Todd Rundgren & Ian Hunter Live

A little early Christmas present for you. Todd Rundgren, Ian Hunter & Mick Ronson live at the Agora 1980 (full bootleg). Enjoy.

Article About Prairie Prince's Painting

Veteran drummer has calling to paint

By Kathaleen Roberts / Journal Staff Writer, Albuquerque Journal

With one foot on the toilet while his paintbrush completed the arc of a Zuni bear’s back, Tubes founder Prairie Prince was adding a mural to the bathroom of a home on Santa Fe’s east side on Wednesday.

“I’m going to come back in with a darker turquoise on this,” he said.

Afterward, he relaxed to a recording of “Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder” by ’60s session piano player Nicky Hopkins, the bass by Beatles friend Klaus Voormann and the signature slide guitar of George Harrison.

“I was the drummer,” Prince said. “Getting to work with George was unbelievable.”

Prairie Prince, the drummer for The Tubes, is painting murals in Cathy Stoia’s home.

Prince – née Charles Prince – is a veteran musician who has played with everyone from Todd Rundgren, Brian Eno, David Byrne and Jefferson Starship to Tom Waits and John Fogerty. He was even a founding member of the band Journey, returning to The Tubes well before Journey’s mega success.

But he was in Santa Fe Wednesday to paint murals in the home of Cathy and Chris Stoia.

A Renaissance man with his feet planted firmly in both paint and pop, Prince has designed and painted murals on A&M Records’ Hollywood exterior, San Francisco’s Cliff House, Art Deco-themed walls for New York’s Chemical Bank at Rockefeller Center and sets for Michael Jackson, Shania Twain, Bonnie Raitt, Gloria Estefan, Bette Midler and Broadway productions.

“When you’re not doing one, the other one suffers,” he said of his dual career.

“I’m playing tomorrow night in San Francisco,” Prince said. “It’s (The Tubes’) 40th anniversary.”

Born in Charlotte, N.C., Prince grew up in Phoenix, where he played in his elementary school band.

‘Then The Beatles came out and I got a set of drums.”

After a move to San Francisco, his high school group morphed into the The Tubes, the often-satirical band founded in the 1970s and perhaps best known for its theatrical and outrageous live shows.

His career in the visual arts also germinated in the Bay Area, where he won a scholarship to the Art Institute. He left with a master’s degree in painting.

In Santa Fe, his approach is minimal and subtle. He added an earth-toned prehistoric Hopi migration pattern to the master suite’s kiva fireplace. Clouds scallop beneath the dining room vigas, bringing the outdoors in. Feathers line the edges of a table. The plaster softens the paint into a muted color theme.

‘It gives it an immediate antique look,” he said.

He even has plans for the outdoor teepee.

“Here’s the teepee I want to live in,” he said, unfolding a sketch he calls “Prairie Fire,” with flames licking the edges, tapering into the greens of trees at the top.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said.

The garden design resembles a giant bear claw in colored gravel.

He’s already sketched a Beatle-esque floor painting for the owners’ upstairs office. It looks like a traditional Navajo yei rug until you check out the faces. Client Cathy Stoia is a huge Beatles fan.

The Southwestern themes all gel nicely with Prince’s Arizona roots; the photographer Edward Curtis was a friend of his grandmother’s.

Prince said a San Francisco project for a microwave entrepreneur features a gold leaf ceiling.

“I’m doing a lot of Italian Renaissance stuff in the house.”

Commissions come from word-of-mouth, as well as fans.

Prince nearly got to paint Harrison’s recording studio at his Friar Park home in London. He traveled to the home of the former Beatle and the two went to lunch and discussed a project.

“I asked him what he liked and he said Art Deco,” Prince said. “He was wonderful. He showed us all over the grounds. I did a bunch of designs for him.”

Harrison never called back. But Prince still has his memories of jamming with a Beatle.

“The thing I remember the best was the beautiful serene expression on his face,” he said. “When we weren’t playing, he was chanting and rolling beads in his pocket.”

Tiki Iniki Gets Mention in Forbes Article

Hawaii By Star Light: The St. Regis Princeville Kauai

This story appears in the December 16, 2013 issue of Forbes Life.

By Everett Potter

They didn’t teach the First Law of Celebrity Magnetism in school: that a critical mass of famous people showing up at one place creates an irresistible force that attracts pretty much all the other famous people to it. Of course, the setting of celebrity haven St. Regis Princeville Kauai may have something to do with it, too, including the hypnotic sweeping views of Hanalei Bay and the rippled, jungle-clad volcanic mountains that form the Napali Coast. It’s no wonder that this bay, celebrated as the inspiration for the song “Puff the Magic Dragon,” has drawn surfers and stoners for years, not to mention the Hollywood location scouts who used it for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park and South Pacific, where it stood in for the mythical Bali Hai.

The 251-room St. Regis has simply made paradise more convenient for pleasure seekers such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Olivia Munn, Kelly Clarkson and Alicia Keys. They come for the St. Regis’ signature butler service, the Asian-influenced fare at chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s casual Kauai Grill and that killer view, visible from every guest room. You might bump into Avril Lavigne poolside (a venue angled to maximize the view) or spot Matt Damon on the hotel’s beach, where you can explore the bay in a replica outrigger canoe handmade and paddled by local legend Trevor Cabell. He can take you out to watch some of the world’s top surfers catching the break and then anchor for snorkeling among sea turtles.

George Clooney took up residence at the hotel when he filmed The Descendants, and numerous scenes were shot in the lobby and Presidential Suite and along the beachfront. Other A-listers have come and liked what they’ve seen so much that they bought homes nearby, including Julia Roberts, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Stiller. When they aren’t in flip-flops at Tiki Iniki, a newly opened bar in Hana owned by local Todd Rundgren and his wife, Michele, you might catch them in the midst of the daily routine–a traditional Lomi Lomi treatment at the hotel’s Halele’a Spa, followed by a mai tai and sunset over Hanalei Bay from the hotel’s deck. It’s a spectacle so intoxicating that it’s a wonder the St. Regis hasn’t tried to brand it. –Everett Potter

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeslifestyle/2013/11/26/hawaii-by-star-light-the-st-regis-princeville-kauai/

TODD RUNDGREN UTOPIA COMMUNION WITH THE SUN DEMO

With the murmers about the possibility of a Utopia v II reunion (completely uncomfirmed by the way) we thought you might enjoy  the demo recording of Communion with the Sun.

Early Todd Rundgren Public Service Announcements

WATCH: Members of The Hooters Cover Todd Rundgren’s “I Saw the Light”

This documentary short is the 8th from the Emmy® Nominated series IN THE POCKET: ESSENTIAL SONGS OF PHILADELPHIA. Follow project creator, David Uosikkinen of The Hooters’ as he records the seventh song in his singles series. “I Saw The Light” was originally written and recorded by Philadelphian, Todd Rundgren.

'Breaking Bad' Swan Song: Producer Todd Rundgren Looks Back at 'Baby Blue'

From The Hollywood Reporter. by Chris Willman

Badfinger’s Todd Rundgren-produced “Baby Blue” hasn’t had the same ongoing shelf life, and it was a far unlikelier candidate for being a 21st century hit until Breaking Bad reached its final breaking point to the tune of this lesser-remembered 1971 classic. More than 10 million viewers tuned in for Sunday night’s series finale, so it’s no surprise that many wanted to hear Walter White’s swan song again immediately after.

The day after the show aired, “Baby Blue” rose out of nowhere to No. 16 on the iTunes chart. Tuesday, it actually went up, to No. 13. Spotify reported that streams of the Badfinger song rose by 9,000 percent, while Billboard reported a 3,000 percent sales gain, which should be good enough to put the song back on the next Hot 100 chart after 41 years, even though only a day’s worth of sales and streams will figure into the tally.

It’s a sort of bittersweet vindication for Badfinger, whose collective and individual fates have conjured a sense of sadness over the years. “The band in retrospect was one of these kind of tragedies … one of those head-shakers,” said Rundgren, reached by The Hollywood Reporter at his home in Hawaii on Monday. “They had a lot of problems dealing with management and that sort of thing,” he noted -- not to mention the greater sorrow of the eventual suicides of two band members, including the singer/songwriter behind “Baby Blue,” Pete Ham. “So a lot of the time when the band’s name comes up, it’s usually in this context of an ‘if only’ kind of thing: ‘what if’ this, ‘what if’ that. And it’s kind of interesting now to have the band getting some recognition in a different context. Good for them!”

PHOTOS: 'Breaking Bad' Finale at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

The context in which “Baby Blue” was placed by Breaking Bad could scarcely have been imagined by Pete Ham when he wrote it as a sort of apology to an estranged girlfriend, Dixie Armstrong, who’s mentioned in the lyrics. The opening line, “Guess I got what I deserved,” certainly applies both to Ham’s sorry romantic lot at the time and to Walter White’s rueful, bloody end.

But there’s also a decidedly wry aspect to the placement of the song. While Ham was writing a love song to a girl, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan used it as Walt’s final love song to his beloved blue meth. Not since Paul Thomas Anderson placed ELO’s “Livin’ Thing” at the end of Boogie Nights as a tribute to Dirk Diggler’s penis has a pop song been used quite so ironically by a director as an unexpected grace note.

“So he’s fondling the equipment?” quipped Rundgren -- who as of Monday still hadn’t seen the episode -- as THR described the context of the final scene to him.

The 1971 album from which “Baby Blue” sprang, Straight Up, is now regarded as a classic, and in some ways the prototype for an entire genre of power pop, bridging the gap between the Beatles and Big Star. Badfinger was the one act on the Beatles’ Apple label that bore any resemblance to their corporate bosses, and they had a lot to live up to. They did, with four top 20 singles, of which “Baby Blue” was the last (preceded by “Come and Get It,” “No Matter What,” and “Day After Day”).

PHOTOS: Beyond 'Breaking Bad': What's Next for the Show's Stars

“They were kind of like almost an ersatz Beatles,” said Rundgren, who counted the Straight Up album as one of his first big production credits. “And when their very first records came out, like ‘Come and Get It,’ they were produced to sound like the Beatles, in a way. Paul McCartney’s writing songs for them! So it was kind of a way of broadening the Beatles’ franchise, I think … Badfinger was almost filling a void that was opened up when the Beatles stopped recording together.”

George Harrison was even intended to be the producer for Straight Up, and he gets sole producer credit for “Day After Day,” although that’s long been a sore point for Rundgren, who substantially reworked that track. In any case, there’s no dispute over “Baby Blue,” which was the first track Rundgren recorded from scratch with the band when he took over the project. The tortured history of the album has been recounted in a couple of well-regarded books (Dan Matovina’s Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger and Paul Myers’ A Wizard a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio).

Rundgren elaborated on the process for THR: " 'Oh geez, let’s just get this thing wrapped up somehow!’ was essentially the mandate,” the producer recalls with a chuckle, reflecting on how little crafting a future classic was on everyone’s mind. “It seemed to me that they had spent enough time working on the record and that they really needed to get it done.” Indeed, the making of the album had been drawn out for over a year -- first with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick in the producer’s chair, then Harrison -- before management brought in Rundgren, who then was known primarily for working with The Band and having a minor hit with “We Gotta Get You a Woman.” He was a fast worker, all right: About half the album consisted of all-new tracks Rundgren recorded with the group, and the other half existing tracks that he did substantial rerecording on, all in about 10 days.

“It wasn’t so much focusing on any one or another track to make sure that they would make good singles. The band had something of a sensibility for that anyway … I got two batches of tapes: the ones that George had worked on and the ones that Geoff Emerick had worked on, and they sounded like two completely different records. The intention had been that George was going to do a complete record with them using that au courant sound that was going around at the time, [a la] Phil Spector, that involved five or six acoustic guitars playing all the time, double-tracked drums and all kinds of stuff to make it sound really big. But everything that you produce with that style tends to sound the same. I was a little more interested in actually moving a little closer to what Geoff Emerick was doing, which was trying to capture what the band actually sounded like."

PHOTOS: The Beatles: Rare Photos Offer Inside Look at Fab Four

Erasing a Beatle's efforts was just in a day’s work for Rundgren. “A lot of the George Harrison mixes, I stripped stuff out or replaced things, because it sounded like a George Harrison record, just with other people singing the vocals. I had a certain way of recording the drums, and that usually for my productions was what in some ways helped everything hang together -- the sort of basic sound at the center of everything. In the end, you didn’t want the record to leave people with the impression that the record was from three different sets of sessions … ‘Baby Blue’ was the first new track that we actually recorded. I was putting a guitar through a Leslie [amplifier], which was designed for an organ, so it got this kind of swirly guitar sound that was somewhat signature on the song. But in terms of, did we think this was a hit or that’s a hit or whatever? I recall it more being a question of, ‘Let’s just finish it somehow!’ ”

More than four decades later, the song was used to finish off Walter White. Did everyone get what they deserved? Badfinger fanatics -- who are legion -- are reveling in the revival, even as they feel sorrow recalling that the ill-fated group never again cracked the top 50 after “Baby Blue” peaked at No. 14 in 1972. (Ham committed suicide in 1975, followed by Tom Evans in 1983.) For his part, Rundgren went on to much greater success: He went directly from Straight Up into recording his signature solo album, Something/Anything? and had a production career that has encompassed everything from Patti Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot” to Meat Loaf’s 14x platinum Bat Out of Hell.

Rundgren is torn about whether to watch Sunday night’s show, after only having seen a few installments. “I was thoroughly aware that last night was the final episode of the series, because my wife had spent the last week trying to get caught up after we’d been out of the country for the last eight or nine months.” (He was touring behind State, his 24th studio album as a solo artist.)

“It seems like there are two worlds out there -- one that has revolved around Breaking Bad, and then the one that I’ve been in, which just kind of observes it from afar. My band members are just fanatical about the show but [insist you have] to see the episodes in the proper order. I’m kind of torn now about whether I should just out of vanity go watch the last episode and have it done with -- which I understand is a strict violation of the code!”

Todd Rundgren Remixes Andy Bull

Credit: Mess and Noise
http://messandnoise.com/news/4616607

Premiere: Todd Rundgren Remixes Andy Bull

News posted Tuesday, September 24 2013 at 01:00 PM.

When he wasn’t busy touring Australia, remixing Tame Impala or jawing with Davey Lane, cult iconoclast Todd Rundgren found time to rework ‘Baby I Am Nobody Now’, the current single from Sydney’s keyboard-centred artist-producer Andy Bull.

In Rundgren’s hands, the clubby, claggy synth-pop of the original becomes unmoored, a ballad made squiggly and cosmic. The falsetto-licked chorus is preserved, but from there Rundgren stretches leisurely out with a synth-y, looping bridge that builds the anticipation for another chorus.

‘Baby I Am Nobody Now’ is Bull’s second self-produced single, following March’s ‘Keep On Running’ and 2010’s instant-breakout debut EP The Phantom Pains, featuring the Lisa Mitchell duet ‘Dog’. The Sydneysider will release an album next year, having recently signed to Republic Records in the US.

Thurs, Oct 10 – The Small Ballroom, Newcastle, NSW
Fri, Oct 11 – Heritage Hotel, Bulli, NSW
Sat, Oct 12 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, NSW
Sat, Oct 19 – Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane, QLD
Sun, Oct 20 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC [early show]
Tues, Oct 22 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC

https://soundcloud.com/andybullmusic/andy-bull-baby-i-am-nobody-now/s-jxF1F

Todd Rundgren to be Honored with the Les Paul Award

Carlsbad, CA, September 23, 2013 - Legendary musician, groundbreaking record producer and electronic music revolutionary Todd Rundgren will be honored with the prestigious Les Paul Award at the 29th Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards.

The awards recognize outstanding achievement in professional audio technology and production and will be presented Friday, Jan. 24 at the Anaheim Hilton during the 2014 NAMM Show held in Anaheim, CA.

The Les Paul Award, named for the revolutionary inventor and esteemed musician, is presented annually to honor individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio and music technology. Russ Paul, son of Les Paul, will make the presentation on behalf of the Les Paul Foundation, sponsor of the award. Instituted in 1991, the honor has been granted to such luminaries as Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young and Peter Gabriel.

TODD RUNDGREN HEALING RADIO SHOW