10 SONGS: 7/13/2024

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. 

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

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!

THE ARMOIRES: Here Comes The Song

SORROWS: Play This Song (On The Radio)

sparkle*jets u.k.: This Will Be Our Year

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.

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 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

10 SONGS: 3/30/2020

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists are often dominated by songs played on the previous 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.



A tech delay postpones the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's record release party with Pop Co-Op. Once that's been resolved, I should be able to share the playlist as soon as tomorrow. In the mean time, let's do this week's 10 Songs a day early.

THE BEATLES: I Want To Hold Your Hand


It seemed such an innocent request in '63 and '64. Now? If a person's closer than six friggin' feet away, it's cause for alarm, even panic. There will be no hand-holding in the Coronaverse, no love in the time of pandemic. There will be music, and there actually will be love, as always. Just no physical contact. Now go wash your hands.

BIG HELLO: Action Now



I was going to tie this great track from Big Hello's 2000 effort The Orange Album with a demand for ACTION NOW!! in place of the usual clueless douchebaggery of our nation's Buffoon-In-Chief, but I guess I'll stick with the music. Trump's an asshole, by the way.

"Action Now" popped up a couple of times on my iPod recently, and it sounds great each and every time. Is it a call to action--Now's the time for supersonic action--or is it only rock 'n' roll? I know it's both, and I like it.

Since saying goodbye to Big Hello, the wife 'n' husband team of  Chloe Orwell and Brad Elvis have fronted The Handcuffs, another fab group worthy of large-sized salutation and celebration. The Handcuffs' Electroluv album has been in my CD carrying case for weeks, awaiting its overdue return to the This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio playlist. All the more reason for action now, to end this crisis and return The Handcuffs to their rightful place on the radio.



THE DOORS: Touch Me


Ew. Not because of the song--I've become more receptive to The Doors' music over the past few years--but because, y'know...touching. Ew.

THE FOUR TOPS: Reach Out I'll Be There


No. You. Won't. Jeez, keep your razzafrazzin' distance already!

THE GEORGIA SATELLITES: Keep Your Hands To Yourself


Yeah, that's more like it. 

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 nine 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!

THE PANDORAS: It's About Time



The Pandoras' irresistible '80s garage-pop classic "It's About Time" was one of the tracks I included in last week's fake playlist This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: Isolation Edition. I chose the song for its recurring line Ain't it about time we got together now, and placed it near the end of the playlist (segued into Ben E. King's "Stand By Me") as a totem of hope that this period of willful separation will pass. It won't pass anywhere near as quickly as we'd wish, but it will pass.

THE POLICE: Don't Stand So Close To Me



Okay, everyone else sick of this joke, of this hit by The Police serving as the unofficial Love Theme From Social Distancing? Me too, though that won't prevent me from using it just this once. These are not proud times.

I absolutely adored "Roxanne," and regarded it as the coolest song on the radio in 1979. I quite liked "Message In A Bottle" and probably a few other scattered tracks from the first two Police albums, but I found myself losing interest in the group after that. Mind you, I never relinquished my affection for "Roxanne" and "Message In A Bottle," but that affection did not extend to subsequent efforts. When I managed a record store in the '80s, one of my clerks was horrified--horrified--to learn of my indifference to The Police. I waived my right to his counsel on that matter (and I waived it kinda rudely).

POP CO-OP: Underworld




But in a similar matter to how my icy disregard for The Doors gradually thawed over time, so too did I slowly become less dismissive of The Police's music (though I doubt I'll ever be able to tolerate any of Sting's solo material, or that horrid stalker song "Every Breath You Take"). So this wonderful Police pastiche by Pop Co-Op came along at just the right time. "Underworld" is on the brand-new Pop Co-Op album Factory Settings, but it was originally released on a 2018 collection called Back In Time--Lost Hits Of The 80's Vol. 2, the second of two various-artists collections that gather contemporary artists to salute the '80s with original songs that sound like they could have been on MTV during the heyday of Reaganomics and Miami Vice. The Back In Time sets are the brainchild of Dan Pavelich, and they succeed in re-writing and expanding pop history to accommodate the paradox of brand-new records from the 1980s.

The acts on Back In Time take on phony noms du bop for their concoctions, so "Underworld" was originally credited to "PCPD," as in "Pop Co-Op Police Department." It's an effective theft and rehabilitation of The Police's sound, and it first reached me right around the same time that I decided to add a Police best-of CD to my home library. I kinda like The Police now, but if you surreptitiously slipped "Underworld" onto any Police record (see what I did there?), it would be among the best tracks on that record. I hope my former record store clerk would approve.

(And more about the new Pop Co-Op album Factory Settings--Your Favorite Record Of 2020--on tomorrow's exciting edition of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do).



STEVE STOECKEL & HIS THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO ALL-STARS: I Could Be Good For You



The Pop Co-Op story has its roots in a virtual combo I called Steve Stoeckel & his This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio All-Stars. I had no right to name this group, but somehow I got away with it. "I Could Be Good For You" began as a songwriting exercise, as the ever-intrepid and ever-inventive Stoeckel decided he wanted to experiment with an attempt to craft lyrics by committee. He solicited ideas from various on-line acquaintances, and this new song was written line-by-line by a collection of pop fans, some of whom had previous experience, and some of whom didn't have much experience at all. 

So "I Could Be Good For You" was written by Stoeckel with Dan Pavelich, Kathy Jackson Firestone, Loyd Dillon, Brenda Trent Dillon, Elizabeth Racz, and Joel Tinnel, each of whom shared songwriting credit. Steve recorded the track, with a guitar break by Joel Tinnel and a backing vocal by long-time TIRnRR pal Rich Firestone, and let me affix the TIRnRR brand name to its spurious billing. It appeared on our 2013 CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3, and it was our show's single most-played track that year.

But its most important and lasting legacy is laying the first brick on the pathway to what came later, as Steve and Joel eventually recruited Bruce Gordon and Stacy Carson to form Pop Co-Op. The story of Pop Co-Op started here. 

UTOPIA: I Just Want To Touch You



Right. I'm calling' a cop.

C'mon, you're gonna have to stay farther apart from each other than that!

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Barring pandemics, 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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

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Volume 3: download

Volume 4: CD or download

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Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 124 essays about 124 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).