Todd is God

The Atlanta Journal - Constitution has an article about the recording of the new Glands CD. The article says that singer Ross Shapiro 'can't exactly put his finger on the direction the new record will take. He can say that the new songs the band is integrating into its live show are, "keyboard-based as opposed to guitar [based]. And, uh, one of them I like has some Todd Rundgren-esque chords in it."

This is my - very unofficial - transcript of the interview Todd gave to Richard Allinson on his Radio 2 show 20/04/04 SOUL BROTHER RA: ‘Soul Brother’. It’s been a long time coming, but it is, and I didn’t think I’d say this for a long, well, I haven’t said this for a long while – the new single from Todd Rundgen, who we’ve bothered in the wee small hours of lunch-time in Los Angeles. How are you Todd? TR: I’m pretty good (laughs) I agree with ya, I don’t think I imagined I would hear such a thing either – ‘the new single by…’ RA: Yeah TR: Yeah RA: Well, I first, as a young lad, erm, I first heard ‘I saw the Light’ and ‘I (It) wouldn’t have made any difference’ and, or songs like that. Pop Singles. Classic little two and a half minute / three minute pop records. And then I got into your music a lot and suddenly thought – he does much much more than pop records. So where are we now with this album ‘Liars’? TR: Well some people say it has pop sensibilities, although I w...

Saturday's Jonathan Ross radio show (BBC Radio 2) played 'Soul Brother' from Liars.

Jeff Spevak at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle interviewed Jesse Gress about the tour. Again the fun begins when they chat about playing through notebook computers. ``You can mix-and-match speaker-cabinet combinations, various microphones set in front of the speaker cabinet, microphones moved various distances from the speaker cabinet,'' Gress says. But is this honest musicianship? ``Why is it a lie?'' Gress asks. ``As soon as you plug into an amp, you're simulating an acoustic guitar. It's not for technology's sake. Todd uses it to make his artistic vision a reality.'' And on the lack of big album sales since the 70's.``It's never one's choice to peak commercially,'' Gress says. ``It happens. The new record's doing really well in England; it's getting five-star reviews. They booked us in the Royal Albert Hall.[actually the Royal Festival Hall Jesse, but we'll let you off] Maybe this is gonna be a British thing...

Interesting article in the The Post Standard/Herald-Journal on Adam Lyons Schlesinger from the Fountains of Wayne [and Welcome Interstate Managers is another CD that you should own if you don't already!] It seems Adam's grandfather got him into the business fromm day one. He was "bringing a show by rockers Jefferson Airplane to the Landmark Theatre (Syracuse).on Dec. 6, 1967, five weeks after his grandson's birth. As was his fashion, he had printed posters advertising the concert, with one small change. Instead of "Murray Bernthal Presents," he had the printer replace that with "Adam Lyons Presents." - Genius. But not only that Adam got the see some cool bands too: "I used to work in the box office at the Landmark when I came up to visit as a kid," Schlesinger says. "I have clear memories of the rock concerts I saw there. Todd Rundgren and Utopia. The Little River Band. The Jerry Garcia Band".

Jeff Miers from the Buffalo News is the latest to heap praise on 'Liars' with yes, yet another 4 star rating 'Liars', he says is "one of his absolute best...marrying some of his most gorgeous melodies, elegant harmonic platforms, and soulful singing to electronic musical beds that avoid being clinical on the strength of Rundgren's impossible- to-miss human touch". He saves most of his praise for the albums title track, where "Rundgren marries an Eastern modality to a two-verse slab of dark electronica that stealthily equates Islamic fundamentalism with Western dogma. Understated but brimming with emotional investment, it's simply one of the most powerful songs he's ever written"

The Columbus Dispatch had a review of last weeks gig at the PromoWest Pavilion "When Todd Rundgren hit the stage at ...he and his band, the Liars, appeared to have a few demons to exorcise. Beginning with Truth From Liars, his latest record, the veteran songwriter, technology guru and guitar hero performed with a vengeance. He attacked several songs like a hard-rock legend, pitching his duotone hair and ratcheting his blue-eyed-soul voice into screams."

Tom Moon of the Philadelphia Inquirer (also in Pittsburgh Post Gazette). A lot of the same stuff that's been in other interviews, and again he talks of realising he is an album, not a singles's artist and the tour. Rundgren says that the shows, with the band that backed him on the With a Twist Tour, will have its share of surprises. The musicians will plug their keyboards and guitars into tablet PCs to access sounds and effects, and the lighting will come from LED arrays, not traditional spotlights... He refuses to draw up a set list, and says he is in the process of rehearsing all of "Liars" and much of his catalog with the intention of playing a 2 1/2-hour show. "I have a lot more fun if we're trying something grandly conceptual, something that makes all of us think. ... When you play the same thing in the same order every night, you can look up after one song and realize the whole evening's already scripted, that you could do the whole thing on autopi...

The Akron Beackon Journal published a review yesterday of Todd's Ohio date at the Ohio Theatre. Malcolm X Abram seemed to like what he saw. The band he said played "smoking versions of the humorous I Hate My Frickin' ISP, and the anti-child abuse song Unloved Children" and that "the energy level of the appreciative but reserved crowd raised exponentially after security allowed fans to crowd the front of the stage and sing along to two more oldies, Hello, It's Me, and Just One Victory."

Picked up an interesting piece in the The Oregonian about the town of Oceanside. It seems Todd's mother in law, and Michelle's mom - Pat Gray - is a resident of said town. Pat, a retired schoolteacher, has apparently always been known for her cartwheeeling ability. The article says " As a grade-school teacher, she would occasionally oblige students when they would beg her to turn cartwheels in the halls. Now, on her birthday, she turns cartwheels on Pacific Avenue. "I just wanted to see if I could do it," she said. "I'm a character." Jan. 14 was her 76th birthday, and she turned 11 cartwheels. Brilliant.