10 SONGS: 8/17/2024

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 # 1246.

JAMIE HOOVER: War Of The Roses

Jamie Hoover's new single "War Of The Roses" presents a tale of uncivil war, the aftermath of a D-I-V-O-R-C-E that can not be called amicable. Hearts will be broken tonight, as will some joint bank accounts, and maybe some dishes while they're at it. C'mon, Roses! Can't we all just get along?

The story is told with the accomplished pop panache we expect from Jamie Hoover. Oooo, and the song was co-written by long-time TIRnRR pal Rich Rossi, with backing vocals from TIRnRR Fave Rave Elena Rogers. That's a This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio trifecta, and we'll say that on the air this coming Sunday night when "War Of The Roses" returns to the playlist. (And an open memo to the estranged Mr. and [ex-] Ms. Rose: Curb your lawyers. Lay down your arms. War is over. If you want it.)

CIRCE LINK AND CHRISTIAN NESMITH: The Magician

The dynamic duo of Circe Link and Christian Nesmith are so, so adept at the art of popcraft. Everything they do sounds sublime, and their powers and abilities cross genres with authority. Pop music? Classic rock? Folk? Circe and Christian can do it all, and all of it will sound amazing.

That statement applies equally to their ventures into the realm of progressive rock. I'm not a prog guy by any stretch, but man, I love what Circe Link and Christian Nesmith are able to execute while cavortin' in that vast and inventive playground. In the past, they've demonstrated their prog love and chops with well-chosen covers, and with their original prog album Cosmologica in 2021. Their new album Arcana continues and expands that vision.

Prog as pop. The music of Yes was certainly a part of my Top 40 AM radio world in the early '70s, and a chapter discussing my love-hate relationship with Pink Floyd appears in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Even with my short attention span and my enthusiastic embrace of punk, I still recall and recognize prog's appeal, especially when a progressive rock track employs hooks and palpable melody, the irresistible qualities that make the very best rockin' pop music. 

Arcana has those qualities in quantity. The songs sound like they could have comprised a hypothetical second LP of Fragile, but with Circe Link replacing Jon Anderson at the microphone. The result is endlessly captivating, almost as if Yes had formed a supersupergroup with Annie Haslam and Renaissance. And this week, we break format just a little bit to program the exquisite eleven-plus-minute Arcana track "The Magician."

Magic. 

Even this unrepentant punk can't resist that. 

sparkle*jets u.k.: Little Circles

This week's episode of the Material Issues podcast found hosts Mark Hershberger and David Bash welcoming Michael Simmons, Susan West, and Jamie Knight from the mighty sparkle*jets u.k. As always with Material Issues, a splendid time was forcefully mandated for all. (That guarantee may not apply next week, when I'll be the guest on Material Issues, hawking the above-mentioned Greatest Record Ever Made! book. I'm hoping there will be at least a few fleeting moments of interest to you, the discerning rockin' pop fan.)

sparkle*jets u.k.'s recent release Box Of Letters is most definitely one of this year's very best albums, and you hear all about it on this week's Material Issues. We've certainly been programming Box Of Letters with manic glee on our little mutant radio record party. The album's title tune is likely to score a berth on the year-end countdown show of our most-played tracks in 2024. With this week's spin of "Little Circles," we have now played seven of the twelve selections included on Box Of Letters. We'll add an eighth from Box Of Letters on Sunday. 

After that: Four more to go! Plus, y'know, additional play for the title ditty. It's a hit!

We play the hits.

THE MONKEES: Love Is Only Sleeping

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE LINDA LINDAS: Too Many Things

JOSIE COTTON: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

A couple of weeks ago, Dana and I recorded an upcoming appearance on Only Three Lads, the fab weekly podcast devoted to classic alternative rock of the '70s, '80s, and '90s. During the course of our conversation with O3L hosts Brett Vargo and Uncle Gregg, we mentioned Josie Cotton's cover of the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," from Cotton's recorded-in-the-'80s/released-in-friggin'-2019..?! gem Everything Is Oh Yeah. And Dana commented that he'd love to see our Josie team up with young punks the Linda Lindas for more Ramones-inspired Rock 'n' Roll High School razzmatazz.

