Wednesday 30 September 2009

Radiohead's Yorke forms side band, sets gigs


LONDON (Billboard) – Radiohead's Thom Yorke has formed a live band and recruited Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea to the lineup, with two Los Angeles gigs confirmed for the week of October 5.
The band will also include Radiohead produce Nigel Godrich, drummer Joey Waronker, who has toured and recorded with REM, among others, and Mauro Refosco of New York band Forro in the Dark.
The October 4 and 5 shows at the 1,970-capacity Orpheum Theater will feature material from Yorke's solo set "The Eraser" and new songs.
Two songs "The Hollow Earth" and "FeelingPulledApartbyHorses" were released September 21 as a limited edition 12 inch vinyl single via the Radiohead Web site. The tracks will also be delivered as a free download, and are set to be made available separately as a paid download in October.
Yorke's solo set at the U.K. Latitude festival in July included the new song "The Present Tense." Another new song, "Hearing Damage," will appear on Atlantic's "New Moon" soundtrack, due October 20.
"In the past couple of weeks I've been getting a band together for fun to play the eraser stuff live and the new songs etc. ... to see if it could work!" Yorke said in a post at the Radiohead Web site.
The post also featured a photo of the unnamed pair and a link to buy tickets via Ticketmaster.
"We don't actual have a name and the set will not be very long cuz ... well ... we haven't got that much material yet!" Yorke added. "But come and check it out if you are in the area."

Sunday 27 September 2009

On The Agenda: We've got a hankering for Herzog this week


Music
From the home of Radiohead, Supergrass and the Foals comes a festival that's not so much a festival as a big street party (albeit indoors). On 10 October, down Cowley Road in the east of Oxford, 10 bands will be playing 10 venues, including The Big Pink, receiving rave reviews for debut album A Brief History of Love and critics' favourite Stornoway. Staged by the team that puts together the Truck festival, this local music spectacular will be supplemented by poetry performances and an open-mic event. Time to warm up that larynx.


Fashion

The shows in London last week had their eye on what we'll be wearing next summer, but some of us haven't sorted our autumn wardrobes yet. Take a tip from those in the know and revamp with a versatile high street investment. Stylist Beth Dadswell's top buy is a Whistles silk biker blouse, £85, (www.whistles.co.uk): "It looks great with a mini, pencil skirt or skinny jeans and eases the conversion from office to night out." Stock up also on ballet flats in this season's lively animal prints, £150, from Pretty Ballerinas (www.prettyballerinas.com). "Wear them with your favourite LBD or black leggings, and your feet will thank you for years to come." For more advice from Beth, visit www. mypersonalstylist.co.uk
Harriet Walker

Thursday 24 September 2009

'I agree with Lily Allen on file-sharing', Radiohead's Ed O'Brien


However guitarist is still not in favour of 'cutting people's internet off' Radiohead's Ed O'Brien has reacted to Lily Allen's criticism of him with regards to file-sharing, saying that he agrees with her.Allen had accused the guitarist, a member of the Featured Artists Coalition, of portraying the message that illegal file-sharing was acceptable. He has since told the BBC World Service that he does in fact agree with the singer's stance, and that he was not trying to send such a message."What's great at the moment is that artists, people like Lily Allen are saying, 'You know what, there are effects to file-sharing', and that's the first step in engaging the file-sharers," he said.Allen had suggested that O'Brien and other already successful musicians had a lax attitude to file-sharing as it wouldn't affect them as much financially as it would smaller bands."I completely agree with Lily Allen," O'Brien said. "We're (Radiohead) certainly not going to suffer. A lot of people have downloaded our music for free, but finally we don't suffer as much as a small band."He went on to say that young music lovers should be advanced to stop file-sharing through education and providing cheaper legal downloads. He criticised the Government's proposal to cut of internet connections of those who persistently file-share."At the moment the industry is saying you get them to change their behaviour by threatening them," he said. "We don't think this is realistic. Hopefully we can educate them (music fans) and say, 'Listen, if you want a great vibrant music scene and your favourite bands to be able to carry on doing it, you have a responsibility to pay for some of the work that they've produced'."Record companies have to permit out the recordings a lot more. You want to make it completely user friendly for somebody to be able to download something. Make it cheaper as well. Basically have more websites out there selling people's work."Lily Allen currently set up a blog to record responses for her campaign to challenge illegal downloading.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Radiohead collaboration and Banksy


Two of Britain's most recognisable icons have been joined together in a singular collaboration.
Media artist and experimental filmmaker Raymond Salvatore Harmon has used a montage of Banksy footage for Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke's new music video.
'The Hollow Earth' shows blindingly fast Banksy footage superimposed with time lapse shots of London.
The video will be available on the Radiohead website on Tuesday (September 22), and the single will be available for download on October 6th.

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Phil Selway reportedly recording solo album to Radiohead's


The drummer is rumoured to be collaborating with Wilco members, singer songwriter Lisa Germano and former Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg.

Last month, we mentioned that Radiohead drummer Phil Selway is getting set to record a solo album at his band's Oxfordshire studio. Selway sings two songs on the 7 Worlds Collide: The Sun Came Out benefit album, which is already out in the UK and due for a September 29 American release. And according to NME, he's recently hard at work on that solo album. NME reports that Selway's currently untitled solo effort will feature contributions from four of Selway's 7 Worlds Collide co-stars: Wilco's Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone, singer songwriter Lisa Germano, and former Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg. And yes, Selway will sing on it.

