The way time seems to pass so quickly these days, 1991 might as well be 100 years ago. While there are certainly parallels (the U.S. gets into a pointless Middle East war), there are many differences in technology, ideology and probably a few other -ologies. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I play new music from Death Cab for Cutie, Sparta and The Creem in hour 1 and songs from 1991 in hour 2. Listen to it every night around dusk for about a month!
Get out of my store!
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Death Cab for Cutie - Punching the Flowers/I Built You a Tower
Sparta - Crater/Cut a Silhouette
The Creem - Goldmine/Taste of Cherry
White Denim - Ruby/13
The Bug Club - Full Range of Motion/Every Single Muscle
Guided By Voices - Advance Without Dropping/Crawlspace of the Pantheon
Deer Tick - Everything Born/Coin-O-Matic
Kurt Vile - 99 BPM/Philadelphia's Been Good to Me
The Purrs - To Bed With a Smile/All of Us Right Now!
The Sheila Divine - Celebrate the End/The Middle Ages
Social Distortion - Walk Away/Born to Kill
Conscious Pilot - Wilful Delay/Human Poultry
Telehealth - Living, Laughing, Loving, Trying/Green World Image
Cola - Sartre-torial/Cost of Living Adjustment
The Lemon Twigs - Bring You Down/Look For Your Mind!
The Bevis Frond - Hiss/Horrorful Heights
Gottlieb - White Vans/The Far Fallen Fruit
Hour 2: 1991
Fishbone - Everyday Sunshine/The Reality of My Surroundings
A Tribe Called Quest - Excursions/The Low End Theory
De La Soul - A Roller Skating Jam Called 'Saturdays'/De La Soul is Dead
Matthew Sweet - Looking at the Sun/Girlfriend
Material Issues - Chance of a Lifetime/International Pop Overthrow
Dinosaur Jr. - How'd You Pin That One on Me/Green Mind
The Tragically Hip - Cordelia/Road Apples
U2 - The Fly/Achtung Baby
Temple of the Dog - Wooden Jesus/Temple of the Dog
Soundgarden - Searching With My Good Eye Closed/Badmotorfinger
Smashing Pumpkins - Tristessa/Gish
Mudhoney - Let It Slide/Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about the best music of 2026 so far. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
AI music is apparently a thing on streaming services
Saxophone Colossus, mfer (RIP)
Blue dot syndrome: Tours getting canceled because of poor ticket sales
Who woulda thunk Kiefer Sutherland couldn't sell out concerts?
Many artists are trying to fill venues that are too big
We're going to a lot of concerts
Why is beer so expensive at music venues?
What is a walking class?
The Osbourne family has licensed an Ozzy hologram for use in ads
ABBA does a hologram show of them in their prime
Maybe older bands should be replaced by holograms
Car Seat Headrest remade their 2016 album, removed swear words and drug references
Kumar's HMs: King Tuff, Bevis Frond, New Pornographers, Gord Downie and the Sadies, Damaged Bug, Sub*T, Ecca Vandal, Broken Social Scene
Breitling's #10: Philly's Nothing with a different sound
Influenced by the singer's neurological disorder
Kumar's #10: Mclusky returns with a killer mini-album
Recent spate of touring has made the band even better
Breitling's #9: Lofi Legs may or may not have released an album this year
The time is right for a slacker revolution
Kumar's #9: Joyce Manor sings about getting older
LA trio makes with the emo pop-punk
Breitling's #8: Reunited original lineup of the Grownup Noise
Band deserves more props
Kumar's #8: Pure pop magic from the Lemon Twigs
Reminiscent of Sharp Pins and Redd Kross
Breitling's #7: Pittsburgh's Feeble Little Horse persevere without Ryan
All killer, no filler
Kumar's #7: Canadian artist Daniel Romano continues to bring the heat
Split up songwriting duties for this album
To be continued
Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple 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.
Videodrone is a weekly(ish) feature looking at music videos from the last half century.
Tom Courtenay (1995)
When you think of a band that is emblematic of the term "indie rock," you can't go wrong with Yo La Tengo. Formed in Hoboken, NJ, in 1984, the group (currently comprised of singer-guitarist Ira Kaplan, drummer-singer Georgia Hubley and bassist James McNew) remains an under-the-commercial-radar stalwart that is consistently releasing excellent albums.
In 1995, Yo La Tengo released its seventh album, Electr-O-Pura, on Matador to positive critical reviews. The band's sound was varied, ranging from quiet pop numbers to raging noise-rock epics, with often obscure lyrical references. In the middle ground of that range was the first single from Electr-O-Pura, "Tom Courtenay." The song doesn't mention the British actor by name (who was the star of films like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Billy Liar and Doctor Zhivago), although it does mention Julie Christie, who co-starred in two movies with Courtenay.
Filled with guitar squalls and catchy backing vocals, the song seems to be sung from the POV of a junkie obsessed with Courtenay and pop culture.
For the video of the song, director Phil Morrison (who directed videos for Superchunk and Juliana Hatfield before directing the movies Junebug, Perfect Partner and All is Bright) came up with the idea of focusing on an altogether different idea: YLT are offered the unenviable chance to open for the reunited Beatles, and Kaplan dreams of what it would be like. Morrison reached out to Courtenay, who was in NYC at the time performing in a play, to play a role in the video, but he turned it down (see the behind-the-scenes video from 2020 in which Morrison and the band talk about the making of the video).
Kaplan's reverie shifts to black-and-white as the band decides what to wear at the show, which was filmed at the Mercury Lounge in NYC. McNew decides to wear a cape and insists on bringing his cat Lovely Rita. The band shows up at the venue hoping to meet the Beatles but are told they're too busy, but brings in Marshall Crenshaw, who appeared in Beatlemania, instead. Crenshaw proceeds to dig into the band's food spread as they go out to the slaughter. A young Tom Scharpling (who went on to host The Best Show on WFMU in 2000 and is still doing it all these years later) plays DJ Big Andy Rigg from WHYP, 98.8, The Hype, and introduces "Yo La Tango" to the crowd as "a band that you're probably gonna like." Other members of the NYC indie rock scene make cameos in the video.
YLT launches into its originals, much to the dismay of the crowd as the guy at the merch table keeps knocking down the prices to their t-shirts. It's not working, until Ira has an idea and the group launches into "Twist and Shout" and the crowd gets into it. Cut back to the promoter asking Kaplan if he's accepting the offer, and Kaplan asks him to hold on while he continues to dream.
