Author: Dan Seeger

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One for Friday: The Bens, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

Dan Seeger

It only made sense. A trio of Bens — with the last names of Folds, Kweller, and Lee — emerged on the alternative music scene at about the same time, in the mid-nineteen-nineties. (It’s not quite accurate to term them peers since two of the three were literally kids and the third could accurate reference multiple ex-wives in his lyrics.) Besides a forename, all three songwriters had a propensity for clever, genially comic lyrics. Around ten years later, the music business landscape around them had changed dramatically: album sales started their precipitous plummet, the once hot alternative radio format was … Continue reading One for Friday: The Bens, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

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My Misspent Youth: Hero for Hire by Steve Englehart and George Tuska

Dan Seeger

I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. The nineteen-seventies were a weird time, man. Freshly freed from the constraints of the strict content guidelines and emboldened by the surging influence of the counter-culture, American cinema pushed into edgy new territory, and practically every other form of visual storytelling followed suit. In particular, Marvel comic book creators took their cues from what was happening on big screens, especially as the publisher’s bullpen filled up with writers and artists who … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Hero for Hire by Steve Englehart and George Tuska

FilmLeave a comment

Bernstein with Hooker, Chaplin, Friedkin, Lowery, Taylor

Dan Seeger

Terminator: Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015). The reeling lesson of the just completed summer box office season is that the recycled repetition of brand-driven moviemaking may finally be sputtering its last. The ideal case study as to why arrived one year earlier. Arriving six years after the previous attempt at franchise revivification, Terminator: Genisys shows precisely how hollow the endeavor can be. The film trots out a procession of touchstones — familiar lines, restaged scenes, echoed character beats — without a hint of a central vision or an ounce of soul. Director Alan Taylor brings that same sluggish blandness that made … Continue reading Bernstein with Hooker, Chaplin, Friedkin, Lowery, Taylor

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Laughing Matters: Monty Python’s “Argument Clinic”

Dan Seeger

Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. When I was a kid, Saturday nights were a sketch comedy goldmine. At least one robust vein is obvious: the programming night is right there in the title. Saturday Night Live endured some complicated seasons during the nineteen-eighties, but it was also the decade that saw the likes of Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Christopher Guest pass through Studio 8H, and all … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Monty Python’s “Argument Clinic”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 151 – 149

Dan Seeger

151. The Dead Milkmen, “Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)” The adamant disdain suggested by the parenthetical annexation to the Dead Milkmen single “Instant Club Hit” wasn’t a mistake. It was a clear expression of lead vocalist Rodney Anonymous’s intent in writing the song. “For a couple months, I hung out at this club in Philly,” Anonymous reported. “I have, like, no sense of rhythm, so I can’t dance. So I wouldn’t dance at this club. I’d just sit there at the bar and drink and growl, basically. To people like me who aren’t hair farmers, it’s just a horrible … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 151 – 149

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From the Archive: Loaded Weapon 1

Dan Seeger

  Lest anyone think horrendously bad spoof movies was a result of the trailblazing of the Wayans clan, there was an ugly little flare-up of them in the early nineteen-nineties, largely responding to the surprising success of the Naked Gun films. Yes, friends, there are times when being a film critic is pure misery. This review was written for The Pointer, the student-run newspaper at my undergraduate institution.  One of the difficulties in creating a Naked Gun style parody film is throwing jokes at the audience as if fired from a machine gun, so there’s not much room for flat, unsuccessful … Continue reading From the Archive: Loaded Weapon 1

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One for Friday: The Billionaires, “The End of Summer Song”

Dan Seeger

I’ve already written about music so much this week, that I feel like maybe I should let the One for Friday song speak for itself for once. There can’t be all that much doubt as to my motivation for making this selection, right? Listen or download –> The Billionaires, “The End of Summer Song” (Disclaimer: Can I keep the disclaimer as short? Probably not! Though I’ve given it only the most cursory research, I believe the one and only full-length album from the Billionaires, which contains the shared song, to be out of print as a physical item that can … Continue reading One for Friday: The Billionaires, “The End of Summer Song”

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The New Releases Shelf: and the Anonymous Nobody

Dan Seeger

Here’s my true confession, offered with more shame than usual: much of hip hop resides in my musical blind spot, or deaf spot, I suppose. I tried and tried when I was in college radio, as a slew of formative acts in the genre released seminal albums. Time and again, I was left cold, maybe admiring the material intellectually, but never holding it to my rebellious heart the way I did punk or even, in the words on Kathleen Hanna, “the whole, like, big-white-baby-with-an-ego-problem thing” form of alternative rock that took hold at about the same time. Back in those … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: and the Anonymous Nobody

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The New Releases Shelf: Emotion Side B

Dan Seeger

It happens every now and again. A pure pop performer, completely unabashed in their rejection of arty, anguished pretenses, flares up with a handful of songs that makes the cool, snobbish music aficionados decide the artist is briefly acceptable to embrace. Sometimes there’s a hint of irony to it, a genial protestation that insists a rule-proving exception is afoot. Kelly Clarkson had her dance on that particular floor several years back, when “Since U Been Gone” took up residence between Death Cab for Cutie and Decemberists on all the proudly scruffy mix CDs. These days, Carly Rae Jepsen is the … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Emotion Side B