[bread man]

Radiohead



Radiohead have been one of the biggest bands in the world ever since they released the classic album "OK Computer". Radiohead are often considered to be strictly Alternative, yet their music is so much more than that. Every song is different. Radiohead have gone from styles such as Nirvana and Pixies Grunge, to plain Rock, to Art Rock, to totally Electronic music. If you have not heard Radiohead before, hopefully this will encourage you to hear them, I think that nearly anyone can like them.


In 1987, three students at Oxford formed a group called "On A Friday". The lineup consisted of Thom Yorke on vocals and guitar, Ed O Brian on guitar and backing vocals and Colin Greenwood on bass. The group's early sound was influenced by bands such as R.E.M. (Thom Yorke's hero), Pink Floyd and My Bloody Valentine. Thom had previously know Colin from a school punk band called TNT. The band had no drummer, so Ed was sent to recruit Phil Selway, a drummer a few years older than the rest of the band's members. Jonny Greenwood kept pestering his older brother to allow him to join the band, and they finally let him join on keyboards and later promted him to guitar. The band was now complete, They then performed their first live gig at Jericho's Tavern, in their hometown. After sending a few tapes around, On A Friday were frequently booked for gigs. Various labels started to get interested and the band were finally signed by EMI. It was about this time that the band got their first review, it was postive, yet the reviewer wasn't totally impressed. At this time, the band had songs like "Prove Yourself" and "Thinking About You" in their sets

Thom Yorke

Their name, On A Friday was chosen because Friday was the day that they practised. Now that they were signed and starting to get a bit serious, it was unanimous between the band and the record company that their name sucked. They decided to change their name to Radiohead, inspired by the Talking Heads song "Radio Head".
The band made their first release, the "Drill" EP, which was four tracks long and lead by the song "Prove Yourself". It made 101 in the UK Singles chart, not the greatest achievement.
In 1992, the band recorded their first full length album, "Pablo Honey". The first single off it "Creep" was released in September 1992. Some of the band didn't much like "Creep" when it was recorded, Jonny in particular didn't like it at all, in fact he disliked it so much that he attempted to sabotage it by making loud feedbacky noises before the chorus. Later, Ed O Brien would say that this noise "made the song". Jonny would also later tell Thom that Creep was "the best thing we've done in ages".

Jonny Greenwood


Pablo Honey isn't a bad album, it's just not a very good one. There are a few great moments on it, like "Thinking About You" and "Stop Whispering", but overall it's just not that great. Radiohead were fairly mediocore at the time of Pablo. There was a lukwarm response given to just about anything they did. Radiohead were forced to play Creep to customs officers and mime the song on MTV with breast implanted women in bikinis dancing around them. Things like this nearly destroyed the band, but for some reason they decided to make their second album.
Radiohead started writing songs on the Pablo Honey tour. It was when they were in Australia that they decided to play some of these songs live. These songs were well recived and the band later went into the studio. "The Bends" was one of the best albums of 1995 and has some of the most moving music ever written on it. John Leckie was the prodcer of the album and was an integral part of the album. The band did some interesting things when they recorded the album, such as including organs and delayed pianos in the record. One of the albums strongest songs, "Fake Plastic Trees" was inspired by the band going to see Jeff Buckley in concert. The album was extremely well received and got very high ratings. It was a much more mature effort than "Pablo Honey" and it was developed much better. The singles off it all did very well and the band started to get some recognition other than "that Creep band".

Ed O' Brien


Radiohead's next album was surprising for everyone. Another album similar to The Bends is what would have been expected, but they came out with an album that was different. "OK Computer" is considered by many to be the best album of the 90s and by many, it is also considered by quite a few people to be the best album of that century. Radiohead blended the guitar rock of "The Bends" with piano focused songs and DJ Shadow/UNKLE inspired sounds. "OK Computer" was revolutionary and changed the way that many people thought about music. In an interview shortly after the release of "OK Computer", when asked what he was going to do next, Thom Yorke said "I have no interest in creating aural soundscapes or any of that crap, it's just not going to happen". With the next album, Thom would show a surprising change of heart.
"Kid A" was the most surprising Radiohead album to date. The music itself was probably the saddest stuff Radiohead have wrtten so far, the instrumentation was almost totally guitarless. "Kid A" was the exact record Thom wanted to make, yet at the same time, it was the the total opposite of what Ed O' Brien was thinking of doing. Ed's idea was to make a record full of short 3 minute pop songs. Ironically, Thom didn't know anything about this until he read an interview with O' Brien in a US magazine. In the studio to record the album, the band were faced with numerous problems. Thom knew exactly what he wanted, yet he had no way of communicating it to the rest of the band. Thom and Jonny were on one side of the band while the others were threatening to break up the band. Once they got this problem worked out, Ed jumped wholeheartedly into the experimentation. Colin maintained his musical tastes and dismissed Thom's infatuation with "rubbish techno". If they had released another OK Computer, Radiohead would have undoubtedly become the next U2, but instead they chose to make a far more interesting record in the form of Kid A. A year later, Radiohead released "Amnesiac", an album containing songs recorded during the Kid A sessions.

Colin Greenwood


Radiohead released their sixth album last year, called "Hail To The Theif". It is an interesting mix of the guitar rock of "Ok Computer" and "The Bends", the experimentation of "Kid A" and the piano songs of "Kid A". There are also some new things added to the mix, like the southern sounding song "Go To Sleep".

Phil Selway


Live, Radiohead are know to be even better than their studio sounds. They usually perform long sets, with huge lighting and a big sound. The band members of the band have participated in various non Radiohead projects. Thom has recorded with Bjork, U.N.K.L.E., PJ Harvey and others. Jonny composed the soundtrack to the film "Bodysong" and Ed has recorded with Asian Dub Foundation. Radiohead has always been the top priority though. Radiohead have been involved in many political things too, supporting Amnesty International, causes in Tibet, not to mention the reference to George Bush in their new album's title.

So where will they go next? Who knows, but wherever they choose, it's guarnteed to be interesting.

Discography

Pablo Honey


Q Magazine said: The vigour of Radiohead live loses a great deal of fun in translation to plastic, but the best bits rival Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr and even the mighty Sugar. 3 Stars

Rolling Stone said: If they don't implode from attitude overload, Radiohead warrant watching

The Bends


Q Magazine said: Singer Thom Yorke's vocal mix of weary angst and strained bewilderment remains bewitching, while the charismatic, shuddering musical storm brewed up by his band is often intoxicating. They haul their emotions across a musical wrack which stretches from the scorched thunder of Just and Planet Telex to the deadly, gripping delicacy of Nice Dream and High And Dry. 4/5 Stars

Rolling Stone said: But for one record, they demonstrated how good they could be when they stuck to guitar rock. Singer Thom Yorke explored the expressive power of moaning, while guitarist Jonny Greenwood proved equally gifted with restrained strumming and electric flare-gun solos. 4/5

OK Computer


Q Magazine said: A landmark on every latitude. Not the least achievement of OK Computer is that a major weirdo-psychological English guitar band can induce gasps of admiration, stunned silence and more than a few lumps in the throat. It's an emotionally draining, epic experience. Now Radiohead can definitely be ranked high among the world's greatest bands.

Rolling Stone said: Radiohead try too hard to be nonconformist -- as if they're embarrassed to just be pop -- but ambition hardly makes them ogres. It makes them special.

Kid A


Q Magazine said: In many ways, Kid A is less a shocking departure than Blur was after The Great Escape, and certainly much less so than Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music was after Sally Can't Dance. Even a cursory acquaintance with OK Computer could tell you that Radiohead were unlikely to learn a few dance steps and cover an old Bee Gees hit. Nevertheless, Kid A will still baffle and upset those who are disappointed that they don't do Creep anymore. The urge to smack Thom Yorke briskly around the chops - Eric and Ernie style - grows more irresistible with each passing day. But, God love 'em, we should be glad that in pop's increasingly bland climate a group like Radiohead can thrive. Here's to their bloody-minded, inspirational cussedness. 3/5 Stars

Rolling Stone said: Any album that gives up all of its secrets in the first go-round isn't built to last. Kid A is a work of deliberately inky, often irritating obsession. There are times, like on "Idioteque" and the Yorke-free electronic instrumental, "Treefingers," when the record feels absolutely airless, entombed in chrome.

But this is pop, a music of ornery, glistening guile and honest ache, and it will feel good under your skin once you let it get there. There is also a moral to this mischief: that a manufactured child, by nature or nurture, is no child at all. It is product.

