THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: msouva on 19 Oct 2005, 17:35
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Okay, being a regular reader of these boards (on days that I can...) I must ask: what do you all think of Radiohead?
I read about all the indie rock stuff in the comic and hear about it here, but what about Radiohead? Am I the only person who thinks that these guys are the single most original band in the last 10 to 20 years? Just something about mixing up song structure and using futuristic themes works very well for these guys. Everything from The Bends on was (and still is) absolutly breathtaking, wholly captivating and very unique stuff.
As far as I'm concerned, no one else in the music world (that I've listened to) that is still together today has done as much for the progression of music as Radiohead.
But I'm just one silly new poster.
What does everyone else see in Radiohead? And how do I get unaddicted to them so that other music sounds good again?
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prepare the flame cannons!
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I've heard one thing by Radiohead, and it was pretty good. I don't remember much other than that...
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This thread makes me want to shoot myself. Most original band in the last 10-20 years? not by a long shot. The music itself? Pretty bland, boring, and long drawn. Thom Yorke isn't a very good singer, and the music itself, to me, leaves alot to be desired. They me be the most original band and the greatest band ever and whatnot, but then again, you may possibly be the type of person to categorize Modest Mouse as "Experimental". Prog Rock's been done before, and in many a cases better. King Crimson (Pre 80's), Yes' first album, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Zappa (Although not necessarily prog, is totally the best musician/composer in the last century, IMO, and is way more interesting than Radiohead), Fantomas, Praxis, Buckethead, and of course, my little favorite progressive/avantgarde/art group, The Residents.
Basically: Radiohead: Better than Limp Bizkit, not the most original band in the past 20 years.
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Thom Yorke is a Yes fan! It makes sense!
But I don't think that msouva meant that they were "prog," but more that they brought music in general foward to a new level. I don't particulairly agree with that (I have always said that I believe their influence is negligle for the most part) but I still enjoy their music.
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I really just tend to be the person who finds Thom Yorke to be a decent singer with really intersting electronica ideas that he incorperates quite well into his music.
And the music... I also find the music to be wonderful, interesting, requiring some thought and taste for their style.
I personally think that, while OK Computer is their best album by a longshot (with Paranoid Android being just amazing), all of their stuff from The Bends on (including Kid A and Amnesiac) has been very interesting, very unique music that just hits me square in the ears. I love it. The slow, lengthy, difficult songs, the random songs, the electronic songs... all of it appeals to me.
And I really think people who call Coldplay a similar band to Radiohead are foolish. Coldplay wishes they could be Radiohead.
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Basically: Radiohead: Better than Limp Bizkit, not the most original band in the past 20 years.
Although Yorke better not try rapping anytime soon.
How can they be the most original band in the past 20 years? What about all the countless bands and musicians that have invented whole genres in that time?
What about fucking Skyclad? We are talking approximately seven billion squillion times better than Radiohead when we talk Skyclad.
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I'm more of voicing my opinion on the band in general; they're usually called prog, so whatever. I don't personally think they're the most orignal band in the past 20 years, they haven't influenced popular culture as much as he says (Which is, despite me saying it, a shame; I'd rather have just "Meh" prog rock on the Radio than Green Day.)
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Well, I love Radiohead's music, but you are really making a huge overstatement when you say stuff like "ZOMG most original band EVAR!"
They are a very talented lot, but for some reason lots of people don't like them because they're either (a) "too much experimental noodling. Why don't they do more stuff like Ok Computer?" or (b) "not experimental enough. They sound like every other British rock band".
Whatever. I think Kid A has got to be one of my favourite albums of this century.
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Dream Theatre is better than Radiohead? Motherfucking DREAM THEATRE?! Wow.......
Khar and Kai, you both should be stabbed in the ear. You're obviously not using them correctly.
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In the hopes of not further either sides' arguements, I shall simply say "I enjoy thier music."
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Dream Theatre is better than Radiohead? Motherfucking DREAM THEATRE?! Wow.......
Khar and Kai, you both should be stabbed in the ear. You're obviously not using them correctly.
First of all, it's Theater. They're an American band.
Secondly, stop being a dick.
