Completely Conspicuous

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's 1970 album Workingman's Dead. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - First show of the new year - Workingman's Dead is the band's 4th studio album - First of two releases in '70 - Recorded in nine days - Stripped down sound, less psychedelic - Garcia and Robert Hunter wrote the whole album - Folk, country, Americana elements -...

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Featuring special guest/studio audience member Ric Dube - On to our top 5 selections - JK's #5 - An unexpectedly great album from a member of the Strokes - JB's #5 - Weird shoegaze straight outta Philly - JB's #4 - More excellent Philadelphia indie rock - JK's #3...

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Featuring special guest/studio audience member Ric Dube - JB's #10/JK's #9 - On-again, off-again band led by Steve Hartlett - Ah, the old "sweatpants-with-beers-stuffed-down-the-legs" deal - Reminiscent of "Bug"-era Dino Jr. - JK's #10 - Labelmates of Parquet Cour...

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Featuring special guest/studio audience member Ric Dube - The decline of rock's popularity - Album sales are way down - That time the Melvins hit the Top 200 albums chart - Apple's going to work with the Amazon Echo soon - Breitling pays for the Amazon Music "Talk...

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's first official live album, Live/Dead. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Live/Dead was released in 1969 - There weren't a lot of live albums released then - The band did it as a make-good to the label after some poor-selling albums - Recorded at the Fillmore West - Songs evolved in live setting - At the time, it was unusua...

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's third album, Aoxomoxoa. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Aoxomoxoa was released in 1969 - A big year for rock music - Tons of legendary albums came out: Zeppelin, Who, Beatles, Neil Young, Stooges, MC5, Stones - First two Dead albums were commercial failures - Went way over budget in studio, stuck to their guns - Very ex...

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's second album, 1968's Anthem of the Sun. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Anthem of the Sun was recorded in 1967, released in '68 - Very experimental, similar to Zappa's song splicing in the '70s - Studio and live performances mixed together - An early concept album - Songs would evolve through the years in performance -...

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we dig into the catalog of the Grateful Dead, starting with the band's 1967 debut. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Other podcasts have focused on catalogs of U2, R.E.M., Phish, The Tragically Hip - Looking at the Dead album by album - Phil's a tie-dyed in the wool Deadhead, Jay has only superficial knowledge of the band - Phil: Got into the Dead in t...

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our rock n' roll regrets. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Jay: Gave away a bunch of vinyl in the '90s - Price gouging vinyl-loving hipsters - Looking for bargains - Young entrepreneurship gone wrong - Taping music off the radio - In praise of Barooga Bandit - Phil: Wish I'd seen shows at some historic venues - Jay: Bands I once li...

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our rock n' roll regrets. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Phil: Bands I never got to see - Missing artists before they died - Sometimes it's for budgetary reasons - Jay: Saw Neil Young last month for the first time - The time Phil got dosed at a Cure show - Phil: Not being old enough to see certain artists in their prime - Followi...

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Our top 5 albums of the year so far - JB's #5 - Post-rock quartet from Philly - JK's #5 - A New Year's gift - Channeling post-election angst - JB's #3 - Hook-laden pop from Kevin Kline's kid - JK's #4 - Back to basics from power pop masters - JK'...

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - On to the top 10 - JB's #10 - Side project of the late Scott Hutchison - JK's #10 - Welcome return of alt-rock faves - The laid-back recording style of Steve Albini - JB's #9 - Ambient music via Philly - JK's #9 - Boston alt-rock icons back with...

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of the first half of 2018. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - The sudden album drop: Drake, Kanye, Beyonce/Jay Z, Rosenstock - Who needs major labels? - Charts are meaningless when the kids just stream music - Country may be the biggest selling genre right now - Pop tours are struggling - The flipside of co...

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss social media dependency. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea - The political climate is disturbingly fascinating - O, Canada? - It used to be easy to fall out of political favor - Howard Dean's scream - The lack of competition - No alternative party - Navigating social media to victory - Coming up with an escape plan...

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss social media dependency. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea - Back from a little hiatus - Using the phone at the urinal - Matt: Detached from social media while in Canada - We're online all day for work - Jay: The kids love the Instagram - Twitter can be a cesspool - Let Me Google That For You - When Star Wars nerds...

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss musical blindspots: I dig into George Harrison's Brainwashed and Brian checks out Living Colour's Stain. Show notes: - Jay: George Harrison's posthumous release - Never heard anything from this on the radio - Took repeated listens for it to click - Ends with George and his son chanting together - Harrison's solo work after first al...

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss musical blindspots: I dig into Paul McCartney's RAM and Brian checks out Living Colour's Time's Up. Show notes: - Brian: Glover's vocals are too showy on Reid's songs - Second half of album is more varied - Back in the days of super-long albums - Living Colour would switch styles in the middle of songs - Bands would go platinum wit...

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the power of the written word. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea - The popularity of comics has moved beyond just comic books - The collector's market collapsed in the late '90s - We make less time to read nowadays - Audiobooks and podcasts are popular with people trying to multitask - Mark Hamill's interesting car...

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the power of the written word. Show notes: - Check out Matt's book Echo and the Sea - Everything's great - Content has a different meaning these days - Gotta grab readers much more quickly - We read full articles more infrequently - Rarely go directly to newspaper sites - Jay: Use Feedly, which is like the old Google Reader RSS feed...

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite albums of 2017. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - JB's #4 - A surprising shoegaze comeback - JK's #4 - Dan Bejar hits the sweet spot - JB's #3 - The greatness of Father/Daughter Records - Interesting songs that grab you - JK's #3 - A man of constant reinvention - JB's #2 - A strong farewell from a beloved band -...

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite albums of 2017. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - JB's #10 - Tommy Stinson can still bring it - JK's #10 - A welcome return after 17 years - JB's #9 - A turnkey post-shoegaze solution - JK's #9 - Double LP return for the great Ted Leo - JB's #8 - A different sound for She Sir - JK's #8 - Strong effort marred by...

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about the year in indie rock. Show notes: - Recorded at Clicky Clicky world HQ - Eighth annual year in review - Rock isn't part of the top 40 conversation anymore - Apple is going to stop selling downloads and iPods - Music as a service - Does higher quality audio really matter? - People who died - Pat DiNizio recently passed; the Smithereens had...

This week, it's part 1 of my discussion with Brian Salvatore about musical blindspots with Brian listening to Living Colour while I dig into early solo Beatles records. Show notes: - Brian listened to Vivid, Jay listened to John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - Adventures in Skype - Jay: Wasn't familiar with much of this album - Very raw, exposed album for Lennon - Lennon didn't release many albums befor...

This week, it's part 2 of my discussion with Phil Stacey about how we deal with losing musicians we love. Show notes: - Replacing a beloved band member is tough - Tom Petty's legacy - Steely Dan's interesting catalog - The problem with hearing the same songs over and over - The lighter side of Prince - Prince's prolific later years - A master of any style - Jay: Downie's loss hits harder now becau...

This week, it's part 1 of my discussion with Phil Stacey about how we deal with losing musicians we love. Show notes: - Gord Downie died a few weeks ago - Many high-profile music deaths in last few years - Musicians are getting older, but also some tragic deaths - Phil: Elvis Presley's death was memorable - Lennon's death was shocking - Phil: Cobain and Jerry Garcia's deaths hit hard - Jay: The pl...