Radiohead Albums Boxed Up

Phish, Radiohead, Pink Floyd = Best rock bands ever.

uh, you forgot about the grateful dead, but yeah, those other 3 are in my top 5 too.

Its unfair to classify anybody with Pink Floyd...but if there were any band today that could come close it would certainly be Radiohead.

Wonder if Radiohead own their master tapes. They must if they are coming out with this after the split. Cha ching!!! Good for them.

As for the XL "record deal", it sounds more like a distribuition deal than a recording contract.

I'm pretty sure this is just EMI trying to cash in on the attention of their juicy new release that they won't be getting a share of. There's no mention of bonus tracks, remastering, or anything else -- just seems more like a label move than a direct idea from the band.

Haven't heard the new album yet. OK Computer was one of the best releases by any group ever, and there are some good tracks on a few of their last releases, yet I fail to see the reason behind calling a band 'the greatest'. It seems like the only reason to call a band 'the greatest' would be to classify all other bands as 'not the greatest' or 'worse than radiohead or pink floyd', which clearly cannot be the case. As Les says, its a matter of opinion. Radiohead is def a great rock band, but there's something about a majority of their music (minus OK Computer) that seems lacking to me. Perhaps too much tonal drone, not enough rhythm. Either way, I would recommend buying this if I owned none of their music.

rejunkulous > who get's your five slot?

gmoo > "The Greatest" is simply a reference to my opinion. It's not intended to be some empirical observation.

I have a theory that "Jam" music is dying out. I just think recently that all the really good/interesting music being produced today is coming off the indie labels. Note that this opinion is coming from an HARDCORE Phish/jam enthusiast. When was the last time anyone here really got excited about a jam release? I would really like to hear other opinions about this idea . . .

ugh... how'bout it's unfair to categorize a group like phish with the likes of the floyd and radiohead. no disrespect to phish, but they only affected the state of music on primarily one continent (and to a lesser degree 2 others (w)europe and possibly australia). muscianship and personal preferences aside, groups like the floyd and radiohead have impacted the state of music across the world. they are just as relevant in chile, turkey, bangladesh, and mongolia as they are here (and europe). phish may be great, but their relevance lies primariliy in affluent western cultures. And that is empirical...

jam bands suck. i grew up on this stuff and its all in the same state that it was 7-10 years ago. all the bands are either rip offs of something already done, or have been around that long and peaked about 4-5 years ago right around phish hiatus. no one is playing bigger venues, no one is releasing ground breaking studio work. most jam bands are complacent to play live shows to the same spun out woooks at the same venues in the same cities every single tour, and then releasing the tapes as official live releases for jacked up prices. whatever happened to bands letting the fans push the tapes for FREE and trying to put some effort into studio work. phish did it, pink floyd did it and the dead did it, so why cant the new jam bands do it. oh thats right, because they are UNORiGINAL its much easier to eat some drugs and noodle on stage for 3 hours than it is to sit down and compose an epic song that sounds like jamming and opens itself up to being extended and improvised upon in the live setting.

im bored/jaded with the jam scene. the only people pushing new ground in the music world are lumped into categories of indie or electronic IMO. go hunt out some dubstep from the UK and then try to tell me that jam bands are pushing new ground and deserve attention.

birkenjam > Glad to hear someone else on the matter. Although, I think you're opinion is a bit too strong, I definately agree with most of what you said. I too grew up seeing Phish/Cheese/Panic and all the small bands in between. So many shows . . . And now, except for Phish, I'm really over the whole thing. I wouldn't characterize all jambands as unoriginal and I wouldn't say they're incapable of composition (i.e, Umphree's), but something is seriously lacking. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who feels this way. With bands like Fiest, Midlake, Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, Clap Your Hands, Wilco, M. Ward, The Sea and Cake, and of course, Radiohead, why should I give a damn about weak jambands? It's sad really. But exciting, there's always something new coming around the corner.

birkenjam > Glad to hear someone else on the matter. Although, I think you're opinion is a bit too strong, I definately agree with most of what you said. I too grew up seeing Phish/Cheese/Panic and all the small bands in between. So many shows . . . And now, except for Phish, I'm really over the whole thing. I wouldn't characterize all jambands as unoriginal and I wouldn't say they're incapable of composition (i.e, Umphree's), but something is seriously lacking. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who feels this way. With bands like Fiest, Midlake, Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, Clap Your Hands, Wilco, M. Ward, The Sea and Cake, and of course, Radiohead, why should I give a damn about weak jambands? It's sad really. But exciting, there's always something new coming around the corner.

