Artist Profile: Radiohead

This week's Artist Profile is on one of the most prolific alternative rock bands in recent memory, Radiohead. Radiohead were formed in 1985 in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England and the band consists of Thom Yorke on lead vocals and lead guitar, Jonny Greenwood on guitars and keys, Ed O'Brien on guitars and backup vocals, Colin Greenwood on bass and synths, and Phil Selway on drums and percussion. The members all met while attending an all-boys public school in England and formed a band titled On A Friday, which is in reference to the band's usual day of practice in the school's music room. The band slowly began to form a following in the indie music scene in England and the band started to pique interest from major record labels and producers. The band eventually signed a six album deal with EMI Records in 1991 and immediately began work on their major label debut. The band also changed their name to Radiohead, which is taken from the title of a Talking Heads song.

The band released their debut effort, Pablo Honey in 1993. The album contained the massively successful "Creep", which eventually peaked stateside here in the United States at #2 on the Modern Rock chart. Other tracks that were included on this release include "Anyone Can Play Guitar" and "Stop Whispering". The band's next effort The Bends followed in 1995, and contained such gritty tracks like "High and Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", and "My Iron Lung". Both the former and latter of these releases went gold in the U.S. and were very successful overseas as well. However, it was their next effort that would catapult Radiohead into legendary status with 1997's OK Computer. This album is considered to be one of the landmark alternative album of the 90's and one of the greatest albums of all time. The album contained such monster tracks like my personal favorite Radiohead song, "Karma Police", "Paranoid Android", "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and "Exit Music (For A Film)". The band embarked on a consistent touring regimen before settling down to begin work on their next effort, 2000's Kid A. The album achieved notable success and contained such awesome tracks like "Everything In Its Right Place", "Optimistic", "Idioteque", and "Motion Picture Soundtrack". The album was the band's second consecutive effort to receive a nomination for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards.

The band's next effort Amnesiac followed a year later, and consisted mostly of outtakes and B-sides leftover from the Kid A sessions, but produced some solid tracks like "Pyramid Song" and "Knives Out". The band took a breather before commencing work on their next effort Hail To The Thief in 2003. This effort is considered to be one of their most underrated albums overall, but produced classic tunes like "There There", "Go to Sleep", and "2+2=5". The band took a brief hiatus before reconvening in 2005 to begin work on their next album In Rainbows. This album was released digitally as a "pay what you want" model, meaning you could buy it for nothing if you wish and was considered to be a landmark distribution model for albums, despite objection from major labels worldwide. The album was released physically in 2008, debuting at #1 in both the U.S. and U.K. and received overwhelmingly positive reviews on the strength of powerful tracks like "15 Steps", "Bodysnatchers", "Reckoner", "House of Cards", and "Jigsaw Falling Into Place". The band just released their most recent effort The King of Limbs this past year,  and churned out songs such as "Lotus Flower" and "Morning Mr. Magpie". Radiohead have always been the band largely responsible for introducing me to other genres of music such as indie and electronic, and they have always struck me as a band who always think outside of the box and against the norm, and are quite simply a band that can do no wrong and have a long and fruitful career ahead of them.