Category: Music

Music14 Comments

College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 28 and 27

Dan Seeger

28. “Crazy” by Icehouse So let’s dial back to the way perceptions of bands were shaped circa 1987. For those, like me, who were stuck is relatively small suburban areas, well removed from the major culture centers, there weren’t many ways to find out about new music, especially given the ever-increasingly caution of local radio. This led to the disproportionate influence of MTV, which served as a de facto nationwide radio station back when they were more interested in music videos than reality shows. So the first time I heard of Icehouse was when the video for “Crazy” started getting … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 28 and 27

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One for Friday: The Northern Pikes, “Just Another Guy”

Dan Seeger

I can’t say with any amount of certainty whether or not the same rule applies now, but in my distant day as a student in college radio a band could sell an awful lot of records by coming up with earnestly penned and crisply sung songs about being a sad little boy in love. When I started in student-run broadcasting in the late nineteen-eighties, it was very much the province of males, who were naturally accustomed to adhering to the norms of their gender, established from approximately the moment the very first electric guitar chord was struck, that entailed nursing … Continue reading One for Friday: The Northern Pikes, “Just Another Guy”

Music42 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “Put It in a Magazine”

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. Sonny Charles was the lead singer of the band Checkmates, Ltd., a group out of Fort Wayne, Indiana that had a sizable hit in the late nineteen-sixties with “Black Pearl,” a track that undoubtedly garnered at least some of its attention because of the wall it was draped in trademark Wall of Sound regalia by producer Phil Spector. That taste of success wasn’t … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Put It in a Magazine”

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One for Friday: Mary’s Danish, “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight”

Dan Seeger

Of course I need to begin by thanking Holly, Phil, Phantom Third Channel, Rachel and Rhienna for their exemplary efforts last week in my absence. I’ve been trying to think of a song for this week that somehow encompasses all of them, but I’ve been unable to find a super-sad song by the Fall that’s totally bonkers in a surprisingly blissful dance remix that’s only available on vinyl. I suspect that the track I’ve described actually exists, but it’s beyond my capabilities to find it. So instead I’ll just get right back to Friday business, digging into my ancient past … Continue reading One for Friday: Mary’s Danish, “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight”

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College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 32 and 31

Dan Seeger

32. “It’s Still Warm” by Dramarama One of the things that has sadly been lost in the corporate consolidation of broadcast radio is the concept of the local hit, those songs and bands that maybe make only the mildest headway nationally but somehow manage to absolute enthrall one city or region. While the New Jersey formed band Dramarama had a couple minor hits on college radio and later commercial alternative radio, it was nothing like the impact they made on KROQ-FM. Their song “Anything, Anything (I’ll Give You),” their second single, had no broader chart impact, but it was one … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 32 and 31

Film, Music1 Comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Since I’ve been traveling the past week, I didn’t contribute much to Spectrum Culture, so I’ll actually reach back a couple weeks to note my contributions to pair of features that I had a hand in creating in the first place. There is an occasional “Playlist” feature at the site, which finds the staff combing through the entire discography of an artist to come to some level of consensus about the best track from each release. For the most recent edition, my suggestion as to who to cover won the day and we examined the collected work of The Cure. … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music2 Comments

A Week of Fridays: The North American Hallowe’en Prevention Initiative, “Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?”

Dan Seeger

I can think of no better way to explain why I think so highly of Rachel Esser than to share the text she sent me, reporting on her progress in writing this guest post: “I wrote a whole thing for a Bearobics song, but then I remembered ‘Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en.’” Rachel takes special pleasure in anything that can honestly be described as “bonkers,” and especially enjoys movies in which people slice off someone’s face in order to use the resulting nasty sheet of skin as a mask, a quality that would frankly be disturbing in anyone but her. … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: The North American Hallowe’en Prevention Initiative, “Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?”

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A Week of Fridays: Russ Morgan & the Gay Sisters, “Metro Polka”

Dan Seeger

The man who provides today’s entry goes by many names. For our purposes, we’ll opt for Phantom Third Channel, the ingenious moniker he adopts when overseeing his regular shift at WPRK. Or, for that matter, one of the countless substitute shifts he takes on during any given week, being a willing slave to music like few others I know. By simply moving his personal record collection to a storefront he would immediately have an inventory that would make any competitors shudder, agape with wonder at how they could ever keep up. Record-shopping with him is a delight, if only because … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: Russ Morgan & the Gay Sisters, “Metro Polka”

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A Week of Fridays: The Candy Bars, “Enough to Choke a Cold Air”

Dan Seeger

Holly Tedder is simply one of the funniest people I know. As is often the case with the individuals in my life who fit into that category, she also loves to laugh (and has a great one), and some of my proudest, happiest moments at WPRK involved coming up with some snarky comment that she found entertaining. I always marveled at her ability to knowledgeably approach music, locking in on how it made her feel, but also how it elicited those feeling, expounding on the impact of minor keys, chord changes and other intricacies of songcraft. The only thing she … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: The Candy Bars, “Enough to Choke a Cold Air”

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A Week of Fridays: Mary Margaret O’Hara, “Body’s in Trouble”

Dan Seeger

I usually check with the authors of these guest posts as to how they would like to be billed in their introduction, but I’ve known all along that I was going to insist upon referring to today’s wordsmith as Phil Defiler. Using the moniker that links him to his beloved music project is the best way I can think of to pay tribute to his immense, playful talent, which is itself only made more endearing because of his modesty. I can’t even begin to describe the reasons why, but seeing him play live in the WPRK studios during one of … Continue reading A Week of Fridays: Mary Margaret O’Hara, “Body’s in Trouble”