Author: Dan Seeger

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 18 and 17

Dan Seeger

18. Travis, The Invisible Band I didn’t have a working familiarity with a lot of the artists on this list when 2001 began, even those that could reasonably claim to already be well-established in the realm of college. I certainly knew Travis, though, largely because I had completely bought into their brand of lush, emotive pop at the time. It was an understandable (and, I’d hazard, commonplace) position to hold at the time, collecting music crafted in the rhythmic aftershocks of The Verve’s Urban Hymns, the 1997 album that housed perhaps the most rapturously wonderful single of the decade. The … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 18 and 17

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I didn’t have that many writing assignments for Spectrum Culture this week, so of course I needed to make certain my one piece was exceedingly long, maybe the longest I’ve ever written for the site. To be fair, the “Re-make/Re-model” series invites length given that at least two films need to be broken down. In writing about Jonathan Demme’s remake of a Stanley Donen classic, I also had the opportunity to reference an old Onion article for which I have a special fondness. I also offered up a far briefer contribution to this week’s List Inconsequential list about great live … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, “Carmelito”

Dan Seeger

We probably thought Edie Brickell was going to be one of those artists who’d be around, creating music that was simultaneously breezy and vital for a long, long time. The debut album with backing band New Bohemians (no “the,” please) arrived in August of 1988, weeks before I landed at the college radio station, and the single “What I Am” got ample airplay throughout the fall on its way to becoming an unlikely Top 10 hit on the Billboard charts. For most, that track represents the entirety of the essential Brickell collection. At our station, however, it was actually the … Continue reading One for Friday: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, “Carmelito”

Television5 Comments

Do you feel like a chain store? Practically floored.

Dan Seeger

Like everyone else who has an abundance of online accounts and an empowered self-certainty when it comes to commenting on all things popular culture, I spent some time today offering snarky, mildly bitter assessments of today’s announcement of this year’s Emmy nominations. Rather than continuing to spout off about perceived snubs and the odd worthy contender among today’s honorees, I thought the better approach might be to lay out my preferences here in my corner of the digital landscape. I may type up a full list of acting nominations when it comes to the Oscars, but I’m not so crazy … Continue reading Do you feel like a chain store? Practically floored.

Music50 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “Freight Train”

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. Given on the full-on hysteria for all things Beatles that began in the early nineteen-sixties, it’s a little surprising that the unique subgenre of rock ‘n’ roll that stood as their earliest, most profound influence never gained much of a foothold on this side of the Atlantic. Skiffle is the music that all four of the moptops loved, to one degree or another, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Freight Train”

Music9 Comments

College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 20 and 19

Dan Seeger

20. Daft Punk, Discovery Daft Punk is comprised of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, but early editions of their 2001 sophomore release, Discovery, essentially welcomed all interested listeners into their unique, electronic beat-driven, border-free nation. The album came with a Daft Punk membership card that allowed online access to all sorts of material, including music that wouldn’t show up on proper releases for years. The robot helmets the band members wore gave the whole endeavor a futuristic, almost otherworldly sense, as if they’d slipped over from another timeline where the wildest futuristic predictions of the nineteen-fifties had … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 20 and 19

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

By the evidence of the reviews I wrote, I had a pretty grumpy week at Spectrum Culture. Through the normal cycle, I wound up with a lot of middling material to write about. First of all, I had the new album from Sonny and the Sunsets. I like their previous outing quite a bit, but this new release is drab and uninteresting. And I’m usually a sucker for breakup albums. On the movie side, I reviewed the directorial debut of Martin Donovan, still probably best known for the movies he made with Hal Hartley a couple decades ago. As if … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: The Frogs, “Layin’ Down My Love 4 U”

Dan Seeger

There was a hefty stack of records in a black metal cabinet. This was my first winter break of college, and I had returned to campus early in order to pitch in around the student-run radio station, operating with the usual short staff that corresponded to those days when classes weren’t in session. Besides keeping all the on-air shifts filled in our shortened programming day, there was a backlog of albums from the late fall and early winter that needed to be sorted through. The major releases had duly made their way to the rotation, so this pile was entirely … Continue reading One for Friday: The Frogs, “Layin’ Down My Love 4 U”