Completely Conspicuous

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1999. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output - Brian was 16 going on 17 in '99, Jay was 31 going on 32 - The dawn of Napster - Downloading music via dial-up was excruciatingly slow - Most downloading was done on college campuses - 1999 was the biggest sales year for the music industry - Bowie was first major artist to release album online before retail - eMusic over the years - Amazon makes it easy to buy music now - External CD burners, early MP3 players - Brian's 1999 regrets: Primus teaming with Fred Durst, Lit, Rage Against the Machine, "ska residue," Stone Temple Pilots - Jay's regrets: Lenny Kravitz, RHCP - Jay: Got into stoner rock in '99 (Fu Manchu, Nebula) - Woodstock '99 was a disaster - Brian: Respect for "I Want it That Way" - Cher had the #1 song of the year - The movie Go is a good document of its time - Santana scored big wit

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Christian Douglass as we discuss presidential candidates, the '70s and regional differences. Show notes: - New England is not representative of the rest of the country - Christian's ideal place to live: DC - The '70s were a fascinating time in the U.S. - Hip hop and punk grew out of mid-'70s NYC - The Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi - Lee Atwater, bluesman - The momentum of Trump - Last summer, Jeb Bush was a lead pipe cinch - Christian: Used to go to CPAC every year - What about Hillary? - How does a president get anything done? - Firmly on the fence   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Christian Douglass as we discuss racism, political correctness and gentrification. You know, the lighter side of life. Show notes: - Political correctness on both sides of the aisle - Literary archetypes reflect cultural fears - The Trump Method: Repeat your point until people agree with you - The Washington football team sticks to its guns - Could All in the Family and Blazing Saddles come out today? - No safe space for satire - It's hard to talk about race these days - Lamenting the closing of local rock clubs - The upper crust and the townies - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Christian Douglass as we discuss the differences between the North and the South. Show notes: - Christian grew up in Texas - The tension between North and South is still around - The Cuban Connection - Ted Cruz's attempts at humor - Batshit crazy election season - The Trump effect - It's still the economy, stupid - A brown dude in New Hampshire - Canada welcomed a generation of immigrants in the '70s and '80s - Sri Lankan and Samoan street gangs - Jay: Toronto was the most diverse place I've lived - Christian: Was ignorant of the North as a kid - The OJ Simpson miniseries is pretty fun - Southern stereotypes are strong up North - A formal level of ignorance - To be continued     Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fin

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1983. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output - Brian's #3 - Jonathan Richman forges his own path - A great year for singles - Jay's #3 - Metallica helped introduce thrash metal - Brian's #2 - Post-Eno Talking Heads is still pretty damn good - Jay's #2 - The Replacements start stretching out their sound - Don't have high hopes for the GNR tour - Whither Izzy Stradlin? - Brian's #1 - Great debut for Violent Femmes - Jay's #1 - Jay: First heard R.E.M. on their Letterman appearance - Stipe was still in his shy phase - Peter Buck's a busy guy - A lot of beginnings in 1983 - Next up: 1999   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music b

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1983. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output - Jay: Talking Heads, Robert Plant, Billy Idol, X, Motorhead, The Fixx, The Kinks - Lemmy and Brian Robertson didn't get along - "Come Dancing" is a great pop song - Brian's #5 - First exposure to Bowie music - Greg Dulli's great take on "Modern Love" - Binging on Bowie - Jay's #5 - The Police go out on top...and fighting - The Sting and Peter Gabriel tour could be interesting...or bad - Brian's #4 - The interesting story of Daniel Johnston - Jay's #4 - The American breakthrough for U2 - Jay: U2 was my favorite band through some of the '80s - Recent Paris concert was pretty good - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitlin

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1983. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output - In '83, Brian turned 1, Jay turned 16 - A lot of classic '80s singles came out in '83 - From Men at Work to Metallica - Thriller loomed large - Strange mix of hits on the top 100 - CDs were first sold in the U.S. - The US Festival was a huge event - Brian recommends the Eagles documentary - The Strummer-Jones dynamic led to breakup of the Clash - KISS took off the makeup - Elton John had minor hits throughout the '80s - Aerosmith was fading - Brian: Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut - Jay: Ronnie James Dio strikes out on his own while Sabbath forges on with Ian Gillan - Brian: SST comp Blasting Concepts was a good intro to punk - Dinosaur Jr.'s recent 30th anniversary shows - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The openi

