Mon, 17 December 2018
Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Featuring special guest/studio audience member Ric Dube - On to our top 5 selections - JK's #5 - An unexpectedly great album from a member of the Strokes - JB's #5 - Weird shoegaze straight outta Philly - JB's #4 - More excellent Philadelphia indie rock - JK's #3 - Angry, angular UK rock act that has listened to the Fall - JB's #3 - "I had difficulty finding fault with this record" - Esteemed YoLa-ologist in the house - YLT keeps doing its own thing - JK's #2 - Another fine double album from an interesting Toronto act - Where hardcore meets prog - Lots of guest vocalists - JB's #2 - Sweeping orchestral material, hot jams - Bands still make videos for some reason - Picking and choosing from the catalog - JK's #1 - A political record released early in the year that still resonates - Fiery live show to go with the album - Countering a master of distraction - The kids with the vaping and the pot smoking and the whatnot - It's a strange time to be alive - JB's #1 and JK's #4 - Bit of a grower - A darker, moodier album than her previous work - Terrific live performer - Dube: Became a fan by complete accident - Doobs recommends the Salad Boys - New stuff on the horizon: Bob Mould, Pedro the Lion, Mike Krol, Swervedriver, Telekinesis - Johnny Foreigner reunion seems unlikely 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Sat, 8 December 2018
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Featuring special guest/studio audience member Ric Dube - JB's #10/JK's #9 - On-again, off-again band led by Steve Hartlett - Ah, the old "sweatpants-with-beers-stuffed-down-the-legs" deal - Reminiscent of "Bug"-era Dino Jr. - JK's #10 - Labelmates of Parquet Courts with similar sound - The downside of "Music Limited" - JB's #9 - Boston act traffics in "millennial mopery" - Lo-fi, self-released effort - Stickin' it to the Man with his Bandcamp URL - JK's #8 - Released on 1/1/18 - Fueled by political frustration and anger - A "fun protest album" - JB's #8 - Brand new record from a UK supergroup - Long-awaited followup to 2007 debut - Rhythmically diverse look at British culture - Whither Gorillaz? - JK's #7 - The 12th studio album from power-pop masters - Four songwriters who each wrote three songs - Consistently great - The fun of hunting down B-sides and rarities before artists started releasing compilations/reissues - The ability to fall asleep on your feet while at a rock concert - JB's #7 - A good record from a guitar wizard - Less volume than his main gig - "Relatively understated throughout" - JK's #6 - An expansive effort from a prolific indie act - Branching out their sound with more danceable songs - Voicing political outrage - JB's #6 - Venturing into jazzier realms - Led by one of the more interesting guitarists of last 25 years - Avant-rock/jazz; "it's not like Kenny G" - Next: The top 5 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Tue, 4 December 2018
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Featuring special guest/studio audience member Ric Dube - The decline of rock's popularity - Album sales are way down - That time the Melvins hit the Top 200 albums chart - Apple's going to work with the Amazon Echo soon - Breitling pays for the Amazon Music "Talky Talky" - The youths don't pay for physical media anymore - Ric's family has Spotify, he has dedicated streaming of his own collection - Modern country is doing big business, relatively speaking - Pop music is doing well - Most rock acts make money through touring, not albums - The Stones are still touring - Mick and Keith were considered "old" in their mid-30s - Breitling: The year's music really picked up in the second half - New Mary Lattimore release is enjoyable - Ric: Enjoying Brian Eno's latest release, which is a $30 app - Kumar: Honorable mentions include Tony Molina, Slaves, Thin Lips, Arthur Buck, Buffalo Tom, Joyce Manor, Swearin, Stove, Screaming Females - Breitling: Master System, Palm, Superchunk, Frankie Cosmos, Kurt Vile - Next: We count down our top 10 albums 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Tue, 20 November 2018
I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's first official live album, Live/Dead. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Live/Dead was released in 1969 - There weren't a lot of live albums released then - The band did it as a make-good to the label after some poor-selling albums - Recorded at the Fillmore West - Songs evolved in live setting - At the time, it was unusual to play extended jams - Music fans really focused on albums back in the heyday of vinyl - The first thing you hear on the album is 23-minute "Dark Star" - Now for the tuning section - Phil: Have listened to 250-300 Dead bootlegs - Bootleg tape trading was huge in the '70s and '80s - Archive.org, Nugs.net have tons of Dead shows - On a lot of '70s-era live albums, bands went in and re-recorded songs or parts of songs - Some bands perfectly recreate their studio sound - "Death Don't Have No Mercy" is reminiscent of Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You" - When this album came out, FM radio was in a very experimental place - Some stations would play album sides or even entire records - "St. Stephen" is a standout - Jay: I've been impressed so far - Phil explains the Dead to his kids - Seeing a dude doing coke off his dashboard at a Dead show 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Mon, 12 November 2018
