Well if nothing else, it’s finally spring. The trees are starting to bud and blossom and new releases are sprouting from the ground all over the place. This is also an extremely fertile week and I’ve awarded a four-way tie for Album of the Week, plus five more and a look back at Broadcast’s debut album for today’s Indie Basement Classic.

In Notable Releases, Andrew reviews the latest from Japanese Breakfast, Young Widows, YHWH Nailgun, Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith, and more.

It was a jumping news week as well: Wet Leg are back and an Album #2 Announcement feels imminent; Tropical Fuck Storm announced a new album; The Chameleons are replacing The Mission UK on The Psychedelic Furs’ tour (an upgrade if you ask me) and if you’re not watching Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney you’re really missing out and not just because they’re doing really cool things with music, like getting Kim Deal and Kim Gordon together on stage for the first time.

Head below for this week’s too many reviews.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: The Horrors – Night Life (Fiction)
The Horrors team with Yves Rothman and return to their goth roots for their first album in eight years and best since at least ‘Skying’

This is more like it. Following 2009’s fantastic Primary Colours, The Horrors spread their musical wings, dabbling in prog and pop, still full of drama but looking for the light. Those albums — Skying, Luminous and V — are all very good, but frontman Farris Badwan’s baritone is clearly best suited for the dark arts. The original lineup of the band fractured after 2017’s V, with Badwan, guitarist Joshua Hayward, and bassist Rhys Webb officially welcoming new keyboardist Amelia Kidd and former Telegram drummer Jordan Cook to the fold in 2024. The new lineup of the band made Nite Life — which is their first for Fiction Records aka The Cure’s label for most of their career — in Los Angeles with Yves Rothman, who has also made some very gothy records. (LA may be land of the sun but black eyeliner flows there like coconut water.) Badwan, alluding to the band’s reputation for sparring with producers, says Rothman was “like an extra member of the group — plus he’s used to dealing with the total chaos of Yves Tumor, which must have helped.”

The Horrors and Rothman turned out to be a very good combination and, along with new sonic ideas brought by Kidd and Cook, Night Life is the band’s best since 2011’s Skying. The album it’s most like, though, is the dark and hazy Primary Colours, but this is not a retread; synths and digital production stand side-by-side with roaring guitars, moody, melodic basslines and percussion that is alternately lithe/syncopated and pummelling. “Ariel” opens the album as a slow-build stormer that is both a perfect intro to Night Life and can immediately go in the Goth Songs With Girls Names Hall of Fame alongside Sisters of Mercy’s “Marian” and Clan of Xymox’s “Louise.” There are also two stonking insta-classics: driving, swirling ripper  “The Silence That Remains” (killer bassline) and the more atmospheric and romantic  “More Than Life” which has a fist-pumping chorus and an earworrm nagging guitar hook. Other Night Life highlights: rough-hewn rocker “Trial By Fire,” the magisterial “The Feeling is Gone,” and near techno number “Lotus Eaters.” On their first album in eight years, on their 20th anniversary as a band, The Horrors are returning to their gothy roots and basking in the moonlight glory.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Greentea Peng – TELL DEM IT’S SUNNY (GTP / AWAL Recordings)
Album #2 from this London musician is another stunning blend of trip hop, neo-soul and reggae distilled through a uniquely now filter

Greentea Peng’s fantastic debut, MAN MADE, was one of 2021’s most underrated album, mixing reggae, hip hop, acid jazz, soul, trip hop and more with her unique psilocybin-enhanced flavor. Four years and one mixtape later she’s done it again. Overseen by Danger Mouse associates St. Francis Hotel and featuring the talents of MAN MADE producer Earbuds, along with Busy Twist and Nat Powers, TELL DEM IT’S SUNNY sounds amazing, and from the opening seconds of “Bali Skit Part 1” you’re dropped into Peng’s woozy, dubby, groovy and immersive world. Where MAN MADE was a reaction to external forces — the death of her father, Covid, Brexit, George Floyd, etc — TELL DEM looks inward. It’s a dark album, how can it not be these days, but she never forgets about the inner light — the “SUNNY” of the title — which radiates out through her expressive, nuanced voice and impeccable molten flow. There’s not a dud here, but standouts include “TARDIS (hardest),” the irresistible, soaring “One Foot,” the Kingston-via-Bristol skip of “Nowhere Man,” the majorly blunted “WU-LU,” the banging beats and crunchy riffs of “Create & Destroy 432,” cinematic ballad “Raw” and the drum-and-bass-dipped “The End (Peace).” At times the album plays like early Massive Attack/Tricky if they’d had Amy Winehouse as a muse; it’s very 1995 but also very 2025, with Greentea Peng standing in between, sounding timeless.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #3: Dutch Interior – Moneyball (Fat Possum)
Featuring the talents of five vocalists/songwriters’ this twangy, spacey LA band’s third album is remarkably cohesive…and satisfying.

