No Filler Music Podcast - Ep 24: Radiohead - Kid A

Episode Date: December 2, 2018

Radiohead-A-Palooza? Yeah, we'll go with that. And for our second installment we dive into their 2000 release, "​Kid A​". After a bought of epic writer's block and a deep depression, Thom Yorke emerges with a newfound love for all things rhythm and electronica. The rest of the gang follows suit, and after 3 years of writing and a full year of recording, "​Kid A"​ is born, and in a way, so is Radiohead. For more info, check out our show notes: https://www.nofillerpodcast.com/episode/ep-24-radiohead-kid-a Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So download the Drsley app or go to Drsley.com. That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y dot com and get your favorite drinks delivered today. I mean, ever since art college, I've really had a problem with doing a piece of work and then putting it in a huge empty white room so that posh people can drink wine and think about buying it or not. It just doesn't do anybody any fucking good really. And that's what I've always thought pop music will always be a far more vibrant art form, ultimately, because like when you hear something on the radio, you know, that triggers something in you,

that you're never the same again. And it's harder to do that in a gallery. And welcome to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked. hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Quentin. Got my brother Travis with me. And we're back from our holiday break.

Travis, are you still full brother and other generic speak of Thanksgiving? I just finished up the leftover turkey today, actually. Please tell them you put all of it on a Sammy. with the stuffing and the taters. I make myself a Thanksgiving sandwich, dude. No, I never do that. I mean, I put the turkey on a sandwich, but I never put, like, the stuffing and the mashed potatoes on a sandwich.

Dude, do it, man. Why would I do that? Why wouldn't you? You know, that way I could still have a side of mashed potatoes, a side of stuffing with my turkey sandwich. You feel me? All right, fine. So, uh, it feels good to be back.

dude. Man, we've been kind of sporadic the last month or so. I'm ready to get back into it, brother. Yeah, me too. So we're getting back into our

Radioheadathon. No, I don't like that. Radio... No. What do you want to call this, dude? Spoonathon just works so well, you know? We could call it a... I could call it a Radiohead

Fest. I don't know. Radiohead Paloosa. That's Okay. You know what? That's fine. We'll go with that. We're going to cover Kid A today, which is their

fourth studio album, came out in October of 2000. So, you remember when we cover a spoon and we we said that I think we landed on Gimmie fiction being like their defining moment as a band

you know like Gimmie fiction kind of defined their sound and from that point on everything that you heard on Gimmee fiction like that was a pretty good snapshot of kind of like what spoon it kind of just encompassed spoon as a band

you know yeah I think Gimmy Fiction was like the blue print for every album since then. Whereas like their previous works, it was them sort of like refining it and like getting to like that formula that they came up with. Yeah. Which is why we like the albums that came out before Game Me Fiction because it was still them kind of working their way through things and like you know, each album was different

up to Gimme Fiction. Yeah. But yeah, I could, so you're saying that the Kid A is. is like were they sort of they're defining the defining point for radio head?

Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, I can see that. And so, so here's the deal, dude. I don't know if this is common knowledge or not,

but this is, well, okay, anyone who, anyone who's a big radiohead fan will probably know this. So it turns out that Tom York went through

really, really dark period right after okay computer um the way he put it he was just a complete fucking mess you know just in in a deep state of depression um because you think about it you know they they they saw their success with the bins uh with their single creep so you know they got boosted into the you know the the rock and roll status then okay computer comes out two years later saw, you know, equal success as far as, like, continuing that path, you know, to rock stardom. And he was just, he was already sick of it, man. The way he puts it, there's nothing more boring than a rock and roll star.

Someone who has been on the road for 10 years, expecting attention wherever he goes, drinking himself stupid, who is obnoxious, incoherent, uncreative, and has a massive ego. there's nothing more pointless. I love that line, dude. So you're saying he turned, he turned into that and he, he didn't, he just,

he just saw them on that path and he, he hated it, man. And like, he, you know, he was going, you know, touring the road, playing into massive crowds.

Um, and he just, basically he couldn't handle it, dude. Like, I mean, I don't know if it's really that. Like,

okay, I don't know if he couldn't handle it, but like, he just, he just couldn't stand. It's He said he felt like he was going crazy. It happens all the time, man.

It happens all the time. Like with, it happened to, to Kirk Cobain, right? I mean, after the huge success that, that they got after, after Nevermind, right?

