TODD RUNDGREIM Todd (Bearsville)

— “Raking Turquoise Ruts Across the Velveeta Sky” —

Todd the Mod? Todd the Bod? Todd the Nod, or Todd the God? A tittle bit of all, as you might expect from young Rundgren’s latest album. Mainly, it’s Todd.

As far as albums go, it vibrates like crazy. The question is, how’s your short wave working? It’s not a matter of him being tuned in to our wavelength — that’s granted, since in the last year Todd has given us, as a producer, both Grand Funk’s milestone We’re An American Band, and America’s milestone, the New York Dolls. Where were those reporters from Time Magazine then? But when Todd changes costume from producer to “artist,” he comes close to ignoring it all to let it sonic, raving, all spill out.