Completely Conspicuous 113: Get in the Van

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we pick our favorite songs by randomly selected artists. Show notes: Phil's idea: Blind rankings We each pick 10 artist names out of a hat and name a favorite song for each Phil picks names from N-Z, Jay gets A-M No prep time for our answers Phil: Velvet Underground Plenty to choose from Trying not to choose popular songs Jay: B-52s They made the "no play list" at Jay's wedding Great catalog of bangers Phil: Talking Heads Band had different phases Mixed Afro rhythms, funk and skronky guitar from Adrian Belew New David Byrne album is good Jay: Living Colour Band played many different styles well They still bring the heat Phil: Neil Young A musical chameleon Amazing solo or with Crazy Horse (or other backing bands) Jay: Grateful Dead Easy choice Always had a favorite song by them 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.

3 Nov 31min

This week, I'm joined by fellow podcast pioneer Brian Salvatore as we discuss the first 20 years of podcasting. Show notes: Brian: First heard about podcasts in 2004 Started making the FrankBlack.net Podcast in 2006 Jay: Got my first iPod in 2004 and then learned about podcasts Brian: The internet was so much better 20 years ago Great for digging into niche interests Jay and Brian met through the Frank Black podcast in 2010 and realized that Brian lived near Jay's brother-in-law Jay: The start of CompCon in 2006 Always loved radio but never worked at the college station First few years were just me talking about pop culture Eventually started bringing on guests after a few years Podcasting got an early boost when Apple started a podcast directory Early podcasts I listened to were by Adam Curry, Ricky Gervais Marc Maron started his podcast in 2009 and is airing his last episode next week Now everybody's got a podcast Brian: Before podcasts, blogging was a thing Brian produces podcasts for other people in addition to his own Podcasting never became a career for us, just a hobby But some people have made lots of money from them Brian: Not much innovation in the podcast space lately Music podcasts were hampered by copyright issues Podcast networks started popping up Conan O'Brien created a great podcast after his TV talk show went away Podcasting is much more interesting than commercial radio these days Brian: Grew up loving radio, especially WFMU Jay: College radio is still good, but commercial radio blows DJs used to be dependable arbiters of taste Now everything's heavily formatted Jay: Been doing my own radio show on BFF.fm for the last 12 years Brian co-owns a sports podcast company People have trouble committing to a show once they start it Listening habits have changed Jay: Currently listen to WTF, The Best Show, sports shows about Toronto teams, The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Brian: Election Profitmakers, Song Exploder, Never Not Funny, Conan, Indiecast, Who Cares About the Rock Hall?, Mets podcasts So much content to wade through Just like with music; it's much easier to release an album now but there's so much out there Tough to make it as a musician now Podcasts have gone beyond a niche thing Jay: I love listening to audio The value of playing songs people haven't heard a zillion times Every celebrity has a podcast Will podcasts go back to the indie days at some point? Jay: I do two podcasts for work The bubble will burst at some point AI could have a strange, negative effect Connections formed via podcasting Brian: Start a podcast, people 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.

7 Okt 1h 17min

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about songs we hate to love.  Show notes: Our top 10 songs we hate to love in no particular order Phil: A song from the infamous Great White One of the many bands who tried to sound like Zeppelin Jay: Rupert Holmes somehow got cheesier than the "Pina Colada Song" Classic AM gold shizz Phil: A big hit for the Carpenters Originally written for a bank commercial Jay: Monster disco one-hit wonder from Patrick Hernandez Phil: Britney with an earworm Jay: Raspy pop smash from Kim Carnes Crossed over to MOR stations that our parents listened to Phil: Digging into the Jefferson Starship ballads Marty Balin got on the wrong side of the Hell's Angels at Altamont Jay: Phil Collins did a lot of soundtrack music in the '80s in addition to everything else A patented Collins Angry Ballad Phil digs that calypso beat in one of Lionel Richie's biggest hits Richie was one of the driving forces behind "We Are the World" Jay: A synth pop cover of "Lean On Me" Phil: Secretly loved the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack as a kid Yvonne Elliman sang backups on several Clapton albums Jay: Non-English hit by Falco Only German-language #1 song in America Phil: Frankie Valli's disco song in Grease Written by Barry Gibb, who was unstoppable in the late '70s Jay: Early '70s soft rock jam from Albert Hammond Phil: John Mayer's wuss rock moment More familiar with his work in Dead and Co. Jay: Rediscovered recently his love of Little River Band Australian purveyors of catchy dad rock Original members lost the rights to the band name Phil: Shout out to the Weather Girls Catchy and co-written by Paul Shaffer Jay: Another huge hit from the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer Phil: An apparently ironic love ballad from the Captain and Tennille Jay: Another hit from the Gibb family, this time younger brother Andy Too much cocaine, apparently 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 Okt 1h 9min

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about songs we hate to love. Show notes: Surprised at how good the Who were in concert despite their advanced age Songs we hate to love, not necessarily guilty pleasures Things we were embarrassed to say we liked when we were in school Most of our picks were from when we were kids Jay: I liked hard rock and metal and would never admit I liked poppier stuff like Duran Duran Jay: In doing research, I discovered there was a "rock" version of the Lord's Prayer that was a minor hit in 1973 Phil: ABBA wrote some pop classics When REO Speedwagon had that one huge album AOR was huge in the early '80s Jay: I loved KISS's disco song, but never got into the band Phil: Listened to a lot of Manilow as a kid Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" captured that swinging '60s vibe The pop goodness of the Association Phil: The band Boston has been played to death in these parts, but they had their moment Controversial choice: Phil likes the worst Genesis song Dumb song, dumb video When Eddie Murphy became a pop star Phil also likes Crazytown's hit Released at the height of nu metal/rap rock Jay: Begrudgingly liked Animotion's big hit First album Jay had as a kid was by Glen Campbell Campbell wasn't a typical country singer Jay: Got into some of Paul Simon's mid-70s solo work Getting into early Loverboy deep cuts Billy Joel wrote a lot of bad songs, but a few good ones Jay: Always a big fan of "Rump Shaker" ABC was good at the foppish synth pop Jay: I hate everything about Smash Mouth except their first single Totally dig one George Michael song above all others Late '70s pop blast from M Foreigner struck gold with catchy rock jams 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.

