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 224: Dirty Work

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Matt Phillion as we discuss the evolution of profanity. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").




Show notes:
- Mother jokes led to popularity of "m-f'er"
- Eddie Murphy's Comedian album introduced a whole new world of profanity
- Most words have lost shock value
- Little girl swearing in "Kick Ass" was shocking
- We had more freedom as kids, but kids can access so much more now
- Still isn't cool to randomly drop f-bombs in public
- Matt: Won't call a female a bitch
- Becoming more sensitive about calling your friends gay
- Hollywood has become introduced to foul-mouthed Boston Irish characters

- Swear words we won't say anymore
- Songs with profanity are becoming more commonplace
- Comedians have always pushed the boundaries
- The Simpsons were once the paragon of rudeness
- Violence on TV is no problem, but sex and some profanity is still banned
- Cell phones have taken over people's lives
- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Japandroids - The House That Heaven Built
Cloud Nothings - No Sentiment
Ceremony - Hysteria
Yukon Blonde - Stairway


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


The Japandroids song is from the album Celebration Rock on Matador Records. Download the song for free from Epitonic.
The Cloud Nothings song is on the album Attack on Memory on Carpark Records. Download the song for free from Epitonic.
The Ceremony song is on the album Zoo on Matador Records. Download the song for free from Epitonic.
The Yukon Blonde song is on the album Tiger Talk on Dine Alone Records. Download the song for free from 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 blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous 223: Your Filthy Little Mouth

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

Show notes:

- George Carlin summed up the issue of profanity on TV quite nicely

- NYPD Blue pushed the boundaries of what you could see on broadcast TV

- As kids, we saw a lot of risque stuff on pay cable channels

- Sitcoms have to make do with innuendo

- Inadvertent f-bombs on awards shows

- The "c-word" is offensive here, not so much overseas

- The number of f-bombs factors into movie ratings

- South Park loves to push network censors

- Plot twists are more shocking than language

- Tarantino edited the TV version of Pulp Fiction himself

- The comfort of casual profanity

- Starting young

- Controlling your language in polite society

- To be continued

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Deer Tick - Born at Zero

The Rationales - Radio

Wintersleep - Resuscitate

Torche - Reverse Inverted

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

The Deer Tick song is from the EP Tim on Partisan Records. Download the song for free from Spin.

The Rationales song is a single avalable for free download from Bandcamp.

The Wintersleep song is on the album Hello Hum on Roll Call Records. Download the song for free at Wintersleep.com.

The Torche song is on the album Harmonicraft on Volcom Entertainment. Download the song for free at Stereogum.

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 222: Mix It Up

This week, I revisit an old mix tape I made many moons ago. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- In episode 141, I discussed the early mix tapes I made as a kid

- A few years ago, started writing about mix tapes in my blog

- Looking back at Summer of Loud, a tape I recorded in '94

- Previous year was pretty rough, but things were looking up in '94

- Switched jobs and apartments at about the same time

- 1994 was a good year for alt rock

- I still listen to this mix from time to time

- Bonehead of the Week

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; check out his site PodGeek.

Completely Conspicuous 221: Repeater

Part 2 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

- Kids' music can implant evil melodies in your brain

- Pop music is a good gateway for music fans

- Hall and Oates wrote the catchiest damn songs

- We are in the post-ironic age

- Breitling buys a Daryl Hall song

- Good rock showing up on late night talk shows

- Parents' easy-listening music ends up living in your head: Neil Diamond, Sinatra, Neil Sedaka

- Tracing the roots of Charlie Rich's hit "The Most Beautiful Girl"

- Kumar: Supertramp's Breakfast in America lives on in my mind'

- The Who's Face Dances was more like a Townshend solo album

- Watching an awesome Mclusky video featuring cats

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Best Coast - The Only Place

The Dandy Warhols - Sad Vacation

OFF! - King Kong Brigade

The Melvins - The War on Wisdom

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

The Best Coast song is from the forthcoming album of the same name on Mexican Summer. Download the song for free (in exchange for your email address) from Best Coast.

The Dandy Warhols song is from the forthcoming album This Machine on The End Records. Download the song for free from Stereogum.

The OFF! song is on the band's self-titled album on Vice. Download the song for free at Pitchfork.

The Melvins song is on the EP The Bulls and the Bees courtesy of Scion AV. Download the EP for free from Scion AV.

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 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 219: Give 'Em the Boot

Part 2 of my conversation with special guest Ric Dube about bootlegs. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



Show notes:

- Check out Ric's latest project, Trademark of Quality

- Bootlegs would get bootlegged

- Plenty of boots of concerts from radio and TV broadcasts

- When Napster emerged, bottom dropped out of bootleg market

- U2's Achtung Baby demos were stolen, ended up on bootlegs

- Ric has an early Men at Work bootleg, just because

- The Legend of Norm De Plume

- Pretenders bootleg has song from the Castaways at the end to fill space on the vinyl

- Bands used to re-record tracks on their live albums in the '70s

- Lots of good early Beck boots out there

- Ric: Searching for a long lost Elvis Costello bootleg

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:
Fugazi - Merchandise (live at Irving Plaza)

fIREHOSE - For the Singer of REM (live at Ancienne Belgique)

Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns and Money (live at The Record Plant)

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

The Fugazi song is from a show recorded at Irving Plaza in New York on 4/3/95. Download the song for free from the Live Music Archive.

The fIREHOSE song is from a show recorded at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, Belgium on 3/12/91. Download the song for free from the Live Music Archive.

The Warren Zevon song is on from a set recorded live at The Record Plant in Sausalito, CA, on 7/27/78. Download the song for free from the Live Music Archive.

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.