spent more than two-thirds of my life in the U.S.

This isn't a eulogy. The man's not dead yet. For now, we celebrate his accomplishments and gifts and enjoy his forthcoming album and tour. And like anyone we know who's been dealt such a unfortunate hand, we try not to think about that inevitable time when he's gone.

Here's my introduction to Gord and the Hip:

Stuck In Thee Garage #131: May 20, 2016

Fifteen years isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, but when you think of 2001, things were very different in the world. The day September 11 had no major significance before that year. Most of us relied on shitty dial-up Internet to download music verrrrrrry slowly. And the red Adidas tracksuit sort of came back in style.

The Royal playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Left and Right - Next Winter/Pivot Foot EP
Leapling - Alabaster Snow/Suspended Animation
SWMRS - Drive North/Drive North
Guided By Voices - Kid on a Ladder/Please Be Honest
Hallelujah the Hills - Spin Them Atoms/A Band is Something to Figure Out
Those Pretty Wrongs - Thrown Away/Those Pretty Wrongs
Hit Bargain - Song for Fainting/Hit Bargain
Parquet Courts - One Man No City/Human Performance
Ava Luna - Crown/Electric Balloon
Hinds - Bamboo/Leave Me Alone
Hop Along - Texas Funeral/Painted Shut
Radiohead - Ful Stop/A Moon Shaped Pool
The Posies - Please Return It/Amazing Disgrace
Belly - Puberty/King
Pavement - Old to Begin/Brighten the Corners

Hour 2: 2001
Spoon - Me and the Bean/Girls Can Tell
Stephen Malkmus - Black Book/Stephen Malkmus
The White Stripes - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground/White Blood Cells
Frank Black and the Catholics - Robert Onion/Dog in the Sand
Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs/Rockin' the Suburbs
Drive-By Truckers - Let There Be Rock/Southern Rock Opera
Sloan - If It Feels Good, Do It/Pretty Together
Gorillaz - M1A1/Gorillaz
Rocket From the Crypt - Heart of a Rat/Group Sounds
Fu Manchu - Squash That Fly/California Crossing
Tenacious D - Tribute/Tenacious D
Fugazi - Full Disclosure/The Argument
Built to Spill - Trimmed and Burning/Ancient Melodies of the Future
Destroyer - The Sublimation Hour/Streethawk: A Seduction

Completely Conspicuous 424: Time the Avenger

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
 

Show notes:
- Artists we missed at first but now love
- Phil's #2
- Dismissed Phish initially, focused on the Dead at first
- Jay's #2
- Got into Bob Mould and Sugar first, then backtracked
- Husker Du: Great catalog, bad production
- Phil's #1
- Overlooked because of constant radio play
- Classic rock stations don't play new music by classic artists
- Jay's #1
- Always a Bowie fan, but started really getting into him in the last few years
- Bands we never got into
- Phil's #3
- Never a big metal guy
- Metallica never did it for Phil
- Jay's #3
- Never understood popularity of Dave Matthews Band
- Phil's #2
- Respect the Boss but never got into him
- Don't compare him to Mellencamp
- Jay's #2
- STP seemed like they were ripping off other bands
- Phil thought Nine Inch Nails were dumb
- Phil's #1
- What's the big deal about Radiohead?
- Jay: Hated "Fake Plastic Trees"
- Jay's #1
- Van the Man never appealed to me

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #130: May 13, 2016

It's Friday the 13th, but this week's installment of Stuck In Thee Garage didn't focus on that. Instead, I played songs about guitars in hour 2 of the show. But when you have a photo of Jason Voorhees wielding a Flying V...well, you have to use it.

The six-stringed playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Radiohead - Burn the Witch/A Moon Shaped Pool
Speedy Ortiz - Death Note/Foiled Again EP
Parquet Courts - Paraphrased/Human Performance
Chain of Flowers - Death's Got a Hold on Me/Chain of Flowers
Hooded Fang - Dead Battery/Venus on Edge
Black Mountain -  Mothers of the Sun/IV
TV Colours - Running with the Creeps/Purple Skies, Toxic River
Uranium Club - The Collector/Human Exploration
Hard Left - In a Crowd/Economy EP
Halfsour - Pop Art Pop Tart/Tuesday Night Live
A Sinclair - They Breed and Say Hello/Get Out of the City
Sonny & the Sunsets - Moods/Moods Baby Moods
Ty Segall - Candy Sam/Emotional Mugger
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Ballad of the Sin Eater/Hearts of Oak
The Gories - Rat's Nest/Outta Here
Brainiac - I am a Cracked Machine/Hissing Prigs in Static Couture

