10 SONGS: 4/26/2024

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 # 1230. This show is available as a podcast.

THE FLASHCUBES: Make Something Happen

"Make something happen?" Okeydokey! I'm in the very early stages of writing a new book about Power Pop Hall of Famers the Flashcubes. The book's working (and probable official) title is Make Something Happen! The DIY Story Of A Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES, and the project was initiated by the Flashcubes themselves. Well, I'M in! 

And when I say "early stages," I mean it, man. I've had a couple of planning meetings with members of the 'Cubes, and I've begun trying to find and learn appropriate tech to record and transcribe interviews. My next task is to write a one-sheet on the book's behalf, and then to start talking to the Flashcubes and their entourage. It's all very exciting, and we hope to bring the book to retail by the Summer of 2025. From the book's first public announcement last week:

"This will be an oral history of the band, with personal stories related by the 'Cubes themselves--Tommy Allen, Paul Armstrong, Gary Frenay, and Arty Lenin--discussing their roots as rockin' pop fans in the '60s and '70s, their formation in the punk rock crucible of 1977, their frenzied live shows with the Ramones, the Runaways, the Police, the Jam, David Johansen, Joe Jackson, the Scruffs, the Romantics, Artful Dodger, 999, and more, their irresistible original songs, their indie 45s, their demo tapes, their breakup at the end of the '70s, and the subsequent recognition that the Flashcubes were a legit power pop legend. This growing awareness and celebration reunited the Flashcubes in the '90s, culminating in their award-winning 2023 album Pop Masters.

"In Make Something Happen!, the Flashcubes story will also be told by eyewitnesses: Fans, fellow musicians, industry insiders, and maybe the occasional drunken pogo dancer yelling out GOT NO MIND!, or swooning to 'Christi Girl,' vowing to wait till next week, it'll be all right. This is the first-hand story of Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse, a band that thrived under bright lights of their own invention."

More details to come. Oh, rest assured there will be more details to come. As I've written elsewhere: I think everyone knows that I'm possibly the world's most insistent Flashcubes fan. The Flashcubes are my favorite power pop band, they rank with the Beatles and the Ramones in the troika of my top rock 'n' roll groups, and I've long wished they enjoyed the sort of mass notoriety and adulation I think they deserve. "Make Something Happen" was first recorded by Gary Frenay's post-Flashcubes band Screen Test in the '80s, then recorded again by the reunited 'Cubes for their 2003 album Brilliant. It's a hit record, no matter how few the number of people who've heard it.

And it makes a dandy title for a book about the Flashcubes. We played it this week, and we're playing it again on our next show. 

Make something happen.

Good advice.

THE ARMOIRES: We Absolutely Mean It

Another song that Gary Frenay wrote and recorded with Screen Test was called "I Am Sincere." And while that song has nothing to do with the Armoires' new single "We Absolutely Mean It," I dig the shared lyrical celebration of authenticity. Sincerity has great intrinsic value. Its value is embodied in the work of the Armoires.

That's not just true of the band's music. It's a defining quality of Armoires mainstays Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko, who are also the proprietors, CEOs, primary enforcers, benevolent despots, intimidating muscle, and photogenic poster kids for the mighty Big Stir Records label. Other than the annual edition of Dana's Funky Soul Pit and the occasional special program, a TIRnRR playlist without at least one Big Stir track is rarer'n rare. We like Big Stir. We like Rex and Christina. And, obviously, we like the Armoires. 

And also obviously: We absolutely mean it. 

THE CYNZ: Just A Boy

I think I've settled on my designated Pick T' Click from Little Miss Lost, the superswell new album from the Cynz. We've been playing a number of its individual treats, and this is our third consecutive playlist to spin the album's treat-of-treats "Just A Boy." It's a hit! And it will rack up TIRnRR airplay for its fourth week in a row this coming Sunday night. 

