Stuck In Thee Garage #657: November 6, 2026

Life comes at you quick. Sometimes it's hard to take it all in, but somehow we muddle through. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from DIIV, Pet Fox, Rocketship and Fake Names in hour 1 and songs about life in hour 2. It'll give you something to listen to while a clown robs your bank.

This playlist comes in small, unmarked bills:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

DIIV - Dare Me/ZIRP!

Pet Fox - Holding On/Balance

Rocketship - Hurt Feelings/Hurt Feelings

Fake Names - Good Old Days/Punk Ruins

Cameron Keiber - Me and the Main Man/The Tide

Heavens to Betsy - Monsters/Baby's Gone

Fontaines D.C. - Mimesis/Dopamine Chamber

Queens of the Stone Age - Run Away from the Mob/Perfecth

Pardoner - Au Contraire/Target Practice

Westside Cowboy - You Could Have Died There on the Dancefloor/It Goes On

Death Valley Girls - Fire and Brimstone/Welcome to Earth

Roller Dome - Coaster Line/Still Feral

Bodega - Oxygen/All Inside Aquarium

The Cat's Miaow - Journey's End/When You Smiled and Turned Away

The Silent Boys - Number 7/Lightning Bugs are Smiling

Slow Pulp - Entertainer/Melodie

C.O.F.F.I.N. - Gettin' Down/Out in Oslo

Gurriers - Waiting for Fisher/Nobody's Coming to Save You

Evil Island - No Good/Terraform the Afterlife

Hour 2: Life

Jeff Rosenstock - Life Admin/Hellmode

Illuminati Hotties - Wreck My Life (feat. PUP)/Nickel on the Fountain Floor

Blondie - Living in the Real World/Eat to the Beat

The Hives - Legalize Living/The Hives Forever Forever the Hives

The Dears - Death or Life We Want You/Gang of Losers

Pulp - I Love Life/The Peel Sessions

R.E.M. - Life and How to Live It/Fables of the Reconstruction

The Kinks - Complicated Life/Muswell Hillbillies

Drahla - Stimulus for Living/Useless Coordinates

Alvvays - Forget About Life/Antisocialites

Juliana Hatfield - Hole in My Life/Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police

Fleeting Joys - I Want More Life/Despondent Transponder

Future of the Left - In a Former Life/The Peace & Truce of Future of the Left

Fu Manchu - Living Legend/Eatin' Dust

Led Zeppelin - For Your Life/Celebration Day

Don't rob yourself of a hot rockin' experience. Click this link!

Stuck In Thee Garage #656: October 30, 2026

Hey, Halloween's back and that means I get to play two hours of vaguely threatening music on Stuck In Thee Garage. It's chock full of scary, goofy and monstrous rock to crank while you're giving out candy or heading to a Halloween party. Just take it easy on the punch!

This playlist is monster-approved:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Queens of the Stone Age - Where the Goth Girls At?/Perfecth

Upper Wilds - Hellfire/Mercury

Chat Pile - Intruder/Who Loves the Sun

Fu Manchu - Evil Eye/The Action is Go

A Giant Dog - Creep/Pile

Chandos - Creepwolf/Rats in Your Bed

Blue Oyster Cult - Monsters/Cultosaurus Erectus

Motorhead - Killed by Death/No Remorse

Kam Fong - Get Behind Me Satan/From the Bottom of the Sea

Viagra Boys - Creepy Crawlers/Cave World

The Dirtbombs - Born in a Haunted Barn/Billiards at Nine Thirty

Grinderman - Evil!/Grinderman 2

Meatbodies - Haunted History/Alice

Pardoner - Totally Evil Powers/Came Down Different

The Black Angels - Haunting at 1300 McKinley/Phosphene Dream

Jay Reatard - Haunting You/Singles 06-07

The Von Bondies - Only to Haunt You/Love, Hate and Then There's You

Hour 2

Run the Jewels - Thieves (Screamed the Ghost) (feat. Tunde Adebimpe)/RTJ3

Superdrag - Do the Vampire/Head Trip in Every Key

Superchunk - Horror Business/Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-Sides & Strays 2007-2023

Scissorfight - The Gruesome Death of Edward Teach/New Hampshire

Misfits - Die, Die My Darling/Single

Iron Maiden - Still Life/Piece of Mind

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman/Diary of a Madman

Primus - Mr. Krinkle/Pork Soda

Public Image Ltd. - Graveyard/Metal Box

Spinal Tap - Back from the Dead/Back from the Dead

The Afghan Whigs - Big Top Halloween/Big Top Halloween

Sonic Youth - Halloween/1988 Sub Pop Singles Club

PJ Harvey - Meet Ze Monsta/To Bring You My Love

Joy Division - Dead Souls/Substance

No trick, just treats. Click the link to rock Halloween most steadfastly!

Completely Conspicuous 685: Catch You on the Flip Side

Part 2 of my conversation with Phil Stacey about our favorite non-album tracks. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Phil's #7
• The Until the End of the World soundtrack had plenty of good stuff
• Songs that take you back to a specific time and place
• Jay's #7
• The hunger for Nirvana music was enormous between the release of Nevermind and In Utero
• Give the bass player some 
• Phil's #6
• Zeppelin haven't released many B-sides
• Jay's #6
• The Who has some amazing songs that were never on studio albums
• Phil's #5 was Jay's #10
• Jay's #5
• Another classic from the Singles movie soundtrack
• Phil's #4
• U2's cup runneth over in the '80s
• We were both U2 obsessives in high school/college
• Jay's #4
• A song that wasn't initially included on the album but later added
• College radio stations started playing it and it caught on
• Phil's #3 and Jay's #2
• The quintessential '80s alternative song?
• Johnny Marr elevated the Smiths, but Morrissey was undeniable
• Shoutout to high school classmate who hipped Jay to good music
• Jay's #3
• Another hugely influential alt-rock song
• Joy Division released amazing music in a short period of time
• Phil's #2
• Another Beatles classic
• Phil's #1
• Phil named his fantasy baseball team after this song
• One of the Dead's best
• Was a concert staple but they never did a studio version
• Jay's #1
• Amazing that it was left off Purple Rain
• Controversial for an f-word that may or may not have been THE f-word
• Completely Conspicuous is available wherever you find 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 #655: October 23, 2026

Basic math can be depressing. Thirty-five years ago was 1991, which was a pretty tumultuous year for rock music (in a good way). But for comparison's sake, in 1991 when we looked back 35 years, it was 1956! Yikes. Nevertheless, this week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Pardoner, Fontaines D.C., Cameron Keiber and Spanish Horses in hour 1 and songs from 1991 in hour 2. Time travel is groovy, man.

This playlist will light your fire:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Pardoner - Canary/Target Practice

Westside Cowboy - Kick Stones (The Boys)/It Goes On

Bodega - Combustible/All Inside Aquarium

Fontaines D.C. - Happy for You/Dopamine Chamber

Darren Hayman - Words Fall Out of Me/I'm Your Team

Anna McClellan - Do You Want Me Like This/South of Dodge

Cameron Keiber - Rockers/The Tide

Johnny Foreigner - The Great Work/Forwards!

The Tubs - Now and Then/Hard Life

Greg Freeman - Loser's Prize/All Set the Bone

Heavens to Betsy - Seek and Hide/Baby's Gone

Roller Dome - Raking Me Over/Still Feral

Slift - The Village/Fantasia

Spanish Horses - Some People/Small Notions EP

Lex Walton - Hipster Runoff/Ultimate Love Forever

Ceremony - Death Destruction Mayhem/Tell Me Your Dream

Today Junior - If You Want to/Stranger Days

Hour 2: 1991

Motorhead - Ramones/1916

Smashing Pumpkins - Bury Me/Gish

Superchunk - Seed Toss/No Pocky for Kitty

School of Fish - 3 Strange Days/School of Fish

Material Issue - Trouble/International Pop Overthrow

Teenage Fanclub - What You Do to Me/Bandwagonesque

Firehose - Down with the Bass/Flyin' the Flannel

Screaming Trees - Bed of Roses/Uncle Anesthesia

Dinosaur Jr. - Puke + Cry/Green Mind

Mudhoney - Into the Drink/Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

Matthew Sweet - Thought I Knew You/Girlfriend

The Tragically Hip - Born in the Water/Road Apples

The Feelies - Time for a Witness/Time for a Witness

Pizzicato Five - Twiggy Twiggy/This Year's Girl

De La Soul - Let, Let Me In/De La Soul is Dead

The Nation of Ulysses - Love is a Bull Market/13-Point Program to Destroy America

Swervedriver - Rave Down/Raise

Crank up the show to experience the pre-digital joys of '91 (as well as some cool new stuff)! 