I first heard "Tom Courtenay" a few years later on the What's Up, Matador? compilation, which also came as a VHS tape that was a faux children's show hosted by NYC TV personality Bill Boggs in front of a live studio audience of children at a New Jersey elementary school (see below). It features appearances from Matador artists include Kaplan, Liz Phair and others as well as several videos from Matador bands (but not "Tom Courtenay").
"Tom Courtenay" is the lead track on the CD compilation and it still holds up. The Beatles never reunited and YLT is still doing their thing, which I suppose is the way it should be.
Summer doesn't officially start for a few more weeks, but for all intents and purposes, it's here, baby. That doesn't always mean perfect weather (especially here in New England), but the heat is rising at least a few days a week. To celebrate, on Stuck In Thee Garage this week I played songs about summer in hour 2 (following new hotness from Eddy Current Suppression Ring, the Bug Club, Guided By Voices and the Cramps (!) in hour 1)! Crank it up while you're heading to the local theme park.
Step right up for the playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Self Sabotage/In Light of Recent Events
The Bug Club - A Good Day for Dying/Every Single Muscle
Guided By Voices - One Last Blow/Crawlspace of the Pantheon
The Cramps - TV Set/Gravest Gravy
Kurt Vile - Chance to Bleed/Philadelphia's Been Good to Me
Deer Tick - Mary Singletary/Coin-O-Matic
Ecca Vandal - Eyes Shut/Looking for Someone to Unfollow
Gurriers - Nobody's Coming to Save You/Nobody's Coming to Save You
Waves Crashing - Feel the Glow/In the Blur
The Sheila Divine - I Climbed Inside a Whale/The Middle Ages
Pond - Through the Heather/Terrestrials
Cola - Third Double/Cost of Living Adjustment
Ed O'Brien - Sweet Spot/Blue Morpho
Conscious Pilot - Horatio Burns/Human Poultry
Telehealth - Donor Country (A Good Cause)/Green World Image
Drakulas - Morning/Night /Midnight City
Dread Spectre Council - Where Would the Light Go/Thetans
Hour 2: Summah
Mary Timony - Summer/Untame the Tiger
Husker Du - Celebrated Summer (11-4 Boulder)/1985: The Miracle Year
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite guitar solos. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
Continuing our top 10
Phil's #9: Trey Anastasio of Phish stretches out
No studio version of the song
Jay's #9: The concise awesomeness of Alex Lifeson
A virtuoso in a band of virtuosos
Phil's #8: Back to the jam with RIck Mitarotonda of Goose
Another band that saves their best for the live setting
Jay's #8: Another Matthew Sweet song, this time featuring Richard Lloyd on lead guitar
Features a fake ending with even more soloing
Phil's #7: Square dancing in gym class led Phil to this Beatles song
George Harrison with a beautiful, heartfeld solo
Great video, too
Jay's #7: A ripping solo from J. Mascis from '93
Video wasn't directed by Matt Dillon; he did the "Get Me" video
Mascis has recorded a ton of great solos over the years
Phil's #6: Eddie VH's magnum opus
The instrumental that changed the face of hard rock
Wasn't meant to be recorded at first
Jay's #6: Less overplayed solo from Jimmy Page
A lesser-known album from Zeppelin
Phil's #5: Mick Taylor shines for the Stones
The band started jamming at the end of the song and they kept recording
Jay's #5: Robert Fripp with a ripper of a solo for Brian Eno
Eno's first solo album after Roxy Music
Phil's #4: The Allman Brothers' tribute to Django Reinhardt
Three different solos
Jay's #4: More Richard Lloyd along with Tom Verlaine on a 10-minute art-rock classic
Kind of jam band adjacent
Phil's #3: Neil Young with an epic love song
Recording starts in the middle of a jam
Jay's #3: Monster instrumental featuring Eddie Hazel's psychedelic playing
Mike Watt does a cover with J. Mascis handling the guitar
The interesting career of Prakash John
Phil's #2 and Jay's #1: Hendrix blows minds with acid blues rock
SRV does an incredible cover
Jay's #2: Nasty riff and solo from Eddie VH
One of Van Halen's darker songs
Phil's #1: A Grateful Dead classic that highlights Jerry Garcia
Cover of a Bonnie Dobson folk song
Builds to a roaring crescendo
Completely Conspicuous is available wherever 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.
Cities tend to take on personalities of their own, and even within a city, there can be many different personalities. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played hot new rock from Ecca Vandal, Caroline Rose, Ed O'Brien and the Sheila Divine in hour 1 and songs about cities in hour 2. The king stay the king.
This playlist ain't playing checkers:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Ecca Vandal - Cruising to Self Soothe/Looking for Someone to Unfollow
Caroline Rose - Yip Yip Yow/Single
The Purrs - Before the Sun Goes Down/All of Us Right Now!
Ed O'Brien - Teachers/Blue Morpho
The Sheila Divine - Middle Ages/The Middle Ages
Waves Crashing - Coming Up for Air/In the Blur
Conscious Pilot - My God is So Angry/Human Poultry
Social Distortion - Never Going Back Again/Born to Kill
Drakulas - F.A.F.O./Midnight City
Telehealth - Things I've Killed/Green World Image
Cola - Much of a Muchness/Cost of Living Adjustment
Broken Social Scene - Paying for Your Love/Remember the Humans
The Laughing Chimes - Behind Your Blue Fields/Behind Your Blue Fields
Sub*T - Sister Species 1/How My Own Voice Sounds
Metric - Antigravity/Romanticize the Dive
The Lemon Twigs - Your True Enemy/Look for Your Mind!
Hour 2: Cities
The Menzingers - Alone in Dublin/Some of It Was True
Mekons - Glasgow/Horror
Masters of Reality - High Noon Amsterdam/Deep in the Hole
King Hannah - New York, Let's Do Nothing/Big Swimmer
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite guitar solos. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
Occasional chiming in from CC intern Lily
Rolling Stone recently released a top 100 solos list
Phil likes the long jammy solos
Solos can go along with a riff or go off on crazy tangents
Steely Dan used many guitarists
Jay used to be into '80s speed guitar
Vinnie Vincent went way over the top
Charlie Sexton was a guitar prodigy who went on to play in Dylan's band
The greatness of early Dire Straits
Tough to narrow down our lists
Appreciating Billy Idol
Eagles bad, Joe Walsh good
Terry Kath could rip
So many great Jimmy Page solos
The vast and weird catalog of Frank Zappa
Billy Corgan has many excellent solos
Kim Thayil was an unconventional soloist
Bowie worked with many great guitarists: Mick Ronson, SRV, Belew, Earl Slick, Reeves Gabrels
Townshend's solo on "I Can See for Miles" is simple but intense
Fun weirdness from Focus on "Hocus Pocus"
Phil's #10 is a tie
Roger Hodgson of Supertramp was better known for playing keyboards
Many hidden gems in the Who catalog
Jay's #10: Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age
Phil's not a fan of mosh pits
To be continued
Completely Conspicuous is available through wherever 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.
Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century.
Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe (1994)
In 1994, alternative rock ruled the roost. Even though it was dampened somewhat in April '94 by Kurt Cobain's suicide, the grungesplosion was in full effect. The major labels were scouring rock scenes in various cities looking for the next big thing. There was a lot of great music out from the likes of Beastie Boys, Sloan, Helmet, Frank Black, Pavement, Weezer, Beck, Jeff Buckley, Mazzy Star, Liz Phair. And there was a weirdo anthem out of Sweden that captured the attention of the world thanks to its crazy video.
In Stockholm, record producer Gordon Cyrus and radio host Henrik Schyffert were working on a TV ad when they decided to write some music together as a joke. They recruited Schyffert's girlfriend Cia Berg, who sang with the '80s new wave act Ubangi, to sing. The song they came up with, "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe," was a combination of Chili Peppers-esque funk metal, quirky Bjork-styled vocals and trip-hop beats. Berg sings about a well-off woman who sleeps with homeless people for kicks, while Schyffert and Cyrus chime in with shouted gang backing vocals. It's all quite insanely catchy.
The lyrics were actually a cultural mix-up by Schyffert. "It was a misunderstanding from me," he told Melody Maker when asked what a "slobo babe" was. "I heard 'Slobo' was a nickname for Chelsea girls. Hobo Humpin' Sloane Babe would have been right."
Calling themselves Whale, the trio decided to make a video for the song on the cheap and somehow were able to get director Mark Pellington, who was already well known for directing Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," R.E.M.'s "Drive" and U2's "One." He was agreeable and told Schyffert he was directing a commercial on a Thursday and Friday, but they could use the gear over the weekend to film the video before he had to return it.
It's a gloriously bizarre affair, with Berg singing the song while inspecting a group of shirtless men and boys. She's got braces and is licking a lollipop. Meanwhile, Cyrus and Schyffert are jumping around with guitars chanting the chorus: "You hobo humpin' slobo babe/Get it off, get off, get off of me!" Cyrus is just wearing shorts while Schyffert is wearing a flowery dress and the whole thing is supremely silly and fun.
The video became an instant hit on MTV Europe, so much so that it won Best Video at the first MTV Europe Music Awards in November 1994, beating out instant classics like the Beasties' "Sabotage." Over on this side of the pond, the song wasn't as big of a hit but it was played on MTV's 120 Minutes regularly and on stations like KROQ in Los Angeles. But the real mark of success for the video was getting the Beavis and Butt-head stamp of approval (see below). That's where I first saw the video and it made an immediate impression on me. That impression, of course, was "WTF?"
"Hobo" reached #24 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart and #102 on the Singles chart in the U.S., faring better on the European charts. It was re-released in 1995 when Whale's debut album We Care came out and hit #15 on the U.K. Singles chart. Trip-hop icon Tricky co-produced a few of the songs, but the album didn't fare well. A follow-up, All Disco Dance Must End in Broken Bones, came and went in 1998 and the band split up the next year.
But 32 years later, "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe" remains a memorable one-hit wonder.
We like it loud on Stuck In Thee Garage, but sometimes it's good to mix it up. This week, I played songs about quiet in hour 2 of the show (after playing new music from Social Distortion, the Mountain Goats and Telehealth in hour 1). That doesn't mean the songs themselves were quiet; some were quite the opposite. At any rate, I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
This playlist is quiet. Maybe a little too quiet:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Social Distortion - Born to Kill/Born to Kill
Drakulas - Garbage Strike/Midnight City
Weird Nightmare - Never in Style/Hoopla
The Mountain Goats - Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds/Days
Cola - Forced Position/Cost of Living Adjustment
Telehealth - Cost of Inaction/Green World Image
Broken Social Scene - Only the Good I Keep/Remember the Humans
The Laughing Chimes - Trapeze Baby/Behind Your Blue Fields
The Lemon Twigs - Fire and Gold/Look for Your Mind!
Conscious Pilot - Internet Support/Human Poultry
Gottlieb - Optimized Child/The Far Fallen Fruit
Dread Spectre Council - Raven/Thetans
Pope - Song Two/BFM
Kim Gordon - Dirty Tech/PLAY ME
Sub*T - Standing Room/How My Own Voice Sounds
Body Shop - Exit Drill/Sex Body
Hour 2: Quiet
Phantom Handshakes - Quiet Quit/Sirens at Golden Hour
Shame - Quiet Life/Cutthroat
Cloud Nothings - Silence/Final Summer
Dyr Faser - Reductive Silence/Impressions
Smashing Pumpkins - Quiet/Siamese Dream
Fews - Quiet/Into Red
Mark Lanegan - Radio Silence/Somebody's Knocking
Pedro the Lion - Quietest Friend/Phoenix
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Our Quiet Whisper/All in Good Time
Bob Mould - The Silence Between Us/District Line
The Beths - Silence is Golden/Expert in a Dying Field
When you start thinking about the passage of time too closely, it can get a little overwhelming. For example, it has been 45 years since 1981, which is kinda nuts, but when you realize that 45 years before THAT was 1936, that's really unnerving. All of which is to say I played songs from 1981 in hour 2 of Stuck In Thee Garage this week (after playing new music from Drakulas, Conscious Pilot, Cola and the Lemon Twigs in hour 1). It's most definitely o-tay!
This playlist is wookin' pa nub:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Drakulas - White Off Your Nose/Midnight City
Conscious Pilot - Face Down/Human Poultry
Gottlieb - What Are You Worth/The Far Fallen Fruit
Cola - Hedgesitting/Cost of Living Adjustment
Broken Social Scene - Relief/Remember the Humans
Dread Spectre Council - Hooves & Cloves/Thetans
Ian Sweet - Criminal Kissing/Shiverstruck
The Laughing Chimes - Zephyr/Behind Your Blue Fields
The Lemon Twigs - Nothin' But You/Look For Your Mind!
