I got a nice surprise from Radiohead when I checked my email this morning. It was a message thanking the fans who bought their latest album – The King of Limbs – and giving away the two tracks from Radiohead’s Record Store Day 12” Supercollider/The Butcher that was released over the weekend.
Do you know those things that are so bad they’re good?
Well, this is not the case. This song is the perfect example of algorithmically-generated music, Auto-Tune-enhanced vocals and the best lyrics a 3 year-old could write. And of course, it went viral and is now one of the biggest things on Youtube and Twitter. It’s just so bad that people just feel the need to show it to everyone they know. Like I’m doing now, with this blog post. I know I’m feeding the beast, but here goes, Rebecca Black’s Friday:
This… thing… has garnered almost 30 million views on Youtube at the time of writing, and 1M of them just in the few hours since I’ve seen it this morning. It’s also a trending topic on Twitter and has already got the attention of music-mogul Simon Cowel. Not bad for the reported $2.000 paid to Ark Music Factory for the production of the video. And again thanks to the Internet, we now we can all enjoy the parodies.
What’s with all these songs with explanations of the ordering of the days of the week?
Los Angeles’ indie-pop group Robotanists did what seems to me like the quickest turnaround on an album cover ever. They basically released their own version of Radiohead’s The King of Limbs a mere 24 hours after the album was released. Their version can be streamed online here. Read more about the process in their blog.
This Radiohead album is gathering more attention than I’ve seen any album get. In a little more than a week the album already has been fully covered and some remixes and mash-ups have also been released. And speaking of mash-ups, I just discovered Jaydiohead, and even though I’m not a fan of Jay-Z (or any rap, for that matter), it sounds great.
Just last week Radiohead released The Kings of Limbs, their 8th album. With it, a video for one of the songs, Lotus Flower, which I’m embedding below:
What did you think when you watched it? I thought “that’s some funny dancing by Thom Yorke”. And then I moved on with my life.
But some people have richer imaginations and way too much time in their hands, so the parodies started. So they started dubbing the Radiohead’s video with other songs, and the results are quite funny. Enjoy watching Thom Yorke dancing to Ke$ha’s We R Who We R, Beyoncé’s Single Ladies, or We No Speak Americano. Oh, the Internet…
fig. 1: the shower head
fig. 2: the egyptian
fig. 3: the buffoon
fig. 4: the rag
fig. 5: the wall pocket
fig. 6: the karateka
fig. 7: the lotus
fig. 8: the acorn
fig. 9: the prayer
fig. 10: the fan
Oh, and one thing that wasn’t made as a joke, but I think it’s spot on. This guy thought that the crazy dancing would go well with the eclectic beat in Radiohead’s 15 Step. And I think he’s quite right:
Looking forward to see what else people will come up with.
Last Saturday I got to see KT Tunstall live for my first time. The gig was in the Radisson Live Lounge, and although I didn’t think it was brilliant, it was a very good show altogether, well worth the €20.
The show was opened by The Pictish Trail, of 28-year-old singer-songwriter Johnny Lynch. I can only describe his music as… odd… but more knowledgeable people say it’s “a sonorous mixture of acoustic-driven balladry and lo-fi synthesised pop” and “a post-summer trove of sun-warped electro, anamorphic folk”. I say it’s a bit bizarre, and a good example of that is his latest EP, In Rooms, that consists of 50 songs, each 30 seconds in length. He played a couple of them last Saturday (Birds, for example), and for some weird reason I feel like buying the EP.
After this opening, it was time for the main act. This was the first gig of the tour and KT and the band started it with some songs from their new-ish album, Tiger Suit, which, I have to confess, I wasn’t at all familiar with. That’s something that’ll have to be corrected in the next few days, I say. A few songs into it, the band got out of the stage and left KT by herself to do her solo thing. One of those songs was a lovely version of Other Side of the World (I apologize in advance for the sound quality, but my camera is really not good for concerts because it messes up whenever there’s drums involved):
Still up there by herself, KT performed the fan-favourite Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, complete with all the pedal-magic we’re used to. Great stuff:
With the band back and after a couple more songs, they said goodbye only to be cheered by the few hundred people there until they came back for the encore. It was a small once, but they ended beautifully with Suddenly I See:
The full setlist went something like this:
Come On, Get In Glamour Puss Uummannaq Song Universe & You Lost If Only Difficulty Other Side of the World Scarlet Tulip Black Horse and the Cherry Tree The Entertainer Saving My Face Madame Trudeaux Push That Knot Away Funnyman Fade Like A Shadow
Encore Close To Me (The Cure cover) Suddenly I See
I’m keeping an eye on Youtube for more videos (because mine got the sound all messed up). Stay tuned for more.
Los Angeles’ indie-pop group 
fig. 1: the shower head
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