Stuck In Thee Garage #251: December 28, 2018

A lot of music is released in a calendar year these days. It's a challenge to keep up. I did my best to stay on top of the best indie rock of 2018, and this week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played two hours of songs that really kicked butt. There was so much good stuff that I've got another two hours coming next week. Even the grumpiest among us can find something to enjoy.

The playlist in review:

Artist - Song/Album
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake/Wide Awake!
The Breeders - Wait in the Car/All Nerve
Jeff Rosenstock - All This Useless Energy/Post-
Albert Hammond Jr. - Far Away Truths/Francis Trouble
Superchunk - Reagan Youth/What a Time to Be Alive
Screaming Females - I'll Make You Sorry/All at Once
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Mainland/Hope Downs
Buffalo Tom - Lonely, Fast and Deep/Quiet and Peace
Shame - Tasteless/Songs of Praise
Dream Wife -  Hey! Heartbreaker/Dream Wife
The Spook School - Bad Year/Could It Be Different?
Soccer Mommy - Your Dog/Clean
Camp Cope - The Opener/How to Socialise & Make Friends
Painted Doll - Hidden Hand/Painted Doll
Fu Manchu - Don't Panic/Clone of the Universe
Judas Priest - Lightning Strike/Firepower
David Byrne - Everybody's Coming to My House/American Utopia
The Hold Steady - Eureka/Single
Speedy Ortiz - Buck Me Off/Twerp Verse
Moaning - Don't Go/Moaning
Palm - Forced Hand/Rock Island
Sloan - Spin Our Wheels/12
Guided By Voices - Colonel Paper/Space Gun
Ty Segall - She/Freedom's Goblin
Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs/The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs
Beach House - Lemon Glow/7
La Luz - Cicada/Floating Features
Shell of a Shell - Problem/Already There
Shopping - Wild Child/The Official Body
Preoccupations - Disarray/New Material
Nostalgist - Pendulums/Disaffection
Hot Snakes - I Need a Doctor/Jericho Sirens
Jo Passed - Millennial Trash Blues/Their Prime
Protomartyr - Wait/Consolation EP

Stuck In Thee Garage #250: December 21, 2018

There's a lot of pressure around the holidays: Getting work finished up before the break, finishing your shopping, acting appropriately cheery and gearing up for family gatherings. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I tried to relieve the pressure with two hours of new and old holiday rock classics. Grab a cocktail and crank it up!

This playlist won't get you written up by HR at your office Xmas bash (maybe):

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)/Brain Drain
The Pursuit of Happiness - All That You Got Me for Christmas/Love Junk Deluxe
The Dollyrots - The Dollyrots Do Christmas/Single
Greg Dulli - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas/Single
Travis Alexander - Happy Xmas (War is Over)/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 3
The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping/Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?
Supersuckers - Call It Christmas Time/Supersuckers - Hooked on Southern Speed
Marvin Gaye - Purple Snowflakes/A Motown Christmas, Vol. 2
Donny Hathaway - This Christmas/Donny Hathaway
Freddie Jackson - Christmas Forever/The Greatest Hits of Freddie Jackson
The Sonics - Santa Claus/Here Are the Sonics
Pearl Jam - Let Me Sleep/1991 Christmas single
Ginger - Holiday/Yoni
T. Rex - Christmas Bop/T. Rexmas!
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody/Single
Angel - The Christmas Song/An Anthology
Pixies - The Holiday Song/Live on WERS 1/18/87
The White Stripes - Candy Cane Children/Merry Christmas from the White Stripes
Greg Dulli - Candy Cane Crawl/Live at Triple Door

Hour 2
Gordon Downie - Christmastime in Toronto/Battle of the Nudes
Sloan - December 25/Kids Come Back Again at Christmas
The Pursuit of Happiness - Santa Claus is Back in Town/Love Junk Deluxe
The Walkmen - Seven Years of Holidays (for Stretch)/ You & Me
My Morning Jacket - One Big Holiday/It Still Moves
Dirty Sidewalks - It's Xmas (and Everyone is Miserable)/Single
Uncle Salty - If Only Xmas Were Every Day/Salty Holiday Tunes
Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis/Tougher Than Leather
AC/DC - Mistress for Christmas/The Razors Edge
Spinal Tap - Christmas With the Devil/This is Spinal Tap
The Dollyrots - Santa Baby/The Xmas EP
Deer Tick - Christmas All Summer Long/Holy Shit, It's Christmas!
The Flaming Lips - Christmas at the Zoo/Clouds Taste Metallic
Yo La Tengo - Rock 'N Roll Santa/Merry Christmas from Yo La Tengo
The Smithereens - Auld Lang Syne/Christmas With the Smithereens

Completely Conspicuous 502: Telling You How We Really Feel

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- Featuring special guest/studio audience member Ric Dube
- On to our top 5 selections
- JK's #5
- An unexpectedly great album from a member of the Strokes
- JB's #5
- Weird shoegaze straight outta Philly
- JB's #4
- More excellent Philadelphia indie rock
- JK's #3
- Angry, angular UK rock act that has listened to the Fall
- JB's #3
- "I had difficulty finding fault with this record"
- Esteemed YoLa-ologist in the house
- YLT keeps doing its own thing
- JK's #2
- Another fine double album from an interesting Toronto act
- Where hardcore meets prog
- Lots of guest vocalists
- JB's #2
- Sweeping orchestral material, hot jams
- Bands still make videos for some reason
- Picking and choosing from the catalog
- JK's #1
- A political record released early in the year that still resonates
- Fiery live show to go with the album
- Countering a master of distraction
- The kids with the vaping and the pot smoking and the whatnot
- It's a strange time to be alive
- JB's #1 and JK's #4
- Bit of a grower
- A darker, moodier album than her previous work
- Terrific live performer
- Dube: Became a fan by complete accident
- Doobs recommends the Salad Boys
- New stuff on the horizon: Bob Mould, Pedro the Lion, Mike Krol, Swervedriver, Telekinesis
- Johnny Foreigner reunion seems unlikely

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 #249: December 14, 2018

The future is now, albeit without hover cars, teleporting or space colonization. Futurists from 50 years ago predicted we'd have all those things by now. Maybe it'll take another 50 years for them to come about. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about the future in hour 2. At the very least, we could use some beer-swigging robots.

This playlist will kick your shiny metal ass:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Sloan - Act Your Ages/Single
Guided By Voices - Cohesive Scoops/1000 Dougs
Fontaines D.C. - Too Real/Single
Juliana Hatfield - It's So Weird/Weird
Ian Sweet - Falling Fruit/Crush Crusher
Doe - Here in the Dirt/Grow Into It
Royal Trux - Every Day Swan/Single
Ty Segall - The Loner/Fudge Sandwich
Axis: Sova - Crystal Predictor/Shampoo You
Rick Rude - All Lock/Verb for Dreaming
Don Babylon - Ain't Got No Money/Foul!
Stephen Malkmus - Solid Silk/Sparkle Hard
The Goon Sax - Make Time 4 Love/We're Not Talking
Briston Maroney - Under My Skin/Carnival EP
Smashing Pumpkins - Seek and You Shall Destroy/Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1
Chastity - Heaven Hell Anywhere Else/Death Lust
Goodbye Honolulu - Slip Inside Yer Mind/More Honey

Hour 2: Future
The Cars - Candy-O/Candy-O
Girls Against Boys - Psycho-Future/Freak*On*Ica
Radiohead - Paranoid Android/OK Computer
El-P - Habeas Corpses (Draconian Love)/I'll Sleep When You're Dead
Titus Andronicus - No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future/The Monitor
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 1/Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Hawkwind - Silver Machine/The Search for Space
David Bowie - Five Years/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Gary Numan -  Engineers/The Pleasure Principle
Brainiac - I Am a Cracked Machine/Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Rocket From the Crypt - Salt Future/Scream, Dracula, Scream!
Mudhoney - Where Is the Future?/Under a Billion Suns
Van Halen - Atomic Punk/Van Halen

Completely Conspicuous 501: Make With the Counting Down Already

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Listen to the episode below or download directly.

Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- Featuring special guest/studio audience member Ric Dube
- JB's #10/JK's #9
- On-again, off-again band led by Steve Hartlett
- Ah, the old "sweatpants-with-beers-stuffed-down-the-legs" deal
- Reminiscent of "Bug"-era Dino Jr.
- JK's #10
- Labelmates of Parquet Courts with similar sound
- The downside of "Music Limited"
- JB's #9
- Boston act traffics in "millennial mopery"
- Lo-fi, self-released effort
- Stickin' it to the Man with his Bandcamp URL
- JK's #8
- Released on 1/1/18
- Fueled by political frustration and anger
- A "fun protest album"
- JB's #8
- Brand new record from a UK supergroup
- Long-awaited followup to 2007 debut
- Rhythmically diverse look at British culture
- Whither Gorillaz?
- JK's #7
- The 12th studio album from power-pop masters
- Four songwriters who each wrote three songs
- Consistently great
- The fun of hunting down B-sides and rarities before artists started releasing compilations/reissues
- The ability to fall asleep on your feet while at a rock concert
- JB's #7
- A good record from a guitar wizard
- Less volume than his main gig
- "Relatively understated throughout"
- JK's #6
- An expansive effort from a prolific indie act
- Branching out their sound with more danceable songs
- Voicing political outrage
- JB's #6
- Venturing into jazzier realms
- Led by one of the more interesting guitarists of last 25 years
- Avant-rock/jazz; "it's not like Kenny G"
- Next: The top 5

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 500: Less Rock, More Talk

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- Featuring special guest Ric Dube
- The decline of rock's popularity
- Album sales are way down
- That time the Melvins hit the Top 200 albums chart
- Apple's going to work with the Amazon Echo soon
- Breitling pays for the Amazon Music "Talky Talky"
- The youths don't pay for physical media anymore
- Ric's family has Spotify, he has dedicated streaming of his own collection
- Modern country is doing big business, relatively speaking
- Pop music is doing well
- Most rock acts make money through touring, not albums
- The Stones are still touring
- Mick and Keith were considered "old" in their mid-30s
- Breitling: The year's music really picked up in the second half
- New Mary Lattimore release is enjoyable
- Ric: Enjoying Brian Eno's latest release, which is a $30 app
- Kumar: Honorable mentions include Tony Molina, Slaves, Thin Lips, Arthur Buck, Buffalo Tom, Joyce Manor, Swearin, Stove, Screaming Females
- Breitling: Master System, Palm, Superchunk, Frankie Cosmos, Kurt Vile
- Next: We count down our top 10 albums

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 #248: November 30, 2018

For what is supposed to be the most advanced species in the universe, we humans treat each other pretty poorly. One quick scan of Twitter can provide you with ample evidence of that. Let's face it, a lot of us are jerks. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about jerks in hour 2. There's no shortage of jerks in the world, or songs about them.

This playlist won't jerk you around:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Don Babylon - Really Fast Cars/Foul!
The Glands - So High/Double Coda
Savak - Dead Dick/Beg Your Pardon
Axis: Sova - Dodger/Shampoo You
Ty Segall -  Hit It and Quit It/Fudge Sandwich
Mudhoney - Prosperity Gospel/Digital Garbage
Smashing Pumpkins - Marchin' On/Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1
Ian Sweet - Hiding/Crush Crusher
Body Type - Silver/Body Type EP
Swervedriver - Mary Winter/Future Ruins
Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers - The Acid Test Song/Bought to Rot
Joyce Manor - Up the Punks/Million Dollars to Kill Me
Surfbort - Stalker/Friendship Music
Charles Bradley - I Feel a Change/Black Velvet
Metric - Dressed to Suppress/Art of Doubt
Thom Yorke - Has Ended/Suspiria soundtrack

Hour 2: Jerky
Beck - Soul Suckin' Jerk/Mellow Gold
Mother Love Bone - Half Ass Monkey Boy/Shine EP
Billy and the Boingers - U Stink But I Love U/Bootleg
Brainiac - Kiss Me, You Jacked Up Jerk/Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Dios Malos - Asshole/I Want It All
The Afghan Whigs - Let Me Lie to You/Congregation
Weezer - No One Else/Weezer
The Replacements - Waitress in the Sky/Tim
Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?/Look Sharp!
Elvis Costello - I'm Not Angry/My Aim is True
Lou Reed - Leave Me Alone/Street Hassle
Boss Hog - I'm Not Like Everybody Else/Suburbia soundtrack
Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole/Pretty Hate Machine
Elliott Smith - Christian Brothers/Elliott Smith
Ween - Baby Bitch/Chocolate & Cheese
The Pursuit of Happiness - Back of My Mind/The Wonderful World of...