“My first experience with vinyl was with Utopia’s Deface the Music.“
“I was 14 and was just trying to write songs, but the only way I knew how was to mimic The Beatles. I learned every part of every song and even had impressions of each Beatle. One day I heard a sarcastic little tune with thumpy drums coming from my basement: “I just want to touch you… do you want to touch me tooo.” I ran downstairs.
“Dad, WHAT Beatles record is this?”
He goes, “It’s Todd (Rundgren).” He hands me this old, dusty record with four shaggy dudes dressed like (but definitely not) The Beatles. It was perfect.
Then I learned the whole back story. Todd built his career on giving labels the middle finger. He had a side project called Utopia, and after turning in a single to the label, they said it “sounded too Beatles-y,” so he made a whole record mimicking The Beatles.
I thought it was so interesting hearing a powerhouse writer successfully step into the shoes of another influence of mine. I could never find any Utopia CDs in Akron, Ohio at the time but ALWAYS found Utopia vinyl.
I started collecting them. The live records too. Then the ones with different lineups. After all the songs popped up on Spotify, I started listening regularly… but nobody understood how special it had been HUNTING for a rare sighting of a Utopia record.
The crackle… then staring at all their amazing artwork while my imagination drifted away to the warmth of the record—not the compressed, skip to the chorus, skip to the next song, quick-consumption way of listening we have now.”
—Brasko
Brasko’s current single (and a gem of a T-Rex cover) “20th Century Boy” (Feat. Mr. Gabriel), is in stores now.
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PHOTO: MATTHEW SIMMONS
