10 SONGS: 1/20/2022

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.

John Wicks, Carl Cafarelli, Paul Collins, Dana Bonn, June 11th 2009

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1112: WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS FOR NOW! 30 Years Of Dana & Carl.

THE FLASHCUBES: Flavor Of The Month

If it was difficult to distill three decades of Dana & Carl radio shows into one three-hour playlist, it would be even more of a challenge to whittle all of that down to just ten songs. So, we're not going to attempt that. From our 30th anniversary shindig, these are just the ten songs I feel like annotating a little bit.

And it starts with the Flashcubes. Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse! Given how important the 'Cubes have been to us, I wanted to begin this celebration with a Flashcubes track. Obviously. I had my favorite 'Cubes song "No Promise" lined up as the likely pick, but although I didn't tell anyone (not even Dana), I was hoping for a different choice: something new. I knew the group was working on new recordings--they released two new covers in 2021-2022, of Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside" and the Dwight Twilley Band's "Alone In My Room"--and hints dropped by two of the 'Cubes suggested a third was due imminently. An early mix of that third cut, a cover of the Posies' "Flavor Of The Month," arrived just in time to be included in this week's 30-year blowout. HuzZAH! On the radio it goes. Flavor of the month? Flavor of 30 years, my friends.

(Will there be still more Cubic covers to come in 2022? I dunno. But I betcha. The answer will be in revealed in flashes. Brilliant flashes.

DIGBY: Spirit

I've told these stories before. I'm going to tell them again.

Digby's 2003 album Go Digby was a huge TIRnRR favorite, with two of its tracks ("Minerva" and "Spirit") scoring significant airplay on our weekly radio party. So when Digby came to town for a show at Happy Endings coffeehouse, Dana and I were there!

Unfortunately, Dana and I were just about the only ones there. There was, I think, one other person in attendance, and that guy had never heard of Digby, he just happened to be there. Digby's audience that night would number three. Three would be the number, for the number would be three.

That's gotta be demoralizing. Gotta be. Nonetheless, Digby sucked it up, hit the stage, and played as if there were Digby At Budokan. They put on a show. Troupers. And one hell of a good rock 'n' roll band. Digby got spirit.

THE CHARMS: Top Down

Speaking of troupers, count the Charms' lead singer Ellie Vee amongst the troupiest. We were playing the hell out of the Boston group's 2003 debut album Charmed, I'm Sure, and she somehow got trapped into doing a telephone interview with Dana & Carl. That wouldn't have been so bad by itself--no, really, we're not that unpleasant to deal with--but the interview itself was overwhelmed by tech glitches. Listeners could not hear Ellie at all; they just heard me, asking questions, and then repeating whatever Ellie said (YES, ELLIE SAYS SHE'S DELIGHTED TO BE ON THE SHOW. NO, SHE INSISTS THAT SHE'S NOT LYING WHEN SHE SAYS THAT.). Oy....

To her enduring credit, Ellie put up with all of this static like the pro she is. She even let us include a Charms track, "Talk Is Cheap" (fitting!), on our second compilation album, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2. A trouper. We've been blessed to meet some true rock 'n' roll troupers over this thirty-year gig. Ellie Vee is one of the best.

THE BEAT: Rock N Roll Girl

Sometimes I wanna pinch myself to make sure this isn't just a dream. Lemme check now...OW! Ouch! Okay, not dreaming. Damn! Magic fingers hurt...!

Where was I? Yeah, it's been cool to have so many opportunities to connect in some way with musicians whose work has affected me. As a freelance writer, I was able to interview the Ramones, Joan Jett, Mark Lindsay, Cyril Jordan, Greg Kihn, and more, and I've had correspondences with a large number of others. And it was a real treat the day that Paul Collins and John Wicks came to visit This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

I've been a fan of both of these guys since I was in college. I saw John play with his group the Records in 1979; I plucked my copy of Paul's former combo the Nerves' EP off the retail rack even before that, and my allegiance followed Mr. Collins as he formed his own group, the Beat. 

In 2009, Paul Collins and John Wicks were touring as an acoustic duo, and the tour brought them to nearby Cortland, NY. I had another commitment that prevented me from hitting that show, but TIRnRR's longtime friend Richard Rossi arranged for Paul and John to appear with us on the air at the TIRnRR studio in Syracuse the night before their gig. They sang, we chatted, and it was just a blast. They could not have been nicer to us. 

We're told you shouldn't meet your heroes. Screw that. The gray, anonymous dispensers of such wisdom have never had any freakin' clue about what's really best for us. Meet your heroes if you can. Tell them how important they are to you. Be a fan. Be polite and respectful, for God sake, but be a fan. It's part of the dream.

