todd rundgren
Todd Rundgren Drafts The Roots, Rivers Cuomo, Sparks for New Album
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Todd Rundgren has enlisted The Roots, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, Sparks, The Lemon Twigs, Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, Crowded Houses’ Neil Finn, guitar legend Steve Vai and artist/producer Thomas Dolby for his new album, Space Force. The project will be released Oct. 14 on Cleopatra Records. The first single, “Puzzle” featuring David Bowie/King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, is out now. Jumping off from the duet-oriented vibe of Rundgren’s prior album, 2017’s White Knight, Space Force finds Rundgren helping his collaborators “bring rarities and never-released material to life,” according to a statement. Beyond the new album, Rundgren and Belew will team on the upcoming Celebrating David Bowie tour, with help from Scrote, Jeffrey Gaines, Spacehog’s Royston Langdon, ...
The 50 Best Albums of 1972
Last year, when helping assemble SPIN‘s 50 Best Albums of 1971, I wondered if that year could have been popular music’s absolute peak. Now I’m asking myself that same question all over again. As I built a spreadsheet for 1972, gathering our writers’ votes alongside my own weird choices, I was once again struck by how many bronze-cast classics came out that year: LPs from David Bowie, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers Band, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Roxy Music, and on and on. Run down basically every genre – glam, soul, prog, art rock, Southern rock, metal, folk, MPB — and you’ll find the very best shit, whether eternally famous or sadly obscure. (My poor spreadsheet, swelling each day, originally had hundreds of worthy records. But you have to start chopping eventually.) Here’s wher...
Todd Rundgren, Dana Carvey, and Hal Willner in Conversation: From Our 1993 SNL Issue
This story originally appeared in the February 1993 issue of Spin, which was partially written and guest-edited by members of the SNL cast. Read interviews and stories from comedy icons of the era–Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Tim Meadows, Lorne Michaels and others–in our package of highlighted stories from the issue. The word genius is thrown around ever so loosely nowadays, but in the case of Todd Rundgren, anyone familiar with his work would agree that he fits that category. For almost three decades, Rundgren has been a major originator in the arts, from his early days leading the influential Philly-based band Nazz through his pop hits period (“Hello It’s Me,” “I Saw the Light”), to his pioneering videos in the early...
The 50 Best Live Albums of the 1970s
The concert industry exploded in the 1970s, and the live album, a stopgap project once reserved for only the biggest artists, became a compulsory ritual and a pivotal moment for many artists. Live albums captured legendarily loud bands like The Who and The Ramones in their natural element. Once obscure regional acts like Bob Seger, KISS and Cheap Trick exploded into the mainstream with live albums. The Band, The Stooges, and Velvet Underground put their final gigs on vinyl. Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young (as his ongoing archive series shows), and Jackson Browne recorded entire sets of new songs onstage. The Grateful Dead released several official live albums (and continue to do so) that only made fans want to bootleg shows on their own more. With the 50th anniversary of a landmark live album, Th...
Foo Fighters, Jay Z, The Go-Go’s, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and Tina Turner Inducted Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
And they’re in. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced their inductees for 2021, and it’s a doozy. Foo Fighters, Jay Z, The Go-Go’s, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and Tina Turner will round out the performer category. Additionally, in the Musical Excellence category, LL Cool J, Billy Preston and Randy Rhoads get the call to the hall while Kraftwerk, Gil Scott Heron and Charley Patton were tapped in the Early Influences category. Clarence Avant will be inducted as the recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award which honors non-performing individuals. The Foos, Jay Z and The Go-Go’s were first-time nominees. Late last year, we wrote about why the Go-Go’s should be inducted into the Rock Hall and spoke with the band’s Jane Wiedlin earlier this year about their new documentary and her thoughts o...
Rock Hall of Fame 2021 Nominations: The Snubs, Surprises, and Long Shots
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame traditionally announces its annual slate of nominees in October and narrows it down to a set of official inductees in December. But like just about everything else, the Rock Hall’s schedule was disrupted last year by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the May induction ceremony concert delayed and downsized to a taped HBO special that aired in November. But this week, the gatekeepers in Cleveland finally announced the slate of 16 acts that will be narrowed down later this year to the five or seven artists who encompass the Class of 2021: Mary J. BligeKate BushDevoFoo FightersThe Go-Go’sIron MaidenJay-ZChaka KhanCarole KingFela KutiLL Cool JNew York DollsRage Against the MachineTodd RundgrenTina TurnerDionne Warwick Diversity has never been a particular strength of t...
Todd Rundgren and Rivers Cuomo Join Forces on Ska Song ‘Down With The Ship’
Todd Rundgren has teamed up with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo for a new single, “Down With The Ship.” The duo shared writing and vocal roles on the track, which draws inspiration from reggae and African rhythms. Rundgren, in a statement, describes the song as “just a little parable about what happens when you align yourself with a treacherous leader.” Check out the collab below. [embedded content] The tune is the second installment from Rundgren’s forthcoming album Space Force, which is being released to digital platforms as individual singles, each with its own unique artwork, every three or four weeks. The entire album is slated for an early 2021 release. Last year, Rundgren performed a cover of the Weezer hit “Hash Pipe,” which you can hear here. You Deserve to Make Money Even When...
