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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 5/10/2011 11:23:23 PM

Zatoichi

Posts: 2513
Joined: 30/9/2005

I went to see Radiohead in Glasgow about the same time I was beginning to smoke (ssh) hashish. It was an amazing set - the perfect mix of old, new, and in the middle - but I spent 'Karma Police' in the toilet after a few tokes on the strongest joint of all time sent me into complete and utter psychological meltdown.

I turned to my friend. Apparently, the fact that I felt on the verge of death didn't feel like a good excuse to leave, so I chose a different reason: "I... uh... I need to go to the toilet!" His response was, well, as you'd expect: "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?" I wasn't though, so off I went!

It was also a very quick meltdown though, and as the effects soon faded, I realised I had given up a damn good position in the crowd. Until next time, Radiohead!

< Message edited by Zatoichi -- 5/10/2011 11:27:45 PM >

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 5/10/2011 11:37:34 PM

Pigeon Army

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From: Pixar HQ, George Lucas' Office.

2001 // from the album 'Amnesiac'

It's hard for audiences today to look at Radiohead's double-whammy at the opening of the new millennium without the benefit of hindsight - to many of us, the kind of aural landscapes traversed in Amnesiac and Kid A are quintessential Radiohead, far more so than High & Dry or (Nice Dream) or Just or Electioneering. The ambient influence, the exploration of electronic forms, the sheer delicacy of a lot of their more recent material - it has its precedents in OK Computer and Street Spirit, but it wasn't a Radiohead thing until 2000/2001, and when it did become a thing it terrified some people. I mentioned in the thread opening that a lot of people were very vocal about their disdain for Radiohead's new direction - for example, Melody Maker decried Kid A as "a monument of effect over content, a smothering cataclysm of sound and fury signifying precisely fuck all" not several months after having declared Radiohead would "return rock music to us"; Oasis, that act notorious for its constant reinvention, declared Kid A an act of "cowardice". But many more saw the magic that was taking place, the pursuit of discovery that's slowed down in recent years but is very much present in these two albums. And while Amnesiac is generally the more conventional of the duo - there's melodies in this, which is more than can be said for most of Kid A - some of its greatest moments were where the band were most inventive and, at the time, most un-Radiohead.

In a comprehensive 2001 article in The Wire covering the band, Simon Reynolds commented on how Like Spinning Plates reminded him of "Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom updated for the IDM era," and it's a good description. Like Spinning Plates is highly reminiscent of the second half of Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road, the throbbing, nervy electronic pulse underscoring the piece and Thom's slurred lyrics recalling Wyatt's jarring instrumental reversal and his high-pitched, echoing delivery. But rather than living in the shadow of an artist ahead of his time, Like Spinning Plates is entirely its own beast, a compelling dystopic vision of rejection and death, existing in the by-now typical Radiohead world perched on a needle-point, ready to fall at any second. Thom's vocals, engineered in a stroke of genius whereby the lyrics were recorded being sung backward and then the vocal track was played backward, gives the impression of a dying gasp, while the strings slipping in and out of the piece and the electronic 'choir' constantly shifting pitch only add to the piece's melancholy. It's a shockingly effective piece of work that gets under your skin and demands your attention.

Listen here (also a pretty cool, creepy, seemingly fan-made video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQBDsNiCCNM

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 6/10/2011 12:01:08 AM

Olaf

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Glad people are enjoying the thread. I'll also read any other lists people start, so get on them everyone.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Pigeon Army

And while Amnesiac is generally the more conventional of the duo - there's melodies in this, which is more than can be said for most of Kid A

I find this part quite interesting actually, as I've always considered Amnesiac to be the more abstract/'difficult' album - the title track, Treefingers, In Limbo (possibly?) aside, the rest of Kid A has some of their most accessible material post-OKC for me. On the other hand, there's stuff like Dollars & Cents/Hunting Bears/Pulk Pull/Spinning Plates etc on Amnesiac, which is probably as far from conventional pop structures as they've gone I think. Great song either way though.