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Whatever makes you happy
Whatever you want
You're so fuckin special
I wish I was special
But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin here?
I don't belong here
I don't belong here
See I've been trying to articulate and rationalize my loathing for this band. I'm not trying to convince anyone (nor do I think that you can convince someone intellectually about whether they like a song) -- it's more that I'm trying to explain it to myself. Here's what I came up with.
(1) I really, really dislike their lyrics. Their passionless, unimaginative, overly alienated, emoish, repetitive, chorus laden lyrics. Karma Police, my favorite song of the lot, has the epic "buzzes like a fridge" and "hitler hairdo". That's a high point for me.
(2) I hate the 1984 references. So painfully literal. So cliche. When I listened to Hail to the Thief I felt like I was being bludgeoned by Thom Yorke's message.
(3) Most of their songs sound like they were assembled in one of those air controlled labs where they manufacture microchips. There's no life that I can detect.
So yah, that's where I'm coming from, from the nay side. Maybe these dudes were influential, but as long as they didn't influence any group I actually enjoy, I couldn't care less.
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Anyone who calls Radiohead prog is missing the point. Radiohead are obviously not competing with wankers like Dream Theater and they're not trying to out-weird the sophisticated, fart-based humor of Mike Patton. Besides, I don't think prog has come up with anything totally original in a long time. Prog's idea of inventing a genre is taking genre A and mixing it with genre B (who am I kidding, B is always metal) and pretty soon you have barber shop metal. Another orignal idea of prog musicians that has been done a million times before is playing in "goofy" time signatures which is "challenging".
Dream Theater, for all their musical ability, have never produced a note worth ripping off and after Kid A was released people said "Hey Thom, where did you get those cool textures?". There wasn't an album quite like it before and there hasn't been since no matter how much people have wanted to make one.
No one describes a Dream Theater song with "This sums up exactly how I feel.". No one falls in love to Dream Theater except maybe if it's over EverQuest. Radiohead would rather be judged by this criterea than their overall playing ability or how their songs look on paper. The point I'm making here is Radiohead is not prog and should not be compared to prog and that prog is dumb.
I enjoy Radiohead. Radiohead is not my favorite band but if they are yours, I'm not going to give you crap about it (and I do give people crap for their shitty taste in music).
And the best band ever is Spacemen 3.
It's also worth mentioning that you would have serious second thoughts about thinking Radiohead were the most original band in 20 years if you were to listen to Disco Inferno - DI Go Pop, My Bloody Valentine - Loveless or Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies.
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I think Radiohead is pretty decent. They have a large amount of good songs, and a good amount of great songs. Yes, they are pretentious and overrated, but I'd rather a band lean on the over artistic than some band going "HEADSTRONG I'LL TAKE YOU ON. HEADSTRONG I'LL TAKE ON ANYONE" or some other such crap. I think most people say they hate Radiohead because they think it's cool too.
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I dont like radiohead because frankly, the music bores me to death. Really, they cant hold my attention for 3 minutes, so im not interested.
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No one describes a Dream Theater song with "This sums up exactly how I feel.". No one falls in love to Dream Theater except maybe if it's over EverQuest. Radiohead would rather be judged by this criterea than their overall playing ability or how their songs look on paper. The point I'm making here is Radiohead is not prog and should not be compared to prog and that prog is dumb.
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I think you're making a statement best described as 'fucking stupid and close minded' when you posit that no-one thinks any Dream Theater song describes how they feel.
Also, we're not talking about Dream Theater, we're talking about the hundreds of bands with more talent, soul and originality than Radiohead.
Mainly fucking Skyclad.
Khar and Kai, you both should be stabbed in the ear. You're obviously not using them correctly.
Or maybe I should just listen to Radiohead, it's as painful.
Radiohead? Moer liek GAYDIOHEAD, amirite?
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Well, I'm sure this is just the start of ye olde Radiohead backlash rearing its ugly head, but I'll share some thoughts.
The Bends and OK Computer are probably what I've given the most spins, historically, so I don't get the fantastically original thing. They did rock. They did it well, when a lot of their peers happened to be crap. (Or maybe this is just me. I stopped listening to much rock from about 1996 to 2003 :P.) They can write a damn good tune. And Thom's singing/lyrics, well, you like it or you don't.
