Completely Conspicuous

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we dig into the catalog of the Grateful Dead, starting with the band's 1967 debut. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Other podcasts have focused on catalogs of U2, R.E.M., Phish, The Tragically Hip - Looking at the Dead album by album - Phil's a tie-dyed in the wool Deadhead, Jay has only superficial knowledge of the band - Phil: Got into the Dead in the mid-'80s, saw them live in '89 - Attracted by the musicianship, lyrics - Live is where the band really shines - Every show was different - The solo work from Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir was pivotal as well - Songs would be played live years before it showed up on an album - Band's biggest hit, "Touch of Grey," was first played live in '82 but became a single five years later - Jay: More into hard rock, metal as a kid - Got into alternative and punk - Would hear some Dead songs on classic rock radio - The tribute comp Deadicated introduced me to more Dead songs -

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our rock n' roll regrets. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Jay: Gave away a bunch of vinyl in the '90s - Price gouging vinyl-loving hipsters - Looking for bargains - Young entrepreneurship gone wrong - Taping music off the radio - In praise of Barooga Bandit - Phil: Wish I'd seen shows at some historic venues - Jay: Bands I once liked that I now regret liking - There should be no guilty pleasures - Coming to terms with disco - Some early '90s radio staples now ring false - Getting rides to concerts from parents - Jay: Not going to club shows earlier - Only went to hockey arenas and amphitheaters 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our rock n' roll regrets. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Phil: Bands I never got to see - Missing artists before they died - Sometimes it's for budgetary reasons - Jay: Saw Neil Young last month for the first time - The time Phil got dosed at a Cure show - Phil: Not being old enough to see certain artists in their prime - Following bands on tour - Jay: Not sticking with the guitar - Been playing on and off for decades - Short-lived band experiences, including Bea Arthur's Revenge - Phil: Giving away CDs and mixtapes - Mixtapes can tell a lot about someone's personality - Jay: Still have all my cassettes - 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Our top 5 albums of the year so far - JB's #5 - Post-rock quartet from Philly - JK's #5 - A New Year's gift - Channeling post-election angst - JB's #3 - Hook-laden pop from Kevin Kline's kid - JK's #4 - Back to basics from power pop masters - JK's #3 - Hot rawk from a dependably excellent band - JB's #2 - Sprawling lo-fi indie folk - JK's #2 - Came out of left field - Punchy power pop - JB's #1 - Exhilarating release for this band's Saddle Creek debut - JK's #1 and JB's #4 - Very political record - Please save us, Fugazi - JB: Still surprised at the lack of political music 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - On to the top 10 - JB's #10 - Side project of the late Scott Hutchison - JK's #10 - Welcome return of alt-rock faves - The laid-back recording style of Steve Albini - JB's #9 - Ambient music via Philly - JK's #9 - Boston alt-rock icons back with a vital new record - JB's #8 and JK's #7 - Another fine album from an Aussie rocker - JK's #8 - The evolution of a band's sound - JB's #7 - No new Johnny Foreigner release, but this works - JB's #6 - Minimal electronic act from the city of Brotherly Love - Good chillout music - JK's #6 - A solid solo release from another alt-rock legend - Surprising political bent on a few songs - 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 t

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - The sudden album drop: Drake, Kanye, Beyonce/Jay Z, Rosenstock - Who needs major labels? - Charts are meaningless when the kids just stream music - Country may be the biggest selling genre right now - Pop tours are struggling - The flipside of convenience - YouTube as last resort for streaming - The floppy disk as music storage device - Package tours now mix up genres and eras - Breitling: "I imagine the Wang is sizable" - Our favorite music: The bubbling unders...or also-rans - Breitling: Ben Leiper, Kamasi Washington, Speedy Ortiz, GAS - Kumar: Ty Segall, Hot Snakes, Screaming Females, La Luz, Poptone, Beach House, Janelle Monae, Painted Doll, Judas Priest - To be continued 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 Matt Phillion as we discuss social media dependency. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea - The political climate is disturbingly fascinating - O, Canada? - It used to be easy to fall out of political favor - Howard Dean's scream - The lack of competition - No alternative party - Navigating social media to victory - Coming up with an escape plan - Watch out for gators - Connected to social media all day but don't look at it all the time - Your info is constantly being collected by FB, Google, Amazon, etc. - Wandering through the social media graveyard - FB Messenger was banning people based on supposedly private conversations - Matt's adventures with drunken late-night purchases like the Ab Zapper - Buying swords on QVC - The desperate need for social media likes - Matt: No withdrawal symptoms when disconnected from the internet - Consequences for social media faux pas can come quickly Comple