Weird Nightmare - Where I Belong/Hoopla
Pope - Newboi/BFM
Sub*T - Mirror Image/How My Own Voice Sounds
King Tuff - Invisible Ink/MOO
Body Shop - Fallacies/Sex Body
The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Emo Band/Acknowledge Kindness
Metric - Leave You On a High/Romanticize the Dive
Heavenly - Skep Wax/Highway to Heavenly
Hour 2: 1981
R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Version)/Single
The Specials - Ghost Town/Single
Pete Shelley - Homosapien/Homosapien
The Stranglers - Golden Brown/La Folie
Romeo Void - Never Say Never/Benefactor
Black Flag - Rise Above/Damaged
X - We're Desperate/Wild Gift
The Gun Club - For the Love of Ivy/Fire of Love
The Cars - I'm Not the One/Shake It Up
Gang of Four - Cheeseburger/Solid Gold
Prince - Controversy/Controversy
Van Halen - Push Comes to Shove/Fair Warning
Billy Squier - Lonely is the Night/Don't Say No
The Kinks - Destroyer/Give the People What They Want
Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century.
I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) (1993)
By the time the 1993 rolled around, there was a lot going on. Grunge was omnipresent (you could get the whole look at K-mart for short money), alt-rock was on the charts, hip hop and new jack swing was all over MTV. It hardly seemed like the right time for a comeback from a sweaty, theatrical 300-pound singer who peaked 16 years earlier, but that's exactly what happened.
Meat Loaf (aka Marvin Lee Aday) started performing in the late '60s with his first band Meat Loaf Soul, opening for Them and Question Mark and the Mysterians and later (under the band name Floating Circus) opening for the Who, the Stooges, MC5 and the Grateful Dead. He joined the Los Angeles production of Hair, did some recording for Motown and also acted in plays, including the original cast of The Rocky Horror Show.
In 1972, he started working with songwriter Jim Steinman on an album called Bat Out of Hell, but they didn't get serious about it until a few years later when Meat Loaf decided to focus on music exclusively. They struggled to find a record label, but talked Todd Rundgren into producing and playing guitar on the album, which was adapted from a rock musical based on Peter Pan that Steinman had written. They were finally signed by Cleveland International Records, a subsidiary of Epic, and was released in October 1977.
The initial response to Bat Out of Hell was indifference. It was full of long, bombastic, wordy songs that didn't connect with label execs, but got a good response from radio programmers. A Toronto rock station, CHUM-FM, started playing songs from the album in January 1978 and listeners were enthusiastic. Similarly, videos made for some of the songs generated interest in the U.K. and Australia. Eventually, the U.S. caught on and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" became a huge hit. I remember hearing it on the radio all the time in sixth grade, complete with the Phil Rizzuto baseball play-by-play and the sexual innuendo.
Eventually, Bat Out of Hell sold over 43 million copies worldwide, certified 14x platinum in the U.S. alone. It's one of the biggest selling albums of all time. But Meat Loaf struggled to follow it up. He lost his voice after constant touring and drug use, so he turned to acting and cleaned up before recording 1981's Dead Ringer. The album was also written by Steinman, but it struggled in the U.S. (although it did hit #1 in the U.K.). Loaf had a falling out with Steinman and put together the next album without him, but it did even worse, failing to chart at all in the U.S. Adding to this, Meat Loaf had money struggles and faced 45 lawsuits totaling $80 million, which led to him filing for personal bankruptcy.
After a few more album duds, Meat Loaf and Steinman made up and started working on Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, which was released in September 1993. They went back to worked on the first album, releasing operatic and over-the-top rock as exemplified by the first single, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." Like "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," the new single featured Meat Loaf duetting with a female singer. And like that song, the singer from the recording did not appear in the video; on "Paradise," original singer Ellen Foley was replaced in the video by Karla DeVito.
With "I'd Do Anything," the female vocals were done on the album by Lorraine Crosby, who was credited as "Mrs. Loud" in the liner notes. But in the video, the female protagonist was played by model Dana Patrick, who lip-synched Crosby's vocals.
On the album, "I'd Do Anything" is 12 minutes long, but it's cut down for the video to a concise 7:48. Directed by Michael Bay, who replaced original director David Fincher after the latter's proposed $1.7 million budget was rejected, the video was filmed for $750,000. Apparently, Bay and Fincher had feuded in their music video directing days before becoming big-name movie directors; Fincher later worked with Meat Loaf in 1999's Fight Club.
The video was based on Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera, with Meat Loaf made up to look like a hulking deformed beast who is on the run from police and hiding out in a castle. He comes across a beautiful woman in the woods and drama ensues; meanwhile, the police are on his trail. And then (spoiler alert), they embrace and Meat Loaf transforms back into a human and they ride off into the distance on his motorcycle.
The song never really specifies the one thing he wouldn't do for love, leaving that up to the listener's imagination.
It's not an exaggeration to say the video was in constant rotation on MTV at the time. Power ballads were big business, as Aerosmith and countless hard rock bands had discovered over the previous decade or so. The song was getting played to death on top 40 radio as well, becoming Meat Loaf's first and only #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. It also topped the U.K. Singles Chart and was the best-selling single of 1993 in the U.K.; indeed, it went #1 in 28 countries. Meat Loaf won a Grammy award for the song as well.
Bat Out of Hell II sold over 14 million copies worldwide and this time, Meat Loaf was able to sustain his success a little better. His 1995 release Welcome to the Neighborhood went platinum in the U.S. and had some top 40 singles. He continued to release new albums and tour over the next few decades, including Bat Out of Hell III in 2006. His last album was released in 2016. He died in 2022 at age 74.
If nothing else, Meat Loaf's career proved that doing your own thing comes back into style every 15 years or so.
We typically steer clear of religious talk in these here parts, but this week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about religion in hour 2 (after playing new hotness from the likes of Weird Nightmare, Dread Spectre Council and Sub*T in hour 1). It's good stuff! Take it from Uncle Baby Billy.
He's not asking for the world here:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Weird Nightmare - Headful of Rain/Hoopla
Dread Spectre Council - Summon the Sparks/Thetans
Pope - No One (Kiss for a Treat)/BFM
Sub*T - Overcomplicate/How My Own Voice Sounds
Body Shop - Limits/Sex Body
The Orielles - Wasp/Only You Left
Nine Inch Nails & Boys Noize - Parasite (Nine Inch Noize version)/Nine Inch Noize
Brother Ali - Another Country/Single
Gottlieb - Pipe Bomb/The Far Fallen Fruit
The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Heaven of Love/Acknowledge Kindness
The Bevis Frond - Romany Blue/Horrorful of Heights
Motorists - Scattered White Horses/Never Sing Alone
Metric - As If You're Here/Romanticize the Dive
Snail Mail - Butterfly/Ricochet
Gladie - Talk Past Each Other/No Need to Be Lonely
Courtney Barnett - Another Beautiful Day/Creature of Habit
Hour 2: Religion
Guided By Voices - Fly Religion/Universe Room
Fucked Up - Divining Gods/Another Day
Jesse Malin - God is Dead (feat. Agnostic Front)/Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin
Tunde Adebimpe - God Knows/Thee Black Boltz
Militarie Gun - God Owes Me Money/God Save the Gun
Bad History Month - God is Luck/God is Luck
The Kills - God Games/God Games
Los Campesinos! - Holy Smoke (2005)/All Hell
Beach Boys - Our Prayer/The Smile Sessions
The Afghan Whigs - I'll Make You See God/How Do You Burn?