Completely Conspicuous 684: Dark Side of the Tune

Part 1 of my conversation with Phil Stacey about our favorite non-album tracks. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Back after a few months away
• The definition of "B-side" has changed over the decades
• Now a more accurate term is "non-album tracks"
• Sometimes B-sides were more popular than the A-side
• Got more airplay back when FM stations were new and adventurous
• You had to hunt them down because they weren't on the proper albums
• Some bands like U2 would regularly put non-album tracks on B-sides singles
• Sometimes covers, sometimes original songs that didn't make the album
• When CDs became popular, you had longer albums and more of those songs would be included
• Eventually bands released B-side collections; the Who was one of the first with Odds and Sods in the '70s
• So many Beatles classics weren't included on albums
• Phil's honorable mentions: Beatles, Who, Grateful Dead, Matthew Sweet, Phish, R.E.M., The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement, U2, Goose, Prince, Pearl Jam, Talking Heads, Neil Young, Nirvana
• Pavement's "Harness Your Hopes" became their most-streamed song courtesy of Tik Tok
• Jay's HMs: Who, Motorhead, Chris Cornell, Rolling Stones, Dylan, Nirvana, Bowie, Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Sloan, Tragically Hip, Radiohead, Simple Minds, Beatles, Iron Maiden, Gang of Four, Mission of Burma, Beck, Beach Boys, Police, New Order, Cure, Clash, Soundgarden, AIC, Sugar, Joe Jackson, Hendrix, PJ Harvey, Robert Plant, Iggy Pop
• Prince vs. Neil Young for most unreleased material
• Phil's #10
• Jay's #10
• Phil's #9
• Jay's #9
• U2 just announced a stadium tour of South America
• Probably couldn't do that in North America anymore
• Phil's #8
• Jay's #8
• YouTube comments are the worst
• Completely Conspicuous is available wherever you find 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 #654: October 16, 2026

By the time Friday rolls around, the weight of the world can weigh heavy on your shoulders. Not that it goes away on the weekends, but at least you get a little break before the work week starts to grind you down again. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Westside Cowboy, Bodega, Roller Dome and Slift in hour 1 and songs about everything in hour 2. They'll help you pick up the pace while you're getting some supplies.

I'll be taking this playlist and whatever cash you got:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Westside Cowboy - Pin Up Boys/It Goes On

Bodega - Weather Me/All Inside Aquarium

Spike Fuck - Getting Sober/Evidence

Roller Dome - Wrecked/Still Feral

Death Valley Girls - Plant Magic/Welcome to Earth

Slift - Waiting Man/Fantasia

Anna McClellan - Drank Earlier/South of Dodge

Greg Freeman - Decade/All Set the Bone

Pet Fox - Avoidant/Balance

Slow Pulp - Red Car/Melodie

C.O.F.F.I.N. - Sleep In It/Out in Oslo

Adult DVD - Jesus Christ Supercar/Adult DVD

Gilla Band - Giraffe/Pugnello

The Van Pelt - Linens Should Be Freshly Pressed/Remain Obscure

Gurriers - Today is Not Enough/Nobody's Coming to Save You

Smug Brothers - Blitz Meridian/Pinhole to Vortex

Hour 2: Everything

Charm School - Boycott Everything Everywhere/Debt Forever

Dinosaur Jr. - Everything at Once/There Near

Superchunk - Everything Hurts/Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-Sides & Strays 2007-2023

Descendents - Everything Sux/Everything Sucks

Husker Du - Every Everything/Flip Your Wig

Faith No More - Everything's Ruined/Angel Dust

Johnny Foreigner - The End and Everything After/Waited Up 'Til It Was Light

Kaiser Chiefs - Everything is Average Nowadays/Yours Truly, Angry Mob

Spoon - Everything Hits at Once/Girls Can Tell

Sloan - Everything You've Done Wrong/One Chord to Another

A Tribe Called Quest - Everything is Fair/The Low End Theory

Speedy Ortiz - Everything's Bigger/Real Hair

Piebald - Location is Everything/If It Weren't for Venetian Blinds It Would Be Curtains for Us All

Radiohead - Everything in Its Right Place/Kid A

David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away/Blackstar

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Over Everything/Lotta Sea Lice

Listen to everything by bonking the link!

Stuck In Thee Garage #653: October 9, 2026

Writers are often advised to write what they know. The same could apply for songwriters, and sometimes what they write about is music itself. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from C.O.F.F.I.N., Pet Fox, the Van Pelt and Gilla Band in hour 1 and songs about music in hour 2! It's like that time you got George Clinton to play at your college in the '90s.

This playlist is Piven-free:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

C.O.F.F.I.N. - Think Bad/Out in Oslo

Pet Fox - Balance/Balance

The Van Pelt - Kris is Riding Horses in Ojai/Remain Obscure

Adult DVD - Do As I Please/Adult DVD

Greg Freeman - Totaled/All Set the Bone

Gilla Band - Placeholder/Pugnello

Gurriers - Party Lines/Nobody's Coming to Save You

Green Star - Lush/Silver + Dust

Avery Friedman - You Move/Single

Protomartyr - The Old Hotel/Hotel Usona

Shudder to Think - Something to Do/Who Sent You?

The War on Drugs - Who's That/Single

Smug Brothers - Kind Enough to Share the Drop/Pinhole to Vortex

Joel Cusumano - Stigmata/Appendix

Slow Pulp - Entertainer/Melodie

Upper Wilds - Dark Road/Mercury

Hour 2: Music

Van Halen - Little Guitars/Diver Down

Ty Segall - Break a Guitar/Ty Segall

Thrush Hermit - Songs for the Gang/Clayton Park

Talking Heads - Electric Guitar/Fear of Music

The Hold Steady - Certain Songs/Almost Killed Me

Sloan - Waiting for Slow Songs/Between the Bridges

The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Writing Songs/Still Clouds at Noon

Thelonious Monster - ...And the Rest of the Band/Baby...You're Bummin' My Life Out in a Supreme Fashion 

Hunx & His Punx - Baby of the Band/Hardly Released: Bedroom Recordings, Demos, Rarities, Unreleased, and Widely Ignore Material

Peel Dream Magazine - Back in the Band/Pad

Thom Yorke - Dawn Chorus/ANIMA

Blinker the Star - The Band is Back in Town/Juvenile Universe

Colleen Green - Natural Chorus/Cool

Horsegirl - The Guitar is Dead 3/Versions of Modern Performance

Kathy Valentine - Guitar, Talk, Love and Drums/Light Years

Sleater-Kinney - Words and Guitar/Dig Me Out

Nirvana - Verse Chorus Verse/No Alternative

Fire up the celestial jukebox by bonking the link!

Stuck In Thee Garage #652: October 2, 2026

According to the experts, we're in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. The American Psychiatric Association says 30% of American adults experience loneliness at least once a week and 10% feel lonely every day. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Smug Brothers, Krill and Shudder to Think in hour 1 and songs about being alone in hour 2.

This playlist is talkin' to you:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Smug Brothers - Eureka Minor/Pinhole to Vortex

Krill - Dominate/Secret Language

Shudder to Think - Who Sent You?/Who Sent You?

Protomartyr - Exalted Eagles/Hotel Usona

Joel Cusumano - 7 x 7/Appendix

The Afghan Whigs - 77/Soft Control

The Reds, Pinks and Purples - Bad Poetry in Bed/True Love Daydream EP

Miley - Different Religion (feat. Model/Actriz)/Bass Persuades

Kristin Hersh - Dark Eyed Junco/Sugar on Blackstone

The Tubs - Stoop to Me/Hard Life

Today Junior - Keep On Pushing Me/Stranger Days

Ty Segall - Black Paint/Chrome

Public Opinion - Closed Captioning/The Curse of Public Opinion

Johnny Foreigner - The Sacking of Fairhill House/Forwards!

