Went to Everyday Music (they don’t actually have a website, the losers1) the other night, and lurking in the used bins I found an out-of-print (is that even the right term for a CD?) EP by Radiohead that was released in 1998, made up of B-sides that didn’t make the cut for their “OK Computer” album. The CD is called “Airbag / How Am I Driving”. Seven songs total, one of them just the album version of “Airbag”, which I’d already heard.
I bought it, just because I already know I like Radiohead, and I thought I had all their music. It’s kind of cool finding brand-new music like that; I thought I’d memorized their entire catalog.
After I bought it, plunking down eight dollars and fifty cents, I went to Starbucks and ripped it to my iPod (I love that!) and listened to it on the bus home. While ripping it, I checked Amazon and found that it went, used, for fifty bucks or more! Guess I got a good deal, then…
Anyway, these songs are great… and seem to represent a transition from their earlier stuff, like “Creep”, to their newer, more electronica stuff. Nifty.
I don’t know if it’s jut the novelty of stuff I hadn’t heard before, or just the fact that I used to think “The Bends” was their greatest album and these remind me a little of that CD, but a couple of the songs on here have really stuck with me.
Like this one:
Palo Alto
In a city of the future
It is difficult to concentrate
Meet the boss, meet the wife
Everybody’s happy
Everyone is made for life
In a city of the future
It is difficult to find a space
I’m too busy to see you
You’re too busy to wait
But I’m okay, how are you?
Thanks for asking, thanks for asking
But I’m okay, how are you?
I hope you’re okay too
Everyone one of those days
When the sky’s California blue
With a beautiful bombshell
I throw myself into my work
I’m too lazy, I’ve been kidding myself for so long
I’m okay, how are you?
Thanks for asking, thanks for asking
But I’m okay, how are you?
I hope you’re okay too
1 Update: Since then, they’ve managed to scrape together a website. 4 May 2009 – BAM