At the Cortland gig the next night, Paul recognized Dana and gave him a big bear hug, and said that appearing on TIRnRR was "so much fuckin' FUN!" I approve of that message. I corresponded with John and Paul for years after that. We lost John Wicks to cancer in 2018. I still hear from Paul now and again, and he supplied a fresh congratulatory bumper for our 30th anniversary show. 

And I told Paul: I wanna go back in time, and I wanna tell my late '70s and early '80s self that someday some of your heroes will be aware of whatever the hell it is you do, and they'll acknowledge you. They'll be good to you. It's not a dream. But it's like a dream. Paul's right: it is so much fuckin' fun...!

MARY LOU LORD: Aim Low

Dana and I met singer Mary Lou Lord on two separate occasions, and Dana met her once or twice after that. The first time I heard Mary Lou's music was when Dana played "Lights Are Changing" on the very first This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, December 27th, 1998. (NOTE: for those confused by the math problem of a show that started in 1998 celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2022, be advised that the Dana & Carl show predates the launch of TIRnRR, commencing on January 15th, 1992 as We're Your Friends For Now. A more detailed history of our radio shell game can be found here.)

Mary Lou played a disastrous, audience-talking-through-the-razzafrazzin'-set club gig in Syracuse in...1999? Dana and I were there, and we commiserated with her for an hour or two after the show. And yeah, as I've said many times since then, she and I spent a lot of that time talking about our daughters. Didn't see that coming when I was a teenager dreaming about meeting pop stars.

THE POPTARTS: I Won't Let You Let Me Go

The first track played on the first TIRnRR was "I Won't Let You Let Me Go" by the Poptarts, an all-female local quintet from the same vibrant late '70s scene that gave us the Flashcubes. The group's lead singer Gael Sweeney and her husband David Soule (who had been in the Tearjerkers, whose lone single "Syracuse Summer" is The Greatest Record Ever Made) later sat in with us for an evening of TIRnRR, promoting a Lou Reed Night live show they were hosting at Happy Endings. Dana actually played at that show, too, as bassist for Lovelorn. I...did not play. I think I hummed along from my perch in the audience.

PACIFIC SOUL, LTD.: We Go High

Picking a song from the 30th anniversary playlist, the stories of "We Go High" by Pacific Soul, Ltd. and "Another Night" by the legendary Evie Sands intersect (for us, anyway) with "I Hate Rock 'n' Roll" by Cockeyed Ghost. Cockeyed Ghost's Adam Marsland and I were members of the same online power pop community in the '90s, sharing information and trading cassettes. Adam lived in Southern California, though he had roots in Central New York. Dana and I met him when the Keep Yourself Amused incarnation of Cockeyed Ghost came to Syracuse in the late '90s, and we met Adam again (with bassist Robert Ramos) when they did a 1999 Easter Sunday set at Borders on behalf of their then-recent album The Scapegoat Factory. Adam and Robert visited the radio show, and spent much of their TIRnRR time trading Star Trek and Davey And Goliath impressions, Adam as William Shatner saying Spock! and Robert replying Davey?  You had to be there.

(Robbie Rist was also a member of the above-mentioned online pop music community, which was where he and I first got in touch. Robbie played on The Scapegoat Factory, but we met him a few years later when he was touring with Kenny Howes.)

We saw Adam as a solo act a few times after that, and again when his brought his new combo Adam Marsland's Chaos Band to town for a show with Beauty Scene Outlaws at the Half Penny Pub. That night was the first time I ever heard Beauty Scene Outlaws' original song "Carl Cafarelli," but I never did figure out who or what that song was supposed to be about. Some DJ, I guess.

Adam's Chaos Band included Evie Sands, an accomplished singer and guitarist with a dizzyingly impressive resumé; the fact that she was a guest on Shindig! is good enough for me. Severo had played bass on the band's recordings, but Teresa Cowles was in charge of four-string duties that night at the Half Penny. Not realizing that Teresa had officially joined the Chaos Band, I made the false presumption that she was filling in for Severo just for the tour, and I asked her if she played in any bands back in L.A.

Well, can't blame her for taking offense there. "Yeah," she said, "that was me playing the Danelectro bass on stage just now, you stupid boy!" She, uh, didn't actually say "stupid boy," but it was implied and deserved. Oops? I stammered an apology, she realized the source of my error, and forgave me sufficiently to allow me to live. The next time I saw her, when the Chaos Band returned to the area for a show in Cortland, she greeted me with a hug. Forgiveness!

You've probably seen Teresa as Carol Kaye in the Brian Wilson biopic Love And Mercy. She's also a TIRnRR Fave Rave as the voice of "We Go High" by Pacific Soul, Ltd., which is the trio of her, Adam, and Norman Kelsey. The song offers words to live by: When they go low, we go high. It ain't easy, but we try.