GREAT idea!

And we used that idea to program a two-fer spin of an advance track from the Linda Lindas' forthcoming album No Obligation into Ms. Cotton's rendition of the Ramones' nonpareil statement of New York City really having it all. Oh yeah, oh yeah...EVERYTHING'S oh yeah! 

THE GLADIOLAS: Little Darlin'

While on O3L, we also talked briefly about the Gladiolas' forgotten original of "Little Darlin'," a song subsequently whitewashed to chart success by the neither R nor B likes of the Diamonds.

At the time we recorded the podcast, I didn't realize that "Little Darlin'" had been written by Maurice Williams, who was a member of the Gladiolas and who later achieved chart-topping success with Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs and the # 1 smash "Stay."

As we were working on this week's radio show, the news broke that Maurice Williams had passed. The playlist had already been set, but it was an easy feat to slip the classic "Stay" in at show's end, and not too late to alter our eighth set so it could open with the Gladiolas' "Little Darlin'." These are some of the giants upon whose shoulders we stand. 

Tribute must be paid.

THE RAMONES: She's The One

Writing in Bomp! magazine in '78 or '79, Greg Shaw referred to "She's The One"--a track from the Ramones' then-new album Road To Ruin--as the group's "best fast song ever."

And lemme tell ya: The Ramones did more than just a few fast songs.

In the Gladiolas section above, we invoke the importance of paying tribute. Well, every single TIRnRR playlist is part of an ongoing tribute to the Ramones--the American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time--and that tribute is true even on those rare weeks when we don't play any Ramones songs. It's true even on the annual celebrations of Dana's Funky Soul Pit. And that's not just because our show is named after a line in a Ramones song; it's because we wouldn't be doing any of this if not for the Ramones. More than any act outside of the Beatles themselves, the Ramones are our template for what rock 'n' roll radio can be. 

So we offer tribute. Easy as 1-2-3-4! Yeah yeah it's the one, it's the one, it's the one.

ELENA ROGERS: Alone (Again)

We opened the show with a track featuring Elena Rogers on backing vocals. And we opened the week's final set with Elena herself on lead, from her wonderful current album Prelude To Whatever. 

Gotta pay tribute to the new stuff, too.

MAURICE WILLIAMS AND THE ZODIACS: Stay

Just a little bit longer. Tribute is proper. Godspeed, Maurice Williams.

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

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available; 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.

10 SONGS: 5/11/2024

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 # 1232. This show is available as a podcast.

PAUL COLLINS: Tell Me

King of power pop Paul Collins brings us this sublime first tease of Jem Records Celebrates Jagger & Richards, the latest in the label's series of various-artists salutes to classic rock songwriters. This radio show has been all in for Jem's previous celebrations of John Lennon, Brian Wilson, Pete Townshend, and Ray Davies, and we've for damned sure been all in for Paul Collins' recent Jem work. For us, Paul Collins covering the Rolling Stones' "Tell Me" is a match made at our Satanic Majesties' request. We'll have the Midnight Callers' contribution to Jem Records Celebrates Jagger & Richards on our next show.

(And, while we presume future Jem Records Celebrates volumes will get to Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and/or Bob Dylan anon, consider this an early request for Jem Records Celebrates Michael Nesmith. It doesn't seem immediately likely, I guess. But it just might be the one...?)

THE FOUR TOPS: I'm A Believer

Speaking of Michael Nesmith and his prime mates the Monkees....

The Four Tops are my favorite Motown act, but I confess I mostly know their incomparable singles and not so much their album tracks. Time for a deeper dive! 

This cover of the Monkees' Neil Diamond-penned hit "I'm A Believer" is one of two Monkees covers on the Four Tops' Reach Out. Maybe we'll get around to spinning Levi Stubbs wailing "Last Train To Clarksville" on some near-future show. The idea of the Four Tops covering the Monkees seems odd to me, not because it doesn't work--I'm a big fan of Monkees songs, and I'm a believer that the Four Tops could pull off just about any material they wanted to do--but because I find it weird to a hear big hit act covering another big hit act's contemporaneous material. It comes across as filler, but it wasn't uncommon in the '60s, especially for entities viewed as primarily singles acts. And in the hands of the Four Tops, it's compelling filler. Yeah, a deeper dive into the Four Tops' LP tracks is way overdue.

THE SHIRTS: Tell Me Your Plans

I wanna repeat some previous blog comments about this track. Consider this the prologue for our next selection by Rome 56: 

My enthusiastic immersion in punk, new wave, and other assorted rock 'n' roll labels in the late '70s did not include the music of the Shirts. It wasn't a rejection of the Shirts; I just wasn't exposed to their recordings until many years later. Lack of opportunity? I guess. The only thing I remember hearing from them at the time was a track on the various-artists LP Live At CBGB's, wherein singer and actress Annie Golden's greeting to the Bowery audience was something like, We're the Shoits, from Brooklyn. She exaggerated the accent deliberately...

 Nice shoit, Annie

...Still, I didn't really hear the Shirts until a very long time after the fact. I snapped up a used CD reissue of their 1979 eponymous album in, I dunno, the early '00s?  I was immediately and overwhelmingly taken by that album's opening track "Reduced To A Whisper," hypnotized by a guitar sound that reminded me of the Shirts' CBGB's contemporaries Television. 

As a whole, the Shirts didn't really sound at all like Television; the comparison was based almost entirely on a similarly serpentine six-string thrum and the two groups' shared stomping grounds. The Shirts were...well, I don't wanna call them more mainstream than Television, 'cause that ain't exactly it either. But there were hints of connection to some things beyond the Bowery, to, say, the progressive-folk mix aura of Renaissance, or maybe even post-Woodstock FM radio, but at least a little more aggressive. It all still felt like part of Television's world, the Ramones' world, the world of Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Max's Kansas City. CBGB's. New York City really has it all.

From that first album, the track "Tell Me Your Plans" just clicked with me recently. Its simmering blend of regret, resignation, yearning, and unmeasured dollops of uncertainty suggests a love affair approaching a crossroads without benefit of a map. Or a plan. There is, at best, a bumpy road ahead. There may not even be a road at all.

What's the plan, then? It's hard to tell.

ROME 56: The Man Behind The Man With The Gun

The immediate plan is to start playing Rome 56. The connection to the Shirts track extolled above is Rome 56 guitarist and "Tell Me Your Plans" author Arthur Lamonica, who was himself one of the Shirts. See, I love it when a plan comes together. From Rome 56's uberswell current album Paradise Is Free, "The Man Behind The Man With The Gun" is an absolutely ace slice of pop noir, like a Gold Medal paperback translated into irresistible, radio-ready rockin' pop music. Hardboiled radio-ready rockin' pop music. Perfect crime. And we'll return to the fascinating scene of that crime on our next show.

Sounds like a plan.

ELENA ROGERS: Goodbye Neighbor

It has become TIRnRR's unofficial policy to play each new Elena Rogers single as it's released, and we will often continue playing it until Elena releases a newer single. Works for us! We gave Elena last week off, and this week sees the debut of latest Elena Rogers single "Goodbye Neighbor." "Goodbye Neighbor" usurps the playlist spot that had been occupied by her previous single "Queen," which itself elbowed her previous previous single "I Feel Alive" out of its way. It's a song-eat-song world out there. 

"I Feel Alive" has already locked up a berth on TIRnRR's year-end countdown show. And this coming Sunday night's shindig will include TWO Elena Rogers songs: Another spin of "Goodbye Neighbor," and a new cover of an older Elena Rogers track, the latter courtesy of Mike Browning. See, this policy benefits all of us.

BONEY M: My Friend Jack

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

CIRCE LINK AND CHRISTIAN NESMITH: Satellite

The nonpareil combined forces of Circe Link and Christian Nesmith are working on a new progressive rock album called Arcana. It's a follow up to the duo's 2021 prog album Cosmologica, and donations/preorders for Arcana can be placed here. Meanwhile, Dana's spin of a Curved Air track inspired me to follow with "Satellite," a past favorite from Cosmologica that we haven't played in a while. "Satellite" reminds me a bit of both Renaissance and Yes, at least in the sense that I could imagine it as performed by the early '70s incarnation of either of those bands. Progressive as we wanna be!

