Top 40 Smash Taps: “Brand New Girlfriend”
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 find it interesting that so much modern country music has shown up in this feature, as if the chart compilers at Billboard have felt obligated to acknowledge the widespread popularity of the genre, but only want to do it half-heartedly. “This is popular, eh?” the Hot 100 chart seems to say. “Here, it made it to the Top 40. Now leave us … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Brand New Girlfriend”
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 38 and 37
38. Reel Big Fish, Turn the Radio Off Good lord, just look at that hideous album cover. Turn the Radio Off is the sophomore effort for punk-ska band Reel Big Fish and their first after being signed to the Mojo … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 38 and 37
Spectrum Check
This week at Spectrum Culture, I did something that I can’t believe it never occurred to me to do before: I wrote about Too Much Joy. I can’t overstate how important the band was to me and the bulk of my friends and cohorts at the campus radio station, and yet I’d never previously thought to celebrate them when my turn came up in the Revisit/Rediscover feature in the music section. I’m pleased to report that what I turned in may be my favorite thing that I’ve written for the site. And it even caught the attention of Tim Quirk, … Continue reading Spectrum Check
One for Friday: The National, “Start a War (Live at KEXP)”
I have my list. It’s not written down or recorded in any way. It floats freely in my head, taking on an losing names with the shifting tides of my memory and preferences. I presume most music fans have their own similar tallies. It’s those bands, performers, artists that I haven’t yet seen play live despite my strong desire to do so. There are loads of missed opportunities on the list (Sleater-Kinney, the White Stripes, and it seems Sonic Youth) and a handful that I’m actively plotting about (Arcade Fire). Last night, I didn’t necessarily cross a band fully of … Continue reading One for Friday: The National, “Start a War (Live at KEXP)”
Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Fifteen
#15 — Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962) From 1956’s The Killing on, every one of Stanley Kubrick’s films was drawn from a novel, many of them the sort of prickly, complicated tomes that are tagged as “unfilmable,” a term the director … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 60s — Number Fifteen
Clear blue holds its breath
For some indiscernible reason, today’s date is weighing on me a little more heavily than in past years. I think the pervasive attempts to use the ever-distancing tragedy of that 2001 day to prop up political agendas and inspire cheap shots against the other side have simply done me in this year. It’s worth noting that the disheartening spectacle is coming from all parts of the political spectrum, even from those I consider fairly closely aligned with my own views on the issues of the day. With that in mind, I’ll just yield the space to a track from what … Continue reading Clear blue holds its breath
Greatish Performances #14
#14 — Rachel McAdams as Lisa Reisert in Red Eye (Wes Craven, 2005) I think one of the marks of a good actor is the determination to treat theoretically trashy material as seriously as anything else that might land on … Continue reading Greatish Performances #14
My Writers: Jonathan Franzen
Not to get overly mired in the process that led to this recurring feature, but I’ll note that when I made my original list of ten writers that had special meaning to me–prompted by a Facebook meme–Jonathan Franzen was one … Continue reading My Writers: Jonathan Franzen
College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 40 and 39
40. Dog’s Eye View, Happy Nowhere Much as I complain about the monolithic grunge sound that dominated any radio station that aligned itself with the “alternative” movement in the mid-nineties, in some ways the real problem was that many of … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 40 and 39
Spectrum Check
Not that anyone’s likely to notice without me pointing it out, but I’m going to slightly jumble my usual order in listing off my latest contributions to Spectrum Culture in this weekly slot. For example, I usually position whatever list we’re track through as the last bit, almost as an aside. Instead, I’ll put our latest offering in the ongoing effort to count down the greatest greatest hits albums of all time right up front, if only to immediately note to a good friend of mine that I have now managed to make sure that anyone who chooses to search … Continue reading Spectrum Check
