Author: Dan Seeger

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 42 and 41

Dan Seeger

42. Ben Folds, Rockin’ the Suburbs I was an early adopter of the music of Ben Folds. I read a review of the debut album from Ben Folds Five in CMJ New Music Monthly back in the day when I was scouring its pages for any palatable respite from the Pearl Jam wanna-bes that were flooding the playlist at the commercial radio station I worked for. The write-up was fine (although reading it now, it strikes me a surprisingly off-base), but it was the inclusion of the song “Underground” on the supplemental CD that came with the issue which sent … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 42 and 41

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Given my well-reported excursion to central Wisconsin to dive headlong into pop minutiae, I didn’t have much spare time to contribute to Spectrum Culture. In fact, the only words I strung together were for our monthly mixtape feature, writing about a new track from the Screaming Females. I’ll be back up to speed in the coming week with new reviews in both the film and music sections. On the film side, I’ll be writing about a dirty movie from France, which seems like a weirdly satisfying way to return to digital print. Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: The Sundays, “Don’t Tell Your Mother”

Dan Seeger

Across all the various concerts and liver performances that I’ve seen over the years, I maintain that I’ve seen two genuine encores, two instances in which the band was done for the night and the enthusiasm of the crowd drew them back on stage. I’m convinced these two particularly encores weren’t contrivances of showmanship with the performers holding back one of their hits (or, in the case of the bands that I tend to go see, “hits”) to blow the roof off the dump when the lot of us went through the sham of clapping and cheering to bring the … Continue reading One for Friday: The Sundays, “Don’t Tell Your Mother”

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Programming Note

Dan Seeger

Despite all the best of intentions, I simply don’t have the time, energy or necessary current mental functionality to hold up my obligation to provide a new installment of College Countdown today. In fact I may need to cook up some general low-impact content for the whole week ahead. That’s how thoroughly my annual excursion into the land of total cognitive exhaustion has done a number on me. My apologies. Continue reading Programming Note

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One for Friday: “Poor old Johnnie Ray…”

Dan Seeger

As the preceding day’s posts undoubtedly conveyed, this is the first day of this year’s edition of The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. For the members of my tribe, only one song will suffice. Wikipedia even confirmed this fact at one point: I won’t post it, but I can surely share it. This song is undoubtedly available for purchase at your favorite local, independently-owned record store. Why not go and give the proprietor of that establishment several of your dollars. I know that’s on my agenda for today. Continue reading One for Friday: “Poor old Johnnie Ray…”