Saturday, October 04, 2008

Song I can't get out of my head #2 - "The Rip" by Portishead

So one of the songs that has been on repeat lately is "The Rip" by Portishead off their latest (and 10 years in the waiting) album "3".
I hate to use the word "haunting" when describing music or movies or any other artistic endeavor, because that word is used to death, but there it is- ghostly
Theremin in the background, emotional vocals by Beth Gibbons, mid-song tempo change, it all works.
I saw Portishead at Coachella last April and they were definitely in the top 3 of the more then 20 bands I saw there. (maybe someday I will get around to writing about it) I have liked these guys for years, but I did not realize that is had been so long since their last album and tour.
"3" is a very different direction from their trip-hop/ lounge sound of their earlier albums, you do not put this CD on for a dinner party unless you have a lot of goth friends, too many minor keys and dissonant electronic sounds. Although this is not a hard album to listen to it's just not background music, as some of their earlier stuff could be.




Another reason I like The Rip is the Radiohead cover version that got posted up on YouTube a couple of months ago. Thom Yorke's vocals really work for this song,

I am not one of the "Radiohead are our Gods" army, but I have been listening to their stuff a lot more lately. One of the things that has made me like them more is that I have been watching
this and other videos where they perform covers, and you can see they just really like playing their favorite songs with their buddies, which is probably not something you can say about many of the world's biggest musical acts.


And in yet another link in the musical web in my brain:

Special Bonus Sooper Radiohead Covers!



Did you know that there are 43 ukulele versions of Radiohead's "Creep" on YouTube? Yes, there are.
Here's a good one.


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