Todd is God

It's November which must mean it is the Weakerthans, who I believe I have only ever seen in November on each of the three occasions I have managed to catch them, but I digress. Touring with a new album (at last) to promote - 'Reunion Tour' - it was great to see that John K Samson and the boys still rock live. Licking off with a duo of ' Our Retired Explorer '/'Civil Twilight', I knew from the off this was going to be a good one. I was not disappointed. JKS is not the most chatty front man, but we did learn that a trip to a London gallery had inspired 'Night Windows'; and that 'Tournament of Hearts' was about that great sport curling (never played but it was prime time on sunday afternoons in Scotland when i was growing up). Also any man who can write lyrics such as "yes a penguin taught me French back in Antartica" (Our Retired Explorer) has my respect. Set list was base heavily around the new album and the previous record ' Re...

Retro Dan has an interview with Brent Bourgeois (Bourgeois Tagg) who has this to say on working with Todd. retroDan: Since you’re a music producer yourself, i thought it’d be interesting to hear your take on all the major producers you’ve worked with in your career- namely Todd Rundgren, Danny Kortchmar, Charlie Peacock? Brent: Todd Rundgren is much more of a musical influence than an ‘in the studio’ influence. He taught me something very important: to be really honest lyrically. His chord changes and melodic sense have obviously influenced my writing as well. As a producer in the studio, he was a disappointment. His idea of a compliment was a heavy sigh and something like, “That didn’t bother me.”

Pitchfork has an interview between Eddie Argos of Art Brut, and Craig Finn of the Hold Steady. Finn talks about the new album ( coming late Spring/Summer 2008) and touring the UK. He also mentions the excellent John K Samson of the Weakerthans ... Craig Finn : That's one of the greatest things. If someone like John Darnielle (of Mountain Goats) says "God, that's a great lyric," you feel, "Whoa!" That's a great compliment. Where it's not like some college journalist saying "this album rocks!", you know? It carries a lot of weight. Like, John Samson from the Weakerthans, another one of my favorite lyricists. Right now.

The Guardian has been compiling a 1,000 albums you should hear before you die list "it's not is the best 1000 albums of all time. Instead, it's a cross-genre, cross-era look at some great music" Todd makes it in with Something/Anything " Rundgren not only produced and arranged this double LP, he wrote it all and played every instrument on three of the four sides. I Saw the Light opened the "pop" side, followed by the "experimental", "hard rock" and "musical" sides. The third solo album from the Philly whizkid is a masterclass in eclecticism" Also this made me laugh from the Washington Post.Music editor and Post Rock blogger David Malitz in a special pre-Thanksgiving edition of 'the chat'. This is from the transcript: A statistic: Todd Rundgren is overrated by 95% of the .01% of the population who know who he is. David Malitz: I like the way your brain works. We need more statistics. Where does that "b...

After the amount of times I have missed Mr Adams on his recent visits to these shores, it was great to be able to catch him (and the Cardinals) at last. Being sat down in the Circle was not ideal, but hey, what can you do. So, was it worth the wait? I'd have to say a resounding yes. I have been getting well into this years release, 'Easy Tiger', of late so was in the mood. Adams is not exactly the most chatty person on stage - and my girlfriend did complain that he didn't do enough to 'work' his audience - but that's fine when the music is so good you can let it speak for itself. Another ove which put the focus on the music was the very low lighting chosen by the band - who were performing almost in darkness - in the shadows, one might say for the majority of the set. Again, this didn't bother me, and indeed it made for some quite cool lighting effects late on. So, what did they play? Well a 2 hour set with a 30 min encore: Peaceful Valley Beautiful Sort...

