Todd Rundgren 'Arena' album

Multi-faceted and celebrated recording artist/producer Todd Rundgren is set to release his first full-length record of original studio material in 4 years, entitled Arena on September 30th via newly launched music venture Hi Fi Recordings. Rundgren has been on the road in support of the release on a 20 + U.S. city tour this summer – which kicked off with a week-long celebration in Hawaii, culminating with the first-ever live performance of Arena in its entirety on Todd’s birthday, June 22nd. Rundgren will also hit the road in support of Arena this fall in Europe and the UK where the album will be released simultaneously to the U.S.

Arena, recorded in Todd’s current home state of Hawaii, is yet another notable addition to Rundgren’s remarkable career as a performer, songwriter, and producer. The album showcases his unique songwriting style and sonically captures the essence and energy of “arena” rock with bombastic, guitar-driven tunes like “Mountaintop,” “Strike” and “Mad,” while the anthemic song “Mercenary,” transports you to a stadium with its epic chorus, “How Do You Like Me Now?,” resounding to every seat in the house.

“I found myself just going out and doing this sort of guerilla guitar quartet thing around the country and around Canada,” said Rundgren, “So when it came time to make a record, I thought maybe I’ll just continue in that vein and write something that is appropriate to the guitar, since the fans seem to be enjoying it so much.

“So when I decided to write a new album, I knew beforehand it was going to be this kind of old-school guitar-rock record.”

Known as a man of musical innovation, Rundgren’s latest release draws from his vast and impressive career experiences as a performer, songwriter and producer – including notable achievements on the cutting edge of music and technology such as: the first live nationally broadcast stereo radio concert (by microwave), which linked 40 cities around the country in 1978; the very first two commercially released music videos, one of which was nominated for the first-ever Grammy awarded for “Best Short Form Video” in 1983; and the launch of PatroNet, the world’s first direct artist subscription service all of course; and of course there are the timeless hit songs, including 'Hello It's Me', 'I Saw The Light', 'Can We Still be Friends', and 'Bang The Drum.’

With ground-breaking accomplishments under his belt, Rundgren’s career boasts additional credits to the aforementioned roles he is most well known for, including video pioneer, computer software developer, conceptualist and, most recently, interactive artist (re-designated TR-i). Given this incredible history and his constant creative state-of-mind, there are undoubtedly many more imaginative horizons for Todd Rundgren to discover.

biography
“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.”

timeline
1948
Born June 22 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.

1967
Left first professional band, the blues-based Woody’s Truck Stop, to join garage-psych band Nazz, in which he’d write, play and sing.

1968
Released Nazz (SGC), which yielded the singles “Open My Eyes” and the original version of “Hello It’s Me.”

1969
Released Nazz Nazz (SGC). Left Nazz. Began producing other artists, e.g. The American Dream and Great Speckled Bird.

1970
Issued first solo album, Runt, on Ampex Records. “We Gotta Get You A Woman” became his first Top 20 hit. Produced The Butterfield Blues Band.

1971
Released Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (Ampex). Produced self-titled debuts of Halfnelson and Sparks, as well as The James Cotton Blues Band. Stepped in to complete production of Badfinger’s Straight Up when George Harrison bowed out due to commitments to the Concert for Bangladesh and called Todd up and begged him to bail him out.

1972
Signed to the Bearsville label and put out the double-album Something/Anything?, on which he played and sang pretty much everything, and which contained a new version of “Hello It’s Me” and another signature tune, “I Saw the Light.” Pronounced the “wunderkind of pop music” by Rolling Stone. Produced self-titled debuts by Mark “Moogy” Klingman and Jesse Winchester.

1973
“Hello It’s Me” continued its ascent up the charts, hitting #5. The A Wizard, A True Starmarked the beginning of his progressive rock period. Produced the New York Dolls’ and Fanny’s debut, and Grand Funk Railroad’s We’re An American Band.

1974
Released Todd, yielding the heartbreaker “A Dream Goes On Forever”. Formed the progressive rock band Todd Rundgren’s Utopia—later shortened to Utopia—with backing band from A Wizard, A True Star. Produced Felix Cavaliere, Hall & Oates, Grand Funk Railroad, and The Hello People.

1975
Released Initiation, with “Real Man.” Utopia put out Another Live. Produced The Hello People’s sophomore effort.

1976
Returned to pop roots with the half-originals/half-covers album Faithful, which spawned a Top 40 single—the Beach Boys cover “Good Vibrations.” Produced (and played all the guitars on) Meat Loaf’s classic Bat Out of Hell. Also produced Steve Hillage. Utopia plays to a crowd of 500,000 at England’s Knebworth Festival with The Rolling Stones.

1977
Paring his alter-ego band Utopia down to a power quartet, released two Utopia albums, Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet. The latter contained the staple “Love Is the Answer,” later a #1 hit for England Dan & John Ford Coley.

1978
Issued Hermit of Mink Hollow, which included the hit single “Can We Still Be Friends?”, and the live album Back to the Bars. Produced Hall & Oates, Mark “Moogy” Klingman, Roadmaster. Played bass on the Patti Smith Group’s Easter. Utopia performs the world’s first interactive concert on the QUBE TV system in Columbus Ohio. Utopia also performs the world’s first national live radio concert via microwave transmission.

