Completely Conspicuous 666: Playing Favorites
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs by randomly selected artists. Show notes: More of our favorites from artists picked out of a hat Phil: Pretenders Overcoming the deaths of half the band Jay: James Brown Love the '70s funk era Prince was able to replicate JB's dance moves in concert Phil: Parquet Courts Built a great catalog over the last 13 years or so Influenced by the late '70s NYC CBGB sound Jay: Beatles How do you pick a single Beatles song? Phil: Sleater-Kinney Powerful band Janet Weiss is a powerhouse drummer Jay: Led Zeppelin Favorite song...
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Completely Conspicuous 665: Choose Your Fighter
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs by randomly selected artists. Show notes: Phil's idea: Blind rankings We each pick 10 artist names out of a hat and name a favorite song for each Phil picks names from N-Z, Jay gets A-M No prep time for our answers Phil: Velvet Underground Plenty to choose from Trying not to choose popular songs Jay: B-52s They made the "no play list" at Jay's wedding Great catalog of bangers Phil: Talking Heads Band had different phases Mixed Afro rhythms, funk and skronky guitar from Adrian Belew New David Byrne album is good...
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Completely Conspicuous 664: Time Stand Still
Completely Conspicuous
This week, I'm joined by fellow podcast pioneer Brian Salvatore as we discuss the first 20 years of podcasting. Show notes: Brian: First heard about podcasts in 2004 Started making the FrankBlack.net Podcast in 2006 Jay: Got my first iPod in 2004 and then learned about podcasts Brian: The internet was so much better 20 years ago Great for digging into niche interests Jay and Brian met through the Frank Black podcast in 2010 and realized that Brian lived near Jay's brother-in-law Jay: The start of CompCon in 2006 Always loved radio but never worked at the college station First few years...
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Completely Conspicuous 663: Shadow Dancing
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about songs we hate to love. Show notes: Our top 10 songs we hate to love in no particular order Phil: A song from the infamous Great White One of the many bands who tried to sound like Zeppelin Jay: Rupert Holmes somehow got cheesier than the "Pina Colada Song" Classic AM gold shizz Phil: A big hit for the Carpenters Originally written for a bank commercial Jay: Monster disco one-hit wonder from Patrick Hernandez Phil: Britney with an earworm Jay: Raspy pop smash from Kim Carnes Crossed over to MOR stations that our parents listened to...
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Completely Conspicuous 662: Songs We Hate to Love
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about songs we hate to love. Show notes: Surprised at how good the Who were in concert despite their advanced age Songs we hate to love, not necessarily guilty pleasures Things we were embarrassed to say we liked when we were in school Most of our picks were from when we were kids Jay: I liked hard rock and metal and would never admit I liked poppier stuff like Duran Duran Jay: In doing research, I discovered there was a "rock" version of the Lord's Prayer that was a minor hit in 1973 Phil: ABBA wrote some pop classics When REO...
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Completely Conspicuous 661: Shakin' All Over
Completely Conspicuous
Part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about concerts we'd like to go back in time to see. Show notes: Jay: Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour in 1973 Never saw Bowie Phil: Grateful Dead's famous Cornell show 5/8/77 The Holy Grail for Deadheads Jay: Canadian art rock weirdos Max Webster in southern Ontario 8/9/79 Band split up in 1981 as singer-guitarist Kim Mitchell went solo Opened for Rush in the U.S. in the mid- to late '70s Phil: The Stones at the Boston Garden, 1972 Jagger and Richards were arrested in Providence and Boston mayor bailed them out in time for the Garden...
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Completely Conspicuous 660: When Schlitz Rocked America
Completely Conspicuous
Celebrating 19 years of podcasting with part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about concerts we'd like to go back in time to see. Show notes: On to our top 10 shows Phil's are in chronological order, Jay's in no particular order Phil: Neil Young and Pearl Jam on their short Euro tour, 8/26/95 in Dublin PJ standing in for Crazy Horse The Velvet Sundown, lame AI band Jay: The Clash from June 1980 at Hammersmith Palais 31 songs from throughout their career The Clash opened for the Who on the Schlitz Rocks America tour Apparently Schlitz was once a big name in beer Phil: Stevie...
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Completely Conspicuous 659: Journey Through the Past
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about concerts we'd like to go back in time to see. Show notes: We're taking advantage of time machine technology That time Zebra opened for their own Zep cover band We're listing specific shows So many great artists to choose from YouTube makes it easier to see a lot of shows you missed Honorable mentions Jay: Surprise show by the Stones at a small Toronto club in '77 Two shows were turned into a live album decades later Phil: Bob Marley and the Wailers in London, Monterey Pop, Bowie on Diamond Dogs tour, Sleater-Kinney in Berkeley,...
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Completely Conspicuous 658: Hits to the Dome
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2025 so far. Show notes: Counting down our favorite albums Breitling's #6: Dan Bejar with another well-done Destroyer album "Slacker Sinatra" singing about aging Kumar's #6: Striking solo effort from Tunde Adebimpe Breitling's #5: Shoegaze goodness from NJ's High Kumar's #5: Dax Riggs with fuzz-laden goth grunge Breitling's #4: Digging the Estonian dream pop from mariin k. Kumar's #3: Impressive 15th solo album from Bob Mould plays to his strengths Still kicking ass into his mid-60s Breitling's #3: Boston trio...
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Completely Conspicuous 657: Charts Schmarts
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2025 so far. Show notes: Drinking some Italian beer Rock is dead commercially Billboard album chart contains nearly no rock Fleetwood Mac's Rumours still riding high for some reason Festival cancellations: Bonnaroo, Boston Calling next year, Lollapalooza Too many festivals, high ticket prices Black Sabbath farewell show Lots of big rock deaths: Brian Wilson, Sly Stone, David Johansen, Marianne Faithfull, etc. We saw Hallelujah the Hills recently and it was glorious Kumar saw some shows: Frank Black,...
info_outlinePart 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2024 so far.
Show notes:
- Crazy stuff going right as we started recording
- Concert tours getting canceled because of poor ticket sales (Black Keys, JLo)
- The phenomenon of Taylor Swift
- Vinyl is selling well, but half the people who buy it don't own a record player
- Another factor in the concert business struggles is the high price of tickets
- Apparently Gen Z loves dream pop
- Spotify accuses Hallelujah the Hills of gaming the system
- The Legend of Doo Doo Brown
- JB's honorable mentions: The Bret Tobias Set, Bug Club, Fontaines D.C., Ducks Ltd., Bedbug, Umbrellas, Torrey, Waxahatchee, Shellac, Buffalo Tom, Les Savy Fav, Pedro the Lion
- JK's honorable mentions: Cloud Nothings, Boeckner, Redd Kross, Mdou Moctar, IDLES, Plus/Minus, Bodega, Kim Gordon, DIIV
- JK's #10: Mary Timony's first solo album in 19 years
- JB's #9: Dope Yeti is the nexus of Beck, Dylan and GBV
- JK's #9: A quieter, more Americana-focused album from Buffalo Tom
- JB's #8: Strong modern shoegaze release from DIIV
- JK's #8: Second album from the Smile is an acceptable Radiohead substitute
- JB's #7: Cloud Nothings keep cranking out great albums
- To be continued
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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.