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 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 song
- George Harrison with a beautiful, heartfeld solo
- Great video, too
- Jay's #7: A ripping solo from J. Mascis from '93
- Video wasn't directed by Matt Dillon; he did the "Get Me" video
- Mascis has recorded a ton of great solos over the years
- Phil's #6: Eddie VH's magnum opus
- The instrumental that changed the face of hard rock
- Wasn't meant to be recorded at first
- Jay's #6: Less overplayed solo from Jimmy Page
- A lesser-known album from Zeppelin
- Phil's #5: Mick Taylor shines for the Stones
- The band started jamming at the end of the song and they kept recording
- Jay's #5: Robert Fripp with a ripper of a solo for Brian Eno
- Eno's first solo album after Roxy Music
- Phil's #4: The Allman Brothers' tribute to Django Reinhardt
- Three different solos
- Jay's #4: More Richard Lloyd along with Tom Verlaine on a 10-minute art-rock classic
- Kind of jam band adjacent
- Phil's #3: Neil Young with an epic love song
- Recording starts in the middle of a jam
- Jay's #3: Monster instrumental featuring Eddie Hazel's psychedelic playing
- Mike Watt does a cover with J. Mascis handling the guitar
- The interesting career of Prakash John
- Phil's #2 and Jay's #1: Hendrix blows minds with acid blues rock
- SRV does an incredible cover
- Jay's #2: Nasty riff and solo from Eddie VH
- One of Van Halen's darker songs
- Phil's #1: A Grateful Dead classic that highlights Jerry Garcia
- Cover of a Bonnie Dobson folk song
- Builds to a roaring crescendo
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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.