No Filler Music Podcast - Ep 22: Radiohead - OK Computer

Episode Date: October 29, 2018

We begin our deep dive into Radiohead with a look at their third studio album OK Computer. Coming off a successful debut and sophomore release and extensive touring, the label gives Radiohead full control over the making of OK Computer, even down to the choice of studio and producer. The result sees Radiohead take a definitive shift in their creativity and level of experimentation, setting the tone and pace for every Radiohead record from then on out. We take a brief look at how Thom Yorke starts to flex his vocal muscles on this record, and how the other band members step out of the shadows and start to shine as individual contributors to the unmistakable sound that we've come to identify as distinctly Radiohead. For more info, check out our show notes: https://www.nofillerpodcast.com/episode/album-review-radiohead-ok-computer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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My name is Travis. With me, as always, is my brother Quentin. Today, we are finally talking about Radiohead. I don't know if we have, I mean, surely we have mentioned Radiohead at least once in an episode. But we haven't really talked about them in depth at all. So it was bound to happen eventually. So we are starting with, of course, okay, computer, which came out in 1997. And it's sort of the album that made them who they are today, right? Would you say that's accurate, Q?

So here's the deal, bro. I feel I'm hesitant to admit this. I've never listened to the bins. and I have some friends of mine that are friends of Radiohead that that were shocked when I told them that. But yeah. Well, I mean, look, I think you would recognize fake plastic trees, probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You would recognize high and dry.

Probably. But, I mean, look, I'll say the same for me. I've, I listened. Honestly, today is the first day that I actually sat down and listened to the entire. album. I went through and listened to Pablo Honey and then I listened to the bins all the way through. Nice. Because I wanted to have an idea of

sort of where they came from before they did OK computer because it is such a huge change that happens on OK computer. And it's it's you're talking okay so let's just acknowledge the fact that we're jumping the gun again like we always do

when we're covering an artist that we're super super excited. about. So let's, what do you want to, do you want to dive into our watcherhertz first? Because I don't even know if we should get into the history of radio head. But like, okay. All right. Because, you know, okay, so, so OK computers, their third full length album.

They had Pablo Honey before that came out in 93. The bins came out in 95. And then OK computer came out in 97. Right? Yes. Yeah, that's right. So that's every two years. They're spitting out albums.

And they kind of got popular with Pablo Honey because of their single creep. Their single creep. Yeah. Creep, I think, is, it's their first single that put them on the charts. It was a top 40 hit on the UK charts. Yeah. It helped them sell about 800,000 copies of that album. Yeah.

And to this day, you know, it is, you know, probably. I would say it might be still their most recognized song, like to the masses, you know, to the mainstream. Like this is the song. This is the song that you could still hear on the radio. Sure, yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, yeah, so we'll get, let's okay.

We'll get into that because there is creep really, really is responsible for what went on to become, like, radiohead making, the more, taking risks. and making the music that they wanted to make. Because they had such success with Creep, the label sort of let them be a little bit more creative with what they did on the next album because they weren't in debt to the album,

or to the label, because Creep helped make Pablo Honey, you know, successful as far as numbers, selling, making money, right? So anyway, yeah, let's just pause there. That's a good pausing spot. So we'll pick that up in a second. Let's do our weekly segment, What You Heard, where we talk about a song that we may have stumbled upon or listened to in the past week, ideally.

That's not always the case, but it sounds like you actually do have a legitimate what you heard in the sense that you heard this song for the first time this week or you just heard it. So here's the deal, bro. let's admit something to ourselves and to our dear listeners. When we first started out with this podcast, we wanted to have this segment as a legitimate, hey, here's what we heard this last couple weeks in between recording these episodes. This is something that I heard within this time frame.

But I feel like over time we kind of used this segment to just play similar artists to the band that were coming. covering, right? Yeah, but I mean, sometimes, you know, we were listening to those artists in preparation for the episode. Yeah. So, okay, this is a legitimate what you heard, bro, bro. And here's the story.

So, because I know you've heard this song. So I was hanging out in West Seattle yesterday. And there is a street that I was turning left onto. called Avalon. I think it's Avalon Avenue or something. And, okay, when you hear the word Avalon,

what's another word that comes to mind? Just with the, with the syllables and what's a word? Oh, what? Are you serious? Are you serious right now? What? What?

Babylon by David Gray? Yes. Dude, can I just say that I love the fact that you immediately went to Babylon because... Well, because I was thinking like Avalon.

Babylon. Babylon. But I didn't think that you would go there. Dude. But that's, as soon as I saw on Google that I was turning left on Avalon, in my brain I went,

Babylon. And then dude, and I had to play it, man. So let's fucking do it. So, and here's the best part about all this, dude. I just,

just to briefly look into the song, just to say something about it for the what you heard. Guess when this song came out, bro. Well, I'm looking at it right now, 1998. Okay, and what day did it come out? Oh, I don't know. July 12th. That's our birthday for people that don't know.

