Tonight On THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

The first 1100 shows are the hardest, so join us as we slack our way into TIRnRR # 1101 and beyond! We kick off that effort with a brand-new track from Syracuse's own power pop powerhouses THE FLASHCUBES, and we back that flourish with more new or new-to-us stuff from STAR COLLECTOR, NICK FRATER, DAVID BROOKINGS, LEE HARRINGTON AND LYNDA MANDOLIN, DOLPH CHANEY, IT'S KARMA IT'S COOL, THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS, KID GULLIVER, NELSON BRAGG, THE GRIP WEEDS, and THE GREEK THEATRE. That was easy! And it's just as easy to add gems from MILLIE SMALL, THE BEATLES, SHONEN KNIFE, THE CATHOLIC GIRLS, SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES, THE PANDORAS, TALL POPPY SYNDROME, THE KINKS, THE RAMONES, THE REPLACEMENTS, THE LINDA LINDAS, and--of course!--BARON DAEMON AND THE VAMPIRES. And more! See? We didn't even break a sweat yet. The dancing will take care of that part tonight. Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, http://sparksyracuse.org/

POP-A-LOOZA: JUKEBOX EXPRESS An imaginary soundtrack album for a film that never existed

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a study of an imaginary soundtrack for a film that never existed: Jukebox Express.

My concept of Jukebox Express, a wholly fabricated 1958 rock 'n' roll flick I made up outta nothing, was first introduced with this post in 2018:

"What is Jukebox Express? And how in the world does it combine That Thing You Do!, King Kong, I Love Lucy, Happy Days, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Gilligan's Island, My Favorite Year, Singin' In The Rain, Three Amigos!, an instrumental by the Fleshtones, Charles Chaplin's Limelight, Bye Bye Birdie, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Room Service, Batman: The Animated Series, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, Pleasantville, The Honeymooners, the 1970s Ellery Queen TV series, Back To The Future, Weird War Tales, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Animal House, The Girl Can't Help It, the pilot episode of The Monkees, King Creole, The Andy Griffith Show, John Waters' Cry-Baby, Please Don't Eat The Daisies!, The Beverly Hillbillies, Twin Peaks, The Rocketeer, WKRP In Cinncinati, and Funnyman?

"I don't know yet. I won't know unless or until I write it. Oughtta be fun."

It was fun to concoct, and I retain a giddy sense of satisfaction in the resulting work. Its chronicle was revealed here, and a guide to its previously-existing fictional players can be seen here. 

In the broad, specialized category of writing about music that does not exist, I put together a fake This Is Rock n' Roll Radio playlist built from that very idea, and I followed with an annotated guide to that playlist. I also wrote a fictional biography of the Archies, a fantasy about a 1976 Beatles reunion concert, a what-if examination of my favorite power pop group the Flashcubes becoming stars, the first few pages of a Green Hornet story idea about the death of a young rock 'n' roll star in 1966, some snarky riffing on imaginary musical combos, and a pair of short stories about rock 'n' roll, the unsold "Home Of The Hits" and the fabulously successful "Guitars Vs. Rayguns."

Plainly, I like music, and I like makin' stuff up. We have yet another example of that today, as Jukebox Express, an imaginary soundtrack for a film that never existed, is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

BOPPIN's Monthly Day Off

Once a month, Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) takes a brief break from its suicide-pact commitment to daily public posting--seriously, what was I thinking?!--and instead prepares a private post for its beloved paid supporters. November's private post for patrons is another chapter from my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), this time celebrating "You're No Good" by Linda Ronstadt.

Regular daily public posting resumes here tomorrow, and the Linda Ronstadt piece will go out to my patrons on Monday, November 1st. You can become one of my patrons for a mere $2 a month: Fund me, baby! 

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?!

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! Kid Eternity

 

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is all about my 1970s discovery of a 1940s comic book character called Kid Eternity.

As the piece says, I first encountered Kid Eternity in the pages of an issue of DC Comics' 100-Page Super Spectaculars circa 1971; you can read my separate reminiscence of those beloved Super Specs here. My interest in Kid Eternity was part and parcel of my '70s embrace of superheroes and other fictional adventurers from preceding decades, an interest I've also detailed in essays about the original Captain Marvel, Plastic Man, Doc Savage, the Shadow, the Green Hornet, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, the Red Tornado, Flash Gordon, Tarzan, movie serials, superpulp paperbacks, The Pulps, Daredevil Battles Hitler (plus also Doll Man and some '60s material), the Spectre (as part of an appreciation of Adventure Comics in the '70s), and my fanciful notion of a Justice Society of America movie. That prevailing passion led me to concoct my series of 100-Page FAKES!, each of which can be accessed from here. 

But today, we look back on how a 100-Page Super Spectacular starring Superman, the Atom, Air Wave, Hawkman, and Super-Chief also introduced me to an old character who would become one of my favorites. The Everlasting First: Kid Eternity is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 10/26/2021

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.

The first of two editions of 10 Songs this week draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. 

THE ARMOIRES: Appalachukrainia

We are, of course, big fans of Big Stir Records, the reliable rockin' pop label run by noted beautiful people Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko. We opened TIRnRR # 1100 with Big Stir recording artists the Brothers Steve promising "We Got The Hits," and a bit later we added Rex and Christina's own combo the Armoires and Dana's favorite Armoires track, "Appalachukrainia." I like it, too!

BILL BERRY: 1-800-Colonoscopy

Congratulations are in order, hypothetically....

Yep, it's the love theme from 2020. Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" is from the John Wicks tribute album For The Record, a song co-written by the late John Wicks and TIRnRR's old friend Rich Rossi. It remains way, way catchier than a song with "colonoscopy" in its title has any right to be.

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

For as many beloved acts who have cast their benevolent influence on Dana and I, there are a handful whose impact is beyond all others. The Beatles and the Ramones are the most obvious examples, but none of what we do is possible without Chuck Berry first showing us the way. Berry and Elvis Presley are virtually tied for the title of the single most important act in the history of rock 'n' roll, and ya can't go wrong with either choice. Nothing else happens without both Chuck Berry and King Elvis I lighting the spark. This is what I wrote when Berry passed in 2017:

"It is impossible to overstate the impact of Chuck Berry. Chuck Berry didn't invent rock 'n' roll; that music and its tangled roots were already in place before he started playing his guitar like a-ringin' a bell. But Chuck Berry defined rock 'n' roll. He gave it shape and substance, depth and meaning, a resonance that transcended its roadhouse and jukebox genesis as simple party music, while still remaining simple party music. Chuck Berry invented rock's swagger, its bounce, its groove, its very identity. He crafted the words that had 'em rocking in Boston, and Pittsburgh, PA, deep in the heart of Texas, and around Frisco Bay. Sure, Chuck Berry didn't invent rock 'n' roll; he merely transformed it into the music that we now all know and love.

"In the story of rock 'n' roll, there is no one--no group or individual--more integral than Chuck Berry. No one. Not the Beatles and not the Rolling Stones, neither of whom would have even existed if not for Chuck Berry. Not Ray Charles, not Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, the Kinks, the Ramones, Smokey Robinson, the Isley Brothers, Otis, Janis, Bowie, Prince, the Who, the Sex Pistols, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, the Beach Boys, and not anyone else you wanna try to slip into the conversation, either. Not even Elvis Presley, who would likely have the strongest claim otherwise. These are giants. These are the seemingly peerless stars who forged this music we love. Giants.

"Giants? Absolutely. Yet Chuck Berry stood above them all.

"Chuck Berry's influence rose above pop music, crossed racial and social and economic divides, and reached across generations. I discovered it second hand, via the Beatles' cover of 'Rock And Roll Music' on Beatles '65. When either WOLF-AM or WNDR-AM (or both) started playing 'Johnny B. Goode' regularly in the early '70s, I don't think I even realized it was an oldie, and I wouldn't have cared either way. I loved it, and I wanted to hear it all the time. I still do. 'Sweet Little Sixteen' 'School Day.' 'Memphis, Tennessee.' 'Let It Rock.' 'Promised Land.' So many others, so many songs that I will never tire of hearing again and again.

