Category: Music

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This was a typical week at Spectrum Culture for me: one movie, one album. On the film side of things, I reviewed the Kid-Thing, which has inspired other critics to all sorts of quasi-surreal interpretations but which I found to be a middling drama with a virulently indie sensibility. As I alluded on Twitter, I was inordinately pleased that I worked in the term “dirtbag kitsch” in writing about the film. I wrote about the debut album from Rose Windows for the music section. I’m not certain what inspired me to raise my hand for this one in the first … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: The Cost of Living, “Could Be Mine”

Dan Seeger

Maybe my memory is selective (it’s definitely faulty), but I don’t remember there being such anxious discussion around identifying the official song of the summer way back when. It could be that the consensus was formerly reached with greater ease, though I suspect it has more to do with a modern desire to create shared pop culture experiences. In Spotify’s world, how relevant is the biggest radio song of the summer unless we make it so? Best as I can tell, the current debate is between the genius of Daft Punk and some Robin Thicke track which I haven’t knowing … Continue reading One for Friday: The Cost of Living, “Could Be Mine”

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One for Friday: Jerry Reed, “Bandit Ball”

Dan Seeger

I love that the World Wide Web is the location of the greatest music swap in history. While I often actively gripe about the evil machinations of the RIAA, I’ll also concede that I get why they don’t particularly care for it. When an organization’s entire mandate is to squeeze every potential penny out of consumers for fat cat executives–don’t kid yourself for a moment that the RIAA is actually looking out for the artists; that “I” is for “Industry”–then seeing the new Kanye West record pop up for free on a fleet of sites before it’s even legally available … Continue reading One for Friday: Jerry Reed, “Bandit Ball”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Who’s Sorry Now?”

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. She’s a little bit country, you know. Before Marie Osmond was paired up with her brother Donny on to infiltrate the homes of unsuspecting American viewers (a Faustian partnership that continues to this very day), she had a reasonably successful career as a country music artist, most notably with her debut single, “Paper Roses,” which topped the country charts and made it to … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Who’s Sorry Now?”

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One for Friday: Cheating Off of Someone Else’s Paper

Dan Seeger

While I try not to cede this weekly space entirely to the efforts of others, there is indeed a precedent. We’ve just returned from almost a week away, and my brain is soft, pliable and unable to think of a good entry for this week. Honestly, I can’t even come up with a wildly creative, obscure song selection. But there’s always Mr. Robyn Hitchcock… Continue reading One for Friday: Cheating Off of Someone Else’s Paper

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 54 and 53

Dan Seeger

54. The Cure, Wild Mood Swings Many observers thought the Cure might be finished after their 1992 album, Wish, though that was hardly the first time the disintegration of the band was predicted. (There may have been some who would have preferred the band shuffle away for good after the their yucky Judge Dredd theme song.) Those doomsayers forgot Robert Smith’s endless capacity for regenerating his chief creative outlet and eyeliner-streaked cash cow. Wild Mood Swings, the band’s tenth album, was released in the late spring, the precise time frame that worked well for them since 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 54 and 53

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One for Friday: The Balancing Act, “A TV Guide in the Olduvai Gorge”

Dan Seeger

It’s been a little over a year since I finally secured a turntable after several years without, as a friend of mine once called the device, a vinyl-spinner. It was absolutely wonderful to track through the remainder of my record collection, often playing things that I figured (somewhat erroneously, as it turns out) were essentially entirely unattainable these days. Turns out, though, that the main appeal of having a turntable again is being able to shop for records again. I’m not referring to the new culture of 180 gram vinyl rapturous collecting (though my household does occasionally succumb to that … Continue reading One for Friday: The Balancing Act, “A TV Guide in the Olduvai Gorge”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Give It to Me Baby” and “Cold Blooded”

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. “Give It to Me Baby” gave Rick James his second trip to the Billboard Top 40, following “You and I,” released in 1978. “Give it To Me Baby” was the first single from James’s 1981 album, Street Songs. A smash on the R&B charts, where it went all the way to the top, James had to settle for more modest crossover success, as … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Give It to Me Baby” and “Cold Blooded”