< Message edited by Olaf -- 6/10/2011 12:02:04 AM >

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 6/10/2011 12:09:49 AM

Pigeon Army

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

quote:

ORIGINAL: Pigeon Army

And while Amnesiac is generally the more conventional of the duo - there's melodies in this, which is more than can be said for most of Kid A

I find this part quite interesting actually, as I've always considered Amnesiac to be the more abstract/'difficult' album - the title track, Treefingers, In Limbo (possibly?) aside, the rest of Kid A has some of their most accessible material post-OKC for me. On the other hand, there's stuff like Dollars & Cents/Hunting Bears/Pulk Pull/Spinning Plates etc on Amnesiac, which is probably as far from conventional pop structures as they've gone I think. Great song either way though.

Depends on what kind of 'conventional' you're going with, tbh - I think the only songs on Kid A that really seem to be conventionally-structured for the Radiohead of the time are Motion Picture Soundtrack and Optimistic, whereas songs like Life in a Glass House, You and Whose Army?, Pyramid Song, Knives Out, Packt Like Sardines, even Dollars & Cents are far more in tune with the Radiohead of OK Computer and far more conventional than what is on often in Kid A. There's a structure built in the trappings of 1990s rock for the most part and while they're obviously still not conventional ways of creating rock music, I think Kid A goes further with the various influences Radiohead had at the time and is just generally not as accessible.

I'll give you Pulk/Pull and Spinning Plates (obvs), though.

EDIT: Also watch the video, I don't know if it is Chris Cunningham but it certainly feels like a Chris Cunningham work

< Message edited by Pigeon Army -- 6/10/2011 12:10:45 AM >

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 6/10/2011 9:12:19 AM

matty_b

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Marvellous choice.

I don't have as in-depth an appreciation of Radiohead as you guys, so this is the first one I know, but I'll be hopefully catching up with the rest at some point soon.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 6/10/2011 4:49:28 PM

Gram123

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From: Reino Unido

I first heard Creep when the single was originally released back in '92 on MTV2 or somesuch, and I liked it immediately, that hooky, crunchy guitar riff and miserable lyrics fitting in well into my post- goth / grunge / American indie / alt rock phase.
IIRC, the song didn't become massively popular until it's re-release the following year. I didn't go out and buy Pablo Honey, though, having heard from reliable sources that the rest of the album was nothing like (and ergo not as good as) that song!
I later heard Anyone Can Play Guitar, which I also liked, it seeming sort of like an English counterpart to The Lemonheads' It's a Shame About Ray (well, you know, sort of). However, it wasn't til High and Dry came out that I actually started buying any of their stuff, and it wasn't until the mid 2000s that I finally heard the rest of Pablo Honey (Pop is Dead = yays).

So The Bends -- OK Computer period was really the height of my interest in the band, and surely the time when they were most relevant on the music scene. If I'm honest, the latter album was (and remains) ever so slightly disappointing. Though I grew to like all (or almost all) the songs, it never felt as immediate, bang after bang, great track after great track that The Bends had. When Paranoid Android was released, and they appeared on TOTP, I thought to myself, fuck, this record's gonna clear out a lot of the casual fans of the bands' previous singles (similar to when Nirvana released In Utero, to the confusion and chagrin of people who just liked Smells Like / Come As You Are / Lithium).

Some time after the OK Computer singles dried up, I stopped paying much attention to them, and Kid A / Amnesiac really passed me by until a year or two after the event, when a mate lent me them. They took a little getting used to, but I was listening to much more scritchy glitchy electronica at that time, so it wasn't such the huge leap for me as it was for the likes of my missus and many others.
That spurred me on to collate all my old b-sides and stuff, and I put together a 2-disc extras album, which I still listen to occasionally now (you're right about them being a good B-sides band. See also, the Manics and Mansun. But seriously, fuck Suede.

). If Talk Show Host (either version) doesn't place highly on your lists, then I'll probably vomit up a whole wolf.

I picked up Hail to the Thief when it was released, but man, I must have only listened to that album 5 times since, so they got away from me again, really and I only got hold of In Rainbows this year, some 4 years after its release. And by that token, I'll probably get round to Limbs some time in 2017.
I liked Thom's solo album, but again, it's one I really haven't listened to that much.

For all people laud his the emotional fragility of his voice, in the latter records it sometimes (often?) irks me with it's whingey whineyness and I find it a bit off-putting - there's certainly been times when Radiohead pop up in a iPod shuffle and I hear Thom's voice and think, oh fuck this, and skip onto the next track.

