Completely Conspicuous 203: Do It Again

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Matt Phillion as we count down our favorite movie remakes. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Seems like every movie's a remake these days

- Hollywood's afraid of original ideas

- Many different types of remakes

- Many American movies are remakes from films originally made overseas

- Remakes of TV shows

- Reboots of franchises (Spider-man, Superman, Hulk, Bourne)

- Recent remakes include Footloose, The Thing, Fright Night

- Matt's list of best remakes starts with: The Magnificent Seven

- Toughest actors in toughest movie

- Jay: The Departed

- Based on Korean movie

- Jay recommends checking out Oldboy, crazy Korean thriller

- Matt: True Grit

- Liked it better than the original

- Jay: Cape Fear

- Another Scorsese remake, DeNiro plays creepy

- Matt: 3:10 to Yuma

- In praise of Ben Foster

- Jay: Evil Dead 2, a sequel that's also a remake

- Bruce Campbell rules

- Matt: Bad Lieutenant, Port of Call New Orleans

- Nic Cage brings the crazy

- Cage's wacky career choices

- Jay: Scarface

- Totally over the top

- Matt: Insomnia

- Christopher Nolan's followup to Memento

- Jay: Fatal Attraction

- Glenn Close played classic scorned woman

- Matt: Ocean's 11

- Fun movie with great cast

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
The Dodos - So Cold

The Delta Spirit - Gimme Some Motivation

Damien Jurado - Nothing is the News

Benjamin Shaw - How to Test the Depth of a Well

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 Dodos song is previously unreleased and is available for free download (in exchange for your email address) at the band's website.

The Delta Spirit song is on the EP I Think I've Found It. Download the EP for free (in exchange for your email address) from the band's blog.

The Damien Jurado song is on the album Mariqopa on Secretly Canadian. Download the song for free at http://rcrdlbl.com/2011/11/23/download_damien_jurado_nothing_is_the_news.

The Benjamin Shaw song is on the album There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet on Audio Antihero. Download the song for free at IODA Promonet:

Benjamin Shaw
"How to Test the Depth of a Well" (mp3)
from "There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet"
(Audio Antihero)
Buy at Amazon MP3
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 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 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 140: OK Computer

I'm joined on the podcast by special guests Dave Brigham and Jay Breitling as I continue my look back at the rise and fall of the dotcom era. Listen to the show in streaming audio or download it directly (right click and "save as").

The show notes...

Topics:

- Brigham joined Webnoize full time in May 1997

- He quit a paying gig as a proofreader

- Eventually, Webnoize started paying him

- We were given stock options

- At the time, seemed like a good opportunity

- Kumar was hired in October 1999, but had done work for site for a few years

- Dave bought guitar with first check

- First office was in Stoneham, Mass., home of Nancy Kerrigan; later moved to Cambridge

- At first, only four people in office

- Webnoize received funding from "angel investors"

- Meanwhile, other dotcoms pulled in huge sums for barely an idea

- It was all about buzzwords

- Saw pattern of companies with no entertainment or tech background getting into online entertainment space

- These included an oil and gas exploration company, Arthur Treacher's fish and chip restaurant

- Webnoize had good ideas but no business savvy

- MusicPhone.com offered voicemails from celebs like Whoopi Goldberg; t-shirt lasted longer than the company

- The big entertainment companies were just as clueless about the Web

- We got early versions of MP3 players: Diamond Rio, Nomad Jukebox

- Lessons learned: Need to know your limitations

- We went from Macs to a Sun Solaris computer system

- Breitling joined Webnoize after getting master's degree in journalism

- Started as intern in December 1999

- Eventually, he went back to his old job as paralegal

- Post-Webnoize, he worked for Listen.com and AOL Digital Cities

- AOL's now pumping money into local journalism sites called Patch

- The futility of journalism school

- Breitling: Dotcom era ended with many losers, few winners

- The "celestial jukebox" idea still hasn't happened

- Licensing is still a major obstacle

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

Jesse Malin and the St. Marks Social - Burning the Bowery (live)

No Age - Glitter

The Delta Spirit - White Table

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 Jesse Malin and the St. Marks Social song is on the band's Daytrotter session recorded in May. Download the session for free at Daytrotter.

The No Age song is on the album Everything In Between on Sub Pop Records, where you can download the song for free.

The Delta Spirit song is on the album History From Below on Rounder Records. Download the song for free at Music Induced Euphoria.

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.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Completely Conspicuous Episode 69: Don't Call It a Comeback

Now that I've finally got my computer working properly again, it was time to record the first podcast of 2009. Visit the CompCon page to hear it in streaming audio or download it directly here (right click and "save as").

The show notes...

Topics:
- The art of the comeback
- Infomercials
- Pinhead of the Week

Music:
- TV On the Radio - Dancing Choose (Prefuse 73 remix)
- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bomb. Repeat. Bomb. (1954)
- Delta Spirit - Trashcan
- Ten Kens - Bearfight

Promo:
- New England Podcasting.

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

The TV On the Radio song is on the deluxe version of their album Dear Science on Interscope Records. The Ted Leo and the Pharmacists song is on their album Living With the Living on Touch and Go Records. Both songs are courtesy of RCRDLBL, where you can find out more and download the tracks.

The Delta Spirit song is on the album Ode to Sunshine on Rounder Records. The Ten Kens song is on their self-titled album on Fat Cat UK Records. Both songs are courtesy were provided by IODA Promonet:

Delta Spirit
"Trashcan" (mp3)
from "Ode to Sunshine"
(Rounder Records)

More On This Album



Ten Kens
"Bearfight" (mp3)
from "Ten Kens"
(Fat Cat Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic Delivery
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Puretracks
Buy at GroupieTunes
Buy at mTraks
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 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.