Too many cooks spoil the kitchen, goes the old adage, and that is probably more true than not. But sometimes another cliche is more appropriate: variety is the spice of life. Five of the six members of twangy, low-key LA band Dutch Interior write and sing and their distinctive creative and actual voices keep things interesting on their pretty, contemplative third album, Moneyball, that also feels cohesive via a love of ’90s indie rock, alt-country and slowcore (along with those genres’ original ’60s/’70s influences). “We wanted to acknowledge that we exist in a tradition of American music and take that to places that are personal to us,” the band said when announcing the album. “It’s like we renovated an old house and then invited people in.” The most current day analog is probably MJ Lenderman, and while Dutch Interior don’t deliver his level of quotable couplets (few do, let’s face it), songs are memorable, nicely impressionistic and full of dreamy atmosphere. The most apt comparison, though, is probably Acetone, the cult ’90s group whose influence, the band say, “is all over our discography.” You really feel that influence on songs like “Canada,” “Wood Knot” and “Beekeeping” which float slow like a lazy river, but also in the harmonies and layered guitars on “Fourth Street” and “Sandcastle Molds” which both kick up some dust. Noah Kurtz might write the most immediate songs here, but contributions from Conner Reeves, Jack Nugent, Davis Stuart and Shane Barton balance things out and allow everyone to bring their A-game.

Moneyball by Dutch Interior

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #4: Cousines Like Shit – Permanent Earthquake (Seayou Records)
Dutch duo

“Boring is the worst word that I know,” Cousines Like Shit sing on “Boring” before adding, ” And if I call you boring…” which leaves the listener to fill the blank but is clearly something you don’t not want to be the recipient of. Led by real life cousins Hannah and Laura Breitfuss, this Vienna, Austria duo specialize in detached, danceable post-punk that mixes drony keyboard washes with spiky guitars, disco drumming, pop choruses and heaps of sly, side-eyed attitude. Permanent Earthquake is their second album and, like 2023’s Avant Trash, it’s crammed with barbed bangers. They actually made it in NYC with The Wants’ Madison Velding-VanDam who helped them get sonics just right, with the rhythm section snap of classic 1980 new wave. Musically they are somewhere between Ladytron and Broadcast, but thematically Cousines are much more playful and snarky, like a couple of partygoers who’d rather dissect every attendee than mingle. (In that respect they recall Munich’s Chicks on Speed.) With it’s strong lyrical hook, “Boring” is the obvious hit here but “No” has the best chorus, and “Frenemies” and “Sober at the Club” aren’t far behind in the hooks department. No shit here: these Cousines have made a record perfect for dancing at angles at inappropriate times.

COUSINES LIKE SHIT – PERMANENT EARTHQUAKE by Cousines like Shit

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Jeffrey Lewis – The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni)
Nobody else does it quite like Jeffrey Lewis and he bares it all and remains in top form here

Jeffrey Lewis is a national treasure, but more specifically a New York treasure with a one-of-a-kind point of view that is extremely observational, often funny and surreal, and always deeply empathetic. Growing up in the East Village with counterculture parents, he’s a folkie at heart, filtered through the ’90s anti-folk scene, late-’70s post-punk independent label culture and his other love, comics. His latest, which pays funny homage to Bob Dylan’s second album on its daring cover art (he lives on the same E. 4th St block Bob shot his cover photo), was banged out in Nashville over four days, but he clearly spent a long time writing it. While no doubt he’s a Dylan devotee, Jeffrey doesn’t sound like him. Nobody else is like him, really. The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis is another gem in a nearly 30 year discography and is packed with memorable songs highlighted, as always, by his words. His are the kind of songs you stop what you’re doing and hang on every line to see where it’s going, like on “Tylenol PM” which is the kind of sleepless nights heartbreak song only Jeffrey would write: “There’s cowboy trucker songs for speed / There’s Cube for booze, and Snoop for weed /There’s Prodigy with ketamine / There’s Cale & Reed with heroin/ Hunter S had Ibogaine / There’s Reverend Davis, sweet cocaine / But how can I get great like them / I just take Tylenol PM/.”

