Videodrone #21: Pepper

Videodrone is a weekly(ish) feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Pepper (1996)

In 1986, the Butthole Surfers were the last band anyone would have expected to score a top 40 hit. They had just released their second album, Rembrandt Pussyhorse, on Touch and Go and the few mainstream publications that wrote about them referred to the band as the "BH Surfers." Led by frontman Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary, the San Antonio band's live shows were outrageous and anarchic, with generous helpings of fire, nudity and unpredictability. They made fans of young musicians like Kurt Cobain and Kim Thayil.

The Surfers released albums and toured regularly through the late '80s and into the '90s until they surprised everyone and signed with Capitol Records in 1991. They also signed on to the first Lollapalooza tour with the likes of Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails and Siouxsie and the Banshees, which introduced the Surfers to a whole new audience of impressionable alt-rock loving 20somethings. 

Gibby guested on Ministry's 1991 single "Jesus Built My Hotrod" and then Capitol teamed them up with producer John Paul Jones (yes, THAT John Paul Jones) for the recording of their 1993 album Independent Worm Saloon, which found the Surfers working in some conventional rock stylings into their weirdness. The first single, "Who Was in My Room Last Night?" got airplay on MTV and rock radio and even got a boost from MTV's new show "Beavis and Butt-head." As grunge and alt-culture caught fire, the Surfers were riding the wave as elder statesmen.

Fast forward to 1996. Grunge was on the wane, but alternative rock was still hanging around, led by the non-sequitur lyricism of Beck. In April, the Surfers released "Pepper," the first single from their forthcoming album Electriclarryland. The song clearly owed a debt to Beck's "Loser" in its spoken word delivery and tape loops, but the band also cited trip hop acts like Massive Attack and Tricky as influences. I wrote it off as derivative (lyrically, it was reminiscent of "People Who Died" by the Jim Carroll Band), but the song took off. It was played constantly on alt-rock radio and MTV and ended up going to #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay Chart. 

The video was directed by Gavin Bowden, who also directed several Red Hot Chili Pepper vids, as well as clips by Lit, Live, Dishwalla, Matchbox Twenty, Rollins Band and Buster Poindexter. It featured black-and-white footage of the band getting arrested after kidnapping a character played by Erik Estrada, while also featuring the band in color playing on a '60s variety show. Even at the band's most commercial, the video was appropriately weird.

As it turned out, the Surfers' biggest hit was also a curse: Their fans hated them for selling out and it became impossible to follow up. They spent two years working on their next album, After the Astronaut, but the label wouldn't release it (coincidentally, the band is releasing After the Astronaut this week, 25 years after their last album). As a result, the Surfers split with Capitol, all while in the midst of a lawsuit against Touch and Go for more royalties on their early albums. 

In 2001, the group signed with Disney and released Weird Revolution, an album that received a 0.4 rating from Pitchfork. The lead single from the album was "The Shame of Life," which featured Gibby rapping over another trip-hop beat and a chorus written by none other than Kid Rock. Strange days indeed. On the plus side, the Surfers were one of the bands featured in Michael Azerrad's seminal 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life.

Since then, the Surfers released a couple of compilations and reunited to tour a few times, but they've been on hiatus since 2016. They've remained in the zeitgeist, releasing a documentary and coffee table and placing the song "Human Cannonball" in the last season of Stranger Things.

The history of the Butthole Surfers remains proudly weird, but the weirdest thing they ever did was to release a hit song.

Stuck In Thee Garage #623: March 13, 2026

This is our second Friday the 13th in a row. I don't know about you, but I feel lucky. I didn't say which kind of luck. Anyhoo, this week on Stuck In Thee Garage I played new music from Charm School, Gee Whiz! and EXEK in hour 1 and songs from 1996 in hour 2! 

The playlist is in the trunk:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Fugazi - Walken's Syndrome (Albini Session)/Albini Sessions (Benefit for Letters Charity)

Gord Downie, The Sadies, and The Conquering Sun - If You Have Ghosts/Live at 6 O'Clock

Charm School - Schadenfreude Ploy/Schadenfreude Ploy

Gee Whiz! - Magic Carpets/How to Manage a Crisis

Courtney Barnett - Mantis/Creature of Habit

Anna Calvi and Perfume Genius - I See a Darkness/Is This All There Is?

