Completely Conspicuous 216: The Adjustment Bureau

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Mike Heyliger as we discuss the transition of moving to the Boston area. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Check out Mike's blog Popblerd

- Mike grew up in New York, moved to Boston in 2008

- Slow adjustment

- Mike: Every time I go back, I like NY less

- Slower pace in Boston, except for the drivers

- Jay: Even slower pace in NH

- Mike: Occasionally gets crap for wearing Yankees gear

- Not a ton of diversity in Boston

- Jay: Toronto is extremely diverse

- Still plenty of racism to go around

- The world's a lot different than it was 30 years ago

- Mike: Boston music scene is better than NYC's

- Good selection of clubs

- Mike's broken $100 ticket barrier to see Prince, Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z/Kanye

- To be continued

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Gorillaz (feat. Andre 3000 and James Murphy) - DoYaThing

Boots Electric - I Love You All the Thyme

Andrew Bird - EyeonEye

Mike Doughty - Na Na Nothing

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

The Gorillaz song is courtesy of Converse. Download the song for free from Converse.

The Boots Electric song is on the album Honkey Kong on Dangerbird Records. Download the song for free at Epitonic.

The Andrew Bird song is on the album Break It Yourself on Mom and Pop Records. Download the song for free at NoiseTrade.

The Mike Doughty song is on the album Yes and Also Yes on Snack Bar Records. 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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous 215: Could This Be Magic?

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss the new Van Halen album. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Jay: An impressive outing for a band at this stage

- Not many bands have taken such a long break and returned strong

- Mission of Burma and the Feelies are better than ever

- Where does this rank in VH pantheon?

- Jay: Ranks 7th after first six DLR albums, ahead of Hagar

- Brian: Michael Anthony's harmonies are missed

- Brian: VH should do a tour with Dave and Sammy

- What would you pay $90 to see live?

- Brian: McCartney's current band is excellent

- Arena shows are quickly getting priced out of reach of much of public

- Brian: Bob Mould noted particularly egregious lyrics on new VH single

- Brian: Aerosmith is long overdue for a good album

- Jay: Last good Aerosmith album was more than 20 years ago

- Good run of Aerosmith albums in the '70s

- Steven Tyler has become the dude who looks like a lady

- Brian: This VH album could've been much worse

- The sad story of Jason Becker, DLR's guitarist in early '90s

- Jay: Couldn't have expected the new VH to be any better

- Brian: Interested to hear the follow-up

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
The Hounds Below - For You and I

Dinosaur Jr. - No Bones (live)

Black Mountain - Mary Lou

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

The Hounds Below song is on the band's as-yet untitled debut album. Download the song for free at Consequence of Sound.

The Dinosaur Jr. song is on the DVD Bug Live at 9:30 Club: In the Hands of Fans. Download the song for free at DinosaurJr.com.

The Black Mountain song is on the soundtrack to the movie Year Zero. Download the song for free at Stereogum.

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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous 214: Hear About It Later

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Brian Salvatore as we discuss the new Van Halen album, the band's first with David Lee Roth in almost 30 years. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



Show notes:

- Recorded via Skype

- Not interested in Grammy Awards

- Gary Cherone was in band at its worst

- Brian: Only VH album in his iTunes is VH III

- Brian started listening to VH in early '90s

- Always preferred DLR

- Jay: First VH album was Diver Down on cassette

- Diver Down was a cash-in album

- Jay: Liked Hagar, but not as VH singer

- Lyrical content not a big concern for VH

- Brian: VH III was pretty stark

- Eddie's synth phase was similar to what Rush did in the '80s

- VH has always picked curious opening acts

- Wolfgang is a decent bassist

- Neither VH or DLR had done anything good for 20+ years

- Jay: Eat 'Em and Smile was better than 5150

- Brian: First impression of new album was it sounds like DLR solo album

- Jay: First single is worst song on album

- Brian: Everybody sounds energized

- Beginning of second career or one-time deal?

- To be continued

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Frank Black and the Catholics - Nadine

Buffalo Tom - Mineral

Hot Snakes - Who Died

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

The Frank Black and the Catholics song is on the album Show Me Your Tears on SpinART Records. Download the song for free at Epitonic.

The Buffalo Tom song is on the album Let Me Come Over on Beggars Banquet. Download the song for free at Epitonic.

The Hot Snakes song is on the album Suicide Invoice on Swami Records. Download the song for free at Epitonic.

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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous 213: Wave of Mutilation

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Brad Searles as we discuss band reunions, among other rock topics. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").




Show notes:

- Check out Brad's excellent blog, Bradley's Almanac

- Recorded at the Sunset Grill in Allston, Mass.

- Brad's bad memories of seeing Pixies open for U2

- Praise for Stewart Copeland

- The massive influence of the Pixies

- Brad: Recording at Fort Apache was daunting

- Possible Stone Roses reunion in the works

- Codeine's doing reunion shows and releasing box set

- Chickfactor is bringing a bunch of bands back together: Lilys, Small Factory

- Guided By Voices reunites classic lineup

- The power of Janet Weiss

- Great music blogs: Chromewaves, Clicky Clicky, Largehearted Boy

- Brad recommends Soma.fm streaming radio

- Brad does a DJ night with Jay Breitling at River Gods in Cambridge, Mass.

- Making time to do things your way

- A lot of blogs died after chasing the big payout

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless

Joseph Arthur - Travel As Equals

The Cult - Lucifer

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

The Cloud Nothings song is on the album Attack on Memory on Carpark Records. Download the song for free at Brooklynvegan.

The Joseph Arthur song is on the self-released album Redemption City. Download the album for free at his website.

The Cult song is on the forthcoming album Choice of Weapon on Cooking Vinyl. Download the song for free (in exchange for your email address) at TheCult.us.

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. 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.

Welcome to the Occupation

Hola, nerditos! Welcome to the new Interwebs home of Completely Conspicuous. For the past five-plus years, the podcast's host has been Mevio, but things are getting pretty crazy over there. Hundreds of podcasts were "suspended" over the last week as the company refocused its energies towards video content.

This shouldn't have come as a shock to anyone who knows the company, because that's been its focus for the last two or three years. The shocking part was that it happened suddenly without notice. My show was unaffected by this change, but it's only a matter of time before CompCon gets kicked to the curb. So I decided to relocate my feed on my own and the first step was to give it a dedicated location. Next step is to start uploading shows to Archive.org, which is free and open source, and where other podcasters that I respect have already moved their shows. No sense in being beholden to the whims of a hosting company. It's not like I was making a ton of dough from the affiliation, anyhow. It was really the free hosting that kept me around.

Apparently it's not too difficult to switch my feed at iTunes, so I'll be doing that as well. Going forward, you should see too many changes to the show other than the lack of me reading sponsor copy. Unless, of course, I can find a sponsor or two...preferably a craft brewery.

I've imported all the CompCon posts from my regular blog to this location as well, and I'll keep posting them there for each episode, too. Thanks for sticking with me through this move.