Tuesday, February 26, 2008

How about another video

James Poulous sociological exploration of Radiohead and indie rock makes for some fascinating reading. This essay skates right up to the edge of pretentious bullshit, but pulls off the triple axel. For example,

Like their albums, Radiohead’s live performances are events, recoronations of the band as the peerless postmodern icons of popular music. In the past ten years, they’ve learned how to thrive as the embodiments -- deliberate or otherwise -- of our full palette of era-appropriate buzzphrases. They’re authentic. They break down boundaries. They reinvent themselves. They flout convention. They shatter expectations. They’re ‘willfully perverse.’ They almost broke up over track listing. They were the subject of an essay in n+1’s first issue. People think seriously about writing their dissertations on Radiohead.

I've tended to ignore the band, but they made a song by one of my favorite bands their own and that says something.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

MOST OVERRATED BAND EVER. I can't think of another that is even close - even the routinely awful U2 had a good early run and has its critics. Steve

Tripp said...

Wow, someone's sippin on the Haterade this morning. I tend to think they are over-rated as well, but that is an excellent cover.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is a great cover, but I attribute that more to the excellence of the source material. After all, look how great Natalie Merhcant's cover of ... wait ... not helping. Okay, a very good cover. I still think they are Coldplay with a less talented singer. Steve

Tripp said...

Woah, dude, I think the indie secret police are going to hunt you down now.