Completely Conspicuous 626: Entertain

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 2005. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Jay's #5 and Phil's #4: New Pornographers with another all-star power pop classic
• Phil's #5: Early '70s singer-songwriter jams from Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
• Still in the era of artists putting out overlong albums
• Jay's #3: Spoon expands their sound, grows their popularity
• Phil's #3: A powerful R&B belter from Sharon Jones
• Jay's #2: Queens of the Stone Age with a punchy follow-up to a monster hit
• Phil's #2: Beck with an Odelay-esque release with a nod to Latin music
• Phil's #1 and Jay's #4: Sleater-Kinney drops a monster rock album 
• Jay's #1: Another winner from The Hold Steady, blending big riffs and nerdy scenester tales
• Jay makes a Rush joke
• Favorite songs: "Jumpers" (Phil), "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" (Jay)

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 348: Reunited...and It Feels So Old

Part 1 of the latest installment of Driving with Kumar as I share some thoughts while driving to my 25th college reunion. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").


Show notes:
- Coached in a youth soccer tournament before driving up to University of New Hampshire
- Haven't gone to a college reunion before
- Still see many friends from college on occasion
- Nearly flunked out freshman year
- Switched from engineering to journalism and turned it around
- Worked for newspaper for six years after college
- Journalism majors use theirs skill in different ways now
- College was my first time away from parental discipline
- Real partying began when grades improved
- Did not drink in high school
- First weekend in college, that changed
- Freshman year roommate had a tough time
- Sophomore year roomie was super busy with activities
- Moved off campus junior year
- Unlucky in love
- Always hung out with both nerds and jocks
- Ate a lot of junk food
- To be continued

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

Music:
Sleater-Kinney - Bury Our Friends
Coaches - amisarewaswere
The Cherry Wave - Whitey

The Sleater-Kinney song is on the forthcoming album No Cities to Love on Sub Pop. Download the song for free (in exchange for your email address) at Stereogum.
The Coaches song is available for free download at Bandcamp.

The Cherry Wave song is on the forthcoming album Avalancher and available for free download at Bandcamp.

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.

Completely Conspicuous 272: I Me Mine

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Phillion about our narcissistic society. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:
- Narcissism is on the rise
- Recent study looks at the Internet "narcissism epidemic"
- We are part of the problem
- We're more likely to take photos of injustice than actually help out
- Matt works from home, posts on Facebook to get social interaction
- Some people need to post status updates of their every move
- Gay marriage debate has been ubiquitous on social media
- Linked In endorsements: What's the point?
- Matt's creepy clown photo
- Creating a false impression through upbeat self-promotion
- Selfies are everywhere
- People will do anything to get on TV
- Reality TV has never been more popular
- MySpace was a mess
- Googling yourself is a common activity
- Matt's IMDB page
- To be continued
- Bonehead of the Week


Music:
JEFF the Brotherhood - Shredder
Le Butcherettes - Henry Don't Got Love
Sleater-Kinney - Jumpers
Ty Segall - You're the Doctor

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

The JEFF the Brotherhood song is on the album We Are the Champions on Infinity Cat Recordings/Warner Music. Download the song for free at Epitonic.
The Le Butcherettes song is on the album Sin Sin Sin on Rodriguez Lopez Productions. Download the song for free at Epitonic.
The Sleater-Kinney song is on the album The Woods on Sub Pop. Download the song for free at Epitonic.
The Ty Segall song is on the album Twins on Drag City. 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 blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 220: Never Hear the End of It

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Jay Breitling as we discuss earworms. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Recorded on St. Patrick's Day at Chez Breitling

- Not referring to Ceti eels from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

- Kumar: Recently haunted by crappy songs from Styx and Foreigner

- The search for Early Dog

- Breitling has memories of the ol' shower radio

- Ronnie Montrose, R.I.P.

- Chloe B. makes an appearance

- Kumar: "Smoke on the Water" banishes most earworms

- Sometimes earworms can be good

- Advertising can create earworms by playing songs repeatedly

- On Jon Papelbon's new entrance music for the Phillies

- Kumar: Crappy soundtrack songs from the '80s return to haunt me

- Scientific research on earworms

- Rebecca Black's "Friday"

- Keith Richards on business acumen

- To be continued

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Titus Andronicus - Upon Viewing Oregon's Landscape with the Flood of Detritus

At the Drive-In - Pattern Against User

Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One

Spoon - The Fitted Shirt

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

The Titus Andronicus song is from the Titus Andronicus LLC Mixtape Vol 1. Download the mixtape for free from the band's Tumblr.

The At the Drive-In song is from the album Relationship of Command on Grand Royal Records. Download the song for free from Epitonic.

The Sleater-Kinney song is on the album All Hands on the Bad One on Kill Rock Stars. Download the song for free from Epitonic.

The Spoon song is on the album Girls Can Tell on Merge Records. Download the song for free from 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 blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous 197: Let's Get Lost

Part 3 of my conversation with special guests Jay Breitling and Ric Dube as we discuss bands that don't know when to call it quits. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



Show notes:

- Dube plays good music on his podcast, More Lost Time

- Remember when John Travolta was in Squeeze?

- Breitling disses NYC

- We explain the Odd Future-Steve Albini beef

- Albini rises above our premise

- Trashing The Eagles

- Everybody's got their so-called guilty pleasure

- In praise of non-formatted FM radio

- Defending the J. Geils Band reunion

- Dube pitches a movie

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Male Bonding - Bones
Telekinesis - Please Ask for Help
The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control
Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out

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 Male Bonding song is on the band's album Endless Now on Sub Pop, where you can download the song for free.

The Telekinesis song is on the band's album 12 Desperate Straight Lines on Merge Records. Download the song for free from the Merge Records 2011 Sampler at Amazon.

The Gossip song is on the album Standing in the Way of Control on Kill Rock Stars. Download the song for free from the Kill Rock Stars 20 Year Anniversary Sampler at Amazon.

The Sleater-Kinney song is on the album Dig Me Out on Kill Rock Stars. Download the song for free from the Kill Rock Stars 20 Year Anniversary Sampler at Amazon.

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.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Completely Conspicuous Episode 44: Stranger Than Fiction

It has been a busy week. I've been writing for NaNoWriMo; only a few hours to go. And I've been neglecting my podcast, so here's the latest episode (right click and "save as").

Show notes...

Topics:
- The value of the written word
- The New England Patriots and the lonely pursuit of excellence
- Pinhead of the Week

Music:
- Panthers - Goblin City
- Tapes n' Tapes - Cowbell (live)
- Tokyo Police Club - Nature of the Experiment
- Murder City Devils - Idle Hands
- Sleater Kinney - Entertain

Promo:
- New England Podcasting.

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes, Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast Pickle podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!

The song from Panthers is on their album The Trick on Vice Records. It comes courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network.

The song from Murder City Devils is on the album Idle Hands. The Sleater Kinney song is on the album The Woods. Both songs are courtesy of Sub Pop Records; find out more and download both tracks here.
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The song from Tapes 'n Tapes is on the compilation album Free Yr Radio, which was put together by Toyota and Urban Outfitters; find out more here. And the Tokyo Police Club song is on their album A Lesson in Crime on Paper Bag Records. Those two songs were provided by IODA Promonet.

Tapes 'n Tapes
"Cowbell" (mp3)
from "Free Yr Radio"
(Free Yr Radio)

Buy at Urban Outfitters
More On This Album



Tokyo Police Club
"Nature Of The Experiment" (mp3)
from "A Lesson In Crime"
(Paper Bag Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at GroupieTunes
Buy at Insound
More On This Album



The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Check out his fine music blog. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of Mark Campbell.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.