Stuck In Thee Garage #158: December 30, 2016

And that was some kinda crazy-ass year. But through all the insanity, it was a pretty spectacular year for indie rock. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played two hours of great songs from 2016. And in fact, there was so much good stuff that next week's show will feature even more of my '016 faves.

The strangely great playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Mac McCaughan - Happy New Year (Prince Can't Die Again)/Single
Radiohead - Burn the Witch/A Moon Shaped Pool
The I Don't Cares - King of America/Wild Stab
Used Cassettes - President/Rock n Rills
Bob Mould - The End of Things/Patch the Sky
Dinosaur Jr. - Goin Down/Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not
Descendents - Comeback Kid/Hypercaffium Spazzinate
Savages - The Answer/Adore Life
Beach Slang - Future Mixtape for the Art Kids/A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
Car Seat Headrest - Fill in the Blank/Teens of Denial
Preoccupations - Zodiac/Preoccupations
Black Mountain - Cemetery Breeding/IV
Gord Downie - The Only Place to Be/Secret Path
Living Colour - Who Shot Ya/Who Shot Ya
Drive-By Truckers - Surrender Under Protest/American Band
PJ Harvey - Ministry of Defence/The Hope Six Demolition Project
Hallelujah the Hills - I'm in the Phone Book, I'm on the Planet, I'm Dying Slowly/A Band is Something to Figure Out

Hour 2
David Bowie - Sue (In a Season of Crime)/Blackstar
Iggy Pop - In the Lobby/Post Pop Depression
The Tragically Hip - Hot Mic/Man Machine Poem
PUP - DVP/The Dream is Over
Jeff Rosenstock - Perfect Sound Whatever/WORRY.
Parquet Courts - Berlin Got Blurry/Human Performance
Mitski - Your Best American Girl/Puberty 2
Angel Olsen - Shut Up Kiss Me/My Woman
Kristin Hersh - Hemingway's Tell/Wyatt at the Coyote Palace
TUNS - Back Among Friends/Tuns
Split Single - Still Invisible/Metal Frames
Teenage Fanclub - Thin Air/Here
Real Numbers - Just So Far Away/Wordless Wonder
Terry Malts - Won't Come to Find You/Lost at the Party
A Giant Dog - Sleep When Dead/Pile
Ty Segall - Candy Sam/Emotional Mugger
Thee Oh Sees - Ticklish Warrior/A Weird Exits

Completely Conspicuous 452: The Honor Roll

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2016. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- We are not Moviefone
- Rough year for musician deaths
- Trump's top 3 albums
- The return of protest music?
- Clicky Clicky HQ is fully Alexa-ized
- The kids love the vinyl (well, the hipsters do, anyway)
- Albums are back, sort of
- Crowdfunding albums is becoming more prevalent
- Breitling's bubbling under albums: A Giant Dog, Thin Lips, Bent Shapes, Yr Poetry, Pinegrove, Horse Jumper of Love, Guillermo Sexo, California Snow Story
- Kumar's: Used Cassettes, Savages, Dino Jr., Radiohead, Split Single, Preoccupations, Descendents, Johnny Foreigner, Terry Malts, Hallelujah the Hills, Kristin Hersh, I Don't Cares, Nick Cave, Gord Downie, PJ Harvey
- Downie teamed with comics artist Jeff Lemire on combo album/graphic novel
- Breitling's #10
- Cold Pumas back with a hot new release
- Kumar's #10
- Possibly the last Tragically Hip album
- Different sound courtesy of producers Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin
- Breitling's #9
- Boston's Strange Passage reminds of early Ride
- 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. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #157: December 23, 2016

It's been a long, strange year. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I try to forget about all that and get into the spirit of the season with Christmas songs in hour 1, followed by an hour of newer indie rock. Crank it up and throw a little extra booze in the egg nog. You're gonna need it.

Is this the playlist? Oh wait, it's an eviction notice:

Hour 1: Xmas rock
Artist - Song/Album
The Aux - Ode to Loonmas/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 2
Lee Preston - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 2
Lilith - That Was the Worst Christmas Ever/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 2
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody/Merry Xmas Everybody
The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)/Brain Drain
The Kinks - Father Christmas/Father Christmas
James Brown - Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto/Single
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects/It's a Holiday Soul Party
Pearl Jam - Someday at Christmas/2004 Christmas Single
Gruff Rhys - Post Apocalypse Christmas/Atheist Xmas
Clap Your Hands Say Year - In This Home on Ice/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Minus 5 - Your Christmas Whiskey/Oh Santa!
Jesse Malin and the St. Marks Social - All the Way from Moscow/Love It to Life
Bicentennial Bear - All I Want for Christmas (is an Afghan Whigs Reunion)/A Very Ohio Christmas
Sloan - Kids Come Back Again at Christmas/Kids Come Back Again at Christmas
Ron Sexsmith - Something to Hold On To (at Christmas)/Redeye 2008 Holiday Sampler
Calexico - Gift X-Change/Aerocalexico
Apples in Stereo - Holiday Mood/Redeye 2008 Holiday Sampler
Sloan - December 25/Kids Come Back Again at Christmas

