Completely Conspicuous 441: Holding Out for a Guitar Hero

This week, it's part 1 of my conversation with author Greg Renoff as we discuss the rise and fall of the guitar hero. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Recorded via Skype
- Buy Greg's book Van Halen Rising at Amazon or get a signed copy from the Van Halen Rising Store
- Greg: As a kid, started playing stepfather's old acoustic guitar
- An uncle got him into Hendrix, Clapton, Leslie West
- Jay: First guitar hero was Jimmy Page
- Zeppelin II was the gateway
- Greg: Realized early that I'd never be able to play like Eddie VH
- Jay: Played guitar on and off over the years, never seriously
- Childhood friend plays in a Journey cover band
- Greg: Guitar was a good way to blow off steam
- Big band Hendrix?
- Jay: Other early favorites were Pete Townshend and Dave Davies
- The evolution of Clapton
- Early '70s were marked by great players like Iommi, Blackmore and Michael Schenker
- Jay: Got into Sabbath and Ozzy in the early '80s
- Gary Moore was an underrated guitar monster
- Building your music collection via music clubs
- To be continued

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.

Stuck In Thee Garage #147: October 7, 2016

Love means never having to say you're sorry...is one of the dumbest things ever said in a movie. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about being sorry in hour 2. None of them were as dumb as that line from "Love Story."

The Gilly-approved playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Pixies - Baal's Back/Head Carrier
The Needy Sons - Chopped Down/Vis-a-Vis
Kestrels - No Alternative/Kestrels
Drive-By Truckers - Darkened Flags on the Cusp of Dawn/American Band
Morgan Delt - Some Sunsick Day/Phase Zero
American Wrestlers - Give Up/Goodbye Terrible Youth
Goat - Try My Robe/Requiem
Purling Hiss - Fever/High Bias
Living Colour - Regrets/Who Shot Ya
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Wish/Pretty Years
Fond Han - Shammed/Sham Cloud
J&L Defer - Hell/No Map
Bueno - Blown Out/Illuminate Your Room
Thee Oh Sees - Gelatinous Cube/A Weird Exits
Descendents - Days of Desperation/Hypercaffium Spazzinate
PUP - Doubts/The Dream is Over
Johnny Foreigner - I Can Show You the Way to Grand Central/Mono No Aware

Hour 2: Sorry
Weezer - Butterfly/Pinkerton
Big Star - Give Me Another Chance/#1 Record
The Posies - Apology/Dear 23
R.E.M. - So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)/Live on Rockpalast 10/2/85
The Waldos - Sorry/Rent Party
Husker Du - I Apologize/New Day Rising
The English Beat - Sorry/Special Beat Service
Pointed Sticks - Apologies/Part of the Noise
Lou Barlow - Don't Apologize/Goodnight Unknown
British Sea Power - Apologies to Insect Life/The Decline of British Sea Power
The I Don't Cares - Sorry for Tomorrow Night/Wild Stab
Bob Mould - I'm Sorry, Baby, But You Can't Stand in My Light Any More/Life and Times
The Hush Now - Sorry Sugar Well.../Sparkle Drive
Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas - Sorry I Stole Your Man/Secret Evil
Jeff Rosenstock - I'm Serious, I'm Sorry/We Cool?
Riverboat Gamblers - A Choppy, Yet Sincere Apology/Underneath the Owl
Guided by Voices - We Don't Apologize for the Human Race/Let's Go Eat the Factory
Velocity Girl - Sorry Again/Simpatico!

Completely Conspicuous 440: Radio Daze

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Matt Wardlaw as we discuss the decline of rock radio. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Recorded via Skype
- Check out Matt's podcast Lost Together
- Van Cherone: Matt defends Van Halen III
- Eddie VH's lack of new material
- Buy Greg Renoff's great book Van Halen Rising
- Eddie sounds good again
- Age is becoming a factor
- Jay: Saw both DLR and VH in 1986
- The MTV effect
- Early '80s video production values
- Videos pushed songs to greater success
- In defense of "We Built This City"
- Videos boosted careers of artists like ZZ Top, the Cars and Huey Lewis
- Rock stations added non-music programming
- Satellite radio is nice, but not a must-have
- Matt uses Apple Music
- Bands aren't making much money from streaming
- The money is in touring and merch, not albums
- Home taping didn't kill the music industry

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.

Stuck In Thee Garage #146: September 30, 2016

The last few generations to come up got to hear all about how apathetic they are. Usually these complaints don't register because the kids just don't give a crap. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about apathy in hour 2. Hopefully, you enjoy them. Or not. No skin off my nose, man.

This playlist is looking for the dope with a microscope:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Real Numbers - Frank Infatuation/Wordless Wonder
Ablebody - Gaucho/Adult Contemporaries
Sam Vicari - Contact High/Blunt.
Wyatt Blair - Dancing on a Dream/Point of No Return
TUNS - Mind Your Manners/Tuns
The Needy Sons - The Swimmer/Vis-a-Vis
Ever So Android - Pretty Teeth/The Civil
Band Aparte - Plastic Face/Memory on Trial
FATAL JAMZ - Nikki Sixx/Pussy & Fame
Teenage Fanclub - Live in the Moment/Here
Nada Surf - Rushing/You Know Who You Are
Okkervil River - Mary on a Wave/Away
Living Colour - This Place Hotel/Who Shot Ya
Used Cassettes - She Got Burned/Rock 'n Rills
Dinosaur Jr. - I Walk for Miles/Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not

Hour 2: Apathy
Ben Folds Five - Battle of Who Could Care Less/Whatever & Ever Amen
Ava Luna - I Don't Care/Takamatsu Station
Mikal Cronin - Apathy/Mikal Cronin
Ty Segall - She Don't Care/Sleeper
Descendents - Everything Sux/Everything Sucks
Fear - I Don't Care About You/The Record
Rancid - You Don't Care Nothin'/And Out Come the Wolves...
TV On the Radio - Red Dress/Dear Science
Maria McKee - If Love is a Red Dress/Pulp Fiction soundtrack
Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener/The Double EP: A Sea of Peas
Green Day - Longview/Dookie
Death Angel - I'm Bored/Frolic Through the Park
Dinosaur Jr. - Feel the Pain/Without a Sound
Nirvana - Dumb/In Utero
Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation/Blank Generation
The Lyrics - So What!!/Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era
David Lee Roth - That's Life/Eat 'Em and Smile

 

Completely Conspicuous 439: Turn Up the Radio

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Matt Wardlaw as we discuss the decline of rock radio. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Recorded via Skype
- Check out Matt's podcast Lost Together
- Matt first got into radio as a kid in Odessa, TX
- Jay: Started listening to AM rock stations in Toronto in late '70s
- Matt later moved to Cleveland area, heard a lot of Canadian bands on radio there
- The enduring popularity of Trooper's "Raise a Little Hell"
- The thrill of the chase: hunting for B-sides and imports
- Learned about music via radio and magazines
- Countless hours in record stores
- In Boston, the rock stations have dwindled
- Cleveland's WMMS has gone part talk, part classic rock
- Curated radio experience is becoming more rare
- Jay: Listen to combo of podcasts, college radio and online stations
- Matt had a metal show for several years
- Classic rock acts can't get new stuff played anymore
- Playing new material live vs. "the hits"
- Billy Joel stopped making new music in early '90s
- Touring is where the money is for classic rock acts
- To be continued

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.

Trust Fund Challenge #23: "It's Up to You" (1977)

We've had a few months' hiatus, but Trust Fund Challenge is back, baby! In our latest installment, Ric and I watch a short promo film trying to round up volunteers for the 1977 Sun Bowl Carnival. It's chock full o' Texans, urgent pleas for the public to do crappy jobs to help the college football establishment make big bucks and interesting '70s fashions.

When I Get Old

Now that I guess I'm officially middle-aged, one of the things people always seem to ask me on my birthday is if I feel older. I turned 49 on Wednesday and think I heard that question at least five times. For the record, the answer is no.

