Completely Conspicuous (completely conspicuous)

April 2024
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Tue, 29 September 2015

Completely Conspicuous 392: Reeling in the Years, 1994 (Part 1)

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1994.

Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Rooting for a Jays-Mets World Series

- Brian: 1994 was a big year for me

- Rock radio was all about the alternative

- Big year for Ace of Base with three songs in top 10 of '94

- Lots of pop and hip hop on singles chart

- Aerosmith's foray into downloadable music

- Took hours to download, no way to share it

- Pearl Jam vs. Ticketmaster didn't end well

- Corporate-owned venues are everywhere now

- Woodstock '94 was full of mud

- Sheryl Crow and Jackyl played on the same stage

- Cobain's unsurprising fate

- Brian: Was obsessed with music in '94

- Soundtracks were a big deal: Pulp Fiction, The Crow, Reality Bites

- Older alternative acts turned up the guitars: R.E.M., Meat Puppets

- Bands formed in '94 that loomed large a few years later: Creed, Limp Bizkit, Hoobastank, Maroon 5

- Eagles returned with Hell Freezes Over tour and introduced $100 tickets

- Page and Plant reunited without John Paul Jones

- Mark Lanegan's interesting solo work

- Elvis Costello released a rock record

- Rollins Band scored an unlikely hit

- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Direct download: CompCon_392_092915.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 5:56pm EDT

Tue, 22 September 2015

Completely Conspicuous 391: I'm the Man

Quick hit episode this week as I discuss the power of a song.

Show notes:

- In 1979, I listened to Toronto's CHUM-AM all the time

- Used to collect the Top 30 singles chart every Friday

- A song that captured my imagination was Joe Jackson's "I'm the Man"

- The clock radio was important

- Couldn't get enough of "I'm the Man"

- Still powerful after all these years

- Jackson's best work was in the late '70s/early '80s

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Direct download: CompCon_391_092215.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 6:01pm EDT

Tue, 1 September 2015

Completely Conspicuous 390: The Great Escape

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Ric Dube as we discuss vacations.

Show notes:

- Recorded at More Lost Time world HQ

- Check out our web series Trust Fund Challenge

- Vancouver is a great destination

- Trouble at the border

- Someday, Jay will visit India again

- A co-worker's move to France

- Ric's vacation movie marathon

- Dick Clark's role in Killers Three

- Ric has beef with Christopher Nolan movies

- Medical emergencies

- Black Christmas is a Canuck horror classic from the director of Porky's

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

Direct download: CompCon_390_090115.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 6:50pm EDT

Tue, 25 August 2015

Completely Conspicuous 389: Holiday Road

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Ric Dube as we discuss vacations.

Show notes:

- Recorded at More Lost Time world HQ

- Check out our web series Trust Fund Challenge

- A reboot/remake/sequel to National Lampoon's Vacation is out

- The first Vacation movie still holds up

- Based on a National Lampoon novella

- Both of our families went to Disney World in the '70s

- Family vacations can either be packed with activities or relaxing

- Jay: Just went to Disney with two other families

- Ric: We rent a vacation home in Maine every summer with inlaws

- Jay: We vary vacations each year; might go to Europe in a few years

- Doing work while on vacation sucks

- Ric: We were an hour away from everything

- Ric's dad takes on a ropes course

- Going out West

- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

Direct download: CompCon_389_082515.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 8:03pm EDT

Wed, 19 August 2015

Completely Conspicuous 388: Your Attention, Please

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the art of hype.

Show notes:

- Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3

- Patreon is a crowdfunding option

- The patronage model

- Kickstarter, Indie GoGo efforts are commonplace

- Matt loves board games

- Contributing to podcasts and radio shows

- Matt's research on dino romance novels

- A Gronk to Remember was a big-selling e-book

- Matt: "People are hot for were-critters"

- Readers like series and formulas

- John Irving always writes the last line first

- Matt: Want to interact with more people to hype books

- The problem with contests

- The vagaries of web traffic

- Nine years, man

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

Direct download: CompCon_388_081915.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 8:47pm EDT

Wed, 12 August 2015

Completely Conspicuous 387: The Hype Machine

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the art of hype.

