self-titled: ^_^

So tonight's real world was a horrendous piece of shit. I wonder what snappy retort coral would have if i asked her if she knew when white history month is. Jesus christ, when you've got black people telling you to lay the fuck off the "ignorant white piece of shit" line, maybe you should just chill and actually get in touch with reality. I did gain one bit of insight from tonight's festival of idiots. When malik and mike were bonding and singing "no woman no cry" i realized something. In "twilight," the wonderful closer of the twilight singers album, it totally closes the song with the "everything's gonna be alright" from the marley song. That's pretty cool.

Today was radiohead appreciation day, in light of my conversation with Jude last night. Listened to OK Computer, Kid A and then Amnesiac at work. And now i'm listening to the Bends. Apparently, i was shooting from the hit when i previously talked about Amnesiac. The only song i have minor difficulty with now is "push/pulk revolving doors," and most of the other songs, even "packt like sardines..." i like a good deal. Well, "hunting bears," the instrumental goes nowhere and doesn't have strategic placement like the good in context "treefingers" on Kid A. But for the most part, amnesiac is cool shit.

And now a rehash of part of last night's conversation. Jude started it out with "radiohead will never accomplish in its lifetime what it set out to do on Kid A and Amnesiac." And i didn't know then and still don't know what that means. What followed was a discussion of how radiohead is alienating people and will not be remembered and not achieve mainstream success. I definitely disagree with that, i mean sure, they are losing fans, they are also gaining fans. They aren't 10 times platinum per album and will never see #1 on TRL, but that's not the point, there's no way you can be radiohead and expect that to happen. but this somehow makes the band less essential? That's where jude and i never quite gelled. He says dave matthews will be recognized as more important and better remembered in 30 years. I don't buy it. Kid A was an event. It was an event before it came out. For months, interviewers asked artists what they thought of Kid A. That doesn't happen with other releases. Why Radiohead? is it because they are so much better, so much braver, so much smarter than any other act out there? No, there are tons of groups pushing the envelope far more than radiohead, except radiohead has the balls and the opportunity to do it in a spotlight in the center of media and public attention. You can tell me radiohead isn't as listened to as other mainstream bands, you can tell me that joe average will be able to sing creep long after he'll be able to think of a title on Kid A, but you can't tell me that radiohead's presence isn't felt. There's a reason for it, one is that the music is most often exceptional. But also, as i said, because they are in the public eye and are doing nothing but pushing the envelope as far as they can take it. that's not the way things work. It's the tale told so many times, you have a brave, excited rock band doing their thing, but no one knows about them. They try things out, they play what they want to, they don't cater. They get noticed, and then they start to fit a mold because you need to sell what the people want to hear. You can't try something new because the label gets pissed, the fans get confused. They don't want to hear where you want to be, they want to hear what you know. Somehow, radiohead got to reverse this process. For whatever reason, each step of the way, they get more daring and yet they are embraced. and shit, more power to them, because it's hard to find a commercially viable act selling albums and getting positive press while being so goddam audacious.

going back to a thought i didn't finish above. dave matthews will be remembered in a better light and considered more important in 30 years. Last night i tried to change jude's mind by asking "what's more important, "barbara ann" era beach boys or pink floyd. and he said beach boys. I was out of my element, i don't really know pink floyd, but he brought them up earlier. I'm having difficulty making a good comparison here. But the whole spiel was like him telling me that the talking heads weren't important. They had a handful of popular singles. Nothing really amazing though. I can think of 5 or 6 talking heads songs i knew before i got into the band. They were pretty big. So was creep, fake plastic trees, high and dry, just, karma police. The rest of the TH catalogue wasn't know to joe average. The rest of the TH catalogue isn't know to Joe Average. Early masterpieces like fear of music and remain in light might put bad taste's in joe average's mouth. Fact is, what joe average does or does not know doesn't mean shit. The people who make music, and especially the people who make good music, are generally informed about the players in their craft. Music journalists make a career about writing about music that is good and can make a difference. Ask these people, who shaped modern music? was it the talking heads, or olivia newton john or wham! or lionel richie, who all had the biggest singles in various years during the 80s? Go find me a worthwhile band who says duran duran was their biggest influence. It might be the mass market appeal groups that shape a trend of music for several years, and there are decent mass market appeal groups, plenty of them. unfortunately, they spawn other groups who want to cash in on the same market, and do so while delievering a lesser product. Lifehouse, Train, Blink-182, Linkin Park, Staind, Uncle Cracker, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray. They're all comfortably sitting on the billboard charts. What is any of them doing that is original and is positively contributing to the future of music? Not too much, and down the road, after the imitators have gotten too shitty to survive, these "originators" will be forgotten or laughed about as well. Radiohead is doing something, they'll be remembered. Talking Heads was doing something, they'll be remembered. "Radiohead" comes from a talking heads song, i think that says something

This blog is pretty interesting, will add a bookmark, thanks.