Forget That You're Young

Oh, hi there. It's been a while. I always get great ideas for posts and then I see a shiny object and suddenly, it's two weeks later. I've definitely been meaning to write a post about the great European vacation we took this summer, but wanted to get some photos ready and then...you know. Anyhoo, there I was today minding my own business and sifting through the mail when I saw something addressed to me that said it had a card enclosed. Figuring it was some sort of credit card offer, I opened it out of curiosity and pulled out this abomination:

The dreaded AARP card! It didn't come out of the blue. I'm three weeks away from the big 5-0 and I knew someday they'd start hitting me up to join. Still, it was a bit jarring to hold it in my hand. I mean, I'm not looking for senior discounts just yet. I know life is flying by as I see my girls get older and I notice my body getting creakier. But that doesn't mean I'm giving in to age just yet. I'm still running and working out and playing hockey and listening to the rock music and doing all the other stuff I've been doing for the last few decades. I don't need to certify my geezerdom by joining an association, especially one that my mom is an active member of.

And besides, I've got three whole weeks of my 40s left. Back off, oldsters! I've gotta live my life, which means doing stuff that those AARP buzzards wouldn't dream of, like cliff diving and mountain climbing and running with the bulls. But first, I need to get some sleep. Yeah.

Stuck In Thee Garage #188: August 25, 2017

Saying goodbye is never easy, but goodbyes can inspire plenty of art. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about goodbyes in hour 2.

This playlist should live long and prosper:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Ted Leo - You're Like Me/The Hanged Man
Downtown Boys - Lips That Bite/Cost of Living
Rainer Maria - Suicides and Lazy Eyes/Rainer Maria
The Church - Another Century/Man Woman Life Death Infinity
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Falling Apart So Slow/The Echo of Pleasure
Oh Sees - Jettison/Orc
Mark Lanegan Band - Beehive/Gargoyle
Beaches - September/Second of Spring
She Sir - Mirror, No (We're the Same)/Rival Island
Nine Inch Nails - The Lovers/Add Violence
Male Gaze - African Ripoff/Miss Taken
At the Drive-In - Continuum/inter-alia
Black Lips - We Know/Satan's Graffiti or God's Art?
Lo Tom - Covered Wagon/Lo Tom

Hour 2: Goodbye
Split Single - Last Goodbye/Fragmented World
Drive-By Truckers - Goodbye/A Blessing and a Curse
The Black Crowes - Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye/The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Mexican Slang - Goodbye/Demon
Tom Vek - I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes/We Have Sound
Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye/Grace
Soul Asylum - Endless Farewell/Hang Time
O Positive - Say Goodbye/Only Breathing-Cloud Factory
Ty Segall - Wave Goodbye/Slaughterhouse
Ozzy Osbourne - Goodbye to Romance/Blizzard of Ozz
Grinderman - Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man/Grinderman 2
Queens of the Stone Age - Long Slow Goodbye/Lullabies to Paralyze
Van Halen - Happy Trails/Diver Down

Completely Conspicuous 473: Dig for Fire (Maiden-Zappa, Part 2)

This week, Brian Salvatore and I discuss more musical blindspots. Brian will learn about Iron Maiden while I dig into Frank Zappa. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Brian listened to Number of the Beast, Jay listened to Apostrophe
- Brian: No surprises on Number of the Beast
- Familiar with half the album
- Liked the fast and heavy stuff, not the slower songs
- Jay: This was my introduction to Maiden
- The transition to more epic material
- Ozzy transcended the metal downturn of the '90s
- The power of album covers, good and bad
- The beginning of Maiden's prime
- Jay: Apostrophe was Zappa's 18th album
- "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" was a hit
- More straightahead rock than jazz fusion
- Memorable songs: Cosmik Debris, Uncle Remus, St. Alfonzo's Pancake  Breakfast
- Zappa live albums are different experiences
- High-level playing countered by sometimes dumb lyrics
- Zappa pioneered sampling and recording techniques
- Next up: Sheik Yerbouti for Jay, Somewhere in Time 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 #187: August 18, 2017

We spend much of our lives avoiding or getting stuck in various types of traps, whether they're emotional, physical or mental. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about getting trapped or stuck in hour 2.

Admiral Ackbar would approve.

The playlist lure would prove too great:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Anymore/The Echo of Pleasure
Beaches - Void/Second of Spring
Sheer Mag - Meet Me in the Street/Need to Feel Your Love
Living Colour - Come On/Shade
Sweet Spirit - Pamela/St. Mojo
Jen Cloher - Shoegazers/Jen Cloher
Benjamin Gibbard - What You Do to Me/Bandwagonesque
Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs - Tough/Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs
Daniel & the Real Feels - Wreckin'/Classic Entertainment
Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires - Underneath the Sheets of White Noise/Youth Detention
Deap Vally - Grunge Bond/Femejism Unplugged
Ruby Fray - Honor/Honor
Great Grandpa - Fade/Plastic Cough
Waxahatchee - Hear You/Out In the Storm
Girlpool - Static Somewhere/Powerplant
Turtlenecked - Lepers/Lepers
Rips - Damaged/Rips
Guided By Voices - Steppenwolf Mausoleum/How Do You Spell Heaven?

