The skies are gray, the weather is chilly and cold, and the streets always seem to be thoroughly soaked with the rain that intermittently blankets the landscape. That's how North Texas has been throughout the past week. It's on these days when I get contemplative, and I must say, when I get contemplative, I certainly get imaginative. And with the porcelain skies lingering overhead, dropping their pitter pattering rain on the roofs, I can't help but dream of the UK. It certainly doesn't help that I've been consuming myself with my recently purchased copy of series 1-3 of Skins - the only cityscape embedded on my vision being Bristol - but that's a story for another day.
The Biritish Isles are known for their unique style of music, and possibly one of the most famous/notorious/interesting ensembles to hail from the United Kingdom's contemporary music culture is Radiohead. With their intense musical numbers ranging from fast and loud, to deep and nearly silent, their take on music sets them apart from their peers, giving them few comparisons in style to other potentially related artists; their style is truly separate from the whole.
Radiohead is intensely known for both their mysterious attitudes - if the release of In Rainbows doesn't speak numbers about this, what does? - and their epic live performances. The difficulty of seeing Radiohead live is that it's quite cumbersome, as these self-proclaimed environmentalists simply don't tour very often. And when they do tour, they seem to make their tours as short as possible, seeing that they don't particularly like hurting the planet just by gallivanting to country after country impressing their drooling fans. When these tours are underway, tickets seem to disappear out of thin air as soon as they go on public sale, and it's almost a distinct privilege to attend such Radiohead affairs, even though the blokes successfully book some pretty amazing venues.
As a result, though their performances certainly are awesome and in high demand, seeing Radiohead perform live is still a mystery to many. Certainly, there are plenty of grainy, gaudy, low quality videos on YouTube. But how can a mere YouTube video give one a similar experience to actually attend a Radiohead concert? VH1 sought to try and become the bridge to this awesome event. Their series Live From The Basement features exclusive filmed performances of plenty of bands live.
And Radiohead is now one of the many eclectic line ups now notched on the series' belt. Radiohead's grandiose performance on VH1's Live From The Basement is quite the fabulous show, stretching a good 45 minutes, as the boys play songs off their latest release In Rainbows. If have haven't seen a Radiohead performance in person (this includes me), I can only recommend that this performance would be an excellent way to attempt to comprehend such a vastly wondrous sight.
Live From The Basement: Radiohead [In Rainbows] can be found in its full television-version entirety on YouTube, at this lovely little video that AustinBrock posted for all us greedy listeners. You can watch all 45 minutes in high definition right here on Voilà!, or right off of YouTube, in the privacy and comfortable space of your own home. Pop some popcorn, and immerse yourself! But bear to mind, this is only the performances released on television. If by the end of this length video you find yourself simply craving more of the wondrous British blokes, mosey on over to YouTube and search "radiohead live from the basement" to find a slew of other videos from the same performance that were not part of the television version of this performance. Oh, and of course, enjoy.
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