French Film - Rabbit Foot/Yours + Five

Wild Pink - Still Coming Down/Still Coming Down

Beck - It Ends Right Here/Ride Lonesome

Hour 2: Alone

Split System - Alone Again/Vol. 2

Jack White - All Alone Again/Frozen Charlotte

The Cure - Alone/Songs of a Lost World

Husker Du - Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely/Candy Apple Grey

Foo Fighters - Alone + Easy Target/Foo Fighters

Living Colour - Leave It Alone/Stain

Titus Andronicus - Lonely Boy/The Most Lamentable Tragedy

The Smithereens - Alone at Midnight/Especially for You

The Replacements - If Only You Were Lonely/For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986

Silver Jews - Honk If You're Lonely/American Water

Jeff Rosenstock - Beers Again Alone/We Cool?

Ducks Ltd. - How Lonely Are You?/Modern Fiction

Mick Jagger - Lonely at the Top/She's the Boss

La Luz - Lonely Dozer/Floating Features

Ty Segall - The Loner/Fudge Sandwich

Bonk the link and crank up the show in your isolation chamber!

Videodrone #27: Tribute

Videodrone is a weekly(ish) feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Tribute (2002)

The term "comedy rock" can be a tricky one, since acts that fall into that genre may swing too far toward one end of the spectrum or the other. Being able to combine musicianship with comedy is something that transcends your run-of-the-mill radio station song parodies. Weird Al Yankovic is the king of this stuff, but others have proven their worth, producing both memorable songs and TV or film projects. This is Spinal Tap is a legendary comedy and it helped that the trio of actors who played the Tap were also musicians who could pull off the musical side, releasing albums and touring as the band. Flight of the Conchords successfully straddled the line as well, starring in a terrific HBO show and releasing funny songs.

And then there's Tenacious D. Formed by Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the duo made its first appearance in 1994 as an opening act. They played the only song they had written, "Tribute," and then asked the audience to vote on what their name should be. Black was soon cast on HBO's Mr. Show while at the same time, Tenacious D was becoming a fixture in the Los Angeles music scene, headlining clubs and opening local shows for the band Tool. Mr. Show stars David Cross and Bob Odenkirk produced three episodes of a Tenacious D TV show that ran from 1997-2000 on HBO after Mr. Show. HBO offered the D a deal to make 10 episodes on the stipulation that Black and Gass would give up their executive producer titles; instead, the duo decided to make a movie instead (2006's Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny).

Tenacious D signed a deal with Epic Records in May 2000 and recorded their self-titled debut album with the Dust Brothers as producers. They were backed by a full band, including Dave Grohl on drums, Page McConnell of Phish on keyboards, Warren Fitzgerald of the Vandals on guitar and Steve McDonald of Redd Kross on bass. The album was released in September 2001 and while it wasn't a huge hit, it was certified platinum by the end of 2005.

"Tribute" was the second single off the album, released in February 2002. The video for the song was directed by Liam Lynch and begins with the guys cramming into a shopping mall karaoke booth so they can record their album. The song, which tells the story of the Tenacious D guys running into a demon (played by an unrecognizable Grohl) who wants them to play the greatest song in the world. In earlier performances of the song, Gass played the iconic opening to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," but on the album, the song steers clear of that part (for obvious financial reasons), although there are similar chord progressions.

The best part of the video (and the song) is when the demon asks them, "Are you angels?" and the D dudes reply, "Nay, we are but men. Rock!" And then the full band kicks in. 

The video cuts back and forth from the demon encounter, which includes Grohl miming an electric guitar solo before Black and Gass vanquish him back to hell, and the duo in the karaoke booth. After the solo, the guys bust out of the booth and start singing to passersby in the mall, who include Ben Stiller, Lynch and an old lady played by character actress Linda Porter (who has appeared everything from Malcolm in the Middle to the third season of Twin Peaks). The song ends as Porter returns with a mall cop, who drags the guys away for making a nuisance. The Tenacious D CD pops out of the karaoke booth and Porter picks up and looks at it, and then with red glowing eyes lets out an evil cackle.

In the decades since, Black's movie career took off, but he would make time to release Tenacious D albums and tour occasionally. However, the band has been on hold since 2024, when Gass made a quick joke about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a show in Australia. The resultant backlash and no doubt Black's desire to continue making movies led to the band cancelling the tour and all other work.

As a postscript, 2002 also featured a video from Liam Lynch for the comedy rock song "United States of Whatever." It's a punky classic that originally appeared on The Sifl and Olly Show in 1999, where it was performed by Olly, who was voiced by Lynch. The song actually started getting requested in 2002 by listeners of LA's KROQ after it was burned onto a CD-R that was sent to the station. A physical single was released and the song became a hit in the UK, debuting at #10 on the UK Singles chart. It was also a hit in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Lynch later included it on his 2003 album Fake Songs. 

Stuck In Thee Garage #651: September 25, 2026

What goes up must come down. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from the Tubs, Kristin Hersh and Beck in hour 1 and songs about falling in hour 2.

This playlist is perfect for when you're driving off a cliff:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

The Tubs - Hard Life/Hard Life

Johnny Foreigner - The New Navigation/Forwards!

Today Junior - Waiting for a Change/Stranger Days

Kristin Hersh - Moths/Sugar on Blackstone

Working Men's Club - Devout/Single

Joel Cusumano - Buying Time/Appendix 

Beck - Ride Lonesome/Ride Lonesome

Futurebirds - Fly On/Far Out Country I&II

Allah-Lahs - Vini da Gama/Sirenas

Ty Segall - Let Go/Chrome

Chat Pile - Influence/Who Loves the Sun

Upper Wilds - Reaper/Mercury

Evil Island - No Good/Terraform the Afterlife

Velocity Girl - I Know Exactly What You Mean/1989-1992

Real Numbers - This Empty Frame/Was It Always This Way

Dinosaur Jr. - No Friends/There Near

Hour 2: Falling

Catherine Wheel - Waydown/Happy Days

Radium Dolls - All That Falls/Wound Up

Dax Riggs - Even the Stars Fall/7 Songs for Spiders

The Jesus Lizard - Falling Down/Rack

Tricky Woo - Fell from a Cloud/Sometimes I Cry

Bullet LaVolta - Swan Dive/Swandive

Black Sabbath - Falling Off the Edge of the World/Mob Rules

Yo La Tengo - Our Way to Fall/And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out

Ben Kweller - Falling/Sha Sha

Dude York - Falling/Falling

Tony Molina - See Me Fall/Confront the Truth

Scarce - We'll Fall Down/Noble Scars

The Pursuit of Happiness - When the Sky Comes Falling Down/Love Junk

Dumptruck - Watch Her Fall/CBGB '86 & '88

The Black Angels - Empires Falling/Wilderness of Mirrors 

Fall into the show by clicking the link!

Stuck In Thee Garage #650: September 18, 2026

Sometimes you just need to mix things up. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I put the playlist in a blender and came up with two hours of randomly selected songs. It's random, but not as random as Mick Jagger in an Emilio Estevez sci-fi flick.

