Anyone Can Play Radiohead

(Cleopatra)
by Lex Marburger

Man, just when Cleopatra gets a good idea… I mean, for this compilation, they chose to shy away from the “famous” dark wave bands on their roster (“famous” = over 20 copies sold) in favor of lesser-known bands, some of who aren’t even Goth. Great idea! Get some fans from other genres into your label, good thinking. But what kind of cross do they have to bear? They have to cover Radiohead tunes. Riiight. What is the sound of 10,000 record buyers shaking their heads in disbelief? But wait, let’s be fair… Maybe there will be some covers that, while they may suck, might also be funny.

Silent Grey does a clever Brit-pop take on “Fitter Happier,” y’know, the one on OK Computer with the mechanical voice spiel. But that seems to be it. Aleister Einstein (good name, more pretentious than anything I’ve heard lately) massacres “Creep” into a flat, textureless sequencer project, Miranda Sex Garden over emotes “Exit Music (For a Film),” and the less said about Dragon Style‘s “Karma Police” the better (for the record, it answers the question “how do you make Radiohead sound like everything else on the radio?”). More sycophantic suck-ups: Paige, October Hill, Dot Fash, Secret Society, Diva Deconstruction, Meegs Rascon & Paul Rivera, The Illuminati, P.M. Project, and Lunasect.
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