Stuck In Thee Garage #184: July 28, 2017

Dancing and music have been intertwined from the start. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about dancing in hour 2. They may not make you want to do the Batusi, but they're a lot of fun.

The Jackrabbit Slim's-approved playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Broken Social Scene - Vanity Pail Kids/Hug of Thunder
Wolf Parade - Valley Boy/Cry Cry Cry
Waxahatchee - Hear You/Out in the Storm
Nine Inch Nails - Less Than/Add Violence EP
Wand - Plum/Plum
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Have a Heart/Pretty Years
Captain, We're Sinking - Trying Year/The King of No Man
Thunderpussy - Velvet Noose/Velvet Noose
Elf Power - Ten Dollars on the Ground/Twitching in Time
Lee Ranaldo - Circular (Right as Rain)/Electic Trim
Milked - Picking Up/Death on Mars
Palehound - Turning 21/A Place I'll Always Go
Land of Talk - World Made/Life After Youth
METZ - Cellophane/Strange Peace
Christian Fitness - Other Men's Wives/Slap Bass Hunks
Boss Hog - Formula X/Brood X

Hour 2: Dance, you fools
David Bowie - John, I'm Only Dancing/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Echo & the Bunnymen - Bring On the Dancing Horses/Songs to Learn and Sing
PJ Harvey - The Dancer/To Bring You My Love
Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance/Rhythm of Youth
Frank Zappa - Dancin' Fool/Sheik Yerbouti
Frank Black - Dance War/The Cult of Ray
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor/Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!/Hold On Now, Youngster
Joy Division - Transmission/Single
Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing/The Idiot
Fugazi - Last Chance for a Slow Dance/In On the Kill Taker
Pavement - We Dance/Wowee Zowee
The Rolling Stones - Shake Your Hips/Exile on Main Street
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Chicken Dog/Now I Got Worry
Kool & the Gang - Jungle Boogie/Wild and Peaceful
Ohio Players - Fire/Fire

Stuck In Thee Garage #183: July 21, 2017

The world of rock music is cyclical. Every so often, there's a renaissance. It happened in the early '90s and it happened again in the early '00s in New York. The book Meet Me In the Bathroom is an oral history about the scene that sparked with the rise of the Strokes, Interpol and the Rapture, among others. Today on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played music inspired by the book in hour 2.

The escape-proof playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Male Gaze - Pale Gaze/Miss Taken
Rips - Spell/Rips
Turtlenecked - Bronze Bull/Lepers
Ulrika Spacek - Full of Men/Modern English Decoration
The Suburbs - Hey Muse/Hey Muse!
Lo Tom - Pretty Cool/Lo Tom
Girlpool - Soup/Powerplant
Froth - Sensitive Girl/Outside (briefly)
She Sir - DBS/Rival Island
Benjamin Booker - Motivation/Witness
Bash & Pop - Shortcut/Anything Could Happen
The Besnard Lakes - You Make Loving Fun/Rumours Revisited: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Classic 1977 Album
Two Inch Astronaut - Name Out of Mouth/Can You Please Not Help
Ty Segall - Thank You Mr. K/Ty Segall
At the Drive-In - Hostage Stamps/inter-alia
The Afghan Whigs - Light as a Feather/In Spades

Hour 2: Meet Me in the Bathroom
The Strokes - Take It or Leave It/Is This It
Interpol - Say Hello to the Angels/Turn on the Bright Lights
The Rapture - Crimson Red/Get Myself Into It
The Ramones - 53rd & 3rd/Ramones
Beastie Boys - Sure Shot/Ill Communication
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Bellbottoms/Orange
Jonathan Fire*Eater - When the Curtain Calls for Me/Wolf Songs for Lambs
LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum/Sound of Silver
!!! - When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Karazzee/Louden Up Now
TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me/Return to Cookie Mountain
The White Stripes - Why Can't You Be Nicer to Me?/De Stijl
The Mooney Suzuki - 99%/Have Mercy
Yeah Yeah Yeah - Gold Lion/Show Your Bones
The Kills - Love is a Deserter/No Wow

 

Completely Conspicuous 471: Continental Divide

Another installment of Driving With Kumar as I discuss my recent European vacation. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Spent over two weeks in London, Paris, Belfast and Dublin
- Went to London in '96
- Less drinking on a family vacation
- Elderly passenger in distress
- Hotel room in London was tiny
- Walked nearly 100 miles the entire trip
- Ran along rivers in the four cities we visited
- Ate a lot of pub food
- London has a lot of great history and architecture
- Paris was beautiful
- Hit the Eiffel Tower on the first night
- Major military/police presence at tourist attractions
- Several terrorist incidents before we went, but nothing happened while we were there
- Only three days of sun the whole vacation
- More daylight
- Out of the U.S. news cycle
- Being aware of your surroundings
- Wary while running in Paris and Dublin
- Missed American beer
- Visited my brother in Belfast
- Explored Northern Ireland scenic sites
- Saw several Game of Thrones filming locations
- Went to the Guinness brewery
- Wifi was at a premium
- Good to be back home

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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #182: July 14, 2017

There's nothing like a few weeks away to remind you of the things you love about home. One of those things is doing Stuck In Thee Garage, and I celebrated my return to the show by playing songs about and from Europe in hour 2. I focused on London, Paris and Ireland, since those were the places we went on vacation.

The bumbling yet brilliant playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Courtney Barnett - How to Boil an Egg/2017 Split Singles Club
Buffalo Tom - The Seeker/Single
Radiohead - Man of War/OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997-2017
Turtlenecked - Boys Club/Lepers
Male Gaze - Wha Do Wha Do/Miss Taken
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Digital Black/Murder of the Universe
Lo Tom - Lower Down/Lo Tom
Waxahatchee - Never Been Wrong/Out in the Storm
She Sir - Dark Glass Tomb/Rival Island
Palehound - If You Met Her/A Place I'll Always Go
Palm - Walnut/Shadow Expert
Milked - Oscillate/Death on Mars
B Boys - Discipline/Dada
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Cumberland Gap/The Nashville Sound
Mark Lanegan Band - Emperor/Gargoyle
Ride - All I Want/Weather Diaries

Hour 2: Europe
Destroyer - European Oils/Destroyer's Rubies
The Clash - Safe European Home/Give 'Em Enough Rope
The Clash - London Calling/London Calling
Billy Bragg - A New England/Life's a Riot with Spy vs. Spy
The Breeders - London Song/Title TK
The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into the Sun/Single
Phil Wilson - Up to London/God Bless Jim Kennedy
XTC - Towers of London/Black Sea
Maritime - Peopling of London/Human Hearts
The Walkmen - French Vacation/Everybody Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone
Husker Du - Eiffel Tower High/Candy Apple Grey
Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi/Single
The Boomtown Rats - Up All Night/Mondo Bongo
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God/If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Thin Lizzy - Roisin Dubh/Black Rose: A Rock Legend

In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea

Vacations are fun, but they also present unique challenges. Exploring new places, keeping everybody happy, getting your bearings in unfamiliar situations. I'm a creature of habit, so getting out of my normal routine can be off-putting. We're in the middle of a 2 1/2-week trip to Europe, which is why there hasn't been any activity at the Blizznog lately.

We left June 25 for London, where we spent four days packed with sightseeing before taking a train to Paris. We went from a cramped budget hotel room in London to a nice AirBnB just 10 minutes from the Eiffel Tower. Today, we arrived in Lisburn, Northern Ireland to visit my brother and his wife. I'll provide deets and pics of the fun when we get back, which is July 11. The trip actually ends with a few days in Dublin. More later!