DANA & CARL present This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4
Let's put on a show!
That's pretty much what Dana said to me in late 1991, when community radio station WNMA in Syracuse was soliciting program proposals. Granted, Dana's query was not in italics, carried no exclamation point, and was stated as a more casual "Y'wanna do a show?," as befits Dana's chill vibe. But the intent was the same, and it was the same again in late '98, long after WNMA had faded away, as Syracuse Community Radio prepared to begin FM broadcasting, and Dana and I were invited to participate.
Let's put on a show.
The sentiment predates any generation that any of us have known, stretching back before Vaudeville and rodeos and circuses, to court jesters, traveling minstrels, even the odd mystic shaman, seeking enlightenment and transcendence, but also trying to keep the audience spellbound, the metaphorical spotlight fixed firmly upon the performer. On with the show, this is it.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl is no more and no less than a part of that tradition. Every Sunday night from 9 to Midnight Eastern, we put on a show. We play records, we banter, we bellow, we interact with listeners on Facebook, and occasionally we attempt to pull off sight gags on the radio. Don't tell us we can't; it's all part of the show.
The TIRnRR compilations are an extension of that, but we approach them with a significantly different modus operandi than we bring to the weekly radio show. Now, the radio show isn't quite as haphazard as it may seem; even though we often wing it and very, very rarely plan much of it in advance, we do have an overall, unspoken sense of what TIRnRR should or shouldn't be. But yeah, the show thrives in large part on its spontaneity, the sense that you'll find out what we're going to play around the same time that we find out what we're going to play.
By contrast, putting together a compilation is a precise process. We sweat the track selections, and the specific sequencing, with obsessive attention to detail. Everything has to flow together. If it doesn't work, then we've failed in our simple attempt to make a proper show of it.
We haven't failed yet. Our first two TIRnRR CDs were tentative steps in the right direction. Our third set was a quantum leap forward. Volume 4 is our best to date, a fully satisfying collection of tunes, each fitting in its exact space among the others, rising and falling in all the right places, and bringing the listener along to ride the wild surf. To you, it may merely seem like a pair of pop music freaks playing at being K-Tel Records or something; to us, it's our attempt to sculpt a soundtrack for The Greatest Show On Earth.
("Sculpt a soundtrack?" Yoiks. But it's all a part of the show, and you're a part of it, too. C'mon, everybody: let's put on a show!)
Now: BUY THE CD ALREADY! Puttin' on a show ain't free, ya know....
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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4
Kool Kat Musik PURR 2061
Produced by Dana Bonn and Carl Cafarelli
1. MEGHAN JEAN CAFARELLI: Perseverance
2. THE SPONGETONES: (Our Guys) Dana & Carl [TIRnRR ID]
3. POP CO-OP: You Don't Love Me Anymore
4. RAY PAUL: I Need Your Love Tonight
5. CIRCE LINK & CHRISTIAN NESMITH: I'm On Your Side
6. VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH FEATURING LANNIE FLOWERS: The Weekend's Coming
7. THE SLAPBACKS: Make Something Happen
8. P. HUX: Better Than Good
9. IRENE PEÑA: Must've Been Good
10. MICHAEL OLIVER & THE SACRED BAND FEATURING DAVE MERRITT: You Won't Do
11. THE RUBINOOS: Nowheresville
12. STEPFORD KNIVES: Her Reputation
13. THE GRIP WEEDS: Strange Bird [remix of original single]
14. POPDUDES: She Is Funny (In That Way)
15. JOSEPH R. BALINT JR.: Civitas Romanas [TIRnRR ID]
16. RONNIE DARK: '70s Van
17. THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise [4-track]
18. CHRIS VON SNEIDERN: Insomniac Summer
19. THE BOTTLE KIDS: Let Me In On This Action
20. 1.4.5.: Your Own World [original version]
21. THE SMITHEREENS: Got Me A Girl
22. PAUL COLLINS BEAT: She Doesn't Want To Hang Around With You
23. THE HIT SQUAD: Best Of Me
24. THE RULERS: I Want My Ramones Records Back
25. THE LEGAL MATTERS: Don't Look Back
26. MAURA & THE BRIGHT LIGHTS: Maybe Someday
27. MR. ENCRYPTO: Harmony Cathedral/Daisy Bang [TIRnRR ID]
28. LISA MYCHOLS: Almost Didn't Happen
29. MR. ENCRYPTO & THE CYPHERS: Home On The Radio
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