Category: Music

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Limbo Rock”

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. I think it’s fair to type that the Champs are known for one song: “Tequila.” That song was originally issued as the B-side to “Train to Nowhere,” a single released on Challenge Records, the label started up in part by Gene Autry. The song was recorded in late December of 1957 and released less than a month later. Once DJs flipped the record … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Limbo Rock”

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This week at Spectrum Culture, I started with a piece on the music review side. I’ve previous written on Vivian Girls and La Sera, so it only seemed logical to me that I should continue weighing in on all the groups bobbing across that shared orbit. That meant writing on the second Best Coast album, not really knowing when I claimed it that the band was on the receiving end of enormous antipathy. That at least gave me an angle with which to start the review. I also had my regular contribution on the film side, writing about the new … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music54 Comments

Top 40 Smash Taps: “The Last Time I Made Love”

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. Jeffrey Osborne was the lead singer for the R&B band L.T.D. when they had a Top 5 hit in 1977 with the song “(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again.” He put out his first solo album in 1982, doing well on the R&B charts but struggling to generate the some heat on the Billboard Hot 100. In fact, one of … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “The Last Time I Made Love”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 38 and 37

Dan Seeger

38. The Shins, Oh, Inverted World The debut album from the Shins holds a special place of significance for me in my return journey through college radio. This was the first CD I bought at the primary local, independently-owned record store in my new city of residence. What’s more, I bought it specifically because of the songs I heard played on WPRK. I think I actually decided I had to have it when I myself played “Know Your Onion” on the air, a return to a happy, costly time several years later when filling out my radio playlist directly coinciding … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 38 and 37

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One for Friday: Nuclear Valdez, “Where Do We Go From Here”

Dan Seeger

When I was an impressionable youth working in college radio, I know I was supposed to be learning to love the arch, indie abstractions of bands like Pavement and Guided by Voices. They were releasing their first records then and provoking genuflections from much of the music press, small and eager as it was. Authenticity was always a major criteria for those of us playing music on the left end of the dial, especially as we saw bands that used to operate solely in our territory achieve significant crossover success, a group led by U2 and R.E.M., but also including … Continue reading One for Friday: Nuclear Valdez, “Where Do We Go From Here”

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

The vast majority of the time, the reviewers at Spectrum Culture choose the material we write on, which means we sometimes build our own trends as writers. For example, I’ve already regularly claimed Vivian Girls and associated acts (including writing about the new Best Coast soon). Turns out I’ve also inadvertently developed a specialty for writing about movies centered on French prostitutes. Last fall, extremely positive festival buzz led me to ask for Bertrand Bonello’s House of Pleasures. Now my willingness to follow Juliette Binoche just about anywhere led to a more modern exploration of that particular European subculture. The … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: Badly Drawn Boy, “You Were Right”

Dan Seeger

When my new position in college radio in 2001 finally allowed me to freshly and fully explore new music for the first time in years, there was a dizzying array of unfamiliar artists to wrap my head around. Making it a little trickier for me, many of them were distinct, singular solo artists that adopted wholly different identities with names that would usually be affixed to a full band. This may have happened a generation earlier when I was a student DJ, but I surely didn’t remember it. Beyond the occasional, “Hi, my name is Steven Morrissey, but just use … Continue reading One for Friday: Badly Drawn Boy, “You Were Right”