Stuck In Thee Garage #193: September 29, 2017

They say music is therapeutic and laughter is the best medicine, so that must mean music about laughter is doubly good for you. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about laughter (and a few songs inspiring laughter) in hour 2. Nothing from comedy acts, but definitely some not-so-serious stuff in there.

All work and no play leaves Jack with a dull playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Protomartyr - My Children/Relatives in Descent
Alvvays - Plimsoll Punks/Antisocialites
Infinity Girl - Derail Me/Somewhere Nice, Someday
Ghostpoet - Immigrant Boogie/Dark Days + Canapes
Death From Above - Outrage! Is Now/Outrage! Is Now
Living Colour - Freedom of Expression (F.O.X.)/Shade
METZ - Mr. Plague/Strange Peace
EMA - Nihilistic and Female/Exile in the Outer Ring
Gold Class - Thinking of Strangers/Drum
Deer Tick - Card House/Deer Tick, Vol. 1
Benjamin Booker - Right on You/Witness
The War on Drugs - Pain/A Deeper Understanding
Dot Comet - Shut Eye/Dot Comet
Rainer Maria - Communicator/Rainer Maria
Waxahatchee - Brass Beam/Out in the Storm
Milked - The Cosmos/Death on Mars

Hour 2: Laugh
R.E.M. - King of Comedy/Monster
Queens of the Stone Age - I'm Designer/Era Vulgaris
Jarvis Cocker - Leftovers/Further Complications
Bob Mould - Nemeses are Laughing/Beauty & Ruin
Mission of Burma - Laugh the World Away/Vs.
Pere Ubu - Laughing/The Modern Dance
Ween - Mister, Can You Please Help My Pony?/Chocolate & Cheese
The Beau Brummels - Laugh, Laugh/Introducing the Beau Brummels
Van Halen - Could This Be Magic?/Women and Children First
The Germs - Now I Hear the Laughter/M.I.A.: The Complete Germs
Jawbreaker Reunion - Laughing Alone Eating a Salad/Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club
The Child Ballads - Laughter from the Rafters/Cheekbone Hollows
Titus Andronicus - Funny Feeling/The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Frank Black - Whatever Happened to Pong?/Teenager of the Year
Chixdiggit! - Henry Rollins is No Fun/Chixdiggit!
Rollins Band - Earache My Eye/Sub Pop Singles Club
Descendents - Everything Sux/Everything Sucks
Electric Six - Gay Bar/Fire
Eagles of Death Metal - I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)/Death by Sexy

Old Bones

A half century, man. Five decades. I hit the big 5-0 a few days ago. There was no blinding flash of realization or wisdom, no sudden descent into oldness, no onslaught of depression. Just another year going by.

That doesn't mean it's not significant, of course. The strange part for me is how quickly the years have gone by. Seems like I just celebrated my 40th. Now I've got two teenagers and a few more gray hairs. In five short years, I'll have two kids in college and life will be really weird.

It's odd to think of myself as being this age. When my dad turned 50, it was 1990, I was 23 and he seemed much older than he actually was. It didn't help that he was both an alcoholic and a diabetic, both of which had ravaged his body and made him look like he was 70. I know I'm in much better shape than he ever was, so I don't feel like an old man. Of course, I'm definitely dealing with some old guy stuff, like a sore back and various aches and pains, but that's part of the price I pay for staying physically active. I'll take that over being a flabby blob any damn day.

Unlike my 40th, which came and went with little fanfare, we did things up big for the 50th celebration. We had a big gathering at the Notch taproom last night, with about 50 friends showing up to toast to my geezerdom. It was a great time, reminiscent of the big parties we routinely threw in the days before kids. And yeah, I was a little hung over this morning, but it was nothing compared to some of those old party days.

So here I am, into a new decade of existence. The future is unwritten, as Joe Strummer once said. It's hard to know what to expect, but I've got some good role models in terms of friends who have already traversed this territory, so I think I'll be okay.

