10 SONGS: 6/27/2025

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 # 1291

BRIAN WILSON: Love And Mercy

If some quirk of cosmic regulation and rulemaking decreed that only one--ONE--musician, performer, songwriter, and/or producer of the rock 'n' roll era could be acclaimed as genius, that one genius would be Brian Wilson.

Wilson's transcendent brilliance is widely recognized, but I was slow to accept it. As a kid in the 1960s, my awareness of the Beach Boys was peripheral--one of my older siblings had a copy of the Surfer Girl LP--and while I must have heard their hits again and again on AM Top 40 radio, they didn't really register in my ears at the time. One presumes I wasn't picking up the good vibrations.

That changed, sure, but the change took a while. In the '70s, even as teen me became increasingly obsessed with '60s rock 'n' roll, the Beach Boys were still merely a peripheral. A high school acquaintance tried to convince me of Brian Wilson's bona fides as occupying a rarified strata alongside the Beatles, and I found that notion preposterous.

Guess I'm dumb.

By the end of high school in 1977, I did love "Good Vibrations" and I liked or loved some of the early hits. I thought "Wouldn't It Be Nice" sounded intriguing in commercials for the movie Shampoo, and while I didn't like any of the '70s Beach Boys music I heard, the lure of the classic Hawthorne sound compelled me to pick up the Endless Summer 2-LP compilation. I added a copy of Pet Sounds during my freshman year in college. After college, circa '81 or '82, I bought used 2-LP reissues of 20/20 & Wild Honey and Friends & Smiley Smile. 

For all that, I still wasn't ready to proclaim the genius of Brian Wilson. That willful myopia crumbled as I heard Capitol Records' series of two-on-one CD reissues of the Beach Boys' '60s albums. Revelation. Not because of format; because I was finally paying attention. That led me to reacquaint myself with Pet Sounds.

You know how I talk about the greatest record ever made, insisting that an infinite number of individual tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. I mean that. But when it comes to albums, man, there is only one all-time greatest album. Pet Sounds. It remains as near to the celestial as human ears can comprehend.

In that same general time frame, I also bought Brian Wilson's then-recent eponymous album on CD, sold to me by a Desert Shore Records clerk named Dana. Yes, the one-and-only that Dana. Ah, the dialectic of pop music. The album's opening track "Love And Mercy" is Brian Wilson's best-known solo song, a singularly appropriate comfort in our troubled times, and the imperative choice to open this week's show, as TIRnRR mourns the passing of a genius named Brian Wilson.

THE BEACH BOYS: In My Room

"In My Room" was on that Surfer Girl album in the ol' family music library, and I won't even attempt an explanation of why I didn't notice its irresistible warmth until many years later. Stupid kid. I'll be in my room.

THE FLASHCUBES WITH MIKE GENT: Reminisce

The new single is out TODAY! Act accordingly. "Reminisce" by the Flashcubes with Mike Gent is my top new track of 2025 so far, and its debut as a digital single marks the first official release of material from the forthcoming various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. 

"Reminisce" will spin again on our next show, alongside the debut airings of three more Make Something Happen! tracks by Ballzy Tomorrow, Dolph Chaney, and the Verbs, plus a reprise of the Choosers' cover of the Flashcubes' first single "Christi Girl." AND! We'll throw in non-Flashcubes material from each of the other acts on Make Something Happen!, servin' up other fine treats courtesy of sparkle*jets u.k., Librarians With Hickeys, Chris von Sneidern, Graham Parker, Joe Giddings, the Kennedys, Pop Co-Op, Hamell On Trial, Super 8 featuring Lisa Mychols, the Armoires, the Peppermint Kicks, the Mayflowers, Callan Foster, Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin, Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas, Sorrows, and the Spongetones. We have the hitmakers who make things happen!

