Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive In 1971 the rock godz gave us Fragile by Yes…and three years later, they bestowed upon us the riff fest known as Not Fragile by BTO! There’s something to be said about what I call “big dumb rock records.”  They’re the riff-crazy tracks that make you grab for your air guitar whilst rocking your head back and forth…oh, and don’t forget the obligatory pain-ridden facial expressions a la Carlos Santana. We’ve all been there and I still go there today from time-to-time.  Anybody who’s been to a concert with me can attest to this fact.  It ain’t pretty…but it’s the rock abandon that...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#865 in the Series) is Black Sabbath, 13 Black Sabbath are not merely just one of the founding fathers of heavy metal music, they totally made it their own by making it incredibly doomy and gloomy while still staying true to its bluesy roots and even sounding very optimistic through the shadows. Their latest outing, 13, stays very true to that form and marks the triumphant studio return of original lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne, for the first time in 38 years. The band has had some really nice albums with various other singers, most notably the Ronnie James Dio years of the early ’80’s, but hardcore fans have always yearned for the...

Today’s Cool Albums of the Day (#863 and #864) in the series are Dust, Dust & Hard Attack (We’re going to do something a little differently and bring you both of these albums on one piece since they were just rereleased together on one Compact Disc.) Forty-two years ago (wow!), this skinny, longhaired, 12-year-old future metal head (thank you, Steppenwolf & Blue Cheer!) opened his trusty Circus magazine and read a small story about a new band called Dust. I don’t recall any specifics, but I assume the words “hard,” “heavy,” and, quite probably, “power trio” were used to describe this rather surly-looking threesome. Imagine Motörhead in 1971… Like most, I’m always up for new music. So, off I...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#860 in the Series) is Black Star Riders, All Hell Breaks Loose Sometime around Christmas 2005 I caught a taxi in my hometown of Belfast and happened to be wearing a Thin Lizzy T-shirt. The surly driver, spotting this young whipper-snapper wearing his beloved band’s logo, struck up a conversation. “So, you’re a Lizzy fan, yeah?” he asked. When I replied in the affirmative, he decided to test me, guessing I was one of those people who wear band shirts because they’re “cool”, but have no idea about the band, like the endless numbers of kids sporting Ramones shirts these days. “What album is this the first song from, then?” he asked, as...

  Black Sabbath has just announced the dates for their long-rumored 2013 summer tour. There are 20 dates and it begins in Houston Texas on July 25th. Their new album titled 13 will be released two weeks before the tour begins. Tickets will be going on sale for most show the first week of May.  Do not look for Bill Ward on the tour. He’s still not part of the band. ————————————————————————————————————– Here are the dates 7/25 Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (on sale May 4th)  7/27 Austin, TX – Frank Erwin Center (on sale May 4th)  7/29 Tampa, FL – Live Nation Amphitheatre (on sale May 11th)  7/31 W. Palm Beach, FL Cruzan Amphitheatre (on sale...

  Today’s Cool Album o the Day (#843 in the Series) is Montrose, Paper Money. I’m writing this on  March 3rd, a year to the day that Ronnie Montrose left us for what many believe is a better place. So for today’s Cool Album Of The Day we are honoring  Ronnie with a piece on Paper Money,  his second Montrose band album which was released in 1974. People ALWAYS mention the genius of the Montrose debut album which was released just a year earlier. That is completely legit however Paper Money certainly deserves its own accolades. Featuring the same lineup as the debut (with the exception of Alan Fitzgerald taking over bass duties for Bill Church) and the same...

  Today’s Cool Album of The Day (#815 in the Series) is Thin Lizzy, UK Tour ’75 Everyone knows Thin Lizzy. The music world is awash with their albums, and there are enough bootlegs, greatest hits, extended versions, live albums, compilations, radio cuts, cover bands, and even versions of the band itself out there to choke the airwaves for the rest of time. Of course, almost every music lover is familiar their “big” rock albums Jailbreak, Johnny the Fox, Bad Reputation, and their touring masterpiece Live and Dangerous; all albums filled with rock radio staples we know and love. But to me, their finest and most interesting period was just before Jailbreak and all-conquering single “The Boys Are Back...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is (#803 in the Series) is Scorpions, Fly to the Rainbow. Fly to the Rainbow was the 1974 album from German metal band Scorpions. It was their second album following up, Lonesome Crow. This was not just a straight ahead metal album. It was far from it. It definitely had a good layer of prog-rock in its sound.  I usually don’t include track times to the listings. I did so here for a reason. Look at the lengths. 7:42, 9:40 etc.  Those lengthy times are a clear point to something different. Lonesome Crow was the only album that had Michael Schenker as full time lead guitarist.  He did appear here but in a...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#797 in the Series) is KISS, Monster KISS has recently released their 20th studio album, “Monster,” and every KISS fan in the world is gonna gobble it up, no matter what it sounds like or how it is reviewed. They always have and always will and they are part of the reason the band has been a perpetual marketing juggernaut, regardless of whether they were producing a good product musically, or not. There are basically three versions of KISS; The classic lineup (Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley) from our beloved “Dazed and Confused” era from 1974 to 1982 (KISS – Unmasked ). They were amazing trailblazers in many...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#790 in the Series) is Deep Purple, Machine Head Many musicians that are in their early 60s claim it was seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show that pushed them into the music stores to grab their first guitars and to begin the dream about making music. For those a bit younger it was one riff that made many of them jump.  Thinking back I really feel for the guitar teachers of 1972, while they were handing kids an acoustic and making attempts to teach them C, D, G and maybe the odd A-minor chord, the kids just wanted to learn one thing. “Show me how to play ‘Smoke on the...