We were born on July 12th. Dude, I love this song. And hey, just look, just press play and let it play at least to the chorus, too. She is, I'm very familiar with this song, so it's not like I'm... I don't care, dude. I want to hear it right now, bro. I want to hear it. Here we go.

Let's do it. Bright and out of lights are changing, green, red, turning over TV stations, situations running through my head. You know, it's clear that I've opened up my heart to all that jealousy, that bitterness that ridicule... Itching my brain for the last 24 hours. man. I mean, it's a great song, man. I know that about it.

It's got a great, great chorus, you know? Yeah. Dude, that's just one of those, you know what? That's a song to me, like, I feel like that's, you know, I'm sure David Gray is considered a one-hate wonder. And that's the song, right? So, Q, you're such a big fan of the song. Have you, have you listened to any of his other music? No.

That's what I'm, that's what I'm saying. Like, I'm sure, like, maybe you should, man. Maybe I should, dude. Maybe I should listen to that album. So here's the deal Okay So this song to me Is on par with

I don't even know the name I think it's called the Verve I think is the name of the Oh bitter sweet symphony Fuck yeah dude That's one of those songs That just stands the test of time But

And here's the deal I thought the same thing with the Verve Like dude I should check out the album Terrible Yeah But see that's the thing With a lot of those one hit wonders Man

There's a reason that they're one at wonders, right? Yeah, they like, they fucking, they, you know, they, they, they, they, they, they just had a, they just had a good, like you said, the guitar, um, that chorus is just,

it's, it's, it's, it's an earworm. I feel like that's part of the definition of an airworm, you know, a song that gets stuck in your head. Yeah, it's just, it's just, yeah, a great hook. And dude, unless you're, you know, Paul, George, and John, it's going to be hard for you to tap to top that. You're not going to give Ringo any credit, dude?

Okay. And Ringo. All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ringo.

I love you. All right. So that's good. I mean, I feel like that's probably, we usually don't play mega, well-known songs on this podcast. Dude, I'm glad that that song has found its way under our podcast. Okay.

Dude, you know what? More than anything, I just love that as soon as I said the word avalon, your brain went to Babylon. And you're not the only one, dude. I brought it up to Elena last night. Yeah. And she immediately went to Babylon. It's weird that the word avalon takes you to Babylon.

There's not many words that rhyme with Avalon. Or Babylon. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. All right.

So then I want to hear you, let me hear your, uh, your fake what you heard, bro. Lay it on me. I ain't. Well, here's the thing. If, if fake just means I haven't, I didn't listen to it last week or stumble upon it for the first time last week, then yeah, you can say this is fake. But as you know, I've been. I've been absent a lot lately.

Yeah. From no filler. So, you know, this song was intended to be what you heard weeks ago when I first heard it. So what can I say? Wow. But I think it's kind of, I don't know if this is obvious or not, but I've been listening to a lot of 90s, not necessarily emo music. But alt, rock. Bands in that vein?

Yeah, bands that weren't necessarily mega successful. But bands that, you know, were kind of on the radar a little bit. And this is one of those bands. They're called Jaw Box. J-A-W-B-O-X. That's right. Jawbox. Never heard of them.

No surprise. Not their head eye until recently. But this album came out in 1994. So, you know, right in that prime 90s spot in the decade where, you know, grunge was in full swing. 94 was not yet post-grunge, was it? 94 was right in the thick of it. Yeah, right in the thick of it. So I wouldn't put these guys in the grunge camp.

I also wouldn't put them in emo. But they have some emo, some second wave emo tendencies to them. But I don't know. I just really enjoy this album. The album is called For Your Own Special Sweetheart. And this song is called Cooling Card. So here we go.

Yeah, man. I mean, it's a pretty straightforward, you know, alt rock song, but, um, I feel like that song belongs on the dumb and dumber soundtrack. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Also, okay, maybe I'm off here. Maybe it's just me. Hey, kind of, kind of reminded me of R.A.M.

Just in the way that he sang. I don't know if I agree with you on that one. That's why I said, I'm a pretty, I'm a pretty, uh, pretty big REM fan. I think you're probably a bigger fan than me. Yeah, without a doubt. I just in his vocal delivery and his kind of like more talking than singing

no I don't know dude maybe one maybe you're thinking of like one REM song that's probably the problem but I can't yeah I can't think of that's probably the deal yeah but anyway that's good I liked it that that's yeah and dude you know what

it makes me happy that you're giving these artists a chance you know well this is what getting into it and listening the album all the way through. Oh, absolutely. This is what I, look, I always, this is what I like doing.