Then Kid A came along and became this massive indie shibboleth. I was introduced to Pitchfork via a friend's link to their review of it. No sound on that album, even, is new. At all. I was listening to everything they pilfered for it at the time :). But, as they say, immature artists imitate, mature poets steal. They put it in a new context and changed the landscape a bit. Indie heads became a somewhat less parochial. It's not one of my particular favorites (save a few tracks) but it is richer than it is derivative and I think our perspective is deeper for it.
Amnesiac, on the other hand. Amnesiac is one of my favorite albums of all time. Now, go ahead and flame me away for this, but I read it as a transfiguration of/commentary on/reverse concordance to/cryptogrammatic reconfiguration of the phenomenology of Kid A (and the surface of all this that it managed to scratch at points) as I just described it. If the words "postmodern" or "deconstruction" make you want to leave the party, well, I didn't say you have to like what I like. But in this case I think convential indie wisdom has cheapened our collective experience, because convential indie wisdom is, well, dreadfully modernist, and doesn't leave much room for art beng about other art or reflexively about itself instead of about, well, sounding cool. Although that is changing. And I do not think any of this needs to have been intentional (or even was) on the part of Thom et al. Take that as you will.
Hail to the Thief is just utter crap. I should have just downloaded 2+2=5 and not wasted my money. I haven't the foggiest if they're going to regress further into "sounds cool" next time or actually pull out something conceptually interesting, but, well... I would say "I'll download it first this time" but it did last time and I still bought it (dunno what I was thinking. Other than it was on 0-week sale and I hadn't formed an opinion yet. Anyone wanna buy a used copy?)
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Oh, and you probably want to read Amanda's "Insufferable Music Snob" series over at Pandagon (http://www.pandagon.net/) if you want to understand the whole popular = not cool meme. :)
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Radiohead are OK. Amnesiac is my favorite, the rest are pretty boring.
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I've tried my best to like them... but lost interest pretty fast. I've heard quite a few of their albums so I haven't made this decision based off of a single track.
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Kid Modernist summed it up really. I adore Radiohead (it's sort of a first love thing with me) but i can easily say they are more inventive bands out there.
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I love them.
I don't care if anyone thinks they're shit, I don't even know if I think they're shit.
But they're one of my favourite bands. End.
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OK Computer has been on my "Top 10 albums" list for a while.
I'm not going to justify it or explain why because I don't really think I should have to. Feel free to debate all you want, but me; I like it, it sounds good. That's all I need.
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I've heard only two songs by Radiohead, and have found both to be rather boring and unoriginal. I'm not impressed.
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This is not a dig Luke, but how can you like Coldplay, and not like radiohead as well? I'm pretty sure Mr Martin was very influenced by Mr Yorke.
This confuses me…
What were the songs you heard? Perhaps you were listening to the difficult post-OK Computer stuff. If this is the case I suggest going back to The Bends and OK Computer.
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Frankly, I don't understand how (granted, this is based on what I have heard) people think Coldplay is influenced by Radiohead. One of the songs I heard was "Creep," and I don't remember the name of the other one.
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Try listening to the bends (album), the link may become more apparent.
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Khar and Kai, you both should be stabbed in the ear. You're obviously not using them correctly.
Or maybe I should just listen to Radiohead, it's as painful.
Radiohead? Moer liek GAYDIOHEAD, amirite?
<-------------SELLOUTZ!!1
Also: The Residents' Imaginary Jack... album (Bonus disk that came with Animal Lover) Is way better than at least the Radiohead that I've heard (Both OK Computer and Kid A.)
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Yeah Luke, 'Creep' is not really indicative of their work. you should totally give the Bends a try.
Also, W00t! Unecessary Residents references!
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No! Give OK Computer a try! heh. I think The Bends is pretty boring minus 2 or 3 awesome songs.
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To preface this comment, I will state that to me, lyrics aren't as important as musicality, except in cases when the lyrics are so bad, no matter what the music sounds like, I can't take it (ie half of "With Teeth"). I enjoy musicians who use thier voices as an insturment adding to the musicality of the song, which is something that Mr. Yorke does rather well.
