10 SONGS: 8/22/2026

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 # 1349

SPECTRAFLAME: The Look In Your Eyes

Awright, we've been playing St. Petersburg, Florida's phenomenal pop combo Spectraflame a lot this year, a situation cued up by our pal Robbie Rist's involvement with (and recommendation of) the group, but maintained in dedicated earnest by the quality of Steve Burgess's original pop songcraft. We have three hours of airtime to occupy each week, and it's more efficient to occupy that airtime with good stuff. Spectraflame has proven to be a reliable resource for the good stuff, and "The Look In Your Eyes" is Spectraflame's best one yet. Resistance is futile. Occupation continues. I know that look.

VERDELLE SMITH: Life Goes On

Today's post is the first entry in my theoretically-weekly 10 Songs series since July 25th. The absence has been a byproduct of my decision to suspend Boppin's status as a daily blog, limiting posting to two or three times a week. I believe this period has been the first interruption in 10 Songs'' schedule since the feature's debut in early 2020.

Is it back now? I dunno. The world around us has felt increasingly discouraging, and I'm sometimes overwhelmed by the pointlessness of whatever the hell it is I do here. But...I dunno.

I do know that life goes on. George Harrison said it goes on within you and without you. In 1965, singer Verdelle Smith insisted it just goes on, our troubles notwithstanding. There will come another day. There will be another Spring. Life goes on.

Or so one hopes.

THE SPONGETONES: The Music At The Close

More new music from the Spongetones? Yes, please! A "We'll Meet Again" to meet the overarching yechh of modern times, "The Music At The Close" is the virtual 45 RPM equivalent of whistling through the graveyard, a joyride on the Titanic, stubbornly blessed with incongruous will to keep boppin' no matter how futile the boppin' may seem. 

The song was co-written by Spongetones bassist Steve Stoeckel and his Pop Co-Op cohort Joel Tinnel--two longtime friends of TIRnRR-- and if its stiff upper lip might be equally likely to contort into a sneer or a smile, one senses it's open to the promise of singing past the close--particularly if the "close" refers to what the damned walls feel like they're doing all around us.

(Furthermore, I betcha our Joel is thrilled to have co-written a single for the freaking Spongetones. Well done, Agent J! We're playing this one again on this Sunday night's celebration of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1350. And what the hell, we'll play a little Pop Co-Op as well. Let's put off closing time for at least a little bit longer.)

JUDAS PRIEST: Heading Out To The Highway

From a previous post:

I'm not really a metal guy. But there have been a few fist-shakin', head-bangin' truncheonfests that I have found to be agreeably bludgeoning, albeit all of them on the pop side. I love Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" without any hint of guilt or apology. I enjoy some Def Leppard, a little bit of Black Sabbath, and--maybe stretching the parameters--some Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, plus the light hair-metal of "We Stand Alone" by Killer Dwarfs. And Motörhead. And KISS! I mean, if you wanna count KISS as metal, I guess.

And Judas Priest?

There was something about the Priest that made me unable to take them seriously...which would be okay if they didn't seem so hell-bent-for-leather intent on being taken seriously. I very much liked the first Judas Priest track I ever heard, which was their gloriously unsubtle take on the Joan Baez folk chestnut "Diamonds And Rust." After that, though, I thought "Breaking The Law" was tiresome, and its video really made Judas Priest look dumb beyond redemption. CREEM magazine started to make fun of them, and I went right along with that spirit of derision and dismissal.

But..."Heading Out To The Highway." GodDAMN I loved that from its first bombastic chug and squeal, and in the present day it still inspires turn-it-UP volume and a defiantly paradoxical mix of sneering and grinning when it plays in my car. 

Especially if I happen to be heading out to the highway. LOUDER! LOUDER!!! 

