the main reason i gave it to spacetown is he had offered and i didn’t want to edit 3 more hours of podcast when i knew i was already going to need to edit our Radiohead episode soon. but it WILL come out eventually. especially because cohost Max for some crazy reason doesn’t like SMiLE + Van Dyke Parks very much, so it’s good that we talked about this.
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I’ve been catching up on Kitschfork and I’m loving your Hail to the Thief episode! It’s very fun to hear a couple of grown up, reasonably well-adjusted Radiohead fans* talk in such depth about the band… Even if it’s this album. This is one of my least favorite Radiohead records (I even like King of Limbs more! It’s Radiohead doing music you could put on at a birthday party! And I did!), but it does bring me back to that era.
In high school I had this totally weird sweater from the Radiohead Online Store with the Hail to the Thief cover on it and these frayed , unfinished edges on all sides. One of the cooler garments my nerd ass wore back then, and it did make me a couple friends when some fellow alienated Radiohead megafans saw me wearing it.
Anyway, I’m actually mainly here to share some VERY significant Olivia Tremor Control news, because I know you’ll be as interested as I am. The recent Elephant 6 documentary is getting a soundtrack release, and it’s going to include two unreleased Olivia songs from their upcoming 3rd LP! The press release includes a 30 second snippet of one of them with Bill Doss singing. I can’t wait to hear some actual songs from this record, but I’m also worried that either the album won’t live up to the amount of anticipation I’ve put on it, or I’m past the point in my life where new stuff from them can really move me… But this band’s so important to me I bet I’ll love it no matter what it sounds like.
* You know how Radiohead fans can be…
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well, not good news on that front =(
this is from Robert Schneider’s fb just today.
i know he had MS for years and wasn’t in great shape, but still =(. he’s gone at 53 and Bill Doss was gone at 43. way too young.
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Oh no! That’s terrible 
I can’t believe he died the day these songs were released. At least he went out on a triumphant note I suppose. I’m so grateful I was able to see him perform multiple times. I even met him a couple times after shows. I remember after I saw the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise tour around 2009 in Rochester, I was by myself hanging out in the bar after, and I saw him just chilling. He noticed me looking at him and invited me over. He was so kind and gracious to a starstruck, goggling 20 year old! Even then you could tell his MS was getting pretty rough… it was incredible he was still putting out great music through it all.
I haven’t had a chance to hear the new songs yet. Have you? I’m really looking forward to it. Amazing to think that they put that amount of time and effort into just finishing these two songs, but the band has always had a lovable perfectionist streak. I was relieved that Schneider said in his post that he still planned to finish the record.
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Ok, so I’ve listened to the new songs. I’d heard a demo of Same Old Place before, so that was already very familiar, but it’s nice to hear it fully mixed. Garden of Light is totally new though and man… It’s so good. Perfect Olivia Tremor Control power pop. It’s amazing to hear Bill Doss singing a new song again. His performance is beautiful too. I’m so glad they were able to record his vocals before he passed. Eerie that both songs seem to be about death.
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I’ve been listening to this lately and I’ve more or less gotten through episodes about Radiohead, Modest Mouse, and The Shins. It’s funny because a lot of my experience with this music is getting it all second hand from my brother off his external hard drive after he left for college.
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