Todd Rundgren
Event on 2012-05-29 20:00:00
A Wizard, A True Star. The title of Todd Rundgren's 1973 solo album aptly sums up the contributions of this multi-faceted artist to state-of-the-art music. As a songwriter, video pioneer, producer, recording artist, computer software developer, conceptualist, and, most recently, interactive artist (re-designated TR-i), Rundgren has made a lasting impact on both the form and content of popular music.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rundgren began playing guitar as a teenager, going on to found and front The Nazz, the quintessential `60's cult group. In 1969, he left the band to pursue a solo career, recording his debut offering, the legendary Runt. But it was 1972's seminal Something/Anything?, on which he played all the instruments, sang all the vocal parts, and acted as his own producer, that catapulted Todd into the superstar limelight, prompting the press to unanimously dub him 'Rock's New Wunderkind'. It was followed by such landmark LPs as The Hermit of Mink Hollow and the above mentioned A Wizard, A True Star, as well as such hit singles as I Saw The Light, Hello It's Me, Can We Still Be Friends, and Bang The Drum.
In 1974, Todd formed Utopia, an entirely new approach to the concept of interactive musicianship, and embarked on an extensive round of touring and recording. Standout Utopia offerings included Oops! Wrong Planet, Adventures in Utopia, and Oblivion. Along the way, Utopia combined technical virtuosity and creative passion to create music that, for millions, defined the term "progressive rock."
Rundgren's myriad production projects include albums by Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, Psychedelic Furs, Meatloaf, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad, and Hall And Oates. Rounding out his reputation as rock's Renaissance Man, Rundgren composed all the music and lyrics for Joe Papp's 1989 Off-Broadway production of Joe Orton's Up Against It (the screenplay commisioned by The Beatles for what was meant to have been their third motion picture). He also has composed the music for a number of television series, including Pee Wee’s Playhouse and Crime Story.
Early last year Rundgren performed his iconic 1973 album A Wizard A True Star in concert in its entireity for the first time ever, and recently did the same with a double bill: Todd & Healing. His latest two studio albums Todd Rundgren’s Johnson, a collection of classic Robert Johnson songs, and reProduction, covers of songs Todd has produced for other artists were released in the US in April and September, respectively.
In 1998 Todd debuted his new PatroNet technology which for the first time allowed fans of a musical artist to subscribe directly to the artist’s musical output via the Internet. This caps a long history of groundbreaking early multimedia "firsts", including:
• 1978: The first interactive television concert, broadcast live over the Warner/QUBE system in Columbus, Ohio (the home audience chose each song.in real time during the concert by voting via QUBE’s 2-way operating system).
• 1978: The first live nationally broadcast stereo radio concert (by microwave), linking 40 cities around the country.
• 1979: The opening of Utopia Video Studios, a multi-million dollar state-of-the-art facility. The first project produced by Todd there is Gustav Holst’s The Planets, commissioned by RCA SelectaVision as the first demonstration software for their new videodisc format.
• 1980: Creation of the first color graphics tablet, which was licensed to Apple and released as The Utopia Graphics Tablet.
• 1981: Time Heals, the first music video to utilize state-of-the-art compositing of live action and computer graphics (produced and directed by Todd), becomes the second video to be played on MTV (after Video Killed the Radio Star).
• 1982: The first live national cablecast of a rock concert (on the USA Network), simulcast in stereo to over 120 radio stations.
• 1982: The first two commercially released music videos, one of which was nominated for the first-ever Grammy awarded for “Best Short Form Video” in 1983.
• 1992: The release of “No World Order”, the world’s first interactive record album on CD-i. Also the first commercially available music downloads via CompuServe.
• 1994: The release of “The Individualist”, the world’s first full-length Enhanced CD.
• 1995: The world’s first interactive concert tour.
• 1998: Launches PatroNet, the world’s first direct artist subscription service
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Dirty Projectors – Wye Oak
Event on 2012-08-18 21:00:00
Dirty Projectors
Dirty Projectors have been a part of my life since I heard their first album, The Glad Fact. At the time, I knew nothing about Dave Longstreth or the album he'd recorded under his own name as a college freshman, The Graceful Fallen Mango – an album I've always wanted to call "a fine slice of New England soul music" (whether or not that's really accurate). The Glad Fact inspired me to write my first and only record review, in which, with all the awkwardness befitting an inexperienced and overzealous writer, I proclaimed,
"Dave Longstreth is making his own fucked-up version of American music."
It's funny to think that I would go on to play in the DPz touring line up and have my keyboard playing make it on to the New Attitude EP – let alone become budz with the dude!
When I first met Dave he mentioned that he'd read the review and asked what I meant by "fucked-up American music." I found it hard to articulate any sensible reason why I'd used that description, but some deep, non-verbal part of me felt like bro, it's really true.
Now, four game-shifting, next-level DPz releases later, I'm hearing the newest album, Bitte Orca, for the first time and that awkward phrase is crawling back into my head.
Staring at the album's title and tracklisting, I feel a little shut-out. I can't glean any concept or narrative from titles like "Cannibal Resource" or "Useful Chamber." I start to realize that this album can't be explained as reductively as Rise Above ("Damaged re-imagined") or The Getty Address ("concept album about Don Henley with nods to modern R&B"). This is exciting.
At first, I listen to this record hunting for a theme. I hear big riffs that make me think of classic rock, so I think, "Is this Led Zeppelin deconstructed?" I hear folk guitar picking and gorgeous strings, so I think, "Is this 60's folk-pop re-imagined?" But, as is usually the case, my lame attempts at categorization fade away and soon all I can hear is Dirty Projectors.
You can look at the DPz discography and divide it up by recording quality (lo-fi vs. poppin fresh), supposed influence (old 60s shit vs. new "urban" flavor), or instrumentation/cast of characters (lone wolf CT shaman vs. heavyweight "rock ensemble"). It's easy to look at it like this; stops along the way, "artistic growth", career arc – Bitte Orca jumps these rails and it's awesome.
Ultimately, I don't hear Brian's brutally excellent drumming or Dave and Amber's riffs as "classic rock" signifiers. "Temecula Sunrise" is not the sound of Dad cracking open a brew in '75. It's not Physical Graffiti for 2K9; it's 2K9's Physical Graffiti. You feel me?
Bitte Orca's most exciting musical reference point is DPz themselves. A certain way of singing or playing guitar that was just a germ on The Graceful Fallen Mango and maybe really started standing out on Rise Above, is now a full-blown style and this album represents its ascendance.
Dave found the handful of musicians (Brian, Amber and Angel) who are his worthy collaborators and incorporated them into DPz in a way that fundamentally changes the game.
I hear Amber and Angel's ill lead vocals (on "Stillness is the Move" and "Two Doves") and not only do I hear two insanely talented and powerful women (the Serena and Blair of a better world) but also shades of Dave himself, as if my old conception of DPz had exploded and was now reborn through new avatars. What I hear in Bitte Orca is new life.
It's tempting to listen to Bitte Orca as a series of signifiers – re-arranged, deconstructed, POMO'd, whateva – but in the face of such living, breathing music this would seem overly morbid. If the guitars can recall classic rock or grunge, it's not because they're returning to those styles, but maybe because they represent the next loop on the eternal, golden chain.
"Isn't life under the sun such a crazy, crazy dream?"
What will most people make of a phrase like that? New age nonsense? The lyrical MS-DOS of pop robots? Overly used phrases and overly played guitar tones can seem devoid of meaning until someone like DPz finds the kernel of excitement that hides but never fades away and lets it rise up like the '93 Suns. There's a gigantic difference between plumbing the depths of pop garbage for jokes and empty memories and looking for truth where we all forgot it existed. You know how people sometimes say, "It's funny cuz it's true"? Well, it is!
I couldn't explain what I meant about "fucked-up American music" six years ago and I'm not that interested in trying to explain it now. I just think it's fitting to describe DPz with a phrase that's been exploited by the worst of the worst and the corniest of the corniest, but has always had the potential to mean something rad:
Uniquely American
-Ezra Koenig (of Vampire Weekend)
Wye Oak
On March 8, Merge will release Wye Oak's third album, Civilian on CD, LP and digital download (March 7 on City Slang in Europe).
Wye Oak wrote what became Civilian between December of 2009 and July of 2010. The songs "are, as a whole, about aloneness (the positive kind), loneliness (the horrible kind), moving on, and letting go (of people, places, and things)," lyricist/guitarist Jenn Wasner reveals.
After recording and mixing the previous two albums themselves, Wye Oak brought in mixing engineer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Shearwater), who played a pivotal role in the sound of Civilian. "JC definitely pushed us into some exciting and sometimes scary new territory," multi-instrumentalist Andy Stack says. "It was the most that Jenn and I had ever relinquished control of our music to someone else, but it gave us a chance to step back and see the big picture, whereas on previous recordings we got embroiled in the technical details."
Civilian is a kind of 21st-century folk music, imbued with dense shoegaze guitars, nearly melodic rhythms, and impeccable splashes of electronic color. Without leaning on conventional structure, the songs beguile with fascinating chords and melodies, Jenn's voice and riveting lyrics, mesmerizing rhythms, and an intoxicating aural landscape. Just as good writing has meaning between the lines, Civilian has meaning between the sounds: the combinations of harmonies, timbres, and words summon vivid and ineffable associations just beyond reach.
Jenn sums up the meaning of the album saying, "this collection of songs is called Civilian because I believe everyone wants to be normal, but no one truly is."
Wye Oak is Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack.
at Union Transfer
1026 Spring Garden St.
Philadelphia, United States
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