Completely Conspicuous

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss our favorite solo artists. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Robert Plant, Frank Black and the Catholics and Sloan. Show notes: - Re-recorded via Skype - Jay: Robert Plant's music has evolved since Zeppelin's breakup - Brian: John,  Paul and George in a three-way tie - Harrison's All Things Must Pass is a standout - McCartney's good when he works with others (Elvis Costello, Youth) - Jay: Favorite solo artist is Pete Townshend - His three early '80s solo albums were excellent - Last 25 years have been focused on Who tours - Jay: Rod Stewart's solo career has been mostly awful - His work in Faces, Jeff Beck Group and first few solo releases was strong - Brian: Jagger should not be allowed to make solo albums - Jay: Keith Richards' solo work is good - Jay: The four guys in Sloan should each release solo records simultaneously a la KISS - Brian: Steven Drozd would make an interesting solo album - Brian: Rivers Cuomo should ma

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss our favorite solo artists. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Peter Gabriel and David Byrne. Show notes: - Re-recorded via Skype - Brian: Ray Davies has made two great solo albums - NBC cut Davies from Olympics closing ceremony broadcast - Jay: Ted Leo has been consistently great for the last decade - Brian: After Roxy Music, Brian Eno went on to long and interesting career - Jay: Neil Young has been erratic, but when he's on, he's great - Brian: Jonathan Richman has moved from post-punk hero to troubadour - Jay: Peter Gabriel is much more than "Sledgehammer" and "Solsbury Hill" - Moved past the crazy costumes he wore live with Genesis - Brian: David Byrne continues to make interesting music - Jay: Mark Lanegan's post-Screaming Trees career has been varied and uniformly excellent - To be continued - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Under the Hedge Peter Gabriel - Here Comes

I celebrate six big years of podcasting with part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss our favorite solo artists. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Bob Mould, Ryan Adams, Mike Watt and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Brian contends that Bob Mould's work in Sugar is better than Husker Du; Jay vehemently disagrees - Jay: Elliott Smith went in a different direction after Heatmiser - Are Josh Homme or Dave Grohl considered solo artists? - Jay: Lennon and McCartney both made great albums on their own, but also some clunkers - Jay: Michael Jackson became probably the biggest artist of all time - Ozzy's early solo work was terrific - The ridiculous story behind Sabbath's Born Again album - Paul Simon's still going strong - Phil Collins was huge in the '80s - Brian: Mike Nesmith's early solo work was excellent - Jay: Nick Cave forged a dark path after The Birthday Party - Brian: Ryan Adams made a classic album and several good ones - M

Another installment of Driving With Kumar as I discuss the generation gap that exists in pop culture. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Chelsea Light Moving, The XX, Blur and Mean Creek. Show notes: - Recorded on the way to WFNX Boston Accents farewell show in Allston - WFNX has been replaced by The Harbor, a "Variety Hits" station - FNX lasted 29 years - Driving through another torrential rainstorm - Generation gap in music fandom driven by a couple of NPR blog posts - Intern wrote about how she never pays for recorded music - Ignited industry debate, including a battle of blog posts between David Lowery and Dave Allen - Another post had an intern reviewing Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions... - Kid wasn't born when the album came out in 1988 - His love of hip-hop is defined by current artists like Drake - Couldn't relate to PE's intensity - I was struck by the lack of knowledge or interest in older music - Get off my lawn - As a kid, I was fascinated by music that came out

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we discuss our favorite music of the first half of 2012. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Future Carnivores, Mark Lanegan Band, Soccer Mom and Dinosaur Jr. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky World HQ - Kumar: New Van Halen album much better than expected - Breitling: Future Carnivores brings a new wave sound - Breitling enjoys the Eddie Money jams - Forced to listen to Starship - Kumar: Check out the book I Want My MTV - Kumar: Lanegan goes way beyond straightahead rock - Breitling: Ride tribute comp features Boston acts - Get Geddy Lee on the show - Kumar: Digging the new Rush album - New Metric album is strong - Heavy Blanket features Mascis with guitar instrumentals - Ty Segall was not in Under Siege 2 - Breitling: Looking forward to new release from Everyone Everywhere - Breitling: New band called Dikembe (no relation to Mutombo) recalls mid-90s emo - New Dino Jr. due out in the fall - Kumar: Need to check out new Future o

