Tag: The Bends

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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.

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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)

Continue reading “OK Computer Named Best Album of the Past 25 Years”
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Radiohead The Bends

BBC Oxford Introducing recreates The Bends by Radiohead

In March 2010 BBC Oxford’s local music show “Introducing…” celebrates its fifth birthday.

To mark the occasion the team have also decided to recreate Radiohead’s seminal album The Bends.

Their version, dubbed ‘Round The Bends’, is a loving reinterpretation of the classic record which is 15 years old in March.

The team have brought together their favourite acts to work their magic on these amazing Radiohead songs.

Each of the album tracks have been completely reinterpreted and as a whole stand together as a phenomenal homage to the original.

Local band Stornoway kick off proceedings with their version of Planet Telex. Stornoway are arguably the most successful local group of late having played at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Glastonbury and on Jools Holland. They started the new year in The BBC’s Sound Of 2010 list.

Richard Walters and Little Fish have also given up time from their hectic international schedules to play tracks on the album.

‘Round The Bends’ also features various new exciting discoveries from the last 12 months, such as The Scholars, Spring Offensive and Ute.

The album was released on 4 March 2010 on iTunes. A total of 49p from every individual track downloaded and £4.90 from every album downloaded will benefit the BBC Children In Need Appeal, a company limited by guarantee. BBC Children in Need Appeal is a charity registered in England and Wales (802052) and Scotland (SC039557)’

The album launch gig took place on 6 March at the 02 Academy. More details can be found here.

‘Round the Bends’ tracklisting:

Stornoway ‘Planet Telex’, Ute ‘The Bends’, Jessie Grace ‘High and Dry’, We Aeronauts ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, Spring Offensive ‘Bones’, The Winchell Riots ‘Nice Dream’, Little Fish ‘Just’, The Scholars ‘My Iron Lung’, Richard Walters ‘Bulletproof… I Wish I Was’, The Family Machine ‘Black Star’, Alphabet Backwards ‘Sulk’, The Evenings ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’, BONUS TRACK Lee Christian ‘Talk Show Host’.

(via BBC Oxford)

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Nice Dream

Things are slow so why don’t you enjoy this acoustic performance of “Nice Dream” by Thom.

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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)

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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)