Anyways, that where I am. Have liked them for a long time, but sometimes I can't be arsed with 'em. Enough of my blah, onto the selections so far:

Blow Out - is not a bad tune, and there's worse on the album, though it does get a bit messy (in a not-very-good way) at the end.

Killer Cars - I quite like it, though possibly the Mogadon version better than the more uptempo straight version.

Lull - Is one of the better b-sides from OK Computer period, but to me it sounds more Bends-y, which is probably why I likes it.

Last Flowers - I don't know the album that well yet, but this seems to be one of the better tracks. Even though it has that dodgy key change!

Big Ideas - I liked quite a lot, but my admittedly weird aversion to live releases means I'm maybe drawn to the cleaner sound of Nude more. Big Ideas was a really good find, until Nude came along, which doesn't make the former redundant (as Olaf says, the arrangement and instrumentation is a little different), but does demote it slightly.

Like Spinning Plates - Sorry to be a contrary mary again, but this is just a tier above filler for me. I like it, don't get me wrong, but it's pretty much just a mood piece, helping the album retain that weirdy vibe.

EDIT: lots of edits, cos I appear to have lost the ability to write / type / think clear. Clearly.

< Message edited by Gram123 -- 6/10/2011 4:55:31 PM >

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 13/10/2011 10:33:29 PM

Gram123

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Did my waffling kill your thread?

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 13/10/2011 10:37:17 PM

Olaf

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It's been a mixture of not having any time in the last week to update and finding it difficult to write a review for the next song. I'll try and get it written and posted at some point over the weekend, promise.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 17/10/2011 12:20:30 PM

Pigeon Army

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Ditto here. I'll get some done during the next week and a half or so, but trimester just ended and exams are on the horizon. WE ARE STILL LIVE THOUGH

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ORIGINAL: Rinc
She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though

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ORIGINAL: Pigeon Army
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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 30/10/2011 9:54:47 PM

Sumintelligentguy

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I'll add my two pennies worth.

I think the different between Kid A and OK Computer is pretty staggering - both brilliant in their own rights but I do have to be in the right mood to listen to Kid A where as with OK Computer, I can listen to that whenever, OC could be a perfect album, but Fitter Happier is just dire, the rest is absolutely amazing though.

Idiotheque remains my favourite song of theirs, even though it isn't on the album I like most.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 31/10/2011 5:25:01 PM

Piles

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Sumintelligentguy

I'll add my two pennies worth.

I think the different between Kid A and OK Computer is pretty staggering - both brilliant in their own rights but I do have to be in the right mood to listen to Kid A where as with OK Computer, I can listen to that whenever, OC could be a perfect album, but Fitter Happier is just dire, the rest is absolutely amazing though.

Idiotheque remains my favourite song of theirs, even though it isn't on the album I like most.

I think if you listen to The Bends - OK Computer - Kid A, OKC makes a lot more sense. There's still obviously a pretty major leap there.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 2/11/2011 12:36:57 AM

Pigeon Army

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1997 // from the album 'OK Computer'

Some Radiohead songs need no introduction, and Exit Music (For a Film) is one of them. Written specifically for the big finale of Baz Luhrmann�s Romeo + Juliet (proving once and for all that Luhrmann does good on this Earth) and inspired by Chopin�s Prelude No. 4 in E Minor, Exit Music is a bleak and haunting musical translation of that iconic scene and, rather more importantly, a small monument of a song in its own right. The build from a simple acoustic guitar playing a handful of chords and Yorke�s breathy, fragile delivery to the song�s bitterly triumphant peak three minute in is arresting, a slow climb to the �controlled chaos� Olaf mentioned when discussing Blow Out � some potent percussion work, a nervy electric guitar, chilling choirs and Yorke as loud and as powerful as he can get capping off a fantastic song. It�s a moment that gives me goosebumps every time and basically ensures its place in any Radiothread.

Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhmmedScLmY&feature=related
See Father Kevin's review of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnZDI1slxMI

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ORIGINAL: Rinc
She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though

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No.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 2/11/2011 9:05:24 AM

sharkboy

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There are few Radiohead songs that have such a powerful live impact as Exit Music. It really does hit you at an almost visceral level as Thom launches into the crescendo of "we hope that your rules and wisdom choke you, followed by the heartfelt cry of the next lines, which fool the listener into thinking that the "everlasting peace" offers some resolution for the protagonists, before those final twists of the knife - "we hope that you choke...that you choke". Shakespeare's tragedy condensed to five minutes with no loss of impact.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 2/11/2011 9:15:38 AM

matty_b

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Aye, marvellous choice.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 2/11/2011 12:24:53 PM

Olaf

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From: 41�N 93�W

I'll write longer reviews next, promises

1998 // From the single 'No Surprises'

I was quite surprised to find how difficult it was to write this entry, especially considering how simple the song itself is, a solo Thom Yorke track accompanied by nothing but piano - but then again, its simplicity is what makes it so disarming. This is quite possibly as far from the dense production and complex song structures that people associate with Radiohead as you're going to get (so much so, in fact, that the band put Thom's original demo straight onto the 'No Surprises' single without re-recording any of it). Hitting the perfect note between melancholy and serenity, 'How I Made My Millions' is another example of Yorke's knack for the nakedly emotional without being sentimental. Inspired by, of all things, dropping a carton of eggs while doing the shopping, there's something beautifully domestic about it: the slightly out-of-tune piano on the low notes, the fragility of the vocals, right down to the sounds of Yorke's girlfriend preparing dinner in the background, it feels like a perfect evocation of a real and tangible loving relationship - where yes, sometimes things get broken and people fall out, but you really wouldn't change anything. The fact that this song is able to pack that into a solo piano piece, without being obvious or treacly, still floors me in its own quiet way.

Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3GLYgJQARI

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 5/11/2011 3:18:47 AM

Olaf

Posts: 23390
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From: 41�N 93�W

2001 // from the album 'Amnesiac'

Back when 'Amnesiac' was announced as the quick-fire followup to the course-altering, game-changing (at least for Radiohead) 'Kid A', happy rumours abounded. 'Haha, they totally had us fooled with that album of ambient electronica/jazz/post-rock influences! Now they're releasing the REAL album!' With the benefit of hindsight, not to mention the knowledge of how the band's career progressed in the last decade, it seems pretty obvious now that a record of stadium-smashing rock anthems was never really on the cards; if anything, 'Amnesiac' is arguably an even more obtuse and abstract album than 'Kid A', its dreamlike/nightmarish moods, relentless coiled tension - at least 'Kid A' had tracks like 'Idioteque' or 'Optimistic' as a release valve for its pent-up emotions - and relatively episodic feel making for a record that had many of the same aesthetic and thematic trappings of its sister album, and none of its formal elegance. This relative lack of narrative coherence when placed next to 'Kid A' feels deliberate, and it's not necessarily a bad thing either: 'Something traumatic is happening in "Kid A"�' Thom Yorke said at the time of its release, '...this is looking back at it, trying to piece together what has happened.' When looked at on these terms, 'Amnesiac' becomes the perfect companion to/reflection on 'Kid A'. Something like the reprise of 'Morning Bell', for instance, stops being a glorified remix and becomes a sort of spooked memory, a distortion that could be more accurate than the original.'"Kid A" was all in the distance. The fires were all going on the other side of the hill. With "Amnesiac�, you're actually in the forest while the fire's happening.'

Of course, none of this mattered one jot at a time when you're supposed to be the saviour of rock in a scary post-millennial music industry. (lest we forget Nick Hornby's hilariously outraged New Yorker review putting 'Kid A' up there with the byword for commercial suicide, 'Metal Machine Music', and telling the band: 'You're supposed to be a pop group!') The pressure was on for 'Amnesiac', so the choice of opener served a symbolic function as much as anything else. That opener was 'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box', essentially a swift and brutal riposte to people like Nick Hornby. The stark, metallic percussion that opens the track works the same way as those opening bars in 'Everything In Its Right Place' the year before, a jolting reminder that the goalposts have been shifted. And while the lyrics probably weren't written as a response (all the tracks on the album were recorded in the same sessions as 'Kid A'), the band were almost certainly aware of the implications; opening the follow-up the most anticipated (and subsequently polarising) rock album of the turn of the century with the lines 'after years of waiting / nothing came / and you realise you're looking / looking in the wrong place'? A chorus composed of an increasingly stressed-sounding Thom Yorke repeating 'I'm a reasonable man, get off my case'? The message, surprising when you consider Radiohead's oblique reputation, was crystal clear.

