Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#585 in the Series) is The Church, Starfish. (Arista) The Church was/is an Australian band that, although still together and touring, had their most success in the late 80s, early 90s. That success was surrounded by the wonderful album, Starfish. When I was thinking one day if I should feature this album, my friend Terry Witmer mentioned “Sure, You never heard anything like that on the radio at that time.” That made me think, “yup.  Gotta do The Church.” Starfish was The Church’s fifth full album released. They had a bunch of EPs tossed in there as well.  It held their highest charting single “Under the Milky Way.” When this was released in 1988,...

——————————————————————————————- Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#506 in the Series) is Was (Not Was), What Up, Dog? Have you heard this one? I’m guessing many of you have not. Well, you may have heard one of the singles, “Walk the Dinosaur” or “Spy In the House of Love,” but like many great albums, the singles don’t tell the story. Was (Not Was) is the brainchild of Don Was and David Was. Two outstanding producers/musicians. Don Was has done many things you’ve heard. From the great Bonnie Raitt album, Nick of Time to The Rolling Stones. The majority of this album is a hard funk/ jazz sound, with a couple great ballads tossed in. The band’s sense of humor...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#464 in the Series) is Edie Brickell and New Bohemians, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars One of the things I used to have on the website was the question.. When was the last time you played this album? For me, it had been years since I listened to this one.  I remember always liking it too. It just ran its course after a while.  Something triggered my memory and I thought, yeah, that would be a great one to do.  I went back and listened to it and fell in love with it all over again. I always loved Edie, but I’d forgotten how good New Bohemians were.  In fact, check out their...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#420 in the Series ) is John Hiatt, Slow Turning. Three Dog Night- “Sure As I’m Sitting Here; Rosanne Cash –“This is the Way We Make a Broken Heart “and “Pink Bedroom,” Jeff Healey Band –“Angry Eyes,” Eric Clapton and BB King – “Ridin’ With the King – Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit and Desert Rose Band – ”She Don’t Love Nobody,” Bonnie Raitt –“Think Called Love.” You may know many of these songs. They all did quite well and they were all written by John Hiatt.  For years he was known as the guy that put out hits for others but couldn’t quite make that success carry over to his own...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#401 in the Series) is American Music Club, California The Ones That Got Away. It’s a list that surely every music fan has got: the great unsung heroes, the bands or artists that you consider to be utterly brilliant but who simply do not, for whatever reasons, get the credit and recognition they so deserve. I’ve certainly got such a list and you can be damn sure that very near the top of it is this band, American Music Club. Formed in San Francisco in 1983, A.M.C. were roughly contemporary with bands such as R.E.M. and The Replacements and like both those fine bands they went on to create some of the very...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#351 in the Series) is Living Colour, Vivid Yesterday I mentioned that I felt that Lyle Lovett was a musician that had quite the unique sound.  Well, let’s continue on that “unique” trend with Living Colour. Yeah, I guess an all-African-American metal band would fit the bill. I know we don’t like to pigeonhole bands. I know it’s also somewhat clichéd to point out musicians by their race.  But I also feel it’s impossible to mention Living Colour and not mention how rare it was and 22 years later, to see an all-African-American metal band, at least one as good as Living Colour. Living Colour rose from the underground music scene in New...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#339 in the Series) is Al Anderson, Party Favors Al Anderson.  Do you know the name? You might. Al was the long time guitarist for NRBQ.  Besides his work with “The Q” he’s also written a country hit or two, most notably for Carlene Carter. This was actually released about the same time that he was doing well with the Carlene hits. It also was directly before NRBQ was to release one of their few major-label albums, that being Wild Weekend.  That album was on Virgin Records. This album was a side project during that time. Al actually played most of the instruments on the disc. Some reviews have said it had a...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (*#264 in the Series) is Hothouse Flowers, People The Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock band that was formed in 1985. People was their debut album and was released in 1985 It ‘houses’ two of their more well-known tunes, ‘I’m Sorry ‘ and ‘Don’t Go.’  It peaked at #88 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. As of now, that’s the band’s highest ranking album in the States. They’re still around so hopefully we’ll be hearing more from them. If you’re not a fan you should be!  Here’s a link to their home page. Give it a visit. They do a great job in keeping their fans up to date on news, tour...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Rodney Crowell, “Diamonds & Dirt.” Rodney Crowell is one of America’s great singer/songwriters. He’s written hits for Bob Seger (Shame on the Moon), George Strait/Jimmy Buffett (Stars on the Water), Waylon Jennings/EmmyLou Harris (Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This) and on and on. He also saves some good ones for himself. “Diamonds & Dirt” is a fine example.Highlights include: ‘I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried, She’s Crazy For Leavin’, After All This Time’ and a Duet with then wife Rosanne Cash ‘It’s Such a Small World’ Rodney was a member of the great 70s EmmyLou Harris ‘Hot Band.’ But he also had a hot band of his own. His guitarist during this...