Completely Conspicuous

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Mike Heyliger as we discuss the trials and tribulations of moving. Show notes: - Check out Mike's blog Popblerd and his podcast Blerd Radio - Jay: Haven't moved since 2000, but moved a lot in the '80s and '90s - TVs used to be a lot bigger and heavier - People used to always move around September 1 - Jay: Used to borrow the newspaper delivery van for moves - Mike: Upcoming move back to New York will be like going to a different place - Narrowed list down to a handful of cities to settle down in - Mike: Currently conveniently located near Boston-area clubs - Watertown is a quiet community, but Boston Marathon bomber was caught there - Tough times for journalism majors - Mike: Took a while to get used to earlier Boston closing times - It's easier to stay out super late when you're younger - Drunken work parties are always interesting - You don't want to be the drunk one - Alcohol-fueled fun can lead to awkwardness at work - Mike: Bee

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Mike Heyliger as we discuss the trials and tribulations of moving. Show notes: - Check out Mike's blog Popblerd and his podcast Blerd Radio - Mike's moving to Brooklyn - Music industry changes led to job change - Boston's no longer the focus of record labels that it once was - Moving vinyl is tricky - A good excuse to streamline and get rid of stuff - Who watches DVDs anymore? - Collections can take over your life - Jay: Used to have a huge comics collection - Jay: Moved around a lot when I was single - Roommates can be good or bad - Mike has lived alone for years - The shocking state of women's bathrooms - When beepers were a thing - In the '80s and '90s, calling cards made it cheaper to make long distance calls on pay phones - 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"

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1994. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Jay's #4 - Pavement was a shock to the system at the time - Malkmus continues to be a solo force - Brian's #3 - Ween's second-based album - Brian: Ween made 5 perfect albums in a row - Jay's #3 - Drive Like Jehu delivers scorching rock - Brian's #2 and Jay's #2 - Jay: Frank Black's Guided by Voices album - Black had serious writer's block during the making of this record - Brian's #1 - Weezer's debut features 10 perfect pop songs - Videos helped the album take off - Jay's #1 - One of Sloan's greatest albums got them dropped by DGC - Abrupt shift from first album's sound - Other '94 notables: Soundgarden, Nas, NIN, Portishead, Neil Young, Helmet, New Bomb Turks, Pearl Jam - Also: Magnetic Fields, TMBG, R.E.M., Outkast - Next up: 1992 - Jam bands became popular - Jay: Covered the best of the 2000s in CompCon episodes 96-99   Completely Conspicuous

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1994. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Brian:  Enjoyed albums from Tom Petty, Rancid, Sea and Cake - Beasties were all over the place on Ill Communication--in a good way - Sunny Day Real Estate's epic album - Halo Benders teamed Doug Martsch and Calvin Johnson - The Toadies break through - Jay: Sebadoh's Bakesale was a good combo of punk and melodic songs - Jeff Buckley went from hard rock to cabaret on Grace - Sugar's 2nd full-length was punchy and fun...for Bob Mould - Green Day's Dookie was a monster hit that nobody needs to hear anymore - Jay: Foolish was my intro to Superchunk - Brian's #5 - Nirvana's best album was Unplugged in New York - Jay saw Nirvana in Springfield, Mass., about a week before the Unplugged show - Jay's #5 - Bee Thousand is probably the perfect distillation of Guided By Voices - Brian's #4 - Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies was the first EP to top the album chart

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1994. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Rooting for a Jays-Mets World Series - Brian: 1994 was a big year for me - Rock radio was all about the alternative - Big year for Ace of Base with three songs in top 10 of '94 - Lots of pop and hip hop on singles chart - Aerosmith's foray into downloadable music - Took hours to download, no way to share it - Pearl Jam vs. Ticketmaster didn't end well - Corporate-owned venues are everywhere now - Woodstock '94 was full of mud - Sheryl Crow and Jackyl played on the same stage - Cobain's unsurprising fate - Brian: Was obsessed with music in '94 - Soundtracks were a big deal: Pulp Fiction, The Crow, Reality Bites - Older alternative acts turned up the guitars: R.E.M., Meat Puppets - Bands formed in '94 that loomed large a few years later: Creed, Limp Bizkit, Hoobastank, Maroon 5 - Eagles returned with Hell Freezes Over tour and introduced $100 tickets