Or how about “DCB & ARS,” which was a song assignment from the late David Berman of Silver Jews and is a fantasy about going on a crime spree with writer and onetime Rookie editor Amy Rose Spiegel: “I just wanna be her friend and do something illegal with Amy Rose Spiegel.” Or opener “Do What Comes Natural,” his ode to fighting lethargy and forcing himself to be creative: “They say do what comes naturally, just be the natural me, follow your true you, that’s inside of your head / But if I did what comes natural, I’d just be an asshole, I’d be lonely and broke, and probably better off dead.” (I could go for paragraphs quoting lyrics from this album.) Jeffrey might be protesting too much about what actually comes natural to him, but I’m very glad Jeffrey Lewis continues to get out of bed and make records like this.

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Cross Record – Crush Me (Ba Da Bing)
Emily Cross’ first Cross Record album in six years is heavy yet comforting

Emily Cross’ musical output over the last five years has been mainly through Loma, the lush dreampop trio that also includes former partner Dan Duszynski and Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater), but she’s now back with her first Cross Record album in six years. Made over the course of five years after she left Texas for Cornwall, UK where she is a death doula, and inspired by the many Living Funerals she has hosted at Steady Waves Center for Contemplation (which she founded), Crush Me is an eerie mix of the finality of death and the bright light that is life, also perfectly expressed through its two-word title. “I thought of it later and it dawned on me that ‘Crush Me’ perfectly embodied the record,” says Cross of the album title. “Yes, the weight of a body laying limply atop yours, or the tight squeeze of a hug, can be pleasant. Go too far, and you’re in the hands of a cruel, adolescent god.” Like 2019’s Cross Record (her first album since splitting with former/future collaborator Duszynski), these tracks are equal parts songwriting and experimental sound design but the craft sinks in with each rewarding listen.

Crush Me by cross record

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Desire – Games People Play (Italians Do It Better)
The latest nostalgic synth-disco record from Johnny Jewel and Megan Louise is enjoyable, if more of the same, and could benefit from some editing

Johnny Jewel and Megan Louise’s duo project Desire have been around since 2009 but really ramped up production when Chromatics split up in 2021. Games People Play, their third album, comes three years after Escape and if you’re familiar with Johnny Jewel’s work and label Italians Do It Better, this one slips right into the rest of their collective discography. It’s neon-lit synthpop inspired by Italo-disco and ’80s new wave/R&B with an aura of romantic nostalgia glowing around everything. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, I guess, and songs like “Human Nature,” “Vampire,” and “Dangerous Drug” will all scratch that itch when you’ve played the Drive soundtrack 10 too many times. There are a couple new moves from Desire here, too, like “Drama Queen” which plays around with early-’90s house a la Madonna’s “Vogue” (or RuPaul’s “Supermodel”) with Megan rattling off a list — “Promenade? Masquerade. Bitches Brew? Nothing new.” — with signature chilly delivery. Speaking of, “Ice Cold” gets a boost from more energetic production than you may associate with an Italians Do It Better release, complete with  fun retro orchestra hit samples. There’s also a chilled out cover of Taylor Dane’s 1986 hit “Tell It To My Heart.” Games People Play is fun and never not listenable but the familiarity is exasperated, unfortunately, by the album’s 64-minute runtime which is just too long of a night drive down a very familiar moonlit desert highway.

