Stuck In Thee Garage #181: June 23, 2017

We spend most of the year pining for summer to come. And then when it's here, we complain that it's too damn hot. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs for summer in hour 2. Summer is a time for adventure, like that time when you and your buddy partied with that dead dude all weekend.

Check out the playlist before rigor mortis sets in:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Queens of the Stone Age - The Way You Used to Do/Villains
The Black Angels - Currency/Death Song
B Boys - Another Thing/Dada
Superchunk - Up Against the Wall/I Got Cut
Milked - Goodbye Durango/Death on Mars
Rips - Delay/Rips
Palehound - Carnations/A Place I'll Always Go
Rainer Maria - Lower Worlds/S/T
Land of Talk - What Was I Thinking/Life After Youth
Girlpool - Kiss and Burn/Powerplant
Benjamin Booker - Off the Ground/Witness
Swet Shop Boys - Birding/Sufi La
Palm - Walkie Talkie/Shadow Expert
Lo Tom - Another Mistake/Lo Tom
Wavves - You're Welcome/You're Welcome
Mark Lanegan Band - Blue Blue Sea/Gargoyle
Chastity Belt - 5 am/I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone

Hour 2: Summah
Pavement - Summer Babe (Winter Edition)/Slanted and Enchanted
Johnny Foreigner - Feels Like Summer/Grace and the Bigger Picture
Ween - Chocolate Town/Quebec
Led Zeppelin - Tangerine/Led Zeppelin III
Max Webster - Summer's Up/Live in Ottawa 11/11/77
Blue Oyster Cult - This Ain't the Summer of Love/Agents of Fortune
The Amps - Tipp City/Pacer
Bad Brains - Sailin' On/Bad Brains
Queens of the Stone Age - Feel Good Hit of the Summer/Rated R
Art Brut - Sound of Summer/It's a Bit Complicated
Paul Weller - Roll Along Summer/As Is Now
Yo La Tengo - The Summer/Fakebook
Velvet Crush - Weird Summer/Teenage Symphonies to God
Ryan Adams - When the Summer Ends/1984 (Paxam Single Series Vol. 1)
Soul Asylum - Summer of Drugs/Sweet Relief (Benefit for Victoria Williams)
The Afghan Whigs - Summer's Kiss/Black Love
The Tragically Hip - Summer's Killing Us/In Between Evolution
Jane's Addiction - Summertime Rolls/Nothing's Shocking
Jeff Rosenstock - June 21st/WORRY.

Completely Conspicuous 470: First and Foremost

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the year so far. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- JB: The Orb released a remix EP
- JK: The prolific Ty Segall does it again
- JB: Vagabon brings fresh take to indie rock
- JK: Boss Hog's first album in 17 years
- JB: The evolving sound of Spoon
- JK: The consistently excellent New Pornographers back with another winner
- JB: Juana Molina returns with a strong, out there release
- JK: Mark Lanegan incorporates electronic music into his sound
- JB: Snowball II with a release that recalls The Lilys
- JK: Afghan Whigs release their best record since reuniting
- JB: Tommy Stinson brings back Bash & Pop with hooks galore
- JB: Slowdive's reunion album gives the people what they want

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.

Completely Conspicuous 469: Listen Up

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the year so far. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- Plenty of great rock music, but not on the charts
- It's all about playing live; rock radio exposure is nonexistent
- Billy Squier still gets the airplay
- Nobody's figured out how to make money from streaming music
- Get pumped for Husker Du bootleg box set
- More rock deaths: Berry, Cornell, Allman, Geils
- Rise in musical activism
- Albums we want to hear
- Breitling: Ride, Palehound, Wet Trident
- Kumar: Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett, Ted Leo, Buffalo Tom, Queens of the Stone Age, Deer Tick, LCD Soundsystem
- Bubbling under albums
- Breitling: Tara Jane O'Neil, Opin, The xx
- Lubec's coming to Boston in August
- Kumar: Chastity Belt, Bash and Pop, Cloud Nothings, White Reaper, At the Drive-In, Black Lips
- Our favorite albums so far
- JB: Spirit of the Beehive combines psych and shoegaze
- JK: Run the Jewels keeps on rolling
- Zach de la Rocha's hardcore past
- JB: Yr Poetry is a Johnny Foreigner side project
- JK: Japandroids bring the rock anthems
- JB: Different sound for Pile
- JK: More anthems from Los Campesinos!
- Cello vs. violin
- To be continued

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 #180: June 16, 2017

Even though time doesn't actually move any faster than it ever did, it feels like the years are flying by. How is it possible that 2007 was an entire decade ago? It was the tail end of George W. Bush's second term as president, people still cared what Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan did and the Sopranos finale had everyone talking. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 2007 in hour 2 and the results were pretty, pretty good.