Stuck In Thee Garage #192: September 22, 2017

Weather can be pretty unpredictable in general, but lately things have been pretty crazy. Hurricanes have been pounding the hell out of the Caribbean, Texas and Florida; earthquakes have been slamming Mexico and extremely dry conditions out West have led to some scary forest fires. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about stormy weather in hour 2. It's okay, though. I don't think the heavy stuff's coming down for quite a while.

This playlist is having the game of its life:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Washer - Tooth & Fist/All Aboard
Gold Class - Twist in the Dark/Drum
A Giant Dog - Angst in My Pants/Toy
Infinity Girl - Don't Believe/Somewhere Nice, Someday
Deer Tick - Don't Hurt/Deer Tick, Vol. 2
Noah Gunderson - The Sound/White Noise
Ted Leo - Run to the City/The Hanged Man
Death From Above - Statues/Outrage! Is Now
Dead Stars - Friends/Perfect Patterns
Male Gaze - Wha Do Wha Do/Miss Taken
Beaches - When You're Gone/Second of Spring
The Feelies - Been Replaced/In Between
Guided By Voices - Paper Cutz/How Do You Spell Heaven?
Living Colour - Always Wrong/Shade
At the Drive-In - Pendulum in a Peasant Dress/inter-alia
Queens of the Stone Age - Head Like a Haunted House/Villains

Hour 2: Stormy
Minutemen - Storm in My House/Double Nickels on the Dime
Mission of Burma - Weatherbox/Vs.
Pixies - Stormy Weather/Bossanova
Pavement - Rain Ammunition/Peel Session 12/16/92
A.C. Newman - Thunderbolts/Get Guilty
Dinosaur Jr. - Pierce the Morning Rain/I Bet on Sky
Ava Luna - Hurricane/Takamatsu Station
The Wildhearts - Stormy in the North, Karma in the South/Riff After Riff
Black Mountain - Stormy High/In the Future
The Replacements - Dose of Thunder/Tim
The Cult - Rain/Love
Thin Lizzy - Thunder and Lightning/Thunder and Lightning 
The Police - Shadows in the Rain/Zenyatta Mondatta
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand the Weather/Couldn't Stand the Weather
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Like a Hurricane/Live at Fukuoka 3/8/76

 

Stuck In Thee Garage #191: September 15, 2017

Persistence can be good or bad depending on how you use it. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about persistence in hour 2...so that was good. Maybe not as good the persistence of getting a robot butler to serve you beers on the regular, but still pretty damn good.

The bleep blorpity playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Infinity Girl - The Winner Always Talks/Somewhere Nice, Someday
Ted Leo - Moon Out of Phase/The Hanged Man
Dead Stars - Happy or Sad/Perfect Patterns
Death From Above - Never Swim Alone/Outrage! Is Now
Oh Sees - The Static God/Orc
Rainer Maria - Possession/Rainer Maria
Palehound - Room/A Place I'll Always Go
Maneka - Tiger Baby (feat. Jordyn Blakely)/Is You Is
Darto - Character Study/Human Giving
A Giant Dog - Bend Over/Toy
Great Grandpa - Pardon My Speech/Plastic Cough
The Stevens - My New Hideout/Good
Jen Cloher - Strong Woman/Jen Cloher
The National - Turtleneck/Sleep Well Beast
The Afghan Whigs - The Spell/In Spades
The War on Drugs - Holding On/A Deeper Understanding

Hour 2: Persistence
David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging/Lodger
Sloan - Keep Swinging (Downtown)/Commonwealth
Bleached - Keep On Keepin' On/Welcome the Worms
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me/Rid of Me
Eddie Kendricks - Keep on Truckin' (Part 1)/Eddie Kendricks
The Night Marchers - And I Keep Holding On/See You in Magic
The Afghan Whigs - I Keep Coming Back/Gentlemen
Max Webster - Drive and Desire/Universal Juveniles
Led Zeppelin - I Can't Quit You Baby/Led Zeppelin
Queens of the Stone Age - You Can't Quit Me Baby/Queens of the Stone Age
OFF! - I Need One (I Want One)/OFF!
Husker Du - Keep Hanging On/Flip Your Wig
Bob Mould - Keep Believing/Silver Age
AC/DC - It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n Roll)/T.N.T.

