Heart-Shaped Box

Dear Daniel,

I was trying to put together a decent music synch for a radio piece yesterday and somebody suggested Christopher O'Riley. I had never heard of him, but apparently he's very popular for his covers of Radiohead songs. More of that in a second.

As I was looking through live videos fans have posted it became clear where his music taste lies and, like a lifelong dedicated Buddhist, it was only a matter of time before he got to Nirvana.

Maybe this isn't his best showpiece. At exactly 1'12", he reveals his otherwise-unspoken love for British light entertainment circa 1986.



Now I think about it, he's not the first person to cover Nirvana on the piano.

Most of the world wouldn't have heard Cornflake Girl if it wasn't for the novelty of Tori Amos surfing the wave of Cobain-love in the early nineties. And where would we be if that hadn't have happened? Erm... I guess we wouldn't have heard Cornflake Girl.

(you'll notice there's only one person in the crowd here who is interested in Tori's genre-crossing kookiness. And it takes him just slightly too long to work out what's going on...)



I know you are a keen pianist, Daniel, so before you dash off to build up a cannon of heavy rock on piano and upset that woman across from your kitchen window, may I suggest you start here:



Dear James,

Welcome back, again. I was going to post various clips of Les Dawson only last week, but couldn't think of any justification other than "here's some Les Dawson clips". Not wordy enough for me. Our friend Aine once told me that it took a special talent to play the piano like Les, shortly before she saw me play for the first time.

I'm taking it you haven't heard of Brad Mehldau, who sees Christopher O'Really and raises him a hundred pounds. That's because he's got a royal flush, and he knows O'Really has only got a two-pair.



He also does various Nick Drake covers. I think he's playing Buenos Aires soon. I bet he's already been and gone and I missed it again.

There Will Be Soundtracks

Dear James,

The other day I finally got round to watching "There Will Be Blood". It had taken me a while to get round to watching it as it's a bit of blokes' film so I had to watch it while Josefina was out. Then she came back before I´d finished watching it, and I had to explain the whole story to her, as Daniel Day Lewis rained down blows on the false prophet's head. With a skittle. Spoiler Alert! Oh, too late.

One of the things I liked about the film is its soundtrack, composed by Jonny Greenwood, the one with the floppy fringe from Radiohead. Very tense, and almost scary. I pleased to see Josefina come home, as it was past midnight. It turns out Jonny Greenwood has previous in this department (writing orchestral stuff, not slightly scaring man-boys), as seen in his piece Popcorn Superhet Receiver. He's also composer-in-residence at the BBC. When did the BBC become so trendy? And when are they going to bring back Wogan?



As I may have mentioned elsewhere, Radiohead played here with Kraftwerk on March 24, "Memory Day" here in Argentina. That's the day when we try to remember where we put our keys and have a good old reminiscence about 80s' TV. Naturally, I didn't go. Far be it from me to stand in a cold field with a bunch of kids when I could be in the comfort of my own home, reminiscing about 80s' TV. But also because Radiohead and Kraftwerk are very much like Terry Wogan to me: something I like to admire from afar, but not something I've ever been inspired to investigate more deeply. Plus it was 300 pesos for tickets, so, you know. I don't believe this nonsense about musical lapels either, as much as I admire the "minimum fuss" concept:

Sweating Bullets

Dear James,

The Megadeth video catalogue is ripe with humour. I could've posted the brilliant "Peace Sells...but who's buying?" or the equally comical "Go To Hell", but I chose this one for Dave Mustaine's impeccable impression of a man pretending to be mad.

The song also begs the question: why does Dave Mustaine sing like a man on the toilet trying to force one out?

I was at Rock World in Manchester in 2004 when this song came on. A very hirsute gentleman got very excited and launched into his very own Mustaine impersonation. As far as party pieces go, it was right up there with my dad reciting Vincent Price's lines from Thriller.

As a youth, Dave Mustaine was a drug dealer and one of his clients paid him in Judas Priest and Iron Maiden records. Try slipping a "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" LP into a club and exchanging it for a couple of pills. Works every time.

Dave Mustaine is most fondly remembered, of course, for his cameo appearance in the comedy "Some Kind of Monster". Mustaine claims he withdrew his permission to use the footage of him in the romcom, and says they edited out the bit where Lars Ulrich storms out of a room crying. Poor Lars. Megadeth's Wikipedia page has a list of all the people Dave Mustaine has feuds with. It's a long list. Poor Dave.

Dear Daniel,

I thought Dave Mustaine came across as quite needy in that film. I felt for him. I also notice that he repeatedly looks a lot like Thom Yorke in the video you posted. Not always, just repeatedly. I would point out certain times when this happens but that would mean listening to the song through again and, frankly, Megadeth already owe me far too many wasted minutes.