Sometimes coming up with a song title is fairly obvious. Other times, artists get a little less imaginative. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs with "song" in the title in hour 2. The songs run the gamut of rock goodness, but they're all wyckyd.
This playlist will have you high-fivin' your crew:
Hour 1 Artist - Song/Album
Greg Dulli - Pantomima/Random Desire
Holy Fuck - Free Gloss (feat. Nick Allbrook)/Deleter
Pearl Jam - Dance of the Clairvoyants/Megaton
Desert Sessions - Crucifire/Vols. 11 and 12
The Sweet Release of Death - Sway/The Blissful Joy of Living
The Skull Practitioners - The Beacon/Death Buy EP
Cursive - Black Hole Town/Get Fixed
Astralblak - Out in the Woods/Space & Time
Shopping - Initiative/All or Nothing
Caspian - Flowers of Light/On Circles
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Into the Godless Void/X: The Godless Void and Other Stories
The 1865 - John Brown's Gat/Don't Tread on We
Royal Trux - The Spectre/Quantum Entanglement
Hinds - Riding Solo/Single
K Michelle DuBois - Feast or Famine/Single
Marion Belle - Soundcheck/Single
Hour 2: Song Songs
R.E.M. - Pop Song '89 (Acoustic)/In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003
Sloan - Waiting for Slow Songs/Between the Bridges
The Tragically Hip - Apartment Song/Trouble at the Henhouse
The Hold Steady - Certain Songs/Almost Killed Me
Sonic Youth - Bee-Bee's Song/Suburbia soundtrack
Pile - Prom Song/dripping
Masters of Reality - The Candy Song/Masters of Reality
Violent Femmes - Country Death Song/Hallowed Ground
The Black Angels - Entrance Song/Phosphene Dream
Queens of the Stone Age - A Song for the Dead/Songs for the Deaf
Neutral Milk Hotel - Song Against Sex/On Avery Island
Jerry Cantrell - My Song/Boggy Depot
The Posies - Hate Song/Amazing Disgrace
Jane's Addiction - Mountain Song/Nothing's Shocking
Bombs can cause a lot of damage. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about bombs: Physical, emotional and otherwise.
Some days you can't get rid of a bomb playlist:
Hour 1 Artist - Song/Album
The Skull Practitioners - Grey No More/Death Buy EP
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Don't Look Down/X: The Godless Void and Other Stories
Beach Slang - Born to Raise Hell/The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City
Hallelujah the Hills - I Went Through Hell (But Now I'm Back [From Hell])/I'm You
Shell of a Shell - Forgetting Symptom/Away Team
Shana Falana - Right Now Is All We Know/Darkest Light
Cable Ties - Sandcastles/Far Enough
Ultraista - Tin King/Sister
Operators - I Feel Emotion/Radiant Dawn
!!! - Serbia Drums/Wallop
Brittany Howard - History Repeats/Jaime
Allah Las - Holding Pattern/LAHS
Avalanche Party - Howl/24 Carat Diamond Trephine
Richard Dawson - Jogging/2020
Hour 2: Bombs
The Clash - Spanish Bombs/London Calling
Rancid - Time Bomb/...And Out Come the Wolves
The Nation of Ulysses - Atom Bomb/Plays Pretty for Baby
The Hives - Tick Tock Boom/The Black and White Album
Beach Slang - Atom Bomb/A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
New Bomb Turks - Grandpa Atomic/Information Highway Revisited
The Hold Steady - Don't Let Me Explode/Separation Sunday
Ric Ocasek - Time Bomb/Beatitude
Phantom Tollbooth - Atom Bomb Professor/Beard of Lightning
The Police - Bombs Away/Zenyatta Mondatta
Spoon - You Got Yr Cherry Bomb/Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Sugar - Explode and Make Up/File Under: Easy Listening
Public Enemy - Louder Than a Bomb/It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Rage Against the Machine - Bombtrack/Rage Against the Machine
The Runaways - Cherry Bomb/Bad Reputation soundtrack
Terry Malts - Waiting for the Bomb/Lost at the Party
The White Stripes - Jimmy the Exploder/The White Stripes
Jeff Rosenstock - We Begged 2 Explode/WORRY.
