retroblog.net

Dates for the upcoming Yes tour have finally surfaced. As I mentioned previously, the band won’t be led by Jon Anderson who is still recuperating from a respiratory illness. As it turns out, Anderson was left out of the loop concerning this new tour and lineup. He wrote on his myspace blog:
..Disappointed that, with the exception of one phone call from Alan, none of the guys have been in touch since my illness, just to find out how I am doing, and how we will foresee the future for YES. And disappointed that they were not willing to wait till 2009 when I’m fully recovered.
…Of course I wish the guys all the best in their ’solo’ work, but I just wish this could have been done in a more gentlemanly fashion. After all YES is a precious musical band. This is not YES on tour…

Disputes among band members and line-up changes are nothing new for a band like Yes but it forces fans to decide where their loyalties lie. Will fans side with Anderson and skip out on seeing this new lineup? and how about the general public? Will they be duped into thinking that the group out on tour this winter is the “classic” lineup? The current advertisements and websites like ticketmaster aren’t that forthcoming with band member details.

Now that I know that Anderson isn’t all that thrilled with the group going out on tour without him, I’ll probably pass on seeing the band this time around.

Here are the tour dates for those that are interested.
Nov 4 Tuesday Hamilton, ON Hamilton Place Theatre
Nov 5 Wednesday Toronto, ON Massey Hall
Nov 7 Friday Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Nov 8 Saturday Williamsport, PA Community Arts Center
Nov 9 Sunday Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
Nov 11 Tuesday Hershey, PA Hershey Theater
Nov 12 Wednesday Columbus, OH LC Pavilion
Nov 14 Friday New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
Nov 15 Saturday Asbury Park, NJ Paramount Theater
Nov 16 Sunday Baltimore, MD Rams Head
Nov 18 Tuesday Reading, PA Soverign PAC
Nov 19 Wednesday Richmond, VA The National
Nov 21 Friday Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Casino Event Center
Nov 22 Saturday Westbury, NY Theatre at Westbury
Nov 23 Sunday Albany, NY Times Union Center
Nov 25 Tuesday Cleveland, OH House of Blues
Nov 26 Wednesday Detroit, MI The Fillmore Detroit
Nov 28 Friday Cincinnati, OH Taft Theatre
Nov 29 Saturday Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theatre
Nov 30 Sunday Bloomington, IL US Cellular Coliseum
Dec 2 Tuesday St. Louis, MO The Pageant
Dec 3 Wednesday Chicago, IL The Chicago Theatre
Dec 6 Saturday Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues
Dec 7 Sunday Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
Dec 9 Tuesday Louisville, KY Palace Theatre
Dec 10 Wednesday Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
Dec 14 Sunday Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live
Dec 16 Tuesday Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall
Dec 17 Wednesday Miami, FL Seminole Hard Rock Casino

Yes – In the Present Tour 2008
Chris Squire – Bass
Alan White – Drums
Steve Howe – Guitar
Oliver Wakeman – Keyboards
Benoit David – Lead Vocals
—

A number of folks emailed me this past week to let me know how much they enjoyed the Todd Rundgren CD giveaway. I had a lot of fun running the contest and hope to do more giveaways here on this blog in the future. In the meantime, you may want to check out NoblePR’s website for a chance to win a copy of Cooking Vinyl’s UK promo CD of Todd Rundgren’s single “Strike”.
The CDs are pretty rare with only 1,000 of these made. All you have to do is email NoblePR with the answer to this Rundgren TRivia question:

Todd Rundgren’s drummer, Prairie Prince, used to play for which rock band-
1. Grand Funk Railroad
2. The Tubes
3. The Pursuit of Happiness
4. Bourgeois Tagg

Head on over to NoblePR to send in your answer.

