New Radiohead DVD Out Next Week...Win One Here Now.

When folks talk about the innovation and uniqueness of Radiohead, they are usually speaking about the music. In my opinion, nearly as important as Yorke & Co.'s musical output have been their amazing contributions to the art form of music video.

Like their albums, Radiohead's accompanying visuals are always compelling, exciting, and boundary-stretching. Having said that, I'm thrilled to hear the news that Radiohead: The Best Of DVD will be released here on June 3.

Check out this impressive line-up of songs and directors:

1. Creep (directed by Brett Turnbull)
2. Anyone Can Play Guitar (directed by Dwight Clarke)
3. Pop Is Dead (directed by Dwight Clarke)
4. Stop Whispering (directed by Jeff Plansker)
5. My Iron Lung (directed by Brett Turnbull)
6. High and Dry (UK version) (directed by David Mould)
7. High and Dry (US version) (directed by Paul Cunningham)
8. Fake Plastic Trees (directed by Jake Scott)
9. Just (directed by Jamie Thraves)
10. Street Spirit (Fade Out) (directed by Jonathan Glazer)
11. Paranoid Android (directed by Magnus Carlsson)
12. Karma Police (directed by Jonathan Glazer)
13. No Surprises (directed by Grant Gee)
14. Pyramid Song (directed by Shynola)
15. Knives Out (directed by Michel Gondry)
16. I Might Be Wrong (directed by Sophie Muller)
17. Push Pulk / Spinning Plates (directed by Johnny Hardstaff)
18. There There (directed by Chris Hopewell)
19. Go To Sleep (directed by Alex Rutterford)
20. Sit Down Stand Up (directed by Ed Holdsworth)
21. 2+2=5 (Live at Belfort Festival) (directed by Fabien Raymond)

If I were curating a film festival of my favorite video directors, I could cut and paste from the above list and be satisfied that I had the world's best.

extrawack! would like to give its readers a chance to win a copy of Radiohead: The Best Of DVD before it's even on sale! Send an email to extrawack@gmail.com with "Radiohead DVD" in the subject line, and we'll have a copy of the DVD sent to the 5th, 10th, and 15th entrants. Contest open to US residents only. Sorry Turkmenistan!

More info on Radiohead: The Best Of here.

Buy the DVD at the Radiohead Store.

Official Radiohead Site.

Radiohead - Karma Police Video (directed by Jonathan Glazer):



Bonus download:
Radiohead - "Videotape (Live BBC)" mp3

Concert Review: Radiohead in Atlanta

Photo courtesy of Maria Carullo

Despite barely being able to see the actual band members from my seat, Radiohead's performance was absolutely enthralling. This was my first time seeing them live since 1997 and I was glad to see they could impress in a 19,000 seat venue like they could in the 1,000 seat venue I saw them perform in 11 years ago. They could've been playing under one bare 40 watt light bulb and blown everyone away, but their light show on this tour was mesmerizing. Long, thin vertical tubes dominated the stage and bathed the band in a variety of spectral colors throughout the evening to match the wide palette of aural colors coming through the speakers. They opened with "All I Need," which has been the opening song for every show of the tour so far. Opening with a slow song like that is against typical rock convention (especially when the new album contains a real rocker like "Bodysnatchers") but Radiohead have never been one for convention.

They played all of In Rainbows except for "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" and even included "Bangers and Mash" from the In Rainbows box set bonus disc. "15 Step," "Nude," and "Videotape" were other standout performances from In Rainbows. "Videotape" included an interesting view of Thom Yorke via a camera mounted on the piano that seemed to find him being semi-playful with the audience. I was happy to hear songs from the tours I missed between OK Computer and In Rainbows like "Pyramid Song," "Idiotheque," "The National Anthem" and "Everything In It's Right Place."

Despite my love of The Bends, "Just" actually struck me as a bit out of place in the setlist. It's a song I adore (and my favorite music video of all time), but something like "Street Spirit" or "Bullet Proof" would've fit the overall mood of the evening a bit better. That being said, they rocked it though. The inclusion of "Paranoid Android" was nice and it made its first appearance on the tour in Atlanta. To their credit, they're a band that has put out so much quality material now that you couldn't possibly hope to hear all that you want to hear. Even the "surely they'll play ______" songs are too numerous to all be performed, so I can forgive them for passing on personal favorites of mine like "Climbing Up the Walls" for something like "Lucky."

My only real complaint about the evening was that the P.A. wasn't loud enough. I could easily hear those around me talking in a normal speaking voice. Maybe it was because I was in the 46th row, but I would've liked a bit more volume. If that's the only complaint one has during a 24 song set though, then you've seen a pretty amazing evening of music.

Setlist
=====
08 June 2008
Lakewood Amphitheatre
Atlanta, Georgia
=====

All I Need
There There
Lucky
15 Step
Where I End and You Begin
Nude
Pyramid Song
Optimistic
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
The National Anthem
Idiotheque
You and Whose Army
Reckoner
Everything in Its Right Place
Bangers and Mash
Bodysnatchers
Videotape

Encore:
The Gloaming
Talk Show Host
Just
Faust Arp
How to Disappear Completely

Encore 2:
Paranoid Android
House of Cards

Excerpts From the Lefsetz Letter

This is Jinners of Jinners.com. Hello. Nice to meet you. I can't seem to post on my own blog (No thanks to Blogger), so I am going to post on Extrawack.

I got hip to Bob Lefsetz and his newsletter (Lefsetz Letter) thanks to Extrawack. These newsletters are actually really great to read when you're in the mood to rant about the music biz. There is a discourse within. There is a fire and passion in his words that I haven't seen in a while. Here are a couple of my recent favorite excerpts:

Chris Rock on the Music Business (from Rolling Stone)
Chris Rock: Music kind of sucks. Nobody's into being a musician. Everybody's getting their mogul on. You've been so infiltrated by this corporate mentality that all the time you'd spend getting great songs together, you're busy doing nine other things that have nothing to do with art. You know how shitty Stevie Wonder's songs would have been if he had to run a fuckin' clothing company and a cologne line?
RollingStone: Plenty of rappers say, "I'm not a rapper, I'm a businessman."
Chris Rock: That's why rap sucks, for the most part. Not all rap, but as an art form it's just not at its best moment. Sammy the Bull would have made a shitty album. And I don't really have a desire to hear Warren Buffett's album - or the new CD by Paul Allen. That's what everybody's aspiring to be.

The ComScore Report
"I'm sick and tired of the constant debate about Radiohead's business model. It WASN'T a business model. It was a one time stunt that is not the future of the music business and will only be replicated by fools.

Want to make some money? Sell t-shirts. Charge for gigs. Create a fan club (that actually delivers something besides tickets). Because as 2007 draws to a close, it appears most people now believe music is free. And want to hear it before they pay for it!

You take a test drive before you buy a car, don't you? You go to the Apple Store and fiddle with a Mac before you order one. What makes you think the same rules don't apply to music? Music, when done right, isn't disposable. The only stuff you don't try out before buying is shit that's cheap, that you instantly use up. You don't care that much if you get ripped off. You'll just never buy that product again."

Artistic Control
"By time we hit the seventies, acts just delivered their records. They recorded them wherever they wanted to, with no unwanted input. And labels had an obligation to release them. End result? Riches for everyone.

But we haven't had that environment for fifteen years, at least.

Now, if you take their money, you've sold your soul. You must do what the label wants. Or else it won't even release your record."

Now what do YOU think?