Completely Conspicuous 524: Your Favorite Thing

It's part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we count down our favorite albums of 2019. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- Breitling's #4
- Former Boston act now relocated to Nashville
- Perfecting her sound
- Kumar's #4
- Introspective album that topped my midyear list
- Sweeping, synth-driven songs
- Breitling's #3
- Worthy follow-up to classic mid-'90s indie pop release
- Expansive and experimental
- Kumar's #3
- Return to rocking from for NJ punk stalwarts, produced by Bob Mould
- Surprisingly succinct from a band known for 8-minute epics
- Breitling's #2 and Kumar's #6
- Majestic final release from artist who tragically took his own life right after it came out
- Backed by the band Woods
- Kumar's #2
- Third release from Toronto punk-pop act
- Writing about frustrations of getting older
- Breitling's #1
- Recently released instant classic from Boston indie rock act
- Frontman Ryan Walsh wrote album after dealing with struggles writing his book about Astral Weeks
- Kumar's #1
- Veteran Canadian power pop act with another great release
- All-star team of musicians
- Darker feel than some of their other 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 #301: December 27, 2019

A lot can happen in the span of a decade. Even as it flies by, there is so much music released in that time. Today on Stuck In Thee Garage, it was part 2 of my look at some of my favorite music of the 2010s. Note: I didn't play any music from 2019 because I'm going to dedicate the next two weeks to my favorites from this year.

The NoHo Hank-approved playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise/Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011)
Living Colour - Who Shot Ya/Shade (2017)
The Twilight Singers - On the Corner/Dynamite Steps (2011)
Palehound - Molly/Dry Food (2015)
Ex Hex - War Paint/Rips (2014)
Sleater-Kinney - Bury Our Friends/No Cities to Love (2015)
Car Seat Headrest - 1937 State Park/Teens of Denial (2017)
Spoon - Got Nuffin/Transference (2010)
Divine Fits - Baby Get Worse/A Thing Called Divine Fits (2012)
PUP - DVP/The Dream Is Over (2016)
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Senator/Mirror Traffic (2010)
Drive-By Truckers - This Fucking Job/The Big To-Do (2010)
Jeff Rosenstock - Festival Song/Worry. (2016)
Japandroids - Fire's Highway/Celebration Rock (2012)
Black Mountain - Florian Saucer Attack/IV (2016)

Hour 2
Gord Downie - Love Over Money/Introduce Yerself (2017)
Hallelujah the Hills - Do You Have Romantic Courage?/Have You Ever Done Something Evil? (2014)
Kurt Vile - KV Crimes/Wakin on a Pretty Daze (2013)
Mark Lanegan Band - Drunk on Destruction/Gargoyle (2017)
Destroyer - Tinseltown Swimming in Blood/ken (2017)
The New Pornographers - Dancehall Domine/Brill Bruisers (2014)
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring/Romance Is Boring (2010)
Johnny Foreigner - Undevastator/Mono No Aware (2016)
Krill - Foot/A Distant Fist Unclenching (2015)
Pile - #2 Single/You're Better Than This (2015)
Ovlov - Nu Punk/am (2013)
Stove - Jock Dreams/Is Stupider (2015)
Kuroma - Love Is On the Way/Kuromarama (2014)
Mike Krol - Neighborhood Watch/Turkey (2015)
Beach Slang - Atom Bomb/A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings (2016)
Faith No More - Sunny Side Up/Sol Invictus (2015)
IDLES - Danny Nedelko/Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018)
Death From Above 1979 - Right On, Frankenstein!/The Physical World (2014)

Completely Conspicuous 523: 10/10, Would Count Down Again

It's part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we count down our favorite albums of 2019. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- The top 10
- Breitling's #10
- A surprising solo debut from a veteran rock legend
- Kumar's #9
- Raw shoegaze effort from Brooklyn act changing its sound
- Breitling's #9
- Electronic album with an analog feel released late in the year
- "Crust ambient"
- Kumar's #8
- Power pop-punk album about the aftermath of broken relationship
- Great album cover
- Breitling's #8 and Kumar's #10
- Strong release from shoegaze pioneers
- Trying some different things
- Breitling's  #7
- Shoegaze duo from California that likes to take its time
- All killer, no filler
- Berniece's sleep aggression
- Kumar's #7
- Second release from indie legend's latest band
- Embracing '80s hard rock sound
- Breitling's #6
- Used to call this band the Steve Miller of indie rock
- Opinion has changed, especially with the latest release
- Sound is augmented by female singers
- Kumar and Breitling's #5
- Latest in an strong stretch of releases from this punk/alt-rock legend
- Sounds as good as he ever has
- Unusually upbeat
- Next: Our top 4 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 #300: December 20, 2019

Three hundred of anything is an impressive amount. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I celebrated the show's 300th episode with two hours of holiday music.