CINDY LAWSON: The Reckoning

ANGER! Sheer, pissed-off rock 'n' roll anger! Cindy Lawson knows the story, and she is not afraid to spit that story right back in the face of those in dire need of a freakin' reckoning, stat. From her forthcoming new release ¡Long Live The Resistance!, "The Reckoning" channels the lesson the Clash taught us all those years ago: Let fury have the hour. Anger can be power! How can you refuse it?

Cindy Lawson is not inclined to refuse, nor to back down. It's the only reckoning that matters.

LITTLE EVA: Stand By Me

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Stand!

THE PRETENDERS: I'll Stand By You

I tell ya, sometimes these segues just write themselves.

THE MONKEES: Words

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE BEATLES: Tomorrow Never Knows

It's now been a full sixty years since the Beatles' released the Revolver album. And it still feels like the daunting yet inviting sound of tomorrow. Turn off your mind. Relax. Float downstream. We got you.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

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

10 SONGS: 11/24/2023

 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 # 1208. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: Bad Brain

Near the end of last year, our irreplaceable stats man Fritz Van Leaven sent us a list of every track we've ever played over the course of what was then This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's first twenty-four years as...well, this, whatever this is. Coincidentally, "Bad Brain" probably about covers it. But I digress....

I refer to that list a lot, always cross-referencing to see if there's some great thing we oughta play that we ain't played yet. It's most amazing to realize there are tracks by some of our all-time Fave Raves that we've never gotten around to programming, and then rectifying a bunch of those omissions.

2023 has been my year of the Ramones. Yeah, mostly because my Ramones book was published this year, but the book was itself the result of my decades-long fascination with everyone's favorite Carbona-huffin' quartet. I love the Ramones. Duh. This show is named after a line in a Ramones song. This show would never have happened in the first place if not for the inspiration we draw from the Ramones. 

Throughout the year, I've been using Fritz's list to help me program a few of the Ramones tracks that had not graced any previous TIRnRR playlist. This week's show opened with "Bad Brain," the only track from the group's masterpiece Road To Ruin that had never seen previous airplay on our little mutant radio program. Next week, we'll spin the only remaining Rocket To Russia track to escape airplay here to date. More Ramones. More. Ramones!

On this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Jimmy Fallon fronted the Roots for a lip-sync performance of the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)." Everyone complaining about it is dead wrong. Things like this, my friends, are further evidence of the Ramones' growing (and overdue) assimilation into our greater pop culture. Year of the Ramones? EVERY year is my yrear of the Ramones. Bad, bad brain? Bad brain made good, I say.

THE GRIP WEEDS: Journey To The Center Of The Mind

Working with the mighty Jem Records, the phenomenal rockin' pop force known as the Grip Weeds have recently reissued their irresistible holiday album Under The Influence Of Christmas. If you've begun the serious business of this year's letter to Santa Claus (in yet another valiant attempt to convince the old elf to white-out your permanent-inked entry on his naughty-as-hell list), TIRnRR would like to remind you that the Grip Weeds' Under The Influence Of Christmas is exactly the coal you need for rekindlin' that frigid block of black ice you call a soul. Nice! You CAN be nice! Santa might even believe you this time!

Still, we're not quite ready to start programming Christmas music for at least a few weeks yet. You can probably expect a track from Under The Influence Of Christmas to lead off our December 10th show. Meanwhile, we reach back to the Grip Weeds' 2022 all-covers album DiG for their confident take on the Amboy Dukes' "Journey To The Center Of The Mind." The original was great, but the Grip Weeds' version benefits by having a much more intelligent lead guitarist. We'll dig into yet another DiG track next week.

KLAATU: Anus Of Uranus

Hey, a crack in the sky!

CINDY LAWSON: I Don't Want You Anymore

The divine Cindy Lawson's ace number "I Don't Want You Anymore" comes to us from her current album Don't Come Crying To Me, a superswell six-song effort that earns beaucoup bonus points in this spot for sporting a cover graphic that conjures comparison to the 1973 eponymous debut album by Suzi Quatro. Ya can't go wrong paying tribute to our li'l Suzi!

