Monday, December 12, 2016
Childish Gambino back with a 70's infused album
Friday, December 09, 2016
Todd joins charity tribute concert celebrating Aretha Franklin
Monday, December 05, 2016
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Podcast Eleven:2016
Little Mix take on Metallica when nothing else matters in podcast 11.
Sting - 57th and 9th
Robbie Williams - The Heavy Entertainment Show
Simple Minds - Acoustic
Honeyblood - Babes Never Die
Little Mix - Glory Days
Metallica - Hardwired ... to Self Destruct
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Podcast Ten: 2016
We talk death, fannies, and acid.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
The Divine Comedy - Foreverland
Teenage Fanclub - Here
Regina Spektor - Remember Us to Life
Angel Olson - My Woman
Bon Iver - 22, A Million
Friday, September 30, 2016
Todd talks of new album
...Rundgren is preparing his next record for release by the end of the year, but since he moved to Hawaii around 20 years ago, he's found it difficult to put a band together.
"I live so far away from all of the players that I am used to," he says. "I can't just call a session anytime I want. The end result has been that I wind up singing and writing and playing everything on the records. I've decided that I want to make something that is more collaborative, that includes other influences, that doesn't just sound like all me again, so I will be working with a whole bunch of other artists on this record." [ South Bend Tribune, 29 Sept, 2016]
This sounds more like 'end of 2017' than 2016 for the new album to me going by the use of 'I want' and 'I will', but still, nice to know there is another in the works. Still looking out for that collaboration with The Roots to see the light of day too.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Podcast Nine: 2016
Country, pop, grime, rap, indie ... yes, it's another podcast.
Dolly Parton - Pure & Simple
Britney - Glory
Ryley Walker - Golden Sings that have Been Sung
John Paul White - Beulah
Giggs - Landlord
Viola Beach - Viola Beach
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Flamingo in the Ocean
Frank Ocean has published a list of songs that mean a lot to him, and it is interesting to see the Todd song Flamingo amongst them.
This is nice as Todd has praised Ocean in the past and his writing and singer skills: "That's what I like about Frank Ocean or Bon Iver - they try to capture a feeling in the most sincere way."
This is nice as Todd has praised Ocean in the past and his writing and singer skills: "That's what I like about Frank Ocean or Bon Iver - they try to capture a feeling in the most sincere way."
Tuesday, August 09, 2016
Podcast Eight:2016
Biffy Clyro - Ellipsis
Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate
Blood Orange - Freetown Sound
Mitski - Puberty 2
Bat for Lashes - The Bride
Steven Tyler - We're All Somebody from Somewhere
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Podcast Seven:2016
We move into part II of 2016, with an album that is a part II and more. We'd also like to dedicate this particular episode to the memory of Chris Crowley.
ABC - The Lexicon of Love II
Garbage - Strange Little Birds
Brandy Clark - Big Day in a Small Town
Colvin & Earle - Colvin & Earle
Lacuna Coil - Delirium
Rick Astley - 50
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Podcast Six:2016
The one where Scott really takes against one of the albums ...
PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project
Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Things That We Are Made Of
Santana - IV
Misty Miller - The Whole Family is Worried
Drake - Views
Foy Vance - Wild Swans
Monday, May 09, 2016
Podcast Five: 2016
As another musical great is snatched from us, we remember Prince Rogers Nelson and review the following:
PSB - Super
Yeasayer - Amen & Goodbye
Deftones - Gore
Bob Mould - Patch the Sky
Parquet Courts - Human Performance
The Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You've Come to Expect
Thursday, April 21, 2016
A Partridge in a Rundgren Tree
I follow Andy Partridge on Twitter so saw most of this unfold online, but Ultimate Rock have pulled it all together nicely. Nothing new really in the P v T ongoing spat but still amusing it continues.
“a great arranger. Really talented, we were lucky to work with him.” “He is a mediocre engineer at best. As producer his ‘bedside manner’ is appalling. He was bullying, hectoring, divisive to the band, and if you think that’s sour grapes from me, just ask anyone else who has worked with him. I’ve met several and they all have the same stories. Ask Sparks, the Dolls, Meat Loaf and on and on.”