Some people just can't pay attention to the music coming off a stage for more than 5 minutes at a time. Jambands and jazz are not for them. Give them something familiar.

gmoo > my beef isn't with length. My Raison D'etre is about 10 mins into Reba! A lot of my new opinion is the result of growing as a musician myself. I learned after many years of playing its incredibly more difficult to sit down a write a coherent melody that it is to play scales over a chord progression. I think that even Jambands themselves are recognizing their end and I would note Moe's The Conch as an example. I think the album reflects they've straying from a typical "jam" formula. hink the album

Some people just can't pay attention to the music coming off a stage for more than 5 minutes at a time. Jambands and jazz are not for them. Give them something familiar.

gmoo > my beef isn't with length. My Raison D'etre is about 10 mins into Reba! A lot of my new opinion is the result of growing as a musician myself. I learned after many years of playing its incredibly more difficult to sit down a write a coherent melody that it is to play scales over a chord progression. I think that even Jambands themselves are recognizing their end and I would note Moe's The Conch as an example. I think the album reflects they've straying from a typical "jam" formula. hink the album

I can agree with you there TSPeer. I am a musician as well, and I know the difficulties in writing melodies that no one has ever heard before while making them stylish at the same time. However, I think jambands will live on because of two distinct qualities the music contains, improvisation and a strong reliance on roots blues and jazz. While I like some of the groups you mentioned earlier, I like constant shifting of genres that a jamband can throw at an audience. And no, I don't eat a fistfull of noodle-friendly drugs everytime I go to a show, but I do prefer the superb musicianship that a jamband provides. One thing is for certain though, you can jam all night and day, but in the end if you don't have solid songs that work artfully then you have nothing.

BTW, Wilco on ACL is the bomb. Saw it two days ago and was blow away.

gmoo > my beef isn't with length. My Raison D'etre is about 10 mins into Reba! A lot of my new opinion is the result of growing as a musician myself. I learned after many years of playing its incredibly more difficult to sit down a write a coherent melody that it is to play scales over a chord progression. I think that even Jambands themselves are recognizing their end and I would note Moe's The Conch as an example. I think the album reflects they've straying from a typical "jam" formula. hink the album

i agree with most of the comments above, and i think the most detrimental flaw on the jam scene is hubris. many of the bands are too prideful to set their egos aside and devote themselves to the music (and it's obvious!). It especiallly comes through on their albums, many of which sound virtually the same, but grow progressively weaker, both musically and (especially) lyrically. i'm not trying to bash the whole scene because there is a lot of good stuff out there that gets overlooked (overshadowed is more like it) while certain bands clog the genre with UNORIGINAL bs. many of the bands out there are simply not hungry. But, i think some of the original jam tribes have taken note of the trends and are doing all they can to diversify their music and take it to the people. I saw gov't mule and moe. each give phenomenal shows last year in bars, each to crowds of about 100-150 people, many of whom had never heard of them prior to the shows. when's the last time the sci played in a shitty bar in shitville usa for a crowd of strangers (to their music)? their attitudes have drifted so far from what made them originally that it became obvious in their music, and the more obvious it became, the more their sound suffered until - poof - they disintegrated. hubris! take phish for examle, their unwillingness to diversify and reach out to different genres and different fans in effect led to their demise. They simply wanted to play their music for their fans, their way. and you can't fault them them for it (because their music and fans made them who they became), but it does border on egotism when various artists' requests to collaborate apart from sitins are denied, most notably neil young - like he really ran pj's career into the ground. wouldn't you have been down for a phish/neil tour and/or album??? hubris! anyway if the scene is to persevere than HUMILITY must overtake hubris.

I believe this is the only actual conversation about music that I have seen on Jambase. I've got to tell you, I don't think its a coincidence that such a conversation took place in a Radiohead based forum. I enjoyed everyone's thoughts and opinions.

Zzzzzz. their only good songs are: National Anthem, Karma Police, and Fake Plastic Trees. Man, that Thom Yorke solo album sure was a bust.

not that i'm doubting your expertise... but i fail to see how an album that reached the top 5 in every significant music market and received 4-5 stars from every significant music publication can be considered a bust. you may be right, but i'd say that the overwhelming majority of critics and consumers would disagree. i'll tell you what has been a bust (both critically and commercially) Trey's solo career...

Shocker . . . LiberalsforMichaelSavage2008/USCTrojans4Life comes in and says something dumb.

more conversation like this needs to take place on this website. instead of all the hating that occurs when someone who isnt a wank off jam band is featured in an article. this is a scene that was being shaped by the internet as a means of contructive criticism a long time ago, and it seems now that either the bands dont care enough to listen or people are being too easy on them

Sorry that I have been such a dick all of these years. My opinion is worthless and I really don't have very much music. Radiohead really is my favorite band besides listening to Britney Spears in my briefs. I don't really know why I had changed my name to Michael Savage, he is just as much of a wiener as myself. Oh well, I will try to be more subjective to peoples comments and stop ripping on other music. I love all of you guys, especially you cute boys.