THIS IS FROM LYNN AT WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TODDRUNDGRENMUSIC.COM
what I heard is.....
The digital and hard release are going to be on the same day,,,,thats the word I was given by two diffenet sources. So I guess what this means is ---"rumor has it that they will release in perfect unison." There I said it.
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Saturday, September 20, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
News Article: Daily News Madison WI
Todd Rundgren returns to Madison
Bob Koch on Wednesday 09/17/2008 1:09 pm
Frank Productions has announced that legendary songwriter and producer Todd Rundgren will return to Madison for the first time in a decade, playing the Barrymore on October 7. Rundgren is on the road behind his new album Arena, and early reports peg it as a guitar-heavy rock album, rather than another stylistic detour (such as the bossa nova album he was promoting at the time of his '98 Barrymore performance). The former Nazz & Utopia member (and New Cars, though we won't hold it against him) maintains a devoted following despite being largely absent from the pop charts since the '70s. The Barrymore has posted a press release about the new album on their website: "This is sing-along, guitar-rock kinda stuff," says Todd Rundgren of his aptly-titled 20th solo album, Arena. True to its name, it's fist-pumping, anthemic, cerebral, uh, edifying ... arena rock. Is that your oxymoron detector bleating like Miley Cyrus? Understandable. Arena rock, by definition, is simple, lowest-common-denominator - but not always bad - music, and Todd Rundgren, while quite handy with a hook and a huge crowd, is anything but simple. Though the multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/producer played his share of widdly-woo lead guitar with the storied late-1960s garage-psych band Nazz, crafted expansive anthems and played arenas with Utopia through the 1970s and early 1980s, and further perfected the pop nugget in his solo work (he's the maestro behind the gems "Hello, It's Me," "I Saw the Light" and "Can We Still Be Friends?"), there has always been a thrumming intellectual through-line to his music. This has manifested in progressive rock tendencies and in heady quote-unquote concepts. Its accessible, dare we say party, vibe notwithstanding, so it is with Arena. Rundgren broke a self-imposed 10-year hiatus on concept albums in 2004 with the universally lauded 2004 album Liars, which examined the sincerity-to-deceit ratio in ourselves and our lives. Arena runs parallel to this, scrutinizing courage and cowardice, and how we respond to daily challenges. "We are challenged," says Rundgren from his home on the island of Kauai, "to make decisions that reflect our bravery and daring and fortitude or [laughs] reflect our cowardice and our paranoia and our inability to unify and get things done." This topical existentialism is couched in bombastic though intellectually loaded rock n' roll - a fitting soundtrack of these times. If it sounds like political polemics, it is and it ain't. While the state of the world and, more specifically, our country, is a constant muse, Rundgren casts a wider net, not simply indicting an administration but taking us to task for our response to political situations. "So in that sense," he says, "it is a polemical… but it's about a completely different subject matter. When I take on something that's as "formy," and possibly egg-headed, as a specific area of human behavior, I try not to take a direct route to the conclusion because I don't have the expectation that everyone thinks about it like I do." When the touring cycle for Liars, and his stint with The New Cars, wound down, Rundgren commenced an "insular process" of contemplating and conceptualizing Arena. He began where he left off, with the thematic germ that birthed Liars. "It was quite obvious that we were dealing with, not simply a government, but a whole culture of dishonesty. The way that people were happy to be lied to about something that was so obviously false, just made me think, `Okay, this is right', because nobody's paying attention to how much they're fabricating and how much fabrication they accept. "But it wasn't as obvious what had gotten us into that situation, and that was our ability and our willingness to be riled up over something, and to saber-rattle and to rush in and take prisoners - or take no prisoners, as the case may be - and that this was as pervasive an aspect of human behavior as dishonesty. And it possibly has a deeper root - our fears often cause us to be dishonest. So our unwillingness to confront our fears is in a way a larger character flaw than our fudging with the truth." Arena follows an arc in a literate, electric sense. Opener "Mad" sets an intense tone, exploding from ethereal verses and guitar arpeggios into meaty power chords and strutting Paul Rodgers vocals. Lyrically, it's two pronged: Rundgren is being critical and motivational as he tells the listener "You ain't seen me mad yet/now I'm maaaaaaad!""Some people won't go into action without some sort of emotional impetus—and it's often anger. You could say that's what got us into Iraq: an irrational national anger about 9/11 that blinded everyone to the fact that Iraq didn't have anything to do with it. As a country, we were so pissed off that we were willing to just take on anybody." The meditative "Afraid" examines the moment of doubt before taking dramatic action—and learning the impetus. It's a fitting segue to the driving indictment of war by proxy, "Mercenary," which is about how "the Iraq War was contracted out to somebody else, whose perspective and rules and agenda may have been completely different. It's the concept of being brave for money, and if that's what it requires, then it becomes ... a national shame." " Gun," a throbbing rocker which pits Rundgren's hallmark `chorus of himself' vocals with wailing guitar - a metaphor for brandishing a weapon. The Chicago-bluesy "Weakness" examines dominant-submissive relationships, or at least what causes us to be intimidated and thereby operated by someone else. The time-is-now corker "Strike" unashamedly borrows from the blues-rock stomp of AC/DC - and features Rundgren doing his best Brian Johnson yowl. "People talk about change," says Rundgren, "but often do not apply themselves to making that happen. Often, the opportunities for that are limited - unless you take advantage of them, you're not going to improve your situation. And inasmuch as doing things out of anger or fear or any other less admirable emotions, still sometimes there is only one right time for something to happen." Henceforth, Arena continues a tug of war between inaction and action, indecision and resolve. "Pissin'" attacks the false sense of authority and cocksure, unilateral action. The breakbeat-trance rock of "Today" again calls for chains to break, to settle scores and "wake up even." "Bardo," named for the Buddhist principle of transition, occupies a Floydian plane where epiphanies are revealed. "Sometimes during your existence, you're going to have to confront something that perhaps you've been avoiding your entire life. But nothing in your life will change until you do confront that thing." Aptly, the placid epiphany "Courage" follows, and runs into the towering mid-tempo boogie of "Mountaintop" then it's game on `til "Panic," a headlong call to keep your cool, ensues. Finally you're forced to "Manup," get off your ass and stop letting someone else do your dirty work. "Again, the whole Iraq War thing was driven by a bunch of people who never had any military service, who had no concept at all of what it was like to