Completely Conspicuous

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.

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 musi

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 musi

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 bl

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 wit

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Christian Douglass as we discuss presidential candidates, the '70s and regional differences. Show notes: - New England is not representative of the rest of the country - Christian's ideal place to live: DC - The '70s were a fascinating time in the U.S. - Hip hop and punk grew out of mid-'70s NYC - The Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi - Lee Atwater, bluesman - The momentum of Trump - Last summer, Jeb Bush was a lead pipe cinch - Christian: Used to go to CPAC every year - What about Hillary? - How does a president get anything done? - Firmly on the fence   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 Christian Douglass as we discuss racism, political correctness and gentrification. You know, the lighter side of life. Show notes: - Political correctness on both sides of the aisle - Literary archetypes reflect cultural fears - The Trump Method: Repeat your point until people agree with you - The Washington football team sticks to its guns - Could All in the Family and Blazing Saddles come out today? - No safe space for satire - It's hard to talk about race these days - Lamenting the closing of local rock clubs - The upper crust and the townies - 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 Christian Douglass as we discuss the differences between the North and the South. Show notes: - Christian grew up in Texas - The tension between North and South is still around - The Cuban Connection - Ted Cruz's attempts at humor - Batshit crazy election season - The Trump effect - It's still the economy, stupid - A brown dude in New Hampshire - Canada welcomed a generation of immigrants in the '70s and '80s - Sri Lankan and Samoan street gangs - Jay: Toronto was the most diverse place I've lived - Christian: Was ignorant of the North as a kid - The OJ Simpson miniseries is pretty fun - Southern stereotypes are strong up North - A formal level of ignorance - 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 fin

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1983. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output - Brian's #3 - Jonathan Richman forges his own path - A great year for singles - Jay's #3 - Metallica helped introduce thrash metal - Brian's #2 - Post-Eno Talking Heads is still pretty damn good - Jay's #2 - The Replacements start stretching out their sound - Don't have high hopes for the GNR tour - Whither Izzy Stradlin? - Brian's #1 - Great debut for Violent Femmes - Jay's #1 - Jay: First heard R.E.M. on their Letterman appearance - Stipe was still in his shy phase - Peter Buck's a busy guy - A lot of beginnings in 1983 - Next up: 1999   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 b

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1983. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output - Jay: Talking Heads, Robert Plant, Billy Idol, X, Motorhead, The Fixx, The Kinks - Lemmy and Brian Robertson didn't get along - "Come Dancing" is a great pop song - Brian's #5 - First exposure to Bowie music - Greg Dulli's great take on "Modern Love" - Binging on Bowie - Jay's #5 - The Police go out on top...and fighting - The Sting and Peter Gabriel tour could be interesting...or bad - Brian's #4 - The interesting story of Daniel Johnston - Jay's #4 - The American breakthrough for U2 - Jay: U2 was my favorite band through some of the '80s - Recent Paris concert was pretty good - 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 Breitlin

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1983. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Brian's new podcast Input/Output - In '83, Brian turned 1, Jay turned 16 - A lot of classic '80s singles came out in '83 - From Men at Work to Metallica - Thriller loomed large - Strange mix of hits on the top 100 - CDs were first sold in the U.S. - The US Festival was a huge event - Brian recommends the Eagles documentary - The Strummer-Jones dynamic led to breakup of the Clash - KISS took off the makeup - Elton John had minor hits throughout the '80s - Aerosmith was fading - Brian: Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut - Jay: Ronnie James Dio strikes out on his own while Sabbath forges on with Ian Gillan - Brian: SST comp Blasting Concepts was a good intro to punk - Dinosaur Jr.'s recent 30th anniversary shows - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The openi

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss short attention spans. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Fear of wasting time or fear of missing out? - Phone calls are rare and annoying - Tinder = instantaneous hookups - Jay: Thankful to have been in the dating Dark Ages - Guys are born stupid - Telephone hangups used to be way more dramatic - How often do you just hang out with a friend and talk? - Writing letters is a lost art - Friends who aren't on social media are lost or forgotten - How much faster can life get? - We still slow down occasionally - Nothing slows you down like a baby falling asleep on you   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. Voiceove

