wMC h a , he -_ . .; _ '= ,, , i "4f5' ii i,._ { ;, ,.4 The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com ( Thursday, October 11, 2007 Through the hype, Radiohead makes sense of everything By Chris Gaerig I Daily Music Editor How this changes things Radiohead won't reinvent the music industry, but small stores could take a hit By MATT EMERY Daily Arts Writer The final nail in the coffin. The big middle finger. The death of the record industry. There's beenno lack of hyperbole attached to Radiohead's choice to release its highly antici- pated album In Rainbows digitally, without the aid of a record compa- ny, and - maybe most shockingly - allowing the buyer, er, listener, to name his price for the album. Most Internet pundits seem to think the death of the music industry has arrived, the tipping point finally reached. But is this really the end for the record companies? one heralded band's album ends decades of label tradition? The release is certainly ground- breaking. Radiohead believes rely- ing on word of digital mouth - blogs, Pitchfork, the band's website - is preferable to a record company to promote its album. It's no secret the members of Radiohead are outspo- ken proponents of liberal causes. Lead singer Thom Yorke incessantly blogs about his dislike for the Bush Administration, the world's poor environmental policy and the need for fair trade. So it comes as no sur- prise the group would be anti-big business and, therefore, anti-major label. What is surprising is thatthe band skipped out on any record company at all. It had been speculated that Radiohead mayselect atinyindepen- dent label to market its upcoming, mandatory chart-topper. The notion would have fit well with the band's mindset: Avoid big business while helping an indie record company reach instant prosperity and star- dom. But maybe that was part of the problem. By selectingone unknown label to distribute the record in just a night's span, the label would wake to find millions of dollars at its bedside and thus another devil-incarnate record companies would be born. But even with all the method- ology behind the album's release, people forgetthis is Radiohead we're talking about - possibly the biggest band in the world with one of the greatest followings. For a startup indie band, the online release of an album would be worthless. MySpace essentially plays this role and rarely, if ever, have we seen a band come to fruition through some sample songs placed on a site geared toward teens and stalkers. See RADIOHEAD, Page 4B ON SCREEN "The Devil Came on Horseback" is a filmic journey into the tragedy in Darfur, Sudan, where black Africans are being systemically killed. Follow the events through exclu- sive photographs and the personal testimony of U.S. Marine Captain Brian Stei- dIe. It will play for three days starting this Sunday, $6.75 with student ID. The Daily Arts guide to the best upcoming events - it's everywhere you should be this weekend and why. his album doesn't make collapsing sense. The way it was none of the recorded, the way it nect to the album is a was assembled, * widely col the music moments a itself. None of Radiohead As recoi it makes any has been ti sense. In Rainbows '90s - circ It's heart- Computer breaking. It's Rainbows gorgeously according optimistic. It's as soft as it is, "Nude," " loud. It's subtly bombastic. It "Faust ARP just doesn't make sense. the guitar- But such is the tradition and puter, whe legacy of Radiohead. A group "Reckoner" obviously aware of its foundation cent of th of sonic mystery, astronomical KidA/Amn complexity and intensely loyal But as ar cult fan base, Radiohead has no less the tr: fear. It's the onjy group that can Bends and h legitimatelyattempt InRainbows Computer - given its expansive career and this album the album's unorthodox release ized as suc - and get away with it. But as strangely this latest, Internet-only release Radiohead (for now) is entirely enigmatic ily likened and essentially impossible to wave after understand among its predeces- ing ashore sors, so too is Radiohead itself engulfing e In Rainbows, whether Radio- This albur head released it as such or not, feels like is not an album in the traditional ment by th sense. Nothing about this disc something breathes cohesiveness. Its move- swept away ments are shaky, aggressive and recordings DANCE PREVIEW dance finds free reign By BEN VANWAGONER For the Daily In one corner, four or five guys in beanies, zip-upS and Vans are b-buying. Across the room, slim girls in dance pants bend and snap out jazz dance moves with easy Improv Jam precision. But it's what's happening Tomorrow in the middle of the room at8 p.m. that has everyone's atten- tion. A paraplegic couple is Atthe Betty Pease moving on the floor, bend- Bane luiding, ing with the music while a StudisOse few dancers weave around and between them. They are just as much a part of the dance as anyone else - an essential part, even, because they move in ways no one else can, and with a bold- ness that even the dance majors can't seem to muster. This is the Improv Jam. The Jamis what you might call "free impro- See IMPROV JAM, Page 4B - and, more telling, m even remotely con- other. In essence, this a mixtape: a mass of lected, disconnected ligned in single-file. rding for this album raced back to the late a the masterpiece OK - the entirety of In can be broken down to prior releases. Bodysnatchers" and P" obviously speak to driven days of Com- reas "15 Step" and "are more reminis- ce glitchy, electronic esiac period. n album that's more or ansition between The Kid A - assuming OK was never released, would've material- h - In Rainbows feels Put of place in 2007. 's career is most eas- to the coming tides: wave of power, crash- e, wiping away and verything in its path. m, at least at times, a retroactive move- e group, searching for that had already been y by years and years of 3. But this shouldn't be con- sidered a wholly unfortunate development, because, by most standards, Radiohead's best days are long since past. Recreating the paranoid beauty of OK Com- puter seems impossible until you hear the romantic "Nude." The track's cumulous strings and bobbing bass are heartbreaking, yet sunnier than earlier work. You don't listen to the song, you float through it. It engulfs your every sense and wraps you up like an anxious lover. "15 Step" is similarly nostalgic. Its jazzy undertones give way to percus- sively driven twerps and twitch- es. Yet with all its familiar piec- es, it's increasingly difficult to view in Rainbows as a Radiohead release. Shedding the mantra of several of its previous records (an overarching concept contex- tualizing each disc), the album stands afar from Radiohead's other work. It plays as a coalesc- ing retrospective rather than a unique, unified album. And yet seemingly without prior knowl- edge of Radiohead's catalog, In Rainbows would be a rather easily accessible collection, the most striking contradiction in this heap of contradictions. But maybe In Rainbows is the SO, WAIT: HOW CAN I GET RADIOHEAD'S AWESOME NEW ALBUM? 1. DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM You can name your price and download the album at www.inrainbows.com. 2. BUY THE CD Radiohead is close to securing a deal with a label to release a physical version of In Rain- bows. More info to come, 3. BUY THE PACKAGE The band is offering a "discbox" package, $80, for in Rainbows: a two-record set, a CD and an enhanced CD with bonus tracks. The packaging looks like a hardcover book. It's scheduledto ship Dec. 3. full realization of Radiohead's prolific career. A career that travels sinusoidally rather than in disconnected movements. With its spacious lines weav- ing back upon themselves, this album has finally reached the crest of the wave once again - a point seemingly first met, though more magnificently, with OK Computer. Maybe this album doesn't make sense. Or maybe it makes sense of everything. AT THE PODIUM American fiction writer and essayist Charles D'Ambrosio, well-known for his short-story collec- tion "The Point," will be reading tonight at 5 p.m. at the Rackham Ampi- theatre as part of the Zell visiting Writers Series. The event is free. ON STAGE Tony Award-winning musical "Big River," based on Mark Twain's "Huck- leberry Finn," has seen nearly 20 years of success on Broadway and will-be performed by the Dept. of Musical Theatre this weekend at the Mendels- sohn Theatre. Thursday through Sunday, tickets are $9 with student ID. IN CONCERT Detroit native and Gram- my-award winning Dianne Reeves is coming to Hill Auditorium Saturday at 8 p.m. The world-renowned jazz singer - especially known for her "world music" sound - will per- form with musicians Billy Childs, Reuben Rogers, Gregory Hutchinson and Romero Lubambo. Tickets are $10-48. Students perform at last month's Improv Jam, where nothing is a surprising sight. 0