THE SPEED OF SOUND: Question Time

The physical release of the Speed Of Sound's new album A Cornucopia: Minerva is cornucopia indeed: A three-CD or three-LP set, supplementing the main record with two additional full-length albums. A big, big wall of sound delivered at the speed of sound!

 "Question Time" is the last track on the first platter, and it provides its own authoritative answer, a lovely statement of indie-bred UK pop, raised in the underground with an eye on the sky and an ear to the airwaves. Cornucopia! We live in a time of plenty. 

THE BEATLES: I've Just Seen A Face

The Beatles, with the opening track from their classic album Rubber Soul.

Don't even try telling me it's from a different Beatles album instead. I know. But this is how I heard it, as the beginning of the American version of Rubber Soul rather than an LP track on the UK Help! And that has meant far too much for me to let go of it easily. 

THE MARTINI KINGS: Take Five

Vermouth, forsooth. The subtitle for the new Martini Kings retrospective Enchanted Lovers says it all: "Celebrating 40 years of intoxicating sounds in jazz, exotica, tiki, and lounge." I'll drink to that! And we bellow LAST CALL! for this week's extravaganza with the Martini Kings' demonstrating olive supreme with their confident take on the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Take Five." Grab the designated drivers. It's time to see ourselves home.

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

10 SONGS: 9/15/2022

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 # 1146.

KELLEY RYAN: The Church Of Laundry

Ahem. From This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. Coming very soon!

MICHAEL SIMMONS: All By Myself

The music of Michael Simmons has been part et parcel (or party parcel) of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio for almost as long as there has been a This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. I think we started our Simmonsmania with sparkle*jets U.K., and subsequently programmed some of Michael's stellar work as a solo artist, and his work with Popdudes. I believe Michael was also a founding member of the original Teen Titans, a Howlin' Commando, the finest swordsman in all of France, and the quicker picker-upper. And a Beatles fan. He gets around, he does. And his music is just, well, his music. Ours, too.

And now Michael's back with more of his/our music, courtesy of Big Stir Records' release of the new Michael Simmons release Happy Traum EP. His? Ours? Doesn't matter. It's good. We're playin' it.

THE FOUR TOPS: Standing In The Shadows Of Love

The Four Tops are probably my # 1 favorite Motown group, thanks in large part to the unstoppable juggernaut that was lead singer Levi Stubbs. I started late, with "Are You Man Enough" on AM Top 40 in 1973, but by the end of the '70s I'd discovered and embraced the motherlode of the Four Tops' '60s hits. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)." "It's The Same Old Song." "Reach Out I'll Be There." "Standing In The Shadows Of Love." 

So, by the time I was a college senior in 1979, I had no friggin' patience for the stupid idea of Rod Stewart covering "Standing In The Shadows Of Love." And covering it badly.

This particular crime against music actually came out in 1978, on the Rodster's mega-belchin' hit album Blondes Have More Fun. Yeah, the same record that infected radio with "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" Even when I was in my late teens, and nowhere near as enlightened as I wish I coulda been, the album as a whole struck me as tawdry and sexist. Inserting [ugh] the line Didn't I screw you right now baby, didn't I? into the Four Tops' classic "Standing In The Shadows Of Love" is a minor example of the album's overall yechh. 

(People may think I object to "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" because I hated disco, and I'll cop to that, at least at the time of the offense. But I came to terms with disco, and I even came to like some disco; that evolution of opinion does not apply to Blondes Have More Fun.

And nor is this just a diatribe against Rod Stewart. Stewart did some stuff I like [especially with Faces], and Stewart did a whole lot of stuff I detest. It's worth noting that, as much as people mistakenly think my cherished '70s punk was a reaction against disco, it was really a reaction against bloated dinosaur rock. Gimme the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, and throw in some Trammps and Donna Summer. You can keep Blondes Have More Fun.)

