10 SONGS: 10/3/2026

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 # 1355

THE HALF/CUBES: When The Lights Are Out

I was in eighth grade in 1972, when UK stompmeisters Slade hit Syracuse's WOLF-AM with their irresistible glam-pop classic "Gudbuy T' Jane." In this bright 'n' shiny new millennium, Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes channeled that memory of perfect AM Top 40 splendor with a cover of "Gudbuy T' Jane," as heard on the 'Cubic covers collection Pop Masters. A splendid time was bludgeoned into the craniums of all.

Now, essential Flashcubes offshoot the Half/Cubes return to the scene of the really loud chime with a stupendous new rendition of Slade's lesser-known gem "When The Lights Are Out." Hit the lights, Jane! Say gudbye to the day, and say hello to what the night may bring.

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING TOM KENNY: Got No Mind

Speaking of the Flashcubes, our friends at Big Stir Records are now accepting preorders for "Got No Mind," the new 45 by the Flashcubes featuring Tom Kenny. Offered as a memorial tribute to Flashcubes guitarist Paul Armstrong (the song's author), the track has already been a TIRnRR fixture, and it will remain so for the foreseeable. And to sanctify the release of this 7" slab o' cantankerous wonder, the mighty Big Stir is also offering original copies of two previous Flashcubes 45s--1979's "Wait Til Next Week"/"Radio" and 2016's two-fer of Chris Spedding covers, "Boogie City"/"Hey Miss Betty"--both individually and in bundles with the new one. Visit The Flashcubes page at Big Stir for details.

THE DEAD BOYS: All The Way Down (Poison Lady)

The passing of Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome compelled some Sonic Reducer recognition on our playlist. We considered "All This And More," "3rd Generation Nation," and (obviously!) "Sonic Reducer," but opted instead for "All The Way Down (Poison Lady)," a 1987 Dead Boys reunion single that still feels like a righteous summary of everything young, loud, and snotty. I'm working on an eventual Greatest Record Ever Made! piece about "3rd Generation Nation," but for now we go all the way down with a poison lady who loves it loud. Godspeed, Cheetah Chrome.

THE AMPLIFIER HEADS: They Don't Dance Anymore

And. They. Should. From their fab current long-player Super 8, Boston's phenomenal pop combo the Amplifier Heads bemoan the lack of boppers on the boppin' floor with "They Don't Dance Anymore," and if you ain't swaying, you're not listening. 

While we're listening and dancing, we can also cast our votes for the Amplifier Heads in The 2026 New England Music Awards. Super 8 is vying for Album of the Year honors, and the AmpHeads themselves are up for Rock Act of the Year. You can vote once per day.

And I tell ya--this is a good month to practice the responsibility of voting. 

TODD RUNDGREN: Couldn't I Just Tell You

One of the all-time defining examples of power pop. That said, my deep and abiding affection for Todd Rundgren's "Couldn't I Just Tell You" doesn't ameliorate the toxic absurdity of cranky curmudgeon Todd's recent old-man-yelling-at-clouds dismissal of Taylor Swift's music as "the apotheosis of mediocrity." In a world where the biggest hits of Journey and Bob Seger already exist, it's condescending and absurd to refer to Swift in such obnoxious terms. "The apotheosis of mediocrity?" Have you heard any friggin' Bro Country songs, Todd?

(To be clear: I don't consider myself a Swiftie, and I really dig only a relative handful of her recordings. For more of my perhaps-unlikely testimonial on behalf of Taylor Swift, read here. And we still love ya, Todd. But it's time for your meds, Pops.) 

PLASTICSOUL: J'adore

Oui! California's Plasticsoul were the very first Big Stir Recording Artists, signing with the then-new label for the group's 2017 album Therapy. They return now with "J'adore," a fresh blast of corrosive and combustible rockin' pop that stands as the opening salvo from their forthcoming new album. Ain't nothin' plastic here, my friends. 

THE DIXIE CUPS: Iko Iko

From a previous post:

Like Mary Poppins and the Ramones, the Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko" is practically perfect in every way. There's also much to be said for the group's originally-unreleased alternate version (which refers to a boy as "a sex machine," and probably wouldn't have made it to the radio in 1965), but nothing compares to the well-known hit rendition. The Greatest Record Ever Made? Well...yeah.

BRIJITTE WEST AND THE GREENOWSKIS: Doin' Alright

HOLY...! Man, this is good. I don't think I've had any prior familiarity with Brijitte West and the Greenowskis, nor with Ms. West's previous work with NY Loose. New single "Doin' Alright" scribbles its ornery tags all over and all around that particular tabula rasa, and I am instantly in its thrall. Alright! 

