Completely Conspicuous 190: Turn the Page

Part 3 of my conversation with special guests Jay Breitling and Ric Dube as we discuss the world of rock books. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").







Show notes:



- Dube: Gina Arnold's "Route 666: The Road to Nirvana" was annoying, but had good Replacements info



- Tendency for writers to document bands in terms of their own experiences



- Dube: "On the Road with the Ramones," oral history by road manager Monte Melnick had great inside info



- Using quotes to tell a story



- Dube met the Ramones when they came through record store where he worked

- Michael Azerrad's "Our Band Could Be Your Life" was hugely influential



- Dube was behind the scenes when Mission of Burma reunited



- Azerrad's book got people interested in Burma again



- Band has bigger career now than it did before



- Dube helped Azerrad with his fanzine research



- Kumar: Rob Sheffield's "Love Is a Mixtape"



- Breitling: Steven Blush's "American Hardcore"



- Was made into a movie that didn't capture spirit of book



- Kumar: Our buddy Dave Brigham's book "(C)Rock Stories: Milion-Dollar Tales of Music, Mayhem and Immaturity"



- Dube wants to produce the movie version



- Dube: B. George and Martha Defoe's "The International Discography of the New Wave"



- Dube has second edition from 1982; copy is well-worn and marked up



- Dube: "Rolling Stone's Alt-Rock-a-Rama" is "phenomenal by accident"



- Another one from the pile: Kim Cooper and David Smay's "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth"



- Bonehead of the Week



Music:



Crooked Fingers - Typhoon



Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band - Stay Away



Arcade Fire - We Used to Wait



Mini Mansions - The Room Outside



Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!



The show is sponsored by Budget, the country's premier car rental service with 900 locations. Go to Budget.com/CompCon and save 10% off any reservation or $30 off a weekly rental.



The Crooked Fingers song is on the forthcoming album Breaks in the Armor on Merge Records. Download the song for free at Stereogum.



The Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band song is on Newermind: A Tribute Album. Download the album for free by "liking" SPIN magazine's Facebook page.



The Arcade Fire song is on the album The Suburbs on Merge Records. Download the song for free at Insound.



The Mini Mansions song is on the band's self-titled, self-released EP. Download the song for free at Insound.



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 blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at his blog. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.



Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Completely Conspicuous 189: No New Tale to Tell

The podcast returns this week with part 2 of my conversation with special guests Jay Breitling and Ric Dube as we discuss the world of rock books. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").







Show notes:



- Rock memoirs



- Kumar: Jen Trynin's Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be



- Dube: Dave Simpson's The Fallen talks to the many former members of The Fall



- The Fall's being going for 35 years



- Steven Tyler's memoir was out this year



- Breitling can't stop yawning



- Falling off the wagon



- One-upping each other with Aerosmith rehab connections



- Joey Kramer has a memoir out, too



- Kumar: Motley Crue's The Dirt is a great rock bio



- Dube recalls defiling the memory of Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle



- Dube: Jim Derogatis bio of legendary rock writer Lester Bangs, Let It Blurt



- Hollywood music biopics (Walk the Line, Ray) follow the same formula: Triumph, downfall, comeback



- More Bangs: Main Lines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste



- No more big names in rock journalism



- Kumar goes on "people don't read anymore" rant



- Dube: Ugly Things, a book-length periodical out of California



- Breitling learns about some band called the Beatles



- Plenty of books about Elvis, Dylan



- Kumar: Shakey, bio about Neil Young by Jimmy McDonough



- Massive tome, kinda messy, very interesting



- Our friend Marc is smart



- Dube: Best oral history book is Fool the World, about the Pixies



- When done right, oral histories use quotes to tell the story



- Breitling: Replacements' oral history suffers because most band members weren't quoted



- Bonehead of the Week



Music:



Matthew Sweet - She Walks the Night



Deer Tick - Miss K



Don Fleming - My Little Lamb



Screaming Trees - Ash Gray Sunday



Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!



The show is sponsored by Eastbay/Footlocker.com. Use the following codes to get athletic gear from Nike, Adidas, Asics and more. AFCOMP15 will get you 10% off any order of $50 at Eastbay.com, AFCOMP20 will get you 15% off any order of $75 at Eastbay.com and AFCOMPFL will get you 10% off any order of $50 or more at Footlocker.com.



The Matthew Sweet song is on the forthcoming album Modern Art on Missing Piece Records. Find out more and download the song for free (in exchange for your email address) at his website.



The Deer Tick song is on the album Divine Providence on Partisan Records. Find out more and download the song for free (in exchange for your email address) at the band's website.



