Todd is God

Warner Bros. Records has announced the release of "What Is Hip: Remix Project Volume 1," an innovative musical marriage of hot young remixers with vintage hits from the label's catalog, including classic tracks from Seals & Croft, Rod Stewart, America, Devo, Doobie Brothers, Todd Rundgren and more. Originally scheduled for a late August release, the album now comes out October 19th. Executive Producer Philip Steir (No Doubt, Lillix, Moby, Rob Zombie, Bush) re-mixes Todd Rundgren's 1973 classic "Hello It's Me."

The Star-Tribune (13 August) had an article on the 12 Rods final gig, and the news they are disbanding - No separation anxieties for 12 Rods. " Not only did V2 leave a lot of promises unkept, according to the band, but so did a big-wig manager, and so did a well-known producer..." Best of all, the two discs that the band made for V2 (i.e., with a big budget) really don't sound any better than the ones it made on its own. Let that be a lesson to you aspiring rock stars. In fact, if you had to pick a weak one in the discography, it would probably be 2000's ``Separation Anxieties,'' the one Todd Rundgren produced. Always quite liked it myself, although it was certainly patchy. But is that a dig at Todd as the 'well-known producer'?

The Observer music magazine (15 August) had a piece by Faithless' Mazi Jazz on just why Todd is God. He waxes lyrical about why we should ALL own 'Something / Anything'. "I can't believe something so wonderful can be so ignored. It's virtually impossible to pick a stand-out track, but if pushed, I'd choose 'It Wouldn't Have Made any Difference'...This record taught me the importance of backing vocals and how they can change a good song into a memorable one. It also showed me how a song is constructed. He wrote beautifully and in a way no other American songwriter, who wasn't black, had done in years. It remains some of the best songwriting I've heard to this day" And so say all of us ...

The Scottish Daily Record today reviewed the Glasgow gig calling it "self-indulgent" saying "the music might have taken second stage to the theatrics, but that was no excuse for Rundgren's egotistical showboating. From Eighties-tinged cover versions to electronic shenanigans and lengthy jazz improvisations, some songs lasted longer than a set by the Jesus & Mary Chain" and that Todd " delivered a performance so OTT not even Derren Brown could predict if he was serious or not, though the fans lapped it up" Glasgow's Evening Times reviewer also felt Todd was "self-indulgent" saying " for all the on-stage theatrics (multiple costume change and choreographed movements) something was missing - good, old-fashioned songs. The songs, taken from his rich back catalogue of 18 solo albums including his latest effort, Liars, ran into each other with little distinction. Even when he swayed between prog rock, rap and metal, it failed to ...

The Miami Herald today has a wonderful short review of 'Liars': "Todd Rundgren, Liars (Silverline). Singer-songwriter plays all the instruments in his attempt to explain the concept of ''truth'' using chilly electro pop instrumentation. Strange. Available as a surround sound DVD-Audio."

Martin Townsend in The Sunday Express could not have been happier about the London gig (Frankly about time someone was). He says "Rundgren is a superb performer. His frenzied but melodic guitar-playing reminds you why you fell in love with electric guitars in the first place and, at 56, his passionate, soulful voice has scarcely sounded better ... Rundgren re-worked arcane tracks such as Born To Synthesize into cheesy lounge jazz, stormed through The Want Of A Nail and performed vocal gymnastics on tracks from Liars, his new CD. He finished with Hello, It's Me and the anthemic Just One Victory. The capacity crowd - including Tom Robinson, Joe Jackson and Tony Banks from Genesis - were on their feet in sheer admiration. So moved was Rundgren that he even, briefly, removed his shades. Awesome" Meanwhile, Campbell Stevenson in the Observer said of the Bristol Academy gig that things such as the WMGGW cover "break a set that is touched by brilliance"

Fiona Shepherd in the Scotsman, while giving the Glasgow gig a three out of five star rating commented "Rundgren may be ahead of the game with his hardware, but his music is stuck in a time when rock dinosaurs and bass solos stalked the Earth"     Peter Aspden in the Financial Times meanwhile felt of the London Gig: "There were times during the show's first half hour when his attitude towards his devoted audience seemed to border on contempt: no chat, no smiles, no oldies, just a blitz of material mostly from the latest (very good) album, Liars, played at a pitch and volume that were anything but soothing to the unconverted. It struck me, and much of the restless audience, as perverse. When you have such gems - mostly unknown to today's wider rock audience - as "I Saw the Light" and "Hello It's Me" in your back catalogue, why not hook the crowd in early? Rundgren finally conceded the latter number as an encore, and the delirious re...

