Author: Dan Seeger

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Top Ten Movies of 2012 — Number Eight

Dan Seeger

I hedged a bit when I first wrote about Magic Mike, noting that the final act had problems. I stand by that, but as time has passed, I find I care less and less about where the movie sags and more about its thrilling thrust. Inspired in part by star Channing Tatum’s own experience as a male stripper, the film makes this hedonistic world appear both unbearably sleazy and wickedly intoxicating, often in the same gasped breath. In that way, it races along the same track as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, but Anderson’s vivid sprawl is replaced by director … Continue reading Top Ten Movies of 2012 — Number Eight

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Carax, Davies, Godard, Huston, Lord and Miller

Dan Seeger

21 Jump Street (Phil Lord and Chris Miller, 2012). This adaptation of the ludicrous nineteen-eighties television series about cops undercover in high school (one of the first hits for the Fox network) was met with surprising appreciation by the critical community when it was released last spring. I can certainly understand why its metafictional comedy may have been a welcome surprise, but it’s still more ragged and predictable than it is shrewd and effective. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum have nice interplay as the requisite mismatched cops working together, and there’s something refreshing about the inversion of stereotypes, with the … Continue reading Carax, Davies, Godard, Huston, Lord and Miller

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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

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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