Milestones have a way of shifting on us. What once seemed like a recent event can soon fade into the rear view mirror. So here we are looking back a quarter century at 1995, chock in the middle of the '90s, just before the internet changed everything. Newspapers and radio were still hugely successful and people still bought CDs. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from '95 in hour 2 (and paid tribute to the late Neil Peart in hour 1).
Bill McNeal would probably hate this playlist:
Hour 1 Artist - Song/Album
Beach Slang - Tommy In the 80s/The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City
Shell of a Shell - Knock/Away Team
Wolf Parade - Against the Day/Thin Mind
Hallelujah the Hills - People Keep Dying (And No One Can Stop It)/I'm You
Graham Coxon - She Knows/The End of the F***ing World 2 (Original Songs and Score)
The Wedding Present - Go Out and Get 'Em, Boy!/Tommy 30
Shana Falana - Everyone Is Gonna Be Okay/Darkest Light
Feet - Petty Thieving/What's Inside Is More Than Just Ham
Mark Lanegan - Letter Never Sent/Somebody's Knocking
Rush - Anthem/Finding Prime (Live in Cleveland 12/16/74)
Max Webster - Battle Scar/Universal Juveniles
Rush - Vital Signs/Moving Pictures
Rush - Subdivisions/Signals
Rush - BU2B2/Clockwork Angels
Hour 2: 1995
PJ Harvey - C'mon Billy/To Bring You My Love
Elastica - Line Up/Elastica
The Muffs - Ethyl My Love/Blonder and Blonder
Red Red Meat - Chain Chain Chain/Bunny Gets Paid
Pavement - Fight This Generation/Wowee Zowee
Jawbreaker - Save Your Generation/Dear You
Mike Watt - Against the '70s/Ball Hog or Tug Boat?
Rancid - Junkie Man/...And Out Come the Wolves
Rocket From the Crypt - Come See, Come Saw/Scream, Dracula, Scream!
Smashing Pumpkins - Zero/Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Radiohead - My Iron Lung/The Bends
Urge Overkill - View of the Rain/Exit the Dragon
Elliott Smith - Christian Brothers/Elliott Smith
Matthew Sweet - Super Baby/100% Fun
The Pursuit of Happiness - Completely Conspicuous/Where's the Bone
Dandelion - Weird-Out/Dyslexicon
Death is part of life. The older you get, the more you realize that. Celebrity deaths are not quite as impactful as those of family or friends, but pretty close sometimes. But some hit harder than others. In recent years for rock fans, that's happened again and again: David Bowie, Prince, Lemmy, Gord Downie, Tom Petty. It happened again this week with the passing of Neil Peart, drum god and lyricist for Rush, at the age of 67 after a three year battle with brain cancer.
My relationship with Rush dates back to 1980, when a friend of mine whose brother was off at college decided to sell all his stuff. So he traded me copies of Led Zeppelin II and Rush's Fly By Night for a bunch of hockey cards (they were "doubles," cards I already had more than one of--I had a lot of hockey cards at the time). I was 12 and had been listening to rock radio for a little while and was moving away from top 40 fare to the harder edged sounds of what is now known as classic rock, but back then, it was just rock. Living in Pickering, Ontario, Canada, there was plenty of CanCon (Canadian content) on the radio and Rush was getting plenty of airplay with "The Spirit of Radio." A few years earlier when they were starting out, they had played one of the two high schools in my town. Anyhoo, I was very pleased with my acquisitions and even though I dug Zep II a little more, I definitely became a Rush fan. (Postscript: A few months later, my friend's brother came home from college and made my friend get everything back. He ended up giving me $2 for each record.)
In February 1981, Rush released Moving Pictures, which was their breakthrough (and best, IMHO) album. I picked up the vinyl not long after its release and it quickly became my favorite. It wasn't just the musicianship, but Peart's lyrics that appealed to young nerds such as myself. I was also a comic book and sci-fi fan, but I didn't hear a lot of Rush's earlier, proggy stuff until a little later. But in addition to Zeppelin, the Who and Black Sabbath, I embraced Canadian acts like Rush, Max Webster and April Wine. I picked up Rush albums like A Farewell to Kings and Permanent Waves, but there was still much I hadn't heard.
We moved to the U.S. in late '81, so Rush remained my lifeline to my Canadian past. Living in Richland, Washington, I was pretty far from my former home. But if anything, my Rush fandom grew. When we first moved there, we were living in a tiny duplex and got yelled at by our neighbor because I was cranking the Rush live album Exit Stage Left a little too loudly (parents were at work, obviously). I bought magazines like Circus and Hit Parader and rabidly read any articles about Rush (we didn't have MTV in our town and there was no Internet yet, so Rush info was hard to come by; I remember reading a Rush concert review in a copy of the Los Angeles Times at the library). I became a member of the Columbia Record Club and used its "12 records for a penny" deal to get most of the Rush back catalog. That's when I got into the band's earlier efforts, especially albums like 2112 and Hemispheres, which featured sidelong suites. I spent a lot of time listening to the albums while reading the lyrics included with them.
Peart was far from the stereotypical knucklehead drummer. In addition to his obviously prodigious talent, which was evident from his first appearance with the band on their second album Fly By Night (replaced original drummer John Rutsey), he was a cerebral dude, and while there was plenty of Tolkien-esque and Ayn Rand-inspired imagery on the early records, his writing style evolved into much more economical songs that examined more everyday topics. Songs like "Subdivisions" on 1982's Signals spoke to the alienation of suburban outcasts, something that a lot of Rush fans could relate to. Certainly this suburban outcast did.
I saw Rush in concert three times, once on 1984's Grace Under Pressure tour and twice on the Power Windows tour a year later. As the '80s wore on, I started getting more into alternative rock and punk. I still bought Rush albums, but it was more out of loyalty than anything else. The band went on a hiatus in 1998 after Peart's daughter died in a car accident and his first wife from cancer. Peart returned to Rush in 2002 and the band released three more albums over the next decade. They did a 40th anniversary tour in 2015 before Peart retired, ostensibly to spend more time with his family (he remarried in 2001 and had a child). I got back into Rush in the mid-2000s, around the time when I realized that it was okay to revisit the music I loved as a teenager. I still regret not seeing Rush one last time before they stopped touring.
Rush was generally ignored or ridiculed by critics and mainstream press for nearly their entire existence. It wasn't until the 2000s that the band was embraced in popular culture, on shows like South Park, Freaks and Geeks and Archer, and in movies like I Love You Man. In 2013, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, something that fans of the band had long resigned themselves as an impossibility.
The outpouring of grief that followed Peart's death has been overwhelming and heartwarming. It definitely hit me hard, partly because of the shock element. Other than his inner circle, nobody knew that Peart was ill, let alone dealing with brain cancer. Upon hearing the news on Friday afternoon that he had died on Tuesday, it kind of took my breath away. I guess we've become accustomed to losing these epic figures, but it still hurts. So we listen to his music and read his words and remember why he was so great in the first place. Rest in peace, Neil Peart.
Such is the state of my existence where it's January 12 and I'm just now writing about moving into a new year and decade. Hey, things are busy.
It's crazy that the '20s is the seventh decade I've been part of. Pretty much all of my direct co-workers are between 22 and 35, so I'm sort of the de facto repository of experiences prior to 1990. I don't mind it. It's not like I'm some goddamn grandpa or anything, but man, it's weird to think that I graduated from college 30+ years ago. I'm 52, but aside from the gray/thinning hair and sore back, I still feel and act a lot younger than my dad did at the same age. And I'm about the same age as Paul Newman was in Slap Shot, so maybe that's a more realistic comparison (looks and acting ability aside, of course).
