Author: Dan Seeger

Books, Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I contributed a couple of pieces this week at Spectrum Culture. On the film side, I reviewed a French film based on a true story involving terrorists hijacking an airplane. While I didn’t expend much effort on this angle in the review, it’s sometimes very odd to see French filmmakers wrestle with the some of the established mechanics of action movies and thrillers without applying their deconstructionist tendencies. It really does wind up landing in some nether region between United 93 and Passenger 57. In the Music section, I reviewed the debut full-length effort from Alabama Shakes. From the editorial … Continue reading Spectrum Check

MusicLeave a comment

One for Friday: The Wedding Present, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”

Dan Seeger

I was a kid who favored albums over singles, operating with a snobbish certainty that the truest test of an artist’s mettle was whether or not they could come up with two long vinyl sides of new music on a fairly regular basis. That was somewhat of a reflection of the time as 45s were increasingly difficult to come by except for those prone to combing the teeny, isolated part of the record store devoted to underground punk. Even though the Billboard Top 40 had an indisputable cachet, albums were the consensus measure of which performers were truly important. Sure, … Continue reading One for Friday: The Wedding Present, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I had couple things on Spectrum Culture this week. In the Film section, I reviewed Womb, a film that continues the unexpected British trend of gentle sci-fi stories about cloning, a distinct subgenre done exceedingly well in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go and less so in the film adaptation of the same book. Womb is further proof that we all would have been better off in Ishiguro’s original work was allowed to be the sole and final work of art on that front. I fared a little better with my selection in the Music section, offering an assessment … Continue reading Spectrum Check

MusicLeave a comment

One for Friday: Poi Dog Pondering, “Spending the Day in the Shirt You Wore”

Dan Seeger

I remember Poi Dog Pondering’s debut album arriving at the college radio station amidst a lot of expectation. This was back when the number of outlets available to promote a new record were far more limited than in the case now, so I’m not quite sure how we got it in our heads that this was a release immediately worthy of my attention. It may have been as simple as the band’s unique gestation. Athens, Georgia and Minneapolis, Minnesota were well-represented on our airwaves, but we weren’t playing a lot from groups that got their start in Hawaii. They did … Continue reading One for Friday: Poi Dog Pondering, “Spending the Day in the Shirt You Wore”