Category: Music

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 10

Dan Seeger

10. The Pogues, Peace and Love There’s a picture of the Pogues on the back cover of the soundtrack to the 1987 Alex Cox movie Straight to Hell. In the photo, the members of the band are dressed in bandito garb and lead singer Shane MacGowan sits right in the middle, with a pistol pressed against his temple as if he’s about to pull the trigger and kill himself. My friend Colin, an aficionado of all things Pogue, once remarked that the picture would be far more accurate if MacGowan were holding a whiskey bottle to his skull, since that … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 10

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This week, I did my duty on the film side of the site, reviewing a new French thriller, which largely served as a reminder that same curve of quality applies across all facets of film. There are just as many drab, by-the-numbers movies available for the art houses as there are in the multiplexes. I also wrote about the latest Lykke Li album for a feature on the best music of the year so far. If pressed, I’d probably still designate the latest PJ Harvey record as the best of the year, but I’ve already written about that one for … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: The Velvet Underground, “I Heard Her Call My Name” (live)

Dan Seeger

I have an instinctive aversion to band reunions, a trait that has manifested in all sorts of snippy little comments in this space. I have no good reason to feel this way, although I suspect it comes from essentially being part of the second generation to grow up with rock ‘n’ roll and therefore associated most bands from the distant past as relics who did little more than play the burgeoning casino circuit, often with a line-up of session musicians recruited to fill in for deceased or disinterested band members. I remember reading a Rolling Stone cover story about George … Continue reading One for Friday: The Velvet Underground, “I Heard Her Call My Name” (live)

Music10 Comments

College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 11

Dan Seeger

11. Guadalcanal Diary, Flip Flop For a long while, it seemed like Guadalcanal Diary’s fourth and, as it turned out, final album, Flip Flop, wasn’t going to get played on 90FM at all. I doubt the station was especially high on any of the record label’s priority lists, given the fairly small city we broadcast from and the modest 3610 watts we pumped through our transmitter (when we expanded to 11,500 watts a couple of years later, the uptick in interest was noticeable). There were some small but significant labels that didn’t even bother sending us records and a couple … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 11

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Only a couple of things from me this week. First, I reviewed a new documentary about El Bulli, the famed Spanish restaurant that revolutionized gourmet food, essentially expanding the parameters of how it could be prepared and the level of creativity that could show up on each plate. Every time someone on Top Chef makes a “foam” or drags liquid nitrogen through the kitchen, there’s a dotted line leading back to El Bulli. I’m especially grateful that I reviewed Frederick Wiseman’s Boxing Gym last year because that gave me a vital vocabulary to use in discussing the structure of this … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music6 Comments

One for Friday: Reckless Sleepers, “If We Never Meet Again”

Dan Seeger

It was about artists not songwriters. Certainly there were those bands that we gravitated to because of a very strong affinity to the songwriting craft they regularly displayed, and within those bands there were sometimes individuals–Andy Partridge in XTC, Paul Westerberg in the Replacements–who were usually elevated above their fellow members as uniquely gifted at matching words and music. But, by and large, we didn’t expect the songwriting talents of those individuals to get shopped around. Their songs were on their records, and that was that. Of the individuals who regularly snuck onto college playlists back in the late eighties … Continue reading One for Friday: Reckless Sleepers, “If We Never Meet Again”

Books, Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

The first thing I had go up on the site this week was a book review. Embarrassingly enough, this was something I could have and should have written months ago. Yes, that’s months. There was just always other material that was more pressing and it stayed simmering on the back burner until the bottom of the pan was covered with a crusty blackness as impenetrable as concrete. Needless to type, I’ve been very reluctant to sign up for further book reviews. Movie reviews, though…I’m all over that. This week I got the chance to review the new documentary from Errol … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Music2 Comments

One for Friday: Dylan Hicks, “All the Rock Star Jobs Are Taken”

Dan Seeger

As I’ve mentioned before, I had two different and separate spins through college radio. When I returned to the left of the dial as an advisor in 2001, I felt like I had to relearn the music all over again. (Though not entirely: the number one album of the year in 2002 was by Sonic Youth.) I didn’t have to know if backwards and forwards; that was the job of the students who were actually programming the station. I did want to have a working knowledge of it. I wanted to know what the station was playing and give good … Continue reading One for Friday: Dylan Hicks, “All the Rock Star Jobs Are Taken”