Gorillaz - The God of Lying (feat. IDLES)/The Mountain

Nothing - Essential Tremors/A Short History of Decay

Cootie Catcher - Quarter Note Rock/Something We All Got

Crooked Fingers - Lena/Swet Deth

EXEK - Sidestepping/Prove the Mountains Move

Cardinals - Barbed Wire/Masquerade

Greg Freeman - Rome, New York/Burnover

Juliana Hatfield - Strong Too Long/Lightning Might Strike

Dry Cleaning - Blood/Secret Love

Hour 2: 1996

Sleater-Kinney - Anonymous/Call the Doctor

Frank Black - You Ain't Me/The Cult of Ray

Sebadoh - Zone Doubt/Harmacy

Superdrag - Sucked Out/Regretfully Yours

Weezer - El Scorcho/Pinkerton

Sloan - Autobiography/One Chord to Another

Lush - 500/Lovelife

Beck - Hotwax/Odelay

D Generation - Major/No Lunch

Screaming Trees - Witness/Dust

Pearl Jam - In My Tree/No Code

The Afghan Whigs - Summer's Kiss/Black Love

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Crow Jane/Murder Ballads

Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack/Return of the Mack

Blackstreet - No Diggity (feat. Dr. Dre and Queen Pen)/Another Level

Busta Rhymes - Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check/The Coming

Fire up your modem and check out the hot tuneage HERE!

Day After Day #256: When I Get Old

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

When I Get Old (1996)

Once you get to a certain point in life, birthdays cease to be a big deal. Sure, you still have the big milestones, but the ones in between kind of just happen. Still, they're celebrations and they're to be enjoyed, but there's also that sense of mortality that hits you right between the eyes.

There's been plenty of songs about birthdays, but one that gets to the heart of the whole "getting old" conundrum is "When I Get Old" by the Descendents. 

The Descendents were a power pop/surf punk band formed in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, California, by Frank Novetta, David Nolte and Bill Stevenson. After a few years of lineup changes, Milo Aukerman joined as lead singer in 1981. The band's 1982 debut Milo Goes to College was a punk-pop classic, with a nerdy-looking caricature of Aukerman serving as the group's mascot. But the band was eventually put on hold when indeed, Aukerman went to college and Stevenson joined Black Flag. 

The two rejoined the band in 1985 for the album I Don't Want to Grow Up and made two more albums before Aukerman left the band to pursue a career in biochemistry. Stevenson and members Karl Alvarez and Steven Egerton decided to form All, adding singer Dave Smalley. The band released seven pop-punk albums with Smalley and two other singers before Aukerman decided to get back into music. 

Stevenson kept All going with singer Chad Price while working with Aukerman in the Descendents; in 1996, the Descendents released the album Everything Sucks, a short and punchy collection of pop-punk gems. Both bands signed to Epitaph. 

On "When I Get Old," Aukerman wonders about his future (although the song was written by Stevenson and Alvarez).

"What will it be like when I get old?/Will I still hop on my bike/And ride around town?/Will I still want to be someone/And not just sit around?/I don't wanna be like the other adults/'Cause they've already died/Cool and condescending/Fossilized/Will I be rich, will I be poor?/Will I still sleep on the floor?/What will it be like when I get/What will it be like when I get/What will it be like when I get old?"

By this point, Aukerman and Stevenson were in their early 30s, so adulthood wasn't just some far-off fantasy.

"Will I sit around and talk about the old days?/Sit around and watch TV/I never want to go that way/Never burn out, not fade away/As I travel through my time/Will I like what I find?"

Aukerman went back to a career in molecular biology, returning occasionally to record and tour. In 2016, burned out by his career and laid off by DuPont, Aukerman returned to the Descendents full time, and the band released the album Hypercaffium Spazzinate. I saw them on this tour at the Royale in Boston. The band released another album in 2021 and remains active. As for the getting older part, Aukerman suffered a mild heart attack last year but had surgery and is back performing.

Milo's 61 now and I just turned 57 today. At the time "When I Get Old" came out, I was still in my 20s (barely) and the thought of getting old was the furthest thing from my mind. Now that it's actually here, I still feel pretty good, albeit a lot creakier than I was back then. Hopefully Milo and I will both be around for a long time.

Day After Day #226: Popular

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Popular (1996)

High school is rough. The need to be popular can be overwhelming. Not that I know anything about that. But kids definitely can get caught up in all that bullshit. It's not their fault. 

Nada Surf had an insightful look at popularity with their debut single with the help of a 1960s advice book for young girls. 

The band was started in 1992 by Matthew Caws (guitar, vocals) and Daniel Lorca (bass), adding Ira Elliott on drums in 1995. Their 1996 debut High/Low was produced by Ric Ocasek, the Cars frontman who was becoming more prominent in the '90s for producing albums like Weezer's Blue Album.

For "Popular," the band took an unusual tactic, thanks to Penny's Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity, a 1964 book written by actress Gloria Winters.