To all those who say that Radiohead has terrible lyrics, who writes better lyrics? What constitutes good lyrics? Pure emotion? Whining about some past experience? Something metaphoric and poetic?
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No matter where you stand on the issue, I think most people can agree that most of Pablo Honey is rather mediocre.
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Pablo honey is the only radiohead album I like.
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"Creep": One of the best singles of the '90s. Everything else: crap.
If I read one more fucking "best albums ever" list with OK Computer on it I will explode. SUCKY. SUCKY SUCKY ALBUM.
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My ears like Radiohead. They like Kid A the most and Pablo Honey the least. You can argue with this opinion, but you would be argueing with a pair of ears, and that's kinda silly.
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i figure that if i did like Radiohead, the pleasure i would derive from listening to their music wouldn't be enough to offset the aggravation caused by constantly defending them to people. so i have made a choice not to bother listening to them.
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No matter where you stand on the issue, I think most people can agree that most of Pablo Honey is rather mediocre.
I agree, but curiously, I find that the people I know who don't like Radiohead as a rule tend to like Pablo Honey and not the rest.
But then a lot of it is pretty standard radio-rock, really.
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"Creep": One of the best singles of the '90s. Everything else: crap.
If I read one more fucking "best albums ever" list with OK Computer on it I will explode. SUCKY. SUCKY SUCKY ALBUM.
How about no? Anyone who says that Creep is one of the best singles of any time is an idiot in my book.
Creep sucks.
It sucks.
Hard.
And fast.
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i figure that if i did like Radiohead, the pleasure i would derive from listening to their music wouldn't be enough to offset the aggravation caused by constantly defending them to people. so i have made a choice not to bother listening to them.
Yeah, that's a smart way to form an opinion.
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i figure that if i did like Radiohead, the pleasure i would derive from listening to their music wouldn't be enough to offset the aggravation caused by constantly defending them to people. so i have made a choice not to bother listening to them.
Yeah, that's a smart way to form an opinion.
Indeed. There's a nice way of trumping anyone's argument against you liking Radiohead - 'I don't give a fuck what you think.'
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I like the noises they make.
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i wouldn't piss in thom yorkes aer if his brain was on fire.
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I've never really bothered to listen to them in all honesty. I can't claim to like or dislike them either way, because I've just never actually listened to enough Radiohead to form an opinion.
Which would suggest that it's so unmemorable that I totally fail to register it.
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Yeah, that's a smart way to form an opinion.
Indeed. There's a nice way of trumping anyone's argument against you liking Radiohead - 'I don't give a fuck what you think.'
yes, well, i have a few friends who taunt me endlessly about my musical tastes as it is. and besides, none of the music that i've happened to hear from Radiohead has done much to excite me.
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Well, I'm sure this is just the start of ye olde Radiohead backlash rearing its ugly head, but I'll share some thoughts.
The Bends and OK Computer are probably what I've given the most spins, historically, so I don't get the fantastically original thing. They did rock. They did it well, when a lot of their peers happened to be crap. (Or maybe this is just me. I stopped listening to much rock from about 1996 to 2003 :P.) They can write a damn good tune. And Thom's singing/lyrics, well, you like it or you don't.
Then Kid A came along and became this massive indie shibboleth. I was introduced to Pitchfork via a friend's link to their review of it. No sound on that album, even, is new. At all. I was listening to everything they pilfered for it at the time :). But, as they say, immature artists imitate, mature poets steal. They put it in a new context and changed the landscape a bit. Indie heads became a somewhat less parochial. It's not one of my particular favorites (save a few tracks) but it is richer than it is derivative and I think our perspective is deeper for it.
