best of a band II - radiohead

for the second in this series, we'll go with something a bit more recent but to some, no less influential.

radiohead.


1) what is your favorite radiohead album?

2) what are your five favorite radiohead songs?

3) what's your opinion of the departure radiohead took with the second half of their discography (from kid a on)?

4) if you could make radiohead cover any song, what would you choose?

5) what other bands would you recommend to people who like radiohead?

(i'll post my own responses latter on)

1) what is your favorite radiohead album?

OK Computer.

2) what are your five favorite radiohead songs?

1. Paranoid Android
2. Fake Plastic Trees
3. Karma Police
4. My Iron Lung
5. Fitter Happier

3) what's your opinion of the departure radiohead took with the second half of their discography (from kid a on)?


I thought Hail to the Thief was decent but I liked The Bends and OK Computer a lot better. Of course Pablo Honey was great with "Creep" on it.

4) if you cold make radiohead cover any song, what would you choose?

Probably Creep because it's a classic, but if not that then I'd probably do Paranoid Android because it's my fav.

5) what other bands would you recommend to people who like radiohead?

A lot of people that like Radiohead seem to really like Interpol, the Libertines, Iron and Wine, Elliot Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, that's all that comes to mind. I might think of more later.

thefarpavllions said:

4) if you cold make radiohead cover any song, what would you choose?

Probably Creep because it's a classic, but if not that then I'd probably do Paranoid Android because it's my fav.

Click to expand...

just for clarification, a cover is a remake by an artist of a song by a different artist. (like dixie chicks covering fleetwood mac's landslide or orgy covering new order's blue monday)

Current answers subject to amendment.

1. The Bends.

2. Nice Dream, Bulletproof...I Wish I Was..., Street Spirit, No Suprises, High and Dry.

3. Prefer the first half but don't begrudge them exploring. Keep it coming.

4. Have no idea. Something at complete odds with what they do.

5. Coldplay. Yeah I know. But didn't Chris Martin say that Coldplay were Radiohead-lite. The 'diet-coke' version he reckons.

yeah, i agree with coldplay. there's something there for sure, especially on the second and third albums.
de-angstified, de-testosteroned radiohead. (don't get me wrong, i really dig coldplay).

oh ok i read #4 while i was tired....
hmmm

I'd want to hear Incubus do Fitter Happier with some crazy scratching... I think that'd be sweet.

still tired?
"if you could make radiohead cover any song"

radiohead covering someone else.

though what you're answering would be a good question too.

6) if you could hear someone else cover any radiohead song, what band would remake what song?

it's not a stretch, but i think i'd like to hear ben folds cover karma police using just piano/vocals.

oh godddd long night.

I'd want to hear Radiohead cover The Beatles "While my Guitar Gently Weeps."

ok, here i go...

1) what is your favorite radiohead album?
ok computer

2) what are your five favorite radiohead songs?
airbag (give me chills, love the sleighbells)
2+2=5 (the lukewarm.) (from the initial feedback, to the frantic run at the end, this is a throughly engaging and entertaining song)
blow out (an early indicator of their enormous potential, may favorite off of pablo honey)
there there (the boney king of nowhere.) (what a great groove, seems to sum up a lot of the sounds this band has touched on while being a real departure point a the same time)
exit music (for a film) (my favorite of their slower darker stuff, just a beautiful piece)

3) what's your opinion of the departure radiohead took with the second half of their discography (from kid a on)?
i love it. if i want to hear "old" radiohead, i still can. the newer stuff is done very well and with very few exceptions is thoroughly enjoyable and listenable. i really like the blending of older guitar based rock and the newer 'synthier' stuff on hail to the thief.

4) if you could make radiohead cover any song, what would you choose?
i knew this was going to be tough for me when i added this question. there's just so many good tunes that they could put their signature on. do you choose something simialr to what they could have done on their own like some of the beatles stuff? one of my first thoughts was "a day in the life". but that might just be too easy. do you go way out? something almost completely foreign to them, something from the r&b world? my forst thought here was something by sly and the family stone. everyday people maybe? or do you go somewherein the middle? for example movin' on up from primal scream.
i might as well throw all my cds up in the air, cover my eyes and point somewhere into the wreckage.
well after very nearly doing that, i decided just to go with one of my favorite songs by one of my other favorite bands.
queen's "the night comes down". whew!

