Paradiddle Android

April 6th, 2004 · No Comments

Thanks to Jason and Pitchfork for directing me to this phenomenal cover of “Paranoid Android” by the UMass Drumline today. Last Christmas (or was it birthday?) Scott gave me Christopher O’Riley‘s cd of Radiohead covers on piano, and the Christmas before that, I got the Strung Out on OK Computer string quartet covers album. And after seeing Brad Mehldau last fall, I picked up a couple of his albums, now three of which feature his solo piano and small jazz group re-interpretations of Radiohead songs. Now we’ve got a percussion ensemble taking on the task, and once again, it turns out pretty well. It’s a testament to the songwriting skills of Yorke & Co., and it also reminds me of the first mp3 I ever downloaded. It was the fall of 1998, and I was trying to figure out what an “mp3” was. Napster wasn’t around yet, much less for Macs, so I was using AudioGalaxy or something else, and as I started seeing what was out there, I decided I needed a copy of Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing.” Who knows why – it was one of those songs that Scott had that I liked, but I never felt like I needed the whole album. So I give it a whirl, and slowly but surely, it downloads on the one decently fast computer at work, where I’m in on a Saturday afternoon doing some work. It finishes, and I use MacAmp, I think (which is now MacAst), to play it. Magic! Except it was not a grumbling guitar that came out of those PowerPC speakers, but instead the throaty tones of the Stanford University Marching Band’s sousaphone section. And it was amazing. I wish I’d held onto that file as I’ve moved on, and sold and bought and dropped and replaced computers, but alas, I didn’t. It’s a pretty great version, especially when the band breaks out in barks, right on cue.

Tags: Music