Completely Conspicuous

Part 2 of my conversation with special guests Nick Lorenzen and Mike Piantigini as we discuss the death of rock radio. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from The Henry Clay People, Archers of Loaf, Codeine and Los Campesinos. Show notes: - Radio now competes with iPods, digital radio, Spotify - The anticipation factor with new music is gone - Cell phone video has changed the live experience - Music has become background noise - We don't pay attention as closely to new music - As people get older, some lose that connection to music - Mike: Music education came from hanging out at college radio station - Remembering the old Boston rock station WCOZ - In praise of WFMU - Nick: Listened to a lot of classic rock on stations like WAAF - Satellite radio is a factor - Jay: First listened to CHUM-AM in Toronto, then got into the FM rock stations - Canadian Content Rule was in effect: Lots of April Wine, Chilliwack, Triumph - Nick and Mike played in the great rock band Lump - College radio is

Part 1 of my conversation with special guests Nick Lorenzen and Mike Piantigini as we discuss the death of rock radio. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Bob Mould, Hallelujah the Hills, Zeus and The White Stripes. Show notes: - Boston alternative rock station WFNX was sold to Clear Channel recently - Rock radio has been on life support for quite some time - Too much radio programming and formats - WFNX was pioneer of the alternative format - Nick: Knew of WFNX more by reputation as a kid - Mike: College radio introduced me to a world beyond classic rock and metal - Jay: R.E.M. and U2 were first so-called alternative bands I got into - WBCN was revolutionary back in late '60s and '70s, playing free-form rock - Eventually became formatted like all the rest - WBCN switched to alternative format in mid-'90s to compete with FNX - Eventually, BCN went to more talk: Stern, Opie & Anthony - FNX went downhill for a while with nu metal - Nick: FNX had rebounded in last few years - We

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Adam Tinkoff as we discuss diet and exercise. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from The Afghan Whigs, The Alabama Shakes, Sunny Ali and the Kid, and Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Adam's new show Zen@10 and also the Slow Runners Club - Adam: Think before you eat - Jay: Hot dogs gross me out - Food processing is a nasty business - Keep track of what you eat for 30 days - Mix up your workouts - Adam: Latin dancing is a great workout - Adam's a "carousel of crazy" - He did Internet broadcasting in 2000 before podcasting was created - Taking a break from Slow Runners Club podcast because of busy schedules - Kicked off 2012 Spring Clean Reboot - Group effort to eat better - First week is easy, but after that it's tough to sustain - We need to make it easy for people to exercise - Much has changed in the last 20 years - Harder to lose weight as you get older - Body mass index (BMI) is us

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Adam Tinkoff as we discuss fitness. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Young Adults, Guided By Voices, The Riverboat Gamblers and Beck. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Adam's new show Zen@10 and also the Slow Runners Club - Talking a little rock: Against Me singer switching genders - Are Bowie Bonds worth anything? - Adam's mulling a trip to Bonnaroo - We both met Trey from Phish at different points - Frank Zappa's influence on modern music - Adam doesn't buy the new CDC obesity report - More folks are becoming long-distance runners getting into fitness - People need to make better dietary choices - Bigger problem is inactivity of people on Facebook - Adam: Was seriously into martial arts, then focused on fatherhood in his 30s - Now back into fitness - Adam was a podcasting pioneer, talking about weight loss and fitness - Drinking alcohol can affect how much nutrition your body gets from food - Formaldehyde: Your last drink

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Ben Amirault as we discuss the growth of craft beer. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Mission of Burma, Father John Misty, Hallelujah the Hills and The Men. Show notes: - Check out Ben's beer blog The Church Key - Dogfish Head has branched out with TV show, limited edition beers - Northeast has many great brewers: Magic Hat, Smuttynose, Baxter, Long Trail - "Ice beer" was, and still is, a thing - Regional pockets of great craft beer throughout the U.S. - Some of beers can overdo it with the accents (fruit, pumpkin, caramel, chocolate, coffee, etc.) - Jay: Not big into pairing certain beers with certain types of food - Canadians will drink Bud or Coors because it's so light - Ben: Hard to keep up with all the new brewers - Recent trend is putting craft beer in cans - Some brewers won't do it, but many are: Sierra Nevada, Harpoon, Oskar Blues, Baxter - Great packaging can get you to try a beer - The bomber is a great way to check out a ne

