Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1022 in the Series) Mink Deville,  Cabretta Willy DeVille is a rock star. Just look at him.  If you saw Bryan Adams or Elvis Costello walking down the street they could be mistaken for a mechanic, college professor, or accountant, certainly not for rock stars. But Willy Deville, looking like a slightly less road worn version of Keith Richards with a few less battle scars, could only be mistaken for the front man for the seminal post-punk band Mink DeVille and a rock star of highest order of which he is both. Willy Deville was a product of the 60’s, from the West Village New York City. Very much influenced by the...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#995 in the Series) is The Small Faces, First Step Being married to, or even dating a super model may give you a lot of bragging rights with the boys down at the local watering hole, and it certainly gives you a “checkmate” in the game of one-upmanship when you and your buddies are on your fifth pint and trading war stories about the hottest girlfriend you ever dated.  But if you are a rock star, and history tells us anything, it’s that that Super Models are responsible for ruining more careers than drugs, alcohol and Yoko combined, and that maintaining a relationship with one or more of these long legged vixens may be...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#947 in the series) is Tom Petty,  Hypnotic Eye Every couple of years, starting in 1976, Tom Petty demands our attention. With his debut, self-titled release, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a game-changing blend of straight ahead Rock, Ramones style Punk, and Byrds harmonies, a new contender for the title of future King of American Rock and Roll was Born. Stretching their influences instead of imitating them, this was about as strong a coming out party as you could possibly find, and “American Girl,” the first actual full-length song that Petty ever wrote, created the blue print for the straight ahead sound, and the lyrical purity that has served them well over...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Milli Vanilli, Girl You Know It’s True After much controversy, several lawsuits, fraud allegations, and that now famous bitch slap/cat fight with opening act Shields and Yarnell at what turned out to be their final performance, Rob Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan decided to break up their legendary musical mime troupe Key Mime Pie in the summer of 1985. The troupe, fresh off their critic’s favorite, publicly ignored album, Time out of Mime that featured their highest charting single to date, “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Mime”, was growing weary of the constant touring, press junkets, and gregarious groupies that were part of the day-to-day life of the biggest mime act in...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#881 in the Series) is Judee Sill, Judee Sill A charter member of the “should have lived longer” Pearly Gates hall of fame, a musical muse to the Laurel Canyon cosmic cowboy congregation in the 70s’ with a tonal purity that would make Eva Cassidy blush, Judee Sill, an angel that flew too close to the sun also holds the distinction with her debut self-titled record of having the first proper full-length release on David Geffen’s Asylum label. Beating out musical luminaries the likes of Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and Tom Waits, Closing Time was released on Asylum, Sill earned debut honors largely on the strength of her songwriting.  Her song...

Today’s Cool album of the Day (#870 in the Series) is The Flamin Groovies, Teenage Head If the Whigs, The Black Keys, Parquet Courts, Black Angels, or any of the rest of the present day bands  that are making that electric, salty, psychedelic, garage rock music today were a crime scene, the DNA would lead all the way back to the 1965 San Francisco Rock scene, and The Flamin Groovies would be found guilty as charged. While their influence might not quite be considered beatlesque, and the pairing of guitarist Cyril Jordan and singer Roy A. Loney might not exactly be Lennon and McCartney, their impact on the flowers in your hair Grateful Dead, and the trip happy Jefferson...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#828 in the Series) is Three Dog Night, Naturally Three Dog Night was a band that essentially consisted of three vocalists, Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron, and Cory Wells, and four musicians, Michael Alsup on guitar, Floyd Sneed on drums, Joe Schermie on bass, and Jimmy Greenspoon on keyboards, seven separate fools as we would later discover.  Performing for the most part other peoples songs, the band, named after the number of wild dogs it took to keep yourself warm if you happened to find yourself stuck overnight in the Australian Outback on a cold winters evening, and who hasn’t, was the quintessential Classic Rock cover band before the term “Classic Rock” even...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#734 in the Series) is The Beach Boys, That’s Why God Made the Radio The first thing that comes to mind when discussing a new Beach Boys album is a not so pleasant retro-flashback to the last record of original material under the Beach Boys brand name that was released almost 16 years ago called Summer in Paradise.  This release gave us the first glimpse of what it would be like if Mike Love hijacked the band, kidnapped Brian Wilson, and attempted to recreate the surf-opera sounds of summer without the genius production and arranging fairy dust provided by the undisputed leader of the band.  The result was expectantly bad, with the...

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#716 in the Series) is Jimmy Fallon, Blow Your Pants Off Choosing your go-to talk show host is a lot like choosing a spouse or a dog.  It is a decision that is typically made when you are in your mid-twenties, one you are stuck with for at least a decade at a minimum, and you must be prepared for them to at times bring you joy, sometimes disappointment, and from time to time they will soil your rug. If the current stable of late night talking heads were a classic rock artist Jay Leno would be Bob Seger in that he is definitely showing his age, his monologues have not...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#535 in the Series) is Tom Waits, Closing Time (Asylum) With the recent release of his first proper full length release since 2004, Bad as Me, I got to thinking about my somewhat tortured relationship with the enigmatic troubadour. Appreciating Tom Waits is like drinking a six pack of beer for the first time. Your first taste is kind of bitter where over indulging can cause a violent reaction the likes of which you probably have not experienced since that god awful last episode of “Cheers”. The chances of this first experience being a negative one increase exponentially especially if you’re Tom Waits de-flowering happened to be in the not so gentle arms...