First impressions are important. Your introduction to something can pull you in or turn you away. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs with great introductions in hour 2. Hannibal knows how important a good introduction can be.
The introductory playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Fontaines DC - Jackie Down the Line/Skinty Fia
Howless - Rain and Ice/To Repel Ghosts
Bully - Just For Love/Single
PUP - Waiting/The Unraveling of PUPtheband
Guerilla Toss - Cannibal Capital/Famously Alive
King Hannah - Big Big Baby/I'm Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me
Kids On a Crime Spree - NOYC/Fall In Love Not In Line
Cat Power - Bad Religion/Covers
Papercuts - End Times Daily/Baxter's Bliss
Mild Orange - Oh Yeah/Looking For Space
IDLES - King Snake/Crawler
Artsick - Be OK/Fingers Crossed
Fleeting Joys - Change My Sign/All Lost Eyes and Glitter
Chubby and the Gang - The Rise and Fall of the Gang/Speed Kills
Pardoner - Can't Be Shown/Playin' On a Cloud
The Clean - Tally Ho!/Compilation
Hour 2: Introductions
The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog/Congregation
The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen/Gentlemen
Grinderman - No Pussy Blues/Grinderman
Rollins Band - Get Some Go Again/Get Some Go Again
Van Halen - Mean Street/Fair Warning
Queens of the Stone Age - A Song For the Dead/Songs For the Deaf
Pixies - Hey/Doolittle
New York Dolls - Looking For a Kiss/New York Dolls
Black Flag - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie/Damaged
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire/The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
David Bowie - Panic In Detroit/Aladdin Sane
Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place/Kid A
Run the Jewels - Ju$t (feat. Pharrel Williams and Zach de la Rocha)/RTJ4
Public Enemy - She Watch Channel Zero?!/It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
The great thing about getting older is nothing ever changes. You can look back 30 years and everything's exactly the same. For example, let's go 30 years in the past and see what things were like in 1992. Wasn't everybody transfixed by their cell phones, battling a raging pandemic, and going to see Marvel movies? Exactly. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played music from 1992 in hour 2 and it was like listening to a mirror, if that's even a thing. Even the celebrities were the same as today:
The schwingtastic playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Destroyer - Tintoretto, It's For You/Labyrinthitis
Ex-Hyena - Capture the Stills/Single
Mild Orange - F.E.A.R./Looking For Space
PUP - Robot Writes a Love Song/The Unraveling of PUPtheband
Wet Leg - Wet Dream/Wet Leg
Blood Red Shoes - Morbid Fascination/Ghosts on Tape
Fleeting Joys - Something in Your Melody/All Lost Eyes and Glitter
Floored Faces - I'd Be Broke/Kool Hangs
Kids on a Crime Spree - When Can I See You Again?/Fall in Love Not in Line
Fine Place - This New Heaven/This New Heaven
Constant Smiles - Run to Stay/Paragons
Courtney Barnett - If I Don't Hear From You Tonight/Things Take Time, Take Time
La Luz - I Won't Hesitate/La Luz
Geese - Opportunity is Knocking/Projector
Ombiigizi - The Once Child/Sewn Back Together
Reptaliens - Do You Know You Are Sleeping?/Multiverse
Hour 2: 1992
Alice In Chains - Brother/Sap
Buffalo Tom - Velvet Roof/Let Me Come Over
The Tragically Hip - The Wherewithal/Fully Completely
Beastie Boys - Something's Got to Give/Check Your Head
The Afghan Whigs - Turn On the Water/Congregation
Sonic Youth - 100%/Dirty
Bettie Serveert - Tomboy/Palomine
Sloan - What's There to Decide?/Smeared
R.E.M. - The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite/Automatic For the People
Mudhoney - Overblown/Singles soundtrack
Kyuss - Allen's Wrench/Blues For the Red Sun
Rollins Band - You Didn't Need/The End of Silence
Pavement - Conduit For Sale!/Slanted and Enchanted
It's that time of year when people resolve to get in shape. Some have already given up and have gone back to their slovenly ways. Whatever the case, I played songs about exercise in hour 2 of Stuck In Thee Garage. They'll get you motivated, almost as well as this guy would:
The pulse-pounding playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
The Smile - You Will Never Work In Television Again/Single
Fleeting Joys - Change My Sign/All Lost Eyes and Glitter
Acid Tongue - Take Me to Your Leader (feat. Death Valley Girls)/Arboretum