be in battle. They just had a whole lot of ... lip." Rundgren explains his musical approach was inspired by his tenure fronting The New Cars, the rebuilt version of household name classic rock/new wave 'tweeners The Cars, and the guitar-centric touring band he put together when that project prematurely fizzled due to guitarist Elliot Easton's broken collarbone. "I had to find something for myself to do," he says, "kind of at the last minute." He rallied Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton and drummer Prairie Prince, plus guitarist Jesse Gress, and started playing shows that, due to the guitar orientation, had the energy of arena rock shows. The fans ate it up. "I was doing what I used to do when I was in Utopia: playing a lot of guitar solos and runnin' around the stage. And this seemed to tap into something ... people were happy and reminiscent and totally satisfied if I was flailing away at a guitar and screaming at the top of my lungs or playing "Hello It's Me" and "Can We Still Be Friends?" So that kind of guided me to the '70s style arena rock approach." Arena - which Rundgren wrote, performed, produced, engineered, mixed and designed himself - was recorded entirely on Rundgren's laptop in a linen closet in his former home and the bedroom of his new eco/smart house in Hawaii. It's an interesting, but not atypical, move for the noted producer (Meat Loaf, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad), also a notorious techie (he developed PatroNet, the very first subscription music service, in the early '90s). "I'm done with all the big, clunky equipment now," he says. "It's a pain in the ass to keep it working and it's expensive. I have everything that I need in a minimum of hardware and software." Prior to Arena's release, Rundgren and his latest band - Prince, bass player Rachel Haden, guitarist/keyboardist Matt Bolton, and guitarist Jesse Gress - staged a special performance for invited guests at his newly constructed home. It served as his 60th birthday party, a house blessing, and dress rehearsal for a U.S. tour that runs through August 2. "The new songs will be pretty much the meat of the show. I've been starting with material from this past decade anyway; I haven't been doing the oldies kind of thing for a while, since I started doing this more guitar-oriented presentation. So um ... we're gonna wait and see, I guess." A live DVD will be culled from the July 14 show at the Boulder Theater (also being shot for an HDNet concert special), which will eventually be bundled with the brick and mortar release of Arena, along with a live CD and an EP consisting of a tribute to the late blues great, Robert Johnson. But for now, Rundgren is content to witness the upshot of Arena, which will initially be an exclusively digital release. "I'm hoping when people listen to the record that their first reaction is, `Wow, this is fun.' While there are still lots of bands that play guitars, they don't necessarily do that kind of music that much anymore. And the message will penetrate to whatever level it's able [laughs]. It may only be skin deep for some people, but it may actually give them the fortitude to do something that they've always been apprehensive about or afraid to do. If it has any worth beyond entertainment, that's hopefully what it is." Rundgren joins a wide-ranging slate of new announcements from Frank, including the return of Madison expatriates Locksley on October 10 (Barrymore); the polyrhythmic roots music of Rusted Root on November 10 (Barrymore) and the Savatage-does-Christmas behemoth Trans-Siberian Orchestra on December 11 (Kohl Center). http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=23765
Bob Koch on Wednesday 09/17/2008 1:09 pm
Frank Productions has announced that legendary songwriter and producer Todd Rundgren will return to Madison for the first time in a decade, playing the Barrymore on October 7. Rundgren is on the road behind his new album Arena, and early reports peg it as a guitar-heavy rock album, rather than another stylistic detour (such as the bossa nova album he was promoting at the time of his '98 Barrymore performance). The former Nazz & Utopia member (and New Cars, though we won't hold it against him) maintains a devoted following despite being largely absent from the pop charts since the '70s. The Barrymore has posted a press release about the new album on their website: "This is sing-along, guitar-rock kinda stuff," says Todd Rundgren of his aptly-titled 20th solo album, Arena. True to its name, it's fist-pumping, anthemic, cerebral, uh, edifying ... arena rock. Is that your oxymoron detector bleating like Miley Cyrus? Understandable. Arena rock, by definition, is simple, lowest-common-denominator - but not always bad - music, and Todd Rundgren, while quite handy with a hook and a huge crowd, is anything but simple. Though the multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/producer played his share of widdly-woo lead guitar with the storied late-1960s garage-psych band Nazz, crafted expansive anthems and played arenas with Utopia through the 1970s and early 1980s, and further perfected the pop nugget in his solo work (he's the maestro behind the gems "Hello, It's Me," "I Saw the Light" and "Can We Still Be Friends?"), there has always been a thrumming intellectual through-line to his music. This has manifested in progressive rock tendencies and in heady quote-unquote concepts. Its accessible, dare we say party, vibe notwithstanding, so it is with Arena. Rundgren broke a self-imposed 10-year hiatus on concept albums in 2004 with the universally lauded 2004 album Liars, which examined the sincerity-to-deceit ratio in ourselves and our lives. Arena runs parallel to this, scrutinizing courage and cowardice, and how we respond to daily challenges. "We are challenged," says Rundgren from his home on the island of Kauai, "to make decisions that reflect our bravery and daring and fortitude or [laughs] reflect our cowardice and our paranoia and our inability to unify and get things done." This topical existentialism is couched in bombastic though intellectually loaded rock n' roll - a fitting soundtrack of these times. If it sounds like political polemics, it is and it ain't. While the state of the world and, more specifically, our country, is a constant muse, Rundgren casts a wider net, not simply indicting an administration but taking us to task for our response to political situations. "So in that sense," he says, "it is a polemical… but it's about a completely different subject matter. When I take on something that's as "formy," and possibly egg-headed, as a specific area of human behavior, I try not to take a direct route to the conclusion because I don't have the expectation that everyone thinks about it like I do." When the touring cycle for Liars, and his stint with The New Cars, wound down, Rundgren commenced an "insular process" of contemplating and conceptualizing Arena. He began where he left off, with the thematic germ that birthed Liars. "It was quite obvious that we were dealing with, not simply a government, but a whole culture of dishonesty. The way that people were happy to be lied to about something that was so obviously false, just made me think, `Okay, this is right', because nobody's paying attention to how much they're fabricating and how much fabrication they accept. "But it wasn't as obvious what had gotten us into that situation, and that was our ability and our willingness to be riled up over something, and to saber-rattle and to rush in and take prisoners - or take no prisoners, as the case may be - and that this was as pervasive an aspect of human behavior as dishonesty. And it