Tag Archives: radiohead

Best music of 2009

live photo of Part Chimp courtesy of Last.FM

Well 2009 was another stellar year for music if you ask me, and as usual, my yearly ‘top’ list is going on a month late. I always have these grand designs of writting a short paragragh about each selection, why I picked it, how I first heard it, etc, but you know how that goes.  I will say that this year, while I’ve gotten into many bands the way I have in years past (trolling record stores, randomly listening to anything I can find online), I’ve also found things I wouldn’t have found thanks to my Twitter account.  While those who don’t get  Twitter think it’s just folks updating what they had for breakfast, if you stick around, dig deeper and find the right people to follow, it’s amazing wealth of information.  Not requiring the effort of say a blog post allows rapid, unvarnished opinions, spouted out between people’s day to day tasks, which I always prefer since I feel I’m more lucid after a few cups of coffee while something is blaring in my ears. New this year is the reissues section, what with things like OK Computer and Young Team being reissued, I can’t help but highlight them.

As always I want to give a hat tip to the fabulous folks at my neighborhood record store, Euclid Records, where I bought almost all of these discs over the past year.  I also want to recognize people like Ryan, Anthony, Mary, @fcervantes, @plasmatron, @koppper @crankin and Yvonne for a continued stream of what has their attention at any particular time – grabbing stuff and listening to it later when I have more time always reveals new sounds to me, so thanks for that. Also, as always, this list will be added to my ever expanding Noise page here, listing my favs from 2001 to the present.

Ok enough of this babble, hell, I already have a couple of possible contenders for next years list!

Radiohead was freaking fantastic

Thom Yorke of Radiohead in St. Louis, May 14, 2008We saw Radiohead last night, and they did not disappoint.  My wife and I weren’t looking forward to the venue, a big shed and lawn ‘pavilion’ that everyone has now, but in the end it turned out to be a great night, with the location not being bad at all. We last saw Radiohead at the same venue twelve years ago during their tour for The Bends, but it wasn’t until just after that with the release of OK Computer that I went completely ga-ga for them for life.  They had a huge chunk of material to choose from, and the show was amazing. After two nice numbers from their recent release, they broke out Airbag and the place went nuts. All the energy seemingly projected via the light show, which was really cool (don’t think I’ve ever said that). And look, I have to say this again and again, but dammit, Johnny Greenwood is so amazing, his composition, the sounds he gets from his guitar, and that shredding sound that he rips from it…outstanding-freaking-standing. Of course he saved the best for last with Paranoid Android coming alive to close the show. I was happy to see the variety of concert goers, considering most were likely getting out of diapers when OK computer came out! The fact that this band has that much pull across a a swath of fans like that without radio play gives me hope for the future.  A great writeup of the show on RFT, be sure to follow their link to their well done slideshow of pictures (it’s where I got the one above). Now to find a soundboard or matrix sourced recording somewhere and we’ll be all set. Full set list after the jump.

Radiohead coming to St. Louis next tour

Thom of RadioheadUPDATE: according to a Pitchfork post, 05-14 St. Louis, MO – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

So it’s been confirmed, Radiohead will play St. Louis on this tour; what incredible news.  I last saw them during the tour for The Bends, far, far too long ago.  “St. Louis is confirmed as a stop on British rock band Radiohead’s upcoming North American tour. Exact dates and venues are to be announced. The tour will be broken down in two parts – a first leg prior to a European summer tour, and another leg after the European tour. Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” CD is the top-selling album in the country this week.“  F – yes!  I have seen far too many concerts of them on video – must see the new shit live…so damn cool.