22 Sep 1h 6min

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about concerts we'd like to go back in time to see. Show notes: Jay: Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour in 1973 Never saw Bowie Phil: Grateful Dead's famous Cornell show 5/8/77 The Holy Grail for Deadheads Jay: Canadian art rock weirdos Max Webster in southern Ontario 8/9/79 Band split up in 1981 as singer-guitarist Kim Mitchell went solo Opened for Rush in the U.S. in the mid- to late '70s Phil: The Stones at the Boston Garden, 1972 Jagger and Richards were arrested in Providence and Boston mayor bailed them out in time for the Garden show Mick Taylor era was notable Jay: Van Halen at Oakland Arena in June 1981 A few songs were captured on video; VH fans have hoped for more Phil: Zeppelin at Berkeley, Calif., September 1971 Touring before their fourth album was released Playing some of their acoustic songs Jay: SST legends Husker Du at the Channel in Boston 9/30/84 In the middle of a killer stretch of albums; this one was for Zen Arcade Two classic albums were released the next year Phil: Allman Brothers at the Fillmore East in 1971 Original lineup including Duane Allman Jay and Phil: The Who live at University of Leeds on Valentine's Day 1970 Played a show at Hull the following night We're going to see the Who at Fenway later this month Band was at the literal peak of their powers First release of Live at Leeds was only six songs Longer versions have come out; full set was 33 songs No video of this show unfortunately 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.

4 Aug 47min

Celebrating 19 years of podcasting with part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about concerts we'd like to go back in time to see. Show notes: On to our top 10 shows Phil's are in chronological order, Jay's in no particular order Phil: Neil Young and Pearl Jam on their short Euro tour, 8/26/95 in Dublin PJ standing in for Crazy Horse The Velvet Sundown, lame AI band Jay: The Clash from June 1980 at Hammersmith Palais 31 songs from throughout their career The Clash opened for the Who on the Schlitz Rocks America tour Apparently Schlitz was once a big name in beer Phil: Stevie Ray Vaughan on 9/21/85 at the Capitol Theatre Jay: PJ Harvey on the Rid of Me tour in '93 Saw her on the next tour in '95 Phil: Talking Heads on the Speaking in Tongues tour in Oct. 1983 in Billerica, Mass. Jay: I would've picked the 1980 tour with Adrian Belew on guitar Jay: Living Colour at TT the Bears in Cambridge, Mass. in the summer of '88 Taped the show off the radio simulcast on WBCN Killer show before the band blew up the next year Phil: U2 on the War tour in March 1983 Jay: Prince's Purple Rain tour at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse Prince was the biggest musician in the world at the time Phil: The Pretenders at the Paradise in Boston in 1980 The band's original lineup was so good Jay: Went with a December 1981 Pretenders show in France 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 Juli 48min

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about concerts we'd like to go back in time to see. Show notes: We're taking advantage of time machine technology That time Zebra opened for their own Zep cover band We're listing specific shows So many great artists to choose from YouTube makes it easier to see a lot of shows you missed Honorable mentions Jay: Surprise show by the Stones at a small Toronto club in '77 Two shows were turned into a live album decades later Phil: Bob Marley and the Wailers in London, Monterey Pop, Bowie on Diamond Dogs tour, Sleater-Kinney in Berkeley, James Brown at the Boston Garden in '68, Beatles in Hamburg or the rooftop set, Prince on Purple Rain tour, Phish in '98, Steely Dan in '74 Jay: JB at the Soul Train studios in '73, the Police in '79, Iggy and the Stooges in '73, Zeppelin in '70, Mission of Burma's first farewell in '83, Drive Like Jehu in '94, Black Sabbath in '70, Iron Maiden in '81 with their original singer The Police jumped on the new wave bandwagon and brought energy and skill to it Sabbath's had interesting line items in their recording budget Shout out to CompCon intern Lily 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.

22 Juli 56min

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2025 so far. Show notes: Counting down our favorite albums Breitling's #6: Dan Bejar with another well-done Destroyer album "Slacker Sinatra" singing about aging Kumar's #6: Striking solo effort from Tunde Adebimpe Breitling's #5: Shoegaze goodness from NJ's High Kumar's #5: Dax Riggs with fuzz-laden goth grunge Breitling's #4: Digging the Estonian dream pop from mariin k. Kumar's #3: Impressive 15th solo album from Bob Mould plays to his strengths Still kicking ass into his mid-60s Breitling's #3: Boston trio with a dumb name and a great album, (T-T)b Kumar's #2: Mclusky returns after 21 years with a razor-sharp ripper Breitling's #2 and Kumar's #4: Surprise return to thunderous form from The Men Kumar's #1: PUP's fifth album finds them exploring more mature themes while still kicking ass Breitling's #1 and Kumar's #7: The four-album magnum opus from Hallelujah the Hills exceeds expectations Many guest appearances among the 54 songs Looking forward to new releases from the Lemonheads, Sloan, Superchunk, Pile, Wednesday 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.

9 Juli 57min