Completely Conspicuous 685: Catch You on the Flip Side

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

Show notes:

• Phil's #7
• The Until the End of the World soundtrack had plenty of good stuff
• Songs that take you back to a specific time and place
• Jay's #7
• The hunger for Nirvana music was enormous between the release of Nevermind and In Utero
• Give the bass player some 
• Phil's #6
• Zeppelin haven't released many B-sides
• Jay's #6
• The Who has some amazing songs that were never on studio albums
• Phil's #5 was Jay's #10
• Jay's #5
• Another classic from the Singles movie soundtrack
• Phil's #4
• U2's cup runneth over in the '80s
• We were both U2 obsessives in high school/college
• Jay's #4
• A song that wasn't initially included on the album but later added
• College radio stations started playing it and it caught on
• Phil's #3 and Jay's #2
• The quintessential '80s alternative song?
• Johnny Marr elevated the Smiths, but Morrissey was undeniable
• Shoutout to high school classmate who hipped Jay to good music
• Jay's #3
• Another hugely influential alt-rock song
• Joy Division released amazing music in a short period of time
• Phil's #2
• Another Beatles classic
• Phil's #1
• Phil named his fantasy baseball team after this song
• One of the Dead's best
• Was a concert staple but they never did a studio version
• Jay's #1
• Amazing that it was left off Purple Rain
• Controversial for an f-word that may or may not have been THE f-word
• Completely Conspicuous is available wherever you find 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 684: Dark Side of the Tune

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

Show notes:

• Back after a few months away
• The definition of "B-side" has changed over the decades
• Now a more accurate term is "non-album tracks"
• Sometimes B-sides were more popular than the A-side
• Got more airplay back when FM stations were new and adventurous
• You had to hunt them down because they weren't on the proper albums
• Some bands like U2 would regularly put non-album tracks on B-sides singles
• Sometimes covers, sometimes original songs that didn't make the album
• When CDs became popular, you had longer albums and more of those songs would be included
• Eventually bands released B-side collections; the Who was one of the first with Odds and Sods in the '70s
• So many Beatles classics weren't included on albums
• Phil's honorable mentions: Beatles, Who, Grateful Dead, Matthew Sweet, Phish, R.E.M., The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement, U2, Goose, Prince, Pearl Jam, Talking Heads, Neil Young, Nirvana
• Pavement's "Harness Your Hopes" became their most-streamed song courtesy of Tik Tok
• Jay's HMs: Who, Motorhead, Chris Cornell, Rolling Stones, Dylan, Nirvana, Bowie, Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Sloan, Tragically Hip, Radiohead, Simple Minds, Beatles, Iron Maiden, Gang of Four, Mission of Burma, Beck, Beach Boys, Police, New Order, Cure, Clash, Soundgarden, AIC, Sugar, Joe Jackson, Hendrix, PJ Harvey, Robert Plant, Iggy Pop
• Prince vs. Neil Young for most unreleased material
• Phil's #10
• Jay's #10
• Phil's #9
• Jay's #9
• U2 just announced a stadium tour of South America
• Probably couldn't do that in North America anymore
• Phil's #8
• Jay's #8
• YouTube comments are the worst
• Completely Conspicuous is available wherever you find 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 683: The Island Life

Part 2 of my conversation with Phil Stacey about choosing 10 artists to listen to for the rest of your life if you were stranded on a desert island. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Bowie would pivot from one persona to another
• Phil: The Stones, but leaning heavily on the 1965-1981 period
• The Stones and the Who have so many compilations out
• In the Stones vs. Beatles argument, the Stones have the edge as a live band
• Jay: The Clash are one of the most important bands
• Not a huge catalog, but there's still plenty there
• The US Festival was the last gasp for the original lineup
• Phil: Repping for the Tedeschi Trucks Band
• Cover a wide range of styles and genres
• Jay: Another artist with a changing style and persona, PJ Harvey
• Not afraid to tackle new sounds 
• Lots of great, interesting stuff to check out
• Jay: Would enjoy digging further into the Cure's catalog
• So much to delve into
• Output has slowed down since the '90s
• Phil: His one-time favorite band, U2
• Early material remains strong
• Hit or miss the last two decades
• U2's legacy has diminished because they hung around too long
• It's tough for legacy acts whose new material will always be compared to their classic stuff
• You won't hear recent music from legendary bands on the radio
• The fans want the hits
• Jay: R.E.M. has a lot of parallels to U2, except they stopped
• They had a dip in quality for a few albums, but stopped performing in 2011
• Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy have done a great job paying tribute to classic R.E.M. albums
• Reminding people how great the band was
• They haven't reformed other than a few impromptu songs 
• Many bands are playing their classic albums front to back
• Bands like Sloan and Iron Maiden will alternate touring classic albums and new ones
• 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 682: (I'm) Stranded

