10 SONGS: 5/30/2026

 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 # 1338

THE HALF/CUBES: Starless Summer Sky

It was a rare treat for us to preview no less than three new and as-yet-unreleased tracks from the Half/Cubes. Their next single (a cover of Jellyfish's "Ghost At Number One") is due out soon, and we gave that li'l gem its debut airing in this week's closing set. We placed the Half/Cubes' ace cover of Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Get Down" in the middle of the show, and we kicked our shindig off with their superb rendition of Marshall Crenshaw's luscious pop treasure "Starless Summer Sky." AND! We threw in another spin of the Half/Cubes' current single, joining forces with Glenn Burtnick for a bravura rendition of the American Breed's "Bend Me, Shape Me." The three new tracks will surely return in eventual future playlists. "Bend Me, Shape Me" plays again this Sunday night.

THE KNACK: Pop Is Dead

Get the Knack! Dana has been quite taken with the new Knack retrospective Knackology: The Zen Recordings, a set that mixes studio and live tracks from the 1990s and early 2000s, supplemented by demos and a live "Let Me Out" from 1979. The Knack's 1998 album Zoom was my favorite album that year, and it's possible that I like Zoom even more than I like Get The Knack. I'm delighted that Dana programmed Zoom's "Pop Is Dead," and you can bet on more Knackology to come on TIRnRR.

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Hotel Chambermaid

As pop fans worldwide clear space in their music libraries for Quality Footwear: Live At The Brook, the forthcoming new live album from the mighty Graham Parker and the Goldtops, we've been playing the album's advance singles. This week, I wanted to program a live version of a Graham Parker song that has specific meaning for me.

From a previous 10 Songs:

"Hotel Chambermaid" was the first Graham Parker and the Rumour I recall hearing, a favorite on Utica's WOUR-FM circa '76-'77, my senior year in high school. For some reason, I thought it was by Greg Kihn, whose take on Bruce Springsteen's "For You" was also getting some significant airplay on OUR, and I don't know why my mind put those two songs together. But both were part of my early FM radio listening, along with Nick Lowe's "So It Goes," the Kinks' "No More Looking Back," Joan Baez's "Time Rag," Michael Nesmith's "Rio," and, eventually, the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen." Radio's been good to me.

THE AMPLIFIER HEADS: A Song Called Sha La La

And the song chose its name well! The Amplifier Heads' new single "A Song Called Sha La La" is a perfect addition to our sovereign airwaves, channeling the Troggs and fortifying each Sha, La, and La with the essential oomph we require. Sha la LA! All three syllables (and, y;know, the rest of the record, too) return to the playlist on our next show.

THE SMALL FACES: Sha-La-La-La-Lee

Well, how else could you follow our first spin of "A Song Called Sha La La?" The Small Faces answer the call!

THE FLASHCUBES: Got No Mind

I've come to regard the Flashcubes' "Got No Mind" as 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's signature song. "Got No Mind" made its retail debut in a 4-track recording found (alongside a 4-track of 'Cubes bassist Gary Frenay's "Guernica") on the B-side of the Flashcubes' debut single "Christi Girl" in 1978. The definitive version was recorded live at The Firebarn in Syracuse in 1979, included on the group's 1997 anthology Bright Lights, and eventually reprised on the live at The Firebarn CD document Flashcubes On Fire. In the wake of PA's recent passing, we've been playing it a lot, and we will continue to do so. A friend recently told me that she used to think "Got No Mind" was a Sex Pistols cover rather than a Flashcubes original, and I say that's a testament to the great Paul Armstrong's ability to embody the raucous best of punk, and the Flashcubes' collective knack for making punk pop, and pop punk. Got no mind? I don't mind.

THE RUNAWAYS: Wait For Me

When I was a college student in the late '70s, I became a huge fan of the Runaways, and I consider myself fortunate to have seen them on a 1978 live bill with the Flashcubes and the Ramones (a concert memory recalled here). I played their third album Waitin' For The Night a lot--a lot--and I'm a little surprised we never got around to playlisting the album track "Wait For Me" until this week. Glad they were willing to wait!

THE CYNZ: Ghost Rider

My new book Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is finished, with a fingers-crossed publication date of June 12th. HEY! That's an excuse to display the book's cover graphic again right here!