This playlist is free, Jack:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Pavement - Range Life/Live at the Palace, Hollywood 4/24/94

Ty Segall - Drug Mugger/Mr. Face

Pill - Sin Compromiso/Soft Hell

Kids on a Crime Spree - Overtaken by the Soil/Fall in Love Not in Line

Future of the Left - Stand by Your Manatee/Travels with Myself and Another

Eyelids - Starlight Limelight Machine/The Accidental Falls

The Strokes - Barely Legal/Is This It

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Cameo/Sideways to New Italy

Girlpool - Babygirl and Mental/Good Music to Avert the Collapse of American Democracy, Vol. 2

The Brigands - (Would I Still Be) Her Big Man/Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era

The National - Baby, We'll Be Fine/Alligator

Weezer - Tired of Sex/Pinkerton

Fugazi - Long Division/Live at Irving Plaza, NYC 4/4/95

Danger Doom - Benzie Box (feat. Cee-Lo)/The Mouse and the Mask

Bob Mould - Keep Believing/Silver Age

Ceremony - Years of Love/In the Spirit World Now

Teenage Fanclub - Hold On/Here

Max Webster - Check/Universal Juveniles

Hour 2

Varsity Drag - Knife/Live Owls: Varsity Drag Live on WFMO

Guided By Voices - Eye City/Crystal Nuns Cathedral

Early Man - Four Walls/Closing In

Buffalo Tom - Treehouse (Acoustic)/Bones EP

The Zambonis - The Greatest Season/To Bleed Black and Gold

Pointed Sticks - Shape of Things to Come/Part of the Noise

Stephen Malkmus - Freeze the Saints/Face the Truth

Hooded Fang - Glass Shadows/Venus on Edge

Notches - Sayin'/Normal Demo

Pearl Jam - Don't Gimme No Lip/No Code outtake

Led Zeppelin - Over the Hills and Far Away/Houses of the Holy

Jason Isbell - In a Razor Town/Sirens of the Ditch

Porridge Radio - Jealousy/Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky

Kathy Valentine - How the West Was Won/Light Years

Gang of Four - You'll Never Pay for the Farm/Content

Iggy Pop - Repo Man/Repo Man soundtrack

The Men - Fire Sermon/Buyer Beware

Hit the futuristic link thingy to be transported to the rock music!

 

Stuck In Thee Garage #649: September 11, 2026

The further we descend into our current state of weirdness, the more the '90s seemed like some sort of quaint dream. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Johnny Foreigner, Ty Segall and Chat Pile in hour 1 and songs from 1996 in hour 2. Get ready to joust!

This playlist is gonna get medieval:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Johnny Foreigner - The Concrete Collar/Forwards!

Ty Segall - Glass/Chrome

Chat Pile - Deep Blue/Who Loves the Sun

Today Junior - Coastlines/Stranger Days

Upper Wilds - Death Song #3/Mercury

Real Numbers - Don't Look Away/Was It Always This Way

Phoebe Bridgers - Kill Me/Lost Weekend

Sweeping Promises - Rapture, Or.../You Say I Romanticize

Velocity Girl - I Don't Care If You Go/1989-1992

Dinosaur Jr. - Read the Room/There Near

Wild Pink - Round of Applause at the End of the World/Still Coming Down

Art d'Ecco - The Death of Indie/Scheele's Green

Radiator Hospital - Can't Help Tryin'/Distorting Time

Public Opinion - When Kevin Gets Free/The Curse of Public Opinion

The Cramps - The Natives Are Restless/Gravest Gravy

Hour 2: 1996

Superdrag - Destination Ursa Major/Regretfully Yours

Spoon - Don't Buy the Realistic/Telephono

Frank Black - Kicked in the Taco/The Cult of Ray

Descendents - When I Get Old/Everything Sucks

D Generation - Scorch/No Lunch

Beck - High 5 (Rock the Catskills)/Odelay

Sloan - A Side Wins/One Chord to Another

Weezer - Pink Triangle/Pinkerton

Lush - Single Girl/Lovelife

Sebadoh - Beauty of the Ride/Harmacy

The Afghan Whigs - Honky's Ladder/Black Love

Soundgarden - Burden in My Hand/Down on the Upside

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Lovely Creature/Murder Ballads

Wilco - Outtasite (Outta Mind)/Being There

Pavement - Painted Soldiers/Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy soundtrack

Suede - Trash/Coming Up

R.E.M. - Electrolite/New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Fire up your cable modem to listen to the big show!

Videodrone #26: Knives Out

Videodrone is a weekly(ish) feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Knives Out (2001)

The music world was a-changing in the early '00s. The MP3 revolution was quickly putting a dent in physical music sales as the kids were figuring out that you could find just about anything for free on the innernet. That said, music itself was still interesting. 

After the success of 1997's OK Computer, Radiohead was primed to supplant U2 and R.E.M. as the biggest band in the world. But Thom Yorke and co. resisted that pull and moved in a different direction with 2000's Kid A, eschewing the conventional guitar-driven sound of their first three albums for an experimental, electronic-focused sound that divided fans who were looking for OK Computer 2. Frontman Thom Yorke wrote abstract lyrics, taking phrases that he cut and reassembled randomly. And the band released no singles and did very little press.

Despite all this, Kid A debuted at #1 in the U.K. and became the band's first chart-topping album in the U.S. as well. Critics loved it. As it turned out, Radiohead had an album's worth of songs left over from the Kid A sessions and released them in May 2001 under the name Amnesiac.

The second single from the album was "Knives Out," a creepy, pensive song that didn't resemble the rest of the album with its Johnny Marr-esque guitar lines. According to Consequence of Sound, Yorke's lyrics were about cannibalism, "the idea of the businessman walking out on his wife and kids and never coming back" and "the thousand-yard stare when you look at someone close to you and you know they're gonna die." 

The video was directed by Michel Gondry, who had filmed videos for Bjork, Thomas Dolby, Sinead O'Connor, Foo Fighters, Daft Punk and the Rolling Stones. He soon became a film director, with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind being the most notable. He was going through a breakup at the time he filmed "Knives Out"; the video featured Yorke grieving in a hospital room as his partner, played by Emma de Caunes, who is being operated on as if she were the patient in the game Operation. It also features the couple on a train and later, Yorke as a mouse. 

Gondry later said making the video was a terrible experience. "I showed [Yorke] a storyboard and every single detail: He was completely excited and happy for it--and then, it turned out, they all criticize me for being selfish and putting my own views on it and my own introspection...It did not go smoothly, but if it went smoothly, it would be mediocre," he said in an interview with The Playlist.

The video was made in one shot, with Yorke and de Caunes rushing from scene to scene. In an interview with Rebel, Gondry said the video was based on his experiences with his girlfriend dealing with leukemia and then later when they broke up. The video is trippy for sure, fitting the unsettling vibe of the song and keeping the viewer guessing as to what's actually going on.

The song was a hit in the U.K., reaching #13 on the U.K. Singles chart and #1 in Canada. Meanwhile, Amnesiac debuted at #1 on the U.K. Albums chart and #2 on the Billboard 200. The song has been covered by the Flaming Lips, Christopher O'Riley and Brad Mehldau, and the title would later go on to inspire Rian Johnson's film of the same name.

Twenty-five years later, Amnesiac stands out as a classic album and "Knives Out" continues to enchant the listener.

Stuck In Thee Garage #648: September 4, 2026

Birthdays come and go, but it's important to celebrate them appropriately. This week marks the 13th birthday of Stuck In Thee Garage and BFF.fm. It's strange to think I've been doing this for so long, but that kind of applies to everything I do, I suppose. Anyway, it's been a blast to watch the station grow into a San Francisco institution (soon to get its own spot on the terrestrial radio dial) and I've enjoyed making close to 1,300 hours of radio (yikes!). 

To celebrate, I've got new music from Pardoner, Dinosaur Jr. and Upper Wilds in hour 1 and songs about teenagers in hour 2. Time for a super soft birthday party!

Party's happening, Daryl:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Pardoner - Twisted/Target Practice

Dinosaur Jr. - Blowin' Up/There Near

Upper Wilds - Fever/Mercury

Queens of the Stone Age - Insignificant Other/Perfecth

The Afghan Whigs - Loose Talk/Soft Control

Andre Cymone - The Resurrection/The Resurrection of Funk

The Mountain Goats - Candlebox/Days

James Wavey - When Did the Lights Go Out/Sleepers Break

Gurriers - Nothing Happens Twice/Nobody's Coming to Save You

Ceremony - Dark Summer/Tell Me Your Dream

French Film - Let Go of Precious Things/Yours + Five

Chelsea Wolfe - Seethe/The Dark

Sweeping Promises - Does He Want to Be the Weatherman?/You Say I Romanticize

Kiwi Jr. - Painting After Painting/Blowin' Up

Yard Act - Tall Tales/You're Gonna Need Some Music

Bondo - Bondo/Bondo

Hour 2: Teenagers

The Twilight Singers - Teenage Wristband/Blackberry Belle

The Hold Steady - Teenage Liberation/Boys and Girls in America B-side

David Bowie - Teenage Wildlife/Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

Fortune House - Teenage Brain/Single

Cameron Keiber - Landmine Teen/Nurser

Ghost Party - Teenage Shaman/Ghost Moves

Joel Plaskett Emergency - Drunk Teenagers/Ashtray Rock

The Exploding Hearts - Teenage Faces/Shattered

FACS - Teenage Hive/Void Moments

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Surreal Teenagers/Wig Out at Jagbags

The Dambuilders - Teenage Loser Anthem/Ruby Red

Near Beer - Teenage Shit/Sleeping is for Suckers

Ladyhawk - Teenage Love Song/Ladyhawk

Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot/Daydream Nation

Light this candle by cranking the show up NOW!