Hour 2: Trapped
Swervedriver - She Weaves a Tender Trap/99th Dream
Creepers - Stuck/Lush
Bullet Lavolta - Trapdoor/The Gift
Jay Reatard - Trapped Here/Matador Singles '08
The Black Lips - Trapped in a Basement/200 Million Thousand
Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet with Butterfly Wings/Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
White Reaper - Wolf Trap Hotel/White Reaper Does It Again
Craig Wedren - Stuck/Lapland
The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations/Boys and Girls in America
Stealers Wheel - Stuck in the Middle with You/Stealers Wheel 
Bob Dylan - Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again/Blonde on Blonde
R.E.M. - (Don't Go Back to) Rockville/Reckoning
Radio Birdman - Locked Up/Zeno Beach
The Dirtbombs - They Have Us Surrounded/We Have You Surrounded
The Afghan Whigs - What Jail is Like/Gentlemen

 

Stuck In Thee Garage #186: August 11, 2017

Let's face it, there are a lot of things in this world that can stress you out, not the least of which is the possibility of global thermonuclear war. Regardless of whether you take the current back and forth between our president and the leader of North Korea seriously, the mere possibility of nuclear missiles being fired is getting plenty of people a tad nervous. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about anxiety in hour 2.

I'm sure everyone in positions of power is as level-headed as this guy:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Chelsea Wolfe - 16 Psyche/Hiss Spun
Great Grandpa - Teen Challenge/Plastic Cough
Marika Hackman - Times Been Reckless/I'm Not Your Man
Living Colour - Program/Shade
Male Gaze - All Yours/Miss Taken
Guided By Voices - The Birthday Democrats/How Do You Spell Heaven?
Lee Ranaldo - New Thing/Electric Trim
She Sir - Private Party/Rival Island
Mhostly Ghostly - Bleed Over/A Faceless Fiction
Jesse Malin - Meet Me at the End of the World/Meet Me at the End of the World
Arkells - Knocking at the Door/Morning Report
Palm - Sign to Signal/Shadow Expert
Palehound - Flowing Over/A Place I'll Always Go
Milked - Caledonia/Death on Mars
Black Lips - Can't Hold On/Satan's Graffiti or God's Art?

Hour 2: Anxiety
David Bowie - Five Years/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds/With Teeth
Black Francis - Threshold Apprehension/Bluefinger
Titus Andronicus - Anxiety Block/Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape Vol. 1
Del Fuegos - Nervous and Shakey/The Longest Day
The Feelies - The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness/Crazy Rhythms
Peter Gabriel - Here Comes the Flood/Shaking the Tree: 16 Golden Greats
Interpol - Leif Erikson/Turn on the Bright Lights
Radiohead - Burn the Witch/A Moon Shaped Pool
Preoccupations - Anxiety/Preoccupations
VIDEO - Nothing Lasts Forever/The Entertainers
Black Beach - Nervous All the Time/Shallow Creatures
Sweethead - Mortal Panic/Mortal Panic EP
Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown/Nervous Breakdown EP
The Buzzcocks - Something's Gone Wrong Again/Singles Going Steady
The Clash - Four Horsemen/London Calling

Stuck In Thee Garage #185: August 4, 2017

Thirty-five years ago, the world was very different. Ronald Reagan was in his second year as president, MTV was still a fledgling cable station with a small audience and the Me Decade of the '70s had morphed into the Yuppie paradise of the '80s. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 1982 in hour 2. It's a pretty wide-ranging collection of songs.

From the playlists of Police Squad:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
The Afghan Whigs feat. James Hall - You Want Love/Single
Nine Inch Nails - Not Anymore/Add Violence EP
Broken Social Scene - Protest Song/Hug of Thunder
Guided By Voices - Just to Show You/How Do You Spell Heaven?
Cloud Control - Rainbow City/Single
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Altered Beast III/Murder of the Universe
Alvvays - In Undertow/Antisocialites
Jen Cloher - Forgot Myself/Jen Cloher
Moss Lime - I Always Get What I Want/Zoo Du Quebec
Ron Gallo - Put the Kids to Bed/Heavy Meta
Dead Stars - Pink Clouds/Perfect Patterns
White Reaper - Crystal Pistol/The World's Best American Band
Matthew Sweet - Trick/Live at KUTX
Lo Tom - Find the Shrine/Lo Tom
Top Down - Wanna Be Alone/Rough Roads
B Boys - Energy/Dada
Spoon - First Caress/Hot Thoughts
Chastity Belt - Used to Spend/I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone

Hour 2: 1982
Mission of Burma - Dead Pool
The Clash - Car Jamming/Combat Rock
Lou Reed - Waves of Fear/The Blue Mask
Bad Brains - Banned in DC/Bad Brains
Misfits - 20 Eyes/Walk Among Us
Motorhead - Iron Fist/Iron Fist
Robert Plant - Pledge Pin/Pictures at Eleven
Van Halen -  Hang 'Em High/Diver Down
Scorpions - Blackout/Blackout
Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Coming/Screaming for Vengeance
The Jam - Town Called Malice/The Gift
The Cure - A Short Term Effect/Pornography
INXS - Don't Change/Shabooh Shoobah
X - The Have Nots/Under the Big Black Sun
Prince - All the Critics Love U in New York/1999

Completely Conspicuous 472: Dig for Fire (Maiden-Zappa, Part 1)

This week, Brian Salvatore and I discuss more musical blindspots. Brian will learn about Iron Maiden while I dig into Frank Zappa. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Jay: Somewhat familiar with Zappa's hits and guitar work
- Intimidating catalog; more than 100 albums released
- Brian: Knew a few Maiden songs but never a fan
- Listened to 1980 self-titled debut
- Liked the faster songs and Paul Di'Anno's vocals
- Enjoyed punk-inspired energy and Steve Harris' bass
- Production sounds good
- Maiden's sound has evolved over the years
- Jay listened to Zappa's 1969 album Hot Rats
- Only one song with vocals, and those are by Captain Beefheart
- Ian Underwood is major contributor, playing all keyboards and horns
- Very different sound than Zappa had in mid- to late- '70s
- Next up: Apostrophe for Jay, The Number of the Beast 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.