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.
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| NOT the Castaways that we'll be mentioning below |
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1241.
THE SHANG HI LOS: Morganatic Panic
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Heaven. The Shang Hi Los never disappoint, whether they're covering Chicago's "Saturday In The Park" or creating an original like the all-time This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Classic "Sway Little Player." This is a band made for radio, and I say any radio show not made for the Shang Hi Los forfeits its claim to being rock 'n' roll radio.
The Shang Hi Los' latest single "Morganatic Panic" offers further evidence of why we should consider "rock 'n' roll radio" and "Shang Hi Los radio" interchangeable terms. Don't panic! Turn it UP!
THE GEORGIA SATELLITES: Open All Night
A recent edition of The Spoon podcast served up a spin of Dan Baird's "I Love You Period," and that was sufficient motivation for me to wanna program a little TIRnRR airplay for Baird's former group the Georgia Satellites. From a previous 10 Songs:
"The Georgia Satellites may have put on the loudest show I've ever survived, which is saying something when you consider that my first concert was KISS, that I saw the Ramones eight times, and that I just about put my head into the PA at one of the Flashcubes' gigs. My most vivid memories of the Satellites' circa '87 set at The Lost Horizon are the sheer volume and resultant lingering buzz in the ol' ears, and Dan Baird asking the audience, Y'all all right? You're awfully quiet. Are you gettin' enough to drink? It's a proven fact: The more you drink, the more we sound like the goddamned Beatles. It's true!"
Oddly enough, we've never programmed the Satellites' big hit "Keep Your Hands To Yourself." We'll remedy that afore long. Our go-to Satellites cut has been their maximum-swell cover of the Woods' "Battleship Chains," and we've also played their White Album sounds-like-the-goddamned-Beatles cover "Don't Pass Me By." This week, we went with "Open All Night," which I recall from MTV, and which they may or may not have performed when I saw 'em at the Lost.
Who could say for sure? My ears are STILL ringin'.
BRAD MARINO: Wax, Board And Woodie
In a recent conversation, the mighty Bill Kelly (host of Bill Kelly's Blackhole Bandstand on Sirius XM's Underground Garage) mentioned rock und roller Brad Marino's new hot rod EP Hot Rod Rampage. This lively li'l pink slip was already in my voluminous LISTEN-AWREADY!! stack o' stuff to get to (courtesy of the also-mighty Rum Bar Records), but Bill's recommendation moved Hot Rod Rampage ahead of the line. As it oughta!
From Hot Rod Rampage, we selected Brad's cover of the Surfaris' "Wax, Board And Woodie," partially because it combines fast cars with surfin', partially because it cruises with Dead Man's Curve-defyin' aplomb, and partially because it gave me a chance to wonder aloud if one can indeed wax one's woodie on the radio. If so, well, that explains so much of AM talk radio, dunnit?
(We circled back at show's end for Brad Marino's Hot Rod Rampage cover of the Beach Boys' "Shut Down." "Shut Down" rides again on our next show. Tack it up, buddy. And careful with that wax, Eugene.)
THE GRIP WEEDS: Lady Friend
With New Jersey's phenomenal pop combo the Grip Weeds set to visit Syracuse next Saturday, July 20th, for a show at The Lost Horizon with 1.4.5., Perilous, and the Va Va Voodoos, our next TIRnRR is set to play at least one track from each of these fine acts. And our show will open with a Grip Weeds delight (from their sublime covers album DiG), and it's a track we ain't ever played before.
Meanwhile, this week's shindig featured a DiG dig-worthy we've played many a time: The Grip Weeds' take on the Byrds' "Lady Friend." Here it comes AGAIN! Our Weeds turn in an utterly fab rendition of this, which is we keep playing it.
And we'll keep playing the Grip Weeds, originals and covers alike, for as long as we have a radio show. More next week! And if you're in the 315, get to the Lost on July 20th for a great, great night of live rock 'n' roll.
RACHEL SWEET: Shadows Of The Night
"Shadows Of The Night" was written by D. L. Byron, and it's best-known via Pat Benatar's MTV-approved 1982 hit cover. I've never heard Byron's demo version, nor a 1981 version by Helen Schneider, so I'm sampling both right now on YouTube (Byron here, Schneider here).
