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 # 1305.
STEVE STOECKEL: I Wanna Be A Vampire
It's important to have goals. Be the vampire you wish to be!
My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about "The Transylvania Twist," a terrific 1963 single credited to Baron Daemon and the Vampires. Baron Daemon (played by the late, great Mike Price) was Syracuse's local TV vampire when I was a kid in the '60s. As I wrote in the book: To any kid living in Syracuse at that time, Baron Daemon was as big as the Beatles.
Friend of TIRnRR Steve Stoeckel is best-known as singer/songwriter/bassist with North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo the Spongetones. Our Steve was not a Syracuse kid in the 1960s, and any familiarity he might have with Baron Daemon probably came from, y'know, reading my book (a book that also contains a chapter about the Spongetones). But Steve effectively channels the Dracula Beat on "I Wanna Be A Vampire," his contribution to Big Stir Records' epic new Halloween compilation Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies.
The music of the night! And a vampire song that does not suck. We'll switch from vampires to witches for a spin of another track from Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies on our next show.
THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up
Grow up...?! As if.
(But speaking of the Ramones--the American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time--lemme take this opportunity to thank my friends at Rare Bird Books, the publisher of my 2023 book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones. The book was featured in this week's edition of Rare Bird's newsletter The Bird's Eye View, and I am very grateful for the mention.
Grateful. Still not grown up, mind you, but grateful.)
THE WEEKLINGS: Diamond Dogs
From the wonderful current compilation Jem Records Celebrates David Bowie, here's the Weeklings' cool take on Bowie's "Diamond Dogs." We offer it here as a dedication to the coaching staff (plus Higgins) of UFC Richmond. Hey guys! Looking forward to seeing you again this summer.
THE KENNEDYS: Walking Through The Park
From her secret origin as Maura Boudreau in North Syracuse, Maura Kennedy has always been one of us, a native daughter made good. Her husband Pete Kennedy isn't from around here, but he is likewise one of us, and Central New Yorkers proudly consider Maura and Pete's internationally-renowned coffeehouse pop combo the Kennedys to be local heroes, their downstate base of operations notwithstanding. It's a legit homecoming whenever the Kennedys play in Syracuse, and their latest homecoming occurs this Saturday, October 11th, at The 443 Social Club & Lounge. Tickets for the show? Glad you asked! Grab 'em with delirious glee right here.
Adding to the homecoming vibe, the Kennedys recently participated in Big Stir Records' various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, recording a sublimely aching cover of the Flashcubes' lovely "Walking Through The Park." Here's hopin' the Kennedys' homecoming includes a live performance of "Walking Through The Park" at the 443 on Saturday.
VEGAS WITH RANDOLPH: She's An Intellectual
Calling all intellectuals! Long-time TIRnRR Fave Raves Vegas With Randolph have released Drops Of Gold: The Best Of Vegas With Randolph, an absolutely primo retrospective set that oughta be an automatic purchase for all of us who adore music of the rockin' pop persuasion. And the lads of VWR are promoting Drops Of Gold with an absolutely primo new video for their past TIRnRR Pick T' Click "She's An Intellectual." Even better, it's an animated video inspired by the style of classic DC Comics cartoons. HEY! They're playing directly to MY demographic! And they're playing to win. It's Vegas, baby.
SLYBOOTS: Silent Storm
New single from Slyboots! Their 2024 single "If We Could Let Go" was my # 1 favorite new track last year, and "Silent Storm" continues that world-weary but determined sense of reaching for a better world.
And I think we could all use a better world at this point.
TINA TURNER: The Acid Queen
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE SUPREMES: All I Want
Like the rest of the group's post-Diana Ross output, the Supremes' 1972 cover of Joni Mitchell's "All I Want" is woefully, criminally underrated. It's too much of a hot take to say the Supremes records after Ross left are a better group o' tunes than the familiar hits with Ross, but I admit the hyperbole is tempting. Not true, I guess. But tempting.
Either way, if you can find it, a two-disc Supremes compilation called The '70s Anthology is well worth seeking and acquiring. Will it be all the Supremes you want? No, probably not. Will it be worthwhile in its own right? Damned right it will.
SHOES: Tomorrow Night
From The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):
In the late '70s, power pop was a niche genre that did not wish to be a niche genre. It wanted fame, fortune. It wanted action. It for damned sure wanted the girl, right now. If not tonight, then tomorrow night...
...Shoes was one of the most notable (and durable) among '70s power pop groups, an exquisite four-man band from Zion, Illinois. Shoes took their first step with an album that was literally homemade, recorded in guitarist Jeff Murphy’s living room and released on the group’s own Black Vinyl label in 1977.
That album, Black Vinyl Shoes, was an instant pop classic, bursting with understated gems, songs simultaneously Beatlesque yet not strictly derivative of anything. Black Vinyl Shoes brought the group to the attention of Bomp Records/Bomp! magazine visionary Greg Shaw. Bomp released a non-LP 45 of “Tomorrow Night”/”Okay,” which still ranks as the best 1-2 punch of Shoes’ always-distinguished recording career.
"Tomorrow Night" is nearly textbook power pop, a pretty ditty that combines yearning and lust, its façade suggesting an equal measure of the two, but really looking for a steamy tomorrow-night stand. What the track lacks in explosiveness á la the Who or Raspberries is more than compensated by its confidence and posture, the music leaning forward with single-minded precision. It's catchy and aggressive, its dreamy, breathy vocals piloting a rockin' sound with one Beatle boot perched in the British Invasion and one ragged Converse stepping on a back-breaking crack in the New Wave of post-punk rock 'n' roll....
THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Shout (Part 1)
The perils of prerecording a radio show: On Sunday night, my back-announcement of spinning the Isley Brothers' "Shout (Part 1)" was accompanied by my prerequisite cry of Let's GO, Buffalo! That moment aired shortly after the previously-unbeaten Buffalo Bills had been defeated by themselv...er, by the Patriots. Nonetheless: Let's GO, Buffalo! I retain my hope of seeing Bad Bunny perform a Halftime show during a Bills game on TV this February.
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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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. You can read about our history here.
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