Completely Conspicuous 682: (I'm) Stranded
Completely Conspicuous
Celebrating TWENTY YEARS of podcasting with part 1 of my conversation with Phil Stacey about choosing 10 artists to listen to for the rest of your life if you were stranded on a desert island. Show notes: Started this show in August 2006! Instead of Desert Island Discs, we each chose 10 artists that we'd be limited to hearing on a desert island Mixing up genres Jay: I ruled out a lot of classic rock acts that I've listened to all my life Limiting artists to music that came out under their name, not in other groups This magical island has killer WiFi Phil's honorable mentions: Bowie,...
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Completely Conspicuous 681: Quick and to the Pointless
Completely Conspicuous
Part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite American artists. Show notes: Our favorite American artists since 2000 Phil's honorable mentions: Black Keys, Dead & Co., Gary Clark Jr., Jack White, Kurt Vile, MJ Lenderman, My Morning Jacket, Parquet Courts, Raconteurs, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, St. Vincent, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Waxahatchee, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Jay's honorable mentions: Walkmen, Neko Case, LCD Soundsystem, At the Drive-In, Stephen Malkmus, Speedy Ortiz, Jeff Rosenstock, Protomartyr, Outkast, the Strokes, Interpol, Titus...
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Completely Conspicuous 680: Welcome to the Occupation
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite American artists. Show notes: Jay's take after seeing Goose Took us a while to get into the show Phil's #6: Phish took over the jam band crown from the Dead Jay briefly met Trey Anastasio at UNH before they got famous Goose hasn't been accepted by the entire jam band audience Jay's #6: Originally had Van Halen ranked higher, but dropped them because of the Hagar years Combined Eddie VH's revolutionary guitar work with DLR's showmanship Eddie inspired a generation of guitarists and Dave inspired a generation of hard...
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Completely Conspicuous 679: Yankee Rose
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite American artists. Show notes: Recorded in the CompCon HQ backyard studio America's 250th birthday Looking at our favorite American singers and bands, pre-2000 and post-2000 Starting off with our top 10 of bands who debuted pre-millennium Sticking to rock artists for the most part Phil's honorable mentions include: B-52s (toughest omission from top 10), Beach Boys, Beasties, Beck, JB, Cars, early Chicago, Doors, early Foos, Little Feat, Nirvana, Pixies, Linda Ronstadt, Seger, Sleater-Kinney, SRV, Stevie Wonder,...
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Completely Conspicuous 678: Knee Deep in the Hoopla
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we count down our favorite music of 2026 so far. Show notes: Breitling's #6: Kurt Vile's love letter to Philly KV writes songs about nothing and they're great Kumar's #6: Great album from Chicago's Ratboys Leading the wave of bands with sweet female vocals and rocking instrumentation Breitling's #5: 17-track compilation from the Laughing Chimes It's like a typewriter, retro and satisfying Kumar's #5: Hot indie rock from Philly's Gladie Led by former singer of Cayetana Breitling's #4: First new LP from Broken Social Scene in a decade...
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Completely Conspicuous 677: Time for a Slacker Revolution
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about the best music of 2026 so far. Show notes: AI music is apparently a thing on streaming services Saxophone Colossus, mfer (RIP) Blue dot syndrome: Tours getting canceled because of poor ticket sales Who woulda thunk Kiefer Sutherland couldn't sell out concerts? Many artists are trying to fill venues that are too big We're going to a lot of concerts Why is beer so expensive at music venues? What is a walking class? The Osbourne family has licensed an Ozzy hologram for use in ads ABBA does a hologram show of them in their prime Maybe older...
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Completely Conspicuous 676: Out There
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite guitar solos. Show notes: Continuing our top 10 Phil's #9: Trey Anastasio of Phish stretches out No studio version of the song Jay's #9: The concise awesomeness of Alex Lifeson A virtuoso in a band of virtuosos Phil's #8: Back to the jam with RIck Mitarotonda of Goose Another band that saves their best for the live setting Jay's #8: Another Matthew Sweet song, this time featuring Richard Lloyd on lead guitar Features a fake ending with even more soloing Phil's #7: Square dancing in gym class led Phil to this Beatles...
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Completely Conspicuous 675: Solo Flights
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss our favorite guitar solos. Show notes: Occasional chiming in from CC intern Lily Rolling Stone recently released a top 100 solos list Phil likes the long jammy solos Solos can go along with a riff or go off on crazy tangents Steely Dan used many guitarists Jay used to be into '80s speed guitar Vinnie Vincent went way over the top Charlie Sexton was a guitar prodigy who went on to play in Dylan's band The greatness of early Dire Straits Tough to narrow down our lists Appreciating Billy Idol Eagles bad, Joe Walsh good Terry Kath...
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Completely Conspicuous 674: You Can Leave Your Hat On
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we celebrate the return of the MLB season by counting down our favorite baseball hats. Show notes: On to our top 10 Phil's #10: Reaching back to the '50s with the Phillies Jay's #10: Mid-90s Mariners Good use of seafoam green '90s uniforms had a lot of bold colors: Teal, purple Phil's #9: The simplicity of the SF Giants hat Hat designs got pretty weird over the years Corduroy hats were a thing for a while Jay's #9: Classic A's green and yellow look Phil's #8: Dodgers' classic blue and white is another look that hasn't changed...
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Completely Conspicuous 673: A Tip of the Cap
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we celebrate the return of the MLB season by discussing our favorite baseball hats. Show notes: We've both purchased many hats over the years Back in the '70s and '80s, you didn't have a lot of viewing choices for baseball games Baseball cards were a big factor in figuring out the hats and logos you liked Hats can fade, especially the dark blue ones When you just can't wear a Yankees hat Now there are so many alternate jerseys, hats, logos You can get hats in different colors and styles Old guys like us don't like flat-bill caps Other...
info_outlinePart 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 Halen changed the game for rock guitar and hard rock
- Jay's #5: Hendrix blowing minds in the early morning hours at Woodstock
- Turning the national anthem into a protest song
- Phil's #4: Music mogul with a horn-driven dance song
- Sampled by Notorious B.I.G.
- Another horn-based song by Chuck Mangione went to #1 in '79
- Jay's #4: Iconic full-band instrumental off Zep II
- Killer riff combined with Bonham's monstrous drumming
- Phil's #3: Elton John with the first part of a two-part suite
- Metallica did a great cover earlier this year
- Phil's #2: Tedeschi-Trunks Band with extended instrumental from experimental project
- Jay's #2: Concise, virtuosic classic from Rush's best album
- Phil's #1: Iconic song released by the Allman Brothers Band after the death of their ace guitarist
- Dickey Betts played song with two fingers as a tribute to Django Reinhardt
- Jay's #1 and Phil's #10: Epic, emotional guitar piece by Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
- J Mascis did a great cover on Mike Watt's 1995 solo album
Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!
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.