RUSH: Circumstances

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE KENNEDYS: Girl On A Motorcycle

As I write this, I'm looking forward to seeing the Kennedys bring their always-engaging alchemy of coffeehouse pop to a live performance at The 443 Social Club & Lounge in Syracuse. By the time you read this, I will have already witnessed and enjoyed that show. MUSIC IS TIME TRAVEL!! And what better way to travel than with this "Girl On A Motorcycle?" One of my immediate favorite tracks on the Kennedys' superb new album Smoketree (a splendid record that conveys a more rooted version of the Laurel Canyon vibe, RIYL Gene Clark), "Girl On A Motorcycle" spins here again Sunday night. 

MORE time travel! Rev it, girl. Rev it.

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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, its six-chapter novelette digest A Band Called GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!, 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

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Stiv Bators, "It's Cold Outside"

Drawn from a previous piece, this is not part of my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but it's a contender for the hypothetical Volume 2.

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

STIV BATORS: It's Cold Outside

Written by Danny Klawon

Produced by The Gutter Twins [Frank Secich and Stiv Bators]

Single, Bomp Records, 1979

Just because punk can be pop doesn't mean all punk is pop. I love the Sex Pistols, and believe their intrinsic worth as an exciting rock 'n' roll band is undervalued because folks can't see past the anger and anarchy. But I can't plausibly consider the Pistols as power pop. Some punk and punk-adjacent bands--the Ramones, the Jam, the Buzzcocks, Generation X, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Rich Kids with ex-Pistol Glen Matlock--at least dabbled around the edge of power pop. The Sex Pistols and the Clash did not. 

Nor did the Dead Boys, really, though the group's guitarist Jimmy Zero claimed that the Raspberries' Side 3 was his favorite album. There's no discernible power pop influence in the grooves of the Dead Boys' first album Young, Loud & Snotty, and while you can maybe hear a little bit of closeted janglebuzz in their second album We Have Come For Your Children, it still ain't quite a record that demands to be filed under Teen Beat Vocal.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that former Dead Boys lead singer Stiv Bators briefly became a full-on power pop performer with the singles he did immediately after the Dead Boys' dissolution in 1979. The Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer" isn't power pop. Stiv's "It's Cold Outside"/"The Last Year" is. Unmistakably. Undeniably. Follow-up 45 "Not That Way Anymore"/"Circumstantial Evidence" is, at the very least, pretty damned close. And the singles were released by power pop proselytizer Bomp Records! Of course!

Bators knew who he needed to form his power pop band. Guitarist Frank Secich had been in the shoulda-been-famous '70s rockin' pop combo Blue Ash, and his presence imbued Bators' immediate post-Dead Boys work with power pop gravitas. After the singles, Secich was also involved in the first Stiv Bators solo album Disconnected; when Bators moved on to the Wanderers and the Lords of the New Church, Secich and the above-mentioned Jimmy Zero joined forces in Club Wow, a terrific but mostly unheralded group whose fabulous Who-inspired track "Norman Green" is also The Greatest Record Ever Made. (For additional information on Frank's work and rockin' pop history, check out his two autobiographical books, Circumstantial Evidence and Not That Way Anymore.)

"It's Cold Outside" was originally a 1966 regional hit by the Choir, a Cleveland group otherwise canonized in power pop history because it included three future members of the Raspberries, guitarist Wally Bryson, drummer Jim Bonfanti, and bassist Dave Smalley (though I don't think Smalley was on the Choir's recording of "It's Cold Outside"). 

The Choir's "It's Cold Outside" is a fabulous record. Stiv Bators' remake slays the original, and it's not even close. The world used to be sunny. Jokes used to be funny. The pain of love's failure to melt a cold, cold heart is met by a blizzard of drums, bass, and guitar. Cancel school for the day. Find something (or someone) warm. And credit one more notch to the punk and power pop alliance.

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, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my 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.

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: 7/7/2022

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 # 1136: COME ON LET'S GO! A Celebration Of Classic Power Pop, Pure Pop, And The Power Pop Periphery.

THE FLASHCUBES WITH THE SPONGETONES: Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?

POP WITH POWER! It seemed appropriate to kick off our power pop extravaganza with this rock 'n' roll summit meeting between two of its all-time greatest practitioners: Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse (and this week's Featured Performers) the Flashcubes and North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo the Spongetones. Their recent combined-force Big Stir Records single remake of the Spongetones' "Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?" has been a huge TIRnRR favorite this year, because we have simply impeccable rockin' pop taste.