Hour 2: Guitar songs
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Talking Heads - Electric Guitar/Fear of Music
Sleater-Kinney - Words and Guitar/Dig Me Out
Sloan - G Turns to D/One Chord to Another
The Blood Brothers - 1, 2, 3, 4 Guitars/Young Machetes
Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars/Treats
My Morning Jacket - Mahgeetah/It Still Moves
Frank Zappa - Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar/Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar
Van Halen - Little Guitars (Intro)/Diver Down
Van Halen - Little Guitars/Diver Down
The Rolling Stones - Torn & Frayed/Exile on Main St.
Drive-By Truckers - Guitar Man Upstairs/Southern Rock Opera
Brendan Benson - Good to Me/Lapalco
The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps/The White Album
Eddie Vedder - Sheraton Gibson/Live in NYC 1994
The Who - Pure and Easy/Odds & Sods

Completely Conspicuous 423: Better Late Than Never

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
 

Show notes:
- Artists we just stopped listening to
- Phil's #1
- Smashing Pumpkins had a strong run in the '90s
- Corgan's pretentiousness ran its course
- Jay's #1
- Went back and forth, but finally stopped listening to the Doors in early '90s
- Phil: Morrison became a drunken buffoon
- Artists we missed first time around but discovered later
- Phil's #3
- Drive-by Truckers bring together different styles and sounds
- Jay's #3
- Huge body of work, but didn't start listening to Nick Cave until a decade ago
- Phil's #2
- Blues-rock from Tedeschi Trucks Band
- Jay's #2
- Bad Brains was an electrifying punk act
- Phil's #1
- Parquet Courts can play short punk songs and longer, artier stuff
- Jay's #1
- Knew about Velvet Underground for years, but really got into them in last 15 years
- Artists we missed at first but now love
- Phil's #3
- Checked out My Morning Jacket at the end of the '00s
- Jay's #3
- Always liked the Replacements but didn't become fanatic until last decade
- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #129: May 6, 2016

It's Mother's Day tomorrow, so if you haven't picked something up for your mom, you'd better get on the ball or face the mother of all guilt trips. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played an hour of songs about moms. Sure, a lot of them are songs your mom probably wouldn't actually like, and some were songs about "hot mamas" as opposed to actual mothers, but let's not get too picky, okay?

The mom jeans-wearing playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Fauna Shade - No Nostalgia/Floral Hall EP
Sunflower Bean - I Was Home/Human Ceremony
Prism Tats - Pacifist Masochist/Prism Tats
Hindu Love Gods - Raspberry Beret/Hindu Love Gods
The Twilight Singers - When Doves Cry/SPIN Presents Purplish Rain
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Purple Rain/Live 4/23/16
Thee Oh Sees - Turned Out Light/Mutilator Defeated at Last
Royal Headache - Garbage/High
METZ - Kicking a Can of Worms/II
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee/Murder Ballads
Bob Mould - Lucifer and God/Patch the Sky
Sugar - Changes/Copper Blue
Husker Du - Hardly Getting Over It/Candy Apple Grey

Hour 2: Moms
Tracy Bonham - Mother Mother/The Burdens of Being Upright
The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother/Horehound
PJ Harvey - I Think I'm a Mother/To Bring You My Love
Krill - Mom/A Distant Fist Unclenching
Guided by Voices - How I Met My Mother/Let's Go Eat the Factory
Pointed Sticks - Somebody's Mom/Part of the Noise
Mudhoney and Sir Mix-a-Lot - Freak Momma/Judgment Night soundtrack
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Ghetto Mom/Jukebox Explosion
Queen - Tie Your Mother Down/A Day at the Races
The Upper Crust - Tell Mother I'm Home/The Decline and Fall of the Upper Crust
Chixdiggit! - Where's Your Mom?/Chixdiggit!
Eagles of Death Metal - Bad Dream Mama/Peace Love Death Metal
Bullet Lavolta - Mother's Day-Bloodstains (live 1992)/Force Majeure: The RCA Anthology '90-'92
Danzig - Mother/Danzig
Misfits - Mommy Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight?/Walk Among Us
Neil Young - New Mama/Tonight's the Night
The Police - Mother/Synchronicity
Stephen Malkmus - Mama/Face the Truth

Completely Conspicuous 422: Everything Changes

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
 

Show notes:
- Revisionist band history
- Bands we once loved but now dislike
- Phil's #3
- Liz Phair got off to a strong start, disappointed afterward
- Jay's #3
- Huge artist I enjoyed as a kid
- Billy Joel stopped releasing new pop music in the '90s
- Phil's #2
- Love his first band, hate the solo stuff
- Sting's elevated the art of pretentious douchiness
- Jay's #2
- It's trendy to hate this band now
- Used to dig the Eagles
- Henley's personality turned me off the band
- Phil's #1
- Coldplay lost their way
- Jay's #1
- Red Hot Chili Peppers haven't aged well
- Liked them in my 20s, "but now they're just stupid"
- Bands you just stopped listening to
- Phil's #3
- Lenny Kravitz got too slick and repetitive
- Jay's #3
- Big fan of hard rock as a kid, but hair metal lost its appeal
- Phil's #2
- Boston-area rock fans grew up on Aerosmith
- After they reunited in mid-80s, quality went downhill
- Jay's #2
- Liked the band Live for a few years but just lost interest
- Singer got too full of himself
- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.