Author: Dan Seeger

Music6 Comments

College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 8 and 7

Dan Seeger

8. “True Faith” by New Order New Order’s 1986 album, Brotherhood, may have still had an impact in 1987 (see #39 below), but it was the two-record set released during the year proper that represented a major turning point for the band. Called Substance or Substance 1987, depending on how deeply one feels the need to accede primacy to the Joy Division collection of the same name released the following year, the album compiled all of New Order’s singles and b-sides up to that point, although some of them in rerecorded or otherwise modified form. To help fill out the … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 8 and 7

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I had a busy week over at Spectrum Culture. I usually lead off this recap with the pieces I wrote for the film section, but given yesterday’s One for Friday post in this space spring directly from the new music review I wrote, it seems more appropriate to begin there. I often pick up releases from the bands that endure from my college radio days since I figure I have a little more authority in writing about them. That rarely results in getting the chance to celebrate a genuinely great records, but that’s exactly the pleasure I had with the … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music3 Comments

One for Friday: Yo La Tengo and Daniel Johnston, “Speeding Motorcycle”

Dan Seeger

This week, I wrote a review of the new album by Yo La Tengo, which naturally got me thinking about my long history with the band. I’m honestly not sure if my college radio station had either of the Hoboken group’s first two albums, but I actually remember putting their 1989 effort, President Yo La Tengo, into rotation. I can’t claim we were some brilliantly forward-thinking predictors of future greatness, embracing the record wholeheartedly. In fact, as I recall, it barely got played at all. For whatever reason (because it’s good, I’d like to think), I did return to it … Continue reading One for Friday: Yo La Tengo and Daniel Johnston, “Speeding Motorcycle”

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Top Ten Movies of 2012 — An Introduction

Dan Seeger

I’ve been thinking back on the film year just passed, looking for some sort of unifying theme or idea. As I’ve noted before, I don’t really believe in the sort of cinematic groupthink that other critics are stumbling upon all the time when they survey the wide array of multiplex and art house offerings (much as I like and admire the film writers for The New York Times, they seem to stumble upon a wholly imagined trend about every other week). But I do think the films that speak to any given individual can be somewhat revelatory, offering a glimpse … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2012 — An Introduction

Everything Else5 Comments

College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 10 and 9

Dan Seeger

10. “Never Let Me Down Again” by Depeche Mode The second single from Depeche Mode’s Music for the Masses, “Never Let Me Down Again,” was the a fairly weak performer, by some measures anyway, compared to the other tracks released in the first wave of the album’s promotion. Of the first three singles, for example, it was the lowest charter on the U.K. charts and the only one that didn’t manage a Top 5 showing on the U.S. Dance charts (lead single “Strangelove” even managed to top that particular chart for two weeks). Nonetheless, it was one of those songs … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 10 and 9

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

It was a fairly light week for me at Spectrum Culture. I have a stockpile of music reviews that will be coming due any minute, but or now I just had one full length piece, a terrible drama that I somehow managed to squeeze out a couple hundred words on even though I just wanted to write “Israeli-Palestinian relations as an ABC After School Special” and be done with it. I also pitched in on our Best Comedic Performances of the 1970s, writing about one Oscar winning turn and another that got a well-deserved nomination. Continue reading Spectrum Check

Film2 Comments

One for Friday: Fat, “The Shape I’m In”

Dan Seeger

There are things in my iTunes that I don’t entirely recall how they got there. I mean, I have some vague idea that it involved some internet prowling of dubious copyright legality, but I couldn’t begin to track down where or when I first found the material in question. That’s compounded when even attempting to search for the artist in question proves to be a fairly fruitless endeavor, as in, say, when looking for more information about an obscure nineteen-seventies rock band that went by the name Fat. You can go pretty deep into a Google search of that word … Continue reading One for Friday: Fat, “The Shape I’m In”