Ennh “fartsong” wasn’t meant to be a diss, what they did with “Spinning Plates” was an inspired use of an otherwise kinda-insipid song I think. I lived with a potter who intentionally put leaks in the bases of her vases. She said, “when the work is less functional, it becomes more artistic.” I dunno whether I agreed with her. Then, Hideo Kohima famously said, “games can never be art because they require functionality”— paraphrased. I think about this stuff wrt Radiohead’s “top of every list” track record, that by shooting holes in their Coldplayest moments they’re making “art”, or at least the semblance of art. “Fitter Happier” is dumb, “like a pig / in a cage / on antibiotics” is actual Pink Floyd, but it strengthens my resolve that “Paranoid Android” is one of the greatest songs ever recorded— like “Fitter Happier” kinda de-stinks the stink of “the crackle of pig skin / the yuppies networking” and let’s the song slip into my personal canon
― flamboyant goon tie included, Monday, 8 November 2021 02:45 (two years ago) link
That was some post, thank you
― akm, Monday, 8 November 2021 02:58 (two years ago) link
love this convo
i loved fitter happier for a long time. then i got a bit bored and started skipping it. then i realized that either way, it makes for the perfect lead-in to karma police and it's iconic. pretty good for the least-listened to song on the album (according to spotify at least)!
I absolutely love the song “kid a” and wont hear this nonsense of it being a fartsong.
otm. did i already mention my experience of first hearing john mayer via his cover of it, sent to me by the only guy in the dorm with long hair, over the vaunted "T1" connection that was apparently the fucking shit in 2001? he had interesting taste, and would have been a great ilxor! anyway, until i heard his version i thought of the radiohead version as kind of impenetrable or something. but mayer makes it sounds like...all his other music. so strange to go back to the original after that and suddenly hear all these soaring choruses. even today (before reading these posts), for some reason i found myself humming "we've got heads on sticks, you've got ventriloquists" in this really sweet way, like it was the most normal thing to say
― just staying (Karl Malone), Monday, 8 November 2021 02:59 (two years ago) link
treefingers has raised a bit in my estimation over the years. it used to sound like flat tones to me, now I hear all the variations and different voices added and subtracted all the time. i feel like a common HS radiohead moment is when everybody's listening in the car and then it gets to treefingers. and it's like, is anyone going to make us skip this tonight.
i also have to say that i got lit 420 earlier today thought that the transition at the end of Optimistic into In Limbo is maybe underrated. when In Limbo kicks in it suddenly sounds like the lyrics in a way that is sickening and awesome
― just staying (Karl Malone), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:03 (two years ago) link
It's a double transition - there's the brief "funk" rendition of "Optimistic", and then the even briefer intro to "In Limbo" before the triplet guitar arpeggi start. It's perfectly timed to lead into the second song: "Not this... and not this either... but this!"
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 8 November 2021 03:11 (two years ago) link
yeah, i love it! that little fake-out transition is 23 seconds long.
the exact number of years he was together with rachel. but how would he know that in 2000??
― just staying (Karl Malone), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:14 (two years ago) link
also jordan's number think abt ittwo GOATs acknowledging each other
― class project pat (m bison), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:17 (two years ago) link
(jordan retired the season ok computer was released, returns following the release of amnesiac, i just think its an underdiscussed series of events)
― class project pat (m bison), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:19 (two years ago) link
anyway "kid a (the song)" is great, "fitter happier" is the "providence" of ok computer (this is Good), "treefingers" is good ambient, "hunting bears" more like "hunting for a point (and starving to death)"
i like the idea of fucking around so you know that the good shit really is the good shit
― class project pat (m bison), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:21 (two years ago) link
"fitter happier" is the "providence" of ok computer
yes
also WTF, WOWOWOWOW at the michael jordan connection, makes sense
― just staying (Karl Malone), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:31 (two years ago) link
other important dates93 - mj retires for the first time, same year as the release of pablo honey95 - mj returns once the bends comes out03 - retires for the final time when httt comes out
― class project pat (m bison), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:40 (two years ago) link
9-3 = 6
― just staying (Karl Malone), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:49 (two years ago) link
colin and phil sacked for mj and phil (jackson) confirmed
― Clay, Monday, 8 November 2021 03:49 (two years ago) link
paranoid android's 3-songs-in-1 vibe = a reference to the triangle offense
― class project pat (m bison), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:54 (two years ago) link
― just staying (Karl Malone), Sunday, November 7, 2021 9:49 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
this is true but no one wants to talk about it bc they think they're too good for early elementary math facts
2+2 = 52 + 2 - nigel = 52 + 2 -(-1) = 5
again, nigel is a negative presence
― just staying (Karl Malone), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:58 (two years ago) link
the transition at the end of Optimistic into In Limbo
co-sign, one of my favorite moments on any radiohead album.