It's not like I've stumbled on some fountain of youth shizz. I've got plenty of gray hair, I tend to let out a low grunt whenever I get up out of a chair and from time to time, my lower back locks up on me. But generally, I feel pretty good. I'm in decent, not great, shape. I've battled foot injuries the last few years and this year has been better. My weight's not where I want it to be, but it's not bad. Ideally, I'd like to lose another 10 pounds and increase my running speed. My endurance is good; in the last few weeks, I did a tough 10-mile trail race and then Reach the Beach and felt good throughout. In fact, this was my eight consecutive RTB and it was the first time I felt better with each successive leg. I wasn't as fast as I was two years ago, but I felt strong.

Family-wise, we're in an interesting and busy place. Hannah started her freshman year of high school while Lily's in 7th grade. Hannah's playing JV soccer, so there are games to attend during the week, while Lily's playing both town and club, which means we have games on Saturday and Sunday. Add in practices and cross country for Lily and there's a lot of back and forth. But both girls are playing well and having fun, and doing well in school.

Do I feel older? No. Do I think I'm 28? Hell, no. Somebody asked me if I wished I was turning 35 and I emphatically said no. Been there, done that. Sometimes I wistfully look back at my 20s when I was playing different sports seemingly every night (softball, hockey, street hockey, soccer, golf, tennis) or going to concerts with regularity. But I don't need to be doing that now. Everything has its time and place. That doesn't mean I don't play sports or go to concerts anymore. I just pick my spots.

And yeah, I know I'm a year away from the big 5-0. It's weird to think about but I'm not afraid of it. The way I see it, I might as kick as much ass as possible. I think about my father at the same age and there's no comparison: he lived a very sedentary lifestyle. When he got home from work, he ate dinner and plopped down on the couch to watch TV for several hours. Exercise was never a consideration. Diabetes also became a factor in his 40s. It's not tough to figure out why I became such a fitness nut.

I have to be a little smarter about things these days. Since my company moved to a new office, I haven't been working out at lunch. It wasn't a big deal in the summer because I could run or go to the gym before work, but now that I have to get Lily to school, there's less time for working out. I haven't used the gym in our building yet, but I'm going to start. It's been about a month since I've lifted at a gym because I strained my forearm using dumbbells; I've been doing pushups and dips in the living room instead. And I have to do a lot of stretches every day to keep my heels in shape to run. It's not easy, but I'll keep doing it. I have a half marathon coming up in November, so I'm keeping the mileage up on the weekends.

Sure, I'm rapidly approaching geezerhood, especially when I look at some of my co-workers, who are 20-25 years younger than me. But I'm doing it on my own terms, dammit.

Completely Conspicuous 438: Roll the Bones

Part 3 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss fantasy sports. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- No interest in daily fantasy sports
- Big ad blitz when daily fantasy leagues hit the scene
- The kids love the gambling
- Sports gambling is much easier now
- Vegas now has an NHL franchise
- The Super Bowl is more spectacle than game
- "I call him Gamblor"
- Senior citizens take buses to casinos
- Playing in multiple leagues is no guarantee of winning money
- When the commissioner is dishonest
- Like pickup sports, you want to have fun with friends in fantasy leagues
- The single worst pick in fantasy hockey history
- Let's hear it for Lichtenstein

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.

Stuck In Thee Garage #145: September 16, 2016

Forty years can seem like a lifetime, while at the same seeming to pass in no time at all. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 1976 in hour 2. For me, it brings back memories of Jimmy Carter, the Bicentennial, Rocky, What's Happening and these guys:

 That's right, we bad:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Jeff Rosenstock - Festival Song/WORRY.
Fond Han - Carrier/Sham Cloud
Teenage Fanclub - Thin Air/Here
The Needy Sons - Superficial Kid/Vis-a-Vis
Marshall Terry - It's Still Right/Willow Winds
Allah-Las - Could Be You/Calico Review
John K. Samson - Postdoc Blues/Winter Wheat
Car Seat Headrest - Destroyed by Hippie Powers/Teens of Denial
Ride - Untitled New Song #3/Live at Bestival 9/10/16
Living Colour - Who Shot Ya/Who Shot Ya
Drive-By Truckers - Surrender Under Protest/American Band
Wilco - Real American Kids/Schmilco
Bueno - Oh Lord I'm Confused/Illuminate Your Room
Diarrhea Planet - Ain't a Sin to Win/Turn to Gold
PUP - Pine Point/The Dream is Over
Thee Oh Sees - Ticklish Warrior/A Weird Exits
Blonde Redhead - Sciuri Sciura/Masculine Feminine

Hour 2: 1976
Blue Oyster Cult - This Ain't the Summer of Love/Agents of Fortune
Lou Reed - Kicks/Coney Island Baby
David Bowie - Stay/Station to Station
The Modern Lovers - Dignified and Old/The Modern Lovers
The Ramones - Beat on the Brat/Ramones
AC/DC - Big Balls/Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Rose Royce - Car Wash/Car Wash soundtrack
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke/Songs in the Key of Life
Parliament - Dr. Funkenstein/The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein
J. Geils Band - Musta Got Lost/Blow Your Face Out - Live
Queens - Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy/A Day at the Races
Rush - Lessons/2112
KISS - King of the Night Time World/Destroyer
Aerosmith - Combination/Rocks

 

Completely Conspicuous 437: The More You Know

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey as we discuss fantasy sports. Listen to the episode below or download directly.
 

Show notes:
- Jay: Renewed interest in baseball in the past year
- Watching sports without cable TV can be tricky
- Head-to-head format can be tough
- Paying attention to statistical details
- When fantasy leagues go bad
- Our fantasy hockey league fell apart because of money
- The problem with having people you don't know in the league
- We had our draft, started the season and then shut it down
- Hockey can be tough because it's harder to find people who really know the game
- Jay: Work football league got rid of kickers
- So many sources of draft information
- To be continued

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.

Stuck In Thee Garage #144: September 9, 2016

Anybody with a sibling knows it can be a long, strange ride through childhood and beyond, but usually, it's worth it. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about (or related to) siblings. My sibling and I share a love of music, which apparently this bunch does, too:

Here's a story/about a playlist:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Beach Slang - Punks in a Disco Bar/A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
J&L Defer - Nowhere/No Map
Deerhoof - Kafe Mania!/The Magic
Tenement - Witches in a Ritual/Tenement
Primetime - Pervert/Going Places
Holy Data - Bad Future/Single
LVL Up - Pain/Return to Love
TUNS - Look Who's Back in Town Again/Tuns
Field Mouse - The Order of Things/Episodic
Mitski - Your Best American Girl/Puberty 2
Lizzy Rose - Best I've Had/Crocodile Tears
Yeesh - Limbo District/Confirmation Bias
Petite League - French New York/No Hitter
Explone - Born at the Wrong Time/Suicide Fences
Middle Kids - Edge of Town/Edge of Town
Mark Sultan - Believe Me/Ophelia
Funeral Advantage - Gardensong/Body is Dead

Hour 2: Siblings
Art Brut - My Little Brother/Bang Bang Rock & Roll
Sebadoh - Sister/Bubble & Scrape
Frank Black and Teenage Fanclub - Sister Isabel/The John Peel Session EP
De La Soul - My Brother's a Basehead/De La Soul is Dead
Prince - Sister/Dirty Mind
Terence Trent D'Arby - Dance Little Sister/Introducing the Hardline According to...
Beck - Brother/Odelay
Andrew Bird - Oh Sister/Soldier On
David Bowie - The Bewlay Brothers/Hunky Dory
Alice in Chains - Brother/Sap
Queens of the Stone Age - Little Sister/Lullabies to Paralyze
Jesse Malin - Sister Christian Where Are You Now/Broken Radio
The White Stripes - Baby Brother/Icky Thump
Pearl Jam - Brother/Ten (Legacy edition)
Mother Love Bone - Capricorn Sister/Mother Love Bone
The Runaways - Little Sister/Waitin' for the Night