The 2010s were a busy decade for us. Ten years ago, my kids were 5 and 7 (about to turn 6 and 8) and now, we've got a high school sophomore and senior. Lily's about to begin driver's ed and Hannah's waiting to hear back from colleges. It's a very exciting time, but 10 years ago, they were still little kids. It's been fun to watch them grow into young women with very distinct personalities and it's going to be even more fun to see how they turn out as adults. College is on the very near horizon and as scary as that will be financially, it's going to be especially strange to not have them around the house. People talk about getting excited for their kids to leave the nest and all that, but I'm going to miss them. Hannah's going somewhere in about 8 and half months, possibly as far away as Canada, and it will be very weird after 18 years to not have her here.
I ran my last marathon in 2010. It was Providence in May and it was another one of those 80+ degree affairs that left me dehydrated by mile 20 and walking by mile 23. Not fun. I signed up for another that fall but got injured and dropped down to the half. After that, I decided that running half marathons is much easier on the body and soul, so I've done one or two every year since then. I've continued doing the Reach the Beach relay in NH; I've done it every year since 2009. There have been on-and-off struggles with Achilles tendonitis over the years. I went to an exercise physiologist a few years back who gave me a stretching regime that helps me do what I want to do. Right now, I'm running three times a week and looking to do another half this spring. I'm not as fast as I was five years ago, but part of that is because I packed on a few extra pounds last year that I need to get rid of.
I'm also playing hockey more than I used to. I was skating with a Wednesday night pickup group in 2010 and I'm still doing that, even though it keeps me out until 12:30-1 a.m. But I also skate in a Monday night league at Endicott College and on Saturdays with a group at Pingree. It's fun and it's a good way to mix in some cardio.
On the work front, I'm still at the same company that I started the last decade at, sort of. We were in Marblehead when 2010, moved to a new office in Danvers at the end of that year and then saw things go really bad in 2012. But we were bought by another company in 2013 and things have stabilized since then. We moved to a new location in Middleton in 2016, which is only a quiet 20-minute commute for me. My job changed a few times over the decade, but I like what I'm doing now, which is (among other things) serving as the editor of one of our media properties. It's fun, I get to travel a bit and it's different than what I've for most of the 24 years I've worked at this company.
One of the reasons I don't have a lot of time to blog is I've been doing a fair amount of stuff in my spare time, including writing a running column for the Salem News (which I started doing in 2008) and a column for New England Soccer Journal. My podcast has been quietly plugging along since 2006; I don't do it weekly anymore, but I did 22 episodes last year, which isn't bad. And then there's the radio show, Stuck In Thee Garage, which I've been doing weekly since BFF.fm went on the air in 2013. It's a blast and I plan to do it as long as I can.
I'm still going to concerts somewhat regularly, which for me means maybe once a month. I can't go to all the shows I'd like to, and honestly, I don't want to. But I still love seeing live music and that's not going to change, even though I'm usually one of the older dudes at some of these shows. The music industry has been struggling from a sales standpoint, since nobody buys albums anymore. It's all about streaming. I still like to own music, especially since I need to as I put together my radio show, but fortunately I'm on some good PR lists and get review copies of a lot of albums. There's still plenty of great music out there (see my last post on the best of 2019), but it's definitely harder to get noticed in this post-radio and video world, especially for rock acts.
Life's also gotten more challenging for my mom, who's still living on her own in NH but is having trouble dealing with various health challenges. We have a visiting caregiver see her three days a week to help with basic tasks and I go up every weekend, but we're starting to look at assisted-living facilities. It's tough getting old.
It's been a strange trip on a national level over the last 10 years. We were in Obama's first term a decade ago and things were looking up and now we're in the second term of Trump and things are weird, man. I can't even imagine who will be president in 2030.
So off we go. Let's make the best of it, such as it is. Just watch out for President Ogie Oglethorpe.