So I just came so quickly. Yeah, exactly. So OK, computer, again, comes out in 97. So apparently around New Year's of 90s, of 98, Tommy York thinks of this point as one of the lowest points in his life.

He said, I felt like I was going crazy. Every time I picked up a guitar, I got the horrors. I would start writing a song and stop after 16 bars. I would hide the guitar away. And when I looked at it again,

I would just tear it up and destroy it. I was sinking down and down. Basically, he said, he just felt like he was completely unhinged. So something I'd just, change. He didn't want to continue the formula and just spit out, you know, spit out records just to appease the record labels and, you know, like, it just, he just didn't want to do that anymore. Which I thought was interesting that even, even as far back as the late 90s, Tommy Mark was

already just completely sick of the whole major record label, like rock star status, you know. So around this time, he started buying electronic music and getting into electronic music. He says it was refreshing because the music was all structures and had no human voices on it. But I felt as emotional about it as I'd ever felt about guitar music. I'd completely had it with melody. I just wanted rhythm. Hmm. Okay.

So now, I just realized. I jumped the gun big time, brother. Yeah, you did. I think we need to take a step back, because I got way too excited, man. Let's share our Watcher Hertz for the week, dude. I feel like that's a good stopping point. Yeah, you've teed it up for us nicely.

Yeah. I'll start. So this is actually, I'm going back to a band that I've played before as a What You Heard, because I just can't get enough of this album. man. I actually just picked it up on vinyl recently. Remember the band Wolf People? I showed you that song, Kingfisher.

I don't remember what episode I played it on, but it's this psychedelic rock band emphasis on the more heavy side. They have a lot of really great, like, just classic rock guitar riffs. This is actually a song from the same album that I shared with you earlier. It's an album called Ruins that came out this year. And dude, this is quickly becoming, like, my favorite album of the year easily. Every fucking song in this album is just fucking great, dude. So I'm going to share a song called Not Me, Sir, which is track eight on the album. Yeah, here it is.

Let's do it. That was fire. That was on fire. Dude. So who was that again? What? I want names. It's wolf people.

Wolf. So I played you a song from the same album called Kingfisher. On another episode? I said it reminded me of Westworld because I was getting into Westworld. Oh, yeah, that's right. So what was the name of that track? That's the hat track I just played for you. is called Not Me, Sir.

All right. Look, the album's called Ruins. Came out this year. Give it a listen, dude. It will be... Dude, hang on. That guitar riff was great. Give me a moment.

I made a mistake, man. Okay, this is their latest release. Okay? For some reason, I thought it came out this year. I sure as hell didn't. It came out in 2016. But this is their latest album. And God damn it, dude.

I can't emphasize. enough how much I love this record, dude. Every fucking song on this record, it's a banger. Did you find it on vinyl? Yes, I did. Have you been listening at all? I said I just picked it up on vinyl recently, dude. You said that today?

Yeah, in this recording. That's hilarious. Wow. Well, shit, because, you know, could have got that for you for Christmas. Yeah, well, you don't, apparently you don't listen to me. I bet. Your twin brother, your own flesh and blood, literally your own flesh. I don't know if that works out.

Damn. I don't know if that works out, literally. All right, whatever. So yeah, that's Wolf People. I can't get enough of that album. I'm on the band camp for this, for this, uh, the bandcape page for this album. And it says, if you like Wolf People, you may also like Elder. That is so true, dude.

Uh, elder is this group, um, the, uh, I don't know if I've done a... I don't think I've talked about them at all on No Filler, but they are another really, really great. They're classified as Doom Metal, which I don't... Not even close. But they're just like these guys where it's kind of a classic rock revival,

but, you know, not... Not in a gimmicky way, but in like their own way, you know. Yeah. Kind of like these... Cool. These guys. Anyway, all right, let's... Let's do a little 180 here.

and talk about Cabbage Boy, which is my what you heard for the week. All I know about Cabbage Boy is that they came up probably on some sort of artist radio or something like that for me a long time ago. Q, I've talked about and played bits and pieces of my, I don't know how to classify it other than it's almost like it's IDM, but it's got this nod toward, it's hypnagogic for me, at least, because it sounds like sort of the old devices that were used to make video game scores from like Nintendo era, like Super Nintendo era

video game music, right? So like 8 bit? 8 bit, but not straight up chip tunes, right? Got it. So anyway, I've been putting together this playlist for years, like since 2013. I've been adding to this playlist. Anything that sounds like that, whatever you classify it. You know, it's sort of like Bords of Canada type IDM.

