Completely Conspicuous 654: The Battle Rages On
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we wrap up the first round of a March Madness-style tournament featuring our favorite rock artists. Show notes: Finishing up the rest of round 1 Stevie Wonder vs. the Pretenders Talking Heads vs. U2 St. Vincent vs. Sonic Youth Elvis Costello vs. the Replacements R.E.M. vs. the Who Beck vs. Dire Straits Jimi Hendrix vs. Jason Isbell Dinosaur Jr. vs. Foo Fighters Drive-By Truckers vs. Tom Petty Pixies vs. Fleetwood Mac Neil Young vs. Sleater-Kinney Steely Dan vs. Husker Du Van Halen vs. Blondie White Stripes vs. the Beatles J. Geils...
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Completely Conspicuous 653: Smarch Madness
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we talk our way through a March Madness-style tournament of our favorite rock artists. Show notes: We left out artists that we both didn't like: Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, Phish, Iron Maiden Also had to leave off a number of artists just for space considerations: Ramones, AC/DC, Feelies, Breeders, Camper Van Beethoven, etc. Some tough matchups in round 1 with randomized seeding The Smiths vs. PJ Harvey Spoon vs. Courtney Barnett Led Zeppelin vs. Bob Dylan The Cure vs. Prince Elton John vs. James Brown...
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Completely Conspicuous 652: From Bad to Worse
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about bad songs from good artists. Show notes: Songs we hate by artists we love Phil's #6: U2 makes a misstep Bono's talking tough Jay's #6: A #1 hit from Cheap Trick featuring outside songwriters The power ballad became huge for hard rock bands Phil's #5: AC/DC hits it big after losing their singer Jay's #5: When the biggest band tries to get weird Phil's #4: When GNR decided to cover Dylan They had lots of bad covers Jay's #4: When Aerosmith hit #1 with a soundtrack ballad Late-period Aerosmith is tough to take Phil's #3: The Smiths...
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Completely Conspicuous 651: That's Right, We Bad
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about bad songs from good artists. Show notes: Songs we hate by artists we love Jay: Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" is so whiny it turned me off the band for a few years Songs you hate vs. songs you're sick of hearing Phil: Nirvana had some dumb songs Phil's dishonorable mentions: Songs from Bowie and Jagger, Beck, XTC, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, the Cars, Bob Seger Phil bashes the Brits Jay's dishonorable mentions: Songs by Soundgarden, Van Hagar, Rush, U2, Lou Reed Sammy Hagar's lyrics are...something Phil's #10: One of...
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Completely Conspicuous 650: Rip This Joint
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite concerts. Show notes: Our top 10 concerts in no particular order Phil: Banged up and seeing his first Dead show in Foxborough in 1989 The show is popular with Dead fans Jay: Caught Mike Watt backed by the Foo Fighters in their first Boston appearance in '95 Phil: 12 days after that Dead show, saw the Who at the same venue A 3-hour show for the 20th anniversary of Tommy Jay: The one area appearance by Them Crooked Vultures in '09 Supergroup with Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones Phil: McCartney at Sullivan Stadium...
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Completely Conspicuous 649: Live Without a Net
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite concerts. Show notes: Cold weather running tips What makes a great concert? Small shows vs. stadiums Hard to pare down the list Limited to one show per artist Good idea for a sequel involving a time machine Phil leaned toward larger shows Didn't include: R.E.M., the Cure, Sleater-Kinney, Drive-By Truckers, Tedeschi Trucks Band Jay: Prefer the intimacy of club shows We were at the same shows before we knew each other Phil: First concert was Van Halen in 1986 Setlist.fm is a great resource MTV's Saturday Night...
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Completely Conspicuous 648: That Was the Year That Was
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2024. Show notes: Our top 10 albums of the year Shout out to Rock P's top 20 out of 10 countdown JB's #10: Triple album tribute album for Jesse Malin, an underrated songwriter JK's #10: J Mascis incorporates hot guitar solos into a mostly acoustic album JB's #9: Hot collection of bangers from Cloud Nothings JK's #9: Farewell set from Toronto noise rockers METZ JK's #8: Angry breakup album from Fake Fruit Coming up on the 5th birthday of Parcheesi Redux radio, SITG hit 11 this fall JB's #7: Retro '60s sounds...