"Three important rules for breaking up/Don't put off breaking up when you know you want to/Prolonging the situation only makes it worse/Tell him honestly, simply, kindly but firmly/Don't make a big production/Don't make up an elaborate story/This will help you avoid a big tear jerking scene//If you want to date other people, say so/Be prepared for the boy to feel hurt and rejected/Even if you've gone together for only a short time/And haven't been too serious/There's still a feeling of rejection/When someone says she prefers the company of others/To your exclusive company/But if you're honest and direct/And avoid making a flowery, emotional speech/When you break the news/The boy will respect you for your frankness/And honestly he'll appreciate the kind and/Straightforward manner in which you told him your decision/Unless he's a real jerk or a crybaby, you'll remain friends."

Caws delivers the spoken-word lines with sarcasm as the band plays in an understated fashion, before ramping up during the chorus.

"I'm head of the class/I'm popular/I'm a quarterback/I'm popular/My mom says I'm a catch/I'm popular/I'm never last picked/I got a cheerleading chick."

The video was a hit on MTV, set in a high school with a cheerleader as the main character who follows her teacher's lessons about popularity. The teacher is played by Caws, who gets increasingly agitated with each verse.

"I propose we support a one-month limit on going steady/I think it would keep people more able to deal with weird situations/And get to know more people/I think if you're ready to go out with Johnny/Now's the time to tell him about your one-month limit/He won't mind, he'll appreciate your fresh look on dating/And once you've dated someone else, you can date him again/I'm sure he'll like it/Everyone will appreciate it/You're so novel, what a good idea/You can keep your time to yourself/You don't need date insurance/You can go out with whoever you want to/Every boy, every boy in the whole world could be yours/If you just listen to my plan/The teenage guide to popularity."

The song got up to #11 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, and it also hit #1 in Iceland for two weeks and #10 in France. The album hit #63 on the Billboard 200. 

Unfortunately, Nada Surf couldn't sustain the momentum from "Popular." Their next album was 1998's The Proximity Effect, but their label Elektra didn't think there were any hits and demanded the band record a few covers. After the band refused to play along and did a tour of Europe, the label refused to release the album in the U.S. and subsequently dropped the band. In 2000, Nada Surf self-released The Proximity Effect, while working day jobs to make ends meet. 

The lineup has remained intact ever since, releasing seven albums and about to release a new one next month. Popularity has eluded Nada Surf, but the band has established a solid indie following and consistently releases fine work. They don't really make songs that sound like "Popular" anymore, but they've become a reliably good indie rock band and there's nothing wrong with that.

Day After Day #179: Super Bon Bon

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Super Bon Bon (1996)

People think about the '90s as this grungapalooza of guitar rock, but that was only a small part of what was going on. The grunge thing was only really happening for a few years. By 1995, it was starting to fade and by '96, there was some really weird stuff getting played on the radio. Sure, there was new material from the likes of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and STP getting played, but they were moving away from the sounds of their first few albums. And you were also hearing artists like Geggy Tah, Crash Test Dummies, Nada Surf, Underworld, Butthole Surfers and Tracy Bonham with regularity.

Another band that had an interesting sound was Soul Coughing, a quarter from New York City that worked up a combination of jazz grooves, weird samples, electronics, odd sounds and singer Mike Doughty's off-kilter raps. Bassist Sebastian Steinberg and drummer Yuval Gabay formed an impressive rhythm section and keyboardist/sampler Mark Degli Antoni created interesting sounds. After the band's 1994 debut Ruby Vroom, they teamed with producer David Kahne (Fishbone, Mike Watt, Dick Dale) to create a more accessible sound. 

Irresistible Bliss came out in July 1996, just a few weeks after Beck's brilliant Odelay, and the two share some eclectic out-there vibes. "Super Bon Bon" was the first single and it features a menacing yet funky groove that pounces immediately. 

"Move aside/And let the man go through/Let the man go through/If I stole/Somebody else's wave/To fly up/If I rose/Up with the avenue/Behind me/Some kind of verb/Some kind of moving thing/Something unseen/Some hand is motioning/To rise, to rise, to rise."

The chorus is strange, choppy and compelling all at once.

"Too fat, fat you must cut lean/You got to take the elevator to the mezzanine/Chump change and it's on, super bon bon/Super bon bon, super bon bon."

The song got constant airplay on local alternative radio and MTV; I caught Soul Coughing at Avalon in Boston in early 1997 and enjoyed the show. "Super Bon Bon" has appeared in everything from Extreme Championship Wrestling, Gran Turismo 2, the Sopranos, Homicide: Life on the Street, The Last Dance and earlier this year in an episode of Reacher.