And we talked about Bords of Canada and hypnotogogic pop and all that stuff when we did our Tyco episode. So anyway, Cabbage Boy, they've got some tracks to sound like that on this one particular album. called what is it called genetically modified yeah genetically modified so anyway I was listening to

that playlist on shuffle the other day and I had a couple of this guy's tracks on there and I realized that I never actually hit play on the album and just listened to the whole thing so I did that today

and I would classify this track almost more as like down tempo trip hop but it's still got a little bit of that flavor to it. So anyway, this song is called Hey Hey, Hey, We're the Monks. It's by Cabbage Boy. It came out in 1999, so it's kind of an oldie. So here we go.

Yeah, so, you know, I think I've, you even said it earlier. Like, well, you didn't say it on this recording, but, like, I've, I've said perhaps even on this episode, on the show. I don't particularly care for sampled audio like that, like sampled vocals because I think sometimes it can be done. Like I hate the chipmunk voice in down tempo and electronic music, right? When they sample in vocals, but they speed up. There's a right and wrong way to do chipmong. Yeah.

And I think there's a right and wrong way to do like just sampled vocals in a track too. Yeah. But I think that's an example of when it's done. just subtly enough to where it's not too distracting. But it reminds me of this, there's this even, it's not much older, it came out in 1998, but there's this other kind of classic sort of down tempo artist that goes by the name of The Irresistible Force.

And he has this sort of iconic album called It's Tomorrow Already. that came out in 1998, and it has sort of a similar vibe to it. But, you know, just one of those great sort of classic, I say classic, but, you know, older down-tempo albums that sort of when this stuff was kind of gaining traction, like Trip Hop and all that kind of stuff. But anyway, this guy, his name, he goes by Cabbage Boy, but his name is Simon Begg, and he is a member of the notorious cabbage head. artist collective, formed in 1990.

So there you go. He's part of a collective. So he goes by Cabbage Boy, he goes by Bigfoot, Buck Funk, 3,000, and some other names. So there you go. Well, that's kind of cool because,

you know, that came out in 99. We're talking about KDA, which came out in 2000. Tom York caught that electronic bug, you know. So, the reason I played that clip that kind of talked about Tom York in art school. I think we kind of touched on that in our Rokicomputer episode.

All the members of Radio had met in art school. And Tom York was kind of talking in that interview about how he, you know, right from the get-go didn't really see the appeal in, you know, becoming an artist in like the form of, you know, painting something or, or being an artist that creates installations in art galleries. He thought it was fucking pointless, I think is how he put it, basically. He couldn't take the idea of, you know, his works of art just being in some giant, you know, white-walled studio where posh, high-browd people come through with their glasses of champagne and just stare at his art and you know figure out whether or not they want to buy it and take it home he wanted

to get into you know pop music um and so he did and then you know for for three albums they kind of went down the um the rock band path and it worked out for them that formula worked but he got into this deep, dark state of depression because of it. And he got into a really serious writer's block as well. And then like I had said earlier, he started listening to electronic music and got to the point where he was getting really moved by rhythm more than melody. I think that's the big thing that you notice, the big difference between all.

All their albums before Kid A and then how Kid A sounds. And then from that point on how all their music sounds, there's a real like a heavy emphasis on rhythm. And I think before we talk any more about the band or about their path moving forward from OK Computer, let's go ahead and play our first clip from the album. So our intro was the first try. on the album, everything in its right place.

And I want to say real quick here, for this album, they didn't. So, okay, early 2000s, right? Early, you know, late 90s, early 2000s. Music videos were a big thing back then. They didn't release any videos. They didn't release any singles. And they only played three shows in North America

to promote this record. Let's just throw that out there. So no singles on this record. It's all for a game. for this podcast. Our first pick is going to be track two. It's the title track on the record. This is Kid A.

And here's our first clip. So what's interesting to me about this is that in OK computer, they had the track with the like the computer, the computerized voice, right? Yeah, paranoid Android. Paranoid Android, right? So like, is this that same voice talking to us again? Like, what do you think?

You mean like it's like a character that he's created? Well, it's just interesting that that he did another sort of digital voice, you know? So like that can't be a coincidence, right? Well, but here's the deal, dude. Knowing now that Tom York in between OK Computer and Kid A, he grew. to despise melodies. That's what he said, dude.

He realized that there is just as much beauty and you can be moved as deeply or even more so with rhythm than melody. So, and that's the thing about this album. So much of this album is instrumental. And not even with like acoustic instruments.

Like this is the first time they introduce electronic drums and like, you know, other members of the band had to figure out their place in this record without necessarily strumming a guitar or pluck in the strings on a bass. So, like, yeah, he's got his voices there, but it, you know, like, it's muddled and it's hidden behind these effects, you know, like, it's, that's Tom York singing, but it's not Tom York. And you can almost, it's almost, like, like, like,

Like you have to find the lyrics, you have to read the lyrics to know what he's saying, right? So that's like not even, so to quote Tom York again, he says about this record, you're not really supposed to think about the words. That's the whole point all through the record. The lyrics are over before you have time to talk and worry about it. That's how it works. And I want to quote, so I don't have in my notes where this is coming from. But I'm going to throw all of my sources in our show notes.

But one thing I really liked to quote someone who wrote an article and interviewed Tom York around this time, everything that I'm pulling from is around 2000, maybe 2001. They say it's the equivalent of walking around in an unfamiliar city. The basics are all there. Big concrete buildings, expansive skylines, and the cold gray pay. underfoot. But it is only once you know where you're going that hidden alleyways begin to reveal themselves and hidden treasures can be found.

I think that's what I love so much about K'day is that it is, it's equal, like at the same time it is unfamiliar, especially like if you're a Radiohead fan and you were a fan before this record, you're listening to it and you're like, what the fuck is, what am I listening to? Like, where's Tom York? You know? Where's Johnny? Where's Colin?

But the more you listen to it, you start to find these hidden treasures. So with that quote, I got another clip from Kid A. So let's go ahead and listen. And so, okay, so here's what I did for this one. I really like the transitions in this album from song to song. they're not all seamless you know like they don't all kind of bleed into each other necessarily but i really like the mood from song to song and our next pick is going to be the next track on the record uh which is called the national anthem and uh for this next clip i've got

the end of kid a and then it goes straight into the national anthem so this is kind of a lengthy clip But again, we're going to fade out Kid A, and it's going to go straight into the National Anthem. All right. So here it is. Yeah, so I just love how instrumental this album is, right? Like how they... So that's another reason why I thought it would be cool to have kind of a joint clip for those two songs, because that's three minutes of instruments, basically.

of just instrumental music. I mean, yeah, you've got his vocals in Kid A. But again, like, it's hidden away behind those effects to where, you know, like you said, it sounds like a paranoid android again, basically. Yeah, dude, that's the whole thing. Like, that's what he was trying to get away from melody and focus more on rhythm. And I just want to say that's one of my favorite, Philip Selway drum beats.

I fucking love that drumbeat. But yeah, man, that's... I faded it out just as you started to sing just because, like... Well, in the second clip of the National Anthem, I only cut out like maybe 30 seconds. We're pretty much going to play the whole song. But, yeah, that was pretty much all just rhythm.

Yeah, his drumbeats do remind me of, like a lot of times they are really simple like drum almost like a drum track you know yes man and dude i've said it so many times on this podcast dude that is my favorite kind of drummer um that's the reason i love jim eno from spoon you know not every drummer can do that effectively yeah i mean but what's interesting is for for what they're doing on kid a it lends itself to the more like the shift toward more electronic music, you know? Well, yeah, and there's songs that we're going to share today that are straight up, uh, looped, you know, drum beats, like on a computer,

not even behind a real, like, acoustic kit. You know, it's weird because it, it's kind of seems like the other members of the band kind of shifted towards this type of music along with Tom York, you know. So one thing about this album, the recording process, I mean, it spanned, you know, what, let's see, from what 90, what was it, 97 when OK Computer came out to 2000. That's three years. They recorded in four different studios in three different countries. But the writing process and like the ideas and all that.

you know, of course, took a long time. I mean, it's three years in between releases. And of course, there were a lot of, you know, it was kind of a fractious period for the band because, like I mentioned earlier, like the other band members

are like, okay, where's my place in the band then if we're not even going to have, like this entire track, there's no real drums. You know, what am I going to do? You know, that kind of stuff. Yeah. I mean, but, but, you know, just like, just like with Spoon, like, you know, they had a kind of defining moment. And with the other albums we're going to cover, you'll see that this is, I mean, this is radiohead now.

Like, this is, they became Radiohead with Kid A. Yeah, I mean, what's interesting is like, usually when I see Spoon live and then they do a song that on the track, on the recording at least didn't have. a guitar part or something like that, they'll usually find something to do, you know. Like they'll rework it for the live show. Right, right, right. Yeah, and I was checking out some live footage of Radiohead around this time, and they do the same thing. I mean, of course, Philip plays those beats, even if it's an electronic beat on the song.

You know, he plays it behind his kit. Same with Jamino with Spoon. I like, just like what you were saying. So let's finish up the rest of National Anthem. Like I said, really all I fade out, or the only part that's missing is like a little instrumental bit in between the verses. So we're going to fade back into verse two. I don't play the rest of the song, really, but there's a really cool horns section

that pops up. I think it's, I want to say it might be the first time that they, you hear horns in a radio head song. And it's really fucking cool. So here is clip two from track three, the national anthem. So it's probably safe to say this is where he is drawing influence from Miles Davis, right? I mean, yeah, right? Like, Bitches brew, right?

Because we talked about that earlier. Yeah, I think he draws influence from the Bitches Brew sessions. And that, you know, Miles Davis kind of was experimenting with recording techniques back then. And that's kind of where Tommy pulled influences from is just in the way that they said about recording bitches, brun. That's what I read. But yeah, of course, you know, I'm sure he pulled in those horns. Yeah, because he was, I know he was listening to Miles Davis a lot. So they had, it was, that was pretty much all saxophone and trombone.

There were eight players in that recording. Man, it just, just kind of gets like manic at the end there, you know? Yeah, it definitely does. You know, and I could take or leave that, right? But it's obviously they're going, they're doing that for a reason. What I liked about it is that drum track, dude, like that, that repetitive. like you said, like looped, beat kind of feeling behind Philip Selway's drumbeat, that's the constant in that song, you know?

Everything else is just going to shit, but that drum beat's still just going and going. I don't know, man. I just love it. Yeah, that is cool. Yeah. And the lyrics there, dude, I'm just going to read it. It's really tiny. He says, everyone, everyone around here.

everyone is so near it's holding on it's holding on everyone everyone is so near everyone has got fear it's holding on and then he just keeps saying like it's holding on he just keeps doing that over and over it's like the horns just get more crazy and crazy i love how he just starts to like elevate his voice and kind of like almost scream at the end like i faded out but it gets even crazier at the end and He continues to just say it's holding on. It's holding on. That's one of those moments in the album, dude, that just gets me every time. So that's probably why his drum beat is so consistent, right?

Because that drum beat, it's holding on. Maybe I'm, yeah, maybe I'm reading too far into it. Maybe. But that's cool. It depends on what the meaning of those lyrics are. Like, if he's saying, like, it's holding on, maybe he's talking about, like, while everything around you is going crazy, you know. Yeah, you just got to.

There's some sort of, yeah. Yeah. Now, I mean, you know, Tom York is not known for, like, inspirational lyrics. So I don't know if that's, like, especially OK Computer was like a, it was like a sort of a, like, assessment of like looking into the future, like our dependence on technology and stuff. That's kind of what that whole thing was about. Yeah.

Yeah. So let's move on, showing. our next clip is going to be a few tracks down. Dude, we can't talk about, we can't not talk about Austin that baseline is. Oh, that song. Yeah, dude.

Just starts the song right out, you know? Yeah. And that's another thing that's consistent almost throughout the whole song. But yeah, what a fucking awesome baseline, dude. Yep. Just iconic, you know. Yeah, which one plays bass?

Is it Johnny's bro? Yeah, it's his brother. Yeah. Cool. Those brothers can play some mean strings, you know? All right. Do you want to do optimistic now? Yeah, dude.

I love optimistic. Yeah, me too. That's so funny. Oh, dude, okay, hang on. One sec. I wanted to kind of bring something up here. So we're not playing track four. That one's called How to Disappear Completely.

So there's kind of a really telling backstory to this song. Tom York wrote How to Disappear. completely during their touring years for okay computer he wrote it after playing a huge outdoor concert uh i think in dublin or something and you really don't have to know anything else about the song just think about the name how to disappear completely that's how tom york felt and when he's standing on that stage just in a you know just a fucking sea of people think about that dude you're the one that everyone is focusing on, but in your mind,

you're completely just, you're gone. You know, like that's how, that's where he was in his mind. Like, none of this matters. Like,

he was really struggling with, with that, like, the rock and roll mindset. And he, he just, he couldn't think of anything that was more pointless

than being a rock star. Yeah, I could see, dude, I could see that being, being something that goes through. Like, if you're,

if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're a genuine, musician and you're not out there like you didn't set out to make it big and like you're a genuine artist

and musician and you get a mega hit on the radio and then all of a sudden you're you're packing arenas and stuff and everybody showed up just to hear that one song and you're like I've got all these other great songs that I've written it probably does start to get you know that's it happened to

it's happened to so many bands you know I don't I can't think of the guy's name at the moment but that happened to LCC sound system. There's a fucking documentary on it. Right. The name of the album, the, just play the hits or whatever. Shut up and play the hits. Yeah, exactly. That's the same. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Yep. All right. So yeah, you know what Radiohead did? They said fuck all this. Let's do something completely different. Who fucking cares what the

record label wants? Who cares what our fans are expecting? Let's do something different. So here's track six on K-Dade. It is called. I got a couple clips for you. I love that little keyboard number, man. That's cool, man. That's like a subtle change, like a subtle addition that really changes the whole feel of that, of that part of the song. Yeah. So that clip was a little bit long, but I wanted to get to the whole this little piggy number that he did.

You know what I mean? This one's optimistic. This one went to market. That's basically this, you know, this little piggy went when it came home or whatever right i thought that was really clever and cool um yeah dude what so what is it about the song that you like so much i feel like for me this is just the first time uh where you kind of hear the whole band as a band again it sounds more like uh you know it could have been another song off of okay computer or something like that yeah it's more in line with

with their alternative rock sound. I mean, it's still a little bit different, but it's not like the entire album is nothing but them sort of going off on this different route, you know. Yeah. That's kind of like going back to that quote that I, you know, that I said from earlier, you know, it's kind of, it's like finding yourself,

you know, walking around in an unfamiliar city. Right, right. It's a radio head album, you know, but it kind of, It takes a while before you start to pick up on all those hidden alleyways. And the band starts to reveal themselves the longer, the more you listen to the album and the more times you listen to it again and again. God, dude, this, so I think I mentioned earlier, this might be,

it's a tie for me between Kid A and Amnesiac. And these two songs, these two albums were, I mean, a lot of these songs were written around the same time, too. I mean, I'm jumping the gun. We're going to cover Amnesiac next. But, yeah, man, there's just something about this time for the band, you know, for Tom York and his writing. And, yeah, it's just something about it, dude. Yeah, Amnesiac is killer, man.

And the problem is, the problem for us at least, or for me at least, my four favorite songs are singles on here. Really? On amnesiac? On amnesiac, yeah. I might be wrong. We're jumping it, dude. All right, all right. We'll talk about that.

We got a couple more clips to play. We'll play some clips from some of the singles maybe. Who cares, dude? Fuck it, man. You know what? Who's going to bust us, right? Who's going to bust us? Nobody.

Exactly. I just want to read some of the lyrics here because I like him. So from the top of the song, Flies are buzzing around my head. vultures circling the dead, picking up every last crumb. The big fish eat the little ones. The big fish...

The big fish... The big fish eat the little ones. Not my problem. Give me some. This is straight up like little Richard. You can try the best you can. The best you can is good enough. You know what?

You know, that's a positive thing to say, right? sure hey you know what best you can do that's that's that's that's good enough so i'm going to do a similar thing that i did earlier with uh kid a fading into a national anthem uh we're not even going to really cover the next song after optimistic which is called in limbo um but i fucking love this little number that they do in between optimistic and in limbo i don't know if it's a song idea that they weren't able to hash out or what. But it's just really cool. It's just a loop.

It's a tiny little loop. And it goes straight into in limbo. And I'm just going to kind of fade it out right at the beginning there. Anyways, this is the very end of optimistic fading into in limbo. I fucking love that so much, dude. Yeah, that's a great. So cool. I mean, it almost sounds like a.