THE BEACH BOYS: God Only Knows

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

BIG STAR: Thirteen

THE RAMONES: I Want You Around

It's hard to follow "God Only Knows." Nonetheless, Dana pulled off that seemingly dauntless task with the haunting adolescent ache of Big Star's "Thirteen," compelling me to fill out the three-fer with the Ramones' uncharacteristically tender ballad "I Want You Around." Sling and arrows be damned. The eternal teen heart will keep its rhythm and persevere. 

THE CRICKLE: Place In My Heart

Gotta love a combo that took its nom de bop from a childhood memory of mispronouncing the name of "Red Rubber Ball" popmeisters the Cyrkle. The Crickle, bless 'em, are still with us and still vital. Their '80s track "Place In My Heart" is a TIRnRR perennial, and it was part of a glorious 1985 various-artists cassette called Garage Sale! 19 Wylde And Savage Bands!

Garage Sale! was released by the ROIR label in association with Goldmine magazine. And it was the precipitating incident that got me to subscribe to Goldmine, eventually resulting in my twenty-year tenure as a freelance writer for the magazine. That long story is told here.

My 1986-2006 time as a hired hand for Goldmine looms large in what passes for my legend. The slight notoriety I garnered via GM fed efforts to raise awareness of this little mutant radio show, which has turned out to loom kinda large in its own right. The combined, um...loomage of Goldmine and This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio enable me to pound the pulpit on behalf of rockin' pop music, to write books, and somehow even compile professional CD releases like Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. 

So yes, yay, and yeah-yeah-yeah, Garage Sale! was a VERY important release for me. Thanks, Crickle! Clearly, you're always going to have a place in our hearts here.

ANNETTE FUNICELLO [WITH THE BEACH BOYS]: The Monkey's Uncle

In my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), my chapter about the Monkees' magnificent single "Porpoise Song (Theme From Head)" notes:

"...Everyone who knows me knows that I love the Monkees. I love the TV series, I love the prefab Kirshner-era records, the hey-hey-we're-a-real band triumph of the Headquarters LP, the Monkees with sidemen compromise of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. (my favorite Monkees album), the schtick, the ambition, the songs, the image, the truth behind the image. I'm a believer already. But there's something emphatically special about the movie Head and its soundtrack. It's part of the grit that gives the cotton candy substance...."

That said, let us not be too quick to presume the cotton candy has no substance of its own. Pop music is its own reward, and any music that moves you or touches you or engages you has no need to justify itself to anyone else. Let 'em get their own soundtrack. AND their own goddamned cotton candy.

I bring this up here to acknowledge that, for some, the legend which has grown around Brian Wilson will exalt Pet Sounds and SMiLE, but perhaps not so much the Beach Boys' earlier frothy favorites. "Surf's Up" ¡SÍ!, "Surfin' Safari" ¡NO! 

If that POV exists, I disavow its validity. "I Get Around" is essential. "Help Me Rhonda" is essential. "Little Deuce Coupe," "Shut Down," "Surfin' USA," and the rest of this fun-fun-FUN! catalog are timeless, well-crafted, well-executed absolute pop gems, and they would be worthy of accolade even if Brian Wilson's ambition and vision had never went on to declare he just wasn't made for these times.

Paradoxically as ephemeral and eternal as it gets, "The Monkey's Uncle" is the title theme from a 1965 Disney flick co-starring Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello. The film opens with Annette singing the song on-screen with the Beach Boys backing her up, and it's a winningly goofy confection perfection. It doesn't even NEED any grit!

Straitjackets are not appropriate beach wear. We are infinite. We can dance and we can think, we can dream and we can plan, goof around and create, dive into the possibility of the immediate and conjure the promise of the abstract. We can be the beach boys and beach girls we wish to be. Fun, fun, fun. Life is too short to disdain fleeting opportunities to enjoy it.

BRIAN WILSON: 'Til I Die

I'm a leaf on a windy day. As all of us are. We'll return to celebrate the genius of Brian Wilson again on July 6th, with a special edition of TIRnRR called GOOD VIBRATIONS: Brian Wilson and the Legend of Summer. Fun in the sun and the pet sounds of the soul, influence and impact, sincere flattery, girls on the beach, reasons to smile, the feel of a vibe, the vibe of feel, an impressionist portrait of the effect genius can have in inspiring others to craft their own reaction and creation. Surf's up. Godspeed, Brian Wilson.