The band returned in 1998 with the album El Oso and had a hit with "Circles," but the inner tensions within Soul Coughing led to a breakup in 2000. Doughty was also suffering from addictions to painkillers, heroin and alcohol. He began releasing solo albums and eventually got a new contract with Dave Matthews' ATO label. His 2012 memoir The Book of Drugs focused on his addiction but also ripped into his former Soul Coughing bandmates and detailed how much he hated the music. Which makes it all the more interesting that Soul Coughing just announced a reunion tour for the fall.

"The end was acrimonious, but I just thought I'd give it a shot," Doughty said in a recent interview. "So I just wrote an email to all three guys. It took a little convincing for some of them, but I was really gratified that everyone wanted to take part in that again--to see if we can be a great band again."

I suppose the cynical viewpoint is they probably needed the money, but I certainly didn't expect to see Soul Coughing touring again. "We just decided to let bygones be bygones. You know, everybody had issues," said Doughty. "Our fans are going to be shocked, man. I can't believe how much they're going to be shocked."

There are plenty of bands who reunite despite the members hating each other. Why should these guys be any different? More power to 'em, I say.

Day After Day: Sucked Out

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Sucked Out

Sometimes a song just sticks with you. That was the case with Superdrag's "Sucked Out," which was released in March 1996 on the Knoxville band's second album (and first major label release) Regretfully Yours. 

It was a strange time for so-called alternative rock. The grunge thing was sputtering out and rock artists were getting poppier (with the exception of say, Rage Against the Machine). Female artists like Alanis Morissette, the Spice Girls and Fiona Apple were getting more attention, as was hip hop. For me, Beck's Odelay was the big album, melding many different styles into a brilliant follow-up to Mellow Gold (which I wrote about a few days ago).

I was still listening to stations like WFNX, where I first heard "Sucked Out": a punchy power pop blast that repeats its refrain ("Who sucked out the feeling?" although frontman John Davis really works the last word into "FEELIIIIIIING") a zillion times without it getting old. I didn't know anything about Superdrag other than its name was similar to British act Supergrass, who were also gaining some popularity at the time. That wasn't unusual, since the major labels had signed up pretty much every band playing power chords after the Seattle scene blew up a few years earlier. Fortunately, not every band they signed sounded like Nirvana or Pearl Jam or Soundgarden. A closer comparison for Superdrag might be Matthew Sweet or another Seattle act: the Posies. They had the same power pop chops, but Superdrag's sound was a little heavier.

"Sucked Out" got some attention from MTV and rock radio, hitting #17 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and giving Superdrag "one-hit wonder" status with a ton of other bands from the '90s. I don't remember hearing anything else from Regretfully Yours on the radio and I didn't buy the album at the time. They got a bigger recording budget to make their followup, 1998's Head Trip in Every Key, but Elektra felt the album wasn't radio-friendly enough. The band went back in and recorded two more songs, but the label refused to promote the album and cut tour support after six months; like many other bands of that era, Superdrag was dropped soon afterward. I actually remember hearing the first single "Do the Vampire" and thought it was catchy enough, but maybe the suits were looking for them to be more like Sugar Ray or something. Another factor in the album stiffing was the rise of nu-metal, which was catching on with the high school kids. Superdrag was no Limp Bizkit.

I lost track of the band after that. They made two more albums until Davis, who had struggled with alcohol abuse and later found religion, decided he was done in 2003. The band reunited in 2007 and released their fifth and final album in '09. Davis and original lead guitarist Brandon Fisher formed The Lees of Memory in 2013 and have released four albums since. The original Superdrag lineup reunited in 2022 and announced they were in the studio, but Davis later said the album was going to be a solo release instead.

Over the years, thanks to the magic of YouTube, I would watch a video of the band playing "Sucked Out" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the fall of 1996 and it would remind me how kickass the song was. The first comment always cracked me up: "Ah, the 90. Where four guys who look like they belong at different stages of rock n' roll time space can come together and make one hell of a catchy song."

A few summers ago, I was in a record store going through used CDs and saw Regretfully Yours for $2, and I immediately purchased it. The album is terrific; I have it on my phone and listen to it fairly regularly. I need to dig into the rest of the catalog as well as the Lees of Memory stuff. "Sucked Out" is a good reminder of how one person's one-hit wonder can be another's pathway into so much more.

Completely Conspicuous 604: New Pollution

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 1996. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Phil's #5: Cowboy Junkies score with their first album of originals

- Jay's #5: Sebadoh with a sprawling collection of rockers and ballads

- Phil's #4: Soundgarden's last album of the '90s turned away from their big hit

- Jay's #4: Frank Black with another album of quirky greatness

- Phil's #3: Phish with a fan-friendly studio release

- Jay's #3: Cinematic-sounding crime saga from the Afghan Whigs

- Phil's #2: Double album that was the breakthrough for Wilco

- Jay's #2: After a brief breakup, Sloan comes back with a power pop classic

- Phil's and Jay's #1: Beck blows up with a spectacular album that explores multiple genres

- Favorite songs: "New Pollution" (Phil), "G Turns to D" (Jay)

 

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.