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss short attention spans. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - Spending too much time in front of screens - Much harder to get through long articles nowadays - How many words are worth $1? - Looking at phone is how we kill time - Smoking made Matt more social - A generation of socially inept people - Binge-watching TV requires more attention - Longer network TV seasons seem so much longer now - The Punisher is a tough character to get right - Hell hath no fury like a nerd upset over something stupid - Gotta pay attention when there are subtitles - Anime moves too fast - Audiences can't deal with slow scenes any more - As a writer, Matt writes shorter chapters - Short attention span applies to music listening - Matt: If I had an iPhone as a kid, I would never have read a book - To be continued   Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss short attention spans. Show notes: - Order Matt's book The Entropy of Everything: The Indestructibles Book 3 - The inevitable joke - MP: The more novels I write, the shorter my attention span gets - Live-tweeting TV shows takes some effort - Trace back to quick cuts in MTV videos of the early '80s - Wireless Internet has sped up the attention decline - Twitter mulls expanding character limit to 10,000 - The fine art of crafting an effective tweet - News of Bowie's death spread fast on social media - What a way to go out, leaving a great piece of art behind - It's hard to sustain a long career these days - How to teach your kids about music - Dumbo doesn't hold up - Matt: New Star Wars is an homage to the original, but much faster - So much more dialog in TV shows now - HBO's In Therapy was different because much of it was just two people talking - Elmore Leonard mastered economical writing - To be continu

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of this decade (2010-14). Show notes: - JB's #5 - Dan Bejar's guilty pleasure - JK's #5 - Band came out of left field - JB's #4 - Dream pop classic - JK's #4 - Comeback album from alt-rock legends - JB's #3 - Cassette-only release - JK's #3 - Prolific artist put it all together - JB's #2 - Veteran hardcore guitar god goes folk rock - JK's #2 - Sprawling punk rock concept album about the Civil War - JB's #1 - An epic from a band just dropped by its label - JK's #1 - First Matador act to hit #1 on album chart   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 Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of this decade (2010-14). Show notes: - Looking back - Breitling: My top albums of the 2013 and 2014 didn't make this list - JB's #10 and JK's #9 - "The purest distillation" of this band's sound - JK's #10 - Harking back to '70s glam punk - JB's #9 - New sound for indie rock stalwart - JB's #8 - Lots of side projects spun off from this band - JK's #8 - A super outing from an indie supergroup - JB's #7 - Unclear whether another release is coming from this act - JK's #7 - Top pick of 2011 - Turned Out a Punk is an interesting podcast - JB's #6 - Breakthrough for excellent indie act - JK's #6 - Television-Velvet Underground 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 Br

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2015. Show notes: - Jay Kumar's #5 album of the year - Productive collective out of the Bay Area - Jay Breitling's #4 - What's next for Jonah Furman? - JK's #4 - JB's #3 - Dark, crazy guitar ambience - JK's #3 - Another indie darling blowing up big - JB's #2 - Another great shoegaze act makes its mark - JK's #2 - A local indie act does well nationally - JB's #1 - Marriage of electronic and guitar rock - JK's #1 - Topped midyear list, still holds up - Looking ahead to 2016 - Next week: Our favorites of the first half of the decade (2010-14)   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 Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2015. Show notes: - More music out than ever before - JK: Immersed in top 40 pop against my will thanks to my kids - JB's honorable mentions - Ava Luna is the Steely Dan of indie rock - JK's honorable mentions - Some notable comeback albums - JB's #10 - JK's #10 - The insanity of the Paris concert tragedy - JB's #9 - JK's #9 - The ever-prolific Patrick Stickles - JB's #8 - JK's #8 - Constant touring hones a band's sound - JB's #7 - JK's #7 - JB's #6 - Exploding in Sound is the indie rock label of the moment - JK's #6 - JB's #5 - For those not about to rock, we salute you - 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

This week, I'm joined by author Greg Renoff as we discuss the response to his new book about the early days of Van Halen. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Buy Greg's book Van Halen Rising at Amazon or get a signed copy from the Van Halen Store - We last spoke in March before the book came out - Great response from readers - Selling well on Amazon, was reviewed in Rolling Stone - DLR's role in the band's early days surprised some - Roth defied the odds to become a star - Gene Simmons was an early supporter of the band - Roth had different musical interests than the VH brothers - Greg: Not sure what next writing project will be - Meeting readers at book signings is fun - Launch party in Pasadena featured VH's original bassist Mark Stone - Visited neighborhood where VH played backyard parties - The revolutionary sound of "Eruption" - VH's disappointing live album - Debate over what's in the archives - The future of the band is murky - Little released output from Edd