Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1004 in the Series) is the Hindu Love Gods. There’s something cool about two of your favorite acts coming together on side projects.  That’s exactly what we have here in the Hindu Love Gods.  Who are they? (REM-Michael Stipe) + Warren Zevon = Hindu Love Gods. For those of you that hated Algebra, this would mean… take REM but leave Michael Stipe home, now add Warren Zevon on vocals and you got the idea. OK, now which tunes should they do you “ax?”  Well, they really did hang together enough to do much writing, so like many quickie, one-off side projects, they resort to covering many songs that they just happened to like....

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#981 in the series) is the debut self-titled album by Mudcrutch. I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve never been the biggest Tom Petty fan.  Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s OK, I do like him. I’ve seen him and really enjoyed the show. (Althought I liked the opening band the del Fuegos better)  I’ve liked some of this work but I think the best thing he ever did was his original single “American Girl” and that was 1976. But…. however, I really liked his Mudcrutch album! Here’s what Mudcrutch was all about. They were Petty’s first band formed in 1970.  The band did include a number of future Heartbreakers. They...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#975 in the Series) is Warren Zevon, The Wind In the final episode of season 2 of the hit Showtime series Californication, down on his self-inflicted luck, writer Hank Moody has just finished a book project and is ready to begin his post-project ritual. “Every time I finish a book, It’s Whiskey, Weed and Warren Zevon, It’s the little things” he says, while ”Keep Me in your Heart” plays delicately in the background. “Keep Me In Your Heart” is the emotional core of The Wind, the last album that Warren Zevon made prior to his death of lung cancer in September of 2003. The album was already in the works in late August...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#947 in the series) is Tom Petty,  Hypnotic Eye Every couple of years, starting in 1976, Tom Petty demands our attention. With his debut, self-titled release, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a game-changing blend of straight ahead Rock, Ramones style Punk, and Byrds harmonies, a new contender for the title of future King of American Rock and Roll was Born. Stretching their influences instead of imitating them, this was about as strong a coming out party as you could possibly find, and “American Girl,” the first actual full-length song that Petty ever wrote, created the blue print for the straight ahead sound, and the lyrical purity that has served them well over...

  Tom Petty and Heartbreakers with Special Guest Steve Winwood Announce Tour Dates. Just announced. These are the 2014 dates for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with special guest Steve Winwood tour dates. Opening night will be August 3rd in San Diego California. The tour concludes, as of this writing on October 10th back on the west coast in Los Angeles. Tickets go on sale for the various dates as early as May 31st. “I knew I wanted to do a rock & roll record,” Petty told Rolling Stone in April. “We hadn’t made a straight hard-rockin’ record, from beginning to end, in a long time.” Ticket buyers will actually be getting a copy of the new release with...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Here Comes My Girl” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Perfection…this song is absolute utter perfection…and it’s funny how some of the greatest songs we know and love emanate from situations full of misery and sheer heartbreak. The Beach Boys’ “Help Me Rhonda” is a song like that. To listen to it, you’d never know the pain and misery that took place during the recording session. An infamous 40 minute bootleg tape of the session has revealed that Brian Wilson and his brothers were relentlessly badgered by their domineering manager/father during the recording of the vocal track. Murray Wilson purported to know what was best for the song and proceeded to...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#846 in the Series) is Devon Allman, Turquoise The first thing that hits you between the ears with a critical listen to “When I Left Home,” the opening track of Devon Allman’s fine new album Turquoise, a song that takes you through an autobiographical narrative that touches only sparingly on his rock royalty pedigree as the son of Gregg Allman and the Nephew of the late Duane Allman, is that Devon‘s musical path was not a gold and glitter strewn road that was pre-paved for success, but rather an ongoing journey that may have blessed him with some heavy-duty pixie dusting of artistic genes, but certainly did not come with a GPS...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Mercy Seat” by Johnny Cash By the year 2000 and the third album in the American series, Johnny Cash had reestablished himself as one of the greatest singers, not just in country music, but in all music. Producer, Rick Rubin, began working with him several years before and allowed Johnny Cash do what he did best in the studio…be JOHNNY CASH! Cash began working with Rick Rubin in 1994. Rubin was the founder  of Def Jam Records, and was responsible for producing seminal recordings by Public Enemy and The Beastie Boys. It must have taken quite a leap of faith for Johnny Cash to, not only work with Rick...

  From a Tom Petty press release…. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers are excited to announce a series of North American concerts in 2012 prior to embarking on their first tour of Europe in 20 years. The North American tour includes the band’s first ever show at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival where they will headline the first weekend of the annual event on Saturday, April 28. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers will also perform in the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia for the first time. The band will play in St. John’s, NL on June 3 and in Halifax, NS on a date to be announced shortly. Following the Canadian dates, Tom Petty and...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#296 in the Series) is the debut from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It’s a pretty simple premise.  Write some straight-forward, catchy pop rock and roll tunes and then hire a few great musicians.  Make them your backing band.  Then make it even better, allow them enough room to grow with you so they become band mates and stay with you for the long haul.  There it is boys and girls. Now go for it. As if it was all that easy, huh. Tom Petty showcased some of his best writing here.  I really do not believe he ever wrote a better song than “American Girl.” I was recently looking at the chronology...