Completely Conspicuous 660: When Schlitz Rocked America

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2025 so far. Show notes: Drinking some Italian beer Rock is dead commercially Billboard album chart contains nearly no rock Fleetwood Mac's Rumours still riding high for some reason Festival cancellations: Bonnaroo, Boston Calling next year, Lollapalooza Too many festivals, high ticket prices Black Sabbath farewell show Lots of big rock deaths: Brian Wilson, Sly Stone, David Johansen, Marianne Faithfull, etc. We saw Hallelujah the Hills recently and it was glorious Kumar saw some shows: Frank Black, Shannon/Narducy, Gang of Four, Bob Mould Breitling will see Oasis in Mexico, as one does Who's the Who's drummer? Breitling's bubbling under albums: Whirr, Winter, Lunchbox, Pink Floyd reissue, Rough Francis, The Get Quick, Autocamper, Viagra Boys, Thalia Zedek Band Kumar's list: Kinski, Ty Segall, Civic, Cameron Keiber, Dean Wareham, Pulp, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, The Bug Club, Turnstile, The Tubs, Kestrels, Lifeguard, Hotline TNT Breitling's #10: An electronic collab between Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke Kumar's #10: Sophomore release from Horsegirl explores mellower sounds So much music to listen to these days Breitling's #9: Ambient situation delivered by William Tyler Of Bills Frisell and Laswell Kumar's #9: Post-punk ripper from Charm School Kurt Loder is still with us Kumar's #8: Heavy Spoon influence on the new album from The Convenience Breitling's #7: Dean Wareham is still bringing it To be continued Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. 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.

1 Juli 54min

Part 4 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we crown the winner of a March Madness-style tournament featuring our favorite rock artists. Show notes: Round 3 begins The Smiths vs. Led Zeppelin James Brown vs. Rush Rolling Stones vs. The Cure The Clash vs. The Police U2 vs. The Replacements The Who vs. Talking Heads Tom Petty vs. Neil Young The Beatles vs. David Bowie Round 4 The Final Four The Championship Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. 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.

21 Maj 44min

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we wrap up the second round of a March Madness-style tournament featuring our favorite rock artists. Show notes: Round 2 forced some difficult choices The Smiths vs. Spoon Led Zeppelin vs. Prince James Brown vs. Queens of the Stone Age Rush vs. Allman Brothers Band Rolling Stones vs. Beastie Boys The Cure vs. The Afghan Whigs The Tragically Hip vs. The Clash The Police vs. Mark Lanegan Stevie Wonder vs. U2 Sonic Youth vs. The Replacements The Who vs. Beck Talking Heads vs. Dinosaur Jr. Tom Petty vs. Pixies Neil Young vs. Steely Dan Van Halen vs. Beatles Pearl Jam vs. David Bowie Next: The final two rounds Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. 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.

14 Maj 1h 11min

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we wrap up the first round of a March Madness-style tournament featuring our favorite rock artists. Show notes: Finishing up the rest of round 1 Stevie Wonder vs. the Pretenders Talking Heads vs. U2 St. Vincent vs. Sonic Youth Elvis Costello vs. the Replacements R.E.M. vs. the Who Beck vs. Dire Straits Jimi Hendrix vs. Jason Isbell Dinosaur Jr. vs. Foo Fighters Drive-By Truckers vs. Tom Petty Pixies vs. Fleetwood Mac Neil Young vs. Sleater-Kinney Steely Dan vs. Husker Du Van Halen vs. Blondie White Stripes vs. the Beatles J. Geils Band vs. Pearl Jam Nirvana vs. David Bowie Coming soon: Round 2, with more tough decisions Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. 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.

15 Apr 1h 8min

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we talk our way through a March Madness-style tournament of our favorite rock artists. Show notes: We left out artists that we both didn't like: Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, Phish, Iron Maiden Also had to leave off a number of artists just for space considerations: Ramones, AC/DC, Feelies, Breeders, Camper Van Beethoven, etc. Some tough matchups in round 1 with randomized seeding The Smiths vs. PJ Harvey Spoon vs. Courtney Barnett Led Zeppelin vs. Bob Dylan The Cure vs. Prince Elton John vs. James Brown Pavement vs. Queens of the Stone Age Buffalo Tom vs. Rush Allman Brothers Band vs. Soundgarden The Kinks vs. The Rolling Stones Alice in Chains vs. Beastie Boys Bob Marley vs. The Cure Joe Jackson vs. The Afghan Whigs The Tragically Hip vs. Velvet Underground The Clash vs. Iggy Pop Stevie Ray Vaughan vs. The Police Sloan vs. Mark Lanegan To be continued with the rest of Round 1 Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. 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.

