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Radiohead

Something “very special” in May

We received an email from Stanley Donwood’s publicist (Stan! You’re moving up!) with the following message:

I would like to introduce myself as I’m now working with Stanley Donwood as his publicist. As you know he is an exceptional artist and has collaborated with Radiohead producing all the artwork for the band since The Bends.
Stanley has been working on something very special since the end of last year that we are launching at the beginning of May. We will be in touch again shortly to bring you the news!

Check out Stanley’s website here.

Categories
Radiohead

DMB Hearts RH

davematthews.jpgDave Matthews really digs Radiohead, according to his interview in the April issue of Rolling Stone. Here’s what he had to say:
“Every time I buy a Radiohead album, I have a moment where I say to myself, “Maybe this is the one that will suck.” But it never does. I wonder if it’s even possible for them to be bad on record.
It belittles Radiohead to describe their music as having “hooks.” Their music talks to you, in a real way. It can take you down a quiet street before it drops a beautiful musical bomb on you. It can build to where you think the whole thing will crumble beneath its own weight – and then Thom Yorke will sing some melody that just cuts your heart out of your chest. There’s a point on the album Kid A where I start feeling claustrophobic, stuck in a barbed-wire jungle – and then I suddenly fall out and I’m sitting by a pool with birds singing. Radiohead can do all of these things in a moment, and it drives me fucking crazy.
My reaction to Radiohead isn’t as simple as jealousy. Jealousy just burns; Radiohead infuriate me. But if it were only that, I wouldn’t go back and listen to those records again and again. Listening to Radiohead makes me fell like I’m a Salieri to their Mozart. Yorke’s lyrics make me want to give up. I could never in my wildest dreams find something as beautiful as they find for a single song – let alone album after album. And every time, they raise their finger to the press and the critics and say, “Nothing we do is for you!”. They followed their most critically acclaimed record, OK Computer, with their most radical change, Kid A. It’s not that they’re indifferent: It’s just that the strength of character in their music is beyond their control.
Seeing them perform makes me even angrier. No matter how much they let go in their shows, they never lose their clarity. There’s no point where Jonny Greewood or Ed O’Brien will suddenly look up and say “Where the fuck are we?” There are no train wrecks in Radiohead; every album and performance is wretching. God, these guys have suffered, or they can fake it like nobody else.”
(thanks to Jeff)

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Radiohead

Green Day and Radiohead Row Over Loud Volume

Here’s some quality Monday reading for you…

RADIOHEAD drummer PHIL SELWAY reacted in fury when he was kept awake by a loud party held by GREEN DAY – but was locked inside his hotel room by the BASKET CASE stars as a result.
The dispute was sparked when Green Day partied into the night at Los Angeles’ infamous Chateau Marmont hotel, forcing tired Selway – who was trying to sleep in a nearby room – to knock on the door and beg TRE COOL to turn down the noise.
In response to the request, Cool turned off the music, but blasted out a different album moments later – Radiohead’s OK COMPUTER. And in a further act of mischief, Cool tied a rope around Selway’s door – keeping him trapped inside.
Cool says, “(Selway said), ‘You let me out you f**ker! I’m telling THOM (YORKE, Radiohead frontman).’
“(I said), ‘Dude, if you walk into a room of hot chicks and they’re blasting out you’re album, you’re like, What up? Right?'”

From Contact Music, Monsters and Critics, and Female First.
(thanks to xekias)

Categories
Radiohead

Ed Joins Trade Justice Movement Rally

From XFM:
Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien and the Super Furries Animals’ frontman Gruff Rhys will join Thom Yorke, various stars from stage and screen, and thousands of protesters on an overnight carnival of music, art and protest for Trade Justice.
The all-night event takes place on April 15 and forms part of a week of global action for Trade Justice. In London the day will include a gig at the Marquee Club in Leicester Square featuring Nitin Sawhney, DJ Bobby Friction and other as-yet-confirmed artists.
As previously reported, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is to be joining Vanessa Redgrave and Pete Postlethwaite for the nighttime protest march itself which will include a protest outside Downing Street.
Now Xfm can confirm that Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien will be joining the rally. For his part O’Brien will be serving up tea coffee and cakes when he pops in to help the Women’s Institute at their Fair Trade Cafe. No really.
Elsewhere, Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys will be joining the line up at the Marquee Club in Leicester Square when he plays a special acoustic set. Other special guests are yet to be announced to be joining the bill with rumours predictably centring round another singer with a political conscience.
“It’s an overnight ‘happening’,” Yorke explained in a statement, “And it’s happening at the same time as many events all around the world. I’m going with a sleeping bag and a paint brush and maybe even a guitar if I can get it in the suitcase.”
The protest has been staged to call on the UK Government to stop pushing poor countries to open up their economies and respect their right to decide on trade policies that will help them end poverty and protect their environment. The vigil will continue all night, culminating in a dawn procession and delegations meeting representatives from the main political parties.
For more information and a full schedule of the event check out www.tjm.org.uk.

Categories
In Rainbows Radiohead

Radiohead start work on new album

JonnyFrom NME:
Radiohead are working on new material – and guitarist Jonny Greenwood has spoken for the first time about a rare live appearance next week in London.

As previously reported, new music from members of Radiohead will be played for the first time at the London Ether Festival.

Material penned by Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood will form part of The London Sinfonietta at the London Royal Festival Hall (March 27-28).

Organisers say the events will feature “two evenings of experimentation, collaboration and cross-genre juxtaposition”. New music from Greenwood and Yorke will form part of the show, along with more classical composers and traditional Arabic song.

Speaking in The Guardian newspaper, Greenwood explained the challenges of the shows, and how they will influence the next Radiohead record.
He said: “I feel embarrassed talking about it. I’m so patchy. I’ll be obsessed with a few composers, and know nothing about the rest. I get these enthusiasms which can drive the band crazy, but I just say: ‘Listen, French horns are amazing, we’ve got to find a way of using them. Or I’ll say, ‘It would be great if this song sounded like Penderecki, or Alice Coltrane’.

“And it’s childish because none of us can play jazz like Alice Coltrane, and none of us can write the kind of music that Penderecki does. We’ve only got guitars and a basic knowledge of music, but we reach for these things and miss. That’s what’s cool about it.”

Speaking about working with the Sinfonietta, he added: “They’re a great orchestra because they’re up for radically changing things at the last minute. I cut six minutes out during rehearsals… There’s something about classical musicians – they tend to be totally without ego, and so enthusiastic, but also just so talented.”

However, Greenwood has ruled out working in classical music full-time, saying that his heart remains with Radiohead.

He concluded: “Radiohead is always going to be the centre of what I do. Everything starts with songs, and with Thom, and with the excitement you can get in the band when you hear new music, and you know you’ve got the chance to watch it mutate and change. There’s nothing like that, nothing as exciting. We’re rehearsing at the moment, and again it’s fun. We all want to push forward, and when you have five people who are all like that, you couldn’t ask for a better thing.”

Categories
Radiohead

Is this what we’ve been waiting to hear?

Thom stopped by the Official Message Board earlier and had this to say:

: Have a cookie.
THAT
would be a bad idea
hey weve started work.(speaking of cookies)
no really.

Does this mean the band are starting work on another release? We think so…