If Radiohead was ever meant to cover somebody else's material
Great stuff from a Radiohead webcast. I would argue that few bands are, but they seem right at home covering Joy Division. (BTW, why does Thom Yorke seem drunk when he's presumably sober? Seriously, watch him at the end!) My favorite part of this video is the way Phil Selway just owns the drums on this song. I've always loved the drums on this song... amazing that Joy Division's first live recording of this song was early 1980 (almost immediately preceding Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis' suicide). Not saying that Stephen Morris was the first to use this fast-paced, hihat-driven beat that would eventually come to define so much of the music that followed, but it's amazing to me that a band with a percussive sound that went on to so heavily influence electronica and eventually be known most for music with dance-beat electronic drums is built on such a great nuts-and-bolts drummer as is Morris. Here he is rocking the same sound in middle age: No Mercy Shown!
