10 SONGS: 8/9/2025

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.

Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes

Various Artists

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BIG STIR RECORDS and producer/curator Carl Cafarelli bring you a very special collection saluting – and featuring – Power Pop Hall Of Famers THE FLASHCUBES: the all-new new album MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN! A TRIBUTE TO THE Read more

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1297.

PAUL COLLINS: Hang On To Yourself

Another ace new track from the forthcoming tribute album Jem Records Celebrates David Bowie, as Power Pop Hall of Famer Paul Collins takes on "Hang On To Yourself." The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was my favorite David Bowie album during my misspent (but perfectly soundtracked) youth, and it's an absolute kick to hear Paul Collins bring his own American Beat to bear on one of my top Ziggy picks. As Paul's Bowie cover makes its TIRnRR debut this week, it's joined by another gem from Jem Records Celebrates David Bowie ("Can't Help Thinking About Me" by the Cynz) in its third straight week on our playlist. Both of these will return on our next show, and we'll also offer our first spin of the High Frequencies' Bowie tribute cover of "Modern Love." Hang on!

CAST FEATURING P.P. ARNOLD: Poison Vine

Apologies to fans of Oasis and Blue, but my favorite '90s Britpop combo was Cast. It didn't hurt that Cast included John Power, formerly of the La's, but I'm not sure I even knew that when I fell into the thrall of Cast's "Alright" and "Promised Land." When Rhino Records contracted me to write the liner notes for a compilation album called Poptopia! Power Pop Classics Of The '90s, I know the good folks at Rhino really wanted to include a track by Cast, but they were unable to clear the rights for it.

P. P. Arnold is one of my favorite singers, and possibly my very favorite among female soul singers. Her incredible rendition of "The First Cut Is The Deepest" is the song's definitive version, and it rightly earns its own chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I'm delighted that she is still making music, and still unerringly excellent.

So: The combined forces of Cast and P. P. Arnold on a new single in 2025? I'm IN! "Poison Vine" is vintage Cast, grand, sweeping, and powerful, and P.P. Arnold is, y'know, P. P. ARNOLD!! Everyone sounds as great as ever. Its five-minute running time will make it difficult to squeeze into our short-attention-span format very often, but it is five minutes well spent. No power in the known or unknown universe could prevent us from playing it at least once. Cast AND the mighty P. P. Arnold. Most inviting poison vine ever.

RICHARD TURGEON: Signs

Ever-reliable rockin' pop performer Richard Turgeon has a supercool new album on the likewise-supercool Kool Kat Musik label. His new record Shungite is named after the radioactive element that's deadly to natives of the planet Shung, and...okay, that's not even remotely true. But I'm sticking with it! You'll BELIEVE a record can fly! Ain't nothing mild-mannered about Richard Turgeon. 

THE FLASHCUBES: The Sweet Spot

Awright. Go time! 

"The Sweet Spot" is the second of three new singles from Syracuse's own power pop powerhouses the Flashcubes. "The Sweet Spot" is available here, its rockin' predecessor "Reminisce" can still be scarfed up here, and the go'geous forthcoming single "If These Hands" can be preordered here. Everything's coming up Cubic!

All of the above serve as integral components of the September 12th release Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, as the three new Flashcubes tracks rub Rickenbackers with 21 great acts serving up 21 inspired covers of original tunes from the Flashcubes' songbook. Our Cubesmania participants include sparkle*jets u.k., Librarians With Hickeys, Chris von Sneidern, Graham Parker and Mike Gent, Joe Giddings, Ballzy Tomorrow, the Kennedys, the Verbs, Dolph Chaney, Pop Co-Op, the Peppermint Kicks, Tom Kenny & the Hi-Seas, the Choosers, Hamell On Trial, the Armoires Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin, the Mayflowers, Super 8 featuring Lisa Mychols, Callan Foster, Sorrows, and the Spongetones. It is indeed a tribute fit for the brilliance of the Flashcubes.

At long last, Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes is beginning to appear as available for preorder. It's already listed on Amazon, but c'mon, there are better options than that. You can get it directly from its visionary record label Big Stir Records. It's up on Bandcamp, complete with a first look at my liner notes for the album, plus its individual track credits. I imagine Kool Kat Musik will start accepting preorders soon, and we love Kool Kat. 

Bottom line: You have purchase options to enrich your music library with the addition of your own soon-to-be-cherished personal copy of Make Something Happen! We've done our part. Now it's YOUR turn to make something happen.

THE PEPPERMINT KICKS: Too Sweet (Oh Yeah!)

Oh Yeah! for SURE! Make Something Happen! superstars the Peppermint Kicks' new album Pop Rocks In My Chewing Gum is bad for you in all the best ways, risking potential damage to dentures while redeeming its dietary dangers with sweet, sweet confections that stick to your ribs and to the underside of your desk. My current Pick T'Click is "Too Sweet (Oh Yeah!)," but nine out of ten dentists will agree there's much to taste and savor on Pop Rocks In My Chewing Gum. (Nine out of ten dentists will also gang up to beat the livin' chicklets outta that stubborn tenth dentist. Irascible lot, those dentists.)

THE VIBEKE SAUGESTAD BAND: Hey Now Sunshine

"Hey Now Sunshine" is a thoroughly effervescent and endearing new track from the Vibeke Saugestad Band, an advance treat from a forthcoming EP called The Sun Sessions. Norwegian pop singer Vibeke, originally billed under just her first name, has been bringing the sunshine for quite some time now, and I'm mortified that I butchered the pronunciation of her name on-air during this week's broadcast. VEE-buh-kuh SAUWguh-stah. VEE-buh-kuh SAUWguh-stah. Although screwing up the names of musicians may continue in the tradition of Ed Sullivan introducing "Diane Warwick" on his really big show, I know that my own last name has been routinely mispronounced by many, so I'm further bummed when I screw up someone's name. The song's great, the singer and her band are great, and I'll get a little closer to announcing the band's name correctly when "Hey Now Sunshine" plays again on our next show this Sunday night.

THE JACKSON 5: I'll Be There

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

ELENA ROGERS: A Little Bit Of Lovely

The newest Elena Rogers EP Song About Me arrived a few days too late to be considered for this week's show. Unabashed, we played our familiar programming choice from Elena's previous EP Always Trying, with a vow to get something from Song About Me into the mix on the next available playlist. You'll hear that vow fulfilled on Sunday.

BALLZY TOMORROW: Five Personalities

We couldn't let 10 Songs play to its inner groove without one more track from Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. Operating under his rockin' pop dba Ballzy Tomorrow, everyone's pal Robbie Rist gives us an interpretation of the Flashcubes' "Five Personalities" that our friends at Big Stir describe as "majestically Queen-like whimsy." We concur!

On our next show, we'll hear further evidence of Robbie Rist's interpretive ability, delivered in the form of another, different cover tune he also recorded as Ballzy Tomorrow. And it's one we ain't ever played here before. Well! We're gonna play it Sunday. We have that specific plan written on the back of my hand.

THE BEATLES: She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

And we're heading out the way she came in. Lend me your comb. It's time to go home.

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: 8/4/2022

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 # 1140.

RICHARD TURGEON: Better With You

There is a possibility that pop fans could take Richard Turgeon for granted. Richard is so consistently good at what he does, and he's sufficiently prolific that less attentive ears might be at risk of missing some (or all) of his engaging pop gems.

TIRnRR does not take Richard Turgeon's work for granted, but nor do I think we play his stuff anywhere near as often as we should. We will remedy that, and there's no finer place to start than with Rough Around The Edges, Richard's latest shot o' peerlessness on the ever-reliable Kool Kat Musik label. We opened this week's show with "Better With You," and danced around with giddy abandon. And an earnest intent to play more Richard. Things go better with Richard Turgeon. And he's back on TIRnRR again next week.

THE FLASHCUBES: Christi Girl [Live At The Firebarn, May 26 1979]

THE FLASHCUBES! Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse! Their current Big Stir Records single, recorded LIVE at the Firebarn in 1979! It's a HIT! 

As it oughtta be. Consider this another reminder that I've been right about the Flashcubes for nearly 45 years. What took the rest of you so long?

MADONNA: Dear Jessie

This week's playlist commentary went into some detail about the seeming incongruity of TIRnRR programming a track by Madonna, and the twin importance of digging what we dig while remaining open to the potential relevance of fresh discoveries living beyond our chosen parameters.

For all that, I guess it's also worth reiterating that I never really disliked Madonna, either. If I'm a little surprised to realize that I love her 1989 track "Dear Jessie" as much as I do, I must remember that it's not the only Madonna track I've ever enjoyed. I mentioned my initial interest in "Borderline" as it was first climbing the charts in '84; I recall seeing the video in between sets at a Buffalo nightclub--an alt-rock hangout, mind you--and thinking it somehow reminiscent of Freda Payne. I can't articulate why the song brought Payne's "Band Of Gold" to my mind, but it was, then and now, a compliment.

I did not care for Like A Virgin, neither the album nor its singles, especially not its title track. HEY! Not my cuppa. I was okay with the subsequent (non-album) "Into The Groove," and I may even like it better now. When I was working in record retail in the '80s (a tale told within my lengthy reminiscence The Road To GOLDMINE), a customer once tried to return the 12" single of "Into The Groove" because, instead of being bouncy 'n' chirpy Madonna, it sounded like Tears For Fears or some other mopey-boy British act. The customer was, of course, playing the 45 at 33 1/3. The customer is always right? That has not always been my experience.

"Borderline." "Into The Groove." "True Blue." "Open Your Heart." "Like A Prayer." "Express Yourself." Each of these is a decent radio-ready pop record, if not specifically within the Beatles-Motown-Ramones axis that remain my raison d'être. I used to have a Madonna Express Yourself t-shirt, which I think I snagged as a free promo somewhere, and which I confess I wore primarily because the image of Madonna on the shirt was (ironically?) not wearing a shirt.

But we don't look at pop records; we listen to them. When this week's playlist was published, singer-songwriter Dean Landew emailed us to compliment the sheer variety of our Madonna-led set--Madonna, Elvis Costello, the Coasters, Nick Lowe, Shoes, Sweet--adding that "Ray Of Light" was his favorite Madonna song. Another good choice, Dean. I was in an auto parts store on Wednesday, and "Cherish" came on the sound system. I didn't properly appreciate the track's pure pop appeal in '89, but its '80s version of the girl group sound was fresh and pleasing to these ears in this newfangled 21st century. And Madonna deserves rock 'n' roll props for asking the Stooges to perform on her behalf when she was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. 

I tell ya: we may not play Madonna very often, and we're probably not going to play her all that much in the future, either. Still, when we do decide to play Madonna again, we already know she fits our format just fine.  And "Dear Jessie" fits it perfectly.

IN DEED: Peace & Quiet

IRENE PEÑA: In This Room

PERILOUS: Rock & Roll Kiss

Three tracks from our forthcoming compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5, which we hope to have available Septemberish from our friends at Kool Kat Musik. Liner notes are done, credits and acknowledgments are complete, and all in the hands of the label. Even better, the album itself has been mastered by the mighty Kurt Reil at his House Of Vibes studio; I have been listening to it with willful and delighted obsession for more than a week, and I'm very nearly humbled by the notion that Dana and I helped bring this brilliant set to let.

Nearly. Nearly humbled. Let's not get crazy.

This week's shindig served up the incredible TIRnRR # 5 contributions from In Deed, Irene Peña, and Perilous. We'll spin three more of the album's tracks next week. I know we're biased, and we have a right to be, but man alive, this is a really, really good album.

CRAZY ELEPHANT: Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE TEST PRESSINGS: Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) has been a frequent fixture on TIRnRR playlists for decades. This week, we're pleased to present a brand new salute to Rosemary's traveling heart cultivation, courtesy of the Test Pressings. The Test Pressings are our pals Robbie Rist, Karen Bassett, and John M. Borack, and they are indeed rightful heirs to the Edison Lighthouse legacy on this teaser track from We All Shine On: Celebrating The Music Of 1970, a joint release by the combined forces of Big Stir and SpyderPop Records. The album looks to be an absolutely killer embrace of the legacy of 1970, the year I really started listening to AM radio with deliberate intent. We will, of course, hear more from We All Shine On next week. If we're all gonna shine on, be assured that Dana and Carl are going to do their part.

THE GRIP WEEDS: I'm Free

We mentioned Kurt Reil's studio wizardry a few paragraphs North of here, raving about his work in mastering This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. Kurt's also the idol o' millions as drummer and vocalist with his incomparable combo the Grip Weeds. The Grip Weeds' latest triumph is this explosive cover of the Who's "I'm Free," as heard on the forthcoming tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Pete Townshend. The rockin' Weeds (whose recent all-covers album DiG has been a TIRnRR Fave Rave) wouldn't be content to merely ape the original recording of "I'm Free," but instead add the oomph you'd expect from talents who truly get the idea and appeal of the 'Ooo. Ooo! The Grip Weeds even dive a bit deeper into Tommy territory, while retaining the incendiary explosiveness that made the Who power pop progenitors. We are gonna take it. Gladly!

THE BABLERS: You Are The One For Me

It's a HIT! And it's ALSO on Big Stir Records. Dana's favorite single of 2022 so far. Bablermania starts HERE!

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed 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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 8/17/2021

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 # 1090.

THE SPONGETONES: Oh Yeah!

Both Dana and I wished very much that we could have been in Charlotte, North Carolina this past Saturday for the Spongetones' 40th anniversary concert. The celebration was originally planned for last year, postponed by you know what, rescheduled, and finally performed before a fab audience cashing in the implicit promise of a splendid time guaranteed for all. Neither Dana nor I has ever had an opportunity to see the Spongetones, and this sure woulda been a great show to rectify that. 

Photo by Laura Lynn

There was, alas, no friggin' way. We content ourselves with playing the Spongetones on the radio, congratulating the band for their continued excellence and their fans for obvious great taste. Oh yeah? Oh yeah.

THE COOLIES: Yeah I Don't Know

The Coolies were a supercool summit meeting of Palmyra Delran, Melanie Vammen, and the much-missed Kim Shattuck, producing the uberswell six-song EP Uh Oh! It's...The Coolies in 2019. The EP was released prior to Shattuck's death later that same year, and its profits go toward the never-ending battle against ALS, the disease that took Shattuck away from us. From the EP, Shattuck's "Yeah I Don't Know" is unequal parts fatalism and resilience, moody and brooding, yet somehow effervescent at the same time. 

HAYLEY AND THE CRUSHERS: Jacaranda

An ongoing illustration of TIRnRR's symbiotic benevolence is that sometimes either Dana or I will obsess with playing a specific song, and then the other one of us starts playing it, too. It's happened many, many times over the course of--gulp--1090 shows and counting; I credit Dana with getting me hooked on Mannix, Anny Celsi, the Stallions, Mary Lou Lord, and many more. This week's playlist includes two examples of Dana running with a song that I'd been playing a lot. "Jacaranda" by Hayley and the Crushers is one of the two, and it remains a righteous blast of YEAH! on the radio, regardless of which one of us put it there.

ETTA JAMES: Something's Got A Hold On Me

Serendipity. On Saturday night, I watched a wonderful 2021 movie called CODA, its title an acronym for Children Of Deaf Adults. The film's opening scene depicts its 17-year-old protagonist Ruby (played by actress Emilia Jones) singing along with Etta James' "Something's Got A Hold On Me" while working with her deaf father and deaf brother aboard their fishing boat. In pre-pandemic programming days, the scene probably would have inspired me to include that song in the TIRnRR playlist the next night.

But these are not pre-pandemic programming days, and the playlist for this week's show was set, and the show itself recorded, several days before I had any notion of seeing this CODA movie. Coincidence. Serendipity. And that good fortune gives me an excuse to recommend the film CODA in no uncertain terms.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Can't Stop Thinking About You

Catchy as hell. Librarians With Hickeys are no strangers to the TIRnRR playlist; "That Time Is Now," Librarians With Hickeys' collaboration with Lisa Mychols, was among our 58 most-played tracks in 2020, and we can be described accurately as Librarians With Hickeys fans. Their new Big Stir Records single "I Can't Stop Thinking About You" serves to reinforce the reason for our prevailing devotion.

KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him

Oh yeah, I obsessed over this song, for sure. We started playing Kid Gulliver's sublime "Forget About Him" last year, and it's not much of an exaggeration to say it's now an all-time TIRnRR Fave Rave. We play the hits. I play this, Dana played it this week, and the airwaves are brighter because of it. If--IF--we ever do another TIRnRR compilation CD, this one's gotta be on it.

MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

The Greatest Record Ever Made! We've played the single edit a few times already this year, but I wanted to play the full-length album version once, in all its over-seven-minutes-long glory. We counted it as two songs. We regret nothing.

THE RAVES: Every Little Bit Hurts

The Raves' irresistible 1984 gem "Every Little Bit Hurts" was an early favorite on TIRnRR, scoring some gorgeous whole-friggin'-planet airplay from 1999 on. A Georgia-based band immersed in '60s British Invasion and '70s-'80s new wave and power pop, the Raves were among the many great acts from that post-punk pop era toiling in undeserved obscurity. I didn't hear of them until the '90s, when rumblings in one of the power pop zines (probably Yellow Pills, possibly Audities) prompted me to buy their anthology CD Past Perfect Tense from the mighty Bruce Brodeen's Not Lame catalog. Recently, we've been corresponding with the Raves' Chuck Yoakum, discussing the possibility of mixing some of his more recent work into future playlists. Stay tuned.

RICHARD TURGEON: Goodbye To Summer

Richard Turgeon has proven to be a reliable resource for radio-ready pop ditties, both original songs and well-chosen covers. "Goodbye To Summer," from Turgeon's new Kool Kat Musik release Campfire Songs, makes us mourn the passing of the season right now, when there's still a few weeks left before Labor Day, fercryinoutloud. Damn this effect pop music has on us!

JAMES BROWN: Papa's Got A Brand New Bag

With The Tenth Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT all set to make ya sweat this coming Sunday August 22nd, we wanted to make sure we offered a li'l teasing taste of that in this week's tag. The logical choice was something by the Godfather of Soul, so we played the enduring classic "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" right after we said that's it, adios, we're done, goodnight and we'll see you next week, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, WAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT!, we got one more. Our new bag commenced thereafter.

To prep for the Soul Pit, here's a reprise of something I wrote last year about "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag:"

"1965: pop music's best year ever. If 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' wasn't my first James Brown song, it was the first one I noticed. I may or may not have heard it during its reign on the charts; I was only five, but believe me, even five-year-olds knew the irresistible sounds of the radio, the jukeboxes, and neighborhood teenagers blastin' their 45s in 1965. It's possible I didn't actively recognize it until it became an oldie in the '70s, played back on a nostalgic weekend AM radio shindig or in a TV commercial hawking the great old hits by the original artists.

"I didn't become a fan until much later. I don't remember hearing Brown's anthem 'Say It Loud--I'm Black And I'm Proud' on the radio in 1968, but I do recall seeing it mentioned in an issue of the Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane comic book. Believe it or not. And I remember being mesmerized by Brown's live performance in 1964's The T.A.M.I. Show when I caught that flick on cable in the mid '70s. A bit later, during the 1980 Democratic National Convention, my girlfriend Brenda and I were having dinner with our friends Les Odom and Yvette Nixon, splitting our time between watching a firebrand speech by Senator Ted Kennedy and listening to James Brown's Live At The Apollo LP. (You may have heard of Les and Yvette's son, actor Leslie Odom Jr. Brenda and I are looking forward to finally seeing the younger Leslie as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, courtesy of Disney+.) [2021 note: Hamilton was extraordinary!]

"My own first James Brown records were weathered 45s of 'Cold Sweat,' 'Don't Be A Drop-Out,' and 'Say It Loud--I'm Black And I'm Proud,' salvaged in the early '80s at a church basement rummage sale underneath the Buffalo day care center where Brenda worked. And all of it--1965, Lois Lane, The T.A.M.I. Show, Les and Yvette and Ted Kennedy, my rummage sale 45 haul, all of it--came together in my head when Cal Zone, a great DJ at Buffalo State College's incomparable WBNY-FM, included 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' among his '60s garage and trash thrash delights one night at a Buffalo nightclub. Connection. CC's got a brand new bag."

That connection continues next week. Please join us for The Tenth Annual DANA'S FUNKY SOUL PIT.

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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.

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:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.