Mark Ronson has created a graffiti art montage set to a cover version of Radiohead’s “Just” (from the album the Bends), featuring Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. Not only is this one of my favorite Radiohead songs, but this version adds just the right bit of funkiness (maybe it’s the horn section) and really does the original justice by altering it in a unique manner. Though I originally just heard the audio, the video just makes it that much more interesting, with its playful, retro graffiti images taking on life in an urban setting.
A few linkies:
More about the cover of “Just”
More on an upcoming album of Radiohead covers via Pitchfork (warning: scroll to “Herbert, Rjd2, ?uestlove Cover Radiohead”)
And…
It seems only fitting to also link to Laith Bahrani’s flash animation clip set to an acoustic version “Creep” (from Radiohead’s debut Pablo Honey).
Plus…
While I don’t really know much about graffiti art (or really the larger art world in general), in my mind, this artistic style seems somewhat connected to the burgeoning art genre often dubbed “low-brow,” complete with cute, alien, and retro images that remind me of 80s-era cartoons and 8-bit video game characters. From my limited knowledge, I’ve heard that one of the forerunners in this genre is Tim Biskup, whose work is some of the most colorful and interesting that I’ve recently had the experience of digging. A buddy of mine set up a forum for Biskup and his brethren called the Limited Addiction. Join in on the discussion if it’s something that interests you.
Speaking of Radiohead…
…The band is currently working on songs for an upcoming album, and has hinted that they may be looking at alternate strategies for releasing the material. Frontman Thom Yorke alluded to this move on the band’s blog, and several digital music bloggers and biz-peeps took keen interest. My sense is that they may be making a bit much out of Yorke’s cryptic message, but it certainly makes sense for Radiohead to try an all-digital, single-oriented release strategy, as more and more bands try new ideas in the budding DIY digital music realm and online distribution era. Of course, I think that Radiohead has the clout, support, and capability to pull this type of thing off pretty nicely, but it’ll be interesting to see if other bands follow their lead.
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