Tue, 27 December 2016
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite indie rock of 2016. Show notes: - We are not Moviefone - Rough year for musician deaths - Trump's top 3 albums - A return to protest music? - Clicky Clicky HQ is fully Alexa-ized - The kids love the vinyl (well, the hipsters do, anyway) - Albums are back, sort of - Crowdfunding albums is becoming more prevalent - Breitling's bubbling under albums: A Giant Dog, Thin Lips, Bent Shapes, Yr Poetry, Pinegrove, Horse Jumper of Love, Guillermo Sexo, California Snow Story - Kumar's: Used Cassettes, Savages, Dino Jr., Radiohead, Split Single, Preoccupations, Descendents, Johnny Foreigner, Terry Malts, Hallelujah the Hills, Kristin Hersh, I Don't Cares, Nick Cave, Gord Downie, PJ Harvey - Downie teamed with comics artist Jeff Lemire on combo album/graphic novel - Breitling's #10 - Cold Pumas back with a hot new release - Kumar's #10 - Possibly the last Tragically Hip album - Different sound courtesy of producers Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin - Breitling's #9 - Boston's Strange Passage reminds of early Ride - 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. |
Fri, 23 December 2016
Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1990. Show notes: - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - Jay's #3 album of 1990 - Public Enemy was controversial - Homophobia was pervasive back then, especially in hip hop - PE scared white America - Brian's #3 - They Might Be Giants was in the middle of a classic run of albums - Song-a-Day Hotline - Jay's #2 - After a decade of weirdness, Neil Young re-established himself as a rock icon - Took Sonic Youth and Social D on the road - Brian's #1 and Jay's #5 - Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly teamed up - Deal stepped out of Black Francis' shadow - Brian's #2 - Pixies release their surfiest album - When 3/4 of Pixies crossed paths with some interesting neighbors - Jay's #1 - Jane's Addiction's tour de force - Scored an accidental video and radio hit with "Been Caught Stealing" - Starts out fast and punchy, ends with side 2 of long, epic songs - Perry Farrell's transition from out-of-control rock freak to hippie uncle - One more year to go: 1991 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. |
Tue, 20 December 2016
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1990. Show notes: - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - Albums that just missed our top 5 of the year - Alice in Chains inspired a ton of copycat acts - World Party paid homage to many influences - Brian was a big Pantera fan in high school - Social Distortion's classic era - Living Colour came into their own with second album - Warren Zevon teamed up with the non-Stipe members of R.E.M. to do a covers album - Elektra comp Rubaiyat featured unlikely covers - Mark Lanegan's first solo album established his dark bluesy side - Ride was on the crest of the shoegaze wave - Brian's #5 - Ween established their eclectic reputation - The strange journey of Sim Cain - Jay's #4 - Fugazi at the peak of their powers - Brian's #4 - Primus at their least jokey - 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. |
Wed, 14 December 2016
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1990. Show notes: - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - Things are getting weird - The Decline of Western Civilization docs are fascinating - In 1990, Jay was 22-23 and Brian was 8 - The '90s were still kicking off - Pivotal events were still yet to happen - Stevie Ray Vaughan died young - 2 Live Crew came to prominence - Oh, Milli Vanilli - Disposable pop seemed to fade for a while - Hammer and Vanilla Ice - Madonna: Publicity generator - Metal was tailing off after a strong decade - Hip hop was getting stronger - New Jack Swing was the thing - Alternative rock was paving the way for Nirvana's breakthrough - Pop charts were topped by the likes of Wilson Phillips and Roxette - Sinead O' Connor's wild year - Bands formed: Bikini Kill, Cracker, Body Count, Spin Doctors - What about Tool? - Broke up: Death of Samantha, Game Theory, Starship - 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. |
Tue, 29 November 2016
Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the aftermath of the election. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4 - Keeping friends after the election - It's getting personal - The canary in the coal mine - Reading things that you know will annoy you - Forced lefty - Giving up on the presidency - Don't encourage the Kardashians - Romney's changed, man - Matt's next book is changing because of the election - Forget art forged from pain, we'll take mindless pop - Social media as free therapy - The Electoral College's relevance - Changing demographics
