Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1045 in the Series) is Paul Weller, Wild Wood Operating out of an office located deep in the recesses of Buckingham Palace is a covert organization of artistically minded individuals that govern and regulate the art, artists, and entertainment content that is released to the United States. This organization known as E.A.T.M.E (Englanders Against The Music Exportation) has been in existence since the 1960’s, and is considered to be the sole ruling body in determining which artists are released to the unsuspecting U.S. public. Their mission is to keep the good stuff within the realm and export the rest. The Beatles were a “canary in a coal mine” test project where they sent...

Ah the Aragon Ballroom. This is a fun listing for the old Rock ‘n’ Rollers that visit the Cool Album of the Day site. Here’s a list of just about ever show that was held at the Aragon Ballroom in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.  If you went there, have fun looking thru this list.  Look for the shows that you saw. Feel ‘bummed’ about the ones you missed. Be angry about the ones that you would have checked out but you didn’t know about, until now. I’ve combined different listings to form this list. I’ve even contacted band members and did poster research to find others. It’s the best list on the ‘net! If you were never at...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1010 in the Series) is Buddy Guy, Damn Right I’ve Got the Blues The process of selecting a blues album to review is not an easy one.  First of all, a lot of people will not think they like the blues or will say they don’t know enough about the blues.  The real answer to both of these questions is that if you listen to music at all, and like music, then you are by definition a fan of the blues.  All of the great rock & rollers of today were heavily influenced by the blues in one form or another. “I’m a King Bee,” “Walking the Dog,” and “Now I’ve Got a...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1009 in the Series) is Nirvana, Nevermind. In 1990 I had never heard of Nirvana, in fact, not many had. The only people that were familiar with them were the ones that were lucky enough to know them from their Sub Pop Record days. Most of those people were from the northwest. They and some real audiophiles, but not me. The grunge genre hadn’t really hit the map yet, better yet, “Alternative Music” was still, get this, alternative!  It wasn’t everywhere like it would be in the near future.  It was still “our secret” to many of the die-hards. At this time I had a “very, very close friend” that worked for Nirvana’s...

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 (#971 in the Series) is Hal Ketchum, Past the Point of Rescue. I don’t know what it is. I’ve always been a sucker for those songs when an artist takes a known track, their’s or possibly another artists, and recreates it using a slower tempo.   I’m thinking of tracks like Joe Jackson’s live version (played as part of the Big World tour) of “Steppin’ Out” or Loey Nelson’s take on “To Sir with Love” if you were lucky enough to hear that. Here, Hal Ketchum does a spectacular rendition of The Vogues, “Five O’Clock World.”  Please check it out below. That was the track that first exposed me to Hal Ketchum.  As I...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#970 in the Series) is Jellyfish, Bellybutton. My guess is that a good number of you don’t know this album or even this band. In one word, “you should!” They were one of the best power-pop bands of the early nineties, Jellyfish.  One of those bands that you ask yourself, Why wasn’t this all over radio, why were they not more popular? They definitely had some radio friendly songs, a good look a unique look and a major label.   So it’s hard to say what happened.  They should have had much more success. You can hear a little Squeeze in their sound, a little XTC and a little Beatles. The songs that did...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#956 in the Series) is Shawn Colvin, A Few Small Repairs  A Few Small Repairs is one of those albums that takes love gone wrong and turns what could be a litany of heartbreak and “woe-is-me”  into an autobiographical  purging, and the listener goes along for the ride with some soaring beautiful melodies punctuated with  hard-knock lessons.  Colvin didn’t come to the making of this album without a lot of hard work, learning guitar in her childhood in South Dakota and performing in The King and I as a teen, then like most of us had some twists and turns which led to this release, her fourth, in 1996. The album opens...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#905 in the Series) is Matraca Berg, Lying to the Moon (RCA) So many perks, so many cool events, so many goodies and “what-nots.”  When I look back on my days in music distribution, you never knew from which angle the next cool thing was going to hit you.  One of the things I liked best was when one of the labels would bring in someone to perform at our conventions.  That was the way that this lovely songbird’s music would be introduced to me. Yes, it now has been over 20 years. How much did I love this record? Well, like I said, it’s 20 years  later and I’m still playing it,...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Eva Cassidy’s, Songbird. I’m not sure how many of you have heard of this young lady. I’m asking you to please read her story and listen to her music. Eva Cassidy has, quite possibly, the best voice I’ve ever heard on a woman pop singer. A few years back I was unaware of her. Then on a slow news night, ABC’s Nightline, did a feature on this young lady named Eva Cassidy. She was a singer songwriter from Washington D.C. She had released a couple of albums on a tiny local label that never really did much. (Note: I’ve posted the NightLine episode below. It’s really a great watch) In 1996 she passed...