I like, you know, I tell myself, hey, I love 90s rock, right? 90s grunge. Yeah. How many bands under the radar are out there that were making great music that I just haven't stumbled upon because, for the most part,

I've only, exactly. Thousands, because we were too young, dude. not only that but dude even if we were the like the perfect age it was so much harder to get into music in the 90s yeah exactly yeah dude like take advantage of of the endless amounts of streaming music just at our fingertips yeah so this is the kind of the kind of path that i like to go on so i'm gonna probably just listen to uh bands that are listed under similar you know fans also like or whatever and So it takes me like So in a couple weeks

When we do our next full length What are the chances You're going to deliver another 90s Another 90s Yeah Unless it just you know I I like to change paths

Quite a bit with my music So if I'm listening to Something If I switch and now all of a sudden I'm listening to nothing But down tempo for the next two weeks And I'll bring something like that to the table But

Well you know You're never going to hear For me ever again metal because you shit all over me a couple weeks ago yeah but that's the thing man if you started getting into metal no dude oh you mean that you mean that you mean that you mean that band that you brought to the table don't don't you dare I think you gave them enough grief I'm not gonna say their name dude because I feel sorry for them man that's it's fine it's just the bands like that are a dime a dozen right now oh my heart I mean but you didn't you don't know that dude and if you haven't

listen to a lot of metal, you don't realize how generic that was. You know what? I appreciate your input. Yeah. So anyway, let's get back in the radiohead time, dude. Yeah, let's go to Radiohead. So we just, before we did our What You Heard's, we were talking about creep, right? Hey, dude, let's play creep.

I think it's, we should play creep. Okay. We did this for Spoon. Let's play Creep. That's fine. If you have it, so this is going to kind of be, I feel like, Kind of what happened when we covered Kings of Leon, this is the song that you've probably heard. First thing we did when we got into Kings of Leon was played their mega hit.

Use somebody. Right. Right. For us is not a good representation of Kings of Leon. I think that Creep is, dude, creep doesn't sound like radiohead to me. You know, it's weird, dude? Yeah. The thing about creep, and I mean, I don't know how to, you know, I'm lumping Kings of Leon into

this just because that was one of the bands we've covered before. But Creep is like the opposite for Radiohead because creep was their earlier stuff. And for us, with a band like Kings of Leon, it's their earlier stuff that was the true, like, essence of Kings of Leon for us. Yeah, dude, you're absolutely right because with Kings of Leon, their early stuff was more like authentic it seemed like and then they're they're the later you know their newer stuff just bends more and more to the record label to me right versus or the mainstream versus radio hit was the is the exact opposite truly yeah yeah so okay so let's listen to creep so again

this came out on pablo honey which is their first full-length album that came out in 93 right this is their one of their singles on pablo honey all right i will say this i don't think it's it's really similar to say that like playing creep so that people can have an idea of who Radiohead is, is not really the same. Well, but that's, I mean, that's kind of what we were doing with Spoon too. Yeah, I know, but Spoon is also one of those bands that probably a good majority of people don't realize

that they've heard them, but Radiohead is Radiohead. But we'll do it anyway, because I think what this will do is show just how much they just how much they changed in four years. Exactly. Going from Creep to OK computer and like how drastic of a change. as that is. So here we go. Here's creep.

That doesn't sound like radiohead to me, man. It's, I mean, you can, you can tell that it's Tom York. Barely. But you don't get, yeah, I mean. I feel like he hasn't, he, like, I don't know, he, he wasn't, uh, confident enough in his voice yet, because he kind of stays in the low range. Yeah, I mean, that's just this song. Yeah. Um, there are some songs on here. where you kind of hear more of his range.

But, okay. Yeah, he wasn't, he wasn't pushing his, his vocals to the limit that he starts to do on like, okay, computer. So I don't feel like any of the members of the band were pushing any limits with that song.

Right. That's, that's the thing that stands out to me the most about Pablo Honey and also the Ben's, is that you're not really hearing the other band members aren't being showcased whatsoever. Okay. It's just a generic.

I wouldn't say generic, but it sounds like other bands from the 90s. Yeah, and it makes sense that they were able to find success with that song. Right. During that time. It's also worth mentioning that it's not like they were making music, it's not like they were doing this on purpose. Like, hey, I guess, you know, let's sound like the other bands that are popular right now just so we can, you know, get signed and put a single out. Right. Like, this is just what they were writing at the time.

Right. And I heard, I've read too that like, so, shit, let's, let's lay them off the roster, I guess, huh? Okay, so these guys have known each other and have been playing music together since 1985 where they met in high school. They, they formed back in, back in 85, as a band, I guess they were, they went, they went by on a Friday. That's their band name. obviously if you don't know Tom York is the lead singer he also plays guitar piano right he does a bunch of stuff now right

I mean he's obviously evolved he does he does DJ sets and stuff now right yeah and he's got he's he's released a handful of of solo stuff too yeah so Johnny Greenwood is the guitar player but I think he's kind of more

as as the albums progress like he becomes more and more involved with like the synthesizers and programming of the songs. Just weird experimental shit with keyboards and synthesizers. And all of the orchestral arrangements that pop up here and there throughout their music, that's all him. Yeah, and he's done some soundtracks too, right? Yeah, he did.

Shit, he's done quite a few, man. Yeah, I think he, I think most notably he did, There Will Be Blood. Yeah. Right. And we do, interestingly enough, Tom York, just did the soundtrack for the Syspira remake, which makes me want to see that movie even more. Have you seen the original Syspia, dude?

Nope. Not it's weird, but it's also really... What kind of weird, like? It's just, you know, it's got 70s written all over it. But from a very, like, artistic... Like David Lynch weird? Yeah, actually, a little bit, but not to the extreme of like an eraser hit or something like that. Okay.

But it's just, it's just really... cool. The soundtrack is badass. Cool. There's this band called The Goblins that did the soundtrack back then. Anyway, Colin Greenwood, bass guitar. Yes, they are related. Johnny and Colin, our brothers.

Ed O'Brien, second guitar player. He does backing vocals. He's listed as doing effects. I would think that Johnny also has effect pedals, right? But anyway,

Ed O'Brien is listed as the effects guy. And then Philip Selway is the drummer. And he's up there. He's in my top five favorite drummers. Yeah, he's amazing. Yeah, he's amazing. In our Cannes episode, yeah. Yeah, this is what, um, what we're talking about here.

As far as like, Philip Selway is a drummer. You don't really get to hear, uh, how amazing he really is. If you listen to Pablo Honey or the bins. It's just not showcased. I, dude, I, and he starts to change his style on okay computer. So I didn't find anything. and I don't know if you did either, but I just wonder what changed.

All right, so let's get into that. So, like we said, they come out with Pablo Honey. Creep is this top 40 hit. That allows them to sort of have some more leeway from the label when they make bins. They come out with the bins, and to me at least, you know, there's maybe one song or maybe two songs on there. that sort of start to, you can sort of get a vibe for some of the more like experimental, sort of the direction that they start to go.

But for the most part, the bins is just, it's kind of like Pablo Honey as far as like there's nothing too exciting happening. Like it sounds, to me, the bins, they sound like R.E.M. a little bit. I guess his singing style sort of mirrors Michael Stipe of R&M here and there. The guitar playing and the music kind of sounds like some of R&M stuff. It follows sort of the same style as other 90s old bands from that time, right? There's a little bit of like, I hear a little bit of smashing pumpkins even in there. Cool.

Right. So they tore for the bins for like, for every. right long long tour and then again because of the success that they've now had with the Benz and Pablo Honey basically they are now able to

sort of dictate how they want to record their next album and they want it specifically to work with this guy named Nigel Godrick which I feel like it's almost what's the term

like another member of the band. I mean, yeah. Like, that's a common, a common name. Like, for anyone who knows anything about Radiohead, you know the name, Nigel Goddrich. Yeah, because he, he is the producer from then on out. I mean, he's like, um, oh, God damn it. What's the name of the...

George, uh, Martin? Yes. Jesus. He's, so, yeah, he's like George Martin with the Beatles. Yeah. You could say he's like the, you know, it's like the sixth, uh, radiohead member. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm with you on that.

But anyway, so basically Nigel and Radiohead, they go, they step away from like the studio type setting to record OK computer. It kind of reminds me of how Interpol went and recorded, turn on the bright lights in that like abandoned. Yes. Used to be a mental institute for children. Yeah, yeah. So Radiohead goes and records OK computer in this castle, basically. Also, can I just say real quick here, if we mention a band just kind of out of nowhere, and we don't really follow up on that, and we just kind of talk about it like we assume you know what we're talking about, chances are that's a band we've covered. And if it piques your interest, scroll through our old episode list, chances are you'll find the band that we, that we're talking about.

Sorry. Yeah, we talked about Kings of Leon. We did an episode on Kings of Leon. We did an episode on Air Pole. So yeah. So anyway. Okay. So that's what I'm saying.

Like, I think that is why when you get to OK computer, you can tell that they are free to kind of do whatever they want. And that is why it sounds like it does because they're able to experiment and be creative in a way that they didn't feel like they could do with the previous albums. So like there's this. Cool. Basically, there's this quote here. let me just say this is from Tom York.

He says, by the time we got to the end of the Bin's tour, we felt like, okay, we've done that now. Basically, meaning like, okay, we've done sort of, we've done, you know, kind of the expected path, I guess, that you take, you know, like I said, they had been touring for a long time. They opened for REM on a stint of their tour.

