Bill Bailey is one of my favourite comedians. In the world. He’s such an incredible musical talent. Here he plays possibly the world’s first performance of Dueling Sitars, and then some “hindi-indie” – tackling Radiohead’s Creep. Indian style.
Brilliant. Amazing.
Here’s a folk song.
And a Killers take down.
And a U2 take down.
And a quite amazing burst of piano…
If ukelele covers are your thing then you should check this out. Amanda Palmer plays Radiohead.
If the North Queensland lifestyle had an iconic album it would not be Kid A – despite the reference to an endemic verbal tick. Ay.
Pitchfork has just listed the top 20 albums of the decade. And Kid A was number one. Here’s a nice little paragraph from their review.
“Radiohead were not only among the first bands to figure out how to use the Internet, but to make their music sound like it, and they kicked off this ridiculously retro decade with the rare album that didn’t seem retro. Kid A— with its gorgeously crafted electronics, sparkling production, and uneasy stance toward the technology it embraces completely– feels like the Big Album of the online age.”
And here’s a live version of the first song from the album…
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke is an interesting looking guy who makes interesting sounding music. Those who are unaware of Radiohead should do themselves a favour and become aware – those who are aware – how cool is this “Paranoid Android” inspired Thom Yorke head…
Christopher O’Riley is a modern day renaissance man. If you believe the hype on his personal website – he’s a TV and Radio personality and classically trained pianist.
One of my colleagues lent me “True Love Waits” an O’Riley collection of Radiohead songs played on piano. It is most excellent. Here are a couple of samples from YouTube. Karma Police starts at about the one minute mark,
This one just has the album cover rather than him actually playing the song…
I’ve been on a bit of a sound wave this morning – with my earlier posts – and the slightly more heated than anticipated comments on my anti-U2 post. I’m not surprised. Bono’s public Christianity makes him a bit of a sacred cow.
But I don’t like to criticise things without offering solutions here are 5 bands that are better than U2. In my opinion*…
There’s six bands in a list of five bands that I find more sonically pleasurable than U2. Here are 10 more that fit that category off the top of my head (or out of my iPod – which does contain a bit of U2 – early U2, back when the Edge didn’t look like the kind of guy you’d keep your children away from at public parks).
If you like saccharine music and just can’t help yourself – why not listen to Dave Matthews, or Simon and Garfunkel…
Those are just the bands – there are plenty of solo artists or balladeers who write nice, sweet music who are infinitely more compelling than a 50 year old who petulantly refuses to remove his sunglasses. I won’t list them. I think I’ve made my point. Why listen to one band that tries to appeal to every aspect of musicality and becomes middle of the road when you can embrace diversity which lets you appreciate the whole road, bit by bit.
That is all.
*I’m not sure this needs to be said on a blog. That’s kind of the point.
Kottke.org is a mostly terrific blog on the “liberal arts 2.0”. It’s where I found that Abbey Road timelapse. And many other interesting things. Including this. Perhaps an iconic image depicting the current economic climate…
Huh? It’s a bunch of shipping containers you say. What has that got to do with the economic times you ask. Well, they’re stockpiling containers in Hong Kong because China’s exports have slowed dramatically. So there you go.
The Hotel Noorla in Ingham has a couple of shipping containers converted into almost quaint hotel rooms. Maybe some entrepreneur should get in and buy the lot of them.
Like millions (well hundreds and thousands (the number, not the little colourful balls of sugar)) of others I’ve been hotly anticipating the hotly anticipated new Thom Yorke solo album, The Eraser. So today… upon its release… I bought it. And I listened to it. And now, here are my thoughts.
This album is slightly more avant garde than any of Radiohead’s work (for the uninitiated and uninterested, Thom Yorke is the singer from Radiohead). The music is a series of syncopated and sometimes rhythmic noises. With very little musical quality whatsoever. Except, and this is a big exception, for Thom Yorke’s voice. I’ve decided I could happily listen to Thom Yorke sing over any noise in the world. It wouldn’t make me happy, because Thom Yorke is a very melancholy kind of guy. But it would be a pleasurable experience nonetheless. He also writes lyrics with cool words and concepts. And his cover art is good. There’s my in depth analysis and review of the CD. I was also looking forward to the release of Muse’s new album. But it wasn’t available at Wow. I wish Townsville had a JB Hifi. Actually, that would be bad for my bank balance.
Another variation on the rubbed out theme – Steve asked me what I thought the Italian guy said to Zidane in the build up to his send off this morning, and I must confess I did not get up for the World Cup. I set my alarm, but promptly metaphorically threw it at the wall. I actually dropped my phone rather half heartedly on the floor. If Zidane is the typical French creative genius then I imagine it was something along the lines of “Oi, you French poof” which was enough to send my favourite all time player, Eric Cantona into a violent fan directed frenzy (see below) – he’s not my favourite player because he karate kicked a fan in the head. He karate kicked a fan in the head because he’s my favourite player. I’m not sure the logic there worked any better than it did in that trashy teen movie which I won’t admit to viewing. My sisters have a lot to answer for.
My parents, and sister, arrive in Townsville tomorrow – it’s the first time they’ve ever come to stay at “my” house. So I’m inventing all sorts of new house rules… actually I’m tidying my room. Maybe.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMCmHBqRXnQ]