Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#899 in the Series) is The Jam, This is the Modern World The punk rock explosion of 1975-1980 made for some strange bed fellows. The Stranglers and Eddie and the Hot Rods were holdovers from the pub rock era. Many claim that the Sex Pistols and Clash were puppets controlled by ego maniacal managers. The Buzzcocks and Undertones were pop tune perfectionists. For the want of an easy title, the media called them all punk. The Jam were thrown under this umbrella. The Jam were formed in 1975 in Woking, Surrey, England by 17 year old singer, writer, guitarist Paul Weller, bassist Bruce Foxton, and drummer Ric Buckler. The trio came together with...

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 (#897 in the Series) is Tom Russell, Heart on a Sleeve  Going back to Lukenbach with Waylon, Willie, and the boys, Texas has been ground zero for singer songwriters. With a couple of them you only need to mention their first names to experience the magic. With others, two first names may be necessary. Just ask Jerry Jeff, Billy Joe, or Jimmie Dale, and with Bob Wills you only need to hear a few notes to understand that he is still The King, but the true beauty of the Texas music scene is the regional diversity and eclectic musical differences you can experience depending on what part of the Lone Star State you...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#475 in the Series) is Bill Nelson, The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart) Who is Bill Nelson you ask?  Well, did you read our recent Be-Bop Deluxe feature written by one of our contributors Jim McCabe?  Bill Nelson was the leader/guitarist/front man for them. That piece triggered much discussion about Bill on the site and facebook.  Many people were not aware of the long and prosperous solo career that Bill has had.  So I’ve decided to come right back with one of his best solo efforts, The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart.) Be-Bop Deluxe pretty much called it a day back in 1978 with the release Drastic...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#895 in the Series) is Warren Zevon, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School In what can be considered a what came first, the chicken or the egg, sort of symbiotic of relationship, we will never know if Earnest Hemingway could have written The Old Man and the Sea if he was clean and sober, and wasn’t wrestling with more demons than Anton LeVay. Fortunately, in the case of Warren Zevon, we have the exact answer. You can go home again, and second chances to make a great first impression are sometimes given, which is exactly what happened with the release of Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School in 1980. Following the somewhat...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#894 in the Series) is Don Dixon, Most of the Girls Like to Dance but Only Some of the Boys Do Quite often the hardest thing about maintaining this website is trying to come up with the next day’s “Cool Album of the Day.” There are times when nothing jumps out at you that you feel like telling people about. Then there are times when you get an idea from places you never expected. That’s what happened yesterday when I was looking for our next entry. As you know we also have a Facebook page for “Cool Album of the Date.” On the page there is often continuous discussion on the entries along...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#893 in the Series) is Popkissed, It’s a Fine Day (Aquavit Records) If you loved Madonna’s hypnotic hit “Frozen,” then you’re sure to dig the equally trance-inducing sound of the Norwegian duo Popkissed. The beat is just as steady, driven by simple, catchy drumlines and encompassed by Lill-Ann Blauenfeldt’s bold, controlled vocals. She might not command the Material Girl’s vocal range, but there is something about Lill-Ann’s heavy alto that lends her delivery an almost tangible intimacy. Creating the vivid soundscapes through which Blauenfeldt’s husky musings float like a restless lark is producer Robert Solheim. These two talents are the heart and soul of Popkissed, an electro-pop act that has just upped the ante...

Today’s Cool Albums of the Day (#s 891 and 892 in the Series) are The Bottle Rockets – The Bottle Rockets, The Brooklyn Side When it comes to game changing bands that first began surfing the banzai pipeline of the Americana tidal wave that began in the early 1990’s and gained momentum in the new millennium, The Bottle Rockets, along with The Blasters, Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown, and The Old 97’s, were among the first explorers to plant the Roots-Rock flag on American soil, and now, courtesy of Bloodshot records, we are treated to a re-mastered, deluxe edition treatment of the band’s first two albums, The Bottle Rockets, and The Brooklyn Side. Formed in 1992, from the not so musical...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#890 in the Series) is the self-titled debut by The Ria Reece Band With the amount of musical talent Montreal is churning out, it just might be that there’s a new Motown north of the border. The latest off the conveyor belt is a four-piece band hell-bent on instilling in us a reverence for the roots of rhythm and blues. The Ria Reece Band doesn’t do half-baked and there is a richness in their instruments and in Ria’s gravy-sweet vocals that will appease the staunchest of soul purists. Their mastery of the intricacies of the raw, passionate melodies of the sixties and seventies belies the fact that The Ria Reece Band was...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#889 in the Series) is Diana Krall, Live in Paris Diana Krall was another one of those artists that I knew more ‘of’ than actually knew.  I couldn’t tell you anything that she had done.  I’d see her listed as being on different shows etc.  I had a little interest. Some of it also generated from being familiar with her superstar husband, Elvis Costello.  I wonder if she’s ever worn his red shoes? So one day I’m surfing thru the television channels when I see her sitting at her piano singing this marvelous song. “OK’ I said, this sounds pretty good’ Maybe I’ll watch a song or two.” Well, about 80 minutes...