Category: Music

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I was back to a fairly typical week for Spectrum Culture, beginning with a movie review. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much a movie. On the surface of it, the film is one of those desperately quirky efforts that is among the most painful material a modern fan of independent cinema is routinely saddled with. It’s even more of a mess than that. I also had a music review go up this week. The record I reviewed is a prime example of one that doesn’t necessary spring to mind when considering the best, most vital or most challenging music of the year, … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Steve Wynn, “Carolyn”

Dan Seeger

To begin with an enormous understatement, it should be obvious by now that I harbor deep nostalgia for those songs that provided the soundtrack to my years in college radio, especially those that accompanied my time as an undergraduate student in central Wisconsin. There’s an added subset to consider: I reserve a special affection for the music that carried me through the bittersweet stretch of time in 1990 that I lovingly refer to a My Summer in Exile. It was the one summer during my years of higher education that I went back home to live instead of staying in … Continue reading One for Friday: Steve Wynn, “Carolyn”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “So Close”

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. Diana Ross is very well acquainted with the Billboard Top 40. With the Supremes, both before and after her name officially preceded that of the group, she amassed 26 Top 40 singles, twelve of which topped the chart (the group made seven more appearances in the Top 40 after her formal departure from the group in January 1970, including with one song that … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “So Close”

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This week at Spectrum Culture, I didn’t have a single new piece go up. While I’ve got a whole pile of stuff waiting to be reviewed (four movie screeners and, I think, the same number of new music releases), the site had a low-content week, which honestly couldn’t have come at a better time for me since my work week has been, to put it mildly, exhausting. In place of a weekly recap, it seems like a fine time to offer up a sort of “greatest hits.” Not only because I’ve got a spare week, but because we’re fast approaching … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: The Trash Can Sinatras, “Obscurity Knocks”

Dan Seeger

There are all sorts of bands from my college radio days that I remember fondly for a song or two, but don’t give much of a thought to beyond that. This partially due to the fact that many of the bands that can roughly be categorized as “college radio one hit wonders” had a notably short lifespan, fading entirely into the ether without even the benefit of some version of oldies radio to keep reminding listeners of that one moment in the sun when they created a guitar riff, a beat or a killer hook that kids hovering around the … Continue reading One for Friday: The Trash Can Sinatras, “Obscurity Knocks”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Lessons Learned”

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. In some respects, it’s not all that surprising that country singer Tracy Lawrence’s sole experience with the Billboard Top 40 came with a single he released at the tail end of 1999. The title cut to the then forthcoming album Lessons Learned, his sixth studio release, came out at the peak of pop radio’s embrace of country-western music, fueled by major hits from … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Lessons Learned”

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

It was another modest week for me at Spectrum Culture. I only had one full piece go up there, a review of the new album from the Gaslight Anthem. When I was younger, I found it odd that there weren’t more bands emulating Bruce Springsteen, given his significant success. Now that there are a couple who clearly use his music as a touchstone, I actually find it just as strange. His distinctive sound, fueled by rock ‘n’ roll bombast, seems to be harder for bands to transcend than, say, that of the Velvet Underground, which dozens upons dozens of groups … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Easterhouse, “Come Out Fighting”

Dan Seeger

It’s now been over three-and-a-half years of quite regular weekly posting since I launched this particular Friday feature, a span that has, by my rough tally, led to just over 180 songs being shared in this space thus far (including the week that I proudly ceded to others). It would seem, given that number and my propensity for featuring tracks from my first year of college, that I would have exhausted every out of print college radio hit bearing a copyright date of 1988 or 1989. Indeed, there are times when a song shuffles up on my trusty iPod and … Continue reading One for Friday: Easterhouse, “Come Out Fighting”