Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1003 in the Series) is Todd Rundgren, The Hermit of Mink Hollow. If I ever opened a pub, I always had in mind to call it the Mink Hollow. And there alongside music and sports memorabilia would be some kind of musical device that would be able to play Todd Rundgren and Utopia songs. Especially from this particular masterpiece.  Kind of in the same way it is hard to name a favorite Beatles song or album, it can be of equal challenge for me to name my favorite Todd work. But really this has always been my personal favorite, maybe because it was released just before I turned 16 and was in the...

  I love Todd Rundgren. I’ve been a fan since the early 1970s, and at this point I don’t see that ever changing. Like Neil Young, Todd is one of the most mercurial artists who still makes interesting records in all sorts of genres mainly to please himself. That’s made for lots of experimentation along the way resulting in all different types of records like Beatles sound-alikes, samba reworking of older material, a record of Robert Johnson covers (called Todd Rundgren’ s Johnson, no less), rap and disco. So even when Rundgren doesn’t hit the ball out of the park, say on records like (re)Production and One Long Year, you can always count on at least taking an interesting...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#845 in the Series) is Todd Rundgren, Live In Concert at the Warfield Theater It was 23 years ago today, Todd Rundgren brought his band to play.  Esoteric Recordings presents the Todd Rundgren Archive Series and if this is any indication, this is the start of something good. Todd Rundgren’s 1989 release Nearly Human was a bit of a re-visitation of his Philly Soul/R&B roots. Received to some critical acclaim, the album was recorded with a minimal amount of overdubs and this created a perfect live platform for a big 12-piece band. This recording documents the final show of this tour and has been newly mastered from the original master tapes, making...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Long Hot Summer” by Tom Robinson Band The album was a total rallying cry…a call to arms, so to speak, where the arms were guitars and the ammunition was the lyrics. At least, that’s how Tom Robinson Band’s debut album, Power In The Darkness, struck me when I first heard it back in 1978. TRB formed in England in 1976, right at the dawn of the punk explosion. While not a true punk band, they managed to adopt the punk rock ethos and mix their political views into the mix, making a big splash in their native UK. The original lineup of the band included Tom Robinson on bass and...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Cosmic Convoy” by Todd Rundgren & Utopia If it had come out when it was recorded, it would have been met with shrugs, or even worse, total disdain. Instead, except for those lucky few who could afford an expensive Japanese import box set, we’ve had to wait 36 years for it to finally get a legal release, and then only in the U.K.  However, if you’re a fan of Todd Rundgren and Utopia, then it was totally worth the wait. Disco Jets was recorded in 1976, directly after sessions for the album Faithful. The album found Todd Rundgren with his head firmly in the past, giving half the tune stack...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Bardo” by Todd Rundgren I’m kind of stuck in the middle of a Todd Rundgren jag at the moment. And if you’re a Todd fan, there are many reasons to be excited. With the recent releases of not one, but two new live recordings of the classic albums Todd (originally released in 1974)and Healing (1980) both from his recent tour, plus the belated appearance of the 1976 Utopia album Disco Jets, I guess I just can’t seem to get enough of that Todd stuff. It’s led me to revisit some albums from his catalog that I haven’t heard in a while. Once such album is his 2008 album, Arena, which,...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#809 in the Series) is Lori Carson, Everything I Touch Runs Wild  Of all the foggy things that I remember well about the days of the turn of the century, one of them is the music the some friends and I were listening … You know, it was 2000, 2001: bonfires, lasers, champagne, lovers, the Y2K paranoia, and the mist of it all. I was happy as a child then, living in a little country town far from Buenos Aires: a strange, petit city plenty of smart and cosmopolitan people by those years. It was full moon, in a marvelous and calm summer night, and we were anticipating the celebration with full blast...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#738 in the Series) is Roger Powell, Air Pocket One of my favourites Sunday morning pastimes is the ¨catch-an-obscure-and-great lp¨ from the sales bin… Buenos Aires is fascinating in this respect: a big city, music lovers everywhere, lots of people with a great insight in local and foreign artists… Sometimes, something beautiful emerges from those dusty used lp´s bins And this one is a real gem… From the sleeve´s art (some distorted and pixelated video image), to the assorted keyboard juggernaut, the album screams 1980. Not 1979, not 1983. 1980. Why?  Well… in my subconscious, the period 1980/1981-82 was the epitome of the purest eighties zeitgeist: modernity without mannerism… and a lot...

      The 2012 Ringo Starr tour for 2012 has begun.  This is one of the strongest touring acts that he’s ever had behind him, or in front of him for that matter. As previously announced here, band members include Todd Rundgren, Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey, Gregg Rolie Band), Richard Page (The Pages, Mr. Mister), Steve Lukather (Toto), Max Rivera (Bily Joel) and  Greg Bissonette. Here’s what everyone really wants to know however…. Here’s the set list. The set list Matchbox (Ringo) It Don’t Come Easy (Ringo) Wings (Ringo) Hello It’s Me (Rundgren) Evil Ways (Rolie) Rosanna (Lukather) Kyrie (Page) Don’t Pass Me By (Ringo) Bang the Drum All Day (Rundgren) Boys (Starr) Yellow Submarine (Starr) Black Magic...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#704 in the Series) is New York Dolls, New York Dolls The New York Dolls are a band that has, over time, come to be defined more by the drugs, debauchery, and deaths of various members than their actual music, and the original line-up has never been given enough credit for being good musicians, in my opinion. Much like The Sex Pistols and even The Ramones, they are always labelled as ‘influential’ in terms of style and attitude, without being given due respect for their musicianship and the songs they wrote and recorded. Then again, the reputation they had as being hell raisers was well earned. It isn’t a widely-known fact that...