| www.radiohead.org Awesomely creative layout. |
| Since the release of Pablo Honey, Radiohead has slowly evolved into a band of epic proportions. Thom Yorke's trademark vocals and falsetto---with which, from an early date, he exhibited the ability to produce powerful, hauntingly beautiful arias---helped to distinguish the group from their garage-band counterparts during the early to mid-90's era, the time period that featured the mainstream explosion of what experts like to refer to as "grunge rock." Which is extremely annoying, by the way. I wonder what brilliant nomenclature specialists came up with THAT genre title. Probably the same retards who are still putting Punk Rock, Heavy Metal, and Classic Rock CDs in the "alternative" section. But it wasn't just a frontman who was responsible for the public's taking notice of this new prodigy. From Pablo Honey, to The Bends, to the critically-acclaimed OK Computer, the essence of Radiohead's music (as well as Thom's vocals) underwent an internal development throughout the 90's-----a sort of musical maturity gained through experience and experimentation with new sounds. Ok Computer, while nothing like Radiohead's earlier releases, was recieved just as well by fans and even better by the greater public, who could now place the band by their more radio-friendly hit: "Fitter, Happier." ....Heh, I'm just kidding: "Karma Police." And because we saw them change from album to album, not as sell-outs but as growing artists, groupies and other die-hard fans (such as myself) expected to hear yet another version of Radiohead on October 2nd of 2000, when they released their newest album. But nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared me for Kid A. |
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| EXCELLENT page. My fav. |
| Bass |
| Lead vocals, guitar, keyboard |
| Rhythum guitar, percussion, backup vocals |
| Lead guitar and just about anything else |
| Drums |
| www.fridge-buzz.com Pretty good site. |
| Maquiladora Not bad. |
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| Back to the Negatives? |
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| The Great Pyramids. Leonardo's "Mona Lisa." The Sistine Chapel. Radiohead. All exemplify human creative skill at its finest. Now, granted, the latter wasn't responsible for the building of a civilization or the molding of an aesthetic paradigm, but this British fivesome from Oxford, England are virtuosos in their own right. Radiohead throws a great, huge chunk of much-needed originality into the music industry's wearisome mix of similar sounds. And they've been doing it for a decade. |
| Change might be a good thing, but Kid A is ridiculous. I mean, I'd anticipated something different, but WOW. This album is different. And not in the good way. This is like the "Oh-you-got-your-hair-cut-it-looks......interesting....." different. It's the sad story of a band that has true talent embracing a style that can't fully display it. A style which, aside from Yoke rapping feats Jay-Z in a p-iz-imp jam about 'fly honeys,' is the most senseless genre change they could possibly undergo. Any band whose singer has the singular most beautiful male voice in history should NOT release anything that messes with that. But they did. Kid A is an album of vocal distortion and "electronic manipulation." And I hate it. |
| LINKS |
| KID A GOOD POINTS: 1.) Radiohead's predilection for vague and seemingly nonsensical cover art was exemplified on the Kid A CD----barely-distinguishable marks and scribbles filled 20 complicated pages of nothingness, the unravelling of which took me the better part of fifteen minutes. Although this seems at first like a pointless w.a.s.t.e. (tactless pun #1) of paper, the coverlet did its job in reassuring Radiohead loyals that the band was at least holding on to part of its identity. |
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| IS... |
| DISCOGRAPHY |
| Thomas Edward Yorke |
| Edward John O'Brien |
| Philip James Selwa |
| Jonathan Greenwood |
| Colin Charles Gree |
| Ok Computer (7/1/97) |
| The Bends (3/13 |
| Kid A (10/3/00) |
| Pablo Honey (2/ |
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| In such tragic times as these, the one question on everybody's mind is: Why? Why would such a loving, awesome band allow something horrible like this to happen? One certainly can't search for answers in logic...because Radiohead has never made the slightest bit of sense...and one can't loose his faith in the creativity of the group... because if the album's anything at all, it's creative. Most pre-Kid A fans realize that we'll never know why this musical entity does what it does, and we can never change it. We can only accept it. The ways of Radiohead ways are not our ways. |
| merchandise |
| "W..A.S.T.E." is Radiohead's official ticket/merchandising company; the anagram is derived from "We await silent Tristero's empire." This phrase was taken from the Thomas Pynchon novel, The Crying of Lot 49. |
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| "The thing that worries me about the computer age is the fact that people know so much about you. It's an incredible invasion of privacy. And no matter where you are in the world, people can monitor you if you're using your credit card. I heard this weird rumor on the Internet about how the military are funding this great, big research project, and basically they believe that in the future, the balance of power won't be determined by who has the most nucleaar weapons, but by who has all the information. I'm not aftraid of being taken over by computers though, because the thing is, computers cannot resist. You can always smash 'em up----and they're totally defenseless. All we need are more people with hammers." |
| -- Thom Yorke |
| on COMPUTERS: |
| full-length albums |
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| Amnesiac (6/7/01) |
| That's pretty much it. So to wrap this rant up in a concise phrase: old fans, the album is a major, major disappointment; newcomers, it's brilliant. But it's all good, yo, as the urbanites would say. Radiohead is still the best band in the world as far as I'm concerned. And it's not like Kid A is a total w.a.s.t.e. (that's two) of fake plastic trees. It really is a pretty good album... FOR ME TO POOP ON!!! Eh, well. Perhaps Baz Luhrmann could use it in his next film. It's excellent soundtrack material. And then wouldn't have to see Christina Aguilera in a corset. |
| " With the next one [Amnesiac] we are definitely having singles, videos, glossy magazine celebrity photoshoots, children's television appearances, film premier appearances, dance routines, and many interesting interviews about my tortured existence. " |
| www.followmearound.com This one's very thorough. |
| Thom on the the new album: |
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| And I certainly have the right to say that.... Now, I've tried to stay away from bringing myself into this equation as much as humanly possible, but I have to say: as much as I despise synthesized music, it is a certain, personal treachery for my favorite band's new album to not even INCLUDE a guitar until the fourth track. One of the best guitar bands in the world. =sigh= The irony never ends. Well, after the initial shock and disappointment of my once-through, I did see a few good things about Kid A. So to avoid looking like a total Benedict Arnold, I'll extrapolate forthwith: |
| In truth, the discerning ear could have probably percieved, in previous releases, a certain undertone foretelling Radiohead's evolvement (or, shall I say, relegation) to the techno/electronica movement. With layering, multiple synthesized tracks, and considerable manipulation, OK Computer songs like "Exit Music" and "Fitter, Happier," represent a surreal, futuristic prophecy that is fulfilled in Kid A (a name referencing genetic engineering and other utopian institutionalizations with which Ok Computer toyed). So first off, we shouldn't be so surprised. Secondly, I think it's important for us to keep in mind that the entire album doesn't suck. We have to keep it fair. "Optimistic" and "Motion Picture Soundtrack, " the only tracks worthy of the band's reputation, are truly awesome. And thirdly, by techno standards (which aren't the highest, but nonetheless), the album is a supreme accomplishment of genius. ...For peope who like that sort of trash. |
| 2.) The two aforementioned tracks "Optimistic" and "Motion Picture Soundtrack" |
| 3.) Now Radiohead has a raver demographic. 4.) Nevermind about that last one. |