Exit Music : The Radiohead Story

Rating:
Summary: a limited review ...
Review: ... The limitations I refer to are as follows: First, I have not read a lot of radiohead interviews or articles as I haven't yet found a music magazine I consistently like (besides CMJ, which rarely includes interviews). Second, I haven't read any other radiohead biographies.

Thus I can't comment on the accuracy of the book. Also, it might seem strange to you that people would be writing and reading radiohead biographies while they are still either at their peak or climbing towards it.

I also found it strange, but strangley wanted to buy it after reading a litle bit. The reason I bought it is because I am a musician and I wanted to learn more about how radiohed got from point A to point QDGYX to kid A. And for that purpose, the book was quite useful and lead me to a lot of interesting new information and ideas. It won't tell you the precise secrets, but it will give you enough to get you thinking about entirely unrelated creative musical concepts. It also lets you know anough about their approach to music to get a sense for how this groundbreaking pop came to be.

I give it 4 stars because it's worth buying but is a little odd, and isn't literature. It's a good read for musicians and ardent fans of the band who don't read idiotic music papers like Rolling Stone.

Rating:
Summary: Good insights
Review: One of the few bands that has hit fame and fortune, but hasn't been wrecked by it. Mac Randall's "Exit Music: The Radiohead Story" is a solid, informative cache of background info on this band, without being either vindictive or fawning.

It charts the group's origins, the guys behind the music, and their rise from an unusually sedate gathering of British guys to a world-famous band with immensely popular music and legions of devoted fans. No tabloidy gossip here -- it's focus on the band and what they do best.

The pictures are the main disappointment; they're black and white, and are basically shots of the band members and not much else. Randall is a fan but not a fanboy; his attitude is cool and professional. He offers a basic, informative description of Radiohead's history. As the band members do, there is relatively little info on their early personal lives or love lives, but plenty on their careers and music.

It's not earthshattering, but a good source of information and background information. Solid read for Radiohead fans, old and new.

Rating:
Summary: Good insights
Review: One of the few bands that has hit fame and fortune, but hasn't been wrecked by it. Mac Randall's "Exit Music: The Radiohead Story" is a solid, informative cache of background info on this band, without being either vindictive or fawning.

It charts the group's origins, the guys behind the music, and their rise from an unusually sedate gathering of British guys to a world-famous band with immensely popular music and legions of devoted fans. No tabloidy gossip here -- it's focus on the band and what they do best.

The pictures are the main disappointment; they're black and white, and are basically shots of the band members and not much else. Randall is a fan but not a fanboy; his attitude is cool and professional. He offers a basic, informative description of Radiohead's history. As the band members do, there is relatively little info on their early personal lives or love lives, but plenty on their careers and music.

It's not earthshattering, but a good source of information and background information. Solid read for Radiohead fans, old and new.

Rating:
Summary: good but not up-to-date
Review: This book was pretty good. Though I am an ardent fan, this is the first book I've read about the band. I found it very readable and it went by very quickly tracing the beginnings of the band until after OK Computer. As some other reviewers suggested, I also find it a little confusing as to why biographies are being written at this point, while there is still so much ahead of them in their career. Though this book is good, I would have rather received a more updated book that covered Kid A, the latest album.

Rating:
Summary: Decent Insight Into the Band
Review: This is a great book for all Radiohead fans. This book is also good if you're just a muscian, because it has a very nice break down of every song off of Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer (The best 3 CD's ever)

Rating:
Summary: Good Book About Radiohead
Review: This is a great book for all Radiohead fans. This book is also good if you're just a muscian, because it has a very nice break down of every song off of Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer (The best 3 CD's ever)

Rating:
Summary: Decent Insight Into the Band
Review: When I purchased Exit Music: The Radiohead Story, I expected stories about Radiohead's challenges in making albums, touring, and other random tidbits of information about the band members.

The book contained a handful of these types of stories, but a lot of the material critiqued Radiohead's music. For example, there were numerous descriptions of how songs went from this chord to that chord... or this song contained three guitars...

So before purchasing this book, be aware that a good majority of it covers the actual content of Radiohead's work, describes their music, etc. I was looking more for a "VH1: Behind the Music" type biography.