Utopia’s Last Of The New Wave Riders Hurtles Towards Oblivion

As we recover from the Holiday weekend, we need to take it easy. With this in mind, we will be doing an abbreviated review (read: not a two-parter this week). During our lull in concerts this month, we are continuing with our examination of the Utopia box set, Last Of The New Wave Riders. A set of live performance CDs spanning from early in Utopia’s career up to almost the end. This particular show, the Oblivion Tour, is a single disc. Additionally, since the last entry about Devo generated some interest I need to address some comments that were left.

We’ll get to those later.

In 1983, after being abandoned by Network records, Utopia signed with Passport Gem in hopes of finding that elusive audience. Their first album for the fledgling label was Oblivion, a high-tech, commercial yet fan-friendly offering. Their next album POV, was heralded by the Wall Street Journal as “one of the best albums you’ll never hear.” Contractual obligations put out a greatest hits album with the last two Utopia tracks ever done, called Trivia. Three albums later Passport Gem is done, and so is Utopia, save for a brief reunion tour in Japan and the West Coast in 1992.

Each of the releases for Utopia Records, distributed by Passport/Gem was commercially viable. POV especially. But the usual dark cloud surrounded Utopia right up to the end. They were never able to escape the shadow of initial critic’s misplaced opinion that it was unforgivable that Rundgren let the other members sing. This is a gross error in judgment, to prove this I simply reference Kasim Sulton. But that unwarranted prejudice cost them airplay. Who lost out there? You did. You missed a quality band, catchy pop hooks, kitschy videos and inventive playing.

So get some now, even though they aren’t around.

Sonically, this is what a Utopia live disc SHOULD sound like. If I am not mistaken, Chris Andersen, long-time Rundgren sound-destroyer, er, I mean soundman, or, whoa, oops, soundperson (I gotta tread lightly here, I am married to one such soundperson and SHE deserves the respect of a proper title at the very least) may have already parted ways with Rundgren for live performances, only assisting in the studio. So this disc is for the most part devoid of the problematic rough master tapes from the earlier shows in this box set. Truth be told, I am not through them all, I still have yet to listen to (objectively with intent to review) The Oops Wrong Planet Tour. But what I did hear when listening to it in passing was that it was rough, I do remember that. There were stellar performances as usual, and some really interesting song choices (including the full twenty-plus minute version of “Singring And The Glass Guitar”) so it will be fun to review. Perhaps I will do that one next week, good PREX readers, once I am over my holiday doldrums.

But getting back to the Oblivion Live Tour the first treat on the agenda is “Too Much Water” from Oblivion. This is where man meets machine, or in other words we test how well Kasim Sulton (Bass and Vocals) locks in with Willie Wilcox (Drums and vocals) and how well they both can lock in with a Midi backing track.

Midi is the acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface where a sequencer can control drum machines, rhythm boxes, keyboards, etc., and keep them all in time and synced up.

Apparently Utopian humans interact with Utopian machines really well as this is a clear, tight version of “Too Much Water” which incorporates a midi drum and an accompanying high hat to most of what Wilcox plays on top of it. With tightly timed breaks at the appropriate points, the entire band counts these down to the beat. Kicking off, they sound good vocally, that is until Rundgren reaches for a high-pitched phrase and, well, he does his standard cover of screaming the line, but that only compounds the problem. Sulton is also impressive as he contributes a lead vocal while playing the bass line on the instrument it was recorded, a synth. Why not midi it in? There are four people, and if the only embellishment is additional percussion, I say play as much as you can live and this is Utopia’s credo as well. But unfortunately, about 8 measures before the end, there is slight tape drop out. Well that minor glitch was hardly anything to impede a phenomenal kick-off.

A real kick is the rotation of duties this band used to pull off with every gig, they would usually slip in some form of change or switch, from slight things to Rundgren just not playing guitar all the way to a track with Wilcox moving from drums to bass, Sulton moving from bass to guitar, and Rundgren from guitar to drums for “Gangrene” from Oops Wrong Planet, but absent from this tour, sadly. NO problem, they all play multiple instruments.

So for “Rock Love” from Adventures In Utopia it was no problem for Rundgren to move to only doing vocals and front person activities, Sulton to move to guitar and for Powell to play bass with his left hand on a synth bass keyboard. This song displays remnants of a long lost Utopia album called Disco Jets. Disco Jets was laden with Utopia-spawned original disco-style songs.

Shortly before the intended release date, that infamous “Disco Sucks” rally occurred in Cincinnati. Rundgren & Co. were smart enough to know putting that album out after the anti-disco rally would be artistic suicide.