I bring all of this up again now because that memory of Stewart's mishandling of the song lingers; its oily specter haunts even fresh spins of the real version, the Four Tops' version. 

But only for a moment. Levi Stubbs, man. That juggernaut will send smarmy pretenders back to the shadows.

CIRCE LINK: Yellow Dress

Oh God, this is such a gorgeous track. Circe Link is a force of pop nature, and her superfab track "I'm On Your Side" (recorded with partner Christian Nesmith) was a highlight of This Is Rock 'n' Roll, Volume 4 and our #1 most-played track in 2017. We dig "I'm On Your Side" with unfettered glee.

The just-as-sublime "Yellow Dress" comes from Circe's 2017 album Enchanted Objects & Ordinary Things, and it also made our 2017 year-end countdown (tied with TIRnRR Vol. 4 track "Maybe Someday" by Maura and the Bright Lights at # 23). While working at home on another project last week, "Yellow Dress" popped up on shuffle play, and I heard it again for the first time in waaaay too long. Its sheer magnificence remains intact. Chew me up and spit me out, but don't have a lick of doubt that I can fly. Up, up and away, Circe and Christian. Up, up and away.

THE BANDWAGON: On The Day We Fall In Love

THE MONKEES: Sunny Girlfriend [acoustic remix of master vocal]

Underrated '60s and '70s soul group the Bandwagon--aka Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon and Johnny Johnson and HIS Bandwagon--are no strangers to this show, and we've played their cover of the Monkees' "The Day We Fall In Love" (which the Monkees listed without the "On") a time or several. I'm a huge fan of the Monkees, but I regard "The Day We Fall In Love" as one of the very worst tracks ever released under the Monkees brand name. The Bandwagon rescue the song, and they make it work.

"On The Day We Fall In Love" happened to be the second of three Monkees covers we played this week, immediately following the Flies' "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" and preceding a set that included Gary Owen's "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." It seemed imperative to play something by the actual Monkees, and we went as actual as actual gets: an acoustic remix of master vocal of Michael Nesmith's "Sunny Girlfriend," recorded in 1967 by the hey-hey-we're-a-real band Monkees and heard in this form on the deluxe Headquarters Sessions set. Come and hear 'em sing and play. This is my preferred take of "Sunny Girlfriend," and one of my 25 favorite Monkees tracks.

THE DONNAS: Dancing With Myself

Yep, another great cover by the Donnas makes its rockin' way back to the TIRnRR playlist. The Donnas are really, really good at pulling these things off--hell, we play their Billy Idol and Judas Priest covers way more often than we play the familiar hit versions--but it's been a while since we've played any of the Donnas' original tunes. We'll program something from the Donnas' own catalog o' gems on next week's show. 

NELSON RIDDLE: The Batman Theme

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

sparkle*jets U.K.: Sunshine

Hey, it's that Michael Simmons guy again. Michael's Popdudes pal (and my former Goldmine colleague) John M. Borack is the auteur at the helm of We All Shine On: Celebrating The Music Of 1970, an irresistible confection/collection that we've been programming with the restraint and subtlety of carpet bombing. I'm surprised it took us this long to get around to sparkle*jets U.K.'s contribution to We All Shine On, but let the sun shine at its due time: Simmons and company (including Mr. Borack hisself on drums) do an absolutely ace rendition of "Sunshine," the title tune from an underrated album by the Archies. I know that John Borack has great affection for the Archies' original, and I'm furthermore confident that John is pleased with this new sparkle*jets U.K. version. 

And John is justified on both counts.

POP CO-OP: Extra Beat In My Heart

Ahem. FROM THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO, VOLUME 5. Coming very soon!

Don't worry, citizen! THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO, VOLUME 5 is on its way!

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.

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

10 SONGS: 11/9/2021

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 # 1102.

THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS: Time Has Come Today

My soul has been psychedelicized. I guess the Ramones' monolithic 1983 cover of "Time Has Come Today" was the first version to really make my brain buzz--I was a huge, huge fan of the Ramones' Subterranean Jungle album--but the Chambers Brothers' incredible 1967 original has become my go-to. TIME! Earlier this year, I picked up both a Chambers Brothers best-of CD and a reissue of their first album The Time Has Come, the latter to get the full-length version of its de facto title track. I doubt we're likely to play that eleven-minute-plus cut much (if ever) on TIRnRR, but the familiar 4:55 single was sufficient to psychedelicize souls on this week's playlist.