Hour 2
Hellrazor - Horrified/Post-Trash Vol. 2
Super Unison - Broken/Auto
Connections - Kate/Midnight Run
Doubles - Plant/Plant
Think No Think - Start a War/Silent City
Menace Beach - Maybe We'll Drown/Lemon Memory
Sonny Knight and the Lakers - It Had to Change/Sooner or Later
Margaret Glaspy - Emotions and Math/Emotions and Math
Dude York - Black Jack/Sincerely
Cherry Glazerr - Nurse Ratched/Apocalipstick
Crying - Revive/Beyond the Fleeting Gales
Young Mammals - Heavenly/Jaguar
Snow Roller - Kar Kar Binks/What's the Score
The Wedding Present - Secretary/Going, Going...
Kristin Hersh - Sun Blown/Wyatt at the Coyote Palace
Julie Doiron - Thought of You/Greville Tapes, Vol. 2
David Bowie - No Plan/Lazarus
Gord Downie - Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them/Secret Path

 

Completely Conspicuous 451: Reeling in the Years, 1990 (Part 3)

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1990. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output
- Jay's #3 album of 1990
- Public Enemy was controversial
- Homophobia was pervasive back then, especially in hip hop
- PE scared white America
- Brian's #3
- They Might Be Giants was in the middle of a classic run of albums
- Song-a-Day Hotline
- Jay's #2
- After a decade of weirdness, Neil Young re-established himself as a rock icon
- Took Sonic Youth and Social D on the road
- Brian's #1 and Jay's #5
- Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly teamed up
- Deal stepped out of Black Francis' shadow
- Brian's #2
- Pixies release their surfiest album
- When 3/4 of Pixies crossed paths with some interesting neighbors
- Jay's #1
- Jane's Addiction's tour de force
- Scored an accidental video and radio hit with "Been Caught Stealing"
- Starts out fast and punchy, ends with side 2 of long, epic songs
- Perry Farrell's transition from out-of-control rock freak to hippie uncle
- One more year to go: 1991

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. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 450: Reeling in the Years, 1990 (Part 2)

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1990. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output
- Albums that just missed our top 5 of the year
- Alice in Chains inspired a ton of copycat acts
- World Party paid homage to many influences
- Brian was a big Pantera fan in high school
- Social Distortion's classic era
- Living Colour came into their own with second album
- Warren Zevon teamed up with the non-Stipe members of R.E.M. to do a covers album
- Elektra comp Rubaiyat featured unlikely covers
- Mark Lanegan's first solo album established his dark bluesy side
- Ride was on the crest of the shoegaze wave
- Brian's #5
- Ween established their eclectic reputation
- The strange journey of Sim Cain
- Jay's #4
- Fugazi at the peak of their powers
- Brian's #4
- Primus at their least jokey
- 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. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #156: December 16, 2016

People have been cursing 2016 essentially since it began, as one iconic musician after another passed away. That's not to say famous musicians don't die every year, but it just seemed particularly frequent this year. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played music from some of the artists we lost in 2016 and it didn't feel like a sad exercise at all. Just enjoyment of some pretty damn great music.

The fashionably rocking playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Kindling - Blinding Wave/Everywhere Else
The Wedding Present - Two Bridges/Going, Going...
Skyjelly - Seamagnet/Blank Panther - Priest, Expert, or Wizard
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Rings of Saturn/Skeleton Tree
Fond Han - Ughed/Ughed
AJJ - Cody's Theme/The Bible 2
New Fries - Bring the Pressure Washer (BTPW)/More
Kristin Hersh - Detox/Wyatt at the Coyote Palace
PJ Harvey - The Community of Hope/The Hope Six Demolition Project
Gord Downie - Swing Set/Secret Path
Bueno - I Feel So Raw/Illuminate Your Room
Band Aparte - Into the Window/Memory on Trial
Used Cassettes - Whip of the Master/Rock n Rills
Rick Rude - Sierra L'Mist/Make Mine Tuesday
Carl Sagan's Skate Shoes - Sundance Kid/Carl Sagan's Skate Shoes
Mannequin Pussy - Pledge/Romantic
Petite League - No Hitter/No Hitter

Hour 2: In memoriam
Prince - Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)/1999
Prince - Controversy/Controversy
Prince - Thieves in the Temple/Graffiti Bridge
Parliament - Flash Light/Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome
Earth, Wind and Fire - Mighty Mighty/Open Our Eyes
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Money/I Learned the Hard Way
A Tribe Called Quest - Check the Rhime/The Low End Theory
Motorhead - Dead Men Tell No Tales/Bomber
Motorhead - Live to Win/Ace of Spades
Motorhead - No Voices in the Sky/1916
Dio - Holy Diver/Holy Diver
David Bowie - Queen Bitch/Hunky Dory
David Bowie - D.J./Lodger
David Bowie - Slow Burn/Heathen

Completely Conspicuous 449: Reeling in the Years, 1990 (Part 1)

