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 # 1298.
THE SPONGETONES: Honest Work
WORK...?!
Like their fellow Power Pop Hall of Fame honorees the Flashcubes (see below), the Spongetones have recorded a trio of brand-new studio singles that are attached to their own special commemorative project. For the Spongetones, that project is a Big Stir Records release called The 40th Anniversary Concert...And Beyond
The 40th Anniversary Concert...And Beyond preserves a 2021 live show celebrating the band's fab long-standing tenure as North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo. The third single is "Honest Work," written by guitarists Patrick Walters and Jamie Hoover and sung by Walters, following bassist Steve Stoeckel's lovely "Lulu's In Love" and Hoover's AM radio-ready "Help Me Janie." "Honest Work" is a stable and reliable punch of the clock, acknowledging the ethic that gets things done. The work may not be its own reward, but the resulting music provides welcome reimbursement.
Punch that clock. Punch it with vigor. We got work to do. "Honest Work" will spin again here on Sunday night.
Dana followed the Spongetones' salute to honest work with a spin of Dean Landew's all-time TIRnRR classic "After Work," compelling me to complete the wage-slave hat trick with the Vogues' sublime "Five O'Clock World." WORK..?! Somewhere, Maynard G. Krebs approves the notion of leaving the ol' work day behind us.
THE HIGH FREQUENCIES: Modern Love
I only saw David Bowie once, during his mid '80s Serious Moonlight tour. I don't regard that as his peak period (the commercial success of the Let's Dance album and its title tune hit single notwithstanding), but witnessing Bowie perform was certainly among the highlights of my concert-going experience. From the forthcoming tribute album Jem Records Celebrates David Bowie, the High Frequencies take "Modern Love"--my favorite track from Let's Dance--and set it free to twist 'n' bop under its own earnest lunar glow.
THE RULERS: I Want My Ramones Records Back
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
BORIS THE SPRINKLER: Kill The Ramones
Rude!
THE RAMONES: I Wanna Live
Words to...um, live by. And, to paraphrase the Rulers in the song mentioned two spots north of here: I'd be dyin' without my Ramones.
From a previous 10 Songs:
"I moved back to Syracuse from Buffalo in 1987. It was not a great time in my life, and it was still going to be a little while before things got better.
"In good times and less-good times, music has always been a highlight. I don't remember if I heard 'I Wanna Live' before picking up my copy of Halfway To Sanity. I may have seen its video on MTV, but my memory insists I didn't even know the Ramones had a new album out when I spotted and immediately purchased Halfway To Sanity at The Record Theatre up on the SU hill.
"The album includes a fab guest appearance by Blondie's Debbie Harry on 'Go Li'l Camaro Go,' a meeting of CBGB's minds I'd been wishing for since the late '70s. Nonetheless, my favorite was (and is) 'I Wanna Live.'
"Is it a life-affirming track? By default, I guess, though it could also be read as a suicide note. But the guitar sounds like it wants to live. Joey likewise sounds like he's digging in for the long haul. It's what I want, and I'm going with that."
THE FLASHCUBES: If These Hands
More than a year's work is about to pay off, as our friends at Big Stir Records prepare an eager rockin' pop world for the September 12th release of Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. But while poundin' the console on behalf of Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse is technically work, it's also a calling. Plus it's fun! Given all the fabulous covers the Flashcubes have recorded and released over the past several years, I wanted to call more attention to the wonder of the Flashcubes' own brilliant songbook. A various-artists Flashcubes tribute album seemed the best way to accomplish that, so we gathered a bunch of talented artists, matched them with a bunch of songs written or co-written by members of the Flashcubes, and sent 'em off with one simple directive:
Make something happen.
And oh, did they ever come through, and then some. That's been reflected in consistent TIRnRR airplay, with this week's spins of Make Something Happen! gems by Dolph Chaney, Sorrows, and Callan Foster following in the Cubic-heeled footsteps of last week's MSH! treats from Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas, Librarians With Hickeys, and Chris von Sneidern, and Sunday will bring a reprise of Librarians With Hickeys as well as the Verbs and the Armoires. On the album, these all frolic and frug alongside fascinating interpretations of Flashcubes songs as rendered by sparkle*jets u.k., Graham Parker and Mike Gent, Joe Giddings, Ballzy Tomorrow, the Kennedys, Pop Co-Op, the Peppermint Kicks, the Choosers, Hamell On Trial, Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin, the Mayflowers, Super 8 featuring Lisa Mychols, and the Spongetones.
As referenced in the Spongetones entry up top, the Flashcubes have also contributed three new singles of their own to this project. The first Make Something Happen! single was guitarist Paul Armstrong's epic burner "Reminisce." The second was the gorgeous big pop number "The Sweet Spot," co-written by 'Cubes bassist Gary Frenay with the late B. D. Love.
And now comes the third and final single in advance of this tribute. Back in 1978, the Flashcubes' first 45 was "Christi Girl," a ballad written by 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin. In 2025, Arty closes this portion of the Flashcubes' singles discography with another lovely ballad, "If These Hands."
We naturally talk about the songwriters, as befits an album intended as a salute to a group's original songs. Let's also throw in a bit of praise for Flashcubes drummer Tommy Allen, not just for his irresistible percussive skill, but for the sheer pop and power he brings to this material as a producer. This stuff sounds amazing, and that's due in large part to our boy Tommy.
Putting this album together has been a lot of work, and there's a long, long list of people who deserve credit for making this particular something happen. Even though others did most--almost all--of the heavy lifting here, I find myself exhausted in its aftermath. Exhausted, but proud. If memory serves, the last original song recorded and released by the Flashcubes prior to these three new singles was "Carl (You Da Man)" for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1 more than twenty years ago. As flattering and fulfilling as it was that this band that's been so important to me wrote and recorded a killer song about Dana and me, I could not allow that to stand as the last word in original Flashcubes recordings.
It isn't the last one anymore. "Reminisce." "The Sweet Spot." Maybe "If These Hands" will be the Flashcubes' final recording, or maybe there will be more yet to come. I hope so. Either way, man, we made something happen. It was well, well worth the work.
The Flashcubes' "If These Hands" leads us naturally into "Think With Your Hands" by Mondo Topless. Naturally. Whenever Dana plays a track by Mondo Topless, I naturally have to say, "Oh, so it's THAT kind of show, is it?" Because, y'know...topless. I amuse me.
Hadda follow "Think With Your Hands" with a cover of the Jags' new wave pop perennial "Back Of My Hand," as performed by our bud Robbie Rist under his Ballzy Tomorrow moniker. A delightful number in any incarnation, Ballzy Tomorrow's rendition of "Back Of My Hand" comes to us via DJ/uber fan Adam Waltemire's ace curated 2022 various-artists coverfest Sing Me A Song--A 50th Birthday Celebration. We've programmed a number of tracks from Sing Me A Song (particularly Barry Holdship's divine reading of Conway Twitty's "It's Only Make Believe") on past shows, but I'm mortified to discover we ain't ever played Ballzy Tomorrow's "Back Of My Hand" before this week. I tell ya: WE deserve the back of the hand.
But what can I say? It's just that kind of show. And it works for us.
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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. You can read about our history here