Sunday 13 September 2009

Radiohead fan can appreciate Mozart




IT HAS BECOME a ritual: I scan the buzzing black, white, and gold sea that is pre-concert Symphony Hall as usual, mine is one of maybe five vernal faces in sight. Then I turn to my septuagenarian neighbor and ask, “How long have you been a BSO fan?’’ The answer is almost constant, “Since I was young!’’ I look around again and wince.I am 19, a musician, and one of Boston’s 250,000 college students. I absorb great music indiscriminately: on my iPod, Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro’’ cheerfully mingles its refulgence with Animal Collective’s “Feels’’ and Radiohead’s “Kid A’’ somberly holds forth with Messiaen’s “Quatuor.’’I know I’m not the only young musical omnivore around, but something odd is happening here. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, surely one of the world’s most exciting orchestras, also offers one of the world’s greatest student discounts. The $25 College Card guarantees access to 15 BSO concerts plus, cardholders receive a text message whenever extra tickets are available. By the end of the season, it covers almost 30 concerts less than a dollar a night to sit in seats that normally cost $80. A season’s pass to the BSO costs college kids about one-third the price of a decent seat at a DMB show. So why isn’t Symphony Hall overflowing with 18 to 22 year olds every night?The answer isn’t “These kids are off with their Twitter and their ‘NYC Prep.’ ’’ Many of my peers are sensitive, passionate listeners (just stop by a Grizzly Bear or St. Vincent concert), and many of us listen to music that demands the same spiritual engagement and intellectual openness that Brahms and Adams do. The leap from Deerhoof to Stravinsky is miniscule when classical music is presented the right way; one indie rock expert friend of mine became a bona fide opera nut after I insisted he experience Verdi’s “Otello’’ and I didn’t present it as an exotic excursion into high culture. I presented it as one of the richest manifestations of love and torment we have as humans. Just like “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.’’But most of my peers have never been forcefully urged to treat classical music (whatever that term means) as an confidant, vital experience. I never see, say, a pair of college age friends at Boston Lyric Opera on a Friday night only the occasional loner, the occasional family with a bored teen in tow.Hmm. I thought live music was a social activity. On this front, the BSO and other major arrangement are not blameless. The College Card should be sharply advertised at every area school: now, it’s hard to find even on the BSO website. Also, the atmosphere at Boston concerts might strike a first timer as stuffy: We do not have a venue like New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, which blends the best of classical, indie, and jazz with appropriate ease.But ultimately, fellow students, it’s up to us. Time to occupy the concert hall. Classical concerts need not be exercises in cough stifling. I regularly wear a T-shirt and jeans to the BSO it’s fun to give the lingering Koussevitzky ites a mild shock, since I know Mahler’s just asempyreal sans tux and react to the music with a vocal passion. I cheered myself hoarse for Barenboim, Levine, and Carter last year, and I booed Teatro Lirico’s apathetic “Aida’’ with equal fervor. Audience participation didn’t start in 1962 a knowledgeable, demanding audience has been the sustaining force of every culture with music at its heart, from fin-de-siecle Vienna to New Orleans in the 1920s.So don’t treat classical music as a once-a-year excuse to dress up and get a nice dinner. It is music. It’s meant to be loved by the young, hormone crazed masses, loved the very same way we love Radiohead and the Arcade Fire. It should lie at the center of everyday life, spark our wildest conversations and profoundest thoughts, be the soundtrack to falling in love. There’s a galaxy of music in our city that wants our love, and I know we’ve got it in us.

Friday 4 September 2009

Radiohead's Thom Yorke announces two solo songs


The Hollow Earth and FeelingPulledApartbyHorses are to be released under the Radiohead frontman's own name – though he is considering a new moniker: Thomosexual


Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke will release two new songs in September on limited connection 12". The Hollow Earth and FeelingPulledApartbyHorses are to be released under Yorke's own name, although there are signs that he is regarding a new moniker or even a new backing band for his solo project.
"Dear Sir or Madam," Yorke wrote yesterday on the official Radiohead blog. "This is to inform you of the release of two more bits of work shortly ... Both were created by Nigel Godrich as ever. And mastered by Bob Ludwig. They are being put out on 12" with shredded sleeve by Stanley (Donwood) and (myself)."
Radiohead and Yorke have been busy these last few weeks. Largely dormant since 2007's In Rainbows, the band released a tribute to first world war veteran Harry Patch at the start of August. These Are My Twisted Words, another new track, was posted to their website just weeks later. Yorke has also recorded a cover of All for the Best, primitively by US band Miracle Legion, which will appear on a Miracle Legion tribute album and limited edition 7" later this month.
Both FeelingPulledApartbyHorses and The Hollow Earth have been maturation in Radiohead vaults for some time. The former, Yorke wrote, is a "radical rework of an old tune" from 2001, written and performed with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. The "bass menace" of The Hollow Earth was, meanwhile, apprenticed for Yorke's 2006 solo album, The Eraser, "but wanted a little more time".
The forthcoming 12" will be released in shops and at Radiohead's online store on 21 September. According to a source at Canadian distributor Sonic Unyon, there many be as few as 4,000 copies available in Europe (North America will receive another 4,000). Digital versions of the tracks will go on sale on 6 October.
Billboard reports that Yorke is considering touring this material later in the year. Rather than play solo, he may even perform with a band and it won't needfully be Radiohead. "These days it's all getting kind of blurry," Yorke wrote. The singer is also resultedly considering new names for his solo project.
He sais, "Thomosexual," suggested Adam Buxton in an interview with Yorke, "(or) the Duke of Yorke." Yorke preferred T.Homme. "(It's) kind of sophisticated,"