Author: Dan Seeger

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The New Releases Shelf: Hit Reset

Dan Seeger

Let’s face it: punk isn’t known for its subtlety. So why not call the new album from the Julie Ruin, the band fronted by Kathleen Hanna, Hit Reset? The scorching performer has consistently taken charge of her own iconography ever since the days she and her band Bikini Kill punched back at grungy rock boy self-importance in the early nineteen-nineties, defining the fleeting but forceful riot grrrl movement in the process. Following an extended layoff from performing, necessitated by a humbling bout with Lyme disease, Hanna returned to the stage just last year. Officially the second full-length album from the … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Hit Reset

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The New Releases Shelf: Puberty 2

Dan Seeger

Puberty 2 opens with “Happy.” Against delicate, intricate music, Mitski sings, eerie and ethereal. Initially, the lyrics seem settled in the mundane: “Happy came to visit me, he bought cookies on the way/ I poured him tea and he told me it’ll all be okay.” If it’s the contrast between the spooky and the plain that initially grabs the attention, the track insinuates itself further with its lurking abstractions, led by the anthropomorphizing of a highly coveted emotion. The music introduces itself as fairly standard aching indie rock. Then it drills to a deeper level. The fourth full-length from Mitski Miyawaki, … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Puberty 2

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, #154 – #152

Dan Seeger

154. Stray Cats, “Rock This Town” To get noticed, and appreciated, for their quintessentially American sound, Stray Cats needed to got to the U.K. Lead singer and guitarist Brian Setzer explained that the journey across the Atlantic was spurred specifically by a lack of stateside interest in their rockabilly sound. “We were getting fed up because the record companies didn’t want to know about it,” Setzer said. “We had heard that in places like France and England rock and roll never died. We just decided to go over there for the hell of it. We sold everything we owned. Jim … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, #154 – #152

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One for Friday: Art Brut, “Sounds of Summer”

Dan Seeger

As I carry with me my digital musical collection, assembled with tireless dedication, beamed down to a device just about anywhere I am, I don’t really pine for bygone days. Yes, I have a tremendous affection for formats that were once the only conveyance for music, which is why I’m one of those sorry fellows who pays exorbitant prices for new music “on vinyl” (I know this is a fancy, hipster way of saying, “record”). Really, the only part of my music culture that I’m helplessly nostalgic for is the art of making a mixtape. All through the night They … Continue reading One for Friday: Art Brut, “Sounds of Summer”

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Greatish Performances #26

Dan Seeger

#26 — Michael Douglas as Grady Tripp in Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, 2000) When Michael Douglas was cast as Grady Tripp, I was mightily disappointed. Wonder Boys was a book I adored, and the news that it was being adapted for the screen by the writer of The Fabulous Baker Boys and the director of L.A. Confidential filled me with brave belief that the commonplace degradation of a literary work by the Hollywood machine would be skillfully sidestepped. I figured it would be easy from there. Cast Jeff Bridges as the lead character, and all would be well. Instead, director … Continue reading Greatish Performances #26

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Bait Taken: Pitchfork’s 200 Best Songs of the 1970s

Dan Seeger

There are many building blocks of the internet, but the cornerstones are think pieces, offhand lists, and other hollow provocations meant to stir arguments and, therefore, briefly redirect web traffic. Engaging such material is utterly pointless. Then again, it’s not like I have anything better to do. There’s no question that Pitchfork wants to launch a thousand response posts, articles, diatribes, manifestos, and social media wails with their latest exhaustive ranking of a decade’s music. Back when Rolling Stone was the only game in town for this sort of endeavor, they had an apparent goal of constructing a settled consensus. There were … Continue reading Bait Taken: Pitchfork’s 200 Best Songs of the 1970s

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The Art of the Sell: “The House of the Devil” poster

Dan Seeger

These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art.  I have a longstanding appreciation for movie posters, going back to the days when my trips to the theater were sadly infrequent. I’d wander the hallways staring at these vivid promises of cinematic wonders to come, resigned to the knowledge that taking in this one design and promotional statement would likely comprise the totality of my experience with the films in question in the palace of flickering lights where they were best seen. As official movie posters … Continue reading The Art of the Sell: “The House of the Devil” poster

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 157 – 155

Dan Seeger

157. XTC, “Earn Enough for Us” Andy Partridge and his cohorts within XTC weren’t exactly renowned for being accommodating with the producers foisted upon them by their label (not were they especially accommodating with their label either), but their combativeness with Todd Rundgren during the recording of the 1986 album Skylarking was especially notorious. They’d chosen Rundgren from a list of names given to them by Virgin Records, delivered with the warning that the band needed to start selling records in the United States. According to all involved, Partridge and Rundgren were viciously at one another from the jump, with the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 157 – 155