Looking back, it made little difference other than to add a few more albums to the catalog. That is a good thing, we wouldn’t have Swing To The Right, Oblivion, POV, Utopia (Network) if they bombed after Disco Jets. This album was later released on a precious commodity every hardcore Todd/Utopia fan should have called “Demos and Lost Albums”. This collection features demos, out-takes, alternate tracks, different lead vocalists, solos, etc. This collection includes the ultra-rare previously unreleased Rundgren produced Utopia backed solo album by Jean Yves Labat, Utopia’s synth and effects guru. The gruff-voiced French keyboardist covered Doors tunes, Rundgren tunes, and there were a number of collaborations as well all under the title Froggy Went A-Punking, for both the connection to the children’s fable “Froggy Went A-Courtin’” as well as to suit the name he went by for Utopia, M. Frog Labat.

But I digress in my enthusiasm, save to say, have PREX get you a copy.

“Rock Love” wastes no time in getting started. Once again he is using that wireless mic of the period that makes his vocals sound like squashed mid-range nasal bleating. Yet another impassioned performance flattened like a burger on the grill. This version has some enhanced keyboard volumes and everything is present in the mix, so the riffs played with uniformity come through crystal clear. Wilcox even further casts this version towards the disco leaning by taking the chorus drum part at the outtro and hyper-emphasizing the open/close disco style high hat. His flourish ending focuses the spotlight on Wilcox as he does the lead vocal for…

“Princess Of The Universe” from the album Utopia is another of Wilcox’s patented straight ahead 4/4 rocker songs. The final tour version of this song featured Roger Powell’s debut on guitar as he played rhythm through most of it and even flourishes a solo at the end of their performance of this song in Japan. His keyboards are hiding in the background until they have something obvious to say. Outside of that, Powell often uses the keyboards to represent and replicate a rhythm guitar.

Once Willie and the boys muster through “Princess”, Wilcox rumbles with the Midi and brings the tempo down for “If I Didn’t Try” from Oblivion. This song is guitar-less, so lead vocalist Rundgren employs a tiny keyboard, held in one arm, played with the other hand. This leaves Powell free to embellish the passing midi sequencer parts. Powell and Sulton blend voices with angelic splendor. From timid voice of desperation to emotional declaration of one’s never-say-die spirit of determination, Rundgren’s lead vocal dictates the dynamic of the song, and the other members are seasoned enough to be able to manipulate voice, instrument, computer and other machines to promote and emote.

Another such media-melding song is “Bring Me My Longbow” from Oblivion, which has tribal overtones in arrangement, voicing for the instruments, yet the technological aspect is front and center as always. Repeatedly the band encourages the audience to join them on the line in the chorus “Fill The Cup, Pass Out The Water.” After several strains of that line, the band break free of the vocals and vamp out on the verse-like chord progression and they wail the feel on this one!!!

You might remember the video for the next track, “Hammer In My Heart” from Utopia. This was the one where the band were dressed in semi-Beatle suits and they used jump-delay-cut editing on a live performance and synched it the beat of the song so several “video wipes” would appear on the beat of the drum, or in the case of “Hammer…” the cowbell.

Gawd that awful cowbell. This is one of the main reasons I will never have a cowbell on my drum kit.

I have played this song so often, I have heard and seen it more times, so objectivity is tough. They are tight on this take, good mix, clear and present guitar, bass synth was a tad too much, not enough bass guitar, too much Sulton backing vocal, the solo was good and trippy like the recorded version, but the keyboards get way out of hand volume-wise at the end. Objective enough for you? How about a track I can sink my teeth into that I have played even more than “Hammer…” and still LOVE?

Bring out the Powell sung Utopia classic “Abandon City” from the renowned Oops Wrong Planet. The simplistic riff on top of the quarter-note key chords while Powell describes desolation and desperation in his futuristic hometown is just the perfect thought to fill this nihilist’s head! The chorus is simple, repetitive but effective: “You better run for your lives.” I have heard jazzed up versions, I have seen versions where Powell will stick to the recorded solos and pick up a coronet!!! This one is a terrific blend of many of those styles, jazzed-up keyboard solos, rocked out guitar solos, finesse dynamics, and stop-on-a-dime tight to boot! Right to the end!

But it’s time to make several of the young girls out there in the audience happy with the extemporaneous “Set Me Free” from Adventures In Utopia. All “Set Me Free” ever amounted to was just a ditty about love gone wrong. This song is just about as close to faithful version as you can get, snappy drum line, moving, flanged bass, understated guitar, pointed keyboard parts, and I notice as I analyze this track, that the base of the song, the melodic chordal representation is done mostly by the backing vocals. How crazed?!?! Utopia did score a Top 40 with “…Free”, so that tells you what works for the Top 40.

