Radiohead Fans=Wack-a-dos

I was over at the fork this morning as per the usual, to see what hip music I need to mention at my various cocktail parties. They had a news bit about the Radiohead. Don't bother creating a new tab and searching Pitchfork, i've got it right here for you.

Now. I am a grand fan of the musical stylings of the Radiohead. I don't think there has been another band that has done what they've done for as long as they have done it. It's almost unreal that a band could be so consistent while simultaneously avoiding redundencies. Nit pick that statement if you must, but tell me who else has done what they've done. Beatles, Miles Davis, and maybe Bowie--but I consider him to be a mooch.

That's pretty good company.

A lot of people are put off by their fan base. Which is odd because it runs the gamut from frat boys to indie rockers. That's the full white spectrum. Such a diverse group.

I'm not put out by that group of honkeys, their online support though, defies description and frightens me.

I was once a super fan. I'd check the fan sites everyday for news. News in the loosest sense of the word, of course. I'd often wonder, "What happens when you wake up in the morning and just don't give a shit about Radiohead. What happens when you say, 'Fuck those guys, I've heard every song and bootleg a 100 times. I'm not reporting that Jonny Greenwood is in an empty room ever again.'" Well, I've never got an answer to that question, but perhaps today I got a clue.

To be a super fan, perhaps you need to be wired in a specific way, where everything matters, everything counts, even when it doesn't.

I once started on that route with them. The Radioheads like to sneak messages into their blogs and website. For instance you can occasionally highlight the entire page and find text that was written in the same color as the background. I appreciated the reward for nerdiness that came with finding such messages.

But now I've got some distance from that perspective and I just think it's crazy.

Radiohead are inventing their own language now. And the super fans are translating.

Does this mean anything to any of you?




Because it means something to these wackados.