Todd Rundgren 4 - The Second Disc

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Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Bill Wyman, Earth Wind and Fire, Martha and the Vandellas, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, The Go-Go's, The Miracles, The Replacements, The Supremes, Todd Rundgren

Release Round-Up: Week of March 18

March 18, 2016 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up featuring a host of titles on CD and vinyl! Elvis Presley, The Album Collection (RCA/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) To coincide with the 60th anniversary of his signing to RCA, Elvis Presley’s The Album Collection is a whopping 60-disc box set containing 57 RCA albums released during Presley’s lifetime (many with bonus tracks added) and 3 bonus discs of rarities, one disc each for the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. A 300-page hardcover book accompanies this landmark set. You’ll find more details here. Watch…

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CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul

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Elvis Presley, Garry Tallent, Julian Slade, The O'Jays, Todd Rundgren, a-ha

Hello, It’s Todd: Purple Pyramid Collects Classic Concerts On “Box O’ Todd”

March 7, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments

There appears to be no shortage of live releases from the one and only Todd Rundgren in the pipeline. On March 25, Edsel has slated For Lack of Honest Work, a 3-CD, 43-song compendium spanning the years 1971-2006. This appears to be a reissue of the box set issued on the MicroWerks label in 2010, albeit with the addition of newly-penned liner notes by Paul Myers. The same date, Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint will offer Live at the Forum – London 1994 as part of its ongoing Todd Rundgren Archive Series. …

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Box Sets, CD

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Release Round-Up: Week of February 26

February 26, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up filled with deluxe reissues on vinyl and CD, box sets, new releases from veteran artists, and more! Michael Jackson, Off the Wall (Epic/Legacy) CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada CD/BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The King of Pop’s 1979 Epic solo debut Off the Wall is revived for 2016 with an additional DVD or BD of Spike Lee’s acclaimed new documentary about the making of the album, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall. No additional audio tracks…

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Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, DVD, Digital Download, SACD, Vinyl

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Jazz, Pop, Rock

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Billy Cobham, Bonnie Raitt, Burt Bacharach, David Bowie, Emmit Rhodes, Herbie Hancock, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Stephen Sondheim, Todd Rundgren, Willie Nelson

Couldn’t I Just Tell You: Todd Rundgren and Utopia Concert From 1978 Arrives On CD

December 11, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

With unauthorized live releases proliferating in the E.U. drawn from radio broadcasts of variable quality, it’s refreshing to see Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint continue its Todd Rundgren Archive Series featuring concert performances in excellent sound. The latest such release, Live at the Old Waldorf, is drawn from Rundgren and Utopia’s Saturday, August 5, 1978 concert at the San Francisco venue. Recorded for KSAN-FM, this release has been remastered from the original ¼-inch stereo master tapes. The 2-CD volume follows last year’s Live at the Electric Ballroom, recorded just a few months…

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 24

July 24, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 3 Comments

Today’s Release Round-Up features an array of high-resolution music, plus box sets, vintage reissues, live albums and more! Roger Waters, Amused to Death (Remixed Editions) (Columbia/Legacy) Roger Waters revisits his 1992 album Amused to Death, featuring contributions from Don Henley, Rita Coolidge, P.P. Arnold, Andy Fairweather Low and Michael Kamen, in a variety of formats featuring new stereo and 5.1 surround mixes. Read our full coverage here. CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. CD / Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Hybrid SACD: Amazon U.S. TBD / Amazon U.K. Digital download: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2LP 200…

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Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, DVD, Digital Download, SACD, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Pop, Rock

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Joe Walsh, Roger Waters, The Doobie Brothers, The Knack, The Rolling Stones, Todd Rundgren, Utopia, Various Artists

Release Round-Up: Week of May 12

May 12, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! We kick off with a quartet of releases drawing on never-before-released live material! Leonard Cohen, Can’t Forget: A Souvenir of The Grand Tour (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Leonard Cohen offers ten selections – including two songs never previously recorded and a pair of covers – from his recent world tour. Andrew Gold, The Late Show – Live 1978 (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) You’ll say “thank you for being a friend” to Omnivore Recordings for this first-ever release of Andrew Gold’s 1978 concert at West…

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Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