Then a medley consisting of “Itch In My Brain” and “Love With A Thinker” which is not so much a medley as merely the way it was presented on the album Oblivion. The ending vocals were pulled out of the mix and the songs cut from one to the other on the beat.

The exact synth/sequencer line is reproduced exactly to intro the pair of songs. By this point in the show Rundgren’s voice is sounding tattered. Wilcox and Suton’s backing vocals are tight and dead-on. All this with ease as the song jumps from a free-floating verse, a choppy bridge, to a rocked-out chorus, and they have all the sonic events happening as well. The sonic mayhem in the middle sounds great on 7.1! Then we get treated to one of those mini-guitar/keyboard duels they were famous for.

Choppy bridge to rocked-out chorus one more time, and the vocal fade is replicated from the album with amazing accuracy. This is achieved by having the vocalists back their mouths away from the microphone inch-by-inch to replicate a fade, but to gently fade the instruments to smack us into “Love With A Thinker” requires something special and I doubt your Korns, Velvet Revolvers, or your Stone Temple Pilots could pull something like that off live. They’d just cop out and play to a tape.

The version that follows the transition is truly one of the best I have heard live. Sulton trades off playing synth bass during the verses to bass guitar during the choruses. At the end Rundgren adds a live-only guitar solo that usually stops the show. For this tour, alas, it was the signal for the beginning of the end. Consummate showman Rundgren, he still believes in a lot of the show business traditions such as “The Show Must Go On” and so forth. So he would think to build the show up in terms of dynamic, climax, etc., then start whipping out the big guns songs. For the sake of defeating repetition they have omitted big guns titles “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” and “Just One Victory” from this disc as they were the standard show closers, with “Love Is The Answer” sandwiched in between.

The start of the end, or whipping out the big guns songs, we start with “You Make Me Crazy” from Adventures In Utopia. This song is most memorable for it’s video. Basically in the video, the three non-lead vocal singing members of Utopia drive lead vocal singing drummer Willie Wilcox “crazy” by taking advantage of his polyester nature. At one point Wilcox ingests some shaving cream only to remove it with an electric razor.

Crazy.

Apart from an uncooperative tremolo arm and some feedback, this minimalist tribute to romance taken for granted plays pretty good in this live version. It is a simple song, but if not done properly can sound like ****. I took part in my friend’s garage band version, sitting in on guitar (they wanted to know why it didn’t sound right) I was asked to contribute my expertise. They were over playing it. This is light and easy and it has to flow free or it feels choked. This live version was perfect, and it started off the showcase with interests piqued!!!

Seeing as the band was in a tight mode, they pull off “Swing To The Right” from the album of the same name smashingly!! The surprise is the loudness of Wilcox’s vocal left over from “…Crazy”. Wilcox handles the bulk vocal quite well! He maintains the jazzy drumming with no issue. Consummate! Just about each lick is played in magical unison and Sulton and the band know it as they all make exclamations during the solo intro. Then the duels wail. The guys are on fire and they know it and they are playing it to the hilt on this track. If you can’t get into the solo section on this track, check your pulse, you are dead!!! Tight right down to the last note bend!

Better capitalize on the tightness while they can so they present an almost perfect version (if such a thing exists) of “The Very Last Time” from Adventures In Utopia. Another one of their tricky rhythmic songs that if not played to as close to perfection as one’s abilities will render, the subtleties can get lost in sauce. All the accents are necessary and needed. Second verse harsh feedback makes this track forever blemished. The perils of live recording, the untamed beast!! Beyond that, this is a really good take on the Adventures In Utopia classic, again tight to the last note.

No time is wasted getting to the synth intro for “Trapped” from Oops Wrong Planet. Once Sulton gets the first vocal section out, it’s on sucker! These guys can rock, it’s just not cool enough for them!! From the easy verse to the full-blown choruses where Rundgren joins in on vocals, these guys manage the ebb and flow of the dynamics like sonic engineers. This is one of those songs they have rehearsed and get a boot out of playing. It is almost as if they are giving you the whole shooting match.

But then, that high-pitched riff, the rolling snare intro, the bass harmonics, it’s time for the perennial fan favorite, “Caravan” from Adventures In Utopia. The audience went nuts at the beginning guitar riff. They new it was coming, and the guys are in great position to deliver a killer version! At first, Rundgren’s guitar was slightly out of tune, I have seen him do tuning mid-song and get the job done nicely. He pulls it off here, a tweak of the tuning peg and it’s done. The high intro riff is important to have in tune and by the second verse it’s fixed with little or no damage.

Oh, to be one eighth the guitarist he is.