Stuck In Thee Garage #647: August 28, 2026

One of the great things about rock music is that it can be about anything: Love, hate, unicorns running across a meadow, you name it. It's also a great way to protest something. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music by French Film, Wild Pink and Andre Cymone in hour 1 and protest songs in hour 2. Couldn't find anything about this guy's protest, though.

Get a playlist, morans:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

French Film - Crude Charm/Yours + Five

Radiator Hospital - Hellhound/Distorting Time

Kiwi Jr. - Pure Michigan/Blowin' Up

The Afghan Whigs - Jungle Roux/Soft Control

Wild Pink - 500 is the New 250/Still Coming Down

Son Volt - Serenade Song/Sound Signal Serenades

SSK - May You Never/Suitcase

Evil Island - Tiger Baby/Terraform the Afterlife

Andre Cymone - Psycho Love/The Resurrection of Funk

The Cramps - Hungry (1977 Version)/Gravest Gravy

Sweeping Promises - Last Man/You Say I Romanticize

Phoebe Bridgers - Liberty Tree/Lost Weekend

Chelsea Wolfe - The Dark/The Dark

Public Opinion - Enhancement Talent/The Curse of Public Opinion

Ceremony - Death Destruction Mayhem/Tell Me Your Dream

Joudy - Shovel/Permanent Maintenance

Yard Act - Cherophobe Rock/You're Gonna Need Some Music

Hour 2: Protest

Gang of Four - No Kings Here!/Single

Bill Janovitz - Bravehearted/Single

Read Yellow - Model America/Radios Burn Faster

Fishbone - Subliminal Fascism/Truth and Soul

The Clash - The Guns of Brixton/London Calling

Rage Against the Machine - Take the Power Back/Rage Against the Machine

Run the Jewels - Walking in the Snow (feat. Gangsta Boo)/RTJ4

S.O.A. - Riot/Four Old Seven Inches

Lou Reed - Dirty Blvd./New York

IDLES - Danny Nedelko/Joy as an Act of Resistance

Living Colour - Auslander/Stain

Minutemen - This Ain't No Picnic/Double Nickels on the Dime

Gang of Four - To Hell With Poverty/ Another Day/Another Dollar

Drive-By Truckers - This Fucking Job/The Big To-Do

The Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death/Birth, School, Work, Death

The Dils - Class War/Dils Dils Dils

Superchunk - What a Time to Be Alive/What a Time to Be Alive

Let 'em know you're pissed by cranking the show up really loud.

Stuck In Thee Garage #646: August 21, 2026

Siblings are pretty great, usually. But being that close to someone can also lead to, let's say, disagreements. Things can get interesting. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Kiwi Jr., Evil Island and Phoebe Bridgers in hour 1 and songs about siblings in hour 2. These two know what's up.

Guess who's got two thumbs and a kickass playlist? This guy!

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Kiwi Jr. - Blowin' Up/Blowin' Up

Sweeping Promises - Cocoon/You Say I Romanticize

Evil Island - T-Hexx (feat. Guy Picciotto)/Terraform the Afterlife

Phoebe Bridgers - Lost Boys/Lost Weekend

Radiator Hospital - Wall Between Us/Distorting Time

Porch Light - Under/Porch Light the Band LLC

Public Opinion - I Pay Everyone I Still Talk to/The Curse of Public Opinion

Yard Act - Thrill of the Chase/You're Gonna Need a Little Music

Feeble Little Horse - Doorway/bitknot

Jack White - All Alone Again/Frozen Charlotte

Knitting - Photocopy/Souvenir

Ecca Vandal - Molly/Looking for People to Unfollow

Josh da Costa - Cordelia/New Wave Graveyard

Read Yellow - Association/Radios Burn Faster

Consonant - Blissful/Consonant

Mission of Burma - Einstein's Day/Vs.

Hour 2: Siblings

War - Me and Baby Brother/Deliver the Word

De La Soul - Big Brother (feat. Mos Def)/Stakes is High

Public Enemy - Brothers Gonna Work It Out/Fear of a Black Planet

Savak - My Book on Siblings/ Human Error/Human Delight

PUP - Sibling Rivalry/Morbid Stuff

Jale - Brother (Komoda Mix)/Brave New Waves: Jale

Elliott Smith - Christian Brothers/Elliott Smith

Queens of the Stone Age - White Wedding/Era Vulgaris B-side

Protomartyr - Half Sister/Relatives in Descent

Mark Lanegan Band - Sister/Gargoyle

Iggy Pop - Sister Midnight/The Idiot

Fleetwood Mac - Sisters of the Moon/Tusk

The White Stripes - Sister, Do You Know My Name?/De Stijl

The Cult - Brother Wolf Sister Moon/Love

Clink the link to hear two hours of the good stuff!

Videodrone #25: Letter from an Occupant

Videodrone is a weekly(ish) feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Letter from an Occupant (2000)

What happens when you write a perfect pop song and nobody hears it? Did it actually happen? Well, in the case of "Letter from an Occupant" by the New Pornographers, yes, it did happen and we are all better for it.

Of course, I'm being hyperbolic to say nobody heard it. The song was on the band's debut album, Mass Romantic, which was released on Mint Records in Canada in November 2000. The album got good notices (indeed, the NPs won a Juno for Alternative Album of the Year for it), but it didn't chart and "Letter from Occupant," which was released as a single in April 2002, didn't make much of a splash on radio or MTV. (Although I just discovered it was included on the soundtrack to the movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001.)

But dammit, it sure deserved to. The group was referred to as a Canadian indie rock supergroup, more as a joke than anything else since none of its members had any real success prior to joining. Head songwriter Carl Newman was previously in Zumpano, Dan Bejar was in Destroyer, John Collins was in the Evaporators, Kurt Dahle came from Limblifter and Blaine Thurier later became a filmmaker. Honorary Canuck Neko Case was already an alt-country solo artist, but her career didn't take off until later.

Case sang lead on "Letter from an Occupant," which was an upbeat power pop gem that was very different from Case's usual repertoire. There was a lot going on in the song, Newman told Pitchfork: "I remember 'Letter from an Occupant' was a pretty belabored song. It ended up being almost minimal, but I remember there's so much shit we put on it. There's a psychedelic 12-string guitar solo, a backwards guitar, there's a really cool synth that's in there but buried. At some point, you have to choose. That was the hardest part about mixing the thing: just making that judgment call. I only feel at peace with the record now because people seem to like it."

Newman's lyrics are also excellent. "The time that your enemy gives you/Good times are not the ones you want/I've cried five rivers on the way here/Which one will you skate away on?/The tune you'll be humming forever/All the words are replaced and wrong/With a shower of 'yeahs' and 'whatevers'/You traded me away long gone."

The video was directed by Michael Dowse, who went on to direct feature films including the beloved cult comedy FUBAR, the hockey comedy Goon, and several others. The video features the NPs performing the song in different locations with a screen in the background that jumps to the next scene. It likely got plenty of play on MuchMusic in Canada; if it got any MTV airplay, it was on 120 Minutes. I certainly never saw the video until YouTube came along years later.

I never heard the NPs on the radio, but rather discovered the band the way I learned about a lot of music in the early 2000s, through MP3 blogs. It was around 2003 when the band's second album, Electric Version, came out, that some of the blogs I followed started hyping the New Pornographers. I went back and discovered the greatness of Mass Romantic. 

The early '00s was a great time for Canadian indie rock: The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Wolf Parade, Stars, Arcade Fire, Death from Above 1979, The Dears, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Hot Hot Heat, Black Mountain, Land of Talk and on and on. 

