Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Punk Prayer” by Pussy Riot Pussy Riot – what they lack in musical aptitude, they surely make up with unbridled punk rock spirit. The merits of their talent or lack thereof, are totally beside the point anyway. Pussy Riot return punk rock to its purest essence: protest, entertainment and fashion. Pussy Riot formed in Moscow in 2011 with an ever-changing lineup of young women numbering up to twenty different members. In essence, Pussy Riot is more movement than musical outfit, and the aforementioned style comes down to the brightly colored balaclavas they wear during performance to obscure their real identities. Pussy Riot’s brand of entertainment is known as guerilla performance, where...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#877 in the Series) is Billy Prine, Billy Prine’s Big Beat Battalion.  I was lucky enough to go to the album release concert for Billy Prine’s Big Beat Battalion and what a night of hard Southern-style rock we experienced. Since Billy Prine was a new experience for me I was primed for a comparison with Billy’s big brother John Prine. Once the show started that thought left me immediately. Billy is not a John Prine clone, he is living in his own hard rocking world and having a ball doing it right. Billy Prine’s Big Beat Battalion is a seven song album loaded with driving rock and some surprising moments as well, all...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#876 in the Series) is Little Green Cars, Absolute Zero (Glassnote Records) Travelling the back roads of the “Mumfordization” highway, on a road already well navigated by Mumford and Sons, The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, and Dawes, Dublin’s own Little Green Cars with their sparkling debut album, Absolute Zero, are gassed up, ready to form their own trail, and are headed for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The blueprint for this band of feisty twenty-something’s consists of fronting duo (think Buckingham-Nicks) Stevie Appleby and Faye O’Rourke, Dylan Lynch (Drums), Donagh Seaver O’Leary (Bass), and Adam O’Regan (Guitar, Piano), brilliant musicians all, where all five pieces seem to meld...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#875 in the Series) is Glen Campbell,  See You There. (Surf Dog Records) I’ve always felt that music is at its best when it reaches out and hits you hard, hard and right in the heart.  Nothing can do that as well as a lyric. A lyric that makes you think, a lyric that brings you closer to the song, and closer to the artist. This happens during the seventh track on Glen Campbell’s latest release See You There where in the middle of his classic song “Galveston,” Glen sings “Galveston Oh Galveston .. I Am So Afraid of Dyin’.”  Yes, we’ve heard that line countless times before, but it’s different now and...

From Blabbermouth.net. Carl Palmer, the rock percussionist and veteran of hit British rock bands — including Emerson Lake and Palmer, Asia etc — says he turned down an opportunity to play with Black Sabbath when the heavy metal legends were looking for a drummer to replace Bill Ward for the 13 album sessions. Palmer told WENN radio that Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi approached him about laying down tracks on the album to when it became clear that Ward would no longer be participating in the Sabbath reunion. “Tony and I did talk when they were looking for drummers to make the album and he put me forward,” explained Palmer. “I couldn’t do it because I was off with Asia, we were touring and then something else came up. I couldn’t have done it but I would have...

We thought we may never see it.  We will, but not with many of the artists that we expected to see, but at least yes we will see it and of course hear it.  I’m referring to ..and I’ll Scratch Yours. Let’s back up. In 2010, Peter Gabriel released a covers album called Scratch My Back. On it he took on the likes of material by Paul Simon, David Byrne, Lou Reed etc etc. The premise being that he soon afterword would release a follow up where the artists on that album then cover a Gabriel tune. It worked great on paper but delays set it. Some artists could not deliver their half of the agreement, some never did....

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#874 in the Series) is Barrence Whitfield & the Savages, Dig Thy Savage Soul Walking the genre splitting tightrope of blues, soul, and rock, with an incendiary vibe that would make Dante himself blush, Boston based legends, Barrence Whitfield and the Savages have released “Dig Thy Savage Soul” on Bloodshot records, their first full length record since 2011. Stalwarts on the Boston club scene throughout the 1980’s, their live shows were a scorched earth, leave it all on stage full out of body experience, an energy that could equally be displayed in a punk rock club, a rockabilly hoedown, or a shoulder to shoulder high energy soul venue.  While 2011’s Savage Tracks, an...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Foolin’ Around” by Vince Gill & Paul Franklin Paying homage to those who have come before you is nothing new in Country music. Merle Haggard paid tribute to Jimmie Rodgers on his classic 1969 album Same Train Different Time, and also recorded tribute albums to Bob Wills and Elvis Presley.  Buck Owens also did it on albums that saluted the influence that Tommy Collins and Harlan Howard had on him. It’s a tradition that has continued throughout the years with one notable entry being Dwight Yoakam’s 2008 Buck Owens tribute album Dwight Sings Buck. Dwight and Buck were also very good friends who toured together in 1988 (I was lucky enough...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#872 in the Series) is Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair I don’t know that you can name a definitive album of the 1980’s, but if you could, Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair would definitely be in the conversation. The follow up to their also classic The Hurting, it is a classic musically as well as a touchstone in social activism. It is an important aspect of the decade for which it rarely gets credit. Tears for Fears, along with R.E.M., The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen and a few others were instrumental in bringing 80’s college/alternative/indie rock into the mainstream. This was important because this new genre, and most specifically, Songs...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#871 in the Series) is Otis Blue, Otis Redding Sings Soul.  If you are a musical purist and do not allow live albums, compilations, or greatest hits packages to infiltrate your desert island disc knapsack, then Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul should be added to your collection post haste. The album, released in 1965 just months after the death of Sam Cooke, was the first really pure Otis Redding record.  More cohesive in style, this effort has much more of a live feel about it, with the entire package (including the sultry, evocative blond on the album cover) produced with an artistic flow that was previously missing from his prior efforts that...