Completely Conspicuous 648: That Was the Year That Was

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2024. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Our top 10 albums of the year
• Shout out to Rock P's top 20 out of 10 countdown
• JB's #10: Triple album tribute album for Jesse Malin, an underrated songwriter
• JK's #10: J Mascis incorporates hot guitar solos into a mostly acoustic album
• JB's #9: Hot collection of bangers from Cloud Nothings
• JK's #9: Farewell set from Toronto noise rockers METZ 
• JK's #8: Angry breakup album from Fake Fruit
• Coming up on the 5th birthday of Parcheesi Redux radio, SITG hit 11 this fall
• JB's #7: Retro '60s sounds from Sharp Pins
• JK's #7:  Philly indie rockers return with in-your-face collection
• JB's #6: More great SF indie bubblegum pop from Lunchbox
• JK's #6: Power pop scorchers courtesy of Daniel Romano's Outfit
• Reminiscing about ER and One Tree Hill
• JB's #5: Peel Dream Magazine delivers peaceful indie pop
• JK's #5: Dublin indie rock act Fontaines D.C. with commercial breakthrough
• JB's #4: Dog Day with economical set of bangers
• JK's #4: Slacker alt-country with hott lead guitar by MJ Lenderman
• JB's #3: Another Slumberland slacker indie pop success with Neutrals
• JK's #3: Indie supergroup the Hard Quartet with Malkmus and Matt Sweeney
• JB's #2: The rare Johnny Foreigner album that isn't #1, but it's still pretty great 
• JK's #2 and JB's #8: Triumphant return from the Cure after 16 years
• JB's #1: Chime School with the peak summer hang soundtrack
• JK's #1: A November release from Kim Deal is a terrific reflection on loss
• First solo album after 37 years in the music biz
• Looking forward to 2025 releases from Hallelujah the Hills, maybe more Johnny Foreigner, Horsegirl, Mogwai

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.

Completely Conspicuous 647: Quality Pints

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2024. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• The 16th annual year in review 
• First one was in 2009
• Cybertrucks are dumb
• Self-driving cars are also dumb
• Taylor Swift just ended a monster tour
• Music is a dead-end business for most
• Spotify sucks
• Country music is huge
• Breitling: There are some good underground country artists
• A good year for Tracy Chapman
• Social media landscape is shifting
• Lots of big music deaths: Quincy Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Albini, Paul Di'Anno, Greg Kihn, Karl Wallinger
• Getting out to some rock shows: Hallelujah the Hills, Nuggets tour, Gang of Four, Hoodoo Gurus, Sloan in Toronto
• Breitling's honorable mentions: The TV show The Bear, Bug Club's song "Quality Pints," Fontaines D.C.'s "Favourite," Tsunami box set, Spectres, Kal Marks
• Kumar's honorable mentions: Dale Crover, Buffalo Tom, Ekko Astral, Jack White, Ducks Ltd., Mary Timony, Los Campesinos 
• 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.

Completely Conspicuous 646: Don't Speak

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite instrumentals. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Phil's #8: A jazz-funk classic out of Scotland?
• Jay's #8: Powerful surf rock from the Pixies
• Phil's #7: The Commodores with an early funk workout
• Jay's #7:  Dick Dale hit that was revived decades later in Pulp Fiction
• Song originated in the 1920s
• Phil's #6: Instrumental from Phish that evolved in the live setting
• Jay's #6: A sweeping song from Bowie's Berlin period
• Bowie switched genres and sounds with ease
• Phil's #5 and Jay's #3: A revolutionary moment for guitar heroics
• Edward Van Halen changed the game for rock guitar and hard rock
• Jay's #5: Hendrix blowing minds in the early morning hours at Woodstock
• Turning the national anthem into a protest song
• Phil's #4: Music mogul with a horn-driven dance song
• Sampled by Notorious B.I.G.
• Another horn-based song by Chuck Mangione went to #4 in '78
• Jay's #4:  Iconic full-band instrumental off Zep II
• Killer riff combined with Bonham's monstrous drumming
• Phil's #3: Elton John with the first part of a two-part suite 
• Metallica did a great cover earlier this year
• Phil's #2: Tedeschi-Trunks Band with extended instrumental from experimental project
• Jay's #2: Concise, virtuosic classic from Rush's best album
• Phil's #1: Iconic song released by the Allman Brothers Band after the death of their ace guitarist
• Dickey Betts played song with two fingers as a tribute to Django Reinhardt
• Jay's #1 and Phil's #10: Epic, emotional guitar piece by Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
• J Mascis did a great cover on Mike Watt's 1995 solo album

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.