THE BEATLES: Please Please Me

We are never going to collectively agree on a definition of power pop, and we're never going to agree on power pop's point of origin. Bomp! magazine's Greg Shaw and Gary Sperrazza! pinpointed the Who's pre-Tommy sides as power pop's Ground Zero, but many informed fans and pundits insist power pop can't start until the '70s. I strongly disagree with the latter view, and kinda think we can and should start power pop's stopwatch a little earlier than Bomp! decreed. We can make a case for power pop beginning with Eddie Cochran; I think power pop's introductory detonation came courtesy of the Beatles, specifically with "Please Please Me." Writer Gary Pig Gold and I debated the subject in this piece from 2007.

JESSE BRYSON: Come Back

When we decided to do this week's show as a celebration of classic power pop, pure pop, and the power pop periphery from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, I also wanted to bridge then and now by playing all of the Flashcubes' singles, 1978-2022. As a sidebar to that, we threw in Jesse Bryson's version of "Come Back," a song Jesse's dad Wally Bryson wrote and originally recorded with Fotomaker in the late '70s; Jesse's new version enlists Gary Frenay and Tommy Allen from the 'Cubes and Frankie Vinci and Lex Marchesi from Fotomaker, so its legacy aspect made it a natural addition to this week's retrovision. Jesse Bryson's "Come Back" joined the Flashcubes' 21st century singles as the only latter-day tracks on this week's show.

THE BANGLES: Tell Me

In the mid '90s, when I was freelancing for Goldmine magazine, I wrote a lengthy history of power pop. The piece was published in the January 5th, 1996 issue of GM, alongside separate best-of power pop annotations and recommendations from John M. Borack, a Bay City Rollers retrospective by Dave Thompson, my interview with Greg Kihn, and my liner notes to the Flashcubes' then-forthcoming anthology CD Bright Lights. It was an honor to be involved with creating the first-ever power pop issue of Goldmine, and editor Jeff Tamarkin told me the issue sold well and received a very positive reaction.

But...well, nobody's perfect. Gary Sperrazza! himself was miffed that I hadn't contacted him for his recollections of Bomp! and the power pop scene (an error I still and will always regret). And one reader wrote a letter complaining about the overwhelmingly male-dominated nature of my power pop history. Although I thought some of that reader's suggestions of female power pop artists bordered on the absurd (prompting my reply, "Toni Basil? Are you putting me on?"), I eventually found myself agreeing that he had a point.

So, when I eventually updated and revamped my power pop history into a new version for John Borack's 2005 book Shake Some Action, I acknowledged the oversight and tried to correct it a little bit. Looking back, I say it was still perfunctory--how did I fail to mention Holly and the Italians?--but I did at least expand my coverage a little bit. I hadn't yet heard the fabulous music of the Shivvers or the Expressos in 2005, but I included mention of the Pop Tarts, the Catholic Girls, Nikki and the Corvettes, the B-Girls, the Go-Go's, and the Bangles. I later dovetailed some of this (including the Shivvers) into a blog piece called "Power Pop 101."

Getting back to the Bangles: their eponymous debut EP and their first full-length album All Over The Place remain stirring, sterling examples of transcendent pop-rock, earning them the "She-Beatles" sobriquet bestowed upon them by intrepid TIRnRR listener Elma Tiran, aka Sparky. Subsequent records were good too, though my heart belongs to the earlier efforts.

Especially to All Over The Place. To my ears, that record is one track shy of being a perfect album, only kept from a complete Love At First Spin by my disinterest in "More Than Meets The Eye." The rest is as good as rockin' pop music gets. Mr. Goldmine letter-writer, wherever you are: in the words of the Monkees, I'm a little bit wrong, you're a little bit right.

(Not about Toni Basil, mind you. Still think you were putting me on with that.)

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Got To Have You Back

No one thinks of the Isley Brothers as a power pop band, and that's fair (the Isleys' enormous influence on the Beatles notwithstanding). But this song, 1966's "Got To Have You Back?" I tell ya, if the exact same recording had been credited to the Who on Brunswick instead of the Isley Brothers on Motown, it would garner wider recognition as an essential early power pop track. Whatever label you choose for it, it's an amazing track.

