The Academy Is… irritate me to no end when I’m forced to add the ellipsis to their name for accuracy, but I’m willing to let it go considering how much I’ve enjoyed their album Fast Times at Barrington High this year. Still, something’s been missing. Something that would tie the occasionally angsty teen-rock lyrics of the band with the popular films that seem to inspire the band; something that would summarize one of those films to spare me the trouble of watching it again. YouTube, you always come through.
In a year that’s seen the digital economy upend our notions of what a “hit” is—from songs leaping to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 before radio has even digested them, to acts turning every damned song on their albums into a momentary chart smash—it’s appropriate that the weirdest insta-hit of all was scored by the world’s best-known all-digital band.
During last week’s discussion of Marmite artists–those artists that are so divisive, they force people to take sides, with no one left in the middle–Idolator commenter moomintroll wondered if we shouldn’t try and find more ways to classify popular bands through their analogues to various condiments. Since we figured the safe space in the fridge inhabited by your ketchups, your mustards, and your molding bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch was as good a way to make sense of the current musical landscape as any, we invited her to flesh out her theory for us. It’s after the jump!
In honor of In Rainbows‘ one-year anniversary, the UK branch of Warner Chappell, which licensed all digital rights for the album, released a few statistics about its “pay-as-you-like” digital release, as well as some notes on the the physical distribution of the album. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Radiohead made money from the record–the band earned more money from just the digital revenues on In Rainbows than they ever made on Hail To The Thief, and sold 100,000 copies* of the $82 discbox and 1.75 million copies of the physical CD on top of that. Sure, more people wound up filesharing the album than paying for it, but still, it’s good news, right? Well, maybe! I felt like there were a few obvious factoids missing from all the hoopla about Thom Yorke making bank.
Bjork’s collaboration with Radiohead’s Thom… More »
As Matos mentioned earlier this month, the Seattle radio station KEXP decided to mark its annual membership drive by counting down its listeners’ 903 favorite albums–and they’d better realize that however much Radiohead is currently in their playlist, it’s not nearly enough, as four albums by that band are in this list’s top 20. OK Computer tops the list; The Bends is No. 9; Kid A is No. 11; and In Rainbows squeaks into No. 20. Where it’s right behind The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. (You know what I love about Internet polling? The perspective all of the people who care enough to vote on these sorts of things seem to have.) Anyway, the top 50–as well as Nos. 900-903–are after the jump. Take notes on it, as this Thom, Win, Kurdt, and Bono-heavy list will surely calcify into The New Classic Rock Orthodoxy sometime within the coming decade.
A year ago today, Internet music fans all around the world received their download codes for Radiohead’s In Rainbows, which the band released via low-quality MP3s a mere 10 days after announcing that it had been completed. (The CD release, and the remix-contest-powered pop “hit,” and the many many blog posts about the genius of Yorke, Greenwood, and the rest of the gang, came later.) Come with me as I look back at the events that have happened since then, ones that were both directly precipitated by In Rainbows‘ release strategy and coincidental to it.
Congratulations, world! You somehow made it all the way to Oct. 1, 2008, which means one thing: It’s time for Rocktober to start. How will you celebrate? Some people are linking to YouTubes of Who songs. Others are hoping that you’ll have a hankering to hear the Divinyls and Foreigner within the same span of time. One guy who got the coveted domain name “rocktober.com” is even saying that we should bring back Metallica Monday, although I know of a few people who might disagree with that idea. Which is why I have five Rocktober-celebration suggestions of my own, all of which are located after the jump.
A cryptic note about downloading video-conversion players popped up on Radiohead’s site today, and the people over at Hidden Track have interpreted it as a sign that the band will simulcast its Santa Barbara Bowl show this evening. More »
