Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1046 in the Series) is The Back Keys, El Camino (Nonesuch Records) I’m actually fairly new to The Black Keys. I only recently took a closer look at them when I picked up their last release, Brothers. I listened to it, but my thinking was along the lines of “OK, this is just the latest in a long line of hot, new bands, that everyone is supposed to like” that I’m going to listen to it once and then never play it again. I know enough about The Black Keys that even Brothers was seen by some of their early fans as a sellout and that they were not staying true to...

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...

  T0day’s Cool Album of the Day (#1044 in the the Series) is Whiskeytown, Strangers Almanac. There are very few albums that I can look back on and say that it shaped what I listened to for the rest of my life.  Strangers Almanac is one of those albums.  I had a roommate that kept telling me that I needed to listen to this artist named Ryan Adams.  I kind of had a rule at the time that if the album came out in the 80’s or later I wasn’t that interested.  I finally gave it a chance and it redefined my taste in music. If you compose music we recommend the best violin case to protect your instrument all times....

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1043 in the Series) is Billy Joel, 52nd Street While 52nd Street is not Billy Joel’s most popular album, that honor goes to The Stranger with the mega-hits “Just the Way You Are”, “Scenes in an Italian Restaurant”, “Only the Good Die Young”, and the rest, or his most socially aware album, that would certainly be The Nylon Curtain with the brutally honest social commentary of “Allentown”, and “Goodbye Saigon”, and it was by far not the worst, clearly An Innocent Man gets that dubious honor, but it is in some circles, including mine, simply the best. In the interests of full disclosure, my view of this album may be somewhat influenced...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1042 in the Series) is James Taylor, That’s Why I’m Here. “Come on everyone, come on… let’s go!  James is recording a new album.  We all have to help him out! Was that the clarion call throughout Los Angeles in 1985 when James Taylor decided to record for the first time in years,who knows? ButI’m guessing it was close.  It seems like every hot musician from within 100 miles played on this album. So before I get into the rest of album, let me make a list of who answered that call. Here’s who makes an appearance on That’s Why I’m Here. Don Henley, Leland Sklar, Peter Asher,  Randy + Michael Brecker...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1041 in the Series) is the Disney interpretation of Sergei Prokofiev’s, Peter and the Wolf. OK, how many of you had this as a kid? Or how many of you introduced music to your kids with this classic? This album is one of the earliest pieces of music I can remember hearing.  I’m 100% positive, that if I would not have been introduced to this as a very little boy then I never would have had the interest in music that I do. If you never heard Peter and the Wolf, or the B side of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, then you really missed out! Here’s a description of the story. Thanks to Disney...

Today’s ‘Cool Album of the Day’ (#1040 in the Series) is Rockpile Live at  Montreux 1980 – In 1980, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner and Terry Williams, collectively known as Rockpile, released their only official album, Seconds of Pleasure.  On August 23rd, 2011, they released their second.  It’s called Live at Montreux 1980. Sure we know there were about four or five more albums that could have been called Rockpile, except Dave Edmunds was contracted to one label and Nick Lowe to another, so we never had a second Rockpile album. This one is a live album and features 16 tracks. You’ll find some goodies from all three “franchises, “there are some Rockpile tunes, some songs that were...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1039 in the Series) is ABC,  The Lexicon of Love When I pulled this one out for a listen I was really curious as to how it would sound, it’s been many years that I’ve listened to it. Sometimes these 80’s synth-pop or “New Romantics” genre bands don’t stand up so well. This stands up quite well I must say. I think that the bands high raw musicianship level has much to do with that.  Just listen to Brad Lang’s bass push and highlight the opening number “Show Me,” or even on the hit “Poison Arrow.” It’s a shame that he was a guest musician and not an actual member. I’ve read some reviews...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1038 in the series) is the self-titled debut from Novo Combo. This is yet another album of the day that you just can’t find any longer. Why more cut-outs aren’t on at least iTunes, I’ll never understand. I can see not printing any issues of some of these great nuggets, but at least toss the master up on a download site and let us buy away! “Novo Combo” was released in 1981. It was a combination power pop/new wave production. Besides some wonderful music, Novo Combo was mostly known for their drummer, former Santana member, Michael Shrieve. (Think Woodstock and Soul Survivor!) Pete Hewlett handled guitars and some vocals. He went on to do some...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1037 in the Series)  is Lyle Lovett, Pontiac I was a music distributor in 1987 and was sitting at my desk when a Senior Vice President named Dennis Sinclair walked in and tossed “Pontiac” on my desk. He said, “Carta,check this out, This is all you. I think you’ll really like it.” Senior VPs always got their hands on the goodies first. As I jumped in my Pontiac and headed on Route 83 southbound I popped the disc into the player. The first song I heard was “If I had a Boat” second up was “Give Me Back My Heart” then “I Loved You Yesterday” and on an on. OK, Lyle, you got me!...