Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1014 in the Series) is Crowded House, Woodface I’ve always loved the Finn brothers, Tim and Neil.  To me, the best overall music they produced was in the Split Enz, at least when you look at their music as a complete picture. I never thought I’d say this, especially considering how I adored the Enz, Time and Tide, but the best single album that the brothers ever recorded was Crowded House’s Woodface.  Both releases could easily be on my Desert Island Disc listings, that’s how strongly I’ve always felt about them. I’ve said it more than once on these pages, why aren’t these New Zealanders stars in the States, especially when you look...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#965 in the Series) is Tim Finn, Escapade By the time 1982 ended, the Split Enz where a hot band.  Their album Time and Tide had done quite well for them, thank you.   Neil Finn was looking forward to getting a follow up on the street. His brother Tim had other ideas. Tim wanted to get a solo release into the market.  Both things ended up happening. In later 1983, the Split Enz would release Conflicting Emotions, while Tim released, Escapade.  Both fine albums.  As it turned out, Tim did spend much of his time completing this album. This left Neil to pretty much completely compose Conflicting Emotions. I’ve always loved this Escapade. I...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#710 in the Series) is The Finn Brothers, Finn The Finn brothers are Neil and Tim Finn who were an integral part of Split Enz and they also collaborated on one Crowded House record, Woodface. But their first release as a duo came out in 1995 and was made up of a bunch of cool songs they put together over the years but never released. This 11 song record was done almost entirely (writing and music) by the siblings and contained some well written and creative tracks that were either too good or not good enough for the two aforementioned groups. Actually some were perhaps too personal, as many song’s lyrics told...

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...

Master of pop song craft and front man of Crowded House, Neil Finn, and his wife Sharon Finn have formed a new band called Pajama Club (formerly Pajama Party). The New Zealand-based group also include local indie musician Sean Donnelly, and in its touring incarnation, drummer Alana Skyring. Pajama Club’s self titled debut full-length will be released on Sept. 13 through Lester Records/Redeye. The album is a mix of gritty, garage rock grooves and electronic bleeps and squelches, topped off by Neill and Sharon’s back-and-forth vocals. The couple have an alluring natural chemistry that forms the core of the band. Opening track, “Tell Me What You Want” romps along with a sexy, swampy lurch and introduces the nonchalant yet...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#227 in the Series and #11 in the Live, Saturday Night Series) is Neil Finn and Friends, 7 Worlds Collide. Today we’re featuring a different type of ‘live’ album.  The name of the project back originally was Neil Finn and Friends. The name of the album was 7 Worlds Collide. As the project continued, it was renamed‘7 Continents Collide.  But I guess I should describe the project. Neil Finn is the leader of Crowded House. He was also one of the leaders of another New Zealand act, the Split Enz. About 10 years ago he decided to invite some of his favorite musicians to his homeland to live, eat, sleep and play music. ...