1. Radiohead OK Computer
2. Clash London Calling
3. Arcade Fire Funeral
4. Nirvana Nevermind
5. Pixies Doolittle
6. Neutral Milk Hotel In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
7. Beatles White Album
8. U2 The Joshua Tree
9. Radiohead The Bends
10. Pixies Surfer Rosa
11. Radiohead Kid A
12. Beatles Abbey Road
13. Jeff Buckley Grace
14. Beatles Revolver
15. Sufjan Stevens Illinois
16. The Smiths The Queen is Dead
17. Pearl Jam Ten
18. David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
19. Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
20. Radiohead In Rainbows
21. The Cure Disintegration
22. Elliott Smith Either/Or
23. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
24. Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
25. Beastie Boys Pauls Boutique
26. Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks
27. Pavement Slanted and Enchanted
28. Rolling Stones Exile on Main St.
29. My Bloody Valentine Loveless
30. Postal Service Give Up
31. Modest Mouse The Moon And Antarctica
32. Built To Spill Perfect From Now On
33. Death Cab For Cutie Transatlanticism
34. Weezer Weezer
35. Beach Boys Pet Sounds
36. Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin
37. Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde
38. Replacements Let it Be
39. Velvet Undergound & Nico Velvet Underground & Nico
40. Belle & Sebastian If Youre Feeling Sinister
41. Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream
42. Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs
44. Elliott Smith XO
45. Stone Roses The Stone Roses
46. Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West
47. The National Boxer
48. A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory
49. Miles Davis Kind of Blue
50. Band of Horses Everything All The Time

[ ... ]

900. Maps We Can Create
901. Mclusky The Difference Between Me and You Is That Im Not On Fire
902. Mission of Burma Signals, Calls, And Marches
903. New Order Movement

KEXP's Top 903 Albums [kexp.org]

• Trent Reznor took Thom Yorke's idea and ran with it. The Saul Williams experiment was his first foray into the "varied formats at varied prices" realm, but things really took off when Reznor started releasing his own material—Ghosts I-IV, and then The Slip—on his own terms, through his own Web sites. If anything, I'd refer to these new digital-heavy, price-optional distribution models as "the Nine Inch Nails model," since Trent really perfected the form after Radiohead's (and Stars') initial forays into the digital rush-release world.

• Other acts with substantial fanbases decided that they could probably experiment with release dates and pricing, too. David Byrne and Brian Eno, Tori Amos, Weird Al ... of course, these are all artists who built their fanbases while working in the major-label salt mines. But in a way, helped the idea of release date as "event" return, if only because of the sheer number of people who knew the names of these artists.

• The "free preview" ideal became de rigeur for many major-label acts... They may not be distributing low-bitrate copies of entire albums as part of their promotional run-up, but when freaking Nickelback is (and breaking the six-figure mark in sales of that song anyway) you know the idea has percolated into the mainstream.

• ... and the majors moved to MP3s. Sure, this is probably more a function of Wal-Mart behaving like the two-ton gorilla that it is when it announced that it was moving to an all-MP3 store, but still, it was pretty significant as far as allowing digital-music consumers to stop asking why their file of "Bitch" that they'd purchased a few years back had suddenly become unavailable.

• The phrase "the Radiohead model" was misused approximately 10,000,00 times by lazy journalists. Sigh.

• The record? Pretty good, once the endless hype about how it was released died down. Seriously. (Although I didn't spend enough time with the second disc of the box at all.)

This is obviously an incomplete list, so feel free to add—or subtract!—from it as you see fit in comments.

1. Listen to your entire iTunes library, A to Z. Surely most of the readers of this site have 31 days' worth of music around their house, if not on their hard drives. (OK, a recent cull caused my iTunes timer to drop to 28.2 days, but I have more than enough CDs that I haven't yet imported to make up the gap.)

2. Travel through the David Archuleta corn maze. Sure, he's about as "rock" as the OneRepublic guy, but this maze, located in David's home state of Utah, has an undeniable appeal, thanks to kitsch factor of getting lost in his eyes being way too high. If some metal fan would like to step up to the plate and make, say, a maze out of the Slayer logo, I'll be happy to spend a chilly October night fighting my way through that instead.

3. A weekend getaway to Kate Pierson's motel. The rooms are pretty cheap (the six-person Lazy Lodge, which has its own swimming hole (!), will only set each of your friends back a hundred bucks), the toiletries are collected from Kate's jaunts around the world with the B-52's, and the kitchens have all the cocktail fixings you'll need. And the upstate New York location is especially good for those of us who missed All Tomorrow's Parties a few weeks back, cough cough.

4. Open a pool based around betting on which awful musicians with new albums coming out will warble "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America" during the baseball playoffs. A glance at this page of upcoming releases reveals that baseball fans will probably be greeted by the vocal chords of Kenny Chesney^*, Chris Cornell, and the Hinder guy soon, while AC/DC and Oasis are among the "not bloody likely, but wouldn't it be awesome" contenders.

5. Spend all your waking moments obsessing over what music's "October surprise" will be this year. A year ago last night, Radiohead coined the phrase "the Radiohead model" by digitally releasing In Rainbows 10 days after it was done. A few weeks later, OiNK got turned into crispy bacon by the UK authorities. So what's going to happen this year? Will Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen, and the Arcade Fire announce a mini-tour in support of Barack Obama? Will Thom Yorke let the world know that he thinks Sarah Palin is "not all that bad, plus she's got right nice glasses"? Is Apple going to call the major labels' bluff and shut down iTunes? Or none of those things? Let's play futurist!

^* Trust me on this one. He's a lock. I would put down money on it in a heartbeat.

Tracks
1. Britney Spears - Piece Of Me
2. Nelly Furtado - Say It Right
3. Britney Spears - Gimme More
4. Amy Winehouse - Rehab
5. Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend

Artists
1. [unknown]
2. The Beatles
3. Radiohead
4. Britney Spears
5. Avril Lavigne

The Beatles? Radiohead? Do people want their charts to be "original" so badly that they'll resort to slaughtering the most sacred cows in order for the likes of Grizzly Bear to top the charts?