Amnesiac, on the other hand. Amnesiac is one of my favorite albums of all time. Now, go ahead and flame me away for this, but I read it as a transfiguration of/commentary on/reverse concordance to/cryptogrammatic reconfiguration of the phenomenology of Kid A (and the surface of all this that it managed to scratch at points) as I just described it. If the words "postmodern" or "deconstruction" make you want to leave the party, well, I didn't say you have to like what I like. But in this case I think convential indie wisdom has cheapened our collective experience, because convential indie wisdom is, well, dreadfully modernist, and doesn't leave much room for art beng about other art or reflexively about itself instead of about, well, sounding cool. Although that is changing. And I do not think any of this needs to have been intentional (or even was) on the part of Thom et al. Take that as you will.
Hail to the Thief is just utter crap. I should have just downloaded 2+2=5 and not wasted my money. I haven't the foggiest if they're going to regress further into "sounds cool" next time or actually pull out something conceptually interesting, but, well... I would say "I'll download it first this time" but it did last time and I still bought it (dunno what I was thinking. Other than it was on 0-week sale and I hadn't formed an opinion yet. Anyone wanna buy a used copy?)
This is one of the most masturbatory things I have ever read. How long did you search through the thesaurus before you found the word "parochial"?
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To be fair, parochial isn't a particularly unusual word.
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I never heard hail to the thief so i can't judge that cd but the rest Was all at least okay. Pablo Honey is quite mediocre in my opinion though creep really is a nice track (don't chop my head off please). Not one of the best ever, not one of the best of radiohead, but it does make me smile. I can't remember any of the other tracks despite hearing the cd about 10 times.
After that the bends is far better, indeed more useful to learn about radiohead than by listening to creep. But not very brilliant (the video for street spirit IS brilliant though).
OK Computer is still in my top 5 albums ever made (but that top 5 includes nirvana, Velvet underground+Nico, Pearl Jam and the stooges too so I guess you won't take me too serious when it comes to musical taste). Can't explain why exactly, it just is.
Kid A and Amnesiac are nice too. Kid A was something I never heard before (which doesn't mean it's innovative, I have less than 200 cd's and the radio channel i hear mainly plays music for angry teens so there's a lot of music I don't know yet) and which i liked. Amnesiac never really did it for me. It's better than Pablo Honey but not something I play often.
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How long did you search through the thesaurus before you found the word "parochial"?
Actually, I think a better question is, 'how long did you have to search through the dictionary before you found "parochial"?'
Vocabulary n00b.
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Well, I'm sure this is just the start of ye olde Radiohead backlash rearing its ugly head, but I'll share some thoughts.
The Bends and OK Computer are probably what I've given the most spins, historically, so I don't get the fantastically original thing. They did rock. They did it well, when a lot of their peers happened to be crap. (Or maybe this is just me. I stopped listening to much rock from about 1996 to 2003 :P.) They can write a damn good tune. And Thom's singing/lyrics, well, you like it or you don't.
Then Kid A came along and became this massive indie shibboleth. I was introduced to Pitchfork via a friend's link to their review of it. No sound on that album, even, is new. At all. I was listening to everything they pilfered for it at the time :). But, as they say, immature artists imitate, mature poets steal. They put it in a new context and changed the landscape a bit. Indie heads became a somewhat less parochial. It's not one of my particular favorites (save a few tracks) but it is richer than it is derivative and I think our perspective is deeper for it.
Amnesiac, on the other hand. Amnesiac is one of my favorite albums of all time. Now, go ahead and flame me away for this, but I read it as a transfiguration of/commentary on/reverse concordance to/cryptogrammatic reconfiguration of the phenomenology of Kid A (and the surface of all this that it managed to scratch at points) as I just described it. If the words "postmodern" or "deconstruction" make you want to leave the party, well, I didn't say you have to like what I like. But in this case I think convential indie wisdom has cheapened our collective experience, because convential indie wisdom is, well, dreadfully modernist, and doesn't leave much room for art beng about other art or reflexively about itself instead of about, well, sounding cool. Although that is changing. And I do not think any of this needs to have been intentional (or even was) on the part of Thom et al. Take that as you will.
Hail to the Thief is just utter crap. I should have just downloaded 2+2=5 and not wasted my money. I haven't the foggiest if they're going to regress further into "sounds cool" next time or actually pull out something conceptually interesting, but, well... I would say "I'll download it first this time" but it did last time and I still bought it (dunno what I was thinking. Other than it was on 0-week sale and I hadn't formed an opinion yet. Anyone wanna buy a used copy?)