Musically, one of the great ironies of 'Packt Like Sardines...' is that it's built on a wonderfully simple, solid melody. It's just what happens to it afterwards, really. Comparisons with 'Everything In Its Right Place''s analogue synth tones can be drawn fairly easily, but just as it threatens to be a rehash of a superior song, that's when things get really interesting: over the course of its four minute running time, it stretches out into weird shapes to incorporate strange mutterings, vertigo-inducing drones and any number of other production oddities. To return to an earlier point, it feels like a skewed reflection of the 'Kid A' opener � it feels like it's been turned inside out just to see what would happen, and in that sense it serves as a perfect entry point to 'Amnesiac''s strange and wonderful world.

Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU8slEG-OtM

An inspired live reworking from a 2001 episode of Jools Holland, where the song makes an improbable transformation from chilly electronica to a wonderful 13th Floor Elevators-meets-Syd Barrett at his spaciest slice of swirling psychedelic pop. Quite possibly better than the album version, for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz5oFvz5DFA

< Message edited by Olaf -- 5/11/2011 3:38:46 AM >

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 5/11/2011 11:03:35 AM

matty_b

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That Jools Holland version is incredible.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 5/11/2011 2:53:15 PM

Piles

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Olaf, you're going too mainstream nowadays.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 25/11/2011 12:20:35 AM

Pigeon Army

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2007 // From the album 'In Rainbows'

Before the release of In Rainbows in 2007, Nude was one of those songs � the songs they only played during live gigs, the songs that people hoped would be on every upcoming album only to be disappointed time and again, the songs whose bootlegs became coveted by any self-respecting Radiohead fan. Much like still-unreleased tracks like Big Boots and I Promise, Nude attained some sort of mythos around it. They tried to record it for OK Computer � �The idea was for it to be like an Al Green track,� said Nigel Godrich in an interview with Wired � but �soured� towards it; it was similarly attempted and ultimately rejected during the Kid A sessions. It had been played a handful of times during their 1998 OK Computer tour, lumbered with an unwieldy, almost kitschy organ and no official title (the set lists called it �Nude� or �Neut�, fans dubbed it �Big Ideas (Don�t Get Any)�, Thom joked on the 1998 documentary Meeting People is Easy that it was really called �Your Home Is At Risk If You Do Not Keep Up Repayments�). It was played intermittently thereafter, but was finally resurrected for the In Rainbows sessions � first recorded with Mark Stent, then Godrich himself. Finally released in 2007, it differed significantly from early live versions � thankfully, that organ was one of the things to go.

Nude is probably as depressing a song as Radiohead will ever release. Anchored on the refrain, �Don�t get any big ideas/They�re not gonna happen,� Nude is a pessimistic, sorrowful, almost bitter piece of music. Regardless of whether the lyrics act as a statement to a wilfully optimistic listener or as a defeatist internal monologue, Yorke�s ever-potent falsetto makes the sentiment seem universal and inescapable, a manifesto for giving up as it were. The dense, mournful string section only contributes to that sense of overwhelming defeat, a full-bodied sound that seems to crowd everything else out when it seeps into the track; it�s an effect set up by the simplicity of the minute or so after the opening swell of strings and computer effects, Colin�s simple bass line and Phil�s cymbal-heavy percussion creating an emptiness that can be overwhelmed in the first place.

It�d probably really suck if you actually suffered from depression though.

Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZT_nrrpe8c
Listen to James Houston's Electronic Cover here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmfHHLfbjNQ

< Message edited by Pigeon Army -- 25/11/2011 12:23:19 AM >

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She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though

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No.

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RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 25/11/2011 8:51:57 AM

matty_b

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Love that song.