“a great arranger. Really talented, we were lucky to work with him.” “He is a mediocre engineer at best. As producer his ‘bedside manner’ is appalling. He was bullying, hectoring, divisive to the band, and if you think that’s sour grapes from me, just ask anyone else who has worked with him. I’ve met several and they all have the same stories. Ask Sparks, the Dolls, Meat Loaf and on and on.”
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Petty and Rundgren
The
Gainesville Sun (Florida) has an interesting article mentioning the beginnings
of Tom Petty 'How one Southern college town - Gainesville - changed the historyof rock 'n' roll' (Marty Jourard) which in turn mentions Todd:
Nothing is sharper
than hindsight, and the mystique that surrounds Tom Petty today has led to much
speculation about his early years in Gainesville. At first meeting, Tommy
presented as a longhaired Southern hippie musician, part of a large community
of like-minded souls. Further observations revealed Petty as a serious
songwriter who was fully engaged in music, with a quick mind and a truly
indescribable sense of humor.
In early 1972, he
lived for a while in the converted attic of a house on a property adjacent to
the railroad bridge at SW 13th Street, now the site of Wildflower Apartments. I
visited one day as Tommy was listening to Todd Rundgren's new double album, "Something/Anything," a
collection of 25 tracks that included the hit "Hello, It's Me." We
sat and listened for awhile and he explained that Rundgren had not only written the 18 songs on the first three
sides but had also played every instrument on those recordings, including the
hit "I Saw The Light." We looked at the inside photograph of Rundgren standing on a table in his
house with his electric guitar, surrounded by musical instruments and an
8-track recorder. "He did it all himself" was Tommy's general
comment. Several months later Mudcrutch recorded the demo tape that led to
their record deal — in the living room of keyboard player Benmont Tench's
parents' house.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Podcast Four:2016
School of Seven Bells - SVIIB
Rick SpringField - Rocket Science
The Jezabels - Synthia
Esperanza Spaulding - Emily's D-Evolution
Wild Nothings - Life of Pause
1975 - I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it
Bonnie Raitt - Dig in Deep
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Rundgren's Road Less Travelled
Latest issue of Goldmine [Goldmine - Spring 2016 - Pg. 34 Vol 42 No. 5 ISSN: 10552685] has a really good Ken Sharp interview with Todd, with him talking about song inspirations (Open My Eyes: "That whole introductory thing was "I Can't Explain" with a slight variation. We just essentially stole stuff from all the different things that we liked. We had that whole kind of almost jazzy Beach Boys bridge in it. The song was a pastiche of all the influences that we wanted to exhibit.") , the Utopia reunion ("you shouldn't hold your breath but it would be nice if we could"), Bowie ( "I have to be quite honest and say that I was not always impressed with him artistically"), and a few other things.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Podcast Three: 2016
DIIV - Is The Is Are
Money - Suicide Songs
Eleanor Friedberger - New View
Shearwater - Jetplane and Oxbow
Foxes - All I Need
Thursday, February 04, 2016
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Kaz on Todd, BOC, Meat
Nice interview with Kazim in Downtown magazine:
On Working with Todd: -
"But it seems I’m always working with him. Comfortability? Familiarity? I’m not sure. I do know that we sing well together, I respect his talent and over the years have gotten to the point where I know what he wants and expects from another musician without having to have it spelled out…April [2016] will mark my 40th year working with Todd."
On Working with Todd: -
"But it seems I’m always working with him. Comfortability? Familiarity? I’m not sure. I do know that we sing well together, I respect his talent and over the years have gotten to the point where I know what he wants and expects from another musician without having to have it spelled out…April [2016] will mark my 40th year working with Todd."
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
Todd on Hall of Fame, Oscars etc
Explore New Jersey spoke to Todd ahead of his upcoming local gig.
"The experience of listening to the music is what’s important. The Hall of Fame stuff really is, to my mind, just a way to kind of try to move more product."
"The experience of listening to the music is what’s important. The Hall of Fame stuff really is, to my mind, just a way to kind of try to move more product."
