Author: Dan Seeger

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

For the most part, we writers are allowed to pick the films we review for Spectrum Culture. There are limitations, of course, especially for those of us who live in more remote areas that don’t offer advance screenings of major releases for critics. Still, every week afford us the opportunity to peruse the vast array of new movies coming out, picking the title we’d like to cover. I was a little uncertain when looking at my choices for this week, finally narrowing it down to two different options. I finally asked my partner in all things to help me settle … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Billy Bragg, “Valentine’s Day Is Over” (Peel Session)

Dan Seeger

As I’ve recounted, there were many discoveries I made after I arrived at the campus radio in the late-eighties. Among them were a series of records with a distinctive cover design, just the name of an artist atop a big black box with a dizzying array of other bands and performers listed within it. In small print at the very top of the jacket sat three simple words: “The Peel Sessions.” To the best of my knowledge, I hadn’t heard of John Peel, the British radio personality and indefatigable music fan who was the namesake for the records. We didn’t … Continue reading One for Friday: Billy Bragg, “Valentine’s Day Is Over” (Peel Session)

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Love? Less.

Dan Seeger

This isn’t usually the digital corner where I share my thoughts on new releases (that’s done elsewhere), but I got a special request from a good friend so here we are. Maybe this will be a one-off, maybe the first of many. Here’s my true confession about My Bloody Valentine: I didn’t grasp the significance of the band the first time around. I didn’t even get just how good they were. Part of that was because their true masterwork, 1991’s Loveless, initially struck me as part of a trend instead of a buzzy revolution all on its own. It was … Continue reading Love? Less.

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College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 2

Dan Seeger

2. “Girlfriend in a Coma” by the Smiths “Girlfriend in a Coma” was the first single from Strangeways, Here We Come, the final studio album from the Smiths. Indeed, by most accounts the band was in the midst of splintering apart as the track was slipping up the U.K. charts. The B-side even houses the last song the Smiths ever recorded, “I Keep Mine Hidden.” The A-side is, of course, pretty notable all on its own, inspiring countless covers and even the title to a novel by an author who never tires of clinging at references that will make him … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 2

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I pitched in for both of my regular areas this week at Spectrum Culture. On the film side, I wrote a review of a new documentary on the widely protested incarceration of Mumia Abu-Jamal. I actually took this one on for a very specific reason: I’ve now spent at least twenty years hearing cries of “Free Mumia” from a certain, impassioned subsection of society, without ever hearing a corresponding explanation for why his sentence is unjust. I presumed the documentary would provide that, but it instead glossed over the particulars of the situation in much the same way I was … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Cruel Story of Youth, “You’re What You Want to Be”

Dan Seeger

As is often the case when Friday comes around this space, it’s time for another tale of the 90FM “C Stacks.” When I arrived at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, the greater music library was divided into three sections, the bands placed in them sorted roughly by notoriety: the A,B and C Stacks. Obviously the C Stacks was where the most obscure music went to live out its days at the radio station, until some college kid a generation later pulled it out, muttered, “What the hell is this?” and relegated it to the deep storage in the … Continue reading One for Friday: Cruel Story of Youth, “You’re What You Want to Be”