Tag Archives: Radiohead

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music

2001 – Part 6.1: Radiohead – Amnesiac

It’s been sixteen years since “In Rainbows”?

Back in 2007, the issue surrounding that album was getting paid. Remember “pay what you want”. It was meant to bring the money back into music. It didn’t.

But it gave artists a hard truth, that they have fans who are willing to pay zero dollars for their recorded music.

Today the main issue is getting peoples attention and holding it. Anyone remember what was trending last week. Me neither.

“Amnesiac” is the fifth studio album by Radiohead, released on 30 May 2001.

Although the album came out in 2001, it was recorded with producer Nigel Godrich in the same sessions as Radiohead’s previous album “Kid A” released in 2000.

Radiohead considered releasing the work as a double album, but decided against it.

Based on the buzz created from the earlier albums, “Amnesiac” debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and number two on the US Billboard 200.

Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box

It’s an electronic song with synthesisers and industrial percussion. Actually the tone of the synth riff feels like it became the design for the TonePad or SoundPrism apps.

Auto-Tune was also used to process Yorke’s vocals which sound hypnotic and other worldly.

After years of waiting nothing came, as your life flashed before your eyes you realize

A realization that the thing you have been eagerly anticipating for a long time, didn’t come to be.

After years of waiting nothing came, and you realize you’re looking in the wrong place

After the passage of time you come to the realization that your search or focus has been misguided.

Your strategy was ineffective and it led you astray. But there is time to reassess your approach, redirect your efforts, or reconsider your expectations in order to find the desired outcome or solution.

I’m a reasonable man, get off my case

Pyramid Song

The piano chords drive the song, which is a trippy 60s experimental acid rock track. Wikipedia tells me the musical part of song was inspired by the Charles Mingus song “Freedom” and its lyrics were inspired by an exhibition of ancient Egyptian underworld art Yorke attended while the band was recording in Copenhagen and ideas of cyclical time discussed by Stephen Hawking and Buddhism.

I jumped in the river and what did I see, black eyed angels swam with me

A symbolic leap into the unknown.

And while angels normally represent the light, the mention of black-eyed angels is seen as mysterious. The color black is also associated with darkness.

And we all went to heaven in a little row boat, there was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt

The mention of a row boat, which requires teamwork and coordinated effort to navigate, suggests a collective experience or shared journey.

“Pyramid Song” was named one of the best tracks of the decade by Rolling Stone, NME and Pitchfork

Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors

Wikipedia tells me it began as an attempt to record another song, “True Love Waits”.

It features keyboard loops recorded during the “OK Computer” sessions. Deciding that the arrangement did not fit “True Love Waits”, Radiohead used it to create a new track.

Yorke added a spoken vocal and used Auto-Tune to process it into melody.

Unfortunately the story of the songs creation is better than the song. It’s a skip for me.

You and Whose Army?

Wikipedia tells me that the song is about someone who is elected into power by people and who then blatantly betrays them.

At the time Yorke was protesting against the British PM, Tony Blair. However it seems that every democratic country has this problem.

Its like lounge music with a drunken vocal melody for the first 1.50 as the song builds and I was going to skip it.

But it changes and the last minute is dreamy rock and I like it.

We ride tonight ghost horses

A journey into the unknown. It seems to be a recurring theme on the album.

I Might Be Wrong

I like the Bluesy riff but don’t like the industrial sounding drum beat.

You go down the waterfall, think about the good times and never look back

Another phrase about a challenging or transformative experience.

As you draw strength, inspiration, or comfort from the good times during times of adversity. You know the whole wellness business model is built on selling the “power of positive thinking”.

Knives Out

It sounds like they just got in the room and jammed this one out.

Lyrically I think it’s about cannibalism.

Morning Bell/Amnesiac

I’ll give them points for trying to do something different and out of their comfort zones, but as a title track it’s terrible.

A skip for me.

Dollars and Cents

Another skip for me.

Hunting Bears

Its a two minute instrumental on electric guitar and synthesizer and backwards effects. It’s cinematic and I like it.

Like Spinning Plates

It’s a skip for me.

Life in a Glasshouse

It’s jazz noir and jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band performed on this in the style of a New Orleans jazz funeral.

Wikipedia tells me that the lyrics were inspired by a news story Yorke read of a celebrity’s wife so harassed by paparazzi that she papered her windows with their photographs.

