RAdiohead

There, There - bit of a homage to Adam and the Ants circa Kings of the Wild Frontier featuring Ed and Jonny on JAMC Bobby Gillespie style stand up drums with a top acending climax - a fitting opener

Scatterbrain - needs a lot of work and doesn't really go anywhere.

Up on the ladder - pretty rocky with thom doing his 'you and whose army' unfocused anti blair schtick

We suck young blood - slow and swinging with harmonies from phil and ed (phil was wearing an amusing madonna style headset during his backing vox)

I will - an old song, briefly featured in the 'Meeting people is easy' doc with lovely harmonies from Thom and Ed

Myxamotosis - fairly fast rocky number with Ed playing a les paul (surely a first).

going for some lunch now, will post my thoughts on the rest later

melissa, thank you putting up your descriptions.

Melissa couldn't resisit it and nor could I.

''(This is why I don't post on ILM.)''

ILM isn't a radiohead list. Or a keiji haino list. Or improv or free jazz, etc. fans and non-fans of everything to do with [x] are here and when a thread is opened by soemone and I feel the need to comment I will do so.

I'm not 'pissing', I'm just adding my thoughts on your descriptions. Sorry about the 'checking your head' line though.

when you describe a song as ''The most seethingly angry song I've ever heard'' then I want to know at what as well.

irony = julio's stance as radiohead hata being JUST as cliched and as ho hum as he wants (hopes?) the new songs to be. he HASN'T EVEN HEARD THEM and yet he took time out to bash the fecking DESCRIPTIONS. and why?

its one thing to be convinced that radiohead are inauthentic or overrated; its another entirely to pounce like a wolf on anybody else who sees something in them, especially when the crux of that fan-music connection is one borne out of vulnerability.

he (or anyone else) can take the sadness, confusion, anger, fear and deride it, mock it, HATE it all he wants. me, i'll take it (as well as the songs) and celebrate it all. not because i'm a sad moany bastard (really, i'm not) but because the alternative, to deny all of that, is too ugly and dark and boring to bear.

Jules: "Get your head checked melissa" constitutes personal attack with intent. But what's this claptrap about banning the guy??? Tell me that's a fucking joke. I thought what he said was valid ranting.

And right-on Mark P - you are on the money.

yeah. I've heard everything they've done up to this and when I saw the descriptions it just reminded of the past. Irony indeed.

''its one thing to be convinced that radiohead are inauthentic or overrated; its another entirely to pounce like a wolf on anybody else who sees something in them, especially when the crux of that fan-music connection is one borne out of vulnerability.''

i did not intend to 'pounce'. I didn't know it was borne out of some 'vulnerability'.

''he (or anyone else) can take the sadness, confusion, anger, fear and deride it, mock it, HATE it all he wants.''

I love or hate a lot of music with nothing in between, which is unfortunate sometimes.

melissa- hope you accept my apologies.

''"Get your head checked melissa" constitutes personal attack with intent.''

yeah, and I apologised for that.

So yeah, deleting ILM would probably be a much more satisfactory solution than baring people. Don't tempt me.

Genuinely, though, he's apologised, and I don't think his attack was that vicious in the first place (although I understand Melissa's upset at being told to "get her head checked"). Kiss and make up, folks.

DELETE FROM boards WHERE boardid='2';

Finger on the fucking enter key.

Punch Up At A Wedding is wonderful, however. Yorke seems to have perfected his knack for singing nasty, horrible lyrics while sounding all sweetness and light. "I don't know why you bother / nothing's ever good enough for you / ... / you've come here just to start a fight."

I don't think anyone's going to be surprised about the lyrical content of the songs -- it's still confusion, loss, despair, anger and so on. Scatterbrain and Sail To The Moon do show an unexpected tender side, almost. Wolf From The Door features a stream of consciousness rant full of non sequiturs which is geniunely unsettling.

I imagine the studio versions will be significantly different, though.

Lift - a very old song, was supposed to be on Ok Computer, Ed's soaring backing vox on the chorus have been chopped and it's been slowed down quite a bit, not as good as the old version, although you may hear my high pitched squeaking on the bootlegs from the 1st night in Lisbon.

Wolf from the door - thom could be heard mumbling 'ooh baby, baby, baby...' over the middle eight, i guess he hadn't bothered to write lyrics before they played it, there was reference to Stepford Wives though.

Stand up, Sit Down - most like the Kid A/Amnesiac stuff, lots of analogue synth action from Jonny and vocal harmonies from Ed - speeds up towards the end with 'little raindrops' repeated over and over again.

I didn't get to hear the other new stuff cos i had to come home.

Didn't realise how crap i was at describing the new stuff until i posted this, you live and learn i suppose.

The band seemed the most happy and relaxed i'd ever seen them, a friend who has seen them more than 50 times seemed to concur.

It'll remain to be seen whether they'll manage to lay them down in 2 weeks as planned, something tells me the March 2003 release date may be pushed back.

I didn't think I was being vicious. I was actually trying to discuss some of the things around the music that was being described. why was [x] song the 'angriest' what made it angry in the first place. Sure, I didn't hear the music but there is the music and then there is the 'matter' that surrounds it. and i have heard radiohead...

also, are there a set of chords which make music mournful and why do they keep doing it over and over...

I was honestly curious about some of these descriptions and just trying to get some discussion but I think the way i put things in a bad way and i accept that.

