Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#220 in the Series) is Pat Travers Band,  Live! Go For What You Know. Bring up Pat’s name in any conversation involving music and you’ll almost always get one of three responses: 1.)Who? (A response by a music fan that generally doesn’t care for guitar slingers.) 2.) Oh yeah, the “Boom Boom” guy. (A response by the general mainstream music buying public.) 3.) He’s the best F’n guitarist around! (If you get this response, you’ve just met a die-hard Travers fan, affectionately referred to as a Hammerhead.) Pat was one of the solo act, high energy blues rock guitar heroes popular during the mid to late 70’s residing alongside the likes of...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#184 in the Series) is the soundtrack to the movie, Rock and Roll High School. ”Gabba, Gabba, Hey!! Just pure silly fun in the movie and on the soundtrack! I started today’s choosing by looking at the Ramone’s catalog and tried to make a decision. I just couldn’t find one album to feature! So I decided to do something slightly different. So today’s album is the soundtrack to Rock and Roll High School. It’s features mostly songs by the Ramones, but has a couple other goodies in there as well. Tons of Ramones here. ‘Blitzkrieg Bop, I Wanna Be Sedated, She’s the One, Rock and Roll High School, Sheena is a Punk Rocker,...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#176 in the Series) is Waylon Jennings, I’ve Always Been Crazy. Waylon Jennings always put out cool albums!  This one was one of the coolest. I’ve Always Been Crazy was one of his strongest efforts from beginning to end. This album actually rocked quite a bit. Yeah, there were a few ballads, but the title cut, “Don’t You Think This Outlaw Thing’s Done Got Out of Hand,” “A Long Time Ago” all rolled along pretty good. “A Long Time Ago” was co-written with the great Shel Silverstein. Silverstein was long known for his cartoon work and even wrote A Boy Named Sue.  He also wrote another song on the album called “Whistlers and...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#173 in the Series) is the debut self-titled album from Rickie Lee Jones. Rickie Lee Jones, 1979, was one of the most successful debut albums in the seventies, both critically and commercially. It produced a hit single, “Chuck E.’s in Love,” which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Singles chart while the album peaked at #3 on the Billboard Album chart. It also won her a Grammy for Best New Artist. “Youngblood” was also successful single, but for personal preference, give me “Danny’s All-Start Joint.” It was way too cool to be a single but was among the best tracks on the album. “Last Chance Texaco”still gives chills. “Coolsville” was great if you...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#162 in the Series) is the Tubes, Remote Control Remote Control, 1979 was the album where The Tubes decided to tone down the outrageous and wackiness at least a little.  Well, not as outrageous, but a heck of a satire on the overgrowth of television. So there might not have been anything as memorable as “White Punks on Dope” from their debut, but overall, this is a great Tubes album. Besides toning down the crazy, they also wanted to tighten up the sound some. Well how would you do that in the late Seventies, or late eighties or ever for that matter. You make a phone call and ask Todd Rundgren to produce...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#153 in the Series) is Nick Lowe, Labour of Lust. When you’re in a crappy mood there is nothing better than popping on a good ol’ Nick Lowe disc! We already did Rockpile about four months ago.  Rockpile was, of course, the joint effort of Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds.  This was Nick on his own.  Well supposedly it was.  However, even though it’s a Nick Lowe album, the band lineup is the same as the Rockpile album. Nick on bass, Dave Edmunds on guitar, Billy Bremmer on guitar and Terry Williams on drums.  Elvis Costello added harp to American Squirm. There are 11 tracks totaling 33 minutes of music here.  Or as...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day ( #150 in the Series)  is Steely Dan, Katy Lied. Last year Steely Dan did a tour where they played one of three albums in their entirety.   They would ‘hunker down’ in town for four nights.  The first three nights they would play either The Royal Scam, Aja or Goucho.  The fourth night would be requests. Unfortunately, they didn’t play my favorite Dan album, Katy Lied. Don’t get me wrong, I love those other three releases.  But give me Katy Lied. I could list nearly every track as a favorite.  How can you choose from Black Friday, Bad Sneakers, Doctor Wu, Chain Lightning. Everyone’s Gone to the Movies or Any World (That I’m...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#128 in the Series) is Nils Lofgren, Nils. Nils is the sixth solo album by guitarist Nils Logren, and and the fourth studio release. Nils came to prominence as a member of Crazy Horse and before that, Grin. He’s been a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band for over 25 years. Nils was my favorite for a number of reasons but mainly for No Mercy. No Mercy is a boxing song written from the viewpoint of the victorious boxer as he feels sorrow for his soon to be defeated opponent.  It’s quite the unique song. But there indeed many great pieces of music here.  Others include I’ll Cry Tomorrow, and a great...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is David Grisman, “Hot Dawg.” What a wonderful sounding piece of music. Not really bluegrass, but pretty close. David calls his music, Dawg Music. This was an album that I could listen to front to back day after day. David, mandolin, was performing with a quintet during this period. Band members included, Tony Rice on guitar, Darol Anger on violin, Mike Marshall on violin and mandolin, and Tony Phillips on bass. All heavyweights! Highlights include ’16…16, Dawg’s Bull,Minor Swing’ and ‘Neon Tetra.’ But listen to the whole album. You won’t be disappointed. “Hot Dawg” reached #14 on the Billboard Jazz Charts early into 1979. Personnel David Grisman – mandolin Tony Rice – guitar...

Today’s Cool Album of The Day (#81 in The Series) is Blondie, “Eat To The Beat.” I wasn’t sure what to do today. Then I heard it was Debbie Harry’s 65 birthday. I looked at her solo album “Rockbird” since I’m a big fan of that release. But I decided to go with Blondie’s “Eat to The Beat.” Why, well it has what may by my two favorite Blondie tracks, ‘Dreaming’ and ‘Union City Blue.’ “Eat to the Beat” was produced by Mike Chapman and reached #17 on the Billboard US chart. Happy Birthday DH Track listing Side A “Dreaming” (Debbie Harry, Chris Stein) – 3:08 “The Hardest Part” (Harry, Stein) – 3:42 “Union City Blue” (Nigel Harrison, Harry) –...