Todd is God

The Courier Mail (Australia) reviews the new EP from Emma and The Hungry Truth and comments "the opening tune here, Always The Last To Know, with its thumping piano that feels like a Todd Rundgren production circa 1980, a swirling string quartet and plenty of soul-baring in the lyrics." Decide for yourself below Meanwhile the Ventura County Star (California) has an intervierw with the DownTown All Starz, a blues/jazz outfit who've been treading the board a while. When asked if they had a dream gig with another artist they replied: "there’s two different realms. I really like Todd Rundgren but he’s way out of my league but for blues stuff, I love Buddy Guy."

The ArtsDesk website has a review of BC Camplight – How to Die in the North. According to reviewer Kieron Tyler: The clanging, descending guitar of the first cut, “You Should Have Gone to School”, is a direct nod to that of Todd Rundgren’s “International Feel”. Rundgren is a spectre throughout the album – especially on the Philly soul-esque “Just Because I Love you”

Hodja seems to be a popular tune for some US school choirs/vocal groups. Here's another version

Apparently it's done and has been delivered to record company. AT least that's what this post on the Steve Hoffman music forum says. Album expected around April, and Jill Sobule's just added her voice to a new Todd  song too. Wonder where we are musically this year?

Here's the one where we talk about our favourites from 2014: Gig, Album, Listener's Album, Worst Album ... [Apologise for the sound. We haven't worked out how to make the most of the two mics, so mic bleed mean PETE IS LOUDER THAN scott...] Check out this episode!

It's Christmas time, there's much need to be afraid ... Merry Xmas from CTTB Idina Menzel - Holiday Wishes Seth McFarlane - Holiday for Swing She & Him - Classics McBusted - McBusted Smashing Pumpkins - Monuments to an Elegy Nicki Minaj - The Pink Print Pete got the best Mic, we need to work on sound optimising! Check out this episode!

Time Out's Music team picked their tracks of 2014 and their runner up was this. Jungle 'Busy Earnin' Riding one giant synth riff that sounds beamed in from the galaxies, London duo Jungle more than justified the hype they'd created for themselves with their slick debut album. The standout track: this mix of rude boy soul and Todd Rundgren psychedelics.

The Guardian's regular, 'band of the Week' feature picked up this guy last week. He is an artist with a distinctive sound and a fully realised aesthetic. The songs on his March 2015 debut album, No Now, are funk warped and mangled, smothered in quixotic synths. Paul Lester opines " It's not quite as radical as he probably thinks it is - anyone who has ever heard a Funkadelic or Parliament album will know that funk is no stranger to the strange and deranged, and the frenetic blipburst approach to fizzy sonics will be familiar to anyone who owns a 1973-5 Todd Rundgren album or a 2008 Max Tundra one… At its best, though - the controlled mayhem of Will to Believe, the mad maximalism of Hit Factory of Sadness, the blap-zap rat-a-tat of Let's Shoot Up and The Gospel Truth, which sounds like funk played by a swarm of bees - No Now is almost as good as Clarence Clarity thinks it is." Meanwhile Postmedia Breaking News reviews a new album/EP from Ener...

As per usual I have been tinkering and tweaking with this list constantly over the past week or so, but my top 5 are pretty solid. 1. Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams [ Give Me Something Good ] 2. Kelis - Food [ Jerk Ribs ] 3. The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams [ Spinners ] 4. St Vincent – St Vincent [ Digital Witness ] 5. I Break Horses – Chiaroscuro [ You Burn ] 6. Royal Blood – Royal Blood [ Figure it Out ] 7. Angaleena Presley – American Middle Class [ American Middle Class ] 8. Prince & 3eyedgirl – Plectrumelectrum [ Funk & Roll ] 9. Taylor Swift – 1989 [ Shake it Off ] 10. Jenny Lewis – The Voyager [ She's Not Me ] 11. The Pretty Reckless - Going to Hell [ House on a hill ] 12. Pixies - Indie Cindy [ What Goes Boom ] 13. Deerhoof – La Isla Bonita [ Exit Only ] 14. Aphex Twin – Syro [ Minipops 67 ] 15. The Juan Maclean - In a dream [ A Simple Design ] 16. FKA Twiggs – LP1 [ Two Weeks ] 17. Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways [ I am A River ...

""Dave is a great musician, a great songwriter and has done the work, but to me, my criticism of the Foo Fighters, if I’m being a music critic, is that they just haven’t evolved and that’s sort of the recent rap on them is, you know, making the same music." Billy Corgan

It his latest music notes column, Thom Jennings (Niagra Gazette), looks at Todd and Joe Bonamassa of examples of 'cult' artists showing how you can still make a living out of the music industry "Of the two, Bonamassa is playing larger venues and commanding a higher ticket price in spite of a complete lack of any commercial singles. What Bonamassa has done is put out a massive amount of recorded material, and offer up tons of high quality live albums and DVDs and merchandise. Bonamassa has a monthly newsletter, filled with tons of content, and he interacts with his fan base consistently. Like many successful groups from the 1960s and 1970s, Bonamassa makes it fun to follow his career because there is usually something new coming out on a regular basis. Rundgren built his cult following in the 1970s much the same way, by putting out a mass of unique material in a short period of time. Even though he no longer puts out new albums very often, he has been able to offer up ...

This is very well done. Hat tipped for the skill go into this

As Santa starts packing his sleigh we have the nicest man in Rock, Rock Gods, New Country, Banjos, Indie Rock and Deerhoof Foo Fighters  – Sonic Highways  Pink Floyd  – The Endless River Angaleena Presley  – American Middle Class Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn  - Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn 2:54  – The Other I Deerhoof  – La Isla Bonita Check out this episode!

A local choir from London takes on Hodja

Just put my hand in my pocket to back this Kickstarter project to produce a full length documentary on Todd Rundgren.

Nick Drake died on this date in 1974 aged 26. Here's 'Time Has Told Me' http://t.co/EWLF0J94po — Billy Reeves (@TheBillyReeves) November 25, 2014

CBS covers the popularity of Spam and it's no Python joke, the Rundgren's love it

So The Columbus Dispatch and the Cleveland Plain Dealer have reviews of a recent Todd Gigs and the unpredictable grouchy Todd did not go down universally well with the reviewers -or indeed some of the commentators " He is so talented but can be patronizing. I do not bother going to see him live anymore, I don't know why he still tours, he doesn't seem to enjoy it" . I recall his shows at Ronnie Scott's a few years back and my gf certainly thought he was a bit of an arse on one of those nights. Maybe it explains why usually he doesn't talk much at his gigs and just plays the songs.

Ok, it maybe that i'm a librarian by profession, but really loved this. The Mount Desert Island High School version of Meghan Trainor's "All About The Bass" is rather splendid. and, of course, the also splendid original - certainly one of the best pop records of 2014