The first time I heard Radiohead was when "Creep" was a minor hit in the US. Nothing about the song struck me as overly original or imaginitive so I dismissed Radiohead as being yet another one of the many post-Nirvana wanna-be punk-pop bands who hired a producer to make them sound grunge. Then I saw them in concert opening for Soul Asylum and did a 180. Thom Yorke was incredibly charismatic, and the band were ferociously passionate. I'd see them again in heartbeat, though I'm still not a big fan of their records. Last year I conducted an interview with author Nick Hornby (the guy who wrote "High Fidelity" and "About A Boy"). Here's what he says about Radiohead: Me: Have you received any flack over your New Yorker articles? My guess is that your less-than-complimentary Radiohead review caused a small scandal in the UK. Similarly, your recent article about the Billboard Top Ten makes no attempt at hiding your amusement and dismay over the US’s musical tastes. Aren’t you just a little nervous about dissing P. Diddy and Eminem in print? Hornby: No flack, really, although it clearly irritated a lot of people. Whenever I do anything online, there is always a queue of outraged Radiohead fans waiting to take me to task. I stand by the review; I think that in 20 years’ time, that generation of fans won’t own up to having liked it, just as my generation deny owning anything by Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I notice that Radiohead is even starting to get the same press as prog-rock bands got in the ’ 70s—earnest, ‘posh’ music writers basically saying, “This stuff is wasted on pop fans. It’s really brainy.” Yeah, right. Hopefully history will repeat itself in other ways, and there’ll be a 21st century Ramones along in a minute to blow it all away. I shouldn’t think P. Diddy and Eminem are too worried about what I think. What appalls me about P. Diddy is the celebrities who suck up to him. All those people who appeared in his video birthday invitation… What are they “thinking” of? Tom In a message dated 6/26/03 2:08:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time, schnack@mailbolt.com writes:

On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 13:02:35 -0400, ahorton <ahorton@vt.edu> wrote:

...

I think Radiohead are one of the least interesting bands currently recording and making music; their songs are too intentionally "postmodern"/"faux-avant garde" to touch me, or anyone, personally and emotionally, and the music is wholly uninteresting as well.

Well, make that "anyone except for one person", because at the end of the day, the reason I really like Radiohead is because of good songs and heartfelt emotions. That being said, except for a few songs, Kid A seemed to be lacking in the emotion dept. But aside from that their music can touch me very deeply, particularly OK Computer.

Ernesto

______________________________________________________ Discs I'm listening to at work: Led Zeppelin -- How The West Was Won Fountains of Wayne -- Welcome Interstate Managers Willie Nelson & Friends -- Live and Kickin' Pine Valley Cosmonauts -- The executioner's Last Songs Vol 2 & 3