RINGO STARR: It Don't Come Easy

We talked to a Beatle. On July 21st, 2003, Dana and I attended Ringo Starr's press conference in Rama, Ontario. With press credentials, I got to ask Ringo a question, and he answered me.

We talked to a Beatle. A Beatle talked back.

Best. Gig. Ever.

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me

I'm sorry, but if you don't dig the Cowsills, I suspect there may be something fundamentally wrong with you. Seek medical attention. Now.

We began corresponding with Bob Cowsill a bit in the 2000s. I have no recollection of how our email paths crossed, but Bob admired the show and was appreciative of the airplay we'd given the Cowsills' utterly fantastic 1990s album Global. Bob granted us use of the Global track "She Said To Me" on our 2006 compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2.

Dana, my wife Brenda, and I got to see the Cowsills perform as part of the Happy Together Again oldies tour at a Syracuse date in the summer of 2019. They were just stellar--so good live!--and they did a meet-n-greet after the show. I introduced myself to Bob, and I will never forget the way his face lit up when he realized who we were. "Paul! Susan!," he said to his siblings. "These are the guys from that radio show I was telling you about! They play stuff you don't hear anywhere, and I mean anywhere!" 

I'm basically shy. I know I hide that very well, and the confidence I have in my writing and in my pop music taste helps me to manufacture enough bravado to fool folks into believing I'm more outgoing than I really am. I often fool myself into believing that. ACTING! Yet I'm still surprised when someone likes what we do. It's not false modesty--my bravado insists I don't have any modesty of any description--but my inner doubts sometimes compromise my ability to embrace the notion that people like us. I guess, even though my bravado does most of the talking, the work really does speak for itself.

Bob Cowsill's face. I swear, he was as happy to meet us as we were to meet him. I can't tell you how much that means, and how great that feels.

MR. ENCRYPTO: The Last Time [a cappella--expanded mix]

Magic. Oh, this track is just friggin' magic. We've corresponded with Bruce Gordon (aka Mr. Encrypto) for years, and met him on a few occasions when he's flown all the way from California to Syracuse to guest-host TIRnRR with his Let's Be The Beatles! concept. Let's Be The Beatles! insists that the Beatles had such pervasive impact that every single track they ever released prompted the sincere flattery of at least one attempt to mimic it--not as a cover version, but as a theoretical original built from Mersey moptopped DNA. It's a fascinating idea, and it makes for way fab radio.

And of course we're big fans of Mr. Encrypto's own music. We have ears and pulses. Our favorite among favorite Mr. Encrypto tracks is a vocals-only mix of his song "The Last Time," an a cappella masterpiece that is one of the defining tracks of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's long and storied history.

You wanna know who else likes this track? A listener and guitarist named Joel Tinnel. Joel heard "The Last Time" on TIRnRR, and was properly blown away. Joel played the track for his friend Steve Stoeckel, bassist for the Spongetones, and Joel told Steve, "We should form a band."

Across four states, Joel and Steve recruited Bruce, as well as drummer Stacy Carson, and an incredible group called Pop Co-Op was born, its spontaneous generation prompted by a little mutant radio show in Syracuse. 

We did that? Us? We are told that this is true. It's not a dream. It's the best gig ever. We're your friends for now. 30 years on, I'm thinking we may have expanded the definition of "for now." Thank you, friends.

See ya again this Sunday night? We'll be here. 

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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

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1112: WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS FOR NOW! 30 Years Of Dana & Carl

For thirty years and counting, I have enjoyed an amazing opportunity to co-host a radio show with my friend Dana. That is the best gig ever: playing rock 'n' roll, pop music, soul, punk, girl groups, R & B, power pop, bubblegum, ska, even country, reggae, and jump blues when we feel like it, and playing it all for listeners eager to embrace our giddy concept of The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. It's not anything I intend to give up at any point in the near future. This is fun. This is Dana & Carl. This is rock 'n' roll radio.

And it all started three decades ago. On January 15th, 1992, we recorded a 90-minute pilot episode of our first radio series We're Your Friends For Now, and that audition tape went on the air the same night. Weekly three-hour shows commenced just four days later, and continued until the station itself collapsed in June of '92. Even without a radio station, Dana and I kept on going through the '90s anyway, with a homemade series (Radio Peace) that played at local businesses (and somehow on Radio Vox in Russia), plus We're Your Mates For Now! (played between races at a Guinness round-the-clock marathon in England) and a cable TV special called Radiovision. With a new radio station, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio itself began on December 27th, 1998. All of its predecessors are part of the 30-year history of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

30 years! We celebrate that milestone with this week's show. Dana came up with the idea of playing tracks by some of the artists with whom we've had the pleasure of speaking during these last three decades. Some appeared with us on our show, or with us on stage; some did telephone interviews, some did Zooms, and some we met at their own shows. One of them was a Beatle. Top that. It all comes together for a very cool victory lap on behalf of whatever the hell it is that we do.

