Tag: college countdown

Music1 Comment

College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 244 – 242

Dan Seeger

244. The Suburbs, “Love is the Law” The inner sleeve of the full-length studio album issued by the Suburbs in 1984 states, “The title ‘Love Is The Law’ is the opinion of The Suburbs, stands alone and has no connection whatsoever with Aleister Crowley.” They may not have drawn direct inspiration from the foundational tenet of Thelema, as laid out by the upstart religion’s crackpot founder, but disavowing any relation whatsoever would require parsing the intent of an unidentified Minnesotan with access to spray paint and a blank horizontal surface. As Chan Poling, vocalist and keyboard player for The Suburbs, later explained, “I … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 244 – 242

MusicLeave a comment

College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, #247 – #245

Dan Seeger

247. Pretenders, “Message of Love” Led by the magnetic Chrissie Hynde, the Pretenders flared to massive popularity quickly enough in the U.K. that the demand for new music started to outpace the band’s ability to deliver it. Hynde moved to London in the early nineteen-seventies, in part because she saw a greater likelihood of getting involved in the music scene she adored. Before long, she landed a gig with the magazine NME and started connecting with local musicians. The Pretenders formed in 1978, and they were charting U.K. hits by the following year, when their self-titled debut was also released. … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, #247 – #245

Music1 Comment

College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 250 – 248

Dan Seeger

250. The Knack, “My Sharona” By practically any measure, “My Sharona” was the biggest hit of 1979. Given the song’s back story, it was also likely the skeeziest. The debut single by the Knack, a group formed by ex-Sky member Doug Fieger, was targeted directly at a single girl. Sharona Alperin was a high school girl who Fieger had fallen hard for, developing a full-on fixation that was likely only compounded by her reluctance to reciprocate his affection. The most generous accounts place Alperin as seventeen at the time. Fieger was ten years older. Attempts to capture Alperin’s attention didn’t end with naming her … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 250 – 248

MusicLeave a comment

College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, An Introduction

Dan Seeger

Though I occasionally postured otherwise, I arrived at my college radio station in the fall of 1988 with a keen awareness that I had a lot to learn. Much as I wish I could report that I filled my high school years with gloomy nights in my basement bedroom playing Meat is Murder or Psychocandy over and over again, taking solace in the solidarity of bands that expertly tapped into levels of despair that had a tangy tinge of teenaged agony to them, I was a relative latecomer to college rock. There were surely flirtations before, but I didn’t fall … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, An Introduction

MusicLeave a comment

College Countdown: The Effort Thus Far

Dan Seeger

(Photo found elsewhere) It’s been five and a half years since I decided to take an old CMJ chart that I found and offer a sort of a digital duplication of a radio program hosted by my old movie reviewing colleague. As I noted when tracking through that tally of forty tracks, it was a Sunday night ritual during my first semester of college to listen to the show that aired on the student-run station where I was securing my own FCC Operator License. At the time, it was The College Count-Up, inverting the usual numeric progression, because playfully tweaking convention … Continue reading College Countdown: The Effort Thus Far

MusicLeave a comment

College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 2 and 1

Dan Seeger

2. Suzanne Vega, 99.9F° At the end of 1992, I engaged in a list-making activity that I don’t recall doing previously. I crafted my personal tally of the ten best albums of the year. I’m not sure of everything I had on there, but there is one certainty I hold: Suzanne Vega’s 99.9F° was my pick for the very top. I will admit — as I probably would have at the time — that a major criterion that inspired me to elevate Vega’s recording above all the others I’d heard that year was its distinct transformation from what the artist had released … Continue reading College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 2 and 1

Music2 Comments

College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 5 – 3

Dan Seeger

5. R.E.M., Automatic for the People Like a lot of music fans, I suppose, I have a little collection of regrets, mostly based around missed opportunities. There are artists that I arrived at later than I should have, and acts I wish I’d seen live where they were blazing up-and-comers rather that fairly established (I get a little dizzy when I think that Sleater-Kinney played with the White Stripes as an opening act at a dumpy little club in the college town where I resided in 2000). While I don’t have some official list that would allow me to double-check the … Continue reading College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 5 – 3

Music2 Comments

College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 9 – 6

Dan Seeger

9. Ramones, Mondo Bizarro Much as I find the long reach of alternative music of my generation remarkable (stuff I once played on the radio as brand new music, such as Nirvana, seems completely viable to current college kids in a way that doesn’t quiet match up with how my generation viewed material of a similarly aged vintage), we had our more old school bands that could still capture out attention and enthusiasm. Approaching twenty years past their stellar debut, no one was delusional enough to suggest the lather-clad compatriots who all adopted the last name Ramone were still making … Continue reading College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 9 – 6

Music3 Comments

College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 13 – 10

Dan Seeger

13. The House of Love, Babe Rainbow As I noted in the introduction (see below!), this chart comes from a point in time during which I was keenly attuned to the music moving through our college radio station, knowing full well that this would be my last dance with the wide-ranging genre I loved most deeply. Even though I liked the U.K. band the House of Love a great deal (they were responsible for a single that I’m tempted to claim is one of the ten best released during my tenure at the station), I have no recollection of the album Babe … Continue reading College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 13 – 10

Music4 Comments

College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 17 – 14

Dan Seeger

17. The Darling Buds, Erotica I don’t really remember if the Darling Buds ever had a college radio hit, the sort that commands such broad-based and intense affection from kids in broadcast booths coast to coast that it feels intrinsic to the era. They were one of the bands that defined my personal haul as a student deejay, thanks in part to the convenience of the calendar. Their debut release, the glistening Pop Said…, arrived when I was a freshman, and their final effort, Erotica, hit the Heavy Rotation shelf as I embarked on my last year in college, grumpily resigned … Continue reading College Countdown: The Gavin Report Top 20 Alternative Chart, October 1992, 17 – 14