More importantly, how could people not want to let the world know that they were grooving to "Say It Right"? That song is a pinnacle of tolerability as far as Nelly Furtado's career goes!

Last.fm's Playground [Last.fm via 5500]

Perhaps my favorite reaction came from former Idolator guestblogger Matthew Perpetua, who wrote—in a post titled "Apples vs. Dim-Witted No-Talent Hacks"—"The most charitable description of The Hold Steady would be 'a glorified bar band with a tone-deaf asshole shouting over the top.' ... [they] are essentially just Nick Hornby as a rock band." (Which isn't far away from others' assessments of the group.) Meanwhile, Pitchfork's Marc Hogan referred to Kubler's quote as the band's "Sister Souljah moment."

Somewhat surprisingly, not all the reaction I've seen so far has been pro-Radiohead; another former guest of this site, Sam Yurick, said that he's kind of tired of the Radiohead hoopla and that praising In Rainbows for its distribution scheme is not unlike saying that Cloverfield should get an Oscar for its ads.

So readers, once and for all: How do you feel? (I was going to write "who could win in a fight," but if we're talking about sheer brawn, I think the winner is obvious.)

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Hold Steady vs Radiohead [BBC6 via half of my Tumblr friends]
Apples Vs. Dim-Witted No-Talent Hacks [Fluxtumblr]

Because the festival was held at a state park—New Jersey's Liberty State Park—and open to all ages, the rules were particularly draconian; I've actually experienced similar issues with shows in the general NY metro area, including the Nassau Coliseum-hosted Warped Tour (where beer was only allowed to be consumed inside a Coliseum-adjacent fenced-in area that had sightlines of one tiny stage and one large one) and a few shows at Jones Beach Theater, which is at a New York state park and which, at one show I went to, actually limited alcohol consumption to the people who'd shelled out for one of those overpriced VIP packages.

However, it would appear from the complaints by ticketgoers that this festival's alcohol policy wasn't spelled out beforehand, which is something that would rankle even if I wasn't planning on getting completely plastered in preparation for Thom Yorke & Co. busting out "Fake Plastic Trees." (After all, given the choice between a beer and a Pepsi to go with my overpriced slice of pizza, I'd take the beer, if only for the palate-matching capabilities. Plus I really dislike Pepsi.) Given that All Points West is a new entrant in a super-crowded field, and ticket sales were reportedly not so great—particularly yesterday, when Jack Johnson headlined—wouldn't full disclosure to the people who shelled out $200 be somewhat prudent, if only to ensure that people would actually come back in years when Radiohead wasn't headlining?

Jersey City Serenades Miss Liberty With a New Rock Festival [NYT]
All Points West [Brooklyn Vegan]
[Photo: AP]

• Because more people file-shared In Rainbows than purchased it, record labels should just embrace illegal downloading. Also, something about ice cream. Of course, this particular study is being lapped up like, um, ice cream by the tech elite, who love nothing more than to have their own prejudices against paying people who engage in creative works confirmed. And of course, this study doesn't necessarily say how records by bands who aren't as well-situated within the music industry as Radiohead is might actually go about the process of making records without indebting themselves to credit card companies, their parents, or unsavory entities that employ people who go by the nickname "The Shark." GRADE: C-

• People want lyrics, but they don't come with downloads. (Especially illegal ones.) And those lyrics sites that are cobbled together through the efforts of semi-literate amateurs are not all that good. Can everyone who thinks this study is revealing "groundbreaking" information on the "lyrics sites may be crappy" front please read that Ghostface/Wikipedia misinformation article and the homepage of KissThisGuy.com and then get back to me? Thanks. GRADE: D+

• Antisocial teens may be into emo. Or rap. Or heavy metal. Or... country? Reading all the stories about this Australian study gave me a flashback to the "Suicide Solution" days. And the Judas Priest trial. Adding "country" to the list of genres that might indicate mental unrest was a nice touch, but still, this whole "metalheads are antisocial" conclusion? Mike Muir has a more nuanced take on it:

GRADE: F for study, A for "Institutionalized"

Illegal downloading is here to stay [Guardian]
are not all that good [Year of Reading via Hypebot]
Study links music to teens' mental states [Canberra Times]
Suicidal Tendencies - Instutionalized [YouTube]

• For the first time in its four-year stint as a single-city, multi-day festival, Lollapalooza has sold out a day; "primary market" tickets for today's bill are all gone, thanks in no small part to the presence of Thom Yorke & Co. Of course, Craigslist still provides. [Jim DeRogatis]
• Also, it's really freakin' hot—so hot that the longest lines aren't for beer, but for water. Sacrilege! [Time Out Chicago]
• Probably not helping the lines: If the temperature hits 90 degrees or higher, water will be free. [WBEZ]

• People who live right near Grant Park don't see their location as a boon. In fact, they're getting the hell out of town, and they want to hightail it out of there so badly that they're not even putting their apartments up for an overpriced Craigslist sublet! [Chicago Tribune]
• Pete Wentz is having a bunch of parties at the Chicago outpost of Angels & Kings this weekend, and while the parties will not include a Fall Out Boy show, they will include the wrap party for FNMTV. The wrap party already? [a homeboy's life]
• Mark Ronson is claiming that his Lolla set may be the last time he ever performs songs from Version, I guess to try and pry some tension away from his Lindsay Lohan-snogging sister. [NME]
• Select performances are streaming live, but if you're under 13, get your parent or guardian's permission! (And please, don't send any nudes to people claiming to be Thom Yorke, even if he does swear up and down that it's for a viral-video contest.) [AT&T Blue Room

Here is the shortlist:

Adele - 19
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?