Even better, this week's spin of "I Don't Want You Anymore" caught the fancy of intrepid TIRnRR listeners Rich and Kathy Firestone, who thought the song was a laugh anna half. See? We play the hits! And we'll play this particular hit again on our next show. 

I'm sure Ms. Quatro would approve. I hope Ms.Lawson will likewise dig the notion.

1.4.5.: Right Now

A recent blog post about five albums you need to own on vinyl included a spotlight on Rhythm n' Booze, an unfairly overlooked 1988 LP by 1.4.5. In that piece, I wrote:

"Syracuse's own power pop powerhouses the Flashcubes are the third lad in my rockin' pop trinity: The Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes. After the 'Cubes split at the end of the '70s (the end of the century), 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong piloted an evolving membership of unrepentant rock 'n' rollers as 1.4.5. The legacy of 1.4.5.'s original trio--PA hisself, bassist Dave Anderson, and the late, great Ducky Carlisle on drums--is well represented on the compilation 3 Chords & A Cloud Of Dust, and that collection also provides proper representation of the latter-day 1.4.5. following the original formula. Hey! It's 1.4.5.! Let's GROOVE!

"Missing in action is the late '80s version of 1.4.5., a combo who morphed into the Richards. The late Norm Mattice sang lead during this period; the Richards' 1995 album Over The Top is out there, and their non-album masterpiece 'Five Personalties' (later redone by the reunited Flashcubes) was one of many highlights on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3.

"But the Richards started out billed as 1.4.5., and their 1988 album Rhythm n' Booze is an undiscovered gem. The confident strut of the album-opening 'Right Now,' the pretty pop of 'Girl In The Window,' vibe-establishing covers of Slade and the Swinging Blue Jeans, the tongue-in-cheek 'Famous Local Hero,' and the just incredible 'Your Own World' (which original-formula 1.4.5. subsequently remade) combine for a record that freakin' cries out for wider acclaim. We were able to use the Rhythm n' Booze 'Your Own World' on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. The rest of the album still awaits overdue discovery by the pop world at large. Right here."

And right now. I said, RIGHT NOW! Someone needs to reissue this record, stat.

THE PRETENDERS: Vainglorious

I am quite pleased to live in a world where there is still such a thing as new music from the Pretenders. So far, I've only heard a couple of tracks from the Pretenders' current album Relentless, but I'm absolutely ready to continue. Precious? No. Relentless!

ARTHUR CONLEY: Sweet Soul Music

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

PRINCE: Hot Summer

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Can't Wait 'Till Summer

His Royal Purpleness Prince, from the posthumous release Welcome 2 America, with "Hot Summer." Librarians With Hickeys, from their 2022 album Handclaps & Tambourines, with "Can't Wait 'Till Summer." Great songs, for sure, and welcome any time of year, but...c'mon, people! IT'S NOT EVEN DECEMBER YET!! Jeez, howzabout some friggin' patience here? Man, you'll never get through a Central New York winter with that kind of attitude.

(Wait. On the other hand, willful denial is kind of its own reward, innit? Awright. Carry on. Surf's up, you snowbirds.)

MICKY DOLENZ: Man On The Moon

I am in awe of how great Micky Dolenz and Christian Nesmith work as a team. After some individual live tracks they performed with Circe Link (released as latter-day bonus tracks on The MGM Singles Collection), Micky 'n' Christian collaborated on the sublime 2021 album Dolenz Sings Nesmith and its able follow-up Dolenz Sings Nesmith--The EP, offering simply stunning renditions of gems written by Michael Nesmith. The current four-song Dolenz Sings R.E.M. EP is equally magnificent, and I pray Micky Dolenz and Christian Nesmith will have many, many more such rewarding team-ups yet to come.

