Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#827 in the Series) is The Mumlers, Don’t Throw Me Away Don’t Throw Me Away is release number two from The Mumlers.  What impresses me about this album is its uncanny ability to feel old and fresh often at the same time.  It is difficult to label their style as there are elements of jazz, folk, and psychedelia all mixed together.  If I had to pick something I would say folk with some creole jazz backing.  A lot of the vocals have a lo-fi sound which fits perfectly into their retro sound.  Their style isn’t to force the music onto people or to catch you with one or two catchy guitar...

    Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Company In My Back” (Live Version from Kicking Television) by Wilco Live albums. They are the most maligned recordings by critics, yet the fans just love them. You don’t believe me? Ask Peter Frampton, The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Little Feat, The Who, Lou Reed, Cheap Trick and Kiss to name a few, who have made classic live albums and have benefitted from huge sales. Heck, live albums are so ingrained in our pop culture, that you can probably name each of the live albums I’m referring to above, just by the list of artists. In the...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “That Look You Gave That Guy” by Eels Eels are capable of bone-chilling, howlin’-at-the-moon, terrifyin’ rock and roll, and when they are in that mode, they are at their very best. But Eels also have a tender side too, as exemplified by this superb ballad from the 2009 album Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs Of Desire. For those that don’t already know, Eels are the handiwork of one Mark Oliver Everett (aka “E”), and whomever he chooses to work with at any particular time. For Lobo, Everett’s co-conspirators were Koool G Murder on bass and Knuckles on drums. The album came after a four year layoff, and was the first (and...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Bardo” by Todd Rundgren I’m kind of stuck in the middle of a Todd Rundgren jag at the moment. And if you’re a Todd fan, there are many reasons to be excited. With the recent releases of not one, but two new live recordings of the classic albums Todd (originally released in 1974)and Healing (1980) both from his recent tour, plus the belated appearance of the 1976 Utopia album Disco Jets, I guess I just can’t seem to get enough of that Todd stuff. It’s led me to revisit some albums from his catalog that I haven’t heard in a while. Once such album is his 2008 album, Arena, which,...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Talaps Theme” by William Parker Difficult listening doesn’t have to be difficult. It’s all about perception, and with the ability to just let it all wash over you with an open mind, difficult listening can be real easy. Case in point is bassist William Parker’s 2008 free jazz album Petit Oiseau. Parker has one of the best working bands in Jazz today. Along with longtime percussionist Hamid Drake, Parker acts as the catalyst of The William Parker Quartet, driving the proceedings with his percussive approach to the double bass and sustaining the tension between saxophonist Rob Brown’s sharp tones and trumpeter Lewis Barnes’ muted beauty. Even when the band is...

    Today’s Cool Album of Day (#802 in the Series) is Eddie Holstein, Eddie Holstein When Eddie Holstein sings “I’m goin’ down to Morton Grove, baby do you want to go?” the answer is yes.  And that is just how it is, after all these years and clubs and sing-a-longs and tributes, Eddie Holstein still makes you want to go. The slightly fat sound of his free finger picking style on the folk guitar and the weathered but still potent voice takes you back to the days when folk singing was the bomb. Or, against the bomb.  But he isn’t singing strident protest tunes on this set; no full-throated, head back sincerity ala Bob Gibson or Joan Baez....

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#787 in the Series) is Alexi Murdoch, Time Without Consequence. Alexi Murdoch is a perfect example of the new paradigm music industry success story. He released a self produced EP Four Songs in 2002 on CDbaby.com, sold over 50,000 via download (CDbaby’s all time best seller) and started his own record label, Zero Summer. Time Without Consequence, released in 2006, is his first full album and includes three of the Four Songs from his start up EP. He’s been able to achieve international acclaim while turning down numerous offers from major record labels. Alexi’s voice is reminiscent of Nick Drake. He has the kind of control of his acoustic guitar that reminds me...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#784 in the Series) is Brewed in Texas. Part collection of morality tales, part Saturday night party record, and part Austin hill country travelogue, Brewed in Texas  is quite possibly the best collection of drinking songs on one barstool since the Merle Haggard classic, Back to the Barrooms. Lovingly produced by Houston based Compadre Records, this album celebrates the joys of getting plastered, the necessity of drowning your sorrows, draining your tears in your beer, and most importantly, the Honky-Tonk. This album features contemporary Texas singer songwriters Kevin Fowler, Slaid Cleaves, Beaver Nelson and Hayes Carll, right beside hill country road dogs Jerry Jeff Walker, Tommy Alverson, and Rusty Weir, the bastard...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#779 in the Series) is The Jupiter Affect, Instructions For the Two Ways of Becoming Alice Ask a handful of music lovers of a certain age about their favorite Michael Quercio moment, and you’ll be hard-pressed to come up with a consensus. Some will vote for “Jet Fighter,” the appropriately soaring opening track off Sixteen Tambourines, The Three O’ Clock’s 1983 debut album, Others prefer the punk-psych swirl of “She Turns To Flowers” by Quercio’s earlier trio The Salvation Army, the D.Boon-approved combo that played a major role in kick-starting LA’s “Paisley Underground” movement. Still others will tell you that he did his best work in the early 90s with Permanent Green Light....

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#767 in the series) is New Order, Get Ready In the early 80’s I sometimes was overwhelmed with the idea of how much undiscovered music there was. New Order was more underground and sub-culture back then, even though the mix of rock and dance music did become big and certainly New Order gained fame and popularity as years went by. But it was not with their best songs and tracks, like “Your Silent Face,” one of my favorite songs of all time, went largely unheard. The reason I bring this up is the same is true of this almost forgotten release from 2001. I forgot about it myself and couldn’t find the disc...