Completely Conspicuous 537: A Bustle In Your Hedgerow

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite albums of 1971. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded via Zoom
- The disappointing ZZ Top Sixpack box set
- Early Bob Seger is good
- Started seeing more solo albums
- The rollercoaster ride of Doors fandom
- Jay's faves (not #1): Rolling Stones, McCartney, Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic, Sabbath, Lennon, Bowie, the Who
- When you've heard songs you love too many times
- Jay's #1
- Zeppelin's pinnacle
- Don't need to listen to it anymore
- Licensing songs to death
- Don't understand people who listen to the same music they did 30 years ago
- Country music is the new pop
- Phil's faves: Allman Brothers, Sly Stone, John Prine, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Joplin, CSNY, Elton, Traffic, Nick Drake
- Phil's been listening to a new album every day during quarantine
- Phil's #1
- The Stones were in the middle of a killer run
- A band that was greater than the sum of its parts
- A few more from Jay:  T. Rex, Kinks, Yes
- Yes really stretched out in concert
- Genres are too restrictive
- You like what you like
- Duran Duran's great
- Discovering music through videogames
- Favorite song from favorite album:  "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" (Phil) and "When the Levee Breaks" (Jay)

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple 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.

Stuck In Thee Garage #327: June 26, 2020

Those of us who are obsessed with music love to find the extra stuff: Songs that weren't included on official album releases, but are instead released as B-sides, bonus tracks or on tribute albums or soundtracks. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played B-sides and other rarities in hour 2. It's good to play things you don't usually hear.

The Count is down with this playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album 
Sports Team - Going Soft/Deep Down Happy
Alice Bag - Gate Crasher/Sister Dynamite
Gateway Drugs - The Revolution Will Be Televised/PSA
Sad13 - A Fine Day for a Parade/Saving for a Custom Van
Ted Leo - Everyday/Saving for a Custom Van
Charly Bliss - Pretend to Be Nice/Saving for a Custom Van
Run the Jewels - Yankee and The Brave/RTJ4
IDLES - Grounds/Ultra Mono
No Age - Sandalwood/Goons Be Gone
Phoebe Bridgers - Kyoto/Punisher
Big Black Delta - Lord Only Knows/4
Jehnny Beth - Flower/To Love is to Live
Tanya Donelly - Frozen Lake/Big Love Bends Time EP
Built to Spill - Love in Vain/Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston
Savak - Aujourd'hui/Rotting Teeth in the Horse's Mouth
The Constantines - Call Me Out/Single

Hour 2: B-sides
David Bowie - John I'm Only Dancing/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (bonus track)
Arctic Monkeys - Red Right Hand/Crying Lightning
Art Brut - Weird Science/Art Brut Vs. Satan (bonus track)
Pixies - Winterlong/The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young
Jesse Malin - Sister Christian Where Are You Now/Broken Radio
The Afghan Whigs - I'm a Soldier/Unbreakable: A Retrospective 1990-2006
Sloan - D is for Driver/B-Sides Win: Extras, Bonus Tracks and B-sides 1992-2008
Johnny Foreigner - Wow, Just Wow/European Disco: Collected B-sides and Remixes 2008-10
Broken Social Scene - Canada Vs. America/EP to Be You and Me
Charles Bradley & the Menehan Street Band - Stay Away: SPIN Presents Newermind: A Tribute Album
The Hold Steady - Curves and Nerves/Almost Killed Me (bonus track)
Boss Hog - Save Our Soul/Battle Hymns
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Son of Sam/Jukebox Explosion
Nirvana - Sappy/No Alternative
Soundgarden - Girl U Want/Rusty Cage
Black Sabbath - Weevil Woman '71/Master of Reality (bonus track)
Rollins Band - Earache My Eye/Sub Pop Singles Club July 1990

Completely Conspicuous 536: Kicking It Off

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite albums of 1970. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded via Zoom
- Phil's got some quality hockey hair going
- Now, we're going to go through our favorite albums of each year from 1970-2020, starting with '70
- We were both under the age of 3
- Pretty varied list of favorites from that year
- Popular music was splintering into many different genres
- FM radio was pretty freeform
- Radio was the main way to discover music back then
- Some interesting tour pairings
- Altamont was an abrupt end to the hippie era
- Big deaths in 1970: Hendrix and Joplin
- Phil's favorites (except #1): The Who, CSNY, Neil Young, Led Zep, Van Morrison, Derek & the Dominoes
- Jay: Not a Clapton fan
- Phil: Kinks, Beatles, George Harrison, McCartney, Miles Davis, Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Chicago, James Taylor, Elton, Stones
- Phil's #1
- The Dead's best studio album
- Jay: Deep Purple, Hendrix, Funkadelic, Black Sabbath, Stooges 
- Some bands were releasing two studio albums a year
- Jay's #1
- The best live album ever
- The Who at their best
- In the midst of a great string of albums
- Favorite song from favorite album:  "Candyman" (Phil) and "Young Man's Blues" (Jay)

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple 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.

Stuck In Thee Garage #326: June 19, 2020

Sampling has been a huge part of music for decades. Sometimes samples are obvious; sometimes you don't even realize they're there. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs that were sampled in hour 2.

Despite threats of physical violence, no Genesis or Phil Collins songs were included.

I can hear this playlist in the air tonight:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Jehnny Beth - I'm the Man/To Love is to Live
Plants & Animals - Sacrifice/Single
Jeff Rosenstock - Scram!/NO DREAM
Coriky - Inauguration Day/Coriky
Alice Bag - Sister Dynamite/Sister Dynamite
Run the Jewels - Holy Calamafuck/RTJ4
Fantastic Negrito - Chocolate Samurai/Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Built to Spill - Tell Me Now/Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston
Catholic Action - Another Name for Loneliness/Celebrated By Strangers
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Cameo/Sideways to New Italy
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Like a Comet/All in Good Time
Bambara - Ben & Lily/Stray
The Dears - No Place on Earth/Lovers Rock
STRFKR - Second Hand/Future Past Life
Shopping - Body Clock/All or Nothing
Stephen Malkmus - Flowin Robes/Traditional Techniques
Destroyer - The Man In Black's Blues/Have We Met

Hour 2: Sampled
Gang of Four - Ether/Entertainment
The Clash - Straight to Hell/Combat Rock
Public Image Ltd. - Rise/Album
James Brown - Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved/Funk Power 1970: A Brand New Thang
Parliament - Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)/Mothership Connection
Rick James - Super Freak/Street Songs
The Beatles - Helter Skelter/The White Album
The Rolling Stones - Monkey Man/Let It Bleed
Van Halen - Jamie's Cryin'/Van Halen
Billy Squier - The Stroke/Don't Say No
Led Zeppelin - Custard Pie/Physical Graffiti
Black Sabbath - Sweet Leaf/Master of Reality

 

The Ground Below

So I just finished a 41-day post binge writing about my favorite songs of the years 1978-2019. I started on May 3 and finished up on Sunday, and in between, well, all hell broke loose. Although the George Floyd killing is the focal point, this stuff has been going on pretty much forever. And there have been incidents since Floyd died on May 25. But this doesn't seem like an issue that's going to be forgotten any time soon, and that's a good thing.

There are a lot of pissed off people out there and for good reason. I've always been cynical about seeing meaningful positive change from our government, and that probably still won't happen overnight with the current administration. But hopefully it mobilizes people to get out and vote in November.

In the meantime, we're still dealing with this pandemic, which has been showing signs of coming back (or not going away) in states that have jumped the gun on opening things up. They seem to be treading with caution here in Mass., which is good IMHO. Believe me, I want to get back to doing the stuff I used to do, but not until there's a proven vaccine out. So for now, we keep our heads down and our masks on.

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Seventeen

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music). 

2019: Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen

So here we are, caught up to last year. Of course, the way things have been going lately, 2019 feels like it was a decade ago. It was a year full of presidential candidates strutting their stuff, noted perv Jeffrey Epstein is arrested and ends up dying while in prison and articles of impeachment of President Trump are introduced. Deaths include Luke Perry, Bill Buckner, Ric Ocasek, Dick Dale, David Berman and Eddie Money.