Awrighty. Both versions are cool in their own right, and I'll say the same of Benatar's version, which was the first "Shadows Of The Night" to reach my eager ears. But my favorite is Rachel Sweet's untouchable 1981 annexation of the damned thing, recorded before Benatar hit it with her best shot the following year. I didn't hear Sweet's record until many years later, but once I did hear it, there was no mistake nor misguided equivocation:
I'm running with Rachel's "Shadows Of The Night." Definitive.
THE CASTAWAYS: Liar, Liar
For Bill Kelly:
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
Dana and I usually set the programming for each week's playlist on Tuesday evenings, and then I record my bits on Wednesdays. Recording four days before the Sunday night broadcasts means that we often wind up having to postpone late-arriving new releases to a subsequent show. It's a necessary trade-off: If we want the show to air in its appointed time slot, we have to have its blueprint and working components completed about a half a week prior to radio night.
But! Each week's next-to-last set is a designated bonus set, as Dana gives me a list of four tracks he's chosen and I throw in whatever seems to fit alongside. The bonus set isn't finalized until I record on Wednesday, so that leaves a bit of elbow room if something new and irresistible crosses the threshold and demands playlist accommodation.
So here come the Armoires! I received the group's latest single "Here Comes The Song" just in time to squeeze into the bonus set, and actually kicking off three-in-a-row by Big Stir recording artists (Armoires, Sorrows, and sparkle*jets u.k.). See? The process WORKS!
Ya know what else works? Armoires on the radio. "Here Comes The Song" returns for its second TIRnRR spin this Sunday night. Here's their new video to tide you over for now.
THE FLASHCUBES: Wouldn't You Like It
I'm a writer and a DJ. I'm not a musician or a producer, can't sing, play, or engineer any studio wizardry, and--wordsmith or not--I'm stymied by the songwriting process. Instead, I use what talent and forums I have to express my POV, where I think I am and what this place looks--and sounds--like today. If I wind up being remembered at all after leaving your mortal world behind me, I will be remembered as a guy who wrote about music.
Although I've pummeled the console on behalf of a number of my rockin' pop Fave Raves, there haven't been many instances where I had a direct effect on what an artist did. One of the rare exceptions was when I convinced the Flashcubes to cover the Bay City Rollers.
Unrepentant Rollers fan here. Around 1999 or so, I heard that Jaimie Vernon was putting together a Bay City Rollers tribute album, Men In Plaid, which Jaimie released on his Bullseye Records label in 2000. I was already corresponding with Jamie with some frequency, so I immediately sent him an email stating something to this effect.
"Well. You simply HAVE to include the Flashcubes' cover of 'Wouldn't You Like It' on your Bay City Rollers tribute."
Jaimie agreed. Super! Then I went and told the Flashcubes they should cover "Wouldn't You Like It" for Bullseye's Bay City Rollers tribute. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.
It all worked out. "Wouldn't You Like It" is one of the single most dynamic tracks in the Rollers' canon, and it sounds like it coulda been a Flashcubes song. Now, it is.
I'm a writer and a DJ. I can't make music, but I do what I can to draw attention to the music, to celebrate the music. Just pummeling the console, trying to make something happen.
"Make Something Happen" is also the title of a sublime pop original written by Flashcubes bassist Gary Frenay, and that in turn inspired the title of my proposed 2025 book about the 'Cubes, Make Something Happen! The DIY Story Of A Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. Writer? DJ? Sure, all of that. But first and foremost, I'm a fan. Dana and I play the records. I write about the records we play.
Now, it happens that our next show won't feature any Flashcubes recordings. But we are going to introduce a brand-new recording by [REDACTED], and it's a cover of a song written by 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin and originally recorded by the Flashcubes.
What's going on with THAT?
Well, we can say no more. Except to note that maybe a book deserves a soundtrack. Make something happen? Okeydokey. Stay tuned.
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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available for order; you can see details here. My 2023 book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is also still available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books.
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
