TODD RUNDGREN'S FIRST STUDIO ALBUM IN 4 YEARS, ARENA, OUT SEPTEMBER 30:
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 30 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 22. 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.

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1. Mad
2. Afraid
3. Mercenary
4. Gun
5. Courage
6. Weakness
7. Strike
8. Pissin
9. Today
10. Bardo
11. Mountaintop
12. Panic
13. Manup

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EZ6OLE/?tag=imwan-20

This sounds promising. Maybe playing with the New Cars got Todd in a rockin' mood. I've grown tired of all his guises over the past 20 yrs. or so.

Todd is one of my favorites. I kind of like the way he has bounced from one style to another in his career. It kept things interesting. As long as the songwriting quality is there I'm not too concerned with what instrumentation he uses. I thought Liars, his album four years ago, was one of the best things he had done in a long time. I hope this one is just as good.

Agree Glenn, I really enjoyed "Liars". Bill's remark about rockin with the New Cars is spot on as well. Playing those great tracks too a receptive audience must have recharged his batteries.
Good for him, good for all of us.

Rick A.

Yes, this has to be good news. Todd hasn't done anything worthwhile in years.
This sounds promising and I also agree that the New Cars got him back in front of larger audiences again and he's ready to rock.

Bump ~ added cover art to the first post.

I don't know about that cover. Hope the music is better.

This interesting item appeared on Todd's MySpace page around the third week of July:

"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."

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This makes it sound like the in-store CD ("brick-and-mortar release") will have both of these bonuses, but there's no mention of either on the Amazon page...unless "eventually be bundled" means they're going to re-release it down the road with the extras to get us to re-buy it.

Now, they wouldn't do something like that, would they...

Todd doing Robert Johnson? Sort of a stretch, I think.

A very in-depth look at this album with Rundgren can be found here...

http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/tod ... t-08/90917

Doing Johnson can be tricky for any artist.I think Clapton's Mr J album was awful, while Rory Block did a nice job with her "The Lady and Mr Johnson".

Maybe he won't try to ape the originals, and will do a kind of Stones"Love In Vain" or Cream's "Crossroads".
Anyway, it should be interesting.

I thought "Liars" was bad, but holy God is "Arena" a pathetic joke. Simply horrendous. Also, the performance when this album came out on Letterman frightened me. I thought they were kidding. At least I hope they were. What happened to this man? At least he's still producing here and there.