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling as we discuss our favorite music of the first half of 2012. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Golden Gurls, Cloud Nothings, Autochrome, Torche, Karl Hendricks Trio and Guided By Voices. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky World HQ - Kumar: New Smashing Pumpkins ain't bad - Breitling: Golden Gurls do not feature Bea Arthur but do rock - Kumar: High on Fire brings metallic fury - Kumar: Check out Henry Rollins' great radio show - Breitling: Former Books leader Zammuto released terrific album - Kumar: Cloud Nothings are young and really good - Breitling: Boston act Autochrome brings the post-punk - WFNX's demise will result in two streaming stations - Kumar: Torche is heavy and poppy - Breitling: Check out Big Science - Dumb band name: The Internet - Kumar: Japandroids unleash unbridled fury - Breitling: Karl Hendricks Trio back with another great record - Kumar: GBV returns with the classic lineup - Breitling: Infinity Girl debut featu

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Christian Douglass as we talk about the state of the book industry. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from The Henry Clay People, Japandroids, The Hives and Wye Oak. Show notes: - Recorded in Beverly, Mass. - Christian: So many good books go undiscovered - Kindles and other e-readers have people reading - Attitudes towards owning music and books change as folks get older - Jay: My kids are still reading books - The debate over digital media and artist royalties rages on in music industry - Different revenue models: Amanda Palmer raised over $1 mil on Kickstarter for new album - That won't work for artists without huge followings, though - The popularity of oral histories - Crafting an oral history involves skill in selecting right quotes, telling a story - "Narrative non-fiction" is an interesting sub-genre - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:The Henry Clay People - 25 for the Rest of Our Lives Japandroids - The Nights of Wine and Roses The Hives - High School Shuf

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Christian Douglass as we talk about the state of the book industry. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from The Corin Tucker Band, The Raveonettes, Stars and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Show notes: - Recorded in Beverly, Mass. - In this age of distraction, it's amazing that people read books at all - Christian: Education system may be to blame for lack of reading - Fiction is still a valuable commodity - Jay: Fun to see my kids get into reading - Christian: Treating reading like a workout - Multi-tasking all day makes one less inclined to read later - Authors were once treated like movie stars - "Fifty Shades of Grey" started as Twilight fan fiction - Many best-sellers are autobiographies of celebs - Christian: Historical fiction is exciting - Working on a new project, a "novel in stories" - Looking at African-Americans attracted to Russian promise of equality - Also working on novel about a murder in rural Alaska - All about plot - Success comes at the

Guest Ric Dube and I dig deep and analyze two '70s rock classics. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Redd Kross, Chelsea Light Moving and Cat Power. Show notes: - Recorded in Shrewsbury, Mass. - Check out Ric's podcast More Lost Time - Digging into Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights" - Irony-free, over-the-top theatrics - Song is in three parts - Jay: Remember as a kid thinking it was risque - Paradise turns out to be hell - Jim Steinman was known for ridiculously long song titles - Song goes from rockabilly to disco in the middle, with Phil Rizzuto mixed in - The debate over third base - Ellen Foley's odd career - Third section tries to emulate punk - The strange allure of Robby Benson - Meat Loaf's acting career - Part 2: "Brother Louie" by Stories - A classic '70s one-hit wonder - Stories actually had well-known musicians in band - Louie was whiter than white - Super catchy chorus - Ric: This was a "Neapolitan relationship" - The lesson was about equal opportun

Part 2 of my conversation with filmmaker Eric Green as we discuss his documentary about V66, the short-lived Boston music video channel. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Mission of Burma, David Byrne and St. Vincent, Metric and Ceremony. Show notes: - Recorded in Cambridge, Mass. - Eric's documentary is called Life on the V - V66 was on the air from 2/85 to 9/86 - Response to the topic has been great - Doc is almost finished - Music docs are in vogue - Rumors that MTV was keeping an eye on V66 - Eric resisted the classic Behind the Music structure - V66 was based in Worcester, Mass.; bands would visit before concerts there - 9-year-old Eric got on the air with a phoned-in joke - Cable TV was much different in the '80s; still hadn't made it to many rural areas - Memories of USA Network's Night Flight video show - Music docs: Stop Making Sense vs. The Last Waltz - When V66 played Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" video, they took MTV logo out - Eric received a lot of fan submi

