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 # 1286
THE PEPPERMINT KICKS: Muscle Beach
We continue to piledrive our way toward the September release of Big Stir Records' epic various-artists rockin' pop love letter Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. We've been assembling like Avengers, and my $3-a-month Patreon supporters will get a sneak peek at the album's liner notes on June 1st.
This has been a dream project for me. I've been a Flashcubes fan since my first 'Cubes show more than 47 years ago, and it is such a kick--a peppermint kick!-- to hear so many other incredible pop performers give us their own sublime interpretations of songs written by members of the Flashcubes.
TIRnRR stalwarts the Peppermint Kicks serve up a case in point with their blood-pumpin' rendition of "Muscle Beach." Written by 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong, "Muscle Beach" was a fan-favorite staple of Flashcubes live shows circa 1979, and you can hear evidence of its sheer in-person power on the '79 club set preserved on the Flashcubes On Fire live album.
Our peppermint kicksters--Sal Baglio of the Amplifier Heads and Dan Kopko of the Shang Hi Los--capture that original Cubic vibe to perfection, making the song their own while retaining a line of sight with teen me 'n' my bright-lights peers swilling beer and doing the Jumping Jack upstairs at the Firebarn at the end of the '70s, the end of the century.
I do not want to be nineteen again. I would not even consider trying to surf through all that tsuris anew. But "Muscle Beach?" That's where I wanna be. Well done, you Peppermint Kicks.
THE MAYFLOWERS: Born To Cry
Aw, this is just beautiful. Kyoto's phenomenal pop combo the Mayflowers are long-time friends of the Flashcubes. Our previous compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 included a great Mayflowers track called "Sunflower Girl," co-written by Osamu Satoyama of the Mayflowers and Flashcubes bassist Gary Frenay. With these connections already in place, it made picture-perfect sense for the Mayflowers to cover a Gary Frenay song for Make Something Happen!
The Mayflowers chose to make something happen with "Born To Cry," a gorgeous Frenay ballad the Flashcubes recorded circa '79 or '80, after Paul Armstrong had left the 'Cubes and before the 'Cubes morphed into Screen Test, the Cubic-based trio of Frenay, Flashcubes guitarist Arty Lenin, and 'Cubes drummer-Tommy Allen. "Born To Cry" was a captivating song then, and it remains captivating in the capable hands of the Mayflowers.
When we posted an earlier work-in-progress look at the tentative line-up for Make Something Happen!, one 'Cubes fan responded immediately with the question, Where's "Born To Cry?" Now, here 'tis. The Mayflowers were born to make this particular something happen.
GRAHAM PARKER: Every Day I Have To Cry
The mighty Graham Parker covering soul great Arthur Alexander. Man, Mr. Parker sure does have a way of executing cool covers, doesn't he? Imagine if he were to cover a Flashcubes song!
We'll leave that notion to your imagination for now.
But we won't leave it to imagination alone for very much longer.
TONY MARSICO AND THE UGLY THINGZ: Goodbye To Lonely Town
Even a relatively low-profile media outlet like our little mutant radio show gets inundated with new music submissions. It helps that we have a handful of preferred resources that tend to jump to the top of our to-be-considered pile, and the Rum Bar Records label should certainly be considered among our favored nations.
From the submission stack, I was taken with "Goodbye To Lonely Town," a recent single from the current Tony Marsico and the Ugly Thingz album No Future. On Rum Bar Records, of course. No future? There's ALWAYS a future for the radio-ready! Hello "Lonely Town," and welcome to This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.
After we'd already programmed the track, recorded the show, and announced it in this week's hype, we realized that friend of the show Jonathan Lea plays guitar on "Goodbye To Lonely Town." We...would have realized that sooner if we were paying attention. But at least the Rum Bar Seal O' Approval had already brought the track to the top of the submission stack, and its intrinsic mojo was sufficiently dazzling to place it on our playlist. Word of Jonathan's involvement compels us to repeat the track on our next show. Hello AGAIN, "Lonely Town."