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Ben Amiraujlt as we discuss the growth of craft beer . I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from the Ty Segall Band, Ceremony, Grinderman and Brainiac. Show notes: - Check out Ben's beer blog The Church Key - Many parallels between craft beer world and punk rock - Ben reviews beers on his blog - When will someone invent digitized beer? - Craft beer first boomed in the '90s - Plenty of great small breweries popping up now - Session beer is catching on thanks to Notch - There's a lot of high-alcohol beers now - Ben's gearing up for American Craft Beer Fest in Boston - Social media is raising awareness of craft beer - Local specialty stores hold regular beer tastings - Summer beer is out in April - Beer is economy-proof - Sam Adams has become almost synonymous with craft beer - Dogfish Head has made a big splash in last few years - Comparing Sam Adams to Green Day - Old-school brewers are trying new things: Guinness, Bud, Newcastle - Going on a Gui

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the evolution of profanity. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Japandroids, Cloud Nothings, Ceremony and Yukon Blonde. Show notes: - Mother jokes led to popularity of "m-f'er" - Eddie Murphy's Comedian album introduced a whole new world of profanity - Most words have lost shock value - Little girl swearing in "Kick Ass" was shocking - We had more freedom as kids, but kids can access so much more now - Still isn't cool to randomly drop f-bombs in public - Matt: Won't call a female a bitch - Becoming more sensitive about calling your friends gay - Hollywood has become introduced to foul-mouthed Boston Irish characters - Swear words we won't say anymore - Songs with profanity are becoming more commonplace - Comedians have always pushed the boundaries - The Simpsons were once the paragon of rudeness - Violence on TV is no problem, but sex and some profanity is still banned - Cell phones have taken over people's lives

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the evolution of profanity. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Deer Tick, The Rationales, Wintersleep and Torche. Show notes: - George Carlin summed up the issue of profanity on TV quite nicely - NYPD Blue pushed the boundaries of what you could see on broadcast TV - As kids, we saw a lot of risque stuff on pay cable channels - Sitcoms have to make do with innuendo - Inadvertent f-bombs on awards shows - The "c-word" is offensive here, not so much overseas - The number of f-bombs factors into movie ratings - South Park loves to push network censors - Plot twists are more shocking than language - Tarantino edited the TV version of Pulp Fiction himself - The comfort of casual profanity - Starting young - Controlling your language in polite society - To be continued - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:Deer Tick - Born at Zero The Rationales - Radio Wintersleep - Resuscitate Torche - Reverse Inverted Completely Conspicuous is

This week, I revisit an old mix tape I made many moons ago. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week. Show notes: - In episode 141, I discussed the early mix tapes I made as a kid - A few years ago, started writing about mix tapes in my blog - Looking back at Summer of Loud, a tape I recorded in '94 - Previous year was pretty rough, but things were looking up in '94 - Switched jobs and apartments at about the same time - 1994 was a good year for alt rock - I still listen to this mix from time to time - Bonehead of the Week 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; check out his site PodGeek.