The Don Fleming song is on the EP Don Fleming 4 on Instant Mayhem. Find out more at Instant Mayhem and download the song for free at IODA Promonet:



Don Fleming

"My Little Lamb � EP (Feat. R. Stevie Moore) " (mp3)

from "Don Fleming 4"

(Instant Mayhem)



Buy at iTunes Music Store

More On This Album







The Screaming Trees song is on the album Last Words: The Final Recordings on Sunyata Records. Download the song for free at IODA Promonet:



Screaming Trees

"Ash Gray Sunday" (mp3)

from "Last Words: The Final Recordings"

(Sunyata Records)



Buy at iTunes Music Store

More On This Album







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 http://clickyclickymusic.com and http://www.keepingsomedarksecrets.net. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell; find out more at http://www.myspace.com/meandboristhebull. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at http://bobdurling.blogspot.com/. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site http://www.podgeek.com.



Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Completely Conspicuous 188: Words and Guitar

This week on the podcast, I've got part 1 of my conversation with special guests Jay Breitling and Ric Dube as we discuss the world of rock books. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").







Show notes:



- Dube (check out the More Lost Time podcast) prepared well for topic



- Good time for rock books: Keith Richards, Bob Mould



- Breaking down types of rock books: Memoirs, biographies, oral histories, indexes



- Pete Townshend could do something weird with his memoir



- Air quote alert



- Objective biographies can be better than memoirs



- Police bio was very critical of the band



- SPIN magazine used to do good oral histories about bands



- Every old issue of SPIN is up on Google Books



- Mixed reviews for Klosterman



- Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life was momentous



- Got his big break with Nirvana bio in early '90s



- Breitling: I want to read only one book about a particular band



- Dube introduces us to the work of Vernon Joynson



- Trouser Press guides



- Bootlegs are much more accessible online



- Kumar: Keith Richards memoir is excellent



- Breitling: Rollins' Get in the Van is a great memoir of the Black Flag years



- Dube: Jim Greer's book about Guided By Voices is good; Greer used to play in band



- Juliana Hatfield's memoir wasn't interesting enough



- Bonehead of the Week



Music:



Boston Spaceships - Christmas Girl



Archers of Loaf - Wrong



Okkervil River - Your Past Life as a Blast



The Delta Spirit - She's Not There



Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!



The show is sponsored by Budget, the country's premier car rental service with 900 locations. Go to Budget.com/CompCon and save 10% off any reservation or $30 off a weekly rental.



The Boston Spaceships song is on the album Let It Beard on Guided by Voices Records. Download the song for free at The Ash Gray Proclamation.



The Archers of Loaf song is on the deluxe reissue of the album Icky Mettle on Merge Records. Download the song for free at Amazon.



The Okkervil River song is on the album I Am Very Far on Jagjaguwar Records. Download the song for free at Amazon.



The Delta Spirit song is available as a free download (in exchange for your email address) at the band's website.



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 blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Also, check out Clicky Clicky Radio Thursdays from 8 to 10 p.m. on Boston Free Radio. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at his blog. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.



Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Completely Conspicuous 187: Five Years

This week, I celebrate the podcast's fifth birthday by discussing the podcast's origins and where it's going. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



Show notes:

- Driving to Boston

- Big 5th birthday of the show

- First started listening to podcasts in the car

- Considered doing show about running

- Started with scripted segments

- Eventually brought guests on

- Recharged show's batteries

- Rain gets heavier, as does traffic

- Not in it for the money because there isn't any]

- First podcasts showed up in 2004

- Addition of podcasts to iTunes store was huge for exposure

- I listen to many shows: Phedippidations, Smodcast, No Agenda, WTF, Nerdist, Rock n' Roll Geek Show

- Podcasting is thriving, but not as a money-making venture necessarily

- Listen to podcasts instead of radio

- It's easy to do a podcast

- Friends are doing shows: Ric Dube's More Lost Time

- I've made friends through podcasting: Steve Runner, James Gralian, Brian Salvatore, Adam Tinkoff

- Stuck in traffic

- Plan to keep doing the show as long as I can

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

St. Vincent - Surgeon

We Were Promised Jetpacks - Act on Impulse

Shonen Knife - Rock n' Roll High School

Algernon Cadwallader - Cruisin'

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The show is sponsored by Eastbay/Footlocker.com. Use the following codes to get athletic gear from Nike, Adidas, Asics and more. AFCOMP15 will get you 10% off any order of $50 at Eastbay.com, AFCOMP20 will get you 15% off any order of $75 at Eastbay.com and AFCOMPFL will get you 10% off any order of $50 or more at Footlocker.com.

The St. Vincent song is on the forthcoming album Strange Mercy on 4AD. Find out more and download the song for free (in exchange for your email address) at Strange Mercy.

The We Were Promised Jetpacks song is on the forthcoming album In the Pit of the Stomach on Fat Cat. Find out more and download the song for free (in exchange for your email address) at WWPJ.

The Shonen Knife song is on the album Osaka Ramones: Tribute to the Ramones on Good Charamel Records. Download the song for free at Amazon.

The Algernon Cadwallader song is on the album Parrot Flies on Big Scary Monsters. Download the song for free at SoundCloud.

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 blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at his blog. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.