Show notes:

- Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3

- Avoiding overhype

- Getting RTs from celebrities

- Sometimes it feels like there's no benefit to Internet hype

- Getting bummed out to write sad scenes

- Cosplayers are having a moment

- Day jobs are a must, unfortunately

- Tagging somebody famous can work from time to time

- YouTube "stars"

- Spider-man with no butt

- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

Direct download: CompCon_387_081115.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 4:59pm EDT

Wed, 5 August 2015

Completely Conspicuous 386: Hustle n' Hype

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the art of hype and celebrate CompCon's 9th anniversary.

Show notes:

- Pre-order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3

- When your medical professional is younger than you

- It's all about the hype

- Matt was at Boston ComiCon last weekend

- How to effectively hype your stuff online

- Perfecting the pitch

- Geeking out like a fanboy

- Books sell better when you meet people face to face

- One of a handful of authors

- Writing is fun, editing sucks

- Gotta hustle to sell books

- To hype without hyping

- Matt live-tweets superhero shows

- Making friends with people you've never met

- Women 18-40 are Matt's target audience

- Ensemble cast

- Harley the cat wants in

- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

Direct download: CompCon_386_080515.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 9:13pm EDT

Tue, 28 July 2015

Completely Conspicuous 385: Reeling in the Years, 1997 (Part 3)

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1997.

Show notes:

- Jay and Brian's #4

- Pavement continues a strong run of records

- Brian's coffee shop

- Jay's #3

- Ben Folds Five breaks through

- Brian's #3 to be discussed later

- Jay's #2

- Built to Spill's guitar pop excellence

- Brian's #2

- Foo Fighters' sophomore album is chock full o' good songs

- Backbeat soundtrack is great

- Jay gets confused

- Jay's #1 and Brian's #3

- Radiohead steps up their game

- Brian's #1

- Ween shows off its chops on The Mollusk

- Next up: 1994

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

Direct download: CompCon_385_072815.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 8:59pm EDT

Tue, 21 July 2015

Completely Conspicuous 384: Reeling in the Years, 1997 (Part 2)

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1997.

Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Bubbling under albums

- Brian: Flaming Lips' Zaireeka was designed to have its 4 CDs listened to simultaneously

- Sweet 75 was Krist Novoselic's side project

- Brian gives thumbs down to Eyes Adrift, which had a song about Jonbenet Ramsey

- Jay: Totally missed Superchunk's Indoor Living at the time

- Different sounds from Cornershop, Portishead

- Return to form for Cheap Trick

- Brian: Aerosmith's Nine Lives had a few good songs

- Brian: Deftones were the most interesting of the metal acts

- McCartney's Flaming Pie is one of his last great albums

- Jay: Decent but not great albums from Matthew Sweet, Rollins Band, Dino Jr.

- GBV's Mag Earwhig was a strong release

- BS: Dylan's current comeback started with Time Out of Mind

- To a certain generation, pop punk is classic rock

- Sleater-Kinney hasn't made a bad album

- Jay's #5 will come up later

- Brian's #5

- Primus has more of a straight-ahead rock sound on The Brown Album

- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

Direct download: CompCon_384_072115.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 8:07pm EDT

Tue, 14 July 2015

Completely Conspicuous 383: Reeling in the Years, 1997 (Part 1)

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1997.

Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- 1997 was first year Brian was aware of popular and cool music

- Brian was 15, Jay was 29-30

- Both of us had our first dates with our future wives in '97

- Some quintessential '90s hits: Mmm Bop, Wannabe, I Believe I Can Fly

- Jay: Saw a lot of great shows that year

- Big year for chick rock

- Brian: Spawn soundtrack combined hard rock with trip hop

- Industrial/electronic music became prominent

- Bowie's 50th birthday concert

- Tail end of swing music era

- Ska-rock was hot

- Rap rock was taking root

- Adult alternative radio format was big

- Green Day's "Good Riddance" blew up

- Brian defends Third Eye Blind

- Big deaths: Hutchence, Jeff Buckley, Tim Taylor of Brainiac, Notorious B.I.G., John Denver

- Chris Farley died

- Rainbow broke up in '97

- To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

Direct download: CompCon_383_071415.mp3
Category:Completely Conspicuous -- posted at: 9:09pm EDT