Rutland Herald

2.21.08

Big Head Todd has all the love you need

By Sarah Hinckley

 

Big Head Todd and the Monsters' latest album, "All The Love You Need" is out of this world, literally, having traveled into space with a NASA crew.

The band is soaring to local heights this weekend when they come to the Pickle Barrel Night Club in Killington to perform on Sunday. Doors open at 8 p.m. for the show, open to those 21 years and older.

"Blue Sky," a song from the band's album was written at the request of NASA associates. They approached band leader Todd Park Mohr to create a song for shuttle launches.

"I kind of thought it was an interesting challenge," Mohr said in a recent phone interview from Iowa.

"Yes, you can change the world," a chorus line from the song must have struck a chord with presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. She has taken it on as her campaign song, according to Mohr.

In an act of independence from the constraints of the recording industry, Mohr and fellow band members decided to give away, "All The Love You Need," their seventh album.

As 2007 wrapped up, many of the band's fans were receiving a holiday gift in the mail. After posting the offering on their Web site and having 25,000 people sign up to receive a copy of the album, the band teamed up with radio stations in Denver, San Diego, Kansas City, Mo., and Austin, Texas, to send out more than 200,000 CDs at the beginning of this year.

Instead of putting a price on the album, the band figured giving it away would pack more houses when they're on the road.

"It seems to be going well," said Mohr, who got the band started in 1986. "We're selling out a lot of rooms."

Largely influenced by the soul and R&B music of the Motown era between the 1940s and the '70s, Mohr said there wasn't any particular event that set him on a musical path.

"I always thought it was pretty much a pipe dream," he said. "I feel like I made it the day I quit my day job."

The title of the new album was inspired by the book, "The Mastery of Love," by Don Miguel Ruiz, from which readers learn all the love they need is inside them.

"I'm a big fan," said Mohr. "I think he's pretty right on."

Inside Mohr one finds music, words and a creativity that feeds his music. Classics like "Bittersweet," "Sister Sweetly," "Resignation Superman" and "Broken Hearted Savior" all call on that one thing, within us, that drives rock 'n' roll — love in its raw form, sex.

"I do think a lot about sexuality and women," said Mohr. "I think music is a great medium to talk about sexuality."

Step out to the Pickle Barrel Night Club to see what kind of conversation he and the rest of the band members will have this Sunday.