Dolenz Sings R.E.M. is just delicious: inventive, luxurious, compelling, and celebratory without being the merest bit slavish. With this week's spin of "Man On The Moon," we've now played three of the EP's four tracks on TIRnRR. We'll get to the fourth track next time. 

Beside yourself that radio's going to stay? Don't worry on that account. Micky and Christian have your back.

Christian Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Circe Link

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 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, 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

10 SONGS: 5/11/2023

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 # 1180. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

As tangent to the breathless hype for my new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones (https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/), we begin a three-week celebration of THE RAMONES AT THE MOVIES, spinning four film-related Ramones tracks within each of the three playlists. 

Obviously, that starts with material from the Ramones' only movie, 1979's Rock 'n' Roll High School. We won't even get to the title track until next week, and we're giving short shrift to "Teenage Lobotomy" (heard in the film's epic exploding mice sequence, but omitted from our RAMONES AT THE MOVIES celebration because, um...I forgot. Oops. I'm a middle-age lobotomy!). 

The celebration has to kick off with the first Ramones song heard in Rock 'n' Roll High School, as the film's heroine (played by P. J. Soles) introduces herself--I'm Riff Randell, and THIS is Rock 'n' Roll High School!--and places stylus to groove. Rocket To Russia. "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker." The opening credits roll. 

When I saw the movie for the first time, in a crowded nightclub filled with fans digging the film and champin' at the bit for what was gonna follow the screening (live sets from the Flashcubes and the Ramones themselves), there was one on-screen credit that got the biggest cheer from all in attendance.

Yep. The kids were all hopped and ready to go. More cheers would follow. It was one hell of a great night.

THE MOSQUITOS: I'm So Ashamed

The Mosquitos were a simply fantastic Long Island rock 'n' roll combo in the 1980s, and I regret I never had an opportunity to see them perform. I first heard them when their track "Darn Well" appeared on Garage Sale!, the nonpareil garage compilation cassette issued in 1985 by the combined forces of ROIR Records and Goldmine magazine. Garage Sale! looms large in my legend for hooking me into the world of Goldmine, a publication for which I wound up doing freelance writing for twenty years, 1986 to 2006 (a story told here).

"Darn Well" was ultimately more representative of the Mosquitos' garage-pop vibe than the slightly slicker recordings found on their only official release, the 1985 five-song EP That Was Then, This Is Now! I bought that EP some time in the '80s, loved it, but like most folks, I was introduced to its title track via a cover version recorded by someone else.

The Monkees (or at least Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork of the Monkees) took their version of "That Was Then, This Is Now" to Billboard's Top Twenty in 1986. In a perfect world, that would be just a cool footnote to the Mosquitos' career; instead it was the closest the group ever came to a headline. The Mosquitos broke up, remembered only by a lucky few.

Now, at long last, the mighty Kool Kat Musik is doing its part to preserve and proclaim the Mosquitos' underrated legacy. A new 2-CD archival set called This Then Are The Mosquitos gathers demos, live tracks, and gems of all sorts in a package to delight fans both old and new. I preordered my copy as soon as Kool Kat made the announcement. You're going to be hearing a lot from the Mosquitos on TIRnRR. 

CINDY LAWSON: Let's Pretend

I've been listening to pop music with willful obsession for decades. It's why I co-host a radio show, and the sweetly addictive nature of my obsession is why I write about singers and songs on (or not on) the radio.

And I'm still discovering new and new-to-me stuff all of the time. In the '90s, Cindy Lawson was in a group called the Clams. The Clams completely evaded my radar; I only heard them for the first time a few days ago. My belated discovery of the Clams came about because I stumbled across Lawson's swell "Let's Pretend" on a sampler album, decided to play it, and then felt compelled to find out about more of her work. Obsession in play! Cindy Lawson makes her TIRnRR debut this week. The Clams make theirs next week. 

