Category: Music

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The New Releases Shelf: Puberty 2

Dan Seeger

Puberty 2 opens with “Happy.” Against delicate, intricate music, Mitski sings, eerie and ethereal. Initially, the lyrics seem settled in the mundane: “Happy came to visit me, he bought cookies on the way/ I poured him tea and he told me it’ll all be okay.” If it’s the contrast between the spooky and the plain that initially grabs the attention, the track insinuates itself further with its lurking abstractions, led by the anthropomorphizing of a highly coveted emotion. The music introduces itself as fairly standard aching indie rock. Then it drills to a deeper level. The fourth full-length from Mitski Miyawaki, … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Puberty 2

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, #154 – #152

Dan Seeger

154. Stray Cats, “Rock This Town” To get noticed, and appreciated, for their quintessentially American sound, Stray Cats needed to got to the U.K. Lead singer and guitarist Brian Setzer explained that the journey across the Atlantic was spurred specifically by a lack of stateside interest in their rockabilly sound. “We were getting fed up because the record companies didn’t want to know about it,” Setzer said. “We had heard that in places like France and England rock and roll never died. We just decided to go over there for the hell of it. We sold everything we owned. Jim … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, #154 – #152

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One for Friday: Art Brut, “Sounds of Summer”

Dan Seeger

As I carry with me my digital musical collection, assembled with tireless dedication, beamed down to a device just about anywhere I am, I don’t really pine for bygone days. Yes, I have a tremendous affection for formats that were once the only conveyance for music, which is why I’m one of those sorry fellows who pays exorbitant prices for new music “on vinyl” (I know this is a fancy, hipster way of saying, “record”). Really, the only part of my music culture that I’m helplessly nostalgic for is the art of making a mixtape. All through the night They … Continue reading One for Friday: Art Brut, “Sounds of Summer”

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Bait Taken: Pitchfork’s 200 Best Songs of the 1970s

Dan Seeger

There are many building blocks of the internet, but the cornerstones are think pieces, offhand lists, and other hollow provocations meant to stir arguments and, therefore, briefly redirect web traffic. Engaging such material is utterly pointless. Then again, it’s not like I have anything better to do. There’s no question that Pitchfork wants to launch a thousand response posts, articles, diatribes, manifestos, and social media wails with their latest exhaustive ranking of a decade’s music. Back when Rolling Stone was the only game in town for this sort of endeavor, they had an apparent goal of constructing a settled consensus. There were … Continue reading Bait Taken: Pitchfork’s 200 Best Songs of the 1970s

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 157 – 155

Dan Seeger

157. XTC, “Earn Enough for Us” Andy Partridge and his cohorts within XTC weren’t exactly renowned for being accommodating with the producers foisted upon them by their label (not were they especially accommodating with their label either), but their combativeness with Todd Rundgren during the recording of the 1986 album Skylarking was especially notorious. They’d chosen Rundgren from a list of names given to them by Virgin Records, delivered with the warning that the band needed to start selling records in the United States. According to all involved, Partridge and Rundgren were viciously at one another from the jump, with the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 157 – 155

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One for Friday: Fetchin Bones, “Stray”

Dan Seeger

As was projected in this space, I spent a portion of last weekend on the air at my alma mater, my first spin in the air chair in that particular studio in over fifteen years. It was delirious and delightful, a truly joyful experience that had the intense feel of coming home. With only two hours of airtime available to me, I barely got to dig into the history I carry with me from those days, much less the intervening decades of professional life and music fandom informed by my beloved time as a college radio kid. In particular, by … Continue reading One for Friday: Fetchin Bones, “Stray”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 160 – 158

Dan Seeger

160. Patti Smith, “People Have the Power” When “People Have the Power” arrived, nearly a decade had passed without any new music from Patti Smith. She’d been effectively living in semi-retirement while starting a family with the man she married in 1980, Fred “Sonic” Smith, a punk icon in his own right thanks to his tenure in the foundational band the MC5. According to Patti, it was Fred who started her on the road to the song when he marched into the kitchen and said, “People have the power. Write it.” Armed with only that title, Patti embarked on a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 160 – 158

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A Week of Fridays: Sugar, “A Good Idea”

Dan Seeger

This coming weekend, I will take to the airwaves of WWSP-90FM, my college radio alma mater, as part of their annual reunion weekends. It will be my first time presiding over a radio program in nine years and my first time on 90FM in over fifteen years. I commemoration, I’m devoting this week to slightly displaced “One for Friday” posts, touching on each of my five years as a student broadcaster. To borrow a line from Robyn Hitchcock, “I didn’t write these songs; they wrote me.” I took my time getting through college. I didn’t want to leave. Sure, a certain fear of … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: Sugar, “A Good Idea”

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A Week of Fridays: The Smithereens, “Top of the Pops”

Dan Seeger

This coming weekend, I will take to the airwaves of WWSP-90FM, my college radio alma mater, as part of their annual reunion weekends. It will be my first time presiding over a radio program in nine years and my first time on 90FM in over fifteen years. I commemoration, I’m devoting this week to slightly displaced “One for Friday” posts, touching on each of my five years as a student broadcaster. To borrow a line from Robyn Hitchcock, “I didn’t write these songs; they wrote me.” Other bands meant more to me personally and yet others were more dominant on the WWSP-90FM airwaves, … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: The Smithereens, “Top of the Pops”