Completely Conspicuous 603: Bulls On Parade

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 1996. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- In '96, Jay turned 29, Phil turned 27

- Days of little to no responsibility other than work

- Adventures in sports gambling

- Tougher year to come up with top 5

- The Macarena was all the rage

- Phil's non-top 5s: Rage Against the Machine, Fiona Apple, Sleater-Kinney, Tragically Hip, Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Moe, Tracy Bonham, Luscious Jackson, Sublime, Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, Tom Petty, Tori Amos, Cake, Silver Jews

- Rolling Stone lists are sheer clickbait

- Jay's non-top 5s:  Soundgarden, Superdrag, Posies, D Generation, Weezer, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

- 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.

Stuck In Thee Garage #386: August 13, 2021

In 1996, I was in a very different place in my life, as I suspect pretty much everyone was. Some people reading this may not even have been born yet. As for me, I was still in my 20s, living a pretty carefree existence. And enjoying a lot of great music, some of which I played in hour 2 of Stuck In Thee Garage this week. So get pumped up like Big Ern McCracken.

The kingpin of all playlists:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Film School - Superperfection/We Weren't Here

Alexalone - Unpacking My Feelings/Alexaloneworld

Ty Segall - Erased/Harmonizer

Wet Leg - Chaise Lounge/Wet Leg

Stuck - Labor Leisure/Content That Makes You Feel Good

Piroshka - Wanderlust/Love Drips & Gathers

Yves Tumor - Katrina/The Asymptotical World

Sleater-Kinney - Favorite Neighbor/Path of Wellness

La Bonte - Step Out/Don't Let This Define Me

Near Beer - Some Party/Sleeping Is For Suckers

Fiddlehead - Life Notice/Between the Richness

Mudhoney - Into the Drink/Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

Fake Fruit - Lying Legal Horror Lawyers/Fake Fruit

Maximo Park - Ardour/Nature Always Wins

Shame - Harsh Degrees/Drunk Tank Pink

Sweet Nobody - Little Ghost/We're Trying Our Best

Squirrel Flower - Big Beast/Planet (i)

Hour 2: 1996

Nada Surf - Popular/High/Low

Sebadoh - Worst Thing/Harmacy

Weezer - The Good Life/Pinkerton

Sloan - Autobiography/One Chord to Another

Jonny Polonsky - Love Lovely Love/Hi My Name Is Jonny

The Posies - Throwaway/Amazing Disgrace

The Afghan Whigs - Double Day/Black Love

Pearl Jam - Habit/No Code

Frank Black - You Ain't Me/The Cult of Ray

Lush - Ladykillers/Lovelife

Suede - Trash/Coming Up

Wilco - I Got You (At the End of the Century)/Being There

The Fugees - Ready Or Not/The Score

De La Soul - Big Brother Beat (feat. Mos Def)/Stakes Is High

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Chicken Dog/Now I Got Worry

Beck - High 5 (Rock the Catskills)/Odelay

Stuck In Thee Garage #364: March 12, 2021

Oh jeez, it's crazy to think we're 25 years away from 1996, but here we are. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 1996 in hour 2. 

It's a great playlist, dontcha know?

