Author: Dan Seeger

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

While I’m falling a little behind in my music reviews, I still had two new film pieces go up at Spectrum Culture this past week. First there was a review of a new documentary that uses one man’s personal experience, documented with a series of video cameras, to illuminate the ongoing challenges of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. While its homemade origins instill some humility into the film, it was also fairly complex and required a certain amount of deftness to detail its strengths and weaknesses. It was a nice challenge to write the review. I also wrote on … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music1 Comment

One for Friday: Mental As Anything, “If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?”

Dan Seeger

I wish I were better at coming up with titles. There’s few things more satisfying than a great title for an album, a movie or a book, something that immediately grabs attention and is smart and memorable enough that it engenders goodwill right off the bat. There’s some added pressure with a song, of course, because the hope and expectation is that the cleverness of the title will fully and cleanly carry over to the track, especially if the title is actually used in the song. It’s easy enough to pile up an assemblage of clever words if they don’t … Continue reading One for Friday: Mental As Anything, “If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?”

Music51 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “Crazy Eyes for You”

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. Apt Records was started in the late nineteen-fifties as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount, which itself is widely considered to be the first major label to be formed after the rock ‘n’ roll era truly got underway. Whether by design of happenstance, Apt Records stuck solely with singles, apparently releasing not one one full-length album during its eight years of existence. In that span, … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Crazy Eyes for You”

Books34 Comments

My Writers: An Introduction

Dan Seeger

My friend Steve recently tagged me on Facebook, challenging me to come up with a list of “fifteen authors who have been an influence and you’re confident will always stick with you.” It was intended to be a brisk, modest exercise. The instructions even insisted that as little time as possible be used in the construction of the list. So naturally, I thought about it a lot. I didn’t agonize in the selection of the fifteen writers; I dutifully followed the instructions in that respect. But I did think about the list quite a bit after I shared it with … Continue reading My Writers: An Introduction

Music16 Comments

College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 34 and 33

Dan Seeger

34. Mogwai, Rock Action The Scottish band Mogwai is named after the critters in Joe Dante’s 1984 dark comedy Gremlins. It was intended to be a temporary name, but the band never switched it and it eventually took hold. Certainly, they were locked into it by the time their third album, Rock Action, was released. Mogwai had a reputation for ethereal, meditative music, largely delivered as instrumentals, although Rock Action featured guest vocals by the likes of Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals (singing in Welsh, no less) and David Pajo of Slint. Further demonstrating their fascination with bygone pop … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 34 and 33

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

  This week for Spectrum Culture, I reviewed a new film that fell into the category of earnest attempts sadly lacking in real chops in the execution. This is the sort of offering that I suspect plays like gangbusters at the smaller festivals on the circuit. I also contributed a short piece for our weekly List Inconsequential feature, because I simply will not pass up a chance to write about “Rowdy” Roddy Piper’s finest film performance. Sorry, friends, but his turn for director John Carpenter ranks second in my book. Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: The Replacements, “Beer for Breakfast”

Dan Seeger

Admittedly, I’ve sort of got beer on the brain these days, something that’s hard to avoid in my neck of the nation. But I swear there are other things my mind wanders to during the day. Like fabulously messy songs about drinking beer at unlikely hours of the day. While I’m anticipated that our household will drink more than its fair share of beer over the course of the next several days, I don’t think we’ll be resorting to beer for breakfast anytime soon, even though we have a couple remaining bottles of an especially suitable choice for that activity … Continue reading One for Friday: The Replacements, “Beer for Breakfast”

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Na na na na na na sorrow, everything’s gonna be all right

Dan Seeger

I live in Asheville, North Carolina. For the fourth straight year, Asheville has shared or won outright the title of Beer City USA for four years running, which makes an awful lot of sense considering there are a multitude of first–rate craft breweries within a fifteen minute drive of our front door. Besides the homegrown brewers, within the past few months it’s been announced that New Belgium, Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues have all announced that they’ll be opening new facilities in the area to handle their respective East coast operations. With all that activity, and the accompanying growing suspicion … Continue reading Na na na na na na sorrow, everything’s gonna be all right