U2 and Radiohead Both Play Music
Some time ago Nina made me aware of the line that separates all of us – the line between 
Radiohead and U2. The significance of one's allegiance with either Radiohead or U2 (it cannot be both) is tough to overstate. To side with U2 is to choose fist pumping optimism and to give way to the spiritual geyser within. Radiohead, on the other hand, is a more cerebral journey to the outer limits where darkness and beauty sit side by side. Both bands exhibit unreal sonic musicianship, with perfectly crafted songs and magnetic lead singers. The line sounds neat and tidy to me, but the problem is that my position in the U2 camp requires far too much defense and explanation for me to use the line in daily life.
There are countless problems with being on the U2 side of the fence. I'd rather hang out with Radiohead people. I like them more, I like their reasons for choosing Radiohead better than I like people's reasons for choosing U2, and I identify myself with more of what Radiohead represents. Overwhelming all of this, however, are too things. The big one is that I like U2's music better and the other one is that I prefer unpopular positions. If I wanted to hang out with U2 people all the time, my position wouldn't be unpopular, but as I spend my time with R'Heads, I'm always on the defensive.
In order to tweak things so that I wouldn't have to constantly explain myself, or mislead people I didn't explain myself to, I want to add a new axis and make this line a quadrant. It seems unlikely that adding a new axis will simplify this process, but I'm pretty sure that Mendel uses a square with four quadrants for something, and I'm positive that the Myers-Briggs test is a foursome, so what the hell.
My first thought was to cross U2 and Radiohead with a Jim Jarmusch and Rob Schneider. The only real rationale I had for this is that both these guys are a guaranteed rant and rave, respectively, whenever they come up in conversation, so they've got to be poles of some kind. Jarmusch's work represents the fixation on awkward shiftyness that underlies this whole retro-ironic hipster style over substance trend. As for Schneider, comedy is in a major period of transition, with the internet breed roaming free onto SNL (Andy Samberg) and into movies (Napoleon Dynamite. No concrete connection between Napoleon and the internet that I know about, the movie just seems like internet humor to me) and Will Ferrell's little clique reciting the same jokes over and over again in a few different movies every year. Through all of this, Schneider stays true to form, morphing into an animal as easily as he does a hot chick or a gigolo with his bemusedly passive comedic grace. As far as I can tell, these two new poles are as good as any. The only problem is that, when it comes to my personal use, they dig me an even deeper whole, as I'm left either leading people to conclusions about me I’d rather they not have, or forced to explain why I prefer U2 and Rob Schneider.
Hopelessly mired in this messy pudding, I found myself in conversation with Twan, in town for the weekend from Santa Ana. He explained that he has five pages left in his book, it'll take him a few weeks, and that it's driving him crazy. Through this process of closing down his project of the last at least three years, he'd discovered his own line that divides us – the line between combativeness and playfulness. In his view, there are two ways to go about things. You can either fight your way through life, or toy with it.
These poles added a whole new layer to the U2 to Radiohead spectrum, but I don’t think that it’s an equal scale. Combativeness and playfulness exist within both bands, not alongside them. In a predictable turn of the conversation, we found ourselves talking about how arbitrary these poles are, and consequently we focused on how we arrived at our sets of poles rather than what to do with them. At this point we were outside a pizza place in the Tenderloin at about two o’clock in the morning.
This might be a bigger challenge than I’m ready for right now. Seamus and I are due in Santa Cruz in about two hours so we’ve got to motor. What might be easier than figuring things out with music and movies and words could be using eggs. There was a time when I’d ask people I was curious about how they liked their eggs. Yes, that’s going to be it, Egg Encryption. I have no problem at all announcing my egg preference – poached. And there it is right there.
Radiohead and U2. The significance of one's allegiance with either Radiohead or U2 (it cannot be both) is tough to overstate. To side with U2 is to choose fist pumping optimism and to give way to the spiritual geyser within. Radiohead, on the other hand, is a more cerebral journey to the outer limits where darkness and beauty sit side by side. Both bands exhibit unreal sonic musicianship, with perfectly crafted songs and magnetic lead singers. The line sounds neat and tidy to me, but the problem is that my position in the U2 camp requires far too much defense and explanation for me to use the line in daily life.There are countless problems with being on the U2 side of the fence. I'd rather hang out with Radiohead people. I like them more, I like their reasons for choosing Radiohead better than I like people's reasons for choosing U2, and I identify myself with more of what Radiohead represents. Overwhelming all of this, however, are too things. The big one is that I like U2's music better and the other one is that I prefer unpopular positions. If I wanted to hang out with U2 people all the time, my position wouldn't be unpopular, but as I spend my time with R'Heads, I'm always on the defensive.
In order to tweak things so that I wouldn't have to constantly explain myself, or mislead people I didn't explain myself to, I want to add a new axis and make this line a quadrant. It seems unlikely that adding a new axis will simplify this process, but I'm pretty sure that Mendel uses a square with four quadrants for something, and I'm positive that the Myers-Briggs test is a foursome, so what the hell.
My first thought was to cross U2 and Radiohead with a Jim Jarmusch and Rob Schneider. The only real rationale I had for this is that both these guys are a guaranteed rant and rave, respectively, whenever they come up in conversation, so they've got to be poles of some kind. Jarmusch's work represents the fixation on awkward shiftyness that underlies this whole retro-ironic hipster style over substance trend. As for Schneider, comedy is in a major period of transition, with the internet breed roaming free onto SNL (Andy Samberg) and into movies (Napoleon Dynamite. No concrete connection between Napoleon and the internet that I know about, the movie just seems like internet humor to me) and Will Ferrell's little clique reciting the same jokes over and over again in a few different movies every year. Through all of this, Schneider stays true to form, morphing into an animal as easily as he does a hot chick or a gigolo with his bemusedly passive comedic grace. As far as I can tell, these two new poles are as good as any. The only problem is that, when it comes to my personal use, they dig me an even deeper whole, as I'm left either leading people to conclusions about me I’d rather they not have, or forced to explain why I prefer U2 and Rob Schneider.
Hopelessly mired in this messy pudding, I found myself in conversation with Twan, in town for the weekend from Santa Ana. He explained that he has five pages left in his book, it'll take him a few weeks, and that it's driving him crazy. Through this process of closing down his project of the last at least three years, he'd discovered his own line that divides us – the line between combativeness and playfulness. In his view, there are two ways to go about things. You can either fight your way through life, or toy with it.
These poles added a whole new layer to the U2 to Radiohead spectrum, but I don’t think that it’s an equal scale. Combativeness and playfulness exist within both bands, not alongside them. In a predictable turn of the conversation, we found ourselves talking about how arbitrary these poles are, and consequently we focused on how we arrived at our sets of poles rather than what to do with them. At this point we were outside a pizza place in the Tenderloin at about two o’clock in the morning.
This might be a bigger challenge than I’m ready for right now. Seamus and I are due in Santa Cruz in about two hours so we’ve got to motor. What might be easier than figuring things out with music and movies and words could be using eggs. There was a time when I’d ask people I was curious about how they liked their eggs. Yes, that’s going to be it, Egg Encryption. I have no problem at all announcing my egg preference – poached. And there it is right there.
posted by Dibital at 6:13 PM
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