Categories
Hail to the Thief In Rainbows Kid A OK Computer Pablo Honey Radiohead The Bends The King of Limbs

Radiohead “A Genre” Info-graphic

Radiohead info-graphic

Jamie Gurnell wrote in to tell us that he created an info-graphic about Radiohead’s music. On his site, he says:

Radiohead is a band that is the very definition of “unclassifiable” I developed this idea of bleeding genres into each other and plotting the corresponding songs on a graph. It was by no means a mathematical undertaking and took several hours of quite enjoyable listening and debate to achieve. What you come away with is the basic idea that Radiohead in itself is its own genre, refusing to fit anywhere but inside itself.

I am aware that this graph will come under scrutiny and be the brunt of harsh remarks, but in a way, that is what it is meant to do. It is meant to be discussed. It is an ongoing work in progress and until Radiohead stops making music it will never be finished.

If you have any suggestions, remarks or thoughts on improving or altering this design I am completely open to them.

After a few more revisions I plan on trying to get some of these made.
They will be approximately 30X30 Inch silk screens.

Many thanks to my friend Art Commisso for the help.

You can view a larger version here.
You can download an even larger version here.

You can view the info-graphic up close by checking out Jamie’s site or clicking the two links above.

Categories
In Rainbows Kid A OK Computer Radiohead The Bends

OK Computer Named Best Album of the Past 25 Years

OK Computer

Q Magazine readers recently voted Radiohead’s OK Computer as the best album of the past 25 years. No big surprise there, right? The band also took three other places in the top 30 – compiled to mark 25 years of the magazine – with The Bends at eight, Kid A at 18 and In Rainbows at 23. 13 years ago, Q Magazine had a similar poll where OK Computer was also named best album of all time. Now that is staying power.

Full list after the jump.

(thanks to Peter)

Categories
In Rainbows Kid A OK Computer Radiohead

The Lost Radiohead album

Take some time today to read this article about how Radiohead’s OK Computer and In Rainbows were meant to complement each other. Now, this is just speculation but some interesting points have been raised. What do you think?

Ten years after OK Computer shocked the world, Radiohead released In Rainbows on October 10 (10/10). Though no one was expecting the album to be released until 2008, Radiohead announced In Rainbows just ten days in advance. In Rainbows, which consists of ten letters, has ten tracks, and would be downloadable from a rumored ten servers.

Radiohead preceded the release of In Rainbows with nine cryptic messages. They repeatedly emphasized X, the Roman Numeral for ten, in phrases such as “March Wa X”, and “Xendless Xurbia”. The tenth message was posted on October 10 with a photo of the band drinking tea.

There has been a lot of speculation over Radiohead’s emphasis of ten surrounding the release of In Rainbows. One theory suggests that Radiohead was typifying a binary code of ones and zeros,1010101010. This has come to be known as the Binary Theory, also called the TENspiracy by some.

Puddlegum first addressed the Binary Theory in Radiohead: 1010101010. Someone associated with Thom Yorke contacted Puddlegum, sharing Thom’s reaction to Puddlegum’s article:

“The meaning behind all of this is right in front of our faces, we’re just overlooking it. [Thom] has been expecting an article much like this one for a couple of years, as have I. But I’m willing to wager he’ll have fun waiting a few more. On the other hand, it seems to annoy him that no one ‘gets it’ yet, given the mountain of clues.”

Ten days after our original article, we have come to believe that OK Computer and In Rainbowswere meant to complement each other. During the writing and recording process of OK Computer, Radiohead used the working title of Zeros and Ones. If OK Computer is represented by 01, and In Rainbows is represented by 10, then we have 01 and 10. In binary code 01 and 10 complement each other.

Consider that In Rainbows was meant to complement OK Computer, musically, lyrically, and in structure. We found that the two albums can be knit together beautifully. By combining the tracks to form one playlist, 01 and 10, we have a remarkable listening experience. The transitions between the songs are astounding, and it appears that this was done purposefully.

