A Review: Angsty Rainbows: An Unfortunate Oxymoron from Radiohead

I recently downloaded Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, which you can purchase on their website for whatever you wanna pay for it. The fact that this scheme is working at all has impressed me. I haven't seen any burned DVD versions of In Rainbows being passed around. No, people seem to be going to their website, and paying a reasonable amount of money to download the thing. Napster went down in flames because free music is like crack. Apparently Radiohead attracts a more moral universe. Somebody should write to Randy Cohen.

Part of the trick for the American downloaders is probably the fact that no one knows how to convert pounds to dollars, and since the website asks for pounds (and who has the time to hit the "conversion" button, anyway?) we're all paying more than we realize. (7 pounds U. K., which is what I paid for the download, translates into over 14 dollars, U. S.: not bad for Radiohead, since they're [yes, Radiohead is a plural noun, I swear, just check their website] getting back one-hundred percent of the profit, with no loss to a bloodsucking record label.) I'm putting my money on the very real possibility that this is an important precedent: within another year we'll be seeing the online distribution of albums by U2, and maybe the Beastie Boys. (Is Rage Against the Machine still putting out albums?) Anybody with a decent following and a website will follow suit. Mark my words.

So much for economic foresight. I give the album itself a B+ for musical cahones. But, Majel, what's not to like? It's thoroughbred Radiohead, after all.

I like to think that every rock star singer is either a trained guitarist, or a trained pianist first and foremost and that the character of his or her band takes on the general flavor of that instrument. The argument works for, I dunno, Coldplay, but breaks down the minute you really think about it (Björk?) Still, I continue to think it's a useful heuristic. The advantage Radiohead has--according to this somewhat lamely totalizing framework--is that it's got both: Greenwood's guitar PLUS Thom Yorke's piano = a distinctively ... guitar-iano [sic?] sound. Play any reasonably knowing Radiohead fan 2.6 seconds of any track on In Rainbows and she'll/he'll nail it in as much time (as I did in a basement café at the University of Chicago one week ago). But this is also what puts the album a bit on the boring side. When OK Computer came out I was floored; with Kid A, doubly floored; and Hail to the Thief ... don't even get me started. Most successful music groups find a good, edgy, distinctive sound and stick with it throughout their more or less successful careers. Radiohead has managed continually to remake itself musically on its albums. Each has had a *different* good, edgy, and distinctive sound. And, better yet, the band is such a kick in live performance that the CDs they put out--as well-produced as they are--are more like test cases for their live shows, which tend to be at least 9 times as exciting, and equally musical.

Maybe, if you had the time, you could Google the lyrics to In Rainbows and that would draw the moody, vaguely happy gist of the album into focus and shore up the moxie it lacks. I frankly don't have the patience for this. Thom Yorke has never uttered a single, legible poetical phrase as far as I can tell, but this has never hurt the albums he creates. With In Rainbows, I can only assume the poetry tends toward the wrist-slashing, bag-over-the-head, anti-corporate despair that has been their trademark for the last--what, decade?--since Yorke's lyrics are yet again predictably opaque. But who cares about lyrics? With apologies to my ethnomusicological training, one still looks for *something* distinctive about the music ITSELF. (Yes, Philip Bohlman, I said it, and I mean it.) The live string orchestra sounds nice (even though it's not quite new: we heard it on Kid A and elsewhere) but Beck did it better on Sea Change. The old, recycled "wussy guitar ballad" sound (as some reviewer I read put it years ago) is just old, and recycled.

To cut to the chase, this album is married with kids, just like the band. They're still great musicians--and don't get me wrong: there isn't a track on the thing that is poorly produced or unmusical. For any other group, In Rainbows would be genius. But I expect more from Radiohead than married & comfortable. Sorry, guys: if it's resting-on-the-laurels from here on out, you'll get no more internet pounds from me.

-majel

More for the Road

Recently recovered from Barnaby's photochest, the following ... more gazing pleasure.



Amanda DeBoer and Majel Connery performing in Ursularia with (bearded?) St. Ursula in background (painting by Nick DePeder).


Nonsense Co. performing "Great Hymn of Thanksgiving".



More of Phyllis and her excellent gadgetry.


Nick 'n' Majel performing Church Car (Amirkhanian) at a recent salon in Hyde Park.



Ditto.

I Fell Into a Burning Ring of...