Sugar - Tilted/Beaster
Motorhead - (Don't Need) Religion (live)/Another Perfect Day
The Flaming Lips - God Walks Among Us Now/In a Priest Driven Ambulance
Eldridge Rodriguez - The Girl Who Made God/Slightest of Treason
Yves Tumor - God is a Circle/Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Simply Consume
Hallelujah the Hills - God is So Lonely Tonight/Single
Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century.
Everything's Ruined (1992)
Last week, I wrote about one of the most expensive (and ridiculous) music videos ever made, MC Hammer's 14-minute magnum dopus, "2 Legit 2 Quit." But what happens when you don't have much of a budget to make a video?
In 1992, Faith No More was at an interesting spot. The Bay Area band had been around since 1983 (under that name; previously the group was called Sharp Young Men and Faith No Man). They scored a rock radio hit in 1987 with "We Care a Lot," but things blew up for FNM after the addition of new singer Mike Patton and the release of their 1989 album The Real Thing. Specifically, it was the single "Epic," a Chili Peppers-esque hybrid of funk and metal that took off, especially thanks to the video getting popular on MTV.
The band rode that album for nearly two years, touring extensively, playing Saturday Night Live and the MTV Video Music Awards, and maintaining popularity in both the alternative and metal scenes. For their follow-up, Patton was more involved in the writing process and the results were unexpected, as the band completely moved away from the funk-metal sound of the previous albums and into weird and wonderful territory. Released in June 1992, Angel Dust sold well, but fans of The Real Thing weren't quite sure what to make of it.
The first two singles, "Midlife Crisis" and "A Small Victory," received expensive, high concept video treatments, and by the time the band wanted to release "Everything's Ruined" as the third single, their video budget from Warner Bros. didn't have much left. So FNM and director Kevin Kerslake, decided to make the cheapest video possible.
The song itself is pretty straightforward by Angel Dust standards, a catchy ripper of a song. But the video is something else. It features the band (and some kids) performing in front of random B-roll footage of a couple getting married, wildlife, explosions and some graphic surgery. The extras in the video were found through a competition on MTV's Most Wanted, an MTV Europe show.In one scene, the band pretends to run away from footage of a giant tortoise. It's simultaneously ridiculous and awesome.
"It was our idea to take this further and make a video as cheap as humanly possible, in one of those video booths like they had at county fairs, where you sing and dance in front of a blue screen," keyboardist Billy Gould wrote in response to a question on the FNM blog. "We didn't quite get to do that, but we got it as close as possible."
I never saw "Everything's Ruined" on MTV back when it came out, as it likely got played infrequently and late at night. But thanks to YouTube, you can now watch it for yourself and see how, like one commenter noted, it's both the worst and greatest rock video ever.
I get the appeal of nostalgia, especially when things appear so bleak at times in the present. But while I reject the unimaginative claim that there's no good new music anymore, I nonetheless enjoy taking a ride in the ol' time machine every so often. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs in reverse chronological order from 2026 to 1992. Hail to the king, baby.
Awright, you primitive screwheads:
Hour 1: 2026-2010
Artist - Song/Album
The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Is It You, or Is It Them?/Acknowledge Kindness
Shame - After Party/Cutthroat
Mannequin Pussy - Loud Bark/I Got Heaven
Pardoner - Dreaming's Free/Peace Loving People
Oceanator - From the Van/Nothing's Ever Fine
Ovlov - Land of Steve-O/buds
Coriky - Too Many Husbands/Coriky
Ex Hex - Tough Enough/It's Real
Albert Hammond Jr. - Far Away Truths/Francis Trouble
St. Vincent - Sugar Boy/Masseduction
Jeff Rosenstock - Festival Song/WORRY.
Speedy Ortiz - Puffer/Foil Deer
Death From Above 1979 - Always On/The Physical World
Savages - No Face/Silence Yourself
METZ - Wasted/METZ
Wild Flag - Electric Band/Wild Flag
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Mighty Sparrow/The Brutalist Bricks
Hour 2: 2009-1992
Art Brut - Slap Dash for No Cash/Art Brut vs. Satan
The Raveonettes - Dead Sound/Lust Lust Lust
Les Savy Fav - Rage in the Plague Age/Let's Stay Friends
Destroyer - Your Blood/Destroyer's Rubies
Bloc Party - Helicopter/Silent Alarm
The Futureheads - First Day/The Futureheads
Ween - It's Gonna Be a Long Night/Quebec
Spoon - Something to Look Forward to/Kill the Moonlight
Stephen Malkmus - The Hook/Stephen Malkmus
Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One/All Hands on the Bad One
Piebald - Mess With the Bulls/If It Weren't for Venetian Blinds It Would Be Curtains for Us All
Cat Power - Cross Bones Style/Moon Pix
Elliott Smith - Ballad of Big Nothing/ Either/Or
Sebadoh - Worst Thing/Harmacy
Jawbreaker - Sluttering (May 4th)/Dear You
Luscious Jackson - Energy Sucker/Natural Ingredients
Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century.
2 Legit 2 Quit (1991)
The early '90s were a wild time. While rock audiences were starting to embrace more alternative sounds, hip hop was making a huge move for the mainstream. Sure, artists like Public Enemy, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and N.W.A. were getting the critical praise, but it was performers like MC Hammer who were topping the charts.
As an 11-year-old in the early '70s, Stanley Burrell would set up in the Oakland Coliseum parking lot, selling stray baseballs and dancing along to a beatboxer. He was noticed by Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley, who hired Burrell as a batboy from 1973 to 1980, although Burrell later explained his brother was the actual batboy while he took calls and described game action to Finley, who lived in Chicago. He got the nickname Hammer because of his resemblance to baseball legend Hank "The Hammer" Aaron.
After he graduated from high school, Burrell joined the Navy and served in Mountain View, California, as an aviation storekeeper for three years. He started a rap career in the mid-'80s, borrowing $20,000 each from former A's players Mike Davis and Dwayne Murphy to start his own independent record label, Bustin' Records. He sold records from his basement and car, with his first album Feel My Power released in 1986.
