Completely Conspicuous 667: Everything In Its Right Place
Release Date: 12/02/2025
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...
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Completely Conspicuous 669: Fight the Good Fight
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2025. Show notes: The 17th annual year in music review AI-generated music is lame Especially fake music that purports to be by real artists Spotify is a juggernaut that still sucks Checking out other services (Qobuz, Amazon) You don't get to own downloads via streaming services The kids love the K-pop Only a handful of artists make any money these days Oh yay, LIve Nation is going to get richer Ticketmaster is now a ticket reseller as well We're still seeing the live rock Breitling: Thumbs up for the Aimee...
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Completely Conspicuous 668: Hate to Say I Told You So
Completely Conspicuous
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs released in the 21st century. Show notes: Phil's #6: Frenetic assault from Parquet Courts Definite late '70s post-punk influences Jay's #6: A bold move into electronic sounds by Radiohead Phil still doesn't get Radiohead Phil's #5: Slacker guitar hero vibes from Kurt Vile Stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach Jay's #5: Garage rock anthem that introduced the Hives to the world Punchy and super catchy, it took two years to hit in the U.S. The battle for car music supremacy Phil's #4: New Orleans vibe from...
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Completely Conspicuous 667: Everything In Its Right Place
Completely Conspicuous
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs released in the 21st century. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as"). Show notes: We're a quarter through this century Phil: Thought this would be easy but came up with a long list What about a song grabs you? Jay: Original top 10 list was all songs from the 00s Songs that didn't make our top 10 Phil: Tribe Called Quest, Vampire Weekend, Meatbodies, Wilco, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, TV On the Radio, Wet Leg, Franz Ferdinand, Michael Kiwanuka, MJ Lenderman, U2, Frances...
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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...
info_outlinePart 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs released in the 21st century. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
- We're a quarter through this century
- Phil: Thought this would be easy but came up with a long list
- What about a song grabs you?
- Jay: Original top 10 list was all songs from the 00s
- Songs that didn't make our top 10
- Phil: Tribe Called Quest, Vampire Weekend, Meatbodies, Wilco, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, TV On the Radio, Wet Leg, Franz Ferdinand, Michael Kiwanuka, MJ Lenderman, U2, Frances Forever, Patrick Sweeney, Mudcrutch, Sufjan Stevens, Shearwater, Jason Isbell, Songs: Ohia
- Jay: Radiohead, Bowie, At the Drive-In, Drive-By Truckers, Sloan, Sleater-Kinney, Death from Above 1979, Jay-Z, Hold Steady, Gord Downie, Tragically Hip, Living Colour, Outkast, Wild Flag, White Stripes, PJ Harvey, Parquet Courts, Spoon, M.I.A., Kaiser Chiefs
- Jay: Found out about a lot of new music from MP3 blogs in the early 00s
- Phil's #10: Spoon breaks through
- Song was a cover of a song by The Natural History
- Jay's #10: Last song from Bowie's iconic farewell album
- Love the album but it's hard to listen to because of the sadness
- Phil's #9: Mournful ballad from Mark Lanegan
- Jay: My favorite Lanegan song
- Mixing bubblegum and chewing tobacco is a bad idea
- A duet with Chris Goss of Masters of Reality
- Jay's #9: A fiery hip hop blast from Run the Jewels and Zach de la Rocha
- Waiting for their next album; last one was in 2020
- Phil's #7: Bluegrass turn from Billy Strings
- Strings is winning over a lot of fans of other genres
- Phil's #8: Protest song from Drive-By Truckers
- Band chronicles a lot of real-life injustices
- Jay's #8: Angry ripper from Superchunk
- Commentary on the political climate of 2018
- Sometimes fans don't like the message
- Jay's #7: White Stripes hit the mainstream
- Took a year for their third album to become a hit
- To be continued
Completely Conspicuous is available through wherever you get 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.