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radio

Lee Livingston (bass), David Melke (guitar), and Ray Down (guitar) formed the Radio in 1996, combining Syd Barrett's airy, psychedelic sound with Brian Wilson's catchiness. Initially from Calgary, Alberta, their city's music scene -- AM radio listeners and punks -- rejected the Radio for being out of touch with what locals wanted. The three relocated to Vancouver in 1997, becoming an underground favorite. Their lineup was then broadened to include Kayoko Takahashi (keyboards), Venus Soberanes (percussion), and Darren Robertson (percussion). Dreamy soundscapes pervade their songs, as does a Japanese pop influence. Like Cibo Matto, the Radio incorporates various artifacts of different pop cultures into their songs; samples of videogames, cartoons, and television broadcasts are frequently heard. However, they can also write strong, straight-ahead pop songs with infectious hooks and backup vocals reminiscent of the Zombies. The Radio's ability to perform songs in Japanese, German, French, and Russian, is among many factors that make them difficult to compare to other rock groups; they are not a group of shoegazers or college rockers or a retro band. While their songs sprawl throughout pop's various stylizations, the musical synthesis the Radio has achieved is coherent and readily identifiable. Like the Flaming Lips, the Radio exudes a natural benevolence and is just too diverse and weird for any particular rock genre, which is perhaps why their first release, Numbers, Birds, and the Mysteries of the Human Mind, is so good. ~ John Keillor, Rovi

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