Part 1 of my conversation with filmmaker Eric Green as we discuss his documentary about V66, the short-lived Boston music video channel. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from The Walkmen, Beachwood Sparks, King Tuff and Superchunk. Show notes: - Recorded in Cambridge, Mass. - Eric's documentary is called Life on the V - V66 was on the air from 2/85 to 9/86 - UHF station that reached throughout New England - Cable still hadn't reached many towns - There were other music video shows including Friday Night Videos on NBC - Videos had been around for awhile but didn't catch on until MTV arrived - V66 introduced a lot of new music, played diverse styles - We both watched it as kids - Run DMC's "King of Rock" was most requested song on V66 - Boston bands were given more attention: Del Fuegos, Til Tuesday, New Man - Ex-radio guy John Garabedian started V66 - Station did non-music programming likes sports, weather - MTV began adding different programs in late '80s - Eventually, V66 was sol

Part 2 of my conversation with special guests Nick Lorenzen and Mike Piantigini as we discuss the death of rock radio. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from The Henry Clay People, Archers of Loaf, Codeine and Los Campesinos. Show notes: - Radio now competes with iPods, digital radio, Spotify - The anticipation factor with new music is gone - Cell phone video has changed the live experience - Music has become background noise - We don't pay attention as closely to new music - As people get older, some lose that connection to music - Mike: Music education came from hanging out at college radio station - Remembering the old Boston rock station WCOZ - In praise of WFMU - Nick: Listened to a lot of classic rock on stations like WAAF - Satellite radio is a factor - Jay: First listened to CHUM-AM in Toronto, then got into the FM rock stations - Canadian Content Rule was in effect: Lots of April Wine, Chilliwack, Triumph - Nick and Mike played in the great rock band Lump - College radio is

Part 1 of my conversation with special guests Nick Lorenzen and Mike Piantigini as we discuss the death of rock radio. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Bob Mould, Hallelujah the Hills, Zeus and The White Stripes. Show notes: - Boston alternative rock station WFNX was sold to Clear Channel recently - Rock radio has been on life support for quite some time - Too much radio programming and formats - WFNX was pioneer of the alternative format - Nick: Knew of WFNX more by reputation as a kid - Mike: College radio introduced me to a world beyond classic rock and metal - Jay: R.E.M. and U2 were first so-called alternative bands I got into - WBCN was revolutionary back in late '60s and '70s, playing free-form rock - Eventually became formatted like all the rest - WBCN switched to alternative format in mid-'90s to compete with FNX - Eventually, BCN went to more talk: Stern, Opie & Anthony - FNX went downhill for a while with nu metal - Nick: FNX had rebounded in last few years - We

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Adam Tinkoff as we discuss diet and exercise. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from The Afghan Whigs, The Alabama Shakes, Sunny Ali and the Kid, and Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Adam's new show Zen@10 and also the Slow Runners Club - Adam: Think before you eat - Jay: Hot dogs gross me out - Food processing is a nasty business - Keep track of what you eat for 30 days - Mix up your workouts - Adam: Latin dancing is a great workout - Adam's a "carousel of crazy" - He did Internet broadcasting in 2000 before podcasting was created - Taking a break from Slow Runners Club podcast because of busy schedules - Kicked off 2012 Spring Clean Reboot - Group effort to eat better - First week is easy, but after that it's tough to sustain - We need to make it easy for people to exercise - Much has changed in the last 20 years - Harder to lose weight as you get older - Body mass index (BMI) is us

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Adam Tinkoff as we discuss fitness. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Young Adults, Guided By Voices, The Riverboat Gamblers and Beck. Show notes: - Recorded via Skype - Check out Adam's new show Zen@10 and also the Slow Runners Club - Talking a little rock: Against Me singer switching genders - Are Bowie Bonds worth anything? - Adam's mulling a trip to Bonnaroo - We both met Trey from Phish at different points - Frank Zappa's influence on modern music - Adam doesn't buy the new CDC obesity report - More folks are becoming long-distance runners getting into fitness - People need to make better dietary choices - Bigger problem is inactivity of people on Facebook - Adam: Was seriously into martial arts, then focused on fatherhood in his 30s - Now back into fitness - Adam was a podcasting pioneer, talking about weight loss and fitness - Drinking alcohol can affect how much nutrition your body gets from food - Formaldehyde: Your last drink