The 30th anniversary playlist was inspired by chats (however involved or brief) Dana and/or I have had with RINGO STARR, THE COWSILLS, PAUL COLLINS of THE BEAT, JOHN WICKS of THE RECORDS, THE FLASHCUBES, THE GRIP WEEDS, MARY LOU LORD, THE BEVIS FROND, POP CO-OP, RONNIE LANE and IAN McLAGAN of THE SMALL FACES, AIMEE BOBRUK and JON NOTARTHOMAS, ELLIE VEE of THE CHARMS, EYTAN MIRSKY, FRISBIE, ADAM MARSLAND and ROBERT RAMOS of COCKEYED GHOST, TERESA COWLES of PACIFIC SOUL LTD., EVIE SANDS, THE KENNEDYS, CHRIS JACKSON of NICE GUY EDDIE, THE POPTARTS, WRECKLESS ERIC and AMY RIGBY, ROBBIE RIST and JOHN BORACK of POPDUDES, FRITZ VAN LEAVEN of MINISTERS OF LOVE, JACK LIPTON of THE PENETRATORS, MARK DOYLE AND THE MANIACS, KENNY HOWES, DIGBY, KYLE VINCENT, DANNY WILKERSON, LANNIE FLOWERS, ERIC BARAO, CHICKLET, RONNIE DARK, BEAUTY SCENE OUTLAWS, MR. ENCRYPTO, CHRIS VON SNEIDERN, THE TREND, TOMMY STINSON of THE REPLACEMENTS and BASH AND POP, CRAIG MARSHALL, ADAM MARSHALL of THE HUMBUGS, TIM ANTHONY, DAVE EGAN of THREE DAYS AWAKE, RICH FIRESTONE of Radio Deer Camp, GREGG YETI, DAVID SOULE and CHARLIE ROBBINS of THE TEARJERKERS, HARMONIC DIRT, JOE MANNIX, KEN SHARP, RAY PAUL, MICHAEL MITSCH, JOHNATHAN PUSHKAR, TIRnRR ALLSTARS, and DAVE MURRAY, plus Guest Programmers DAN PAVELICH of THE CLICK BEETLES and LISA MYCHOLS of THE MASTICATORS. 

(And if this had been The Best SIX Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet instead of a mere three, we could have added THE RAMONES, KELLEY RYAN, THE BURNS SISTERS, JOEY MOLLAND of BADFINGER, JOAN JETT, CYRIL JORDAN of THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES, LOU WHITNEY of THE SKELETONS, MARK LINDSAY of PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS, RON DANTE of THE ARCHIES, PETE BEST, GREG KIHN, BEN VAUGHN, BLOTTO, MARK BACINO, TONI WINE, SAL VALENTINO of THE BEAU BRUMMELS, TERRY SYLVESTER of THE HOLLIES, JILL RICHMOND of THE AQUANETTAS, BARRY TASHIAN of THE REMAINS, KATE JACOBS, JOEY LEVINE of THE OHIO EXPRESS, DICK DODD of THE STANDELLS, TONY LEVANTHAL of THE MOCKERS, LENNY KAYE, ALEX CHILTON, SHEILA E, COLIN HAY of MEN AT WORK, PAUL CARRACK, JOHN WAITE, ANDREA OGARRIO of THE BUNNY RABBITS, THE FLASHING ASTONISHERS, and a bunch of others the ol' memory banks won't let us withdraw at the moment. It's okay. There's always next week. And the week after that. We have no intention of stopping any time soon.)

We're Your Friends For Now was our launchpad. As I wrote recently of our origins: like the Golliwogs before Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Dana & Carl radio partnership began well before its current mutant incarnation. We're Your Friends For Now was an embryonic version of TIRnRR, with time, title, location, and experience the only real differences between our Golliwogs then and our CCR now. 30 years of Dana & Carl. We're still here.

If you wanna dive into a more detailed account of our story so far, I direct you to Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio). Now, we're set to prove that, no matter what you've heard, you CAN trust a radio show over 30. And you can trust us. We're DJs. We've got your soundtrack lined up. 30 years on, this is what rock 'n' roll radio sounds like on a Sunday night in Syracuse this week.

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 all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). 

TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.