I did a fair amount of traveling, going to Huntington Beach, Calif., in January, Toronto (for another Leafs game), Virginia (for a soccer tournament Lily played in), Houston, Philadelphia, Ottawa (for a college visit), Baltimore (with a brief trip to Washington, DC, to go to a Capitals game with my brother) and Orlando.

Musically, it was a pretty diverse year. I got heavily into albums by The New Pornographers, PUP, Titus Andronicus, Bob Mould, Purple Mountains, Ex Hex, Mike Krol, DIIV, Ride, Hallelujah the Hills, Pile, Mark Lanegan, Desert Sessions and Kim Gordon.

Concerts included Belinda Carlisle (a corporate gig at a conference I went to), Bob Mould, Jawbreaker, Drive-By Truckers, Iron Maiden, Courtney Barnett, Titus Andronicus, Sleater-Kinney, Superchunk and Caspian.



My favorite song came from an unexpected source: Sharon Van Etten, whose album Remind Me Tomorrow was one of my favorites early on. I fully admit to not being overly familiar with Van Etten's previous work, but her fifth album grabbed my attention with its synth-driven and sweeping looks at life as a teenager and the various pitfalls she (or her protagonist) encountered. Van Etten revisits those teenage decisions with the wisdom of hindsight, but the excitement of being in the moment. Her song "Seventeen"is a haunting look back at the loneliness of those teen years, but from the vantage point of a mature adult who knows things will get better.


Honorable mentions: Bob Mould - "What Do You Want Me to Do"; Beach Slang - "I Hate Alternative Rock"; PUP - "Morbid Thoughts"; Black Mountain - "Future Shade"; Telekinesis - "Set a Course"; Better Oblivion Community Center - "Dylan Thomas"; Fontaines DC - "Big"; Ride - "Future Love"; Piroshka - "Everlastingly Yours"; Jenny Lewis - "Red Bull & Hennessy"; Weyes Blood - "Everyday"; Flat Worms - "Into the Iris"; Hash Redactor - "Step 2: Success"; Kiwi Jr. - "Leslie"; Ex Hex - "Diamond"; Nanami Ozone - "Affection"; Elizabeth Colour Wheel - "34th"; Versing - "Tethered"; Goon - "Datura"; Pile - "The Soft Hands of Stephen Miller"; Titus Andronicus - "(I Blame) Society"; L7 - "Fighting the Crave"; Courtney Barnett - "Everybody Here Hates You"; DIIV - "Skin Game"; Froth - "Laurel"; Plague Vendor - "New Comedown"; The Menzingers - "America (You're Freaking Me Out)"; Mini Mansions - "Bad Things (That Make You Feel Good)"; Purple Mountains - "All My Happiness Is Gone"; Hallelujah the Hills - "Folk Music Is Insane"; The New Pornographers - "Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile"; Big Thief - "Shoulders"; Redd Kross - "Beyond the Door"; Sleater-Kinney - "Bad Dance"; Refused - "REV001"; Ty Segall - "Whatever"; Mikal Cronin - "Shelter"; Kim Gordon - "Air Bnb"; Mark Lanegan - "Stitch It Up"; Desert Sessions - "Something You Can't See"; Lizzo - "Truth Hurts"; Mike Krol - "What's the Rhythm"

And that wraps up my look at 41 years of favorite songs. I put all the songs I picked into a Spotify playlist that's pretty damn good if I say so myself. Check it out here.


 

Ye Olde Hit Parade: What a Time to Be Alive

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music). 

2018: Superchunk - What a Time to Be Alive

All things considered, 2018 was full of some huge stories. The Parkland school shooting in Florida was horrible and shocking, maybe moreso for the fact that these things keep happening and nobody seems to do anything about them. President Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea played a really weird game of "He loves me, he loves me not and now we're going to fire nuclear missiles at him." Trump's border policy and the separation of families was brought to horrible light. The confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh brought back memories of Clarence Thomas/Anita Hall way back in '91.

There were some major deaths, including former President George H.W. Bush, Sen. John McCain, Aretha Franklin, Stan Lee, Stephen Hawking, Burt Reynolds, Anthony Bourdain, Stan Mikita and Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks.

I did a lot more traveling this year than in the previous several. In February, I flew up to Toronto to go to a Maple Leafs game with my cousin and hang with his family. It was so much fun I did it again a year later. Right around that time, I was named editor of a magazine my company publishes and part of the job involves attending conferences a few times a year. I hadn't traveled for work since 2012, which was fine, but it was cool to get out of the office and travel a bit. I went to Minneapolis in June, Nashville in October and Orlando in December (although I went down a few days early with the family to hit Disney and Universal). In addition, we drove to Toronto in June to visit family and some colleges for Hannah, then made a similar trip in November to Montreal to do some more college visits.


This was an invigorating year for the rock music. I mean, I always find a lot to like in every year (as you can see from this series), but there was a lot of really cool shit released in '018. This included hot rekkids from the likes of IDLES, Fucked Up, Courtney Barnett, Albert Hammond Jr.., Parquet Courts, Sloan, Jeff Rosenstock, Ovlov, Bodega, Ty Segall (with multiple releases once again), Kurt Vile, Buffalo Tom, The Breeders and Hot Snakes.

Concerts I attended included the Posies, Judas Priest, Superchunk/Swearin', Buffalo Tom, Sloan, Fu Manchu, Quiet Slang (in Minneapolis), Neil Young, George Clinton and P-Funk, Ex Hex and Courtney Barnett.




The band that really captured the tenor of the year, both on record and in concert, was Superchunk. Written in direct response to the 2016 presidential election, What a Time to Be Alive found Mac McCaughan and compadres raging against the dying of our democracy. The title track aptly sums up the band's anger: "The scum, the shame, the fucking lies/Oh what a time to be alive." Sounding like a band half its age, Superchunk raced through the album like it hasn't since its '90s heyday. But its vitriol was converted into exciting catharsis; the band's show at the Sinclair was frenetic, pissed off and awesome.

Honorable mentions: Parquet Courts - "Wide Awake"; The Breeders - "Wait in the Car"; Jeff Rosenstock - "All This Useless Energy"; Albert Hammond Jr. - "Far Away Truths"; Superchunk - "Break the Glass"; Screaming Females - "I'll Make You Sorry"; Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - "Mainland"; Buffalo Tom - "Lonely, Fast and Deep"; Dream Wife - "Hey!"; The Spook School - "Bad Year"; Camp Cope - "The Opener"; Painted Doll - "Hidden Hand"; Fu Manchu - "Don't Panic"; Judas Priest - "Lightning Strike"; David Byrne - "Everybody's Coming to My House"; The Hold Steady - "Eureka"; Speedy Ortiz - "Buck Me Off"; Moaning - "Don't Go"; Sloan - "Spin Our Wheels"; Ty Segall - "She"; Wye Oak - "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs"; Preoccupations - "Disarray"; Hot Snakes - "I Need a Doctor"; Jo Passed - "Millennial Trash Blues"; IDLES - "Colossus"; Slaves - "Chokehold"; Jim James - "Just a Fool"; Courtney Barnett - "Nameless, Faceless"; Neko Case - "Hell-On"; Jeff Tweedy - "I Know What It's Like"; Tony Molina - "Look Inside Your Mind"; Savak - "Silhouettes"; Rick Rude - "Firewater"; Stove - "Stiff Bones"; Fucked Up - "Raise Your Voice Joyce"; The Beths - "Future Me Hates Me"; Oh Sees - "Abysmal Urn"; J. Mascis - "See You at the Movies"; Kurt Vile - "Loading Zones"; Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B - "Finesse"; Kendrick Lamar and SZA - "All the Stars"; The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar - "Pray for Me"  

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Tinseltown Swimming in Blood

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2017: Destroyer - Tinseltown Swimming in Blood

I'm almost caught up here. In 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. It's still kind of unbelievable. Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots star tight end who was in jail for murder, was found hanged in his prison cell. There were more mass shootings throughout the year, including one in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and injured almost 500.

More celebrity deaths including Mary Tyler Moore, Don Rickles, Roger Moore, Adam West, Roy Halladay, Malcolm Young and Charles Manson. But the big ones for me were Gord Downie and Chris Cornell, two musical heroes of mine. Downie succumbed in October to brain cancer, but not before releasing one last solo album that he worked on in the last year of his life with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene. Cornell committed suicide after a May Soundgarden concert, although there was much speculation whether the medication he was on contributed to it. Whatever the case, it was a case of two musical geniuses taken way before their time.