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss social media dependency. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea - Back from a little hiatus - Using the phone at the urinal - Matt: Detached from social media while in Canada - We're online all day for work - Jay: The kids love the Instagram - Twitter can be a cesspool - Let Me Google That For You - When Star Wars nerds get ugly - Twitter can often be a license to be a jerk - People can be "rock stupid" - The compulsion to tweet - Arguing with family members on social media - The mute function on FB is helpful - Matt: Writer Twitter drives me nuts - Don't click on the comments! - Anime geeks solving their arguments in a civil manner - 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. Voiceover work

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss musical blindspots: I dig into George Harrison's Brainwashed and Brian checks out Living Colour's Stain. Show notes: - Jay: George Harrison's posthumous release - Never heard anything from this on the radio - Took repeated listens for it to click - Ends with George and his son chanting together - Harrison's solo work after first album is noticeably flawed - Harrison worked on this album for 14 years - Jeff Lynne production doesn't overwhelm Brainwashed - Jay: All three solo Beatles albums I listened to were good - Brian: The third Living Colour record is more aggressive - Very angry, dark album - Timely lyrical themes that would work today - Doug Wimbish brings a different sound to Living Colour - Industrial sounding, lots of sampling - Band split up in '95 - Album was out of print for years after a lawsuit over its name - Watching rock stars age is strange - Robert Plant's staye

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss musical blindspots: I dig into Paul McCartney's RAM and Brian checks out Living Colour's Time's Up. Show notes: - Brian: Glover's vocals are too showy on Reid's songs - Second half of album is more varied - Back in the days of super-long albums - Living Colour would switch styles in the middle of songs - Bands would go platinum with no radio play - Taping music off the radio - RAM was credited to Paul and Linda - Whimsy with a dark undercurrent - Homemade-sounding album recorded in an NYC studio - Critics hated it when it came out - Macca rarely plays these songs live - Next up: Living Colour's Stain and George Harrison's Brainwashed - George's problematic solo career - Here's to long rock docs   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 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the power of the written word. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea - The popularity of comics has moved beyond just comic books - The collector's market collapsed in the late '90s - We make less time to read nowadays - Audiobooks and podcasts are popular with people trying to multitask - Mark Hamill's interesting career - Attention spans are shrinking - Binge-watching vs. reading - Long-form storytelling is alive and well on TV - Being professional on social media - When things you liked don't age well - Retroactive criticism - Hate-sharing for fun and profit - Outrage fatigue - Picking careers that become obsolete   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 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the power of the written word. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea - Everything's great - Content has a different meaning these days - Gotta grab readers much more quickly - We read full articles more infrequently - Rarely go directly to newspaper sites - Jay: Use Feedly, which is like the old Google Reader RSS feed aggregator - RSS feeds are archaic now - Facebook's News Feed is pretty light on actual news - People "liking" products on social media - Matt: Shorter stories seem to do better than longer novels - e-readers are good and bad - Internet publishing took away the gatekeeper so anyone can publish now - Now there's so much out there, you can't tell the good from the bad - Paperbacks are making a comeback, like vinyl - Putting "girl" in a book title is trending - Dino erotica is a thing - Fun with keywords - Doing chart battle with werewolf smut - Jay: Finally

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite albums of 2017. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - JB's #4 - A surprising shoegaze comeback - JK's #4 - Dan Bejar hits the sweet spot - JB's #3 - The greatness of Father/Daughter Records - Interesting songs that grab you - JK's #3 - A man of constant reinvention - JB's #2 - A strong farewell from a beloved band - JK's #2 - Harking back to a signature sound with some new twists - JB's #1 - Strong set produced by Kurt Heasley of the Lilys - JK's #1 - Two great tastes that taste great together - Very conversational, ramshackle - Some great box sets/archival releases from Husker Du, Replacements, Acetone - Anticipated releases: Yr Poetry, Buffalo Tom, Sloan, Ty Segall, Arctic Monkeys, My Bloody Valentine - Shout out to Ollie Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicu

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite albums of 2017. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - JB's #10 - Tommy Stinson can still bring it - JK's #10 - A welcome return after 17 years - JB's #9 - A turnkey post-shoegaze solution - JK's #9 - Double LP return for the great Ted Leo - JB's #8 - A different sound for She Sir - JK's #8 - Strong effort marred by bizarre on-stage incident - When artists you like do bad things - JB's #7 - Breitling digs on the ambient music - JK's #7 - Mixing hooks in with blistering rockers - JB's #6 - Juana Molina continues to explore - JK's #6 - Strong career progression from consistently interesting artist - JB's #5 - Former schoolteacher turned electronic artist - JK's #5 - Double album recorded while the artist was dying - Each song was about a person in his life - To be continued Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The o