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Jay Breitling as we discuss earworms. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Best Coast, The Dandy Warhols, OFF! and The Melvins. Show notes: - Recorded on St. Patrick's Day at Chez Breitling - Kids' music can implant evil melodies in your brain - Pop music is a good gateway for music fans - Hall and Oates wrote the catchiest damn songs - We are in the post-ironic age - Breitling buys a Daryl Hall song - Good rock showing up on late night talk shows - Parents' easy-listening music ends up living in your head: Neil Diamond, Sinatra, Neil Sedaka - Tracing the roots of Charlie Rich's hit "The Most Beautiful Girl" - Kumar: Supertramp's Breakfast in America lives on in my mind' - The Who's Face Dances was more like a Townshend solo album - Watching an awesome Mclusky video featuring cats - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:Best Coast - The Only Place The Dandy Warhols - Sad Vacation OFF! - King Kong Brigade The Melvins - The War on Wisdom Completely Conspicuo

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Jay Breitling as we discuss earworms. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Titus Andronicus, At the Drive-In, Sleater-Kinney and Spoon. Show notes: - Recorded on St. Patrick's Day at Chez Breitling - Not referring to Ceti eels from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Kumar: Recently haunted by crappy songs from Styx and Foreigner - The search for Early Dog - Breitling has memories of the ol' shower radio - Ronnie Montrose, R.I.P. - Chloe B. makes an appearance - Kumar: "Smoke on the Water" banishes most earworms - Sometimes earworms can be good - Advertising can create earworms by playing songs repeatedly - On Jon Papelbon's new entrance music for the Phillies - Kumar: Crappy soundtrack songs from the '80s return to haunt me - Scientific research on earworms - Rebecca Black's "Friday" - Keith Richards on business acumen - To be continued - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:Titus Andronicus - Upon Viewing Oregon's Landscape with the Flood of Detritus At th

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Ric Dube about bootlegs. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and live music from Fugazi, fIREHOSE and Warren Zevon. Show notes: - Check out Ric's latest project, Trademark of Quality - Bootlegs would get bootlegged - Plenty of boots of concerts from radio and TV broadcasts - When Napster emerged, bottom dropped out of bootleg market - U2's Achtung Baby demos were stolen, ended up on bootlegs - Ric has an early Men at Work bootleg, just because - The Legend of Norm De Plume - Pretenders bootleg has song from the Castaways at the end to fill space on the vinyl - Bands used to re-record tracks on their live albums in the '70s - Lots of good early Beck boots out there - Ric: Searching for a long lost Elvis Costello bootleg - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:Fugazi - Merchandise (live at Irving Plaza) fIREHOSE - For the Singer of REM (live at Ancienne Belgique) Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns and Money (live at The Record Plant) Completely Conspicuous is available through the

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Ric Dube as we discuss bootlegs. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and live music from Mission of Burma, The Minutemen and The Dirtbombs. Show notes: - Check out Ric's latest project, Trademark of Quality - Powered by BBQ - TMOQ doesn't have actual bootlegs, but features essays about them - Bootlegs comprise anything not released by a record company - Jay: Discovered bootlegs and imports in record stores in the '80s - Ric: First boot was a Springsteen live set from '81 - Jay: First boot was a Zeppelin live box set - Both sound terrible - Ric: Most bootlegs he owns are of The Replacements - A lot of originally bootlegged 'Mats B-sides have turned up on official reissues - Jay: Bought Prince's Black Album in late '80s from bootleg tape vendor at UNH - Ric made cassette sleeves in early '90s for bootlegs with manga images - Ric: Recorded bootlegs at live shows - Also sold VHS tapes - Jay: Had a list of bootlegs for sale in early '80s - Used to get bootlegs fro

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Mike Heyliger as we discuss the whole New York vs. Boston thing. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Torche, Brendan Benson, White Rabbits and Sun Kil Moon. Show notes: - Check out Mike's blog Popblerd - It's all about efficiency - NYC's got the advantage for things to do after 2 a.m. - Everything closes up early in Boston - Jay: Mid-week club shows are tough when you have kids - Green Day's ready for Vegas - Boston has a ton of great small rock clubs - NYC has a better assortment of R&B and hip hop shows - The undeniable greatness of The Roots - Duran Duran's long and winding career - Mike had the Duran Duran board game as a kid - Mike: Rudy Giuliani cleaned up NYC in early '90s - The Northeast has a certain intensity - Boston's a good place to live - Beer's a whole lot cheaper than in NYC bars - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:Torche - Kicking Brendan Benson - Bad For Me White Rabbits - Temporary Sun Kil Moon - Sunshine in Chicago Completely Cons