Sweeping Promises - Pain Without a Touch/Single
Kim Gordon & J. Mascis - Slow Boy/Abstract Blues
IDLES - The Wheel/Crawler
Advertisement - The Matador/Single
La Luz - Metal Man/La Luz
Papercuts - When Will You Come Home/Baxter's Bliss
Snail Mail - Madonna/Valentine
My Morning Jacket - Penny For Your Thoughts/My Morning Jacket
Ovlov - The Wishing Well/Buds
Reptaliens - Don't Wait For Me/Multiverse
Ombiigizi - Burch Bark Paper Trails/Sewn Back Together
Loki's Folly - No Right/Sisu
Turnstile - Underwater Boi/Glow On
Dark Mark vs. Skeleton Joe - No Justice/Dark Mark vs. Skeleton Joe
Hour 2: Exercise
A Flock of Seagulls - I Ran (So Far Away)/A Flock of Seagulls
MGMT - She Works Out Too Much/Little Dark Age
Urge Overkill - Jaywalkin'/Exit the Dragon
Ty Segall Band - Muscle Man/Slaughterhouse
Future of the Left - Running All Over the Wicket/The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left
Halfsour - Sensitive Rugby/Tuesday Night Live
The Hold Steady - Runner's High/Teeth Dreams
Kuroma - Running People/Kuromarama
Criteria - Run Together/When We Break
Wolf Parade - You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son/Apologies to the Queen Mary
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey
about our favorite music of 1988. Listen to the episode below or
download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
- Recorded while driving home from Trillium Brewing in Canton, Mass.
- Phil's #5: Sonic Youth focuses their sound
- Jay's #5: J. Mascis and Dino Jr. get more melodic while still delivering a heavy sound
- Phil's #4: U2's first controversial album still provides a lot of memorable moments, overshadowed by the movie
- Jay's #4 and Phil's #3: Living Colour's debut showed off their many talents
- Jay's #3: Debut from Toronto's The Pursuit of Happiness combined hard rock, neurotic singer and girl group backing vocals
- Phil's #2: R.E.M.'s last album before they became superstars
- Jay's #2: Public Enemy at the peak of their powers
- Phil's and Jay's #1: Los Pixies creates the template for the '90s alt-rock explosion
- Favorite songs: "Gigantic" (Phil), "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" (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.
Editor's note: Check out my podcast discussion with Jay Breitling about our favorite music of '21 on Completely Conspicuous (here's parts 1 and 2).
Well, it wasn't 2020, but 2021 still didn't mark the return to
normalcy we were hoping for. Sure, concerts came back, but so did COVID
in different forms and ultimately, we're sitting here at the end of the
year seeing things shut down again. The big difference is a lot of us
are vaccinated, so hopefully things will get under control at some point
soon.
All that said, it was still a good year for indie rock.
Not as politically charged as 2020 was, but there were some fine
releases that kept us rocking even with masks on. Here are my top 15.
15. Bachelor - Doomin’ Sun: Palehound’s Ellen Kempner and Jay Som’s Melina Duterte team up to deliver a collection of intensely personal relationship songs. Recommended: “Stay in the Car,” “Sand Angel,” “Back of My Hand”
14. Chubby and the Gang - The Mutt’s Nuts: London punk act introduces some new dimensions to their sound, working in some slower songs that add some dynamics to the all-out rippers. Recommended: “Getting Beat Again,” “The Mutt’s Nuts,” “Overachiever”
13. Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time: On her third full-length release, Barnett keeps things low key but always interesting. No barn-burning guitar rippers here, but an introspective set of songs focused on vulnerability, both hers and that of loved ones. The instrumentation is sparser here, as her regular backing musicians are absent. It’s a quieter album from Barnett, but an effective one. Recommended: “Rae Street,” “Sunfair Sundown,” “Take It Day by Day”
12. Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime: This one came out of left field for me, having never heard of the Tuareg guitarist based in Niger. Moctar sings in the Tamasheq language, but his volcanic guitarwork transcends any language barrier. Signed to Matador, Moctar and his band churn through soaring psychedelic rock songs that decry violence in Niger and other issues affecting his people there. Recommended: “Chismiten,” “Taliat,” “Asdikte Akal”