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Post #: 80

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 30/11/2011 2:11:44 PM

Drew_231

Posts: 798
Joined: 7/5/2008

Nude ranks in my top 5 Radiohead songs, and I dont actually find it depresing at all

Sure they lyrics are a little 'finger wagging', but that final swell of music at the final line, followed by the gentle tilt downwards as the song ends is one of the most beautiful and uplifting things the band have ever done

(in reply to matty_b)

Post #: 81

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 9/12/2011 11:51:15 AM

Olaf

Posts: 23390
Joined: 26/2/2007
From: 41�N 93�W

1993 // from the album 'Pablo Honey'

Some Radiohead fans may know that the band once did a particularly good set at some festival in the south-east of England back in 1997. Regularly referred to in breathless terms as the Greatest Glasto Set Of All Time, Thom and the boys hit upon a perfect constellation of factors (a zeitgeist-capturing new album that was already having 'best ever' tags thrown at it, enough anthemic numbers to pull off the headline slot, Kula Shaker on the Other Stage) to come away with something truly career-defining. If you haven't watched the whole thing before, I highly recommend you do (it's all on Youtube). Go on now, come back here when you're done.

Alright? Anyway, the setlist was naturally heavy on that aforementioned period-defining album ('OK Computer', of course) and its immediate predecessor, 'The Bends', but two songs from their much-maligned debut made it in - 'Creep', what with being a fairly big hit and all; and the non-single opening track 'You', which the band chose to open their encore with.
Initially, this decision seems rather strange - I'm sure the people in the crowd were much more familiar with 'Anyone Can Play Guitar', or 'Vegetable' - but upon reflection, it really makes perfect sense. For even a cursory listen to 'You' demonstrates how it shares a much closer aesthetic bond with the band's second and third LPs than it does the grunge standards of its parent album. With that hammer-blow guitar coming in just after a short intro, Thom's vocals in his higher range and stadium-ready melody, it really wouldn't sound that far out of place on 'The Bends', to be honest. It's here that things get particularly strange, as this is no signpost recorded late on in the 'Pablo Honey' sessions - it actually dates back as far as 1991, back when Radiohead were the infinitely less cool-sounding On A Friday, in a less ambitious and more histrionic take from their debut demo tape 'Manic Hedgehog' (yes). It's still a far cry from the Glastonbury-headlining anthem it would come to be, but the tune is already completely intact. (not to mention the lyrics, which must rank up there as possibly the creepiest Yorke has ever written. In a good way.)

So, there's something rather charming about the band tipping the hat to their origins by playing one of their very earliest songs in a set representing the pinnacle of their cultural influence, while also demonstrating just how far as a band Radiohead came in a short period of time - no mean feat to be headlining the biggest festival in the world only six years after recording some cassette demos on weekends after all. But most impressively, 'You' demonstrates how, just maybe, they really had what it takes all along. Now that's scary.

Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVcrnb-4T_E
At Glasto 97: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL7F1tB9l9U (and the full set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxHVQOfksM0)
The 'Manic Hedgehog' version from 1991: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2tfRKtrXWo

_____________________________

I tried to groan, Help! Help! But the tone that came out was that of polite conversation.

Empire Top 100 Albums Poll 2013: CLICK HERE

(in reply to Drew_231)

Post #: 82

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 9/12/2011 12:44:35 PM

tommyjarvis

Posts: 6618
Joined: 2/11/2005
From: Caught somewhere in time

Kula Shaker

_____________________________

"I've been too honest with myself, I should have lied like everybody else"

My Top 101 Rock Songs - The first Audiophile list to actually get completed!

(in reply to Olaf)

Post #: 83

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 9/12/2011 12:45:02 PM

Olaf

Posts: 23390
Joined: 26/2/2007
From: 41�N 93�W

Yeah but what do you think of the song.

_____________________________

I tried to groan, Help! Help! But the tone that came out was that of polite conversation.

Empire Top 100 Albums Poll 2013: CLICK HERE

(in reply to tommyjarvis)

Post #: 84

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 9/12/2011 1:31:27 PM

tommyjarvis

Posts: 6618
Joined: 2/11/2005
From: Caught somewhere in time

It's alright, yeah. As with most of Pablo Honey, it's listenable enough without being particularly memorable. They hadn't yet hit the highs they would do with The Bends.

_____________________________

"I've been too honest with myself, I should have lied like everybody else"

My Top 101 Rock Songs - The first Audiophile list to actually get completed!

(in reply to Olaf)

Post #: 85

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 9/12/2011 1:41:34 PM

MonsterCat

Posts: 6425
Joined: 24/3/2011
From: St. Albans, Hertfordshire

quote:

ORIGINAL: tommyjarvis

Kula Shaker

I forgot that band existed. They were awful.

On a more on topic note, nice work fellas. Keep it up.