Burial - Untrue
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

Estelle - Shine
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim

Neon Neon - Stainless Style

Portico Quartet - Knee-Deep in the North Sea

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - The Bairns
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

Radiohead is the likely favorite, especially considering the idea of giving an award to Elbow or British Sea Power instead is too difficult to imagine. However, the Mercury Prize does throw its share of curveballs; the Klaxons beating Amy Winehouse last year, Antony & the Johnsons beating out Coldplay, Bloc Party and M.I.A. in 2005. If nothing else, looking through shortlists of the past is an amusing flashback to my poorly chosen music purchases of previous years. MJ Cole! Gemma Hayes! Artists for War Child! What do these artists have in common? Their CDs are all stored in my garage. Forget the prize, who from this year's nominees will join that prestigious group?

Mercury Music Prize 2008 nominations announced [Guardian]

"House Of Cards", directed by James Frost of Zoo Films, was created utilizing two technologies: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne Lidar. The Geometric Informatics scanning system employs structured light to capture detailed 3D images at close proximity, and was used to render the performances of Radiohead's Thom Yorke, the female lead and several partygoers. The Velodyne Lidar system uses multiple lasers to capture large environments in 3D, in this case 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute, capturing all of the exterior scenes and wide party shots. Geometric processed their own data while 510 Systems processed the Velodyne Lidar data. The data was then manipulated by Union Editorial and the Syndicate to create the final result.

Thom Yorke gave this quote to his PR company: "I always like the idea of using technology in a way that it wasn't meant to be used, the struggle to get your head round what you can do with it. I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points—and how strangely emotional it ended up being." What? Am I going to have to have the images transmitted to my brain? Is there a YouTube for lasers? And if there is, will I have to use protective eyewear to watch it?

Geometric Informatics [Official site]
Velodyne Lidar [Official site]
Laserteque [YouTube]

- A Perfect Circle / Mer de Noms (2 LPs, gatefold jacket, satin stock, diecut white sleeves)
- Coldplay / Parachutes (1 LP, printed sleeve)
- Coldplay / A Rush Of Blood To The Head (1 LP, printed sleeve)
- Radiohead / OK Computer (2 LPs, gatefold jacket, color labels, printed sleeves)
- Radiohead / Kid A (2 10" 140-gram LPs, gatefold jacket, printed sleeves, color labels)
- Radiohead / Hail To The Thief (2 LPs, gatefold jacket, printed sleeves)
- Radiohead / Amnesiac (2 10" 140-gram LPs, gatefold jacket, printed sleeves, color labels)
- Steve Miller Band / Greatest Hits 1974-78 (1 LP, printed sleeve, color label)

You'd thnk that the Steve Miller Band reissue would be on a gatefold jacket for all those "midnight tokers," but I guess Capitol ran out of money for packaging after all the Radiohead rigamarole was done.

Capitol Launches Vinyl Campaign [Hypebot]

"I wanted to set the record straight on behalf of the members of U2 on comments made to the BBC by our much-loved and valued manager, Paul McGuinness, regarding Radiohead's decision to make the music of 'In Rainbows' available as a download, using the 'honesty box' idea for payment."



We agree with our manager that this is a head-scratching and worrisome time for many musicians who, unlike ourselves, are depending on royalty or publishing cheques to pay the rent (particularly songwriters). We also agree that it is disturbing to see internet service providers and technology companies profit from the so-called 'disintermediation' of the music business when so many music lovers are losing their jobs. And while there is no doubt that it's extremely difficult for a new artist to get the kind of investment on which U2 depended in the first few wobbly years of recording, we disagree with Paul's assessment of Radiohead's release as "having backfired to a certain extent." We think they were courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience. Such imagination and courage are in short supply right now...they're a sacred talent and we feel blessed to be around at the same time."

And the potential for a co-headlining tour of stadiums (a green one, of course) is restored.

U2's Bono: 'Radiohead were courageous for 'In Rainbows' release' [NME via Hypebot]

It's not like it's hard to get Gene to discuss the band. Recently, Gene even claimed to admire Radiohead, even as he wishes they'd buy some fireworks and get the hell over themselves.

I admire bands like Radiohead, but the idea of being that serious? Fuck that, get up on stage and blow shit up. If you're not fulfilling the visual part it's like watching a movie with your eyes closed. One of the biggest compliments we get is (when people say), 'I f**king hate their music but that's the best show I ever saw in my life.'

Thom Yorke, undoubtedly distraught by these critiques, has yet to comment.

Kiss Star Gene Simmons Slams "Boring" Radiohead [Gigwise]

You might be wondering, what sales failure? In Rainbows sold as many physical copies as their previous two albums and they made a boatload of Euros from their online "giveaway". Not so, says the wise Mr. McGuinness!

The manager claimed that most fans who downloaded the album did so through illegal means, despite the album being available for a nominal amount legally.

"60 to 70 percent of the people who downloaded the record stole it anyway," he told BBC 6 Music's Music Week, "even though it was available for free."

Speaking about how U2's album will be released, McGuinness said, "We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release of the new record as interesting as possible.

"[But] for U2 physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs."

The record will be the follow-up to 2004's 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb'.

While I don't doubt that U2's blindly devoted fanbase will snatch up enough copies of their new album to outsell Radiohead, someone might want to let Paul know that "a lot of actual CD's" in 2008 is a vastly different amount than it was back in 2004. Just ask Usher.

U2's manager: 'Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' album backfired' [NME]

WEB SHERIFF
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel 44-(0)208-3238013
Fax 44-(0)208-3238080
websheriff@websheriff.com
www.websheriff.com

Hi Dan & Everyone,

Many thanks for your interesting story ... .. "My-Good-Fellow" (we hope that's British enough for you ?!) ... .. the point here is that How Do I and QueenSissy are correct - Prince actually has performers' rights in his stage and recorded performances and, as such, he's still entitled to pull these videos if he chooses to and regardless of whether or not he wrote the song.

There is a very interesting comparison to be drawn between Radiohead and Prince who, between them, probably represent the spectrum of artist opinion on the use of the internet. Some artists are very relaxed about the use of their rights on the net, whereas others are more protective, which, we'd suggest, is the whole point - it's the artist's decision (whichever way they lean) and no one else's.

We hope this clarifies the position for your readers.

