Author: Dan Seeger

MusicLeave a comment

College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 166 – 164

Dan Seeger

166. The Nails, “Things You Left Behind” As any rock band must, the Nails talked about the artistic growth they were going through when they released their second full-length album, Dangerous Dreams, in 1986. They’d had a mini-sensation two years earlier, with the single “88 Lines About 44 Women,” but the very nature of the track stirred a mist of novelty up around the group’s music. While hanging tight to the gentle beat poetry vibe that made their name (lead singer and chief songwriter Marc Campbell was quick to namecheck the likes of Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman when asked … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 166 – 164

MusicLeave a comment

One for Friday: Voice of the Beehive, “I Say Nothing”

Dan Seeger

There are a bevy of albums from my first semester or so in college radio that I think of as wondrous gifts. Those aren’t necessarily the best albums from that time, the ones that I will quickly hold up as exemplars of the college rock sounds in its waning years, before the tsunami of grunge buffeted it away. Instead, they’re the albums that I hold dear, but I’m not confident I would have found my way to if they hadn’t sat in the new music rotation during those early days when I was eager to learn. I had my preconception … Continue reading One for Friday: Voice of the Beehive, “I Say Nothing”

Everything ElseLeave a comment

I thought it was a dream, but I know I seen him standing there

Dan Seeger

There are many balloon animal Jesuses (Jesi?), but this one is mine: When one adopts a technique of filling the blog hole with pictures of balloons rendered into the shape of Jesus Christ on the day that words won’t come (or there’s simply not time to write properly), then one is likely to get an inflated surprise on one’s birthday. This post is the sixty-third in a series. Continue reading I thought it was a dream, but I know I seen him standing there

Everything ElseLeave a comment

Laughing Matters: Tina Fey, “Bitches Get Stuff Done”

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. Tina Fey doesn’t especially care for the segment she co-wrote and delivered which is alternately called “Bitch is the New Black.” As recounted in her book Bossypants, it was a piece that came together at the last minute, intended to be a consideration of the greater scrutiny and ready dismissal, driven by gender, that Hilary Clinton faced during her 2008 run for the presidency. I … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Tina Fey, “Bitches Get Stuff Done”

Television3 Comments

That Championship Season: Togetherness, Season One

Dan Seeger

I don’t think the term “mumblecore” is flung around very much any more, but there was a time, not so long ago, it was tediously unavoidable in discussions about independent film. It supposedly described a certain kind of tone — ramshackle, understated, empathetic, wry — that was ubiquitous in the offerings from United States directors that had a home in art house theaters before the occasional Sundance-born bonanza twisted independent cinema into something more eager and rambunctious. Those who derided the mini-movement (in which almost no associated filmmaker actually claimed membership) fairly identified a lack of narrative discipline as a … Continue reading That Championship Season: Togetherness, Season One

Everything Else1 Comment

Beers I Have Known: Point Brewery Classic Amber Lager

Dan Seeger

This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. I live in a place where we pay for things with beer. The sudsy goodness hasn’t fully and completely taken the place of currency in the state of Wisconsin, but it’s an imaginable outcome. For now, beer is simply the prime commodity in the congenial barter system that guides most personal transactions, from helping someone move to acquiring some previously prized belonging that’s been relegated to a dusty corner of the garage. Or, … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Point Brewery Classic Amber Lager

MusicLeave a comment

College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 169 – 167

Dan Seeger

169. M+M, “Black Stations/White Stations” By 1984, Martha and the Muffins were a very different band than the one that had a international hit single five years earlier, with “Echo Beach.” The lack of similar chart success with subsequent releases caused the group to get dropped by Virgin Records, and they’d shed several band members over the years, including saxophonist Tony Haas, who chose to conduct his exit interview through a series of missives printed in the letters column of Now, the Toronto alternative weekly newspaper. The tumult was so thorough that remaining members Mark Gane and Martha Johnson took the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 169 – 167

Music1 Comment

One for Friday: Concrete Blonde, “Ghost of a Texas Ladies’ Man”

Dan Seeger

I’ve recently been taking advantage of the technological marvels afforded to me by the endlessly interconnected digital world to listen to my alma mater college radio station with some regularity. Though I have an obvious bias coloring my perception, I still maintain that this particular oasis on the left end of the dial is programmed better, smarter, and more effectively than just about any other outlet with a transmitter tower at their disposal. While so many other noncommercial stations indulge in extensive block programming, allowing the on air staff to craft playlists that speak exclusively to individual, hyper-focused music preferences, the place … Continue reading One for Friday: Concrete Blonde, “Ghost of a Texas Ladies’ Man”