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about the year in indie rock. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Eighth annual year in review - Rock isn't part of the top 40 conversation anymore - Apple is going to stop selling downloads and iPods - Music as a service - Does higher quality audio really matter? - People who died - Pat DiNizio recently passed; the Smithereens had a fine career - Other notable deaths: Petty, Downie, Cornell, Berry, Domino, Allman, Hart - The Year of Punishing Bad Behavior - Albums that didn't make our top 10 lists - Breitling: The War on Drugs recalls mid-80s classic rock - Also dug St. Vincent, Lali Puna, Wet Trident, Lubec, Charly Bliss - Kumar: War on Drugs, LCD Soundsystem, Wolf Parade, Protomartyr, Ron Gallo - Lots of music to like this year - To be continued Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Co

This week, it's part 1 of my discussion with Brian Salvatore about musical blindspots with Brian listening to Living Colour while I dig into early solo Beatles records. Show notes: - Brian listened to Vivid, Jay listened to John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - Adventures in Skype - Jay: Wasn't familiar with much of this album - Very raw, exposed album for Lennon - Lennon didn't release many albums before he died - Yoko plays "the wind" - Embarrassment of riches after Beatles broke up - The Living Colour/In Living Color conundrum - Brian: Not a misplaced note on this album - Impressed with the political content - Jay: Saw videos on MTV and taped a concert off the radio back in '88 - Vivid was out for over a year before "Cult of Personality" hit big - Living Colour confounded expectations - Mick Jagger helped get them a record deal - Next: Jay listens to McCartney's Ram and Brian checks out LC's Time's Up     Completely Conspicuous is available thr

This week, it's part 2 of my discussion with Phil Stacey about how we deal with losing musicians we love. Show notes: - Replacing a beloved band member is tough - Tom Petty's legacy - Steely Dan's interesting catalog - The problem with hearing the same songs over and over - The lighter side of Prince - Prince's prolific later years - A master of any style - Jay: Downie's loss hits harder now because I'm around the same age - Making the most of your last years on Earth - The real shockers are the younger ones   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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

This week, it's part 1 of my discussion with Phil Stacey about how we deal with losing musicians we love. Show notes: - Gord Downie died a few weeks ago - Many high-profile music deaths in last few years - Musicians are getting older, but also some tragic deaths - Phil: Elvis Presley's death was memorable - Lennon's death was shocking - Phil: Cobain and Jerry Garcia's deaths hit hard - Jay: The plane crash that killed Randy Rhoads stands out - Lemmy, Bowie and Prince all died within a few months of each other - Chris Cornell's death earlier this year came as a surprise - Many big-name musicians died this year: Gregg Allman, Tom Petty, Chuck Berry, Grant Hart, Walter Becker - You tend to dig into the back catalog - Bowie's death kicked off a rough 2016 for music fans - Losing Prince was a gut punch - Jay: Saw the Tragically Hip many times over the years - Downie released a posthumous double album - Very captivating live performer - Watched

This week, it's part 2 of my discussion with Phil Stacey about albums that changed our lives.  Show notes: - Jay: Was a nerdy kid who listened to music all the time - Phil liked college rock, but never got the Violent Femmes - Jay: Loved Red Hot Chili Peppers back in the day, but can't stand them now - Back and forth on the Eagles and Doors - Of Linda Ronstadt and Barney Gumbel - Grunge makes an impact - Alt-rock: Peter Gabriel, R.E.M., U2 - Phil: Big Smiths fan - The first Pretenders album is a classic - Neil Young's '80s odyssey - Phil loves the Dead - Jay: Got into funk and jazz in late '90s (P-Funk, James Brown, Miles Davis, Coltrane) - Phil: Listened to Beck's Sea Change a lot after getting divorced   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. Voiceover work is courtesy of

This week, it's part 1 of my discussion with Phil Stacey about albums that changed our lives.  Show notes: - Phil: At age 6-7, hearing older kids listening to Aerosmith - Heard a lot of easy listening music - Had a music-loving uncle who introduced him to the Who, Hendrix, Talking Heads - Jay: Listened to AM rock station in Toronto - Bought 45s of Queen, Cheap Trick, Joe Jackson - Phil: U2's Boy was a huge album for me - Jay: Got Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy - Zeppelin got me into rock - B-52s were revolutionary - You can't make your kids love your music - Jay: First rock album I bought was Supertramp's Breakfast in America - Phil: Revolver was a pivotal Beatles album - Jay: Got into early '80s hard rock - Rush's Moving Pictures was a big one - 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 Bi