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

PS: SEND MONEY!!!! We need tech upgrades like Elvis needs boats. Spark Syracuse is supported by listeners like you. Tax-deductible donations are welcome at
http://sparksyracuse.org/support/

You can follow Carl's daily blog Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) at 
https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/

TIRnRR # 1112: 1/16/2022 WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS FOR NOW! 30 Years Of Dana & Carl

THE FLASHCUBES: Flavor Of The Month (unreleased)

DIGBY: Spirit (Label X, Go Digby)

THE CHARMS: Top Down (Red Car, Charmed, I'm Sure)

THE BEAT: Rock N Roll Girl (Wagon Wheel, The Beat)

MANNIX: Highway Lines (Futureman, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3)

KENNY HOWES AND THE YEAH!: Sheila, She (TallBoy, Until Dawn)

--

DANNY WILKERSON & LANNIE FLOWERS WITH ORBIS MAX: One Of A Kind (single)

MARY LOU LORD: Aim Low (Kill Rock Stars, MARY LOU LORD/SEAN NA NA: Split)

MARK DOYLE & THE MANIACS: Trials And Tribulations (Free Will, Pushin')

THE BEVIS FROND: He'd Be A Diamond (Rubric, New River Head)

MICHAEL MITSCH & LAGANSLOVE: Bogs Of Mayo (n/a, Back To The Bog)

WRECKLESS ERIC & AMY RIGBY: Do You Remember That? (Southern Domestic, A Working Museum)

--

THE POPTARTS: I Won't Let You Let Me Go (PlumTone, Fresh...Out Of The Toaster)

CHICKLET: Out Of Sight (Satellite, Wanderlust)

ERIC BARAO: On Holiday (n/a, Eric Barao)

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year (M-Squared, Year Of The Mouse)

GREGG YETI & THE BEST LIGHTS: My Narcoleptic Sara (Eskimo Kiss, Heart Palpitations Of The Rich And Famous)

THE RECORDS: Paint Her Face (Virgin, Crashes, Smashes And Near Misses)

--

FRISBIE: Comes N Goes (Hear Diagonally, Period.)

THE HUMBUGS: She's Not Sad (Oddvious, Twist The Truth)

PACIFIC SOUL LTD.: We Go High (Karma Frog, The Dance Divine)

THE KENNEDYS: Half Of Us (Jiffyjam, Get It Right)

POP CO-OP: Feint Of Heart (Silent Bugler, Four State Solution)

COCKEYED GHOST: I Hate Rock And Roll (Big Deal, The Scapegoat Factory)

--

RINGO STARR: It Don't Come Easy (Capitol, Photograph: The Very Best Of Ringo Starr)

TIM ANTHONY: Maryellen (Futureman, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2)

KYLE VINCENT: It Wasn't Supposed To Happen (Hollywood, Kyle Vincent)

RICH FIRESTONE: If The Sun Doesn't Shine (The TM Collective, VA: Green Thoughts)

RAY PAUL [with EMITT RHODES]: Some Sing, Some Dance (Permanent Press, The Charles Beat)

THE PENETRATORS: Teenage Lifestyle (Slovenly, Kings Of Basement Rock)

--

MINISTERS OF LOVE: Times Like This (n/a, Confessions)

THE TREND: Peer Pressure (Hate, Batman Live At Budokan)

THE CLICK BEETLES: If Not Now, Then When (Futureman, Pop Fossil)

THE GRIP WEEDS: Rainbow Quartz (Jem, How I Won The War)

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me (Futureman, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2)

HARMONIC DIRT: Maybe (n/a, Anthracite)

--

TIRnRR ALLSTARS: Waterloo Sunset (Kool Kat Musik, VA: Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio)

CHRIS VON SNEIDERN: Annalisa (Heyday, Sight & Sound)

RONNIE DARK: Sarah (Futureman, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3)

JOHNATHAN PUSHKAR: Any Second Now (Jem, Compositions)

CRAIG MARSHALL: Radio Girl (Big Ticket, Point Of View)

THREE DAYS AWAKE: Chills (21 Centimeter Line, Thursday Weld)

--

AIMEE BOBRUK: Puppets At Play (Hungry Ghost Music, The Safety Match Journal)

BASH & POP: Anything Could Happen (Fat Possum, Anything Could Happen)

KEN SHARP: Something's Happening (n/a, Miniatures)

THE MASTICATORS: He's The One [Unsound version] (Futureman, Complete Masticators!)

NICE GUY EDDIE: Never Saw The Sun (n/a, Snipe Hunt!)

DANA & CARL [with DAVE MURRAY]: The Ballad Of Jah Clampett (Futureman, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1)

--

BEAUTY SCENE OUTLAWS: Carl Cafarelli (Futureman, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2)

THE SMALL FACES: Up The Wooden Hills To Bedfordshire (Snapper, The Definitive Collection)

POPDUDES: High (Futureman, VA; This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3)

MR. ENCRYPTO: The Last Time [a cappella--expanded mix] (unreleased)

EVIE SANDS: Another Night (R-Spot, Get Out Of Your Own Way)

THE TEARJERKERS: Syracuse Summer (Futureman, VA: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3)

POP-A-LOOZA: 30 Years Of Dana & Carl

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 looks back at the prehistory of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, the weekly radio show I co-host with Dana Bonn: "30 Years Of Dana & Carl--The Origin Of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio."

