Pete Seeger, 1919 – 2014

Here is a story told to me lately by a man named John Cronin, who is the director of the Pace Academy for the Environment, at Pace University. Cronin has known Seeger for thirty years. “About two winters ago, on Route 9 outside Beacon, one winter day, it was freezing–rainy and slushy, a miserable winter day–the war in Iraq is just heating up and the country’s in a poor mood,” Cronin said. “I’m driving north, and on the other side of the road I see from the back a tall, slim figure in a hood and coat. I’m looking, and … Continue reading Pete Seeger, 1919 – 2014

One for Friday: Gay Dad, “Joy!”

I’m fairly certain I owe my knowledge of the Gay Dad track “Joy!”–and indeed my knowledge of the band at all–to one of the sampler CDs that came bundled in issues of CMJ New Music Monthly. The single was first released in 1999, well past my time toiling in commercial radio and before I reentered the rare air of college radio. In this sonic purgatory, I was trying desperately to keep informed on new music, finding myself increasingly dispirited by the drably catchy material that dominated the other local radio station that was at all palatable. Into this sonic purgatory, … Continue reading One for Friday: Gay Dad, “Joy!”

One for Friday: Boss Hog, “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”

In the most recent installment of the College Countdown feature, I continued to let the writing be colored by personal disgruntlement over my alma mater station’s embrace of mediocre (to be kind) soundtracks in the mid-nineties. Realistically, though, those student programmers were properly, albeit somewhat painfully, reflecting the state of the music scene at the time. Just as blockbuster, mass appeal soundtrack albums were the norm about a decade earlier, round about 1996, filmmakers and labels were actively pursuing the alternative music fan with soundtrack efforts, maybe in part because the likes of Hole, while big in their own way, … Continue reading One for Friday: Boss Hog, “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”