8 Apr 1h 23min

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about bad songs from good artists. Show notes: Songs we hate by artists we love Phil's #6: U2 makes a misstep Bono's talking tough Jay's #6: A #1 hit from Cheap Trick featuring outside songwriters The power ballad became huge for hard rock bands Phil's #5: AC/DC hits it big after losing their singer Jay's #5: When the biggest band tries to get weird Phil's #4: When GNR decided to cover Dylan They had lots of bad covers Jay's #4: When Aerosmith hit #1 with a soundtrack ballad Late-period Aerosmith is tough to take Phil's #3: The Smiths get preachy about animal rights Let's hear it for Bovine University Morrissey with ham-fisted lyrics about vegetarianism Jay's #3: R.E.M. had a couple of stinkers A version of the song ended up on Sesame Street Phil's #2: Punk rock upstarts go acoustic Green Day ended up becoming very mainstream Jay's #2: Bowie and Jagger with a very '80s abomination of a cover Video premiered during Live Aid Phil's #1: A definitive low for the Police at their most successful time Andy Summers wrote some bad songs every so often Jay's #1: Genesis with an all-timer of an offensive song The video alone is brutal Blame it on Mike Rutherford Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. 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.

5 Feb 52min

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about bad songs from good artists. Show notes: Songs we hate by artists we love Jay: Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" is so whiny it turned me off the band for a few years Songs you hate vs. songs you're sick of hearing Phil: Nirvana had some dumb songs Phil's dishonorable mentions: Songs from Bowie and Jagger, Beck, XTC, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, the Cars, Bob Seger Phil bashes the Brits Jay's dishonorable mentions: Songs by Soundgarden, Van Hagar, Rush, U2, Lou Reed Sammy Hagar's lyrics are...something Phil's #10: One of the Stones' bigger hits Jay's #10: Zeppelin goes honky tonk with meh results Phil's #9: Frat boy antics from the Beastie Boys Jay's #9: Andy Summers let his freak flag fly in the Police Phil's #8: The Dead goes disco with some rough lyrics The late '70s saw lots of rock acts try disco Jay's #8: Macca had some missteps, including his first teamup with MJ Phil's #7: The Beatles stumbled with an avant garde instrumental Maybe it was the drugs Jay's #7: Dee Dee Ramone tries rapping with hilariously bad results To be continued Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. 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.

29 Jan 48min

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite concerts. Show notes: Our top 10 concerts in no particular order Phil: Banged up and seeing his first Dead show in Foxborough in 1989 The show is popular with Dead fans Jay: Caught Mike Watt backed by the Foo Fighters in their first Boston appearance in '95 Phil: 12 days after that Dead show, saw the Who at the same venue A 3-hour show for the 20th anniversary of Tommy Jay: The one area appearance by Them Crooked Vultures in '09 Supergroup with Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones Phil: McCartney at Sullivan Stadium in 1990 The tour book phenomenon Jay: Two shows in one night--The Amps followed by Mighty Mighty Bosstones Phil: U2 show on St. Patrick's Day '92 in Boston, Achtung Baby tour "Put it in H" Jay: Also a U2 show; September 1987 at the Boston Garden Phil: Dylan at Endicott College in October 1992 Tickets purchased at a local jewelry store Dylan almost didn't play because a heater wasn't working on stage Jay: Electric performance from Nick Cave's band Grinderman at House of Blues Phil: Pearl Jam at the Orpheum in April 1994 A few days after Cobain's death Jay: Front row at the Orpheum for Sugar, November 1994 Bob Mould's last tour with Sugar Phil: Neil Young at the Wang Center in 2018 with Jay Neil was solo, telling stories between songs Gotta see some of these older artists while they're around Jay: Pearl Jam in April '92 at tiny club Axis Just before PJ blew up Phil: Dead & Co. at Fenway in summer '23 $60 cheese pizza Jay: Last month seeing Sloan in Toronto with my daughter Played their first album front to back Only concert I've ever seen in Toronto Phil: Phish playing third show in three nights at Mansfield Jay: Ty Segall at the late lamented Great Scott in 2014 So loud the floor was shaking Jay: No issues with seeing shows by myself Phil: Goose at MGM Fenway last year Played lots of covers, including the odd 36-minute jam Jay: First time seeing the Tragically Hip at the Paradise in April '91 About 25 people there, but the band killed it Saw the band many times after that Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. 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.

8 Jan 1h 4min