This playlist will light up the neighborhood:

Artist - Song/Album
Letters to Cleo - Father Christmas/OK Christmas
Piebald - Rage With My Friends/Piebald Presents to You, a Musical Christmas Adventure
The Dollyrots - Fairytale of New York/Single
Beach Slang - Jolly Liver/Single
Pearl Jam - Don't Believe in Christmas/2002 Christmas Single
The Minus 5 - Your Christmas Whisky/Dear December
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Annunciation Day-Born On Christmas Day/Living With the Living
The White Stripes - Candy Cane Children/Merry Christmas From the White Stripes
T. Rex - Christmas Bop/T. Rexmas!
Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody/Single
Twisted Sister - Deck the Halls/A Twisted Christmas
The Hives and Cyndi Lauper - A Christmas Duel/A Christmas Duel
Neko Case - Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis/New Coat of Paint
The Knife - Christmas Reindeer/Single
The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song/Maybe This Christmas Tree
Sloan - Kids Come Back Again at Christmas/Kids Come Back Again at Christmas
The dBs - Christmas Time/Christmas Time Again
R.E.M. - Christmas Time is Here/1993 Fan Club Single
Julian Casablancas - I Wish It Was Christmas Today/Phrazes for the Young

Hour 2:
The Hush Now - On Holiday/Single
Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop/Single
Yr Friends - Shit Christmas/A Hiss, At Christmas
Lubec - Holiday Traffic/Wilderness Days
Run the Jewels - A Christmas Fucking Miracle/Run the Jewels
Future of the Left - The Real Meaning of Christmas/How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident
Piebald - Rebellion of Winter/Piebald Presents to You, a Musical Christmas Adventure
Green Seas & Taiko Sound - Home Alone Theme/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 3
Holiday Music - Family Tree/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 4
School Shoes - In the Bleak Midwinter/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 4
Moist Boy - You Don't Gotta Be a Good Boy/A Very Allston Christmas, Vol. 4
Letters to Cleo - It Sure Don't Feel Like Xmas Time/OK Christmas
Owl John - All I Want for Me Is You/Owl John
James Brown - Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto/Soulful Christmas

Completely Conspicuous 522: Hey Nineteen

It's part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we discuss our favorite music of 2019. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ
- This program is not affiliated with Moviefone
- A decade of talking rock

- Breitling: Had time to listen to a lot more music this year
- The Billie Eilish vs. VH debate has been raging for a while
- Kids don't know or care about music from 10 years ago, let alone 35
- A lot of butthurt older music fans getting worked up for no reason
- Most kids have zero interest in classic rock
- Listen to what you want
- The "OK Boomer" phenomenon
- When music becomes something on in the background
- Breitling needs to see Idiocracy
- The albums that didn't make our top 10 lists
- Breitling: Floating Points, Rroxy More, Top Down Dialectic, Katie Dey, Max Richter
- Kumar: Mikal Cronin, Ty Segall, Mark Lanegan, Trinary System
- Mission of Burma's second act may be done
- Breitling: Juana Molina, Bedroom Eyes, Lubec, DIIV, Tullycraft, She Sir, Snowball II
- Kumar: Sleater-Kinney with a controversial new album; Janet Weiss pushed out of the band
- Breitling: Would have been better received under a different band name like Unicorn Butt
- Kumar: Pixies, Palehound, Kim Gordon, Pile, Black Mountain, Sebadoh, Fontaines DC, Telekinesis, Hold Steady, Desert Sessions, GBV, Wilco, Plague Vendor, Oh Sees, Nick Cave
- Breitling: Better Oblivion Community Center, Florist, Big Thief
- Next: 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 #299: December 13, 2019

Time is a flat circle. Everything we have done or will do, we will do over and over again forever. Which means at some point, I will play my favorite songs of the 2010s on Stuck In Thee Garage again. But until then, let this be your playlist and recording. Note: This is part 1 of my decade in review. Next Friday, I'll celebrate the holidays with a Christmas playlist and then will have part 2 of the decade's best on the 27th. And then I'll look back at the best of 2019.

