Completely Conspicuous 265: What's Good

Part 2 of my conversation with guests Mike Piantigini and Brad Searles as we discuss the new music we're looking forward to in 2013. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:
- Recorded at Piantigini Place, Somerville, Mass.
- The Who's Live at Hull sounds a lot like Live at Leeds
- Hearing bands play old favorites vs. new material
- Selling your music for commercial use
- Pete Townshend was a major solo artist in the '80s
- '80s recording techniques have not aged well
- Debating McCartney's solo work
- Kids these days...
- YouTube as music delivery mechanism
- Not just videos, but full albums and lyric videos
- The sad tale of Myspace
- Bandcamp's fan pages
- Brad: Psyched about new LP from Kid Canaveral
- The death of Lovejoy's, a great Austin dive bar
- Alamo Drafthouse rules
- Brad: Mark Kozelek and Album Leaf collaboration
- Indie bands love covering the Misfits
- Bands keep touring without original members (Misfits, Dead Kennedys)
- Violent Femmes are reuniting with original lineup at Coachella
- Prog is coming back
- Brad dug Genesis in the Duke/Abacab era
- "Illegal Alien" is a horrible song
- Long-awaited albums that may never come: Dylan at the Movies, The Wrens
- Brad bets My Bloody Valentine won't release new album by time this airs (he loses bet)
- Mike can't stop talking about his trip to SXSW
- Labels are running out of classic rock to reissue, turning to alt-rock
- To be continued  
- Bonehead of the Week


Music:
Low - Just Make It Stop
Thee Oh Sees - Minotaur
Mikal Cronin - Apathy
Ken Stringfellow - Doesn't It Remind You of Something

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

The Low song is on the forthcoming album The Invisible Way on Sub Pop. Download it for free at SoundCloud.
The Thee Oh Sees song is on the forthcoming album Floating Coffin on the Castle Face label. Download the song for free at Stereogum.
The Mikal Cronin song is on his self-titled album on Trouble in Mind Records. Download the song for free from SoundSpike.
The Ken Stringfellow song is on the album Danzig in the Moonlight on Spark and Shine 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 blog Clicky Clicky. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 255: The Future is Unwritten

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Dave Brigham about our society's neglect for history. Listen to the episode below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:
- Recorded at the BrigHAAAAM Estates
- Dave's doing a reading of one of his short stories on Dec. 11 in Arlington, MA
- Check out Dave's photo blog, The Backside of America
- Kids don't get our references anymore
- Brigham: "Too damn much of everything"
- Reality TV is ubiquitous
- Pop culture ignorance
- Brigham: Even a Luddite like me buys digital music
- Knowledge of older bands is limited now
- Talking to kids about history and current events
- Don't let our kids watch TV newscasts
- We shelter our kids these days
- Playground education
- The ads during televised sporting events are all about "cars, boners and beer"
- Parents may filter too much
- Can we fix our lack of historical knowledge?
- We can try to encourage kids to take an interest
- Collecting baseball cards was a fun hobby
- Too much focus on present and future to look at the past
- American populace is fairly passive about major problems
- Bonehead of the Week


Music:
The Hush Now - I'm Always Broke in December
Low - Waiting (live)
Varsity Drag - Animal
The Linus Pauling Quartet - Crom

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

The Hush Now song is available for free download at Bandcamp.
The Low song is on the live EP Plays Nice Places. Download it for free (in exchange for your email address) at Sub Pop.
The Varsity Drag song is on the album Night Owls and is available for free download at Bandcamp.
The Linus Pauling Quartet song is on the album Bag of Hammers on Musebox Records. Download it for free from Spinner.

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 171: Right Turn

Part 1 of my podcast conversation with special guest Tom Salemi as we discuss what happens when your career takes a different turn. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

The show notes...

- Recorded at Choate Bridge Pub in Ipswich, Mass.

- Old newspaper reporters from back in the day

- Tom toured the Boston Herald newsroom as a high schooler

- Went to BU, worked at the Daily Free Press

- Saw journalism as a public service/crusade

- Looked down on journalists who left the fold

- When you're a young reporter, you work crazy hours and don't mind

- Tom started working at small weekly on Cape Cod

- Jay and Tom worked for daily papers in the same chain

- Tom worked at three papers before arriving at Newburyport Daily News

- Eventually, Tom burned out on community journalism

- Jay: Similar burnout story happened a few years earlier

- Weird adjustment to 9 to 5 gig

- Tom was miserable at first non-newspaper job

- Some reporters can't handle the transition to a "regular" job

- Enjoying the casual aspects of the job

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

Art Brut - Lost Weekend

Sloan - Unkind

Low - Especially Me

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 Art Brut song is on the forthcoming album Brilliant! Tragic! on Cooking Vinyl Records. Download the song for free at Pitchfork.

The Sloan song is on the forthcoming album The Double Cross on Yep Roc Records. Download the song for free at Epitonic (right click and "save as").

The Low song is from the album C'mon on Sub Pop Records, where you can download the song for free.

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. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his new site PodGeek. Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.