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 # 1190. This show is available as a podcast.
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
There's a great new video for the Flashcubes' absolutely ace cover of the Motors' "Forget About You." GO! WATCH IT! I'll be glad you did.
"Forget About You" is the latest single (released TODAY!) from the Flashcubes' forthcoming all-covers album Pop Masters, which is due August 11th and available for preorder right now. It's a magnificent album, and I do believe "Forget About You" is its most magnificent individual track.
I testified on behalf of Pop Masters here. I'm a fan, proudly so. Never forget that. If you're not already a Flashcubes fan, one spin of "Forget About You" just might make you one of us.
And it's about damned time.
DERRICK ANDERSON: When I Was Your Man
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| Vicki, Debbie, Derrick, Kim |
Most of our weekly playlists include an appearance by the late Kim Shattuck, who passed away four years ago this October. Her work as Chief Rockin' Officer of the Muffs is our top go-to Shattuck stuff, and we also frequently program her a-singin' and a-playin' with the Coolies, the Beards, and the Pandoras. We also dig this fabulous, fabulous track by Derrick Anderson, which features the ever-effervescent Kim alongside Derek and his Bangles bandmates Debbie and Vickie Peterson, doot-doot-dooting with gleeful abandon.
This past Monday would have been Kim Shattuck's 60th birthday. We play Kim almost every week. We'll celebrate her legacy in style on our next program.
MEN AT WORK: Be Good Johnny
Years ago, when I was attempting to concoct a façade of seeming more responsible than I've ever really been, I asked various friends to provide me with info on their birthdays so I could keep track of, I guess, potential birthday parties. Even then, I guess I knew I wasn't really going to be all that responsible, since my phrasing in the request always promised to add the many-happy-returns dates to a list of folks to whom I could send belated greeting cards. See? I know me!
And to prove it: I lost the list. Yeah, I admire my consistency.
You know whose birthday was among those on that list? TIRnRR's beloved stats man Fritz Van Leaven. I've known Fritz for almost 40 years, so I owe him a big ol' bunch of belated birthday cards. Fritz is the biggest Sex Pistols fan I know, and he also digs Men At Work. Fritz is a bass player, and while I've rarely seen him take a lead vocal with any of his bands, I do recall witnessing him execute a killer Colin Hay proxy when one of his combos performed a cover of Men At Work's "It's A Mistake."
But no mistake here: "Be Good Johnny" is my favorite Men At Work song, and we dedicate its spin this week to our man Fritz. Think of it as another belated virtual greeting card. It's too late to be good. But it's never too late to try being better.
HÜSKER DÜ: Eight Miles High
Dana played this on the show this week, and I wanna reach back to a previous 10 Songs to talk about it. Sherman! Set the WABAC Machine to May 20th, 2020. Let's hit cruising altitude....
Given my general affinity for melody and disdain for noise, Dana was surprised to discover how much I like Hüsker Dü's chaotic cover of the Byrds' "Eight Miles High." The Byrds' 1966 recording of "Eight Miles High" was probably the first Byrds record I ever owned, an oldies reissue 45 purchased when I was still a high school student in the mid '70s. I was (and remain) taken with the audacity and ambition the Byrds brought to the original, mixing their well-known vocal blend with an adventurous arrangement intended to adapt the free-form improvisational style of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane to a pop song played by an American folk-rock guitar band at the height of the British Invasion..If there was a subtle embrace of cacophony inherent in the Byrds' creation of "Eight Miles High," Hüsker Dü grabs the noisier elements in a freakin' headlock, wringing out every bit of grunge and distortion to be found. On paper, I shouldn't dig this, and should probably hate it. But I've loved it for decades, ever since hearing it on Buffalo's WBNY-FM in the mid '80s and snappin' up my copy of the 45 from visionary rock writer Gary Sperrazza! at Apollo Records. As much as I still adore the Byrds' version, Hüsker Dü's cover has become my preferred take on "Eight Miles High."
And we're back in this far future world of 2023. The passing of centuries...er, the passing of more than three years since I wrote the above paragraphs has brought its own shift in attitude. Nowadays, I still adore Hüsker Dü's cover, but the Byrds' original version has reclaimed its status as my preferred take on "Eight Miles High." That version will serve as, at least, a tangent in tomorrow's blog post.
STEPPENWOLF: Born To Be Wild
Steppenwolf finally makes their TIRnRR debut. It sometimes takes us a bit to get around to stuff. We've played Wilson Pickett's version of "Born To Be Wild." I guess we've been an eensy bit slowpoked in programming Steppenwolf's original hit rendition.
I had this 45 when I was a kid. Or I should say my sister had the 45. But I played it a lot. I liked smoke and lightning! HEAVY METAL THUNDER!
[NOTE: Stats man Fritz says I'm crazy, and this is like the FIFTH time we've played Steppenwolf, and the third time we've played Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild." I really need to develop an understanding of how the alphabet works before I check our records.
AND! Coincidentally, ya wanna know when it was that we first played Steppenwolf? Yeah. It was on Fritz's birthday in 2010.
Now THAT's wild!]
JENSEN BELL: Possible Jane Situation
The lovely and talented Robbie Rist pointed us in the direction of Jensen Bell, basically telling us something along the lines of, HEY! WHY AREN'T YOU BOZOS PLAYING JENSEN BELL...?! Subtle but effective--that's our Robbie!
And Robbie is right to champion Jensen Bell's music. Bell recently sent us his 2005 album Modern Dating Tips, and I rue all that wasted time lost in not hearing the album until now.
Curse our limited awareness! I blame the media. Never mind that I am part of the media. I'll find a hapless underling to take the fall for this one.
And I'm very happy to have the album now. I need to set aside some time to give it a proper A-Z listen, but even my initial hit 'n' run scan of Modern Dating Tips revealed a record I wanna get to know better. We played "Her City's Got A Train" last week, and followed with "Possible Jane Situation" this week. More to come. Even bozos like us can learn our lessons.
Eventually.
THE RUNAWAYS: Cherry Bomb
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE FLASHCUBES: The Summer Sun
Pop Masters began its path to the rockin' pop galleries as a series of digital singles for the good folks at Big Stir Records, as the 'Cubes remake the classics of power pop in their own Cubic image. The series kicked off in 2021, with a cover of Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside," with Pezband's own Mimi Betinis duly deputized as an auxiliary Flashcube for one night only. Hijinks ensued.
And then, more singles ensued, too. We've played 'em all, and they're all included on Pop Masters. We've also played a bunch of Pop Masters gems that haven't been released yet. Hell, "Forget About You" officially came out today, and we've already played it at least three times pre-release, with another spin on tap this Sunday night.
Of the twelve tracks on Pop Masters, this little mutant radio show played eleven of them at least once prior to this week, including the as-yet-unreleased versions of Sparks' "Nothing To Do" and the Posies' "Flavor Of The Month."
We've been saving the Flashcubes' triumphant occupation of Chris Stamey's "The Summer Sun," just 'cuz we wanted to have one more unheard track to play closer to Pop Masters' release date. We could wait no longer. The summer sun's here, and the time is right.
And ya can't get more righteous than Pop Masters.
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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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