On the personal front, we took a long-awaited European vacation over a few weeks in the summer, going to London, Paris, Belfast (where my brother was living at the time) and Dublin. We did a lot of touristy stuff, as you can imagine, and had an incredible time. It was a little nerve-wracking before we got over there because there were several terrorist attacks in London and Paris in the weeks leading up to our trip. Fortunately, nothing happened while we there, but the increased security presence definitely kept it on our minds.

Musically, I was listening to a lot of Soundgarden and Tragically Hip after the deaths of Cornell and Downie, but there was also plenty of great new music: Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile (who teamed up on an album), the Afghan Whigs, Mark Lanegan Band, Downie, St. Vincent, METZ, Queens of the Stone Age, Ted Leo, Boss Hog, The War on Drugs, LCD Soundsystem, Protomartyr, Ron Gallo and Pile, among many others.

Concerts included Bash & Pop/So So Glos, Los Campesinos!, Midnight Oil, Meat Puppets/Mike Watt/Grant Hart, Iron Maiden, Mark Lanegan Band, Oh Sees, Paul Weller, The Breeders, Hot Snakes/Savak and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists/Bill Janovitz.



In a year where I didn't have an obvious favorite song, I'm going with Destroyer's "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood." Basically a one-man show courtesy of Dan Bejar, Destroyer has spent the last several years exploring '80s sounds. On the 2017 album ken, he embraces a darker synth-pop sound that's reminiscent of Depeche Mode or New Order. There are also jazzier passages that call back to 2011's Kaputt, gliding along while Bejar sings of paranoia and disillusionment. "Tinseltown" has a real noir feel as it details moral decay in Hollywood. Just a cool breeze of a song.

Honorable mentions: The Afghan Whigs - "Demon in Profile"; The New Pornographers - "High Ticket Attractions"; Ron Gallo - "Kill the Medicine Man"; Cloud Nothings - "Enter Entirely"; Japandroids - "North East South West"; Snowball II - "CR-VUC"; Melkbelly - "Off the Lot"; Ty Segall - "Break a Guitar"; Ride - "Charm Assault"; Slowdive - "Star Roving"; Bash & Pop - "Anything Could Happen"; Spoon - "Can I Sit Next to You"; Los Campesinos! - "I Broke Up in Amarante"; Pile - "Texas"; The Feelies - "Gone, Gone, Gone"; At the Drive-In - "No Wolf Like the Present"; Boss Hog - "Ground Control"; Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - "Over Everything"; Waxahatchee - "Silver"; Mark Lanegan Band - "Drunk on Destruction"; Nine Inch Nails - "Less Than"; Wolf Parade - "Valley Boy"; White Reaper - "Party Next Door"; Lo Tom - "Overboard"; Palehound - "Carnations"; Alvvays - "In Undertow"; Ted Leo - "You're Like Me"; Infinity Girl - "The Winner Always Talks"; EMA - "I Wanna Destroy"; A Giant Dog - "Fake Plastic Trees"; METZ - "Mr. Plague"; Protomartyr - "My Children"; Gord Downie - "Love Over Money"; St. Vincent - "Masseduction"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Head Like a Haunted House"; Oh Sees - "Nite Expo"; Destroyer - "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood"; The War on Drugs - "Knocked Down"; LCD Soundsystem - "Emotional Haircut"; Bruno Mars - "That's What I Like"   

Stuck In Thee Garage #325: June 12, 2020

Protest music has been around as long as there's been something to protest about. It's an effective way to voice frustration with the status quo. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about sticking it to the man in hour 2. Radio Raheem knew what was up.

This playlist does the right thing:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
No Age - War Dance/Goons Be Gone
Coriky - Clean Kill/Coriky
Run the Jewels - The Ground Below/RTJ4
Fontaines DC - A Hero's Death/A Hero's Death
Pottery - Hot Heater/Welcome to Bobby's Motel
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - She's There/Sideways to New Italy
Gateway Drugs - Wait (Medication)/PSA
Dig Nitty - Restraint/Reverse of Mastery
Damaged Bug - Smile a While/Bug On Yonkers
Brendan Benson - Evil Eyes/Dear Life
Eyelids - 1 2 3/The Accidental Falls
Dead Stars - February Ghost/Never Not Now
EOB - Deep Days/Earth
MYXA - Carrion/Mosca
Fiona Apple - On I Go/Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Peel Dream Magazine - Do It/Agitprop Alterna

Hour 2: Stick it
Living Colour - Which Way to America?/Vivid
Sonic Youth - Youth Against Fascism/Dirty
R.E.M. - Ignoreland/Automatic for the People
Bad Brains - Big Takeover/Bad Brains
Black Flag - Rise Above/Damaged
Bad Religion - American Jesus/Recipe for Hate
The Dirtbombs - Indivisible/We Have You Surrounded
Jeff Rosenstock - Powerlessness/POST-
Jawbreaker - Save Your Generation/Dear You
L7 - Dispatch From Mar-a-Lago/Single
Titus Andronicus - (I Blame) Society/An Obelisk
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Mourning in America/The Brutalist Bricks
Superchunk - What a Time to Be Alive/What a Time to Be Alive
Parliament - Chocolate City/Chocolate City
Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funkee Homosapien - Missing Link/Judgment Night soundtrack
Public Enemy - Louder Than a Bomb/It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Lazarus

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2016: David Bowie - Lazarus

As 2016 closed out, the general feeling was: Well, THAT happened. And boy, did it ever. Wikileaks. The Benghazi report. More police shootings of unarmed black men. More mass shootings. Hillary Clinton's emails. Oh, and there was a presidential election of some note as well.

If all that wasn't enough, it was a tough year for celebrity deaths: Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Abe Fucking Vigoda, Muhammad Ali, Gordie Howe, Elie Wiesel, Arnold Palmer, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Carrie Fisher. Just brutal.

Things were good on the home front. I volunteered at the Boston Marathon again, ran a couple of half marathons. My office moved again, this time to Middleton. The company was about half the size it was when we moved to the Danvers office, so we downsized a bit. My commute doubled, but it was still only 20 minutes going on back roads, so it wasn't a big deal. We vacationed in Myrtle Beach, which was nice.

Musically, it was another interesting year. The standouts included a great comeback album from Iggy Pop (backed by a killer band including Josh Homme and Matt Sweeney), Toronto's PUP with a kickass second album, Jeff Rosenstock with another excellent release, Drive-By Truckers with a genuine protest record, Black Mountain perfecting their prog-stoner thing, and fine albums from Parquet Courts, Bob Mould, Car Seat Headrest, The Tragically Hip, A Giant Dog, Savages, Dinosaur Jr., Split Single and Beach Slang.

And right after they announced the release of their latest album, The Tragically Hip revealed that frontman Gord Downie had terminal brain cancer, but they still pulled off a tour. The Hip are one of my favorite bands and I always caught them when they came through town. I was hoping they'd play a few U.S. dates, but they did 15 shows in Canada, culminating in a final show in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario that was broadcast and streamed worldwide. It was a terrific and gut-wrenching performance. The chemo had left Downie, an electric performer, with short-term memory loss, but he was able to get through the shows with the help of teleprompters. What a way to go out (he died in October 2017).

Concerts I saw included Bully, Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Earthquake Party, Greg Dulli, Deer Tick, Savages, Iggy Pop, Bob Mould/Ted Leo, Eagles of Death Metal, Buffalo Tom, Black Mountain, X, Descendents/Beach Slang, Sloan, Teenage Fanclub, Jeff Rosenstock, and Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Coaches/Sneeze/Lilith.


