10 SONGS: 12/6/2024

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 # 1262.

THE PALEY BROTHERS: Ecstasy

It felt imperative for us to pay tribute to the late Andy Paley this week, and that tribute had to begin with the Paley Brothers, the late '70s shoulda-been-a-smash duo of Andy and Jonathan Paley. The group didn't release a lot of material, but their c.v. includes some absolutely ace pop music. My pick for the best of the Paley Brothers is "Ecstasy," a non-LP single from '77 that just explodes with equal parts earnest longing and urgent desire, occupying an innocent but deadly space somewhere between Raspberries and Rubinoos. The song's title reviews itself: Ecstasy.

PETER HAMMILL: Birthday Special

Going out by request to Paul Armstrong, guitarist for Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. "Birthday Special" comes from Peter Hammill's 1975 album Nigel's Big Chance, which was billed as a Hammill solo record but represents a reunion of Hammill's former band Van der Graaf Generator. 

In requesting the song, PA said: "This was a very influential record to many (me)...you can hear the influence on Sex Pistols, Psychedelic Furs, Soft Boys, etc." The boy is not wrong. One can imagine a not-yet Rotten John Lydon hearing this, taking notes, and lurching forward accordingly. Pretty vacant? No--pretty special. Thanks for the heads-up, PA.

SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go

In last week's exciting edition of 10 Songs, I wrote of "If We Could Let Go" by Slyboots:

"This just might be my favorite new track of 2024, and if it ain't, it's for damned sure a contender. Slyboots are a great, great group from New York, and they're deserving of much wider notoriety. 'If We Could Let Go' is nothing short of stunning. Their best one yet."

With the wisdom and perspective that another week adds to our...um, wisdom and perspective, let's remove that damned just might be qualifier. Slyboots' "If We Could Let Go" is my favorite new track of 2024. Not lettin' go of this one.

sparkle*jets u.k.: Box Of Letters

A box of BETTERS!

Notwithstanding my above coronation of the Slyboots track, I generally don't do year-end Top Ten lists. It may seem odd for a guy who writes so much and so often about pop music to say he (me!) doesn't care to think about the subject enough to rank Fave Raves, but, well, me doesn't care. I'm driven to analyze and pound the podium on behalf of songs, albums, and performers that move me in the moment, but I despise rating them. It's one of the many reasons I stopped writing reviews for publication, because I'm no longer interested in giving a freakin' letter grade to art or product.

Plus I hate writing reviews. There's that, too.

With all that said, I must acknowledge that a troika of Big Stir Records releases would be at or near the top of my pops in 2024: Octoberland by the Armoires, Pop Treasures by the Half/Cubes, and Box Of Letters by sparkle*jets u.k., with How To Make Friends By Telephone by Librarians With Hickeys poised in the on-deck circle. Among others--among a ton of others--from many sources. No matter how crappy a year it is in the real world, it's always a good year for pop music.

CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Is It True

 

With ten weeks in a row of TIRnRR airplay for Carla Olson and Tall Poppy Syndrome's irresistible current cover of Brenda Lee's "Is It True," I guess it's safe to say I like this one a lot, too. We'll mark Week # 11 this Sunday. True dat.

THE PALEY BROTHERS AND RAMONES: Come On Let's Go

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: Locket Love

With last year's publication of my first book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, I declared 2023 as my Year of the Ramones. But who was I kidding? Every year is my year of the Ramones: The American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. The Ramones' "Locket Love" was one of Dana's picks this week, and it was one of the first four Ramones tracks I ever owned: The B-side of "Rockaway Beach," a 45 purchased on my eighteenth birthday, not long after "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" became the record that changed my life. Can't limit that impact to a single year. Here's to another Year of the Ramones.

NICK BATTERHAM: Bars And Bedrooms And Bags

"Bars and Bedrooms and Bags?" Hey, sounds like a tour itinerary! Instead, this track from Nick Batterham's new Kool Kat Musik album The Sentimentalist conveys sadness and bitterness in roughly comparable proportion, a deep ache made pretty for the radio. Or at least putting on a show of being made pretty for the radio, but sparing nothing in its anger and resentment. Anyone who has ever loved and lost will empathize. 

THE FLASHCUBES [WITH THE PALEY BROTHERS]: Come Out And Play

Was this track from the Flashcubes' 2023 album Pop Masters the last Paley Brothers recording? That would seem likely, unless they did some subsequent work I don't know about. A splendid collaborative 'Cubes 'n' Paleys remake of the Paley Brothers' own radiant 1978 single, the new version was first released as a Big Stir Records digital track in 2022, and it scored a lot of TIRnRR airplay, making it to # 42 in our 2023 year-end countdown even though it wasn't released until September of that year. An invitation to play is evergreen. The music of the Paley Brothers lives on.

THE BEATLES: The Word

And that's the word from Her Majesty's Ramones. Love. Love's a pretty good word, I say.

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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

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.