Funny, “In Rainbows” is more of a live band record than anything they’ve done since OKC, and a relatively un-processed record. “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” isn’t the sound of a great band playing? “Bodysnatchers?” The only song that sounds like it underwent heavy Pro Tools editing is the opener, “15 Step,” which is a brilliant piece of music.

And OK Computer was really the band’s first “chopped up” record. Check out “Airbag”– those drums are heavily edited and quantized.

There comes a time in any fans relationship with a band when they have to cut their losses and just bail, the returns have diminished so much it’s just not worth the effort any more and it begins to taint what one loved about a band to begin with.

I’m at that point with Radiohead.

Fine, they’ve moved on, I haven’t, they’ll never do another OKC. I’ve played in bands, I know what it’s like. But damn! the new album is just so….trivial.

It’s nice to have some guitars back in the front of the mix, but there’s just no there there for me with any of the new songs. A nice phrase here and there, a nice Yorke vocal here and there –enough with the screechy off-pitch falsetto already– some cool production touches and……it doesn’t add up to much at all for me. They sound so fucking bored and, as a result, so am I.

I never thought Kid A and Amnesiac were “radical” or anything like that because, having listened to Aphex Twin and Autechre and the Warp catalog since the mid-90′s, it was all so third hand to me. That’s fine, add a IDM gloss, but what the fuck happened to Radiohead’s songwriting? For every Idioteque or The National Anthem, there’s handfuls of anonymous songs that just sort of….exist. Nothing new to say musically, nothing at all in the slightest to say lyrically and productions that were dated in 1996.

The last song is emblematic for me: a fairly nice piano ballad, with an actual *gasp* memorable tune *gasp* and they completely fuck it up by having that god-awful drum loop stomp all over it. They have an excellent drummer, Phil Selway, and he mainly just does hi-hat stuff while the incredibly annoying and way beyond dated loops spool on around him.

So, Radiohead, I gave up hoping for another OKC with Hail to the Thief but until you actually write some memorable songs again and play as a band, not all chopped up and processed to death in The Spawn Of Satan That Is Pro-Tools, I’m off the bus.

Oh, wait, you won’t miss the $0.00 that I paid for the album, will you?

And to get the asses shaking I’ll be mixing it in with Prince Paul’s latest collaboration; Baby Elephant with Bernie Worrell, Newkirk, David Byrne and others. More samples on their Myspace page.

I’m trying it with IE now, in case it’s a browser incompatibility (i.e., designer incompetence) issue, although I’m starting to think that their payment service can’t handle the load.

Best albums so far this year:

Jesu- Conqueror
Githead- Art Pop
A Place to Bury Strangers- s/t

If you disagree with the above musical opinions, you’re objectively pro-Nazi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByLqJD36F7E

http://www.isthatlegal.org/Muller_and_Robinson_on_Malkin.html

Not that it changes her status as a vile human being, but Stalkin’ Malkin apparently enabled comments on her website a while back.

Of course, any dissenting commenters are quickly deleted, so it’s an echo chamber of “right on Michelle!” and “You are the queen of what you do because of how you do it. With integrity.” (real comment, btw)

Her lame excuses for why she won’t debate Ezra are pathetic as well. He quoted her, but didn’t excerpt her entire comment, so he’s dishonest and stupid. And last year he said something she didn’t like, so he’s a poopyhead and beneath her contempt. And not worth debating.

Take the BART to Berkeley, walk to People’s Park, look for the shifty-lookin’ long haired dude and buy a couple hits of acid off him. Eat them, get back on the BART and by the time you’re back in San Francisco, you’ll be coming on nicely. Go to Fisherman’s Wharf and stare in amazement at the tourists who don’t seem to be on acid. That’s what I did.

More here.

Finally got In Rainbows today after having all sorts of trouble with the online payment “thingee”. I live in the Czech Republic, but am having the disc box shipped to my place in the United Snakes, as per credit card regime diktat . The first two times, the credit security “thingee” rejected my card because it sensed I wasn’t where I said I wanted the thing shipped. It went through today after a long talk with the computer at my issuing bank, but they slipped “Czech Republic” into my shipping address! Argh! Whatever, sent some emails and I assume it will be fixed before some Czech postal employee decides that “North Carolina” means “fell in my bag”.

The album is great, in my opinion – their best since OK Computer in terms of straightforward “alternative” music, whatever that means anyway. More succinctly, it is a clean, heartfelt album of moving and catchy songs. I respected them greatly for pushing boundaries with Amnesiac and Kid A after realizing that the record industry was counting on them for more Fake Plastic Trees. It all worked out fine – fanboys got To Rococo Rot with soul, the h8rs got Coldplay, right? Faust Arp and Reckoner are the winners for folks who prefer their latter efforts, while Nude seals the mix tape deal for the future heartbroken and House of Cards could even become a weird mash-up radio hit after some cool kid remix.

Loving it. Also loving the Mekons’ new one. Still hating the Malkin thing.

In other news, Stalkin’ Malkin chickened out on the debate like the coward we all know her to be. A person who can’t even handle having comments on her blog obviously can’t handle a debate. Especially if she can’t have Jesse feeding her health care facts.

My other favorite records of the year are “Boxer” by the National, “God Save The Clientele” by the Clientele and “The Shepherd’s Dog” by Iron and Wine. Those are all good records, but “In Rainbows” is on a whole other level.

(And I wish I’d been to some of the gigs where they tested these songs — though DaD and various mp3blogs have helped out. The extras disc may provide: an intriguing prospect for a new recording model would be to release studio snapshots of songs during different stages of evolution. Though, in a way, they don’t need to: DaD and mp3blogs and YouTube provide, meaning that you really can settle on a favourite version, even if it’s not in studio quality.)

When chowing down, I ask myself, “Do I really need to have this sushi and latte? I mean, REALLY?”

But then I reassure myself, “hey, it’s okay, because I don’t listen to Radiohead.”

Downtown? I like Cafe Claude (better for lunch than dinner), everything in Belden Place/Alley on Pine between Kearney and Montgomery, and, if you like meat, Bob’s Steak and Chop Shop at the Omni on California and Montgomery, where I used to make unsuspecting vendors take me for a nice kiss-up lunch (which may or may not have led to under-desk napping due to protein overload, I can’t say).