… If only it was always like this!

Yes, as you may or may not know, Magic Junk Radio 11: Slow Ahead debuted Monday evening after a couple of months of electronic tweaking and dabbling. The final podcast came out much better than we expected. In fact, it kicks ass from start to finish.

Then on Thursday, S.Rod and I fly off to Chicago for Lollapalooza 2008 to see Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, and several other acts.

So this week is pretty damn good. The following week will most likely not be as good. But I am focusing on the present. So should you… go listen to the new MJR podcast!

Hopefully, I’ll do a little write-up when we get back. But I don’t know. It will be the following week after all.

As you may have read the other week, we will be seeing Wilco on the second night of Lollapalooza. While it pains me to have to miss Rage, I know that Wilco will put on a show that is more relevant to S.Rod and I in our present states. Eighteen year old Mark is turning in his grave though. So be it.

One trump card that Wilco has over Rage is that Wilco is one of those bands who are really ready to play anything at anytime. A lot of bands nowadays will have 10-15 songs, but Wilco has at least 60. To further exemplify this, Wilco has created a page on their site, where fans can dictate some of what gets played at each show. I chose “I’m The Man Who Loves You”. S.Rod chose “Shake It Off”. We are crossing our fingers that both get played . Cheers.

With less than a month to go until S.Rod and I journey to Chiacgo for the Lollapalooza music festival, we have been scouring the Somrod music archives for songs we expect to hear. Since I have seen Radiohead three times now, I’m not too worried about hearing songs and so on— I just know that they play a phenomenal live set, and even the songs that I am not always as fond of on the CDs (i.e. Sail to the Moon, Wolf At the Door, and Like Spinning Plates) were reworked for the live performance, and those fine British gents tear it up. It gets me psyched up just to think of how absolutely good they play, and some of the recent sets have been killer.

That being said, I do have my worries about some of the new material from In Rainbows that they have been playing, and shall play. On the whole, the new album is a great listen, definitely better than Pablo Honey or Amnesiac in terms of the RH canon. But, as with many albums, IR has a few songs that feel like filler— usually a non-existent thing with RH, since they spend so much time crafting their albums.

Of course, I have a theory of why this was done— at the same time that Radiohead was practically giving away In Rainbows online, they were also selling a limited edition box set version of the album, which had a second bonus disc of material, as well as some fancy non-essential packaging.

Naturally, I plunked down my dollars-to-pounds conversion, and found out that the 2nd disc had a lot of great “B-sides”. Or were they? To me, some of these songs were so good, it confused me why RH wouldn’t have included them on the main disc. Then I thought about the financial difference between giving away a disc for “pay what you like” and selling a box set for $80. Yes, money talks, even to those without a label taking 50% (or more). Were the 2nd disc on the box set to have sucked, then all of the fans who bought it would have not been given that limited edition treat.

All the same, this does not make sense for Radiohead to be playing ‘House of Cards’ or ‘Reckoner’ in a live set when they could be playing (A) some of the great material from the 2nd disc, or (B) anything else from their impressive catalog. I can only hope they get these songs out of their system by the time they get to Chicago on August 1. Please.

Thus, in my imaginary world, I will pretend that Radiohead decided to release only one album for In Rainbows (followed up months later by a limited edition six-song EP that was sold in the UK, Japan, and Amazon only).

Radiohead – In Rainbows (Sahm’s Non-Box Set Arrangement)

1. “15 Step” – 3:57
2. “Bodysnatchers” – 4:02
3. “Nude” – 4:15
4. “Down Is the New Up” – 4:59
5. “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” – 5:18
6. “Last Flowers To The Hospital” – 4:27
7. “All I Need” – 3:48
8. “Bangers + Mash” – 3:20
9. “Faust Arp” – 2:09
10.  ”Up on the Ladder” – 4:17
11. “Jigsaw Falling into Place” – 4:08
12. “Videotape” – 4:39

Limited Edition EP

1. “MK 1″ – 1:04
2. “Reckoner” – 4:50
3. “Go Slowly” – 3:48
4. “MK 2″ – 0:53
5. “House of Cards” – 5:28
6. “4 Minute Warning” – 4:06

All rearrangements aside, Radiohead is still the band that I have the most respect for, and even their worst songs are better than many bands’ best ones. So it’s all relative. But what would the Internet be without some alternate possibilities? Cheers.