Ennh “fartsong” wasn’t meant to be a diss, ― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, November 7, 2021 6:45 PM
― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, November 7, 2021 6:45 PM
no, i knew exactly what you meant and i liked it! thank you for expounding, just confirmed what i got from it initially but also very well articulated! i also like that you compare THEM to coldplay and not vice versa. not being snarky, i find that genuinely funny and it makes sense to phrase it that way because at this point . . . it's kind of true.
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:58 (two years ago) link
he is "a negative one" to be around
― just staying (Karl Malone), Monday, 8 November 2021 03:59 (two years ago) link
I like the fartsongs flamboyant tie goon mentions upthread. It's the tracks like Burn The Witch, Bodysnatchers and a few strange sequencing choices on HTTT which I was meaning upthread about certain (otherwise good) songs sticking out on otherwise consistent albums
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 8 November 2021 11:59 (two years ago) link
The biggest (and worst) fartsong is 'Feral'
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 8 November 2021 12:05 (two years ago) link
"bodysnatchers" doesn't really stick out at all, they make it work in the sequence very well somehow
amnesiac and httt are the albums where the sequencing is noticeably a problem & amnesiac is a real 'what could have been' because there was a lot of strong material left off the album
― ufo, Monday, 8 November 2021 12:23 (two years ago) link
In Rainbows has always felt like an excellent mini album with a strong double A-side tacked on the front of it. For me, it's 'Nude' that really kicks off that album's blissy, languid vibe whereas 15 Step and Bodysnatachers are spikey and/or blustering
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 8 November 2021 12:50 (two years ago) link
in fact I'd say those two songs sound much more like they'd fit on HTTT, so maybe I could look at them like they're transitioning from 2003 Radiohead to 2007.
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 8 November 2021 12:52 (two years ago) link
Speaking of “In Limbo”: yes the transition into it is brilliant but also the sort of “digital collapse” or what feels like waves of sound washing the song away at the end is one of my favorite Radiohead outros of all time. The song just disintegrates.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, 8 November 2021 14:01 (two years ago) link
faust arp is lovely, sorry all
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 8 November 2021 14:57 (two years ago) link
Yes
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 8 November 2021 18:28 (two years ago) link
If I'm working and have a Fender Rhodes dialed up on ProTools, I'll add a bit of delay and play the little two-note riff from In Limbo over and over.
― Maresn3st, Monday, 8 November 2021 18:39 (two years ago) link
more like fart arp
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 8 November 2021 18:40 (two years ago) link
mares, that's a fun thing and something semi-related that i think about a lot is how kid a, for me, is one of the definitive *FENDER RHODES* albums. it's not all over every song, but when it is used, it's just so perfectly realized and placed within everything else. really playing to the instrument's strength.
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Monday, 8 November 2021 20:41 (two years ago) link
yeah that opening riff = instant calm
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 8 November 2021 23:38 (two years ago) link
also Faust Arp is filler? wtf it's insanely good and a perfect breather, the strings are magical
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 8 November 2021 23:39 (two years ago) link
i haven't listened to kid a in years but don't remember the rhodes being featured on it much. there's the little riff from in limbo, the chords in morning bell, and... i think that's it?
