Author: Dan Seeger

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From the Archive: Dressy Bessy

Dan Seeger

This review came from my days submitted big gaggles of words to the Central Florida alternative weekly The Independent Journal, a publication willed into being by one of the most creative, ambitious people I know. As you can clearly surmise, I was still smarting from the pronounced disappointment of the Liz Phair album I’d written about a week or two earlier.  Hey, not every record has to change the world. There are hearts and minds for the winning by just locking onto an enjoyable sound and sticking to it. Enter Dressy Bessy. On their third album, Tammy Eaton leads the band … Continue reading From the Archive: Dressy Bessy

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One for Friday: The Feelies, “Away”

Dan Seeger

Today is apparently College Radio Day. I could write at near-endless length about my time as a student broadcaster and still note properly convey exactly how much I got out of it. I value everything about my collegiate experience, but the college radio station was special, in practically every way. It was a sanctuary, an enlivening mental obstacle course, a place of spiritual renewal. It was a place of constant discovery, for music obviously, but for so many other things, especially the reserves of belief, insight, and capability I had within myself that I’m convinced never would have been tapped … Continue reading One for Friday: The Feelies, “Away”

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The New Releases Shelf: Every Open Eye

Dan Seeger

(photo credit) Any question about whether Chvrches will be able to adequately follow up the arresting pop from their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, is eradicated within the first seconds of the Swedish band’s sophomore release. Every Open Eye doesn’t roar to life or even explode into being. Instead, album opener “Never Ending Circles” simply is from the very beginning, as if a needle had been dropped square in the middle of a eternal pop epic. The track builds its extended chorus on a fantastic hook, but it feels deliriously as if it’s all hook, indeed hooks overlapping other hooks … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Every Open Eye

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Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Fourteen

Dan Seeger

#14 — Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) By the time I was paying attention, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was a holiday standard. The song, written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, has been recorded countless times, usually presented as a sentimental ode to the joys of of the Christmas season, the tender melody imbued with sedate good cheer. That’s partially attributable to finessing done to the lyrics over the year, but I still found it remarkable, even jarring, when I first experienced the song in its original context, as one of the numbers in the movie musical … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 40s — Number Fourteen

Comics8 Comments

My Misspent Youth: Avengers #221 by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie and Bob Hall

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. When I look back at the issues of The Avengers that were released across my first few years as a superhero comic book reader, it’s clear to me that I was a fairly fickle consumer of the adventures of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” Maybe more than with any other series I read with any regularity back then, my attention was dependent on a cover that, for whatever weird reason, caught my eye. … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Avengers #221 by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie and Bob Hall

Music11 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “Your Time to Cry”

Dan Seeger

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. Joe Simon was a major player on the R&B charts during the late nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies, including a million-seller that nabbed him a Grammy Award. As was too often the case, that success didn’t completely translate to the pop charts, where Simon had a respectable number of Top 40 hits (eight in total), but was largely unable to push his material to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Your Time to Cry”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 7

Dan Seeger

7. Matthew Sweet, 100% Fun Matthew Sweet was probably alternative rock’s official King of Power Pop in 1995, not that there were many combatants for that particular throne. Sweet bounded from obscurity to the upper reaches of the college charts a few years earlier, upon the release of his brilliant 1991 album, Girlfriend. With a big guitar sound and deliriously catchy hooks, Sweet scratched an itch most college programmers (myself included) didn’t even know they had, sending legs thumping as joyously as that of a dog whose human pal has found just the right spot behind the ear. This underserved subsection of the … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 7

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‘Cause when life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door

Dan Seeger

Uncle John feels like a first feature. In this instance, I mean that as a compliment. The directorial debut of Steven Piet (who co-wrote the screenplay with producer Erik Crary), the film has a small-scale resoluteness, a commitment to telling an understated story with care and calmness. While the occasional evocative shot springs up, the film mostly proceeds with a smart humility. Piet isn’t trying to dazzle the audience. Instead, he wants to tell his story well, which is a far more admirable goal than wrenching attention with anxiously gaudy visuals. In assessing Piet’s commitment to the integrity of his narrative … Continue reading ‘Cause when life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door

Everything Else7 Comments

Beers I Have Known: One Barrel Brewing Company Bilbo Baggins Black IPA

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. In just a few weeks, I’ll be moving away from Asheville, North Carolina, the wonderful mountain town that began properly earning the title of Beer City, U.S.A. shortly after I arrived, some eight years ago. Leaving behind so many favorite local brews and breweries has stirred up some wistful feelings and inspired me to load down the car with cans and bottles on a road trip that also served as a first pass … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: One Barrel Brewing Company Bilbo Baggins Black IPA