THE CHELSEA CURVE: Top It Up

I hate the Chelsea Curve. And by that I mean I love the Chelsea Curve, even as I remain intimidated by their ability to release a compelling new single every freakin' month. Let's face it: they're good, and all radio shows should program the Chelsea Curve. Yeah, even the talk radio shows, ideally in place of the talk. "Top It Up" is yet another rockin' pop triumph in the continuing saga of the Chelsea Curve, and we're gonna keep playing each new Chelsea Curve single for as long as they keep making them. So that "hate" thing is purely rhetorical. How could anyone hate--or even fail to flat-out adore--an act as rock-steadily compelling as the Chelsea Curve? Feel the love, and top it up.

JANILEIGH COHEN: The Blues Run The Game

As I mentioned last week, my wife and I have been watching the TV series This Is Us for the first time, obsessively catching up from the beginning. We're fascinated by the show's storytelling, but a side bonus of watching it has been our belated discovery of the song "The Blues Run The Game." I own the Simon and Garfunkel boxed set Old Friends, so I should have known the song from that resource, but we have no time for should-haves in this fast-paced world of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Brenda and I heard Jackson C. Frank's original 1965 version of "The Blues Run The Game" on one of the early episodes of This Is Us, and found it intriguing. And then we were fully captivated by the aching beauty of Janileigh Cohen's 2017 cover.

CIRCE LINK AND CHRISTIAN NESMITH: Satellite

The intrepid and irresistible duo of Circe Link and Christian Nesmith allowed us the use of their effervescent track "I'm On Your Side" for our compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, and the song was our # 1 most-played cut in 2017. I told the story of how we first encountered Circe 'n' Christian back here, and Circe was a Featured Artist on the November 19th 2017 edition of TIRnRR as part of The Magnificent Six alongside the Jam, the Cocktail Slippers, the Easybeats, the Spinners, and the Clash. Guess it's safe to say we're on their side.

That devoted advocacy continues with their brand-new album Cosmologica. Now, a record that bills itself as progressive rock might not seem the ideal match for the bubblepunk rockin' pop likes of TIRnRR, but prog can also be pop if it wants to be pop. "Satellite" provides irrefutable evidence of that.

RADIO BIRDMAN: Aloha Steve And Danno

I purchased Radio Birdman's Radios Appear LP in '78 or maybe '79, when I was in college. The album included the great "Murder City Nights" and the group's cover of the 13th Floor Elevators' psych-punk classic "You're Gonna Miss Me," but I was most drawn to "Aloha Steve And Danno." I mean, I simply had to blast a loud 'n' fast song about TV's Hawaii Five-0, especially when the song incorporated breakneck bits of the original TV show's theme song. And I was particularly taken with the idea of yelling BOOK 'IM DANNO! MURDER ONE! along with my Birdman boys as their record played on the turntable in my dorm room.

Like (I think) most Americans of my era, I had been a fan of Hawaii Five-0 throughout the early and mid '70s, though my interest had dimmed by the time I bought Radios Appear. My lawyer says I don't have to accept blame for the show's cancellation in 1980. When CBS rebooted the series in 2010, my interest was rekindled, and I watched its first few seasons (before that interest dimmed again). As a side note, I thought it was interesting that the reboot did a gender recast of the role of Kono, originally played the late actor Zulu, and then played in this shiny 21st century by actress Grace Park.

No offense to Zulu, but yeah: upgrade. BOOK 'IM DANNO! MURDER ONE...!

THE SHANG HI LOS: Plymouth Rock

Face front, pilgrim. Boston's phenomenal pop combo (and TIRnRR Fave Raves) the Shang Hi Los return to stuff your bird with an invigmoratin' new single. You'd better be thankful!

