goodnightboy

Well, Radiohead aren't a band that require much introduction, but in case you happen to be living under a rock all these years, here is an overview, of sorts:

Radiohead are a British band from Oxfordshire, England, comprised of five musicians. Though often classed as alternative rock, they have been deeply influenced by music from a variety of genres. Radiohead is often praised as one of the most creative bands of their era, known for their multilayered songs and artistic evolution from album to album. They are seen by many to have maintained musical and political independence despite recording for a major label. They first broke into the music scene with the album Pablo Honey, containing the hit single Creep, a song about low self-esteem and self-hatred that many listeners could identify with. The song was so huge, in fact, that critics wrote the band off as one-hit wonders - a label that seemed to have weight after subsequent singles such as Pop Is Dead were savaged by critics. However, Radiohead bounced back in the form of their second album, The Bends in 1995 - a much more mature-sounding rock album that spawned Radiohead's highest-ranked single on the British charts, Street Spirit (Fade Out), and the band's proudest moment, the song Fake Plastic Trees. Two years later came what many people have hailed their best album, OK Computer - an album that has made many "Greatest Albums" lists. Some have also derided their work for its bleakness and lack of instant accessibility - in part due to the double dose of nihilism in the next two albums Kid A and Amnesiac, but it is also proof of the band's willingness to experiment and explore the boundaries of rock. Their most recent album, Hail To The Thief - controvesy still reigns over whether the title alludes to American president George Bush winning the presidency, the band has denied it - is seen to be a link, of sorts, between OK Computer and the next two albums, yet it is an album that has its distinct sound (a feature of all Radiohead albums). They also have a live album, I Might Be Wrong - Live Recordings, and are currently working on a new album.

Radiohead are:

Thom Yorke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, electronic programming)
Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboard, ondes martenot, electronic programming, string arrangements, various)
Ed O'Brien (guitar, harmony vocals, special effects, percussion)
Colin Greenwood (bass, keyboards)
Phil Selway (drums and percussion)



Picture of Radiohead in Concert

Several sites:
Radiohead.com
Dead Air Space
Wikipedia page
Green Plastic
At Ease
Video Code Zone - Radiohead

infinite sadness

Hey Gwen! Glad to be back!

So, the Radohead song of the moment for me is Amazing Sounds of Orgy. Have you given it a listen? I used to not be able to stand it, but now I love it.

I'm also really into the live version of I Will and The Gloaming. Sit Down Stand Up is a favorite these days too. I think I'm in an HTTT phase.

goodnightboy

I don't have that song! Will attempt to look for it now...

Nope, they don't have it. Hello, stranger! I haven't seen you around. Thanks for Pablo Honey and the acoustic of Motion Picture Soundtrack. Unfortunately, I can't find my MPS right off. It's somewhere in my computer though that's for sure.

PH just seems like one huge noisy song. But I haven't listened to it closely yet. HTTT is lovely! And guess what I sent my classmate Creep (he said Radiohead sounded familiar) and Just (he plays guitar) and he says he likes them. Yay! I lent him OK Computer too, but he hasn't listened to it properly yet. There just might be a Radiohead convert in the making

infinite sadness

You sure? Didn't I send you a ton of b-sides? ASoO should've been among them...

I'm not big on PH. Pretty weak album in my mind... I like Creep, Thinking About You, Blow Out, You, and Anyone Can Play Guitar is ok.

Good luck on the conversion.

goodnightboy

Yes, I remember seeing it around, too, I think it's just stuck somewhere in my computer. No worries!

PH, you're right, it's rather weak, comparing it to The Bends and you can really see how much Radiohead had matured as a band. And about The Bends, I was listening to it on the bus today and I fell in love with it all over agan (I hadn't listened to it for a while prior to today). The conversion was pretty fast because I used this programme called Switch - it's fantastically easy.

You know, I think I listen to too much Radiohead, but that's not a bad thing.

infinite sadness

No, it's definitely not a bad thing.

I get The Bends moods every so often, but in general I don't think I listen to it as much as Kid A, OKC, and HTTT.

So tell me, Gwen, how would you rank The Bends tracks? Favorite to least favorite.

And on another note: Has a JB thread been started up again yet?

goodnightboy

No, I haven't gotten around to starting up a Jeff thread. I figured, since it's just the two of us, we could actually combine the threads

The tracks of The Bends. Hmmm. I don't quite know how to rank stuff, and I don't really remember it right off, so I can't have an accurate ranking. Heh. How would you rank them?

infinite sadness

I would rank them like so:

Street Spirit
Fake Plastic Trees
Nice Dream
My Iron Lung
Planet Telex
High and Dry
The Bends
Black Star
Sulk
Bones
Bullet Proof... I Wish I Was
Just......................Yeah, I am one of the few people in the Radiohead world it seems who do not like Just at all.


