The Little Willies “For The Good TImes”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#602 in the Series) is The Little Willies, For the Good Times (Milking Bull) Those of you that have been Norah Jonesing for an encore to The Little Willies and their eponymous album that featured fun eclectic versions of classic country songs like “ I Gotta Get Drunk” and “Nightlife” alongside the masterpiece “Streets of Baltimore”, and a rousing original song that sings the praises of Lou Reed called, appropriately enough, “Lou Reed”, need wait no more. This time around For The Good Times, the second release for the band that consists of Lee Alexander on bass, Jim Campilongo and Richard Julian on guitar, Dan Reiser on drums, and the incomparable Norah...
The Bottle Rockets “Not So Loud: An Acoustic Evening with The Bottle Rockets”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#597 in the Series) is The Bottle Rockets – Not So Loud: An Acoustic Evening with The Bottle Rockets (Bloodshot Records) As a life-long music fan, one of the things that truly excites me is discovering an act that while they may be very new to my sometimes ignorant ears, they have in reality been around quite a long time and have a body of work sometimes spanning a decade or more for me to devour. Now don’t get me wrong I had Heard of The Bottle Rockets before and was fully aware that many people considered them to be one of the forefathers of the Americana and Alternative Country movements, but...
Album Sales up 3% in 2011. Industry Shows First Increase Since 2004.
For the first time since 2004, album sales showed an increase in 2011 according to a report by Yahoo.com. This is great news to whatever is left of the music industry. The numbers were up 3%. Last year, 458 million albums were sold, this according to the piece. How did they help land on that number? Besides the Nielson SoundScan numbers, they are also using a formula where ten downloaded singles from providers such as iTunes and Amazon music now are considered as one sold album. The leader of the pack was Adele’s “21” which rang up 5.8 million units. It also spawned interest in her previous album “19” which added 868,000 sales to the yearly total. Michael...
“Cool Album of the Day” Favorite Albums of 2011
One of the things that many music websites do this time of year is publish what they call “The Best Albums of year..blah blah blah.” All I have to say is, if you claim your list is a best of, then you better have heard every album that was released. I read a ton of these lists and I know for sure, these people are deciding on what is a best of and they haven’t come close to doing enough homework. Yes, we’re putting out a list as well. But we’re calling it our “Favorite Albums of 2011. I know darn well that I didn’t hear nearly enough to think that I what I have to say is...
Iron and Wine “Kiss Each Other Clean”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#571 in the Series) is Iron and Wine, Kiss Each Other Clean (Warner Brothers US, 4AD Worldwide) Sam Beam is a chap who may have sneaked under your radar (he did mine for a while), mainly because Iron & Wine is not the type of band to receive mass airplay on radio or T.V. What they are about, fortunately for us, is crafting superb albums full of beautiful, heartfelt songs. First some details. Iron & Wine is one of those bands that isn’t really a band at all. It’s basically one man, Sam Beam, who writes and sings and plays on everything. It’s pretty much Sam and whoever he chooses to work with...
Lydia Loveless, “Indestructible Machine”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#567 in the Series) is Lydia Loveless, Indestructible Machine – NEW MUSIC REVIEW (Bloodshot Records) The first thing that hits you between the eyes when you look at the CD cover from the new release by Lydia Loveless, Indestructible Machine, is a mostly black and white female Huck Finn anti Norman Rockwell looking drawing of Lydia swigging from a gas can. The second thing you see when you turn the cover over is a picture of the diminutive songstress smoking a cigarette next to two empty bottles and a well-played guitar. If by taking these two images into your own internal data base your resulting output delivers an alt-country version of country...
JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound “Want More”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#560 in the Series) is JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound, Want More (Bloodshot Records)– NEW MUSIC REVIEW Not since The White Album has an album been more appropriately named than Want More, the groups second album, and first since signing with the eclectically cool record label Bloodshot Records, from the Chicago based neo-soul band JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound. Consider yourself warned, with the look of a slightly aged Sam Cooke along with his Otis Redding with an edge vocal style, JC Brooks and his band are poised to kidnap your ears, grab your feet, borrow your soul, and take you down a retro rabbit hole you haven’t travelled since James Brown,...
Robert Ellis “Photographs”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#547 in the Series) is Robert Ellis, Photographs. (New West Records) The name Robert Ellis is new to me and all I know about him is that he’s 22 years old, hails from Houston Texas and made quite a reputation for himself at “Whiskey Wednesdays” in a place called Fitzgerald’s. Oh, and he’s just made a totally brilliant album! Now some albums have you hooked from the first few listens whereas others take time to grow on you, working their charms at a nice sedate pace. This one manages to pull off the unique trick of doing both. He’s done that by making a record that has the feel of a defiantly...
The Beach Boys “Smile”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#541 in the Series) is The Beach Boys, SMiLE Is SMiLE a magnificent work of inspired musical genius or an over-hyped load of half-formed, unfinished nonsense? You decide! Rumour, speculation, lies, half-truths, assumptions, deliberate misleads and red herrings, guesswork………it seems that SMiLE has been, and no doubt shall continue to be, the subject of all of the above and lots more besides. For many people, their opinion of this album (regularly cited as “the greatest lost classic” of all time) depends on not just the music which has crept out over the years, but also upon just whose version of events they choose to believe. And everyone involved with SMiLE seems to have...
Elvis Costello “Live” Box Set On It’s Way. CD, DVD and Vinyl.
So, did you get a chance to catch Elvis Costello on “The Great Spectacular Winning Songbook tour?” No, well don’t fret, now you’ll get a chance to hear and even see what you missed as the Elvis Costello camp has just announced that December 6th will bring Elvis Costello & the Imposters: The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook!!!. Box Set! It will be a limited release of 1,500 units. It will include a 4 song vinyl EP, a 19 track DVD, and a 16 song CD. Each box set will be autographed by Mr. Costello himself. Look for around $320 price. Ok, after I got you excited then dropped a price bomb on you, rest assured it...
