Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Tom Waits, “Blue Valentine.” What a piece of music this one is.  I just love Tom Waits.  This is yet another example of the album I love is the tour I saw. I can’t remember the name of the place. But there was a little roadhouse between Merrillville + Valparaiso, Indiana where I saw this tour.  It had to be in 1978 or ‘79.  The opening act was Leon Redbone who had laryngitis that night and did everything instrumental.  He then held up a ‘thank you’ sign after every song. TW does an amazing version of ‘Somewhere” from West Side Story as an opening number on this album. It’s truly a remarkable...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#113 in the Series) is Little Feat, Waiting For Columbus. We usually only have studio albums in this blog. No Greatest Hits packages either. But today is going to be different. Today is Little Feat, Waiting For Columbus. It’s quite possibly the best live album ever. (Note: since this was originally published we have indeed begun covering live albums, but still no greatest hits packages.) I do so for sad reasons. Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward passed away yesterday from liver cancer. He will be missed by masses. He was a wonderful musician and according to those that knew him, a wonderful person. What always amazed me about Waiting For Columbus was Richie’s drum...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Hounds, Unleashed. Well, I’ve been holding off featuring albums by friends but I figured what the heck. So today we’re going to run with, from Chicago’s South Suburbs, The Hounds, Unleashed. In the mid-seventies, Friday at 5:00pm on WXRT could only mean the spinning of one song, a tradition that continued for quite a few years. That was the playing of The Hounds, ‘Drugland Weekend.’ I’m not sure how long this tradition continued, but my guess would be from about ‘76 thru ’78. Interesting enough, it wasn’t the version from ‘Unleashed’ that ‘XRT used to play. It was a demo that was used to show their chops. It helped grab them a two album...

Today’s Cool Album of The Day is UK, “UK” One of the best ‘supergroups’ of their day. U.K was of: John Wetton, (King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Roxy Music) bass, vocals; Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson, Genesis) drums and percussion; Eddie Jobson (Curved Air, Roxy Music, Frank Zappa) violin, keyboards and electronics and Allan Holdsworth (Soft Machine, Gong) guitars. The some was as big as the parts on this 1978 release. The best known track was the single ‘In The Dead of Night.’ ‘Alaska’ and ‘Time to Kill’ also got some play. U.K. was produced by U.K and reached #65 on the Billboard US Charts. Track listing Side one “In the Dead of Night” (Eddie Jobson, John Wetton) – 5:38 “By...

Today’s Cool album of the Day is the Dire Straits debut album, “Dire Straits.” Do you remember the first time you heard this album? The very first time you heard it? You just might. Why, because you KNEW this was something special. You KNEW, this was one of those bands that was going to be around for a long time. You KNEW they were going to be making special music for a long time. That was in 1978. You were right. If not Dire Straits, but leader Mark Knopfler is still releasing viable, relevant music 32 years later. The first song I heard was the single, ‘Sultans of Swing.’ Funny enough, The very first time I heard it I...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Devo’s, “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” I remember when they made their debut on Saturday Night Live back in 1978. They did their now familiar, quirky version of ‘The Stones, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.’ Watchers didn’t know if this was a musical guest or just another comedy sketch! Well, 32 years later the band is still putting out records. I thought they smoked on Late Night with David Letterman yesterday. The played really well and Mark Mothersbaugh’s voice was as strong as ever. They’re new ‘get up’ is pretty cool too. : Q:Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was the band debut. It featured more...