_____________________________

"I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist and a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man, a hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you."

Films watched in 2013

(in reply to tommyjarvis)

Post #: 86

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 9/12/2011 2:19:05 PM

Angelus

Posts: 743
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: The Pit

quote:

ORIGINAL: tommyjarvis

Kula Shaker

Yes, I do have this picture ready to post just in case someone mentions that crappy band. Back on topic, You is probably one of the better songs on Pablo Honey.

_____________________________

"Your toast has been burnt, and no amount of scraping will remove the black parts!"

(in reply to tommyjarvis)

Post #: 87

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 21/12/2011 3:14:46 PM

paul.mccluskey

Posts: 4961
Joined: 15/4/2007
From: Port Glasgow, Scotland, UK

quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

1993 // from the album 'Pablo Honey'

Some Radiohead fans may know that the band once did a particularly good set at some festival in the south-east of England back in 1997. Regularly referred to in breathless terms as the Greatest Glasto Set Of All Time, Thom and the boys hit upon a perfect constellation of factors (a zeitgeist-capturing new album that was already having 'best ever' tags thrown at it, enough anthemic numbers to pull off the headline slot, Kula Shaker on the Other Stage) to come away with something truly career-defining. If you haven't watched the whole thing before, I highly recommend you do (it's all on Youtube). Go on now, come back here when you're done.

Alright? Anyway, the setlist was naturally heavy on that aforementioned period-defining album ('OK Computer', of course) and its immediate predecessor, 'The Bends', but two songs from their much-maligned debut made it in - 'Creep', what with being a fairly big hit and all; and the non-single opening track 'You', which the band chose to open their encore with.
Initially, this decision seems rather strange - I'm sure the people in the crowd were much more familiar with 'Anyone Can Play Guitar', or 'Vegetable' - but upon reflection, it really makes perfect sense. For even a cursory listen to 'You' demonstrates how it shares a much closer aesthetic bond with the band's second and third LPs than it does the grunge standards of its parent album. With that hammer-blow guitar coming in just after a short intro, Thom's vocals in his higher range and stadium-ready melody, it really wouldn't sound that far out of place on 'The Bends', to be honest. It's here that things get particularly strange, as this is no signpost recorded late on in the 'Pablo Honey' sessions - it actually dates back as far as 1991, back when Radiohead were the infinitely less cool-sounding On A Friday, in a less ambitious and more histrionic take from their debut demo tape 'Manic Hedgehog' (yes). It's still a far cry from the Glastonbury-headlining anthem it would come to be, but the tune is already completely intact. (not to mention the lyrics, which must rank up there as possibly the creepiest Yorke has ever written. In a good way.)

So, there's something rather charming about the band tipping the hat to their origins by playing one of their very earliest songs in a set representing the pinnacle of their cultural influence, while also demonstrating just how far as a band Radiohead came in a short period of time - no mean feat to be headlining the biggest festival in the world only six years after recording some cassette demos on weekends after all. But most impressively, 'You' demonstrates how, just maybe, they really had what it takes all along. Now that's scary.

Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVcrnb-4T_E
At Glasto 97: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL7F1tB9l9U (and the full set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxHVQOfksM0)
The 'Manic Hedgehog' version from 1991: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2tfRKtrXWo

Stop Whispering is probably my favourite song from Pablo Honey.

_____________________________

My DVD Collection

Do not walk away in silence...

(in reply to Olaf)

Post #: 88

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 21/12/2011 3:18:27 PM

horribleives

Posts: 4251
Joined: 12/6/2009
From: The North

quote:

ORIGINAL: Olaf

1993 // from the album 'Pablo Honey'

Some Radiohead fans may know that the band once did a particularly good set at some festival in the south-east of England back in 1997. Regularly referred to in breathless terms as the Greatest Glasto Set Of All Time, Thom and the boys hit upon a perfect constellation of factors (a zeitgeist-capturing new album that was already having 'best ever' tags thrown at it, enough anthemic numbers to pull off the headline slot, Kula Shaker on the Other Stage) to come away with something truly career-defining. If you haven't watched the whole thing before, I highly recommend you do (it's all on Youtube). Go on now, come back here when you're done.

