Dispatches 6 October 2000

Radiohead Bangin'

Despite all the hoo-hah I hear on campus about the new Radiohead album (well, admittedly this page is contributing to the ), OK Computer, their most successful album ever, has only sold 1.7 million copies in the U.S. So I guess us college students are the ones. MTV2 played the album from start to finish, showing the image of the vinyl version spinning. Ed O'Brien, their guitarist, said they intend to release a new EP. Word is they apparently plan to release a few albums soon in a short space of time and free themselves from contractual obligations so that they can go on to release more songs and short EPs as and when they feel songs should come out.

That's good news… after all, why should the release of an album be a sacred event? In some ways it's just a marker of official approval from the record label. As you can tell, I'm not one of those who bemoans the shift to a singles-driven music market. The Beatles, for instance, never included Penny Lane or Strawberry Fields Forever on any of their British albums while they were together (although albums released after they split, such as the Blue Album, had both songs), and those are arguably two of their greatest tunes.

Update

Following up news from last week, Mark Chapman was denied parole.

The Past is Back

Meanwhile, the Napster saga goes on and on. It wouldn't be the first time the recording industry went and cracked down on technology: as the excellent book Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (written by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton) notes in its chapter on the history of the radio DJ, record companies were initally skeptical about the power of radio as a promotional tool, and were afraid it would take away sales. When FM stereo was introduced, they were likewise afraid the quality of home taping would make CDs redundant. And yet these obviously. So there's precedent. I do recognise, of course, that radio is a very different format from MP3: the music-on-demand aspect, the fact that MP3s are full recordings while to get a proper recording off radio requires immaculate timing as you hit the "record" button.

Concerrt News

Green Day is performing a free concert at Axis today, and for those of you who just found this out and can't get tickets, we'll have a report from the concert next week. Meanwhile, Enon opens for the Flaming Lips. The Flaming Lips' version of "She Don't Use Jelly," while hilarious, is unrepresentative of their sound

On Saturday, the Push Stars turn up, while Elastica will perform at Avalon. Incidentally, the version of "Da Da Da" that closes Elastica's latest album, The Menace, is pure genius.

Next Thursday, the "Word of Mouth Tour" comes to Axis, with performances by the Beat Junkies, Dilated Peoples and the ever-impressive Jurassic 5, probably my favorite hip-hop crew at the moment.