Are you ready!? Radiohead is back in the United States and will be performing tonight in Philadelphia, PA. If you’re going, please feel free to leave us your reviews in our gigography.
I think we can expect some new songs tonight. *fingers crossed*
There is certainly a lot of buzz going around the internet at the moment about the leaking of Thom Yorke’s album a month early (see Clickmusic, Virgin.net, This is Fake DIY, Dotmusic, Launch Yahoo!, MP3.com, etc…). So, the album is out there, most likely leaked by someone who had been given an advance copy. As of now, there has been no official response by Thom or his management, though we can imagine he’s singing the chorus to “Black Swan” a lot lately. 😉
Anyway, Mr Yorke himself will be on the cover of the July 11th issue of Spin. There will also be a lengthy interview that you won’t want to miss. When you’re out buying the album that day (cause you are, right?), make sure to pick up a copy.
(thanks to Ari)
As you probably know, Thom’s new album the Eraser was leaked out on the internet yesterday. Shocker, huh? No word on if XL will release the album earlier now because of the leak. We hope that those who do download the album will still go out and buy it on July 10 (UK) and July 11 (US). There’s nothing quite like going to a store and unwrapping a CD for the first time and listening to it.
MaxK made this post on the official messageboard:
…is that it screws up a lot of fun plans and stuff which you plan when youre making an album and are proud of it and want to play it to people. you just get this unceremonious dump of files rather than any artwork or anything.
there was a plan when ‘hail to the thief’ was being released to actually leak another album of other songs and demos all named as the ‘alternative’ titles just to mess with everyone a bit. instead the rough mix of the album got leaked and everyone thought “well why fucking bother, theres no point now”.
Here’s another installment of YouTube Friday here at GP.
Our first Radiohead video is a clip of the band performing “Anyone Can Play Guitar” at Reading in 1994.
At one of the recent gigs at Wolverhampton, the band started “Pyramid Song” with Jonny playing his guitar with a bow. Watch and be amazed…
Remember when Radiohead did those cool webcasts where the band would do DJ sets and be silly? Here’s a clip of Ed sampling music…
Here’s another webcast clip of Ed telling the story of the Polar Express:
Pitchfork has a preview of the upcoming Thom Yorke album which you should check out. We’re excited, you’re excited, we’re all excited!
Matthew Solarski reports:
Major break-ups, deaths, and Thom Yorke records– pretty much the only stories Pitchfork News wakes up on a weekend to break. A couple of Saturdays back, we caught wind that Yorke was planning his first-ever foray into, um, solitary territory (“i don’t wanna hear that word solo,” the man wrote in a W.A.S.T.E. e-mail), on a forthcoming album to be titled The Eraser. And now, we’ve had the distinct pleasure of hearing the album in its entirety. The Eraser is a sumptuous, Nigel Godrich-produced layer cake of plaintive piano, haunting synth squalls, and chugging guitars built atop skittish programmed beats and devoured by Thom Yorke’s anguished ruminations on the pressures and paranoias attendant to fame and expectation. And no, it’s not a techno record.
Here’s a track-by-track first glimpse at The Eraser:
1. “the eraser”: The title track opens with a muffled, repeated piano chord. After a few bars and a chord change, programmed beats settle in, and Thom interrupts, “Please excuse me but I got to ask,” scraping the upper register. Soon, a gaggle of disembodied, moaning Thoms joins in for the chorus, which seemingly takes a cue from Morrissey: “The more you try to erase me/ The more that I appear”.
2. “analyse”: Vocal and rolling piano lines launch this meditation on futility. “The fences that you cannot climb/ The sentences that do not rhyme,” Thom laments, sad and clever all at once. And later: “It gets you down/ You’re just playing a part,” one of many presumed jabs at self-identity. The chord progression somewhat recalls an accelerated “Knives Out”, with a hesitant snare plodding along in the background, before Godrich drops in the first of The Eraser’s many cinematic synth flourishes.