The NPs just released their 10th album earlier this year. Newman remains the band's leader and Case continues to work with the group, even though her solo career has really blossomed. The rest of the lineup has fluctuated over the years, but the band's output remains strong. Still, Mass Romantic and "Letter from an Occupant" was a hell of a launching-off point.

Stuck In Thee Garage #645: August 14, 2026

When you think about it, we spend most weeks wishing the days would fly by, and then before we know it, we're wondering where the time went. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music by Sweeping Promises, Public Opinion and Today Junior in hour 1 and songs about days of the week in hour 2! All that said, TGIF!

The guy in the gorilla suit is down with the playlist:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Sweeping Promises - Shooting Shadows/You Say I Romanticize

Public Opinion - Balloon Man Running/The Curse of Public Opinion

Today Junior - Werewolves of Boston/Single

Ceremony - Prograde/Tell Me Your Dream

SSK - Quincy is a Punk/Suitcase

Joudy - Bow/Permanent Maintenance

Sparkle Blood - The Fridays of Our Lives/ZIP ZAP

Earth Tongue - Body of Water/Dungeon Vision

Telehealth - Villain Era/Green World Image

Quicksand - Moving Forward/Bring On the Psychics

Guitar Wolf - Coelacanth Galaxy/More Jet

Sparta - Without Your Hands/Cut a Silhouette

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Ulterior Motives/In Light of Recent Events

Social Distortion - Don't Keep Me Hanging On/Born to Kill

Broken Social Scene - The Call/Remember the Humans

The Laughing Chimes - He Never Finished the Thought (4-track)/Behind Your Blue Fields

Parking - Lantern/Portraits

Hour 2: Days

New Order - Blue Monday/Power Corruption & Lies

Chime School - Negative Monday/The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel

The Posies - Ironing Tuesdays/Failure

M.A.G.S. - Wednesday/Destroyer

Shellac - Wednesday/To All Trains

Near Beer - Thursday/Near Beer

Run the Jewels - Thursday in the Danger Room (feat. Kamasi Washington)/RTJ3

Sharp Pins - Friday Night/Mod Mayday 23

The Lemon Twigs - Friday (I'm Gonna Love You)/I've Got a Broken Heart

Hallelujah the Hills - Friday I'm in Love/Puritan Garage Howlers - Covers 2022-23

Chandeliers - Big Shot Weekend/Big Shot Weekend

Lightheaded - Still Sitting Sunday/Combustible Gems

Soundgarden - Black Saturday/King Animal

Fishbone - Sunless Saturday/The Reality of My Surroundings

Speedy Ortiz - The Sunday/Rabbit Rabbit

Iggy Pop - Sunday/Post Pop Depression

Bonk the link and blow off some steam! 

Completely Conspicuous 683: The Island Life

Part 2 of my conversation with Phil Stacey about choosing 10 artists to listen to for the rest of your life if you were stranded on a desert island. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Bowie would pivot from one persona to another
• Phil: The Stones, but leaning heavily on the 1965-1981 period
• The Stones and the Who have so many compilations out
• In the Stones vs. Beatles argument, the Stones have the edge as a live band
• Jay: The Clash are one of the most important bands
• Not a huge catalog, but there's still plenty there
• The US Festival was the last gasp for the original lineup
• Phil: Repping for the Tedeschi Trucks Band
• Cover a wide range of styles and genres
• Jay: Another artist with a changing style and persona, PJ Harvey
• Not afraid to tackle new sounds 
• Lots of great, interesting stuff to check out
• Jay: Would enjoy digging further into the Cure's catalog
• So much to delve into
• Output has slowed down since the '90s
• Phil: His one-time favorite band, U2
• Early material remains strong
• Hit or miss the last two decades
• U2's legacy has diminished because they hung around too long
• It's tough for legacy acts whose new material will always be compared to their classic stuff
• You won't hear recent music from legendary bands on the radio
• The fans want the hits
• Jay: R.E.M. has a lot of parallels to U2, except they stopped
• They had a dip in quality for a few albums, but stopped performing in 2011
• Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy have done a great job paying tribute to classic R.E.M. albums
• Reminding people how great the band was
• They haven't reformed other than a few impromptu songs 
• Many bands are playing their classic albums front to back
• Bands like Sloan and Iron Maiden will alternate touring classic albums and new ones
• 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 #644: August 7, 2026

Everybody seems to be in a hurry nowadays. The need for speed is all around us. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Joudy, Sparkle Blood and Quicksand in hour 1 and songs about speed in hour 2. It'll get you amped up!

You guys have got nothing to worry about. This playlist is a professional:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Joudy - Nail/Permanent Maintenance

Yard Act - Fiction/You're Gonna Need a Little Music

Bondo - Strummer/Bondo

Graham Coxon - Alright/Castle Park

Sparkle Blood - In Real Life/ZIP ZAP

Quicksand - Crystallize/Bring On the Psychics

Jack White - Thick as Thieves/Frozen Charlotte

Knitting - Shuffle/Souvenir

Drakulas - Head in the Clouds/Midnight City

The Creem - Rushing/Taste of Cherry

Bantom Woods - Bail Polish/Bend

Piebald - Gentlemen Callers/Tales for the Rages

The Bevis Frond - Animal Man/Horrorful Heights

Sad 13 - Third Rodeo/1331

Heavenly - Good Times/Highway to Heavenly

Metric - Wild Rut/Romanticize the Dive

The Sheila Divine - The Apocalypse Sells/The Middle Ages

Hour 2: Speed

Fu Manchu - Hell on Wheels/King of the Road

Militarie Gun - Do It Faster/Life Under the Gun

PJ Harvey - The Faster I Breathe the Further I Go (4-Track Version)/B-Sides, Demos & Rarities

Teenage Dads - Speedracer/Majordomo

Trapper Schoepp- Three Speed Queen/Osborne

Daiistar - Speed Jesus/Good Time

Guided By Voices - Are You Faster?/Mag Earwhig!

Enumclaw - Fast N All/Jimbo Demo

Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs/The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs

Girlpool - Fast Dust/Powerplant

Purling Hiss - Rat Race/Water on Mars

Ovlov - Fast G/TRU

Chubby and the Gang - Speed Kills/Speed Kills

Girls Against Boys - Speedway/Freak*On*Ica

Bob Mould - Racing to the End/Blue Hearts

Ric Ocasek - A Quick One/Beatitude

The Specials - Rat Race/More Specials

Pixies - Nimrod's Son/Come On Pilgrim

Bad Brains - Pay to Cum/Single

Get instant gratification by clicking this link NOW!

Completely Conspicuous 682: (I'm) Stranded

Celebrating TWENTY YEARS of podcasting with part 1 of my conversation with Phil Stacey about choosing 10 artists to listen to for the rest of your life if you were stranded on a desert island. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Started this show in August 2006!
• Instead of Desert Island Discs, we each chose 10 artists that we'd be limited to hearing on a desert island
• Mixing up genres
• Jay: I ruled out a lot of classic rock acts that I've listened to all my life
• Limiting artists to music that came out under their name, not in other groups
• This magical island has killer WiFi
• Phil's honorable mentions: Bowie, Phish, Ella Fitzgerald, Drive-By Truckers, Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, Billie Holliday, Talking Heads, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Kinks, Pretenders, Nirvana, Sleater-Kinney
• Jay's HMs: Kinks, Pavement, Pixies, QOTSA, Afghan Whigs, Peter Gabriel, XTC, James Brown, PJ, Spoon, Superchunk, Tragically Hip, Yo La Tengo, Sloan, Elvis Costello
• Island picks
• Jay and Phil: Neil Young
• So much NY material out there
• Neil has a varied catalog of styles 
• Phil: The Beatles, naturally
• Incredibly influential and wide-ranging catalog in a handful of years
• Jay: Going outside the box with Fugazi
• Total DIY operation, only charged $5 per concert and album
• Only played non-traditional venues like school gyms and small clubs
• Phil: Not a jazz aficionado, but John Coltrane makes the cut
• Drugs are bad, mmkay?
• Jay: Drive-By Truckers have close to 30 years of hard-driving rock, alt-country and everything in between
• Not much in the way of popular attention
• Phil: He loves the modern jam band stylings of Goose
• Jay and Phil: The massive legacy of Prince
• The best Super Bowl halftime performance
• Prince could do everything well
• Phil: The Grateful Dead built a huge following under the radar
• Survived decades of trends and change
• They're still popular 30 years after they stopped making music
• Jay: The collected works of Parliament-Funkadelic
• They were two different bands with a rotating roster that eventually merged
• Combined rock with funk and soul
• George Clinton and a cast of thousands
• Phil: The mighty Led Zeppelin
• Embraced different sounds
• There are still Zep albums that are underplayed
• Jay: Bowie's chameleonic career
• Is Madonna the most successful female artist of all time?
• Incredible string of great albums from the '70s to the '80s
• 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.