"John Lennon said, 'If you had to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.' Writer and rocker Mick Farren warned us that we should never trust a rock band that didn't know any Chuck Berry songs. Ben Vaughn notes that 'Our Shakespeare has left us.' Roll over, Beethoven; there was only one Chuck Berry: motorvatin' over the hill, campaign shoutin' like a Southern diplomat, roundin' third and headin' for home, a brown-eyed handsome man. Bye bye, Johnny, goodbye Johnny B. Goode."

"Johnny B. Goode" is one of my favorite Chuck Berry numbers, and it almost made the playlist for TIRnRR # 1100. But "Promised Land" is the greatest record ever made.

COTTON MATHER: My Before And After

When we started playing Cotton Mather's "My Before And After" in 1999, our friend Dave Murray contacted us to say it might not actually be an unreleased Beatles track but it sure sounds like one. We've played a ton of other Cotton Mather songs, from "Payday" to "The Book Of Too Late Changes" and more, but "My Before And After" will always be among the defining tracks of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Time Will Tell

We like to refer to the Kinks as our House Band. Holly Golightly's ace reading of "Time Will Tell" is one of the greatest renditions of a Ray Davies song by anyone not named "the Kinks." Holly's "Time Will Tell" merits a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

JEREMY: Living The Dream

Singer-songwriter-musician Jeremy Morris has released roughly, oh, a zillion albums in varying styles over a span of decades. His label JAM Recordings was the home of the first two This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CDs, and we wanted to include Jeremy in this celebration of whatever the hell it is we do here. "Living The Dream" comes from Jeremy's 2020 album--wait for it!--Living The Dream, which also includes Jeremy's ace take on the Byrds' "So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star." Keep living the dream, Jeremy--and thanks!

THE MUFFS: On My Own

Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" was our second-most-played track in 2020. The Muffs' "On My Own" was # 1.

We have a long history of playing the Muffs. Dana and I played their track "Saying Goodbye" on one of our old pre-TIRnRR shows in the mid '90s, and we played it again on TIRnRR # 1 in 1998. We continued to play that and many other Muffs gems over the following decades. We were crushed when the group's leader Kim Shattuck died in 2019.

We mourned Kim's passing in the most positive way we could muster: we kept on playing her music. When the Muffs' de facto farewell album No Holiday was released in late '19, we jumped on the track "On My Own," embracing its transcendent sadness as our own. Godspeed, Kim.

THE ORION EXPERIENCE: Adrianne

If memory serves, we first heard of the Orion Experience when our pal Robbie Rist raved about their album Cosmicandy in 2007. SOLD!! "Adrianne" went on to be one of our most-played tracks that year, and its shiny pop luster is undimmed by the rigors of the decade-and-change that have passed since then. (Robbie was himself represented on this week's extravaganza as a member of the Andersons!, whose "From The Get-Go" was a shoo-in for airplay this week.)

THE PHENOMENAL CATS: Seagirl

I've been corresponding with Keith Klingensmith since the '90s, a story told here and here. Over the course of TIRnRR # 1-1099, we've played some of Keith's work with Popdudes, Chris Richards, the Slapbacks, possibly Hippodrome, and probably someone else my brain's currently hoarding in its miserly memory bank. And we've for sure played the Legal Matters, whose "Light Up The Sky" seems to be on a collision course with our 2021 year-end countdown. 

Keith's long history of airplay here began with the Phenomenal Cats. I mean, ya gotta love an act that takes its name from a track on my favorite Kinks album, The Village Green Preservation Society. I reviewed their 1996 EP Seagirl And 5 Other Dogs for Goldmine, and its title tune scored some early burn here once we started this Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet gig. Keith's Futureman Records imprint is also the home of the digital downloads of our TIRnRR compilations, so Gabba Gabba, one of us! Then, as now, glad to have you on the team, Keith.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. The record that changed my life. And also the first song in our warmly-received 301 Songs About 301 Girls gimmick in 2011 (a gimmick which concluded with "Christi Girl" by the Flashcubes). The Ramones absolutely had to be part of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. We'll look at ten more of TIRnRR # 1100's songs on Thursday.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.