possibly has a deeper root - our fears often cause us to be dishonest. So our unwillingness to confront our fears is in a way a larger character flaw than our fudging with the truth." Arena follows an arc in a literate, electric sense. Opener "Mad" sets an intense tone, exploding from ethereal verses and guitar arpeggios into meaty power chords and strutting Paul Rodgers vocals. Lyrically, it's two pronged: Rundgren is being critical and motivational as he tells the listener "You ain't seen me mad yet/now I'm maaaaaaad!""Some people won't go into action without some sort of emotional impetus—and it's often anger. You could say that's what got us into Iraq: an irrational national anger about 9/11 that blinded everyone to the fact that Iraq didn't have anything to do with it. As a country, we were so pissed off that we were willing to just take on anybody." The meditative "Afraid" examines the moment of doubt before taking dramatic action—and learning the impetus. It's a fitting segue to the driving indictment of war by proxy, "Mercenary," which is about how "the Iraq War was contracted out to somebody else, whose perspective and rules and agenda may have been completely different. It's the concept of being brave for money, and if that's what it requires, then it becomes ... a national shame." " Gun," a throbbing rocker which pits Rundgren's hallmark `chorus of himself' vocals with wailing guitar - a metaphor for brandishing a weapon. The Chicago-bluesy "Weakness" examines dominant-submissive relationships, or at least what causes us to be intimidated and thereby operated by someone else. The time-is-now corker "Strike" unashamedly borrows from the blues-rock stomp of AC/DC - and features Rundgren doing his best Brian Johnson yowl. "People talk about change," says Rundgren, "but often do not apply themselves to making that happen. Often, the opportunities for that are limited - unless you take advantage of them, you're not going to improve your situation. And inasmuch as doing things out of anger or fear or any other less admirable emotions, still sometimes there is only one right time for something to happen." Henceforth, Arena continues a tug of war between inaction and action, indecision and resolve. "Pissin'" attacks the false sense of authority and cocksure, unilateral action. The breakbeat-trance rock of "Today" again calls for chains to break, to settle scores and "wake up even." "Bardo," named for the Buddhist principle of transition, occupies a Floydian plane where epiphanies are revealed. "Sometimes during your existence, you're going to have to confront something that perhaps you've been avoiding your entire life. But nothing in your life will change until you do confront that thing." Aptly, the placid epiphany "Courage" follows, and runs into the towering mid-tempo boogie of "Mountaintop" then it's game on `til "Panic," a headlong call to keep your cool, ensues. Finally you're forced to "Manup," get off your ass and stop letting someone else do your dirty work. "Again, the whole Iraq War thing was driven by a bunch of people who never had any military service, who had no concept at all of what it was like to be in battle. They just had a whole lot of ... lip." Rundgren explains his musical approach was inspired by his tenure fronting The New Cars, the rebuilt version of household name classic rock/new wave 'tweeners The Cars, and the guitar-centric touring band he put together when that project prematurely fizzled due to guitarist Elliot Easton's broken collarbone. "I had to find something for myself to do," he says, "kind of at the last minute." He rallied Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton and drummer Prairie Prince, plus guitarist Jesse Gress, and started playing shows that, due to the guitar orientation, had the energy of arena rock shows. The fans ate it up. "I was doing what I used to do when I was in Utopia: playing a lot of guitar solos and runnin' around the stage. And this seemed to tap into something ... people were happy and reminiscent and totally satisfied if I was flailing away at a guitar and screaming at the top of my lungs or playing "Hello It's Me" and "Can We Still Be Friends?" So that kind of guided me to the '70s style arena rock approach." Arena - which Rundgren wrote, performed, produced, engineered, mixed and designed himself - was recorded entirely on Rundgren's laptop in a linen closet in his former home and the bedroom of his new eco/smart house in Hawaii. It's an interesting, but not atypical, move for the noted producer (Meat Loaf, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad), also a notorious techie (he developed PatroNet, the very first subscription music service, in the early '90s). "I'm done with all the big, clunky equipment now," he says. "It's a pain in the ass to keep it working and it's expensive. I have everything that I need in a minimum of hardware and software." Prior to Arena's release, Rundgren and his latest band - Prince, bass player Rachel Haden, guitarist/keyboardist Matt Bolton, and guitarist Jesse Gress - staged a special performance for invited guests at his newly constructed home. It served as his 60th birthday party, a house blessing, and dress rehearsal for a U.S. tour that runs through August 2. "The new songs will be pretty much the meat of the show. I've been starting with material from this past decade anyway; I haven't been doing the oldies kind of thing for a while, since I started doing this more guitar-oriented presentation. So um ... we're gonna wait and see, I guess." A live DVD will be culled from the July 14 show at the Boulder Theater (also being shot for an HDNet concert special), which will eventually be bundled with the brick and mortar release of Arena, along with a live CD and an EP consisting of a tribute to the late blues great, Robert Johnson. But for now, Rundgren is content to witness the upshot of Arena, which will initially be an exclusively digital release. "I'm hoping when people listen to the record that their first reaction is, `Wow, this is fun.' While there are still lots of bands that play guitars, they don't necessarily do that kind of music that much anymore. And the message will penetrate to whatever level it's able [laughs]. It may only be skin deep for some people, but it may actually give them the fortitude to do something that they've always been apprehensive about or afraid to do. If it has any worth beyond entertainment, that's hopefully what it is." Rundgren joins a wide-ranging slate of new announcements from Frank, including the return of Madison expatriates Locksley on October 10 (Barrymore); the polyrhythmic roots music of Rusted Root on November 10 (Barrymore) and the Savatage-does-Christmas behemoth Trans-Siberian Orchestra on December 11 (Kohl Center). http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=23765
PREMIER OF "STRIKE" ON IRON MAIDENS BRUCE DICKERSONS RADIO SHOW
THIS UPDATE FROM PETER NOBLE:
It gives me great delight to confirm that Todd Rundgren’s “Strike” will be played on BBC 6 Music‘s The Bruce Dickenson Friday Night Rock show on Friday September 19th between 9-10pm GMT.
Dickinson is the lead singer of Iron Maiden and hosts his weekly rock and metal radio show on BBC 6 Music.
Click here for more info about Bruce Dickinson’s Friday Night Rock Show on BBC 6 Music Radio –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/bruce_dickinson/
It gives me great delight to confirm that Todd Rundgren’s “Strike” will be played on BBC 6 Music‘s The Bruce Dickenson Friday Night Rock show on Friday September 19th between 9-10pm GMT.
Dickinson is the lead singer of Iron Maiden and hosts his weekly rock and metal radio show on BBC 6 Music.