They opened for out. They toured with Alanis Morissette, too, I heard. Right. They tore with Alanis Morseh set. I think on the Jagal Little Pill tour. Oh, yeah. So anyway, he's saying, you know, they feel like they've done sort of the mainstream thing, right? And I feel like they were like close to getting thrown into that one-hunter.

Well, that's, okay, we'll talk about that too, right? You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So then he goes on to say, then the record company kind of shut up and went, all right, it's fair enough. Do what you want. And whatever you do next will totally back you. Wow.

And then he says, basically, we want all of our own gear. We want our own studio. And we want to work with Nigel. And they went, okay. Holy shit, dude. Not a lot of bands have that luck with record label. Well, it makes you wonder, like, how many, how many bands don't feel free to do what they want to do because of the record label? I mean, it's something that we all kind of talk about and assume it's happening, right?

Right. With bands that we love. but, you know, in this instance, you could see what happens when a record label says, okay, hey, you know what, go do whatever you want. Obviously, you've got to prove yourself before you can get to that point. But, yeah. All right. So, yeah, let's go into our first pick here.

So this song, I've always loved the guitar on this song. The reverb, it's got sort of a, like a tremolo effect on it or something. But anyway, this song is called Subterranean. homestined, and pay attention to the lyrics, too, because it's a really cool song. I love the lyrics. The lyrics are great.

All right, here we go. Forgetting the smell of the warm summer I can't smell a thing. Do you watch your feet for cracks in the path? Folks by creatures who lock up their spirits

throw holes in themselves I live for the sea. Dude, this is one of my favorite songs on this album, man. Yeah, it's just such a lovely song, man. I mean, you know, it just, the guitar just really kind of envelops you, you know what I mean?

Yeah. It's just very... I feel like we should dive into the lyrics before we talk more about the song. Yeah. But I will say this, dude. You know, if you, if you're a radio head fan

prior to OK computer and you've heard Pablo Honey and you've heard the Ben's, when you get to this song, you haven't heard anything like this come out of them as far as like the sound of the guitar the you know the keys that are introduced like sort of that almost like it sounds like a kind of a like a parlorophone or something like that yeah yeah so this is track two uh what are your thoughts on airbag track i like airbag quite a bit airbag's great so so are you saying that this song is even that much more different like like does airbag yeah you fit more into the bins and the

Pablo Honey sound? No, I mean, that's the thing. Nothing on OK computer fits in with what they had done previously, in my opinion. Yeah. So, yeah, no, I mean, yeah, you're right. You know, if you push play on OK computer. Yeah. And you've heard their first, yeah.

Yeah. Immediately you're going to hear a different radio head. But I'm just saying when you get to subterranean Hubs like Alien, like it really does have this different sound as far as like the, what they're doing. Like, there's just so much going on in this song, you know? Yeah. And so... I feel like on the first two albums,

the musical arrangements were more like straightforward. You know what I mean? Yeah, more, I guess, predictable could even be a word you do. They were more straightforward alt rock songs. More safe? Yeah, okay. If, yeah, if we know the okay computer, if we know the okay computer is them,

uh, being, you know, creative and taking risks, then yeah, that's probably true. Yeah. Um, because they, they,

they, they have the, they've got the ability to do it based on what they told their label. Like, hey, we did, we did the endless tours. You know, we came out with a big single for you. Let us go do what we want to do. And this is what they end up doing. And I think, kind of like with Interpol, it seems like the place that they recorded did have an effect.

Basically, they would record in this big open ballroom in this castle, which had these, like, wooden floor. floors and wooden panels and this big, they talk about this big medieval tapestry on the wall. Oh, dude. Yeah, it's got to have an effect on you. And Tom York even talks about, actually, you know what, I'm going to wait and talk about that in a second.

Yeah. You got the lyrics? I want to read the lyrics, dude. So here are the first two lines or verses. So the breath of the morning, I keep forgetting the smell of the, warm summer air. I live in a town where you can't smell a thing. You watch your feet for cracks in the pavement. So right off the bat, to me, this is the song from the perspective of a person that lives

in a city or, you know, or a suburb where, yeah, concrete, concrete jungle. Yeah, you live somewhere, exactly. Like, you forget the smell of the warm summer air. There's no like, yeah, nature around you. And the only entertainment you have is to watch your step because if you step on a crack you break your mother's back kind of thing you know yeah sure sure um yeah and then he says yeah so that's that is one of the themes of this album is like uh you know sort of that it's dude and i've i love this uh words i i think the word sterile is a great word to describe like this the megacities and like yeah like you like you said the concrete like it's yeah industrial yes um up above clinical clinical yeah aliens hover making home movies for the folks back home um of all these weird creatures who lock up their spirits drill holes in themselves and live

for their secrets um they're all uptight and then he says uptight like dude so when he when he goes into that to that um repetitive you know saying the word uptight over and over. He says uptight twice and then that that's when they're really pretty musical. Dude, can we can we play that part again? That's my favorite part of this whole. Yeah, it's sort of the sweeping. Yes.

It makes me to do it. You can't not like just kind of sway back and forth and like get into it. Yeah, sure. Let's play it again. Can we do that? Yeah, yeah, let's do it. So are you saying sort of the deal. And this is when like like, so one thing I said about Philip Selway and what I

like about his drumming technique is kind of the same along the same vein as Jim Eno, the drummer for Spoon. My favorite kind of drummers are the ones that approach their beats almost like it's a drum machine where it's very repetitive. Yeah. Now, and then I love, now cute. Go ahead. I was just going to say that this is one of the, what you're talking about right now is another example of something that you didn't hear in the previous two albums. is so away doing like you said the more like almost like electronic type drum beats and then so but then yeah this part we're about to play again this is when he just kind of it's it's a lot of drum fills and oh it's just so pretty dude it just yeah they they repeat these lines over and over yeah let's hear it yeah again

it's just such a pretty song yeah so yeah that guitar in the background that's just kind of building up that sweeping guitar the drums like you said simple drums but again yeah simple but effective dude that's what i'm all about man not cute now this is this is i'm really glad that that this is our next pick because it is a stark stark stark difference to the sound of of subterranean homesick alien oh as far as like like we said this song is very pretty uh the lyrics are kind of playful right he's talking about he'd like to get picked up by an alien yep and and take it away from the concrete jungle i didn't want to get away from it yet dude i just want to read the next line or the next verse, even though we don't, we didn't play it. I just want to read this real quick

because I love this part. This is more along the lines of, you know, just some, someone that's, just wishing that they weren't in this concrete jungle. He says, I wish that they'd swoop down in a country lane late at night when I'm driving. Take me on board their beautiful ship. Show me the world as I'd love to see it. I just love that, dude. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's great. Okay, so this next song is called exit music for a film. If you've seen the movie Romeo and Juliet, you may recognize the song from the movie.

Quinn, you're saying that it was played in the credits. I don't know. I do. I'm just, this just from a friend of mine told me. So I don't know for sure. I think the song showcases Tom York's vocals. better than quite a bit of the songs actually. So to bring back Interpol again, this is like what, when Paul Banks kind of, you know, hits those, like, like, this is Tom York, like, not screaming, but, you know, this is when he's kind of projecting his voice more and really getting emotional with his voice.

Well, let's not make any mistake about it, dude. Tom York is one of the best vocalists, I think, in rock history, just in history general, I think. I mean, he's got one of the best. That's something that I guess we kind of didn't really mention for subterranean homesick alien, but his vocals,

again, like you do sense of change in this album compared to the previous two. But here's the deal, dude. Here's the deal. I don't know if you have anyone in your life that feels, this way about Radiohead, but I know a handful of people.

Shit, dude, not even a handful. So I don't even know if this is relevant. There's some people that, just like with Interpol, they can't get into Radiohead because of Tom York's force. Do you know anyone like that? No, because I would stop knowing them at that point.

Well, I'm married to someone. I get it. Look, I mean, I get it with Paul Banks' voice because he has this monotone voice. But Tom Yorker. has such a it's melodic it's like haunting at times yes it's beautiful I do you're in other times you know like he sings like find me somebody else that sings like Tom York you know you can't do it you can't he's such a unique vocalist yeah and this song is a great example of just how powerful his vocals can be so before I push play let me just say this this is a quote from so a lot of I read this interview there's been a lot of

kind of reflection and retrospectives on OK Computer because they had their 20th anniversary of this album was last year. So Rolling Stone did this very comprehensive look at the album and they did this interview with the entire group, plus Nigel, plus a bunch of other people that they interviewed. And Tom was talking about recording the vocals for this track. And they're kind of jokingly talking about how this old castle that they were recording. and was haunted. I think they legitimately believed that because, yeah, so listen to this quote.

Tom says, The ghosts would talk to me while I was asleep. You couldn't discern the conversations because there was more than one at the same time. I got really spooked while recording the vocals for exit music.

It felt like someone was standing next to me. So keep that in mind when you hear this because his vocals really do sound. kind of like this haunted, there's some echo on it, something like that. But this song has sort of a creepy vibe to it. Creepy in a very, like, beautiful way. Like, this is a very, it's a much darker song than subterranean. But his vocals are just incredible.

So, let's just play it. And we're going to play a good chunk of this because you have to get to the, sort of the climax, if you will, of his, of his vocals. So here we go. Dry tea Today We escape We escape

And get dressed Before Us a song A song To keep Us war Such a chill Such a cheer

Eacho Pretty powerful stuff. I don't even know if you want to get into the lyrics or not. No, we don't have to. But yeah, I mean, what a, it's just one of the, again, it's one of the songs that kind of leaves you speechless, like you don't know what to say really. Yeah. Because it's so, there's so much emotion in the vocals.

The lyrics. It's dark, man. It's really dark. It's dark, but it's, but it's a beautiful song at the same time, right? Yeah. But, I mean, it's interesting to me that he is hearing these voices and stuff when he's just in this castle. And, like, this song, like, toward the second verse, you started to hear this sort of sampled track in the background that's playing. And it does kind of sound like there's these swirling voices and sounds like in your ears.

And not to mention, like, it just sounds like Tom is right next to you. If you listen to this song with a good pair of headphones. Yeah, and he did. His voice is so loud, but it's also very quiet, right? Right. His vocals are, you know, crank way up the volume or whatever. Yeah, he's one of those vocalists that really knows how to take advantage of the microphone as an instrument. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, yeah, obviously it's like it's one of those voices where it is an instrument.

Well, yeah, and it's, it's so, it's like, so one thing that, that, you know, if you, if you're a drummer and you take lessons, one thing that they, they, they will try to teach you is how to finesse your instrument in a way that you can effectively change up a beat simply by playing your hi-hat or your snare drum quieter in some parts to, you know, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to. more of an impact and Tom York does that beautifully with his voice he he can he will quiet down um you know and you know almost to a whisper it's not a whisper but like yeah like like like you like you were saying it sounds like he's right there just like singing right in your ear right so so here's something interesting about that right that was obviously a decision made by um Nigel uh he's the producer right so the fact that it really does sound like he's right in your ear like that that was a choice that they made they said that they were listening to a lot of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison right so this is that when he does that recording at the prison oh yeah that concert yeah

and apparently what they noticed about Johnny's voice on that album is it does sound like it's right up in the microphone like that And so that influenced them to kind of do that with this song. So that's something else that's kind of interesting. Man, I've done this before, dude. I'm going to get nerdy. I can't do. This is just the shit that I love about music, man.

Just drawing from influences and past recordings, you know, and just building upon that to create, you know, to create these songs and these moments. Well, I like finding out things like that. is what I love about digging deep into music. Yes. So here's something else that I just found out about with regard to this album

and Tom's influences that he pulled from. So one of his influences for this album was, as he says it, the incredibly dense and terrifying sound of Bitches Brew, the 1970 avant-garde jazz fusion album by Miles Davis. Isn't that, I mean, that's just great. I mean, it's incredible.

to hear that Tom York of course he listened to Bitches Brew right but I mean it is it is amazing that he he hears Bitches brew and thinks you know there's such a dense and like as he says terrifying sound on bits and pieces of Bitches Brew right that you wanted to capture that on on this on this this rock album that they made but yeah so like when you listen to to bitch's brew right that was you know, that's, the album is known for like, it was a, it was a live session album as far as like it was recorded live, right? During these, these, uh, this very like kind of well-known recording session that Davis did with some.

So like it's got this very, uh, like tribal sounds in some instances. Very avant-huh, like you were saying. Yeah. It's just, it's an incredible album. There's a lot of stuff going on. on. That's probably what he means when he says dense and terrifying. But anyway, just hearing stuff like that,

it's great, right? And that's what makes OK computer I'm guessing that they didn't feel, that Tom wouldn't feel comfortable crafting an album that goes in those sorts of directions. He wouldn't have felt comfortable on their first two because you can't really take risks like that

when you're first starting out, right? Right. So anyway, so let's go into the next one. And obviously we played the whole song there because you can't not play the whole song, right? Yeah. So anyway, now this song, I think the three choices that we had are pretty good representation. They're all three very different. Yeah, which is great.

And electioneering, sorry, I just jumped again. But yeah, our next pick is electioneering. And this is this is tied, I think, for like, you know, this is. up there for me for favorite song on this album. I love this song, dude. Yeah, it's a good song. All right, so here we go. This is called electioneering. Yeah, and what's great about this song is it just shows, again, just how diverse his vocals are because he's, there's, there's a little bit of like some gravel like hoarseness in his voice in this song, which lends itself perfectly to the, to the vibes of the song, rock, harder rock song, right, compared to the last.

one. Yeah, dude. I love his voice in this song, man. And what, you know what's great, man, um, he, he continues to, to release songs like this. Um, I mean, I say continues to, but like, one of my favorite songs on in rainbows, uh, body snatchers, dude, it's got that same vibe where it's just like, I mean, rain, rain, rain, rain, rainbows came out like over a decade ago. So I know, just want to put that out there. I know. But like, still, there's not, there's not too many songs on, or any songs, I don't think, on a moon-shaped pool that sound like this. But that's the thing about Tom York and Radiohead, dude. Give it another five, ten years, you know?

They are the most, I think they're the most, like, diverse experimental band of all time. As far as like you say, they're sound. You never know what you're going to get with the Radiohead album. They will go. they will go like anywhere with their sound, you know. Yeah. Because they're so, that's the thing. And we haven't really said this.