It was a weird, wild year. Game of Thrones ended with a dull thud, the presidential race was chock full of billionaires and others debating away and spending tons of ad money, and parts of the world were on fire. At least we had good music to get us through. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, it was part 2 of my look back at my favorite indie rock of 2019. Any questions?
This playlist deserves a throne:
Hour 1 Artist - Song/Album
DIIV - Skin Game/Deceiver
Froth - Laurel/Duress
Plague Vendor - New Comedown/By Night
The Menzingers - America (You're Freaking Me Out)/Hello Exile
Mini Mansions - Bad Things (That Make You Feel Good)/Guy Walks Into a Bar...
Dumb - Beef Hits/Club Nites
Purple Mountains - All My Happiness Is Gone/Purple Mountains
Hallelujah the Hills - Folk Music Is Insane/I'm You
The Minus 5 - My Collection/Stroke Manor
The New Pornographers - Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile/In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
Summer Cannibals - Can't Tell Me No/Can't Tell Me No
Big Thief - Shoulders/Two Hands
Palehound - Stick N Poke/Black Friday
Jay Som - Superbike/Anak Ko
The Raconteurs - Sunday Driver/Help Us Stranger
Thom Yorke - I Am a Very Rude Person/ANIMA
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Waiting For You/Ghosteen
Hour 2
Redd Kross - Beyond the Door/Beyond the Door
Beeef - Slide/Bull in the Shade
The Hold Steady - Denver Haircut/Thrashing Through the Passion
Sleater-Kinney - Bad Dance/The Center Won't Hold
Ceremony - Turn Away the Bad Thing/In the Spirit World Now
The Futureheads - Jekyll/Powers
Refused - REV001/War Music
Ty Segall - Whatever/First Taste
Mikal Cronin - Shelter/Seeker
Kim Gordon - Air Bnb/No Home Record
Mark Lanegan - Stitch It Up/Somebody's Knocking
Desert Sessions - Something You Can't See/Vols. 11 & 12
Pixies - Catfish Kate/Beneath the Eyrie
Guided By Voices - Ego Central High/Sweating the Plague
Bodega - Knife on the Platter/Shiny New Model
B Boys - I Want/Dudu
Editor's note: Check out my podcast discussion with Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the year on CompCon (here's parts 1, 2 and 3).
There are certain things you can count on of late. Disheartening political scene. Bleak outlook for the planet. And lots of excellent new music to enjoy. Only one of those things is enjoyable, and that is what I'll discuss here. So let's get into it.
15. Kim Gordon - No Home Record
It's kind of amazing that after 38 years in the biz, Kim Gordon released her first solo album in 2019. Not that she hasn't been busy since the breakup of Sonic Youth in 2011, releasing three records with the band Body/Head that weren't too dissimilar from SY. But with No Home Record, Gordon dives into a totally different in-your-face sound: Slamming bass, rattling drums, atonal noise, all topped off by her non-traditional vocals. She's never really been a singer so much as a yeller/whisperer, but it works. No Home Record is loud and unrelentingly modern, while still retaining Gordon's post-punk coolness. (Recommended: "Air Bnb," "Murdered Out," "Sketch Artist.")
14. Desert Sessions - Vols. 11 and 12
Josh Homme is not one to sit around idly. He's always working on something, and this year, it's the revival of his Desert Sessions project, which involves Homme improvising with a star-studded variety of performers. Ten volumes were released between 1997 and 2003, but since then, Homme turned his focus to Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal and Them Crooked Vultures. But 2019 marked the return of the sessions, with guest appearances from Billy Gibbons, Les Claypool, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, Matt Sweeney of Chavez, Mike Kerr of Royal Blood and Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, among others. Dubbed "Arrivederci Despair" and "Tightwads & Nitwits & Critics & Heels," the two volumes just eight songs, but they're eight really good songs. Album opener "Move Together" features Homme-esque vocals from Gibbons and starts slowly before lurching to loud life in QOTSA fashion. There are some varied sounds depending on the singer ("If You Run" is a folky jam featuring newcomer Libby Grace, Homme sings two songs and there's a little comic relief on "Chic Tweetz"). A fun listen while we wait for the next Queens album. (Recommended: "Move Together," "Noses in Roses Forever," "Something You Can't See").
