Completely Conspicuous

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

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.