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Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’m Goin’ In”

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. Jimmy Brooks was a student at Degrassi Community School, whose struggles with school, particularly English class, originally compromised his hopes to become a player on the basketball team. That eventually changed, and Jimmy become one of the star players on the team. He also came from a background of family wealth, which could cause strain with some of his friends, especially when Jimmy didn’t … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’m Goin’ In”

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One for Friday: Angst, “I Could Never Change Your Mind”

Dan Seeger

By 1988, Angst was a band with a honorable history. Formed in San Francisco, in 1980, Angst put out multiple albums on seminal punk label SST Records, including a couple that were produced by the label’s co-owner, Joe Carducci, making it reasonable to consider the group one of the signature acts of the pile-driving music house. When I got to my college radio station, I didn’t know any of that. All I knew is there was an album called Cry For Happy in rotation that had a striking drawing of roses on the front cover. I’m pretty sure I even pronounced … Continue reading One for Friday: Angst, “I Could Never Change Your Mind”

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One for Friday: Marti Jones, “You Can’t Take Love for Granted”

Dan Seeger

Marti Jones was one half of what passed for a power couple in the land of college rock, circa 1988. Jones was part of the band Color Me Gone in the mid-nineteen-eighties. They released a bit of music on A&M Records. It didn’t take, but the label clearly liked Jones, signing her to a solo contract that led to the release of the LP Unsophisticated Time, in 1985. The man behind the boards for that record was Don Dixon, then a hot, up-and-coming producer thanks to his efforts, with Mitch Easter, on the first two R.E.M. albums. He wasn’t making … Continue reading One for Friday: Marti Jones, “You Can’t Take Love for Granted”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 9

Dan Seeger

9. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love Technically, To Bring You My Love is a debut album. Specifically, it’s a solo debut. While it’s the third studio album to bear the name PJ Harvey (and fourth overall, if the self-explanatory 1993 release 4-Track Demos is included in the tally), both Dry and Rid of Me were officially the work of a trio that shared a name with their lead singer and driving creative force. While touring to support Rid of Me, the band began to splinter, and Harvey decided to dissolve the group and effectively reclaim her name as … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 9

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 10

Dan Seeger

10. Morphine, Yes Morphine were on their third album with Yes, and they’d previously been just successful enough on the left end of the dial that I had a working familiarity with them and their music. So I’m embarrassed to admit that it took me an extremely long time to figure out they were something of a descendent from the late-eighties bluesy rock band Treat Her Right, creators of one of the great sorta-hits of the era: “I Think She Likes Me.” In my defense, information about bands was fairly difficult to come by at that point in time, especially for those … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 10

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One for Friday: Rainy Day, “Sloop John B”

Dan Seeger

I was recently remind of one of the great pleasures of my bygone days: sitting around with friends and listening to records. When I showed up at the campus radio station way back in the late nineteen-eighties, CDs were fast emerging as the preferred format, in part because of cleaner sound quality but also because the execs in the music business figured out that could sell them at a far greater profit than records, perpetrating yet fleecing of their devoted consumers that stands as the defining quality of the industry as a whole. For most of staffing the radio station at the time, … Continue reading One for Friday: Rainy Day, “Sloop John B”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 12 and 11

Dan Seeger

12. Björk, Post Post starts with a crash. Following the surge and clatter of synthesized noise, Björk launches into “Army of Me,” as thrilling and powerful of a statement of purpose as a song can be. Reportedly directed at the Icelandic songstress’s brother, the song makes a musical statement just as pointed as the one delivered by the lyrics. Following the somewhat tepid Debut — technically her second release under her own name (Björk released an album when she was still a child) but considered her solo bow by just about everyone including obviously the artist herself –Björk uses Post to demonstrate exactly … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 12 and 11

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One for Friday: Bongos, Bass & Bob, “Cain’t Grow a Beard”

Dan Seeger

I believe it is inevitable. Anyone who is a deeply devoted fan of pop music and all its many offshoots is likely to find themselves identifying with the stories embedded within the lyrics. That’s certainly been the case for me. Especially in my college years, when I was intently defining and then redefining myself, I clung to the heady truths etched into vinyl grooves. In short order, I knew which songs bolstered my happiness and which spoke for my sadness. My heartbreak was melodic, always. The soundtrack to my life has a tracklist that stretches into infinity. As much music … Continue reading One for Friday: Bongos, Bass & Bob, “Cain’t Grow a Beard”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 14 and 13

Dan Seeger

14. Primus, Tales from the Punchbowl Tales from the Punchbowl is probably the delineation point that brought Primus to punky, bratty funk rockers to a trio fully prepared to embrace the jammy indulgence of post-prog rock. There were still curdled dollops of juvenilia, most notably in lead single “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver,” but the trio was just as likely to wrench their signature sound into the sprawling, shifting soundscapes “Professor Nutbutter’s House of Treats” and “Southbound Pachyderm.” Adding to the sense that they were ready to start crafting soundtracks to go with especially warped versions of one of Roger Dean’s vistas was the eventual existence of … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 14 and 13

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 16 and 15

Dan Seeger

16. Soul Asylum, Let Your Dim Light Shine In a fairly unique situation, know exactly where I was when I first heard Soul Asylum’s Let Your Dim Light Shine. I was crammed into a booth at The Plaza Tavern, a landmark to certain boozy souls in Madison, Wisconsin and home of the “world famous” Plazaburger, commiserating with the handful of pals who’d joined me there for a listening party sponsored by the “New Rock Alternative” commercial radio station where I was working at the time. I’d been assigned to staff this particular remote, which was supposed to be a boon … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 16 and 15