At least half of that double entendre has to do with the swathes of fire that greeted me upon my return to the south left coast late Monday night. The fires were not just visible from the plane...but more like holy-shit-that's-large-from-the-plane. But fear not, all is well in coastal La Jolla, except of course for the horrendous air quality.

This would be the usual place where I put up ridiculous numbers of photos from this weekend's uber-bizarre festivities, which were definitely more delusional, possibly more grand, and hopefully more better than Majel and I could ever have imagined on our own. Maybe in some weird way we actually owe the Zhou Center and the CPD an extra special thank you for forcing the creation of the magical and potentially someday mythical Saturday night performance in Hyde Park. Since Majel has alrady begun the photo parade, maybe I'll just kick off by pointing you, gentle reader, to some other perspectives on the affair.

"Matilda T Zombie Queen" (culture blogger)
Telecommuniculturey Blog

and

Marc Geelhoed of Timeout Chicago
http://deceptivelysimple.typepad.com/simple/2007/10/delusional.html

http://deceptivelysimple.typepad.com/simple/2007/10/jack-booted-thu.html

More photos to follow, of course.
(n.)

Welly, Welly Well

It's been quite the f-ing weekend, if I may say so. Nick and I and the rest of our fellow cabbalists for the October festival (Delusions), after being sent running from the Zhou B. gallery Friday night with duct tape, music stands and some deal of fury were finally delivered anon into the loving hands of our generous hosts in Hyde Park for a final night of operatic and avant-gardey hoop-la on Saturday evening. Lesson learned: better and funner to perform for a small crowd of rowdy and appreciative groupies with wine that can actually leave the bar (slash dining room) than to a cold and austere gallery audience that (let's be honest, folks) for the most part had no idea what we thought we were doing.

We'll keep you posted on future projects. Till then, some photos to whet your appetite.






Yourses truly.


The brilliant and wonderful Greg playing Santiago (and Majel).


Jon Eliot as God, antics and all.


A blindfolded Ursula.


The truly astonishing (and fast) Nonsense Co.



Phyllis Chen and an amazing array of gadgetry.

5 days and Counting

Amanda arrived in Chicago yesterday and I arrived in Chicago around 1:30 this morning, which means the gang is all here. The first full cast rehearsal of the new run (new run?...first run? I'm pretty sure one "concert" version doesn't actually count as a "run" in any technical sense of the word) of Ursularia happened at the Zhou B. tonight. Find some photos below. (Some of the are a bit dark....sorry about that.) Paintings in the background are all by Zhou Brothers.

Delusions Festival : Thursday - Sunday; Oct. 18-21
Zhou B. Art Center.
Come see.

God makes his appearance to Ursula.
l-r:
Michael McBride, Majel Connery, Jonathan Eliot, Greg, Amanda DeBoer
****

God insists he's not just some guy with a scarf.
(Jonathon Eliot)
*****


Santiago Rocinante (Pope of Rome) proposes killing two birds with one stone.
(Greg Anderson.)
****

Ursula's Immortal Soul waits for her entrance in the shadows...by the ladder.
(Amanda DeBeour)
**


5/7ths of dal niente watches from offstage. As it turns out, Connie and Alejandro have an obstructed view...so even though they're 7 feet from the show, they can't actually watch. We're thinking about installing closed circuit tv.

l-r
Peter Martin, Connie Schoepflin, Michael McBride, Alejandro's clarinet, Mark Holley, Ammie Brod; Karen Schulz-Harmon is behind the column.

More as the week progresses.
(n.)

New Music in San Diego

Saturday, October 13
8:30am - 3pm
Studio A (on the UCSD campus)

New Pieces by UCSD Graduate Student Composers

I'll be leading the charge in premiers of
Nicholas Deyoe's
-fifteen players-

and
Anna Thorvalds's
Streaming Aryhtmia

Both of these pieces are for large ensemble and strike me as particularly top notch works.

Also on the program are new works by Clint McCallum, Daniel Tacke, Carolyn Chen and Brian Griffith-Loeb.

I can't promise there will be anything as enlightening as the performance on last week's NWEAMO conference out at SDSU involving a guy in monk's robe armed only with a sampler box full of squealing-pig sounds mounted on top of a guitar, accompanying himself visually by a live rendering of voice-activated powerpoint...but word on the street is that Clint's piece does invovle Stephanie Aston doing battle with the conductor (in this case, Nick Deyoe) with naught to protect herself but a pink riding crop.

Come for the music, stay for the undecipherable metaphors and free lunch.
(n.)