Quick hit episode this week as I discuss the power of a song. Show notes: - In 1979, I listened to Toronto's CHUM-AM all the time - Used to collect the Top 30 singles chart every Friday - A song that captured my imagination was Joe Jackson's "I'm the Man" - The clock radio was important - Couldn't get enough of "I'm the Man" - Still powerful after all these years - Jackson's best work was in the late '70s/early '80s   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 Ric Dube as we discuss vacations. Show notes: - Recorded at More Lost Time world HQ - Check out our web series Trust Fund Challenge - Vancouver is a great destination - Trouble at the border - Someday, Jay will visit India again - A co-worker's move to France - Ric's vacation movie marathon - Dick Clark's role in Killers Three - Ric has beef with Christopher Nolan movies - Medical emergencies - Black Christmas is a Canuck horror classic from the director of Porky's   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 Ric Dube as we discuss vacations. Show notes: - Recorded at More Lost Time world HQ - Check out our web series Trust Fund Challenge - A reboot/remake/sequel to National Lampoon's Vacation is out - The first Vacation movie still holds up - Based on a National Lampoon novella - Both of our families went to Disney World in the '70s - Family vacations can either be packed with activities or relaxing - Jay: Just went to Disney with two other families - Ric: We rent a vacation home in Maine every summer with inlaws - Jay: We vary vacations each year; might go to Europe in a few years - Doing work while on vacation sucks - Ric: We were an hour away from everything - Ric's dad takes on a ropes course - Going out West - 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 a

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the art of hype. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Patreon is a crowdfunding option - The patronage model - Kickstarter, Indie GoGo efforts are commonplace - Matt loves board games - Contributing to podcasts and radio shows - Matt's research on dino romance novels - A Gronk to Remember was a big-selling e-book - Matt: "People are hot for were-critters" - Readers like series and formulas - John Irving always writes the last line first - Matt: Want to interact with more people to hype books - The problem with contests - The vagaries of web traffic - Nine years, man   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

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the art of hype. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Avoiding overhype - Getting RTs from celebrities - Sometimes it feels like there's no benefit to Internet hype - Getting bummed out to write sad scenes - Cosplayers are having a moment - Day jobs are a must, unfortunately - Tagging somebody famous can work from time to time - YouTube "stars" - Spider-man with no butt - 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 Matt Phillion as we discuss the art of hype and celebrate CompCon's 9th anniversary. Show notes: - Pre-order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - When your medical professional is younger than you - It's all about the hype - Matt was at Boston ComiCon last weekend - How to effectively hype your stuff online - Perfecting the pitch - Geeking out like a fanboy - Books sell better when you meet people face to face - One of a handful of authors - Writing is fun, editing sucks - Gotta hustle to sell books - To hype without hyping - Matt live-tweets superhero shows - Making friends with people you've never met - Women 18-40 are Matt's target audience - Ensemble cast - Harley the cat wants in - 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 Breit

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1997. Show notes: - Jay and Brian's #4 - Pavement continues a strong run of records - Brian's coffee shop - Jay's #3 - Ben Folds Five breaks through - Brian's #3 to be discussed later - Jay's #2 - Built to Spill's guitar pop excellence - Brian's #2 - Foo Fighters' sophomore album is chock full o' good songs - Backbeat soundtrack is great - Jay gets confused - Jay's #1 and Brian's #3 - Radiohead steps up their game - Brian's #1 - Ween shows off its chops on The Mollusk - Next up: 1994   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 Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1997. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Bubbling under albums - Brian: Flaming Lips' Zaireeka was designed to have its 4 CDs listened to simultaneously - Sweet 75 was Krist Novoselic's side project - Brian gives thumbs down to Eyes Adrift, which had a song about Jonbenet Ramsey - Jay: Totally missed Superchunk's Indoor Living at the time - Different sounds from Cornershop, Portishead - Return to form for Cheap Trick - Brian: Aerosmith's Nine Lives had a few good songs - Brian: Deftones were the most interesting of the metal acts - McCartney's Flaming Pie is one of his last great albums - Jay: Decent but not great albums from Matthew Sweet, Rollins Band, Dino Jr. - GBV's Mag Earwhig was a strong release - BS: Dylan's current comeback started with Time Out of Mind - To a certain generation, pop punk is classic rock - Sleater-Kinney hasn't made a bad album - Jay's #5 will come up later - Bria

