BOPPIN' THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' PLANET (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO), Part 6: Crafting Mix Tapes For The Digital Age (or: Dana & Carl Make A CD)

Hey, been a while since we've continued this history, and with our 1000th show coming up, there's no time like now. As This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl nears the completion of its 20th year, it's time to finish this look back at who we are, how we came to be, and our long history of claiming to be The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. We stand by that claim. You can read Part 1 here, and follow that with Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. And now...Part 6:


OUR STORY SO FAR: We were rockin'! Kind of. As TIRnRR continued in its Sunday night berth, and expanded its tiny audience into a LARGER tiny audience with a webcast that began in 2000, Dana and I kept on looking for ways to spread our chosen Gospel of The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. Our next logical step was pretty obvious.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio had to make a compilation CD. I don't remember when the idea first came up, nor who suggested it, but it moved from pipe dream to urgent priority pretty damned quickly.

It made sense. We were getting just enough notoriety that a few fans around the country had sort of heard of us, kinda knew who we were and what we did. In 2002 we started contacting labels to gauge interest in releasing such a thing. Actually, "started contacting" overstates the approach. I happened to be talking with two labels about unrelated matters, and tagged on the question: Hey, would you be interested in releasing a This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CD? One of those labels didn't deign to respond; Jeremy Morris of JAM Recordings responded immediately, and his response amounted to Let's do this!

Jeremy Morris

So we began the compilation process. We were terrified of the possibility of overbooking acts for the CD, so I think we solicited tracks quietly, at least at the start. Dana and I had some people in mind, Jeremy wanted some of his JAM Recordings acts represented, and we set about the task of assembling our power-pop Avengers. And we decided very early on that the title would be This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1, a predetermined statement of our intent to eventually follow with a Volume 2. Pipe dreams are us.

And I'm not sure exactly when we started work. I remember making a long list of artists to hit up for tracks we could include, probably commencing before we talked with Jeremy. I know we wanted Hello Helen, a Swedish group whose wonderful debut album was basically unreleased, just shared among a few interested parties (like us); we'd been giving Hello Helen a significant amount of airtime on TIRnRR, and my gut says the fantastic Hello Helen track "Fall's Far Away" was the first cut we settled on using. Book it! 




The Masticators and Chris von Sneidern had recently become the first two artists to craft TIRnRR IDs for us, so we naturally wanted to include their IDs on our CD, and to secure tracks from them, as well. CVS gave us his unreleased track "Lonely Tonight," and though The Masticators broke up before we could get a track from them, their lovely 'n' talented leader Lisa Mychols offered us a sublime solo track called "Cactus Boy."

We absolutely wanted The Flashcubes on this, figuring we'd use one of their many then-unreleased '70s recordings; in a follow-up conversation at a 'Cubes show in December 2002, guitarist Paul Armstrong told us that the group would prefer to record a new song for us instead. More on that later.

If memory serves, Jeremy supplied selections from JAM Recordings artists The Lolas, Florapop, Phil Angotti & the Idea, Ed James, and Jeremy himself, and suggested we contact Australian pop god Dom Mariani (who was already on our list) to secure the DM3 cut "1 x 2 x Devastated." Our friends The Kennedys gave us an effervescent cover of The Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing," and the intrepid Keith Klingensmith provided access to some great tracks by his pal Chris Richards, from which we selected "It Doesn't Sound Like You." 

Dana and I reached out to a number of other acts we'd been playing, and we ultimately collected irresistible contributions from The Johnny Popstar Luv Explosion, The Oohs, The Finkers, The Rooks, Sex Clark Five, The Flashing Astonishers, The Jellybricks, and Popdudes. We'd initially wished to solicit separate tracks from both Gary Pig Gold and Shane Faubert, but Jeremy suggested getting just one track featuring both of them together, as the compilation was filling up. We had to decline an offer of an unreleased Bill Lloyd track--yeah, believe it or not--because it was too long for us to fit into the short-song format we'd chosen. We did get another Lloyd track, a collaboration with Jamie Hoover. Everything was clicking into place.



And that new Flashcubes track I mentioned above? The finished song made its way into our hands around, I believe, the Spring of 2003. The disc was labeled "Carl."

Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio?
Top Of The Pops
And Ready, Steady, Go?
We got pictures of Lilly and matchstick men
Loretta and Little Willy
Do it again

[chorus:]

He's Carl
Hot Carl
He's a Cicero boy
That's New York, not Illinois
Hot Carl
His friend Dana rocks
They're the kings of power pop

So you wanna be a rock 'n' roll star
With all kinds of girls?
Kick out the jams
Rockin' all over the world
Making plans for Nigel
And Arnold Layne
Stop! Wait a minute!
Auf wiedersehen

[chorus]

Never ever gonna stop
The weekend stops here!

Wouldn't you like it
20th century boy?
Go all the way
Search and destroy
Gudbuy t' Jane
Hello there, Polythene Pam
Who will save rock 'n' roll?
Carl, you da man!

[chorus]

20/20, Humble Pie
Spongetones, Shoes, DC5
Runaways, Cockeyed Ghost
Screen Test, Jam, and The Most
Fireking, Enuff Z'nuff.
New York Dolls and The Scruffs
Outlets, Ohms, and Ramones
CARL!

I was speechless. Thrilled and speechless. I still am. Wow. Just...yeah, wow.

Some time later in 2003, Dana and I got together at my house, recorded a spoken intro from my daughter Meghan, added snippets of banter from some old shows (mostly from our TIRnRR predecessor We're Your Friends For Now!), and put everything in proper compilation order. We sequenced it on mini-disc, burned a guide CD, gathered the individual masters, and sent the project off to Jeremy.

1. MEGHAN JEAN CAFARELLI: Intro
2. CHRIS VON SNEIDERN: TIRnRR ID
3. DANA & CARL: Say Hi to The Folks, Dana!
4. THE FLASHCUBES: Carl (You Da Man)
5. THE LOLAS: Sticker
6, DANA & CARL: Maraca Player To The Stars
7. THE JOHNNY POPSTAR LUV EXPLOSION: Oh Renee
8. JEREMY: If We Try
9. DM3: 1 x 2 x Devastated
10. DANA & CARL: Role Reversal
11. CHRIS RICHARDS: It Doesn't Sound Like You
12. HELLO HELEN: Fall's Far Away
13. DANA & CARL: Intermission
14. JAMIE HOOVER & BILL LLOYD: Screen Time
15. DANA & CARL: East Side Story...?!
16. THE OOHS: TIRnRR ID
17. THE OOHS: Mr. Cliche
18. DANA & CARL [with DAVE MURRAY]: The Ballad Of Jah Clampett
19. THE FINKERS: Last Thing On My Mind
20. THE ROOKS: Sometimes [alternate version]
21. THE FLASHING ASTONISHERS: Period Exclamatory
22. DANA & CARL: His Name Was Johann
23. ED JAMES: Shiver And Shake
24. THE JELLYBRICKS: She Can't
25. DANA & CARL: Elvis Season
26. GARY PIG GOLD & SHANE FAUBERT: Gotta Get In  Touch
27. THE MASTICATORS: TIRnRR ID
28. LISA MYCHOLS: Cactus Boy
29. DANA & CARL: You're Forever Fighting Little Steven
30. CHRIS VON SNEIDERN: Lonely Tonite
31. THE KENNEDYS: And Your Bird Can Sing
32. DANA & CARL: What Community Radio Is All About
33. PHIL ANGOTTIE & THE IDEA: The Only Reason
34. SEX CLARK FIVE: Japan Under The Sun
35. FLORAPOP: Who Can Really Know?
36. DANA & CARL: I Coulda Been A Partridge
37. POPDUDES: Desperation Time
38. DANA & CARL: Goodnight Minneapolis!

Jeremy rejected it. 

Jeremy's vision for a This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio CD did not match ours. JAM is a music label, and Jeremy objected to the silly spoken bits we'd inserted in between music tracks. Our intention was to make a more direct audio connection between the compilation and the radio show it was supposed to promote, creating an experience kinda like The Who Sell Out (or like, I dunno, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio). Jeremy would have none of it, and he suggested that perhaps we should find another label. He recommended some potential people we could take it to.  

But, as we thought about it, we wondered if Jeremy had a point; maybe we should approach a compilation CD differently than the way we would do a rock 'n' roll radio show. Yeah. Stubborn as we (especially me) can be, we had to admit Jeremy was probably right. We decided to re-work the whole thing, to try to make This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1 something that Jeremy would be proud to have on his label.

Back to the drawing board.

WHEN BOPPIN' THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' PLANET RETURNS: Changing All Those Changes



"Carl (You Da Man)" written by Paul Armstrong, Cubic Music BMI

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Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

(And you can still get our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, on CD from Kool Kat Musik and as a download from Futureman Records.)

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).