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1990. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output
- Things are getting weird
- The Decline of Western Civilization docs are fascinating
- In 1990, Jay was 22-23 and Brian was 8
- The '90s were still kicking off
- Pivotal events were still yet to happen
- Stevie Ray Vaughan died young
- 2 Live Crew came to prominence
- Oh, Milli Vannilli
- Disposable pop seemed to fade for a while
- Hammer and Vanilla Ice
- Madonna: Publicity generator
- Metal was tailing off after a strong decade
- Hip hop was getting stronger
- New Jack Swing was the thing
- Alternative rock was paving the way for Nirvana's breakthrough
- Pop charts were topped by the likes of Wilson Phillips and Roxette
- Sinead O' Connor's wild year
- Bands formed: Bikini Kill, Cracker, Body Count, Spin Doctors
- What about Tool?
- Broke up: Death of Samantha, Game Theory, Starship
- 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. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #155: December 9, 2016

We live in a confusing world. Increasingly, it makes less and less sense. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about confusion in hour 2. So sit back, pop on the cans and enjoy.

The dazed and confused playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Cherry Glazerr - Told You I'd Be With the Guys/Apocalipstick
Jeff Rosenstock - HELLLLHOOOOLE/WORRY.
AJJ - Goodbye, Oh Goodbye/The Bible 2
Childish Gambino - Have Some Love/Awaken, My Love!
Wedding Present - Rachel/Going, Going...
The Pooches - Another Evening, Another Town/The Pooches
Kristin Hersh - Soma Gone Slapstick/Wyatt at the Coyote Palace
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Anthrocene/The Skeleton Tree
Kingdom of the Holy Sun - Flown Away/At the Gates of Dawn
The Spook School - Sometimes I Hide from Everybody/Continental Drift
Split Single - Perilous Pill/Metal Frames
Jacuzzi Boys - Can't Fight Forever/Ping Pong
The Peep Tempel - Don't Race/Joy
Muuy Bien - Sike Song/Age of Uncertainty
Fatal Jamz - Coverboy/Pussy & Fame
Wyatt Blair - Cherry Pie/Point of No Return
The Needy Sons - The Wheels are Taking Care of the Road/Vis-a-Vis

Hour 2: Confusion
Superchunk - Driveway to Driveway/Foolish
The Replacements - Merry Go Round/All Shook Down
Pixies - Where Is My Mind?/Surfer Rosa
Joy Division - She's Lost Control/Unknown Pleasures
Parquet Courts - Fall on Yr Face/Tally All the Things That You Broke
Spacemen 3 - The Sound of Confusion/Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs to
Lou Reed - Sad Song/Berlin
The Beatles - Yer Blues/The White Album
Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic/Toys in the Attic
Black Sabbath - Wheels of Confusion/Vol. 4
Husker Du - Eight Miles High/Eight Miles High
Black Flag - Damaged II/Damaged
Butthole Surfers - Who Was In My Room Last Night?/Independent Worm Saloon

Stuck In Thee Garage #154: December 2, 2016

The history of rock music is chock full of love songs, but there are plenty of songs about love gone wrong as well. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about infidelity in hour 2. Nothing from the soundtrack of "Indecent Proposal," though.

The million-dollar playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Sad13 - Less Than 2/Slugger
Kristin Hersh - Green Screen/Wyatt at the Coyote Palace
New Fries - Mary Poppins' Pockets/More
Swampmeat - Brand New Cadillac/Gin & Tonic
AJJ - Golden Eagle/The Bible 2
STRFKR - Open Your Eyes/Being No One, Going Nowhere
Bread & Butter - Desperation/Desperation
Plastic Pinks - My Frenzy State/El Animal
Beach Slang - Hot Tramps/A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
Ultimate Painting - Bills/Dusk
The Afghan Whigs - Regret/Black Love (20th Anniversary Reissue)
Preoccupations - Stimulation/Preoccupations
Bloodhounds on My Trail - Places Like This/The Haunted Isle EP
Blonde Redhead - Mama Cita/Masculine Feminine box set
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath/Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Metallica - Hardwired/Hardwired....to Self-Destruct

Hour 2: Infidelity
Pixies - Bone Machine/Surfer Rosa
The Lemonheads - Second Chance/Hate Your Friends
Grinderman - Get It On/Grinderman
Rollins Band - You Didn't Need/The End of Silence
St. Vincent - Chloe in the Afternoon/Strange Mercy
The Fiery Furnaces - Worry Worry/Gallowsbird's Bark
Sleater-Kinney - One More Hour/Dig Me Out
The White Stripes - Jolene/The Peel Sessions 7/25/01
Drive-By Truckers - My Sweet Annette/Decoration Day
Led Zeppelin - Your Time is Gonna Come/Led Zeppelin
Sloan - Backstabbin'/Action Pact
R.E.M. - Star 69/Monster
Public Image Ltd. - Disappointed/9
The Who - I Can See For Miles/The Who Sell Out
Nine Inch Nails - Terrible Lie/Pretty Hate Machine
Van Halen - One Foot Out the Door/Fair Warning
Tony Molina - Banshee/Confront the Truth