Julio- I wish the fleas of a 1000 reindeer nestle in your genitals

that is all.

I appreciated your descriptions, Mel. It's helpful because I know a little about your taste & have seen some of your writing so I have an idea where you're coming from. Where would you place these new songs in the context of the last three albums? Is there a place where they "fit," in terms of production, mood, etc?

Yeah I wonder!!!!

Lyrically it's the same ground as the previous two; oblique, cryptic phrases, dealing with some vague non-specific dread. You know.

that is all.''

heh. forget about being nice and civil for now. Posting under our own names would be a start...

uh this is my real name.. as much of one as you need to know- would posting 'Paul' be any more informative?.. and it was all in fun really... well, mostly at least.

Don't worry Israel, you still have Jonny (archived interview here: https://archive.is/gLTJb)

“It’s the embodiment of the left,” Greenwood says. “The left look for traitors, the right for converts and it’s depressing that we are the closest they can get.” He sighs. He is already working on another record with Israeli and Middle Eastern musicians. “And it’s nuts I feel frightened to admit that. Yet that feels progressive to me — booing at a concert does not strike me as brave or progressive.”

“But you are whitewashing genocide, mate,” Yorke deadpans. “And so am I, apparently, by sitting next to you on this sofa.”

...

So would he play Israel now? (I ask this question before the ceasefire was agreed.) “Absolutely not. I wouldn’t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime but Jonny has roots there. So I get it.”

“I would also politely disagree with Thom,” Greenwood says. “I would argue that the government is more likely to use a boycott and say, ‘Everyone hates us — we should do exactly what we want.’ Which is far more dangerous.”

by all appearances Thom isn't the sad bastard he used to be... until Israel is mentioned and he's moaning like it's 1997 again... fk sakes

meanwhile Ed is posting "free Palestine" and admits the gang don't chat as much as they used to.

How to Disappear Up Your Own Ass Completely

"They are five very different men, like a box of Quality Street"

“But you are whitewashing genocide, mate,” Yorke deadpans. “And so am I, apparently, by sitting next to you on this sofa.”

Look guys this is impossible.

Selway sums up the turmoil: “What BDS are asking of us is impossible. They want us to distance ourselves from Jonny, but that would mean the end of the band and Jonny is coming from a very principled place. But it’s odd to be ostracised by artists we generally felt quite aligned to.”

lol BDS never asked them to distance themselves from Jonny, is Radiohead illiterate in addition to being assholes, pick a struggle

Thom sounds dumb whenever he talks about this, but I do somewhat relate to profoundly disagreeing with a friend/bandmate on moral grounds, without being prepared to end the friendship/band over it.

In this case there isn't much of a band, its just some shitty reunion for cash.

Surprised at the lack of varnish in that Times piece; they don't speak much anymore, separate dressing rooms for the first time, etc.

So, leaving moral/political issues aside, are they playing together again? I thought the two front guys canned everyone else a couple of years ago?!?!?

phil was sacked in the late 2010s - they tried to sneak in a body double with the portishead drummer but made the mistake of having them both onstage at the same time. but as of now it is a "phil" again, by all appearances

CR78 could not be reached for comment

People who use the phrase "purity test" are exhausting

As always with this band, when I listen to the music I love most of it, but if I make the mistake of reading interviews I end up disliking them, even aside from the objectionable politics.

Surprised at the lack of varnish in that Times piece; they don't speak much anymore, separate dressing rooms for the first time, etc.

I remember reading an interview with McCartney once, where he (or maybe it was George, actually?) confessed that the extent of their communication in the '70s and beyond was largely to confirm that they would not be in the same place at the same time, lest they prompt a deluge of "The Beatles are back together!!!!!" rumors. But even on a smaller scale, I don't think this is too uncommon. Not too long ago someone asked Springsteen about hanging out with the guys in the band and he basically said most of their interactions these days were on stage, and that was plenty of time together, if not key to their relationship (as such). Pete Townshend has talked about this as well, saying how surreal it is to meet some more or less random people when you're at a kid at school and then be forever associated with them as a collective unit.

This Radiohead thing is of course at least at this stage something of a cash grab, but I see where Yorke is coming from, recognizing that it was easy enough for everyone to step away from the band that he sensed that playing again was probably a now or never proposition.

lol at thom realising bds had a point but being too stubborn to directly say so

i missed that bunch of previously unheard ok computer sessions recordings leaked last year: https://archive.org/details/ok-outtakes/

i have zero expectations that there'll ever be a new album & wouldn't expect it to be much good even if it happens. hopefully they'll dig into the in rainbows sessions for the anniversary in 2027 though

the piece did a lot to temper my assumption there would be another record. oh well. Thanks for the link, ufo! leaks beyond the minidiscs... this passed me by too.

They were really good last night in Copenhagen. Seemed like they mostly wanted to groove and dance, they seemed most excited about playing things from Hail To The Thief and In Rainbows, while some of the older stuff fell a bit flat. Bloom was an immense attack of afrobeat-drumming and spiraling juju-guitars slowly crescendoing. Still doesn't have a chorus, but was probably the coolest thing they played all night. They sounded like they could still make a good and inventive new album if they wanted to, though I doubt they will.

Oh, and they played Kid A!!! Hadn't seen that on any setlist, clear highlight of the night :)