Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Completely Conspicuous 329: Reeling in the Years, 1986 (Part 1)


Part 1 of my conversation with guest Brian Salvatore as we look back at the music of 1986. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").


Show notes:
- Recorded via Skype
- Check out Brian's comics podcast The Hour Cosmic
- Brian was 4 in '86; Jay was (cough) 18 and in college
- Jay: Watched a lot of MTV that year
- Brian: Paul Simon's Graceland was huge
- Peter Gabriel became a megastar
- Van Halen and David Lee Roth split up and released albums
- Brian: Musically, 1986 was all over the place
- Nine of the top 10 selling albums were released in '85
- Album sales were enormous back then
- The Bangles hit big with "Walk Like an Egyptian"
- Springsteen's Live 1975-85 was a big box set release
- First year of Rock Hall of Fame
- Rush and KISS were shocking admissions to Rock Hall in recent years
- Hair metal was thriving; even Judas Priest poofed up their hair
- Hip hop hit hard: Beasties and Run DMC made big impressions
- Aerosmith's career was revived thanks to Run DMC
- Brian: Worst moments include band breakups (Black Flag, Minutemen, Smiths, Dead Kennedys)
- "That's What Friends Are For": Great cause, awful song
- Lionel Richie went from cool in the Commodores to cheesy
- Deaths: Phil Lynott, Richard Manuel, Cliff Burton, Benny Goodman, Scatman Crothers
- Boston's long-awaited third album
- The Vinnie Vincent Invasion took hair metal to ridiculous extremes
- Wank guitar was all the rage
- To be continued...

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

Music:
Fucked Up - Paper the House
Mudhoney - Touch Me I'm Sick (live)
Two Inch Astronaut - Part of Your Scene (live on WVAU)

The Fucked Up song is on the album Glass Boys on Matador Records. Download the song for free at Matablog.
The Mudhoney song is on the EP Mudhoney on Top! KEXP Presents Mudhoney Live on Top of the Space Needle. Download the song for free at KEXP.
The Two Inch Astronaut song is available for free download (in exchange for your email address) as part of Exploding in Sound's EIS Sampler 2013-2014 on Bandcamp

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.

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