SHADOWY MEN ON A SHADOWY PLANET: Tired Of Waking Up Tired

Too good for words. And I don't even mean that as a reference to the fact that it's an instrumental. I've always loved the Diodes' 1979 power pop classic "Tired Of Waking Up Tired." Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet re-worked the song into a surf instrumental, and--much like the Nutley Brass' transcendent easy-listening cover of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated"--the resulting triumph illustrates how a great song can be adapted into different styles and still retain its essential mojo. I will not be tiring of this any time soon.

THE FOUR TOPS: Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)

In building a better playlist, there is no such thing as a song-to-song segue so obvious we wouldn't deign to do it anyway. Case in point: Dana played Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet's "Tired Of Waking Up Tired," and I turned immediately to "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" by Motown's phenomenal pop combo the Four Tops. It's not rocket surgery, folks--IT'S POP MUSIC! Sometimes the obvious thing is the right thing. We'll return to this subject of playlist building in just a moment. 

But first, this word:

THE BARBARIANS: Take It Or Leave It

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE GRIP WEEDS: Lady Friend [vocals only mix]

STEVE STOECKEL: Mod Girl [a cappella]

MR. ENCRYPTO: The Last Time [a cappella--expanded mix]

Playlist building in action. Both of your intrepid TIRnRR co-hosts are big fans of the Grip Weeds, and both of us adore the Grip Weeds' cover of the Byrds' "Lady Friend." That track was on the Grip Weeds' exquisite all-covers album DiG, and we split its airplay between the album version and a vocals-only mix found on the companion album A Deeper DiG.

So! This week, Dana played the Grip Weeds' vocals-only "Lady Friend." I felt delightedly compelled to follow with the a cappella mix of Steve Stoeckel's "Mod Girl." The full track appeared on Steve's album The Power Of And, but the vocals-only mix is officially unreleased. And it's freakin' awesome, showcasing simply incredible backing-vocal interplay courtesy of Jamie Hoover and Elena Rogers. This cries out for legit issue.

Finally, Dana completed our little no-instruments-allowed hat trick with one of the defining tracks of TIRnRR's long and storied history: The a cappella mix of Mr. Encrypto's "The Last Time." Go'geous! Go'geous and a HALF!  

And that's how one builds the superior playlist. Something great triggers another something great. Instrumental, a cappella, full-band, what-have-you. We know what fits, and when. This is rock 'n' roll radio.

ELENA ROGERS: Queen

Oooo, speaking of Elena Rogers: YEAH!!!!!! My gosh, she's good. We're giving her next week off. She'll be back, and she'll be back soon.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

Carl's book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is 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, 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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HIT (B-Side Appreciation), with "Take It Or Leave It" by the Barbarians

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post originated in my 45 B-side appreciation series The Other Side Of The Hit, in this case spreadin' the ol' appreciation to "Take It Or Leave It" by the Barbarians.

Other installments of The Other Side Of The Hit (B-Side Appreciation) have cast the Boppin' spotlight on flips by the Go-Go's, the Ramones, Yoko Ono, and the Monkees. The Barbarians entry was also considered for inclusion in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but is not currently a part of that book.  On the other hand (or other side), both the Monkees' B-side appreciation bit ("The Girl I Knew Somewhere") and Yoko Ono's ("Kiss Kiss Kiss") will be in the book, as will a Beatles B-side and both sides of a Buddy Holly 45, though neither of those pieces was part of The Other Side Of The Hit.

The groove less traveled. I'm sure I'll return to The Other Side Of The Hit for further B-side appreciations. For now, a B-side by a 1960s Boston band called the Barbarians provides the subject of the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HIT (B-Side Appreciation): "Take It Or Leave It"

Before mp3, CD, and cassette singles, a hit record was always a 45. The A-Side had the hit. The B-Side? Sometimes it was a throwaway. Sometimes it was something more.




THE BARBARIANS: "Take It Or Leave It"
Laurie, 1965; A-SIDE: "Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl"

A rock 'n' roll paradox, impossible but true: a vulnerable swagger.

When one discusses '60s garage or punk or vintage grungy nom du jour, one tends to focus on the surlier aspects. We don't think of The Sonics, The Chocolate Watchband, or The 13th Floor Elevators as particularly tender souls. But there are certainly flashes and hints of a more fragile emotion within, say, "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White" by The Standells, and there are garage pop masterpieces like "It's Cold Outside" by The Choir and "I Wonder" by The Gants. None combine pride and pathos with quite the effective passion of "Take It Or Leave It" by The Barbarians.



