Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#531 in the Series and #55 in the Live, Saturday Night Series) is Roxy Music, Viva! Roxy Music. After the 1975 Siren album and tour, Roxy Music decided to take a break.  The break would end up being four years. They would next reunite for 1979’s Manifesto. During that time, they decided to release their first live album. That album was Viva! Roxy Music. The album would consist of shows from three different shows on three different tours. The first being 1973’s show at the Apollo in Glasgow. Next would be a 1974 show at City Hall in Newcastle and finally a 1975 show at Wembley Arena. It was a nice hold-over until the...

Today’s Cool Album of The Day(#530 in the Series)  is Split Enz, Time + Tide. In a year that included many great albums, (Joe Jackson Night and Day, Utopia, Marshall Crenshaw, Richard and Linda Thompson Shoot Out the Lights, etc) the Split Enz, Time + Tide was clearly my favorite.  The show that I saw from this tour at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City was also one of my favorites of all time. It never ceases to amaze me that Split Enz, nor the follow up band Crowded House has never hit it big here in the States. What the heck are our radio station music directors thinking? Time and Tide had many, many AOR friendly tracks. For...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#529 in the Series) is Laura Nyro,  Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Laura Nyro is Randy Newman without the Disney movie soundtracks. Known more for the songs she has written for other people that have gone on to become monster hits than her own releases, her musical output rivals only Carole King as one of the greatest singer song -writers of her generation and a hit-making machine.  A partial list of Laura Nyro penned hits includes “Stoney End” for Barbra Streisand, “Eli’s Coming” for Three Dog Night, “Wedding Bell Blues” for The Fifth Dimension, and the fantastic “And When I Die”, that became a monster hit for Blood Sweat and Tears. The real...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#528 in the Series) is Joe Jackson, Night and Day Just recently, I looked at the great self-titled Fleetwood Mac album from 1975. I asked the question “Has any band been through more incarnations than Fleetwood Mac?”  Joe Jackson’s story is similar. This hasn’t been a band going through different incarnations, his story is about a musician who has over and over, reinvented myself. His early stuff was chalk full of great post-punk rock and roll. He’s also done some great swing in his Jumpin’ Jive release. This was released the next year and almost had a Cole Porter feel to it. Heck, that’s where he got the title after all. I hadn’t plopped...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#526 in the Series and #33 in the Whale Wednesday Series) is the self-titled album from Fleetwood Mac. Has any band been through more incarnations than Fleetwood Mac? This was their 11th release. It was also the start of the Buckingham/Nicks era as they replaced Bob Welch who left after the previous album, Heroes Are Hard to Find. Do you remember that one? Heroes was actualy their most popular album to date. It reached #34 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. All that changed when the band left their blues/rock sound. The Fleetwood Mac album and its pop sound would eventually sell 5 million units in the States and would be their...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#525 in the Series) is The Doobie Brothers, Stampede In my self-appointed, largely ignored role as The Commissioner of Rock & Roll I am often called upon to provide an opinion, mediate a dispute, and generally regulate some of the finer points of the music industry to ensure certain rules are not violated, musical commandments are not broken, and the purity and essence of the art form is maintained.  One very important aspect of this position is to provide a ruling as to what happens to a band name once the lead singer catches the dreaded LSS disease (lead singer syndrome) and leaves the band for seemingly greener pastures, band members quit, are...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#523 in the Series) is Poco, Live at Columbia Studios Hollywood 9/30/71 Poco, Live at Columbia Studios, Hollywood 9/30/71 while recorded over 40 years ago, did not surface until early in 2011.  We’re glad it did. I say that because the first obvious reason, that I wanted to hear this, but also for a second, even more important reason.  That being that this was a very important day in the bands history. It was a “coming out party” if you will, for the new line-up that would become the most popular in the bands history. Yeah, I know they did have a couple big hits much later, but this period will always be...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#522 in the Series) is Elliott Smith, Either/Or The one that almost got away. When I bought this album it was a new release and the critics were raving about it, the praise was effusive, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands (and ears!) on it. Turned out they were all wrong…………… This was the first I’d ever heard of Elliott Smith and he did absolutely nothing for me. After the first plays I just thought that it all sounded the same, nothing really stood out and it just sort of washed over me. I played it a few times but quickly lost interest. It slowly moved towards the back of the...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#319 in the Series) is Mimi Betinis, All That Glitters. Mimi Betinis, All That Glitters was released on Feb 11th, 2011. (If I ever use the term “dropped, “please shoot me!) I know we’re only in the 1st quarter of the year but as of today, this is my favorite album of the year. There’s a real good chance that it’s not going to be topped either. Mimi (short for Demetrios) is the former leader of the Chicago area band “Pezband.”  Pezband was called a power pop act. Here’s what you probably did not know. They were the first band to be referred to as being a power pop act.  It was a...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#520 in the Series) is Garland Jeffreys, The King of In Between Ladies and Gentleman, we have another entry in the running for “Album of the Year.” The latest being Garland Jeffreys’ The King of In Between. I didn’t even know that Garland had any projects in the works. One day, I’m putting together a list on who was going to appearing on the coming weeks late night talk shows here in the states.  One name jumped out at me, was of course Garland Jeffreys.  I’ve always been a fan, going all the way back to 1977 when he was Rolling Stone Magazine’s Best New Artist. Everyone remembers “Wild in the Streets.” After...