Hour 1

Artist  - Song/Album

St. Vincent - Pay Your Way In Pain/Daddy's Home

The Reds, Pinks & Purples - I Hope I Never Fall In Love/Uncommon Weather

Shame - March Day/Drunk Tank Pink

Iceage - Vendetta/Seek Shelter

Fridge Poetry - Lights O&O/Half the Battle

Mogwai - Ceiling Granny/As the Love Continues

Art d'Ecco - Head Rush/In Standard Definition

TUNS - My Memories/Duly Noted

Ryan H. Walsh - The Guest List/Public Domain

Paul Jacobs - Day to Day/Pink Dogs on the Green Grass

Cloud Nothings - Oslo/The Shadow I Remember

Editrix - Sinner/Tell Me I'm Bad

Goat Girl - Where Do We Go?/On All Fours

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Hand of God/Carnage

Mister Goblin - At Least/Four People In an Elevator and One of Them is the Devil

The Hold Steady - Me and Magdalena/Open Door Police

Hour 2: 1996

The Prodigy - Firestarter/Fat of the Land

The Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun/Dig Your Own Hole

2Pac - California Love (feat. Roger Troutman and Dr. Dre)/All Eyez On Me

Beck - Novacane/Odelay

The Afghan Whigs - My Enemy/Black Love

Pearl Jam - Hail Hail/No Code

Sebadoh - On Fire/Harmacy

The Tragically Hip - Ahead By a Century/Trouble at the Henhouse

R.E.M. - E-bow the Letter/New Adventures In Hi Fi

Sloan - A Sides Win/One Chord to Another

The Posies - Please Return It/Amazing Disgrace

Wilco - Outtasite (Outta Mind)/Being There

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Wail/Now I Got Worry

Frank Black - You Ain't Me/The Cult of Ray

Fred Schneider - Whip/Just Fred

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Where It's At

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

1996: Beck - Where It's At

Plenty of highs and lows in '96. The year began with my brother and I taking a road trip to Montreal to see a game at the Montreal Forum before it closed. As it tends to be, the weather was brutally cold while we were there, but there was no snow. Meanwhile, back on the East Coast of the U.S., a massive snowstorm dropped about 2.5 feet of snow on everyone. By the time we got back, the snow was melting and the roads were clear. Seems like a good omen, right?


My father's health had been deteriorating for a while for a number of reasons. By early '96, he was in and out of the hospital, including having to undergo multiple-bypass surgery that somehow he made it through. But he didn't have much left, and while I was moving my stuff to a new apartment in Salem at the end of March, he passed away at the age of 55. It wasn't a surprise and we weren't particularly close, but it still hit me pretty hard.

Other than that massive life event, things were going okay. I wasn't loving my job, but I was getting the hang of it. My new apartment was only 10 minutes from the office in Marblehead, but it created another problem: I was sleeping in and getting to work late. Why was I sleeping in? Because I was partying up a storm. Maybe it was a reaction to my dad's death, but it wasn't really destructive behavior. I was playing sports multiple nights a week (floor hockey, softball, soccer) and going out afterwards. Plus I was dating a bit and going to plenty of shows, so I was busy. I also went to London with a buddy to visit another friend who was working there, so that was pretty fun.

Musically, it was a strange year. Grunge finally ran out of steam, Van Halen went through three singers (Hagar, Roth briefly and then Gary Cherone), KISS reunited the original lineup in makeup, the Sex Pistols played a reunion tour, Tupac was killed and the Ramones broke up. Pop was very much back in fashion, with the top single of the year being none other than "The Macarena" by Los Del Rio. Plenty of familiar names were on the charts as well: Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Tracy Chapman, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Toni Braxton, Alanis Morissette, Whitney Houston, LL Cool J. Metallica changed its image by getting haircuts and releasing an album called Load that was, by all standards, a load.

There were strong new releases from Sloan, the Afghan Whigs, Weezer, Frank Black, Wilco, the Hip, Eels, Sebadoh, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Luscious Jackson, Brainiac, Guided By Voices, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine and Westerberg. Concerts I attended included Frank Black, Joan Osborne, Garbage, The Tragically Hip (three times), Tracy Bonham, the Buzzcocks, Paul Westerberg and Throwing Muses.


But my favorite album of the year was Beck's Odelay, which was his followup to his breakthrough Mellow Gold from a few years earlier. Beck was known for folky acoustic slacker rock, but on this record, he teamed with the Dust Brothers and released a monster combination of that stuff along with hip hop, noise rock, country and garage rock. The first single, "Where It's At," is catchy as hell and managed to kick the crap out of everything else on the radio or MTV at the time. "Loser" had gotten seriously overplayed since Mellow Gold's release, so this was definitely a fresh new sound for Beck. I blew my chance to see him come through town in the fall because I was waiting for a friend to let me know if he could go, but by the time he said yes, the show was already sold out. Still, "Where It's At" definitely lived up to its name, and it still does.

Honorable mentions: Beck - "Devil's Haircut"; Beck - "The New Pollution"; Sloan - "Everything You've Done Wrong"; Sloan - "G Turns to D"; The Afghan Whigs - "Blame, Etc."; The Afghan Whigs - "Honky's Ladder"; Weezer - "El Scorcho"; Weezer - "Pink Triangle"; Frank Black - "Men In Black"; Frank Black - "Punk Rock City"; The Tragically Hip - "Gift Shop"; The Tragically Hip - "Springtime in Vienna"; Wilco - "Misunderstood"; D Generation - "No Way Out"; Sebadoh - "Ocean"; Sebadoh - "Prince-S"; Pearl Jam - "Hail Hail"; Pearl Jam - "Smile"; R.E.M. - "E-Bow the Letter"; R.E.M. - "Leave"; Chixdiggit! - "(I Feel Like) (Gerry) Cheevers (Stitch Marks on My Heart)"; Soundgarden - "Pretty Noose"; Soundgarden - "Burden In My Hand"; Rage Against the Machine - "Bulls on Parade"; Rage Against the Machine - "Down Rodeo"; Lush - "Ladykillers"; Tupac and Dr. Dre - "California Love"; The Prodigy - "Firestarter"; Alice In Chains - "Over Now"; Alice In Chains - "Heaven Beside You";

Stuck In Thee Garage #141: August 12, 2016

Sometimes it really does feel as though time passes in the blink of an eye. Was 1996 really 20 years ago? It certainly was a very different time in my life, but it doesn't feel like it was two decades ago. And yet here we are. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I play songs from '96 in hour 2. It's cooler than a Minnesota winter, don'tcha know?

