Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#682 in the Series) is NRBQ, God Bless Us All I have always felt that God Bless Us All was NRBQ at their absolute peak. In fact, if someone wanted to know an album to start their Q catalog, this was the one I’d always suggest. This was the one that I’d always play at parties and would always get the the Q fans  boppin’.  If you weren’t a Q fan when I put this one on, well you would be soon. “Who’s this?” was a question that was asked more than once when I’d put needle to vinyl. Not only did it catch the band at their peak, but it also...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#681 in the Series) is King Crimson, In The Court of the Crimson King My father used to be a member of this old time Italian club when I was a child.  I always thought it was pretty cool. The club was called The Roseland Operetta Club. No, they didn’t sing, or promote Operas by this time but that was indeed how it was formed.  The club had some nice grounds that included picnic areas and some killer bocce courts. The front door was always locked, but all members had the key.  I really thought it was neat how you had to unlock it to get in. Heck, I was just a...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#680 in the Series)  is Cat Stevens, Teaser and The Firecat. I was going to feature Catch Bull at Four because it contains “Boy With the Moon and Star on His Head” but went with Teaser and The Firecat instead. I love that song but I’ve read that it’s one of the few songs that Cat Stevens recorded years ago that he’s actually embarrassed about. Sometimes when I do some research for these pieces you learn little nuggets that you didn’t know about and they catch you totally by surprise.  For instance, I learned when looking up Teaser and the Firecat that Rick Wakeman of Yes fame played keys on the top 40 hit “Morning Has...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#679 in the Series) is Chuck Prophet, Temple Beautiful (Yep Roc Records) Chuck Prophet has carved out exactly the type of career he would have envisioned when he joined the psychedelic roots rock band Green on Red in the early 80’s.  Since then with his musical collaborations with Cake, Kim Carnes, Solomon Burke, and most recently with Alejandro Escovedo where he played guitar and wrote half of the songs for the fine album Real Animal, Chuck has set out on his own uncompromising  roots rock journey creating musical masterpieces along way. Between writing credits for Warren Zevon, Kelly Willis, Jewel, and Heart among others, Prophet has released several critically acclaimed albums on...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#678 in the Series) is the debut from Vanilla Fudge. This was another one of those albums that was in my older sister’s record collection as a kid. In fact, one of my sisters saw Vanilla Fudge when they were still playing little bars when they would come thru Chicago.  That must have been pretty darn cool. However, if you saw them touring for this album, you really didn’t know what they would become. This was their debut, and it was all cover tunes. As we’re well aware, releasing an album of complete covers is en vogue now, but it wasn’t at the time. It was even more surprising considering the completely...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#677 in The Series) is Brian Setzer, The Knife Feels Like Justice. Earlier we featured the forgotten Steve Winwood album. Now we feature a long forgotten, Brian Setzer album. This album just never got it’s due. It was NOT Stray Cats. And it’s not the Brian Setzer Orchestra. It was released between the two and has it’s own unique sound. I guess if I had to tell you what it sounds like I guess I would go with “Americana” or maybe somewher in the “Root’s” categories. Like we’ve discussed before, we hate to pigeon hole, but I’m trying to describe it to those that never heard it.  Which, unfortunately for Brian, was most of America....

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#676 in the Series) is Queen,  News Of The World It’s hard to believe that it’s over twenty years since the passing of quite possibly the best front man ever to grace a stage. Freddie Mercury, the African-born Briton with the enviable vocal range, ability to write hit after hit, and over-the-top stage theatrics, died in 1991, leaving a gaping hole in the music world. Queen (or at least half of them) has limped on, most notably with Paul Rodgers, but it’s painfully obvious that Mercury is irreplaceable. Unfortunately I never got to see him live; I was only ten when he died, but I first got to know the band’s music...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#675 in the Series) is The Baseball Project, Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails Somewhere, probably with one heck of a backing band, Steve Goodman is performing his annual rite of spring, “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” for “The Man in Charge” in his annual attempt to bring positive Mojo to the Chicago Cubs and at long last bring a championship to one of the most storied franchises in all of baseball.  It is in this reverential spirit that the collective group of artists known as The Baseball Project was formed and released the album Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails. The Baseball Project is a concept group united...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day is the Original London Cast recording of  Jesus Chris Superstar. It”s now our Cool Album of the Day every Easter Sunday. Don’t give me the knock-offs. Give me the original 1971 release featuring Ian Gillian as Jesus. I remember playing the hell out of this back in the day. To me this has always been the definitive version of  Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera.  It’s the Original London Concept Recording.  Yes, I also realize that the story told in the opera ends on Good Friday.  We still feel that it’s fitting for Easter Sunday. The music here is absolutely brilliant.  It includes some wonderful performances from Deep Purple lead vocalist Ian Gillian...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#674 in the Series) is Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat. I wasn’t familiar with Jenny Lewis when she appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show a few years back. I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of her, since I was a little familiar with her band Rilo Kiley. I guess just not enough. I had just walked in the door, flipped on the TV as they took the stage on that Kimmel episode.  I really liked what I was hearing. This was my sound. This was square in “my wheelhouse” to lean on a cliche. It was at the end of a day when I was in one of my “Gram Parsons moods” so her...