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 # 1278
SUPER 8 FEATURING LISA MYCHOLS: When We Close Our Eyes
I'm digging the process of putting together this tribute album celebrating Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES is due in September from the irresistible Big Stir Records label, and we've already previewed a few of its Cubic covers courtesy of sparkle*jets u.k., the Kennedys, the Spongetones, and Pop Co-Op, as well as its opening track "Reminisce" by the Flashcubes themselves. This week's TIRnRR kicks off with the everywhere-wide radio debut of another treat from Make Something Happen!, as the combined rockin' pop forces of Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols turn in their own super-yummy take on the Flashcubes' "When We Close Our Eyes." Brilliant!
A brief bit of behind-the-scenes kudos to Super 8's Trip Ryan and his collaborator Lisa: "When We Close Our Eyes" was written by Flashcubes guitarist Arty Lenin, and it may be my favorite from Arty's songbook, rivaled only by "Nothing Really Matters When You're Young" (which the Spongetones have done a superb job of covering for this tribute album). Given my affection for the song, it was important for me to see it included on Make Something Happen! It had been assigned to another artist, but alas, that didn't work out. Trip 'n' Lisa stepped in to save us, and they did so pretty late in the game. YAY, Trip and Lisa! The Cubic legion salutes you!
Next week's show will offer another spin of the great current Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols single "Pop Radio," part of a stealth programming move to play a bunch of unrelated tracks by artists who will be represented on Make Something Happen!, mixing them in alongside a number of other acts, both classic and current (from the Beatles, the Ramones and the Rubinoos to Airport 77's, Amy Rigby, and Chris Church), who won't be on the tribute. We like to keep you guessing. We like to keep us guessing. With open eyes, and radio turned UP.
THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce
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Speaking of that opening track from Make Something Happen!, 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's "Reminisce" is so far my favorite individual track of 2025, and it's gonna be a tough one to challenge. The song was first written in the '90s and (I think) only performed once before being filed away and mostly forgotten. (I remember it, of course, but I'm, y'know...me.)
If I understand the subsequent story correctly, several months back PA reconstructed the song from memory, moving what had been a somewhat perfunctory number into the magic realm of rock 'n' roll transcendence, toasting the past but raising the roof in the here and now, even adding a Ramones quote that nails a demonstration of the essential truth that what's cool once is cool forever. The present is built upon the past. We can still jump up, down, and all around to its sound.
And we will!
sparkle*jets u.k.: Make Something Happen
On Make Something Happen!, "Reminisce" will segue into sparkle*jets u.k.'s luscious cover of the album's title tune, which was written by 'Cubes bassist Gary Frenay. It's a song I wanted the Monkees to record for their 2016 triumph Good Times! (and I'd still like to hear a version with a Micky Dolenz lead vocal), and I'm delighted with how wonderful the song sounds now in the always-capable hands of sparkle*jets u.k.
(On our next show, a track from sparkle*jets u.k.'s most recent album Box Of Letters will play its part in our unspoken salute to the performers on Make Something Happen! Box Of Letters was absolutely one of the best albums of 2024, maybe the single best album in a year of a lot of really, really good albums. I'm so grateful they also agreed to take part in the Flashcubes tribute album.)
THE RUBINOOS: Rock 'n' Roll Is Dead
"Rock 'n' roll is dead?" No. It's. NOT! Come on, Rubinoos! You know better than that! Hell, this very song proves its title was, like, ironic or something.
My Rubinoos fandom is detailed here. What a great, great band, then and now. Just don't believe them when they kid you about the death of rock 'n' roll. Pranksters. Pranksters, the lot of them.