The lyrics also seem to complement each other. There appears to be a concept flowing through the01 and 10 playlist. Ideas in one song is picked up by the next, such as “Pull me out of the aircrash,”and “When I’m at the pearly gates, this will be my videotape.”

To create the 01 and 10 playlist, begin with OK Computer’s track one, Airbag, and follow this with In Rainbow’s track one, 15 Step. Alternate the albums, track by track, until you reach Karma Police onOK Computer, making All I Need the tenth track on the 01 and 10 playlist. Follow Karma Police withFitter Happier from OK Computer, for tracks eleven and twelve. These two tracks act as a bridge between the first ten and the following ten tracks on the 01 and 10 playlist. Then continue to alternate the albums again, picking up with Faust Arp on In Rainbows, with Electioneering on OK Computeras the following track.

Radiohead – 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)

Cracked.com has more about this, as well as a conspiracy theory about Kid A.

(via Kottke)

Categories
Amnesiac In Rainbows Kid A OK Computer Pablo Honey Radiohead The Bends

All Radiohead albums now available on iTunes

Radiohead on iTunes
Today all of Radiohead’s albums have been made available to purchase on iTunes. Not only that, but they are available as “iTunes Plus” (read: no DRM). We’re sure the addition of Radiohead’s album catalog has everything to do with EMI’s release of “The Best of Radiohead” compilation, which is also available through iTunes today.

But wait! It appears that all of Radiohead’s music videos are available too. Make sure to check out the “Anyone Can Play Guitar” video if you’ve never seen it. So cringe-worthy, it’s great. I mean, who doesn’t love Phil and Ed dressing like bank robbers and Colin holding iguanas? C’mon!
(thanks to Rex)

Categories
Kid A OK Computer Radiohead The Bends

The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Radiohead has been included in the Rolling Stone Greatest Albums of All Time. Surprisingly, The Bends(110) was placed before OK Computer(162) which you don’t see very often. Kid A was also named in the poll, coming in at 428. Here are the blurbs written for each one:

The Bends (110)
If the first half of the Nineties was shaped by Nirvana, the template for the second half was set by Radiohead. Though the 1993 smash “Creep,” from their debut, is itself indebted to Kurt Cobain, The Bends, their second album, is less angsty and more operatic, marrying a majestic and somber guitar sound to the virtuosic urgency of Thom Yorke’s vocals. Not yet shying away from guitar anthems, Radiohead draw on the grandeur of U2 and the melancholy of the Smiths and Jeff Buckley. “Fake Plastic Trees” was a radio hit, an introspective acoustic ballad of alienation. But elsewhere, the guitars roar and hiss, establishing Radiohead as the band to beat.

OK Computer (162)
Radiohead recorded their third album in the mansion of actress Jane Seymour while she was filming Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. OK is where the band began pulling at its sound like taffy, seeing what happened, not worrying if it was still “rock.” What results is a slow, haunting album with unforgettable tracks such as “Karma Police.” Said guitarist Jonny Greenwood, “I got very excited at the prospect of doing string parts that didn’t sound like ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ which is what all string parts have sounded like for the past thirty years. . . . We used violins to make frightening white-noise stuff, like the last chord of ‘Climbing Up the Walls.'”

Kid A (428)
Just when they seemed destined to become the next U2, Radiohead made this fractured, twitchy record. Despite esoteric nods to glitchy electronica (“Idioteque”) and free jazz (an eight-horn pileup in “The National Anthem”), they morphed those sounds into a surprisingly accessible elegy to tenderness — and had a hit anyway.

(thanks to Patrick)

Categories
Radiohead The Eraser Thom Yorke

Today’s totally random Radiohead news story

When the band isn’t touring, news is hard to come by. With that being said, we give you this totally random Radiohead news story:

John Mayer covered Thom Yorke’s “The Eraser” in a live performance recently. Now this isn’t the first time Mayer has showed his love for Thom and Radiohead… He covered “Kid A” once which actually sounded pretty good.

Anyway, this really isn’t a cover per se… Mayer was performing a new song called “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” and around the four minute mark, he busts out with a few lines from “The Eraser.”

Check it out if you’re bored like us.
(thanks to Julia)