"Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy"

I was listening to the radio the other day, when it dawned upon me how much the guitar in "Planet Telex" -- and well, all of The Bends -- sounds like "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" and Monster era R.E.M. Even the ballads "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees" sound like a band taking their cues from Automatic For The People.

Which makes perfect sense.

"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" topped the charts right as Radiohead entered the recording studio in late 1994. Thom Yorke and company would even open up for R.E.M. during the summer of 1995 in a tour that would generate much of the mythos surrounding O.K. Computer (e.g. Yorke singing "No Surprises" to Stipe in their Oslo dressing room).

Perhaps this isn't a major revelation to everybody else, but it was an interesting musical connection I had never made before.

[The backstory to the R.E.M. single is equally fascinating.]