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the very first Dana & Carl radio show We're Your Friends For Now, which debuted on January 15th, 1992. Tomorrow night on TIRnRR, we'll celebrate our unlikely longevity by playing a few records made by artists with whom we've had the pleasure of speaking at some point over these past three decades. This special edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio is called "We're Your Friends For Now--30 Years Of Dana & Carl," and it airs Sunday night, January 16th, from 9 to Midnight Eastern, in Syracuse on SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, https://sparksyracuse.org/

All stories start somewhere. For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, our story as The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet started exactly 30 years ago. "30 Years Of Dana & Carl" is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza. [2023 update: the text of that original Pop-A-Looza post appears below.]

It was Dana's idea.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl debuted on December 27th, 1998. It was the beginning of a long Sunday night tenure that has now lasted for more than 1100 shows over the course of 23 years and counting. But it wasn't the first Dana & Carl radio show; it was a continuation of something we'd already started years before. If we're going to tell the history of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, we have to tell the prehistory. We have to start with We're Your Friends For Now, and how We're Your Friends For Now eventually became TIRnRR.

I met Dana some time in the '80s. Our paths almost certainly crossed early in the decade at some Screen Test or 1.4.5. show, during the final flourish of the Syracuse new wave scene, before raising the drinking age to 21 suffocated the scene in 1985. Neither of us remembers meeting the other at the time. Because, y'know, beer. Other than sporadic visits back home, I spent most of the '80s away from Syracuse anyway, living in Brockport and Buffalo before my wife Brenda and I moved permanently to the 315 in 1987. My high school pal Jay Hammond introduced us to Dana that summer, I think, noting our mutual interest in that drivin' rock 'n' roll beat, man, the beat. Brenda and I had an apartment on the North side; Dana and his wife Maria had a house on Valley Drive. My memory tells me that my first visit to Dana and Maria's stately Bonn Manor was a cookout, and there was music: the Beatles, the Stooges, the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, the Beatles, the Flamin' Groovies, the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beatles, the Beatles, and the Beatles. Okay. I'm right at home here.

We all got to be friends, and saw each other with some frequency. Brenda and I quickly grew tired of apartment life--the crazy neighbor who carved YOU DIE!! into the vestibule outside our door may have been a factor in that--and we bought a house in the Northern suburbs in 1989. We had occasional parties, for New Year's Eve and--of course!--the Season Two premiere of Twin Peaks. Dana and Maria were among our regular guests at these festivities.

Near the end of 1991, The Syracuse New Times published a notice that something called WNMA was accepting proposals from would-be radio programmers. Other than hanging around with some pals at the campus radio station at Brockport, my only previous radio experience was as a guest DJ on WBNY-FM in Buffalo. But c'mon--what dyed-in-the-wool music fan wouldn't want a shot at turning listeners on to Fave Rave tunes? I was intrigued, but unsure. Someone--Brenda perhaps--may have suggested that I could do a show with Dana. Maybe someone made a similar suggestion to Dana. Whatever path led to the moment, it was during our New Year's Eve party at Casa Cafarelli, as we bid adieu to '91, that Dana said to me, You wanna do a show?

Dana contacted the good folks at WNMA, and a meeting was scheduled for after work on the evening of January 15th, 1992. WNMA was run by Lee Spinks and a guy named Greg, whose last name my memory bank long ago surrendered to the ether. Dana and I made our tentative pitch, a show co-hosted by two record collectors sharing knowledge and enthusiasm with an audience starved for more than commercial radio was serving them. We did some mock patter; Lee and Greg thought I didn't speak enough, and I've been overcompensating for that ever since. They asked us to record a demo show, right there and then. The first song we played was "Why Do You Treat Me Like A Tramp?" by Gashead. We segued Phil Ochs' "I Ain't Marching Anymore" into "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" by the Ohio Express, or maybe it was vice versa. Our demo passed the audition and went out on the air that very night.

"On the air." That meant something a little bit different at WNMA. WNMA wasn't a traditional station, but a project called Radiovision, an audio background to play behind community bulletins on the city's cable TV system. Our friend Dave Murray quipped that we weren't a real radio station, but we played one on TV.