THE SPONGETONES: Anyway Town
Ahem. On this coming Sunday night, our next edition of TIRnRR will open with NEW MUSIC FROM THE SPONGETONES!!
Yes, you're welcome. We aims t'please.
Meanwhile, we offer an older Spongetones classic to keep your beat music as Fab as it wants to be. From their 2005 album Number 9, the 'Tones lads allowed us the use of "Anyway Town" on our own compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2. Wonderful track, and it always conjures an image of Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the wide-range region of my free associatin' mind.
And come Sunday, let's free-associate us up some NEW Spongetones sounds.
THE COOLIES: Bad Bad Boy
The supergroup known as the Coolies debuted with the 2019 EP Uh Oh! It's...The Coolies, and their music found an immediate and appreciative home on our sovereign airwaves. And we ain't kiddin' 'bout the "supergroup" part, as the Coolies included Kim Shattuck of the Muffs and the Pandoras, Melanie Vammen of the Muffs and the Pandoras, and Underground Garage host Palmyra Delran of the Friggs and a scattered zillion other worthy projects. Tracks from the Coolies' lone EP have been frequent fixtures on this show ever since.
The great Kim Shattuck left us later in that same year of 2019. Her dear pals Palmyra and Melanie channel Kim's immortal spirit on a new Coolies single, accompanied by Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go's and the late percussive powerhouse Clem Burke. The single's A-side "Bad Bad Boy" was co-written by Shattuck and Delran, and the result embodies something essential that I often seek in my music, books, film, and art:
A defiant single finger, flashed with determined intent at the cruel transience of this mortal sphere.
(The single's digital B-side is a superb cover of "Over You," a song previously done by British neo-Modsters Squire. The Coolies' version is irresistible, and we'll prove that when we play it on our next show.)
THE RAMONES: Oh Oh I Love Her So
Combining bits from two different posts offered after my book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones was published in 2023:
My motto remains that a day without the Ramones would be like...I don't have any idea what a day without the Ramones would be like. Nor do I ever intend to find out.
The Leave Home album track "Oh Oh I Love Her So" shoulda been a single. Hell, it shoulda been a Burger King commercial. It still should! I met her at the Burger King/We fell in love by the soda machine. See, now I want a Whopper. Advertising in action.
"Oh Oh I Love Her So" is an explosion of adrenaline-charged joy, one of my 25 favorite Ramones tracks. Like most of the Ramones' best works, it is pure in a way that may seem unexpected by heathens who don't worship at the Church of Ramones.
But it is pure. It is exciting and life-affirming and vividly real, even at its most cartoonish, even in the midst of its Bowery-bred seediness, the danger of its genesis redeemed by the exuberance of its pop. Fast. Loud. Pure. Oh oh, I love it so.
THE VENTURES: Walk--Don't Run
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE BONGOS: Glow In The Dark
After weeks of patient (HA!!) anticipation from this rock 'n' roll radio outlet, we've nearly reached the threshold of the release of The Shroud Of Touring: Live In 1985, Jem Records' new archival in-concert document of a performance by the Bongos. "Glow In The Dark" has long been one of my favorite Bongos tracks, and I'm shocked that we've never played the studio version (from Drums Along The Hudson) on any of our previous shows. But no matter! This week, we spin the live cut of "Glow In The Dark," and we'll utilize The Shroud Of Touring as the source for the TIRnRR debut of yet another Bongos gem on tomorrow night's program.
THE BEATLES: Dear Prudence
You're listening to the White Album on SPARK! Syracuse. From a previous reminiscence:
"The White Album is a pop touchstone like no other. Few regard it as the Beatles' best album, some regard it as one of their worst, and many would prefer if it had been pared down to a single-album release, rather than the sprawling (apparent) overreach of a double album. But owning a copy of it was, at one time, a prerequisite for...well, not status, exactly, but some undefined measure of cool. The White Album was cool in a way that not even Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road could match. It's never been my favorite Beatles album. I would never dream of doing without it."
You can read that complete reminiscence here. And when you're finished reading: Won't you come out and play?
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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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