Todd is God

This one comes from BAM South and concludes: “Global” is a strange, but vital, mix of party anthems, dance tracks and foreboding warnings. I believe this particular record has a very good chance of being one of Rundgren’s most successful in years because it is accessible while simultaneously retaining the quirky and brilliant individuality which is the modus operandi of all Todd Rundgren work."

A Limited edition 12" single of Todd Rundgren / Lindstrom / Emil Nikolaisen - Put Your Arms Around Me will be released for this year's RSD.

Rolling Stone (Australia) has an interview with Tobias Jesso Jr. , a Canadian singer songwriter (who he counts Taylor Swift and Adele as fans) whose debut album, Goon , they claim is one of the most anticipated of the year. Clearly if I am mentioning this at all you know that he must mention Todd, and he does. With its sunny melodies and heartsick subject matter, Goon earned comparisons to Harry Nilsson, Nick Drake, Randy Newman and Todd Rundgren – artists Jesso wasn't even familiar with. "I wasn't a big music-digger," he admits. "When it came to oldies stuff, I didn't know Todd Rundgren and Harry Nilsson and stuff like that, but when I was writing, J.R. [White] would say, 'I get this Todd Rundgren vibe.' He would send me those songs, and then I'd learn the chords." Still, Jesso says, he wants a contemporary record and plans to move away from the throwback.

The Yahoo Music blog has one of the best discussions on the terrible 'Blurred Lines' court decision yesterday (now being appealed), and mentioned Todd in doing so: "Was Christina Aguilera paying tribute to or stealing from the Andrews Sisters with “Candyman”? Should the Beatles have sued the Knickerbockers for “Lies”? Or the Rutles, the Dukes of Stratosphere, and Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, all of whom recorded delectable Beatles soundalike albums, with varying degrees of straight faces? " In case you missed it, Blurred Lines songwriters – Pharrell Wiliams, TI and Thicke – have already been ordered to pay Marvin Gaye’s family $7.3m in damages for the infringement. Now lawyers say they want to stop sales of the song altogether. Now it seems the lawyers representing Gaye’s family, want to prevent further sales of the song until songwriting/future royalties sorted out. They told Rolling Stone: “We’ll be asking the court to enter an injunction prohibiting the fur...

Tuesday's The Albany Herald (Georgia) had a nice interview with Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, where he mentioned Todd. Does it bother you that some of your songs may be better known by other artists’ versions? "It’s a feather in our cap. It’s just like us doing Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze” or Todd Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me.” We all like that. I ran into Todd in California when he was doing an interview and stuck my head in the door. I said, “Hello, it’s me.” We both had a big laugh at that."

Todd gets a passing mention in a review of new Taylor Locke album - Time Stands Still. According to Scottish Daily Express today the influences included The Beatles and The Cars. "But there is also a Laurel Canyon vibe going on, especially on breezy opener Burbank Woman, which has a Jackson Browne/Todd Rundgren feel to it."

Pitchfork has details about the Runddans album including some snippets behind a Todd interview explaining how it came about. Sounds like a throw back to 70s experimental Todd. Billed as a "spiritual magnum opus," it is one single (sub divided) track that spans 39 minutes, and is said to fuse Rundgren's "trippy. blue-eyed soul" with Lindstrom's "disco epics" and Nikolaisen's "studio trickery" to result in a "cosmic mix of soul, synth, pop, and disco". Going to be interesting this one.

All Music reviews the new Todd album , and awards it three and a half stars (out of five). "[I]t's perched at a point between the past and the present, protest and satire, and that inscrutability is often where Rundgren does interesting work."

" Global is essentially what I learned making State , merged with my more traditional approaches to songwriting and album production." Vintage Rock talks to Todd about the new album and the writing process. Good interview. Todd points to a couple of his favourite album:  "I think two of the best records of my career came out of that period, Nearly Human and 2nd Wind. Those two records I am especially fond of." Meanwhile, Argentinian publication Pagina/12 has an brief interview with Todd too (think done a while back)

British singer Rumer, who has previously covered Todd's 'Be Nice to Me' , is currently doing a version of 'Love is the Answer' in her live set.

There's seventies mood over a large slice of this month's podcast.   The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World Belle & Sebastian - Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance BC Camplight - How to Die in the North Nathalie Prass - Nathalie Prass Meghan Trainor - Title Gaz Coombs - Matador Check out this episode!

OK, this is interesting. The new Whitesnake  album [out  in Europe on May 15th, the UK on May 18th and in North America on May 19th] is called The Purple Album  and   is a re-imagining/covers album of Deep Purple songs from David Coverdale’s time as lead singer. 

The AV Club has a review of   Dan Deacon's new album Gliss Riffer " "The first half of the record plays to the cheap seats, with slices of catchy, hummable melodies and baldly commercial vocals seemingly designed for maximum pop appeal. This isn’t shocking—Deacon has always been a populist, especially in his live shows—but it still feels a bit off-putting to hear the first single, “ Feel The Lightning ,” come across like the love child of Daft Punk and Todd Rundgren." I'm often Told I hear 'Todd' everywhere, but it wasn't especially something that came to mind with this. Brit synth pop of the 80s and 90s, yes, Todd not so much.

Rundgren Radio spoke to Todd and got the low down on the new record and the tour.  As I mentioned last week Dam Funk is going to be the tour DJ, and he will essentially be 'the band' on this tour.  Also of interest was that Todd doesn't rule out a possible Utopia reunion tour for 2016. Says he and Kaz have talked about it but that it would need to be for a proper tour with proper rehearsal time so that it wasn't just a going through the motions exercise. 

The Smalltown Supersound label Instagram account has a visual update on the collaborative album between Todd and Norwegian DJ and producer Lindstrøm and fellow Norwegian Emil Nikolaisen of alt-rock band Serena-Maneesh, that I first mentioned on the blog a year ago. The intragram shows a white label vinyl with the caption: "Testpressing approved" So it looks like we'll have two 'Todd' albums this year.

Todd Rundgren shares his thoughts on his own music educational experience - as well as his Spirit of Harmony Foundation - as well as the strong need to bring back a dynamic music educational program in our schools on Storytime from PRX.

According to Paul Lester at The Guardian, Dâm-Funk is due to be the DJ on Todd's summer tour. That sounds cool. A great DJ and a man who if you check out his interviews over the years mentions Todd a lot.

The lead track off the new Todd album (very much a 'State' style dance track) is out today. Simple repetative beat and lyrics, but after a couple of listens I think I'm sold. Full preview of album is also available via iTunes

Since I was talking about Kasim the other day,  thought I'd also share this interview with him from Goldmine - lot of interesting stuff including read between the lines answers such as: GM:  Richie Sambora. KS:  You don’t get any nicer than Richie. You just don’t. GM:  Then what the hell happened with him and Bon Jovi? KS:  I don’t know if I should say this … GM:  Oh, c’mon … KS:  You work with someone enough and you contribute to them enough over the years, through the course of your career, and you’re still second fiddle, when, in reality, they would not be who they are were it not for you. That’s when you go, “Y’know what? I got my millions. I’m OK. I don’t necessarily need to be in this position anymore. It’s painful. So I’m just going to take my toys, and you go have a good time without me.”

Over at the Guardian, Paul Lester (who can see Todd anywhere - bit like me) comments on new band Swim Mountain and says their sound "draws on “60s studio ethics and modern production techniques … the harmony-heavy songwriters of the 60s and 70s (Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone, Rundgren, Nilsson and the Wilson brothers) "