The superbad playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Deer Tick - It's a Whale/Deer Tick, Volume 2
Superchunk - I Got Cut/Single
Rips - Damaged/Rips
Land of Talk - Heartcore/Life After Youth
Chastity Belt - Complain/I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone
Hovvdy - Problem/Taster
Two Inch Astronaut - Snitch Jacket/Can You Please Not Help
Lo Tom - Overboard/Overboard
Young Guv - Traumatic/Single
Neil - Not a Love Song/Black Flowers
Horse Jumper of Love - Spaceman/Horse Jumper of Love
Gothic Tropic - Major/Fast or Feast
Clustersun - Raw Nerve/Surfacing to Breathe
Christian Fitness - Footballers Have Feelings Too/Slap Bass Hunks
White Reaper - Judy French/The World's Best American Band
Boss Hog - Rodeo Chica/Brood X
Cloud Nothings - Up to the Surface/Life Without Sound

Hour 2: 2007
Radiohead - Bodysnatchers/In Rainbows
Of Montreal - Suffer for Fashion/Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Bloc Party - Hunting for Witches/A Weekend in the City
Arcade Fire - Black Mirror/Neon Bible
Grinderman - Depth Charge Ethel/Grinderman
Queens of the Stone Age - Sick, Sick, Sick/Era Vulgaris
El-P - Flyentology/I'll Sleep When You're Dead
Modest Mouse - Dashboard/We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Marnie Stern - Vibrational Match/In Advance of the Broken Arm
Joel Plaskett Emergency - Drunk Teenagers/Ashtray Rock
Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm/Favourite Worst Nightmare
Dinosaur Jr. - Been There All the Time/Beyond
The White Stripes - Bone Broke/Icky Thump
Les Savy Fav - Pots and Pans/Let's Stay Friends
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Down Boy/Is Is
M.I.A. - Paper Planes/Kala

Completely Conspicuous 468: Dig for Fire (Ween-Sloan, part 3)

Part 3 of my conversation with Brian Salvatore about musical blindspots. Brian listens to another Sloan album while I check out a third record from Ween. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
-Win-win situation
- Brian had Sloan's "The Double Cross" and Jay had Ween's "Quebec"
- Brian: My favorite of the three I listened to
- Beatles comparisons
- Brian will go back and check out rest of Sloan catalog
- No solo albums, but Murphy had TUNS project
- Jay: Really enjoyed Quebec
- Most cohesive of the three Ween albums Jay heard
- Dean and Gene were dealing with some issues
- "If You Could Save Yourself (You'd Save Us All)" is an epic album closer
- Next up: Jay will listen to Frank Zappa and Brian will check out Iron Maiden

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.

Completely Conspicuous 467: Dig for Fire (Ween vs. Sloan, part 2)

Part 2 of my conversation with Brian Salvatore about musical blindspots. Brian listens to another Sloan album while I check out a second record from Ween. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Brian: Impressed with the progression of Sloan's sound
- Jay: Hadn't heard anything from The Mollusk previously
- Plenty of genre jumping
- Nautical theme
- Elements of prog, psych
- Brian: My favorite Ween record
- Ween varies playlists from show to show
- Brian: Between the Bridges is steeped in the '70s: Big Star, Sweet, T. Rex, Fleetwood Mac
- Interesting sequencing and flow
- Confusing the title with Between the Buttons
- Last Sloan album gave each band member a side's worth of songs
- Brian: Almost exclusively listen to albums in full
- Jay: Will listen to albums, but also use shuffle mode on iPod
- Brian: Also listen to a lot of music on Spotify
- Next up: Quebec for Jay, The Double Cross for Brian

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 #179: June 2, 2017

Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega died this week at the age of 83. He was notorious as the military dictator of Panama for much of the 1980s, but when U.S. forces invaded the country and apprehended him in 1989, he holed up in the Vatican embassy. The Americans then blasted loud rock music at him for three days as part of their attempt to drive him out of the embassy. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played music to roust a dictator with in hour 2 of the show. Things got loud.

This playlist should be cranked up to 11:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Two Inch Astronaut - Can You Please Not Help/Can You Please Not Help
Chastity Belt - Stuck/I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone
Girlpool - Sleepless/Powerplant
Black Lips - Come Ride With Me/Satan's Graffiti or God's Art?
A Tribe Called Quest - Ego/We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service
Run the Jewels - Thursday in the Danger Room (feat. Kamasi Washington)/RTJ3
The New Pornographers - Clockwise/Whiteout Conditions
Spiral Stairs - The Unconditional/Doris and the Daggers
Deep State - Idiot Waster/Thought Garden
The Wedding Present - Kill Devil Hills/Going, Going...
Clustersun - Antagonize Me/Surfacing to Breathe
Froth - Briefly/Outside (briefly)
Baked - Stuck at Iron Mountain/Farnham
At the Drive-In - Tilting at the Univendor/inter-alia
Dead Moon - Walking on My Grave/What a Way to See the Old Girl Go
Mastodon - Word to the Wise/Emperor of Sand

