One of the more successful of Todd Rundgren’s adventurous studio experiments, “Tiny Demons” was included, along with “Time Heals”, on a 7″ single that came along with his 1981 Healing LP, much like Stevie Wonder included a bonus EP in his Songs in the Key of Life album.
Rundgren could be a confounding artist to follow: his singles were as “pop” as anyone’s, but were seldom representative of the albums from which they came. Therefore the masses tended to becomes fans of his hits without necessarily becoming fans of the artist. Conversely, his dedication to exploration of a wide variety of styles and ideas earned him a loyal cult following. All of his 70’s and early 80’s work is worth exploring, and treasures like this are to be found throughout.
Last year, an unknown band called Rhye started posting exquisitely produced videos online. The clips were sexy — erotic even — and the music matched the images. The identities of the band members were a mystery, intentionally shielded from view.
Listeners started wondering: Who is that woman singing? Why don’t they show her? Once information starting leaking about the band, admirers were shocked to learn: That’s a dude!
“Personally, I don’t view myself as sounding like a woman,” says Toronto-born Mike Milosh, the voice behind Rhye’s sensual songs and one-half of what has now been revealed as an all-male duo. “I think I just have a soft quality to my voice, and then people immediately associate that with something extremely feminine.”
Rhye will release its debut album, Woman, this week. But even as Milosh and his collaborator, Danish songwriter-producer Robin Hannibal, have begun to surface in the media, they have remained visually enigmatic. Consenting to a photo shoot for a New York Times profile last month, the duo requested that their faces be obscured.
“I can’t say it’s not intentional because we made a conscious decision to stay out of things,” Milosh says. “But it wasn’t a PR scheme. It’s not something that we created out of gimmickry, or whatever. We just didn’t want to be in the imagery of it because we wanted people to have their own experience with the songs. Robin and I talked about it at great length. That’s how we both love exploring music, especially when we were younger. You hear something, you’re intrigued by it — but because of the song, not because of the image around the song.”
Milosh and Hannibal spoke with guest host Celeste Headlee on Saturday’s All Things Considered. To hear more of their conversation, click the audio link below.
These classic songs have a bit more to them than meets the eye. The advent of recorded music also meant the ability to backmask — hiding an audio cue through recording tricks embedded within songs. If you’ve ever wondered what your favorite artist was actually saying, read on.
From the self-titled third album, referred to by one Amazon.com customer as:
“a brassy, ambitious, euphoric, head spinning, toe tapping, nut busting, bra tossing, beer swilling, guitar smashing work of genius” and an “epic rollercoaster hayride under the big night sky”
Hmm, not sure if it’s all that for me. But I do find “California” to be one track that makes me want to toss a bra.
Lush, spellbinding melodic rock from the Louisiana prog band’s 2007 debut, which captures some of the flavor of Steven Wilson’s Blackfield project. The band’s direction changed somewhat as they mostly did away with the beguiling synths on their less satisfying second LP.
Billy Bragg: “The World Turned Upside Down” (1985)
Billy Bragg tells the story of the Diggers, a movement in mid-1600’s England to create a classless society by seizing land (which they felt had been unjustly taken through the Norman conquest) and holding it in the common good. They did so successfully and peacefully in areas of Kent and Northamptonshire, in defiance of laws and landlords, for over a year. They were eventually, and easily, suppressed by Cromwell and Fairfax.
Bragg sees lessons in the story for the powerful and dispossessed alike:
You poor take courage/You rich take care/This earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share
Every Moment Has A Song 