I mean, I think it goes without saying, but obviously we've talked about Tom York and what a great vocalist he is. But every single one of these musicians are some of the best out there, right? Yeah, dude. And that's why their music is so incredible. And that's an understanding, man. Yeah, if you listen to the guitar playing on electioneering. Yeah, dude.

I love the guitar work. And during the chorus, too, like it mirrors Tom's voice perfectly. Like, he's going down, he's following the same kind of melody that York's voice is taking, but he's kind of, you know, it's really kind of in sync. You have to kind of pay attention to it, but it's really awesome. Yeah, so that's, that's it. I mean, that's a quick, just quick peek at OK computer. Obviously, this is, you know, I think this is one of those albums that makes, lists of

you know top 100 albums you need to listen to before you die or whatever right this is just one of those albums that that you got to listen to if you haven't already give it just push play and just kind of like the three songs

that we played for you like you're you're definitely going to hear a lot of different a lot of different sounds but this is when Radiohead sort of takes a turn and they even they even spell that for us in this interview that like they they did the sort of the alt rock you know generic 90s

alt rock sound for a couple of albums they toured for a long time they did kind of what they were supposed to do and then they said okay let's let's make an album that's that's more kind of creative and more experimental let us do what we want to do you know name our own producer go find our own studio and that's okay computer. And from then on, it's been basically, you know, they don't follow any rules. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Radiohead is radio head. There's no other band like them. Yeah, dude. And we're going to get into that even more in a month when we cover Kid A, dude, I can't wait. Yeah, I guess it will be a month. So yeah, so we didn't really say this at the beginning of this episode, but we're going to do kind of what we did with Spoon.

where we're going to do a radiohead album. The next major or the next full episode will be another band, whatever band we decide to talk about. And then we'll come back and do another radio head album. And we're going to do that up to in rainbows. So we've got a lot of cover. A lot to cover. Yeah, and I'm stoked, man.

Me too, me too. You know, I think Hail to the Thief is one of my favorite radiohead albums. But there are songs on every single album that are just incredible. I think I'm most excited to listen to some Kid A on this podcast, man. Are you excited because you haven't really delved into it too much? Or is this is your favorite album? Kid A might be my favorite. Okay.

I don't know, dude. My mind might change. Yeah, I mean, if you haven't really, yeah, sure. So anyway, I'm not exactly sure what we're going to do next. I think our next... Let's not spill beans, bro. Okay, all right. So, all right.

So that's that. We'll have our sidetrack episode next week. And that's it. So, yeah, if you're not all right. already subscribed to us. You can find us on SoundCloud or iTunes or pretty much any other podcast app that you use. Go to our website, no-filler podcast.com, where you can see show notes. Basically, you know, you can listen to the episode from the website and you can read any sources that we may have pulled from. We post links to articles, sometimes videos, live concert footage.

if we play something from a concert. But anyway, you can find pretty much any information you need to about this podcast and the episodes on our website. And again, that's no-filler podcast.com. So that's that. You got a natural lined up, brother? Sure don't. Okay, let's fucking find something.

Let's, let's, dude. No, hang on. Wait. I got some, here we go. Here we go. Oh, man. No, no, no. Because we're going to do an REM episode pretty soon.

Okay. So I got something. Okay. So they came out with last year, they came out with the 20th anniversary edition of OK computer. Yes, sir. So it has a lot of extra material. Yeah, it's remastered and it is a thing of beauty.

If you got a nice pair of speakers, give it a listen. You can tell the difference, dude. Dude, I remember the first time I listened to it. Like as soon as it came out, listen to it on, you know, a good pair of speakers. And I was just blown away, dude. I felt like I was listening to the album for the first time. Yeah.

So anyway, they, on this album, there are some tracks that, that they had written and recorded that didn't make it onto the album and it was originally released. So we're going to play one of those songs. This song is called Lift. So that's what's going to play us out. Again, my name is Travis. And my name is Quentin. Again, we'll holler at you.

time. This is No Filler Music Podcast. Bye. You may have heard of the sex cult nexium and the famous actress who went to prison for her involvement, Alison Mack. But she's never told her side of the story until now. People assume that I'm like this pervert. My name is Natalie Robamed and in my new podcast I talked to Allison to try to understand how she went from TV actor to cult member. How do you feel about having been involved in bringing sexual trauma at other people? I don't even know how to answer that question.

Allison After Nexium from CBC's Uncover is available now on Spotify. It was the night before the gathering and all through the house. The host wrapped a cozy cashmere throw from homesend for their spouse. Kids toys for $6.99 under the tree. And crystal glasses for just $14.99 for their brother Lee. A baking dish made in Portugal for Tom and Sue. And a nice $599 candle perfectly priced just for you. Happy Holiday.

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