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Podcast One: 2016
BBC Sounds of 2016
Hinds - Leave me Alone
Savages - Adore Life
David Bowie - Blackstar
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
FANTASTIC VOYAGE
I posted this on my other blog yesterday, but thought it deserved a place here too.
“ I’m looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I play everybody” – David Bowie
My relationship with the music of David Bowie began in 1975 with the re-release of Space Odity. I was seven. I’d been vaguely aware of his existence before then, but this was the moment when I said: I like this song, play it again. NOW. What a song.
The next few years gave me other little gems: Golden Years, Sound and Vision, Heroes, Boys keep Swinging. But as the seventies drew to a close I still don’t think I’d actually bought a Bowie record. My brother had a few and I’d listened to his, but I’d not bought anything myself.
That changed with Ashes to Ashes (1980). Major Tom was back and he coincided with a big single buying year for me. I’d buy the brilliant Scary Monsters single too.
But it was the move from Trench (Telford) to Glasgow at the end of 1982 and the access to a brilliant second hand record shop (Lost Chord) when my real love affair with Bowie began. It allowed me to pick up the Bowie back catalogue quite cheaply and really start a minor obsession with his music. In particular I took the albums Diamond Dogs and Lodger to my heart. They seemed less loved than say, Ziggy, Hunky, or Heroes. To me they were genius (a view any re-listen merely confirms).
I remember winning a prize at School (Hillhead High School) – this would have been around 1985/6. I’m not totally sure what it was for now, but I got to pick a book to have/buy as a prize and I choose a biography of David Bowie. I think I was supposed to chose something a little more ‘literary’ but this was where my mind was at, at the time. I wanted to read about Bowie. How did he end up with two different colour eyes? Was he really gay? Bi? Alien?
Of course by this stage he’d once again become a mega-star. Let’s Dance and Tonight albums in particular providing a collection of global smash hits. I remember going to tape fairs and buying bootleg gig tapes – I had Milton Keynes 1983 gig, Cleveland 1978, Melbourne 1978, and one from the 1987 Glass Spider tour too. I no longer have any of them now. The Milton Keynes and Cleveland ones were the two that got played to death though. Both great gigs that even the sound of the people recording them chatting and singing along couldn’t spoil for me at the time.
In 1998 came Tin Machine. Oh how these years have been pilloried. This was Bowie reacting against what he had felt himself becoming in the mid eighties – almost a parody of himself lost in pop megastardom and at risk of becoming little more than a greatest hits package. He admitted he felt unfulfilled by the whole thing. Suddenly it was like he was chasing commercial success rather than just being Bowie and making records regardless of commercial success. It wasn’t that he was making bad records – Never Let me Down, which was the record the Glass Spider Tour supported, has some great stuff on it, but it was still clear he needed to press the reset button.
I loved Tin Machine. I loved that he’d formed a band, fought to not have his name in the band title, and just seemed to be relaxed and having fun. The first Tin Machine album is a great record. I will repeat that: A GREAT RECORD. I’ve had to defend it many times over the years, but it is worth it. In truth the same cannot be said for either the follow up album or the subsequent live record – I’ll happily concede that those are pretty rubbish. But Bowie himself always said he looked back on the Tin Machine experience with great fondness and that it was the spark to make him be adventurous again. And it did. What followed was: Black Tie, White Noise; 1:Outside; Earthling; Hours; Heathen; Reality; The Next Day; and Blackstar.
This run of albums shows just why news of his death is so sad. If you listen to these albums you discover that unlike many of his contemporaries his forays into different music styles: Industrial, Jazz, Drum and Bass etc never seemed like a calculated attempt to be ‘current’ but more a reflection on his unabashed and genuine love of music. He was a big music fan who regularly sought out and championed new music and artists he liked. He was an enthusiastic music fan. He was, essentially, one of us.
