Covering Their Bases: Kid A on Radiohead

Cover bands. Say what you will about them, but unlike their more successful and famous counterparts, they’ll always play the hits and won’t be snobby assholes about it. In Covering Their Bases, The A.V. Club asks a cover band to weigh in on a contentious issue regarding their corresponding band. In this edition, frontman Jason Lichon, lead singer Alan Ruffin, and guitarist-keyboardist John Mastro of local Radiohead cover band Kid A talk to The A.V. Club before they play Thursday at Reggie's about how much they paid for In Rainbows, if Radiohead should break up while on top, and if they would meet Miley Cyrus backstage at one of their shows.

The A.V. Club: Is it difficult to be a cover band for an act that doesn't have particularly demonstrative personas?

Jason Lichon: I think that we really focused on the music aspect of it. A lot of tribute bands put a lot of effort into the visuals and trying to mimic the stage presence. We're really concerned about the music, and then when you throw in the fact that Al's black. There's only so far you can go with trying to mimic the presence. And we have fun with that—he's known as "Black Yorke" on stage.  

Alan Ruffin: Radiohead doesn't go on the road that often, so we're trying to provide to those fans a chance to hear stuff live. We haven't been focused on the personas and so far it's worked out. We just do the music.

AVC: So your Thom Yorke doesn't flail around the stage like the actual Thom Yorke? 

AR: [Laughs.] I do, I do actually. But, it's just you're going to see an African-American version of it. I don't know how many times in my apartment I've turned up Radiohead and flailed around my apartment singing tunes as Thom Yorke. It's kind of a natural thing. When you're playing the music and it's live, you try to let the music take you where it wants to and however that moves me when I play.

AVC: How much did you guys pay for pay-what-you-want album In Rainbows? 

John Mastro: Ooh, good question. I paid $20. I figured, I'm gonna make up for some schmo who's gonna download it for nothing.  

AVC: That was probably me.

JL: I think I paid $10, but I downloaded it twice, so however you want to look at that one.  

JM: I made up for Jason.  

JL: Well, I figure it's an intellectual property. I paid for it once, and it's just like making a copy of it.

AR: I don't know if it went through my credit card twice. The first time I tried to do it, I thought it went through, but then it didn't give me confirmation so I bought it again, so I think I like paid $15 for it. 

AVC: To keep its legacy intact, does Radiohead need to break up now or after the next album? How many more great albums do they have in them? 

JM: It seems to be getting tougher and tougher for them. In between each release they take even longer to get an album together. And they seem to be crazy about what songs are going to be on the album. So, if and when they do break up, it's really not going to surprise me just because it seems to be getting to be too much of a pain for them. But, with the release of In Rainbows, which I think is a brilliant album, I just feel like it would be a shame if they give up now, when they still have some pretty great music to be made. After In Rainbows, I think they definitely owe us at least one more album.  

JL: If you would have asked me before In Rainbows, I thought it was time to end, but then they came out with In Rainbows and that blew me away, so I'm not going to say anything.

AR: It really depends on what their next thing is. Who knows? You know, it could be an album of glockenspiel. It depends on how they want to morph the music. It's boring to do the same thing over and over.

AVC: The consensus is that Pablo Honey is an average album; do you guys give it any love at your shows? 

JM: We know "Creep" because we figure there's going to be a few fans at the show that want to hear it and this band is for people to enjoy, so if they want to hear "Creep," we'll play "Creep" for them, but obviously it's not one of our favorites. We also know "Anyone Can Play Guitar," and there's a couple other songs that we really dig from that album, but comparing Pablo Honey to everything else they have—it's such a different sound. It sounds like a different band totally.

AVC: Would you guys meet Miley Cyrus if you had the chance?  

JM: [Laughs.] No, I'd tell my people to tell her people to take a walk.  

AVC: But, let’s say hypothetically, she's a huge Kid A fan, and she’d love to meet you guys.

AR: I'd meet her. If someone like Miley came and said, “Hey, I love your songs,” that would be one thing. But I think to send your people to talk to my people for me to come to your dressing room, I’d probably be a little put off by that.

JL: I'm hoping that the story that made it out was not quite accurate on either side, because it just seems sort of ridiculous. I mean if she was a fan and she wanted to see them, I find it hard to believe that Radiohead was really malicious or whatever, or that they were doing it to prove how cool they were, at least I would hope not.

JM: I'm sorry, I think she sucks. She just sucks at life. Can I say that?  

AR: I saw Radiohead at Lollapalooza. I had an artist's pass to backstage. And it was interesting how every band that was there was just in awe of Radiohead. They didn't come back to the main backstage where all the other artists were—they kind of stayed to their private little area.

JL: If you think about how they sequester themselves and that they've got their own little private world, maybe there's something more nefarious going on there. Maybe they're all five Tiger Woods. They're doing all sorts of illicit drugs—they're really more like Led Zeppelin than we think.