5) what other bands would you recommend to people who like radiohead?
muse.
muse.
muse.
they are the spiritual step-child (couldn't use the word i wanted to, despite being a legitimate word) of radiohead.
also, keane, doves and coldplay, maybe even yo la tengo for the rock-ish mixed with experimental stuff.

nice! i love those guys.

no more takers?

1) what is your favorite radiohead album?

I'd probably have to say OK Computer, just because there's not a duff track on it.

2) what are your five favorite radiohead songs?

Pyramid Song (it's like me in a song...)
How to Disappear Completely
There There
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Street Spirit

I've told my wife I want Pyramid Song and How to Disappear Completely played at my funeral. I saw them at Earl's Court a couple of years ago (see photo below).

3) what's your opinion of the departure radiohead took with the second half of their discography (from kid a on)?

It was a brave move, a natural progression. They were trying new things out, which is something you have to do if you're going to develop. I love tracks like Treefingers. They just fit my mood sometimes. Thom Yorke's recent solo album is also great.

4) if you could make radiohead cover any song, what would you choose?

Witchita Lineman. Or maybe Dancing Queen by Abba, which is the best pop song that will ever be made, ever.

5) what other bands would you recommend to people who like radiohead?

Arctic Monkeys. I believe they're getting some coverage in the US now. Their album is very English - which is a Good Thing. Do Americans know what "she dun even 'ave to say owt" means?

Nick Cave's album Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus. It's a double album of two halves. If you've got kids O Children will make you cry. There She Goes, My Beautiful World is the best song about depression and writer's block ever written.

These two albums are my two most played.

MartinS said:

4) if you could make radiohead cover any song, what would you choose?

Witchita Lineman. Or maybe Dancing Queen by Abba, which is the best pop song that will ever be made, ever.

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those are fantastic choices, imo.
i can actually hear thom singing those... nice.

1) what is your favorite radiohead album?

The Bends. Kid A. The Bends...aaaaarrrrgh!

2) what are your five favorite radiohead songs?

Only 5!?!?! (Subject to change...)

Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Fake Plastic Trees
Karma Police
Thinking About You
Everything In Its Right Place


3) what's your opinion of the departure radiohead took with the second half of their discography (from kid a on)?

Amazing. A lot of artists try to reinvent themselves and few do it as well as Raidiohead have, I'd also say that a lot of bands never try to reinvent themselves and eventually end up a little stale (reinvent isn't the word I'm looking for, I see it as more of a progression, but you see what I mean). Not sure which I like most, the before or the after - I saw them at V-Festival last year and it makes for an amazing set (Creep encore!).

4) if you could make radiohead cover any song, what would you choose?

Foxey Lady - Jimi Hendrix

I'm trying to imagine it and it sounds equally great and odd at the same time. Pretty sure they could pull it off though.

5) what other bands would you recommend to people who like radiohead?

Sorry guys but I'd never recommend Coldplay to anyone, but that's just me. I agree with Muse though, great band. Also Deus, not so much for similarities, just think they're amazing and recommend them to most people.

I'm still not convinced by Muse. I like a couple of their tracks but to me they so often sound like a combination of Bohemian Rhapsody-era Queen and Spinal Tap...

heh.

try a few more songs. they do have a bit of queen in them, that's for sure. spinal tap, i'm not so sure. the last album was a bit odd, it hasn't quite grown on me yet, but anything off of showbiz, origin of symmetry, and absolution is, in my opinion, brilliant.

note, that the older you go, the less theatrics you'll likely encounter. though absolution was a superbly powerful album, probably my favorite so far.

Low quality pic of Jonny taken by the missus last year - you can just about make out his powerbook.

Now, you see, playing a guitar with a violin bow is just so Spinal Tap...

right, but that's radiohead, not muse...

you can see the powerbook!