Celebrating TWENTY YEARS of podcasting with part 1 of my conversation with Phil Stacey about choosing 10 artists to listen to for the rest of your life if you were stranded on a desert island. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Started this show in August 2006!
• Instead of Desert Island Discs, we each chose 10 artists that we'd be limited to hearing on a desert island
• Mixing up genres
• Jay: I ruled out a lot of classic rock acts that I've listened to all my life
• Limiting artists to music that came out under their name, not in other groups
• This magical island has killer WiFi
• Phil's honorable mentions: Bowie, Phish, Ella Fitzgerald, Drive-By Truckers, Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, Billie Holliday, Talking Heads, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Kinks, Pretenders, Nirvana, Sleater-Kinney
• Jay's HMs: Kinks, Pavement, Pixies, QOTSA, Afghan Whigs, Peter Gabriel, XTC, James Brown, PJ, Spoon, Superchunk, Tragically Hip, Yo La Tengo, Sloan, Elvis Costello
• Island picks
• Jay and Phil: Neil Young
• So much NY material out there
• Neil has a varied catalog of styles 
• Phil: The Beatles, naturally
• Incredibly influential and wide-ranging catalog in a handful of years
• Jay: Going outside the box with Fugazi
• Total DIY operation, only charged $5 per concert and album
• Only played non-traditional venues like school gyms and small clubs
• Phil: Not a jazz aficionado, but John Coltrane makes the cut
• Drugs are bad, mmkay?
• Jay: Drive-By Truckers have close to 30 years of hard-driving rock, alt-country and everything in between
• Not much in the way of popular attention
• Phil: He loves the modern jam band stylings of Goose
• Jay and Phil: The massive legacy of Prince
• The best Super Bowl halftime performance
• Prince could do everything well
• Phil: The Grateful Dead built a huge following under the radar
• Survived decades of trends and change
• They're still popular 30 years after they stopped making music
• Jay: The collected works of Parliament-Funkadelic
• They were two different bands with a rotating roster that eventually merged
• Combined rock with funk and soul
• George Clinton and a cast of thousands
• Phil: The mighty Led Zeppelin
• Embraced different sounds
• There are still Zep albums that are underplayed
• Jay: Bowie's chameleonic career
• Is Madonna the most successful female artist of all time?
• Incredible string of great albums from the '70s to the '80s
• 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 681: Quick and to the Pointless

This week, it's part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite American artists post-2000. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as"). 

Show notes:

• Our favorite American artists since 2000
• Phil's honorable mentions: Black Keys, Dead & Co., Gary Clark Jr., Jack White, Kurt Vile, MJ Lenderman, My Morning Jacket, Parquet Courts, Raconteurs, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, St. Vincent, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Waxahatchee, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Jay's honorable mentions: Walkmen, Neko Case, LCD Soundsystem, At the Drive-In, Stephen Malkmus, Speedy Ortiz, Jeff Rosenstock, Protomartyr, Outkast, the Strokes, Interpol, Titus Andronicus, Run the Jewels, Jason Isbell, Ty Segall, The Hold Steady
• Phil's #5: Billy Strings is bringing bluegrass to the mainstream
• Mixes in some rock touches
• Jay's #5: Indie rock stalwart Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• Has also worked with Aimee Mann and Gang of Four
• Phil's #4: Young guitar hero turned Americana icon Jason Isbell
• Started with Drive-By Truckers and now is playing big theaters
• Jay's #4: The indie rock greatness of TV on the Radio
• Big emphasis on falsetto harmonies
• Phil's #3 and Jay's #2: The prolific and epic catalog of Drive-By Truckers
• Provided a different voice for Southern rock fans
• Jay's #3: The White Stripes provided a jolt for the rock scene in the early '00s
• Jack White has continued on after the Stripes split up
• "Seven Nation Army" might be the biggest song of the 2000s
• Phil's #2:  The bluesy versatility of the Tedeschi Trucks Band
• Led by a married couple
• Phil's #1: Goose is the premier jam band going right now
• They incorporate a lot of diverse covers
• Jay's #1: The sinister hard rock excellence of Queens of the Stone Age
• The Josh Homme-led band has had many incarnations over the years
• 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 680: Welcome to the Occupation

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

Show notes:

• Jay's take after seeing Goose
• Took us a while to get into the show
• Phil's #6: Phish took over the jam band crown from the Dead
• Jay briefly met Trey Anastasio at UNH before they got famous
• Goose hasn't been accepted by the entire jam band audience
• Jay's #6: Originally had Van Halen ranked higher, but dropped them because of the Hagar years
• Combined Eddie VH's revolutionary guitar work with DLR's showmanship
• Eddie inspired a generation of guitarists and Dave inspired a generation of hard rock singers
• Phil's #5: Steely Dan spits in the face of being called "yacht rock"
• Went from a live act to a studio perfectionist act to a live act again
• Fagen and Becker were demanding taskmasters
• Jay's #5: The imperfect perfection of the Replacements
• They self-sabotaged whenever things were about to break for them
• Never got to see them live
• Phil's #4 and Jay's #3: The singular genius of Jimi Hendrix
• Hugely influential guitarist and performer
• Must have blown a lot of minds when he was around
• Jay's #4: Pixies were a major influence on the alternative rock sound that shaped the '90s
• The band's first stint (1986-93) was epic
• Introduced weirdness into indie rock
• Still touring behind their classic material but making new music as well
• Phil's #3 and Jay's #10: Talking Heads were art school kids who became big
• Part of the CBGB scene of the '70s that went in a lot of different directions
• Explored a lot of sounds and influences
• Phil's #2: The Allman Brothers Band invented and transcended Southern rock
• Persevered through deaths and changing trends
• Jay's #2: No arguing with the greatness of Prince
• Hundreds of hours of unreleased music
• Was super talented at multiple instruments
• Was Prince the best all-around musician of the 20th century?
• Phil's #1: Duh, it's the Dead
• Inspired an entire subculture
• There are literally hundreds of Dead cover bands
• Jay's #1: The pride of Athens, GA, R.E.M.
• Helped create the "college rock" scene that grew into alternative rock
• Blew up in the early '90s
• Distinct career phases
• Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy have been covering R.E.M. albums in their entirety the last three years
• 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 679: Yankee Rose

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

Show notes:

• Recorded in the CompCon HQ backyard studio
• America's 250th birthday 
• Looking at our favorite American singers and bands, pre-2000 and post-2000
• Starting off with our top 10 of bands who debuted pre-millennium
• Sticking to rock artists for the most part
• Phil's honorable mentions include: B-52s (toughest omission from top 10), Beach Boys, Beasties, Beck, JB, Cars, early Chicago, Doors, early Foos, Little Feat, Nirvana, Pixies, Linda Ronstadt, Seger, Sleater-Kinney, SRV, Stevie Wonder, VU, VH, Wilco
• Jay's HMs: Living Colour, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Run DMC, Beasties, Public Enemy, Dino Jr., the Cars, JB, Fugazi 
• "Love Shack" overstayed its welcome 
• "Good Vibrations" could be a perfect pop song
• Seger was obsessed with a certain topic
• Billy Joel's metal roots with Attila
• Mutt Lange's production methods were tedious
• Fugazi refused all offers to reunite
• Phil's # 9: Pearl Jam formed almost by accident after another band broke up
• Still doing their thing all these years later
• Jay's #9: Were only together for about 8 years, but Husker Du amassed a legendary catalog
• Sound evolved from speedy hardcore punk to more melodic sounds
• Phil's #8: Tom Petty was a late bloomer who was hard to categorize at first
• Took advantage of the advent of MTV with plenty of iconic videos
• Jay's #8: The Afghan Whigs were the first non-Seattle band signed by Sub Pop
• Quickly distinguished themselves from their peers by combining soul and R&B influences with indie rock
• Jay's #7: Nirvana was only around for a short time, but they had a seismic impact
• Nirvana merch is now a lifestyle brand
• Saw them a week before they taped MTV Unplugged in NYC
• Packed a lot into a brief period
• 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.