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Country, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Andrew Gold, Buck Owens, David Shire, Dionne Warwick, Drivin' N' Cryin', Henry Mancini, J.D. Souther, Leonard Cohen, Michael Fennelly, Roxette, The Muscle Shoals Horns, Todd Rundgren, Wes Montgomery

Release Round-Up: Week of May 5

May 5, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Oddly, releases were split between yesterday and today, but both days add up to a wealth of titles in nearly every genre! Without a doubt, this is one of the most packed weeks yet this year! Jackie DeShannon, All the Love: The Lost Atlantic Recordings (Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) All the Love–The Lost Atlantic Recordings brings together DeShannon’s entire 1973 Atlantic Records material in one place for the first time, including seven previously unreleased tracks plus her four collaborations with Van Morrison and the…

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Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, DVD, Digital Download, SACD, Vinyl

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Billy Ward and His Dominoes, Herbie Hancock, Jackie DeShannon, Jethro Tull, John Coltrane, John Lodge, Jorge Ben, Julie Andrews, Miles Davis, Nils Lofgren, Perry Como, Todd Rundgren

Review: Todd Rundgren, “Global”

April 10, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Almost two years ago to the day, Todd Rundgren released his 24th studio album, State. The prolific singer-songwriter-producer hasn’t been resting on his laurels in the period since State. He’s maintained a busy touring schedule both solo and with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band, and has contributed to numerous studio projects this year including the progressive collaboration Runddans with Hans-Peter Lindstrøm and Emil Nikolaisen, and Starr’s Postcards from Paradise (on which he co-wrote and performed on the Beatles-quoting title track and also co-wrote “Island in the Sun”). But his most high-profile effort this…

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Reviews

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Pop, Rock

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Release Round-Up: Week of April 7

April 7, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 5 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Who, The Brunswick Singles 1965-1966 (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Who box up replicas of seven early 7-inch singles plus an eighth with The High Numbers’ “Zoot Suit” b/w “I’m the Face” on this deluxe vinyl box set. Read more here. Herman’s Hermits, The 50th Anniversary Anthology (Bear Family) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Bear Family gives the “I’m Into Something Good” and “There’s a Kind of Hush” pop stars the deluxe treatment with this new release featuring 66 tracks (spanning hits, B-sides, rarities…

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Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Folk, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Art Pepper, Bad Company, Brian Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, Dion, Eddie Bo, Garnet Mimms, Grace Slick, Herman's Hermits, Jackie Wilson, Jesse Winchester, Steve Vai, The Who, Todd Rundgren

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Todd Rundgren, “At The BBC 1972-1982”

December 2, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Christmas has come early for Todd Rundgren fans this year with the release by Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint of Todd Rundgren at the BBC: 1972-1982, a handsome new 3-CD/1-DVD box set of live performances drawn from Rundgren’s first decade of rock stardom. The latest release in Esoteric’s Todd Rundgren Archive Series, At the BBC captures the transformation of the ever-evolving artist from precocious pop chameleon to prog-rock adventurer and beyond. 1972’s sprawling Something/Anything announced Rundgren as an artist with whom to be reckoned, following the more modest solo releases Runt and…

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Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews

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Box Sets, CD, DVD

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Classic Rock

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Release Round-Up: Week of December 2

December 2, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

B.J. Thomas, Home Where I Belong/Happy Man (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) B.J. Thomas, You Gave Me Love/Miracle (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Linda Jones, The Complete Atco-Loma-Warner Bros. Recordings (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) The Five Stairsteps, Our Family Portrait/Stairsteps (Expanded Twofer Edition) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) The Unforgiven, The Unforgiven (Expanded Edition) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) Cowboy, 5’ll Getcha Ten (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 14—Boston Music Hall 11/30/73 & 12/2/73 (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Theodore Bikel, Theodore Bikel’s…

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News, Release Round-Up

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Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, DVD

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Folk, Gospel, Pop, R&B/Soul, Soundtracks

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Leonard Bernstein, Pixies, The Five Stairsteps, The Moody Blues, Three Dog Night, Todd Rundgren

Baby Let’s Swing: Edsel Continues Todd Rundgren Deluxe Series

October 8, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Once he wraps up the current leg of Ringo Starr’s sold-out All-Starr Band tour, Todd Rundgren will embark on a series of solo dates billed as “An Unpredictable Evening.” But in fairness, isn’t every solo concert with Rundgren an unpredictable evening? A typical (?) night with Todd could draw upon impeccable AM pop, heavy metal, prog rock, electronica, Gilbert and Sullivan and even bossa nova – and still not present every side of the musical iconoclast. As Rundgren has amassed a back catalogue now totaling 24 studio albums and numerous live releases…

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Shine Her Light: “The Midnight Special” Box Set Arrives In September with Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, ELO, More

August 13, 2014 by Joe Marchese | 9 Comments

Between August 1972 and May 1981, late night television was a little more rockin’. Producer Burt Sugarman’s The Midnight Special followed Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on Friday evenings, welcoming viewers with Johnny Rivers’ rousing rendition of the traditional tune (a Top 20 hit for Rivers in 1965). Over the course of 450 episodes, The Midnight Special presented a staggering array of music’s top talent on network television with most songs performed live for the majority of its run. The program, featuring announcer Wolfman Jack and a variety of guest hosts, premiered as a…

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Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Marvin Gaye, Neil Sedaka, Rupert Holmes, The O'Jays, Todd Rundgren

A Dream Goes On Forever: Vintage Todd Rundgren and Utopia Show Comes To CD

July 1, 2014 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Todd Rundgren has been rather generous of late with his archive, treating fans to a number of live concert recordings on various labels including gigs from 2010 (Todd Rundgren’s Johnson Live), 1990 (Live at the Warfield Theatre, San Francisco) and 1975 (Todd Rundgren’s Utopia Live at Hammersmith Odeon). Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings label continues its Archive Series with the release of Todd Rundgren and Utopia’s 2-CD set Live at the Electric Ballroom: Milwaukee, 23rd October 1978. As longtime Utopia fans will know, Electric Ballroom features the “classic” Utopia line-up that wasn’t yet completed…

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Couldn’t I Just Tell You: Todd Rundgren Goes Deluxe In New Edsel Series

June 3, 2014 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments

On the first side of his fifth LP, Todd Rundgren proclaimed, “A man would simply have to be as mad as a hatter/To try and change the world with a plastic platter…” Yet forty years on, Rundgren is still “trying to make a living off an elpee’s worth of toons.” As such, he’s accumulated quite a back catalogue, for which Demon Music Group’s Edsel label has been the most recent steward. In 2011, Edsel began reissuing Rundgren’s Bearsville catalogue, both solo and with Utopia, and continued onto his Warner Bros. years. Those…

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Todd’s Blues: Rundgren’s Live “Johnson” Captured On CD/DVD Set

January 6, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

When Todd Rundgren’s Johnson was released in April 2011, the singer-songwriter’s longtime fans were forgiven for greeting the album with surprise. While Toddheads have been trained to expect the unexpected, Johnson was a departure from even the artist’s most outré projects. It was Rundgren’s first-ever all-covers album, and its subject wasn’t a songwriter whose influence was readily apparent in Rundgren’s own music. (At various points in his career, a tribute to Laura Nyro or Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell might have seemed more appropriate, though the restlessly creative Rundgren was…

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Robert Johnson, Todd Rundgren

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The Man From Utopia: Edsel Reissues Kasim Sulton’s Solo Debut

April 11, 2013 by Joe Marchese | 4 Comments

This week, Todd Rundgren has released his most recent studio album, State. Edsel Records has recently given longtime Rundgren fans the chance to revisit the first solo LP from one of Todd’s longest-serving sidemen, Kasim Sulton. Edsel’s reissue of 1982’s EMI America album Kasim is available now. Sulton, a bassist and singer, joined Todd Rundgren’s Utopia for its fifth, longest-lasting incarnation. This four-piece Utopia line-up of Rundgren, Sulton, keyboardist Roger Powell and drummer John “Willie” Wilcox, formed in 1976 and released five albums between 1977 and 1982. While in Utopia, Sulton played…

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Special Review: Todd Rundgren, “State”

April 10, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Todd Rundgren has entitled his new studio album State, but the title is a loaded one: is Todd commenting on a state? Is he commenting on the state? What state is he in? What is he stating? And after all, when Todd Rundgren announces a new album, does anybody ever really know which Todd Rundgren to expect? On his first album for the Esoteric Antenna label, Rundgren has taken his inspiration – and not so implausibly, I might add – from the likes of Skrillex and Frank Ocean, placing his voice in…

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Nearly Human, Completely Rundgren: Todd’s 1990 San Francisco Concert Revisited

January 4, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Todd Rundgren’s 1989 album Nearly Human was conceived with a simple mandate by the artist: record a set of songs that could be performed live in an “R&B revue”-style setting. To that end, it was recorded live with few overdubs. Rundgren intuitively knew that these songs needed to be strong enough to stand on their own; stand they did, and do. The album itself was reissued earlier this year by Edsel, and now the Esoteric Recordings label (part of the Cherry Red Group) has premiered a recording from the subsequent tour as…

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 31

July 31, 2012 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

Frank Zappa, Official Reissues #1-13 (Zappa/UMe) The iconoclastic musician’s catalogue is back in print thanks to a new agreement with Universal, and his first 13 albums (most of them newly remastered from the original analog masters) are available today. Joe gave us a great breakdown of what’s what on these new masters, which also has convenient links to both these new titles and the forthcoming second wave of remasters next month. Blur, Blur 21 (Virgin/EMI) 21 refers not only to the legendary British band’s lifespan to date, but the amount of discs in this…

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News, Release Round-Up

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Box Sets

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Neil Diamond, The Beach Boys, Thelonious Monk, Todd Rundgren, Weather Report

I Don’t Know Where, But It Sends Me There: “Good Vibrations: The Beach Boys Songbook” Arrives

July 23, 2012 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

2012 has been a big year for The Beach Boys, and the fun, fun, fun shows little sign of abating any time soon. While we still wait for more details on the possible U.S. arrival of a series of reissued original albums, Sony Music Japan is celebrating with a unique tribute to America’s band. Good Vibrations: The Beach Boys Songbook is a 25-track compilation drawn mostly, but not exclusively, from the Sony family of labels including Columbia, RCA Victor, Arista, Buddah and Bang, and offers a number of lesser-known tracks from many…

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Brian Wilson, Petula Clark, The Beach Boys, The Cowsills, Todd Rundgren

Short Takes: McCartney Readies “Rockshow,” Rundgren’s Live “Healing”, Jay and the Americans’ “Magic Moment” Revisited

June 19, 2012 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

As we kick off another week, we’re catching up with a few news items that almost slipped between the cracks! Earlier this year, RockBeat and S’More Entertainment released Todd: Live, preserving on both CD and DVD editions a live performance by Todd Rundgren of his 1974 classic album Todd. But Todd only told half of the story! Joined by Utopia’s Kasim Sulton (bass), The Cars’ Greg Hawkes (keyboards), The Tubes’ Prairie Prince (drums), Guitar Player Magazine‘s editor Jesse Gress (guitar), Bobby Strickland (sax) and a full choir, Rundgren’s performance of Todd was…

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Paul McCartney, Todd Rundgren

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Box Sets, DVD

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Couldn’t I Just Tell You: Shout! Factory Premieres Vintage Rundgren and Utopia Concert

March 14, 2012 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

We kicked off our week here at Second Disc HQ yesterday with a veritable smorgasbord of Utopia news, and today that feast grows even more bountiful! The Shout! Factory label is joining the ranks of Edsel, Esoteric and Rockbeat as yet another purveyor of all things Rundgren. Live at Hammersmith Odeon ’75 has been set for release on April 10, and the 10-track CD (also available as a digital download) captures the first U.K. concert of the band then billed as Todd Rundgren’s Utopia. Recorded by the BBC on October 9, 1975…

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Love in Action: Todd Rundgren Goes “Back to the Bars,” To “Mink Hollow” and Beyond

March 13, 2012 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Welcome back to our Rundgren Round-Up, spotlighting the final installments in Edsel’s series of the complete Bearsville Todd Rundgren and Utopia reissues! On 1978’s Back to the Bars, Todd Rundgren was in gentle, intimate mode, feeding off audiences in New York, Los Angeles and Cleveland eager to hear his most accessible tunes on a “retrospective” tour. For this look back at a near-decade’s worth of music making, Rundgren enlisted the classic Utopia line-up of Kasim Sulton, Willie Wilcox and Roger Powell, as well as many special guests including Moogy Klingman, Spencer Davis,…

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