Category: Radiohead

Dave 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)

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)

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.

Ah, that’s good news. Caught by an At Ease reader at the Ether Festival, he also spilled that maybe, just maybe, there’ll be a small tour, similar to the Spain/Portugal 2002 dates, to try out the new material.
At Ease also points out, correctly, that Jonny hinted that he’d like to do a fanclub tour. Hmmm.
(Thanks to At Ease.)

As previously reported, this April begins Jonny’s three-year term as the BBC Concert Orchestra’s Composer in Residence. To commemorate this, a concert will be held on April 23rd featuring the premiere of ‘Superhet Popcorn Receiver’, the first of Jonny’s works commissioned by BBC Radio 3.
The concert will be held at LSO St. Luke’s in London, and ticket prices are a surprisingly reasonable £12.50-£15. See what happens when you venture outside popular music?
Tickets are available online at the LSO web page– there look to be 41 left (click on the balcony- all lower tier seats are sold) , so I’d shag ass if I were you.
(Thanks to “the little birdie” in the LSO Ticket Office.)

As you know, Jonny and the London Sinfonietta performed on both days of this weekend’s Ether Festival. The setlist, if you’d like to call it that, was identical both nights- beginning with Jonny’s 12-minute composition ‘Piano for Children’, described as “an half-tuned childlike piano, cradled by strings, which begins to decay in both time signature and tuning” by one reviewer. It was followed by ‘Smear’, Jonny’s Odnes Martenot composition (which has been played a few times already).
Then, Thom came out and joined Jonny and the Sinfonietta on ‘Arpeggi’, a new song whose lyrics will seem a bit familiar to frequent Radiohead.com visitors. Finally, vocalist Lubna Salame and the Nazareth Orchestra (an amazing band of traditional Arabic musicians- highly recommended) came onstage for a performance of ‘Where Bluebirds Fly’- which had not yet been played live.
Sounds like an amazing evening…
Thankfully, given the, er, “wired” tendencies of concertgoers this day and age, one can already find MP3 audience recordings of said songs. Check your favorite message board or file sharing service- they’re there.
I’ll spare you the offical reviews, which range from mildly interested to negative to glowing, as they always do. Better to decide for yourselves, no?
The official setlist was as follows:
György Ligeti Ramifications
Olivier Messiaen La Fete des belles eaux
Henri Dutilleux Ainsi la Nuit ‘Miroir d’Escape’
Jonny Greenwood Piano for Children
Henri Dutilleux Ainsi la Nuit ‘Litanies’
Mohammed Abdel-Wahab Enta Omri
Interval with screenings of Radiohead TV
Henri Dutilleux Ainsi la Nuit ‘Nocturne’
Jonny Greenwood smear
Farid El-Atrash Tuta
Krystof Penderecki Capriccio
Henri Dutilleux Ainsi la Nuit ‘Litanies 2’
Radiohead Arpeggi and Where Bluebirds Fly
(Thanks to everyone that wrote in…and we mean everyone.)