But before we get all Guitar Hero, Wilcox addresses his little showcase at the end of the bridge and solo section with authority and command. Wilcox himself is such an underestimated performer. Go watch some Sci-Fi network and catch his recent work. The first few notes of Rundgren’s initial solo are dicey, but he switches the pedal off. The end verse and chorus are sick tight, and as Powell mugs it up for the audience, the solo sections that everyone has been waiting for are now! Rundgren and Powell do not disappoint. In 7.1 Powell and Rundgren’s solos move about the spectrum left to right, back to front, round and round, it is really something to behold for yourself as two dimensional descriptions pale.

The segue between “Caravan” and “Last Of The New Wave Riders”, also from Adventures In Utopia is nice but it may have been manufactured in postproduction. But from the point the vocals come in with angelic harmonic unison, you know this will be a hot version. The playing is dead on, and the vocals are great for four guys beat from a night of singing and a period of touring.

They are totally together as they hit the break, where Powell emulates a slow sequencer and Wilcox doubles up the beat, the rest of the band cuts to half time, the drummer cuts to double time, figure it out! They rejoin to finish the song out with choruses and rock and roll stage endings deluxe.

If you are not gyrating by now, you have rigor mortis.

An obvious encore after the performance of “…New Wave Riders,” we are reminded of their single from Oblivion, “Cry Baby”. MTV even had a feature debut of this video. Useless. This song sounds like when other bands try to play Utopia. This is obviously a newer song and not as well rehearsed, almost as if they are dying without the midi accompaniment. It is the end of the evening, perhaps voices and physiologies are hurting. We know Rundgren’s voice is hurting at the end of this track, he needs to grab air to finish a higher phrase at the end of the vocal, and all the high pitched adlibs he does on the recorded version are hurting here. They do tack on a nice live ending, a simple downward modulation.

Our obliviated existence is renewed with “Love Is The Answer” from Oops Wrong Planet. Once again, Rundgren insists on using this one particular wireless microphone system and he had to press the mic against his teeth to get any presence out of the mic, and it makes his lead vocal sound like he just came from the dentist. The instrument side is glorious. Everything mixed well, tasty improves, and even Sulton ******** up the arrangement by coming in too early with the wrong part doesn’t throw the juggernaught! Sulton ******** up or forgetting the lyrics reminds me of back when Utopia were in their hey day, Sulton would forget lyrics constantly, and we would crucify him for that.

I have since offered my apologies to Kasim, he is a very gracious man.

Most assuredly, “Just One Victory” ended the night. I attended this tour when it came through Moosic PA, and I know they always ended the show with “Just One Victory”. But as they had done this song as well as certain others that were omitted over and over, we were spared the redundancy.

Now we will take some space to address last week’s comments in an order rationalized by me.

First, to PH, thank you for pointing that out. I cannot explain why I made such a bush-league mistake! When I do a review, I call up all my web references, gather the CDs, DVD, Videos, etc., any trade publications I may have in my collection, etc. etc. So for me to have the Q: Are We Not Men CD as well as the Duty Now CD and still get them wrong, I can’t even offer an explanation on that. Thanks again! With regard to the intro video and their attire, you must understand, I am only as good a reviewer as my research sources are virtuous. You can paraphrase the computer phrase “garbage in, garbage out.” Thanks for that info as well, good looking out!

Next, to Mr. Richard J. Anderson, wasn’t that show just killer? My concert partner still raves on about what a great show they put on. But as far as getting the Bob’s right, I am aware that Mothersbaugh is Bob #1, I have the Devo in Japan DVD where they outright introduce themselves. I just enjoy putting some humor into confusing situations. I do dabble in fiction sometimes.

Lastly, but certainly not least important, it is my great honor to address Ms. Robin Slick, author of her own highly entertaining blog, “In Her Own Write.” Another aspect as to why Ms. Slick is held in such high regard with this blogmeister is that she encouraged her two children, a son and daughter, to follow their dream and supported them in their decision to attend Philadelphia’s Paul Green School of Rock (SOR). Her concern for her children garnered them something they are envied for by this reviewer. You see, one day, a certain Electronic Guitarist by the name of Adrian Belew went to play and visit with the SOR. After a while, Belew decided he would cull the school for his final solution to the ever evolving power trio he had been trying to set up with former band members of his who helped him on the David Bowie tour. When they couldn’t do it, Belew recruited Robin’s children Eric and Julie to become the other two thirds of the trio.

I know Ms. Slick will not bad mouth the SOR as I do, and I respect her reasons not to if she so chooses, but I invite Ms. Slick to comment on anything she likes on my blog and I hope she will do so often. Yes, I will be attending the King Crimson shows in August; no I can’t see Eric and Julie again, scheduling conflicts. Thank you Ms. Slick for your interest!

Due to new arrivals, we are going to break from the Utopia Box Set next week for an important new release. Who’s that on the racks again?