Forever linked to Jesse’s Girl and General Hospital’s Dr. Noah Drake, Rick Springfield has spent the bulk of his career trying to find his way out from under the shadows of his early eighties success. Springfield has managed to release a number of albums over the years since his eighties heyday and is now out promoting his new release, Venus in Overdrive. Recorded over 32 days, Springfield along with longtime bassist Matt Bissonette, crafted a contemporary sounding album complete with a pet peeve of mine, the dreaded autotune. I’m not exactly sure why Springfield used the vocal enhancer but its tell-tale digital artifacts are all over this record. From what I’ve seen, Springfield can in fact sing in tune so my guess is that the “autotune effect” was used to give the record a modern sound, sort of akin to all the other autotuned bands on the radio (i.e. Nickelback, Paramore, Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne). I’m fine with minimal and tasteful use of autotune to correct for pitch imperfections, but in cases like this where the artist cranks up the autotune setting and leaves it on for the majority of the songs, it’s simply NOT acceptable. Springfield’s vocals just don’t sound natural to me on this album and really brings down the level of enjoyment here. But autotune isn’t the only problem on Venus in Overdrive. At the beginning of several songs, Bissonette and Springfield chose to use sound effects i.e. gunshots, news reports, clock ticking, children playing, like it’s 1985 or something!??!?! adding sound effects to albums have long gone out of style since the Fairlight sampler days back in the mid-eighties. Plus, the sound effects aren’t even essential here and the songs would have been better without them. I mean, come on, Rick, if you’re going to use a sample of a clock-ticking, you should at least match the ticking of the clock with the tempo of the song!!!??!! That’s simple common sense in my book! The opening song, “What’s Victoria’s Secret?” is great but for most of the time listening to the album is like playing “guess the influence” game. For instance, “Oblivious” sounds to me like Springfield doing Coldplay. “Time Stand Still” and “Mr. PC” are essentially Foo Fighters. “She” and “Nothing is Ever Lost” are homages to the Beatles, and so on. So what this all amounts to is Rick Springfield trying desperately to sound relevant. In fact, Venus Autotune in Overdrive is basically the musical equivalent of “Extreme Makeover: Rick Springfield edition”.

retroGrade: C-

Listen to Oblivious by Rick Springfield

Rick Springfield – Venus In OverDrive
released – July 2008
record label – New Door, AngelMilk Records

TrackList:
1. What’s Victoria’s Secret? 3:15
2. I’ll Miss That Someday 3:20
3. Venus in Overdrive 2:48
4. One Passenger 4:29
5. Oblivious 3:52
6. 3 Warning Shots 3:25
7. Time Stand Still 4:16
8. God Blinked (Swing It Sister) 3:31
9. Mr. PC 2:41
10. She 4:18
11. Nothing Is Ever Lost 1:40
12. Saint Sahara 3:58
all tracks written by Matt Bissonette and Rick Springfield

As with most bloggers, I’m always on the look out for content ideas. For a blog to succeed and become popular- fresh, relevant and original content is constantly required. But since I’ve got a full time day job, typing out posts for the blog once I get home sometimes isn’t all that appealing. It sure would be a whole lot easier if I were able dictate what I want to say and let someone else type it out for me. Thoughts and ideas can come in a flash and at times I find myself struggling to keep up and get things down in written form. And if I’m not at the keyboard, those thoughts and ideas that would have been perfect for my blog end up fading into the ether instead. That’s why I’ve been looking into Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Standard. Dragon Naturally Speaking is a speech recognition software that is perfect for bloggers like me that prefer to talk things out rather than type them on a keyboard. The software is so advanced that it rates a 99% accuracy and can transcribe up to 150 words a minute. So those fleeting thoughts and ideas can be immediately captured and converted into words in no time. The bluetooth capabilities and support for handheld devices in the upgraded Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Preferred version would work well in interview situations. The problem I’ve had in the past with spending hours transcribing taped interviews for my blog would be a non-issue using this software. Even technology writer David Pogue raves about the software in his NY Times Review of DNS10.

I think DNS10 would be such a timesaver. With my hands free to do other things, I can see myself multi-tasking while creating a blog post – washing the dishes, scratching that itch on my back, shaving, balancing my checkbook, the possibilities are endless. I can’t wait to try it out first hand. stay tuned.

