Ye Olde Hit Parade: Tinseltown Swimming in Blood

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).

2017: Destroyer - Tinseltown Swimming in Blood

I'm almost caught up here. In 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. It's still kind of unbelievable. Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots star tight end who was in jail for murder, was found hanged in his prison cell. There were more mass shootings throughout the year, including one in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and injured almost 500.

More celebrity deaths including Mary Tyler Moore, Don Rickles, Roger Moore, Adam West, Roy Halladay, Malcolm Young and Charles Manson. But the big ones for me were Gord Downie and Chris Cornell, two musical heroes of mine. Downie succumbed in October to brain cancer, but not before releasing one last solo album that he worked on in the last year of his life with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene. Cornell committed suicide after a May Soundgarden concert, although there was much speculation whether the medication he was on contributed to it. Whatever the case, it was a case of two musical geniuses taken way before their time.

On the personal front, we took a long-awaited European vacation over a few weeks in the summer, going to London, Paris, Belfast (where my brother was living at the time) and Dublin. We did a lot of touristy stuff, as you can imagine, and had an incredible time. It was a little nerve-wracking before we got over there because there were several terrorist attacks in London and Paris in the weeks leading up to our trip. Fortunately, nothing happened while we there, but the increased security presence definitely kept it on our minds.

Musically, I was listening to a lot of Soundgarden and Tragically Hip after the deaths of Cornell and Downie, but there was also plenty of great new music: Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile (who teamed up on an album), the Afghan Whigs, Mark Lanegan Band, Downie, St. Vincent, METZ, Queens of the Stone Age, Ted Leo, Boss Hog, The War on Drugs, LCD Soundsystem, Protomartyr, Ron Gallo and Pile, among many others.

Concerts included Bash & Pop/So So Glos, Los Campesinos!, Midnight Oil, Meat Puppets/Mike Watt/Grant Hart, Iron Maiden, Mark Lanegan Band, Oh Sees, Paul Weller, The Breeders, Hot Snakes/Savak and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists/Bill Janovitz.



In a year where I didn't have an obvious favorite song, I'm going with Destroyer's "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood." Basically a one-man show courtesy of Dan Bejar, Destroyer has spent the last several years exploring '80s sounds. On the 2017 album ken, he embraces a darker synth-pop sound that's reminiscent of Depeche Mode or New Order. There are also jazzier passages that call back to 2011's Kaputt, gliding along while Bejar sings of paranoia and disillusionment. "Tinseltown" has a real noir feel as it details moral decay in Hollywood. Just a cool breeze of a song.

Honorable mentions: The Afghan Whigs - "Demon in Profile"; The New Pornographers - "High Ticket Attractions"; Ron Gallo - "Kill the Medicine Man"; Cloud Nothings - "Enter Entirely"; Japandroids - "North East South West"; Snowball II - "CR-VUC"; Melkbelly - "Off the Lot"; Ty Segall - "Break a Guitar"; Ride - "Charm Assault"; Slowdive - "Star Roving"; Bash & Pop - "Anything Could Happen"; Spoon - "Can I Sit Next to You"; Los Campesinos! - "I Broke Up in Amarante"; Pile - "Texas"; The Feelies - "Gone, Gone, Gone"; At the Drive-In - "No Wolf Like the Present"; Boss Hog - "Ground Control"; Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - "Over Everything"; Waxahatchee - "Silver"; Mark Lanegan Band - "Drunk on Destruction"; Nine Inch Nails - "Less Than"; Wolf Parade - "Valley Boy"; White Reaper - "Party Next Door"; Lo Tom - "Overboard"; Palehound - "Carnations"; Alvvays - "In Undertow"; Ted Leo - "You're Like Me"; Infinity Girl - "The Winner Always Talks"; EMA - "I Wanna Destroy"; A Giant Dog - "Fake Plastic Trees"; METZ - "Mr. Plague"; Protomartyr - "My Children"; Gord Downie - "Love Over Money"; St. Vincent - "Masseduction"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Head Like a Haunted House"; Oh Sees - "Nite Expo"; Destroyer - "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood"; The War on Drugs - "Knocked Down"; LCD Soundsystem - "Emotional Haircut"; Bruno Mars - "That's What I Like"   

Completely Conspicuous 471: Continental Divide

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

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

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

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #182: July 14, 2017

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

The bumbling yet brilliant playlist:

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

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