Author: Dan Seeger

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One for Friday: Stump, “Charlton Heston”

Dan Seeger

Sometimes I really struggle to figure out which song to post from an individual album. Especially when I’m pulling from an obscure album, I have a strong instinct to select a song that doesn’t seem to be readily available otherwise. I’m continually surprised by how much of the pop culture flotsam and jetsam of years gone by has found its way to information superhighway, and yet there’s still all sorts of material that is circling aimlessly, hunting for an on-ramp. If I’m going to post a song from an album that seems to mainly perplex Amazon and doesn’t merit its … Continue reading One for Friday: Stump, “Charlton Heston”

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College Countdown: First Billboard Top 20 Modern Rock Tracks, Fall 1988, 12 and 11

Dan Seeger

12. “Up There Down There” by Patti Smith It was a big deal when Patti Smith released the album Dream of Life in 1988. It had been almost ten years since the last album that bore her name and Smith had spent the interim living a life of domestic serenity in the suburbs of Michigan with her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith, and their two children together. She had gone from a seismic force practically reinventing rock ‘n’ roll with the sheer passion of her vocals and the jagged anger of her songwriting to a brilliant phantom who largely sat out … Continue reading College Countdown: First Billboard Top 20 Modern Rock Tracks, Fall 1988, 12 and 11

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I reviewed two very different films for Spectrum Culture this week. First, I tackled a new release, writing a review of the new film from Valérie Donzelli, which was France’s official entry to the Best Foreign Film category at this year’s Oscars. Like everyone else, I’m certain that A Separation is going to win the trophy, and I trust the critical consensus that deems the film the worthiest of the honor. But the other nominees must have been damn good to keep this effort from the final nomination list. The other film I covered couldn’t have been more different. We’re … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: David Baerwald, “All for You”

Dan Seeger

I get sick of songs. It happens. And it especially happened back when my main resource for hearing music comprised of a handful of commercial radio stations and a couple of cable channels filling their programming schedule exclusively with music videos. The cycle of label-directed redundancy wasn’t as bad as it is now, but it was still oppressive enough that songs shifted from novel to familiar to smash-that-record-against-the-fucking-wall well before various programmers grew disinterested in indulging in saturation airplay. The list of qualifying songs I could compose is too long and horrifying to ponder, but I will openly acknowledge that … Continue reading One for Friday: David Baerwald, “All for You”

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But how can I help it, if they break then they break, when my hands are untied they’re entitled to shake

Dan Seeger

Steven Soderbergh has made it clear that the movie Haywire exists solely because he saw Gina Carano in one of her mixed martial arts fights on television. I’d like to think he also spent part of that particular evening hitting … Continue reading But how can I help it, if they break then they break, when my hands are untied they’re entitled to shake