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Completely Conspicuous 647: Quality Pints
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2024. Show notes: The 16th annual year in review First one was in 2009 Cybertrucks are dumb Self-driving cars are also dumb Taylor Swift just ended a monster tour Music is a dead-end business for most Spotify sucks Country music is huge Breitling: There are some good underground country artists A good year for Tracy Chapman Social media landscape is shifting Lots of big music deaths: Quincy Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Albini, Paul Di'Anno, Greg Kihn, Karl Wallinger Getting out to some rock shows:...
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Completely Conspicuous 646: Don't Speak
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite instrumentals. Show notes: Phil's #8: A jazz-funk classic out of Scotland? Jay's #8: Powerful surf rock from the Pixies Phil's #7: The Commodores with an early funk workout Jay's #7: Dick Dale hit that was revived decades later in Pulp Fiction Song originated in the 1920s Phil's #6: Instrumental from Phish that evolved in the live setting Jay's #6: A sweeping song from Bowie's Berlin period Bowie switched genres and sounds with ease Phil's #5 and Jay's #3: A revolutionary moment for guitar heroics Edward Van...
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Completely Conspicuous 645: Wordless Chorus
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite instrumentals. Show notes: We're feeling goooood. What makes a good instrumental? Jay: I like the musicians in Red Hot Chili Peppers Not as many instrumentals made now as there used to be No jazz instrumentals included in our lists Phil's bubbling under picks: Booker T and the MGs, Bar-Kays, Meters, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, U2, Rush, Dick Dale, Beatles, Boston, TSOP, Bowie, Pink Floyd Jay's non-top 10 picks: Rush, Van Halen, Focus, ELO, Pink Floyd, the...
info_outlinePart 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we discuss our favorite music of 2023.
Show notes:
- We're in there like swimwear
- On to the top 10 lists
- Breitling's #10: Return to from by Fog Lake
- Breitling's #9: Frog's new release unexpectedly has received critical praise
- Kumar's #9: Another consistenly great album from Protomartyr
- Breitling's #8: Minimalist excellence from Colleen that tests Jay's French pronunciation skills
- Kumar's #8: After an 11-year absence, the Hives' formula de rock still kicks ass in 2023
- Breitling's #7 and Kumar's #10: Yo La Tengo still bringing the heat, opening the album with 7-minute feedback-laden ripper
- Kumar's #7 and Breitling's #6: Supergroup is actually super, Voltroning into a monster act
- Kumar's #6: Return of the rock with Queens of the Stone Age, chock full o' bangers from a super-tight band
- Breitling's #5: Philly represent with Golden Apples dropping indie pop/rock with the fuzz bass and some wooder ice
- Kumar's #5: SF's Pardoner brings an assortment of guitar sounds from the last 50 years to their latest slack masterpiece
- The '90s sound (and look) is still thriving
- Breitling's #4: More of the Philly goodness with Purling Hiss with the lo-fi hooky guitar rock
- Kumar's #4: Indie power-pop supergroup Eyelids delivers the super-catchy goods
- Breilting's #3: Bay Area shoegaze concern Blue Ocean returns with a weird and rewarding album
- Kumar's #3: Sharp, concise indie post-punk from Kansas-via-Boston act Sweeping Promises
- Breitling's #2: Ohio-based indie act Connections connects with melodic rockers; RIYL GBV, Feelies
- Kumar's #2: New Zealand post-punk that smashes through with punchy, catchy rippers
- Breitling's #1: Long-awaited reunion album from American shoegaze icons Drop Nineteens does not disappoint
- Kumar's #1: Going into Hellmode with Jeff Rosenstock, who has been consistently releasing excellent albums for the last several years; additional layers of maturity and depth make this release all the more satisfying
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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.