Author: Dylan

This month’s Q has an interview with the gentlemen from Tears for Fears, and Radiohead was mentioned…
RO = Roland Orzabal & CS = Curt Smith
What did you think when you found out that Radiohead were not best pleased with your performance of Creep?
RO: What can I say? I?m absolutely gutted by that. It destroyed me. I?m never going to cover another Radiohead song again as long as I live. [Starts speaking slowly.> They are such…an amazing.. band that, that…. You know, at the time I covered it he guesses some time in ’93/’94>, it was their only hit. I did it as a joke, and I enjoyed singing it, especially because I changed some of the lyrics. But my apologies right now to Thom Yorke. I do appreciate what they have gone on to do… immensely.. even though… even though I don’t like them.
Ed O’Brien from Raidiohead said that while they were your support act you treated them “like pigs”. What did you do to piss them off so badly?
CS: Don’t look at me, because I wasn’t part of the band them.
RO: I didn’t do anything to them. They were whingeing on and on about the monitors. We played just one show together, and there were loads of bands on the bill- I was headlining, of course. The stage manager, I seem to remember, was getting very angry with them.
CS: Of course, if I had been part of the band then, I would have been much nicer to them.
(Thanks to CUTW.)

Pitchfork Media has reviewed the UMass Front Percussion Ensemble’s cover of “Paranoid Android” in their We Are the World section. They gave it 3 and 1/2 stars.
The review-
Whether it’s a high school pep rally or a Georgia Bulldogs football game, I’m a sucker for marching bands. And I must say, it’s nice to see the University of Massachusetts shun the tried-and-true Souza standards in lieu of art-rock with their drum line rendition of Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”. The band made this live reworking of the OK Computer classic available on their website a few weeks back, and the degree to which the band captures every nuance of the original is remarkable. Of course, there are no squealing guitars, or howling vocals– that would be cheating– just loads of xylophones, chimes, snare, cymbals, and some wicked bass drum and timpani action.
The mallets bouncing across chimes and xylophones start the track off soothingly, but the tension builds with the addition of martial drumming. These cats bring on the full register of angst and melancholia in Radiohead’s multi-sectioned opus without sacrificing a bit of the ear-to-ear grin-inducing attack of live percussion. All told, it’s a loyal rendition and a triumphant translation of the original– and if nothing else, the UMASS Front Percussion Ensemble has created a testament to the power of quality songwriting.
But while we’re at it, let’s lay the cards on the table: If Atlanta A&M would’ve pulled out something like this during the BET Southern Classic at the end of Drumline, there’d have been no need for the tie-breaking showdown with Morris Brown. And seriously, having Petey Pablo join in always seemed like cheating.
Should you have missed it, you can download the track here.

Pitchfork Media reviewed Com Lag today, and gave it a not-so-hot 4/10.
An excerpt of the review-
Gingerly, you rocked the disc back and forth to wrest it from its clear tray, trembling, breathless, in the event that, for the first time in recorded history, the CD’s plastic center would pop out on your index finger, the most unholy wedding band imaginable. After dust-blasting your player with compressed air, you slowly set Com Lag into the drawer on a perfect horizontal plane, ensuring zero impact. Positioning yourself at the triangulated stereo center of your equidistant speakers, you hear…
*FFFFFFFFFFFFFT*
*SSSSSSSSSSSHHHKKKKK*
I can see the look on your face, and it is priceless.
True to published reports, there’s an appalling digital glitch on Com Lag, and as of press time, EMI Toshiba’s position is that they will not recall this flawed limited edition EP. Our rating disregards the failing, since the butchered track in question– Four Tet’s otherwise palatable downtempo remix of “Scatterbrain”– is available on the UK “2 + 2 = 5” single, and since the newly released Australian version of Com Lag is said to rectify the situation. But you can’t ignore the humor behind 10,000 people shelling out $20 for what’s basically a bad burn.
Com Lag splits down the middle, a ten-track collection of demos, remixes and DSP experiments often less deserving of running time than meager Amnesiac leftovers like “Fast Track” and “Trans-Atlantic Drawl”. Oddly, one of that era’s most ornate B-sides, “Fog”, is a highlight here, reprised in solo piano form for a television audience as per Yorke’s justly lauded, widely booted sets for the 2002 Bridge School Benefit. Simplicity is this EP’s virtue, as its pairing of “Fog” with a one-track, acoustic recording of “Gagging Order” make for Com Lag’s most valuable five minutes.
Read the review in full here.

Mike writes in to tell us that Defy Magazine gave Com Lag a 3-1/2 star review. Here’s an excerpt-
“Some of the real highlights on this 10 track EP lie in the b-sides. ?Paperbag Writer? offers up a groovy bass line on top of chilling strings that would be perfectly suited as a backtrack for Dracula?s house party. ?I Am Citizen Insane? is more IDM experimentation from the band while long time concert intro music ?Where Bluebirds Fly? features indiscernible lyrics over whirlwind instrumentation. ?Gagging Order? is a tender acoustic ballad comfortable in Simon and Garfunkel?s respective living rooms. Yorke sighs as he sings ?Move along / there?s nothing left to see / just a body? with his wide-eyed and innocently knowing candor.
“As nice as it is to see Radiohead packaging their b-sides for fans of the band, there are a few complaints to be raised with our old friends. The EP feels glued together as a marketing ploy designed merely to coincide with the Japanese tour. The tracks on Com Lag have all been previously available on singles. Only the live rendition of ?2+2=5? is ?new? and even then it probably won?t placate salivating fans eager for every new piece of material the band trickles out. But with a compilation of b-sides Radiohead proves that their songs are above the plain of mediocrity ten fold. While other bands provide b-sides as an obligatory answer to the dreaded CD single, Radiohead treats them like the works of art they are, and for that fans shall be forever grateful of an often times difficult, yet somehow infinitely grateful band. Let?s face it, these boys are brilliant.
You can read the whole thing here.
(Thanks to Mike.)

Mac Randall’s Radiohead biography Exit Music: The Radiohead Story, originally published in 2000, has been updated and will be re-released on May 10th. You can pre-order the book here.
(Thanks to At Ease.)

A few days ago we reported that Radiohead was all over Air America, the new “liberal radio network”. Well, Fredrick and Paul have written in to let us know that it’s not only CNN and Air America- some of the most extremist right-wing radio hosts have been using Radiohead’s music as well.
Fredrick wrote in to tell us that a conservative talk station in San Francisco, KNEW 910 AM, frequently uses different Radiohead songs during lead-ins and -outs. One in particular that caught his ear was hearing “Where I End and You Begin” played during the Michael Savage show. For those who may not know, Michael Savage is the guy who got fired from MSNBC after telling a gay caller “I hope you get AIDS and die”.
Paul wrote in to tell us that “There There” has popped up numerous times on Glenn Beck’s radio show. Admittedly, Beck is no Micheal Savage, but still.
Very interesting to hear about these. If anyone knows more about the rules regarding this, please let us know. While Radiohead has never attempted to say that their music is only for left-leaning folks, it seems very difficult for me to believe they would purposefully license their music to Micheal Savage, although what Capitol/EMI might do is another question.
(Big thanks to Paul and Fredrick.)
(Edited for content/grammar).