Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Completely Conspicuous 524: Your Favorite Thing

It's part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we count down our favorite albums of 2019. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- Breitling's #4
- Former Boston act now relocated to Nashville
- Perfecting her sound
- Kumar's #4
- Introspective album that topped my midyear list
- Sweeping, synth-driven songs
- Breitling's #3
- Worthy follow-up to classic mid-'90s indie pop release
- Expansive and experimental
- Kumar's #3
- Return to rocking from for NJ punk stalwarts, produced by Bob Mould
- Surprisingly succinct from a band known for 8-minute epics
- Breitling's #2 and Kumar's #6
- Majestic final release from artist who tragically took his own life right after it came out
- Backed by the band Woods
- Kumar's #2
- Third release from Toronto punk-pop act
- Writing about frustrations of getting older
- Breitling's #1
- Recently released instant classic from Boston indie rock act
- Frontman Ryan Walsh wrote album after dealing with struggles writing his book about Astral Weeks
- Kumar's #1
- Veteran Canadian power pop act with another great release
- All-star team of musicians
- Darker feel than some of their other albums

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.

Friday, December 27, 2019

Stuck In Thee Garage #301: December 27, 2019

A lot can happen in the span of a decade. Even as it flies by, there is so much music released in that time. Today on Stuck In Thee Garage, it was part 2 of my look at some of my favorite music of the 2010s. Note: I didn't play any music from 2019 because I'm going to dedicate the next two weeks to my favorites from this year.



The NoHo Hank-approved playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise/Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011)
Living Colour - Who Shot Ya/Shade (2017)
The Twilight Singers - On the Corner/Dynamite Steps (2011)
Palehound - Molly/Dry Food (2015)
Ex Hex - War Paint/Rips (2014)
Sleater-Kinney - Bury Our Friends/No Cities to Love (2015)
Car Seat Headrest - 1937 State Park/Teens of Denial (2017)
Spoon - Got Nuffin/Transference (2010)
Divine Fits - Baby Get Worse/A Thing Called Divine Fits (2012)
PUP - DVP/The Dream Is Over (2016)
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Senator/Mirror Traffic (2010)
Drive-By Truckers - This Fucking Job/The Big To-Do (2010)
Jeff Rosenstock - Festival Song/Worry. (2016)
Japandroids - Fire's Highway/Celebration Rock (2012)
Black Mountain - Florian Saucer Attack/IV (2016)

Hour 2
Gord Downie - Love Over Money/Introduce Yerself (2017)
Hallelujah the Hills - Do You Have Romantic Courage?/Have You Ever Done Something Evil? (2014)
Kurt Vile - KV Crimes/Wakin on a Pretty Daze (2013)
Mark Lanegan Band - Drunk on Destruction/Gargoyle (2017)
Destroyer - Tinseltown Swimming in Blood/ken (2017)
The New Pornographers - Dancehall Domine/Brill Bruisers (2014)
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring/Romance Is Boring (2010)
Johnny Foreigner - Undevastator/Mono No Aware (2016)
Krill - Foot/A Distant Fist Unclenching (2015)
Pile - #2 Single/You're Better Than This (2015)
Ovlov - Nu Punk/am (2013)
Stove - Jock Dreams/Is Stupider (2015)
Kuroma - Love Is On the Way/Kuromarama (2014)
Mike Krol - Neighborhood Watch/Turkey (2015)
Beach Slang - Atom Bomb/A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings (2016)
Faith No More - Sunny Side Up/Sol Invictus (2015)
IDLES - Danny Nedelko/Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018)
Death From Above 1979 - Right On, Frankenstein!/The Physical World (2014)


Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Completely Conspicuous 523: 10/10, Would Count Down Again

It's part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we count down our favorite albums of 2019. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- The top 10
- Breitling's #10
- A surprising solo debut from a veteran rock legend
- Kumar's #9
- Raw shoegaze effort from Brooklyn act changing its sound
- Breitling's #9
- Electronic album with an analog feel released late in the year
- "Crust ambient"
- Kumar's #8
- Power pop-punk album about the aftermath of broken relationship
- Great album cover
- Breitling's #8 and Kumar's #10
- Strong release from shoegaze pioneers
- Trying some different things
- Breitling's  #7
- Shoegaze duo from California that likes to take its time
- All killer, no filler
- Berniece's sleep aggression
- Kumar's #7
- Second release from indie legend's latest band
- Embracing '80s hard rock sound
- Breitling's #6
- Used to call this band the Steve Miller of indie rock
- Opinion has changed, especially with the latest release
- Sound is augmented by female singers
- Kumar and Breitling's #5
- Latest in an strong stretch of releases from this punk/alt-rock legend
- Sounds as good as he ever has
- Unusually upbeat
- Next: Our top 4 albums

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.

Friday, December 20, 2019

Stuck In Thee Garage #300: December 20, 2019

Three hundred of anything is an impressive amount. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I celebrated the show's 300th episode with two hours of holiday music.