David Bowie released his first album on 1 June 1967. I was born the following year. He has, quite literally, been the soundtrack to my life. He leaves us with almost 50 years of music. But it is more than that. For many artists it is a case of law of diminishing returns and, despite protestations, the case where clearly their best years are long gone and the spark of genius gone. Not so with Bowie. 2013’s The Next Day, and 2016’s Blackstar are not ‘let’s just re-record my old classics and/or roll out a duets album’. These are albums that showed an artist still fresh and full of ideas. These albums can stand proud next to the classics from the 1970s. They’re not just albums you listen to once and never revisit again, they are records to listen to today … And the next day/And the next/And another day.
David Bowie: 8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016
“ I’m looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I play everybody” – David Bowie
My relationship with the music of David Bowie began in 1975 with the re-release of Space Odity. I was seven. I’d been vaguely aware of his existence before then, but this was the moment when I said: I like this song, play it again. NOW. What a song.
The next few years gave me other little gems: Golden Years, Sound and Vision, Heroes, Boys keep Swinging. But as the seventies drew to a close I still don’t think I’d actually bought a Bowie record. My brother had a few and I’d listened to his, but I’d not bought anything myself.
That changed with Ashes to Ashes (1980). Major Tom was back and he coincided with a big single buying year for me. I’d buy the brilliant Scary Monsters single too.
But it was the move from Trench (Telford) to Glasgow at the end of 1982 and the access to a brilliant second hand record shop (Lost Chord) when my real love affair with Bowie began. It allowed me to pick up the Bowie back catalogue quite cheaply and really start a minor obsession with his music. In particular I took the albums Diamond Dogs and Lodger to my heart. They seemed less loved than say, Ziggy, Hunky, or Heroes. To me they were genius (a view any re-listen merely confirms).
I remember winning a prize at School (Hillhead High School) – this would have been around 1985/6. I’m not totally sure what it was for now, but I got to pick a book to have/buy as a prize and I choose a biography of David Bowie. I think I was supposed to chose something a little more ‘literary’ but this was where my mind was at, at the time. I wanted to read about Bowie. How did he end up with two different colour eyes? Was he really gay? Bi? Alien?
Of course by this stage he’d once again become a mega-star. Let’s Dance and Tonight albums in particular providing a collection of global smash hits. I remember going to tape fairs and buying bootleg gig tapes – I had Milton Keynes 1983 gig, Cleveland 1978, Melbourne 1978, and one from the 1987 Glass Spider tour too. I no longer have any of them now. The Milton Keynes and Cleveland ones were the two that got played to death though. Both great gigs that even the sound of the people recording them chatting and singing along couldn’t spoil for me at the time.
In 1998 came Tin Machine. Oh how these years have been pilloried. This was Bowie reacting against what he had felt himself becoming in the mid eighties – almost a parody of himself lost in pop megastardom and at risk of becoming little more than a greatest hits package. He admitted he felt unfulfilled by the whole thing. Suddenly it was like he was chasing commercial success rather than just being Bowie and making records regardless of commercial success. It wasn’t that he was making bad records – Never Let me Down, which was the record the Glass Spider Tour supported, has some great stuff on it, but it was still clear he needed to press the reset button.
I loved Tin Machine. I loved that he’d formed a band, fought to not have his name in the band title, and just seemed to be relaxed and having fun. The first Tin Machine album is a great record. I will repeat that: A GREAT RECORD. I’ve had to defend it many times over the years, but it is worth it. In truth the same cannot be said for either the follow up album or the subsequent live record – I’ll happily concede that those are pretty rubbish. But Bowie himself always said he looked back on the Tin Machine experience with great fondness and that it was the spark to make him be adventurous again. And it did. What followed was: Black Tie, White Noise; 1:Outside; Earthling; Hours; Heathen; Reality; The Next Day; and Blackstar.
This run of albums shows just why news of his death is so sad. If you listen to these albums you discover that unlike many of his contemporaries his forays into different music styles: Industrial, Jazz, Drum and Bass etc never seemed like a calculated attempt to be ‘current’ but more a reflection on his unabashed and genuine love of music. He was a big music fan who regularly sought out and championed new music and artists he liked. He was an enthusiastic music fan. He was, essentially, one of us.