That is my The Bends ranking right now. Of course when I make lists like this they're subject to change, and some days I'm more interested in other tracks than usual, etc etc. But The Bends is pretty solidly ranked for me, I've listened to it so much. Ok Computer changes a bit more, as do the others. Hail to the Thief is probably the least consistent.
Ok, now your turn!

infinite sadness

SO... Radiohead played a show a few days ago, their first in about 2 years. They played 3 new songs: Arpeggi, Bodysnatchers, and Cymbol Rush. Arpeggi they played before at the Ether Fesitval, I think, but with an orchestra or soemthing... so here it's just Thom and Jonny. And melikes (though the quality of the bootlegs I have is quite low). I really can't wait to hear all these tracks in final form so I hope they all make the album.

Though Radiohead is a band I love enough that I'd be willing to buy singles to obtain the b-sides.

goodnightboy

AHHHH I wanted to go for the concert! (But of course I couldn't, seeing as they performed in places like Wolverhampton and for me it's a 14 hour flight to London, let alone the concert venues).

Yes, I know what you mean - I read the lyrics of Talk Show Host on GreenPlastic, and I remember being so desperate to find the original version (not the Nellee Hooper version on the soundtrack of Romeo + Juliet) I was willing to buy it off iTunes or whatever, only that I couldn't find it anywhere. So I was really, really happy that you sent it to me. I put the mp3 in my phone so I listen to it quite often, too.

Radiohead said, though, that the new album would be completely unlike the Radiohead we know, right? So that will be interesting.

My ranking:

Fake Plastic Trees
Just / High And Dry
Bulletproof...I Wish I Was
Sulk / Black Star
(Nice Dream)
The Bends / My Iron Lung / Planet Telex / Bones
Street Spirit (Fade Out)

As you can see, I cheated because I couldn't decide between a lot of songs. And this list will probably change, too. But this is it for now. Heh. I like Just And I don't really like Street Spirit, it's not that it's not nice, it's just that I prefer the other songs, I guess.

I remember there were a lot of other people who posted in this thread (before I came), so where are all of them now? It's going to be hard to upkeep this thread, especially since I don't have time to come to FF everyday anymore.

infinite sadness

Yeah, well... another fan is bound to pop in once and awhile. Maybe when the new album drops they'll be some more people coming in.

I rememeber Thom supposedly saying something like that, but I don't think it's going to be the case. I mean, Koko was just Jonny and Thom, but the songs sounded...well... like Radiohead. No matter how different they get, they always sound like Radiohead. So, in my opinion, he never should've said that.

A lot of fans like Just over on Mortigi Tempo. It's the lyrics that just don't impress me, I guess. However, you're a rare one to not like Street Spirit. It's often hailed as Radiohead's finest, and generally makes every top ten list it seems.

But anyway, would you like to hear the new Koko tracks? I could send them if you're interested, unless you want to wait to hear them on the album. There's a whole "LP7 Packt" over at MT of people who refuse to hear any of the new bootlegs until they hear the album.

infinite sadness

Ah, more new bootlegs... full band Arpeggi and Bodysnatchers... and 4 Minute Warning, 15 Step, Spook, Bangers and Mash, Open Pick, and impressive versions of House of Cards and Nude...

goodnightboy

SEND! If you don't mind, that is

I dunno, I just don't really like Street Spirit. I downloaded it before my cousin uploaded The Bends, and back then I wasn't so much a Radiohead fan, so I didn't quite like it, and maybe that impression stuck. I must make a disclaimer, though: that all the songs are very close in ranking, so it's not that I don't like Street Spirit, it's just less than the other stuff!

The lyrics of Just aren't great, I know, but I love the guitar riffs. It's amazing.

infinite sadness

I'm on it!

Not all the recording are great quality but what can you expect, right?

Anyway, now that we've done The Bends, how about HTTT and OKC? (I don't know how much you've listened Kid A or Amnesiac yet, so I'll hold out on those)
Yes, I enjoy making lists too much...
OKC
1) Exit Music
2) No Surprises
3) Climbing Up the Walls
4) Let Down
5) Paranoid Android
6) Airbag
7) Lucky
8) Karma Police
9) The Tourist
10) Electioneering
11) Subterranean Homesick Alien
12) Fitter Happier (but it's more of an interlude, imo... so it's not really fair to compare it to the others at all)

HTTT this list changes all the time...
1) Where I End and You Begin
2) Sit Down Stand Up
3) 2+2=5
4) There there
5) I Will
6) Scatterbrain
7) A Wolf at the Door
8) Punchup
9) The Gloaming
10) We Suck Young Blood
11) Myxomatosis
12) Sail to the Moon
13) Go to Sleep
14) Backdrifts


Strange... I used to really hate I Will...

goodnightboy

Okay, my list will be completely different from yours...

But I beg your leave, I can't make the lists today, my mother is giving me the Evil Eye (it's 11.27pm here and I've got to wake up at 6something in the morning tomorrow and she thinks I will die if I get less than 8 hours' sleep. And I guess I do, this time, because I'm sick...but anyway).

Thanks for the link! Haven't visited it yet, but I've bookmarked it already