Click here for more info about Bruce Dickinson’s Friday Night Rock Show on BBC 6 Music Radio –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/bruce_dickinson/
NEW TOUR DATES ADDED
Oct 1 2008 8:00P
Triple Door Seattle, Washington
Oct 4 2008 12:00P
Cohn Charity Music Festival Glen Ellen, California
Oct 6 2008 7:30P
Park West Chicago, Illinois
Oct 7 2008 7:30P
Barrymore Theater Madison, Wisconsin
Oct 9 2008 8:00P
Community Theater Morristown, New Jersey
Oct 10 2008 7:30P
The Rex Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Oct 11 2008 8:00P
Music Hall Tarrytown, New York
Oct 13 2008 8:00P
Bijou Theater Knoxville, Tennessee
Oct 15 2008 8:00P
Orange Peel Asheville, North Carolina
Nov 6 2008 8:00P
Academy 2 Manchester UK
Nov 7 2008 8:00P
Picture House Edinburgh UK
Nov 9 2008 8:00P
Amager Bio Copenhagen
Nov 10 2008 8:00P
House of Culture Helsinki
Nov 12 2008 8:00P
Traddgaarn Gothenburg
Nov 13 2008 8:00P
Kulturbolaget Malmo
Nov 15 2008 8:00P
TROMP International Music Festival and Competition Opening Night Eindhoven
Nov 16 2008 8:00P
Harmonie Bonn
Nov 18 2008 8:00P
Rolling Stone Milan
Nov 20 2008 8:00P
Trabendo Paris
Nov 22 2008 8:00P
Waterfront Norwich
Nov 23 2008 7:30P
The Forum London
Dec 17 2008 7:30P
Birchmere Alexandria, Virginia
Dec 19 2008 8:00P
YMCA Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Bay Shore, New York
Dec 20 2008 7:30P
Infinity Hall Norfolk, Connecticut
Dec 23 2008 8:00P
Bearsville Theater Woodstock, New York
Dec 26 2008 8:00P
The Blender Theater @ Gramercy New York, New York
Dec 27 2008 8:00P
Blender Theater @ Gramercy NYC, New York
Dec 30 2008 7:00P
Rams Head On Stage Annapolis, Maryland
Triple Door Seattle, Washington
Oct 4 2008 12:00P
Cohn Charity Music Festival Glen Ellen, California
Oct 6 2008 7:30P
Park West Chicago, Illinois
Oct 7 2008 7:30P
Barrymore Theater Madison, Wisconsin
Oct 9 2008 8:00P
Community Theater Morristown, New Jersey
Oct 10 2008 7:30P
The Rex Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Oct 11 2008 8:00P
Music Hall Tarrytown, New York
Oct 13 2008 8:00P
Bijou Theater Knoxville, Tennessee
Oct 15 2008 8:00P
Orange Peel Asheville, North Carolina
Nov 6 2008 8:00P
Academy 2 Manchester UK
Nov 7 2008 8:00P
Picture House Edinburgh UK
Nov 9 2008 8:00P
Amager Bio Copenhagen
Nov 10 2008 8:00P
House of Culture Helsinki
Nov 12 2008 8:00P
Traddgaarn Gothenburg
Nov 13 2008 8:00P
Kulturbolaget Malmo
Nov 15 2008 8:00P
TROMP International Music Festival and Competition Opening Night Eindhoven
Nov 16 2008 8:00P
Harmonie Bonn
Nov 18 2008 8:00P
Rolling Stone Milan
Nov 20 2008 8:00P
Trabendo Paris
Nov 22 2008 8:00P
Waterfront Norwich
Nov 23 2008 7:30P
The Forum London
Dec 17 2008 7:30P
Birchmere Alexandria, Virginia
Dec 19 2008 8:00P
YMCA Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Bay Shore, New York
Dec 20 2008 7:30P
Infinity Hall Norfolk, Connecticut
Dec 23 2008 8:00P
Bearsville Theater Woodstock, New York
Dec 26 2008 8:00P
The Blender Theater @ Gramercy New York, New York
Dec 27 2008 8:00P
Blender Theater @ Gramercy NYC, New York
Dec 30 2008 7:00P
Rams Head On Stage Annapolis, Maryland
VIDEOS: CELEBRATING THE UPCOMING BLENDER SHOWS IN DECEMBER
upped by super fan ocsheri
Todd Rundgren & Band "Trapped" Blender Theater NYC 12-11-07
Hawking Blender Theater NYC 12-12-07
Tiny Demons Blender Theater NYC 12-12-07
Todd Rundgren & Band "Trapped" Blender Theater NYC 12-11-07
Hawking Blender Theater NYC 12-12-07
Tiny Demons Blender Theater NYC 12-12-07
REVIEW: ARENA CD MUSIC-NEWS.COM
Todd Rundgren
Arena
added: 17 Sep 2008 // release date: 29 Sep 2008 // label: Cooking Vinyl
reviewer: Andy Snipper
What is the difference between 'Retro’ and 'Old Fashioned’? When is an album 'Oldskool’ and when is it 'Oldhat’?
Todd Rundgren has released an album that most definitely has 'Retro’ leanings and when you have been as involved in the bizness for as long as he has I’m guessing that he practically invented 'Oldskool’. And this album is most definitely NOT 'Oldhat’ or 'Old Fashioned’.
From the kick-off, 'Mad’, the album is a collection of guitar styles and genuinely powerful songs and the different forms he uses seem to hark from everything he has done in a long, long career. 'Afraid’ is very 'proggy’ with swirling guitars and synths and then 'Mercenary’ delivers a militaristic and harsh piece of classic rock with the refrain 'How do you like me now!' underpinning demi-thrash guitars. Touches of so many of the great rock bands here – at one moment sounding a little like Rush, another like Steve Hillage and at others with a real taste of Floyd crossed with Cheap Trick. When you realise that he actually produced all the above artists at one time it is hardly surprising!
What is surprising is just how fresh this all sounds and how much enjoyment can be had from a musician who really does know all the buttons to press and who knows when NOT to press them all at once.
Todd has finally rediscovered the guitar and proceeds to show what it really is capable of and on the way he has given us his best album for years.
A hearty 'Welcome back’ to the real Wizard and True Star.
Arena
added: 17 Sep 2008 // release date: 29 Sep 2008 // label: Cooking Vinyl
reviewer: Andy Snipper
What is the difference between 'Retro’ and 'Old Fashioned’? When is an album 'Oldskool’ and when is it 'Oldhat’?
Todd Rundgren has released an album that most definitely has 'Retro’ leanings and when you have been as involved in the bizness for as long as he has I’m guessing that he practically invented 'Oldskool’. And this album is most definitely NOT 'Oldhat’ or 'Old Fashioned’.
From the kick-off, 'Mad’, the album is a collection of guitar styles and genuinely powerful songs and the different forms he uses seem to hark from everything he has done in a long, long career. 'Afraid’ is very 'proggy’ with swirling guitars and synths and then 'Mercenary’ delivers a militaristic and harsh piece of classic rock with the refrain 'How do you like me now!' underpinning demi-thrash guitars. Touches of so many of the great rock bands here – at one moment sounding a little like Rush, another like Steve Hillage and at others with a real taste of Floyd crossed with Cheap Trick. When you realise that he actually produced all the above artists at one time it is hardly surprising!
What is surprising is just how fresh this all sounds and how much enjoyment can be had from a musician who really does know all the buttons to press and who knows when NOT to press them all at once.
Todd has finally rediscovered the guitar and proceeds to show what it really is capable of and on the way he has given us his best album for years.
A hearty 'Welcome back’ to the real Wizard and True Star.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
RUNDGRENRADIO RALPH SCHUCKETT TONIGHT
Event: Ralph Schuckett "Utopia 2.0 Member + Keyboardist for Carol King, James Taylor & much more."What: PerformanceHost: RundgrenRadio.comStart Time: Today, September 16 at 8:30pmEnd Time: Today, September 16 at 10:30pm Where: www.rundgrenradio.com
Monday, September 15, 2008
CD review: from blogger HERE COMES THE FLOOD
Todd Rundgren carried a magic wand in the seventies, releasing a string of classic albums and producing tons of artists, including Patti Smith's Wave and Meat Loaf's (he still considers this album as a joke, refusing to believe that people took it seriously). He is a pioneer by heart, with videos, staging the first ever cablebroadcast of one his live shows, experimenting with enhanced CDs, interactive tours and the world first direct music subscription service (way back in 1998).
Todd Rungren is now 60 years old and - cliche allert - still going strong. Through all his extracurricular activities you should almost forget that he is a riff-based guitar player. His new album Arena has more memorable licks than Death Magnetic or any other rock guitar album of 2008. He aims for your guts and eardrums with thirteen songs that are big engough to reach the upper balconies of any stadium. Rundgren has been following the current state of world affairs, incorporating into anthemic songs like Mad, Strike and Gun. The slower songs are big on the layered vocal parts, like Weakness that starts like a Zappa song ca 1974.
Unlike many other acts that have been around as long as he has, Rundgren is still creating new sounds upon his trademark guitar tone. He is no jukebox rehashing his past.
Arena drops September 29th on Cooking Vinyl (September 30th in the USA on Hi-Fi Recordings). He will be on tour this Fall.
Todd Rungren is now 60 years old and - cliche allert - still going strong. Through all his extracurricular activities you should almost forget that he is a riff-based guitar player. His new album Arena has more memorable licks than Death Magnetic or any other rock guitar album of 2008. He aims for your guts and eardrums with thirteen songs that are big engough to reach the upper balconies of any stadium. Rundgren has been following the current state of world affairs, incorporating into anthemic songs like Mad, Strike and Gun. The slower songs are big on the layered vocal parts, like Weakness that starts like a Zappa song ca 1974.
Unlike many other acts that have been around as long as he has, Rundgren is still creating new sounds upon his trademark guitar tone. He is no jukebox rehashing his past.
Arena drops September 29th on Cooking Vinyl (September 30th in the USA on Hi-Fi Recordings). He will be on tour this Fall.
signed promo cd giveaway
check out this blog for a chance to win a signed arena cd
http://www.retroblog.net/2008/09/15/todd-rundgren-arena-cd-giveaway/
http://www.retroblog.net/2008/09/15/todd-rundgren-arena-cd-giveaway/
Sunday, September 14, 2008
INTVERVIEW: BOUNCERADIO ARCHIVED ON RUNDGREN RADIO
CLICK ON THIS LINK BELOW TO HEAR ARCHIVED VERSION
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wendys1world/2008/09/14/Todd-Rundgren-BOUNCE-RadioSwitchback-interview
Todd Rundgren’s best-known songs — the Carole King pastiche “I Saw the Light,” the ballads “Hello, It’s Me” and “Can We Still Be Friends,” and the goofy novelty “Bang on the Drum All Day” — suggest that he is a talented pop craftsman, but nothing more than that. On one level, that perception is true since he is undoubtedly a gifted pop songwriter, but at his core Rundgren is a rock & roll maverick. Once he had a taste of success with his 1972 masterwork, Something/Anything?, Rundgren chose to abandon stardom and, with it, conventional pop music. He began a course through uncharted musical territory, becoming a pioneer not only in electronic music and prog rock, but in music video, computer software, and Internet music delivery as well.
Join host Joe Burke live on Friday night, September 12th, live on Switchback Radio only on www.bounceradio.net for the live interview with legendary Todd Rundgren. Listeners can even participate in the interview by asking questions via the Bounce Radio chat room.
Who: Todd Rundgren
What: Live on Bounce Radio’s Switchback
When: Sept. 12th, 2008 9PM Eastern
Where: www.bounceradio.net
Todd Rundgren’s best-known songs — the Carole King pastiche “I Saw the Light,” the ballads “Hello, It’s Me” and “Can We Still Be Friends,” and the goofy novelty “Bang on the Drum All Day” — suggest that he is a talented pop craftsman, but nothing more than that. On one level, that perception is true since he is undoubtedly a gifted pop songwriter, but at his core Rundgren is a rock & roll maverick. Once he had a taste of success with his 1972 masterwork, Something/Anything?, Rundgren chose to abandon stardom and, with it, conventional pop music. He began a course through uncharted musical territory, becoming a pioneer not only in electronic music and prog rock, but in music video, computer software, and Internet music delivery as well.
Join host Joe Burke live on Friday night, September 12th, live on Switchback Radio only on www.bounceradio.net for the live interview with legendary Todd Rundgren. Listeners can even participate in the interview by asking questions via the Bounce Radio chat room.
Who: Todd Rundgren
What: Live on Bounce Radio’s Switchback
When: Sept. 12th, 2008 9PM Eastern
Where: www.bounceradio.net
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
PICTURES: STONE PONY SGT PEPPER SHOW
VIDEO:Todd Rundgren The Wheel at Rundgren Radio B'day Bash Vegas
UPPED ON YOUTUBE BY OCSHERI
the wheel has not been played live in years, this is an improvised band version done as a last minute request. usually todd would do this an acoustic solo piece. I hope so much they practice this as a band and include it into the new setlist.
the wheel has not been played live in years, this is an improvised band version done as a last minute request. usually todd would do this an acoustic solo piece. I hope so much they practice this as a band and include it into the new setlist.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
LISTEN TO MOUNTAINTOP FROM THE ARENA CD
click here to hear mountaintop... new song from Todds soon to released album ARENA
http://pointers.audiovideoweb.com/stcqtl/nj21quick1506/mountaintop.mov/play.qtl
REVIEW: ARENA GIG FOR A ONE-MAN BAND
http://living.scotsman.com/music/Arena-gig-for-a-oneman.4476333.jp
Arena gig for a one-man band
Published Date: 06 September 2008
By PAUL LESTER
TRUST TODD Rundgren to make a hard rock album full of grinding riffs and squealing guitars just as a new generation of electronic musicians have begun to sing his praises.
Klaxons and Simian Mobile Disco have both recently featured the original DIY synthkid's songs on mix CDs or in DJ sets, Daft Punk used his track International Feel to open their film Electroma, and Hot Chip sampled his voice – some laconic studio spiADVERTISEMENTel from his 1972 double-LP masterpiece, Something/Anything? – on their latest album.