Stuck In Thee Garage #643: July 31, 2026

Even if you're not a chemistry teacher, the elements are pretty damn important. They're what everything is made of, after all. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about elements in hour 2 (after playing new awesomeness from the likes of Greg Freeman, Graham Coxon, Bondo and Yard Act in hour 1). Consult your periodic table for more information.

There will be a quiz:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Greg Freeman - Indu/All Set the Bone

Graham Coxon - Billy Says/Castle Park

Queens of the Stone Age - Easy Street/Single

Bondo - Running Back/Bondo

Yard Act - New Beginnings/You're Gonna Need a Little Music

Quicksand - Get to It/Bring On the Psychics

Earth Tongue - Flashlight/Dungeon Vision

Sparkle Blood - I Don't Know/ZIP ZAP

Parking - Siren/Portraits

Kurt Vile - Zoom 97/Philadelphia's Been Good to Me

Death Cab for Cutie - Riptides/I Build You a Tower

Telehealth - Kokomo 2/Green World Image

DJ Shadow - Nobody Speak Part 2 (feat. Run the Jewels, Denzel Curry & TiaCorine)/The Mountain Will Fall 10th Anniversary Edition

Adrian Younge - Shake Down/Afro-Disco Makossa

Osees - Hecate's Reflection is a Trick/Off Course

Hour 2: Elements

Lightheaded - Mercury Girl/Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming

Cloud Nothings - The Golden Halo/Final Summer

Neutrals - The Iron That Never Swung/New Town Dream

Man or Astro-Man? - The Carbonated Comet/The Estrus Cocktail Companion

Four Tet - Iron Man/Everything Comes & Goes: A Tribute to Black Sabbath

Ava Luna - Carbon/Takamatsu Station

Sebadoh - Oxygen/Defend Yourself

Maritime - Tearing Up the Oxygen/In English

Paul McCartney and Wings - Magneto and Titanium Man/Venus and Mars

The Cult - Big Neon Glitter/Love

Sonic Youth - Titanium Expose/Goo

Superchunk - Cast Iron/No Pocky for Kitty

Shellac - Copper/Live at the Met, Pawtucket, RI 10/21/16

The Ocean Blue - Mercury/Cerulean

Split Single - Belly of Lead/Amplificado

Tin Machine - Tin Machine/Tin Machine

Rock the bells by clicking the link, professor!

Completely Conspicuous 681: Quick and to the Pointless

This week, it's part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite American artists post-2000. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as"). 

Show notes:

• Our favorite American artists since 2000
• Phil's honorable mentions: Black Keys, Dead & Co., Gary Clark Jr., Jack White, Kurt Vile, MJ Lenderman, My Morning Jacket, Parquet Courts, Raconteurs, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, St. Vincent, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Waxahatchee, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Jay's honorable mentions: Walkmen, Neko Case, LCD Soundsystem, At the Drive-In, Stephen Malkmus, Speedy Ortiz, Jeff Rosenstock, Protomartyr, Outkast, the Strokes, Interpol, Titus Andronicus, Run the Jewels, Jason Isbell, Ty Segall, The Hold Steady
• Phil's #5: Billy Strings is bringing bluegrass to the mainstream
• Mixes in some rock touches
• Jay's #5: Indie rock stalwart Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• Has also worked with Aimee Mann and Gang of Four
• Phil's #4: Young guitar hero turned Americana icon Jason Isbell
• Started with Drive-By Truckers and now is playing big theaters
• Jay's #4: The indie rock greatness of TV on the Radio
• Big emphasis on falsetto harmonies
• Phil's #3 and Jay's #2: The prolific and epic catalog of Drive-By Truckers
• Provided a different voice for Southern rock fans
• Jay's #3: The White Stripes provided a jolt for the rock scene in the early '00s
• Jack White has continued on after the Stripes split up
• "Seven Nation Army" might be the biggest song of the 2000s
• Phil's #2:  The bluesy versatility of the Tedeschi Trucks Band
• Led by a married couple
• Phil's #1: Goose is the premier jam band going right now
• They incorporate a lot of diverse covers
• Jay's #1: The sinister hard rock excellence of Queens of the Stone Age
• The Josh Homme-led band has had many incarnations over the years
• 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 #642: July 24, 2026

There's something to be said about a good cover song. Ideally, a cover will pay proper homage to the original while bringing something new to the song. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Quicksand, Sharp Pins, Krill and Girl Tones in hour 1 while playing cover songs in hour 2. Prince Gerhardt seems to approve.

The totally normal playlist:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Quicksand - Regenerate/Bring on the Psychics

Earth Tongue - Dungeon Vision/Dungeon Vision

Sharp Pins - Saturday Sun/Single

Krill - Commemorative Plaque/Single

Sparkle Blood - Restless/ZIP ZAP

Girl Tones - Stubborn Mouth/Single

Piebald - Fun Destroyer/Tales for the Rages

Cola - Haveluck Country/Cost of Living Adjustment

Parking - Mike Johnson is a Mechanic/Portraits

The Tubs - Who's Gonna Love You Now?/Hard Life

Bantom Woods - Prairie Dogs/Bend

Fiddlehead - Baby I'll Change/Baby I'll Change

Jack White - You'll Never Fix Me/Frozen Charlotte

Drakulas - Wheelhouse/Midnight City

Feeble Little Horse - Dior/bitknot

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Empathetic/In Light of Recent Events

Hour 2: Covers

Hallelujah the Hills - I Wanna Destroy You (Soft Boys)/Puritan Garage Howlers Vol. II

Gord Downie, the Sadies and the Conquering Sun - So Sad About Us (The Who)/Live at 6 O'Clock

The Afghan Whigs - Lost in the Supermarket (The Clash)/Burning London: The Clash Tribute

The Melvins - Sway (acoustic) (Rolling Stones)/Five Legged Dog

Judas Priest - Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez)/Sin After Sin

Iron Maiden - Doctor Doctor (UFO)/Best of the B-Sides

Soundgarden - Girl U Want (Devo)/Rusty Cage

Sebadoh - I Smell a Rat (The Bags)/Harmacy

Sugar - Dum Dum Boys (Iggy Pop)/Copper Blue Deluxe Remaster (live in Chicago 7/22/92)

PJ Harvey - Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan)/Rid of Me

The Amps - I Am Decided (Guided By Voices)/Pacer

The Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing (Kinks)/Pretenders

Sleater-Kinney - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (Richard and Linda Thompson)/Live at the Riviera Theatre, Chicago 6/16/05

Smashing Pumpkins - Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young)/Live on WZRD 3/16/89

Shellac and David Yow - Holidays in the Sun/Live Halloween 1998

Arctic Monkeys - Red Right Hand (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)/Crying Lightning

TV On the Radio - Mr. Grieves (Pixies)/Young Liars

His royal highness commands you to rock most steadfastly! 