13. Mark Lanegan Band - Somebody's Knocking
Don't look now, but Mark Lanegan has been quietly banging out excellent albums for what seems like forever. His latest release continues his shift toward electro-goth sounds combined with his classic devilish baritone vocals. Produced by Alain Johannes (Eleven, Them Crooked Vultures, a zillion Josh Homme-related projects), Somebody's Knocking features a steady dose of early Joy Division/New Order/Depeche Mode mixed with the razor's edge of bands like the Gun Club. It's a heady mix and one that fits perfectly with Lanegan's smoky, time-worn voice. Lanegan's sung on a ton of different styles of music, from grunge to blues to screaming hard rock to folk, with a ton of different artists (Queens of the Stone Age, Screaming Trees, Greg Dulli, Isobel Campbell, Soulsavers, Neko Case) but he seems really in his element here. (Recommended: "Stitch It Up," "Night Flight to Kabul," "Disbelief Suspension.")
12. Pile - Green and Gray
Pile has been one of the most consistently interesting and underrated bands of the last several years. The Nashville-via-Boston noise-rock act has been churning out excellent albums and playing a ton of shows (and when they're not playing, frontman Rick Maguire is doing solo gigs) year after year. With Green and Gray, the band retains its serrated edge with songs that aren't remotely catchy or anthemic. And it doesn't matter, because Pile kicks ass. Whether raging about a racist government flunky or musing about a panic attack or quieting things down with a meditation on loneliness, Pile manages to keep things interesting and unpredictable. (Recommended: "The Soft Hands of Stephen Miller," "Bruxist Grin," "Hair"). 11. Hallelujah the Hills - I'm You
It was an interesting decade for this Boston band. They started it off by working with Titus Andronicus on that band's breakthrough album The Monitor and then self-released three studio albums and a rarities comp to critical acclaim and commercial crickets. They collaborated with David Berman's Silver Jews. Bandleader Ryan Walsh wrote the terrific and expansive book "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968," which uses the Boston recording of the classic Van Morrison album as a jumping off point to examine...actually, there's so much in this book that you just have to read it. And yet, they're virtually unknown, and it's a damn shame. On I'm You, Walsh explores how rock music affects us with epic, occasionally shambolic and cathartic songs. His always clever and literate lyrics make every listen rewarding. Had this album not come out in mid-November, it undoubtedly would be higher on my list. As it is, I'm still digging into it and realizing that Hallelujah the Hills is one of the great unsung bands of our time. (Recommended: "I'm You," "Folk Music Is Insane," "Running Hot With Fate").
10. Ride - This Is Not a Safe Place
The shoegaze pioneers reunited in 2016 after taking two decades off and with their second post-reunion release (after 2016's Weather Diaries), they're sounding vital and refreshed. A little more relaxed than the previous album, This Is Not a Safe Place finds Ride reaching back to their classic '90s guitar landscapes, but also exploring some different sounds, mixing in some dream-pop, post-punk and some bright jangle-rock. It's an exhilarating mix from a band that still has something to give. Live, the band has been bringing their A-game as well. (Recommended: "Future Love," "Repetition," "Clouds of Saint Marie").
9. DIIV - Deceiver
Speaking of shoegaze, there's something about a genre that caught fire in the early '90s that remains timeless. DIIV's third album Deceiver builds on their particular brand of shoegaze with a more muscular guitar sound. Head DIIVster Zachary Cole Smith delves into his experiences with substance abuse on the album, which balances his dark lyrics with soaring waves of guitar reminiscent of Sonic Youth and early Smashing Pumpkins. The band's previous effort, 2016's Is The Is Are, covered similar lyrical ground, but Smith admitted he wasn't quite in sobriety when he worked on that record. Not the case this time around, as Smith spent time in rehab prior to recording it. The results are unsettling and captivating. (Recommended: "Skin Game," "Horsehead," "Like Before You Were Born").