Rundgren's records of eclectic electro-pop, fizzing with noises and buzzing with ideas, marked him out as a US counterpart to David Bowie or a 1970s Prince, restlessly experimental, changing with every album; his 1973 LP, A Wizard, a True Star, to name but one – recorded under the influence of hallucinogenics and described by Rundgren as "rock's first stream-of-consciousness album" – still sounds amazing.
Why, then, does his 21st solo album, Arena, have more in common with AC/DC and ZZ Top? "It's songs with big, singalong choruses and melodic guitar solos; the kind of music that works well in an arena," he says from his home in Hawaii. "I called it Arena because I figure it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy: if I make a successful arena rock record, I'll wind up playing arenas!"
Rundgren, who just turned 60, began his career over 40 years ago as guitarist and songwriter with Philadelphia's mod-Anglophile four-piece the Nazz, setting the template for his solo career with their lush piano ballads and guitar anthems – including psych-pop perennial Open My Eyes, which later appeared on seminal punk/garage compilation Nuggets. He also spent several years as leader of Utopia, responsible for everything from lengthy, technically-accomplished cosmic-prog work-outs to new wave-inflected, four-minute rock tunes. But he's best known for his solo forays to the outer limits of the recording studio. Although Arena sounds like the result of a band jamming and riffing, it's all just Rundgren, alone, in the studio, doing what he does best: playing every instrument, doing all the vocals, and handling the production.
"It's just me," he confirms, "but it sounds like a band. I was following through on the touring that I've been doing lately. When the New Cars (Todd recently fronted a new version of the late-1970s new wave rockers] stopped touring, I took a guitar quartet out on the road. The audience were exuberant, so I thought I should continue in that vein and write some new guitar-oriented music. It's something between prog rock and pop music. Arena rock used to be a big thing. In fact, Utopia were an arena act, but we played progressive rock. This stuff is much more hooky."
Rundgren's last album, 2004's Liars, was a mainly-keyboards affair full of exquisite melodies that sugared the sideswipes at the Bush administration, his ex-girlfriend (notorious super-groupie Bebe Buell, mother of Liv Tyler) and liars in general. Fired up about the Iraq war, he disguised his ire with layers of beautiful synthesised sounds and multitracked blue-eyed soul vocals. This time he sounds angry, the screeching, crunching guitars enhancing the sense of a man raging against the machine. "I discovered, now that I'm embarking on my seventh decade, that I'm actually pretty fed up," he says. "I'm not thinking at all about retirement. I'm thinking about kicking ass."
He explains that Arena is "about conflict", which he sees as a guy thing. "In a certain sense, it's a guy's album," he says. "It's about men and the ways that men resolve things. The last album I did had a lot to think about on it. But the time for talk is over. This one is more about action."
He may be the ultimate cult artist, out there on the margins, fiddling with his bank of synthesisers while Rome burns, but Rundgren is no techno-hippie refusing to engage with the real world. And though he's only had a few American hits – Hello It's Me, I Saw the Light, Can We Still be Friends – and just one gold disc, for Something/Anything?, he's a major figure in the history of rock.
Like Zelig, he's always been there or thereabouts, watching from the wings, waiting to see what happens so he can plan his next move – usually in the opposite direction to everyone else. Runt, the follow-up Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (1971) and third album Something/Anything? saw him prove his mastery of every pop style. By A Wizard, a True Star he was poised on the brink of mega success but he chose to turn his back with a series of brilliant but baffling records that were nevertheless as revolutionary and influential on the development of electronic pop as Stevie Wonder's.
He could have been a glam star – certainly he looked the androgynous part with his rainbow-coloured hair and weird makeup – or an Elton/Joel balladeer but instead he made albums like Todd (1974), Todd Rundgren's Utopia (also 1974) and Initiation (1975) that posited a new era of peace and love and explored mystical themes over increasingly complex proto-electronica. Having produced the first New York Dolls album, Todd spent punk paying homage to his childhood heroes like The Beatles and Hendrix (Faithful, 1976), making concept albums about Egyptian gods (Ra, 1977) and manning the controls for Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell. Always the object of feverish worship, Todd, months after recording an album of Beatles pastiches with Utopia called Deface the Music, was knocked for six by Mark Chapman's murder of John Lennon – mainly because it transpired that Chapman, ever since a spat in 1974 between Lennon and Rundgren in the pages of Melody Maker, was infatuated with him and allegedly killed the ex-Beatle only because he couldn't find Todd, then living in upstate New York. Earlier that year, Rundgren's home had been broken into: four armed, masked robbers bound and gag him and, while they ransacked the place, whistled the tune to I Saw the Light.
Traumatised by both incidents, he decided to move away from the city, and the mainstream. Hermit of Mink Hollow (1978) had been his last commercial proposition. Subsequent albums like the all-vocal A Cappella (1985), which predated Bjork's Medulla by two decades, were released without fanfare, so Rundgren became a pioneer at the forefront of the video, multimedia and digital revolutions.
"It was a little freaky," he says of the whole Chapman-Lennon saga. "I didn't feel the horror that everyone else did because, to me, The Beatles were a thing of the past. But I wasn't unaffected, I'd already made a decision to take myself out of the limelight and give up my days as a scenemaker. The object was to regain some solitude and develop some other disciplines. I started getting seriously into video, and it was almost as if, when I heard about it (Lennon's murder], it was like an echo from another age, a time when there were a lot of deaths in the music business – usually from their own hand or through sheer clumsiness, but still out of that phenomenon of excess. In this case, of course, it was not through the excess of the artist, but the excess of one of his fans."
These days, Rundgren keeps his distance, on the island of Kauai. But he's always had a special relationship with his fiercely loyal fans, and for his 60th birthday, many of them stayed at the house adjacent to his, at his invitation, for a small fee. How weird is that? Then again, Todd's always done things his way. "I make polemical music that sometimes aggravates," he says, "but it's not designed to make you forget. It's designed to make you remember."
• Arena is released on 29 September. Rundgren will tour the UK in November.
Arena gig for a one-man band
Published Date: 06 September 2008
By PAUL LESTER
TRUST TODD Rundgren to make a hard rock album full of grinding riffs and squealing guitars just as a new generation of electronic musicians have begun to sing his praises.
Klaxons and Simian Mobile Disco have both recently featured the original DIY synthkid's songs on mix CDs or in DJ sets, Daft Punk used his track International Feel to open their film Electroma, and Hot Chip sampled his voice – some laconic studio spiADVERTISEMENTel from his 1972 double-LP masterpiece, Something/Anything? – on their latest album.
Rundgren's records of eclectic electro-pop, fizzing with noises and buzzing with ideas, marked him out as a US counterpart to David Bowie or a 1970s Prince, restlessly experimental, changing with every album; his 1973 LP, A Wizard, a True Star, to name but one – recorded under the influence of hallucinogenics and described by Rundgren as "rock's first stream-of-consciousness album" – still sounds amazing.