THE RAMONES: I Just Want To Have Something To Do

The Ramones' first on-screen appearance in Rock 'n' Roll High School finds them lip-syncing "I Just Want To Have Something To Do," the juggernaut opening cut from their 1978 album Road To Ruin. Johnny Ramone laughed when I told him this was the greatest track KISS never did, and I for damned sure meant it as a compliment.

ALICE COOPER: School's Out

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

(And, as much as I loved the song as an adolescent and teen in the early '70s, the first time I owned a copy of it was when I bought the Rock 'n' Roll High School soundtrack LP.)

THELMA HOUSTON AND PRESSURE COOKER: I've Got The Music In Me

I know I invest a lot of time and space complaining about incredible records that shoulda been hits but, y'know...weren't. Some stellar-sounding acts never even got a small taste of the big time. Some managed to get a hit, but stalled in that status as one-hit wonders. I've griped about the Flirtations in recent weeks, and Thelma Houston is yet another one-hit wonder who deserved repeat success. Her lone big number was her disco remake of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' "Don't Leave Me This Way," but there is still more greatness lurking in the Thelma Houston catalog. She did an absolutely struttin' rendition of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and this week's playlist finds her puttin' the Kiki in her Dee for a cooking take on "I've Got The Music In Me."

Oh, and Thelma's hit is also awesome on its own merit. We'll give it a spin next week.

THE RAMONES: I Want You Around

I know we don't think of the Ramones as balladeers, but I tell ya, there's a handful of absolutely killer sing 'n' sway tunes among the group's prerequisite cretin hops and Blitzkrieg bops, especially in the '70s. "I Want You Around" would have been worthy of the Searchers, but even those British Invasion stalwarts couldn't have improved on the Ramones' original. 

The song's spot in Rock 'n' Roll High School marks the Ramones' second appearance on-screen, as Riff Randell smokes a joint and fantasizes that Joey Ramone is in her room, singing to her as Johnny sits by her bed and strums his guitar (first an acoustic, which magically transforms into an electric), with Marky Ramone drumming in her back yard (and eventually crammed into her bathroom) and a soaking-wet Dee Dee Ramone playing bass in her shower. The scene is goofy and charming at the same time, and a perfect illustration of both the Ramones' innate pop appeal and why Rock 'n' Roll High School is one of THE all-time great rock 'n' roll movies.

(Don't believe me? Fine. Let's cede the lectern to Marshall Crenshaw, who wrote in the book Hollywood Rock, "Despite what you might think, it is possible for human beings to achieve perfection. Take this movie: Every joke is funny, every song is fantastic, and every frame is shot according to God's will...."

Class dismissed.

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING RANDY KLAWON: Get The Message

The good folks at the superfab Big Stir Records are getting set to whoop it up on behalf of the label's sixth anniversary. HuzZAH!, we say. Big Stir's sixth anniversary year will include the release of a new album by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Yes, we've heard it. And yes oh YES, it's gonna rock your pantaloons off. Stay tuned. Happy Anniversary, Big Stir!

THE RAMONES: Questioningly

Another sublime ballad, this one from Road To Ruin. In Rock 'n' Roll High School, "Questioningly" plays on the radio as Riff Randell tries to call in and win tickets to the Ramones' sold-out concert. 

In the movie, the Ramones are the biggest rock 'n' roll stars on the whole friggin' planet. In our stupid real world, it would have bordered on science-fiction for a radio station to play "Questioningly." I think the made-up world got this one right.

THE MONKEES: That Was Then, This Is Now

Awright. I'm nearly as big a Monkees fan as I am a Ramones and Flashcubes fan. I give the Mosquitos the edge here in doing their own song, but I love the Monkees' version, too. In '86, it was a dream come true for the Monkees to return to the charts, for me to have a chance to see them in concert, and to manage a record store and speak with kids who saw the Monkees on MTV and were eager to find out more, eager to own Monkees records. Then, now, whenever--that was something. 

Obsessions unite: the late Peter Tork with Marky Ramone and Micky Dolenz in 2013

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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/

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl