As a songwriter, video pioneer, producer, recording artist, computer software developer, conceptualist, and, most recently, interactive artist (re-designated TR-i), Todd Rundgren has made a lasting impact on both the form and content of popular music and joins his seminal band Utopia for the first time in more than 35 years. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rundgren began playing guitar as a teenager, going on to found and front The Nazz, the quintessential `60s cult group. In 1969, he left the band to pursue a solo career, recording his debut offering, the legendary Runt. But it was 1972's seminal Something/Anything?, on which he played all the instruments, sang all the vocal parts, and acted as his own producer, that catapulted Todd into the superstar limelight, prompting the press to unanimously dub him 'Rock's New Wunderkind'. It was followed by such landmark LPs as “The Hermit of Mink Hollow and A Wizard”, “A True Star”, as well as such hit singles as "I Saw The Light," "Hello It's Me," "Can We Still Be Friends" and "Bang the Drum."
In 1974, he formed Utopia, an entirely new approach to the concept of interactive musicianship. Standout Utopia offerings included “Oops! Wrong Planet”, “Adventures in Utopia”, and “Oblivion”. Along the way, Utopia combined technical virtuosity and creative passion to create music that, for millions, defined the term "progressive rock."
Rundgren's myriad production projects include albums by Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, Psychedelic Furs, Meatloaf, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad, and Hall and Oates. Rounding out his reputation as rock's "renaissance man," Rundgren composed all the music and lyrics for Joe Papp's 1989 Off-Broadway production of Joe Orton's It UP AGAINST IT (the screenplay commissioned by The Beatles for what was meant to have been their third motion picture). He also has composed the music for a number of television series, including Pee Wee's Playhouse and Crime Story.
His technological innovations include orchestrating the first live nationally broadcast stereo radio concert (by microwave), linking 40 cities around the country (1978), the creation of the first color graphics tablet, licensed to Apple and released as The Utopia Graphics Tablet (1980), the stereo simulcast of the first live national cablecast of a rock concert (on the USA Network) to over 120 radio stations (1981) and the launching of PatroNet, the world's first direct artist subscription service (1998).
His latest 2011 releases are Todd Rundgren's Johnson, a collection of classic Robert Johnson songs and (Re)Production, electronic reworkings of songs he produced for other artists.
Todd Rundgren will be at the Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida on Wednesday November 2, 2011.
