This year introduced me to my new favorite holiday: Independent Record Store Day. Started in 2008, Record Store Day is a day where antisocial vinyl fetishists are forced crawl out from their depressed solitude and make a visit to their favorite participating independent store. I visited Iowa City's Record Collector, which was busier than I'd ever seen it. The store had been completely restocked and there were lots of Record Store Day exclusives, including Inch, a collection of reissued Jesus Lizard 7's. With a horde of strangers peering over the stacks, I nervously carried around my must-haves in fear that someone else would snatch them up. One of those was this Radiohead live set on two LPs.
Like many other Radiohead fans, I am often plagued with the desire to hear more Radiohead music. With their departure from mainstream labels and entry into the DIY world of distribution, my interest had only grown. What would happen after In Rainbows? Apparently, this.
Marked as import, it caught my eye mainly because I'd never seen it before, but also because it was a 12" Thom Yorke head (which has become one of my favorite LPs for dress-up). I was initially suspicious because the cover seems almost too cheesy: RADIOHEAD consuming 12" horizontally above a crooning Thom and ROCKS in huge letters at the bottom. Thinking it was just a bootleg, I examined the dates on the back to find it was issued in 2009, which was great news at the time. Unlike Capitol's The Best of Radiohead, this release was surely authorized by the band themselves. So instead of looking at a hokey import bootleg of unknown quality, I actually looking at the band's most recent release (after In Rainbows). Knowing that it came from the band, I bought it without hesitation and was definitely rewarded.
The inside of the gatefold features a small bio from William Hogeland that provides context for the live performance. I won't get into the history of Radiohead here, but the concert takes place after the release of Amnesiac and before Hail to the Thief. While some may be disappointed by the lack of HTTF material (and altogether lack of new material), this double LP is meant to document the band at a pivotal time in their career. Nine of the nineteen songs come from Kid A and Amnesiac; the other ten are pulled from The Bends and OK Computer. As could be expected from Radiohead, material from their first full-length, Pablo Honey, is not present.
The records themselves are very nice -- thick, heavy, smooth, and flat, with lots of black. The stickers are black with white text. The all-black record sleeves are also very nice, containing a protective inner lining. The sleeves are much more premium-feeling then plain white paper ones and have proven to be durable enough to keep this vinyl contained and clean. The gatefold is roomy, easily allowing the sleeves the perfect amount of space. The spine also contains a bit of extra cardboard reinforcement in matching thickness. This is really nice to see on a heavy set such as this because it ensures the gatefold won't get twisted and mangled. As far as packaging goes, Radiohead delivered everything in its right place.
The live set starts with "The National Anthem," from Kid A. The bass tone is a bit more rough than the album version, perhaps containing a slight fuzz. The ethereal guitar-whooshing from God-know-what pedals is present as would be expected... for a while. After the all the parts have come in, Thom starts making some rhythmic vocal noises (cha-ha-ah-eh-ah-ah-ahh) which really add to the overall groove of the song. As the verse begins, the guitar sounds become more pronounced and seem more intimately controlled. The rest of the songs in the live set follow this model, allowing the band to add their sonic mastery where they feel appropriate, while staying very close to the written structure of songs as heard on their studio recordings.
Jumping to side three, we hear our first deviations from this model in the now-classic track "Paranoid Android" and in the following track, "Everything In Its Right Place." Initially, "Paranoid Android" provides a great mix of acoustic guitar and drums, but the soundboard mix fails to deliver on the heavily-distorted guitar part. Compared to the studio recording, it sounds too far back in the mix. The tremolo guitar that follows is also too quiet. But this doesn't prevent the band from being intricate; we still get to hear Radiohead effectively playing a complex composition full of swirling moods and changes in intensity. While the performance of "Paranoid Android" seems the weakest of the songs on the album, its loud and distinct ending perfectly introduces the quiet of "Everything In Its Right Place." This track is another deviation from the model of expanded sonic lushness -- instead of the 4:11 Kid A version, listeners are treated to an extended 7:44 version of the song. Filled with vocal effects and live sampling, it sounds as if Thom Yorke has gotten stuck in a washing machine. But being Thom Yorke, he's obviously got it figured out, so the backwards and forwards warping of "There are two-two-col-colors-in-in-innnn-my-head" is done with great control and provides an for an incredible listening experience that captures the sonic escapism of Kid A.
Radiohead brings out the big guns on side four, which contains "Idioteque," "Airbag," "Just," "The Bends," and ends with "How To Disappear Completely." Each of these songs sound terrific here and will definitely delight fans of the band. That being said, this does seem like a package for fans only. While it does provide material from four albums, casual listeners will probably be more appreciative of the studio records that the tunes are drawn from. But is Radiohead Rocks worth your time? Most definitely -- hearing the band actually performing their tunes in a live context is captivating. While nowhere near the "required listening" level of Kid A, Radiohead Rocks will be pleasurable for people who like to hear talented musicians performing together in a live context, and even more pleasurable for Radiohead's legion of fans that squirm in delight of a 12" Thom Yorke head.
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