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 # 1337
THE LEMON TWIGS: 2 Or 3
We are big fans of rockin' pop music, and we are delighted when the music we love is able to connect with a larger audience. The Lemon Twigs have garnered some buzz within our power pop world, and while they may not secure a TODAY'S HITS! radio berth alongside Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, we hope they do. Hell, we hope they record a track with Taylor and/or Sabrina. It's pop music. It's supposed to be popular.
Our own little mutant radio program has not given the Lemon Twigs a ton of airplay; believe it or not, I think we may have played Taylor Swift more often than we've played the Lemon Twigs, though that would be just a function of our short attention span (and my determination to demonstrate that some of Swift's stuff can fit in just swell alongside the Ramones, the Four Tops, and the Muffs in our chosen format--it's ALL pop music). We're going to try to program the Lemon Twigs more often; it's a bandwagon well worth hoppin' on for the ride.
No better place to start than the Lemon Twigs' latest album Look For Your Mind! Our friends at The Spoon podcast recently hooked me on the exquisite Look For Your Mind! gem "2 Or 3," compelling us to open our own show with that track. We'll hear the new album's title tune on Sunday night. Let's get this bandwagon movin'!
MARSHALL CRENSHAW: What Time Is It
The Jive Five's 1962 doo-wop classic "What Time Is It?" is one of my all-time favorite individual tracks, and it earned a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I was introduced to the song via Marshall Crenshaw's sublime 'n' dreamy cover version, heard on MC's 1983 album Field Day. Crenshaw's rendition held me in instant thrall from the second I heard it, and if my heart's desire migrated to the Jive Five, I never stopped loving the version I heard first.
This week, Dana's spin of the Distractions' "Time Goes By So Slow" prompted me to follow with "What Time Is It?" I had the Jive Five in mind, but then reconsidered and programmed Marshall Crenshaw's (punctuation-free) cover instead. Couldn't go wrong either way.
(Later, when annotating track credits for the posted playlist, I realized this was the first-ever TIRnRR spin for Marshall Crenshaw's "What Time Is It." As The Spoon's Robbie Rist recently reminded me, time takes time. Tick, tock.)
GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Black Lincoln Continental
Another advance peek at Quality Footware: Live At The Brook, the forthcoming new live album from the elemental forces of Graham Parker and the Goldtops. "Black Lincoln Continental" is already available as a single, as is "Soul Shoes," which we played a couple of weeks back. On our next show, we'll treat you to the Quality Footware live cut of the first Graham Parker song I heard (back when I was an impressionable teen surgically affixed to my radio). Grab your soul shoes and hop in your black Lincoln Continental; on Sunday night, we've got a date with a hotel chambermaid.
THE JIVE FIVE: My True Story
Having given the Jive Five's first-set spot to Marshall Crenshaw's "What Time Is It," it was only fair to give the doo-woppers their due with an airing of their only big hit, 1961's # 3 smash "My True Story." This solution spared us from having to cry CRY cry whoa-oh-oh our blues away. This story's ended. It was no lie!
BLONDIE: Little Girl Lies
My next book is a short story collection called Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies. It's my first full-length foray into fiction, following two nonfiction books about music, and it does incorporate a lot of musical influences into its gathering of deliberate lies. The book takes its title from a series of short stories I wrote about a group of rock 'n' roll musicians from Earth playing gigs on other planets, and it name-checks (mostly in passing) a whole bunch of artists, from Enrico Caruso to LL Cool J. I'll post a list of the book's musical name-checks in the very near future.
I don't think I got around to name-checking Blondie, but I do mention one of the group's individual members. Not the gorgeous one you'd automatically expect me to mention! Blondie's powerhouse drummer Clem Burke is cited in this sequence from a story that appears late in the book, as uttered by planet-hopping Guitar Vs. Rayguns drummer Leiko:
Leiko leaned in for emphasis. "I'm Keith fucking Moon. I'm Marky fucking Ramone. I'm Clem fucking Burke. I'm Dennis fucking Diken from the Smithereens, Tommy fucking Allen from the Flashcubes, Ringo fucking Starr if I wanna be Ringo fucking Starr.
"I'm fucking LEIKO, bitches!"
I'm...convinced. Also frightened.
Leiko's a big girl, and she's neither cryin' nor lyin'. As I prepare the publication of my new book of little boy lies, TIRnRR offers this celebratory spin of Blondie's "Little Girl Lies." We hope Leiko would approve. If it pisses her off, I'm pretty sure she won't allow her status as, y'know, fictional to prevent her from kicking our asses.
THE WELL WISHERS: Pox On Everything
Nowadays, "pox on everything" may serve as go-to mantra. It also serves as the title of a new treat from TIRnRR Fave Raves the Well Wishers. Along with "Back Of The Line," "Pox On Everything" is one of two advance tracks from the next Well Wishers album Expected Outcomes. The album is due in June, we played both of the advance tracks this week, and we're playing "Pox On Everything" again on our next show. Think of us as pox protection! Apply the pox only where it's warranted. No shortage of options there...
TOM KENNY & THE HI-SEAS: Welcome To The Working Class
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
MOTÖRHEAD: Motörhead
On our May 10th show, the weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! spot was occupied by "Please Don't Touch," an invigmoratin' 1981 cover of a Johnny Kidd and the Pirates classic, executed by Headgirl. Headgirl were the combined metal might of the boys in Motörhead and the girls in Girlschool, and that week's extravaganza also featured a spin of Girlschool's oomph-driven cover of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy." We figured we owed Motörhead their own reciprocal playlist representation this week. Hey, howzabout the first Motörhead track I ever heard? The eponymous li'l number "Motörhead" was on an absolutely ace 1977 various-artists borgasmord called Geef Voor New Wave, a record I snagged as a teen punk and proceeded to play over und over with the manic obsession (and commensurate volume) one should expect a proper teen punk would bring to such a thing. MOTÖRHEAD!
SPECTRAFLAME: Yesterday (Jane)
A couple of weeks ago, we offered our first spin of Spectraflame's nifty single "Yesterday (Jane)," but we played the wrong mix, an earlier version not considered the definitive version. This is because we're inept. Luckily, we have tenure, and we played the correct mix this week, righting (our own) wrongs and making the world safe for pop music. POP MUSIC IS SAVED! Just doin' our job.
THE BEATLES: Do You Want To Know A Secret
No secret: My book Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies includes a short story about a fictional 1976 Beatles reunion. While nearly all of the musical performers referenced in the book are just mentioned in passing, the Beatles appear as characters in their own story. Elsewhere in the book, one other real-life performer does actively participate in a very brief cameo role.
Which real-life performer? That's still a secret, told in a story that I have not yet shared with anyone. Leiko knows who the performer is, even though [redacted] isn't known as a drummer. But Leiko knows.
And she approves. The book should be out in early June.
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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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