1979
Produced The Patti Smith Group (Wave), The Tubes (Remote Control), The Tom Robinson band (TR2) and Rick Derringer (Guitars and Women). Utopia plays to a crowd of 600,000 at England’s Knebworth Festival with Led Zeppelin. Opens Utopia Video Studio, the first dedicated broadcast quality music video studio. Produces a feature length video of Holst’s The Planets as a demo disc for RCA’s new videodisc format.

1980
Released two more Utopia albums: Adventures in Utopia (with the minor hit “Set Me Free”) and the Beatles spoof/tribute, Deface the Music. Produced soundtrack to the Meat Loaf feature film Roadie, and Wasp for teen idol Shaun Cassidy. Designed the Utopia Graphics Tablet, one of the first paint programs, for the Apple II platform.

1981
Released Healing. A video for “Time Heals” was the second video to air on MTV (immediately following “Video Killed The Radio Star”). Produced records by Jim Steinman and New England. Engineered and played on Ian Hunter’s Short Back and Sides. Appeared in the Ramones film Rock ‘N’ Roll High School. Co-developed the seminal screensaver program Flowfazer.

1982
Two more Utopia albums—another self-titled release, and Swing to the Right. Produced The Psychedelic Furs’ Forever Now. Utopia becomes the first band in history to have a concert nationally cablecast live (on the fledgling USA Network). Todd and Utopia are each nominated for a Grammy in the brand new category “Best Short Form Video”.

1983
Released The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect, containing the evergreen smash “Bang the Drum All Day.” Produced an autobiographcal TV special, the first musical program ever aired on the UK’s Channel Four. Produced albums by Cheap Trick (Next Position Please), The Rubinoos (Party of Two), and Lords of the New Church (Is Nothing Sacred?) as well as Janis Joplin’s rarities collection, Farewell Song and Jules Shear’s Watch Dog.

1984
Utopia issues Oblivion. Produces Zerra (Zerra I)

1985
Released A Cappella, on which every sound was made by his own voice. Utopia released its final studio album, Oblivion. Produced Lords of the New Church (Killer Lords), The Tubes (Love Bomb).

1986
Scored four episodes of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and Michael Mann’s legendary Crime Story. Produced XTC’s Skylarking. Issued the Utopia compilation Trivia. Has a hit duet in the UK and Europe with Bonnie Tyler, “Loving You’s A Dirty Job (But Somebody’s Gotta Do It).”

1987
Produced Hunter (Dreams of Ordinary Men) and Bourgeois Tagg (Yoyo). Scored the film Undercover.

1988
Produced The Psychedelic Furs’ All of This and Nothing and The Pursuit of Happiness (Love Junk).

1989
Recorded Nearly Human live in the studio. Produced anthologies for himself (Anthology 1968-1985) and Utopia (Anthology 1974-1985). Scored the Off Broadway musical, Up Against It which Joe Papp adapted from Joe Orton’s screenplay, intended to be the Beatles’ third movie.

1990
Produced The Pursuit of Happiness (One Sided Story) and Jill Sobule’s Things Here Are Different.

1991
Released 2nd Wind, recorded live at The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. . Made a video for the album track “Change Myself,” using the NewTek Video Toaster, which he’d use for subsequent music videos. Issued the full length concert video Live in Japan..

1992
Released the techno-oriented No World Order, under the name “TR-i.” (“Todd Rundgren Interactive”) on CD-ROM, the world’s first interactive audio disc. Produced the Japanese superstar Hiroshi Takano. Made available the world’s first music downloads via CompuServe. Goes on tour in Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band.

1993
Produced Paul Shaffer’s World’s Most Dangerous Party.

1994
Released The Individualist, again under the name TR-i, on an Enhanced CD, with interactive content including a video game. Scored the Jim Carrey film Dumb and Dumber. Utopia reunites for a tour of Japan, yielding Utopia ReDux, a live album and video.

1995
Embarks on the world’s first interactive concert tour, in the round, allowing the audience to determine the running order, create live video, and play instruments. Memorialized on the live concert video “No World Order”.

1996
Contributed vocals and vocal arrangements to Celine Dion’s Falling Into You.

1997
Issued With A Twist, a hits collection in the bossa nova style. Toured theaters with a replica of a tiki bar. Live shows featured audience members plucked from the crowd to sit onstage.

1998
Released Up Against It demos and Somewhere, Anywhere: The Unreleased Tracks. Started PatroNet, the world’s first artist-direct music subscription service. Created proprietary browser for the service.

1999
Produced Splender’s Halfway Down the Sky. Again tours with Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band.

2000
Released One Long Year, collecting the PatroNet tracks previously available exclusively to online subscribers. Produced Bad Religion (New America), 12 Rods (Separation Anxieties)

2004
Released Liars. Toured the US and Europe. Appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, performing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” with Joe Jackson and the string quartet Ethel.

2006
Joined The New Cars, releasing It’s Alive! and touring with that band and his own.

2008
Released Arena. Launched official MySpace page. Toured US and Europe.

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