10 SONGS: 3/3/2022

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday 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 week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1118.

EYTAN MIRSKY: Conversation

As we were preparing this week's show, we heard the sad news that drummer Chris Garges had passed. We didn't know Chris personally, but our hearts and condolences go out to his family and friends, especially to some of our friends who did know Chris, and for whom this is a personal loss. We hear Chris' voice in nearly every weekly edition of TIRnRR, speaking with his fellow members of the Spongetones in the superswell show ID bumper they recorded for us. You'll likely continue to hear that for as long as we have a radio show.

Dana and I had already set this week's playlist before we learned of Chris' passing. But we felt it was important to open the show with at least some brief tribute to him, and it was fairly simple to swap out and rearrange a few tracks and sets to accomplish that. We figured we'd reach back to what must have been the first of Chris' work we ever heard: Songs About Girls (And Other Painful Subjects), the 1996 debut album by Eytan Mirsky. Our best wishes and commiseration to all who knew Chris. He sounds like he was a hell of a guy.

ROTARY CONNECTION: Love Me Now

The music of Rotary Connection is still mostly undiscovered to my ears; I know of Rotary Connection more than I know Rotary Connection, and I don't know all that much of them, either, other than the fact that one of the many members over the group's timeline was the late Minnie Riperton. Much of what I have heard is intriguing, reminding me (perhaps incongruously) of a more soulful Renaissance or a more progressive 5th Dimension, though neither impression is accurate. I aim to learn more, much more, and the best way to learn more about Rotary Connection is to hear more Rotary Connection. Stay tuned. 

ANTON BARBEAU: Rain, Rain

The new album from Anton Barbeau is called Power Pop!!!, and I very much dig how the good folks at Big Stir Records hyped its representation on our little mutant radio show this week:

"Anton Barbeau hits the This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio playlist with music that may or may not be power pop (it isn't!) along with the Flashcubes featuring Shoes (both of which are) and Addison Love and Irene Peña (who may vary from track to track)... but like it says, it IS Rock 'N' Roll as only Dana and Carl can bring it to you!" TESTIFY, brothers and sisters!

"Rain, Rain" is the first single off Power Pop!!!, and I would concur that it's not power pop as I envision power pop. But it is a glorious example of catchybuzz--I just made that up--a luxurious blend of psych-tinged, '80s-influenced left-of-the-dial pretty noise. Dana felt compelled to follow it with a track from Let's Active's Big Plans For Everyone, and I felt compelled to turn it all up for maximum boppin' accomplishment. Catchybuzz. We'll have another track from Power Pop next week. It's also not power pop. But we like it anyway.

SCOTT ROBERTSON: Hours Feel Like Minutes

We've played music from the Vapor Trails a time or several on TIRnRR. The fabulous Vapor Trails are piloted by Kevin Robertson, and Kevin's son Scott Robertson has a likewise-fabulous new EP called Physical Education. The EP comes courtesy of Futureman Records, the same visionary label that introduced us to the Vapor Trails. Of course we played it! It's what we do! We'll play it again next week. Nice, nice stuff.

THEE OH SEES: No Spell

Nope; I've never heard of Thee Oh Sees before. I really need to get out more. The almighty Wikipedia says the group has been around since the late '90s, and is currently known by the truncated moniker Osees. All I know is that Dana played Thee Oh Sees' "No Spell" (from the 2013 album Floating Coffin), prompting listener Rich Firestone to comment, "Mind blower of a song playing right now!" We agree, Rich. We agree.

CAROLYNE MAS: In The Rain

Hey, congratulations to the incomparable Carolyne Mas, who's just entered into a deal with the German label MIG Music. The Mas/MIG alliance will bring some of Carolyne's music back within the reach of an eager buying public, and we're in favor of that. "In The Rain" is my favorite Carolyne Mas track, a song I love even more than I love her MTV classic "Quote Goodbye Quote." I have a feeling we're gonna be giving some significant spinnage to "In The Rain" this year. It's all part of our ongoing service to you, the loyal TIRnRR listener. As always: playing pop music is its own reward.