Hour 2: Anti-Dictator Machine
Jane's Addiction - Mountain Song/Nothing's Shocking
Beastie Boys - No Sleep Till Brooklyn/Licensed to Ill
Beck - High 5 (Rock the Catskills)/Odelay
Fu Manchu - Evil Eye/The Action is Go!
Black Sabbath - Supernaut/Vol. 4
Soundgarden - Loud Love/Louder Than Love
The Stooges - T.V. Eye/Fun House
Big Chief - Locked Out/Platinum Jive
The Posies - Hate Song/Amazing Disgrace
Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights/You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
Sonic Youth - Youth Against Fascism/Dirty
Future of the Left - Arming Eritrea/Travels With Myself and Another
Funkadelic - Super Stupid/Maggot Brain
Bad Brains - Big Take Over/Big Brains
Van Halen - Atomic Punk/Van Halen

Completely Conspicuous 466: Dig for Fire (Ween vs. Sloan, part 1)

This week, Brian Salvatore and I talk about delving into the catalog of bands we don't know much about. Brian will learn about Sloan while I dig into Ween. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Each of us picks a favorite artist of the other that we don't know much about
- Jay listened to Ween's Chocolate and Cheese, Brian listened to Sloan's Twice Removed
- Both 1994 releases
- Both of us had heard a few songs before
- Jay: First heard Ween on Beavis and Butt-head, wrote them off as novelty act
- Brian: Twice Removed starts off strong, flows well
- Big power pop vibe
- The album that got Sloan dropped by Geffen
- Each band member writes and sings
- Were signed as part of the alternative explosion of the early '90s
- Self-release most of their albums now
- No indie rock radio stations anymore
- Jay: Chocolate and Cheese is great fun
- Wide range of styles, from funk to psychedelic to just weird
- Great guitar work from Dean Ween
- First Ween album done in a studio
- Walking the fine line between funny and stupid
- Phish has covered "Roses are Free"
- Ween plays jam band festivals sometimes
- Next up: The Mollusk for Jay, Between the Bridges for Brian

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 #178: May 26, 2017

It's never easy for music fans when you lose an icon. Unfortunately, we've had a lot of practice lately so we're getting good at dealing with the loss. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I paid tribute to the late Chris Cornell in hour 2. There was plenty of good stuff to choose from, and I tried to pick songs that haven't been overplayed on rock radio these last 25 years or so. Including a few selections from this movie:

This playlist is looking California, feeling Minnesota:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Girlpool - It Gets More Blue/Powerplant
Loose Tooth - Day Old Glory/Big Day
Black Lips - We Know/Satan's Graffiti or God's Art?
White Reaper - Party Next Door/The World's Best American Band
Top Down - Drink Forever/Rough Roads
Christian Fitness - Nobody Likes a Snitch/Slap Bass Hunks
The Cairo Gang - Real Enough to Believe/Untouchable
Eyelids - Falling Eyes/Or
Cende - What I Want/#1 Hit Single
Spoon - Tear It Down/Hot Thoughts
The Mountain Goats - Rain in Soho/Goths
Mark Lanegan Band - Drunk on Destruction/Gargoyle
The Afghan Whigs - Copernicus/In Spades
Horse Jumper of Love - Dirt/Horse Jumper of Love
Imaginary People - Half Step/October Alice
Thee Oh Sees - You Will Find It Here/An Odd Entrances

Hour 2: Cornell
Soundgarden - New Damage/Badmotorfinger
Chris Cornell - Birth Ritual/Singles soundtrack deluxe edition
Chris Cornell - Seasons/Singles soundtrack deluxe edition
Soundgarden - Head Injury/Ultramega OK
Soundgarden - Gun/Louder Than Love
Audioslave - Cochise/Audioslave
Chris Cornell - Flutter Girl/Euphoria Morning
Temple of the Dog - Call Me a Dog/Temple of the Dog
Soundgarden - Into the Void (Sealth)/Rusty Cage single
Alice in Chains - Right Turn/Sap
M.A.C.C. - Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun)/Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
Temple of the Dog - All Night Thing/Temple of the Dog

Completely Conspicuous 465: New Damage

This week, I talk to guest Brian Salvatore about the legacy of the late Chris Cornell. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Brian: Was never a huge fan of Cornell's early singing style
- Rediscovered his love for Soundgarden in recent years
- Jay: First heard him when Temple of the Dog came out in '91, then got Badmotorfinger
- The greatness of Mother Love Bone
- Soundgarden was perfect bridge between '80s hard rock and the new sounds of the '90s
- Jay: Saw Soundgarden in small club in early '92 and then again a few months later at Lollapalooza
- Kim Thayil's guitar playing complemented Cornell's voice well
- Jason Everman, the Zelig of grunge
- The diverse nature of the Seattle acts of the '90s
- The pressure of being the "responsible one"
- Cornell's final tweets were upbeat
- Hard to read into his lyrics
- Most of Cornell's songs were dark
- His death hit hard because he was ours
- Feels like more '70s touring acts have more living members than '90s bands
- The drugs were more prevalent in the '70s and '80s, but the '90s acts paid the price
- Cornell's first solo album Euphoria Morning is really good
- Less impressed with Audioslave
- Soundgarden leaves a terrific body of work

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.