This is one of the most masturbatory things I have ever read. How long did you search through the thesaurus before you found the word "parochial"?
Are you fucking kidding?
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*titters* you people are funny. Well OK, just that one guy with the dictionary.
Seriously, though, I think this area of criticism/culture is fascinating. So true story: I was killing some time before the BSS show last night in Raven (used books) and I found Eisenstein's _Film Form_ and _Film Sense_. Fantastic stuff. The critics of montage! It blows the mind, today. Now I have a better touchpoint whenever I hear someone spit something reactionary toward Radiohead. This is not to elevate them to the same *level* as Mr. Sergei himself, but it is truly something to be able to trace this whole meme further and further thru time: theorists who have an impact primarily thru art, artists who have an impact primarily on theory, people who are both, or vice versa, or... etc.
Like I said, I like what I like. You find fewer people who begrudge you taking anything as more than aesthetics/entertainment in film than you do in music; that (apparently) hasn't changed. ;-)
[I am tempted to make a Gang of Four reference here, but, I'll leave it...]
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radiohead?
yeah, they're alright.
tend to attract pretentious dickheads for fans though. same with tool.
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cryptogrammatic reconfiguration of the phenomenology of Kid A
This is one of the most masturbatory things I have ever read. How long did you search through the thesaurus before you found the word "parochial"?
And you complain about "parochial"? WTF?
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Damnit, MilkmanDan, it makes sense it context!
but I read it as a transfiguration of/commentary on/reverse concordance to/cryptogrammatic reconfiguration of the phenomenology of Kid A (and the surface of all this that it managed to scratch at points)
Wait, no, it really doesn't.
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Oh yeah, when you add in "reverse concordance to", the whole sentence is suddenly a briskly-flowing mountain stream of sparkling clarity and unobfuscation. Though I just used the word "unobfuscation", so I guess I'm not really in a position to critisise.
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"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." - Frank Zappa.
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Except then, Zappa probably did a twenty-minute freak-out dance to celebrate the Sydney Opera House.
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That is so true.
You know, I've typically heard that attributed to Elvis Costello, but that's probably just because it sounds sarcastic if you don't think about it very hard. I think I'll start using the Zappa one. Even it it wasn't a product of his mind, it certainly resonates. One of the great thinkers/cynics/smartasses of our time.
Google turns up this (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_200307/ai_n10890251), if anyone wants to chase sources.
(Laurie Anderson! whoever suggested that should be shot. Luv ya Laurie. I suggest everyone else in this thread go listen to _Big Science_. Snicker, guffaw.)
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Back on topic please, and without the insults, or I'm gonna lock this.
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I like Radiohead. Then again, I don't listen to them all that often as a little bit goes a long way. I think my favourite song might be their cover of "Nobody Does it Better."
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I've got Amnesiac. It's pretty good music to do other things to, but I don't think I could actually listen to it...and I listen to most things.
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Anyone bashing Radiohead based on Creep or any single album they have released should shut up. Mostly because their albums each have different feels to them, and it is impossible to judge them based on one song/album/etc.
Also anyone saying they are bland and unoriginal should shut up. Because, uh, they are pretty original. Have you heard most of the crap being put out over the past decade? Radiohead > probably around 95% of all music in the last decade.
I really don't care who hates them and whatever because honestly expecting everyone to splooge over them is pretty ridiculous. I hated them until about a year ago so whatever. There are still quite a few bands that beat Radiohead with sticks in my book. But most bands are a lot worse than Radiohead. So let's not say they are teh suck, yes?
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radiohead?
yeah, they're alright.
tend to attract pretentious dickheads for fans though. same with tool.
This is why I never bothered to check out either of those bands in the first place. I don't care about the damned symbology of a band's lyrics. As a matter of fact, I very rarely care about lyrics to begin with. I'm probably breaking some indie law by saying this, but I really don't care what a song is about, as long as my ears think it's nice. When people start being all pretentious about what it means, I lose interest.