THE GRIP WEEDS: You're So Good To Me

For this week's feature on Brian Wilson as a performer, we elected to stay away from other artists covering his work. We allowed ourselves one easygoing exception, with the Grip Weeds' able and amiable take on "You're So Good To Me" taking us up to the bitchin' Witching Hour. The track comes from the various-artists set Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson, and you can bet on hearing more selections from that album on our July 6th show.

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 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.

10 SONGS: 6/14/2025

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 # 1289

THE GRIP WEEDS: Soul Bender

This little mutant radio show is always delighted to play brand new music from the Grip Weeds. We're also delighted to play familiar music from the Grip Weeds. We are remarkably--and delightedly--consistent on that point. And an opportunity to open a show with a new single from the Grip Weeds? We're ON it! "Soul Bender" is the advance single and title track from the group's eagerly-anticipated new album, and delight rules the friggin' day. Delight will renew itself with another spin of "Soul Bender" on our next show.

KID GULLIVER: 24 Hours

We are also delighted to play both new and familiar music from Kid Gulliver. We're fans! The group's "Forget About Him" is a proven TIRnRR Fave Rave, and we included it on our 2022 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. It's been a bit since we've had anything new from these Kids, but the wait is over! New single "24 Hours" is a little more Ramonesified than previous Kid Gulliver classics, though the comparison to your Joey, your Johnny, and your Dee Dee is in terms of the track's forward-lunging rhythmic thrust. The resulting flourish of pretty pop music is pure Kid Gulliver. Welcome back, Kids.

AMY RIGBY: Bitter

JILL SOBULE: Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart

Tribute.

Our time in this mortal plane is steeped in loss, reluctant farewells whispered again and again. Beyond the devastation of personal losses, we also mourn people we've never met, but who nonetheless became a part of our lives through the magic of the art they created. We are inundated with constant, rapid-fire reminders of our fragile nature. On this week's show, we felt the fresh wound of losing Terry Draper, and since then the losses of both Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. 

And we still feel the sting of the recent loss of Jill Sobule. Amy Rigby acknowledges that sting, and she's channeled the lingering ache into a homemade cover of Sobule's "Bitter," a song Sobule wrote with Richard Barone of the Bongos. The track is now available as a single, with sales benefitting The Jill Fund. A worthy tribute for a worthy cause.

We followed Amy Rigby's version of "Bitter" with another spin of what's become my favorite Jill Sobule track, "Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart." With hearts born to be broken, we do our best to avoid becoming bitter.

THE CORNER LAUGHERS: Speak To The Sky

Last week's exciting edition of 10 Songs extolled the virtues of the new various-artists collection Second By Second By Minute By Minute: The Songs Of Rick Springfield. My favorite Rick Springfield song is his very first single, 1972's "Speak To The Sky." On the new tribute album, the Corner Laughers offer a loving and heartfelt rendition of "Speak To The Sky," capturing the ache of looking to the heavens and communicating with the cherished memory of a departed father, speaking to the sky every night. More loss. The comfort is sweet and welcome. 

We'll play this again on Sunday. Father's Day. Love you , Dad. It's been thirteen years, but I know you're still with me all of the time.

PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS: Just Like Me

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: The Sweet Spot

SORROWS: Radio

After many months of gleeful teasing, we have announced the track listing for the long-promised tribute album honoring Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Due out in September from the irresistible rockin' pop force of Big Stir Records, our twenty-four track salute Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes gathers twenty-one new covers of songs written by members of the 'Cubes, and supplements 'em with three new recordings by the Flashcubes themselves. This week, we reprised a couple of already-proven Make Something Happen! favorites--the Flashcubes' "The Sweet Spot" and Sorrows' epic cover of "Radio"--as we look toward the bright lights of September. The sweet spot! Let us be your radio.