TEGAN AND SARA: Walking With A Ghost

"So I heard a song on the radio...."

That's the first line of a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), the beginning of an entry celebrating "Walking With A Ghost" by the Canadian duo Tegan and Sara. "Walking With A Ghost" was indeed a song I heard on the radio, and its wraith-like ambiance hypnotized me on first spin.

"...If I never learned anything else about Tegan and Sara, if I never heard another note of their music, 'Walking With A Ghost' would be enough to haunt me, a spirit to possess me, a reminder of secrets thought to be dead and buried, yet rising from their graves to float beside me. Torments? No...well, sometimes. But always: reminders. Traces of what was and what could have (or should have) been, and the depressing gap between the two.

"The ghosts of our past walk beside us. I know I'm not unique in this. The spirits of past missteps and misdeeds are with us every day, sometimes with greater presence than others. No medium or ghostbreaker can dispel these particular poltergeists. It's not every minute of every day; we can apply context and balance, and we can concede that being human--mortal--comes with the certainty of fallibility, the inevitability of imperfection. But we also have to acknowledge the sins and the regrets, the times we were victim or villain, the aggressor or the aggrieved. I hope lessons were learned along the way. The ghosts remind us how much we still have to learn."

THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES: So Much In Love

"So Much In Love" was the B-side of the Flamin' Groovies' cover of Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep Mountain High," both tracks coupled as a non-LP 45 issued in France in 1981. It was, to all intents and purposes, the final release by the Groovies during their initial lifespan, a continuity that stretched back to the '60s and through varying lineups. Original lead singer Roy Loney had split in the very early '70s, and he was replaced by Chris Wilson. Chris himself left somewhere 'roundabout this single's release. Original Groovies Cyril Jordan and George Alexander attempted to soldier on for a bit, but the flame died, and the Groovies were gone, at least for a little while. They would return.

This B-side was something of an orphan track; not exactly lost, but kind of, I dunno...sidelined? Both the A- and B-sides were collected on The Gold Star Tapes, an LP of dubious legitimacy. Or a bootleg. Or a rare import. You bought it, you name it. "River Deep Mountain High" was later included on the wonderful Groovies CD compilation Groovies' Greatest Grooves, while "So Much In Love" remained in the wild. It was given proper reissue as part of Between The Lines, a 2019 CD subtitled The Complete Jordan-Wilson Songbook '71-'81. Between The Lines is my go-to Flamin' Groovies collection.

WILSON PICKETT: In The Midnight Hour

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm mulling a plan to renovate my GREM! book, a work that has been in development for years and still hasn't found a path to publication. Even if I do split the book into two parts, my chapter about Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour" will almost certainly remain a part of Volume 1. That chapter begins as follows:

"Sometimes even a great record--the greatest record--is taken for granted. For all the classic 45s or album tracks that tackled you and gloriously pinned you to the pavement on first exposure, there are many other shots o' sonic bliss that you just didn't quite get immediately, songs you didn't fully appreciate on first spin, or third spin, or even for a long while after that. Maybe some of these are records you initially deemed merely 'Okay, I guess,' if you gave them any thought at all; perhaps some are little ditties you ignored, or even actively disliked. And then one day or night--preferably night--you hear the song again, and it suddenly clicks, as if you're hearing it for the very first time. And it's like the trite old story of the presumably-mousy secretary whose beauty suddenly reveals itself when she removes her glasses...except that she was always beautiful, with or without the glasses, ya freakin' dimwit. You just didn't notice. 

"But you're paying attention now. And whether it's a girl or a song or some other sublime gem, you've fallen in love. What took you so long?"

THE MIGHTY LEMON DROPS: Inside Out

Gilmore Girls was one of my favorite TV series. The opening scene in its first episode played out to a soundtrack of "There She Goes" by the La's. The final scene of the last episode of its original run used "Inside Out" by the Mighty Lemon Drops. So this one goes out to Lorelai and Luke in Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Here's to your little corner of the world.

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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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl