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One for Friday: Cyndi Lauper, “Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)”

Dan Seeger

There were only three nominees in the Best Original Song category at the 61st Academy Awards, presented to films released in 1988. This was the first time I can recall hearing the argument that it was time to eliminate the category altogether, the proposal accompanied by the insistence that it was a relic of the time when Hollywood was still cranking out original musicals on a regular basis. Even though the nineteen-eighties were boom years for soundtracks, there was a sense that the process of assembling a batch of pop songs that could be slapped onto cassettes (that was the … Continue reading One for Friday: Cyndi Lauper, “Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 76 – 74

Dan Seeger

#76. Various Artists, Gag Me with a Spoon This album practically seems like it was genetically designed to earn spins at my radio alma mater. Packed full of Wisconsin bands (label Don’t Records was, I believe, based in Milwaukee), the conceit of the release finds the group delivering reinventions of some of the most familiar songs of the nineteen-eighties. There’s also a nice hat tip to local heroes Violent Femmes with a cover of “I Held Her in My Arms,” hardly a smash hit but still a damn fine song. The compilation is spotted with bands not all that well known … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 76 – 74

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One for Friday: Hot Chip, “One Life Stand”

Dan Seeger

When this post goes up, I will be in a cart pointed southward, heading back to a state I once thought I’d abandoned forever. (Well, I didn’t really think that, but Im pleased to have an opportunity to link to that animated gif again). There’s good reason to cross into that land of ridiculousness, though. We have two great friends who are getting married, the blessed members of a sudden, surprising, and yet totally logical love affair, the sort of out of the blue announcement that prompts happy replies of “Well, of course.” Shortly after the wedding was announced and my household … Continue reading One for Friday: Hot Chip, “One Life Stand”

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The New Releases Shelf: No Cities to Love

Dan Seeger

I believe I officially have to rethink my standing policy of greeting all band reunions with unyielding skepticism that extends to the point of preemptive dismissal. I’ll admit it’s been outdated for a while, a vestige of the time when I and many of my fellow college radio-reared music snob cohorts measured artistic credibility beginning with a consideration of distance from anything that could be termed selling out. Decisions seemingly made on the basis of readily available dollars rather than following some fictitious muse were commonly met with peak animosity, and getting the band back together was one of those … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: No Cities to Love

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 79 – 77

Dan Seeger

79. G. Love & Special Sauce, Coast to Coast Motel I don’t have very many distinct memories relating to the Philadelphia act G. Love & Special Sauce, which makes it all the more clear which one is my favorite. I was having a spirited conversation with a friend of mine about the state of radio, particularly the quality of the student broadcasters stewarding the airwaves at our shared alma mater. While acknowledging that we were all novices once and generosity is called for, he shared that one deejay caused him special dismay whenever she was on the air. As an example, he … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 79 – 77

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 82 – 80

Dan Seeger

82. Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? In the mid-nineteen-nineties, there was no shortage of music critics who were ready to declare Oasis the next major band, the one that would endure for years and years, delivering one masterpiece after another. This was somewhat driven by the ever-excitable U.K. music press, although authoritative co-signers rushed in from all quarters. Oasis were enormously successful in their homeland, basically from the very beginning (their first single, “Supersonic,” charted in the Top 40 on the British charts, although peaking at a surprisingly modest #31). Songs from their debut album, Definitely Maybe, garnered healthy modern … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 82 – 80

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One for Friday: Lily Allen, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”

Dan Seeger

I believe I’ve used this exact phrasing previously in a One for Friday post, but it’s useful enough to be worth repeating: some days you just need a damn good cover. Even as I acknowledge covers can be cheesy and overly opportunistic, devoid of any evident meaningful connection between the appropriation artist and the original song, I have a level of helplessness when confronted with one. This is especially true when it’s a song for which I have an outsized fondness (like, say, the Pretenders single “Don’t Get Me Wrong”) performed by an artist at at time when they are … Continue reading One for Friday: Lily Allen, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 84 and 83

Dan Seeger

84. Letters to Cleo, Wholesale Meats and Fish About the only things that’s really worth knowing about Letters to Cleo these days is that fictional municipal executive Ben Wyatt is a fan. The band, fronted by Kay Hanley, had a solid radio hit with “Here and Now,” a song that appeared on their debut release, the unfortunately-titled Aurora Gory Alice. The band and their label clearly hoped to leverage that tantalizing taste of success with the release of their sophomore album, Wholesale Meats and Fish, and it initially seemed they might be able to develop some reasonable longevity. “Awake,” the … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 84 and 83

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One for Friday: The Del Fuegos, “Don’t Run Wild”

Dan Seeger

The Del Fuegos was one of the important band names I carried with me when I first started at my beloved college radio station in the fall of 1988. I’m not precisely sure how I’d heard of them. Since I don’t believe I’d actually heard a note of their music by that point in time, it was probably through some effusive praise printed in the pages of Rolling Stone, my deeply imperfect but still useful peephole through the fence that held me apart from the realm of better, bolder music than what was being played on local radio stations where … Continue reading One for Friday: The Del Fuegos, “Don’t Run Wild”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 87 – 85

Dan Seeger

87. The Freddy Jones Band, North Avenue Wake Up Call At the time North Avenue Wake Up Call was released, the Freddy Jones Band included the following members: Jim and Rob Bonaccorsi, Wayne Healy, Simon Horrocks, and Marty Lloyd. According to Wikipedia, others who can claim one-time membership in the group are Jeff Duffy, Mark Murphy, and Scott Larned. Not a single “Freddy” or “Jones” among them. Evidently, the band has never revealed the derivation of the moniker that gives them their name. This is exactly the sort of generic roots rock that expect to flourish at my broadcasting alma mater … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 87 – 85