For Pete's sake, here's the playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Dinosaur Jr. - Goin Down/Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not
Descendents - Beyond the Music/Hypercaffium Spazzinate
Teenage Fanclub - I'm in Love/Here
Martha - Goldman's Detective Agency/Blisters in the Pit of My Heart
Used Cassettes - Sergio Leone/Rock 'n Rills
The Swagger - She Gonna Blow My Mind/The Swagger
PUP - Sleep in the Heat/The Dream is Over
STFU - What We Want/What We Want
Hit Bargain - No Body/Hit Bargain
Wye Oak - Watching the Waiting/Tween
Rogue Wave - California Bride/Delusions of Grand Fur
Modern Baseball - Everyday/Holy Ghost
Hallelujah the Hills - The Dangers are Doubled/A Band is Something to Figure Out
Crocodiles - Telepathic Lover/Dreamless
Parquet Courts - Keep It Even/Human Performance
Diarrhea Planet - Ruby Red/Turn to Gold

Hour 2: 1996
Weezer - Pink Triangle/Pinkerton
The Posies - World/Amazing Disgrace
Sloan - 400 Metres/One Chord to Another
Beck - High 5 (Rock the Catskills)/Odelay
Brainiac - This Little Piggy/Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Frank Black - The Marsist/The Cult of Ray
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (feat. PJ Harvey) - Henry Lee/Murder Ballads
Eels - Your Lucky Day in Hell/Beautiful Freak
Sebadoh - Worst Thing/Harmacy
The Tragically Hip - Springtime in Vienna/Trouble at the Henhouse
Screaming Trees - All I Know/Dust
Pearl Jam - Smile/No Code
D Generation - Disclaimer/No Lunch
The Afghan Whigs - Double Day/Black Love
Wilco - Monday/Being There

 

Stuck In Thee Garage #112: January 8, 2016

New year, new album anniversaries. Twenty years ago, we were starting the second term of the Clinton administration, Atlanta hosted the Summer Olympics and the Macarena was somehow a thing. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 1996 in hour 2.

The Cable Guy-approved playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Cheatahs - Sup-ra/Mythologies
Tangerine - Tender/Sugar Teeth
No Joy - Burial in Twos/More Faithful
Coaches - Blond Cop/Shush EP
Gold Muse - Sometimes Smiling/Single
Mike Krol - Save the Date/Turkey
Wand - Self-Hypnosis in 3 Days/Golem
Radiohead - Spectre/Spectre
Kurt Vile - I'm an Outlaw/b'lieve i'm goin' down
Thunderbitch - Eastside Party/Thunderbitch
Gazebos - I Don't Wanna Be Here/Die Alone
Doe - Susanne/The Hand Cut Record Club
Light Music - Jack of All Trades/Ocean's Daughter
Lubec - Salar's Decay Theory/Wilderness Days
Parquet Courts - Slide Machine/Content Nausea
Superchunk - Slack Motherfucker/Live at Baby's All Right, Brooklyn, 12/3/15
The Saints - (I'm) Stranded/(I'm)Stranded

Hour 2: 1996
Beck - Jack-Ass/Odelay
D Generation - Major/No Lunch
The Afghan Whigs - Blame, Etc./Black Love
Pearl Jam - Habit/No Code
Screaming Trees - Witness/Dust
Soundgarden - Burden in My Hand/Down on the Upside
Chixdiggit! - (Feel Like) (Gerry) Cheevers (Stitch Marks on My Heart)/Chixdiggit!
Sloan - The Good in Everyone/One Chord to Another
Weezer - El Scorcho/Pinkerton
Guided by Voices - Acorns & Orioles/Under the Bushes Under the Stars
Tracy Bonham - Mother Mother/The Burdens of  Being Upright
Sebadoh - Prince-S/Harmacy
Frank Black - Men in Black/The Cult of Ray
The Tragically Hip - Gift Shop/Trouble at the Henhouse
Wilco - I Got You (At the End of the Century)/Being There
R.E.M. - Electrolite/New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Stuck In Thee Garage #112 by Koomdogg on Mixcloud

Completely Conspicuous 347: Reeling in the Years, 1996 (Part 3)