(And on our next show, we'll debut two more tracks from Make Something Happen!, as Graham Parker and Mike Gent take on "Pathetic" and Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin conjure up a "Bad Dream." We will also have encore spins of Flashcubes tribute album tracks by Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas and Librarians With Hickeys, another run through Make Something Happen!'s first single "Reminisce," and we'll even throw in the Slapbacks' previous cover of "Make Something Happen" from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. The tribute you take is equal to the tribute you make.)

KLAATU: Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft

We mentioned the passing of Terry Draper. Draper was best-known as the drummer for Klaatu, and he also crafted an impressive body of work as a solo artist. Terry was always nice to us, and we mourn along with his friends and family. We've played a fair amount of his music over the years, both solo and with Klaatu, and also working with Ray Paul. This week, our opening set included "For The Few" from Draper's 2024 album In The Beginning. And we circled back near show's end for a spin of Klaatu's most famous track, "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft." We are your friends. Godspeed, Terry Draper.

THE BEATLES: Within You Without You

From a previous post about Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, picking up the narrative with Side 2, Track 1:

"...The mystic hum of Indian music invites us back inside. Many will skip over George Harrison's meditative 'Within You Without You' on subsequent spins, and your humble blogger would be among them for a while, until the song's beguiling, subtle magic eventually completes its spell, capturing the heart forever thereafter...."

We were talking about the love we all could share. Life goes on within you and without you. Music endures. Memory endures for as long as we can hold it. We endure for as long as we can hold on.

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 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.

10...no, 11 SONGS!: 5/31/2025

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 expands to 11 songs, and draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1287

THE SPONGETONES: Lulu's In Love

From Sir, with love. New music from North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo the Spongetones is always a welcome (if rare) cause for a round of Oh YEAH!s, so we're dead chuffed to begin this week's proceedings with the group's brand-new single "Lulu's In Love." 

Not counting their collaboration with the Flashcubes on the latter's WAY fab 2016 remake of the Spongetones' "Have You Ever Been Torn Apart," this new single is the Spongetones' first group appearance on the Big Stir Records label. "Lulu's In Love" also serves as the recorded debut of the group's new drummer Eric Willhelm, joining bassist Steve Stoeckel and guitarists Jamie Hoover and Pat Walters as they devise the next step in the Spongetones' master pop plan. "Lulu's In Love" is the first of three new 'Tones studio singles, and Big Stir will be collecting all three singles later this year in a special package with some live music recorded at the Spongetones' 40th Anniversary gig. The Spongetones' legacy of beat music survives and thrives. No wonder Lulu loves them so.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Hurry Up Sundown

TAYLOR SWIFT: The Last Great American Dynasty [Long Pond Studio Session]

Here's to a pair of American folk heroes, Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. Their celebrity gives them a forum if they choose to use it, and I'm delighted that they've both opted to speak out against homegrown tyranny. Even at their dizzying level of fame and acclaim, they are not necessarily insulated from the threat of pushback, and I respect them all the more for doing the right thing anyway. Born in the USA? It's a love story, so baby just say YES.

From the 2014 EP American Beauty, "Hurry Up Sundown" is one of my favorite Boss tunes. I've never been a Springsteen fan on the level of so many of my peers, but nor would I or could I ever deny the man's passion and accomplishment. He's recorded a number of things I like, a handful of works I love, and one song--"Girls In Their Summer Clothes"--that I just adore. My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter on "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," and that articulates my feelings about Springsteen better than anything else I could ever attempt in that regard.

I'm not in Taylor Swift's demo, but I've come to appreciate her more and more, and I've even discovered a few of her tracks capable of annexing some pop-starved corner of my little wheelhouse. This is particularly true of "The Last Great American Dynasty," a stunning track from Swift's 2020 album Folklore; it's even more true of the alternate version of "The Last Great American Dynasty" found on Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, which feels more intimate and artful. As I said to a friend recently: I can't see anyone who likes Rumours-era Stevie Nicks disliking "The Last Great American Dynasty."

And I'm glad we have both Bruce and Taylor on our side.

THE BONGOS: The Beat Hotel

THE CYNZ: Heartbreak Time

THE GRIP WEEDS: Gene Clark (Broken Wing)

Tonight in Asbury Park, the Bongos--one of my many favorite bands of the 1980s--will be marking the release of their fabulous archival in-concert album The Shroud Of Touring: Live In 1985 with a reunion gig. TIRnRR Fave Raves the Cynz and the Grip Weeds are also on the bill with their Jem Records labelmates the Bongos, and I really, really wanted to be in attendance. Alas, I wasn't able to execute the logistics of making the trip, so I have to sit this one out. It's going to be an incredible show, and I'm bummed that I have to miss it. But we spin a track apiece from each of the three groups as a virtual long-distance cigarette lighter held high above our heads.

We've been programming the recent singles by the Cynz ("Heartbreak Time") and the Grip Weeds ("Gene Clark [Broken Wing]") anyway, and we've been on a weekly Bongos kick as well, starting with studio tracks then moving to live cuts from The Shroud Of Touring as soon as they were cleared for airplay. Other than a spin of the live "In The Congo"--probably my single favorite Bongos song--we've been sticking with Bongos numbers (with wings!) that have never made it to any previous TIRnRR playlist in either a live or a studio incarnation.

That continues with this week's airing of "The Beat Hotel" from The Shroud Of Touring. The studio version was the title track from an album the Bongos released when I was working at a record store in the '80s. I gave it a lot of in-store play, and I can't believe I never got around to playing it on the radio before including its live performance in this week's show.

We'll have another track from The Shroud Of Touring on our next show, a song we have played in its original studio version, but which wasn't originally credited as an official Bongos track. And we toast all of our friends in Asbury Park tonight. Wish we were there.

KISS: Calling Dr. Love

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce

Ahead of the September release of Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES, our friends at Big Stir Records have announced a June 27 date for the various-artists tribute album's first digital single: "Reminisce" by the Flashcubes with Mike Gent.

Our regular listeners already know the song quite well. We've been playing "Reminisce" for months, each spin somehow even more enthusiastic than the last. After a few years celebrating the Flashcubes' prowess in covering other artists, it was imperative to remind all 'n' sundry of the magnificence to be found in the band's own songwriting catalog. Hence a tribute album, gathering a bunch of accomplished rockin' pop performers to offer their own interpretations of some Cubic classics. 

I felt it was important--very important--that this tribute album should also include at least one newly-recorded original track by the Flashcubes themselves. Independent of what passes for my thought process, the 'Cubes were already working on three new tracks--"Reminisce" by Paul Armstrong, "If These Hands" by Arty Lenin, and "The Sweet Spot" by Gary Frenay (with the late B. D. Love)--so this was a match made in Bomp! magazine.

In addition to being the first single, "Reminisce" will open the album, kicking off this magic immersion in the Flashcubes' songbook, culminating in the Spongetones' album-closing cover of Arty Lenin's "Nothing Really Matters When You're Young." Make Something Happen! is a fantastic record, and I'm looking forward to the day you can hear it in its entirety. For now, we start with the single. June 27th will be your first opportunity to make something happen.

(An advance look at my liner notes for Make Something Happen! will be distributed privately to my $3-a-month paid Patreon supporters tomorrow, along with a mostly-unredacted look at the album's line-up. Wanna see it? Fund me, baby!)

THE RAMONES: Rockaway Beach

HEY!WE'RETHERAMONESANDTHISONE'SCALLED"ROCKAWAYBEACH!"

Outside of the Beatles, no band has ever meant more to me than the American Beatles, the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time, the Ramones. The Flashcubes are the only other band in my all-time pop Trinity. The Ramones were the subject of my first book, and the creators of the record that changed my life. It's Alive is my favorite live album.

This week's spin of "Rockaway Beach" comes from NYC 1978, a 2003 King Biscuit Flower Hour CD that preserves a January 7th, 1978 Ramones performance at the Palladium. That date was eight days after the London New Year's Eve performance captured on It's Alive, ten days before my 18th birthday (which was the day I bought the "Rockaway Beach" 45), and about a week shy of three months before the March 31st, 1978 Ramones/Flashcubes/Runaways Syracuse gig that was my first Ramones show.

There is no substitute for live Ramones. There's also no substitute for studio Ramones, but let's talk in-concert brudders for a sec. Both It's Alive and NYC 1978 offer essential shots of Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy in their natural element.

It's not hard, not far to reach. Everything is as it was then...except you are there. Take it, Dee Dee!

BEATLES: No Reply

Speaking of the Beatles: 

If I were you I'd realize that I

Love you more than any other guy

And I'd forgive the lies that I

Heard before when you gave me no reply

Pop music's best bridge ever. Narrowly edging out the Beatles' "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party," which narrowly edges out Badfinger's Beatles-inspired "Baby Blue." Toppermost of the poppermost, lads.

DAVIE ALLAN AND THE ARROWS: Blues' Theme

Our old theme song! Before the late-evening dawn (What...?!) of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio at the very end of 1998, the first Dana and Carl radio shows were the short-lived 1992 series We're Your Friends For Now. The trek from We're Your Friends For Now through the first two decades of TIRnRR is chronicled in my mini-memoir Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio).

On We're Your Friends For Now, our opening and closing theme song was usually Davie Allan and the Arrows' chopperrific classic "Blues' Theme." It's a track from the soundtrack of The Wild Angels, a 1966 biker flick starring Peter Fonda (as Blues) and Nancy Sinatra (as Blues' go'geous girlfriend Mike).

I saw The Wild Angels on a mid-'70s matinee double bill with The Born Losers, the 1967 film that introduced Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack. At the time, I didn't pay much attention to "Blues' Theme," and I don't recall what sequence of circumstance led me back to the song in the '80s. It became one of my top tunes, so I was more than all-in when Dana started playing it at the Hola! and Sayonara! spots in each week's exciting episode of We're Your Friends For Now.

And it still sounds great--and chopperrific!--ridin' into the sunset of this week's eleven-song 10 Songs. Hey, Blues! Tell Mike we said hi.

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 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: 5/10/2025

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 # 1284

CHRIS VON SNEIDERN: No Promise

Peerless pop performer Chris von Sneidern is an expatriate Central New Yorker--315 represent!--and he's been on each of the five This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums: "Lonely Tonight" and a TIRnRR show ID on Volume 1, another show ID on Volume 2, yet another show ID on Volume 3, "Insomniac Summer" on Volume 4, and "Goodnight Sailor" on Volume 5. CVS is nothing short of an international treasure, and we are honored that he's allowed us to share his wonderful, wonderful work. 

Given his firsthand local boy familiarity with Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes, Chris was an obvious and prerequisite choice to include in the forthcoming album Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. And man, our Chris does not disappoint. He took on the tribute's most daunting task: A cover of my favorite Flashcubes song, "No Promise."

"No Promise" was written by 'Cubes bassist Gary Frenay. We included the Flashcubes' demo version of "No Promise" on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 (as discussed here), and the official version from the group's Bright Lights anthology earned its own chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). One suspects that I kinda like the song.

Chris von Sneidern's cover nails it. Drop the freakin' mic awready. And it reinforces my belief that Make Something Happen! is destined to be one of this year's best collections.

That is a promise.

JOE GIDDINGS: Tonite Tonite

MADDY MACLAINE: So What?

Family night at TIRnRR! From Joe Giddings' ace current record Stories With Guitars, we've been playing this way fab track "Tonite Tonite" with the saturation bombardment approach you should expect from a proper rockin' pop radio show. The esteemed Mr. Giddings has also given us a superb cover of Flashcubes guitarist Arty Lenin's "You're Not Grounded" for the above-extolled Make Something Happen! project. You can safely consider us in favor of all things Giddings.