Completely Conspicuous 680: Welcome to the Occupation

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite American artists. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Jay's take after seeing Goose
• Took us a while to get into the show
• Phil's #6: Phish took over the jam band crown from the Dead
• Jay briefly met Trey Anastasio at UNH before they got famous
• Goose hasn't been accepted by the entire jam band audience
• Jay's #6: Originally had Van Halen ranked higher, but dropped them because of the Hagar years
• Combined Eddie VH's revolutionary guitar work with DLR's showmanship
• Eddie inspired a generation of guitarists and Dave inspired a generation of hard rock singers
• Phil's #5: Steely Dan spits in the face of being called "yacht rock"
• Went from a live act to a studio perfectionist act to a live act again
• Fagen and Becker were demanding taskmasters
• Jay's #5: The imperfect perfection of the Replacements
• They self-sabotaged whenever things were about to break for them
• Never got to see them live
• Phil's #4 and Jay's #3: The singular genius of Jimi Hendrix
• Hugely influential guitarist and performer
• Must have blown a lot of minds when he was around
• Jay's #4: Pixies were a major influence on the alternative rock sound that shaped the '90s
• The band's first stint (1986-93) was epic
• Introduced weirdness into indie rock
• Still touring behind their classic material but making new music as well
• Phil's #3 and Jay's #10: Talking Heads were art school kids who became big
• Part of the CBGB scene of the '70s that went in a lot of different directions
• Explored a lot of sounds and influences
• Phil's #2: The Allman Brothers Band invented and transcended Southern rock
• Persevered through deaths and changing trends
• Jay's #2: No arguing with the greatness of Prince
• Hundreds of hours of unreleased music
• Was super talented at multiple instruments
• Was Prince the best all-around musician of the 20th century?
• Phil's #1: Duh, it's the Dead
• Inspired an entire subculture
• There are literally hundreds of Dead cover bands
• Jay's #1: The pride of Athens, GA, R.E.M.
• Helped create the "college rock" scene that grew into alternative rock
• Blew up in the early '90s
• Distinct career phases
• Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy have been covering R.E.M. albums in their entirety the last three years
• 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.

 

Videodrone #24: Sexx Laws

Videodrone is a weekly(ish) feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Sexx Laws (1999)

There was a lot going on in 1999. We were on the cusp of the new millennium and there was plenty of hype around the Y2K bug, which had everyone convinced all computer systems would go haywire once the clocks hit midnight on New Year's Eve. Needless to say, nothing happened.

Musically, it was an interesting year. The emergence of Napster on college campuses introduced the world to downloading and MP3s, which would lead to a seismic shift in the music industry. 

Alternative rock was still a thing, but it was nu metal and hip hop that got more attention from music fans: Limp Bizkit, Korn, Eminem, Dr. Dre and Kid Rock were leading the charge. In the middle of all that, the mercurial Beck was in the midst of a terrific run of albums. The previous year saw the release of the subdued but excellent Mutations, but Beck went in a completely different direction with 1999's Midnite Vultures. This time around, he leaned into funk and dance music with strong results. While it didn't reach the heights of Odelay, Midnite Vultures was a lot of fun, highlighted by lead single "Sexx Laws."

The song is an uptempo, horn-driven funk romp about gender roles, which the out-there video pokes fun at. Directed by Beck, it begins with a men's group called the Vision Warrior Men's Circle. The group's members include a young Jack Black, author Neil Strauss and Beck's bandleader Justin Meldal-Johnsen. After a group hug, a bunch of football players in day-glo uniforms crash through the walls and mayhem ensues, including Black getting smashed over the head with a bunch of drywall. 

Cut to Beck and his band playing the song, albeit with fake instruments (Meldal-Johnsen's playing a broom), alongside a zebra mannequin playing a banjo. Told you it was out there. Kitchen appliances come to life, much to the dismay of the men's group members, with a refrigerator humping an oven, and then a shot of Kenny G (played by Meldal-Johnsen) playing the sax in the background of the mayhem.  

There were a few different versions of the video, including an 18-minute version with extended scenes of the men's group (see a 13-minute version below). Beck also filmed a 6-minute video of "Kenny G" playing a smooth jazz version of the song; a session sax player handled the Kenny G part while Beck's band played the rest.

Midnite Vultures wasn't a smash like Mellow Gold and Odelay, but it still was certified gold. Beck followed it up in 2002 with the acoustic and melancholy Sea Change, another excellent album. That Beck likes to keep people on their toes. I've been less enamored with his output the last 15 years or so, but Beck's '90s and '00s work is undeniably strong.

Stuck In Thee Garage #641: July 17, 2026

Sometimes two heads can be better than one. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played new music from Dinosaur Jr., Jack White and Sad13 in hour 1 and musical team-ups in hour 2. Of course, sometimes the two heads might not get along, which can create awkwardness.

This playlist is headed for greatness:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Dinosaur Jr. - Several Got Away/There Near

Jack White - Raising the Grain/Frozen Charlotte

Sad13 - Six Ways/1331

Knitting - Here Comes/Souvenir

Josh Da Costa - Hospital Clown/New Wave Graveyard

Guitar Wolf - 3 Million Dollar Noise/More Jet

Bantom Woods - Modern Drummer/Bend

King Tuff - Oil Change/MOO

Kurt Vile - Holiday OKV/Philadelphia's Been Good to Me

Deer Tick - Dog Years/Coin-O-Matic

The Lemon Twigs - Nothin' But You/Look for Your Mind!

Conscious Pilot - Ode to Ronnie/Human Poultry

The Sheila Divine - Hurry Up/The Middle Ages

Ecca Vandal - SORRY! CRASH!/Looking for People to Unfollow

Gladie - Poison/No Need to Be Lonely

Snail Mail - Dead End/Ricochet

Hour 2: Team-ups

Bully - Lose You (feat. Soccer Mommy)/Lucky for You

Crooked Fingers - Haunted (feat. Sharon Van Etten)/Swet Deth

Dale Crover - I Waited Forever (feat. Ty Segall and Rob Crow)/Glossolalia

PJ Harvey feat. Thom Yorke - The Mess We're In/Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

Frank Black and Teenage Fanclub - Handyman/The John Peel Session 

Reeves Gabrels - 119 Years Ago/The Sacred Squall of Now

Elastica and Stephen Malkmus - Unheard Music/Suburbia

Protomartyr - You Always Win (feat. Kelley Deal)/Consolation

TV On the Radio - Province/Return to Cookie Mountain

Wylde Ratttz - World of Hurt/Wylde Ratttz

Desert Sessions - Crawl Home/Vol. 9 and 10

At the Drive-In - Rolodex Propaganda/Relationship of Command

The Twilight Singers - When Doves Cry/SPIN Presents Purplish Rain

Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funkee Homosapien - Missing Link/Judgment Night

Lo-Fidelity All-Stars (feat. Pigeonhed) - Battleflag/How to Operate with a Blown Mind

Kindly bonk the link to commence with the rocking.

Completely Conspicuous 679: Yankee Rose

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite American artists. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Recorded in the CompCon HQ backyard studio
• America's 250th birthday 
• Looking at our favorite American singers and bands, pre-2000 and post-2000
• Starting off with our top 10 of bands who debuted pre-millennium
• Sticking to rock artists for the most part
• Phil's honorable mentions include: B-52s (toughest omission from top 10), Beach Boys, Beasties, Beck, JB, Cars, early Chicago, Doors, early Foos, Little Feat, Nirvana, Pixies, Linda Ronstadt, Seger, Sleater-Kinney, SRV, Stevie Wonder, VU, VH, Wilco
• Jay's HMs: Living Colour, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Run DMC, Beasties, Public Enemy, Dino Jr., the Cars, JB, Fugazi 
• "Love Shack" overstayed its welcome 
• "Good Vibrations" could be a perfect pop song
• Seger was obsessed with a certain topic
• Billy Joel's metal roots with Attila
• Mutt Lange's production methods were tedious
• Fugazi refused all offers to reunite
• Phil's # 9: Pearl Jam formed almost by accident after another band broke up
• Still doing their thing all these years later
• Jay's #9: Were only together for about 8 years, but Husker Du amassed a legendary catalog
• Sound evolved from speedy hardcore punk to more melodic sounds
• Phil's #8: Tom Petty was a late bloomer who was hard to categorize at first
• Took advantage of the advent of MTV with plenty of iconic videos
• Jay's #8: The Afghan Whigs were the first non-Seattle band signed by Sub Pop
• Quickly distinguished themselves from their peers by combining soul and R&B influences with indie rock
• Jay's #7: Nirvana was only around for a short time, but they had a seismic impact
• Nirvana merch is now a lifestyle brand
• Saw them a week before they taped MTV Unplugged in NYC
• Packed a lot into a brief period
• 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.