OK, I guess it’s time to announce the winner of the autographed Todd Rundgren CD. But first I just have to say that I had a blast reading through all of your entries. Thanks to all those that participated in this CD drawing. There’s no question that Todd Rundgren has a rich and deep catalog of songs and so it was fun seeing the variety of favorites people submitted this past week. I thought it’d be interesting to tabulate everyone’s favorites and post an overall Top Ten list of the most requested songs. …You know, just in case Todd ever wanders by my blog to see what his fans are clamoring for. ..yeah, I KNOW it’s highly unlikely. but hey, a fan can dream, right?

so here are the overall Top Ten songs that fans would love for Todd Rundgren to perform in concert:

1. The Last Ride
2. Fair Warning
3. Parallel Lines
4. Utopia Theme
5. Don’t You Ever Learn?
6. We Gotta Get You A Woman
7. World Wide Epiphany
8. Fade Away
9. Just One Victory
and TIED for the 10th spot on the list- Change Myself, Love is the Answer, When the Shit Hits the Fan/Sunset Blvd.

I received a total of 129 entries for the CD drawing. I numbered all the posted comments sequentially in order of appearance and then went over to Random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 129. The website generated the number #94. And so the winner of the autographed Todd Rundgren Arena CD is…

Chris B.

Congratulations! You should be receiving an email from me. If you don’t find a message from me in your inbox, please go ahead and email me your mailing address via my contact page. I’ll be forwarding your address on to Todd’s management. They are planning to get Todd to sign the CD during the October U.S. leg of the tour so you should be receiving the CD sometime after that.

As always, support Todd by seeing him live at one of his upcoming shows. If he’s not scheduled in your neck of the woods yet, why not try calling one of your local concert promoters to demand a Todd show near you!!! yeah, let’s be proactive!

10/01/08 Seattle, WA Triple Door
10/04/08 Glen Ellen, CA Cohn Charity Music Festival
10/06/08 Chicago, IL Park West
10/07/08 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre
10/09/08 Morristown, NJ Community Theatre
10/10/08 Pittsburgh, PA The Rex
10/11/08 Tarrytown, NY Music Hall
10/13/08 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theatre
10/15/08 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
11/06/08 Manchester, UK Academy 2
11/07/08 Edinburgh, UK The Picture House
11/09/08 Copenhagen, Denmark Amager Bio
11/10/08 Helsinki, Finland House of Culture
11/12/08 Gothenburg, Sweden Tragarn
11/13/08 Malmo, Sweden Kulturbolaget
11/15/08 Eindhoven, Netherlands TROMP International Music Festival
11/16/08 Bonn, Germany Harmonie
11/18/08 Milan, Italy Rolling Stone
11/20/08 Paris, France Trabendo
11/22/08 Norwich, UK Waterfront
11/23/08 London, UK The Forum
12/17/08 Alexandria, VA Birchmere
12/19/08 Bay Shore, NY YMCA Boulton Center
12/20/08 Norfolk, CT Infinity Hall
12/23/08 Woodstock, NY Bearsville Theater
12/26/08 New York, NY Blender Theater at Gramercy
12/27/08 New York, NY Blender Theater at Gramercy
12/30/08 Annapolis, MD Rams Head On Stage

(more…)

After more than a decade, Extreme is back with a brand new album titled Saudades de Rock. Their 1992 release III Sides to Every Story was a well-crafted rock classic so I’ve been looking forward to hearing this new release. Fortunately for fans the band sounds reinvigorated and ready to prove that they can indeed still rock. Songs like “Run” and “Comfortably Dumb” show that Nuno Bettencourt and Gary Cherone can still write great melodic hooks on top of heavy, meaty guitar riffs. The bulk of the tunes on the album kept my interest for the most part but I have to say that the weak link in the band is Cherone’s obnoxious voice. Frankly listening to his voice is like shooting needles into my ears. It wasn’t as noticable back in the early nineties but sadly the tone of his voice has gotten worse with the passage of time. Bettencourt along with bassist Pat Badger and new drummer Kevin Figueiredo sound tight and the instrumental portions of the album are top notched. It’s just Cherone alone that grates on the nerves. The problem is most evident on “Last Hour” where the vocalist carries the first half of the song. The whole time, I’m just begging for Bettencourt to mask Cherone’s horrid sound with a distorted marshall amp turned up to “11″. something, anything but Cherone’s voice. please! and when the rest of the band does kick back in, Cherone starts screaming the words like some poor soul being choked to death. my God! oh the humanity!! The song should be required to come with a warning label. It’s that painful. In fact, here ya go. listen for yourself.
Last Hour [excerpt]

And don’t get me started on Cherone’s falsetto. gah. He just had to waste a perfectly decent piano based ballad, “Ghost”, by using his god-awful falsetto all over it. damn!
Ghost [excerpt]

You know, I love Bettencourt’s guitar playing but it’s hard to completely enjoy it at times with Cherone in the mix. man, if only there was a way to mute the vocals and simply listen to the band rock out on their own. It’d definitely improve the enjoyment of this record by leaps and bounds.

retroGrade: C

—
Extreme – Saudades de Rock
Released: August 2008
Record Label: Open E Records

TrackList:
1. Star
2. Comfortably Dumb
3. Learn to Love
4. Take Us Alive
5. Run
6. Last Hour
7. Flower Man
8. King of the Ladies
9. Ghost
10. Slide
11. Interface
12. Sunrise
13. Peace (Saudade)
—

To celebrate the release of Todd Rundgren’s long-awaited studio album, Arena (in stores September 30th), I’ve got a special treat for all you Todd fans! One lucky RetroBlog reader will be receiving the new Arena CD signed by none other than Todd Rundgren himself! That’s right, an autographed Arena CD!! All you have to do to register for the giveaway is to post a reply right here on this site with your name, email address and a list of 5 songs that you would personally LOVE to hear Todd perform in concert. I thought it would be interesting to see what all your favorites are. The songs can be from any era of his career and doesn’t have to be something that Todd normally performs. I will be selecting the winner at random and will be contacted via email. The deadline for the giveaway is Tuesday September 23rd at Midnight EST. – so what are you waiting for? Post a comment NOW! good luck!

NOTE: By participating in this RetroBlog contest, you agree to allow RetroBlog to post the winner’s name and city on this site. I will pass along the winner’s mailing address to Todd Rundgren’s management who will be mailing out the autographed CD. The CD will be mailed out sometime after the official release date. Retroblog will not use your email or mailing address for any other purpose. This giveaway was made possible by – Hi Fi Recordings in association with Cooking Vinyl and Todd’s management.

oh, by the way, here’s my list of songs I’d personally love to see Todd perform live:
1) Parallel Lines – probably my all time favorite Todd song. The “Up Against It” version, especially.
2) If I Have to Be Alone – amazing vocal performance on 2nd Wind. I would love to see him do this one up close and in person.
3) Just One Victory – his current show closer. always a favorite.
4) Worldwide Epiphany – Rundgren’s studio version pales in comparison to what this sounds like live.
5) Mated – Yes, call me sappy. but it’s another classic that I would love to see Todd do.

—
- To read my track by track review of Rundgren’s Arena CD – click here.

- To pre-order the Arena album on Amazon.com – click here. Order multiple copies to give to your friends and co-workers!

- For those in the U.K., you can order directly from Cooking Vinyl.

- And for the latest on Todd Rundgren, check out his myspace page or Roger Linder’s TR Connection.
—
**UPDATE**: The CD contest is now closed and the announcement of the winner can be found here.

Watching Garth Jennings’ Son of Rambow was a complete joy for me. Jennings seemed to have lifted elements from previous film favorites like “Stand By Me”, “Be Kind Rewind” and even the TV series “Freaks and Geeks” but also wisely injected enough originality in the story to keep the film from being dismissed as some sort of copycat. The story focuses on young Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) who’s family is devoted to a religious group called The Plymouth Brethren. Proudfoot encounters school troublemaker Lee Carter (Will Poulter) one day and surprisingly winds up becoming great friends. A good chunk of the movie involves the two of them attempting to make a film to enter into the BBC Youth Filmmaker Competition. Earlier in the story, Proudfoot gets profoundly changed after viewing a bootlegged copy of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo at Carter’s place and sets out to film himself as the “son of Rambo”.