But for me, it was all about Bowie. His album Blackstar was recorded secretly and came out on January 8, his 69th birthday. I bought the digital version that day and remember going for a long run the next morning listening to it and thinking how amazing it was that he released such an excellent record this late in his career. His 2013 album The Next Day was good, but this was next level, recorded with an unknown jazz-rock band supporting him and bringing a whole new jazz/hip hop sound. So it was a shock to most when he died two days after Blackstar came out of liver cancer, which he had also kept quiet. He had recorded this album while dealing with cancer, knowing that he was dying. An amazing feat, to be sure. The videos he released prior to the album's release were creepy and unsettling, but captivating. Much like the album itself. "Lazarus" features Bowie lying on his deathbed, with a bandage over his eyes. It's an intense experience. I have to admit I haven't listened to this a lot in the years since it came out. It makes me sad. But it's a triumphant accomplishment nonetheless.


Honorable mentions: David Bowie - "Blackstar"; Beach Slang - "Atom Bomb"; Split Single - "Leave My Mind"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Goin' Down"; Savages - "The Answer"; A Giant Dog - "Sleep When Dead"; The Tragically Hip - "Machine"; PUP - "DVP"; PUP - "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will"; Car Seat Headrest - "Vincent"; Bob Mould - "Hold On"; Parquet Courts - "Berlin Got Blurry"; Black Mountain - "Florian Saucer Attack"; Drive-By Truckers - "Surrender Under Protest"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Wave Goodnight to Me"; Iggy Pop - "Sunday"; David Bowie - "Sue (In a Season of Crime)"; Radiohead - "Burn the Witch"; The I Don't Cares - "King of America"; Used Cassettes - "President"; Descendents - "Comeback Kid"; Preoccupations - "Zodiac"; Gord Downie - "Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them"; Living Colour - "Who Shot Ya"; PJ Harvey - "Ministry of Defence"; Hallelujah the Hills - "I'm in the Phone Book, I'm On the Planet, I'm Dying Slowly"; Angel Olsen - "Shut Up Kiss Me"; Mitski - "Your Best American Girl"; Kristin Hersh - "Hemingway's Tell"; TUNS - "Back Among Friends"; Teenage Fanclub - "Thin"; Terry Malts - "Won't Come to Find You"; Ty Segall - "Candy Sam"; Run the Jewels - "Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost)"; A Tribe Called Quest - "Dis Generation"; Washer - "Do It Yourself"; Wolf Parade - "Floating World"; The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - "Starboy"  

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Elevator Operator

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2015: Courtney Barnett - Elevator Operator

When looking back at a year in the not-too-distant past, it's funny to see what your thoughts were at the time about it. Here's what I wrote about 2015 in my year-end music wrap-up: "From a general news standpoint, 2015 was flat-out fucked. Crazy-ass mass shootings on the regular, idiotic acts of aggression from pretty much every global power and some up-and-comers, a dogshit political system dredging up the lowest of the low in the latest U.S. presidential election folly."

I'm sure at the time I thought there was no way things could get any worse. HA.

The 2016 presidential campaigns were in full swing, with Bernie Sanders gaining in popularity, while the top Republicans at the end of 2015 were Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Notable deaths included Leonard Nimoy, B.B. King, Moses Malone and Lemmy of Motorhead.

Things were stable on the work front. No traveling, but plenty to do in the office. On the home front, I was busy with my various activities but also with coaching and attending my kids' soccer games. We went to Disney World again for a big extended family vacation in August.


As I continued doing my radio show, I was able to get on indie label promo lists and increase my access to new music from artists like Mike Krol, Nai Harvest, Flagland, White Reaper, Pile, Nadine Shah and Stove. I discovered Jeff Rosenstock, Beach Slang and Colleen Green. And I enjoyed music from established acts like METZ, Speedy Ortiz, Ty Segall and Destroyer. There were also new releases from bands that had recently reunited including Faith No More, Sleater-Kinney and Swervedriver.

I had a busy concert schedule, including The Tragically Hip, Sleater-Kinney, Swervedriver/Gateway Drugs, Ex Hex/Kuroma, Rough Francis/Varsity Drag, Soccer Mom/Infinity Girl/Chandos, David Bazan, The Upper Crust/Watts/Humpmuscle, an Exploding In Sound show with Krill/Big Ups/LVL Up/Stove/Palehound, Bob Mould, Ride and Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Coaches/Gold Muse.


Another discovery in '15 was Courtney Barnett, an Australian singer-guitarist who released her debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. I actually had heard a few songs from an EP she released the year before, but this was my first extended listen to her. There was some buzz about her sounding like Nirvana, but I didn't get that. She reminded me much more of Stephen Malkmus, both vocally and musically. She has a wordy, almost talk-singing style, while the band rocks furiously at times and laconically at others. Barnett's lyrics are wordy ruminations on the mundane aspects of everyday life but her laid-back delivery is compelling, especially on slow-burners like "Small Poppies" and "Depreston." But she flat-out rocks on upbeat numbers like "Pedestrian at Best," "Dead Fox" and my favorite song of the year, "Elevator Operator." She rocks hard but doesn't take herself seriously, like an honorary Gen Xer (at least the ones that didn't take themselves seriously, anyway). She's justified the hype in the last few years, with a couple of excellent releases and a tremendous live act.
 
Honorable mentions: METZ - "Acetate"; Courtney Barnett - "Pedestrian at Best"; Palehound - "Molly"; Speedy Ortiz - "Raising the Skate"; Colleen Green - "TV"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Novelty Sweater"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Get Old Forever"; Mike Krol - "This is the News"; Wimps - "Take It as It Comes"; Mikal Cronin - "Say"; Ty Segall - Drug Mugger"; Protomartyr - "The Devil in His Youth"; Pile - "#2 Hit Single"; The 20/20 Project - "Got It Made"; Krill - "Foot"; Flagland - "Awesome Song, Kerry Jan"; Nai Harvest - "Spin"; Bully - "Sharktooth"; Eagles of Death Metal - "The Reverend"; Kuroma - "Love is on the Way"; Nadine Shah - "Fool"; Hard Left - "Imagination"; Titus Andronicus - "Dimed Out"; White Reaper - "Pills"; Jesse Malin - "Turn Up the Mains"; Mac McCaughan - "Lost Again"; Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - "Incarceration Casserole"; Infinity Girl - "Dirty Sun"; Chandos - "Cobra Points"; Beach Slang - "Young & Alive"; Destroyer - "Dream Lover"; Wilco - "Random Name Generator"; Woolen Men - "Hard Revision"; Viet Cong - "Continental Shelf"; Faith No More - "Sunny Side Up"; Sleater-Kinney - "Bury Our Friends"; Stove - "Aged Hype"; Swervedriver - "Autodidact"; The Weeknd - "Can't Feel My Face"; Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - "Uptown Funk"  

Ye Olde Hit Parade: What Color Is Blood?

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2014: Parquet Courts - What Color Is Blood?

Six years ago feels like 16 years ago. In 2014, Ebola arrived in the U.S. but was fortunately kept under control. David Letterman retired from his late night show after 32 years and was replaced by Stephen Colbert, while Jimmy Fallon took over The Tonight Show. U2 pissed everybody off after their new album was automatically added to the collections of all iTunes users. And there were some shocking deaths, including Robin Williams, Tony Gwynn, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jan Hooks.

Things were much more stable at work after a few roller coaster years. The 2014 Boston Marathon went off with no problems, thanks to added security measures. Meb Keflezighi became the first American to win the race since 1983.

We did something different for our summer vacation, driving down to Williamsburg, Virginia for a week. In addition to visiting Colonial Williamsburg, we went to Virginia Beach, Busch Gardens and a ropes course. Good stuff.

On the running front, I ran the Around Cape Ann 30K on Labor Day, which was tough not only because of the many hills but also because of the heat and humidity. A few weeks later, I did my sixth consecutive Reach the Beach.


Musically, there was a lot to choose from: Interesting new acts like Protomartyr, Two Inch Astronaut, Big Ups, Ava Luna and Ex Hex. New music from old favorites like the Afghan Whigs, Bob Mould, Gord Downie, Stephen Malkmus and Sloan. And discoveries of bands like Hallelujah the Hills and the War on Drugs.

Concerts included Rocket From the Crypt/Ex Hex, Gord Downie and the Sadies, The Afghan Whigs (twice), Parquet Courts/Protomartyr, Guided By Voices, Titus Andronicus, Ty Segall/La Luz, Caspian, Kal Marks, Sloan, Speedy Ortiz/Big Ups and Palehound/Chandos/Coaches. 



My favorite band of the year was Parquet Courts, another act that had emerged in the previous few years and was coming into its own. As I noted at the time, "Parquet Courts made a splash in the indie rock world last year, when their 2012 release Light Up Gold was reissued and caught fire. The New York by way of Austin quartet upped the ante with Sunbathing Animal, which took their brand of CBGBs-inspired garage rock and infused it with more fully developed songs. It feels like the natural evolution of the band's sound." There were more midtempo grooves and slower meditations. "What Color Is Blood?" is just one of many standout tracks, as the band displays its art-rock chops a la late '70s NYC acts like Television and Talking Heads. It's a killer song from a killer band. And live, they can deliver the goods as well. Parquet Courts has proven itself to be a prolific band, releasing a fine album called Content Nausea in October 2014 and several excellent records in the years since.

Honorable mentions: Bob Mould - "The War"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "J Smoov"; Spoon - "Do You"; The New Pornographers - "War on the East Coast"; The War on Drugs - "Red Eyes"; Hallelujah the Hills - "We Are What We Say We Are"; Gord Downie and the Sadies - "Crater"; Death From Above 1979 - "Right On, Frankenstein!"; Ex Hex - "Hot and Cold"; Protomartyr - "Scum, Rise!"; Ty Segall - "The Faker"; Sloan - "Keep Swinging (Downtown)"; The Afghan Whigs - "Parked Outside"; Parquet Courts - "Bodies"; Speedy Ortiz - "American Horror"; Two Inch Astronaut - "Foulbrood"; Krill - "Turd"; King Tuff - "Headbanger"; Mastodon - "High Road"; The Hush Now - "Panda"; Gold-Bears - "From Tallahassee to Gainesville"; Ryan Adams - "When the Summer Ends"; Against Me - "Dead Friend"; Cloud Nothings - "Psychic Trauma"; Big Ups - "Fresh Meat"; Ava Luna - "Daydream"; Damaged Bug - "Photograph"; Radiator Hospital - "Five & Dime"; Johnny Foreigner - "Le Schwing"; Young Adults - "Old Kids"; Benjamin Booker - "Wicked Waters"; Run the Jewels - "Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck)"  

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Do I Wanna Know?

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2013: Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?

It was a hell of a year, that 2013. Same sex marriage became legal in a number of states throughout the year. Edward Snowden was charged with espionage for leaking secrets. Notable deaths included Lou Reed, Margaret Thatcher, Peter O'Toole and Jonathan Winters.

The morning of April 15 started off on a good note. I went in to Wellesley to volunteer along the Boston Marathon course, handing out water at mile 12, just before the midpoint of the race. I was with a group of folks from my running club and we set up, handed out cups of water and then cleaned everything up after the last runner had gone through. I was a half-mile from my house just before 3 p.m. when I heard on the radio that there were explosions at the marathon finish line. The next few days were spent watching the coverage of the marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured 250 others. I knew people who were in the vicinity when the bombs went off, and obviously it was a difficult time for the city and the running community. The hunt for the bombers was at first full of red herrings as suspects were falsely identified on social media at first. Finally, the city was essentially on lockdown for a day or two while police tracked and caught the two brothers (one was killed) who committed the bombing.

On the work front, we had an interim CEO trying to get the company ready for sale. I spent most of the year editing 15 monthly newsletters, which was an insane amount of work, but it was work and I was glad to have it. By the end of October, we were sold to another publisher. It was good news, but it was still a painful transition as a bunch of folks were let go after the sale. My department was luckily kept intact and we continued on. Also around the same time, Deb and I got to attend the clinching game of the 2013 World Series at Fenway Park, when the Red Sox took out the Cardinals. It was mayhem afterwards, with drunken idiots tipping over cars and causing general mayhem. We ended up walking a couple of miles to Boston Common before we could get to a subway stop that wasn't overrun with revelers.

We had a couple of vacations, going to Toronto for a week in July and Hilton Head, S.C., in August. After we got back, I started up yet another side activity (I began doing a podcast in '06 and writing a column about running for the local paper in '08). A friend and former co-worker had moved to San Francisco and was starting up an online radio station called Best Frequencies Forever, or BFF.fm. She needed some content to launch the station with and asked if I would do a pre-recorded show, so I began doing Stuck In Thee Garage, a two-hour program focusing on indie rock, in September. Almost seven years later, BFF.fm is a thriving force on the SF music scene with a full complement of in-house DJs, but I'm still doing my show and loving it.


Musically, I was getting into the local indie rock scene a lot more thanks to my good buddy Jay, who was documenting it for his fine blog Clicky Clicky Music. I was digging bands like Soccer Mom,  The Hush Now, Krill, Speedy Ortiz and Ovlov (from Connecticut, but close enough to be local). There were good new albums from Queens of the Stone Age, Kurt Vile, Superchunk, David Bowie, Savages, Future of the Left and Iceage.


Concerts attended included Mission of Burma, Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Titus Andronicus/Palma Violets, Drive-By Truckers, Living Colour, Soccer Mom/Golden Gurls, Obits/Pile, Earthquake Party/Hush Now/Soccer Mom/Kurt Heasley, Lucero/Titus Andronicus and the Smithereens.    




But for me, the standout song of the year was "Do I Wanna Know?" from Arctic Monkeys, a band that had taken a lot of turns since its 2006 debut album. It had explored hard rock, stoner rock and on this record, embraced more of a groove and pop sensibility. "Do I Wanna Know?" was especially catchy, as was "R U Mine?" and several others on the album. The former even ended up getting licensed to be in commercials, which I guess is a decent revenue stream given the general decline in record sales. The band has continued to evolve, not always successfully, but this was a particularly good document of a band hitting its stride.
 
Honorable mentions: Parquet Courts - "Borrowed Time"; FIDLAR - "Cheap Beer"; Iceage - "In Haze"; David Bowie - "The Next Day"; Grant Hart - "Morningstar"; Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - "The Corner Man"; Pearl Jam - "Mind Your Manners"; Mudhoney - "Douchebags on Parade"; The Night Marchers - "All Hits"; Obits - "Taste the Diff"; Kurt Vile - "KV Crimes"; Swearin' - "Echo Locate"; Arctic Monkeys - "R U Mine"; Savages - "Husbands"; Future of the Left - "Donny of the Decks"; Calories - "DMT"; Los Campesinos! - "What Death Leaves Behind"; Arcade Fire - "Normal Person"; The National - "Demons"; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "We No Who U R"; Queens of the Stone Age - "I Appear Missing"; Yo La Tengo - "The Point of It"; Speedy Ortiz - "Tiger Tank"; Krill - "No Joke"; Idiot Genes - "Puke"; Ovlov - "Where's My Dini"; Deer Tick - "The Curtain"; Mikal Cronin - "Weight"; Thee Oh Sees - "Maze Fancier"; Mind Spiders - "They Lie"; Superchunk - "Me & You & Jackie Mittoo"; Diarrhea Planet - "Separations"; Lorde - "Royals"

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Wave Goodbye

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2012: Ty Segall Band - Wave Goodbye

There was a considerable collection of humans who spent 2012 expecting the world to end. I mean, that happens every year, but some interpretations of old Mayan predictions found a belief that some sort of cosmic event would happen to end life as we know it. As we now understand, the end of the world is actually happening right now (I keed, I keed). But in things that actually happened in 2012, President Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney to win a second term in office. Facebook bought Instagram and went public. Tablets like the iPad became a big seller. Did I mention the world didn't end?

For me, it was a difficult year at work. It was clear the company was having some serious issues with its direction; namely, that direction was the wrong one and the layoffs continued throughout the year. It all culminated in December, when I was called into a colleague's office to find out my entire division had been eliminated. Fortunately, they still needed someone to do my old job and offered it to me. Having no other options, I took it. Turned out to be a good move.

One cool work-related thing was a trip I took to Austin in March. It was the week after South by Southwest, so there were literally no bands in town, which was a bummer. But even though I was by myself, I had a great time eating BBQ, going to cool bars and see movies at the Alamo Drafthouse. In the summer, we drove up to Montreal for a week for a good family vacation. It was a lot different than previous trips to Montreal, which revolved around drinking, hockey and adult entertainment. But it was fun, and little did we know at the time that my oldest would be going to college there (she joins the class of '24 at McGill University this fall).

