10 SONGS: 10/26/2024

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 # 1256.

20/20: Back To California

New music from 20/20? When you produce a (nominally) power pop radio show every week, and you stumble into a brand-new track from one of the biggest-ever names in classic power pop, it doesn't matter that you've already set the playlist for your next show. You take ACTION. 

Um...action NOW, ideally.

So when we received the fab new 20/20 single "Back To California" in the brief window between playlist-settlin' and show-recordin', we moved what needed moving to open this week's radio shindig with the latest sounds from 20/20. Power pop radio will stand. Good to have you back, 20/20. Good to have you back.

LA FLEUR FATALE: How Long Is Too Long

Here's a Badfingeresque gem I would never have heard if not for Dedication--Fans Remember The Bay City Rollers. "How Long Is Too Long" was written by Duncan Faure, who served as the Rollers' lead singer for a few (fantastic) years following Les McKeown's departure from the group in 1978. The song was recorded by the Swedish group La Fleur Fatale, who released it as the B-side of their "Beautiful Stranger" single in 2013.

I heard "How Long Is Too Long" for the first time a few weeks ago, when Faure himself played the La Fleur Fatale recording during a guest DJ stint on the above-mentioned Dedication radio show. I was mesmerized, and I immediately reached out to Dedication cohost Suz Rostron for info on securing the track for TIRnRR airplay. Magic. Dedication can be its own reward.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: No More Goodbyes

I have really been looking forward to How To Make Friends By Telephone, the new album from TIRnRR Fave Raves Librarians With Hickeys. We've been playing its two advance singles "Hello Operator" and "No More Goodbyes" with piledriving efficiency, and the former is almost certain to score a berth on our year-end countdown show. It's overdue. GET IT? Overdue! Librarians...never mind.

We just heard the whole album, so our forward-looking process now transitions to really looking forward to playing some of its non-single tracks. Our next show will open with one of those this Sunday night. Hello, friends! Are you listening?

WONDERBOY: Girl Songs

We've been giving a lot of airplay this year to "Girl Songs," a song by Wonderboy's best boy (or at least lead boy) Robbie Rist. Our Robbie's giddy ode to boyish infatuation with girls will absolutely be on that year-end countdown show we just mentioned. Even if we stopped playing it right now, "Girl Songs" has already accrued enough 2024 TIRnRR spinnage to guarantee a spot somewhere within the countdown victory roll.

I don't know yet how much (if any) more spins "Girl Songs" will get before the countdown. I can tell you it's not in our next show, and it will definitely not be in our November 3rd show.

Why definitely not on 11/3? Well, that's two days before the election. Seems like we should devote that time exclusively to female voices. There'll be some boys in the background, maybe poundin' on some drums and pluckin' on their gee-tars. But the lead mic will belong exclusively to women.

It's a symbolic gesture, sure. But it's sincere, and it's urgent. 

We're with her. 

THE CYNZ: Woman Child

Speaking of female voices: This little mutant radio show has demonstrated its pervasive and prevailing interest in the music of the Cynz. We love 'em. We play 'em. We're fans.

Given the above truths, I think it means even more when I say the current Cynz single "Woman Child" just might be the best thing they've done yet. Bless us, Lord. We have CYNZ!

THE BEATLES: I Should Have Known Better

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: Hold Me Tight

Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes played their first-ever live show on September 1st, 1977. It was more than four months before my first Flashcubes show in January of '78, which was just a couple of months before I saw them open for the Ramones and the Runaways during Easter break. The latter gig occurred at The Brookside, the only time I ever visited that now long-defunct Central New York nightclub.

The Brookside was also where the 'Cubes made their debut on 9/1/77. The Flashcubes opened their inaugural performance with a cover of the Meet The Beatles! album track "Hold Me Tight." Collectively, the 'Cubes had one foot in the garage, the other foot hoppin' aboard the one after 909, one hand reaching for the toppermost of the poppermost, and the other hand thrust in the face of know-nothing naysayers. 

Or maybe just a single flashing finger of that second hand. No future?. Yeah yeah yeah.