When we recorded our demo, Greg and Lee asked us for the name of our would-be radio show. Huh--neither Dana nor I had thought much about that. I blurted out, "We're your friends...for now!" I think we meant to change it, but we never did. After that 90-minute pilot on 1/15/92, our three-hour weekly show We're Your Friends For Now aired Monday nights 11 pm to 2 am. We recorded the shows on cassette in WNMA's (sorta) converted storefront studio earlier in the evening, and they played back at the designated time. We specialized in theme shows, starting with a psychedelic (i.e., '60s garage) show on 1/19/72, and rippin' our way through subsequent shows dedicated to pure pop, soul/jazz/R & B, instrumentals ("music too good for words!"), covers, 45s, punk/new wave, live recordings, rock 'n' roll soundtracks, Beatles rarities, the British Invasion, 1987-1992, girl groups and female singers, the '70s, comedy and novelty rock, the Monkees, Apple Records, and the sounds of summer, with several themeless shows thrown in here and there. We're Your Friends For Now wasn't exactly the same as whatever This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio is, but it was similar. And it ended much too soon.

When we arrived at the studio for our sounds of summer show on June 1st, 1992, we were informed that WNMA would be terminating its affiliation with the cable company, effectively killing We're Your Friends For Now and all other WNMA shows. We weren't allowed to say anything about that publicly, not yet, so we sullenly went about our business of playing surf 'n' sun tunes as the rain fell and our moods faded to freakin' black. We did themeless shows for the brief remainder of our run, concluding with our Sayonara Show on 6/29/92.

Lee Spinks still had a long-term goal of turning WNMA into an independent broadcast station. Spinks invited a number of WNMA programmers (including your intrepid Friends For Now) to join him in that ongoing effort, but after a few meetings, the group split acrimoniously. Dana and I were among those who stuck together to form a new group, dedicated to that same goal of establishing a community radio station. This was the birth of Syracuse Community Radio.

Meetings. Plans. Arguments. Searches for compromise, attempts to merge disparate views into a workable, unified vision. Is this really how you build a better radio station? Yeah, I guess it is. I was selected as the treasurer. I just wanted to play my records on the radio, man.

Dana and Maria separated during the Radiovision project. It was as amicable a split as anything involving lawyers could be, but it was still a split, and eventually a divorce. They remain friends. Dana bought a house in Mattydale. In the midst of all these endless meetings, we wanted the Dana & Carl show to find a way to survive in some form. Dana had some basic recording gear at home. We weren't done just yet.

So yeah, the Dana & Carl show began in 1992. Further collaborations brought us through the '90s to the actual debut of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio in the waning moments of 1998. We've been here ever since.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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

10 SONGS: 1/13/2022

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 # 1111.

LAURIE BIAGINI: Hey Mr. DJ

Man, it has been way too long since we've heard from singer-songwriter Laurie Biagini. Laurie's been a long-time TIRnRR Fave Rave, and we're delighted to hear that she's hoping to release her new album Stranger In The Mirror in 2022. HuzZAH! This week, Laurie graced us with this teaser from Stranger In The Mirror, a giddy li'l single called "Hey Mr. DJ." Hey Mr. DJ, play me a song. These DJs are happy to comply. Welcome back, Laurie.

DAVID RUFFIN: Anything That You Ask For

I've been writing a book called The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it here at some point (or a billion), fighting my natural shyness about self-promo...skip it. David Ruffin's fascinating version of the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" earns its own entry in that long-threatened GREM! tome. Ruffin recorded the track in the early '70s, but it remained in the vaults, unreleased, for decades. As maddening as that is, it's even more flabbergasting that David, the proposed 1972 album for which "I Want You Back" was intended, likewise remained unissued and unheard. I finally heard the whole album last week, and it's fantastic, easily the best stuff Ruffin did after leaving the Temptations. I cannot fathom why in the world Motown refused to release this record. "Anything That You Ask For" offers a fine taste of the great Motown album that Motown didn't want you to hear.

THE BROTHERS STEVE: Electro-Love

Both Dana and I are adamantly on board the Brothers Steve bandwagon. While we continue to fixate on the irresistible "We Got The Hits" from their debut album # 1, we also wanna keep heaping radiophonic electro-love on their superswell 2021 record Dose. "Electro-Love" is the latest Big Stir Records single off Dose, and none can deny its divine right to sovereign airplay space. So much to love! 

(And we remind the intrepid Steves: first album was # 1, second album is Dose, and third one really oughtta be Dry. We humbly suggest the title of SUZI!! for your fourth album. Sink and Sicks can follow that. This has been a public service from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl.)

PETULA CLARK: Colour My World

Although I remember hearing and digging Petula Clark on the radio when I was a kid--especially with her wonderfully ubiquitous 1964 smash "Downtown"--I don't have any recollection of this song. It (very) belatedly caught my fancy when Rich Firestone gave it a spin on his own essential show Radio Deer Camp some time back, prompting me to finally purchase a Petula Clark best-of CD for my collection. Radio's job is to sell records. And loyal TIRnRR listeners should be sure to catch Rich's Radio Deer Camp every Sunday from 5 to 7 pm Eastern, right here on SPARK! Your wallet will hate you, but that's okay. Radio's job, man. Radio's job.