Stuck In Thee Garage #190: September 8, 2017

Birthdays are things to be savored. In the case of Stuck In Thee Garage, today's episode marked the fourth birthday of the show and of BFF.fm, the station that has hosted it. Thanks to Amanda and Forrest Guest, the masterminds behind BFF, for their perseverance and drive to make the station the success it has become. I love doing the show every week.

I celebrated with the traditional birthday meal:

The jerky playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Ted Leo - The Future (Is Learning To...)/The Hanged Man
Wolf Parade - You're Dreaming/Cry Cry Cry
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Over Everything/Lotta Sea Lice
Death From Above - Holy Books/Outrage! Is Now
Oh Sees - Animated Violence/Orc
METZ - Mess of Wires/Strange Peace
A Giant Dog - Photograph/Toy
Cults - I Took Your Picture/Offering
Loud Sun - Teen Pyramids/Sea Grave
Queens of the Stone Age - The Evil Has Landed/Villains
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Cure for Death/The Echo of Pleasure
EMA - Down and Out/Exile in the Outer Ring
Kevin Morby - City Music/City Music

Hour 2: Four
Mondo Generator - Four Corners/A Drug Problem That Never Existed
Nine Inch Nails - The Four of Us Are Dying/The Slip
Temple of the Dog - Four Walled World/Temple of the Dog
Titus Andronicus - Four Score and Seven Part One/The Monitor
Bright Eyes - Four Winds/Four Winds EP
Drive-By Truckers - The Fourth Night of My Drinking/The Big To-Do
The New Pornographers - Three or Four/Twin Cinema
Los Campesinos! - Here's to the Fourth Time/Sick Scenes
The Tragically Hip -  Toronto #4/Music @ Work
Okkervil River - The Next Four Months/Black Sheep Boy
De La Soul - 4 More (feat. Zhane)/Stakes is High
The Blood Brothers - 1, 2, 3, 4 Guitars/Young Machetes
Rollins Band - Volume 4/Weight

Stuck In Thee Garage #189: September 1, 2017

Australia may be half a world away (or more), but it's made a major impact on the world of rock music. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from Australian artists in hour 2. It's better than a bloomin' onion.

This playlist is back in black:

Hour 1:
Artist - Song/Album
Dead Stars - Smarter/Perfect Patterns
METZ - Drained Lake/Strange Peace
Queens of the Stone Age - Feet Don't Fail Me Now/Villains
A Giant Dog - Fake Plastic Trees/Toy
EMA - I Wanna Destroy/Exile in the Outer Ring
Warm Digits - Growth of Raindrops (feat. Sarah Cracknell)/Wireless World
Current Swell - It Ain't Right/When to Talk and When to Listen
Gibraltar - Cold/Let's Get Beautiful
Fotoform - I Know You're Charming/Fotoform
Maneka - My Boy Seth (feat. Sam Rosenberg)/Is You Is
The Stevens - Thristy Eye/Good
Great Grandpa - Expert Eraser/Plastic Cough
The War on Drugs - Nothing to Find/A Deeper Understanding
Broken Social Scene - Skyline/Hug of Thunder
Darto - I Am/Human Giving

Hour 2: Oz
AC/DC - Dog Eat Dog/Let There Be Rock
The Angels - Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again/The Angels
Hoodoo Gurus - Tojo/Stoneage Romeos
Split Enz - I Got You/True Colours
Radio Birdman - We've Come So Far (To Be Here Today)/Zeno Beach
Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning/Diesel and Dust
The Saints - No Time/(I'm) Stranded
Grinderman - Love Bomb/Grinderman
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand/Let Love In
The Church - The Unguarded Moment/The Church
The Living End - Long Live the Weekend/State of Emergency
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - I Don't Wanna Play No More/Primary Colours
Courtney Barnett - Dead Fox/Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Tame Impala - The Moment/Currents
Beaches - Bronze Age Babies/Second of Spring