How to Disappear Completely and Order a Grande Skim Latte

Nobody really cared that much when Paul McCartney signed to Starbucks' new record label. But now, rumors are going around that Radiohead may be signing with Starbucks as well. Before today, I could never have imagined running down to Starbucks to pick up a new Radiohead CD, but with the music business completely in the toilet and nothing in the foreseeable future to turn sales around, I have a feeling this may actually end up being one of the less bizarre music related stories this year.

radiohead rorschach, a pretty funny article about forcing fifth graders to listen to radiohead and draw. even eleven year olds know that kid a is their best album.

so, i made it through the field day fest. first of all, it rained all day. second of all, what was supposed to be a sort of celebration of the leftfield (sigur ros were headliners for cyring out loud) and in the tradition of brittain's great reading and glastonbury festivals, ended up being pretty much lollapalooza at giant's stadium. the concert was truncated to one day and the number of bands cut in half (with some shady decisions in that department-spiritualized over sigur ros? ours and gemma hayes (who ever heard of them?) over royksopp). there was noone on the main stage that wasn't on a major label. while it's always great seeing the alterna-rock greats, there was only one electronic act on the bill (underworld, who absolutely rocked and woke the crowd up), and absolutely noone representing the new garage rock stuff that the kids seem to dig these days.

which is not to say the concert sucked, because it didn't. it was actually pretty fun, and would have been really great if it weren't for the cold raininess and numerous technical difficulties that the cold raininess wrought (not the least of which was a stage hand hitting beck in the chest with a metal pipe right before his set, causing him to rush to the hospital and cancel his performance).

by the end of the day, people were pretty much exhausted, uncomfortable, and a bit underwhelmed by the whole thing. then radiohead decided to put on their best show in years. they were absolutely phenomenal, and by the end of their set the wet socks and five dollar ponchos didn't seem to matter so much.

as the year goes on it looks like this will be the year that we really begin to see major shifts in the music industry. i'm realizing that every album i'm anticipating will be available for download weeks, if not months, before the actual release date. case in point; radiohead. the new album isn't due until june, but it's already being traded in its entirety all over the place.

the up side to this is that lately when leaks like this have happened, the record company will throw in a bonus cd of b-sides (which would be great since i'm sick of buying those 2 part uk import singles) or a dvd with random material. people like me just can't get enough radiohead anything.

and how is the album? some stuff is really amazing, some other stuff is just too wierd for me to have an opinion on after a couple listens.

a release list of what's going to be showing up at your local cd store this year. oh.my.god.people. look at march 25th. new radiohead and portishead on the same day? catch me, i'm falling!

here's hoping portishead new one goes back to the soulful sound of "dummy" and is less ummm... disturbing than their second album. oh, and massive attack's new one finally drops on feb 11. i've heard a couple tracks off the album and they're sublime, but very much in the same vein as mezzanine, so don't expect another "safe from harm" or "protection".