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Ben Amirault as we discuss the growth of craft beer. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Mission of Burma, Father John Misty, Hallelujah the Hills and The Men. Show notes: - Check out Ben's beer blog The Church Key - Dogfish Head has branched out with TV show, limited edition beers - Northeast has many great brewers: Magic Hat, Smuttynose, Baxter, Long Trail - "Ice beer" was, and still is, a thing - Regional pockets of great craft beer throughout the U.S. - Some of beers can overdo it with the accents (fruit, pumpkin, caramel, chocolate, coffee, etc.) - Jay: Not big into pairing certain beers with certain types of food - Canadians will drink Bud or Coors because it's so light - Ben: Hard to keep up with all the new brewers - Recent trend is putting craft beer in cans - Some brewers won't do it, but many are: Sierra Nevada, Harpoon, Oskar Blues, Baxter - Great packaging can get you to try a beer - The bomber is a great way to check out a ne

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Ben Amiraujlt as we discuss the growth of craft beer . I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from the Ty Segall Band, Ceremony, Grinderman and Brainiac. Show notes: - Check out Ben's beer blog The Church Key - Many parallels between craft beer world and punk rock - Ben reviews beers on his blog - When will someone invent digitized beer? - Craft beer first boomed in the '90s - Plenty of great small breweries popping up now - Session beer is catching on thanks to Notch - There's a lot of high-alcohol beers now - Ben's gearing up for American Craft Beer Fest in Boston - Social media is raising awareness of craft beer - Local specialty stores hold regular beer tastings - Summer beer is out in April - Beer is economy-proof - Sam Adams has become almost synonymous with craft beer - Dogfish Head has made a big splash in last few years - Comparing Sam Adams to Green Day - Old-school brewers are trying new things: Guinness, Bud, Newcastle - Going on a Gui

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the evolution of profanity. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Japandroids, Cloud Nothings, Ceremony and Yukon Blonde. Show notes: - Mother jokes led to popularity of "m-f'er" - Eddie Murphy's Comedian album introduced a whole new world of profanity - Most words have lost shock value - Little girl swearing in "Kick Ass" was shocking - We had more freedom as kids, but kids can access so much more now - Still isn't cool to randomly drop f-bombs in public - Matt: Won't call a female a bitch - Becoming more sensitive about calling your friends gay - Hollywood has become introduced to foul-mouthed Boston Irish characters - Swear words we won't say anymore - Songs with profanity are becoming more commonplace - Comedians have always pushed the boundaries - The Simpsons were once the paragon of rudeness - Violence on TV is no problem, but sex and some profanity is still banned - Cell phones have taken over people's lives

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the evolution of profanity. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week and music from Deer Tick, The Rationales, Wintersleep and Torche. Show notes: - George Carlin summed up the issue of profanity on TV quite nicely - NYPD Blue pushed the boundaries of what you could see on broadcast TV - As kids, we saw a lot of risque stuff on pay cable channels - Sitcoms have to make do with innuendo - Inadvertent f-bombs on awards shows - The "c-word" is offensive here, not so much overseas - The number of f-bombs factors into movie ratings - South Park loves to push network censors - Plot twists are more shocking than language - Tarantino edited the TV version of Pulp Fiction himself - The comfort of casual profanity - Starting young - Controlling your language in polite society - To be continued - Bonehead of the WeekMusic:Deer Tick - Born at Zero The Rationales - Radio Wintersleep - Resuscitate Torche - Reverse Inverted Completely Conspicuous is

This week, I revisit an old mix tape I made many moons ago. I've also got the Bonehead of the Week. Show notes: - In episode 141, I discussed the early mix tapes I made as a kid - A few years ago, started writing about mix tapes in my blog - Looking back at Summer of Loud, a tape I recorded in '94 - Previous year was pretty rough, but things were looking up in '94 - Switched jobs and apartments at about the same time - 1994 was a good year for alt rock - I still listen to this mix from time to time - Bonehead of the Week 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; check out his site PodGeek.