Tag Archives: radiohead

Radiohead at the Grammys

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For those of you who otherwise would not tune into the Grammys tomorrow night, and I suspect and I hope that that includes pretty much everybody, maybe this will change your mind.  Radiohead, whose album In Rainbows and single House of Cards are nominated, will be performing.  Rumor also has it that they may be playing the song 15 Step with the USC Marching Band.  I don’t know how likely that sounds, but it will be pretty awesome if it happens.

 

As far as the “art & literature” thing goes . . . we’re working on it.

Chinese Democracy Online!

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The long-awaited and oft-rumored, fourteen-years-in-the-making Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy is finally heading to stores this November, and today saw the release of the first single, “Chinese Democracy.”  You can here it on the radio, or click here to stream it now.  I personally don’t think this is the best track from the album, but it is a pretty hard rocker.

According to Rolling Stone and Best Buy, Chinese Democracy the album will be out on November 23rd exclusively at Best Buy.  Nine of its fourteen tracks were leaked earlier this year.  Having listened to Guns N’ Roses since I was five, and having listened to the leaked tracks on pretty heavy rotation for the last three or four months, I’m looking forward to this album more than I’ve looked forward to a new CD since last year’s In Rainbows.  Hopefully this will help put Axl Rose back on the map, and we’ll see some more music before another decade is out.

Beck in NYC

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I was lucky enough to see Beck in NYC last week, thus completing this years musical trifecta: nine inch nails, radiohead, and beck all within a short period of time. The venue for the concert was an old fancy church in manhattan. What can i say? Beck was good, but not great. i think he might have entered his Beatles phase- it would appear that he doesn’t really liking touring (he’s even sporting the long george harrison hair and the black hat). His recorded music certainly has more electricity to it. Maybe it was the poor audio quality of the venue- the sound of the guitars frequently washed out his voice. And the light show was kind of blah and distracting. So, yeah, i’ll blame it on the audio and the lights, cuz his setlist was solid, covering all of his records from mellow gold forward. he even played Loser. Highlights of the night included the more rousing Clap Hands and Guero, and the somber, creepy Chemtrails.

Radiohead Live!

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Radiohead Live

I just had the pleasure of seeing two dynamic veteran bands in the span of a week. Nine Inch Nails tore it up with an amazing show in Connecticut last week, and Radiohead was just phenomenal in an open air venue in Massachusetts on Wednesday. Both bands are now making good use of really elaborate light shows and, in the case of NIN, screens and projections. This was the 5th time I saw Radiohead and i’m rating it as my favorite concert.

The setlist was solid, spanning their career (except for Pablo Honey). What really set it apart from previous shows were the lights (the audience collectively Oooohed during one sequence in Idioteque) and my perception that they were doing new and extra things for each song. For example, Optimistic and Kid A are by no means my favorite Radiohead songs but each had something different (a spastic guitar sequence and backing vocals by drummer phil selway in optimistic and vocal manipulations and sampling in kid a) that really demonstrated to me how masterful and innovative the band is. I even screamed at the end of optimistic…and i never scream.

Every song was a highlight, but i was very pleased to see A Wolf at the Door and Cymbal Rush (the last track on Thom Yorke’s The Eraser) live.

Setlist:
01. Reckoner
02. Optimistic
03. There There
04. 15 Step (very spastic dancing)
05. Kid A
06. Nude
07. All I Need
08. The Gloaming
09. The National Anthem
10. Videotape
11. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
12. The Bends
13. Faust Arp (Thom messed up on this one and just smiled and shook his head)
14. Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi
15. Everything In Its Right Place
16. Exit Music
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. House of Cards
19. I Might Be Wrong
20. Paranoid Android
21. A Wolf At The Door
22. How To Disappear Completely

Encore 2:
23. Cymbal Rush (played solo on piano)
24. Karma Police
25. Idioteque