Head Down

The spate of musician deaths in the last few years has been partially the result of age. So while it's been difficult to accept the loss of greats like Bowie and Lemmy and Chuck Berry, it's sort of understandable. What's tougher to deal with is when someone dies younger. Certainly, Prince's death was a surprise; at 57, it still seemed like he had a lot of years left. And then there are younger rockers who have died--like Cobain and Layne Staley--while shocking and sad, neither came as a surprise given the path they were on.

The death this week of Chris Cornell is tougher to take. At 52, he was still relatively young and vital. And really, of all the big stars of his generation, he seemed to have his shit together. Obviously, it's come out in the last day that police believe Cornell may have committed suicide, and that he's battled depression throughout his life. Still, he always seemed so with it, especially compared to contemporaries like Cobain, Staley, Andrew Wood, Shannon Hoon, Scott Weiland, etc. If you were to tell me a 50something rock star just died but made me guess who, it would have taken me quite a while before I guessed Cornell. He was always supremely confident and really, a guy who had it all: talent, looks, family, success.

I first learned about Cornell after reading a Rolling Stone review of the Temple of the Dog album in the spring of 1991. I was unfamiliar with Soundgarden at the time, but after picking up the TOTD CD, I was quickly sold on the band, especially Cornell's powerful vocals. Later that year, I bought Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and was bowled over by the monster riffs, the general dark aesthetic and the way it was so much better than all the hair metal crap that was being released at the time. It came out a few months after Nevermind and Ten, but it was the first of that trio that I owned.

Soundgarden was the bridge between the hard rock I grew up on and the alternative rock I grew to prefer. They were able to straddle those worlds, touring with Guns N Roses and Skid Row pre-"Smells Like Teen Spirit" and then firmly ensconced in the alternative world after that. A big reason for that was Cornell, who was the Robert Plant of his generation: handsome, charismatic and in possession of THAT VOICE. He stood in stark contrast to his angst-ridden peers; unlike Cobain, Vedder, et al, Cornell seemed to be perfectly comfortable in the spotlight. He would be screeching at the top of his lungs on metallo-punk scorchers like "Beyond the Wheel" one minute and then crooning acoustic numbers like "Seasons" the next. And then he'd cover "Billie Jean" and do an album with Timbaland (the latter of which, admittedly, was ill-advised).

I saw Soundgarden three times: at Avalon in April 1992, at Lollapalooza a few months later and at Fitchburg State College in 1994. Cornell was a terrific live performer and sadly, I never saw him again. Soundgarden split up in 1997 and reunited a few years ago. In between, he released some solo albums (including 1999's excellent Euphoria Morning) and teamed up with 3/4 of Rage Against the Machine to form the ultimately disappointing Audioslave. I wish I'd caught one of the recent SG tours, but I never expected Cornell to be gone so soon.

Right now, we're dealing with grief and speculation. Why did he do it? His family says he wasn't depressed and wouldn't have committed suicide. I've seem some lame-ass articles analyzing his lyrics, but that doesn't really hold water. Cornell wrote about death and darkness his whole career; there was no sudden change in his attitude. But that's the thing about people with depression: it's possible for nobody else to know what they're thinking and how far they would go to deal with those feelings they may have. Somebody who may seem really on top of things could be in serious trouble, but others may have no idea. When Robin Williams took his own life three years ago, it was jarring and troubling, but he always had a pretty manic personality. Cornell always seemed so chill. Just goes to show you never really know what's going on in someone's head.

The other guys in Soundgarden have to be thrown for a loop right now. The band was in the middle of a tour and had been working on new music. And last November, Cornell did a tour with Temple of the Dog, the side project he created in 1991 to remember Andrew Wood. I watched an entire show from that tour on YouTube and Cornell was chatty, appreciative and in command. Certainly didn't seem like someone who was depressed. Even as recently as last Sunday, he posted a Mother's Day message to his wife that was very positive and upbeat. Looks can be deceiving, I guess.

There has been a lot of loss in the last two years. This one has hit me hard, just because he's from my generation and I've spent so much time over the last three decades digging his music. Hopefully, if we can get anything good out of Chris Cornell's death, it will be to encourage other folks dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts to get help before it's too late.