Completely Conspicuous

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of 2016. Show notes: - Biggest trend so far: Death - A whole generation of musicians is in senior citizen territory - Ticketmaster settlement is as useless as TM normally is - "Stairway to Heaven" lawsuit ended the right way - Breitling plays law-talking guy - Tidal tries to start its own bidding war - Ultimate strategy is to get paid and get out - The free tier for streaming services will eventually go away - Bandcamp's iffy stats - Breitling's not-quite-top-10: New Dog, Horse Jumper of Love, Guillermo Sexo, Gold Muse, California Snow Story, Yr Poetry - Kumar's bubbling under list: Radiohead, Ty Segall, Modern Baseball, Future of the Left, Halfsour, Used 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

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the difficulties of avoiding cynicism. Show notes: - Check out Matt's new book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4 - People are desperate for fame - Matt auditioned for season 2 of The Real World - The savvy of Boston Rob - Chewbacca Mom is pushing it - Trump tapped into a vein of discontent - He's got a way with nicknames - We've got issues - Fat, but not happy - It's not a bad thing to be cynical - Changing your Twitter icon or FB profile pic is pointless - David Cameron and the pig's head - Sinking to meme level - The Internet never forgets - Power + opportunity = Bad life choices - We're going to remain cynical 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 Clic

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the difficulties of avoiding cynicism. Show notes: - Check out Matt's new book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4 - It's hard not to be cynical these days - Politics are infuriating in general - Soccer hooligans can spread joy, too - Getting cynicism drummed into you as a young reporter - Kids, don't go into journalism - NIMBY remains a strong force - Matt made the mistake of going to back to newspapers a few years ago - Facts, schmacts - Saying something stupid won't tank your campaign anymore - Tapping into frustrated and angry voters - Blindly loyal political supporters - Stupid can win - People are tired of hearing from so-called experts - Jay: Reality TV makes me cynical - The Duggars had a show because they had 19 kids - Some people find The Bachelor fascinating - So many kids these days have the drive to become famous - The abnormal lives of huge celebrities - Tom Cruise can't rel

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1981. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - Brian's #3 - Prince starts pushing the envelope - Prince in the '80s was nearly untouchable - Jay's #3 - A childhood favorite - Moving Pictures encapsulated everything Rush had been working toward - Side 1 was killer - Brian's #2 - Kraftwerk ran with robotic sounds - A version is touring again - Jay's #2 - The Police start to become a commercial success - Stewart Copeland's drumming was revolutionary for the time - Should Brian drop big coin to see Sting and Peter Gabriel live? - Brian's #1 - Damaged is close to the definitive Black Flag album - Jay's #1 - Van Halen's creative peak - Angrier sounding - Next up: 1995    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

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1981. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - Elvis Costello released two albums in '81 - Solo albums from Phil Collins, Debbie Harry, Ronnie Wood, Peter Cetera, Lindsay Buckingham - Bands formed: The Alarm, Anthrax, Metallica, Bangles, Beastie Boys, Butthole Surfers, Run DMC, Sonic Youth - Broke up: Bay City Rollers, Steely Dan, Wings, Buzzcocks - Bubbling under albums - Brian: Ramones, Kinks - Jay: Phil Collins, The Who, Tom Petty, Billy Squier - A few years later, Squier kills his career with "Rock Me Tonite" video - Brian: Lounge Lizards debut, Tom Tom Club, Replacements, Pretenders - That time Brian pissed off Lurie on Twitter - Jay: Gun Club, Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Gang of Four - Brian's #5 - Byrne and Eno basically invent sampling - Jay's #5 - The Stones bounce back with odds and sods collection that hits big - The

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1981. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - In 1981, Jay was 13 and Brian wasn't born yet - Jay: Lived in Canada for most of the year, then moved to U.S. - Listened to a lot of hard rock and AOR - Toronto radio was cool but a few years from becoming heavily formatted - A lot of solo albums - Beginnings of indie rock - Lots of soft rock on the charts - The Stones had a resurgence in '81 - Old rockers were in their 30s and 40s then - Death of Lennon hung over the music scene - Hall and Oates left a strong legacy of pop hits - The puzzling Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame selection process - The strange popularity of Steve Miller - "Under Pressure" has become bigger as years passed - MTV's debut in August 1981 - USA Network premiered "Night Flight" - REO Speedwagon's one breakout year - Ozzy's comeback continues - To be continued   Completely Conspi