All The Best,

WEB SHERIFF

I don't have a good international calling plan, otherwise I'd call the Sheriff in the UK to get to the bottom of who exactly is protecting my rights on the Internet, but is this whole operation one guy with a lot of time on his hands and a not-very-quick reaction time to Google Alerts? I'm fascinated by the personal touch. Oh, Web Sheriff, you're such a mystery. You haunt my dreams.

WEBSHERIFF's Activity [Idolator]

Why, then, is there such a virulent strain of anti-intellectualism among the indie rock fans on music blogs?

Allow me to employ an example from my own life. Last week, Stereogum thought to link me in a post about an imagined beef between Radiohead and Prince, in which Prince seemed to be asserting ownership over the cover of "Creep" he performed at Coachella earlier this year. The author of the post, Brandon Stosuy, linked to a piece I had written about the cover, claiming that I said "the Purple One actually did write (or re-write) 'Creep.'" After quoting four paragraphs of my post, he concluded: "Or maybe he forgot the words. Grad School [sic] is fun. Give it up for Borges."

The thing is, I wrote the piece a month before any of this surfaced, so it had nothing to do with copyright wrangling. I was really just saying that the cover was awesome, specifically because Prince made "Creep" his own. Though Stosuy seemed to have some problem with this, the idea of making someone else's song your own is not an unfamiliar one to most music fans. This is because of a little show called American Idol. See, for instance, Randy Jackson at the end here:

(Or, you know, you could just read an earlier post on Stereogum.)

I've spent some time thinking about the art of the cover, and I've come up with a certain set of guidelines. First, if you're going to cover a song, it has to sound different from the original. If I wanted to hear the original, there are many outlets for me to do so. Second, any good cover reinterprets the song using the coverer's particular sound, and should meld the song into the quirks of phrasing and effects that permeate that artist's originals. And finally, covering a known song is almost always better than covering an unknown song. The thrill of hearing a cover comes from referentiality, not discovery.

All this stems from a particular philosophical viewpoint: there are too many songs out there, and not enough interpretations of songs. The history of recorded music is deep enough at this point that pop should be adapting some of the techniques of older musical forms, and one of the most important ones is reinterpretation. A great cover shows us something about the original that we never saw before, some stylistic similarity or hidden element that the coverer brings out and highlights. This is what "making it your own" means. A good cover doesn't just transmute an existing song into a new style to make hay from the absurd juxtaposition; it makes an old song sound like a natural part of the coverer's repertoire, thus revealing things about both the original artist and the one doing the reinterpretation.

All this was very clear in my piece, were you to actually read it rather than placing it out of context into a new setting that had nothing to do with it. The spin put on the piece by Stereogum was not just wrong, it was some Bill O'Reilly shit, intentionally misinterpreting what I said so as to cause outrage. Though I don't normally respond to crazy criticisms of things I write, I figured a clarification was in order, and I threw together the least snotty comment I possibly could—which, in fairness, was still kinda snotty—to make sure everyone was clear on what I meant. I then went on with my day.

Still, something about it bugged me. Maybe it was the comments. Here's a sampling, all [sic], naturally.

That second to last paragraph almost made me throw up.

What kind of insane garbage was that second statement. If I go into a karioke bar, fuck up a song...can I claim that I was just using my creative genius too?

That ClapClap paragraph is a load of bullshit: If All Along The Watchtower's still a Bob Dylan's song, then Creep is still Thom Yorke's...A cover's a cover, no matter how much "astounding pop magic" is used, period. Maybe if I could see the fucking thing I could change my mind for the better, but since that's pretty much nil, Prince remains a corporate whore to me. Plus, the fact that Radiohead embraces this new age of open media has to say something for them compared to other popular rock bands.

I LOVE the description of how Prince made it his own - it's like that great clip where Vanilla Ice defends the bassline in 'Ice Ice Baby' as being completely different from the bassline in 'Under Pressure.'

"i've written this new song its called "2009" i copied Prince's "1999" almost verbatim but instead we're going to party like its about to roll over to 2010. you get it? I'm brilliant.

Now, this is being somewhat unfair. Comments posted after mine corrected many of the errors in the original post: Thom was just pointing out the irony of being unable to hear a cover of a song he had written, Prince did have a right to request the videos' removal as the performer, and my post had nothing to do with any of this.

Still, one issue remained: that final sentence of Stosuy's post, the one where he mysteriously capitalized "School" and sneeringly—and just as mysteriously!—invoked "Borges." In my attempt not to be snotty, I nevertheless couldn't resist responding to that one, beginning my comment with: "I appreciate the hat tip—and the anti-intellectualism!" A Stereogum commenter took issue with this:

And I don't know if you got the memo, but intellectualism is not very cool anymore (or was it ever?).

There's an irony in this. Stosuy is not exactly one to shun intellectualism himself, having written, among other things, a book about conceptual artist Matthew Barney, as well as the introduction to a book published by Semiotext(e). And good for him! These are all interesting, worthwhile things. And they make it not only more difficult for him to accuse someone of being pretentious, but fairly depressing to see him do so.

Gentle reader, I must be honest with you at this point. I am, indeed, in grad school. But I began writing wordy, pretentious, and overexcited things long before I rejoined the academy. Four years ago, I wrote over 23,000 words on a single Fiery Furnaces album. And this was not entirely unusual for the time. Those of you who remember the early days of music blogs might remember them as being more or less like what I described above: long, thoughtful, serious posts about music. I'm sure you need not be told that this is no longer the case, and the fact that a Stereogum commenter thought to tell me that intellectualism isn't cool—key choice of words there—should indicate why.

If my writing gets pretentious and overly serious, I'm happy to be called on that. But if you read my piece, I don't see anything approaching grad schoolishness; it is, after all, mostly about fucking. What I do see in my piece is enthusiasm, something that's never cool, whereas what you get on Stereogum is the exact opposite: hysterical denunciation. That's always pretty cool—were you to ask commenters what they were rebelling against, "What do you got?" seems a likely answer.