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Brian D’Addario – Till the Morning (Headstack Records)
The elder Lemon Twig goes “country baroque” on his solo debut

Led by polymath brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, The Lemon Twigs are talented and prolific. So much so that Brian has released his first solo album just a few months after the band’s fifth album, A Dream is All We Know. Musically, this is firmly in Lemon Twigs territory (early-’70s post-Beatles pop) if a little more twangy than usual, and with Michael both co-producing  and playing on the album, the line between solo and band feel very blurry. The only thing that really makes this a solo record is that Brian wrote and sings all 11 songs. “These were tunes that piled up over the years but when I started putting the album together, it really hung together musically and thematically,” Brian says. “It’s country baroque.” He also collaborated with LA poet and longtime Beach Boys collaborator Stephen Kalinich on “What You Are is Beautiful” and “Song of Everyone,” two of the more more delicate songs on the album. While Brian has an affinity for syrupy ballads (“Only to Ease My Mind,” “Company”), it’s upbeat songs like “Nothing on My Mind,” “This Summer,” and “Till the Morning” that still with you the most. Michael, looks like you’re next at bat.

Till the Morning by Brian D'Addario

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Ed Kuepper & Jim White – After the Flood (12XU)
The Saints’ Ed Kuepper enlists Dirty Three’s Jim White to help him rework songs from throughout his 40+ year discography

Ed Kuepper and Jim White are Aussie indie legends, with decades under their belt via The Saints / Laughing Clowns and Dirty Three / etc, respectively. After years of circling each others’ orbit, the two decided to play some duo shows together in Australia during the pandemic. At those, they reinterpreted songs from throughout Kuepper’s career and that turned into making this record. “We took what we’d been doing live and brought it into the studio,” Ed says. “It was important that we captured the immediacy of what we’d been doing, that it wasn’t labored over. Everything was laid down live.” It’s White’s unique, non-traditional (aka non rock) drumming style that puts songs like The Saints’ “Swing for the Crime” and Laughing Clowns’ “The Crying Dance” in a new light, and both are fiercer and noisier than the studio originals from 40+ years ago. Ed’s voice has noticeably dropped an octave since the ’90s but these songs still shine bright.

After The Flood by Ed Kuepper & Jim White

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Broadcast – The Noise Made by People (Warp, 2000)
Broadcast’s full length debut is a perfect album which also turns 25 this week

After a number of EPs and an appearance on the Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery soundtrack, Broadcast released their full length debut, 2000’s best album bar none as far as this writer is concerned. Twenty-five years on, The Noise Made People still sounds utterly bewitching, like pop transmitted from another dimension, detached from time and space. Every detail is considered, from the eerie synthesizers (part sci-fi, part Italian horror), to the snap of the snare, the ambient sounds of electricity that hum lowly in most songs, and the artwork that seems to have been made from old computer punchcards. Trish Keenan’s beguiling, mysterious voice seals the deal on perfect songs like “Echo’s Answer” and “Come on Let’s Go.” In the years since Keenan’s passing, the cult of Broadcast has grown exponentially, and their debut sounds better than ever. A perfect album.

The Noise Made By People by Broadcast

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From RHCP to St. Vincent, 16 great bands influenced by Gang of Four

R.E.M.

Michael Stipe has said on many occasions that Gang of Four were one of R.E.M.'s chief influences when they formed. For a band whose most famous songs feature mandolin, you might not think about it now, but listen to Chronic Town and Murmur -- "Laughing" or "Moral Kiosk" for example -- and you can hear how R.E.M. interpolated Gang of Four's jagged rhythms into their own distinctly Southern sound. R.E.M. toured with Gang of Four, too, and bassist Mike Mills wrote in tribute to Andy Gill, "He, and the rest of the Gang, changed how we attacked the live show, gave us a bar to try and rise to."

Pylon

Besides R.E.M., the whole Athens GA scene of the late-'70s and early-'80s feels born out of Gang of Four's sound. The B-52's came up at the exact same time as Gang of Four, with similar guitar styles on different sides of the Atlantic (and Sara Lee would play bass for them both), but Pylon are probably the Georgia college town's most obvious inheritors of the danceable punk style. "[Pylon members] Michael Lachowski and Randy Bewley were given a short list of bands to choose to open for at our very first New York show at Hurrah in August of 1979," singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay tells us. "Gang of Four were first choice on the basis of the Fast Product 'red' single with ‘Damaged Goods’ /‘Armalite Rifle’ / ‘Anthrax.’ They were our heroes." She notes that Pylon were "fortunate to tour with or open for Gang of Four several times over the next few years. It was always fun and they never disappointed."