11. Ducks Ltd. - Modern Fiction: The Toronto-based duo followed up the re-release of their debut EP Get Bleak with a full-length later in the year, embracing the jangle-pop ethos with a rollicking collection. Definite echoes of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, who they’ve toured with previously. Hooky and bright, with uneasy and reflective lyrics, Ducks Ltd. is walking an entertaining tightrope. Recommended: “Old Times,” “18 Cigarettes,” “Fit to Burst”
10. Juliana Hatfield - Blood: Twenty-nine years into her solo career (after five years of playing with Blake Babies and Lemonheads), Juliana Hatfield is showing no signs of slowing down. She followed up her excellent 2019 album of Police covers with this angry, gutsy release. Hatfield plays almost every instrument and revels in a lacerating series of songs that focus on personal and political violence, spilling plenty of theoretical blood. Recommended: “The Shame of Love,” Suck It Up,” “Mouthful of Blood”
9. IDLES - Crawler: Band follows up last year’s Ultra Mono with a more varied set of songs: Slow burners like “The Beachland Ballroom,” and they dial back on the sloganeering to introduce a little more variety. Live, they’re still pretty goddamn intense, though. Recommended: “The Beachland Ballroom,” “Car Crash,” “Meds”
8. Ovlov - Buds: A Steve Hartlett band that supposedly called it quits in ‘19, Ovlov returns with a short but sweet (25 mins) epic filled with hot solos, but also melodic and poppy embellishments that fill out the sound. Recommended: “Land of Steve-O,” “Cheer Up, Chihiro!,” “Feel the Pain”
7. St. Vincent - Daddy’s Home: St. Vincent goes for a late ‘70s NYC vibe, steeped in Bowie. Musical chameleon Annie Clark has already had an incredible career, proving herself to be a terrific guitarist, bouncing from persona to persona, and collaborating with the likes of David Byrne, Dua Lipa and the surviving members of Nirvana. On this album, she puts aside the electro-pop of 2017’s Masseduction and goes back to the sound of ‘70s rock as she deals with personal issues like her father’s incarceration, her romantic struggles, and not wanting to have kids. Super compelling and always interesting. Recommended: “Pay Your Way In Pain,” “Down and Out Downtown,” “At the Holiday Party”
6. The War On Drugs - I Don’t Live Here Anymore: Adam Granduciel keeps doing his thing, pushing the synths more to the front over the guitar and steeping everything in a mid-80s rock sound. He gets criticized as Mr. Mister v. 2.0, but dammit, it works. The War on Drugs has gone from a small indie act to a bona fide arena band in the last several years and their sound has definitely evolved. Recommended: “Wasted,” “I Don’t Wanna Wait,” “Victim”
5. Turnstile - Glow On: On their fourth album, the Baltimore hardcore act busts through, mixing in power pop, dance, and other elements in with monster riffs. Produced by Mike Elizondo (previously worked with Eminem, 50 Cent), the album expands the band’s sound palate with a lot of interesting percussion, synths and other embellishments. Dev Hynes of Blood Oranges makes a few appearances. But ultimately, Glow On is about the bangers and it delivers emphatically. If this is the future of hardcore, sign me up. Recommended: “Holiday,” “Blackout,” “Lonely Dezires”
4. Kiwi Jr. - Cooler Returns: The Canadian Pavement? This is the Toronto act's Sub Pop debut and second album. They embrace the '90s slacker vibe with playful, sarcastic lyrics, but musically things stay bright and breezy. A breath of fresh air from the Great White North. They’re not Pavement, but they’re pretty damn good. Recommended: “Undecided Voters,” “Tyler,” “Domino”
3. Parquet Courts - Sympathy for Life: One of the most consistently satisfying bands of the last decade, PQ continues to deliver the goods, embracing a Talking Heads vibe with some dance and world sounds incorporated into their post-punk mix. The album has a real NYC feel to it, from the upbeat "Walking at a Downtown Pace" to the call for social change in "Marathon of Anger." Recommended: “Walking at a Downtown Pace,” “Marathon of Anger,” “Black Widow Spider”
2. Dinosaur Jr. - Sweep It Into Space: Now five albums and 16 years after reuniting their original lineup, Dinosaur Jr. returns with another reliably excellent album. With some help from Kurt Vile, the band sounds as powerful as ever but incorporates some different melodic touches into the piledriver Dino approach, including a couple of excellent Lou Barlow tunes. Still, the album delivers the common Dino Jr. denominator: it's full of J. Mascis ripping sweet solos and crunchy riffs, which is never a bad thing. Recommended: “I Ran Away,” “Garden,” “N Say”