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Radio Nowhere

My favorite Bruce Springsteen album is his 2007 work Magic. This choice may seem deliberately iconoclastic, or even mere clickbait, but I come in peace. I respect Springsteen and his accomplishments, and I certainly don't dislike (most of) his records. But nor do I share the passion for the Boss that many of my peers feel. Dig what you dig.

On the other hand, much of Magic has a shimmery and confident pop essence I don't hear in other Springsteen albums. I think I read somewhere that Springsteen had been listening to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds when he was making Magic, and if that's not true, it should be. Magic includes "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," which is not only far and away my all-time top Springsteen track, it's also The Greatest Record Ever Made! 

Credit longtime TIRnRR pal Dave Murray for introducing me to this album (even though he thinks I'm nuts for preferring Magic to, say, Born To Run or The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle). And that introduction began with the album's first single, "Radio Nowhere." Is there anybody alive out there? Ethereal and, yes, magic. Your magic may vary. Me? I just wanna hear some rhythm. Radio can be magic that way.

SPYGENIUS: Queen Of Eyes

I'm not sure how or why, but I think I completely missed the music of the Soft Boys when the late '70s and early '80s were still, y'know, actually happening all around me. The group's 1980 album Underwater Moonlight woulda been a prime candidate for one of my favorite records of that whole decade, if only I'd heard it at the time. Oh, woe is me!

But I caught up with Underwater Moonlight in my own time, first with the astounding "I Wanna Destroy You" and then with the album itself, particularly the title track and "Queen Of Eyes."

Now, UK believers Spygenius pay tribute with an ace rendition of "Queen Of Eyes" as the first single from their new Big Stir Records covers album Spygenius Blow Their Covers. The album deserves special recognition for a visionary medley combining Traffic's "Paper Sun" with the Monkees' "Love Is Only Sleeping," and deep dives into the Squeeze, Gene Clark, Buffalo Springfield, and Cilla Black catalogs (among others) demonstrate that Spygenius do not blow their covers. Nope, not at all. 

THE WELL WISHERS: Let's Drive

We opened this week's radio extravaganza with "Let's Drive" by the Well Wishers, a track from the WWs' new digital collection Spare Parts. The Well Wishers are, were, was, and am Jeff Shelton, whose reliable pop sounds have been heard here under his various noms du bop (from Spinning Jennies through Hot Nun and Deadlights, and all points sideways) since we started this TIRnRR thing more'n twenty years ago. My all-time favorite Shelton work is the Well Wishers' "See For The First Time," and there've been a ton of other superb Shelton sides over the decades. "Let's Drive" is among his best.

And its title suggests a link with my favorite place to hear music. Here's a section about that from a book I've been writing:

"I listen to music while I'm driving. The car is my favorite place to listen to music; it's also frequently almost my only place to listen to music, but it's not merely my favorite by default. As a former pop journalist, I should try to propagate an image of sophistication and deliberation, retiring to my study, brandy in hand, intent on contemplating the splendor of a virgin vinyl Pet Sounds played through a 5.1 surround stereo system that cost more than I made in twenty years of freelancing for Goldmine. And...no. To be fair, there are decent meals that cost more than I made freelancing for Goldmine, but that's irrelevant. Pop music was meant to be listened to on cheap speakers, loud and distorted, as you're movin' down the highway at 500 miles an hour. 

"(This example is intended as hyperbole. Always obey posted speed limits, even when the Ramones are on.)...

"...Still: music in the car. Irreplaceable. Windows down (or air conditioner up) in the summer, snow tires barreling forward in the winter, the music turned up LOUD. It's a solitary experience, a communion; it's not quite the same when there's a passenger. When the Monkees released the digital single "She Makes Me Laugh," the first tease from the 2016 album Good Times!, I was disappointed with it...until I listened to it in the car. Then I got it, and I loved it. Pop music is made for the car. Driving in nearly any weather, give me my tunes, and I'll get there. The wind, the rain, the sun, and the snow are no match for the power of my music. Sunglasses on. Car stereo on. Let's go."

Yeah, let's go. The Well Wishers have a soundtrack for us to begin the trek.

THE RAMONES: Do You Wanna Dance

Well...do you? If so, you've come to the right place.

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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.

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