Red Hot Chili Peppers

According to lore, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea said hearing Gang of Four's "Not Great Men" made him want to form a band. So it seemed like a logical choice to get Andy Gill to produce their 1984 debut album. Unfortunately, it was far from a match made in heaven with Gill and the band clashing the whole time. Infamously, RHCP stole a look at one of Gill's production notebooks and saw that the only note for song "Police Helicopter" was "SHIT." The band, who were not a fan of Gill's synth-and-drum-machine suggestions, retaliated by leaving Gill some actual excrement. Despite their acrimonious working relationship and the not-so-hot Chili Peppers album they made, the band remained fans of Gang of Four's music. Gill told Diffuser in 2014 that he bumped into Flea at an art opening and the bassist said, "Thank you so much for never suing us over Anthony stealing your work.” When RHCP played their first show with John Frusciante back in the lineup, just two weeks after Gill died, they paid tribute by covering "Not Great Men." Full circle.

Afghan Whigs

While Afghan Whigs' grungier rock sound has always been powered by dark machismo, you can still hear the tense, cutting style of Andy Gill in Greg Dulli's guitar style, and he cites Gang of Four's third album, Songs of the Free, as a formative record. "I got turned on to that record by some girls I went to college with, and they not only loved a man in a uniform, they loved the song, 'I Love a Man in a Uniform,' Greg told us earlier this year. "That was the song that got me into that record and subsequently, my roommates had Entertainment!, and I got caught up on Gang of Four. But Songs of the Free was my gateway drug into the Gang of Four universe. I had never heard someone play guitar like that guy, let alone write the type of songs that they were writing."

Nirvana

Kurt Cobain himself said Nirvana started out as "a Gang of Four and Scratch Acid ripoff," he famously included Entertainment! on his list of favorite albums, and when Gill died in February, Nirvana tweeted "Gang of Four are an influence on our music. Sorry to hear about Andy Gill's passing." The Scratch Acid influence on early Nirvana came though a little more clearly than the Gang of Four influence, but Gang of Four's influence had clearly seeped into that band's music (and into Scratch Acid singer David Yow's next band The Jesus Lizard, who eventually worked with Andy Gill), so Gang of Four was undeniably in Nirvana's musical DNA even if it wasn't as obvious to pick out as other bands. Sometimes you could hear it though, like on the funk-punk-inspired "Hairspray Queen."

Nine Inch Nails

"Trent (Reznor) has often told me how much of NIN was influenced by Gang of Four so it’s funny people are saying that,” Andy Gill told Gigwise back in 2016. It's pretty evident, too; Go4's darker, more churning, brooding material like "Anthrax" -- and when they started to incorporate drum machines on Songs of the Free -- feel like seeds for Nine Inch Nails songs like “Hurt” or “Piggy.” Nine Inch Nails have covered "Anthrax," too, like at a 2009 LA show with Gary Numan, Mike Garson, Jane's Addiction's Eric Johnson and members of HEALTH.

photo by Amanda Hatfield

Rage Against the Machine

It's pretty easy to draw the line from Gang of Four's mix of radical politics and danceable rock to the similar, if blunter, approach that Rage Against the Machine made hugely popular a decade later. More specifically, Tom Morello has long cited Gill as a principle influence, saying Gill's "jagged plague disco raptor attack industrial funk deconstructed guitar anti-hero sonics and fierce poetic radical intellect were formative for me," in a tribute post to Gill. "So glad I got to see him and revel in his incendiary art and wry wit several times over the past year. He was really, really fucking great."

Sleater-Kinney

"The sound of Gang of Four was revelatory for me," Carrie Brownstein told Rolling Stone, discussing Gang of Four's "Natural's Not in It." "Even before you hear the lyrics, the acidity of the guitar playing tells you what this band is." Gang of Four's influence on Sleater-Kinney is very evident, and Andy Gill was a fan of theirs too. "Not for the first time I feel Sleater-Kinney and Gang of Four have quite a lot in common," he wrote in a review of No Cities to Love in The Talkhouse. "We obviously share similar agendas."

