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CD REVIEW Radiohead's ‘Thief a stroke of genius “HAIL TO THE THIEF” Radiohead ★ ★★★★ out of BY COREY GARRIOTT Til It (lAMKCOCK Here’s why Radiohead is so great: it was the first band to integrate electronic tools and make something beautiful with them. The architecture of an age changes through its materials and methods. The Greeks laid columns of stone and the Goths erected towers of marble. Our skyscrapers today have steel for bones. In music, electronica has supplanted the nuts and bolts of guitars and drums. Though ! electronic music has been in the music scene for twenty years, I find the synthetic pop of the 1980s soulless. Popular bands of the ‘90s, when they did use elec tronic techniques to enrich their music, still missed the point. They overused their new fangled gear and the end result was a bunch of electronic noise. Electronic devices are just a few tools among many-even as methods change, we still have a common denominator to help us determine what is beautiful in music. Radiohead has had its sights on the bulls-eye since OK Computer and Hail to the Thief has struck it. The album is emotional, cathartic, and, in places, un certain and despairing. Radiohead emerges from its electronic experiment tainted and self-conscious. Whereas Yorke said he was a “reason able man” on Amnesiac, he now fades into the background, repeating “the rain drops/ the rain drops” on Hail to the Thief. From the Sophists to Shakespeare, everything beau tiful is touched by the tragic. Yorke’s trademark gloomi ness is famous. But the band sounds best when it-moves away from its pretentious self consciousness. Hail to the Thief works better than Amnesiac because Radiohead has learned something from its experimen tation. Radiohead is the R.E.M. of our generation. Stipe’s R.E.M. experimented with jangles and white space In the 80s, quietly going about their business un til they rose to a higher plain. Now Radiohead is posed to usher in another revision in music. I suggest you keep the al bum in your car for that rainy Columbia weather. It won’t be long before everything sounds like rain. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Field Day Fest moves from New York to New Jersey BY TEAL DUNBAR THE GAMECOCK Field Day Fest was in the works for months and was scheduled to be a two-day buffet of 35 acts. The venue would have been Enterprise Park in Calverton, New York. Three days before the event’s kickoff, Suffolk County refused to provide the nec essary permits, due to the low number of po lice officers committed to working the event. Promoters secured Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey and refunded Sunday tickets. They re-routed unaware travelers to the new venue and printed new Field Day T-shirts with the correct venue on them. Rain spewed down on concert goers. The temperature remained in the 40s during the festival, complimenting the bone-chilling wetness. Beck never performed. He slipped while getting on stage and was rushed to the hospital. The day was becoming bleaker with every moment. The rain finally ceased and Radiohead took the stage resurging a drenched, exhausted crowd. P"B-, Directions: Tost across the Gervais St. Bridge - Left at Second Light .. .H ‘Dogs’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 Director Christopher Cook, who also plays Nice Guy Eddie, moves the actors and the audience sinuously from moment to mo ment. Cook, formerly South Carolina Shakespeare Company’s “Fight Choreographer-In Residence,” has a deep love for theatrical movement and vio lence, and incorporates it realis tically at every turn possible, PAmn+irMAP Tiri4-1a aiiF avm! i Ait v*aa son. “Reservoir Dogs” takes the atergoers to a new and exciting ex treme, welcoming us to join in his quest to make going to see a play cool. There’s one caveat: the F-word is constant and steady. After a short while, however, it does lose its offensive nature. The gunfire is loud and real. This isn’t a play for your mom’s bowling team. “Reservoir Dogs” runs through this Friday and Saturday. The show starts at 8 p.m. -.- PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Jack Lunan, standing, and Reginald Harvey get Into their roles.