The Barbarians were a quartet from Cape Cod: guitarists Bruce Benson and Jeff Morris, bassist Jerry Causi, and drummer Victor Moulton, aka Moulty. Moulty had lost his left hand in an accident when he was 14, and his hook-handed percussion style served to emphasize The Barbarians' badass image. In 1964, The Barbarians played in The TAMI Show--my choice for the greatest rock 'n' roll concert film ever made--alongside the likes of Chuck Berry, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Miracles, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Lesley Gore, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Jan & Dean, and Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas. Within that stellar line-up, maybe the members of The Barbarians asked themselves the same rhetorical question much later asked by guitarist Lenny Haise of The Wonders in the 1996 movie That Thing You Do!: How did we get here...?!



Or maybe The Barbarians didn't ask that question. They were punks, after all. '60s punks, sure, but punks nonetheless.

The Barbarians never had any really big hit records. Their debut single "Hey Little Bird," which they performed on The TAMI Show, was a Stonesy slice of lasciviousness that did not dent the pop charts. Second single "Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl" was their closest brush with success at radio and retail, a triumphantly sneering little number about not being able to tell the boys from the girls:

You're either a girl or you come from Liverpool
(Yeah, Liverpool!)
You may look like a female monkey but you swim like a stone
(Yeah, a rolling stone!)
You may be a boy, but
HEY!
You look like a girl



That was good enough for # 55 in Billboard, and it was far and away the biggest seller The Barbarians ever had. It's rightly considered one of the defining classics of '60s garage punk.

And I like its B-side even better.

It's difficult to articulate the why of that. "Take It Or Leave It" (which is not the Rolling Stones tune with the same title) maybe isn't all that distinctive as a song or as a performance. It's a simple lament over a "Louie Louie"-inspired riff, a would-be lover's last stand, as the singer pleads with the girl of his dreams to ditch her loser (but presumably moneyed) boyfriend and find true romantic happiness with a Barbarian instead. On "Take It Or Leave It," the punk sheds his pride and begs:

Baby
I want you (I want you)
Whoa, baby
I need you (I need you)
I can't stand this feeling of being alone
Got little to offer
But you got all that I own...

...Baby
I ask you (I ask you)
Baby
Is it right? (Is it right?)
To laugh with me all day
And cry with him all night?
I'm promising you
A love guaranteed true
Life
Love
Everything
Heart
Soul
Diamond ring
Whoa, take it or leave it
Take it or leave it
LISTEN TO ME!
Take it or leave it
(Take it! Take it! Take it! Take it!)
Take it or leave it

Okay, I guess he tries to grab back a bit of his pride with those last lines. But man, this guy has it bad for this chick, all but screaming in sheer desperation for the elusive validation of her love. Most of us have been there, or some approximation of there, regardless of gender. There's that one guy or gal who means everything, but just can't see what he or she means to you. If the situation isn't quite universal, it's pretty damned close.



My experience with this track was on a 45, playing loud and distorted the way a rock 'n' roll record oughtta. Subsequent reissues were namby-pamby by comparison, though a Barbarians CD compilation from the Sundazed label captures it pretty well. But that 45? It ached and pounded with passion unrequited. Even among the discerning few '60s garage enthusiasts hip to The Barbarians, most would likely prefer the protopunk snarl of "Hey Little Bird" and "Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl," with an honorable mention for "Moulty," the drummer's musical story of persevering through the loss of his hand, a track immortalized by its inclusion on Lenny Kaye's seminal '60s garage punk compilation Nuggets. I dig all of that, too. Still, my go-to Barbarians track remains "Take It Or Leave It," a B-side that aspires to greatness, an all-or-nothing garage ballad that takes a leap for love's brass ring with near-suicidal determination. Life. Love. Everything. Take it or leave it.



"Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl" (D.Morris-R. Morris)
"Take It Or Leave It" (D. Morris-C. Clark)

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Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes,Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.