TAMAR BERK: In The Wild

One of the first-world problems of co-hosting a rockin' pop radio show is that there are always so, so many wonderful tracks to consider and a finite amount of time to play them each week. We received Tamar Berk's album The Restless Dreams Of Youth in 2021, played its fab track "Skipping The Cracks" precisely twice, with the intent of playing more, and more often. It took us this long to get back to it. My trusty iPod recently shuffled its way to Tamar's track "In The Wild" and I cursed myself for not playing the damned thing here sooner. We remedied that oversight on this week's playlist. So much great music. So little time. We'll try to play more Tamar Berk in 2022.

THE TROGGS: Lost Girl

TIRnRR has begun its 24th year as The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. But like the Golliwogs before Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Superman-Batman team before they became the lead feature in World's Finest Comics, the Dana & Carl radio partnership began well before its current mutant incarnation. On January 15th, 1992, Dana and I visited a fly-by-night radio studio in Syracuse to pitch our idea of a rock 'n' roll radio show; our 90-minute audition went on the air that same night as the inaugural edition of our show We're Your Friends For Now, with subsequent three-hour shows to follow each week thereafter (until we succeeded in bringing the whole station down with us by summer).

More radio collaborations continued sporadically throughout the '90s, eventually leading to This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's debut on December 27th, 1998. You can read about our weird history here. But that history did not start in 1998. We're Your Friends For Now was an embryonic version of TIRnRR, with time, title, location, and experience the only real differences between our Golliwogs then and our CCR now. 30 years of Dana & Carl. We're still here, and we're celebrating our inexplicable longevity with a 30th anniversary blowout show this Sunday.

We're Your Friends For Now did have a greater emphasis on theme shows than TIRnRR has retained (though we've still done our share of those, too). One theme show idea we were kickin' around before the old place imploded was "Debut Singles And Demo Tapes," which would have been a three-hour presentations of...debut singles and demo tapes. This ain't rocket surgery, people. That theme was directly inspired by our love of the Troggs, and a specific wish to spotlight their beguilingly ornery introductory side "Lost Girl." I don't know what other songs we would have wound up playing in this never-realized theme show. But I can guarantee you we would have played "Lost Girl." 

POPDUDES: Share The Land

Popdudes is/are/am the long-standing (mostly) covers combo featuring my former Goldmine magazine colleague John Borack on drums, joining various other ace musicmakers to capture that pop music sound you crave. Michael Simmons is almost always one of John's fellow Popdudes, and sundry line-ups of Popdudes have supplied original songs to three out of the four This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CDs. This capable cover of the Guess Who's "Share The Land" includes Robbie Rist, and was the virtual B-side to Popdudes' 2020 Big Stir Records single cover of the Five Stairsteps' "O-o-h Child." Worth sharing.

THE FLASHCUBES: Alone In My Room

Oh, those Flashcubes. I tell ya, they're up to something. We know they're working on a new archival release called Flashcubes On Fire, preserving an incendiary 1979 live show for eventual consumption by an eager power pop public. And they did two new tracks in 2021--covers of Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside" (recorded with Pezband's Mimi Betinis) and the Dwight Twilley Band's "Alone In My Room"--both of which made the countdown of TIRnRR's most-played tracks of the year. The former was released as a Big Stir Records digital single, while the latter was officially unreleased as of this week's show (with a digital single release now due Friday). Comments from [source redacted] indicate cause for anticipation regarding these Cubic rockin' pop covers, and the arrival this week of a third newly-recorded pop cover by the Flashcubes further ratchets the anticipation up and up and up. That newest cover will open next week's show. In the mean time, here's another spin of the Flashcubes' version of "Alone In My Room." 

And keep an eye (and ear) on those Flashcubes. They're up to something, they are.

THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up

My January song, every year. A Greatest Record Ever Made! celebration of this song is set to appear in a book I wrote, a book that is NOT the still-homeless GREM! book. This other book is tentatively planned for publication late this year. I hope. For now, I repeat my dismissal of the silly and pointless prospect of growing up: Don't wanna, won't need to, ain't gonna.

LULU: To Sir, With Love

I'm not 100% certain that the late Sidney Poitier was my lovely wife Brenda's all-time favorite actor, or if his film To Sir, With Love is her all-time favorite movie, or if that flick's title theme song is her all-time favorite individual track. In each category, though, I'm positive Brenda would rate Sidney, To Sir, With Love, and the plaintive voice of Lulu singing of crayons and perfume at or near the toppermost of her poppermost. We had already recorded this week's TIRnRR when we heard that Poitier had passed, but Dana had time to add this live BBC performance of "To Sir, With Love" at the end of the show. Brenda appreciates it. I appreciate it, too. Thank you, Sir.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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