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...
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Completely Conspicuous 672: Amazing Disgrace
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite underrated albums. Show notes: Jay's #6: The Spinanes with a decidedly not-grunge album on Sub Pop Female singer-songwriter teamed with kickass drummer Phil's #5: Power pop that never hit big from Boston's Gigolo Aunts Got a song on the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack Jay's #5: Another power pop gem from the Velvet Crush Saw them play in Austin in '94 Phil's #4: B-52s avoid the sophomore slump and getting labeled as a novelty act Didn't hit as hard as the debut, but strong nonetheless Jay's #4: Late '80s/early '90s...
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Completely Conspicuous 671: Welcome to the Boomtown
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite underrated albums. Show notes: First episode of the year! Recorded right after the gold medal men's hockey game What is underrated? A well-known artist's less popular release or lesser-known artists Phil: Neil Young has a few underrated albums among his vast catalog Other Phil honorable mentions: Big Star, Bob Mould, Best Coast, Kaiser Chiefs, Bettie Serveert, Built to Spill, Keith Richards, N. Mississippi All-Stars, Ben Folds Five, Until the End of the World soundtrack, Til Tuesday, Neko Case, Passengers, Big...
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Completely Conspicuous 670: Stacking the Deck
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2025. Show notes: Counting down the rest of our favorite albums of the year Kumar's #8: Indie rock godfather Bob Mould is still pissed off and rocking Mould has also reunited his '90s band Sugar Kumar's #7: Triumphant return for Mclusky Falco and crew having fun ripping on various targets Breitling's #6: Superchunk keeps going with new drummer If you thought they were angry in 2018... Chock full of "banglociraptors" Kumar's #6: Straight outta Asheville with Wednesday's killer combo of alt-country, shoegaze and...
info_outlineThis 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 were just me talking about pop culture
- Eventually started bringing on guests after a few years
- Podcasting got an early boost when Apple started a podcast directory
- Early podcasts I listened to were by Adam Curry, Ricky Gervais
- Marc Maron started his podcast in 2009 and is airing his last episode next week
- Now everybody's got a podcast
- Brian: Before podcasts, blogging was a thing
- Brian produces podcasts for other people in addition to his own
- Podcasting never became a career for us, just a hobby
- But some people have made lots of money from them
- Brian: Not much innovation in the podcast space lately
- Music podcasts were hampered by copyright issues
- Podcast networks started popping up
- Conan O'Brien created a great podcast after his TV talk show went away
- Podcasting is much more interesting than commercial radio these days
- Brian: Grew up loving radio, especially WFMU
- Jay: College radio is still good, but commercial radio blows
- DJs used to be dependable arbiters of taste
- Now everything's heavily formatted
- Jay: Been doing my own radio show on BFF.fm for the last 12 years
- Brian co-owns a sports podcast company
- People have trouble committing to a show once they start it
- Listening habits have changed
- Jay: Currently listen to WTF, The Best Show, sports shows about Toronto teams, The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers
- Brian: Election Profitmakers, Song Exploder, Never Not Funny, Conan, Indiecast, Who Cares About the Rock Hall?, Mets podcasts
- So much content to wade through
- Just like with music; it's much easier to release an album now but there's so much out there
- Tough to make it as a musician now
- Podcasts have gone beyond a niche thing
- Jay: I love listening to audio
- The value of playing songs people haven't heard a zillion times
- Every celebrity has a podcast
- Will podcasts go back to the indie days at some point?
- Jay: I do two podcasts for work
- The bubble will burst at some point
- AI could have a strange, negative effect
- Connections formed via podcasting
- Brian: Start a podcast, people
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.