This playlist will light up the neighborhood:

Artist - Song/Album
Letters to Cleo - Father Christmas/OK Christmas
Piebald - Rage With My Friends/Piebald Presents to You, a Musical Christmas Adventure
The Dollyrots - Fairytale of New York/Single
Beach Slang - Jolly Liver/Single
Pearl Jam - Don't Believe in Christmas/2002 Christmas Single
The Minus 5 - Your Christmas Whisky/Dear December
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Annunciation Day-Born On Christmas Day/Living With the Living
The White Stripes - Candy Cane Children/Merry Christmas From the White Stripes
T. Rex - Christmas Bop/T. Rexmas!
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody/Single
Twisted Sister - Deck the Halls/A Twisted Christmas
The Hives and Cyndi Lauper - A Christmas Duel/A Christmas Duel
Neko Case - Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis/New Coat of Paint
The Knife - Christmas Reindeer/Single
The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song/Maybe This Christmas Tree
Sloan - Kids Come Back Again at Christmas/Kids Come Back Again at Christmas
The dBs - Christmas Time/Christmas Time Again
R.E.M. - Christmas Time is Here/1993 Fan Club Single
Julian Casablancas - I Wish It Was Christmas Today/Phrazes for the Young

Hour 2:
The Hush Now - On Holiday/Single
Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop/Single
Yr Friends - Shit Christmas/A Hiss, At Christmas
Lubec - Holiday Traffic/Wilderness Days
Run the Jewels - A Christmas Fucking Miracle/Run the Jewels
Future of the Left - The Real Meaning of Christmas/How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident
Piebald - Rebellion of Winter/Piebald Presents to You, a Musical Christmas Adventure
Green Seas & Taiko Sound - Home Alone Theme/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 3
Holiday Music - Family Tree/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 4
School Shoes - In the Bleak Midwinter/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 4
Moist Boy - You Don't Gotta Be a Good Boy/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 4
Letters to Cleo - It Sure Don't Feel Like Xmas Time/OK Christmas
Owl John - All I Want for Me Is You/Owl John
James Brown - Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto/Soulful Christmas




Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Completely Conspicuous 522: Hey Nineteen

It's part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we discuss our favorite music of 2019. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- This program is not affiliated with Moviefone
- A decade of talking rock

- Breitling: Had time to listen to a lot more music this year
- The Billie Eilish vs. VH debate has been raging for a while
- Kids don't know or care about music from 10 years ago, let alone 35
- A lot of butthurt older music fans getting worked up for no reason
- Most kids have zero interest in classic rock
- Listen to what you want
- The "OK Boomer" phenomenon
- When music becomes something on in the background
- Breitling needs to see Idiocracy
- The albums that didn't make our top 10 lists
- Breitling: Floating Points, Rroxy More, Top Down Dialectic, Katie Dey, Max Richter
- Kumar: Mikal Cronin, Ty Segall, Mark Lanegan, Trinary System
- Mission of Burma's second act may be done
- Breitling: Juana Molina, Bedroom Eyes, Lubec, DIIV, Tullycraft, She Sir, Snowball II
- Kumar: Sleater-Kinney with a controversial new album; Janet Weiss pushed out of the band
- Breitling: Would have been better received under a different band name like Unicorn Butt
- Kumar: Pixies, Palehound, Kim Gordon, Pile, Black Mountain, Sebadoh, Fontaines DC, Telekinesis, Hold Steady, Desert Sessions, GBV, Wilco, Plague Vendor, Oh Sees, Nick Cave
- Breitling: Better Oblivion Community Center, Florist, Big Thief
- Next: Our top 10 albums

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.

Friday, December 13, 2019

Stuck In Thee Garage #299: December 13, 2019

Time is a flat circle. Everything we have done or will do, we will do over and over again forever. Which means at some point, I will play my favorite songs of the 2010s on Stuck In Thee Garage again. But until then, let this be your playlist and recording. Note: This is part 1 of my decade in review. Next Friday, I'll celebrate the holidays with a Christmas playlist and then will have part 2 of the decade's best on the 27th. And then I'll look back at the best of 2019.



Nietzsche would dig this playlist:


