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College Countdown: The Effort Thus Far

Dan Seeger

(Photo found elsewhere) It’s been five and a half years since I decided to take an old CMJ chart that I found and offer a sort of a digital duplication of a radio program hosted by my old movie reviewing colleague. As I noted when tracking through that tally of forty tracks, it was a Sunday night ritual during my first semester of college to listen to the show that aired on the student-run station where I was securing my own FCC Operator License. At the time, it was The College Count-Up, inverting the usual numeric progression, because playfully tweaking convention … Continue reading College Countdown: The Effort Thus Far

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One for Friday: The Builders and the Butchers, “No Roses”

Dan Seeger

Well, there’s no real reason to start the new year with something chipper and upbeat, is there? The Builders and the Butchers are a beautifully artful and occasionally morose folk-rock band out of Portland, Oregon. Led by singer-guitarist-songwriter Ryan Sollee, the band deliver music that is at once strangely timeless and sharply current. At first listen, it can seem like they’re engaged largely in a act of preservation, but there are layers that which make it clear that they are simultaneously committed to moving forward, exploring the dark corners of songs in a protracted attempt to make their music singe with the … Continue reading One for Friday: The Builders and the Butchers, “No Roses”

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Five Songs from 2015

Dan Seeger

And so we come to another tradition in my stream of year-end rituals. The day after sharing my top ten albums of the year, I turn to the individual songs that thrilled me the most. In this instance, I don’t intend or purport to name this quintet as the absolute best of 2015, although they can certain all jockey for that title. Instead, this is simply a way for me to celebrate a few more exceptional musical creations. That means I’m largely eschewing music from any of the ten albums cited yesterday. As with most rules, there is an exception. … Continue reading Five Songs from 2015

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Top Ten Albums of 2015

Dan Seeger

It’s been a few years since I recommitted to the task of offering up a yearly list of my personal favorite albums from the preceding twelve months of music, doing so because I was writing for Spectrum Culture. It was part of our year-end obligation as music critics. Because my top three albums that year prominently featured women performers, the editor-in-chief decided I was some sort of swooning sucker for female musicians. Never mind that my pick for best of the year matched the whole site’s collective selection for the same honor and that male-dominated acts comprised exactly half my … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2015

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College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 2 and 1

Dan Seeger

2. Suzanne Vega, 99.9F° At the end of 1992, I engaged in a list-making activity that I don’t recall doing previously. I crafted my personal tally of the ten best albums of the year. I’m not sure of everything I had on there, but there is one certainty I hold: Suzanne Vega’s 99.9F° was my pick for the very top. I will admit — as I probably would have at the time — that a major criterion that inspired me to elevate Vega’s recording above all the others I’d heard that year was its distinct transformation from what the artist had released … Continue reading College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 2 and 1

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One for Friday: Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello, “There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In”

Dan Seeger

There are cynics, there are skeptics There are legions of dispassionate dyspeptics Who regard this time of year as a maudlin insincere Cheesy crass commercial travesty of all that we hold dear When they think that Well, I can hear it But I pity them their lack of Christmas spirit For in a world like ours, take it from Stephen There are much worse things to believe in. Merry Christmas, all. Listen or download –> Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello, “There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In” (Disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge, this song has been released … Continue reading One for Friday: Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello, “There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In”

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College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 5 – 3

Dan Seeger

5. R.E.M., Automatic for the People Like a lot of music fans, I suppose, I have a little collection of regrets, mostly based around missed opportunities. There are artists that I arrived at later than I should have, and acts I wish I’d seen live where they were blazing up-and-comers rather that fairly established (I get a little dizzy when I think that Sleater-Kinney played with the White Stripes as an opening act at a dumpy little club in the college town where I resided in 2000). While I don’t have some official list that would allow me to double-check the … Continue reading College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 5 – 3

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One for Friday: Stump, “Living It Down”

Dan Seeger

If it weren’t for social media, I’m not sure I would have ever learned of the death of Mick Lynch, the lead singer of the band Stump. A friend of mine, who himself spent time in a band that was fairly attention-getting, posted about it yesterday morning, sharing videos and and an acknowledgment of artistic influence. Stump was fairly obscure, so there was no trending Twitter hashtag nor any obituary offered prominently by any major music news source (Pitchfork, however, did find digital space to write up the admittedly satisfying arrest of a rich pharmaceutical scumbag on the tenuous connection that his … Continue reading One for Friday: Stump, “Living It Down”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “I (Who Have Nothing)”

Dan Seeger

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. “I (Who Have Nothing)” reached the Billboard Top 40 on three different occasions. The first, and arguably now best known, version was by Ben E. King and released in 1963. Seven years later, Tom Jones carried the song close to the Top 10. By the end of the nineteen-seventies, every last page of the pop music songbook was up for grabs again, as long as … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I (Who Have Nothing)”

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College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 9 – 6

Dan Seeger

9. Ramones, Mondo Bizarro Much as I find the long reach of alternative music of my generation remarkable (stuff I once played on the radio as brand new music, such as Nirvana, seems completely viable to current college kids in a way that doesn’t quiet match up with how my generation viewed material of a similarly aged vintage), we had our more old school bands that could still capture out attention and enthusiasm. Approaching twenty years past their stellar debut, no one was delusional enough to suggest the lather-clad compatriots who all adopted the last name Ramone were still making … Continue reading College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 9 – 6