Why, then, does his 21st solo album, Arena, have more in common with AC/DC and ZZ Top? "It's songs with big, singalong choruses and melodic guitar solos; the kind of music that works well in an arena," he says from his home in Hawaii. "I called it Arena because I figure it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy: if I make a successful arena rock record, I'll wind up playing arenas!"
Rundgren, who just turned 60, began his career over 40 years ago as guitarist and songwriter with Philadelphia's mod-Anglophile four-piece the Nazz, setting the template for his solo career with their lush piano ballads and guitar anthems – including psych-pop perennial Open My Eyes, which later appeared on seminal punk/garage compilation Nuggets. He also spent several years as leader of Utopia, responsible for everything from lengthy, technically-accomplished cosmic-prog work-outs to new wave-inflected, four-minute rock tunes. But he's best known for his solo forays to the outer limits of the recording studio. Although Arena sounds like the result of a band jamming and riffing, it's all just Rundgren, alone, in the studio, doing what he does best: playing every instrument, doing all the vocals, and handling the production.
"It's just me," he confirms, "but it sounds like a band. I was following through on the touring that I've been doing lately. When the New Cars (Todd recently fronted a new version of the late-1970s new wave rockers] stopped touring, I took a guitar quartet out on the road. The audience were exuberant, so I thought I should continue in that vein and write some new guitar-oriented music. It's something between prog rock and pop music. Arena rock used to be a big thing. In fact, Utopia were an arena act, but we played progressive rock. This stuff is much more hooky."
Rundgren's last album, 2004's Liars, was a mainly-keyboards affair full of exquisite melodies that sugared the sideswipes at the Bush administration, his ex-girlfriend (notorious super-groupie Bebe Buell, mother of Liv Tyler) and liars in general. Fired up about the Iraq war, he disguised his ire with layers of beautiful synthesised sounds and multitracked blue-eyed soul vocals. This time he sounds angry, the screeching, crunching guitars enhancing the sense of a man raging against the machine. "I discovered, now that I'm embarking on my seventh decade, that I'm actually pretty fed up," he says. "I'm not thinking at all about retirement. I'm thinking about kicking ass."
He explains that Arena is "about conflict", which he sees as a guy thing. "In a certain sense, it's a guy's album," he says. "It's about men and the ways that men resolve things. The last album I did had a lot to think about on it. But the time for talk is over. This one is more about action."
He may be the ultimate cult artist, out there on the margins, fiddling with his bank of synthesisers while Rome burns, but Rundgren is no techno-hippie refusing to engage with the real world. And though he's only had a few American hits – Hello It's Me, I Saw the Light, Can We Still be Friends – and just one gold disc, for Something/Anything?, he's a major figure in the history of rock.
Like Zelig, he's always been there or thereabouts, watching from the wings, waiting to see what happens so he can plan his next move – usually in the opposite direction to everyone else. Runt, the follow-up Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (1971) and third album Something/Anything? saw him prove his mastery of every pop style. By A Wizard, a True Star he was poised on the brink of mega success but he chose to turn his back with a series of brilliant but baffling records that were nevertheless as revolutionary and influential on the development of electronic pop as Stevie Wonder's.
He could have been a glam star – certainly he looked the androgynous part with his rainbow-coloured hair and weird makeup – or an Elton/Joel balladeer but instead he made albums like Todd (1974), Todd Rundgren's Utopia (also 1974) and Initiation (1975) that posited a new era of peace and love and explored mystical themes over increasingly complex proto-electronica. Having produced the first New York Dolls album, Todd spent punk paying homage to his childhood heroes like The Beatles and Hendrix (Faithful, 1976), making concept albums about Egyptian gods (Ra, 1977) and manning the controls for Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell. Always the object of feverish worship, Todd, months after recording an album of Beatles pastiches with Utopia called Deface the Music, was knocked for six by Mark Chapman's murder of John Lennon – mainly because it transpired that Chapman, ever since a spat in 1974 between Lennon and Rundgren in the pages of Melody Maker, was infatuated with him and allegedly killed the ex-Beatle only because he couldn't find Todd, then living in upstate New York. Earlier that year, Rundgren's home had been broken into: four armed, masked robbers bound and gag him and, while they ransacked the place, whistled the tune to I Saw the Light.
Traumatised by both incidents, he decided to move away from the city, and the mainstream. Hermit of Mink Hollow (1978) had been his last commercial proposition. Subsequent albums like the all-vocal A Cappella (1985), which predated Bjork's Medulla by two decades, were released without fanfare, so Rundgren became a pioneer at the forefront of the video, multimedia and digital revolutions.
"It was a little freaky," he says of the whole Chapman-Lennon saga. "I didn't feel the horror that everyone else did because, to me, The Beatles were a thing of the past. But I wasn't unaffected, I'd already made a decision to take myself out of the limelight and give up my days as a scenemaker. The object was to regain some solitude and develop some other disciplines. I started getting seriously into video, and it was almost as if, when I heard about it (Lennon's murder], it was like an echo from another age, a time when there were a lot of deaths in the music business – usually from their own hand or through sheer clumsiness, but still out of that phenomenon of excess. In this case, of course, it was not through the excess of the artist, but the excess of one of his fans."
These days, Rundgren keeps his distance, on the island of Kauai. But he's always had a special relationship with his fiercely loyal fans, and for his 60th birthday, many of them stayed at the house adjacent to his, at his invitation, for a small fee. How weird is that? Then again, Todd's always done things his way. "I make polemical music that sometimes aggravates," he says, "but it's not designed to make you forget. It's designed to make you remember."
• Arena is released on 29 September. Rundgren will tour the UK in November.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
IF YOU WANT YOUR BLOG ADDED TO MY BLOG LIST
PLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL AND I WILL ADD YOUR BLOG TO MY BLOG LIST ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT OF THE MAIN PAGE. MA4UTOPIA@GMAIL.COM
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
REVIEW : ARENA Written by Stuart A Hamilton
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/09/09/195653.php
Music Review: Todd Rundgren - Arena
Written by Stuart A Hamilton
Published September 09, 2008
One of my simple rules of life is this; anyone who doesn't think that seventies Todd Rundgren is a musical genius cannot be trusted on any music related matter. Ever. Now, I'm not going to deny that Mr Rundgren has made life difficult for me from time to time. The late eighties and nineties, in particular, were fairly indefensible, but Liars was a return to form, despite selling about three copies, and when I heard that Arena was going to be a guitar heavy rock album, the anticipation levels went through the roof.
