GeekForce

I’ve got all Radiohead’s studio work, which, if I recall, is six albums. Recorded music’s most grindingly beautiful music emanates from each one of them.

I’ve acquired, over the years, seven or eight ‘bootleg’ (usually stray mikes at concerts), plus a lady friend from my daughter’s college town smuggled me a ’stray mike’ recording of the ‘04 concert here, with impeccable sound quality. (she used the then-cutting-edge digital recorder with an extention/isolation mike to catch it all, from opening to the last encore.

The Bends isn’t as electronic as the glistening ‘Amnesiac’ or quite as rythymic as “OK Computer”, but it’s THE most concert, small-hall sound these guys have produced so far.

Thor’s acoustic ’strum’ leads would never fly in a hall; he’d be drowned out. By miracle of digital separation and amplitude-blend modification, his BALL-BUSTING chords, recorded AND performed simultaneously with modern music’s’ most brilliant and distinctive vocal gifts, work perfectly.

‘Fake Plastic Trees’ is a stunning blend of Thor with bandmate’s then-very-young Jonny on electronic keyboards (too advanced to be called a synthesizer). The drums, unlike most of the other tracks, are heavy, particularly in the title track ‘The Bends’.

(SIDETRACK: The album cover art work, as with all of this band’s releases, is suitable for framing)

I thought the album’s last track, ‘Fade Out” was achieved electronically via programing and sound generation. That is, until I saw the band perform at the aftermentioned StL concert

(SIDETRACK: my date for that event proved to be positively FRIGHTENING and did NOT like the event altogether much. It ’twasn’t as if it was our first date; I think perhaps it was the second, so like, …. Oh well, I thought, I’ll just aisle-dance with myself, and I did just that, gathering ‘partners’, seemingly ‘attached’ even, during the early portions of the show)

The ‘FADE’ strain I mention above was, in fact, played by a guitar. Incredible.

‘High and dry works for a guy playing a friggin’ IMPRESSIVE tune on his car CD player for his new (high school) lady. It also works for a Scientific Symposium backround ambiance enjoyed by research dorks sorting out properties of Molybium (or, perhaps, Barium…yea, that’s it).

Buy this CD, gentlemen, if you’re silly enough NOT to have yet, slide it into your automobile’s 10-CD changer….

…and you’ll never need to remove it. This one is ‘burn-out proof’.

(SIDETRACK: Dave, who architected this site, has an absolutely KICKASS CD collection that beats mine, and not many do. I’ll go out on a limb and say he rather likes Radiohead as well. I’m thinking he should do some reviews of his own!)