RADIOHEAD: HYSTERICAL & USELESS

The embodiment of sweet revenge for every high school nerd who's ever felt the bitter sting of peer-related scorn, Radiohead's phenomenal run of success as the thinking fan's rock band hasn't come without a considerable amount of effort. Quickly snapped up after its formation by an eager record label, the band was derided by the British rock press as not having paid its dues, while the fluke success of its single "Creep" exposed it to two years' worth of shows for audiences interested in hearing only that song. Richer but terminally pissed off, Radiohead retired to a country barn, emerging some time later with THE BENDS, the first in a series of astonishingly angst-ridden, simultaneously experimental and commercial albums. Martin Clarke's remarkably well-researched biography of the band, HYSTERICAL AND USELESS, recounts Radiohead's story from its members' school days near Oxford, through their first faltering performances, their initial double-edged success, and their early-21st-century status as rockers with a license to innovate. While there's plenty of fascinating background detail, of scandal there is none--though one of their producers unabashedly reveals the band's daily communal ritual completion of the morning paper's crossword puzzle before settling down to a hard day's rocking.