Like a jam session kind of thing. Something, man. But like, do you notice how they like almost, they cut off the beat and then loop it? At the end of Optimistic there. Right, right, yeah. It cuts off that measure or whatever you call it. Like, but it's so cool, man.

Yeah, anyways. I love that, dude. So, um, our last pick is going to be track eight. And I don't know about you, dude. But I feel like. in all honesty so this is

idio tech and I feel like this is the first song of theirs that I really fell in love with yeah me too this is the first song that I remember hearing

of theirs that really caught my attention and idio tech really sets the stage for what they start doing on hail to the thief which is after amnesiac but they had started experimenting and doing really interesting things

with like programming and like in actual like almost electronic beats and stuff yeah back back then but i mean they really really uh sort of leaned into that on hail to the thief but anyway we'll get to that later but yeah this song is just great man i just love it the lyrics and now we'll talk about we should almost i mean we can't we can't if you want but i would like to hear the whole song honestly let's do it i mean i know it's i know it's five minutes and nine seconds but there's a reason i want to play the whole song so let's do it just the the the the the the the beats man you know the electronic that it's the first i you know it might

be the first radio head track that really has that heavy like almost like a house beat you know yeah uh techno sort of heavy beat to it and like well yeah we talked we talked about philip in the way he drums and how it's it does have that repetitive looped beat quality but but yeah this one even more so it's um i mean it's not four on the floor or anything but it's just yeah dude it drives the whole song pretty much i love the lyrics too man it's just great i don't know what it's about but uh i just love that part where he transitions to uh ice age coming you know uh-huh uh and they almost isolate just the track and then they add these more sort of percussion There's another layer of percussion added.

Things are pulled away and it's just his vocals in the beats. And we talked about how we love how down-timore artists do that, you know. Right. Yeah, I like the line, we're not scaremongering. This is really happening. That's, dude. Yeah. Oh.

And you know, that women and children first line, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I love it, dude. Yeah. It's just great. So why did you want to play? play the whole song through.

I'm just curious. Let's talk about this first of a second. Hold on. Let's talk about these lyrics for a second. Okay. Ice age coming. Ice age coming. Women and Children First.

I wonder if we's talk about, uh, maybe, maybe I'm stretching again because I'm... The Titanic? Yeah. I mean, I say, that comes to mind to me too, but... But, you know, I say... I mean, that's the, that's the famous, uh, line, right? I mean, not just from the freaking James Cameron movie, but women and children first, man.

But, you know, he's not talking about an iceberg. He's talking about that age. No. Yeah, that would be funny if it was, Iceberg coming, iceberg coming. Yeah, right. But anyway. But yeah.

And then I like the chorus is, here I'm alive, everything all of the time. There is something about those lyrics, man. Right. You know, we're not scaring. mongering, this is really happening. Here, I'm alive, everything all the time. This is all fucking happening. I say it's coming, bro. I don't know what it means, but it speaks to me, man. Yeah, it's just a, it's just a great song, man. It's a great song. Yeah. So why did you want to listen to it all the way through? I just wanted to make sure that we got that full because I love the, I love the way that there's a good segment of that song that's just,

the instrument instrumentation right just the the beat and the in the in the in the in the in the keys and stuff like that and the vocals are pulled away from it like I wanted to make sure we got to that part because then his vocals slowly fade back in you know yeah and it's almost like it's almost like a it's his voice is almost programmed because it's not in the children yeah exactly dude and if you listen if you if you if you watch or listen to live performances like they play around with that a lot more. Like they do use just clips of him saying that,

or I don't know if he uses one of those like loop pedals to loop his own voice, but they play around with that even more when you see it live. Yeah. Where he just kind of cuts up those words and kind of moves them around even more. It's really cool. And I know you've been lucky enough to actually see them live. I haven't actually seen them, but I've watched enough performances. Man, Tom York is a fucking black.

to watch, dude. Oh, yeah. He really gets into it. I mean, like, you could tell he feels... The way he sways back and forth and just, like, he, like, he bobs around like a fucking, like, like it, like a bobblehead, dude. Like, yeah, I mean, he's shaking the whole time. He's, he's being, like, I don't want to say.

Moved by the spute or what? He lets, yeah, he lets the music, like, possess him, you know what I mean? Yeah. I think we all remember his dance moves in the, uh, Lotus Flower music video, right? Yeah, yeah. That was when he, was that his first step, was that his first step, out into single doing solo stuff? No, that's a radio head song.

Oh. Really, that was a radio head? Yeah, it's on the King of Limbs. Oh, shit. Dude, you know what? I never really gave that album a good listen. It's got some good stuff on it, including Lotus Flower.

Lois Flower was a great song. Oh, I love that song. Yeah, I don't know why. I always thought that was a solo song. No. Well, shut me up. Maybe, did you just think that because he was just in that video by himself?

Yeah, it's because of the music video. All right, so that's it. That's the songs we picked for Kid A. I do want to say that Morning Bell is another one of my favorites. The members of Radiohead love Morning Bell so much that they fucking wrote a song to play along with it, basically, on Amnesiac. Did you know that, dude? Well, yeah, I knew that... I knew that Morning Bell was a song that showed up on,

hold on a minute, say that again, because I remember thinking the same thing. There's Morning Bell. Yeah, and then there's Morning Bell slash Amnesiac on Amnesia. Okay, yeah, yeah, all right, yeah. So what I was thinking is we could backtrack a little bit on Amnesiac. We'll play Morning Bell from Kid A and then play Morning Bell from Amnesiac and kind of compare the two.

I've never listened to them side by side or anything. I think that'd be cool to do. Right. Anyways, so that's our picks for Kid A's 2000 release. Did I say Kid A? For Radiohead's 2000 release, Kid A. And again, we're continuing on our coverage of all things Radiohead leading up to in rainbows. And what are we doing?

Are we doing REM next? If that's true, I'm fucking pumped. We are, dude. I think we are, yeah. I looked at your schedule. Yeah, dude. I'm pretty excited too, man. I got to decide what album that we should talk about.

But, yeah, R.E.M. is one of those bands that I got into later in life. Well, I mean, shit, man. Let's face it. We were too young. We missed R.E. Yeah, but everybody remembers it's the end of the world as we know it. and like, you know, losing my religion.

But were we even alive when that came out, dude? Yes, man. The hell? When did that come out? It's the end of the world as we know it? Yeah. Shit, I don't even know. But that's, that's in the, that's on the, you know,

came out in probably the 90s. I think that was, uh, 87, dude, we were, we just barely made it. 87? That's on document? Oh, my bad. Yeah. I'm really stoked to get into some art.

R-I-M. And then, yeah, and then we'll dive into Amnesiac for our next full length after that one. God, man, there's just so many great, it's going to be tough for me to decide what album recovered, but. Well, you got two weeks, bro, so. All right. Get on it, brother bear. All right.

So, as always, you can find out more on our website. No-filler podcast.com. we've got our show notes on there we've got links to all the sources that we pull from you know if you want to read it a little bit more dive into some of the

interviews that we pull material from we've got links on there I'm going to for sure throw up a link to a live recording of Radiohead in 2000 there's some DVD that came out

I think in between Kid A and Amnesiac that has this, I mean, it looks like a home recording. I mean, it looks like a dude, just some dude in the audience brought his camcorder. But the sound quality is great. It's a really cool snapshot of their live performances around 2000 that's up on YouTube. I'll throw that on our show notes. and not sure what we're going to cover for our side track for next week but I'm going to pull from some of Tommy York's influences from around that time and we'll figure out something and yeah that's going to do it for us today

for our outro we're going to do a little bitch's brew I don't know if you wanted to cover this album as a full length I don't know dude I feel like it's kind of hard to do like that kind of avant-garde out there jazz for a full. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't, yeah, it's one of those albums that you really do need to listen to, just put it on and listen to. Like, it's hard, like he said, it's really hard to. Yeah, we can't do just clips of that shit.

To dissect it and, like, play a clip and, like, you've got to hear the whole session to really get a feel for it, you know. Yeah. Yeah, so we're talking about Miles Davis's 1970 release, Pitches Brew, which is just, I mean, I mean, that's a major influence. That album influenced countless musicians. I feel like we've talked about Bitches Brew for a few different artists since starting this podcast. Tom York being one of them, he was majorly influenced by the recording of this album. We're going to fade out with probably my favorite one on the album.

This song is called Spanish Key, and it is the first. song on side C, I guess, disc two, if you've got it on record. Yeah, that's going to do it for us today. We will shout at you next week.

My name is Quentin. My name is Travis.