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 # 1226. This show is available as a podcast.
THE CYNZ: Fall Away
Pay attention. This gets an eensy bit complicated.
We opened this week's rockin' pop extravaganza with "The Eraser," the latest single from the Midnight Callers. We LOVE the Midnight Callers! The commentary accompanying this week's playlist told of our efforts to make sure we got the then-unreleased track in time to air on Sunday night (two days after its release, but on a show recorded two days before its release). We petitioned Maureen, Jem Records' High Priestess of Hype, and she secured what needed securing. All hail the High Priestess! And it was on with the show.
Our second set opened with Wonderboy, singin' that TIRnRR Pick Hit "Girl Songs." On the occasion of one of our (many) previous programmings of "Girl Songs," we told Wonderboy's Robbie Rist that we were following his tribute to girl songs with something from the Beatles' White Album, and he presumed it would be "Julia." Y'know...an actual girl song. But NO! We'd put in "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" instead. That was a missed opportunity. We corrected it with this week's back-to-back "Girl Songs"/"Julia."
And then: A song BY a girl, playing with some guys, and collectively calling themselves the Cynz. On Jem Records, home of the Midnight Callers. All hail High Priestess Maureen again! We've been playing advance tracks from the new Cynz album Little Miss Lost, and we needed to celebrate its at-long-last-unleashed status by blastin' a new Cynz treat we ain't played yet. Huzzah AND hallelujah!
We'll pay further tribute to High Priestess Maureen on our next show, with further spins of the Midnight Callers and the Cynz, and additional carpet-bombing by Jem stars Paul Collins, the Weeklings, and the Grip Weeds. Gotta keep the High Priestess happy. It makes the listeners happy, too.
(Oh, and "Girl Songs" spins again as well. Also gotta keep Wonderboy happy. It leads to stuff.)
TALL POPPY SYNDROME: This Time Tomorrow
Well, we should have gotten to this one a lot sooner than we did. Here, the great Tall Poppy Syndrome--Paul Kopf, Vince Melouney, Jonathan Lea, Alec Palao, and Clem Burke--take on "This Time Tomorrow," a track originally done by TIRnRR's house band the Kinks. They do a damned good job of it, too, turning in one of the better Kinks covers to reach these dedicatedly followin' ears. The track took some sort of wayward path to get to us. But it finally did get to us, so we're playing it now! Tall Poppy Syndrome and the Kinks. Two great tastes that go great together.
And Tall Poppy Syndrome's "This Time Tomorrow" returns to TIRnRR this coming Sunday night, sharing a set with another great band turning in another great new Kinks cover. You won't wanna miss either of them.
CARL DOUGLAS: Kung Fu Fighting
BLONDIE: Kung Fu Girls
Common response to the Carl Douglas hit record listed above: "Surely not everybody was kung fu fighting!"
Blondie's response to that: "Hold my beer."
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: I'll Be Your Mirror
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
SHUFFLEPUCK: Where The Hell Is She
Last week's TIRnRR debuted Shufflepuck's "Where The Hell Is She," the advance single from a new limited edition book and LP package called Generation Blue. Generation Blue comes to us courtesy of our friends at Big Stir Records and SpyderPop Records, so let's cede the floor and let our friends tell you all about it:
"Big Stir Records and SpyderPop Records proudly announce a unique music and rock literature event and release: Generation Blue, a Limited-Edition Vinyl LP Compilation and Oral History Book curated and edited by S.W. Lauden. The album and book together explore the Hollywood Geek Rock scene of the '90s and early 2000s, featuring key bands Nerf Herder, Ozma, Baby Lemonade, Psoma, and many others. Previewed by the hit indie single “Where The Hell Is She,” a lost Geek Rock nugget by the band Shufflepuck, the album features eleven rare or exclusive vintage tracks while the book tells the story of the scene in the words of those who were there—including Lauden who played drums for the band Ridel High. The LP/Book package is up for presale exclusively at Big Stir Records' online points of sale (including this website) and sees release April 26 as its tracks hit all digital platforms."
We're told advance sales of Generation Blue have been what's technically referred to as "through the motherlovin' roof," making an already limited edition even, y'know, limiteder. If you want this, ya best act now.
We'll hear another track from Generation Blue on our next show. Meanwhile, this past Sunday on SPARK Syracuse offered two opportunities to hear Shufflepuck's "Where The Hell Is She:" Right here on TIRnRR, and also on Radio Deer Camp.
And speaking of Radio Deer Camp....
PATRICK MACNEE AND HONOR BLACKMAN WITH THE IVOR RAYMONDE ORCHESTRA: Kinky Boots
This week marks the fourth of anniversary of our pal Rich Firestone's essential weekly show Radio Deer Camp, heard every Sunday from 5 to 7 pm Eastern right here on SPARK! YOU, my friends, should really oughta tune in to RDC every week. Like oatmeal, it's the right thing to do.
There is often some crossover between RDC and TIRnRR, when both shows independently decide to play the same track on the same day. That is A-OK by me; ya can't have a hit record if you only play it once. The crossover usually involves a new release (like Shufflepuck's "Where The Hell Is She"), though on occasion our grated minds have thought alike on some older nugget as well. We like to keep you guessing. We like to keep us guessing.
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| This is Radio Deer Camp, rock 'n' rollers! |
But this week served up our most unlikely crossover yet, as both shows played "Kinky Boots." Not the 2005 movie nor its subsequent Harvey Fierstein-Cyndi Lauper stage musical adaptation. No, this "Kinky Boots" was a 1964 single by actors Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman, stars of the British TV series The Avengers.
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| Call me Scarlet Witch again and you're gettin' a kinky boot to the head, mister! |
Yeah, didn't see that crossover comin'. But awright! And congratulations to Rich Firestone and Radio Deer Camp. You keep doing whatever the hell it is you do, and we'll keep doing whatever the hell it is we do. Great radio ensues.
THE AVENGERS: We Are The One
And of COURSE we followed Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman with the Avengers. GET IT? Avengers Assemble!
Wait...wrong Avengers.
Anyway. As for this band called the Avengers, their still-unfinished entry in my Greatest Record Ever Made! series begins: "The Clash sang that anger could be power. Even before that line appeared in the Clash's London Calling album track 'Clampdown' in 1979, a San Francisco group called the Avengers was on stage at Winterland, opening for the Sex Pistols in that group's final appearance meltdown, and embodying the concept of cathartic fury. Anger. Power. Rock 'n' roll."
RASPBERRIES: Ecstasy
"Ecstasy" is a track I really wanted to include in last week's tribute to the late Eric Carmen, but it was not to be. If memory serves, "Ecstasy" was only the fourth Raspberries track I ever heard. It was the third track on the fabulous Raspberries compilation Raspberries' Best Featuring Eric Carmen, but I had already heard that LP's first, second, and fourth tracks--"Go All The Way," "Tonight," and "I Wanna Be With You"--on AM Top 40 radio well before power pop Santa Claus left the best-of album under my Christmas tree in 1976. Wally Bryson's jagged Who-like guitar on "Ecstasy" made it an instant obsession.
Our Eric Carmen tribute included "I Wanna Be With You" and "Go All The Way," plus Raspberries' "I'm A Rocker" and "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)." We achieved "Ecstasy" this week. And this Sunday night? We'll play "Tonight."
THE FLASHCUBES: Make Something Happen
Make something happen? I'm workin' on it, man. I'm working slow, but I'm workin' on it.
If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar.
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, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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