b-sides faq
what?
b-sides are non album songs that appear on singles. but aren't they
crap? sometimes. but radiohead have a reputation of releasing amazing b-sides
which laugh in the face of oasis/suede/whatever other band who released a b-sides
compilation. Songs like 'The Trickster' laugh in the face of the poor excuses for
songs that other artists release. Which is why if you are a radiohead fan, most of
these songs deserve a place in any your collection. This guide is to help you
choose which ones to get.
1? 2? 3? 4? 5?!?
it works like this: there's a maximum rating of 5 stars. the rest you can figure out.
where?
unfortunately, pretty much all
radiohead singles have been deleted. still, look around... everywhere, you'd never
know where they might pop up. big music megastores tend to carry the latest
singles... in England, if you buy them when they're fairly new... they are very very
cheap. the older the single is, the more expensive... shop around... check out
magazines like record collector and goldmine where mail order services advertise
lots of rare things that you can buy. alternatively, try online shopping too, Esprit International
is quite fantastic, lots of rare stuff. CDNOW has a nice range of Radiohead products. oh, and trading of
course. many people across the web are willing to trade stuff, try shouting at the radiohead
mailing list... of course if you
don't have any radiohead stuff you're in trouble, although nice people will do 2:1 trades
(you send the tapes (an extra one for the trader), you pay for postage). oh, and
you can also probably buy bootlegs with radiohead b-sides on them, but if you buy those,
you are evil. i don't endorse it. radiohead make no money from bootlegs so
don't. live concert bootlegs are fine, because those aren't likely to be released
anyway, but b-side bootlegs are just plain evil. don't buy those.
however, you will probably find the easiest way to find radiohead b-sides is to (*gasp*)
search the internet for mp3s. you probably know that downloading mp3s of copyrighted
songs you don't own is illegal (blah blah blah), but when it comes to looking for...
say... stupid car, it's going to be a hellava lot easier to find it on the internet.
you can actually find the whole radiohead b-sides and unreleased songs in mp3 on
the internet. i can't give any addresses, but go to any major search engine, type in
'radiohead mp3', and you're on your way. however, this is no substitute for having
the shiny cd and the lovely artwork IMHO.
what else?
here are my recommended purchases. once you buy these three
releases, you will then possess a fair amount of radiohead b-sides in your collection.
Airbag/How Am I Driving?
My Iron Lung
Itch
That's in the order of purchase priority (from highest to lowest). Coincidently, it also goes from cheapest to most expensive. heehee. All these can be purchased from CDNOW. So go. Buy. Now.
That's all.