But it’s a skip for me.

Back in 2001, two years after Napster, sales were still a big thing and man of albums were good, sales would go through the roof. Linkin Park’s “Hybrid Theory” and “Meteora” come to mind here.

“Amnesiac” was certified Gold in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Japan and the United States.

It was certified Platinum in Canada, United Kingdom and Europe.

It’s different. Give it a go.

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A to Z of Making It, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Music Business Is A Tough Gig. By the way so is every other business.

What does the recent Jay Z and Samsung deal mean for the rock and metal community?

In the immortal words of Dark Helmet from Spaceballs, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Jay-Z is one of those artists that wants to be paid RIGHT NOW. He is in the mainstream right now and married to another mainstream personality in Beyoncé. The album is certified platinum before it is even released due to the digital download deal with Samsung. This is where it was made available for free to all Samsung customers via the Jay Z Magna Carta app.

How many of those Samsung customers are actual Jay Z fans? How many of those Samsung customers will go out and spend money on Jay Z? When artists want to be paid right now, there is no connection between artist and fan. It’s all about the dollars. My friend at work is a Samsung customer and he downloaded the album because it is free. In the end, this is all about money and nothing to do about having a career.

That is what the metal heads and rock heads want. A career. It doesn’t have to be a career where the yearly salary is a million dollars. We want just a simple career where we can make between $60 to $80K like all the other occupations, however in this we are doing what we love. We want just enough so that we can compete in the housing market, be considered for loans and so forth. We don’t need to keep up with the Kardashians, the Beyoncé’s and the Jay Z’s.

Once upon a time, it used to be clear to the fans that artists created music and that Record Labels were looking to profit from this relationship with the artists. These days, the new artists are the tech heads. The technologists lead the way by creating and it is the artists that want to profit at every turn from it. The artists are starting to become the businessmen/women of the record label era.

Look at the recent Twitter rant of Thom Yorke from Radiohead. According to the gospel of Yorke, there is no incentive for new artists as they cannot make any money due to Spotify. He more or less claims that no new artists can be discovered via Spotify or make a living from Spotify. Hey Thom, Imagine Dragons is a new artist. Look at their numbers on Spotify. Even though they are not making a living off the royalties from Spotify, this tool has allowed them to spread their music to a world-wide audience, which in turn is seeing their album sales go up. Go figure that. People are purchasing albums, when the songs are available for free.

So what does Thom do? He pulls Atom of Peace and his solo work from Spotify. Maybe that is a good thing, as we don’t have time for sub-standard anymore. Hell, Thom Yorke should even blow up at Napster.

The reason why Napster exploded 13 years ago was because it was all about the community and the convenience. Napster was never about the money and it was never about the ‘free’. The fans of music spoke out loudly on how they wanted to consume their music and how they wanted to interact with it. The power brokers still haven’t listened. Today there is still no service that provided those two things the way Napster did.

Artists wrote songs for a cause or a purpose. There was always a war to fight against someone, either against the establishment, the parents or a real war. The sad reality these days is that more and more artists are thinking about the payment instead of the creative process. It’s tough making a living in the music business. That is the bottom line. Just the same way it is tough making a living in any other business.

I work nine to five and get paid a yearly salary. I am meant to work 38 hours a week, however the company encourages us to spill some blood for them which normally means putting in longer hours just so that we can be considered for a bonus. It is a tough gig, and it is a tough way to make a living as well. The music business is no different. Making money in any occupation is a tough business.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Derivative Works, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Stupidity

You Don’t Know Me, But You Will…. From Controversy, Popularity Is Born

I watched Fast 6 the other day, and the final additional scene had me all pumped up. For those that haven’t seen it, I will not spoil it, however it sets up Fast and Furious 7 very nicely. The final words said in the movie, are the words of the villain, “you don’t know me, but you will……..”

Isn’t that what every musician wants. To be known.

So how does it came to be, that the villains end up known to the world and the ones that do real good are forgotten. Does the world at large know the names of the police officers that captured the Boston Bombers? Does the world know the names of the victims that died in the bombing? The answer is NO, however everyone knows about the Bomber brothers, their family links to Chechnya and so forth. Even Rolling Stone has glorified the bombers with their recent front page issue. By doing this, Rolling Stone has sent social media into meltdown.