Well, that felt good. The book is a collection of some of my short fiction, and the rock 'n' roll in its DNA mandates passing references to a long list of real-life music performers (and you can read that list here). The Cynz are, of course, among TIRnRR's Fave Raves, so it makes sense that my imaginary planet-hoppin' combo Guitars Vs. Rayguns likes to include the occasional Cynz cover in their own outer space live sets:

"...Now, Leiko, Beckie, and FeeFEE! were all dressed the same as me (though each of 'em considerably better-looking than your boy Rocky), like co-ed Beatles at CBGB. The setlist was still peppered with covers, everything from the Buzzcocks and the Selecter to the Cynz and Etta James...."

Literary immortality! This week, we celebrate the notion of the Cynz as intergalactic superstars by returning their recent single "Ghost Rider" (from their current album Confess) to the real-world airwaves.

RIHANNA: Shut Up And Drive

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: Surfin' Safari

From a previous 10 Songs:

In my continuing efforts to fool people into thinking I'm way cooler than I really I am, I'll casually mention that I first learned that the Ramones had recorded a cover of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari" when Joey Ramone told me that the Ramones had recorded a cover of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari." Gabba Gabba HEY! 

The revelation came during my 1994 telephone interviews with the Ramones [as detailed in my first book, Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones]. Our Carbona-huffin' heroes had tackled the song previously, their version used as a backing track for a 1978 single by Rodney and the Brunettes. That would be legendary DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, with the Honeys handling the vocal heavy lifting. The Ramones had hoped to exhume their original parts (minus Rodney and his Brunette Honeys) to use in their All The Stuff (And More) reissue series, but the tracks could not be located.

Instead, the Ramones wound up recording it again during the sessions for their 1993 all-covers album Acid Eaters. Their '90s "Surfin' Safari" was only used as a bonus track on the album's Japanese edition, though it did eventually appear on a British reissue of Acid Eaters. It has never been released in America.

And lemme just add here in the present day: Surf's UP. A safari awaits.

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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. My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is due out soon; meanwhile, you can get an autographed copy of my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) here, and 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.

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.

POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! Klaatu, the Knack, and the Knickerbockers

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is an Everlasting First! Quick Take recalling my introductions to Klaatu, the Knack, and the Knickerbockers.

I haven't written much about Klaatu (other than wishing that a 1999 Klaatu tribute album called Around The Universe In 80 Minutes had instead channeled The Day The Earth Stood Still and chosen the title KLAATU: Borrowed 'n' Nicked, Too). My CD collection includes better'n Klaatu representation, and debut album 3:47 E.S.T. track "California Jam" remains a favorite. I owe myself a deeper dive into my Klaatu library. But I've never had much to say about Klaatu.

I have had a little bit more to say about the Knack. These excerpts from my lengthy history of power pop The Kids Are Alright! sum it up:

"Even all these years after the fact, it’s difficult to articulate exactly what the problem was with the Knack. They really weren’t a bad group; their debut album, 1979’s Get The Knack, was a damn fine record, loaded with damn fine pop tunes like 'Good Girls Don’t,' 'Let Me Out,' 'That’s What The Little Girls Do,' the excellent 'Your Number Or Your Name,' and one much-maligned but still agreeable monster hit single ('M-m-m-m-m-m-m-my Sharona'). Sure, they weren’t the next Beatles, or the next Big Star, but what was so wrong about the Knack?

"The short answer: everything was wrong about the Knack. (Short answers are rude, disrespectful and have terrible personal grooming habits.) The long answer is a bit more complicated.

"The Knack’s own swift, gargantuan success was a large part of the problem many people had with the group. Much of this was due to simple jealousy. The Knack became so big so fast--a mere six months passed from the band’s formation to its signing with Capitol--that many were understandably chagrined by the group’s apparent paucity of dues-paying. Add in the general consensus that there were many acts more deserving of the kind of success the Knack enjoyed, and you’ve got fertile breeding ground for a backlash.

"The Knack’s Doug Feiger has claimed many times that if the Knack hadn’t hit big, if Get The Knack had only sold as many units as, say, Radio City, the Knack today would be revered as a visionary cult act. And there is probably some truth in Feiger’s claim...."

I like Klaatu. I really like the Knack. But although the Knickerbockers were a one-hit wonder with the fabulous "Lies," and in spite of the fact that I own more Klaatu tracks and more Knack tracks than I own Knickerbockers tracks, the Knickerbockers actually have a greater presence on my iPod than Klaatu and the Knack combined. "Lies" merits its own chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). When that chapter was reprised at Pop-A-Looza, the Knickerbockers' own Beau Charles wrote:

"Thank you Carl for an insightful view of our best effort 'Lies!' My brother [John Charles] and I have always been amazed by that performance by our band! BTW, a day or two before we recorded it our producer Jerry Fuller told me to get 'Lies' together for the session and make it about two and a half minutes! Our earlier demo was about half that! John and I worked on it and his bass part and I added the guitar break. Viola, 2:40! We showed [fellow Knickerbockers Jimmy Walker and Buddy Randell] the changes the next day in the studio and we did it! I love everything about it! The energy, the ad libs, the sound, and the love we had for playing rock 'n' roll! I think your analysis is spot on! Thank you!!!"

Thank YOU, Beau! Can't tell you how much it means to hear something like that from one of the architects of one of my all-time favorite tracks.

And let's add this one more thing I wrote separately about the fabulous Knickerbockers:

"...The Knickerbockers were one-hit wonders; they are remembered only for that one big record 'Lies,' if they are remembered at all. They deserve better. Both 'Lies' and a much lesser-known Knickerbockers track called 'They Ran For Their Lives' have permanent berths on the list of my all-time favorite songs, and I wish more folks knew additional Knickerbockers gems like 'One Track Mind,' 'My Feet Are Off The Ground,' 'I Must Be Doing Something Right,' 'Just One Girl,' 'High On Love," "Rumors, Gossip, Words Untrue," "I Can Do It Better," "She Said Goodbye," "Can't You See I'm Trying,' 'Please Don't Fight It,' 'Give A Little Bit,' and...well, that's a lot more great stuff than you'd expect from a one-hit wonder.

"I once had an editor (not at Goldmine!) who had inserted a reference to the Knickerbockers into a piece I'd written, and he was going over it with me to be sure I had no objection to the addition. He was a knowledgeable guy, and I had no issue with the (relevant) tangent he'd added to my piece. But giddy pop music wasn't his specialty. He had referred to the Knickerbockers as a California group; I wanted to correct that, as I knew they were from New Jersey. Are you sure?, the editor asked. I thought they were from California. I said that yeah, I was certain, but that I'd double-check the info in my Knickerbockers boxed set. He was flabbergasted. They have a BOXED SET...?!

"Yeah, they do. More than one, in fact. One-hit wonder? True, I guess. Only a one-hit wonder? No. Lies, man. Lies."

It's time to listen to some Knickerbockers, and maybe some Klaatu and Knack while I'm at it. My introductions to all three of these rockin' pop combos provide the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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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

10 SONGS: 8/26/2020

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.


This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1039.

THE BEATLES: I've Just Seen A Face


In the '60s and '70s, kids in America--hey, where is Kim Wilde when we need her?--did not know most of The Beatles' albums in the way The Beatles intended them to be heard. The U.S. record label Capitol butchered the original  U.K. releases, chopping them up, making them shorter, playing with sequencing, cobbling together whole "new" Beatles product made up from tracks excised from other albums. That's not even considering how Capitol messed with the sound of the master tracks. You could call it a triumph of the Philistines, and I'd be hard-pressed to give you an intelligent counter-argument.

Well, except for this, as many of my fellow Americans have already said: whatever the faults of the Capitol releases, it's how we Yanks heard The Beatles. It's how we fell in love with the music of The Beatles. 

When I think of Rubber Soul, I think of the U.S. version of Rubber Soul. I have the Parlophone CDs. I get it. You'll never convince me that "I've Just Seen a Face" is an album track on Help! "I've Just Seen A Face" is the first track on Rubber Soul. That's how I heard it, and that's how it is.

Ah, THERE ya are, Kim! Me and the rest of the kids in America just wanna say hi.

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: It Don't Feel Good



We don't think of The Dave Clark Five as album artists. The DC5's legacy was built on singles, compact 45 rpm blasts like "Glad All Over," "Bits And Pieces," "Do You Love Me," and "Any Way You Want It." The group's LPs generally surrounded the singles with mere filler, but there were exceptions. The U.S. release Having A Wild Weekend--my favorite DC5 album--includes the fab single "Catch Us If You Can" as its high point, but it also has some other certifiably solid cuts: the title track flat-out rocks, mid-tempo numbers "A New Kind Of Love" and "I Said I Was Sorry" display an agreeable maturity, and both "Don't Be Taken In" and the brooding "Don't You Realize" remain among my top Dave Clark Five choices. The Coast To Coast album contains a similarly contemplative classic called "When," which was featured in the group's underrated Having A Wild Weekend movie. 

"It Don't Feel Good" is a standout track from the 1966 Try Too Hard album. No, it's not as flat-out irresistible as the hit single that gave the album its name. But it is further evidence that there is such a thing as a decent DC5 album track. There are several of them, actually.  

THE FLESHTONES: It Is As It Was



Welcome to another edition of Because My iPod Said So!, where a song comes up on the ol' digital playback device and prompts me to say, Yeah, I oughtta play that on the show this week. The joy of radio! The best of The Fleshtones is ideal fare for TIRnRR, and it's worth noting that the group's best isn't limited to their late '70s and '80s material. "It Is As It Was" is from The Fleshtones' 2014 album Wheel Of Talent, which also contains one of my all-time top 'Tones picks "Just For A Smile." My delighted obsession with "Just For A Smile" tended to elbow aside other tracks on Wheel Of Talent, but while this certainly isn't the first time we've played "It Is As It Was" on TIRnRR, it's been a while. Good to have it back!

THE FOUR TOPS: Baby I Need Your Loving



The Four Tops are my favorite Motown act, which is a helluva compliment when you consider the storied competition. Here's part of a Four Tops testimonial I wrote for another project:

...British post-punk folk singer Billy Bragg would much later pay tribute to the emotional power of The Four Tops' lead singer in a song called "Levi Stubbs' Tears," a devastatingly stark tale that is markedly more downbeat than even the darkest seven rooms of gloom that Stubbs and company ever visited on record. It's an effective tribute nonetheless, its own harrowing narrative upping the ante of The Four Tops' 45 rpm melodramas into the realm of tragedy. As great as Bragg's track is, and as riveting its sad narrative, it still can't compare to the impact of Levi Stubbs' own tears, poured forth in every note of every Four Tops smash....

Of course I also love Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Marvelettes, The Contours, Martha and the Vandellas, and the rest of the best from Hitsville, USA. I love The Mynah Birds (with Rick James and Neil Young), and I wish the current corporate overlords at Motown would scrape together whatever can be found to make a Mynah Birds CD. But The Four Tops...! Levi Stubbs, man. Levi Stubbs.

JOHNNY & THE HURRICANES: The Beatnik Fly



This rock instrumental take on "The Blue Tailed Fly" was the first Johnny & the Hurricanes track I ever heard, one single among two little storage books of 45s left behind by a young woman named Nancy, who had been a friend of my brothers. Of that small cache of 7" treasures, Nancy's orphaned Buddy Holly single had the most pervasive impact upon young and impressionable me, but "The Beatnik Fly" means a lot to me, too. Most would consider the # 5 hit "Red River Rock" as Johnny & the Hurricanes' signature tune; in my personal pop world, the sound of Johnny & the Hurricanes is defined by "The Beatnik Fly."

THE KINKS: Muswell Hillbilly



I have a black t-shirt emblazoned in white letters with The Kinks' classic '60s logo. It's my favorite t-shirt. When I wear it, some random stranger will often notice it and express approval (even from a socially-distanced vantage point). I've had people insist I'm too young to even know who The Kinks are (which means I'm either older than I look, or that I wasted my money on those three Kinks concerts I attended; I enjoyed those shows, so I don't feel like I coulda been too young to know The Kinks at the time).

Yes, I DO wear this shirt all day and all of the night!

It's not unusual for the sight of my Kinks shirt to inspire strangers to want to chat, however briefly, about these well-respected men. Recently, a gentleman just over six feet away from me admired my shirt, and mentioned his favorite Kinks album: 1971's Muswell Hillbillies.

