Sarabeth Tucek @ the Fly, London 23/01/08

Just after Christmas I heard about Sarabeth Tucek, and how Bob Dylan liked her etc, so I thought I'd check out her debut album co-produced by Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon/Ryan Adams) and Luther Russell. I was impressed. Impressed enough to take this opportunity to catch her in one of a number of small venue gigs in the uk this month.

For my £6, I also got two support acts, who are also worthy of a mention. First up was Helen Boulding - a piano based singer songwriter, who actually reminded me at times of Jill Sobule. Youth produced her debut album - New Red Dress - which comes out on 11th February



Next up was Tom McKean And The Emperors. Tom is a Scotish cross between Nick Cave and Tom Waits, with a fine collection of Folk tinged tunes, and is another artist who will be one to watch over the next few years.



And so to Sarabeth. When she was good - Holy Smoke, Come Back Baloon, Blowing Kisses, Nobody Cares, Hot Tears, and Something for You, she was very good. BUT, she is quiet - too quiet actually, and she remains a bit too detached between songs to really bring home to power of much of her material. I would still love to see her again though, and were it not for a Burns Night celebration this evening, I would be.

I think she's only going to get bigger, so I would expect to be seeing her in larger venues over the next 18 months.

Todd tells Billboard about plans for the new album and why the New Cars are parked.

Billboard talks to Todd about the new album and the New Cars:

On the new 'arena rock' album:

Rundgren says he's got "a few" songs already written for the project, and he plans to start working in earnest on it in early February, after he finishes his current North American concert tour. "I write in a very strange way," he explains. "Things are very fragmentary for a very long time, and then they come together very quickly near the end of the process. I don't even write the lyrics to the songs until immediately before I (record) them."

On the New Cars:

"We couldn't get the rights to use the name the Cars, and the New Cars just confused everybody," Rundgren explains. "We didn't want to have to start all over again. And I've got my own music and my own audience; I had no reason to start trying to begin a new career with another band."

Todd for Hilary '08?

My regular reader - yes, that's you Mr Marquis - will be interested in this one from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Rundgren's voting Hillary Clinton, because Barack Obama's brand of hope "can't get us out of this mess.

"I look at politics as a subset of sociology," he says. "It's about this aspect of people's behavior that involves empowerment, where people are essentially motivated by things that all human beings possess inside them, and is moderated by the social contract." In other words, if our behavior is wired to allow for the Gordon Gecko credo of "greed is good," as the 1987 film Wall Street famously illustrated, "then people will be greedy," Rundgren says. "You can see it in the chipmunk who seems about to make its head explode with the number of acorns in its mouth, and still it's trying to get another one in.

"If you are on the right side of the capitalistic equation, you can talk a lot of people into investing in your company. Then you run your company into the ground and take your golden parachute. Enron cannot be the first time that happened, just the biggest time."

Todd is God

Sam Richards in yesterday's Guardian Guide put out a call to 'Rescue Todd Rundgren from AOR purgatory'

"1973's A Wizard, A True Star: an astonishing Technicolor carnival that touched on psych rock, bubblegum pop, prog, Broadway show tunes and Philly soul. It was harmonically richer and more ambitiously deranged than The White Album and prefigured Prince's Purple Rain by a decade, but Rolling Stone called it a "campy catastrophe" and Rundgren was branded a pasticheur"

Todd is God