Kid A is not. 4/5 Stars

Amnesiac


Q Magazine said: So where does Amnesiac leave the Radiohead project? As an exercise in de-branding, it's going swimmingly. They've deconstructed their rock bandness and their appeal is becoming more selective. Maybe this will make them happy. Meanwhile, Yorke sounds as bereft as Bono at the end of Pop or Ian Curtis at the end of Closer. In Amnesiac, he has built a vision of hell: numb, petty, desolate and with no obvious escape route. Party on, Thom. 4/5

Rolling Stone said: Radiohead were fascinated by trapdoors when they recorded Kid A and Amnesiac, ready to fall into unknown possibilities. "Trapdoors that open, I spiral down," Yorke sang on Kid A's "In Limbo," while Amnesiac's "Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors," considers "trapdoors that you can't come back from." With Amnesiac, Radiohead tumble further away from their old reflexes. The next album will tell whether the trapdoor has shut behind them. 3.5/5

Hail To The Theif


Amazon.com said: Filling the gulf between OK Computer's epic progressive rock and Kid A's skittering electronic theatrics, Hail to the Thief borrows equally from each. Its title implies that this will be a collection filled with songs of anger and dissent, but Radiohead no longer howl at the moon like they did on 1995's The Bends. Instead, they use eloquent metaphors and complicated arrangements to express the uncertainty, fear and anger arising from the 2000 U.S. presidential election and a post-9/11 world. There’s no doubt about where Thom Yorke and company stand; the prog-rock break on "2 + 2 = 5" and Yorke's terror at the thought of being "put in a dock" make that immediately clear. But there's a prevailing sense of powerlessness here. The tinkling piano behind the cold sonic surface of "Backdrifts" and the brief, swooping melody in the middle of "Sail to the Moon" are islands in a sea of confusion. Like the band's best work, Thief requires more than a few listens to fully appreciate, but those who stick around will be richly rewarded. --Matthew Cooke

NME said: 'Hail To The Thief', then, is a good rather than great record. It sounds exactly how you expect it to sound after 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac' - and that's the problem. Radiohead are a band still coming to terms with the puzzle of what to do after you've made an album universally hailed as one of the greatest ever. They're finding it's a trick that's hard to produce twice. Rating: 7

Reccomended Listening

Pablo Honey Tracks:
Stop Whispering
Creep
Thinking About You

The Bends Tracks:
High & Dry
Fake Plastic Trees
Just
The Bends
Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Ok Computer Tracks: Airbag
Paranoid Android
Exit Music (For a Film)
Climbing Up The Walls
Let Down
Karma Police

Kid A Tracks:
Everything In It's Right Place
Motion Picture Soundtrack
How To Disapear Completely
Idioteque
The National Anthem

Amnesiac Tracks:
Pyramid Song
Dollars and Cents
Knives Out
You and Whose Army?


Hail To The Theif Tracks:
2+2=5
Backdrifts
Myxomatosis
Go To Sleep
There There
Where I End and You Begin

Unreleased Tracks and B Sides:
Lift
True Love Waits
Gagging Order
You Never Wash Up After Yourself
How I Made My Millions
Talk Show Host

Thom's Collaborations
Pj Harvey - This Mess We're In
U.N.K.L.E. - Rabbit In Your Headlights
Bjork - I've Seen It All

NOTE: This was written about a year ago. Sorry if it's not up to scratch.

[Kenny C.]

Good job. I knew a Radiohead one was not long in coming .
-Kenny

[bread man]

This was the first one I wrote, but I didn't post it first, because no one really needs educating on Radiohead.

[Kenny C.]

Well, there are a few people one this site who have asked "Who's Radiohead?" so I don't know. Of course, those people aren't regular posters in the music forums or else they would probably know all about them.
-Kenny

[bread man]

I guess we'll see then.

[Mattlock]

Good read. I absolutely love OK Computer. I need to buy The Bends soon...

[Skeeter]

Well done. I found some things out that I didn't know. The only album of their's I don't have yet is Pablo Honey and I'll be buying it as soon as I find it cheap somewhere.

[bread man]

Don't bother unless you're a collector or something, it only has 2 good songs.

[Scott]

I wouldn't go that far.

[+Donny]

Good review. I still am not much of a fan of radiohead, but the info you posted definitely gave me more respect for them overall.

[bobdingwood]

Radiohead is my second favorite band (second to none other than something like silas) they are amazing, i, being a guitar player, am amazed with the skill of jonny greenwood, i love the band and they heavily inspire the worship band im in right now, have any of you guys heard of sigur ros?

[slap_j]

Radiohead is good juju.

[bread man]

Originally Posted by bobdingwood

have any of you guys heard of sigur ros?

I think most people around here have. ( ) is my favourite album ever and Sigur Ros are Thom Yorke's favourite band, apparently.

[bobdingwood]

Originally Posted by bread man

I think most people around here have. ( ) is my favourite album ever and Sigur Ros are Thom Yorke's favourite band, apparently.

thats awesome, sorry im kinda new to these forums (i used to spend alot of time on the forums at guitartabs.cc) so i didnt know most of you had heard of them, theyre awesome though

[meatfinger]

Have you heard of proper punctuation?

Haha, I'm just kidding.