Bob Renstrom in yesterday's (13th) Calgary Herald , in the now obligatory 4 star review, describes 'Liars' as "an album of creamy melodiousness that clinches his status as a genius singer-song writer of the Wilson/Wonder/McCartney level. More than a return to form, this effort marks a real breakthrough for Rundgren"

Ahead of Tonight's gig in Birmingham (can't wait!) the Independent has an interview by Anthony Quinn conducted in Amsterdam last week. Interesting on 'Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect' ... described by the author as "truly the piece of Rundgren that passeth all understanding"... 'Would it be fair to say that he didn't exercise a great measure of quality control? "Well, the quality of what got released was exactly as I intended - and what I intended was to do something nobody else was doing. From that point of view my lack of commercial success was inevitable." So: better to have been a cult pioneer than a rich nonentity who sold out. "It's better to know and fulfil your purpose in life," he says, "whatever that may be. It's somebody else's assumption that I was supposed to be a big pop star. I don't think I've ever done anything to sabotage my career. We did the shows, we made the records, and at one...

Today's Independent plugs the UK Todd dates in its 'Book Now' recommendations today. "The American songwriter/ guitarist/ rock maverick Todd Rundgren (above) performs five concerts, featuring material from his acclaimed new album, Liars. Bristol Academy, Glasgow Academy ( www.carlinglive.co.uk) 12 and 17 July; Birmingham Symphony Hall and Bridgwater Hall, Manchester ( www.ticketline.co.uk) 14 and 18 July; Royal Festival Hall, London, SE1 ( www.rfh.org.uk) 15 July"

According to DJ Jono Coleman in last Friday's Daily Star there is a very good chance that Liv Tyler will be in the crowd for some of Todd's UK gigs next week...Liv also mentions Todd in an interview in Thursday's Daily Mirror saying: "But even though I discovered that Steve was my real dad and not Todd, I didn"t allow that to grind me down. I still have a great bond with Todd." An Interview with the band Faithless in Friday's Guardian threw up a suprise mention of Todd, when the bands Rapper, Max "Maxi Jazz" Frazer , said of Todd: "He's wicked," says Frazer of the American singer-songwriter. "He has bass lines that create their own melody, which is how reggae is structured. If you can make the bass line into a melody you are on your way to heaven." The San Francisco Chronicle has an article on Tom Ross, who after a four-year stint in new play development at New York's Public Theater. (including creating the ...

Great review of 'Liars' by Bob Renstrom in 4th of July's The Wichita Eagle.( also carried by The Hartford Courant) He describes the album as a 'an album of creamy melodiousness that clinches his status as a genius singer-song writer of the Wilson/Wonder/McCartney level.', and 'The results are a stunning achievement of, as Nick Lowe once said, pure pop for now people...The greater embarrassment is that we live in a bland corporate media wasteland where this grand magnum opus will not get the least smidgen of the air time it richly deserves'

Both the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Evening Mail covered Todd last week (25th and 23rd June respectively). Once agin the main talk isof the forthcoming shows in the UK, including on in Birmingham ( I will be there!). In the Post interview he does comment on the last US election and Iraq: "I was in Talahassee a year and a half ago to play a gig. Talahassee is the state capital of Florida. There was one lonely person camping out on the municipal lawn. Now everyone is starting to wake up. They realise that if people were honest we wouldn't be in this state. Most people in Anglo Saxon countries were brought up to believe that other people's religions are inferior. This is a big lie. The other big lie is that we're fighting this war for the benefit of the Iraqi people. Everyone's changing their stance now but they believed the excuse that we went in there to help. They went along with that. In reality we went in there to hurt them, not to help them. Peopl...

The Australian Financial Review has a piece on Todd (26 June). Shane Nicols begins by asking: - Todd Rundgren, ageing pop wunderkind, techno wizard and acid visionary, if they put you in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame what would the citation say? "If elected, will not serve" comes the reply... On music today? "It should be about the songs rather than about vocal histrionics. The first thing I do when I hear something is concentrate on the songs, often in spite of the arrangement or how the song has been handled by the performer." "There's a degree of cynicism that music can be engineered into being a hit. That's always existed. But I can't think of anything that J-Lo's done other than get engaged or un-engaged." And so say all of us :-)

Acoording to People magazine : Actress Liv Tyler (and Aerosmith lead Steven Tyler's daughter) is expecting a baby. Her publicist confirmed to the magazine that Tyler and her rock singer husband Royston Langdon are overjoyed and look forward to the arrival of their child.

David Polochanin in the Boston Globe mentioned Todd in realtion to great work / anti-work songs. " Many of us listen to music on the job, but it's surprising that relatively few songs have been written about the subject of work. However, over the years, a few classic antiwork anthems have become part of our culture songs like Todd Rundgren's "Bang the Drum All Day" or Loverboy's "Working for the Weekend." You're bound to hear one of these songs or perhaps both if you tune into your local pop music station on Friday at 5 p.m. But these become quite outdated. We need new work songs celebrating the places we spend more than half of our waking hours. I'd like to hear musicians get creative with some of these titles: "Who stole my 401(k)?"; "My two-hour lunch break"; "I'm happy over Happy Hour"; "Just expense it!"; and "My boss makes six times my salary." We're talking instant hits, her...

Yes, the man is 56 today. have a good one Todd!

I actually haven't managed to listen to much this past week, until the last 3 days, when my listening has been dominated by Velvet Revolver. Velvet Revolver - 'Contraband' I must confess the thought of Stone Temple Pilot front man Scott Weiland joining up with various ex Guns n Roses was something that sounded like a good idea (but ONLY on paper!) So , I have to confess to being pleasantly surprised by Contraband. It is, quite frankly, much better than it deserves to be. From the opening chords of 'Sucker Train Blues' right through until album closer 'Loving the alien', this album does exactly what it says on the tin. The sound is exactly as you think it'll be, and it's great. Play 'Spectacle', 'Slither', 'Headspace', 'Do it for the Kids' and just turn that volume up LOUD! Bizarrely on 'Superhuman' they actually remind me of the Dan Reed Network (!) Certainly the best Hard Rock album of the year.

USA Today (1 June) Elysa Garner gives Liars ( * * * ) concluding that "Not every whole track measures up to its parts; several bring to mind an inventive author in need of a good editor. Still, at a time when young artists are encouraged to subscribe to neat formulas, Rundgren continues to prove that the road to longevity can be paved with intriguing twists and turns" The Age (28 May) Jeff Glorfeld gives Liars (****). He says "His latest record circles back on much of what he's established as his sound, while also turning away from much of his legacy. From one of the great string-benders, there's almost no guitar here. It's mostly an electronic keyboard album yet is full of organic human warmth, all supplied by Rundgren's remarkable voice. It's like he's gone back to his Philadelphia blue-eyed soul roots, liberally sprinkled with funky '70s disco grooves".

Shane Nicols in the Australian Financial Review reviews Todd, Morrissey, and Alison Moorer this week. In a 10 star review of 'Liars' he says: "His voice is as compelling as ever, masterfully used in ethereal choirs and in a series of pop/soul vignettes that show off different tonal colours. It's a production, masterpiece, a wall of sound he has approached in the past, a vivid and ecstatic mixture of rhythm, seductive synths and layer upon layer of vocals. In all, a new musical benchmark, a What's Going On for the new century". [must confess alway thought WGO was an over-rated album, as is this review for me] AS for Morrissey's - 'You are the Quarry' he rightly concludes "Anyway, the whole things sounds great - an album of passion, guts and profound class.", and also rightly gives a thumbs up to the new rockier sounding Alison Moorer: seems as sis Shelby Lynne gets more country Moorer is heading the opposite way.