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The American Radiohead?


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If I had to name an American Radiohead, I'd say the Flaming Lips.

 

 

Like Wilco, the Lips aim more for the heart, but they seem more experimental than Wilco....not saying they're better or worse for that, but they're attitude towards music seems closer to Radiohead than Wilco.

 

Both bands (Flaming Lips and Radiohead) seem a little out there.....non-fans or music listeners who don't like "alternative" music would most likely call the music weird or strange.

 

Most Wilco tunes are pretty safe compared much of the Lips and Radiohead songs. I'm not saying Wilco is "safe", but Radiohead and the Flaming Lips seem to have made music more on the fringes for almost all their careers....again, one can decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

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If I had to name an American Radiohead, I'd say the Flaming Lips.

 

 

Like Wilco, the Lips aim more for the heart, but they seem more experimental than Wilco....not saying they're better or worse for that, but they're attitude towards music seems closer to Radiohead than Wilco.

 

Both bands (Flaming Lips and Radiohead) seem a little out there.....non-fans or music listeners who don't like "alternative" music would most likely call the music weird or strange.

 

Most Wilco tunes are pretty safe compared much of the Lips and Radiohead songs. I'm not saying Wilco is "safe", but Radiohead and the Flaming Lips seem to have made music more on the fringes for almost all their careers....again, one can decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

That makes more sense to me.

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Another reasoning for the comparison is the timeline and styles of their records and neither band has really put out a junk album yet.

 

Pablo Honey = A.M., straightforward records and certainly neither bands best.

 

The Bends = Being There, classics within their catalogues yet still more straightforward in their musical approach.

 

Ok Computer = Summerteeth, hard to compare the two but to me they have a few similarities.0

 

Kid A + Amnesiac = Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, possibly both bands best record? Most experimental for sure.

 

Hail To The Theif = A Ghost Is Born + Wilco book, Maybe a bit of a stretch but both records to me have a similar feel.

 

In Rainbows = Sky Blue Sky, both bands most laid back and "band" feel.

 

When looking at it in that perspective it seems to make more sense to me as well, both bands peaked with their experimentation at the same time as well as their recent records focused on the BAND making a record together. Thom and Jeff are also notorious for maintaining a strict dictatorship within the band. One thing Wilco has done a lot more than Radiohead is their output of material, quite a bit more.

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Can we at least agree that the Monkees are the American Beatles?

Hmmm... clone something artistic and innovative, strip out all the soul and commercialize the fuck out of it for maximum profit and minimum integrity. Sounds about right to me.

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It is a strange connection to make. I find it most fruitful when comparing YHF to KID A. They both were a complete shock to the bands audience. They both contemplate the room for humanity in a high tech world. They both use electronic manipulation to sonically and symbolically interrupt the lyrical landscape.

 

In the most intuitive way possible I can imagine listening to YHF on the L in chicago and having it be the perfect soundtrack and I can imagine sitting in the tube waiting for the Jubilee line listening to KID A. YHF and the L go outdoors where there are skyscrapers, but old wood on the platforms, still evidence of a big gray mid-western sky. KID A and the Tube are imbedded in a cavernous network of fluorescent lights, plastics and reflective tiles, where the plentiful advertisements take on an almost Tokyo level of surrealism around the escalators.

 

It kind of makes sense, at least how I listen to music.........

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Hmmm... clone something artistic and innovative, strip out all the soul and commercialize the fuck out of it for maximum profit and minimum integrity. Sounds about right to me.

 

While I was being flippant, I would disagree with the "minimum integrity" portion of your comment. Even though the Monkees were a commercial enterprise more than a band, at the end of the day they left us with a pile of great songs.

 

anyway, back to your regularly scheduled topic...

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Another reasoning for the comparison is the timeline and styles of their records and neither band has really put out a junk album yet.

 

Pablo Honey = A.M., straightforward records and certainly neither bands best.

 

The Bends = Being There, classics within their catalogues yet still more straightforward in their musical approach.

 

Ok Computer = Summerteeth, hard to compare the two but to me they have a few similarities.0

 

Kid A + Amnesiac = Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, possibly both bands best record? Most experimental for sure.

 

Hail To The Theif = A Ghost Is Born + Wilco book, Maybe a bit of a stretch but both records to me have a similar feel.

 

In Rainbows > Sky Blue Sky, the first and only time Radiohead ever outdid Wilco.

 

Cool...and fixed it. :shifty

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I have tried to get into radiohead many times but i can never do it, i just dont like what i hear. Any recommendations?

 

 

 

Start with The Bends or OK Computer. If you like what you hear, finish with Kid A and Amnesiac. See them live if you can, it could change your mind. They're really that good.

 

 

Skip Pablo Honey.

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Radiohead and Wilco are both great bands that really don't have jack shit in common.

 

P.S. I just saw Radiohead in NY two nights this past weekend and it was sick!!! Wilco tonight in tanglewood...........what a week!!!

 

oh yeah and Ed Ved on sat!!!! :dancing :stunned

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