Completely Conspicuous 574: Bigmouth Strikes Again

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite music of 1986. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Recorded in the backyard of CompCon HQ

- Phil's #5: Solid effort from the Pretenders, which was basically just Chrissie Hynde at this point

- Jay's #5: Metallica hits their high point

- Neighborhood dogs start chiming in

- Phil is a big fan of Ratt n' Roll

- Phil's #4: The debut of the Van Hagar era

- Eddie fully embraces synths, poppier sound

- Didn't realize until recently that the riff of "Best of Both Worlds" is identical to Kool and the Gang's "Celebration"

- Jay's #4: David Lee Roth's out VH's VH

- The best Dave solo album

- Phil's #3 and Jay's #2: R.E.M. starts embracing power chords

- Jay's #3: John Lydon teams up with studio musicians to create a classic

- Steve Vai, Ginger Baker and others show up

- Phil's #1: The Smiths in the middle of a strong run of albums

- Johnny Marr elevates this album

- Phil's #2 and Jay's #1: Husker Du's last great record

- First major label album featured more pop hooks

- Grant Hart and Bob Mould each bringing in great songs

- Favorite songs: "Bigmouth Strikes Again" (Phil), "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely" (Jay)

- Check out my Spotify playlist "Hits of the Year," which collects all the favorite songs we picked from 1970 onward

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 445: Reeling in the Years, 1985 (Part 3)

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1985. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Check out Brian's podcast Input/Output
- Jay's #5
- Brian: "I'm a major label sellout guy" when it comes to R.E.M.
- R.E.M. started getting rock radio airplay in '85
- When MTV News was a thing
- The evolution of Stipe
- Brian's #2
- The Pogues: A love 'em or hate 'em band
- Shane McGowan has teeth now
- Jay's #2
- Two great Husker Du albums in '85
- New Day Rising gets the edge over Flip Your Wig
- Rock concert business was focused on arenas in '85
- Indie rock acts had to forge their own way
- Brian's #1 and Jay's #5
- Camper Van Beethoven's interesting debut mixed a lot of styles
- Jay forgot about the Replacements
- Trouble Boys, the Replacements bio, is excellent
- Mats reunion may not be over
- Jay's #1
- Pete Townshend's last great work
- Ambitious project about the London projects where he grew up
- Since then, he's focused on Who tours and licensing
- McCartney can't stop/won't stop
- Next up: 1990

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.

Eight Miles High

Checking in from Williamsburg, Virginia, where we're on vacation for the next week. We've been keeping ourselves busy with visits to Colonial Williamsburg, Water Country and a ropes course in our first few days here, but I wanted to take a little time to celebrate an anniversary today: Eight years ago on this very day, I created the first episode of Completely Conspicuous.

It's hard to believe the show's been a going concern since 2006, when podcasting was still a new and strange development. Now podcasting's fairly mainstream, at least in terms of the number of shows and the audiences they've grown. It hasn't become the huge moneymaking platform that some predicted it would, but it's been interesting see how some folks have indeed used a podcast to create new careers for themselves. Certainly folks like Marc Maron, Chris Hardwick and Adam Carolla have been able to reach new heights and build audiences and followings and yes, make some money out of the deal.

That certainly hasn't been the case for me, but then, I never thought it would. CompCon's been a labor of love and something that I've enjoyed doing over the years for the sheer fun of it. When the show was part of the Podshow network, I ran ads to cover my expenses, but when Podshow/Mevio started falling apart, I was just as happy to pay my $20 a month to have Libsyn host the show.

I've never had a huge audience and honestly have never cared to pimp the show to get one. I like talking to people about things that interest me. Fortunately, I've had friends who have contributed greatly to the show over 338 episodes: Jay Breitling, Ric Dube, Brian Salvatore, Matt Phillion, Brian Lewandowski, Phil Stacey and many others. I thank all of them for helping make the show what it is.

I'm still going to keep cranking out the episodes as long as I feel like doing the show. Hopefully you'll listen in. If not, that's cool, too.