Category: Music

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Laughing Matters: Key & Peele, “Ray Parker, Jr. Theme Songs”

Dan Seeger

Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. There’s obviously an admirable surplus of material from the sketch comedy series Key & Peele that is engaged in the most significant political and social concerns of the current era. Much as I admire that, my true weakness when it comes to the collaborative work of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele is for their jabs at the entertainment business. I find that material to be … Continue reading Laughing Matters: Key & Peele, “Ray Parker, Jr. Theme Songs”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 175 – 173

Dan Seeger

175. Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, “Elvis Is Everywhere” Neill Kirby McMillian, Jr. was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1957. Years later, he found his true self as Mojo Nixon. Though the exact moment of identity epiphany is elusive, it was undoubtedly somewhere around the point he teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Skid Roper (née Richard Banke). The two started playing gigs together in San Diego, California, in the early nineteen-eighties, in a place that undoubtedly felt a million miles away from their freewheeling, psychobilly musical sensibility. Though Nixon quickly became a cult hero, thanks to songs that indulged in a raucous, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 175 – 173

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One for Friday: Swamp Thing, “Learning to Disintegrate”

Dan Seeger

It’s been almost exactly a year since my household began the segmented process of returning from a decade and a half living in southern states, resettling in our homeland of Wisconsin. During that span, I think it’s fair to say that each of us has occasionally felt the sensation of a unique culture doing its damnedest to welcome us back. The winter was milder, the beer has gotten better, the city has been alive and accommodating. Maybe best of all, there have been a handful of entirely unexpected musical gifts. When I was at my college radio station, Swamp Thing … Continue reading One for Friday: Swamp Thing, “Learning to Disintegrate”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 178 – 176

Dan Seeger

178. The Style Council, “My Ever Changing Moods” After serving as a central figure in the transformation of punk rock into new wave, thanks to his position as chief songwriter of the Jam, Paul Weller was looking for something a little different the early nineteen-eighties. Following the dissolution of the band that made him famous (at least in the U.K.), Weller joined with keyboardist Mick Talbot to form the Style Council. Weller took the name of the new group to heart, expounding on the richness of all aspects of European culture, saying of the erudite continent, “There’s some great things coming … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 178 – 176

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One for Friday: The Dead C, “Bad Politics”

Dan Seeger

Because some days you need some New Zealand punk from the late nineteen-eighties. And because I remain committed to paying forward the bevy of obscure wonders I once discovered on the late, lamented blog Little Hits (mourned previously in this space). And because I could scour every song in my digital collection and not find another with a title remotely as apt for this ridiculous day and age. Today, that’s all I’ve got. Today, I’m confident that’s all I need. Listen or download –> The Dead C, “Bad Politics” (Disclaimer: I am under the belief that this track is entirely … Continue reading One for Friday: The Dead C, “Bad Politics”

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The New Releases Shelf: Stranger to Stranger

Dan Seeger

To Paul Simon’s credit, he knows what he’s up against. The singer-songwriter with decades of fame in his rearview recently told Rolling Stone, “To get people to listen with open ears, you have to really make something that is interesting because people are prepared for it not to be interesting.” Comfortably into his seventies and already the multiple recipient of the sorts of lifetime achievement awards that imply creative ossification, Simon can either approach a new album as a listless valediction or a chance to prove something. On Stranger to Stranger, he opts for the latter. Striving for the new doesn’t … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Stranger to Stranger

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 181 – 179

Dan Seeger

181. The Smiths, “Girlfriend in a Coma” It is a splendidly fitting contradiction that the single widely credited as the one that precipitated the inevitable end of the Smiths also provides a convincing demonstration of the intense value to be found in the fierce collaboration between Steven Patrick Morrissey and Johnny Marr, shimmering pop proof that they would never transcend apart what they accomplished together. To be accurate and thorough, it wasn’t “Girlfriend in a Coma” itself that made Marr finally walk away from the band, but Morrissey’s insistence on releasing it as a single backed on the b-side by a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 181 – 179

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One for Friday: Flies on Fire, “Baptize Me Over Elvis Presley’s Grave”

Dan Seeger

I feel like I have a pretty strong memory when it comes to the music that landed at my college radio station during my tenure there, especially the first year or two. There have been a few hundred of these “One for Friday” posts by now, for example, and a whole mess of them include songs that were released between 1988 and 1990. Despite my proclivity for reminiscence in this digital space, I don’t live in the past. But I sure do like to listen to music from back then. My self-congratulatory assurance of my own exhaustive expertise on the … Continue reading One for Friday: Flies on Fire, “Baptize Me Over Elvis Presley’s Grave”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 184 – 182

Dan Seeger

184. Los Lobos, “Shakin’, Shakin’, Shakes” “Shakin’, Shakin’, Shakes” was the first single Los Lobos released in the calendar year 1987. Then it was totally eclipsed by a very different song they issued a few months later. By most accounts, the recording of their sophomore major label effort, By the Light of the Moon, was an arduous process. There was undoubtedly some pressure to deliver a strong follow-up to How Will the Wolf Survive?, the band’s 1984 album, which enjoyed only modest success but firmly established Los Lobos as a critical favorite. Just as importantly, some of that adulation stemmed … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 184 – 182

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One for Friday: The The, “This Is the Day”

Dan Seeger

Whenever major life changes are upon me, the soundtrack inside my head consistently leads with the same song. The last two lines of the chorus echo: “This is the day your life will surely change/ This is the day when things fall into place.” After fifteen years working in higher education — the experiences of which are peppered throughout the writings in this space, albeit judiciously — I began a brand new chapter on Monday. For now, I’ll leave it at that and make this one of the weeks that I step aside after a minimal number of words and let … Continue reading One for Friday: The The, “This Is the Day”