I thought it was time to give over a few lines to two "giants" of music past and present, who both returned from the wilderness (if not the tabloids in one of the cases) this past couple of weeks. I speak, of course, of The Eagles and Britney Spears. Let's start with Brit. Obviously, all has not been well in the land on Brit over the past few years - marrying K-Fed kind of gave that away. So, partied, she had the kids, she partied, she went out minus underwear, she shaved off all her hair, she lost custody of the kids blah blah blah. So, all eyes were on her when news of a musical comeback hit the headlines. Her performance of her debut single of the new opus at the MTV awards, failed to remove thoughts that she was still out of it; although most admitted 'Gimme More' was actually ok, for what it was. The album too has gotten a surprisingly warm reception. Is it deserved??? Well, I'll admit this isn't the car crash I thought it might be, but it is still a...

Wednesday night, so it must be heavy metal. Having been reasonably impressed with McQueen 's debut album , I thought it was worth parting with £6.50 to catch them live. I must admit I wasn't expecting much, but I was presently surprised to find that McQueen manage to be quite entertaining live (although a bit less of the rock cliche speak by lead vocalist Leah wouldn't go a miss). Anyway, The Line went Dead, Running out of Things to Say, Love for Sale, Neurotic etc all sounded really rather good. The next record should tell us whether or not the band will ever headline bigger venues. Due to standing in a bar drinking Pete and I missed the first of the support acts but arrived in time to catch Fresh Fabrik , a hungarian hard rock band. They seemed like a nice enough bunch, but can't say I left wanting to rush out and buy any of their music.

I have almost gone to see Ray Davies play on a number of occasions, but never quite made it, so when this opportunity came along I jumped at the chance - and I am glad I did. For just about 100 minutes, in a set comprise mainly of Kinks songs - with a few of his better solo numbers thrown in - it was a complete joy. Davies is, without a doubt, one of the best songwriters the UK has produced and in one truly golden period wrote or co-wrote a batch of timeless classics, all of which made the set tonight: Tired Of Waiting, All Day And All Of The Night, Good Times Gone, Sunny Afternoon, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Days, Waterloo Sunset, You Really Got Me, Lola ... every one of them, songs that most songwriters would have killed to have written. Things were made even better by the fact that Ray really seemed to be having a good time, and looked like - even at 64 - he still fancied himself a rockstar. For me it all kicked off brilliantly with I'm Not Like Everybody Else from the Ki...

Retroblog ( a personal favourite blog find of 2007) has an interesting interview with Moe Berg , talking about life after The Pursuit of Happiness, life in general, and of course working with Todd. "In terms of a Todd mix tape, I wouldn’t even know what to pick. “Drunken Blue Rooster” would be the first song and “Fade Away” would be the last. In between, it would depend on the day". What would you put in between? what 10 tracks would fit in between these 2? Still with Todd, he gets a mention in this interview with Dominique Leone in the san fransisco bay guardian's blog, and in Compuerworld's famous geek list

Apparently London singer/songwriter Jack Penate (who happens to be from Blackheath, a mere 5 minutes walk from where I live) turned down an offer to have Todd (of whom he is a fan) produce his debut album "Matinee" opting instead for Jim Abbiss (who also happens to be a Todd fan), who has helmed sets by Arctic Monkeys and Editors. You can buy Jack's album on eMusic

I've been a bit slow getting around to Bruce, but after a week of the new album 'Magic' on almost constant repeat on my iPod (brief interludes of the also excellent new Steve Earle CD) I can now say, that this really is a fine record. It is without a doubt his most commercial/mainstream offering since the often overlooked Tunnel of Love album, and continues on with the joyous feel of last year's also rather excellent Seeger Sessions album. Kicking off with the excellent 'Radio Nowhere', this is an album that is a lot of fun. The most interesting thing for me over the week has been how my favourite tracks on the album have actually changed, and how songs that I didn't really rate as much at the start - such as 'Gypsy Biker' (a hint of U2 in this one) and 'Devil's Arcade' - have started to come into there own. Also the title track has grown in stature to become one of the best cuts on the record. Elsewhere, the production is quite interesti...

Retroblog has a fun interview with Michelle Rundgren about live in hawaii, todd, comedy, and the opportunity to rent the rundgren house and choose and item from Todd's wardrobe! Meanwhile it is US Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame time again, which means more moans and more folks lamenting Todd's continued absense from nominations. Fox News (sorry, but it is a good piece. I know I will probably go to hell all the same); The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Harp Magazine comment.

I have been living with the new Foo Fighters album this week (the week delay for Bruce and Steve helped a lot). It is another good record, but my usual disappointment is also present with any new FF record ... you hope it is going to be their classic, but they never really deliver and recently have been a bit flat. On the bright side, this record sees them reunited with producer Gil Norton who helmed what remains, for me, their best work "The Colour And The Shape" Thinks kick off in fine form, with 'Pretender' (a candidate for single of the year). Cut from the same cloth as 'Monkey Wrench' and 'All my Life', it quite frankly rocks. From that point onwards it is a mixed bag, that arguably never quite lives up to the promise of the opening track. This is not to say there isn't other fine stuff here: 'Summers End' is a cracking CSN / Bryds sounding tune, and 'Long road to Ruin' takes elements from that pedigree too. Acoustic Instrum...

A site that I often look at for IT/Internet news mentioned Todd this week. Arstechnica commenting on the final sessions of the Future of Music Policy Summit , said Pinky Gonzales, speaking for promotional service echomusic , pointed to Todd 'as a precedent for a possible patronage system to support music. Through the PatroNet system in the '90s, Rundgren had funded production of at least one CD through the financial contributions of more than 2,000 fans. Gonzales noted that this kind of model can especially work well for older bands on a "long tail" business model and can be combined with demographic tracking to help a band focus their appeal'.

I have to confess I have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the small purple one, but when he announced his 21 nights in London gigs at the O2, I knew I had to go. Playing in the round on a stage the shape of the squiggle (the same as at the Superbowl) Prince cast away gimics, strange shaped guitars (he was back with his trusty Telecaster), and the purples, and peaches (the man was in black and whites all night) and just played the music. Was he any good? Well, where I was sat - quite high up - the sound quality was not the best (the venue's acoustics are pretty poor, esp on louder numbers) I'd have to say he was pretty fucking good. Forget about the man on record, live he really does know his stuff. Also, I have no idea what 'IT' is, but Prince has got it. He has an energy and a presence on stage, so at odds with his off stage persona, that it is quite amazing. The set list was something like this: Let's Go Crazy 1999 I Feel For You Controversy /Hou...

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has a nice little interview with Todd, where he says his current solo gigs are "before I go off to sequester myself to record a new album." Also of note was his look back on his eclecticism: "I have a low threshold of boredom," Rundgren says. As a live performer, "I'm not long for any sort of gig that starts to turn into just a job. ... I'm not likely to do the same sort of presentation for more than 18 months or two years at a time before I have to dream up something else." And as a recording artist, "Even though I've had records that were commercially successful, I wasn't disciplined enough to follow 'em up with more of the same," he says with a laugh. Rundgren's 1972 opus "Something/Anything?" defined him as a singer-songwriter with a knack for timeless pop songs such as "I Saw the Light." But he immediately followed it with the disjointed and psychedelic "A Wizard, ...

The Rocky Mountain News has a 10 questions for Richard Thompson piece where the great man mentions that other great man, Mr R: Your Web site is amazing: Fans can buy exclusive music, hear free music, see videos, send you questions, etc. In one of the videos you call yourself a "folk rock dinosaur," but you're actually way ahead of the curve, don't you think? "I was quite late coming to it, to tell you the truth. Everyone had a Web site but me 10 years ago. Todd Rundgren was one of the pioneers, offering downloads. Every month he'd give you a new track. In a year you'd have 12 tracks and he'd send you the artwork. He was the first one who struck me as being really Internet savvy. I probably took some ideas from him."

According to Pitchfork    Hot Chip have a limited edition 12" due this month with "Shake a Fist"--  featuring  a sample of Todd - 'intro/sounds of the studio' from Something Anything .   Blogged with Flock

News and US tour dates here Blogged with Flock