Category: Music

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Angel in Blue”

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. The J. Geils Band had been around a long, long time before they had the kind of commercial breakthrough that’s the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll dreams. They formed in 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts and undoubtedly logged a lot of hours in the nearby Boston clubs. Their first album came out on Atlantic Records in 1970 and they had significant success over the … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Angel in Blue”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 1

Dan Seeger

1. Bodeans, Home There are seven other artists with distinct Wisconsin connections in the whole of the 90FM Top 90 of 1989, including three that reside lower within the Top 20. As I’ve noted previously, even if we didn’t have some highly vaunted scene like the one of Minneapolis that was sadly reaching its end, the staff at our central Wisconsin radio station held a collective special affection for performers who shared our Dairyland roots. There was no free pass for these artists, but if one of their respective records somehow hit the station’s sweet spot, it was sure to … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 1

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

So I spent a good portion of this week feeling pretty ill. That’s ill in a lying in bed moaning all day way rather than a nineties fresh beats rap way. I don’t know that my condition compromised my writing at all this week, but let’s just say it’s a little more difficult to write a review of a deliberately languid, existentially fraught Russian mood piece under those circumstances. My other piece of film writing was for the latest entry in our Oeuvre series on Samuel Fuller. After writing on one of his touchstone war pictures, I got a chance … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: The Get Up Kids, “Ten Minutes”

Dan Seeger

The term “emo” meant nothing to me when I bought the album Something To Write Home About by the Get Up Kids. At the time, I was just detached enough from the ever-undulating music fandom community that I didn’t realize the way that music starting to get carved into smaller and smaller categories and subsets. As maligned as the term “alternative music” was back in my college radio days, at least it stood for an admirable breadth and depth of music. It had equal amounts of room allotted for the pile-driving, metallic rock outrageousness of The Cult, the dance floor … Continue reading One for Friday: The Get Up Kids, “Ten Minutes”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Me and Bobby McGee”

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. By the time Janis Joplin’s famed version of “Me and Bobby McGee” was released, the song had already been recorded by Roger Miller, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Gordon Lightfoot, original songwriter Kris Kristofferson, Bill Haley and the Comets and Sam the Sham. And that was all in the year-and-a-half span after Miller’s initial recording of the song was … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Me and Bobby McGee”

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

It felt like I had a far busier week with Spectrum than I actually did, but I know it’s because I was also scrambling to get ready for everything that needs to be written in the week ahead. In terms of what went up, my output was fairly modest. I had a new film review up, evaluating a documentary that managed to provide a breakneck recap of the evolution of the New York City club scene before segueing into a true crime story with unexpected doses of lurid elements. It’s one of those documentaries that can succeed by simply telling … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: The Candy Skins, “She Blew Me Away”

Dan Seeger

I find band names fascinating, especially considering the ways they can evolve over time to just feel like second nature. R.E.M. and U2 probably sounded a little odd at first, but they eventually developed natural associations with the bands and, in these instances, their distinctive sounds. I don’t even think about the other meaning of, say, the Jesus and Mary Chain. I also find it interesting when a band’s name can somehow completely convey the sound that’s going to be found on their records. Maybe I’m applying too much of the knowledge I already have rattling around in the record … Continue reading One for Friday: The Candy Skins, “She Blew Me Away”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 3

Dan Seeger

3. Violent Femmes, 3 While I’ll admit to loving that an album titled 3 landed in the third spot of the Top 90 chart, I swear that the tally wasn’t doctored to make that happen. Sure, I might find the temptation to finesse a ranking to accommodate such symmetry entirely irresistible at times, but accurate reporting prevailed in the matter of assembling this list. The scientific method employed in determining the Top 90 may have had some gaps in it, but I followed it assiduously. 3 is at #3 because #3 is where 3 belongs. 3 was the fourth album … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 3