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss short attention spans. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Fear of wasting time or fear of missing out? - Phone calls are rare and annoying - Tinder = instantaneous hookups - Jay: Thankful to have been in the dating Dark Ages - Guys are born stupid - Telephone hangups used to be way more dramatic - How often do you just hang out with a friend and talk? - Writing letters is a lost art - Friends who aren't on social media are lost or forgotten - How much faster can life get? - We still slow down occasionally - Nothing slows you down like a baby falling asleep on you   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceove

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss short attention spans. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Spending too much time in front of screens - Much harder to get through long articles nowadays - How many words are worth $1? - Looking at phone is how we kill time - Smoking made Matt more social - A generation of socially inept people - Binge-watching TV requires more attention - Longer network TV seasons seem so much longer now - The Punisher is a tough character to get right - Hell hath no fury like a nerd upset over something stupid - Gotta pay attention when there are subtitles - Anime moves too fast - Audiences can't deal with slow scenes any more - As a writer, Matt writes shorter chapters - Short attention span applies to music listening - Matt: If I had an iPhone as a kid, I would never have read a book - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss short attention spans. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - The inevitable joke - MP: The more novels I write, the shorter my attention span gets - Live-tweeting TV shows takes some effort - Trace back to quick cuts in MTV videos of the early '80s - Wireless Internet has sped up the attention decline - Twitter mulls expanding character limit to 10,000 - The fine art of crafting an effective tweet - News of Bowie's death spread fast on social media - What a way to go out, leaving a great piece of art behind - It's hard to sustain a long career these days - How to teach your kids about music - Dumbo doesn't hold up - Matt: New Star Wars is an homage to the original, but much faster - So much more dialog in TV shows now - HBO's In Therapy was different because much of it was just two people talking - Elmore Leonard mastered economical writing - To be continu

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of this decade (2010-14). Show notes: - JB's #5 - Dan Bejar's guilty pleasure - JK's #5 - Band came out of left field - JB's #4 - Dream pop classic - JK's #4 - Comeback album from alt-rock legends - JB's #3 - Cassette-only release - JK's #3 - Prolific artist put it all together - JB's #2 - Veteran hardcore guitar god goes folk rock - JK's #2 - Sprawling punk rock concept album about the Civil War - JB's #1 - An epic from a band just dropped by its label - JK's #1 - First Matador act to hit #1 on album chart   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of this decade (2010-14). Show notes: - Looking back - Breitling: My top albums of the 2013 and 2014 didn't make this list - JB's #10 and JK's #9 - "The purest distillation" of this band's sound - JK's #10 - Harking back to '70s glam punk - JB's #9 - New sound for indie rock stalwart - JB's #8 - Lots of side projects spun off from this band - JK's #8 - A super outing from an indie supergroup - JB's #7 - Unclear whether another release is coming from this act - JK's #7 - Top pick of 2011 - Turned Out a Punk is an interesting podcast - JB's #6 - Breakthrough for excellent indie act - JK's #6 - Television-Velvet Underground sound - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Br

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2015. Show notes: - Jay Kumar's #5 album of the year - Productive collective out of the Bay Area - Jay Breitling's #4 - What's next for Jonah Furman? - JK's #4 - JB's #3 - Dark, crazy guitar ambience - JK's #3 - Another indie darling blowing up big - JB's #2 - Another great shoegaze act makes its mark - JK's #2 - A local indie act does well nationally - JB's #1 - Marriage of electronic and guitar rock - JK's #1 - Topped midyear list, still holds up - Looking ahead to 2016 - Next week: Our favorites of the first half of the decade (2010-14)   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2015. Show notes: - More music out than ever before - JK: Immersed in top 40 pop against my will thanks to my kids - JB's honorable mentions - Ava Luna is the Steely Dan of indie rock - JK's honorable mentions - Some notable comeback albums - JB's #10 - JK's #10 - The insanity of the Paris concert tragedy - JB's #9 - JK's #9 - The ever-prolific Patrick Stickles - JB's #8 - JK's #8 - Constant touring hones a band's sound - JB's #7 - JK's #7 - JB's #6 - Exploding in Sound is the indie rock label of the moment - JK's #6 - JB's #5 - For those not about to rock, we salute you - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of

