Picks of the week
07/03/2008
Todd Hannigan There are a lot of surfer-songwriters around today, many of them extremely popular, especially in this region. But Todd Hannigan brings a level of musical sophistication to the genre unseen from many other artists. Often compared to Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, Hannigan’s acoustic sound has a wafting elegance that seems to come naturally from the Ventura native, and a rhythmic sense inherited from his travels to Australia, Indonesia, Ecuador and Africa. He made his name nationally with his work on Jack Johnson’s Thicker Than Water soundtrack, but on his own debut album, Volume 1, Hannigan displays fully the talent that has made him a fast rising name in the surf-folk world. Hannigan rides into Zoey’s Café on July 5.
Todd Rundgren You know what’s crazy? Apparently, Todd Rundgren is — legally, if not biologically — the father of Liv Tyler, spawn of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and model/professional groupie Bebe Buell. The story is Buell got knocked up by Steven Tyler while living with Rundgren in the late ’70s, but didn’t want the smacked-out faux-Jagger identified as her baby daddy, so she had Rundgren’s name placed on the birth certificate. And even after he and Buell formally separated, he basically raised Liv Tyler for 10 years. This has nothing to do with Rundgren as a musician, but it does exemplify how Rundgren is one of those artists who seems to be everywhere, popping up in places you’d least expect to find him. Like, say, as the producer for the New York Dolls, Meat Loaf and the Psychedelic Furs. Or as a composer for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. Or, in recent years, as the singer for the partially reunited Cars. Yeah, it’s been a weird career (and life) for Rundgren, but he is also one of rock’s best, and perhaps most underrated, songwriters. See for yourself when he performs at the Canyon on July 5.
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