St. Vincent

Perhaps more than any other major modern indie musician, St. Vincent has kept the "angularity" of '80s post-punk guitar playing alive. She's covered The Pop Group and Big Black (themselves surely influenced by Gang of Four), and she's gone on record saying Andy Gill is her favorite guitarist and that her style was deeply influenced by what he did in Gang of Four. Gill, meanwhile, has similarly effused over St. Vincent. If you need more on their Mutual Appreciation society, Gill and Clark interviewed each other on The Talkhouse Podcast back in 2015 and it's a pleasure hearing these two guitar greats geek out over gear and each other's music.

Photo by Andy Sawyer

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Much like what was going on in the UK at the same time, the early-'00s Williamsburg scene would not have sounded like it did without Gang of Four. While not the most blatant in their thievery, Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the biggest of the bunch and it's hard to listen to songs like "Rich" or "Pin" from their debut album Fever to Tell, and not hear at least a little of Andy Gill in Nick ZInner's equally inventive guitar style. Yeah Yeah Yeahs were one of the bands to pay them back on 2005's remix album Return the Gift, with Karen O adding vocals to slinky classic "I Love a Man in a Uniform."

Photo by P Squared

The Rapture

Before they hooked up with the DFA crew to make their defining 2002 dancepunk single "House of Jealous Lovers," and before they released a 2001 EP on Sub Pop, The Rapture were a struggling Brooklyn band looking for a scene that was still to come. At that time they hadn't quite figured out their sound (which would be heavily indebted to post punk like Gang of Four), but they were heading in that direction. Case in point: touring for their 1999 debut album, here's footage from a show at the SF State Cafeteria where they covered Gang of Four's "Damaged Goods." To quote the video's description, "They opened with this cover, I think the video basically speaks for itself."

The Futureheads

While Alex Kapranos maintains Gang of Four were not an influence on Franz Ferdinand's sound, many of the other UK bands that sprung up in the mid-'00s very clearly were. (We're looking at you, Test Icicles, The Rakes, Clor, Tom Vek, Young Knives, and others.) The most obvious might be The Futureheads, who were similarly tightly wound, and songs like "Robot" and "First Day" were cut from a similar cloth as "Damaged Goods." In fact, Andy Gill produced those songs and about half of their debut album. It was a much more fruitful pairing than when he worked with Red Hot Chili Peppers. "Gang of Four were one of the best and working with Andy on our early singles and first album set us on our path," The Futureheads wrote in tribute to Gill. "A true gent."

Minutemen

While most of the bands in the 1980s American Hardcore scene were pushing the raw simplicity of the Ramones in louder, faster directions, others like Boston's The Proletariat and San Pedro's Minutemen were pulling from the brainier sounds of UK post-punk. The Minutemen drew from Wire, The Pop Group, and of course Gang of Four, who clearly influenced their political lyrics, D. Boon's wiry guitar playing, and especially Mike Watt's bass. (He and Flea may be the two most obvious early descendants of Dave Allen's punk-funk style). The Minutemen took that influence and made it their own, though, never sounding like anyone other than themselves.

Bloc Party

“When Bloc Party first started, people compared us to Gang of Four," Kele Okereke told UK paper The Independent in 2014. "I’d never heard of them so from the start, we were pegged as something that we weren’t. I feel that our whole career has been us moving away from people’s expectations." Yet when you listen to early singles like "Banquet" and "She's Hearing Voices" -- with their spiky guitars and danceable rhythms -- you may wonder if other members of Bloc Party owned Entertainment.

Fugazi

With unimpeachable bonafides in the DC hardcore scene, Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Embrace), Guy Picciotto (Rites of Spring), Joe Lally and Brendan Canty (Rites of Spring) were influencers, but Fugazi brought a groove to punk rock that was clearly informed by things outside the Beltway. MaKaye said he wanted a sound "like The Stooges with reggae" but they ended up with a style that, on their first two EPs especially, was in the same headspace as Gang of Four and just as powerful.

Radiohead

No one would've lumped Radiohead and Gang of Four together during the former's early years, but somewhere between OK Computer and Kid A -- when the group's fascination with electronic music really began showing itself and Thom Yorke got twitchier -- the parallels between the groups became more apparent. (You can really feel it on songs like "Bangers and Mash" and "Morning Mr. Magpie.") They also share a similar worldview wary of consumerist culture. If Gang of Four hadn't written "At Home He's a Tourist," Radiohead might've.

Photo by Toby Tenenbaum