David Draiman and Nikki Sixx are two rockers leading the outcry against Rolling Stone. It looks like the Rolling Stone magazine is taking the “you don’t know me (or maybe forgot about me), but you will “mantra to heart. Once upon a time Rolling Stone mattered. Today, Rolling Stone is a dead magazine. They needed to do something shocking like Rammstein did with the Pussy video to bring their name back into the mainstream. You can’t get more shocking than putting a terrorist bomber on the front cover, regardless of what kind of story you are trying to sell. The wounds are too fresh.

Another person looking for publicity is Thom Yorke from Radiohead. He has gone onto a Twitter rampage against Spotify and what they pay artists. For those people that didn’t know about Spotify, they sure know about it right now. Every mainstream news story has picked up the story and run with it. Every blog is talking about it, including this one right now.

Thom Yorke on the other hand, should write great quality music as a solo artist and take control of his own catalogue of music. That way he will know exactly what Spotify pays him, instead of waiting for the statements that the labels give him. It’s funny to look back and read stories about how Thom Yorke and Radiohead was praised for releasing an album under a “pay what you want” model. From this recent outburst, it is clear that Thom wasn’t expecting fans to pay nothing for it, however they did. That is why they never tried that model again.

The big grey area that hangs over Spotify is the lack of transparency over the payments made to the labels, because in order for Spotify to operate in the US, the labels wanted a 50% share in the company.

One thing is clear from all of the above, from controversy, popularity is born.

Ozzy Osbourne’s solo career at the beginning was all about controversy. The dove and bat biting incidents, the tragic death of Randy Rhoads, the drinking and partying which lead to the Alamo incident, the court cases about backward messaging on the song Suicide Solution and the drugs.

Motley Crue built a career from controversy with their sexual innuendos, the pentagram on Shout At The Devil, their partying and drug taking lifestyles which lead to the tragic death of Razzle at the hands of an intoxicated Vince Neil and the death and rebirth of Nikki Sixx.

Even Dream Theater experienced controversy when in a Guitar World interview circa 1994, certain musicians from the grunge / alternative scene blasted John Petrucci for playing with no feeling. Since Petrucci responded gracefully that he likes the music that those bands do, all it did was divert people’s attention to Dream Theater.

Did anyone in the mainstream world know that Black Metal existed? Of course the fans of the style did, however it was just a niche. Then churches started to burn and people started to die. So the Black Metal movement is all over the news.

From the Napster controversy, the people got to know that you can find and download mp3’s of music that you liked, from people that had similar tastes. 13 years later, people are still downloading. From the Napster controversy, the people got to know who the RIAA is and how corrupt they really are. Throughout the years, the RIAA popularity as a corrupt organisation has grown tenfold. From the Napster controversy, everyone got to know Lars Ulrich and Metallica. For better or for worse, Metallica had fully become embedded with mainstream media and pop culture. Press Organisations that never reported on Metallica, suddenly where reporting on Metallica.

Metallica in 2013 is now the biggest metal band there is. Did the Napster controversy hurt Metallica? My answer is No it didn’t. It made them bigger, it spread their name out across all the corners of the world and most importantly it made their music available to everyone.

As an artist, that is your mission statement. Your music needs to be available to everyone. It is not about money right now.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Vaudeville – Restless Souls – Classic Song To Be Discovered

Vaudeville is one band that deserves more recognition for what they do.  They merge the styles from Muse and Radiohead with Hard Rock.  It sounds beautiful and original.

Check out Restless Souls here via their Bandcamp page or at Spotify.

Will you stand up
And fight against their wrath
Or will you run
Until there’s nothing left

Restless Soul has this omnipresent vibe.  It’s telling the story of not fulfilling your potential.  We all want to be loved, and in our quest for acceptance, we cage a bit of the person we are each day.  This is the running away part.  Eventually, it will come to a time, where there is nothing left of the person you really are.

Freedoms call
It’s too late
Restless souls
Dreamers decay
We’re all goners
Waiting for our day
We’re all goners
Floating in space

Acceptance that we are nothing in the end.  Acceptance that our whole existence ends in death.    Check out the whole album.

Vaudeville are an unsigned band.  They have been doing the rounds since 2007.  The first album Dismantle The Sky came out in 2009.  The next album Vendetta came out in 2012, and this is where Restless Souls is found.  In March 2013, they released an EP called House of The Rising Sun.  Remember, you need to be in this for life.  Good music will find an audience.  

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