Completely Conspicuous

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1981.

Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output

- In 1981, Jay was 13 and Brian wasn't born yet

- Jay: Lived in Canada for most of the year, then moved to U.S.

- Listened to a lot of hard rock and AOR

- Toronto radio was cool but a few years from becoming heavily formatted

- A lot of solo albums

- Beginnings of indie rock

- Lots of soft rock on the charts

- The Stones had a resurgence in '81

- Old rockers were in their 30s and 40s then

- Death of Lennon hung over the music scene

- Hall and Oates left a strong legacy of pop hits

- The puzzling Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame selection process

- The strange popularity of Steve Miller

- "Under Pressure" has become bigger as years passed

- MTV's debut in August 1981

- USA Network premiered "Night Flight"

- REO Speedwagon's one breakout year

- Ozzy's comeback continues

- 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.

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years.

Show notes:

- Artists we missed at first but now love

- Phil's #2

- Dismissed Phish initially, focused on the Dead at first

- Jay's #2

- Got into Bob Mould and Sugar first, then backtracked

- Husker Du: Great catalog, bad production

- Phil's #1

- Overlooked because of constant radio play

- Classic rock stations don't play new music by classic artists

- Jay's #1

- Always a Bowie fan, but started really getting into him in the last few years

- Bands we never got into

- Phil's #3

- Never a big metal guy

- Metallica never did it for Phil

- Jay's #3

- Never understood popularity of Dave Matthews Band

- Phil's #2

- Respect the Boss but never got into him

- Don't compare him to Mellencamp

- Jay's #2

- STP seemed like they were ripping off other bands

- Phil thought Nine Inch Nails were dumb

- Phil's #1

- What's the big deal about Radiohead?

- Jay: Hated "Fake Plastic Trees"

- Jay's #1

- Van the Man never appealed to me

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.

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years.

Show notes:

- Artists we just stopped listening to

- Phil's #1

- Smashing Pumpkins had a strong run in the '90s

- Corgan's pretentiousness ran its course

- Jay's #1

- Went back and forth, but finally stopped listening to the Doors in early '90s

- Phil: Morrison became a drunken buffoon

- Artists we missed first time around but discovered later

- Phil's #3

- Drive-by Truckers bring together different styles and sounds

- Jay's #3

- Huge body of work, but didn't start listening to Nick Cave until a decade ago

- Phil's #2

- Blues-rock from Tedeschi Trucks Band

- Jay's #2

- Bad Brains was an electrifying punk act

- Phil's #1

- Parquet Courts can play short punk songs and larger, artier stuff

- Jay's #1

- Knew about Velvet Underground for years, but really got into them in last 15 years

- Artists we missed at first but now love

- Phil's #3

- Checked out My Morning Jacket at the end of the '00s

- Jay's #3

- Always liked the Replacements but didn't become fanatic until last decade

- 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.

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss how our musical tastes have changed over the years.

Show notes:

- Revisionist band history

- Bands we once loved but now dislike

- Phil's #3

- Liz Phair got off to a strong start, disappointed afterward

- Jay's #3

- Huge artist I enjoyed as a kid

- Billy Joel stopped releasing new pop music in the '90s

- Phil's #2

- Love his first band, hate the solo stuff

- Sting's elevated the art of pretentious douchiness

- Jay's #2

- It's trendy to hate this band now

- Used to dig the Eagles

- Henley's personality turned me off the band

- Phil's #1

- Coldplay lost their way

- Jay's #1

- Red Hot Chili Peppers haven't aged well

- Liked them in my 20s, "but now they're just stupid"

- Bands you just stopped listening to

- Phil's #3

- Lenny Kravitz got too slick and repetitive

- Jay's #3

- Big fan of hard rock as a kid, but hair metal lost its appeal

- Phil's #2

- Boston-area rock fans grew up on Aerosmith

- After they reunited in mid-80s, quality went downhill

- Jay's #2

- Liked the band Live for a few years but just lost interest

- Singer got too full of himself

- 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.