David Bowie released his first album on 1 June 1967. I was born the following year. He has, quite literally, been the soundtrack to my life. He leaves us with almost 50 years of music. But it is more than that. For many artists it is a case of law of diminishing returns and, despite protestations, the case where clearly their best years are long gone and the spark of genius gone. Not so with Bowie. 2013’s The Next Day, and 2016’s Blackstar are not ‘let’s just re-record my old classics and/or roll out a duets album’. These are albums that showed an artist still fresh and full of ideas. These albums can stand proud next to the classics from the 1970s. They’re not just albums you listen to once and never revisit again, they are records to listen to today … And the next day/And the next/And another day.
David Bowie: 8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016
Friday, January 08, 2016
Jill Sobule and giving people you adore more power than you should
San Jose Mercury News, 7th jan has an interview with Jill Sobule, ahead of a gig this Sunday at Redwood City's Club Fox on Sunday, where she shares the bill with Mr Kasim Sulton.
The piece talks about Todd.
The piece talks about Todd.
"I was a big fan. I hadn't met, really, any celebrities, let alone one of my icons. I hadn't been in the studio much. And Todd was really intimidating back then, in that time period. So it was really sort of semi-terrifying.
"Right before then, I was just excited to play an open mic at The Bitter End in New York. That was a big deal. Or right before that, I played Josephina's Pizza in Denver, Colorado. So my eyes were overly wide open," she says, laughing. "I didn't have any expectations."
The album failed to register with record buyers. The next one, produced by Joe Jackson, went unreleased. "People who you adore, you sometimes give them more power than you should. And I was having problems singing. I was tense and probably going through some sort of mental state. Part of it was not having confidence in myself."
Claire Wells
Peter Guy at the Liverpool Echo talked to local musician Claire
Wells (Liverpool Echo, January 8) http://clairewelles.bandcamp.com/
about her music and influences.
What are your influences and which artists do
you listen to at the moment?
For this current LP, I was listening to a lot
of late '70s-early '80s Sparks (their Georgio Moroder era), Julian Jumpin'
Perez mixtapes circa 1986/7 and Todd Rundgren - who has been a mainstay for many years now.
More recently, I've been really impressed
with artists such as Julia Holter, Jenny Hval, Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point
Never) and Susanne Sundfør. Note my preference for solo artists!
I also enjoy listening to absolute crud such
as Hall & Oates, Phil Collins and enigmatic '80s musician/ Wall Street
trader "Lewis".
Great seeing Todd mentioned but also Oneohtrix Point Never and Susanne Sundfør who produced two of my
favourite records of last year.
Erykah Badu - Hello (Ft. Andre 3000)
Erykah Badu recently recorded this interesting re-working of Todd's Hello It's Me [Based more on the Isley Bros cover]
Monday, January 04, 2016
Victim Singer: Adele?
I think Mr R being a little harsh here:
“I don’t have the same kind of feelings that a lot of people do about this new generation of victim singers like Adele and Sam Smith, where it just seems like they’re abused animals,” he added. “Everything they sing about is, ‘Oh, I’m so needy, I’m so hurt.’ I don’t think the world needs more of that. The world needs more of ‘I can’t feel my face.’” [Revue 29 Dec]
“I don’t have the same kind of feelings that a lot of people do about this new generation of victim singers like Adele and Sam Smith, where it just seems like they’re abused animals,” he added. “Everything they sing about is, ‘Oh, I’m so needy, I’m so hurt.’ I don’t think the world needs more of that. The world needs more of ‘I can’t feel my face.’” [Revue 29 Dec]
Live At The Old Waldorf
The new year begins with this from the Scottish Daily Express...
TODD RUNDGREN & UTOPIA: Live At The Old Waldorf **** (Esoteric)
Another entry to the Rundgren Archive Series, this is a first official release for an August 1978 concert in San Francisco, where Rundgren mixed songs from his cosmic prog rock band Utopia and the more soft-rock material from his solo career. So while they can ramp it upon the more outlandish tracks like The Seven Rays, Abandon City and Gangrene, Rundgren likes to tone it down a bit when he offers Can We Still Be Friends and Couldn't I Just Tell You.
Saturday, January 02, 2016
Podcast Thirteen: 2015: Best Albums etc
Awards and a look back at 2015, including our all important album of the year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)