Gnarls Barkley - Storm Coming
Run towards the hills to avoid the high flood
I can do a dance that will make the sky cry blood

Robert Cray - Forecast (Calls for Pain)
I can feel the thunder, I can see the lightning
I can feel the pain, Oh it’s gonna rain

Billy Joel - Storm Front
There’s a storm front coming
White water running and the pressure is low
Storm front coming, small craft warning on the radio

Asia - Who will Stop the Rain?
Who tells the wind which way to blow?
I wonder who will stop the rain
The rocks that hold the secrets, they don’t know
So who can stop the rain?

Big Country - The Storm
Through forest and moor as the clouds filled the sky
The storm broke upon us with fury and flame
Both hunters and hunted washed out in the rain

the Alarm - Eye of the Hurricane
Oh eye of the hurricane
I walk away in the wind and the rain
Into the eye of the hurricane of my life

*Bonus track*
Todd Rundgren - Second Wind (live take from the July 12, 1990 recording sessions at the Palace of Fine Arts in S.F.)
Blow like cyclone my second wind
Blow like typhoon my second wind
Blow like tempest my second wind!!

- Brian Wilson opens up about life, lyrics.. - It’s still hard to believe fragile, ol’ Brian Wilson is still releasing new material. I’ve got Wilson’s new disc and will be reviewing it soon. stay tuned.

- David Duchovny battles porn addiction - oh come on! porn? is that even a real problem? I suspect Duchovny’s just doing some damage control to distract the media from his box office bomb, X Files: I Want to Believe.

- Peter Noble of NoblePR recently forwarded a photo of the original promotional poster of Martha and the Muffins‘ 1983 album Danseparc. View the photo of the poster, here. and if you haven’t already read it, check out my review of their recent reissue of Danseparc.

- Humble Bob stuffs himself with 11 pounds of Chili Spaghetti. - ugh. my stomach is upset just from reading this!! and where does it all go after the competition is over? on second thought, maybe I shouldn’t ask…

- Freebie of the day : a free subscription to Tennis magazine. TENNIS is your complete guide to the game of tennis - one that Instructs, Informs, and Inspires. It is for active players of any level and age. Every issue of TENNIS includes lessons in print featuring world-famous pros, courtwise tips on play and strategy and tactics from USPTA pros. Plus, you’ll get interviews with top players, reports on new equipment, tennis schools, resorts and much, much more.
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But here on the other side of the Atlantic, there hasn’t been any noticeable activity from U.S. record label - HiFi Recordings. Well, actually, that’s not TOTALLY true. The lawyers representing the record company recently banned Todd fans from trading all Rundgren related live recordings on the popular online website - Dime-a-Dozen. For some odd reason, they believe that trading fan-made live recordings will negatively affect the sales of official studio releases. Obviously they’ve been mis-informed.

But other than that, we haven’t seen any type of promotion from the record label as of yet. And it’s less than a month away from the U.S. release date!! Thankfully Rundgren has a great network of fans online where the latest info can still be disseminated in a timely and efficient manner. and that definitely helps when HiFi Recordings won’t step up to the plate. …well, .. they still have some time left to turn it around…

Let’s get the promotion/marketing team up and running, HiFi!! Let’s see some action! and while I’ve got your ear, how about showing the fans a bit more respect?

as always, check out TR Connection for the latest news on all things Todd.

And if you haven’t read it yet, check out my track by track review of Rundgren’s Arena album

Also, catch Rundgren live on tour:
Wed 10/01/08 Seattle, WA Triple Door
Sat 10/04/08 Glen Ellen, CA Cohn Charity Music Festival
Mon 10/06/08 Chicago, IL Park West
Thu 10/09/08 Morristown, NJ Community Theatre
Fri 10/10/08 Pittsburgh, PA The Rex
Sat 10/11/08 Tarrytown, NY Music Hall
Mon 10/13/08 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theatre
Wed 10/15/08 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
Thu 11/06/08 Manchester, UK Academy 2
Fri 11/07/08 Edinburgh, UK The Picture House
Sun 11/09/08 Copenhagen, Denmark Amager Bio
Mon 11/10/08 Helsinki, Finland House of Culture
Wed 11/12/08 Gothenburg, Sweden Traddgaard
Thu 11/13/08 Malmo, Sweden Kulturbolaget
Sat 11/15/08 Eindhoven, Netherlands TROMP International Music Festival
Sun 11/16/08 Bonn, Germany Harmonie
Tue 11/18/08 Milan, Italy Rolling Stone
Thu 11/20/08 Paris, France Trabendo
Sat 11/22/08 Norwich, UK Waterfront
Sun 11/23/08 London, UK The Forum
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2) Press (the Hugh Padgham mix) - McCartney’s 1986 album Press to Play holds a special place in my heart but really, did he actually think this song would be a successful single? come on - “Oklahoma was never like this? oh it was never like this!” groan. Is this really the man that wrote “Yesterday”?

3) Vanilla Sky - this is Macca just being lazy. He ripped off his own minor chord progression from his 1993 single “Biker Like an Icon”. Biker was just plain horrid. and so is this song. I guess Cameron Crowe didn’t have the balls to tell Macca that this song was shit.

4) Spies like Us (the Art of Noise Mix) - ouch. The record label commissioned numerous remixes for this song. obviously they were hoping one of the remixers would know what to do with this song. I think the Art of Noise did a pretty good job considering the source material.

5) Freedom - It was great seeing Macca being so supportive with the rebuilding/healing efforts after 9/11 but he should have spent more time on this song before releasing it. He probably spent less than five minutes writing this lil’ ditty. it’s painful to listen to now.

6) P.S. Love Me Do - yeah, you know dance music and Macca go so well together. not. So recording a dance version of “P.S. I Love You” and “Love Me Do” was an obvious choice, right? right? Bueller? Bueller?

as always, all tracks are hosted on savefile.com. they will only be available for a limited time. so, grab ‘em while you can.
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get your Paul McCartney fix at amazon.com -

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It’s hard to believe that it has been 11 years since ABC’s last studio release but Martin Fry is indeed back with a brand new album titled, Traffic. I’m one of those fans that faithfully followed them throughout the 80’s but lost track of them after their lackluster album Up back in 1989. So, it’s great to hear that Fry is keeping the flame alive with the new record along with a busy touring schedule to promote it.
Listening to the new album, I was pleased to hear that Fry and company have retained much of the classic sound that the group was known for back in their heyday. The record starts out strong with some well-produced material but by the second half, the songs unfortunately become non-descript with nothing memorable beyond the seventh track. But I have to give Fry, David Palmer and producer/co-writer Chuck Kentis credit for coming up with half an album’s worth of strong material. “Sixteen Seconds to Choose” kicks off Traffic with muscular drum playing and a fun distorted guitar riff. The song sort of harks back to the “That was then, This is Now” -era of the band. “The Very First Time” was wisely chosen as the first single off the album and it sounds very much like an updated reconstruction of “When Smokey Sings” (from the album Alphabet City) with its string arrangements and laidback motown groove. Other notable songs include “Love is Strong”, “Caroline” and “Ride”. The title track, “One Way Traffic”, is my personal favorite off the album. It’s got a Niles Rodgers/Chic-style groove complete with funky rhythm guitar licks and intricate hi-hat work. As a matter of fact, the song reminds me of Duran Duran’s “Notorious” which isn’t that surprising since Nile Rodgers was all over that song as producer and guitar player. But unfortunately Fry and company aren’t able to sustain that high level of songwriting throughout the whole record. as I mentioned earlier, the latter half of the record is pretty lackluster. but that being said, it’s still great to see new material from this ol’ 80’s band. I’m a bit sad that I couldn’t make it to see the Regeneration Tour last night but hopefully Martin Fry/ABC will be back touring the U.S. next summer.

Tracklist:
1 Sixteen Seconds to Choose 3:11
2 The Very First Time 3:38
3 Ride 3:37
4 Love Is Strong 4:06
5 Caroline 4:45
6 Life Shapes You 3:49
7 One Way Traffic 3:44
8 Way Back When 4:12
9 Validation 3:57
10 Lose Yourself 4:02
11 Fugitives 4:02
12 Minus Love 4:07
all tracks composed by Martin Fry, Chuck Kentis and David Palmer

listen to an excerpt of ABC’s “The Very First Time”:
[Please see actual post to listen to audio]
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for more info, check out the official ABC website.
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