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the need for organization and tell old journalism stories.

Show notes:

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

- Making a good first impression

- Journalism: A good profession for social misfits

- What to do when an ax-wielding maniac is on the loose

- "Your internship could have kids"

- Fun with newspaper interns

- Person-on-the-street interviews were challenging

- Expiration date for the newspaper biz

- Writing on deadline helps with time management

- Editors who can't write and vice versa

- Being a supervisor

- "Done is good."

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.

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the need for organization.

Show notes:

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

- Always planning ahead to the next project

- Happiness is an empty inbox

- Jay: Preparing for a purge of office stuff

- How much is too much work?

- Matt doesn't need a calendar

- Organization via Google Calendar

- The art of the sticky note

- Business is moving away from email

- Working with people from across the globe

- Matt: Don't know how I could do more

- The newspaper life was a disorganized one

- Working way too many hours for tiny salary

- Learned how to write efficiently on deadline

- 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.

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the need for organization.

Show notes:

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

- Organization is important when you're juggling a lot of responsibilities

- The challenge of working a full-time gig while also doing other jobs

- Prioritizing by deadlines

- Writing a book adds another big deadline

- Finding time for other activities when you have kids

- Doing plenty of unpaid work

- Organized to a point

- Sometimes the need for sleep takes over

- Matt: Watching TV's too passive

- "The People vs. OJ Simpson" was surprisingly good

- Old-school Internet problems

- Wasting time online

- Cubicle life

- 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.

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1999.

Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output

- Brian's #3

- Magnetic Fields play every style of music on 69 Love Songs

- Jay's #3

- Beck funks it up

- Beck stopped experimenting years ago

- Brian's #2

- Brian's favorite Pavement album, but not Jay's

- Band was falling apart

- Jay's #2

- Sloan's concept album...about themselves

- Brian's #1

- Sigur Ros sing in an unidentified language

- Loud, droning orchestral sound

- Jay's #1

- Built to Spill released some epic guitar jams

- Lamenting shows we missed

- Jay: Learned about Built to Spill via Napster

- Next up (in a few months): 1981

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.

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1999.

Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output

- Brian's bubbling under picks: The Microphones, Tom Waits, Foo Fighters, Frank Black, The Roots, American Football

- Jay: Sheila Divine, Wilco, Matthew Sweet, Guided by Voices, White Stripes, Ben Folds Five, Sebadoh

- Wanted: A Bob Pollard curator

- Brian's #5

- Matt Sharp goes for a bigger rock sound

- Jay's #5

- The Lips go symphonic

- Big change from early guitar-driven stuff

- Brian's #4

- Wilco moves away from Americana sound

- Jay's #4

- Frank Black keeps cranking out winners

- Pixies are working on a new album

- 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.

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1999.

Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output

- Brian was 16 going on 17 in '99, Jay was 31 going on 32

- The dawn of Napster

- Downloading music via dial-up was excruciatingly slow

- Most downloading was done on college campuses

- 1999 was the biggest sales year for the music industry

- Bowie was first major artist to release album online before retail

- eMusic over the years

- Amazon makes it easy to buy music now

- External CD burners, early MP3 players

- Brian's 1999 regrets: Primus teaming with Fred Durst, Lit, Rage Against the Machine, "ska residue," Stone Temple Pilots

- Jay's regrets: Lenny Kravitz, RHCP

- Jay: Got into stoner rock in '99 (Fu Manchu, Nebula)

- Woodstock '99 was a disaster

- Brian: Respect for "I Want it That Way"

- Cher had the #1 song of the year

- The movie Go is a good document of its time

- Santana scored big with guest-filled album

- Pop country was getting big

- The Cherone era of Van Halen ends

- The hills are alive with the sound of VH rumors

- Several prominent indie rock acts formed in '99

- 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.