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. |
Tue, 22 November 2016
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the aftermath of the election. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4 - Jay: Not moving to Canada - None of those celebs is leaving the country - Enthusiastic votes for Trump - Parallels to Brexit - Plenty of protests when Obama was elected - Scandals didn't hurt Trump - Clinton was a very Republican-safe candidate - Covering politics for a newspaper can change you - When Matt was dissed by the new Lt. Gov. - Oh, Gary Hart - Politicians and sex - 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. |
Wed, 16 November 2016
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the aftermath of the election. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Like a Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4 - Thought this was going to be a very different show - Didn't expect a Trump victory - Social media was raw the day after the election - Family and friend disagreements - You can't change anybody's mind on social media - Friendships are ending over the election - Hiding or unfriending people - Plenty of blame to go around - People don't fact check things before passing them along - Thanksgiving could be disastrous this year - Many people may avoid it altogether - A whole group of people got left behind and Trump tapped into that - A deplorable soundbite - Promising everything - We're insulated in Massachusetts - Oh, Florida - Dealing with post-election feelings - Racist and dumb is quite the combination - 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. |
Tue, 8 November 2016
Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1985. Show notes: - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - Jay's #5 - Brian: "I'm a major label sellout guy" when it comes to R.E.M. - R.E.M. started getting rock radio airplay in '85 - When MTV News was a thing - The evolution of Stipe - Brian's #2 - The Pogues: A love 'em or hate 'em band - Shane McGowan has teeth now - Jay's #2 - Two great Husker Du albums in '85 - New Day Rising gets the edge over Flip Your Wig - Rock concert business was focused on arenas in '85 - Indie rock acts had to forge their own way - Brian's #1 and Jay's #5 - Camper Van Beethoven's interesting debut mixed a lot of styles - Jay forgot about the Replacements - Trouble Boys, the Replacements bio, is excellent - Mats reunion may not be over - Jay's #1 - Pete Townshend's last great work - Ambitious project about the London projects where he grew up - Since then, he's focused on Who tours and licensing - McCartney can't stop/won't stop - Next up: 1990 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. |
Tue, 1 November 2016
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1985. Show notes: - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - Bands that formed in '85: Bevis Frond, Big Dipper, Crowded House, Guns 'N Roses, Hootie and the Blowfish, Jane's Addiction, Radiohead - Bands that split up: Minutemen, Hanoi Rocks, Kajagoogoo - Brian's bubbling under albums: Prince, Minutemen, Jonathan Richman, Angst, Big Audio Dynamite - The importance of Mick Jones - Jay: Smiths, INXS, Cure, Dinosaur Jr., Rush, Jesus and Mary Chain - Brian's #5 - Beat Happening specialized in lo-fi pop - Brian's #4 - Not the best Talking Heads album, but a decent one - Jay's #4 - The Cult established their goth sound - 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. |
Tue, 25 October 2016
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1985. Show notes: - Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output - 1985: Jay graduated from high school, started college in the fall - Jay was 17 going on 18, Brian turned 3 - Jay: Listened to a lot of AOR, hard rock, metal - Started getting into U2 - The year of rock charity - Undercurrent of college rock - MTV was growing - Style over substance - Strange collection of songs on the Hot 100 - A lot of songs released in '84 carried over to '85 charts - Hard rock and metal albums were selling well: Ratt, Dokken, Twisted Sister - Indie rock's influence wouldn't be felt for a few more years - The launch of VH1 - PMRC hearings put spotlight on explicit lyrics - Warning labels had the opposite of intended effect - DLR left Van Halen in '85: Did he jump or was he pushed? - DLR's book is fascinating and insane - Rock bios are a mixed bag - 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. |