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1997. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - 1997 was first year Brian was aware of popular and cool music - Brian was 15, Jay was 29-30 - Both of us had our first dates with our future wives in '97 - Some quintessential '90s hits: Mmm Bop, Wannabe, I Believe I Can Fly - Jay: Saw a lot of great shows that year - Big year for chick rock - Brian: Spawn soundtrack combined hard rock with trip hop - Industrial/electronic music became prominent - Bowie's 50th birthday concert - Tail end of swing music era - Ska-rock was hot - Rap rock was taking root - Adult alternative radio format was big - Green Day's "Good Riddance" blew up - Brian defends Third Eye Blind - Big deaths: Hutchence, Jeff Buckley, Tim Taylor of Brainiac, Notorious B.I.G., John Denver - Chris Farley died - Rainbow broke up in '97 - To be continued Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the year so far. Show notes: - JK: Nai Harvest's new album is infectious, fun rock - Topshelf Records has some good acts in its lineup - JB: Colleen is a former schoolteacher turned recording artist - JK: Chandos is the band formerly known as Chandeliers - JB's #1: Spectres has a psych-blues sound out of the UK - JK: Viet Cong stirred up dumb controversy because of its name - METZ is back with more kickassery - New Mikal Cronin album expands his sound with orchestral touches - JK's #1: Jeff Rosenstock's sound combines Weezer and Titus Andronicus - JB: Looking forward to new releases from Infinity Girl, Lubec, Johnny Foreigner - JK: Anticipating new material from Savages, Titus Andronicus, Destroyer, Fidlar, Kurt Vile - Not looking forward to new Don Henley album   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!   The opening and closing theme

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the year so far. Show notes: - JK: Courtney Barnett is blowing up - JB: Ava Luna released an interesting record - Funk, psych sound - JK: Kuroma is a psych pop act fronted by former member of the Whigs, MGMT - JK: My kids love listening to top 40 radio, hearing same songs over and over - Classic rock fans are the same way, except they never get sick of their favorites - JB: Not impressed with new Madonna song - JB: Beeef is a catchy Boston act fronted by music blogger - JK: New Krill record is full of quirk and deep philosophical lyrics - JB wrote terrific review of the album - Clicky Clicky presents great show July 9 at Great Scott: Infinity Girl, Lubec, Guillermo Sexo and Havania Waal - JB: Thin Lips is another in a line of great Philly rock acts - JK: Another excellent release from Thee Oh Sees - JB: Another Philly band, Hopalong, released good album on Saddle Creek - To be continued   Completely

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the year so far. Show notes: - Pixies played "surprise show" at TT the Bear's - Cambridge club is closing after 40+ years - A primer on the Boston rock club scene - Free Converse shows were a bummer for those of us who couldn't get tickets - Van Halen talk continues with Eddie slagging DLR and Michael Anthony - JB: Indie bands move beyond the '90s guitar rock sound - Speedy Ortiz explored different textures on new album - Nice work, Insound - JK: Reunited bands with good new releases: Sleater-Kinney, Swervedriver and Faith No More - JB: Pile's new album has a live feel to it - Hard to categorize Pile - 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. Vo

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss hero worship. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book, The Indestructibles: Breakout - Scared of the stunt guy - Watch out for the quiet ones - Comic book movies and shows tend to be pretty dark - Daredevil series on Netflix has been really good - Matt: Dark Knight Returns series portrayed heroes as old and fat - The problem with vigilantes - Realistic fight scenes - Why the Punisher hasn't worked as a movie hero - Superhero comics target new readers - Rebooting superheroes - Iron Man's alcoholic years - Fast and Furious series is quietly the most diverse   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 Matt Phillion as we discuss hero worship. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book, The Indestructibles: Breakout - Bronies and furries, oh my - Why would you want to run for office these days? - Small-town politics - Tearing down heroes on Twitter - Avengers press junket goes awry - Celebs stumble on social media - Michael Richards, Mel Gibson go from beloved stars to pariahs - Can you enjoy a Gibson movie now knowing what you know about him? - When politics get in the way of entertainment - 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 Matt Phillion as we discuss hero worship. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book, The Indestructibles: Breakout - Matt founded Home For Wayward Geeks to rant about superheroes - The problem with binge watching TV - Superhero movies and TV shows are everywhere now - Marvel's got a new movie coming out every few months - Simon Pegg bites the hand that feeds him - Comics are still big business, but the real money is in movies and merch - Do we need superheroes? - Matt: They're not going away until things get better in the real world - We love to tear our heroes down - Nobody likes a winner - Robert Downey Jr. was a mess before he became Iron Man - The Hugo Awards controversy - People get all worked up over casting in comic book movies - Matt doesn't get aniime - 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" b