Completely Conspicuous 225: Let Them Drink

Part 1 of my conversation with special guest Ben Amirault as we discuss the growth of craft beer. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
- Check out Ben's beer blog The Church Key
- Many parallels between craft beer world and punk rock
- Ben reviews beers on his blog
- When will someone invent digitized beer?
- Craft beer first boomed in the '90s
- Plenty of great small breweries popping up now
- Session beer is catching on thanks to Notch
- There's a lot of high-alcohol beers now
- Ben's gearing up for American Craft Beer Fest in Boston
- Social media is raising awareness of craft beer
- Local specialty stores hold regular beer tastings
- Summer beer is out in April
- Beer is economy-proof
- Sam Adams has become almost synonymous with craft beer
- Dogfish Head has made a big splash in last few years
- Comparing Sam Adams to Green Day
- Old-school brewers are trying new things: Guinness, Bud, Newcastle
- Going on a Guinness kick
- To be continued next week
- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Ty Segall Band - Wave Goodbye
Ceremony - Send Me Your Dreams
Grinderman (feat. Matt Berninger) - Evil (Silver Alert Remix)
Brainiac - Nothing Ever Changes
Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!
The Ty Segall Band song is from the album Slaughterhouse on In the Red Records. Download the song for free from Soundcloud.

The Ceremony song is on LAMC #1 on Famous Class Records. Download the song for free (in exchange for your email address) from Bandcamp.
The Grinderman song is on the album Grinderman 2 RMX on Anti/Epitaph. Download the song for free from Epitonic.
The Brainiac song is on the album Hissing Prigs in Static Couture on Touch and Go 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 143: Hardy Har Har

Special guest Ric Dube joins me on the podcast as we discuss our comedy influences. Listen to the show in streaming audio or download it directly (right click and "save as").

The show notes...

Topics:

- Dube got into standup comedy through listening to albums with his dad

- Johnny Carson's Tonight Show was huge for comedians

- Only three main channels in the '60s and '70s

- Audience is diluted now by cable, DVRs, Internet

- Kumar: Listened to sketch comedy on radio from National Lampoon, Firesign Theater

- Watched SNL, Fridays, SCTV

- Stereos used to be furniture

- Dube's uncle would invite friends over to listen to new comedy LPs

- Kumar: Watched reruns of "Bob Newhart Show" with dad

- Comedy in the '70s went from a social to a solitary experience

- Differing opinions on SCTV

- Kids in the Hall was a brilliant show

- Letterman's 12:30 a.m. NBC show was amazing

- Kumar went to one of the last Letterman shows on NBC; Leno was guest

- Leno was hilarious back in the day

- Marc Maron's podcast features great interview with Judd Apatow

- As 16-year-old, Apatow interviewed Seinfeld, Leno, Shandling about comedy

- Steve Martin's autobiography focuses on standup days

- Martin got a job at Disneyland to get into showbiz

- Apatow started as a busboy in a comedy club

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

Japandroids - Heavenward Grand Prix

Marnie Stern - Transparency is the New Mystery

Grinderman - Heathen Child

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

The show is sponsored by Eastbay/Footlocker.com, a leading supplier of athletic footwear, apparel and sports equipment. Use promo code AFCOMP15 to get 10% off any order of $50 or more at Eastbay.com, AFCOMP20 to get 15% off any order of $75 or more at Eastbay.com, and AFCOMPFL to get 10% off any order of $50 or more at Footlocker.com.

The Japandroids song is part of the band's ongoing 7-inch single series. Download the song for free at Pitchfork.

The Marnie Stern song is from her eponymous forthcoming album on Kill Rock Stars Records. Download the song for free at Stereogum.

The Grinderman song is on the Grinderman 2 album on ANTI Records. Download the song for free at Chromewaves.

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.