Commercial radio had been dying a slow, painful death for a while, but in 2012, it hit a crescendo when WFNX went off the air. The station had always been an independent alternative rock station and it was my station of choice pretty much from the early '90s onward. Boston's big rock station WBCN had gone off the air a few years earlier and hard rock station WAAF finally gave up the ghost this past February. But I had stopped listening to commercial radio years before 2012, especially after I got an iPod and then got into podcasts.


It was another year full of interesting music that I was into. Strong indie rock from the likes of Divine Fits, Titus Andronicus, Japandroids, Cloud Nothings, A.C. Newman and METZ. Returns from old favorites like Van Halen, Soundgarden, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Mission of Burma, Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg. Cool new stuff from Torche, Parquet Courts, Golden Gurls, Metric, El-P and Redd Kross. Concerts included: Wild Flag, Mark Lanegan Band, Matthew Sweet, Iron Maiden, Mean Creek/Mellow Bravo/Soccer Mom, Bob Mould, the Afghan Whigs, Sloan, Guillermo Sexo/Johnny Foreigner/Speedy Ortiz/Infinity Girl and the Tragically Hip.



But my favorite song and album came from the Ty Segall Band. Segall is a prolific fellow, releasing three albums in 2012, but my favorite was the scuzz-rock masterpiece Slaughterhouse. Backed by a powerhouse band including the great Mikal Cronin on bass, Segall unleashed a scorching collection of bangers that mix psychedelia with bone-crushing heaviness. "Wave Goodbye" is the best distillation of this formula, a Sabbathy freakout that is guaranteed to get heads nodding vigorously. Thankfully, the subsequent eight years have done nothing to slow Segall down. He's continued to release great and varied music. Seeing him live is the best, though, as you can see by the clip above. I saw him a few years ago in a tiny club and it was intense and almost overwhelming.


Honorable mentions: Ty Segall - "Death"; Divine Fits - "Would That Not Be Nice"; Divine Fits - "My Love Is Real"; Mark Lanegan Band - "The Gravedigger's Song"; Titus Andronicus - "Ecce Homo"; Titus Andronicus - "In a Big City"; Japandroids - "Fire's Highway"; Torche - "Kicking"; The Tragically Hip - "At Transformation"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Walk Like a Giant"; A.C. Newman - "Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns"; Mission of Burma - "Semi-Pseudo Sort of Plan"; Van Halen - "China Town"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Watch the Corners"; Cloud Nothings - "No Future/No Past"; METZ - "Wasted"; Bob Mould - "Star Machine"; Bob Mould - "The Descent"; Paul Westerberg - "My Road Now"; Shearwater - "You As You Were"; Craig Finn - "Honolulu Blues"; Redd Kross - "Researching the Blues"; Two Gallants - "My Love Won't Wait"; Ladyhawk - "You Read My Mind"; Band of Skulls - "Sweet Sour"; Aimee Mann - "Charmer"; Metric - "The Wanderlust"; David Byrne & St. Vincent - "Who"; The Afghan Whigs - "Lovecrimes"; Gary Clark, Jr. - "Glitter Ain't Gold (Jumpin' for Nothin')"; Guided By Voices - "The Unsinkable Fats Domino"; Golden Gurls - "I Can See the City"; Ceremony - "Hysteria"; Parquet Courts - "Borrowed Time"; The Henry Clay People - "EveryBandWeEverLoved"; El-P - "Drones Over Bklyn"; Soundgarden - "By Crooked Steps"   

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Senator

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2011: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Senator

It was a year like many others, with plenty of big moments: The deaths of Osama Bin Laden and Moammar Gadaffi, uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria, the controversial trials of Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox. And Charlie Sheen went off the deep end.

For me, things were good. My company moved in December 2010 from Marblehead to Danvers, which cut my commute down by about 70%. It was an easy 10-minute drive, which was nice. No marathons for me; I decided I'd done plenty of them (13 to be exact) and had nothing left to prove. I still liked running, just not distances that long.

I had a work trip to Seattle, my first visit to that city since I moved from Washington state in 1983. While I was there, I met up with a couple of friends from my short stint in high school. It was good to see those guys after so long. A few weeks later, we did a big road trip down to Orlando to his Disney World again. Unlike the first trip, we broke up the drive, stopping in New Jersey at Deb's brother's place before continuing on in the morning. Made a huge difference. It was a fun and tiring week. While we were there, I found out that I was moving over to a new division of my company to work on electronic products. I had spent the previous 10 years working on print products, so this was a big move, or so I thought (a little foreshadowing for future posts).

Musically, I was still digging on the indie rock, although that genre covered a lot of ground. There were your alt-rock stalwarts like PJ Harvey, Sloan, Wilco, Foo Fighters, the Twilight Singers; older acts like the Feelies and R.E.M. (who released their final studio album); hip hop acts like the Beastie Boys and the Roots; younger artists like Yuck, Johnny Foreigner, Los Campesinos!, Soccer Mom and Fucked Up; and the beastly roar of metal gods Mastodon. For concerts, I saw Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Robert Plant, Queens of the Stone Age, Jason Isbell, Ted Leo, Dinosaur Jr., Sloan, Young Adults/Ringo Deathstarr, Big Audio Dynamite and Buffalo Tom.


My favorite song was "Senator" by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, off the album Mirror Traffic. It was primo Malkmus, a sardonic look at shady politicians and pretty timely, given Anthony Weiner's, uh, problems. "I know what the senator wants/What the senator wants is a blow job," sang Malkmus cheerily. Supposedly he even recorded a radio-friendly version substituting "corn dog" for "blow job," although by 2011 there weren't many radio stations left playing Malkmus songs. Whatever, the song kicks ass.


Honorable mentions: PJ Harvey - "The Words That Maketh Murder"; Mastodon - "The Curl of the Burl"; Foo Fighters - "Rope"; Yuck - "Get Away"; Mighty Fine - "Ready to Roar"; Drive-By Truckers - "The Thanksgiving Filter"; J. Mascis - "Is It Done"; Beastie Boys - "Make Some Noise"; Buffalo Tom - "Guilty Girls"; The Twilight Singers - "On the Corner"; Wild Flag - "Romance"; Deer Tick - "Main Street"; Sloan - "Follow the Leader"; Sloan - "Unkind"; Fucked Up - "Ship of Fools"; Fucked Up - "Queen of Hearts"; Destroyer - "Chinatown"; The Dears - "Blood"; Radiohead - "Lotus Flower"; R.E.M. - "Discoverer"; TV On the Radio - "Caffeinated Consciousness"; Arctic Monkeys - "Brick by Brick"; St. Vincent - "Cheerleader"; Wilco - "Art of Almost"; The Roots - "Make My"; The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy"; Soccer Mom - "It's Probably Not Your Fault"; Johnny Foreigner - "(Don't) Show Us Your Fangs"; The Feelies - "When You Know"; Los Campesinos! - "By Your Hand"; Telekinesis - "Car Crash"; Jason Isbell - "Go It Alone"

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Evil

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2010: Grinderman - Evil

The new decade began as the previous one ended: In the throes of an economic recession. Fortunately, I still had a job, but it was bad. The stock market continued to plunge, there were more layoffs at my company, and Ronnie James Dio died.


I ran the Providence Marathon in May, but unfortunately for me, it was 80 degrees and super humid that day. I was fine until about mile 20, when I got dehydrated and started struggling with muscle spasms. The last five miles of the race or so were mostly walked. It was not good. In the fall, I was going to run a full in Hampton, NH, but an injury forced me to drop down to the half. Which was a good thing, because it started pouring at mile 9. I was soaked to the bone, but I was glad I didn't have to run another 13 miles.

We went on a different vacation this year, flying in July to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was pretty fun, although the one time I went on a computer in a nearby internet cafe, I found out there were layoffs at work. Crazy.

It was a strong year from a musical perspective. Plenty of good stuff to dig into, from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists to Superchunk to the Henry Clay People to LCD Soundsystem. Concerts included We Were Promised Jetpacks, the Feelies (who had six encores on a late Friday night show that had me begging for it to end, even though it was great), Mission of Burma, Spoon, Drive-By Truckers, Los Campesinos!, the Kominas, Superchunk (on my 43rd birthday), The Hold Steady, Greg Dulli, Black Mountain/Black Angels, Guided By Voices and Grinderman.



