Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#257 in the Series) is Van Morrison, Enlightenment. Why Enlightenment and not some of the more popular Van Morrison albums?  Because Enlightenment includes the track, ‘Real, Real Gone’ that’s why.  It’s one of my favorite songs of all time. I was putting the playlist together to give you videos below.  The first five songs were an easy find.  I was more than a little angry when I could not find the video for the sixth song, ‘The Day’s Before Rock and Roll.’  This is another one of my favorite songs. What a great piece. Below you’ll also see the link to the ‘Cool Album of the Day’ MySpace Page. You can listen to...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#235 in the Series) is Beck, Odelay. I’ve been very lax on featuring albums from the 90s. So I think I found a good one to write up. Beck’s Odelay. This was around the time when the general public started realizing that this ‘Beck’ wasn’t Jeff! He was however, pretty darn good.  Actually, Mellow Gold, released two years earlier, charter higher, but Odelay was the one. Odelay peaked at #17 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. Accolades Grammy Award for ‘Best Alternative Album.’ Ranked #16 in Spin Magazine’s ‘Top Albums from 1996-2005.’ Voted Best Album by ‘The Village Voice.’ Ranked # 305 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s ‘Top 500 Albums of All Time.’...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#202 in the Series) is Teenage Fan Club, Bandwagonesque. Teenage Fan Club were/ is a band from Scotland. This was their third album and was released in 1991. I had a chance to see them at the ‘Metro’ in Chicago when this album was justr released.  They put on a heck of a show too! Most of this album was written by guitarists Norman Blake and Gerard Love. For this album at least it was pretty much an either / or thing.  They didn’t really collaborate that often, preferring to write on their own. Well, at least credit-wise. The rest of the band consisted of Raymond McGinley on guitar; Brendan O’Hare on drums...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#196 in the Series) is Darden Smith, Trouble No More. Yesterday we gave you one of the most popular singer songwriter/rockers that ever walked the planet. So today, I’m going to give you another great singer-songwriter. This time one that, I’m betting, not as many of you have heard. That man is named Darden Smith. He’s an Austin, Texas native.  He’s been recording since the mid-80s. The most of his commercial success was a little after that period when he released a number of albums for Sony Music. This was another artist that I became aware of after receiving a promo of his latest effort. In this case it was this album, Trouble...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#146 in the Series) is Material Issue, International Pop Overthrow. One of the finest rock and roll albums to come out of the Chicago area in 1990s, Material Issue, International Pop Overthrow. Material Issue was a three piece power pop band that wasn’t around very long.  They did put out some wonderful music while they did. They were led by Jim Ellison. He was Material Issue.  He wrote most of the songs, sang the songs, played guitar on the songs and found a record label to release the songs, etc. When Jim Elison died in 1996 so did Material Issue. Ted Asani and Mike Zelenko made up the rest of the trio. International...

  Ah the Aragon Ballroom. This is a fun listing for the old Rock ‘n’ Rollers that visit the Cool Album of the Day site. Here’s a list of just about ever show that was held at the Aragon Ballroom in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.  If you went there, have fun looking thru this list.  Look for the shows that you saw. Feel ‘bummed’ about the ones you missed. Be angry about the ones that you would have checked out but you didn’t know about, until now. I’ve combined different listings to form this list. I’ve even contacted band members and did poster research to find others. It’s the best list on the ‘net! If you were never...

Ah the Aragon Ballroom. This is a fun listing for the old Rock ‘n’ Rollers that visit the Cool Album of the Day site. Here’s a list of just about ever show that was held at the Aragon Ballroom in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.  If you went there, have fun looking thru this list.  Look for the shows that you saw. Feel ‘bummed’ about the ones you missed. Be angry about the ones that you would have checked out but you didn’t know about, until now. I’ve combined different listings to form this list. I’ve even contacted band members and did poster research to find others. It’s the best list on the ‘net! If you were never at...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is World Party’s, Good Bye Jumbo. Good Bye Jumbo was easily my favorite album of 1990. (I used to publish a top 10 list each year back then when I worked in ‘the biz.’) World Party was the name of the band by former Waterboy’s Karl Wallinger. Wallinger composed all 12 tracks on this album. Highlights included, ‘Put The Message in the Box, Is It Too Late, Way Down Now’ and’ Take It Up.’ Personnel Guy Chambers –  Drum Samples, Drums, Guitar (Synthesizer), Harmonium, Piano, Sampling, Synthesizer Jerod – Guitar (Acoustic) Roy J. Morgan – Tambourine Sinéad O’Connor – Vocals (Background) Sophia Ramos – Vocals (Background) Karl Wallinger – guitar, keyboards, vocals Jeff...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#251 in the Series) is Wilco, AM. Today we’re featuring Wilco’s 1995 debut album, AM. Even though the band has been producing great music for years, I still prefer their debut.  This one was a little more ‘Americana/Alt-Country-ish’ that suited my tastes.   If you haven’t heard it, give it a listen. AM did not chart. Those days would come soon enough. (I know, short and sweet today. We’ll have more to say tomorrow.) Here’s all the info. Track listing All songs written by Jeff Tweedy unless otherwise noted. 1. “I Must Be High” – 2:59 2. “Casino Queen” – 2:45 3. “Box Full of Letters” – 3:05 4. “Shouldn’t Be Ashamed” – 3:28...