Radiohead

I Might Be Wrong
Capitol Records
www.radiohead.com

Radiohead loathes touring. For proof, just watch five minutes of Meeting People Is Easy, the claustrophobic documentary shot during the band's long trek to support the watershed album OK Computer. (Now go crawl into the fetal position with a box of tissues. There, there.)

So how can a band that finds touring so tiresome be such a stunning concert act? Recorded live in Europe during Radiohead's brief tour to support Kid A and Amnesiac, I Might Be Wrong sounds like a group riding a crest of creativity and passion.

From the lumbering bass line of “The National Anthem” to a mesmerizing “Everything in Its Right Place,” the five lads from England merge watery textures, jittery rhythms, and waves of electronic blips and squeaks for six tracks of cathartic brilliance. If that's not enough to dry your eyes, a sublime “True Love Waits,” an unreleased studio track, closes out the disc. Now don't you feel better?

▪ Rating (out of 5): 4.5

Various Artists

High Times Presents Rip This Joint
King Biscuit Flower Hour Records
www.kingbiscuitradio.com

Before you load that bong and plop Rip This Joint (Get it? It's a play on marijuana!) into your CD player, take a moment to contemplate this eternal question: are you really prepared to spend the next couple of hours listening to Foghat and Humble Pie? Being stoned might ease you through nearly ten minutes of “Slow Ride,” but no mind-altering substance on earth can help you survive the turgid sonic sludge that is the live version of Mountain's “Mississippi Queen.”

Rip This Joint is a collaborative attempt by High Times magazine and the King Biscuit Flower Hour to give stoners everywhere gobs of live jams to bliss out to.

Great concept — except the album consists of the seeds and stems. Put on a copy of the Grateful Dead's Aoxomoxoa or Pink Floyd's Meddle instead.

▪ Rating (out of 5): 1

To hear audio clips from these CDs, please go to www.onstagemag.com and click on
ONLINEEXTRAS