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years. Show notes: - Artists we missed at first but now love - Phil's #2 - Dismissed Phish initially, focused on the Dead at first - Jay's #2 - Got into Bob Mould and Sugar first, then backtracked - Husker Du: Great catalog, bad production - Phil's #1 - Overlooked because of constant radio play - Classic rock stations don't play new music by classic artists - Jay's #1 - Always a Bowie fan, but started really getting into him in the last few years - Bands we never got into - Phil's #3 - Never a big metal guy - Metallica never did it for Phil - Jay's #3 - Never understood popularity of Dave Matthews Band - Phil's #2 - Respect the Boss but never got into him - Don't compare him to Mellencamp - Jay's #2 - STP seemed like they were ripping off other bands - Phil thought Nine Inch Nails were dumb - Phil's #1 - What's the big deal about Radiohead? - Jay: Hated "

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years. Show notes: - Artists we just stopped listening to - Phil's #1 - Smashing Pumpkins had a strong run in the '90s - Corgan's pretentiousness ran its course - Jay's #1 - Went back and forth, but finally stopped listening to the Doors in early '90s - Phil: Morrison became a drunken buffoon - Artists we missed first time around but discovered later - Phil's #3 - Drive-by Truckers bring together different styles and sounds - Jay's #3 - Huge body of work, but didn't start listening to Nick Cave until a decade ago - Phil's #2 - Blues-rock from Tedeschi Trucks Band - Jay's #2 - Bad Brains was an electrifying punk act - Phil's #1 - Parquet Courts can play short punk songs and larger, artier stuff - Jay's #1 - Knew about Velvet Underground for years, but really got into them in last 15 years - Artists we missed at first but now love - Phil's #3 - Checked out M

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years. Show notes: - Revisionist band history - Bands we once loved but now dislike - Phil's #3 - Liz Phair got off to a strong start, disappointed afterward - Jay's #3 - Huge artist I enjoyed as a kid - Billy Joel stopped releasing new pop music in the '90s - Phil's #2 - Love his first band, hate the solo stuff - Sting's elevated the art of pretentious douchiness - Jay's #2 - It's trendy to hate this band now - Used to dig the Eagles - Henley's personality turned me off the band - Phil's #1 - Coldplay lost their way - Jay's #1 - Red Hot Chili Peppers haven't aged well - Liked them in my 20s, "but now they're just stupid" - Bands you just stopped listening to - Phil's #3 - Lenny Kravitz got too slick and repetitive - Jay's #3 - Big fan of hard rock as a kid, but hair metal lost its appeal - Phil's #2 - Boston-area rock fans grew up on Aerosmith - After they

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the need for organization and tell old journalism stories. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Making a good first impression - Journalism: A good profession for social misfits - What to do when an ax-wielding maniac is on the loose - "Your internship could have kids" - Fun with newspaper interns - Person-on-the-street interviews were challenging - Expiration date for the newspaper biz - Writing on deadline helps with time management - Editors who can't write and vice versa - Being a supervisor - "Done is good."   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 the need for organization. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Always planning ahead to the next project - Happiness is an empty inbox - Jay: Preparing for a purge of office stuff - How much is too much work? - Matt doesn't need a calendar - Organization via Google Calendar - The art of the sticky note - Business is moving away from email - Working with people from across the globe - Matt: Don't know how I could do more - The newspaper life was a disorganized one - Working way too many hours for tiny salary - Learned how to write efficiently on deadline - 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.

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the need for organization. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Organization is important when you're juggling a lot of responsibilities - The challenge of working a full-time gig while also doing other jobs - Prioritizing by deadlines - Writing a book adds another big deadline - Finding time for other activities when you have kids - Doing plenty of unpaid work - Organized to a point - Sometimes the need for sleep takes over - Matt: Watching TV's too passive - "The People vs. OJ Simpson" was surprisingly good - Old-school Internet problems - Wasting time online - Cubicle life - 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 musi

Part 3 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's #3 - Magnetic Fields play every style of music on 69 Love Songs - Jay's #3 - Beck funks it up - Beck stopped experimenting years ago - Brian's #2 - Brian's favorite Pavement album, but not Jay's - Band was falling apart - Jay's #2 - Sloan's concept album...about themselves - Brian's #1 - Sigur Ros sing in an unidentified language - Loud, droning orchestral sound - Jay's #1 - Built to Spill released some epic guitar jams - Lamenting shows we missed - Jay: Learned about Built to Spill via Napster - Next up (in a few months): 1981   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 musi

Part 2 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's bubbling under picks: The Microphones, Tom Waits, Foo Fighters, Frank Black, The Roots, American Football - Jay: Sheila Divine, Wilco, Matthew Sweet, Guided by Voices, White Stripes, Ben Folds Five, Sebadoh - Wanted: A Bob Pollard curator - Brian's #5 - Matt Sharp goes for a bigger rock sound - Jay's #5 - The Lips go symphonic - Big change from early guitar-driven stuff - Brian's #4 - Wilco moves away from Americana sound - Jay's #4 - Frank Black keeps cranking out winners - Pixies are working on a new album - 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 bl

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