My song of the year was by the last band mentioned, Nick Cave's hard rocking side project Grinderman. I will admit to being extremely late to the Cave bandwagon, only really getting into his stuff in the previous few years (something I've worked to remedy over the last decade). They've only done the two albums, but both are glorious works, with Cave presiding over the unholy clatter like a deranged televangelist. "Evil" is but one of several killer tracks on this album. And live, holy crap, what an amazing show. Cave is one of the most magnetic frontmen ever, and this song presents him at the peak of his powers. 


Honorable mentions: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Bottled in Cork"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Mourning in America"; Titus Andronicus - "A More Perfect Union"; Grinderman - "Heathen Child"; Superchunk - "Digging for Something"; The Black Keys - "Tighten Up"; Black Mountain - "The Hair Song"; The Henry Clay People - "Your Famous Friends"; Spoon - "Written in Reverse"; Los Campesinos! - "Romance is Boring"; Les Savy Fav - "Sleepless in Silverlake"; Drive-By Truckers - "This Fucking Job"; LCD Soundsystem - "Drunk Girls"; Girl Talk - "Oh No"; The Besnard Lakes - "Albatross"; Frightened Rabbit - "Swim Until You Can't See Land"; Das Racist - "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell"; The Hold Steady - "Hurricane J"; The New Pornographers - "Your Hands (Together)"; Wintersleep - "Blood Collection"; Wolf Parade - "Ghost Pressure"; Arcade Fire - "Ready to Start"; Iron Maiden - "El Dorado"; The 20/20 Project - "Back to Work"; Neil Young - "Angry World"; Cee-Lo - "Fuck You"

Stuck In Thee Garage #324: June 5, 2020

Let's face it, things in the world aren't great right now. Hopefully they're going to get better. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from another year that seemed kinda crappy: 2000. Although I guess the following year was even worse, so...anyhoo, hope you enjoy the new and the old stuff.

Also: Something something more cowbell.

This playlist has the fever:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Run the Jewels - Walking in the Snow/RTJ4
Bob Mould - American Crisis/Blue Hearts
Coriky - Too Many Husbands/Coriky
Gateway Drugs - Invitation/PSA
The Lawrence Arms - PTA/Skeleton Coast
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - The Second of the First/Sideways to New Italy
Japandroids - Heart Sweats/Massey Fucking Hall
Chicano Batman - I Know It/Invisible People
The Dears - Instant Nightmare!/Lovers Rock
Car Seat Headrest - Martin/Making a Door Less Open
Jeff Rosenstock - Old Crap/NO DREAM
X - Strange Life/Alphabetland
Sleaford Mods - Tarantula Deadly Cargo/All That Glue
Lightning Bug - The Onely Ones/Single
Diet Cig - Night Terrors/Do You Wonder About Me?
Mark Lanegan - At Zero Below/Straight Songs of Sorrow

Hour 2: 2000
Outkast - Ms. Jackson/Stankonia
The Hives - Hate to Say I Told You So/Veni Vidi Vicious
Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One/All Hands on the Bad One
Radiohead - Idioteque/Kid A
PJ Harvey (with Thom Yorke) - The Mess We're In/Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
Modest Mouse - Gravity Rides Everything/The Moon and Antarctica
At the Drive-In - One-Armed Scissor/Relationship of Command
Rollins Band - Are You Ready?/Get Some Go Again
Queens of the Stone Age - Monsters in the Parasol/Rated R
The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic/Mass Romantic
Yo La Tengo - From Black to Blue/And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
The Twilight Singers - The Twilite Kid/Twilight As Played by The Twilight Singers
The Tragically Hip - Lake Fever/Music@Work
The White Stripes - I'm Bound to Pack It Up/De Stijl

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Alcoholics Unanimous

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2009: Art Brut - Alcoholics Unanimous

The first decade of the new millennium came to a close with a global pandemic of all things. The H1N1 swine flu caused more than 12,000 deaths in the U.S. and about 284,000 worldwide. Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the same day (June 25). And the biggest-selling album in the world was by...Susan Boyle?

It was also a strange year for late night TV. NBC announced that Conan O'Brien would take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno, only to pull the rug out from under O'Brien after seven months. Jimmy Fallon ended up getting the gig and O'Brien got a show over at TBS.  


It was a decent year for me personally. I ran the Boston Marathon for the third and last time in the spring, finishing in just under 3:57. We drove up to Toronto for a vacation for the first time in several years. Got to see a great Roy Halladay start for the Jays vs. the Red Sox. I didn't end up doing a fall marathon, but I did my first Reach the Beach relay in the NH (which I continued for the next 10 years; we'll see if they hold it this fall).


Musically, there was a lot of good stuff as usual. I was on an MP3-heavy diet of indie rock: Mission of Burma, Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Foreigner, Dead Weather, Dinosaur Jr., St. Vincent, Metric, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Arctic Monkeys and more. My music discovery was done primarily via blogs and podcasts.

Concerts attended: Jason Isbell/Deer Tick, The Tragically Hip, The WMBR Breakfast of Champions 25th birthday show (Condo Fucks/Bevis Frond/Sleepyhead), Destroyer, Eagles of Death Metal, Dinosaur Jr., Them Crooked Vultures, Sonic Youth/Feelies, Ted Leo/Titus Andronicus and Sloan.



My favorite song of '09 was a fun ripper from Art Brut called "Alcoholics Unanimous" off their Art Brut Vs. Satan album. I had their previous two albums, which were good, but this record (produced by Frank Black) was a lot more raw and immediate, echoing the sound Black was accustomed to getting from his solo projects. Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos is more of a shouter than a singer, kind of the British equivalent to the Hold Steady's Craig Finn (see yesterday's post). The song details a wild night out and the resulting after-effects, which is something I didn't really do anymore, but it definitely took me back to my 20s.


Honorable mentions: Mission of Burma - "1, 2, 3, Partyy!"; Them Crooked Vultures - "Mind Eraser, No Chaser"; Them Crooked Vultures - "Elephants"; Mastodon - "Oblivion"; Jarvis Cocker - "Angela"; Art Brut - "Slap Dash for No Cash"; Art Brut - "Alcoholics Unanimous"; Arctic Monkeys - "Crying Lightning"; The Dead Weather - "Treat Me Like Your Mother"; Japandroids - "Rockers East Vancouver"; Johnny Foreigner - "Ghost the Festivals"; Danananananaykroyd - "Watch This"; Patterson Hood - "Heavy and Hanging"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Over It"; The Von Bondies - "Pale Bride"; Metric - "Gimme Sympathy"; St. Vincent - "Actor Out of Work"; The Raveonettes - "Bang"; Sonic Youth - "Sacred Trickster"; Obits - "Two-Headed Coin"; Pearl Jam - "The Fixer"; Alice in Chains - "Check My Brain"; Brendan Benson - "A Whole Lot Better"; The Gaslight Anthem - "Great Expectations"; Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - "Soldiers Get Strange"; The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Young Adult Friction"; Neko Case - "People Got a Lotta Nerve"; Riverboat Gamblers - "A Choppy, Yet Sincere Apology"; The Tragically Hip - "Love is a First"; We Were Promised Jetpacks - "Ships With Holes Will Sink"; Wilco - "Bull Black Nova"; Jay Reatard - "I'm Watching You"; Yo La Tengo - "Here to Fall"; Condo Fucks - "What'cha Gonna Do About It"  

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Constructive Summer

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2008: The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer

It was an eventful year, that's for damn sure. The financial markets collapsed in the fall, leading to an economic recession that would last for a few years. The U.S. elected its first black president in Barack Obama. There were a lot of political scandals involving a variety of individuals, including former New York governor Elliot Spitzer, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, former Senator and current presidential candidate John Edwards and former Alaska senator Ted Stevens. Oh, and OJ Simpson finally went to jail, although not for those murders in 1994.