Completely Conspicuous 645: Wordless Chorus

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite instrumentals. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• We're feeling goooood.
• What makes a good instrumental?
• Jay: I like the musicians in Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Not as many instrumentals made now as there used to be 
• No jazz instrumentals included in our lists
• Phil's bubbling under picks: Booker T and the MGs, Bar-Kays, Meters, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, U2, Rush, Dick Dale, Beatles, Boston, TSOP, Bowie, Pink Floyd 
• Jay's non-top 10 picks: Rush, Van Halen, Focus, ELO, Pink Floyd, the Who, Iron Maiden, Commodores, Fugazi, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
• Alex VH's new book ignores Sammy Hagar
• Some great instrumentals are TV themes like Barney Miller
• Jay's #10: The Police with a mysterious guitar exercise
• Phil's #9: Majestic song from the Who's first rock opera
• Fans in the '60s didn't know what to expect when bands were melting their faces
• Jay's #9: Beastie Boys break out the funk
• To be continued

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

Completely Conspicuous 644: Secondhand Love

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite cover songs. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Jay's #7: Ty Segall with a ripper of a Neil Young cover
• Phil's #6: The live version of a Linda Ronstadt classic
• Jay's #6: An indie rock all-star band playing covers the Beatles played in their early days
• Greg Dulli, Thurston Moore, Dave Grohl, Dave Pirner, Mike Mills and Don Fleming
• Phil's #5: Phish covering the Stones
• Phish does tons of covers
• Jay's #5: An unexpected '60s cover from Husker Du
• Phil's #4: Coltrane with a wild twist on a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic
• Jay's #4: Stripped down version of an English Beat hit by Pete Townshend
• Phil's #3: Rage Against the Machine's explosive take on a Springsteen folk song
• Jay: Forgot about Rollins and Bad Brains covering "Kick Out the Jams"
• Jay's #3: Dirtbombs with a smokin' garage punk remake of Stevie Wonder 
• Jay's #2: Nirvana's Unplugged show featured several great covers
• Phil's #1: Epic length cover "Morning Dew" by the Dead
• Watching old videos from the '60s and '70s to guess how old the crowd members are now
• Jay's #1 and Phil's #2: Mind-blowing Who cover of little-know Mose Allison song
• Jay: Live at Leeds is the greatest live album 
• All four members of the Who at the peak of their powers

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.

Completely Conspicuous 643: Cover Me

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite cover songs. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• What makes a good cover?
• Be true to the song, but bring something of yourself to it
• Jagger and Bowie's cover of "Dancing in the Streets" is godawful
• In the '80s and '90s, used to get 45s or cassingles (or CD singles) to get B-sides
• Phil's honorable mention covers: U2, Courtney Barnett, Nirvana, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Etta James, Beatles, Stones, Bjork, Aretha, Pearl Jam, CSNY, Cowboy Junkies
• Nirvana's MTV Unplugged has several great covers
• Zeppelin covered a lot of songs on their early albums, with or without giving credit
• Jay's honorable mentions: The Clash, Hendrix, Pretenders, U2, Charles Bradley, Thin Lizzy, Bjork, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Living Colour, Soft Cell, Johnny Cash, PJ, Deep Purple, Urge Overkill, Violent Femmes, Anthrax, Breeders, Cheap Trick, Malkmus and Elastica, Iron Maiden, Queens of the Stone Age
• Phil's #10: Stevie Ray Vaughan takes on a guitar god's classic
• Jay's #10: Dinosaur Jr. makes a Cure song their own
• Phil's #9: Zeppelin's first album features a cover that was previously done by Joan Baez
• Judas Priest also covered a Baez song
• Jay's #9: A signature Blondie song was actually a cover
• Phil's #8: A timeless classic from the late '50s by the Flamingos
• Jay's #8: Sinead O'Connor made the definitive version of a Prince song
• Phil's #7: Faces with a powerful Temptations cover
• 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.

Completely Conspicuous 642: Ooh La La

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of the 2010s. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Phil's 2016 #1: Drive-By Truckers with a political statement in a divided year
• Jay's 2016 #1: The final act of Bowie was a masterpiece
• Phil's 2017 #1: Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile join forces
• Jay's 2017: #1: Strong second act from the Afghan Whigs
• Phil's and Jay's 2018 #1: Cathartic blast of political anger from Superchunk
• Phil's 2019 #1: David Berman's final album as Purple Mountains
• Real talk about people dealing with tough issues 
• Shocking deaths over the last decade
• Jay's 2019 #1: Sarcastic pop-punk excellence from Toronto's PUP
• Phil's 2020 #1: Jason Isbell deals with ghosts on his 7th album
• COVID memories
• Jay's 2020 #1: Topical protest hip hop from Run the Jewels

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.