Today’s Cool Album of the Day is the 1982 Roxy Music album, “Avalon.” You have to wonder what American music buyers are thinking when this album peaks at #53 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts. Yikes.Not as on the edge of progressive rock as some of their earlier releases. This album had more of a lush,… personal sound. Feature the great vocals of Bryan Ferry, guitar of Phil Manzanera, drums by Andy Newmark (with a little help from Rick Marotta), sax of Andy Mackay. Some fantasic backing vocals on the title track Avalon by Yanick Etienne. Other outstanding tracks include the title cut, ‘More Than This, The Main Thing’ and “While My Heart is Still Beating.’ Personnel Bryan Ferry – vocals, keyboards,...

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In honor of their just announced show July 1st at the Beverly Art Center, Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Uriah Heep’s, “The Magician’s Birthday.” I was going to go with “Demons and Wizards,” but that was too obvious. So I’m pulling out “The Magician’s Birthday.’ TMB contains three of my favorite songs by them. ‘Sunrise, The Magician’s Birthday’ and ‘Sweet Lorraine.’ As mentioned Uriah Heep still tours. I’m not sure how good they’ll be since David Byron, Ken Hensley are long gone. But the current band, which does feature Mick Box has been together for almost 20 years. So we’ll see. I guess the only change lately is that Russell Gilbrook has replaced Lee Kerslake behind the...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#705 in the Series) is Bob Dylan, Hard Rain I was more than a little late in becoming a Bob Dylan fan.  I don’t know why, maybe I was a little too young to understand the meaning and the impact of a good protest song.  That and I remember having to sing “Turn, Turn, Turn” at Church once. That wasn’t really a turn on for this kid. I still remember the first time that he made an impact on me. PBS was running a special on producer John Hammond Sr.  On this show (which included a very young Bruce Springsteen if I remember correctly) Bob introduced his new song “Hurricane.” No, I...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is World Party’s, Good Bye Jumbo. Good Bye Jumbo was easily my favorite album of 1990. (I used to publish a top 10 list each year back then when I worked in ‘the biz.’) World Party was the name of the band by former Waterboy’s Karl Wallinger. Wallinger composed all 12 tracks on this album. Highlights included, ‘Put The Message in the Box, Is It Too Late, Way Down Now’ and’ Take It Up.’ Personnel Guy Chambers –  Drum Samples, Drums, Guitar (Synthesizer), Harmonium, Piano, Sampling, Synthesizer Jerod – Guitar (Acoustic) Roy J. Morgan – Tambourine Sinéad O’Connor – Vocals (Background) Sophia Ramos – Vocals (Background) Karl Wallinger – guitar, keyboards, vocals Jeff...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Kraftwerk, “Autobahn.” Another one of those classic albums that side one was the title track and nothing else. Hailing from Germany, Kraftwerk “Autobahn” was mainly a synthesizer album. It did include a bit of flute, guitar and violin but not that much. It was released in 1974. The title track was 22 minutes in length. A chopped up three minute version was released as a single and actually made it to #25 on the Billboard charts in the States. Did you ever have this album? Personnel Ralf Hütter – vocals, electronics. Florian Schneider – vocals, electronics. Klaus Röder – violin, guitar. Wolfgang Flür – percussion. Track listing Side one “Autobahn” (“Motorway”) (Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Emil Schult) – 22:42 Side two...

Today’c Cool Album of the Day is Echo and the Bunnymen’s, “Echo and the Bunnymen.” One of my favorites by Ian McCulloch and the boys. My favorite release of 1987. Features ‘Lips Like Sugar, Bombers Bay, Bedbugs and Ballyhoo’ and ‘ The Game.’ Echo and the Bunnymen are usually considered part of the British Post Punk era. I tend to think of them more of a part of the so called New Romanticism style. New Romanticism, to me, was the sound that evolved from from the Roxy Music and Brian Eno sound. see: Ultravox etc. I like Echo in that group. But like we’ve said before in this forum. Who cares what group they’re in. The better question is,...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#251 in the Series) is Wilco, AM. Today we’re featuring Wilco’s 1995 debut album, AM. Even though the band has been producing great music for years, I still prefer their debut.  This one was a little more ‘Americana/Alt-Country-ish’ that suited my tastes.   If you haven’t heard it, give it a listen. AM did not chart. Those days would come soon enough. (I know, short and sweet today. We’ll have more to say tomorrow.) Here’s all the info. Track listing All songs written by Jeff Tweedy unless otherwise noted. 1. “I Must Be High” – 2:59 2. “Casino Queen” – 2:45 3. “Box Full of Letters” – 3:05 4. “Shouldn’t Be Ashamed” – 3:28...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Soldier Of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)” by Arthur Alexander He’s the only artist to be covered by the holy trinity of Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Others who rushed to his deep well of first-rate copyrights included The Hollies, Ry Cooder, Pearl Jam, Ike & Tina Turner, Marshall Crenshaw, George Jones, Otis Redding, The Bee Gees, Humble Pie, and Dusty Springfield, and that’s only a small sampling of those who have recorded his tunes. Yet, Arthur Alexander, the man who wrote such classics as “Anna (Go To Him),” “You Better Move On,” “Sally Sue Brown,” “Detroit City,” “A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues” and...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Under Heavy Manners” by Robert Fripp with David Byrne After the demise of King Crimson in 1974, Robert Fripp spent several years laying low before entering a period of high activity from 1977-1980, resulting in some of his most interesting collaborations. Starting in 1977, Fripp joined Brian Eno in Germany to add guitar parts to David Bowie’s “Heroes.”  This was followed by Fripp’s production of albums for Daryl Hall (Sacred Songs), Peter Gabriel (his second album with the “Scratch” cover) and the eponymously titled album by The Roches, plus sessions with an amalgam of like-minded artists including Peter Hammill (of Van Der Graaf Generator), Brian Eno, Blondie (on Parallel Lines),...