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 # 1192. This show is available as a podcast.
THE CYNZ: I Need You
Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies is that mighty label's latest gathering of its acts to salute one of rockin' pop's greatest songwriters. It follows in the steady footsteps of Jem's previous salutes to John Lennon, Brian Wilson, and Pete Townshend, and it's fully as ACE!! as its predecessors. Given this little mutant radio show's repeated reference to the Kinks as our house band, it's a safe bet Jem's Ray Davies tribute will be scoring some significant Dana & Carl airplay.
The album made its TIRnRR debut last week, with Johnathan Pushkar's version of "I Gotta Move." We played the Pushkar track again this week, and we opened the show with this cover of the Kinks' primal prime cut "I Need You," courtesy of the Cynz.
The Kinks' "I Need You" isn't as well known as its proto-punk brethren "You Really Got Me" and "All Day And All Of The Night," but it is indeed in that same proud-to-be-loud sense of willful abandon. The Cynz nail it, and we're playing it again on our next show.
We need to.
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
Speaking of covers of "I Need You:" Way before I heard the Kinks' original recording of the song, I was introduced to "I Need You" via an incendiary live cover performed in the '70s by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. The Flashcubes' pummeling live shows and own original songs are what made me a 'Cubes fan in the first place, but they have also always been adept at pulling off irresistible covers, bending them to their Cubic will and makin' 'em their own.
The Flashcubes' new covers album Pop Masters has had us drumming upon all surfaces. Whatta record! Pop Masters doesn't include any of the cover choices familiar from the group's decades of live shows--no Kinks, no Beatles, no Big Star, certainly no Sex Pistols, and the 'Cubes already covered Eddie and the Hot Rods' "Do Anything You Wanna Do" on their 2003 album Brilliant. Instead, the album digs deeper into a pure pop fan's dream list of Why-weren't these-HITS?! nuggets.
On Pop Masters, the Flashcubes cover the worthy likes of the Spongetones, Shoes, Pezband, Cyrus Erie, Slade, the Dwight Twilley Band, Chris Stamey, Sparks, the Posies, the Paley Brothers, and Pilot, frequently in collaboration with some of the artists connected with the original version. Everything shines as brightly as a Flashcube oughtta.
And dig this: I'm as big a Flashcubes fan as this world has ever seen. With the exception of that above-cited 2003 recording of "Do Anything You Wanna Do," their Pop Masters take on the Motors' "Forget About You" may be the greatest cover the Flashcubes have ever done.
Pop Masters is out August 11th, and available for preorder right-the-hell NOW. Album of the year. I know it's barely August, sure, but I also know me. Masters at work here. Album of the year.
KID GULLIVER: All Because Of You
A new single from Kid Gulliver? Of course we're playing it. Duh. And we'll play it again on our next show.
DOLPH CHANEY: Mr. Eli
A new single from Dolph Chaney? Of course we're playing it. Duh. And we'll play it again on our next show. Dolph, meet Kid Gulliver. Kid Gulliver, Dolph. Help yourself to some snacks.
But be ready to start singin' when we need you.
SAM COOKE: Chain Gang
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE PRETENDERS: Back On The Chain Gang
It was just like starting over.
THE KINKS: She's Got Everything [backing track take 2]
From the five-disc boxed set The Anthology 1964-1971, this backing-track-only cut of the Kinks' all-time bopper "She's Got Everything" has (perhaps incongruously) become my go-to version. It's kinda like how I've come to prefer an acoustic remix of the Monkees' "Sunny Girlfriend" to the better-known (and fabulous) version heard on the Monkees' 1967 Headquarters album.
I'm not trying to be different for the mere sake of being different; something about these two specific Kinks and Monkees alternate realities just grabs me. The acoustic remix of "Sunny Girlfriend" is one of my 25 favorite Monkees tracks; if I ever get around to compiling an all-time Kinks Top 25, this backing track of "She's Got Everything" has a fair shot at making that list. In particular, Mick Avory's drumming just snaps in this version. It's got everything.
Except vocals. You go into battle with the Kinks you have, not the Kinks you wish you had. In any incarnation: God save the Kinks.
AMY RIGBY: Tom Petty Karaoke
From This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. Amy Rigby won't back down, even when nothing feels right. We dedicate this to Amy herself, with all the hugs in the world.
NEW MATH: Die Trying
I have been waiting years and years for someone to wise up and release a CD compilation of Rochester, NY's phenomenal pop combo New Math. At long last, the wise guys at Propeller Sound Recordings have come through with Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979-1983), an eleven-track collection that adds up to what I've been waiting for.
I've written previously of how I first encountered the music of New Math. And yes, of course the Flashcubes were involved in that discovery:
"Sometimes the giddy euphoria of pop music makes us fall in instant thrall to a new (or new-to-us) record upon first spin. Sometimes...it doesn't work out that way. I was underwhelmed by my initial exposures to the music of the Pretenders, Patti Smith, even Stevie Wonder. My reactions to all of these changed for the better upon further review."The 'Die Trying' single wasn't quite my introduction to the sound of New Math. New Math was from Rochester, NY, friends of my hometown Syracuse Fave Raves the Flashcubes. I saw New Math on a bill with the 'Cubes in the summer of 1978, upstairs at hoppin' Syracuse nightspot The Firebarn. New Math was just terrific, energetic and invigorating. I was sure I was gonna be a New Math fan forevermore.
"So, of course, I snapped up New Math's 1979 debut single 'Die Trying' as soon as I saw it. By now, I'm sure context has already clued you into the fact that I didn't like the record. At all.
"Why not? Damned if I could tell you. I adore it now, and I have no remaining recollection of why it disappointed me so much in the moment. The record didn't change. My perception of it did...."
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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.
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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