DONNA SUMMER: I Feel Love
The year of 1977--the same year when I first became a fan of the Rubinoos-- also provided me with the first Donna Summer song I ever loved. "I Feel Love" was the second Donna Summer song I heard, but 1975's "Love To Love You Baby" never meant anything to me (its implied 'n' earthy sense of bouncy-bouncy notwithstanding). By contrast, the new wave cool of "I Feel Love" was so monolithic and precise that even my practiced teen anti-disco stance couldn't hope to resist its sway. I feel it. As I wrote in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):
"1977 had the potential to be a year of musical revolution. When we say that, most of us are talking about punk, about the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash. Maybe we're not thinking as much about disco, and maybe that's fair. But if we want to consider the potential of pop music's revolution in '77, our discussions of 'God Save The Queen,' 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker,' and 'White Riot' had better allow some room on the dancefloor for 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer.
"In the late '70s, disco and punk were supposed to be at war with each other. As a self-professed punk rocker in that era, I can attest that, yeah, punks didn't like disco, and the bumpin'-n-hustlin' set was appalled by the loud and fast noise my people favored. Hatfields and Capulets, meet McCoys and Montagues. Never mind the fact that the mainstream rock crowd held both punk and disco in nearly equal disdain; this was war!
"Except that it wasn't. I'm skeptical of the notion that many of the Saturday Night Fevered ever took much interest in the Damned or the Dead Boys, but some among the new wave brigade did eventually allow their ears and minds to be a bit more open to non-pogo dance music, to the beat of dat ole debbil disco. Maybe it was just me, but I was a pop fan anyway; my intense dislike of disco music evolved into occasional tolerance, and tolerance evolved into a sporadic realization that some of the records weren't bad.
"Plus: Donna Summer. Donna Summer was gorgeous. I feel love...."
Collectively, The Greatest Record Ever Made!
CHUBBY CHECKER: The Twist
I have not been shy in proclaiming that the ongoing failure of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to induct the Monkees is that institution's single most egregious omission among a big ol' stack of egregious omissions. #inductthemonkees awready!
Chubby Checker is likely my pick for the Hall's second-biggest snub to date. His 1960 hit "The Twist" is one of the most impactful singles of the rock 'n' roll roll era, and while it's good and proper that Hank Ballard and the Midnighters (who recorded the original version of "The Twist") are in the Hall, it was Chubby Checker's mass hit version that made history, broke barriers, changed the course of mighty rivers, bent steel in its bare hands, et cetera. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's wish to punish Chubby Checker for the mortal sin of not being Hank Ballard is--how shall I phrase this delicately?--fucking brain-dead stupid. At long last, Chubby Checker has been nominated FOR THE FIRST TIME [?!], and I pray he finally gets in this year.
(How seismic was Chubby Checker's "The Twist?" It is easily one of the all-time Top Five most impactful 45s, and you could make a case for it in the Top Three. "Heartbreak Hotel" by King Elvis I is # 1, and I don't consider that point subject to debate. Bill Haley and his Comets' "Rock Around The Clock" has to at least be in the discussion, just by virtue of being rock 'n' roll's first # 1 hit. And Beatlemania, of course, with either "She Loves You" in the UK or "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in America. I think those are the four, and I don't even have a ready candidate for a fifth 45. Impact. That's all I'm talking about here. There are records I like even more than I like these, but I can't think of any other picks that could rival their importance and effect upon the rock and pop world.)
JOE GIDDINGS: Tonite Tonite
Stories With Guitars is the excellent current album from Joe Giddings, and we've been playing its magnificent radio-ready track "Tonite Tonite" with all of the dizzyingly manic fervor people expect from obsessive pop fans like Dana and Carl. It's what we do!
We're playing our man Joe again on our next show, but we're giving "Tonite Tonite" the week off. What gift from Giddings are we programming in its stead? Joe Giddings IS one of the fine acts on this Flashcubes tribute album. So! Let's open this coming Sunday night's radio record party with Joe Giddings covering the Flashcubes. Set bright lights to stun. You won't want to miss this.
IRENE PEÑA: Come And Get It
Pop music. If you want it, here it is. You know what to do.
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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.
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