I’m working on a track called “The Strings.” The piano sounds very natural, but I’ve decided to mutate it with an envelope filter, ala “I Don’t Want To Tie You Down” on Todd Rundgren’s A Wizard, A True Star. Next is the bass part, which I have been remiss in getting down for weeks. I made a decent demo of the song a while back, so now it’s a matter of doing something with the master that the demo did not accomplish. I’ve heard countless stories about artists trying to emulate the feeling they evinced on the demo and failing miserably. Some just release the demo when that happens, but I don’t think I’ll be going down that road.

Last week, I found out that Kasim Sulton will be joining Todd Rundgren’s band as a keyboard and guitar guy for the second leg of the Arena tour. I couldn’t miss that, so I immediately grabbed a couple of tickets to the show here in New York on December 27th. Better to get them early than to miss out. Right after I got the tickets, I happened to notice that the official Todd Rundgren itinerary lists only the show on 26th. No mention of the 27th. Hope I didn’t just get taken. Eighth row in a small theater? Christ, I hope not. Probably just another in a long series of screwups and mistakes in the Todd camp.

Todd Rundgren and his people don’t seem to be handling very much of his new album’s release very well. He’s been on tour for over a month and the new album isn’t even available yet. It was supposed to be available by download only at the end of July, with the CD to follow in the fall. Still, Arena is not available. Stupid. All this from a guy who really needs the money to pay for his house and needed to maximize sales. He talked about playing the arena rock style, saying that maybe if he played it, they’d put the band in arenas. Uh… yeah.

First of all, Todd is at best a fringe artist. The same people are gonna buy his records every time. Why the hell did he sign with a small label? With Todd’s fan base, he would probably do much better selling the album direct to his fans. To me, that’s one of the most exciting parts of being a recording artist in 2008. You don’t need a record company at all. He’s really dropping the ball here, missing out on a ton of commercial opportunities. Touring for the same people you’ve been shearing for years and you can’t even get the album out? He should be independent and do it right. I read a great point made by another Todd fan somewhere. He should be selling the record at the shows. It sounds really independent and low budget, but isn’t that really where Todd’s at? I wonder if he ever really learned how to sell himself or if it was always all about industry connections for him. If I had even the limited audience that Todd enjoys, you can bet your ass that they’d have the new record already.

Todd’s representatives keep saying that they’re trying to work out a deal for online distribution. How come I could be set up to sell a new recording in about an hour and Todd can’t? I’m clever, but I ain’t that clever. Instead of touring with music that his fans can’t even buy, he could be getting more press for selling direct and mounting a successful tour on that model. I would never blow a shot like that.

I heard a song from the new Todd record. I enjoyed it, but was curious about the production. Was the sound being affected because it was a low-rez mp3? Maybe. Then I heard the unthinkable. Todd made the whole record on his laptop and mixed it on headphones! WTF? I read an interview in which he said that he did it because he’d always thought it couldn’t be done. Is that really why? It sounds like laziness to me. The guitars sound like a Line6 emulator direct into the computer. Also very lazy. It makes a very cookie cutter sound, which is not what drew me to Todd in the first place.

Headphones? The whole thing about mixing is trying to make a recording sound good on the target listener’s system, which can be a real moving target. Headphones are just too easy. Headphones are a very controlled environment for listening. In truth, something that sounds great on cans can sound like garbage through speakers. Hence the weirdness I was experiencing. Now if Todd was selling the record saying it was meant to be listened to on headphones only, that would be kinda wacky, but then at least I’d get it. I’d never cut out a large portion of my sales for that gimmick, but Todd has done stranger things. But he isn’t playing up the headphone angle, much less actually selling the record. At least not yet.

Derek Sivers, the guy behind CDBaby, has written extensively on self-promotion for musicians trying to sell their own recordings. He has written some really inspirational pieces as well as some straight business articles. Once he wrote about pre-releasing music, or releasing by download ahead of the CD. His point was that if people hear your preview and like it and can’t buy it, you may have lost a sale. I think that makes a lot of sense. In addition, if you make something available by preview and make the official release later, by the time someone hears about the CD finally being available, it’s no longer interesting. They’ve already heard about the new album and it’s old news. Either way, you’ve blown the opportunity for sales, and when every sale counts, it’s just a stupid thing to do.

Todd Rundgren needs to learn about selling to a niche audience in 2008, don’t you think? Maybe he’s just not a salesman. I guess I should be pleased. Gene Simmons prides himself on being a salesman. Enough said.