3. “the clock”: A cyclical guitar line lends this track an almost motorik vibe, albeit one evoking a leisurely Sunday drive. Click-clack beats add to the pace before the inevitable opening line: “Time is running out/ For us.” By the end, Thom is humming a simple, bluesy melody over the steady but relentless rhythm.
4. “black swan”: Opens with an almost hip-hop beat, before a blues-inspired riff more than a little reminiscent of “I Might Be Wrong” drops in and sets the structure. “This is fucked up, fucked up,” Yorke declares. Later, more identity crises are averted: “I don’t care what the future holds/ ‘Cause I’m right here and I’m today/ With your fingers you can touch me.”
5. “skip divided”: Samples of Thom drawing breaths help form the percussive foundation of this dark stalker-ly declaration. Yorke’s at his most conversational here, almost pub-drunk, revealing, “When you walk in a room I follow you ’round/ Like a dog/ I’m a dog, I’m a dog, I’m a dog/ I’m a lapdog/ I’m your lapdog.” Creepy.
6. “atoms for peace”: Thom returns, all homesick alien, beseeching you: “No more going to the dark side with your flying saucer eyes/ No more falling down a wormhole that I have to pull you out,” and striving for some higher octaves during the chorus: “I wanna geeet ouuut/ And make it woooork.” Celestial tones underscore a warm, bumbling bassline– a relatively minimal arrangement compared to the rest of The Eraser. “So many lies/ So feel the love come off of them/ And take me in your arms,” he sings. Thom’s own “You’re Beautiful”?
7. “and it rained all night”: And it’s back to the Dark Side for The Eraser’s chilliest number, a tune awash in eerie synth and driven by a Joy Division-esque bassline. Thom assumes the role of the poet-observer, surrealistically detailing visions of post-downpour New York, clipped vocal samples later piggybacking the bassline. It culminates in a strained, desperate: “I can see you/ But I can never reach you.”
8. “harrowdown hill”: Don’t get thrown off by the practically post-punk opening bass riff; more haunted synth and programmed beats soon drift in and turn things nocturnal once again. “I’m coming home to make it all right/ So dry your eyes,” sings Thom– one of the most conventional, pop-esque vocal melodies on the record. “I can’t take the pressure/ No one cares if you live or die/ They just want me gone/ They want me gone.” The moment is suspended to make way for some riffing, which closes out the song.
9. “cymbal rush”: We’re greeted here by what sounds like the Pac-Man death sound effect kicked down an octave; then more funereal, ambient synth, along with pitter-patter programmed percussion not unlike that on “Kid A”. “Try to build a wall that is high enough,” sings Thom. “It’s all boiling over.” Finally, the climax: percussion picks up, guitar enters over melancholic piano chords, and more disembodied Thoms float about, moaning– until all drops out for one final blip-bloop parade, which sputters out to an abrupt finish.
Regarding The Eraser, Yorke also wrote “inevitably it is more beats & electronics. but its [sic] songs,” and that pretty much sums it up. The record is song-oriented to a perhaps surprising degree– no instrumentals, all tracks pretty much in the four-minute range, mostly standard time signatures– and emphasizes the trademark textural richness of Radiohead and Godrich.
The Eraser lands in stores July 11 in the U.S. (lucky Brits get it a day earlier) via XL Recordings, but for now, those of you who enjoy being puzzled, hop on over to www.theeraser.net for more (totally cryptic) album details.
(thanks to Stephan)
Tickets for the two Los Angeles shows at the Greek Theatre sold out within one minute of going on sale this morning at 10 AM. We get a tons of email from fans across the US who are understandably upset with how fast the shows have sold out. We’re upset too, though until TicketMaster starts really coming down hard on the scalping industry, there’s not much that can be done. All we can suggest to do is keep your eye on the w.a.s.t.e. ticket site as they periodically release groups of tickets.