Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#911 in the Series) is Spinal Tap, This is Spinal Tap Very, very rarely do I toss around words like ‘brilliant’ and ‘masterpiece.’  But I think they apply when describing the humor in the movie, This is Spinal Tap. For those of us that worked in the industry, This is Spinal Tap rang so true, so real, that it is almost scary to watch at times. Yet, the comedy still plays well enough that someone with just casual interest in music can still enjoy it. What also was brilliant was that the stars and writers of the movie also were responsible for creating the music. Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean played all the...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#910 in the Series)is Paul Pena, New Train New Train is the debut release and the “lost record” from blind blues singer Paul Pena. Recorded in 1973, the album was (for a reason known only to the musical gods) shelved until its first proper release in 2000, and is now considered one of the great unearthed Soul-Blues albums. With a voice that floats somewhere between Lenny Kravitz and Lou Rawls, and a vibe that rolls down The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Croce and Bonnie Raitt train track with a side trip down the Joe Cocker Highway, New Train does not show its age at all, and sounds as if it could have...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#909 in the Series) is The Who, Live at Leeds.  The Who, Live at Leeds. Is this the motherload of all live albums? I do believe this, when you talk about the best live albums of all time, this is in the team picture.  And I’m just referring to the six song, original release of 1970. That’s it, six raw powerful wonderful rock and roll songs. It was The Who during a great period. This was the tour for Tommy.  They had finished their poppy earlier era and had entered into a rock and roll era with the original band that would last for about eight more years. The six songs on the...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#908 in the series) is the self-titled debut from Randy Hansen. 1980 was a bit of a hazy year for me. Turning twenty-one will do that! Looking back, there are definitely many question marks. However, Randy Hansen’s debut that year was an exclamation point in my life for several reasons. I previously had heard of Hansen as yet another in an endless line of Jimi Hendrix impersonators. No offense, but… yawn. On a lark, I bought his debut, and continue to play it, 34 years later. Side note- you probably have already heard him- his guitar histrionics are on the Apocalypse Now soundtrack. Side one opens with the energetic “Champagne And Cocaine,”...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#908 in the Series) is the self-titled debut from Wishbone Ash. Everyone has a band or two, that, for one reason or another, they consider “their band.” Perhaps you were the first kid on the block to discover them, and then couldn’t wait to tell everyone about them! Or they simply remind you of a special time in your life. For me, Wishbone Ash is one of those bands. Wishbone Ash was the first “real” band I ever saw. They were opening for Alice Cooper at the long since demolished International Amphitheatre in the lovely stockyard area of Chicago’s south side. That show was in the year of 1972. I was 13...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#907 in the Series) is King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine It begins with “First Watch” which is just a quiet little piano meditation, it’s barely there at all but it sets the mood for the full album, a gentle but effective introduction to the world of wonders we’re about to be granted access to. Thereafter unfolds an exquisite song cycle, beautifully crafted and perfectly executed. It’s a short album, 32 minutes but not a moment is wasted and with repeated listens it begins to seem as if there’s no beginning and no end to it, it’s just there, wrapping itself around you, you could get lost in here for hours at...

  Today’s Cool ‘Album’ of the Day (#906 in the Series) is Ummagma “Rotation” b/w “Live and Let Die.”  To paraphrase the bio on their website, Ummagma is a Canadian-Ukranian duo comprised of Alexander Kretov and Shauna McLarnon. They deliver an eclectic yet harmonious kaleidoscope of dream pop, post-punk, ambient/ethereal, shoegaze and spacerock, creating sublime resonance, beats and rhythm to create other worldly soundscapes. Truthfully, it would be hard for me to describe them any more clearly than that. If you are a fan of shoegaze (Lush, My Bloody Valentine), dream pop (Air, Chvrches, The Cranberries), or space rock (Pink Floyd, The Verve) then in all likelihood this is a band you should give a listen to. More specifically,...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#905 in the Series) is Matraca Berg, Lying to the Moon (RCA) So many perks, so many cool events, so many goodies and “what-nots.”  When I look back on my days in music distribution, you never knew from which angle the next cool thing was going to hit you.  One of the things I liked best was when one of the labels would bring in someone to perform at our conventions.  That was the way that this lovely songbird’s music would be introduced to me. Yes, it now has been over 20 years. How much did I love this record? Well, like I said, it’s 20 years  later and I’m still playing it,...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Eva Cassidy’s, Songbird. I’m not sure how many of you have heard of this young lady. I’m asking you to please read her story and listen to her music. Eva Cassidy has, quite possibly, the best voice I’ve ever heard on a woman pop singer. A few years back I was unaware of her. Then on a slow news night, ABC’s Nightline, did a feature on this young lady named Eva Cassidy. She was a singer songwriter from Washington D.C. She had released a couple of albums on a tiny local label that never really did much. (Note: I’ve posted the NightLine episode below. It’s really a great watch) In 1996 she passed...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (904 in the Series) is Songs: Ohia, The Magnolia Electric Co. We’ve lost some good ones over the last few months, most recently Phil Everly of course, and Phil , along with the likes of Lou Reed and George Jones, shall be sadly missed indeed. For the moment however i’d like to shine some light on someone you may not have heard of, Jason Molina, a wonderfully talented singer and songwriter whose death in 2013, at the age of only 39, was a real tragedy not least because he surely had so much more to contribute. ∞   ∞   ∞   ∞   ∞   ∞ Jason  was a prolific artist and between 1997 and 2002, working under the banner Songs: Ohia,...