Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#962 in the Series) is Dave Edmunds, D.E. 7th Welsh rocker, Dave Edmunds released the fabulously rich album, “D.E. 7th,,” in the spring of 1982 after the turmoil of seeing the band he had been with for most of the past decade dissolve and changing record labels. It was his first project for the Columbia label after spending five creatively productive years with Led Zeppelin’s “Swan Song” label and the first in nearly a decade without his old Rockpile cohorts, with whom he recorded and produced as a solo artist, band and on Nick Lowe’s solo projects. Being the talent magnet that he is, he never missed a step by reuniting with...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#991 in the Series) is Andy Williams, Merry Christmas In 1963, smooth jazz crooner, Andy Williams, released his first Christmas album, The Andy Williams Christmas Album too much acclaim and his name has been synonymous with the holiday season ever since. As good as it was it can’t compare with what he followed up with in 1965. Andy’s Merry Christmas album focused exclusively on 20th century compositions, unlike its predecessor, with one side focusing on more traditional pop and secular holiday fare. For a generation of baby boomers and even early generation X-ers, this is the quintessential holiday album because of its mainstream production, in addition to years of Christmas specials on...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#985 in the Series) is Nick Lowe,  Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All The Family. I love Christmas albums. I have a pretty good collection of them and I usually find something old every year that I add to it. It is rare that I find something new as I am very picky and traditional about my Christmas music. Let’s face it. We have the traditional carols and then about a dozen or so once original pop Holiday songs penned from the 1930’s through the 60’s that get redone over and over again. It is rare that an artist is brave enough to mess with that and if there is anything...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#898 in the Series) is Tuff Darts, Tuff Darts!  In the spring of 1979, I was a freshman in high school in a little Appalachian town in Western Maryland and a few of my older friends in the Media Department at the local community college were putting on a Saturday Night Live type show titled “Media Madness.” Just like SNL, they did live sketches interspersed with prerecorded pieces that you could see on TV monitors around the auditorium.  It was a very funny and well done show and one of the videos was by a guy I did not know and never really met but I remember his name was Dave Thomas because...

  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 Album of the Day (#855 in the Series) is The Phantom Six, Plastic Rain  Sitting on the outskirts of Morgantown, WV near the lunacy that is West Virginia University ( voted the “Number One” party school in the nation on and off for years by many different publications ) comes one of the best, well hidden garage bands out there today; The Phantom Six and their phenomenal debut, Plastic Rain. Under the direction of lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter/producer, Mark Poole (at his own Zone 8 Recording Studio, an often swelteringly hot, two room laboratory where Poole is both Jekyll and Hyde), this album is full of cool, crisp leads and rich, enigmatic lyrics. Add to it the floating harmonies...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#816 in the Series) is Graham Parker and the Rumor, Three Chords Good From the minute Graham Parker and The Rumor came out of the gates with the phenomenal 1976, Nick Lowe produced album Howlin’ Wind, they have been a bit of a musical conundrum and have stayed so since Parker disbanded the group in 1980. He remained so throughout his long and confusing solo career, being that he, nor the band, ever had any real chart hits to speak of, could never be tied down to a specific genre and relied mostly on the reputation of boisterous live shows and critical acclaim. With the band, his closest thing to chart hits...

  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...

  One of the things that many music websites do this time of year is publish what they call “The Best Albums of year..blah blah blah.” All I have to say is, if you claim your list is a best of, then you better have heard every album that was released. I read a ton of these lists and I know for sure, these people are deciding on what is a best of and they haven’t come close to doing enough homework. Yes, we’re putting out a list as well. But we’re calling it our “Favorite Albums of 2011. I know darn well that I didn’t hear nearly enough to think that I what I have to say is...