I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's third album, Aoxomoxoa. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Aoxomoxoa was released in 1969 - A big year for rock music - Tons of legendary albums came out: Zeppelin, Who, Beatles, Neil Young, Stooges, MC5, Stones - First two Dead albums were commercial failures - Went way over budget in studio, stuck to their guns - Very experimental sound - Robert Hunter contributed lyrics to most of the album - Songs featured eccentric characters, way out lyrics - Plenty of drugs were part of the process - The old West, the devil, the rose were recurring themes - First album ever recorded using 16-track technology - Band spent $180k on the album - Jay: A lot to like about this album - "Dupree's Diamond Blues" sounds like a Kinks song - "What's Become of the Baby" is 8 minutes of weirdness that should have been left off album - When bands release unnecessary hits compilations - There was a definite '60s resurgence in the mid-80s that led to growth in popularity of the Dead at colleges - And then jam bands really caught on: Phish, Allman Brothers, Blues Traveler, Widespread Panic - Iconic Dead skull and lightning bolt logo was released in '69 - Phil: Band was very good at mobilizing fanbase - Dead merch is so unique and well-known - The confounding popularity of "Africa" - "China Cat Sunflower" is a Dead classic - Some songs evolve in concert, some don't get played at all - Aoxomoxoa sounds like the Dead - Jay: Jams can be fun, but you don't necessarily want to put them on a record - We'll listen to more live stuff vs. studio albums going forward - Next up: Live/Dead 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Mon, 5 November 2018
I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's second album, 1968's Anthem of the Sun. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Anthem of the Sun was recorded in 1967, released in '68 - Very experimental, similar to Zappa's song splicing in the '70s - Studio and live performances mixed together - An early concept album - Songs would evolve through the years in performance - Robert Hunter makes his first appearance as a lyricist on this album - Producer grew frustrated with the band and left during the recording - The sound of "thick air" - Triple kazoo attack - The Dead must have been a shock to fans of bubblegum pop - Live, the Dead mixed up their shows every night - This album sounds more jammy, like you would expect a Dead album to sound - A lot of covers of bluegrass, country, jug bands, blues - Pearl Jam adopted the Dead practice of releasing official bootlegs of shows - The Dead used to do more audience banter, but recent incarnations of the group just play with minimal talking - Anthem of the Sun was the next step in the evolution of the band's sound - Next up: Aoxomoxoa 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Mon, 29 October 2018
I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we dig into the catalog of the Grateful Dead, starting with the band's 1967 debut. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Other podcasts have focused on catalogs of U2, R.E.M., Phish, The Tragically Hip - Looking at the Dead album by album - Phil's a tie-dyed in the wool Deadhead, Jay has only superficial knowledge of the band - Phil: Got into the Dead in the mid-'80s, saw them live in '89 - Attracted by the musicianship, lyrics - Live is where the band really shines - Every show was different - The solo work from Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir was pivotal as well - Songs would be played live years before it showed up on an album - Band's biggest hit, "Touch of Grey," was first played live in '82 but became a single five years later - Jay: More into hard rock, metal as a kid - Got into alternative and punk - Would hear some Dead songs on classic rock radio - The tribute comp Deadicated introduced me to more Dead songs - Self-titled debut has a different sound than the one they evolved into - Recorded in four days - Only got up to #73 on album charts - Mostly covers of folk and jug band songs - Band took a lot of speed during recording, which shows in the songs - Garcia rips on guitar throughout - Not too much jamming on record - Psychedelic rock was starting to happen in general - Live versions of these songs were much longer - Most Dead shows were 2.5 to 3 hours - Jay: Really liked "Cold Rain and Snow," "Viola Lee Blues" - "Sitting on Top of the World" bears some resemblance to Allman Brothers - Phil: Garcia was very prolific, always playing guitar - Bob Weir gave up the short shorts for cargo pants - John Mayer plays with Dead and Co. now - Surviving Dead guys are in their 70s now - Not your typical Dead album - The band didn't like how it was recorded - Next up: Anthem of the Sun 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Tue, 14 August 2018
Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our rock n' roll regrets. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Jay: Gave away a bunch of vinyl in the '90s - Price gouging vinyl-loving hipsters - Looking for bargains - Young entrepreneurship gone wrong - Taping music off the radio - In praise of Barooga Bandit - Phil: Wish I'd seen shows at some historic venues - Jay: Bands I once liked that I now regret liking - There should be no guilty pleasures - Coming to terms with disco - Some early '90s radio staples now ring false - Getting rides to concerts from parents - Jay: Not going to club shows earlier - Only went to hockey arenas and amphitheaters 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Wed, 8 August 2018
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our rock n' roll regrets. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Phil: Bands I never got to see - Missing artists before they died - Sometimes it's for budgetary reasons - Jay: Saw Neil Young last month for the first time - The time Phil got dosed at a Cure show - Phil: Not being old enough to see certain artists in their prime - Following bands on tour - Jay: Not sticking with the guitar - Been playing on and off for decades - Short-lived band experiences, including Bea Arthur's Revenge - Phil: Giving away CDs and mixtapes - Mixtapes can tell a lot about someone's personality - Jay: Still have all my cassettes - 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |
Tue, 24 July 2018
Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Our top 5 albums of the year so far - JB's #5 - Post-rock quartet from Philly - JK's #5 - A New Year's gift - Channeling post-election angst - JB's #3 - Hook-laden pop from Kevin Kline's kid - JK's #4 - Back to basics from power pop masters - JK's #3 - Hot rawk from a dependably excellent band - JB's #2 - Sprawling lo-fi indie folk - JK's #2 - Came out of left field - Punchy power pop - JB's #1 - Exhilarating release for this band's Saddle Creek debut - JK's #1 and JB's #4 - Very political record - Please save us, Fugazi - JB: Still surprised at the lack of political music 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian. |