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Our above-mentioned Bomp! magazine visionaries Greg Shaw and Gary Sperrazza! recognized the power pop bona fides of the Ramones. I concur, and I made my case on their behalf when I wrote the Ramones' induction into The Power Pop Hall of Fame. "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" is, without exaggeration, the record that changed my life, an epiphany on a direct par with seeing the Beatles in A Hard Day's Night and the first time I witnessed the Flashcubes play. Punk can be pop; it can be as pop as the giddiest and catchiest stuff out there. To me, that's as simple as 1-2-3-4!  

(And, um...I wrote a book about the Ramones. But it's a secret for now. Shhhhh. Don't tell anybody.)

STIV BATORS: It's Cold Outside

Just because punk can be pop doesn't mean all punk is pop. I love the Sex Pistols, and believe their intrinsic worth as an exciting rock 'n' roll band is undervalued because folks can't see past the anger and anarchy, but I can't plausibly consider the Pistols as power pop. Some punk and punk-adjacent bands--the Jam, the Buzzcocks, Generation X, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Rich Kids with ex-Pistol Glen Matlock--at least dabbled around the edge of power pop. The Sex Pistols and the Clash did not. 

Nor did the Dead Boys, really, though the group's guitarist Jimmy Zero claimed that the Raspberries' Side 3 was his favorite album. There's no discernible power pop influence in the grooves of the Dead Boys' first album Young, Loud & Snotty, and while you can maybe hear a little bit of closeted janglebuzz in their second album We Have Come For Your Children, it still ain't quite a record that demands to be filed under Teen Beat Vocal.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that former Dead Boys lead singer Stiv Bators briefly became a full-on power pop performer with the singles he did immediately after the Dead Boys' dissolution in 1979. "Sonic Reducer" isn't power pop. "It's Cold Outside"/"The Last Year" is. Unmistakably. Undeniably. Follow-up 45 "Not That Way Anymore"/"Circumstantial Evidence" is, at the very least, pretty damned close. And the singles were released by Bomp Records! Of course!

Bators knew who he needed to form his power pop band: guitarist Frank Secich had been in the shoulda-been-famous '70s rockin' pop combo Blue Ash, and his presence imbued Bators' immediate post-Dead Boys work with power pop gravitas; I really, really hope the Flashcubes do some work with Secich, too. 

"It's Cold Outside" was originally a 1966 regional hit by the Choir, a Cleveland group otherwise canonized in power pop history because it included three future members of the Raspberries, guitarist Wally Bryson, drummer Jim Bonfanti, and bassist Dave Smalley (though I don't think Smalley was on the Choir's recording of "It's Cold Outside"). 

The Choir's "It's Cold Outside" is a fabulous record. Stiv Bators' remake slays the original, and it's not even close. Credit one more notch to the punk and power pop alliance.

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING RANDY KLAWON: Get The Message

To date, the Flashcubes have released a total of eight singles. The first two were 45s issued during the group's original run, "Christi Girl" in 1978 and "Wait Till Next Week" in '79. Since regrouping in the early '90s, the 'Cubes did one two-song CD single of Chris Spedding covers (later reissued as a 45 for Record Store Day in 2017), and commenced their current series of Big Stir digital singles in 2021.

The Big Stir singles have all been covers, with our 'Cubes usually aided and abetted by other stars of the glittering power pop sky. The first was their take on Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside" (with the song's author Mimi Betinis pitching in), followed by renditions of the Dwight Twilley Band's "Alone In My Room," a collaboration with Shoes on the latter's magnificent "Tomorrow Night," the above-mentioned Spongecubes mash-up, and Slade's "Gudbuy T' Jane," performed with Ed Conte. On this week's show, we played 'em all.

And we wanted more.

So the group allowed us an exclusive premiere of "Get The Message," a way-fab cover of a song originally written and recorded by Eric Carmen in 1969, with his pre-Raspberries combo Cyrus Erie. For this new version, the Flashcubes drafted Randy Klawon, who had been in Cyrus Erie (albeit after they recorded "Get The Message"), and he'd been in the Choir. Randy's brother Danny Klawon wrote "It's Cold Outside."  SCORE!! I now regard this new version as definitive, and we thank the Flashcubes for letting us share it.

There's still a lot more to come in the Flashcubes-Big Stir LLC. I know a couple of specifics, and I know there's more that I don't really know about yet. I look forward to all of it. And I look forward to playing it all on the radio, where it belongs.

THE SMITHEREENS: Behind The Wall Of Sleep

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise

Hey, speaking (yet again) of my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1): From 1979, this is the Flashcubes' single that should have been. I've written about it here, and again here. Love this record. Love this band. This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl would not exist if not for the Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes. Pop with power. It inspires us every day, and it fuels a fresh radio show every week. There is a promise after all.

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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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl