Comments on: OK MetaFilter

OK MetaFilter

carsonb — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:32:03 -0800

Back in June everyone was invited to cover a song from Radiohead's OK Computer for the July '12 MeFi Music Challenge #58. (Music Talk thread) Over the past 2 months—the challenge was extended at the end of July—48 songs were recorded covering the entire album and even one excellent B-side. So much about this challenge excited me, like recording and submitting my first (second, and sort-of third!) Music tracks. And I love Radiohead, so. But this part, where I pick my favorite cover version of each song on the album and build my perfect MeFi Music tribute, OK MetaFilter, that's the part I've really been looking forward to. Come inside for links to playlists for each track of the album so you can build yours too.

Per-track Playlists: 01 - Airbag 02 - Paranoid Android 03 - Subterranean Homesick Alien 04 - Exit Music (For A Film) 05 - Let Down 06 - Karma Police ^{07 - Fitter Happier} 08 - Electioneering 09 - Climbing Up The Walls 10 - No Surprises 11 - Lucky 12 - The Tourist Note that if you want your version of OK Computer to be in the right order on the playlist you create you have to start adding from the last track and work backwards. And my choices for OK MetaFilter: 01 - Airbag by Lutoslawski 02 - Paranoid Android by onehalfjunco 03 - Subterranean Homesick Alien by hanoixan 04 - Exit Music (For a Campfire) by Yours Shamelessly 05 - Let Down by The World Famous 06 - Karma Police by modernserf 07 - Fitter, Happier, World Famous by Yours Shamelessly & The World Famous 08 - Electioneering by Doleful Creature 09 - Climbing Up The Walls by Johnny Wallflower 10 - No Surprises by Grangousier 11 - Lucky by dubold 12 - The Tourist by qnarf What does your tribute best-of version look like?

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:13:37 -0800

Someone should curate this list and pick out the best ones and put them up for sale on the iTunes music store.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:30:30 -0800

Naw, man! If you're not a member of MetaFilter already just drop the fin on a membership and use this post to curate your own!
Your favorite curated MeFiMu OK Computer tribute challenge cover song sucks!

By: carsonb

carsonb — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:42:02 -0800

I should also note that choosing favorites was really fucking hard. I can't believe I didn't get a track from either askmeaboutLOOM nor cortex, both of whom put together impressive runs of several songs from the album. In particular, I loved cortex' concept of "Roddy's O-Face", a quick and dirty garage punk band re-imagining of the album called LoFi Computer:

No Surprises
Karma Police
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Airbag
Paranoid Android
Exit Music (For A Film)
Let Down

Also totally forgot to mention that this challenge resulted in the most kick-butt meetup at The World Famous' house where a bunch of LA MeFites totally voltronned into the OK LA MeFi Action Band and had a blast recording Airbag and the Fitter Happier track listed above.

By: AElfwine Evenstar

AElfwine Evenstar — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 17:13:46 -0800

You had me at Mulder's Big Adventure, Cortex, but now you've gone too far. I will pay to hear your 15 min punk version of OK computer.

By: cortex

cortex — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 17:37:33 -0800

Man, I really meant to finish off the last five tracks last month too. Just didn't quite have the inspiration. Maybe I'll finish it this month.

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 18:22:16 -0800

Thanks for putting together this recap, carsonb.

And thanks again to everyone who participated - especially those who came over to my house bearing food, drink, musical instruments, and awesomeness.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 19:57:22 -0800

... and awesomeness.

Awesomeness is MeFiMu's middle name.

By: chococat

chococat — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:50:06 -0800

No, it's "Fi".

By: gwint

gwint — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:18:56 -0800

You are a bunch of talented motherfuckers.

By: kenko

kenko — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:24:44 -0800

Here's mine: Mefi Computer.

By: kenko

kenko — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:25:36 -0800

track by track, it's:

Airbag by Lutoslawski
Paranoid Android by onehalfjunco
Subterranean Homesick Alien by hanoixan
Exit Music (for a Film) by askmeaboutLOOM
Let Down by The World Famous [x]
Karma Police by modernserf
Fitter Happier ((Russian language version)) by flapjax at midnite
Electioneering by motty
Climbing Up The Walls by Johnny Wallflower
No Surprises by cortex
Lucky by MajorDundee
The Tourist by qnarf

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:43:33 -0800

My "MeFi Computer" playlist is pretty similar:

Airbag by Lutoslawski - beautifully cascading pianos and a strong vocal solo.

Paranoid Android by onehalfjunco - the waltz concept is brilliant, and captures the complexities of the track well in a very unorthodox way.

Subterranean Homesick Alien by dobie - I loved the new rhythm and beat, and the opening, vocals, and effects were all top-notch.

Exit Music (for a Film) by askmeaboutLOOM - Starts out a little underwhelming, but bursts into something pretty raw and interesting. Hearing the other version revealing the mystery instrumentation was fun, too.

Let Down by The World Famous - Loved the driving reinterpretation of the signature layered guitars.

Karma Police by lazaruslong - Unadorned, but so good.

Fitter happier and more malicious by freya_lamb - There were so many ways to go with this, and freya_lamb nailed it with flawlessly creepy vocals. Reminds me a little of Papa Sangre.

Electioneering by not_on_display - I don't know how the translation of the infamously rocky track into a... drunken sea shanty (?) works, but it does.

Climbing Up The Walls by Johnny Wallflower - Turns the intense insanity of the original into smooth, understated chorals without losing any of the underlying tension.

No Surprises by Grangousier - The string plucks throughout were a nice touch; reminds me of the Vitamin String Quartet's take on Let Down

(half) lucky by valdesm - The vocoded vocals were surprisingly pleasing, especially given the Android rationale.

The Tourist by cathodeheart - I liked how the effects seem to play off the electronica spirit of OKC follow-up Kid A

I was a little bummed the B-sides didn't get more play in the challenge extension, but what we got was pretty great.

PS: If you liked my pre-contest OK Computer megapost, check out the last comment; I threw in a bunch of extra material right before the thread closed.

By: neewom

neewom — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:53:40 -0800

This is the sort of thing that can spawn a number of "best of" playlists by the same person depending on their mood. I'm not entirely in the "cool dream" sort of mood right now, otherwise this playlist would (and will, later) look different... and looking back over my list I'm apparently very bad at choosing just one.

Airbag by Lutoslawski (but the OK L.A. Action Band version from The World Famous is a very close second)
Paranoid Android by chococat (but cortex's version is a lot of fun and will end up on the commute's playlist)
Subterranean Homesick Alien by dobie
Exit Music (For a Campfire) by carsonb (askmeaboutLOOM's cathedral-ish version, though, gives me chills)
Let Down by dubold and Let Down by The World Famous
Karma Police by askmeaboutLOOM
Fitter happier and more malicious by freya_lamb
Electioneering by Doleful Creature
Climbing Up The Walls by Johnny Wallflower
No Surprises by Grangousier
Lucky by MajorDundee (but valdesm's tragically short version is, well, great)
The Tourist by qnarf

Such a fun challenge to listen to.

By: neewom

neewom — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 23:09:46 -0800

Also, this is my first playlist, considering that might be easier to listen to. I suspect there will be a lot more shortly.

By: geek anachronism

geek anachronism — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 03:09:09 -0800

I've stayed away from mefimusic, just because...I don't really know why. But this is all fucking glorious.

Glorious. I love you all.

By: immlass

immlass — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 07:42:28 -0800

Oh my, glad this is up. I need to go listen to it (and am commenting so I'll get the reminder in Recent Activity.

By: the quidnunc kid

the quidnunc kid — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:23:51 -0800

The Evolution of Music

167 BC         Yes, abacus.
1821 AD        I should jolly well say so, difference engine.
1985 AD        Totally, calculator watch.
1997 AD        OK, computer.
2000 AD        You have got to be fucking kidding me, voting machine.
2013 AD        AS YOU COMMAND, ROBOT OVERLORDS

By: that girl

that girl — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:53:41 -0800

I tried to pluck out "No Surprises" on my koto, but even with a weird tuning it was painful.

These are all great, though!

By: kenko

kenko — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 11:26:33 -0800

Damn chococat's "Paranoid Android" is great.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:14:32 -0800

Karma Police by lazaruslong - Unadorned, but so good.

Wow, this was really good. Thanks for pointing it out.

By: Acari

Acari — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:45:13 -0800

I guess this is a good place to apologize for not submitting my required song. I learned some chords, found some nice banjo-picking... patterns, and practised it all month, but I could never manage to record it so that you could hear anything other than the thump of my thumb against the cigar box of my homebuilt banjo stick thing.

I read through the recording threads and was intimidated by the cost of microphones, and I read through the music threads and was extremely dubious about all of the 'recorded with my cell phone' comments, and I just gave up.

So can you all just imagine some off-tempo banjo pickin' and eerie whistling, and pretend like I'm not so technologically incompetent?

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:51:24 -0800

You can still do it! Don't give up!

By: AElfwine Evenstar

AElfwine Evenstar — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:40:34 -0800

Is there any update on when the cortex ep is coming out?

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:43:43 -0800

I could never manage to record it so that you could hear anything other than the thump of my thumb against the cigar box of my homebuilt banjo stick thing.

Not seeing the problem here.

Course, I am a percussionist and all. Notes are overrated.