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BY RICHARD MARTIN couple of years ago was awash in MUSIC this tiresome irony," he says. "It wasn't correct to be serious about Radiohead paints itself out of a corner with being in a band—which is rubbish." Greenwood sees Radiohead as hav- its new record, OK Computer. ing more in common with acts that earnestly incorporate technology in their music, and, in fact, the electron- A NORTHWEST PUB ically savvy collective Massive Attack The Art of Rock FULL SERVICE BAR lltl PREVIEW plans to remix OK Computer to further 20 NORTHWEST DRAUGHT BEERS stress this relationship. This might PIZZA BY THE SLICE OR WHOLE PIE The English band Radiohead has suggest the sort of overindulgence a one-hit wonder, but they were DEEP DISH PIZZA equated with the dreaded art rock, Big Stink 2: come to be categorized with a term wrong. The first single from OK CALZONES • SALADS • PASTA The Offspring, that many musicians would consider Computer is the 6 1/2-minute but Greenwood maintains that HOT GRINDER SANDWICHES Candlebox, unflattering: art rock. It's a tag that's "Paranoid Android," and it has nes- Radiohead simply jells as a band. Radiohead, Cake, been affixed to everything from King tled onto modern-rock radio playlists "I think we're very impatient," he 50 SW THIRD AVE. Meredith Brooks. Crimson to Queen to Talking Heads, alongside terse, ska-inflected songs (CORNKR or SW 3RD AND ASH) The Dandy Warhols, explains. "It takes patience to do 12 223-1375 Matchbox 20, and like it or not, ifs the label writers that sound like corny ad jingles in identical-sounding, hard-rocking, Mon-Thurs 11 am-Midnight Smashmouth, The have pinned on Radiohead. comparison. And despite lacking the ugly, distorted-guitar rock songs. Fri & Sat 'til lam • Sun 11 am-1 Ipm Refreshments, "What's art rock?" guitarist Jonny good looks and infectious hooks of Patience is something we don't really GusGus, other feted Brit-pop bands, have." Cunninghams, Greenwood shoots back across the Folk Implosion, phone from his home in Oxford, Radiohead has become a Artificial Joy Club, England, when asked how he feels favorite among rock Discount Calling Pond, Doughboys, about the description. celebrities; Michael The Vents Stipe, Marilyn Manson, Estacada Timber Well, it's fancy arrangements, Madonna and Bono all Bowl, Industrial strange guitar solos, dramatic Way, Estacada, singing—how does that sound? attended a recent New 224-4400 York concert. "It doesn't sound like art, but it 12:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 3 sounds like us," he says. Greenwood's assess- The 12 tracks on Radiohead's new ment of that show hints $27.50 advance record, OK Computer (Capitol), are, at the secret to per minute in fact, artistic, though they're more Radiohead's achieve- 9.90 Radiohead's 26- like sketches than completed works. ments—its nonchalance. year-old guitarist, Since the quintet—Greenwood, his "It sort of felt like Jonny Greenwood, brother Colin on bass, Thorn Yorke they were all behind us says he never was on vocals and guitar, Ed O'Brien on and excited by what we Price is all times of day to any- part of Britain's guitar and Phil Selway on drums- were doing," he says of where in the continental U.S. fabled rave scene: released 1993's Pablo Honey and the star-studded crowd. S1.99 monthly fee applies. "I was sitting scored a pre-"Loser" slacker hit with "It wasn't just a photo around waiting for "Creep," it has nurtured a talent for Creeps No More: Radiohead broadens its sonic opportunity...there was LONG DISTANCE the Pixies and palette. stark, meandering and often beauti- none of the schmoozing Throwing Muses to 1-800-390-3678 ful pop songs. come over and tour, or publicity-seeking and excitedly Not pop in the Spice Girls sense, going on." The same goes for Radiohead's talking at school but in the sense of gripping melodic Rock stars, critics and fans alike live performances, he says. While m THE lunch breaks about passages that stray from orthodox have taken to the complex swagger they might be expected to re-create Kristin Hersh." composition. This can lead to unfo- of songs such as "Android," with its spiny guitar solos and vocal layer- STAMP PAD Whrrr Evcryomc'* mm Artlmt cused tracks that circle around like a mellifluous intro, glam-guitar and a ing onstage, the five members poorly mounted gyroscope, but haunting wind-down that has Yorke instead sacrifice some of their Jonny and Colin Radiohead's success asserts that the crooning over choral backing before albums' artfulness for old-fashioned Greenwood don't band knows its boundaries. all hell breaks loose at the conclu- spontaneity. "We're not ones for inspire the British In fact, the group's second album, sion. Elsewhere on OK Computer, preparing and planning and tabloids the way Radiohead goes on atmospheric rehearsing extremely hard," he says. Eclectic Mix of Oasis' Gallagher The Bends, contained no mega-hits, brothers do. "Ifs yet it broadened Radiohead's fanbase excursions ("No Surprises" and "Exit "We enjoy fear and unpredictability. Over 2500 Imago* more interesting to to the extent that OK Computer Music [for a Film]"); and conjures That's what touring is about. You have articles about debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. charts U2's and R.E.M.'s once-pastoral rock know it's wrong when you have Inspiring Noel punching Liam and, more shocking still, number 21 ("Let Down" and "Karma Police"). your set list on the back of a lami- Rubber Stamps than about Colin in the United States. According to Greenwood, his nate and it's the same every night. cuddling me," Such anomalies have become com- band's sprawling approach is born I find that very depressing, and and Supplies Jonny says. monplace with Radiohead. After from restlessness with Brit-pop's that's what a lot of bands do. So we ELMONT "Creep," many wrote off the band as status quo. "I think British music a just do the opposite." m 3423 SE B 231-7362 Brought to vou bv Preaenta of Mind

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JULY 30. 1997 WW CULTURE 27