There are some many great things about the movie from the early-80’s backdrop to the Michel Gondry-like segments that blur the lines between imagination and reality. Take for instance the “flying dog” scene where a statue of a dog is attached to a kite and flown in the air. It’s totally unbelievable but very endearing nevertheless and one of the many memorable scenes in the film.

The ending scene pays off with a viewing of the kids’ finished film complete with Carter’s reaction to seeing it at the local movie theater. Director Jennings did a superb job of reigning things in and not let scenes like this become mawkish or manipulative.

Son of Rambo is a pleasant surprise. It’s a small indie film that didn’t get the sort of attention it deserves. The film is absolutely a “must see” in my book. Be sure to check it out when you get a chance.
—
Son of Rambow
written and Directed by Garth Jennings
released: 2008, Paramount Vantage (U.S.)
—
Watch the son of rambow movie trailer

—

I sometimes think back on what I left behind at church – my friends, fellow bandmates, my faith. I’m still not totally sure if I made the right decision but I know I couldn’t stay. It just didn’t feel right to me to see a pastor living a relatively lavish lifestyle and driving around in a mercedes convertible. the church felt more like a business than a place of worship. Since I was part of the band for close to a decade there, I guess I was privileged in witnessing more of what goes on behind the scenes than the average church goer. And what I saw wasn’t about the holy spirit or nurturing the congregation. It was more focused on networking with the more prominent members of the community including local celebrities, athletes, politicians and the wealthy. Essentially the guideline was to latch on to the ones with higher profiles and the rest in turn will follow like sheep. So, it felt like the ones (like me) who didn’t have the money, power or celebrity status, were left on the wayside. And now that I’ve moved on, I’m wondering about the ones that stayed behind. Don’t they notice the corruption and the skewed preference for the wealthy and the elite? what about the downtrodden, the weak, the sick and the poor? Do they have their place in the megachurch? I guess, “the weak and the poor” can’t pay for the pastors’ McMansions and luxury vehicles like “the rich” can. and where is God in all this? Like today’s song of the day says – “Divine love never fails, mercy will prevail, I wanna swear it’s true but it’s hard to believe it.” It’s definitely the song of my heart.

Song of the day: Mercy Will Prevail by The Choir
I wanna swear it’s true but it’s hard to defend it
I know it comes from You and I don’t comprehend it
Love never fails, mercy will prevail
I wanna swear it’s true but it’s hard to defend it

In the chill of a cruel word
In the nest of a wounded bird
In the shadow of doubt, in the smoke
In the smoke of a torch blown out
In the flight of a sharp stone
In the rubble where children moan
In our own apathy, in the blood
In the river at Calvary
- Mercy Will Prevail (Hindalong, Byrd, Daugherty, Chandler)

(more…)

An official announcement has yet to be seen from Yes’ management (as of 10Sep08) but some members of the YesFans forums firmly believe that a changeover in the legendary prog-rock group has taken place. Change is nothing new to Yes but replacing lead singer Jon Anderson is a *major* one to say the least. Issues with Anderson’s health has restricted his ability to actively tour with the group so bassist Chris Squire was forced to look elsewhere to keep YES alive. I’m not sure how this will all go down, having an “Anderson-less” Yes out on the road. You may remember the last time Yes went out without Anderson (the Trevor Horn led Drama Tour back in 1980) and it wasn’t pretty. Hopefully management will have a strategic gameplan in place to make this new phase of YES go more smoothly this time around.

So, here’s the NEW Yes lineup:
Chris Squire – Bass
Alan White – Drums
Steve Howe – Guitar
Oliver Wakeman – Keyboards
Benoit David – Lead Vocals

check out Benoit David performing with Yes Tribute band – Close to the Edge on youtube:

—
update 11Sep08: I guess it’s official now!
BBC News: Yes relaunch tour with understudy
Associated Press: Rock band Yes to tour with replacement singer

—
(more…)