8. Mike Krol - Power Chords
Mike Krol is known for frenzied blasts of garage rock and his fourth release Power Chords is no different. But even though he delivers punchy and quick rockers, the lyrics tell a different story. You get a hint of the album's intent by its terrific cover, which finds Krol playing guitar in his bedroom like the prototypical disaffected teen, but he's got a black eye and bloody nose. While he's no longer a teen, the 35-year-old Krol is still working through some shit on this record, whether it's career self-doubt or broken relationships. But Krol's therapy involves cranking up the distortion and rocking the eff out. It's more fun than a black eye has any right to be. (Recommended: "What's the Rhythm," "An Ambulance," "Nothing to Yell About"). 7. Ex Hex - It's Real
Back when Mary Timony first burst onto the indie scene with the bands Autoclave and Helium, big riffs and hot solos were nowhere to be found in her music, which was angular and subtle. But her role in the 2011 supergroup Wild Flag (featuring Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney) seemed to have reawakened the rock god inside. Timony's power trio Ex Hex has built two albums now around the power of hard rock, with meaty, good-time rockers. Timony, bassist Betsy Wright and drummer Laura Harris have coalesced into a thrilling live act. While the band's 2014 debut Rips had more of a '70s power pop feel, It's Real has moved on to '80s arena rock glory with longer songs that pay off with catchy choruses and killer riffs. It's fun but unlike a lot of '80s big-haired rock, it's not dumb. ("Tough Enough," "Diamond Drive," "Rainbow Shiner"). 6. Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
It was a great comeback story. After 10 years of radio silence, indie rock poet David Berman returned with a new project called Purple Mountains. His work as Silver Jews with erstwhile bandmates including Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastakovich and Will Oldham was well-received and classic, but he seemingly was done with the limelight. So his return was welcome, especially given the quality of Purple Mountains. Backed by the band Woods, the new release is startlingly direct and earnest, inspired by his mother's death (as evidenced by "I Loved Being My Mother's Son"). A tour was announced, but before it could begin, Berman committed suicide in August. The album is certainly influenced by his separation from his wife Cassie and depression is a common undertone, but it's also wickedly clever and literate, as the well-read Berman was known to be. While it's sad that we lost an indie genius too soon, Purple Mountains serves as a fitting epitaph. (Recommended: "Darkness and Cold," "Margaritas at the Mall," "Nights That Won't Happen"). 5. Bob Mould - Sunshine Rock
Bob Mould is proof positive that getting older doesn't mean you have to
slow down. At 59, Mould could easily rest on his laurels as a punk
godfather with nearly 40 years of amazing accomplishments (see Husker
Du, Sugar and his solo catalog). But much of this past decade has been
spent reconnecting with his rock past. Since joining forces in 2012 with
rhythm section Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster, Mould has made four
pummeling albums that rival his glory days. But on Sunshine Rock, he
leavens that heaviness with a more optimistic outlook than in the past.
It's an interesting turn for a still-vital artist.(Recommended: "What Do You Want Me to Do," "Thirty Dozen Roses," "Sin King").
4. Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
I fully admit to not being overly familiar with Van Etten's previous
work, but her fifth album grabbed my attention with its synth-driven and
sweeping looks at life as a teenager and the various pitfalls she (or
her protagonist) encountered. Van Etten revisits those teenage decisions
with the wisdom of hindsight, but the excitement of being in the
moment. (Recommended: "Seventeen," "Comeback Kid," "No One's Easy to Love").
3. Titus Andronicus - An Obelisk
Patrick Stickles and his rotating cast of rockers have made a decade's
worth of big statements on long, grandiose albums. The band's previous
release, 2018's A Productive Cough, was more of an acoustic affair that
garnered mixed reviews. This time around, the band hunkered down with
Bob Mould at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio and cranked out a
tight, 38-minute collection of punk ragers that harks back to the late
'70s/early '80s sound of bands like the Clash. It's refreshing, loud and
altogether exhilarating. (Recommended: "Troubleman Unlimited," "(I Blame) Society," "Tumult Around the World"). 2. PUP - Morbid Stuff
On their third album, the Toronto pop-punk act continues to excel with
an angry, angsty collection of bangers that shout at the many devils of
everyday life: Depression, anxiety, failure, broken relationships. But
they counteract the bummed-out lyrics with uptempo songs. It's a
37-minute whirlwind of angry awesomeness. (Recommended: "Morbid Stuff," "See You at Your Funeral," "Scorpion Hill"). 1. The New Pornographers - In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
I've also spent recent weeks going through the best albums of the 2010s,
and the New Pornos consistently pop up with excellent releases every
other year or so. This year was no different, with A.C. Newman and Neko
Case leading the charge with a new set of perfectly crafted pop gems. It's easy to take such fine work for granted after a while, but make no mistake, this is a band operating on all cylinders. (Recommended: "Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile," "Colossus of Rhodes," "Opening Ceremony").
Honorable mention: Black Mountain - Destroyer; Sebadoh - Act Surprised; Fontaines DC - Dogrel; Telekinesis - Effluxion; Mikal Cronin - Seeker; Mini Mansions - Guy Walks Into a Bar...; Plague Vendor - By Night; Goon - Heaven is Humming; Oh Sees - Face Stabber; Redd Kross - Beyond the Door; Sleater-Kinney - The Center Won't Hold; The Hold Steady - Thrashing Through the Passion; Trinary System - Lights in the Center of Your Head; Ty Segall - First Taste; Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen; Palehound - Black Friday; Guided By Voices - Sweating the Plague; Wilco - Ode to Joy; Jeff Tweedy - WARM; Raconteurs - Help Us Stranger.
I'm always impressed at how much good music is produced every year. Even if some of it never gets heard beyond the confines of radio shows like these, it's still fun to go back and see what hit home over the past year. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I presented part 1 of my favorite indie rock of 2019.
This playlist is like a Russian doll:
Hour 1 Artist - Song/Album
Bob Mould - What Do You Want Me to Do/Sunshine Rock
Beach Slang - I Hate Alternative Rock/MPLS
PUP - Free at Last/Morbid Thoughts
Black Mountain - Future Shade/Destroyer
Telekinesis - Set a Course/Effluxion
Better Oblivion Community Center - Dylan Thomas/Better Oblivion Community Center
Herzog - Music Was the Language From When I Mattered/Me Vs. You
Fontaines D.C. - Big/Dogrel
Swervedriver - Spiked Flower/Future Ruins
Ride - Future Love/This Is Not a Safe Place
Piroshka - Everlastingly Yours/Brickbat
Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen/Remind Me Tomorrow
Jenny Lewis - Red Bull & Hennessy/On the Line
Weyes Blood - Everyday/Titanic Rising
Flat Worms - Into the Iris/Into the Iris
Hash Redactor - Step 2: Success/Drecksound
Feels - Find a Way/Post Earth
Kiwi Jr. - Leslie/American Football
Hour 2
Ex Hex - Diamond Drive/It's Real
Nanami Ozone - Affection/NO
Elizabeth Colour Wheel - 34th/Nocebo
Versing - Tethered/10000
Goon - Datura/Heaven Is Humming
White Denim - Hallelujah Strike Gold/Side Effects
Pile - The Soft Hands of Stephen Miller/Green and Gray
Titus Andronicus - (I Blame) Society/An Obelisk
Sebadoh - Stunned/Act Surprised
Royal Trux - Every Day Swan/White Stuff
L7 - Fighting the Crave/Scatter the Rats
The 1865 - Buckshot/Don't Tread On We
Jeff Tweedy - Family Ghost/WARMER
Courtney Barnett - Everybody Here Hates You/Single
Tacocat - Little Friend/This Mess Is a Place
CJ Ramone - Blue Skies/The Holy Spell...