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I resent what's being said about Tool and Radiohead fans being pretentious ..... I'm a HUGE Tool fan and I don't mind Radiohead (their alright but not fantastic) and I don't go around quoting Maynard every five seconds 'dude he said we should think for ourselves and question authority like I can totally understand what he means' *sigh* and luckily most tool friends who I know aren't like that either so NEH
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But that pretention comment is (unintentionally?) hilarious considering the exchange between Decklin, sjbrot, and MilkmanDan which immediately precedes it. You guys seriously crack me up.
The correct response to be called pretentious is, of course: "Pretentious? Moi?"
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I have a real problem with Amnesiac. I'll explain.
The first three tracks are like a bizzare chain of events. Let me draw a metaphor.
First track: Sardines. You are doing some serious foreplay with a hot chick. There are clothes being torn off, and erogenous areas tickled.
Second track: Pyramid Song. Its on now, and you two kids are going for it, all slow and sensual, with a solid rhythm, and you're about to blow
Third Track: Pulk/Pull. The girl has leapt off you right before you blow your load, smashed the lamp from your bedside table over your head, knocking you unconcious, and when you come to ten minutes later, all your valubles are missing, and you're handcuffed to the bed.
I like Radiohead. I loved The Bends, and Kid A, and enjoyed OK Computer and Hail to the Thief. Amnesiac has quite a few good songs on it, but seriously. What the hell were they thinking with that third track? I can't just skip it either, because I know its still there....
mocking me
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They are trying to freak you out! (said to the tune of "I am trying to Break Your Heart")
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I thought I was the only one who thought that song sucked. :P
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I dunno, I liked it...
I'm not sure if that's just a matter of tuning into whatever deeper, pretentious (pretentious? Moi?) meaning-space they were coming from or just, as I said, listening to so any other things that sounded like that anyway. Perhaps both!
I hope I'm not, ah, stepping on anyone's toes by suggesting there may be more than one way to read a work.
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Radiohead makes some ok songs I guess. I enjoyed Kid A a lot when it came out, but I wasn't prepared to call it the most innovative anything ever...probably because I'd already heard an Autechre album.
Honestly I think liking Radiohead is just kind of lazy. To me it says, "I want to appear to enjoy experimental music, but I'm not willing to put the effort into discovering it, so I'll just take what Rolling Stone defines as 'experimental' instead."
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"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." - Frank Zappa.
"Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read. "
-Zappa
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Having listened to Amnesiac multiple more tiems, I can say that it mputs me to sleep. I enjoy it, but I can't stay awake and listen to it. Probably won't buy another album. Simply 'cause there's other stuff.
Hell, I'm still missing the White Album.
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Honestly I think liking Radiohead is just kind of lazy. To me it says, "I want to appear to enjoy experimental music, but I'm not willing to put the effort into discovering it, so I'll just take what Rolling Stone defines as 'experimental' instead."
Or, y'know, people don't necessarily listen to them because of what other people think, and might actually enjoy their music because they think it sounds good. Wacky!
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I hope I'm not, ah, stepping on anyone's toes by suggesting there may be more than one way to read a work.
Man, I will eat you if you suggest anything that reasonable ever again. This is the internet for gods sake. Cut your damn stones off at the door.
I guess you could interpret it in different ways, but to me, that song is just a kick in the balls I can't recover from. It really does diminish the rest of the album for me.
Also, I admit, I am kinda one of these people
"I want to appear to enjoy experimental music, but I'm not willing to put the effort into discovering it, so I'll just take what Rolling Stone defines as 'experimental' instead."
Except I like to think I'm not quite shallow enough to want to just appear to like it, and I am interested in finding more experimental shit (also, I guess I resent the Rolling Stones implication a little), except I am definatly an incredibly lazy person. So I ask the question to the inter nets, who would be a good band to listen to if I liked Radiohead, but wanted to branch out into more diverse styles ?
Keep in mind I am not interested in over the top bullshit. It would be nice if what I'm listening to actually resembles a song. And it would probably help if they were at least known enough to make getting shit imported to Australia not a giant kick in the balls.