Artist - Song/Album
Superchunk - Break the Glass/What a Time to Be Alive (2018)
Albert Hammond Jr. - Far Away Truths/Francis Trouble (2018)
Parquet Courts - Human Performance/Human Performance (2016)
The War On Drugs - Red Eyes/Lost in the Dream (2014)
Iggy Pop - American Valhalla/Post Pop Depression (2016)
David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away/Blackstar (2016)
Soccer Mom - It's Probably Not Your Fault/Soccer Mom (2014)
Protomartyr - Scum, Rise!/Under Color of Official Right (2014)
Radiohead - Burn the Witch/A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
Courtney Barnett - Elevator Operator/Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?/AM (2013)
Run the Jewels - Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) (feat. Zach de la Rocha)/RTJ2 (2014)
Bob Mould - The Descent/Silver Age (2012)
METZ - Spit You Out/II (2015)
Mikal Cronin - Say/MCIII (2015)
Ty Segall - The Singer/Manipulator (2014)
Speedy Ortiz - Tiger Tank/Major Arcana (2013)
Savages - I Am Here/Silence Yourself (2013)
The Afghan Whigs - Parked Outside/Do to the Beast (2014)
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork/The Brutalist Bricks (2010)
Sloan - Unkind/The Double Cross (2011)
Queens of the Stone Age - The Vampyre of Time and Memory/...Like Clockwork (2013)
Wild Flag - Romance/Wild Flag (2011)
LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls/This Is Happening (2010)
Titus Andronicus - No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future/The Monitor (2010)
Grinderman - Heathen Child/Grinderman 2 (2010)
OFF! - Man From Nowhere/OFF! (2012)
Jeff Rosenstock - All This Useless Energy/POST- (2018)
Fucked Up - Ship of Fools/David Comes to Life (2011)


Friday, December 06, 2019

Stuck In Thee Garage #298: December 6, 2019

Echoing through the years like a Howard Dean scream, rock songs have a timeless quality. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 2004 in hour 2.

That's a bold strategy, Cotton.



Let's see if this playlist pays off:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Hallelujah the Hills - Running Hot With Fate/I'm You
Feet - English Weather/What's Inside Is More Than Just Ham
Death Valley Girls - Dream Cleaver/Single
Hot Snakes - Checkmate/Single
Royal Trux - Waterpark/Quantum Entanglement
Freeloader - Back of the Line/The Path of Least Resistance
!!! - Ur Paranoid/Wallop
Plague Vendor - Snakeskin Boots/By Night
B Boys - Pressure Inside/Dudu
Shana Falana - Darkest Light/Darkest Light
Oh, Rose - 25, Alive/While My Father Sleeps
Sheer Mag - Hardly to Blame/A Distant Call
Marika Hackman - Conventional Ride/Any Human Friend
Ty Segall - I Worship the Dog/First Taste
Oh Sees - Heartworm/Face Stabber
Russian Circles - Arluck/Blood Year

Hour 2: 2004
The Hold Steady - The Swish/Almost Killed Me
Modest Mouse - The Good Times Are Killing Me/Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Eagles of Death Metal - Already Died/Peace Love Death Metal
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Get Ready for Love/Abattoir Blues - Lyre of Orpheus
William Shatner - Common People/Has Been
!!! - When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Karazzee/Louden Up Now
Sonic Youth - Kim Gordon & the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream/Sonic Nurse
Hot Snakes - Audit in Progress/Audit in Progress
Mission of Burma - Playland/ONOffON
The Walkmen - What's In It For Me/Bows + Arrow
Guided By Voices - Window of My World/Half Smiles of the Decomposed
Wilco - Muzzles of Bees/A Ghost is Born
The Twilight Singers - Too Tough to Die/She Loves You
PJ Harvey - The Letter/Uh Huh Her
Mark Lanegan Band - Hit the City/Bubblegum


 

Tuesday, December 03, 2019

Completely Conspicuous 521: Content Overload

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the decade in TV and movies. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Going over some of our favorites of the decade
- Jay: Haven't seen a lot of critical faves
- Both enjoyed Blackkklansman
- Toy Story 3 is the best of that series
- Matt: Beasts of the Southern Wild was a stunner
- In the Loop is profanely excellent
- Jay never saw Inside Out; Matt says it's borderline educational
- The traumatic sadness of Disney movies
- Don't ban offensive old movies
- Stereotypes in older movies stick out
- The series 24 was so over the top about torture and terrorists
- Writing for women's roles in the '80s was pretty awful
- Post-9/11 jingoism
- Good Sorkin: The Social Network
- Bad Sorkin: The Newsroom
- When older celebs are trending on Twitter
- Matt: In praise of Monsters
- Timothy Olyphant is great
- Matt needs to watch Justified
- Black Mirror is predicting everything
- The Americans is an excellent show
- Matt hasn't seen Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul
- Orphan Black features an amazing performance by Tatiana Maslany
- Bill Hader elevates himself from comic genius to dramatic auteur on Barry
- Russian Doll came out of the blue
- The People Vs. OJ Simpson was excellent, with a bizarre performance by John Travolta
- The sneaky genius of Legends of Tomorrow
- Dark on Netflix is a German show that is brilliantly out there
- Downton Abbey: Cultural phenomenon that doesn't make sense
- The Leftovers got better when it went beyond the book
- The Marvel shows on Netflix were surprisingly good (except for Iron Fist)
- The fight scenes in Daredevil were intense and creative
- So much content out there that it's impossible to see it all

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. 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.

Day After Day #85: Gentlemen

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).   Gentlemen (1993) When the Afghan Whigs...