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1996. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:
- Recorded via Skype
- Check out Brian's new radio show Unsolicited Mixtape
- Brian's #5
- Olivia Tremor Control made Brian's favorite Elephant 6 album
- Jay's #5 and Brian's #4
- Frank Black had a tough task following up Teenager of the Year
- Moved to a rawer sound
- In the middle of an excellent stretch of solo music
- Jay's #4
- Weezer's underrated (at the time) masterpiece
- Brian's #3
- Ween goes to Nashville
- Serious musicianship behind silly songs
- Jay's #3
- Afghan Whigs' Black Love was a cinematic concept album
- Serious Quadrophenia feel on the ballads
- Brian's #2
- Fountains of Wayne's debut was also underrated
- Jay's #2
- Sloan bounced back from short-lived breakup to put together a brilliant album
- Trading a Ween mix for a Sloan mix
- Brian's #1
- Pinkerton was the first album Brian liked and his friends didn't
- Serious dropoff in quality since then
- Jay's #1
- Beck followed up Mellow Gold with an amazing album
- Brian: Midnite Vultures is the best Prince album of the '90s
- Next up: 1988

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

Music:
Ex Hex - Don't Wanna Lose
Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas - Caught Up
Mini Dresses - In Two

The Ex Hex song is on the album Rips on Merge Records. Download the song for free for a limited time at KEXP.
The Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas song is on the album Secret Evil on Instant Records. Download the song for free at KEXP.
The Mini Dresses song is on the EP Three and available for free download at Bandcamp.

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

Completely Conspicuous 346: Reeling in the Years, 1996 (Part 2)

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1996. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").


Show notes:
- Recorded via Skype
- Check out Brian's comics podcast The Hour Cosmic
- Brian: Beck's Odelay was just outside my top 5
- New album's okay, but not great
- Brian: Cake, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Wrens' Secaucus
- The endless wait for the new Wrens album
- Brian was supposed to play piano with the Wrens but got sick
- Sticking up for Stone Temple Pilots' album
- Jay: STP were equal opportunity ripoff artists
- The '90s brought new wave of festivals: Lolla, Gathering of the Vibes, HORDE, Ozzfest
- Jay: No desire to go to Bonnaroo or Coachella
- Nothing better than seeing a band in a club
- Jay: Dug albums from D Generation, Sebadoh, Luscious Jackson, Johnny Cash, Chixdiggit, Brainiac, GBV, Maxwell, Westerberg
- Singing the praises of Live at Drew's
- Brian: Belle and Sebastian, Bill Frisell
- Frisell did the soundtrack to a Far Side cartoon
-  To be continued

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

Music:
King Tuff - Headbanger
Purling Hiss - Forcefield of Solitude
Young Adults - Old Kids

The King Tuff song is on the album Black Moon Spell on Sub Pop. Download the song for free for a limited time at Amazon MP3.
The Purling Hiss song is on the album Weirdon on Drag City. Download the song for free at KEXP.
The Young Adults song is available for free download at Bandcamp.

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

Completely Conspicuous 345: Reeling in the Years, 1996 (Part 1)

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1996. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").


Show notes:
- Recorded via Skype
- Check out Brian's comics podcast The Hour Cosmic
- In '96, Jay was 28 going on 29
- Brian: 13 going on 14
- Grunge was fading, pop was back in a big way
- Two versions of "The Macarena" were on top 100 singles chart
- Brian: At the time, didn't feel like a pop year
- Bush made an album with Steve Albini
- Lots of unsuccessful followups: Ugly Kid Joe, Kriss Kross
- Metallica's Load lived down to its name
- Strange year for Van Halen: Twister soundtrack, followed by greatest hits album with two DLR songs
- VH went through three singers in a matter of months
- Michael Anthony, Everyman
- We deconstructed VH III in eps 315 and 316
- Nickelback's first album came out in '96
- KISS reunited with original lineup
- Hip hop went mainstream
- New acts on the rise, like The Roots, Outkast, Wu Tang Clan
- Roots of nu metal
- The death of rock criticism with David Fricke in Rolling Stone giving U2's new album a five-star rating
- Rolling Stone typically hands out good reviews to old-school artists like U2, Dylan, Stones
- Last time U2 did anything interesting was 1997's Pop
- The U2 backlash is fierce
-  To be continued

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

Music:
Whirr - Mumble
Withered Hand - Black Tambourine
Super Medusa - Doomed Boy

The Whirr song is on the album Sway on Graveface Records. Download the song for free for a limited time at Amazon MP3.
The Withered Hand song is on the album New Gods on Slumberland Records. Download the song for free as part of the Slumberland Records 25th Anniversary Sampler on Amazon MP3.
The Super Medusa song is on the EP of the same name, which is available for free download at Bandcamp.

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