This is not the first Kinks record that most passers-by will cite in reaction to my dedicated follower of fashion choice of wardrobe. "Lola." "You Really Got Me." One guy said "Come Dancing." Muswell Hillbillies isn't exactly an obscure record, but it doesn't usually come up in casual conversation out in the real world, the vast playground beyond our own shared but insular rockin' pop universe. I was pleased. And I made sure to play the album's title track on this week's TIRnRR.

THE KNACK: I Want Ya



I was not quite as much into The Knack as many of my power-pop peers were (and are). Nor was I as much of a Knuke-The-Knack detractor as some others might be. I...like The Knack. Sometimes I love them. I don't think I've ever hated them, nor even really disliked them.

"I Want Ya" is a track from The Knack's second album, 1980's ...But The Little Girls Understand. It's been a long time since I've listened to the record in its entirety, but I don't recall it as anything extra special. The album's single was a "My Sharona" retread called "Baby Talks Dirty," and it did include a confident cover of The Kinks' "The Hard Way" that did not in any way threaten to eclipse the original.

The album's best selection was "I Want Ya," a fast-paced winner that sounds wonderful on the radio. It's not quite my toppermost-of-the-poppermost among Knack tracks--that would be "Your Number Or Your Name" from Get The Knack--but it's up there, probably above "My Sharona."

THE MONKEES: Gotta Give It Time



The Monkees' phenomenal album Good Times! was my # 1 record of 2016. Good Times! was quite well-received in general, but this originally-unfinished leftover from the sessions for 1966's More Of The Monkees was not among its most popular tracks, nor its most distinctive. Nonetheless, it strikes me as an intriguing suggestion of The Monkees as a Nuggets-approved garage band. I mean, it's a pop record, sure, but it's not far removed from the sort of pop record The Standells could have done in '66. If memory serves--I could check, but I'm not gettin' paid here--the basic backing track was done in '66, and enhanced by Good Times! producer Adam Schlesinger in 2016, with a new lead vocal by Micky Dolenz and a new backing vocal by Michael Nesmith. 

NEW MATH: Die Trying



Sometimes the giddy euphoria of pop music makes us fall in instant thrall to a new (or new-to-us) record upon first spin. Sometimes...it doesn't work out that way. I was underwhelmed by my initial exposures to the music of The Pretenders, Patti Smith, even Stevie Wonder. My reactions to all of these changed for the better upon further review. 

The "Die Trying" single wasn't quite my introduction to the sound of New Math. New Math was from Rochester, NY, friends of my hometown Syracuse Fave Raves The Flashcubes. I saw New Math on a bill with the 'Cubes in the summer of 1978, upstairs at hoppin' Syracuse nightspot The Firebarn. New Math was just terrific, energetic and invigorating. I was sure I was gonna be a New Math fan forevermore.

So, of course, I snapped up New Math's 1979 debut single "Die Trying" as soon as I saw it. By now, I'm sure context has already clued you into the fact that I didn't like the record. At all.

Why not? Damned if I could tell you. I adore it now, and I have no remaining recollection of why it disappointed me so much in the moment. The record didn't change. My perception of it did. 

Even though it takes me my whole life
It's not too much of a sacrifice
I'll die trying
Baby, die trying

Determination! I guess the record knew what it was doing.

IRENE PEÑA: I Won't Back Down


This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio loves Irene Peña. And for good reason: she has an effervescent and immediately likable personality, and she knows her way around a pop tune, whether it's a pop tune she wrote or a pop tune someone else did first. Of course we love Irene; what's not to love?

We definitely love Irene's new single. Here, she takes Tom Petty's well-known, well-loved "I Won't Back Down," speeds it up just an eensy little bit, and captures our hearts once again. The digital single is available right now from the good folks at Futureman Records, paired with previous TIRnRR Pick T' Click "Own Sweet Time." A portion of sales will benefit Rock The Vote, translating into good music for a good cause. Good? GREAT! This is why we love.



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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.

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Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 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).

No! I Hate It! I HATE IT!!

Serendipity! My recent growing irritation with public posts from people writing about music they hate prompted me to consider writing a rebuttal. I mean, what's the point of blathering on and on about stuff you don't like? Great Googly Moogly, I became a (spectacularly unsuccessful) pop journalist in part because I wanted to champion what I thought was good. Yeah, I'm aware of the irony of me complaining publicly about other people complaining publicly, and I've certainly written negative reviews and even a handful of negative posts. But my preferred focus has generally been an embrace rather than a shrug or a sneer.

This piece by Brad Laidman saves me the trouble of writing the post I almost wrote. Brad is responding here to a particularly grating post from someone else whining about his 10 most-hated power pop bands. That original post was written a couple of years back, but made some fresh rounds on Facebook this week, annoying people anew. Brad's response was perfect: snarky, sarcastic, and delivered with just enough of a straight face that a few folks didn't realize he was kidding. Brilliant! So with Brad's permission, I'm ceding today's space to him. Check out Brad's blog Elvis Needs Boats at http://bradlaidman.com/. Take it away, Brad.

My Top Ten List of Worst Power Pop Bands of All Time


1. BADFINGER
Committing suicide does not evince the feel good mood of The Beatles no matter how good the songwriting or the harmonies.

2. THE LA'S
Everyone says Lee Mavers was a genius but I only ever heard "There She Goes" and I loved it but I couldn't afford the rest of the album and I have no idea what he's done since.


3. The dB's
I really loved their albums with Chris Stamey, but then he left the band and then I realized that most of the power pop stuff was by Holsapple and the Stamey stuff was just really weird - I got confused so I no longer listen - they supposedly did a couple of albums as a duo but I was too cheap to buy them.


4. Raspberries
Everyone goes crazy about that part during "Overnight Sensation" where Carmen made the singing sound like it was coming out of a cheap car stereo, but if I wanted shit to sound like a cheap car stereo I'd get a cheap car stereo - plus false endings are a cheap gimmick and I'm offended by the connotations of underage sex initiated by a young girl in "Go All the Way" plus it should be The Raspberries - Raspberries makes no sense.

5. Big Star 
I heard all the music Alex Chilton recorded with The Box Tops who are the most underrated pop band of all time and he had a deep voice at like 17 then with Big Star he sounded totally different with a much higher voice - he was clearly faking one of the two voices and I can't handle inauthenticity. Plus "September Gurls?" Prince invented emojies that's just bad spelling.

6. Too Much Joy

They recorded an LL Cool J song and then did that tribute concert to 2 Live Crew - power pop is nothing to be silly or to make political commentary about.


7. Marshall Crenshaw 

I really liked his first album, but then he lost his hair and I can't listen to bald artists. Plus he played Buddy Holly I think in Peggy Sue Got Married but John Lennon in Beatlemania - make up your mind plus I heard Beatlemania sucked - and you could tell Kathleen Turner was too old to play a teenager and Nic Cage was just weird as hell and not in a Con Air good way.


8. Nick Lowe

I really liked Pure Pop for Now People but then I heard in England the album was called Jesus of Cool and that offends me.


9. Rockpile

I don't care what the contract issues were I can't but a NIck Lowe album and then a Dave Edmunds album and then another and another and then finally an album by the actual band and Billy Bremner sings "Heart" too damn fast - plus Nick should really have known what key that Everly Brothers song was in.


10. The Beatles

Their first four or five albums i can hear their influences: way too much Everlys check, Little Richard check, Chuck Berry check - girl groups check - obscure Arthur Alexander records no one had ever heard of - I get it you lived by the docks and had excellent taste in music, but then they got so high and pretentious they let Ringo sing. I prefer the sound of the Beatles as done by Cheap Trick, but I met Rick Nielsen at his Pizza Place and he was a dick to me then he kicked Bun E Carlos out of the band and replaced him with his son - if I want to see an over the hill act with someone's son replacing a key band member I'll go see Van Halen.


Honorable Mention: Jon Brion

Everyone tells me how great he is but he had a band The Grays and they did one album and quit - then he released one solo album and it didn't sell so he quit. He's a quitter and from what I can tell from the charts he hasn't done anything since! I much prefer Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Rhett Miller, Spoon, and whoever does the soundtracks to those awesome Paul Thomas Anderson movies.

CC SAYS: Well done, Brad!

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