I don't have a recording of the Flashcubes' first show. The live Cubic "Hold Me Tight" we play is from a 1978 show at the Jab on the Syracuse University campus. But I've been using my imagination and my familiarity with the Flashcubes--my all-time # 1 favorite power pop group--to try to conjure a vivid mental image...no, a vivid mental sensation of that September 1977 night at The Brookside. How it sounded. How it felt. What it meant.

As mentioned previously, I'm working on a book about the Flashcubes. MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN! The DIY Story Of A Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES will present a comprehensive history of the 'Cubes, as related by the Flashcubes themselves and others who were there to witness and exult in the bright lights of that time in Syracuse. The work is going more slowly than I would like, but I'll get it done. And it will be worthy of the legacy of this band that has loomed so large in my legend.

For the past fifty years or so, ever since then-teen me decided I was going to be a writer, no project has ever felt real until I've completed at least a decent draft of its introduction. Work on the Flashcubes book began with initial interviews. But two weeks ago, I wrote the book's introduction, kicking off with a reminiscence about an evening I didn't experience, but which I can imagine with eerie precision.

September 1st, 1977. It feels all right now! Hold on tight. I'll share the book's intro in a near-future blog post. 

JUNIOR VARSITY: Where The Groove Is

Wheeeeeeeeere the groove is, someone waits for me....

No waiting here. Junior Varsity's current single "Where The Groove Is" has become a delightfully welcome earworm, burrowing deep into my rockin' pop cranium. The track makes its second consecutive 10 Songs appearance, marking the second of three weeks in a row on the TIRnRR playlist. Second of three? If I understand the math, that means we'll hear Junior Varsity again on the radio in Syracuse this Sunday night. Ah. So THAT'S where the groove is!

THE RAMONES: Questioningly

On this show, we play the Ramones almost every week. Over the past eleven weeks, the only time we didn't include a Ramones track was on this year's edition of the annual Dana's Funky Soul Pit. And we'll skip da brudders again on November 3rd, 'cuz no boys allowed at the lead-singin' mic that day.

The demands of special programming aside, the Ramones (and the Beatles) are likely prerequisites for most TIRnRR playlists. Looking at our playlists since August 12th, our Ramones selections have been dominated by one Ramones album:

Road To Ruin.

The time frame chosen for this review is deliberate: These are shows we did after we recorded our guest appearance on the Only Three Lads podcast with Brett Vargo and Uncle Gregg. Our topic on O3L was our top five favorite Ramones songs, and while my Top 5 didn't include anything from Road To Ruin, Dana's, Gregg's, and Brett's lists did. And I thanked them for that because, as I said during the podcast, I have come to believe that Road To Ruin is the Ramones' masterpiece.

That pronouncement on O3L had some effect on our subsequent Ramones programming, though not a monolithic effect; sometimes we played something from Road To Ruin in direct acknowledgement of O3L, and sometimes we just played a Road To Ruin track because we felt like playing a Road To Ruin track.

Of the ten Ramones tracks (including duplicates) we've programmed since being on O3L, six have come from Road To Ruin: "She's The One," "Don't Come Close," "I'm Against It," "Don't Come Close" again, "I Just Want To Have Something To Do," and now "Questioningly," with another Road To Ruin selection set for this Sunday. Three of the remaining four were from Rocket To Russia ("Teenage Lobotomy," plus "Rockaway Beach" twice) with "I Don't Want To Grow Up" (from ¡Adios Amigos!) leveling off our Carbona supply.

And this week's Road To Ruin pick "Questioningly" goes out to Riff Randell, rock 'n' roller, phoning in to DJ Screamin' Steve to blurt out the call-in answer: ROAD TO RUIN!!!

Good answer. Don't argue with Riff Randell, man. Don't argue with Riff.

CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Is It True

Is it true that early voting has started in the great state of New York? Yes it's true. With that in mind, we fire up Carla Olson and Tall Poppy Syndrome's fantastic remake of Brenda Lee's "Is It True," and we stand in line, as antifa as our fathers were.

And this is also true: We're not going back.

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.

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: 10/18/2024

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 # 1255.

JUNIOR VARSITY: Where The Groove Is

Just based on the name of the song, it would have been tough to resist opening this week's extravaganza with the title tune from Where The Groove Is, the new four-song debut release from Rum Bar Records recording artists Junior Varsity. Well, I guess it wouldn't have been all that tough to resist if the song, like, sucked or something. But it doesn't! It's GOOD! And it opens another groovin', boppin', and percolatin' edition of our irresistible Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. The groove is where you want it to be. And Junior Varsity will groove again on our next show.

SUNBUZZ: Desiree Today

Musician Joseph Mannix has been part of TIRnRR's story since the 2001 release of the exquisite album Come To California by his former group Mannix. The Come To California gem "Highway Lines" is one of this show's five or so all-time defining tracks, and one could make a strong case that it's # 1. "Highway Lines" was the subject of one of my Greatest Record Ever Made! essays, and that essay would have been in my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) if not for a missed connection that prevented me from using it.

Now, Joseph Mannix is back with a new group. In July, we played "Sunny Days," a track from Sunbuzz's then-forthcoming debut five-song EP Hello Again. The EP has now been released, so we're adding its delectable number "Desiree Today" to the playlist. "Desiree Today" will rack up another spin this Sunday night. It may not ever catch up to the million or so times we played "Highway Lines"--that would be a daunting prospect for any new record--but it's gotta start somewhere.

GANG OF FOUR: I Found That Essence Rare

BOBBY WOMACK: Lookin' For A Love

A neck-snappin' segue? It's all pop music, man. I'm not sure of the specific thought process that compelled me to follow Dana's Gang of Four selection with Bobby Womack, but even if the transition looks weird in print it sounds sublime on the radio.

I first heard Gang of Four in the early '80s, when their tracks "Damaged Goods" and "Anthrax" were included on a Warner Brothers label family sampler called Troublemakers. "Anthrax" was a little outside of my preferred parameters, but I did play "Damaged Goods" quite a bit at the time. Many years later, Dana hooked me on "I Found That Essence Rare," and that track has become my Gang of Four go-to.

It would be a stretch to think of "I Found That Essence Rare" as a love song, but the notion of securing an essence rare made me think of "Lookin' For A Love." It's my favorite Bobby Womack performance, even more than his original Rolling Stones-inspiring version of "It's All Over Now" when he and his brothers were billed as the Valentinos. The Valentinos also recorded the first version of "Lookin' For A Love" in 1962, but I give the nod to Womack's '74 remake.

See? Bobby Womack has that essence rare. Don't worry. Your neck will be fine.

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.: Public Image

THE MONKEES: You And I

Not a neck-snappin' segue at all. The Monkees have a lot in common with Public Image Ltd. frontman John Lydon's former group the Sex Pistols; both groups were fabricated in a way (though the specific ways differed), both transcended the machinations that created them, and both merit recognition from the verdammt Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Pistols are in the Hall, though they snubbed the invitation; the Monkees are not in, but they oughta be.

(The Sex Pistols also covered the Monkees' proto-punk classic "[I'm Not Your] Steppin' Stone," but that's incidental to the similarities between them. And the Monkees actually rocked even harder on their version, and somehow more even more convincingly than the original version by Paul Revere and the Raiders, who also should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)

But the reason we pair PiL's 1978 debut single "Public Image" with the Monkees' 1969 Instant Replay album track "You And I" is that both are essentially about the aftermath of pop idolatry: "Public Image" is an angry diatribe against manufactured images with no philosophy, and "You And I" reflects upon the fleeting nature of fame, an ephemeral gift with no future, no future, no future for you. The former Johnny Rotten and the starry-eyed Davy Jones mean it, man. I'm a believer.

(Oh, and one other connection between Pistols and Monkees: Neil Young sang This is the story of Johnny Rotten in his own song "Hey Hey My My [Into The Black]," and ol' Neil also played the lead guitar on the Monkees' recording of "You And I.")

THE KINKS: I Tool My Baby Home

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE LOLLIPOP SHOPPE: You Must Be A Witch

I can't quite remember where and how I first became enthralled by the Lollipop Shoppe's incredible, incendiary 1968 rock 'n' roll explosion "You Must Be A Witch." Even if I heard it when I was an eight-year-old kid (which is possible if unlikely), that wouldn't have been my point of impact. I came under the song's spell in the mid '80s, and I betcha it was due to airplay on Buffalo State college radio. I wasn't a student, but I listened to Buff State's WBNY-FM with religious devotion, and it seems likely that BNY DJ Cal Zone! played "You Must Be A Witch" on his show. Once duly under the song's black-magic thrall, I tracked down a various-artists compilation album (Pebbles Vol. 8) to add "You Must Be A Witch" to my personal cauldron...um, collection.

The more I think about it, the more certain I am that it was Cal Zone! and WBNY that introduced me to this track. I was working in record retail at the time, but I'm also certain that my acquisition of Pebbles Vol. 8 didn't come via my shopping-mall outlet but instead from either Home Of The Hits or writer Gary Sperrazza's Apollo Records, both of which were located on Elmwood Avenue just up the road from Buff State. And I do remember discussing the track with local record-collecting luminary Louie the Mad Vinyl Junkie, who told me not to bother with the Lollipop Shoppe's then-rare album; "You Must Be A Witch" was all the Lollipop Shoppe one would need

I don't know if he was right about that. But you don't argue with Mad Louie.

THE HUNTINGTONS: Rock N Roll Girl

Hey, speakin' of Buffalo! I was back in the Queen City for a visit in June. It was a chance to reconnect with some old friends, visit my old comics retailer Queen City Bookstore, hop on the subway I used to take to work, stroll by the empty shell of one of the dead malls that used to be my place of employment, make my first ever trip to the beyond wonderful Buffalo AKG Art Museum, autograph copies of Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones on the shelf at Talking Leaves...Books on Elmwood, and, of course, eat at Mighty Taco. Miiiiiighteee Taco!

Alas, Apollo Records is long, long gone, and Home of the Hits closed its doors in 2007 (and I think there's a luxury condo or something going up in its place). But there is still a record store on Elmwood Ave, albeit one that didn't exist during my Buffalo years: Revolver Records. I don't buy vinyl anymore, but I did snag a nice li'l haul of CDs from Revolver's clearance wares. One of the discs in that haul was Growing Up Is No Fun, a Huntingtons best-of set.

I already have several Huntingtons CDs, and the group has made several TIRnRR playlist appearances over the years. I like a lot of their stuff, but my favorite Huntingtons memory was shopping at Borders with my daughter, something like twenty-four or twenty-five years ago. Meghan would have been about four, maybe five years old. I brought a Huntingtons CD to the counter, and the clerk said he hadn't heard the group, but had heard that they sounded a lot like the Ramones.

"Oh!," Meghan said in immediate response. "Daddy loves the Ramones. He LOVES them!"

That moment is always the first thing to come to my mind when I think of the Huntingtons. As I write this, some strange science has transformed my daughter into an adult. I'm as proud of her as anyone could ever be proud of anyone.

When I bought Growing Up Is No Fun this summer, I may have expected a track called "Rock N Roll Girl" to be a Paul Collins cover. It is not, but it's a cool number in its own right. Here's to all the rock 'n' roll girls, and rock 'n' roll boys, rock 'n' roll Borders clerks, and especially to rock 'n' roll girls whose daddies love the Ramones. Even if growing up is no fun, the experience has its positives.

And I love the positives. I LOVE them.

THE ARMOIRES: Green Hellfire At The 7-11

The Armoires' new album Octoberland is one of this year's best. Chief Executive Armoires Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko were guests on this week's two-part episode of the Only Three Lads podcast with Brett Vargo and Uncle Gregg (you can hear Part 1 here, and Part 2 here), and they mentioned the urgent political motivation at the heart of their current single "Green Hellfire At The 7-11." October surprise? November blue wave. And like Rex and Christina: I'm with her. We're not going back. I'll meet you for Slurpees after we vote.

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.

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.