The Rip

the biggest disappointment of the year is the selection of "machine gun" as the lead single for the new portishead album. seriously. me and everyone one i know didn't care for the song out of the context of the album (get that, after hearing the album i loved the song but, stand it alone, and it fucking blows. that's what we in the industry call an album cut.)
i'm using this as an introduction because, so far, i think Portishead's Third is the album of the year. i think everyone should be listening to its dark rumblings from the hipsters to the heads. it's fucking awesome.
i said i was done with video blogs but i'm going to have to break that promise cause i can't tell this story without them. so bear with me and spend a few minutes watching and listening to music......


......anyway, i was never much of a radiohead fan. "creep" is and was and will forever be lame. i missed out on The Bends like i missed out on bush's second album. the closest i got to it was the song "talk show host" on the Rome And Juliet soundtrack. it was pretty cool. my friend, mentor, and all around swell dude, James was really excited by the release of the upcoming radiohead album, OK Computer. whatever. his tastes were good so i watched the world premier for the first single, paranoid android.



not to put too fine a point on it, i was floored. sitting in our television room with a bottle of guinness in my hand, i'd found that the sense of scope had returned to rock while still maintaining the post-punk feeling of claustrophobia.
never had i watied for a new album like i did for Kid A.
i try and i try and i try but i still think radiohead are a bunch of chickenshits and, like wilco after them became tribute bands for their influences.

so let's skip ahead a few years later and the new portishead comes out. i fucking love it but it seems to stiff amongst the populace. the imagination is not captured like it was with paranoid android. machine gun is released and everyone goes "wtf? where's the hooks?" so let's play pretend and we know nothing about the new portishead until this single/video is released:



this is the song that made me fall in love with the new album. i couldn't understand why it wasn't the first single.
you know who fucking agrees with me?
radiohead.



now get out and buy Portishead's Third