Alright? Anyway, the setlist was naturally heavy on that aforementioned period-defining album ('OK Computer', of course) and its immediate predecessor, 'The Bends', but two songs from their much-maligned debut made it in - 'Creep', what with being a fairly big hit and all; and the non-single opening track 'You', which the band chose to open their encore with.
Initially, this decision seems rather strange - I'm sure the people in the crowd were much more familiar with 'Anyone Can Play Guitar', or 'Vegetable' - but upon reflection, it really makes perfect sense. For even a cursory listen to 'You' demonstrates how it shares a much closer aesthetic bond with the band's second and third LPs than it does the grunge standards of its parent album. With that hammer-blow guitar coming in just after a short intro, Thom's vocals in his higher range and stadium-ready melody, it really wouldn't sound that far out of place on 'The Bends', to be honest. It's here that things get particularly strange, as this is no signpost recorded late on in the 'Pablo Honey' sessions - it actually dates back as far as 1991, back when Radiohead were the infinitely less cool-sounding On A Friday, in a less ambitious and more histrionic take from their debut demo tape 'Manic Hedgehog' (yes). It's still a far cry from the Glastonbury-headlining anthem it would come to be, but the tune is already completely intact. (not to mention the lyrics, which must rank up there as possibly the creepiest Yorke has ever written. In a good way.)

So, there's something rather charming about the band tipping the hat to their origins by playing one of their very earliest songs in a set representing the pinnacle of their cultural influence, while also demonstrating just how far as a band Radiohead came in a short period of time - no mean feat to be headlining the biggest festival in the world only six years after recording some cassette demos on weekends after all. But most impressively, 'You' demonstrates how, just maybe, they really had what it takes all along. Now that's scary.

Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVcrnb-4T_E
At Glasto 97: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL7F1tB9l9U (and the full set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxHVQOfksM0)
The 'Manic Hedgehog' version from 1991: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2tfRKtrXWo

Yep, best track on that album by a mile.

_____________________________

www.hollywoodunbound.co.uk - some nonsense about alien film directors and musclebound man-children.

(in reply to Olaf)

Post #: 89

RE: olaf and pigeon army present radiothread: a thread ... - 25/12/2011 11:43:03 AM

Pigeon Army

Posts: 14611
Joined: 29/1/2006
From: Pixar HQ, George Lucas' Office.

2000 // From the album 'Kid A'

Before somebody points it out (probably Rhubarb because he notices this shit), yes I have backloaded my Radiothread list with ballads to the point where you can't turn without running into a wall of acoustic guitars playing chords that ache with emotion. Tracks like How to Disappear Completely (And Never Be Found Again) are the kind of songs that, in this day and age, Radiohead could do in their sleep if they so wished. They could crank these fuckers out on some kind of mass production line and they'd be millionaires without lifting a finger. That's not to derogate what tracks like How to Disappear Completely are, though - the fact that Radiohead doesn't do that whole figurative production line thing like some highbrow Nickleback says enough about the importance, about the necessity of the existence of songs like this. Radiohead are a notoriously fickle band - tracks can be played live and mixed and remixed for years and never be 'perfect' for them, so the existence of the song is almost like a seal of approval. We think you should listen to this. We've poured everything into it. It deserves to be a Radiohead song.

Using as a springboard some advice given to Thom during the mammoth OK Computer Tour of '97 by REM frontman Michael Stipe - "he said, "Pull the shutters down and keep saying, 'I'm not here, this is not happening'"" - How to Disappear Completely is a delicate piece of work. The acoustic guitar, the simple bassline and the fragile strings, fading in and out as if cars passing on a highway, all evoke the emptiness and anxiety of being stuck in a life you can't deal with, of trying to cope with things way beyond anything you've dealt with before and only being able to shut that shit out for seconds, minutes at a time. It's a song about escape, about not being here, about floating down the River Liffey rather than dealing with your problems; but it's also a song about those problems and how they can consume you, how shutting them out instead of dealing with them is basically letting them consume you. You can escape for moments, but the problems - as represented by the throbbing, discordant strings running under the piece (and getting louder near the end) - will always get back to you.

Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogItBUu1sg0

_____________________________

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rinc
She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though

quote:

ORIGINAL: MonsterCat

quote:

ORIGINAL: Pigeon Army
Stop being mean to Deviation

No.

(in reply to Pigeon Army)

Post #: 90

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