Joe recently posted that his daughter Maddy Maclaine has a new single out. Intriguing! The single is "So What?," we did our due diligence in tracking down a copy for airplay, and we hereby declare it go'geous. Go'geous! The Giddings blood line runs true.

PERILOUS: Dear Heart

A new single from Perilous...?! Oh YEAH! "Dear Heart" may be the group's most flat-out POP!! record yet, sacrificing none of their CBGB's-level passion and drive while committing to a head-over-heels swoon into the arms of, y'know, swooning. Production by TIRnRR Fave Rave Kurt Reil adds extra dollops of gravitas, and we're all eager to swoon right along. This "Dear Heart" beats again on our next show.

THE GRIP WEEDS: Gene Clark (Broken Wing)

Speaking of the mighty Kurt Reil, his own phenomenal pop combo the Grip Weeds also have a new single out, further teasing the presumed magnificence of their forthcoming album Soul Bender. Given how much airplay this little mutant radio show has allotted to the Grip Weeds' cover of the Byrds' "Lady Friend," it's a given that we'll likewise wanna spin an original Grip Weeds gem that name-checks the Byrds' Gene Clark. Byrdseriffic! We can not wait to go on a Soul Bender ourselves.

THE ROLLING STONES: Happy

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE SPONGETONES: Nothing Really Matters When You're Young

Although Make Something Happens!'s track sequence is still subject to much further tweaking, the Spongetones' cover of Arty Lenin's "Nothing Really Matters When You're Young" remains the likely closing track. How could it not be? As we exult in the legacy of the Flashcubes and how much their music has meant to me over a span of nearly five decades, I dig the flow and symmetry of opening the album with the new Flashcubes track "Reminisce" (written by 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong) and barreling our way to "Nothing Really Matters When You're Young" at the end. Reminisce. Nothing Really Matters When You're Young. Look back. Reflect. And rock out with fist raised. 

A great album's final track has to be as irresistible as a great album's first track. Mission accomplished here.

THE NEW BRUTARIANS: Born Out Of Time

A recent episode of The Spoon podcast introduced us to St. Petersburg, Florida group the New Brutarians. We figured we can't go wrong copying The Spoon and grabbed latest New Brutarians single "Born Out Of Time" for our own selfish playlist-stuffin' purposes. Listen, these three-hour weekly radio shows don't just fill themselves, people. "Born Out Of Time" carries the added approved-by-TIRnRR patina of drummin' and productionin' by The Spoon's overhost Robbie Rist, though we credited those respective roles on air to Oliver Martin and David Baxter. Let's face it: We're too cute and clever for all but a select few words. Sadly, we can't say most of those words on the radio. 

Brutal.

MIKE GENT: Pathetic [work-in-progress mix]

Mike Gent of the Figgs is working on a very special contribution to Make Something Happen!, and he allowed us to play his work-in-progress cover of Flashcubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's song "Pathetic."

The finished version of Mike's track will sport a lead vocal by a noted rock 'n' roll artist whose work I've enjoyed since I was still in high school. I have also heard a subsequent work-in-progress mix with that lead vocal in place, and the result lives up to all of my giddy expectations. Or, as Paul Armstrong hisself noted, "It's unreal hearing [REDACTED] FUCKING [REDACTED] sing a song I wrote!"

We're not quite ready to address the Rumour of this secret guest singer's identity. Though sometimes I feel like pouring it all out. 

Passion is no ordinary word.

CALLAN FOSTER: It's You Tonight

It's tempting to say that Callan Foster's epic take on Gary Frenay's "It's You Tonight" was one of the precipitating events that made Make Something Happen! happen. That's not exactly true--the vague idea of maybe someday doing a Flashcubes tribute album predates Callan's one-man-'Cubes cover--but his version and its accompanying video blew me away. And it provided instant validation of my belief that a Flashcubes tribute album was viable and necessary. 

And now we are making it happen. Thanks, Callan! It's you tonight.

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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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.