Going by the handle MC Hammer, his songs started getting played in nightclubs in the San Francisco Bay area and then the radio. In 1988, he signed a deal with Capitol Records and then re-released his first album with additional songs and it sold over 2 million copies. He installed a mobile recording studio in the back of his tour bus and recorded much of his second album, Let's Get It Started, there. But it was his 1990 album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em that made Hammer a household name. Relying on a sample from Rick James' "Super Freak," Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" was all over the radio and MTV, thanks to Hammer's dance moves and iconic "Hammer pants." The song hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album reached #1 for 21 weeks. Follow-up hits included "Have You Seen Her" and "Pray," which sampled Prince's "When Doves Cry" and Faith No More's "We Care a Lot."
Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em was the first hip hop album to earn diamond status, selling more than 18 million units to date. Sponsored by Pepsi, Hammer toured in Europe extensively in 1991.
MC Hammer took full advantage of his popularity, placing songs on the soundtracks of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and Rocky V, appearing on two songs on Earth, Wind and Fire's 1990 album and signing other artists to his label. There was a Saturday morning cartoon called Hammerman and he was featured on lunchboxes, Mattel dolls and other merchandise.
There was backlash, of course. Hammer relied heavily on sampling entire hooks from other songs for his hit singles, and other artists like 3rd Bass, Digital Underground, LL Cool J and Ice Cube mocked his family-friendly image and simplistic lyrics.
How to follow this success up? Burrell dropped the "MC" from his stage name and then unleashed a nearly 15-minute video for the title track of his new album 2 Legit 2 Quit. The video was one of the most expensive ever made, costing $2.5 million (adjusting for inflation, that's over $6 million in 2026 dollars). It was directed by Rupert Wainwright, who had previously directed Hammer videos from the last album.
The video is epically ridiculous. It starts off with the most 1991 of celebrities, Jim--excuse me, James--Belushi as a newscaster reporting that Hammer is quitting the music business, followed by reaction from celebrities including Danny Glover, Henry Winkler, Freedom Williams of C&C Music Factory, David "Bud Bundy" Faustino, Barry Sobel, Ralph Tresvant, Mark and Donnie Wahlberg, Eazy-E and the Cubeless N.W.A., Tony Danza, Queen Latifah and Milli Vanilli.
The video shows an impatient crowd waiting for Hammer to show up before cutting to Hammer meeting with James Brown. The Godfather of Soul had been in prison serving a six-year sentence for aggravated assault after leading police on a high-speed chase while high on PCP in 1988 and indeed, he was released the day video production was scheduled to start in February 1991. Hammer hired a private jet to pick up Brown and bring him to Los Angeles. Brown filmed his scenes and was supposed to fly back commercial, but he asked if he could use the jet to stop in Vegas for a few days and then go home to Atlanta. The jet ended up waiting for Brown for two extra days in Vegas, adding to the expense.
Back to the video: Brown, who apparently has supernatural powers, asks Hammer to bring him Michael Jackson's glove and blasts Hammer with energy to give him power. About 8 minutes into the video, Hammer shows up at the concert and begins the song with a cadre of backup singers and dancers.
In addition to all this action, the video includes a ton of cameos from pro athletes and celebs, doing the "2 Legit 2 Quit" hand gesture that was expected to become all the rage. Wainwright sent a production crew all over the country to film anyone who would agree to participate. This list includes: Jose Canseco, Isiah Thomas, Kirby Puckett, Jerry Rice, Rickey Henderson, Deion Sanders, Andre Rison, Chris Mullin, Roger Clemens, Roger Craig, Ronnie Lott, Lynette Woodard, the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons cheerleaders, David Robinson and Falcons coach Jerry Glanville. Wayne Gretzky was reportedly filmed for this as well, but he's not in the videos that are posted on YouTube.
At the end of the performance, the video ends with "Michael Jackson" shown from behind after viewing Hammer's dancing and doing the "2 Legit 2 Quit" hand gesture.
The song hit #5 on the Hot 100 and the album went multi-platinum, but it only sold one third of Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em's sales. It was also featured in the Addams Family movie.
Things started going downhill for Hammer. He tried to adopt a more gangsta image on his next album, 1994's The Funky Headhunter, releasing a video for "Pumps and a Bump" that featured him in a Speedo (it was banned from MTV for, uh, revealing too much Hammer). But his overexposure, no pun intended, led to a drop in popularity and by 1996, he filed for bankruptcy. He has since released seven more albums, a reality show (because who hasn't by this point?) and still shows up in commercials. But in 1991, he was briefly on top of the world.
Delivering the mail is a thankless job, but somebody's got to do it. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Body Shop, Blood Wizard and Swapmeet in hour 1 and songs about mail in hour 2. It gets there on time!
Hello, playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Body Shop - Repulsion/Sex Body
Blood Wizard - Scared of the Dark/Lucky Life
Motorists - Next Blue Kings/Never Sing Alone
Arctic Monkeys - Opening Night/HELP (2)
Jack White - Derecho Demonico/G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs
The Bevis Frond - That's Your Lot/Horrorful Heights
Swapmeet - I Know!/Mount Zero
King Tuff - Delusions/MOO
Gladie - I Want That for You/No Need to Be Lonely
Gardenia - I Miss You, Alexa/Gardenia
Heavenly - The Neverseen/Highway to Heavenly
Gorillaz - The Happy Dictator feat. Sparks/The Mountain
The New Pornographers - Calligraphy/The Former Site Of
Damaged Bug - Rare Lights/ZUZAX
Fugazi - Public Witness Program (Albini Session)/Albini Sessions (Benefit for Letters Charity)
Nothing - A Short History of Decay/A Short History of Decay
Hour 2: Mail
The White Stripes - Death Letter/De Stijl
Soundgarden - Mailman/Superunknown
Living Colour - Postman/Stain
Rick Rude - Area Woman Yells at Junk Mail/Laverne
Antarctigo Vespucci - E-mail/Love in the Time of E-mail
Yo La Tengo - Apology Letter/This Stupid World
Pugwash - Answers on a Postcard/A Rose in a Garden of Weeds: A Preamble Through the History of Pugwash
Bedbug - Postcard/Pack Your Bags the Sun is Growing
The Walkmen - Postcards from Tiny Islands/You & Me
Buffalo Tom - Postcard/Smitten
R.E.M. - Letter Never Sent/Reckoning
Eleanor Friedberger - The Letter/Rebound
The New Pornographers - Letter from an Occupant/Mass Romantic
Material Issue - This Letter/International Pop Overthrow
Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century.
Well, Did You Evah! (1990)
There have always been tribute albums, where various artists pay homage to their favorite influences, but it wasn't until the late '80s/early '90s that tribute albums were also used as fundraisers. One of the early ones was Red Hot + Blue, the first compilation in the Red Hot Organization's Benefit Series, which raised nearly $1 million for AIDS activist group ACT UP.
The album featured contemporary artists covering the work of composer Cole Porter. Released in September 1990, the album was accompanied by an ABC special featuring videos for each of the song. In my alt-rock-centric world, U2's moody electronic cover of "Night and Day" got plenty of radio airplay but there were plenty of other interesting takes on the album.
One notable cover was "Well, Did You Evah!," a whimsical number originally written for the 1939 musical DuBarry Was a Lady and later performed by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in the 1956 movie High Society. On Red Hot + Blue, it was performed by Deborah Harry and Iggy Pop. The video was directed by Alex Cox, who helmed '80s punk-influenced movies Repo Man and Sid and Nancy.
The video is a hoot, with Harry and Iggy clearly having a blast as they cavort through various NYC locales, bringing punk attitude to a petting zoo, shopping at a bodega, robbing a bank and hanging out around a garbage can fire. Both were in their early 40s and still fairly young at the time, although both artists still record and tour to this day. They're clearly enjoying each other's company and that attitude comes across on screen.
It was an interesting time for Iggy. He was riding a renewed wave of popularity due to his recently released album Brick by Brick, which featured another duet, this time on "Candy" with Kate Pierson of the B-52's. Normally long-haired and shirtless in videos and performance, Iggy sports shorter hair and suits in this video.
As great as "Well, Did You Evah!" was, it was only released as a single in the U.K., where it reached #42 on the U.K. singles chart. I don't recall ever seeing the video on MTV or hearing it on the radio, but damn, it's a great version.
If you don't pay attention, time slips by you pretty quickly. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Lambrini Girls, Lifeguard and Gang of Four in hour 1 and songs from 2006 in hour 2. Don't forget to take your meds!
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we celebrate the return of the MLB season by counting down our favorite baseball hats. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
On to our top 10
Phil's #10: Reaching back to the '50s with the Phillies
Jay's #10: Mid-90s Mariners
Good use of seafoam green
'90s uniforms had a lot of bold colors: Teal, purple
Phil's #9: The simplicity of the SF Giants hat
Hat designs got pretty weird over the years
Corduroy hats were a thing for a while
Jay's #9: Classic A's green and yellow look
Phil's #8: Dodgers' classic blue and white is another look that hasn't changed
Bandwagon jumpers are inevitable
Jay's #8: St. Louis Cardinals navy blue with red logo
Had one that got ruined at Lollapallooza '93
Phil's #7: The mid-70s Angels hat with the halo
Lots of different looks for the Angels over the years
Jay's #7: Phillies' hat from late '70s/early '80s
Phil's #6: Sticking with Philly with the A's from the '30s
Some hats are instant conversation pieces for middle-aged guys
Jay's #6 and Phil's #4: Another classic look with the Tigers
Ruining hats by working out in them
Phil's #5: Kansas City A's with the kelly green
Jay's #5: Brooklyn Dodgers with the classic B
Jackie Robinson era
Jay's #4: Can't go wrong with the Cubs "C" hat
Some cool Cubs hats over the years
Phil's #3: Iconic Red Sox blue hat
Jay's #3: White Orioles hat with the cartoon bird
Tried a more realistic bird in the '90s
Phil's #2: The Braves' 70s hat with the lower case A
Jay's #2: The Blue Jays' all-blue hat introduced in the late '80s
Are middle-aged guys more likely to wear hats?
Phil's #1: Orioles' mid-60s to mid-70s black hat with orange bill
Jay's #1: Original Expos hat
In Canada, Toronto fans hate the Canadiens but love the Expos
Defunct but beloved team
Completely Conspicuous is available through wherever 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.
Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century.
Down In It (1989)
It's not often when a young band's video shoot turns into a murder investigation, but that's exactly what happened when Nine Inch Nails filmed the 1989 clip for their first single, "Down In It."
Trent Reznor was (and is) the mastermind behind NIN, recording the majority of the instruments on the band's debut album Pretty Hate Machine. Based in Cleveland, the band's sound was electronic, featuring tons of synths but also incorporating heavy industrial and rock elements. It was angry, visceral and exciting.
Reznor was recording a video for "Down In It" in the warehouse district of Chicago. It was low budget, but full of trippy effects, with Reznor being chased by band members Chris Vrenna and Richard Patrick through various locations. The climax features Reznor falling off the top of a building, with the final scene showing his lifeless body on the ground as Vrenna and Patrick stood over him.
In this pre-drone era, the band used a camera attached by a rope to helium balloons to fil the final scene, but the rope snapped and the camera floated away. The camera eventually ended up in a cornfield in eastern Michigan, where a farmer found it and handed it over to local police. They turned it over to Chicago police after noticing the city's distinctive L trains in the background. Chicago authorities couldn't find any evidence of a murder matching that location and turned the case over to the FBI. After watching the footage, FBI agents began investigating whether it was evidence of a cult killing or a snuff film, noting that the "body" appeared to be rotting in the video.
Flyers were distributed looking for leads and an art student who worked for H-Gun Productions, the company that filmed the video, recognized the "victim" as Reznor and informed the FBI that he was very much alive. This was in September 1990, a year after the video was filmed.
Chicago police announced that there was no body, after all, and in March 1991, the tabloid "news" show Hard Copy aired a sensationalistic report about the whole thing (see below). It's really a classic of the era, with reporter Rafael Abramovitz editorializing about Reznor's nose rings, interviewing the Michigan cop who initially investigated the footage, and talking to Reznor and the production crew about it. Reznor found the whole thing amusing, which seemed to annoy Abramovitz, who chided him for wasting a year's worth of police work that could have gone into solving real crimes. The band's label, TVT Records, took full advantage of the publicity, including clips from the Hard Copy report in the press kit for the UK release of the album. Some British journalists wondered if the whole thing was a publicity stunt, but Reznor insisted it was a just a stupid accident.
As it turned out, when the video was aired on MTV, the network refused to air the final shot of Reznor's body, which was covered in corn starch to give it that "freshly dead" look.
Pretty Hate Machine was eventually a huge success, going triple platinum, but it had a slow build. Released in October 1989, it entered the Billboard 200 in February 1990 but continued to gain momentum over the next few years. NIN was part of the first Lollapalooza lineup in 1991, which is when I started seeing quick late-night TV ads for it.
The band's rise coincided with the alternative rock explosion of the early '90s. NIN's videos for songs like "Closer," "Hurt" and "The Perfect Drug" were in constant rotation and often pushed the boundaries of what censors would allow. But it was that first video that put NIN on the map in more ways than one.
Emergencies happen all the time. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from the Dambuilders, Jack White and the Bevis Frond in hour 1 and songs about emergencies in hour 2.
The urgent playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
The Dambuilders - I Hope We're Not Too Late/Shrine 2026
Jack White - G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs/Single
The Bevis Frond - A Mess of Stress/Horrorful Heights
Courtney Barnett - Great Advice/Creature of Habit
Snail Mail - Agony Freak/Ricochet
King Tuff - Stairway to Nowhere
Gladie - Car Alarm/No Need to Be Lonely
Heavenly - Portland Town/Highway to Heavenly
Motorists - Anomaniacs/Never Sing Alone
The New Pornographers - Ballad of the Last Payphone/The Former Site Of
Squeeze - What More Can I Say?/Trixies
Gardenia - Therapy Sessions/Gardenia
Damaged Bug - Sike Witch/ZUZAX
Mclusky - Hi We're on Strike/I Sure Am Getting Sick of This Bowling Alley
Gee Whiz! - Cocktail Umbrellas/How to Manage a Crisis
Cardinals - Anhedonia/Masquerade
Remember Sports - Roadkill/The Refrigerator
Hour 2: Emergencies
Hot Snakes - I Need a Doctor/Jericho Sirens
Thin Lizzy - Heart Attack/Thunder and Lightning
Beastie Boys - Heart Attack Man/Ill Communication
Speedy Ortiz - Emergency & Me/Rabbit Rabbit
Billy Nomates - Emergency Phone/Emergency Phone
The Tragically Hip - Emergency (feat. Sarah McLachlan)/Unreleased
Sloan - Emergency 911/Parallel Play
Van Halen - Somebody Get Me a Doctor/II
Motorhead - Emergency/Ace of Spades
Metallica - Crash Course in Brain Surgery/The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited
Mike Krol - An Ambulance/Power Chords
Soccer Mom - Open Heart Surgery/Soccer Mom
TV On the Radio - Ambulance/Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
Destroyer - Saw You at the Hospital/ken
Spitzz - Take Me to the Hospital/Single
Turtlenecked - Meeting You in the Hospital/Vulture
The Replacements - Take Me Down to the Hospital/For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we celebrate the return of the MLB season by discussing our favorite baseball hats. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
We've both purchased many hats over the years
Back in the '70s and '80s, you didn't have a lot of viewing choices for baseball games
Baseball cards were a big factor in figuring out the hats and logos you liked
Hats can fade, especially the dark blue ones
When you just can't wear a Yankees hat
Now there are so many alternate jerseys, hats, logos
You can get hats in different colors and styles
Old guys like us don't like flat-bill caps
Other sports don't wear hats as part of the uniform, but you can get hats for their teams
We often get hats of teams we have no affinity for
Phil's honorable mentions: Black Sox-era White Sox, Boston/Milwaukee Braves, Cardinals from the '40s, Pirates pillbox hat from the '70s, Cleveland Chief Wahoo hat from the '50s
Jay's honorable mentions: Reds, Brewers '70s hat with the glove logo, Royals, Expos all-blue hats in the '90s, Mariners '70s hat, Blue Jays original hat
Phil: Seattle Pilots had a bad hat, with a touch of stolen valor
To be continued
Completely Conspicuous is available through wherever 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.
Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century.
Reach (1988)
I watched a lot of videos on MTV (and elsewhere) in the '80s and '90s, but there were plenty more that I never saw. But one of the fun things about doing this feature is tripping over previously unseen weirdness, like this video from a synth-pop act called Martini Ranch.
I actually had heard of the band because one of the members was none other than Bill Paxton, who was much more well-known for his acting work in movies like Aliens, Weird Science, True Lies and countless others. And I knew that before he became famous as an actor, he directed and starred in the 1980 video for "Fish Heads" by Barnes and Barnes, a truly weird and wonderful novelty song that ended up getting played on Saturday Night Live and the following year on MTV.
Paxton was already a known commodity as an actor when he joined Martini Ranch and released two EPs and an album on Sire Records. For their 1988 album Holy Cow, Paxton and bandmate Andrew Rosenthal enlisted director James Cameron (who had made Terminator in 1984 and Aliens in 1986 with Paxton) to helm the video for their song "Reach." The song itself is cowboy-themed and not too dissimilar from "I Wanna Be a Cowboy," the 1985 novelty hit by British new wave act Boys Don't Cry.
For the Martini Ranch video, Cameron made a 7-minute Western opus featuring Paxton in the lead role, but also plenty of cameos from the likes of Kathyrn Bigelow (Cameron's future wife and director of Near Dark, which also starred Paxton), Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Jenette Goldstein, Judge Reinhold, Adrian Pasdar and Bud Cort.
Paxton plays a cowboy who rides into a Western town on a motorcycle to pick up a prostitute at a brothel when a gang of women led by Bigelow captures him. The other guys in Martini Ranch (who are dressed as a mariachi band) are also there and captured, eventually getting dragged to their deaths while playing their instruments.
Paxton tries to escape but the gang catches him and drag him out of town as well. The video looks like it cost a pretty penny, but it was hardly ever played on MTV and the song certainly wasn't a hit. The album Holy Cow also features appearances by Devo's Bob Casale, Alan Myers and Mark Mothersbaugh, Cindy Wilson of the B-52's, film composer Mark Isham and actors Reinhold and Cort.
Martini Ranch did get a song on the soundtrack of the 1988 movie You Can't Hurry Love as well as 1989's Brain Dead, which starred both Paxton and Bill Pullman, who were often confused for each other. That appears to be the end of Paxton and Rosenthal's musical collaboration; Rosenthal later changed the band name to Swifty's Bazaar and released an album. Last year, Rosenthal (as ANDY) released the album Androgyne & Transformation.
Paxton, of course, went on to a successful career on the big and small screen before he died in 2017. After his death, the out-of-print Holy Cow was released on vinyl, along with a DVD featuring the videos for "Reach" and "How Can the Labouring Man Find Time for Self-Culture?" directed by Rocky Schenk. I'm guessing more people have seen the video since Paxton died than when it was released in '88, but that's just how the music business goes.
