Todd is God

Interesting interview with Todd on Amazon, where Todd talks of some things we should be listening too. Great to see Tricky, KLF, and PE.

In no particular order ... 1. Dresden Dolls - Yes Virginia 2. The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics 3. The Like - Are you Thinking what I'm Thinking 4. Neil Diamond - 12 Songs 5. The New Cars - It's Alive 6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show your Bones 7. Jewel - Goodbye Alice in Wonderland 8. Bruce Springstein - We Shall Overcome 9. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium 10. Giant Drag - Hearts & Unicorns

We have conflicting view at the Boston Herald Larry Katz “It's pathetic seeing these Cars remnants and Todd Rundgren shamelessly exploiting fan nostalgia. Looks to me that Todd has admitted he's washed up” and ... Brett Milano “What makes it for me is the new song "Not Tonight." Here's where Rundgren's skills come in: The song's a good-natured sendup of Ocasek's style,but it's also catchy enough to be a classic Cars single. I'd probably be jumping less to defend this project if the three new songs weren't as solid as they are". "It sounded OK. But it just felt wrong" according to the Plain Dealer’s John Soeder on their Blossom Music Center gig. A ‘Get Well Soon’ to Elliot who fractured his left collar bone whilst en route to Washington DC, after the band's show in Cuyahoga Falls on 4 June, when he fell out of his bed when the tour bus swerved to avoid an accident. "It's Alive," The New Cars (Eleven Seven...

I was sorry to read of the passing of Tubes keyboard player Vince Welnick - that's what happens when you joing the Grateful Dead as a keyboard player. Welnick, aside from being a Tube, also appeared - and toured - on several Todd albums, Nearly Human, and Second Wind in particular. RIP Vince.

"This was no New Coke or Faux Queen. It was, as Bono once sang, even better than the real thing". Someone like the New Cars

Went to see The Like tonight at the 100 Club on oxford street. Good gog. Sean Na Na suppoting (aka Har mar superstar) His band were pretty good, and he was standing selling The like T-shirts and stuff at the end of the gig - and was open to a chat and agreed that not being tied down to one kind of music was important. He is also a star. Also big thank you ( BIG THANK YOU) to charlotte who kindly agreed to this photo. I made a bit of a pratt of myself by not being able to remember 'The Key of Cool' when i said i was a fan of her father's work, and sounded like i just knew he produced crowded house and richard thompson.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has a review of the Blondie/New Cars gig and say of the Cars: "The New Cars is a reincarnation of the Cars (do we now call the old version the Used Cars?) with Ric Ocasek's spot in the band taken by studio wizard Todd Rundgren. Since this was only the second performance by this new lineup, it was not surprising that the group hasn't yet jelled as a band. On the whole, it was pretty easy to kick a couple of the tires on this model and just walk away".

Todd's Testimony at the Hearing on "Parity, Platforms and Protection: The Future of the Music Industry in the Digital Radio Revolution" before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary 26 April, 2006. In it he says: "The behavior of the majors has been that of a mindless parasite, contributing nothing yet trying to get its snout into the bloodstream of any new development. The knee-jerk justification is 'protection of artists,' which would more accurately be represented as the interests of highly bankable artists still under contract. For every one of those, there are a hundred with a lifelong bad taste in their mouths over the way they were treated when their sales began to lag ... The fantasy that this type of legislation helps music or musicians should be summarily exposed for what it is: yet another futile attempt to turn back the clock to the days when they were the sole gatekeepers to an artist's future"

Jam! Music has an interview with the NewCars

I spent last night seeing Giant Drag live, and have to say what a great gig. Support act good (who were you?) and then Annie took over. She is a bit mad, but also sweet and makes a connection with the audience that many could only dream of. A touch of humour helps to make her the ideal front woman, crisps (chips) an' all. 'This isn't it' , 'YFMLD', ' Wicked Game' and 'My Dick sux' all sounded brilliant. A band to watch.

I went to see Depeche Mode on the final date (Wembley Arena 3rd April) of the European leg of their World Tour last Monday. Pretty good gig, with the band it good form and looking like they were still ejoying being on the road together. A nicely balanced set saw them play about half the current album - A Pain That I'm Used To, John The Revelator, Macro, Precious, Suffer Well etc mixed with some old classics - Personal Jesus, Enjoy The Silence, I Feel You, Never Let Me Down Again, Policy of Truth, Just Can't Get Enough etc. Highlights for me were Personal Jesus, I Feel You and an excellent Shake the Disease.

Their excellent new single is now out - World Wide Suicide. The flip side Unemployable is also great. The new album Pearl Jam is out 2 May. They announce a date at the London Astoria for the 20 April, which sadly sold out in minutes yesterday morning before I knew about it.

The Flaming Lips have by now explored so many avenues that anything goes. At various points, you might be reminded of Black Sabbath, Bill Withers, Frank Zappa, Prince and Yes. While Mr Ambulance Driver is wistful, rippling soul, the colossal Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung could be a late addition to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. It's fitting that Coyne and musical linchpin Steven Drozd first bonded over a Todd Rundgren song; Rundgren's marriage of sweet pop-soul and lysergic freakery on his 1973 album, A Wizard, A True Star is the closest point of comparison

The Full live performance of the NewCars peforming 'Not Tonight' is available on rehearsals.com The first review of the album is also online at Get Ready to Rock . They also have interviews with Todd and Greg .

Live Daily has an interview with Todd and his decision to join the Cars ... "I thought, 'Well, The Cars thing will satisfy a number of things.' One thing that it won't satisfy is that I won't be playing a lot of my material. There's so much Cars material, it fills up most of the show, although we will do a couple of my things. From the standpoint of my audience, they'll have to be satisfied to watch me sing Cars songs. [laughs] And other aspects made it potentially a good idea from the standpoint of my own career and what I want to do, in that I'll definitely be playing for larger audiences than I usually do". Another interesting quote - for me at least - comes when he talks about Producing other artists "I regret that I never got to do a serious rap act like Public Enemy, because some of those records are really amazing and transcendent from a production standpoint" Todd producing PE, now that would have been interesting.

New Cars Coverage / Articles Rolling Stone Billboard BBC Live Daily has an interview with Greg Hawkes

The New Cars (website now up and running) will be on Jay Leno Tonight. For those in Europe you can catch this at 11pm CET on CNBC Europe on Friday Night (17th) On the new website if you click on Jukebox in the top right hand corner you get to hear snippets of the new line up playing Drive (Kasim Vocal), Good Times Roll, Just What I needed, and Shake it Up. Sounds pretty good to me. The New Cars: It’s Alive, a greatest hits collection performed live by The New Cars (plus a couple of new studio tracks), is out 9 May

The new Donald Fagen album 'Morph the Cat' is out, and pretty damn good it is too. The download version on napster features Fagen's cover of Al Green's "Rhymes" . "Rhymes," according to Billboard and others was produced by Todd who also apparently plays on the track.

The NewCars (featuring Todd and Kasim) will be playing their new single 'But Not Tonight' on The Jay Leno Show on Tuesday 14th March when they'll also announce their tour dates.

The New Cars have a website (although not much bar a short promo vid and a place to sign up for info at the moment. For more material, the ever reliable TR Connection points us in the direction of this site