Category: Music

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One for Friday: Glass Eye, “Cecilia”

Dan Seeger

I’ve written about the allure cover songs had — still have, maybe — for college radio programmers. Much as there’s a fierce instinct for the new, new, new, there’s a reason most commercial radio stations default to a mere handful of songs that cycle eternally. The familiar stirs a powerful craving. Discovery is great, but we all want to sing along. So as much as I’d like to champion one of the originals included on the Austin band Glass Eye’s Christine EP, which hit the student-run radio station during my first semester there, the reality is that I gravitated to … Continue reading One for Friday: Glass Eye, “Cecilia”

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The New Releases Shelf: Swear I’m Good At This

Dan Seeger

Crushes on bands are a thing, right? Certain songs, certain albums, certain riffs and vocal howls can set the heart aflutter with something that transcends taste and appreciation and escalates to full-on swooning adoration. I feel like that used to happen to me about every other week when I was a devoted staff member at the college radio station, eons ago. Every undiscovered album dropped over the spindle or CD fed into the player held the potential of triggering a rapturing affair of the psyche. For whatever reason, album rarely leave me reeling in that way any longer, probably because … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Swear I’m Good At This

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 49 – 47

Dan Seeger

49. Tears for Fears, “Everybody Want to Rule the World” Bands beholden to major labels are often told they need to buckle down and try to write a hit song. As they were prepping material for their 1985 album, Songs from the Big Chair, Tears for Fears were given even more specific instructions than that. They were charged with writing a single that would appeal to the U.S. market. That single was “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” “We did the song to have an American hit,” Roland Orzabal, guitarist and vocalist for the band, conceded at the time. “It’s … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 49 – 47

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One for Friday: Sister Carol, “Wild Thing”

Dan Seeger

I’ve written about Jonathan Demme quite a bit this week, but I’ve only briefly touched on one the most celebrated elements of his work: his use of music in his movies. While tagging him a strong director when it comes to music might seem obvious considering his oversight of Stop Making Sense, a film unlikely to ever be topped in the pantheon of concert films, Demme’s ability to integrate pop songs artfully into his fiction efforts was dazzling. Martin Scorsese arguably stood as Demme’s only real competition in this often underappreciated facet of filmmaking, but the latter’s far more esoteric … Continue reading One for Friday: Sister Carol, “Wild Thing”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 52 – 50

Dan Seeger

52. Primitives, “Crash” Before the Primitives got around to recording their first album, they’d already decided that “Crash” was one of their less significant songs. “We wrote that very early on and then we dropped it from the set,” explained Paul Court, the band’s guitarist and chief songwriter. “We had a lot of songs like it, three chord style Ramones numbers, and then our producer Paul Sampson said it was a good song and that we should resurrect it.” That was only the beginning of Lazarus-like capacity for revival that the song had. It was definitely a college radio hit … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 52 – 50

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From the Archive: Flashback Friday – 1973

Dan Seeger

I’m a little too weary to elaborate, except to note that this was originally published in my former online home. In 1973, I lived in a household that had a lot of records. There were so many, in fact, that they basically defined the decor. Entire walls were obliterated from view by the shelves of albums. There was even one wall that was basically nothing but albums, effectively extending the hallway by several feet just as capably as 2x4s and drywall. Obtaining every chunk of the unfolding evolution of rock ‘n’ roll was the obsession of my first stepfather (don’t … Continue reading From the Archive: Flashback Friday – 1973

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One for Friday: School of Fish, “3 Strange Days”

Dan Seeger

I’ve probably tapped out enough words about The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM this week. In recent years, I’ve used this Friday feature to share a lovely cover of my team’s theme song that was recorded by my friend Mollie Donihe. I still strongly recommend that particular track. For today, though, I’m going to opt for a song that another friend of mine insists should have an official place somewhere on the official Trivia playlist. I absolutely agree. For three strange days I had no obligations My mind was a blur I did not know what to do As the saying goes … Continue reading One for Friday: School of Fish, “3 Strange Days”

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Trivia Answer of the Day: Dave Grusin, “Night-Lines”

Dan Seeger

This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM officially gets underway on Friday night at 6:00p.m., when “Born to Be Wild” is played, the rules are read, and the first question (inevitably with the answer “Robert Redford”) kicks off fifty-four straight hours. Realistically, though, things begin in earnest when teams register earlier in the week and get their hands … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Dave Grusin, “Night-Lines”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 55 – 53

Dan Seeger

55. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car” “I had so many people come up to me and say that they felt it was their song,” Tracy Chapman said about “Fast Car,” the lead single from her 1988 self-titled debut. “And someone told me at one point that they thought I’ve been reading their mail. They were saying, ‘You seem to know my story,’ and people would come up and tell me about a car relationship and some detail that they felt was in the song that represented something that happened in their lives.” The singer-songwriter whose high school classmates joked would someday … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 55 – 53

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 58 – 56

Dan Seeger

58. XTC, “Dear God” Although it is one of XTC’s best known songs, “Dear God” was initially relegated to also-ran status. The story of that decision changes depending on who is telling it. Todd Rundgren, who produced the song, maintains that Andy Partridge and his bandmates chose to omit the song from the 1986 album Skylarking because they were warned the song’s dim view of religion would stir up controversy, calling the decision cowardly. While Partridge acknowledges that the label was concerned about how the song would play in the U.S. market, he says his own high standards stood as the chief motivation behind … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 58 – 56