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Mike Heyliger as we discuss the transition of moving to the Boston area. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Gorillaz, Boots Electric, Andrew Bird and Mike Doughty. Show notes: - Check out Mike's blog Popblerd - Mike grew up in New York, moved to Boston in 2008 - Slow adjustment - Mike: Every time I go back, I like NY less - Slower pace in Boston, except for the drivers - Jay: Even slower pace in NH - Mike: Occasionally gets crap for wearing Yankees gear - Not a ton of diversity in Boston - Jay: Toronto is extremely diverse - Still plenty of racism to go around - The world's a lot different than it was 30 years ago - Mike: Boston music scene is better than NYC's - Good selection of clubs - Mike's broken $100 ticket barrier to see Prince, Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z/Kanye - To be continued - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:Gorillaz (feat. Andre 3000 and James Murphy) - DoYaThing Boots Electric - I Love You All the Thyme Andrew Bird - EyeonEye Mi

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss the new Van Halen album. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from The Hounds Below, Dinosaur Jr. and Black Mountain. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Jay: An impressive outing for a band at this stage - Not many bands have taken such a long break and returned strong - Mission of Burma and the Feelies are better than ever - Where does this rank in VH pantheon? - Jay: Ranks 7th after first six DLR albums, ahead of Hagar - Brian: Michael Anthony's harmonies are missed - Brian: VH should do a tour with Dave and Sammy - What would you pay $90 to see live? - Brian: McCartney's current band is excellent - Arena shows are quickly getting priced out of reach of much of public - Brian: Bob Mould noted particularly egregious lyrics on new VH single - Brian: Aerosmith is long overdue for a good album - Jay: Last good Aerosmith album was more than 20 years ago - Good run of Aerosmith albums in the '70s - Steven Tyler has become the d

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss the new Van Halen album, the band's first with David Lee Roth in almost 30 years. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Frank Black and the Catholics, Buffalo Tom and Hot Snakes. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Not interested in Grammy Awards - Gary Cherone was in band at its worst - Brian: Only VH album in his iTunes is VH III - Brian started listening to VH in early '90s - Always preferred DLR - Jay: First VH album was Diver Down on cassette - Diver Down was a cash-in album - Jay: Liked Hagar, but not as VH singer - Lyrical content not a big concern for VH - Brian: VH III was pretty stark - Eddie's synth phase was similar to what Rush did in the '80s - VH has always picked curious opening acts - Wolfgang is a decent bassist - Neither VH or DLR had done anything good for 20+ years - Jay: Eat 'Em and Smile was better than 5150 - Brian: First impression of new album was it sounds like DLR solo album - Jay: First sing

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Brad Searles as we discuss band reunions, among other rock topics. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Cloud Nothings, Joseph Arthur and The Cult. Show notes: - Check out Brad's excellent blog, Bradley's Almanac (http://www.bradleysalmanac.com/) - Recorded at the Sunset Grill in Allston, Mass. - Brad's bad memories of seeing Pixies open for U2 - Praise for Stewart Copeland - The massive influence of the Pixies - Brad: Recording at Fort Apache was daunting - Possible Stone Roses reunion in the works - Codeine's doing reunion shows and releasing box set - Chickfactor is bringing a bunch of bands back together: Lilys, Small Factory - Guided By Voices reunites classic lineup - The power of Janet Weiss - Great music blogs: Chromewaves, Clicky Clicky, Largehearted Boy - Brad recommends Soma.fm streaming radio - Brad does a DJ night with Jay Breitling at River Gods in Cambridge, Mass. - Making time to do things your way - A lot of blogs died after chasin