Now I'm sitting here with an advance copy of the nineteenth studio Todd album and it's pretty much everything I could have hoped for. Todd himself said Arena "is a definite return to riff-oriented guitar rock. It's supposed to make you reflexively pump your fist and wave a lighter in the air." Well, not quite, but it is a fabulous return to form and the music that made me swoon for him in the first place. Don't come here if you're looking for his experiments in a cappella, bossa nova, and rapping. This has much more in common with some of his heavier Utopia moments, minus the gibberish, and all the better for it.
The songs are all short, sharp and to the point, with even the titles restricting themselves to a single word. And for a man who has just turned sixty, he performs them with a fire in his belly. At times he even veers surprisingly close to metal as he rocks out hard, with "Gun", in particular, a pounding riff happy tune that should sound even better with a real band on his live dates. However, this is Todd Rundgren, so the album still manages to be a concept album, albeit a loose one about the nature of conflict.
The opener "Mad", is also the single, and it's a straight down the middle rock tune that doesn't really prepare you for what's to come, although it does have a splendid guitar solo. "Afraid" is a much more restrained number which would have slotted easily onto Liars, but then "Mercenary" arrives and blows you away with it's vicious guitar and anti-war ranting. An absolute belter of a song. And is that a tribute to Boston (the band) in the middle? You won't be surprised to learn that "Gun" is about gun control, but it's another heavy rocking cracker. "Courage" takes us back to classic seventies Todd and is a nice change of pace. Coming up to the half way point and "Weakness" seems to be his take on the blues, with a slow, menacing groove.
Over on Side 2 (if only), and Todd has decided to beat AC/DC at their own game on "Strike". Yes, really, the most unlikely sentence I've written this year, straight of Flick Of The Switch, with repetitive beats and cries of "are you ready to rumble". Utterly mad and utterly splendid. Then the chorus arrives and he actually does a Brian 'Beano' Johnson impersonation. I had to hit replay just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. The obligatory comedy number arrives on "Pissin", and I do not want to know why someones "dick is in the mayonnaise". The first skippable number. Things flag slightly on "Today" and "Bardo", the keyboard heavy former sounds like a Liars outake, the latter is a good, mellow, spaced out number that just seems out of context here.
But Mr Rundgren still has a few tricks up his sleeve as we near the end, with the boogiefied "Mountaintop" finally attaining the punching the air effect, "Panic" playing homage to some of his own earlier work, and a number that long term fans will find themselves returning to and the closing "Manup", an out and out stadium rocker, replete with another classic guitar solo.
It's not the greatest album he's ever made, but it's certainly up there with some of his best. I'm old school, so would have preferred real percussion and bass, rather than Rundgren's preferred protools method, but it's a small quibble on what is one of my favourite albums of the year. I'm not sure about the UK release but there is an American version planned which will come with a DVD and CD of Rundgren's live performance of the album from a US show in July. Something I will definitely be queuing up for, especially if the UK tour lives up to its promise.
Mr H is a compulsive reviewer who has foisted his opinions across the internet, as well as in UK publications like Record Collector and Blues Matters, where he is a contributing writer. If you really want to know more go to stuarthamilton.co.uk But don't say you weren't warned
Music Review: Todd Rundgren - Arena
Written by Stuart A Hamilton
Published September 09, 2008
One of my simple rules of life is this; anyone who doesn't think that seventies Todd Rundgren is a musical genius cannot be trusted on any music related matter. Ever. Now, I'm not going to deny that Mr Rundgren has made life difficult for me from time to time. The late eighties and nineties, in particular, were fairly indefensible, but Liars was a return to form, despite selling about three copies, and when I heard that Arena was going to be a guitar heavy rock album, the anticipation levels went through the roof.
Now I'm sitting here with an advance copy of the nineteenth studio Todd album and it's pretty much everything I could have hoped for. Todd himself said Arena "is a definite return to riff-oriented guitar rock. It's supposed to make you reflexively pump your fist and wave a lighter in the air." Well, not quite, but it is a fabulous return to form and the music that made me swoon for him in the first place. Don't come here if you're looking for his experiments in a cappella, bossa nova, and rapping. This has much more in common with some of his heavier Utopia moments, minus the gibberish, and all the better for it.
The songs are all short, sharp and to the point, with even the titles restricting themselves to a single word. And for a man who has just turned sixty, he performs them with a fire in his belly. At times he even veers surprisingly close to metal as he rocks out hard, with "Gun", in particular, a pounding riff happy tune that should sound even better with a real band on his live dates. However, this is Todd Rundgren, so the album still manages to be a concept album, albeit a loose one about the nature of conflict.
The opener "Mad", is also the single, and it's a straight down the middle rock tune that doesn't really prepare you for what's to come, although it does have a splendid guitar solo. "Afraid" is a much more restrained number which would have slotted easily onto Liars, but then "Mercenary" arrives and blows you away with it's vicious guitar and anti-war ranting. An absolute belter of a song. And is that a tribute to Boston (the band) in the middle? You won't be surprised to learn that "Gun" is about gun control, but it's another heavy rocking cracker. "Courage" takes us back to classic seventies Todd and is a nice change of pace. Coming up to the half way point and "Weakness" seems to be his take on the blues, with a slow, menacing groove.
Over on Side 2 (if only), and Todd has decided to beat AC/DC at their own game on "Strike". Yes, really, the most unlikely sentence I've written this year, straight of Flick Of The Switch, with repetitive beats and cries of "are you ready to rumble". Utterly mad and utterly splendid. Then the chorus arrives and he actually does a Brian 'Beano' Johnson impersonation. I had to hit replay just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. The obligatory comedy number arrives on "Pissin", and I do not want to know why someones "dick is in the mayonnaise". The first skippable number. Things flag slightly on "Today" and "Bardo", the keyboard heavy former sounds like a Liars outake, the latter is a good, mellow, spaced out number that just seems out of context here.
But Mr Rundgren still has a few tricks up his sleeve as we near the end, with the boogiefied "Mountaintop" finally attaining the punching the air effect, "Panic" playing homage to some of his own earlier work, and a number that long term fans will find themselves returning to and the closing "Manup", an out and out stadium rocker, replete with another classic guitar solo.
It's not the greatest album he's ever made, but it's certainly up there with some of his best. I'm old school, so would have preferred real percussion and bass, rather than Rundgren's preferred protools method, but it's a small quibble on what is one of my favourite albums of the year. I'm not sure about the UK release but there is an American version planned which will come with a DVD and CD of Rundgren's live performance of the album from a US show in July. Something I will definitely be queuing up for, especially if the UK tour lives up to its promise.
Mr H is a compulsive reviewer who has foisted his opinions across the internet, as well as in UK publications like Record Collector and Blues Matters, where he is a contributing writer. If you really want to know more go to stuarthamilton.co.uk But don't say you weren't warned
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