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 # 1345
THE HIGH FREQUENCIES: Subterranean Homesick Blues
We open this week's broadcast bop-a-thon with another great track from the forthcoming tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Bob Dylan, this one courtesy of that force of rockin' pop nature known as the High Frequencies. As our pal Fritz Van Leaven reminds us, Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" was directly inspired by Bashful Bobby's "Subterranean Homesick Blues;" for their take on the song, the High Frequencies retain the original punk and bile of Robert Zimmerman and Declan McManus alike, while applying an accomplished dash of pure, pretty effervescence that enhances the experience without diluting its anger. The pumps still work! Maybe vandals tried to take the handles, but the mighty muscle of the High Frequencies stopped the damned vandals cold. LOOK OUT, KID! You will absolutely be seeing and hearing this one in future playlists.
RAMSEY LEWIS: Wade In The Water
Before viewing Questlove's excellent new documentary Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That's The Weight Of The World, I did not know that EWF's Maurice White had been a drummer with the Ramsey Lewis Trio from 1966 to 1970. See, ya learn stuff watching TV. That connection was sufficient to prompt Ramsey Lewis's return to the TIRnRR playlist, a feat accomplished with the title tune from Wade In The Water, the first Lewis album to feature White. Wade in the water? Smokin' on the water! We'll hear another track from the same album this Sunday night.
Why? We got a good reason. (And we're not taking the easy way out.)
From this week's playlist commentary:
"... A recent Only Three Lads podcast introduced me to the music of the Blue Herons, and further informed me that Blue Herons singer Gretchen DeVault was also in the Icicles. And I love the Icicles! That compelled me to buy the current Blue Herons album Demon Slayer, to pull out my trusty CD copy of the Icicles' A Hundred Patterns, and to include a track from each in this week's playlist...."
Over the past couple of decades, the Icicles' "Snowman" has been a frequent fixture of our seasonal playlists, and I confess my short attention span--which my daughter once described as AD...OS! (Attention Deficit...Ooo, SHINY!)--prevented me from delving further. We remedied that by playing "I Wanna Know," another go'geous track from A Hundred Patterns, and I cursed the AD..OS! that stopped us from programming this perfect crystal twenty years ago.
When Gretchen and her Blue Herons collaborator Andy Jossi were on O3L, the show's hosts Brett Vargo and Uncle Gregg played the title track from Demon Slayer, and I was duly mesmerized: Dreamy and vibrant, with echoes of '90s worthies like the Primitives and the Darling Buds. WANT! And got. That's why a benevolent deity gave me a credit card in the first place.
I intended to include that title track in this week's show, but the playlist ran a teensy bit too long, forcing me to sub the slightly shorter "Take A Break" in its place. Not to worry! We will slay that soulless demon on our next show.
THE RAMONES: I Wanna Live
From a previous edition of 10 Songs:
I moved back to Syracuse from Buffalo in 1987. It was not a great time in my life, and it was still going to be a little while before things got better.
In good times and less-good times, music has always been a highlight. I don't remember if I heard "I Wanna Live" before picking up my copy of the Ramones' 1987 album Halfway To Sanity. I may have seen its video on MTV, but my memory insists I didn't even know the Ramones had a new album out when I spotted and immediately purchased Halfway To Sanity at The Record Theatre up on the SU hill.
The album includes a fab guest appearance by Blondie's Debbie Harry on "Go Li'l Camaro Go," a meeting of CBGB's minds I'd been wishing for since the late '70s. Nonetheless, my favorite was (and is) "I Wanna Live."
Is it a life-affirming track? By default, I guess, though it could also be read as a suicide note. But the guitar sounds like it wants to live. Joey Ramone likewise sounds like he's digging in for the long haul. It's what I want, and I'm going with that.
GENERATION X: Dancing With Myself
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE SPONGETONES: Lifetimeline
This week's show was already programmed when we received word that TIRnRR Fave Raves the Spongetones were releasing a new single. Well, we've gotta play THAT!. Advance copy secured, playlist tweaked ever-so-slightly, and this uberfab track "Lifetimeline" was on the radio where it belongs. And it's back where it belongs again on our next show. The lifetimeline is secure.
SKOOSHNY: It Hides More Than It Tells
Think Like A Key Music is one of our favorite archival labels, particularly for their recent slate of previously-unreleased '70s and '80s live tracks by the majesty of the Shirts (as heard here and here). Think Like A Key's new Skooshny collection The Recordings 1971-1981 plays right into our lovably ornery demographic, preserving 21 tracks of left-of-the-dial pop music that merited a much wider audience. I remember reading about Skooshny in the pages of Bomp! magazine (and I think in Trouser Press) when I was in my teens and early twenties, but I don't think I heard any of their music at the time.
Well! We're hearing it now, thanks to the good folks at Think Like A Key Music. And we're putting it on the radio. More next week.
BETH PEABODY: Out And About
A lot of the coolest radio shows on the whole friggin' planet have been playing "Get It Out," the fabulous current single by Beth Peabody. It's a great song choice, and "Get It Out" deserves every second of that airplay.
We also played Beth's "Get It Out" last week, but we've been playing its virtual flip side "Out And About" all along. Both songs were written and previously recorded by Jim Basnight, Beth sang on Jim's versions, and Jim now plays on Beth's new versions, too. Jim's "Get It Out" has itself received its share of TIRnRR spinnage, and maybe that's why our current Beth Peabody selections have gravitated to "Out And About" instead of "Get It Out."
Still, I don't think we're merely defaulting to "Out And About." Man, both tracks are as radio-ready as one could wish, but there is a specific groove in "Out And About" that just annexes my attention, making its continued TIRnRR playlist appearances both inevitable and unerringly, righteously appropriate.
THE AMPLIFIER HEADS: Rock 'n' Roll Riot
This little mutant radio show has been all in for the Amplifier Heads' forthcoming album Super 8, doling out advance singles as they've become available. That willfully manic plan brings us this week to "Rock 'n' Roll Riot," an exercise in a-stompin' and a-rompin' that lives up to the celebratory promise of its title. Rock 'n' roll riot? Sign us up! And yet another track from Super 8 will open our next radio riot on Sunday. Man your stations, Amplifier Heads! There's a riot going on the air.
MONOGROOVE: Back To School
Back to school? Yep. Got a 1976 high school reunion party that I'll be crashing next week. I'm sure that night's soundtrack will stick to the music of the Me Decade, but for now we start our prep time with a spin of Monogroove's TIRnRR Pick Hit "Back To School." We'll continue that prep on our next show, supplementing "Back To School" with three additional secondary-education tracks (two from the '70s, one from before I was born) that put the proper BOOM! in the ol' sis-boom-bah.
And just like when I was in high school: I solemnly swear not to learn anything.
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My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous 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.
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.
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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