This could go on for several hours—or sometimes days— depending on the complexity of the song.
Tonight, Marc Z starts playing "Like Spinning Plates," a tune produced when Thom Yorke heard another song, "I Will," played backward in a studio. Yorke liked what he heard, so he rerecorded his vocals and created an entirely new tune by following the backward melody. Recreating this song live is, even for Radiohead, a challenge. Yet on this night, when the temperature outside fights to stay above -21, Marc Z is playing along.
Nick Vlcek
Founder Marc Ziegenhagen
Nick Vlcek
Singer Thom Fox
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RADIOHEAD NEVER PLAY the Twin Cities. The last time the band performed in the Great White North was in 1997, when the lads did a show in support of their album OK Computer. While the band now routinely fills football stadiums, back then Radiohead was still a mid-sized act, performing at the State Theater.
It was nine years later, in 2006, when Marc Z got the inspiration to form his Radiohead tribute band. He was at an open-mic night held at the Chatterbox pub down the street from his place when he saw an acoustic guitarist do a rendition of "Lucky" that floored him. He couldn't believe the guy was playing Radiohead. And he realized that was the extent to which Radiohead was being performed in the Twin Cities.
Yet, this being Marc Z, a man who sprints before he walks, he also decided the cities needed Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails tribute bands, too, since they rarely come around either. So he took his idea to the musicians section of Craigslist, and posted a want ad in the hopes of luring the weird fishes who would want to join him for such a project.
Now Forming: NIN, Pink Floyd & Radiohead Tribute Bands
What would it take to put these projects together? I think maybe this:
1) Talented, dedicated, and passionate musicians.
2) Players who have big ears and can pick up their parts off the recordings, then play 'em well—without having to struggle much.
3) Professional gear and the know-how to use it (samplers, effects, laptops).
4) Great improvisers with the ability to deviate from the material in their own ways (something I'm definitely interested in doing).
5) Players who are interested in and can do a LIMITED AMOUNT of rehearsals by showing up knowing their parts, and nailing it all down relatively quickly.
6) Ideally, players who do NOT have drug or alcohol problems.
7) (Insert your idea here)
At this point, it's only a thought, but a WAY BIGTIME SERIOUS one!
It took time and several repostings to get responses from enough quality musicians. To separate the chaff, he asked that each of the guys be comfortable playing the most difficult songs from the Radiohead catalogue—songs like "Airbag," "Everything in Its Right Place," and "Pyramid Song."
"If they could get through these songs, I thought, then all the rest of the songs would fall into place," says Marc Z. "Some people stopped responding after I told them what songs to learn."
One of the first guys to respond was Nate Wycoff, the graphic designer. He lives on a five-acre farm in Wisconsin with three horses, three kids, a patient wife, and a couple of dogs and cats. When he saw the Craigslist post, he'd already been gigging for the last 13 years and was interested in all three of the bands. "I'd been doing straight-up rock—four-four time and power chords—and wanted to do something different," Wycoff says. "Radiohead's music has so many textures going on and really weird sounds and sometimes you can't tell if it's a guitar or a spaceship."
Responding with Wycoff was Imran Hussain, the database analyst for Wells Fargo. His current life has him busy with a wife, an 11-month-old daughter, and an apartment in St. Louis Park. He rocks a shaved head, jet-black goatee, and one awesome secret about his past: He's a heavy-metal rock star in Bangladesh, the Far East's version of Slash. Before coming to Minnesota for school, Hussain was a founding member of the band Rock Strata, who pioneered hard rock in the capital city of Dhaka. Rock Strata came to define the heavy genre now known as Bangla. When Hussain heads back to visit, local musicians line up to meet with him at parties. "Yeah, it's a little strange," Hussain admits. "Those kids don't realize they're better musicians than me. Although, the interesting part is that I feel like I moved away from hard rock. When I heard Kid A, it blew me away. Never, never did I think I'd ever be able to play these songs out. It's incredible."
With two guitarists in place, the band needed a bass player. Enter Scott Kee, the transportation coordinator from Northfield. He's another guy with a heavy-metal background. But unlike Hussain, Kee still looks the part: long dark hair, a leather jacket with steel buckles, tight black pants, and zip-up motorcycle boots. He originally wanted to join the Nine Inch Nails band, but Marc Z convinced him to do the Radiohead project. "It was a great challenge," says Kee. "Radiohead's bass player doesn't think like a normal bass player. You can't nail down his style. Every song is a complete challenge from top to bottom. Finishing one is an absolute personal victory. You just keep going and you never get bored with their music."