Things were good to start the year off. My company was doing well, got bought by a new investment firm and we all got nice bonuses. I ran the New Jersey Marathon in May and set a new personal best with a time of 3 hours, 43 minutes. We vacationed again on the Joisey Shore. Things got a little ugly at work after the stock market crashed and there were several rounds of layoffs. I survived, but it was a sign of things to come for the next few years. In November, I ran the Philadelphia Marathon and had hopes of breaking 3:40, but a chest cold and some brutally cold weather combined to slow me down a bit. I ended up doing it in 3:52, which wasn't bad.

It was another indie rock-heavy year for me. I was looking at the list of Billboard's top 100 singles of the year and I was unfamiliar with a lot of them. But I was listening to a lot of great new music, primarily via my eMusic subscription that allowed me to download a certain number of MP3s per month. I occasionally bought a CD, but for the most part, it was MP3s. Among my favorites were Black Mountain, Sloan, King Khan and the Shrines, the Gutter Twins (Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan), Ladyhawk, Drive-By Truckers, the Raveonettes, TV On the Radio and Johnny Foreigner.

Concerts included: Black Mountain/Bon Iver, Drive-By Truckers, Gutter Twins (twice), Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Mission of Burma, Iron Maiden, Sloan, Pearl Jam/Ted Leo, The Feelies and Eagles of Death Metal.


My song of the year was by a band that had continually released great music in the '00s: The Hold Steady. Their album Stay Positive came out in July and I listened to that thing all summer. I can remember doing speed work on the track at Village Middle School in Marblehead at lunchtime, sweating like a sumbitch while listening to this album. "Constructive Summer" is a rollicking riff rocker that opens the album, with singer Craig Finn simultaneously harking back to summertime drinking with his friends and looking ahead to do something bigger. While, of course, raising a toast to Saint Joe Strummer. As one should.

Honorable mentions: The Hold Steady - "Constructive Summer"; King Khan and the Shrines - "Torture"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Baltimore"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Cold Son"; The Gutter Twins - "Idle Hands"; The Gutter Twins - "Front Street"; TV On the Radio - "Dancing Choose"; The Dirtbombs - "Wreck My Flow"; Black Mountain - "Stormy High"; Black Mountain - "Evil Ways"; Sloan - "Believe in Me"; Sloan - "Witch's Wand"; Ladyhawk - "I Can't Always Hear What You're Saying"; Ladyhawk - "Corpse Paint"; The Raconteurs - "Salute Your Solution"; Drive-By Truckers - "That Man I Shot": Eagles of Death Metal - "Anything 'Cept the Truth"; The Raveonettes - "Dead Sound"; Frightened Rabbit - "Head Rolls Off"; Dead Meadow - "What Needs Must Be"; Jay Reatard - "Always Wanting More"; The Kills - "U.R.A. Fever"; Destroyer - "Foam Hands"; R.E.M. - "Supernatural Superserious"; Tapes 'n Tapes - "Hang Them All"; The Black Angels - "Science Killer"; Foxboro Hot Tubs - "Mother Mary"; Santogold - "L.E.S. Artistes"; Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - "Come On Over (Turn Me On)"; Johnny Foreigner - "Eyes Wide Terrified"; Beck - "Chemtrails"; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!"; Night Marchers - "I Wanna Deadbeat You"; Black Francis - "The Seus"; The Breeders - "Bang On"      

Completely Conspicuous 535: Built to Last

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the final Grateful Dead studio album Built to Last. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded via Zoom
- Built to Last released on Halloween 1989
- Jay had just graduated from college, Phil was a junior
- Jay: Don't remember this album even coming out
- Phil: It's not memorable
- Felt like band was going through the motions
- Brent Mydland dominated the album with four songs
- He was suffering from depression; died a year later
- Maybe Garcia and Weir didn't have enough good material
- Fall '89 Dead shows are considered the band's last great run of concerts
- Tried the same recording technique as previous album but it didn't work
- Garcia said Mydland's songs were better
- Final song is really bad
- Phil: They had enough material to record another album
- You can find version of them online
- Garcia started getting into drugs again
- Concert performances suffered
- Band members started doing other projects
- A couple of decent songs on this album
- Mydland songs seemed like they'd fit in a different genre
- Phil: He was good in concert
- The Dead didn't need another hit album
- Jay: At the end of this journey, have more of an appreciation for the Dead
- Definitely some bad records
- Can appreciate the live performances to a point
- Jay: I respect the fanaticism of Deadheads; not for me, but that's okay
- No more guilty pleasures; you like what you like

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple 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.

Welcome to the Terrordome

Normally I'd be posting about my favorite song of 2008 today in my "Ye Olde Hit Parade" series, as well as posting the episode of Completely Conspicuous that was set to go up today, but things in the world are just a tad messed up. There's a lot of shit going down across our nation right now and today has been designated as Blackout Tuesday to call attention to the protests against systemic racism. So I'm taking a break today and will be back with my regular shizz tomorrow. Keep your head up!

Ye Olde Hit Parade: The Underdog

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2007: Spoon - The Underdog

The year 2007 got off to a big start in January when Apple announced the introduction of the iPhone. The Mitchell Report came out, unveiling the rampant use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. And Larry Bud Melman died.


It was a big year for me because I hit the big 4-0, although I didn't make a big deal about it. Just another year. We drove down to Disney World for our family vacation in July; it was an exhausting drive and an exhausting week going through the various parks, but we had fun. Hannah started kindergarten in the fall, which was tough for her at first, but she got the hang of it. I ran the Baystate Marathon in October and did pretty well (for me, anyway).

There was plenty of good music happening. Radiohead caused a stir by releasing their new album In Rainbows as a pay-what-you-want download. Nick Cave got loud again with his Grinderman project. Dinosaur Jr. released their first album with the original lineup since 1988 and it sounded like they picked up where they left off. And there was interesting new music from M.I.A., El-P, Marnie Stern, the Besnard Lakes, LCD Soundsystem and the Horrors, among others.

For concerts, I saw Sloan, Mission of Burma, The Tragically Hip (twice), Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Queens of the Stone Age and Spoon.



It was that last act that had the song of the year for me. I started getting into Spoon with their last album, Gimme Fiction, but the new one, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, was their big breakthrough. And "The Underdog" was the standout song, augmented by horns and acoustic guitar, two very un-Spoon-like features. It ended up getting used in a fair amount of TV shows and movies. It's an indie rock song that can be appreciated by mainstream music fans and indie rock snobs alike, and it definitely cut across radio demographics. On this tour and beyond, you started seeing a lot of older folks who learned about the band on NPR and adult alternative radio. But it wasn't a sellout. It's just a damn good song.


Honorable mentions: Spoon - "Don't You Evah"; Radiohead - "Bodysnatchers"; of Montreal - "Suffer for Fashion"; Bloc Party - "Hunting for Witches"; Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror"; Grinderman - "Depth Charge Ethel"; Grinderman - "No Pussy Blues"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Sick, Sick, Sick"; Queens of the Stone Age - "3's and 7's"; El-P - "Flyentology"; Modest Mouse - "Dashboard"; Marnie Stern - "Vibrational Match"; Joel Plaskett Emergency - "Drunk Teenagers"; Arctic Monkeys - "Brianstorm"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Been There All the Time"; The White Stripes - "Bone Broke"; Les Savy Fav - "Pots and Pans"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Down Boy"; M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"; The Good, the Bad and the Queen - "Kingdom of Doom"; The Besnard Lakes - "Devastation"; Kaiser Chiefs - "Everything is Average Nowadays"; The Horrors - "Jack the Ripper"; LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"; LCD Soundsystem - "North American Scum"; Andrew Bird - "Fiery Crash"; Wilco - "Impossible Germany"; Tim Armstrong - "Into Action"; Buffalo Tom - "Three Easy Pieces"; Flight of the Conchords - "Business Time"; Okkervil River - "Unless It's Kicks"; The New Pornographers - "Myriad Harbour"; Eddie Vedder - "Hard Sun"; Kevin Drew - "Tbtf"; Future of the Left - "Real Men Hunt in Packs"; PJ Harvey - "When Under Ether"; The Fiery Furnaces - "Restorative Beer"; Electric Six - "Down at McDonalds"; The Hives - "Tick Tick Boom"; Black Francis - "Tight Rubber"; Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb."; Mondo Generator - "Lie Detector"; The National - "Mistaken for Strangers"