This week, I'm joined by author Greg Renoff as we discuss the response to his new book about the early days of Van Halen. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Buy Greg's book Van Halen Rising at Amazon or get a signed copy from the Van Halen Store - We last spoke in March before the book came out - Great response from readers - Selling well on Amazon, was reviewed in Rolling Stone - DLR's role in the band's early days surprised some - Roth defied the odds to become a star - Gene Simmons was an early supporter of the band - Roth had different musical interests than the VH brothers - Greg: Not sure what next writing project will be - Meeting readers at book signings is fun - Launch party in Pasadena featured VH's original bassist Mark Stone - Visited neighborhood where VH played backyard parties - The revolutionary sound of "Eruption" - VH's disappointing live album - Debate over what's in the archives - The future of the band is murky - Little released output from Edd

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1992. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Jay: Rollins Band broke out with The End of Silence - Jay's #5 - The best album from The Tragically Hip - Brian's #5 and Jay's #4 - Pavement's first stab at greatness - The Pavement reunion was disappointing - Brian's #4 and Jay's #2 - Brian's #3 - 1992 was a banner year for Alice in Chains - Dirt was unrelentingly dark - Jay's #3 - Jay: The album that got me into Buffalo Tom - Saw them play Let Me Come Over front to back earlier this year - Brian's #2 - Found at CMJ conference: Balanescu Quartet does Kraftwerk - Sugar was a great combination of Bob Mould's worlds - Came out at the right time as alt-rock was hitting - Brian's #1 - With Kerplunk, Green Day laid blueprint for future success - Jay's #1 - The Afghan Whigs set up a great decade melding rock with R&B - A few others we missed - Next year to tackle: 1983   Completely Conspicuous i

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1992. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Brian: A friend was at the Eagles of Death Metal show in Paris but escaped unharmed - Security at club shows is minimal - Post-9/11 concert experiences - Bands formed in '92: Brainiac, Bush, Shellac, Sugar, Weezer - Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" is a great song - Bands that broke up in '92: Bullet Lavolta, Europe, Fine Young Cannibals, Feelies - Albums that didn't make our top 5 - Brian: Nirvana, Late!, GBV, Ween, They Might Be Giants, Beasties, R.E.M. - Jay: Lemonheads, Rage Against the Machine, Sloan, Neil Young, Mudhoney, Alice in Chains, Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees - Tom Scharpling does the best version of "Killing in the Name Of" - Jay: Saw Alice in Chains at a small Boston club in late '92 - Automatic for the People was the last great R.E.M. album - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast direc

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1992. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - In '92, Brian turned 10 and Jay turned 25 - Hot 100 chart had a lot of pop, R&B, some hip hop - But alternative rock was booming - "Baby Got Back" was #2 song of the year - Clapton's Unplugged album was huge - The greatness of early Dire Straits - Pat Smear in the Chili Peppers? - The evolution of Guns 'N Roses - Axl's vampire voice - Labels got rid of the CD longbox - Once it was about hifi, now nobody cares about audio quality - Big year for rock weddings - Concert for Life paid tribute to the late Freddie Mercury - Wayne's World appealed to both of us for different reasons - Hair metal died in the U.S. but remained huge in Europe - Montreal fans rioted because of Axl's antics - Arena shows were de rigeur in the '70s and '80s - Bands play much smaller venues now - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes pod

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the problem with research studies. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Don't get sick! - Studies can be scary - Apply some logic when reading studies - People live in fear of everything - We love to get worked up about studies - Studies with no research on long-term effects - Studies seem to have lost all value - Outrage only lasts for about a week and we move on - Nobody wants to take the time to verify - Are cell phones dangerous? Let's hope not - Studies: Everything gives you cancer - We're all gonna die! - Only thing Wall-e got wrong was everyone was happy - Pixar wants to make you sad - Near-death running experiences   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the problem with research studies. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Surviving Halloween in Salem - Endless barrage of studies - You can find a study to prove just about any point - Pick and choose the result you want - Going down the WebMD wormhole - Studies get picked up by mass media - People don't verify the research, just pass it on - Morning TV shows are an empty void - Study says processed meat causes cancer - The research-industrial complex - Watch out for Big Vegetable - The folly of the Farmer's Almanac - The influence of pharma companies on research studies - Too much TV as a child dident make us dumm - Rarely watch TV now without social media interruptions - Studies don't change behavior - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme