10 SONGS: 10/28/2021

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists are often dominated by songs played on the previous night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.

This is the second of two editions of 10 Songs this week. Its predecessor drew exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. This one does not. Instead, each of these ten songs was almost included in our 1100th show, and each was in the playlist at some point as Dana and I compiled it.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: Someone New

"Boys Don't Cry" was the first Catholic Girls track I ever heard, courtesy of dat ole debbil MTV. The group's video for "Boys Can Cry" may have been my sole communion with the Catholic Girls' music in the early '80s, though I eventually scarfed up a copy of their eponymous 1982 LP. "Someone New" off that album was definitely my favorite, and it later became the first Catholic Girls track ever played on TIRnRR. (I suspect we may have played the Catholic Girls on our pre-TIRnRR series We're Your Friends For Now in '92, but we have no written records of the playlists for those shows.)

We began corresponding with the Catholic Girls' Gail Peterson in 1992, our first full year on the air and also the year that Renaissance Records reissued the above-cited Catholic Girls album on CD. New Catholic Girls music followed, and we were all in. "Niagara Falls." "Make Me Believe." "Somebody In The USA." "Rock'n America." And of course, our latter-day favorite "Should Have Been Mine," from the Catholic Girls' 2005 album Meet The Catholic Girls. We played 'em all, and more.

Our second This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CD was supposed to include a Catholic Girls track, but a behind-the-scenes issue (beyond our control, and not the Catholic Girls' fault) prevented that from happening. They forgave us, and let us use "Should Have Been Mine" on 2013's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3, the first compilation over which Dana and I had total control of the content.

For TIRnRR # 1100, we opted to go back to that 1982 debut for another spin of "Someone New," but we weren't able to squeeze it in. Damn these unbreakable laws of time and physics. You'll hear it on TIRnRR # 1101 this coming Sunday night.

DOUG DEREK AND THE HOAX: Bobby's Gotta Get Back To Boston [1981 version]

I determined weeks ago that I wanted to open TIRnRR # 1100 with the Brothers Steve's direct statement of intent "We Got The Hits." The track is on the group's Big Stir Records release # 1, and its use at the top of the show prompted Dana to suggest we devote the first set to a few of the labels that have been so good to us. There were more than a mere six likely labels to honor, but we settled on Big Stir, Red On Red, Rainbow Quartz, Rum Bar, Kool Kat Musik, and Jem. Futureman and JAM Recordings were represented elsewhere on the playlist. I regret we didn't get to SpyderPop and Not Lame (among others), but both labels supplied tracks that will be heard on next week's show (the former in its current partnership with Big Stir).

Kool Kat Musik was also a presence throughout our 1100th show, with tracks from our 2017 collection This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. But we wanted to play at least one Kool Kat track not directly affiliated with us, and I chose Doug Derek and the Hoax with "Bobby's Gotta Bet Back To Boston [1981 version]," from Kool Kat's Doug Derek retrospective Who The Hell Is Doug Derek? "Bobby's Gotta Get Back To Boston" is a fantastic track, but in recording the show, I felt Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" (from Kool Kat's 2020 John Wicks tribute album For The Record) was an imperative. It was our # 2 most-played track last year (surpassed only by the Muffs' "On My Own"), we dubbed it "The Love Theme From 2020," and it needed to be represented on TIRnRR # 1100. Yeah, not the first time a colonoscopy disrupted someone's plans.

THE GRIP WEEDS: Rainbow Quartz

Really wanted to include the Grip Weeds in TIRnRR # 1100. New Jersey's phenomenal pop combo has been among our go-to acts here for decades, and they've appeared on two of our TIRnRR compilations ("Out Of Today" on TIRnRR Vol. 2 and "Strange Bird" on TIRnRR Vol. 4). Grip Weeds drummer and lead singer Kurt Reil does appear on our 1100th show playlist as a member of the BAR (with Danny Adlerman and Jim Babjak), but the group's own song "Rainbow Quartz" almost made it in, too. The Grip Weeds have a new all-covers album, DiG, due imminently from the good folks at Jem Records. We'll hear a song from DiG this Sunday night.

MAD MONSTER PARTY: Can't Stop Loving You

For a little mutant radio show, we've done a fair job of providing public services to the rockin' pop public. One of these services was the first (and still only) CD appearance of music by Mad Monster Party, an absolutely incredible but frustratingly obscure all-female SoCal group from the '80s. Mad Monster Party included the fabulous 'n' foxy Gwynne Kahn, ex of the Pandoras, and their then-unreleased tracks are among THE best stuff recorded by anyone in that decade. There was a digital release of the tracks in 2013 (the same year we used "Can't Stop Loving You" on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3), but I think even the download option may have faded from the marketplace since then. Mad Monster Party's humble li'l catalog is, in '80s speak, totally awesome, and way, way overdue for physical release. NOW, dammit!! Calling Big Stir! We got a job for you!

THE PARTIES: Cryin' Shame

Here's one of two cases where I picked one song to represent an artist on this week's playlist and then changed to a different song by the same artist. I was taken with the Parties' first album Can't Come Down back in 2008, and granted well-deserved airplay to a song called "Damned By The Sunshine." I was well and truly blown away away by the title track of the group's 2009 Cryin' Shame EP, and this week I picked that song to represent the Rainbow Quartz label in our opening set. But as I thought more about it, "Let's Call It Love" (from the Parties' 2010 album Coast Garde, the group's most recent release as far as I know) was the Parties' biggest hit with TIRnRR listeners. Couldn't go wrong with any of those choices.

POP CO-OP: You Don't Love Me Anymore

And here's the other case of me switching a band's designated song after tentatively settling on a different song. The lads in Pop Co-Op--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, and Stacy Carson--give partial credit to TIRnRR for their existence, which makes us as proud as any Frankenstein you're ever likely to meet. 2017 gave us Pop Co-Op's debut album Four State Solution, and it also brought us "You Don't Love Me Anymore," which the band let us use for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. "You Don't Love Me Anymore" reminds me a little bit of both Gerry and the Pacemakers and Chad and Jeremy, but it's accomplished with a trifle more essential oomph than either of those British Invasion stalwarts were generally known to...um, oomphify. Perfect track for TIRnRR # 1100! 

But y'know what? "It Ain't Easy Being A Boy" (from Four State Solution) is also a perfect track for TIRnRR # 1100. So we went that one instead. IT'S ALIVE! POP CO-OP IS ALIVE...!!

THE PRIMITIVES: Crash

Prerecording shows offers the advantage of shuffling choices around to make 'em fit as best they can. Each week, Dana and I set a playlist of seven six-song sets, a final set of eight songs, and another eight bonus tracks that can serve as an add-on eighth set before the final (ninth) set, if there's time. Very often, there isn't time, so the eighth set either shrinks to six songs, or disappears entirely as some of its tracks merge into that final set instead. Show # 1100 didn't have time for the bonus set, so that eighth set of eight songs dropped four songs and folded into what had been the ninth set, creating a set of twelve songs to close the program.

The Primitives' rockin' pop classic "Crash" was one of the casualties. But rest assured: we'll play it again eventually. As we should.

THE SMALL FACES: You Need Loving

"You Need Loving" by the Small Faces was another of the tracks cut in the smooshing together of our two final sets this week. Yeah, this sounds amazingly similar to Led Zeppelin's subsequent monolith "Whole Lotta Love," and both of these tracks sound amazingly similar to Muddy Waters' "You Need Love," which was written by Willie Dixon and well predates your diminutive visages and metallic dirigibles. The Small Faces' track never got much traction, so Willie Dixon knew who was the best target for litigation when he went after Led Zeppelin instead. Gentlemen, start your lawyers!

THE SKELETONS: Trans Am

They were America's coolest band. The Skeletons were something else, especially as a live act, and I regard "Trans Am" as their signature tune. Another one of the four songs cut when the original eighth set combined with the original ninth set. (I don't remember exactly what song was the fourth; I think it was just one of the tracks that got moved around in planning, so either the Catholic Girls or the Grip Weeds).

THE TWEAKERS: Super Secret Mystery Track

In college basketball March Madness parlance, the Tweakers were the last team out. "Super Secret Mystery Track" would have been the final track on this week's playlist, after the farewell and after the Poptarts' "I Won't Let You Let Me Go" (the first track ever played on TIRnRR) and Dana & Carl (with Dave Murray)'s "The Ballad Of Jah Clampett" (from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1). We ran outta time. And no, I'm still not gonna tell you anything about the Tweakers. Can't you read? It's a super secret MYSTERY track! Go buy Futureman's digital download of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3 and hear for yourself. And come on back Sunday night for TIRnRR # 1101. Gotta keep buildin' to our next milestone. Tweak. Tweak. Tweak.

Is this man a Tweaker, or is he the host of Radio Deer Camp on SPARK Syracuse? Or is he...BOTH?!

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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