1. Pardoner - Came Down Different: Took me a while to pick up on this release from the Bay Area act, but I consistently ended up playing it throughout the year. Brash, Pavement vibe with catchy songs and big riffage. The slack rock was strong with this record, but with a harder edge than, say, Kiwi Jr. Just a fun ripper of an album that doesn't let up from beginning to end. Recommended: “Donna Said,” “Totally Evil Powers,” “Bunny’s Taxi”
Honorable mention:
Goodbye Honolulu - s/t
Jeff Rosenstock - Ska Dream
TV Priest - Uppers
Sleaford Mods - Spare Ribs
Shame - Drunk Tank Pink
Tragically Hip - Saskadelphia
Chime School - s/t
Mac McCaughan - The Sound of Yourself
The Bevis Frond - Little Eden
Colleen Green - Cool
Quicksand - Distant Populations
Ty Segall - Harmonizer
Piroshka - Love Drips & Gathers
Split Single - Amplificado
Sleater-Kinney - Path of Wellness
Pom Pom Squad - Death of a Cheerleader
Islands - Islomania
Fiddlehead - Between the Richness
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg:
Black Country, New Road - For the first time
Adult Books - Grecian Urn
Guardian Singles - s/t
Squid - Bright Green Field
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Carnage
Mogwai - As the Love Continues
Guided By Voices - Earth Man Blues
Teenage Fanclub - Endless Arcade
Iceage - Seek Shelter
Lou Barlow - Reason to Live
McCartney - McCartney III and McCartney III Reimagined
I've said it before and I'll say it again: When someone says there's no good new rock music anymore, that just tells me they're not looking hard enough. Don't look for it on commercial radio. You need to follow non-traditional paths, like say my show Stuck In Thee Garage on BFF.fm. This week, I played part 2 of my favorite indie rock songs of 2021. They'll take your mind off the fact that you signed up for another squid game.
This playlist will help you stay alive:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Pardoner - Donna Said/Came Down Different
Yard Act - Fixer Upper/Dark Days
IDLES - Meds/Crawler
Dinosaur Jr. - N Say/Sweep It Into Space
Mac McCaughan - Dawn Bends/The Sound of Yourself
Sleater-Kinney - Worry With You/Path of Wellness
Wet Leg - Chaise Longue/Wet Leg
Courting - Popshop!/Grand National
Fake Fruit - No Mutuals/Fake Fruit
Wolf Alice - Play the Greatest Hits/Blue Weekend
Juliana Hatfield - Mouthful of Blood/Blood
Proper Nouns - West of the Hills/Feel Free
Jeff Rosenstock - Ska Dream/Ska Dream
Fiddlehead - Million Times/Between the Richness
Turnstile - Blackout/Glow On
Chubby and the Gang - Coming Up Tough/The Mutt's Nuts
Hour 2
Black Country, New Road - Science Fair/For the First Time
Geese - Low Era/Projector
Islands - Carpenter/Islomania
Pom Pom Squad - Drunk Voicemail/Death of a Cheerleader
Illuminati Hotties - Pool Hopping/Let Me Do One More
Lou Barlow - In My Arms/Reason to Live
Jim Ward - I Got a Secret/Daggers
Split Single - 95 Percent/Amplificado
Yves Tumor - Jackie/The Asymptotical World
Ty Segall - Whisper/Harmonizer
Stuck - Labor Leisure/Content That Makes You Feel Good
Gustaf - Mine/Audio Drag For Ego Slobs
Goodbye Honolulu - Cut Off/Goodbye Honolulu
Courtney Barnett - Sunfair Sundown/Things Take Time, Take Time
Mdou Moctar - Taliat/Afrique Victime
The War On Drugs - Wasted/I Don't Live Here Anymore
Ducks Ltd. - Fit to Burst/Modern Fiction
Ovlov - Land of Steve-O/Buds
Colleen Green - Posi Vibes/Cool
The Bevis Frond - The Man in the Garden/Little Eden
Parquet Courts - Black Widow Spider/Sympathy For Life
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey
about our favorite music of 1988. Listen to the episode below or
download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
- Recorded while driving to Trillium Brewing in Canton, Mass.
- In 1988, Jay turned 21 and Phil turned 19
- Jay: 21st birthday was pretty rough
- Phil tells tales of good decision-making
- Jay's long, strange trip to the Monsters of Rock show: Long drive, short show
- Big year for pop artists on the charts
- Phil's Whitesnake story
- Big soundtracks: Cocktail, Dirty Dancing
- Phil's non-top 5 albums: Keith Richards,
Mudhoney, Jerry Harrison, Jane's Addiction, Cowboy Junkies, Brian
Wilson, Smithereens, Smiths, Pogues, Waterboys, Dinosaur Jr., Tracy
Chapman, Public Enemy, Traveling Wilburys
- Jay's non-top 5s: Fishbone, Bobby Brown, Iron Maiden, Robert Plant, The Church, Metallica
- To be continued
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.
