Before Radiohead were only deemed musical-geniuses (as they are nowadays), they were pitched as England's answer to the prevalent slacker culture of the 90s, and marketed straight to the MTV generation - with the help of Beavis and Butthead. Check out this early promo: With Pablo Honey, the band were being sold as a group of loud, free-loading idiots. Thom Yorke had bleach-blonde hair, lyrics were complain-filled, and there was a minimum of two guitars moaning away at all times (even during self-aware songs like "Anyone Can Play Guitar)." As far as the band (and their true fans) are concerned, Pablo Honey is the clear black sheep in a catalogue full of nothing but shape-shifting. On this album, the band did accomplish the task of commercial success, and 90s nostalgists will always call "Creep" their best song, but it was not a sign of things to come. Of course now the band is revered on a seemingly-unreachable plane. They are groundbreakers in the way of marrying ambient electronica and nuanced rock, and Thom Yorke's intelligence is regarded more in terms of A.I. than I.Q. Jonny Greenwood is a classically-trained composer and won everything but an Oscar for his score of There Will Be Blood (it was deemed ineligible due to use of previously-recorded material). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTF8Cn3Z0nI None of this could have been anticipated from a band predetermined as the next Soundgarden (and endorsed by an overly-enthusiastic Beavis, who said of their breakout single "Creep": "I like that part where it goes, 'duh-tuh, duh-tuh ROWW!") Meanwhile, behind that carefully-constructed idiot, lurked the telltale marks of a patient genius. Good thing we stuck around until after the commercial break.
Ryan is a song-writer (soundcloud.com/the-articles), music journalist, vinyl enthusiast, 80s pop-culturalist, and just kind of a vaudevillian person.
Ryan is also available for hire. Email him at 505sandheartbreak@gmail.com with any kind of (non-sexual) work petitions.
