In the last decade, no organ of music criticism has wielded as much influence as Pitchfork. It is the only publication, online or print, that can have a decisive effect on a musician or band’s career.... [W]hatever attracts people to Pitchfork, it isn’t the writing. Even writers who admire the site’s reviews almost always feel obliged to describe the prose as “uneven,” and that’s charitable. Pitchfork has a very specific scoring system that grades albums on a scale from 0.0 to 10.0, and that accounts for some of the site’s appeal, but it can’t just be the scores.... How has Pitchfork succeeded where so many other websites and magazines have not? And why is that success depressing? A lengthy history and review of
Pitchfork [Media], from an inexpensive online alternative to a music zine, to "indie" music kingmaker, and thoughts on pop music (criticism).
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 24, 2012 -
109 comments
Intergalactic Beastie Rock,
Deadmau5,
Depache Mode,
Bruno Mars,
Ke$ha,
The Beatles,
Queen,
Stardust,
Radiohead,
Madonna,
Chemical Brothers
posted by rebent
on Nov 5, 2011 -
32 comments
One day in 1984 character actor
Stephen Tobolowsky (
Groundhog Day, the original, unaired pilot of
Buffy The Vampire Slayer) was walking down the street when
Jonathan Demme pulled up and asked if he wanted to see a movie he was finishing. Tobolowsky accepted: taking his girlfriend
Beth Henley, they went to the
Academy Linwood Dunn Theatre to watch the rough cut of the movie,
Stop Making Sense. The audience in the otherwise empty theatre consisted of
Tobolowsky, Henley, and Demme, along with members of
Talking Heads, including
David Byrne and
Tina Weymouth. Later,
Byrne passed
Tobolowsky on his
bike and asked if he wanted to work on a
new movie. Interest sparked again, and during the ensuing collaboration Tobolowsky shared his past experience of psychic phenomena. Inspired, Byrne went on to write
Radio Head. The song was heard by
Thom Yorke and became the name of his
band. All of this is a true story, based on
puzzling evidence.
[more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul
on Jul 17, 2011 -
46 comments
Four weeks ago,
the video for Radiohead's Lotus Flower went up on YouTube. It's a simple thing, black and white, starting off with a silhouetted dancer who turns out to be Thom Yorke. The formerly "
very shy and uncertain" fellow has since turned into
a back-up dancer for Beyonce,
makes Window Licker a bit less creepy*, and
is a dancing queen. There's
a step-by-step graphic break-down of Thom's dance (descriptions in French,
auto-translated by Babelfish and
alternate descriotion in English),
a detailed break-down of Yorke's influences,
a tumblr of 150 dancing Thom video edits and mash-ups, and
a Know Your Meme page.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Mar 9, 2011 -
27 comments
Once again, Radiohead give the music industry a monkey rub by announcing today that
their next record - 'The King of Limbs' - is complete and will be available for download in less than 1 week's time. This time with Prix Fixe pre-order.
posted by robself
on Feb 14, 2011 -
253 comments
Omaha rockers Cursive are selling their new album for just $1... No wait, it's $2... $3... $4... WTF?? In yet another twist on the whole, name-your-price (
Radiohead), fan-financed (
Jill Sobule), take-shrooms-and-cruise-hollywood (
Josh Freese) tiered pricing experiment being carried out by what's left of the music industry, Cursive are increasing the price of their new record by $1 each day until its "official" release. Given the popularity of sites like
Did it Leak (and the corresponding file-sharing forums that I won't link to here) it seems to me like this is a pretty good way to reward well-intentioned but impatient fans who might otherwise resort to less honorable means of getting the latest stuff from their favorite bands. Or maybe it's just another hare-brained scheme that will only hasten the end of record labels as we know them. Either way, they got my $1... And that was after I already got my hands on the mp3s!
posted by idontlikewords
on Mar 2, 2009 -
23 comments
More business innovation from Radiohead Radiohead, iTunes and GarageBand are giving you the opportunity to remix the band's new single "Nude". To make remixing easy, the separate 'stems'* from the song are available to purchase from iTunes
_here_. The 'stems' available are bass, voice, guitar, strings/fx and drums. You can mix them in any way you like, either by adding your own beats and instrumentation, or just remixing the original parts.
posted by psmealey
on Apr 2, 2008 -
69 comments
When
Maurice Martenot met
Lev Sergeivich Termen in the early 1920's and heard his revolutionary new musical instrument the
Theremin, he was
inspired to create
his own electroacoustic
instrument , which he christened
Ondes Martenot. Next year will mark the 80th anniversary of the first performance of this remarkable hybrid keyboard which, aside from its lovely and ethereal sound, is also
aesthetically pleasing visually, with its handsome
collection of
multiple speakers. See and hear the instrument being played and explained in this
video interview and demonstration by Jean Laurendeau, which closes with a lovely rendition of the theme from Star Trek. And, here's the instrument in use, live, alongside who else?
Radiohead.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Dec 25, 2007 -
20 comments
Name your own Paste price. Paste Magazine, arguably one of the best music magazines available today, is taking a page from the Radiohead playbook by letting subscribers pay whatever they want for a 12-issue/12-CD subscription (minimum $1).
posted by jbickers
on Nov 6, 2007 -
22 comments
OK X - Radiohead's
OK Computer covered by 12 modern artists. Free download.
posted by puddleglum
on Jul 11, 2007 -
50 comments
Merry Christmas, Metafilter! In the spirit of the holiday, my gift for the Radiohead fans among you is
this entire Radiohead concert (Google Vid), a non-bootleg produced for MTV originally recording from the OK Computer tour back in 1997. For the non-Radiohead fans, my gift is that I forgive you your imperfections. And finally, for those who don't celebrate Christmas, my gift is that I made you a cookie...
but then I eated it.
posted by jonson
on Dec 24, 2006 -
39 comments
Excellent music video for an interesting cover version of Radiohead's Just (originally off of
The Bends) by British musician Mark Ronson. Song is done in a more 1960's
Stax-Volt Records style, using gratuitous horn samples; video is shot on the streets of an English city (I believe London, but am not sure) and features animated graffiti coming to life & dancing to the song, as well as a cameo by the tiled creations of
Invader. First link goes to a page about the song, with video download links in wmv & qt at the bottom.
Still no answer as to what that guy was saying in the original version of the video, sadly.
posted by jonson
on Mar 9, 2006 -
32 comments
It's Rodeohead, (MP3 download), the radiohead country and western medley. Please note there is absolutely no reason to post this apart from it's Friday, it's a bank holiday weekend and it made me laugh. If you're looking for in-depth then move along, nothing to see here...
posted by ciderwoman
on May 28, 2004 -
26 comments
Electronic music buffs cite Radiohead's Kid A as their best work. How many know that Idioteque, arguably the stand-out track
owes a debt to
Paul Lansky, sampling as it does Lansky's
Mild Und Leise [mp3 file], a track composed in 1973 on an
IBM 360/91 mainframe. I didn't. Should you find your interest piqued, you might want to read an
interview with Lansky. If that was then, this is now: The excellent
music video to Zeal [Quicktime] by
Plaid, which, although a very different beast, is an excellent indicator of how far electronic music has come. [Probably NSFW].
posted by nthdegx
on Feb 9, 2004 -
42 comments
Radiohead are taking over the
BBC this Christmas. For one week, from the 22nd to the 28th of December,
the band will assume control of BBC digital staion
6Music, choosing music, selecting shows, co-presenting programmes and contributing website material. The station is streamed worldwide. Christmas this year may be a little less jolly.
;)
posted by Blue Stone
on Nov 11, 2003 -
33 comments
Radiohead fan sites have been asked to remove their lyrics and tabs archives. Yesterday, two popular Radiohead fan sites,
Green Plastic and
At Ease, were sent
this email by a legal representative of Warner Bros. Publications and Warner/Chappell Music asking them to take down any lyrics and tabs from their site. The letter claimed "their distribution constitutes an infringement of our rights under U.S. Copyright Law. More than that, the availability of these files have a direct impact on our ability to market and sell our musical arrangements and songbooks, and that adversely affects the royalties that we are able to generate and pay to the band." Those opposed have started a
petition online. Who's right on this one?
posted by josephtate
on Jun 3, 2003 -
48 comments
Radiohead TV: Welcome To The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time! Yes, fans and detractors - it's that time of the year again. But look before you hear, mind!
My favourite band The world's most lyrically evolved band Radiohead is about to
unleash, after the wonder that is
There, There [
Full videoclip here] a
new long-playing record and with it, on May 26th, a
new television channel [
Please scroll down a bit for details]. They're going: "
I haven't had this much fun in years". Well, indeed! I wonder how many fans get the dark, gallows humour of Radiohead. And what beautiful songs! I put it to you Thom Yorke is the new Leonard Cohen, another much-funnier-than-he-sounds songwriter and performer.[
Windows Media req. Quicktime version of TV channel here; Real version of "There, There" video here. Please go to the website for other details and lower res alternatives..]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on May 13, 2003 -
54 comments
