Radiohead: The Ultimate Inspiration (Weird Fishes/Arpeggi)

Ever since elementary school, I remember scrolling through my father's iPod nano: through his Men At Work, his Clash, his U2, and finally, his Radiohead. A few songs from their surreal, warm album "In Rainbows" made his daily rotation of music. I wouldn't spend too much time on this section of his iPod at 11 years old. I didn't really know what they were singing about and the abstract melodies were difficult to latch onto, but they most definitely inspired an inquisitiveness in me. I was eager to figure them out. They felt larger than life. They sounded like they had a grip on the impossible; they understood the secrets of human-universe interaction, and they explored it in the most classic way possible... I felt like I would never reach any level of expertise (or just genius) close to theirs, but that's what intrigued me more than ever.

Over the past few years of my life, Radiohead has slowly "crept" up my spinal cord (I'm sorry), and now I feel like they've finally found their place in my brain. I have finally studied this band with my undivided attention, and I've decided that this band is my all-time favorite. To me, it just makes sense: they've just added to the list of perfectly crafted melodies, impeccable abstract lyricism, and absolutely original concepts. (And please, just forget about the Creep reference, and the song in general really; I choose to disassociate it from their catalog).

Today, I sit in my chair, reflecting on the Radiohead concert I saw last night. Instead of 5 musicians on stage, I saw 5 individual geniuses in their natural habitat, twisting and turning in and out of spirit and performance. I remember the best part of the concert: their transcendental dual-song performance of Everything In Its Right Place and Idioteque. I then compare this moment to their simpler rock ballads like Karma Police and Street Spirit (Fade Out). The diversity in this set of music could be one of the most outstanding aspects of this band.

There's so much more to discuss, but I feel like their music speaks louder than the words I'm using to try to explain it, so here's my favorite song of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNRCvG9YtYI

Super 8 has a song obviously inspired by Weird Fishes/Arpeggi; hopefully it's not too similar. What really adds a magical entity to the song is its almost Beethoven-esque chord progressions and resolutions. I will forever hold the argument that this syncopating, repetitive yet unpredictable melody is one of the greatest ever created. And the fact that it's being played through Jonny Greenwood's subtle, clean-tone electric guitar in triplet arpeggios that make little mathematical sense... it's just perfect.

I wrote a new melody that incorporated confusing counting methods and arpeggios in the song Tree Branches, on track to release at the end of this month.