Author: Dan Seeger

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One for Friday: Emmylou Harris, “Amarillo”

Dan Seeger

I like shopping for records. And I specifically mean records, large vinyl discs in cardboard sleeves. Of course, it’s the music (or the comedy, or the…uh…miscellaneous) pressed onto them that I’m really after, but there’s something very different about the tactile quality of going through record albums that entirely exceeds the same experience done with CDs or some other format. I’m prepared to attribute that somewhat to nostalgia. There’s no getting around that. I think there is more to it, though, especially when it comes to used albums. There’s the larger presentation to the art, the added sense of anticipation … Continue reading One for Friday: Emmylou Harris, “Amarillo”

Books15 Comments

My Writers: Terrence McNally

Dan Seeger

I checked out quite a few plays from the campus library where I went to college. This wasn’t a result of budding theater fandom or idle curiosity, but stemmed directly from the movie review radio program I co-produced and co-hosted. As much as I reasonably could, I tried to consume the source material of films adapted from other mediums before sitting before the newer works as they flickered on the movie screen. Given the limited time I had–I did have assigned text that I was supposed to be reading, after all–I often decided to trying to read plays was a … Continue reading My Writers: Terrence McNally

Music28 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “A Love So Fine”

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. The Chiffons came into being when Ronald Mack heard three girls singing together in a Bronx high school lunchroom. A fourth member was recruited and Mack wrote them a batch of songs, including “He’s So Fine,” which the group recorded with the Tokens as their backing band. The Chiffons kept experimenting–including the release of two charting singles as the Four Pennies–but it quickly … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “A Love So Fine”

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This was a typical week at Spectrum Culture for me: one movie, one album. On the film side of things, I reviewed the Kid-Thing, which has inspired other critics to all sorts of quasi-surreal interpretations but which I found to be a middling drama with a virulently indie sensibility. As I alluded on Twitter, I was inordinately pleased that I worked in the term “dirtbag kitsch” in writing about the film. I wrote about the debut album from Rose Windows for the music section. I’m not certain what inspired me to raise my hand for this one in the first … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music2 Comments

One for Friday: The Cost of Living, “Could Be Mine”

Dan Seeger

Maybe my memory is selective (it’s definitely faulty), but I don’t remember there being such anxious discussion around identifying the official song of the summer way back when. It could be that the consensus was formerly reached with greater ease, though I suspect it has more to do with a modern desire to create shared pop culture experiences. In Spotify’s world, how relevant is the biggest radio song of the summer unless we make it so? Best as I can tell, the current debate is between the genius of Daft Punk and some Robin Thicke track which I haven’t knowing … Continue reading One for Friday: The Cost of Living, “Could Be Mine”