As the audience for music blogs has expanded, the wordcounts of posts have shrunk, and the commenters have gotten meaner and greedier. Instead of the kind of thoughtful and occasionally heated discussion that was once the norm, we are now treated as heretics if we fail to bestow upon our readers the free music they feel they deserve. Forget good writing—music blogs have chased the lowest common denominator so aggressively that anything longer than a blurb merits a "tl;dr." Maybe the indie rockers read so much in college that they they're tired of it.

I try not to let it get to me. I try to get excited about things, and think about things, and write about things at whatever length they deserve. And if I don't always get it right, I'm OK with that. An error is forgivable. To pander to the worst impulses of your audience by snidely dismissing thoughtfulness is, I think, a bit less forgivable. A writer or a critic with any concern for his craft should not so easily abandon the idea of expanding the imaginative possibilities of art, especially not in pursuit of more click-throughs from a readership that likes nothing better than being told everyone is stupid but them.

[Photo: Vincent Giordano]

Radiohead believes they should have been able to ask for removal of the clips from YouTube, since they, you know, wrote the song and all.

In a recent interview, Thom Yorke said he heard about Prince's performance from a text message and thought it was "hilarious." Yorke laughed when his bandmate, guitarist Ed O'Brien, said the blocking had prevented him from seeing Prince's version of their song.

"Really? He's blocked it?" asked Yorke, who figured it was their song to block or not. "Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment."

Yorke added: "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our ... song."

YouTube prohibits the posting of copyrighted material. If the site receives a complaint from a copyright owner, it will in most cases remove the video(s). Whether the same could be done for a company not holding a copyright is less clear, but Yorke's argument would seem to bear some credence according to YouTube's policies. YouTube, which is owned by Google, declined to comment.

Prince also did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Prince may be able to claim that he put enough of a spin on the song to have some copyright control over his version, but that claim probably won't hold up. But who would dare argue with the Web Sheriff (who in my head looks a lot like Sheriff Lobo, but with a British accent)? He's watching over us all!

Radiohead to Prince: Unblock 'Creep' cover videos [AP via CNN]

500. Feist - My Moon My Man
499. The Twilight Singers - Teenage Wristband
498. Big Country - In A Big Country
497. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
496. Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
495. Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains
494. Joe Jackson - I'm The Man
493. Cat Power - Cross Bones Style
492. XTC - The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead
491. Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To
490. Sonic Youth - Incinerate
489. Matthew Sweet - Sick Of Myself
488. X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours!
487. Ride - Vapour Trail
486. Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper - Elvis Is Everywhere
485. Buffalo Tom - Taillights Fade
484. Tori Amos - Cornflake Girl
483. Morrissey - Suedehead
482. Pinback - Fortress
481. They Might Be Giants - Ana Ng
480. Lo Fidelity All Stars - Battle Flag
479. Rogue Wave - Endless Shovel
478. Tears For Fears - Shout
477. DNA / Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner
476. Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero
475. Elbow - Forget Myself
474. Placebo - Pure Morning
473. Arcade Fire - No Cars Go
472. Portishead - All Mine
471. The The - This Is The Day
470. Roxy Music - More Than This
469. The Cure - The Lovecats
468. Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock
467. Junior Boys - In the Morning
466. Muse - New Born
465. The Wrens - Hopeless
464. Smoking Popes - Need You Around
463. The White Stripes - Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground
462. Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth
461. Doves - Black And White Town
460. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
459. Bjork - Joga
458. LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
457. X - 4th Of July
456. Firehose - Flyin' The Flannel
455. Sleater-Kinney - Entertain
454. Suzanne Vega - Luka
453. Concrete Blonde - Joey
452. The National - Mistaken for Strangers
451. The Verve - Lucky Man
450. Modest Mouse - Dashboard