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radiohead?
yeah, they're alright.
tend to attract pretentious dickheads for fans though. same with tool.
i find Radiohead also tends to attract some pretentious detractors as well. the type of people who are Pink Floyd fans but trash Darkside of the Moon and would literally marry (okay maybe not) Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
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radiohead are pretty cool. not my favorite, but i like them. favorite album is either The Bends or Hail to the Thief
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radiohead?
yeah, they're alright.
tend to attract pretentious dickheads for fans though. same with tool.
i find Radiohead also tends to attract some pretentious detractors as well. the type of people who are Pink Floyd fans but trash Darkside of the Moon and would literally marry (okay maybe not) Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
Hmm...well I'm a quarter of the way there.
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I've heard a lot of comments, over the years, about how Radiohead have pretentious fans... but in all the Radiohead forums I've been a part of, everyone is just plain awesome.
I've seen people come into these forums /just/ to bash Radiohead, and 99% of the reaction is; "Oh... well you obviously don't like them. That's cool."
I think the pretention comes from people who refuse to like Radiohead because it was so fashionable to like them for such a long time... after all, you can't be an indie kid if you like something that happens to be a critical darling, can you? Nope... can't be independant unless you pay way too much for new clothing that looks worn, and then try to 'out-obscure' your peers with your musical tastes... can you?
To be as objective as I possibly can, even though I'm one of the biggest Radiohead fans alive, I have to say this;
Their musical composition, ever since The Bends (and /especially/ OK Computer) is amazing. Some people call it genius... I've even been known to say the same... but to tone things down, and take them out of the realm of fanboydom, their compositions are unique, experimental and intelligent. Unlike many bands they have constantly evolved. No two albums have ever sounded alike, and no two songs on any album seem similar to one-another. They put on one of the most entertaining live shows in the business, bringing their electronic influences, classical instruments and energy to the stage with ease. Watching Johnny Greenwood literally dash across the stage during live renditions of 'Idioteque', playing with dozens of different mixers/samplers/EQs/etc... it's truly awesome (in the proper sense of the word, not the overused one).
To be objective, Thom's voice would probably bother a LOT of people. It can take some getting used-to, and depending on the song, it can vary greatly. People who've only ever listened to Paranoid Android, Just, Creep, Knives Out (etc) are probably going to think he's a terrible singer... but when you listen to the last minute and a half of 'Let Down' or songs like 'Pyramid Song', 'I might Be Wrong', 'Go To Sleep' or 'In Limbo', there's little denying the man has an INCREDIBLE vocal range.
Radiohead is not for everyone, obviously... and claiming that they are reshaping music is too bold a claim for even the biggest fans to make. They are, however, undeniably talented, experimental, and should be respected for what they've accomplished. Anyone claiming that they 'suck' is simply being ignorant.
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I dunno, I liked it...
I'm not sure if that's just a matter of tuning into whatever deeper, pretentious (pretentious? Moi?) meaning-space they were coming from
Since you're referring to a group of other people as pretentious, I believe it should be "Pretentious? Eux?"
;)
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Keep in mind I am not interested in over the top bullshit. It would be nice if what I'm listening to actually resembles a song. And it would probably help if they were at least known enough to make getting shit imported to Australia not a giant kick in the balls.
I was going to suggest The Residents, but some of their stuff is REALLY over the top, as is many of the others I was going to list (Captain Beefheart, Edgar Varese/other modern composers)
THere are a bunch of stuff I can still reccomend. I don't know how big you have to be to be imported to Austrialia, but alot of Buckethead's stuff is experimental-while-still-listenable-to-the-normal-person. Although he goes under a bunch of names, does alot of "guest starring", if you will, and has been in a big amount of bands, so here's a good list:
The Deli Creeps (Which were one of Mike Patton's favorite bands, if that interests you)
Buckethead
Death Cube K
Giant Robot
Zillatron
Cobra Strike
Praxis
El Stew
Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains
Cornbugs
Thanatopsis
Company 91
Gorgone
I also reccomend John Zorn (Naked City is usually mentioned with his name) and various Les Claypool projects. also, many a Mike Patton things are really good (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, General Patton Vs. The Executioners). And Crotchduster.
EDIT: How the hell could I forget Zappa? Frank Zappa totally wins this post 3 times over.