Nietzsche would dig this playlist:


Artist - Song/Album
Superchunk - Break the Glass/What a Time to Be Alive (2018)
Albert Hammond Jr. - Far Away Truths/Francis Trouble (2018)
Parquet Courts - Human Performance/Human Performance (2016)
The War On Drugs - Red Eyes/Lost in the Dream (2014)
Iggy Pop - American Valhalla/Post Pop Depression (2016)
David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away/Blackstar (2016)
Soccer Mom - It's Probably Not Your Fault/Soccer Mom (2014)
Protomartyr - Scum, Rise!/Under Color of Official Right (2014)
Radiohead - Burn the Witch/A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
Courtney Barnett - Elevator Operator/Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?/AM (2013)
Run the Jewels - Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) (feat. Zach de la Rocha)/RTJ2 (2014)
Bob Mould - The Descent/Silver Age (2012)
METZ - Spit You Out/II (2015)
Mikal Cronin - Say/MCIII (2015)
Ty Segall - The Singer/Manipulator (2014)
Speedy Ortiz - Tiger Tank/Major Arcana (2013)
Savages - I Am Here/Silence Yourself (2013)
The Afghan Whigs - Parked Outside/Do to the Beast (2014)
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork/The Brutalist Bricks (2010)
Sloan - Unkind/The Double Cross (2011)
Queens of the Stone Age - The Vampyre of Time and Memory/...Like Clockwork (2013)
Wild Flag - Romance/Wild Flag (2011)
LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls/This Is Happening (2010)
Titus Andronicus - No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future/The Monitor (2010)
Grinderman - Heathen Child/Grinderman 2 (2010)
OFF! - Man From Nowhere/OFF! (2012)
Jeff Rosenstock - All This Useless Energy/POST- (2018)
Fucked Up - Ship of Fools/David Comes to Life (2011)

Stuck In Thee Garage #298: December 6, 2019

Echoing through the years like a Howard Dean scream, rock songs have a timeless quality. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 2004 in hour 2.

That's a bold strategy, Cotton.

Let's see if this playlist pays off:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Hallelujah the Hills - Running Hot With Fate/I'm You
Feet - English Weather/What's Inside Is More Than Just Ham
Death Valley Girls - Dream Cleaver/Single
Hot Snakes - Checkmate/Single
Royal Trux - Waterpark/Quantum Entanglement
Freeloader - Back of the Line/The Path of Least Resistance
!!! - Ur Paranoid/Wallop
Plague Vendor - Snakeskin Boots/By Night
B Boys - Pressure Inside/Dudu
Shana Falana - Darkest Light/Darkest Light
Oh, Rose - 25, Alive/While My Father Sleeps
Sheer Mag - Hardly to Blame/A Distant Call
Marika Hackman - Conventional Ride/Any Human Friend
Ty Segall - I Worship the Dog/First Taste
Oh Sees - Heartworm/Face Stabber
Russian Circles - Arluck/Blood Year

Hour 2: 2004
The Hold Steady - The Swish/Almost Killed Me
Modest Mouse - The Good Times Are Killing Me/Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Eagles of Death Metal - Already Died/Peace Love Death Metal
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Get Ready for Love/Abattoir Blues - Lyre of Orpheus
William Shatner - Common People/Has Been
!!! - When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Karazzee/Louden Up Now
Sonic Youth - Kim Gordon & the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream/Sonic Nurse
Hot Snakes - Audit in Progress/Audit in Progress
Mission of Burma - Playland/ONOffON
The Walkmen - What's In It For Me/Bows + Arrow
Guided By Voices - Window of My World/Half Smiles of the Decomposed
Wilco - Muzzles of Bees/A Ghost is Born
The Twilight Singers - Too Tough to Die/She Loves You
PJ Harvey - The Letter/Uh Huh Her
Mark Lanegan Band - Hit the City/Bubblegum


 

Completely Conspicuous 521: Content Overload

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the decade in TV and movies. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Going over some of our favorites of the decade
- Jay: Haven't seen a lot of critical faves
- Both enjoyed Blackkklansman
- Toy Story 3 is the best of that series
- Matt: Beasts of the Southern Wild was a stunner
- In the Loop is profanely excellent
- Jay never saw Inside Out; Matt says it's borderline educational
- The traumatic sadness of Disney movies
- Don't ban offensive old movies
- Stereotypes in older movies stick out
- The series 24 was so over the top about torture and terrorists
- Writing for women's roles in the '80s was pretty awful
- Post-9/11 jingoism
- Good Sorkin: The Social Network
- Bad Sorkin: The Newsroom
- When older celebs are trending on Twitter
- Matt: In praise of Monsters
- Timothy Olyphant is great
- Matt needs to watch Justified
- Black Mirror is predicting everything
- The Americans is an excellent show
- Matt hasn't seen Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul
- Orphan Black features an amazing performance by Tatiana Maslany
- Bill Hader elevates himself from comic genius to dramatic auteur on Barry
- Russian Doll came out of the blue
- The People Vs. OJ Simpson was excellent, with a bizarre performance by John Travolta
- The sneaky genius of Legends of Tomorrow
- Dark on Netflix is a German show that is brilliantly out there
- Downton Abbey: Cultural phenomenon that doesn't make sense
- The Leftovers got better when it went beyond the book
- The Marvel shows on Netflix were surprisingly good (except for Iron Fist)
- The fight scenes in Daredevil were intense and creative
- So much content out there that it's impossible to see it all

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. 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.