I probably associate it more with okc because of the bitches brew-style rhodes clutter on 'subterranean homesick alien', but i don't think it's on a ton of okc songs either
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Monday, 8 November 2021 23:58 (two years ago) link
there's the live version of "everything in its right place" too (& the studio version's synth is a pretty good imitation of one)
― ufo, Tuesday, 9 November 2021 00:05 (two years ago) link
yea, it has an EP-like color but some of its behaviors are not rhodes-like obv :)
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, 9 November 2021 00:10 (two years ago) link
EiiRP is Prophet 5, I believe
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 9 November 2021 04:54 (two years ago) link
The electromechanical element of the Rhodes is hard to manufacture digitally and even with deep sampling, I've had a few different plug-ins over the years, the Arturia one is the best imho.
― Maresn3st, Tuesday, 9 November 2021 09:43 (two years ago) link
I think my favourite Rhodes moment is 'A Reminder', Jonny with his slightly self-consciously extended chords tinkling away like some sort of bell tree really makes it.
I wonder if it was ever a contender for the album but was tonally a bit too close to The Tourist and Lucky.
― Maresn3st, Tuesday, 9 November 2021 09:48 (two years ago) link
the prophet 5 also apparently shows up to imitate a rhodes again on "all i need", & again they just use the rhodes live
― ufo, Tuesday, 9 November 2021 11:17 (two years ago) link
Weird, I always wondered what the low sizzle and slight wah were on the EIIRP Rhodes, now I realise it was all a lie
― assert (MatthewK), Tuesday, 9 November 2021 12:15 (two years ago) link
sorry for confusion re:rhodes specifics. that's why i wrote it like this:
one of the definitive *FENDER RHODES* albums
i understand there's actually not much of the actual instrument on the record, it's just that there's a ton of stuff on it that is reminiscent of the rhodes to the point where those things could played on a rhodes and nothing would be lost in translation.
was listening to a moon shaped pool while drifting off to sleep some nights ago and i was in that grey area between lucid and dreaming and i don't remember much about the things i was perceiving, but it sounded about a million times more beautiful than i remembered. when the album ended, i came to long enough to set my headphones on the nightstand and settle in properly to bed and i slept through the entire night without waking up once, a very uncommon thing for me (happens maybe one or twice per year if i had to guess). i didn't have any dreams that i remember, but i woke up the next day feeling like i had overcome something. accomplished something important. it was a very opaque, yet rewarding feeling; surely influenced by the vibe of the album. anyway.
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Tuesday, 9 November 2021 19:54 (two years ago) link
Except that you can't open up the filter/cutoff on a Rhodes!
This explanation makes perfect sense when listening: https://thekingofgear.com/post/630974807221075968/a-photo-of-thom-adjusting-the-prophet-5-during-the
Two different takes of the Prophet 5, one panned to each side, so you get that sound where one of them has the cutoff turned up high while the other still has a more Rhodes-y/squarewave-y tone.
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 9 November 2021 20:03 (two years ago) link
there's a ton of stuff on it that is reminiscent of the rhodes to the point where those things could played on a rhodes and nothing would be lost in translation.
I actually think it's fairly important to EIIRP that it's a distorted reference point and not an actual Rhodes
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, 9 November 2021 21:19 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm1w_llg3VI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Vry4Zsdes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF0sWb4hmpM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqvkSgur8Fg
the smile streamed some rehearsals today. two run throughs of "look at all the pretty lights", & one each of "free in the knowledge" and "you will never work in television again" - only the latter was played at glastonbury. interesting to hear "free in the knowledge" because it shows they're carrying on with the neil young-esque acoustic side of the last decade of radiohead as well as the jammy side that's been predominant in all the smile material so far.
jonny also said the album is almost done - they're just sorting through the material & figuring out an album tracklist & deciding if they need to put any more work in. it sounds like the thom/jonny dynamic is thom is the perfectionist who wants to keep tweaking the details forever, while jonny is less concerned and would be happier if they released things more often.
― ufo, Friday, 3 December 2021 09:31 (two years ago) link