449. Spoon - I Turn My Camera On
448. Radiohead - There There
447. Ted Leo / Pharmacists - Me and Mia
446. Band of Horses - The Funeral
445. The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
444. Stereolab - Miss Modular
443. Death Cab for Cutie - The New Year
442. Papas Fritas - Way You Walk
441. Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way?
440. Guided By Voices - My Valuable Hunting Knife
439. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand
438. Jonathan Richman - Dodge Vedge-O-Matic
437. The Decemberists - 16 Miliatary Wives
436. The Streets - Let's Push Things Forward
435. Echo & The Bunnymen - Bring On The Dancing Horses
434. The Cloud Room - Hey Now Now
433. New York Dolls - Personality Crisis
432. The Sugarcubes - Hit
431. Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
430. Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy - Television The Drug Of A Nation
429. Split Enz - I Got You
428. Bob Marley - Redemption Song
427. Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
426. R.E.M. - Finest Worksong
425. Belly - Feed The Tree
424. The Nails - 88 Lines About 44 Women
423. World Party - Ship Of Fools
422. Sleater-Kinney - You're No Rock & Roll Fun
421. Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
420. Ryan Adams - To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)
419. Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta
418. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
417. The White Stripes - My Doorbell
416. Beck - Devil's Haircut
415. Pavement - Rattled by the Rush
414. Coldplay - Yellow
413. Radiohead - No Surprises
412. Eels - Novocaine For The Soul
411. Talking Heads - Stay Up Late
410. Spiritualized - Come Together
409. Tori Amos - God
408. Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
407. Joe Jackson - Sunday Papers
406. G. Love and Special Sauce - Cold Beverage
405. Dada - Dizz Knee Land
404. Doves - There Goes The Fear
403. TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
402. The Cure - Fascination Street
401. Massive Attack - Protection
400. Stereo MC's - Connected
399. Cake - The Distance
398. The Bears - Fear Is Never Boring
397. Fishbone - Party At Ground Zero
396. Squeeze - Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)
395. Iggy Pop - Real Wild Child
394. Lou Reed - Dirty Boulevard
393. Forget Cassettes - Instruments Of Action
392. Bloc Party - Banquet
391. The Vapors - Turning Japanese
390. Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
389. Front 242 - Welcome To Paradise
388. The Art Of Noise - Close (To The Edit)
387. Sinead O'Connor - The Emperor's New Clothes
386. The Pretenders - Middle Of The Road
385. Weezer - Say It Ain't So
384. The National - Secret Meeting
383. Ted Leo / Pharmacists - Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?
382. Pixies - Alec Eiffel
381. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Sometimes Always
380. Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank
379. Blind Melon - No Rain
378. Hum - Stars
377. The Charlatans UK - Weirdo
376. Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye
375. Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
374. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
373. Cake - Never There
372. Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science
371. The B-52's - Love Shack
370. R.E.M. - Driver 8
369. The Black Keys - 10 A.M. Automatic
368. They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
367. Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
366. Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
365. Pulp - Disco 2000
364. Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap
363. L7 - Pretend We're Dead
362. Superdrag - Sucked Out
361. Pixies - Velouria
360. My Morning Jacket - Off the Record
359. Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Grey Cell Green
358. Yaz - Situation
357. Shriekback - Nemesis
356. Meat Puppets - Backwater
355. Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning
354. The Breeders - Divine Hammer
353. TV On The Radio - Staring At The Sun
352. Grandaddy - The Crystal Lake
351. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
350. PJ Harvey - Good Fortune
349. Killing Joke - Eighties
348. The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
347. Grandmaster Flash - The Message
346. The Dandy Warhols - Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth
345. Paul Westerberg - Dyslexic Heart
344. The Jam - That's Entertainment
343. Soul Coughing - Super Bon Bon
342. Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
341. Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This
340. Bright Eyes - Lover I Don't Have to Love
339. Massive Attack - Angel
338. Bettie Serveert - Tom Boy
337. Tegan and Sara - Walking With A Ghost
336. Dinosaur Jr. - Start Choppin'
335. Faith No More - We Care A Lot
334. Public Image Limited - Public Image
333. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth
332. Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)
331. The Decemberists - The Bachelor And The Bride
330. Hot Chip - Over and Over
329. LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
328. Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again
327. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
326. Black Flag - TV Party
325. Wire - Strange
324. Mclusky - To Hell With Good Intentions
323. Tones On Tail - Go!
322. The Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic
321. The Cardigans - My Favourite Game
320. Sebadoh - Skull
319. Robyn Hitchcock - My Wife And My Dead Wife
318. The Velvet Underground - White Light / White Heat
317. Royal Crescent Mob - Get On The Bus
316. Guided By Voices - Glad Girls
315. Social Distortion - Bad Luck
314. R.E.M. - What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
313. The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be
312. Ministry - Stigmata
311. Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
310. Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)
309. Wilco - I'm The Man Who Loves You
308. They Might Be Giants - Don't Let's Start
307. The Pogues - Fairytale Of New York
306. The Specials - A Message To You Rudy
305. Supergrass - Caught By The Fuzz
304. Lemonheads - Into Your Arms
303. Blur - There's No Other Way
302. Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love
301. Air - Sexy Boy
300. Bob Marley - Could You Be Loved?
299. The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends
298. The New Pornographers - The Laws Have Changed
297. Doves - Catch The Sun
296. Interpol - Slow Hands
295. Nirvana - Lithium
294. The Stone Roses - Waterfall
293. New Order - Regret
292. Weezer - Buddy Holly
291. Social Distortion - Ring Of Fire
290. Morphine - Cure For Pain
289. XTC - Mayor of Simpleton
288. They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul
287. Primal Scream - Movin' On Up
286. The Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon
285. U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name
284. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Talk About The Blues
283. Ministry - Everyday Is Halloween
282. Eels - Mr. E's Beautiful Blues
281. The Velvet Underground - What Goes On
280. The Hives - Hate To Say I Told You So
279. Public Enemy - Bring The Noise
278. !!! - Me & Guiliani Down By The Schoolyard
277. The Jam - Start!
276. Muse - Time Is Running Out
275. Nine Inch Nails - Down In It
274. Depeche Mode - Route 66
273. The Walkmen - The Rat
272. Peter Gabriel - Shock The Monkey
271. Elliott Smith - Waltz #2
270. MC900 Ft Jesus - The City Sleeps
269. Built to Spill - Goin' Against Your Mind
268. Suede - Metal Mickey
267. Elastica - Connection
266. The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
265. Beck - The New Pollution
264. Blondie - One Way Or Another
263. Juliana Hatfield - My Sister
262. Pearl Jam - Even Flow
261. Mission Of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver
260. Bjork - Big Time Sensuality
259. Blur - Coffee & TV
258. Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink
257. Depeche Mode - Policy of Truth
256. Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater
255. The Replacements - I'll Be You
254. Modern English - I Melt With You
253. David Bowie - Rebel Rebel
252. B-52's - Private Idaho
251. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax
250. Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks
249. The Smiths - Stop Me If You Think
248. Liz Phair - Supernova
247. Tricky - Black Steel
246. Arcade Fire - Wake Up
245. Silversun Pickups - Kissing Families
244. The Pretenders - My City Was Gone
243. Pavement - Shady Lane
242. Talk Talk - It's My Life
241. Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
240. Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
239. Jeff Buckley - So Real
238. Frank Black - Headache
237. Wilco - Monday
236. Talking Heads - Crosseyed And Painless
235. The Smiths - Girlfriend In A Coma
234. The Police - Can't Stand Losing You
233. The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket
232. Modest Mouse - Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes
231. The Strokes - Last Nite
230. Urge Overkill - Sister Havana
229. Belle & Sebastian - Your Cover's Blown
228. Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?
227. Tori Amos - Silent All These Years
226. Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
225. The Charlatans UK - The Only One I Know
224. Public Enemy - Fight the Power
223. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Peek-A-Boo
222. The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers
221. Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
220. The Jam - In The City
219. The Smiths - Big Mouth Strikes Again
218. Romeo Void - Never Say Never
217. The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
216. Living Colour - Cult Of Personality
215. Built to Spill - Big Dipper
214. Guided By Voices - I Am A Scientist
213. The English Beat - Save It For Later
212. Daft Punk - Da Funk
211. Happy Mondays - Step On
210. Wall Of Voodoo - Mexican Radio
209. Soul Coughing - Screenwriter's Blues
208. Social Distortion - Ball And Chain
207. Concrete Blonde - God Is A Bullet
206. The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats
205. Love And Rockets - So Alive
204. Bob Mould - Sunspots / Wishing Well
203. Radiohead - Optimistic
202. The White Stripes - The Hardest Button To Button
201. U2 - One
200. Blur - Girls And Boys
199. Veruca Salt - Seether
198. Oasis - Supersonic
197. Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone
196. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor
195. The La's - There She Goes
194. Roxy Music - Love Is The Drug
193. Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died
192. Sonic Youth - 1
191. Dinosaur Jr. - Feel The Pain
190. Faith No More - Epic
189. The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
188. The English Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom
187. Nirvana - About A Girl
186. Elliott Smith - Miss Misery
185. Spoon - Everything Hits At Once
184. Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
183. Peter Murphy - Cuts You Up
182. Screaming Trees - Nearly Lost You
181. Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want
180. Devo - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
179. R.E.M. - Stand
178. Pixies - Debaser
177. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
176. Bob Marley - Jamming
175. Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI
174. Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
173. The Replacements - I Will Dare
172. The Shins - So Says I
171. The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
170. The Ramones - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
169. The Jam - Going Underground
168. XTC - Making Plans For Nigel
167. The Cure - Pictures Of You
166. Oasis - Live Forever
165. The Flaming Lips - She Don't Use Jelly
164. Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way
163. Elvis Costello - Watching The Detectives
162. Folk Implosion - Natural One
161. Interpol - Obstacle 1
160. Dramarama - Anything Anything
159. The Afghan Whigs - Debonair
158. PJ Harvey - Down By The Water
157. Cracker - Teen Angst
156. Gary Numan - Cars
155. Nine Inch Nails - Closer
154. The Clash - This Is Radio Clash
153. R.E.M. - Orange Crush
152. Talking Heads - Take Me To The River
151. Public Image Limited - Rise
150. Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence
149. The Ramones - Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio
148. The Sugarcubes - Birthday
147. Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
146. Talking Heads - Life During Wartime
145. XTC - Senses Working Overtime
144. Squeeze - Tempted
143. Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
142. The Stone Roses - Fools Gold
141. Pavement - Stereo
140. DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World
139. The Shins - Caring Is Creepy
138. Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
137. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
136. U2 - With Or Without You
135. Wilco - Heavy Metal Drummer
134. The Cure - Close To Me
133. Massive Attack - Safe From Harm
132. Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
131. Gang Of Four - I Love A Man In A Uniform
130. The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You
129. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Head On
128. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away
127. Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
126. The Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl
125. The Clash - The Magnificent Seven
124. The Police - Every Breath You Take
123. The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
122. Modest Mouse - Polar Opposites
121. Elvis Costello - Alison
120. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
119. Smashing Pumpkins - Today
118. Cracker - Low
117. Pulp - Common People
116. David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
115. The Velvet Underground - Rock & Roll
114. The Church - Under The Milky Way
113. The Replacements - Bastards Of Young
112. Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia
111. Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
110. Afghan Whigs - Rebirth Of The Cool
109. Bob Marley - Get Up, Stand Up
108. U2 - I Will Follow
107. Elvis Costello - Pump It Up
106. Patti Smith - Dancing Barefoot
105. Devo - Whip It
104. New Order - True Faith
103. The Smiths - Panic
102. The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?
101. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under The Bridge
100. Weezer - Undone - The Sweater Song
99. Portishead - Sour Times
98. Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole
97. The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
96. Dead Milkmen - Bitchin' Camaro
95. Interpol - PDA
94. Oasis - Wonderwall
93. David Bowie - Suffragette City
92. Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love
91. R.E.M. - Pretty Persuasion
90. The Jam - Town Called Malice
89. Blondie - Heart Of Glass
88. Depeche Mode - People Are People
87. The Shins - New Slang
86. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Cities In Dust
85. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
84. Blondie - Rapture
83. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
82. The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl
81. The Replacements - The Ledge
80. Camper Van Beethoven - Take The Skinheads Bowling
79. Pixies - Gigantic
78. Pearl Jam - Alive
77. XTC - Dear God
76. Radiohead - Just
75. The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
74. The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
73. Joy Division - She's Lost Control
72. The Cure - Love Song
71. The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
70. Modest Mouse - Float On
69. Nirvana - In Bloom
68. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
67. The Clash - Train In Vain
66. Echo & The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar
65. Beck - Where It's At
64. Violent Femmes - Kiss Off
63. Blur - Song 2
62. Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right
61. The B-52's - Rock Lobster
60. Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
59. Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
58. Pearl Jam - Jeremy
57. U2 - Pride (In The Name Of Love)
56. Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
55. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
54. The Police - Roxanne
53. Husker Du - Makes No Sense At All
52. Pavement - Cut Your Hair
51. New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
50. Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
49. R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
48. Nirvana - All Apologies
47. Bjork - Human Behaviour
46. The Police - Message In A Bottle
45. Elvis Costello - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding
44. The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
43. Beastie Boys - Sabotage
42. Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
41. James - Laid
40. Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
39. R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
38. David Bowie - Changes
37. The Breeders - Cannonball
36. U2 - New Year's Day
35. Patti Smith - Gloria
34. Nirvana - Come As You Are
33. The Cure - Just Like Heaven
32. Radiohead - Karma Police
31. Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side
30. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
29. Talking Heads - Burning Down The House
28. Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK
27. The Clash - Rock The Casbah
26. Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot
25. Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven
24. Jane's Addiction - Jane Says
23. New Order - Blue Monday
22. Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
21. My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow
20. David Bowie - Space Oddity
19. Television - Marquee Moon
18. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
17. The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated
16. Fugazi - Waiting Room
15. Beck - Loser
14. The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
13. The Replacements - Alex Chilton
12. Elvis Costello - Radio Radio
11. Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
10. U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday
9. Radiohead - Paranoid Android
8. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
7. The Clash - London Calling
6. Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
5. R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe
4. The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
3. Violent Femmes - Blister In The Sun
2. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
1. Radiohead - Creep

Those of you who scrolled all the way down get a treat—the song that I was most happy to be reminded of, Lo-Fidelity All-Stars' 480th-placing remix of Pigeonhed's "Battle Flag":

The 2008 Modern Rock 500: Final Song Listing [The Futurist; HT Stereogum]
Pigeonhed, "Battleflag (Lo-Fidelity Allstars Remix) [YouTube]

1. Chris Martin (Coldplay)

Will he fail the music industry or will the music industry fail him?

2. Stuart Adamson (Big Country)

Dude thought he could be Bono and The Edge. Rest in peace, Icarus.

3. Brandon Flowers (Killers)

Bono took arena rock from the Boss. Tonight, we're taking it back!

4. Mike Peters (The Alarm)

National Lampoon made this, right?

5. Jim Kerr (Simple Minds)

Ok, he still makes the top ten. Christ, does he ever.

6. Thom Yorke (Radiohead)

Bravo for all the bleeps'n'creeps that have cloaked the origin of Thom Yorke's reaching voice and political outspokenness, but you can still see the holy one lurking behind those abstractions. And all those bands that have tried to rip Yorke off wind up aping Bono eventually.

7. Cinjun Tate (Remy Zero)

Once upon a time, kids, someone actually bothered to rip off Pop.

8. Ryan Adams

Damn, Ryan, why didn't you stick with this? If more people had bought your Bono move, would you have still made 18 albums about Jackson City Nights In Tennessee With Mary Lee or would you have chilled for a year before calling up Eno and Lanois? Who am I kidding, you would have done both.

9. Mike Scott (The Waterboys)

The missing link between Bon-Bon and the Arcade Fire.

10. Win Butler (Arcade Fire)

See?

Ryan Adams: So Alive [The Late Show] [YouTube]
The Alarm - Spirit Of '76 [YouTube]
Arcade Fire - Rebellion [YouTube]
Big Country - Where the Rose is Sown [YouTube]
Coldplay - Speed Of Sound [YouTube]
Read My Mind - Killers [YouTube]
Anyone Can Play Guitar [YouTube]
Remy Zero - Save Me [YouTube]
Simple Minds - Alive And Kicking [YouTube]
Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon [Youtube]

"Bull in the Heather" (Catherine Keener saw the video once)

"Sugar Kane" (Beck was soooo high when he saw them rock this at Lollapalooza)

"100%" (Video has skateboarding in it and Mike D was like, "yo!!!")

"Kool Thing" (Radiohead really thinks they shattered boundaries when this got played on MTV)

"Disappearer" (Portia DeRossi thinks Lee Ranaldo kind of looks like her girlfriend)

"Superstar" (If you like this, Diablo Cody also thinks you should check out the Juno soundtrack)

"Stones" (Allison Anders thinks people should get over the old stuff and pay more attention to their new ideas)

"Tuff Gnarl" (Mike Watt covered this once—it's the jam and Dave Eggers thinks "blah blah blah phbbbt")

"Teenage Riot" (Eddie Vedder likes to imagine some day kids will stand up, revolt, and go see the Fastbacks)

"Shadow of a Doubt" (Michelle Williams thinks this song is creepy and sexy, like seeing your ex dressed up like the Joker)

"Rain on Tin" (This song is so cosmically magical to Flea, it reminds him of 9/11 and makes him take off his shirt and cry)

"Tom Violence" (When he closes his eyes, the track makes Gus Van Zant see a beautiful blond boy looking bored)

"Mary-Christ" (David Cross likes this song because it sounds like Alvin & The Chipmunks)

"World Looks Red" (One of Chloe Sevigny's skeevy, demented director boyfriends used to play this every morning)

"Expressway to Yr Skull" (Flaming Lips are thinking about removing the distortion and making this sound like sloppy Styx)

"Slow Revolution" (a new Sonic Youth song about how they slowly transformed into the kind of band who would get famous pals to write kissy-faced intros to an ironically titled hits comp available only at coffee shops)

Sonic Youth Sets Track List For Starbucks Compilation [Billboard]

"Being on a major label at the moment is like living in your grandparents' house," he says. "Everyone knows they need to move out, and they will eventually, but we kind of like our grandmother.

"It's obviously an antiquated model, because of the Internet, but we really love the people we work with. If we knew what the solution was to everything, then we'd do it. We have absolute respect for the Radioheads and Raconteurs and people who can do what they like. We're in contract though, so we're just going to make the most of it and enjoy the people we get to work with."

Coldplay's free gigs at Brixton Academy and Madison Square Garden this June will be unsponsored, in order to reaffirm that Coldplay is a real band with real feelings, and not merely slaves for granpappy EMI and other multinational relatives.

"We felt last time we f—-ed up so royally in New York when we were setting up 'X&Y.' We did an AOL thing, which was fine to do, but we tried to mix it with a buzz gig and we just came across as a huge and very impersonal corporation.

"So this time we want to do the ultimate buzz gig and have it not attached to anything or anybody. We're all very nervous because no one's done it before and it's a bit risky. When we first got asked to close (the) Glastonbury (festival) in 2002, it was a similar feeling of something a bit bigger than we felt we could do. But we really like that challenge."

Yeah, what if a multi-platinum act who've just sold 100,000 copies of a b-side threw a party at Madison Square Garden and no one showed up! I'd probably be really impressed by the effort (if not the "risk") if they'd put more than one hook on an album.

Coldplay on a mission to connect with fans [Reuters]

There Can Only Be One: LBJ & KG [YouTube]
There Can Only Be One: Nash/Kidd [YouTube]
Radiohead Gets Pumped Up For NBA Playoffs [Songs For Soap]
radiohead news archive [ateaseweb.com]

"It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do," he said. "I don't think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time."



Speaking as Radiohead was promoting its pro-social initiative with MTV against sex- and labor trafficking, Yorke said successful bands have new ways to communicate directly with fans.



"We are about that direct relationship (now) because we are big enough to establish that," he said.

The band has a new video for "All I Need," which was produced jointly with MTV Europe for its anti-human-trafficking MTV Exit campaign. According to Thom, it's all "about exploiting a situation while you have the chance." In more ways than one, dude.