Apologies for the lack of news posts lately. We’ve been busy working on the new GP. What will be new with the new site? Well, it will still be same site… but with a new look. Also, some new sections will be added and old ones will finally be updated. Oh, lots and lots of ad banners too. Haha.. Just kidding.
So, here’s what’s been going on in Radiohead news:
– Stanley Donwood’s site has been updated so go check it out.
– The video for “Karma Police” came in at #54 in Slant Magazine’s 100 Greatest Music Videos special. Here’s what was said:
Before Jonathan Glazer made the successful transition from music videos to feature films, he was directing commericals for Levi’s, Volkswagen and Nike. The London native has also produced some of the more cinematic videos to hit the MTV airwaves. Though his clip for Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity” won the 1997 Video Music Award for Video of the Year, it is his work for Radiohead and U.N.K.L.E. that remains his most daring. Glazer claims that his video for Radiohead’s “Karma Police” was inspired by a bad dream. In this creepy revenge clip, a car slowly follows a man running down a desolate road. When the man turns to face his potential killer, the car pulls back only to reveal a gas leakage in its wake. Glazer’s remarkable use of point-of-view implicates the spectator in the clip’s action but it’s the spooky way with which he fashions a M?bius strip from karmic irony that makes “Karma Police” one of the more memorable clips of the last few years.
– “Creep” came in at 99 in Q’s 100 Songs that Changed the World.
– Bjork recently commented on Thom Yorke and copycats her official message board at http://www.bjork.com:
“what really really hurts and i know i am speaking for a lot of people here , video directors , musicians , photographers and so on , is when a lifetime of work get?s copied in 5 minutes with absolutely no guilt . that expression : imitation is the sincerest form of flattery , it might be true but it is the kind of flattery that robs you . i spoke quite a lot about this with thom from the radiohead couple of years ago when every other singer on the radio was trying to be him and he said it really confused him , after hearing all that , next time he stood by the mike he didn?t know anymore what was him and what was all those copycats . it is one of the reasons kid a was so hard to make.”
– The January/February issue of Blender has named Thom in the 50 Top Rock Geniuses list. Thom came in at #44 and there is a full page picture of him. Bob Dylan came in at #1.
– Back to Stanley Donwood now. Stanley has designed the EP cover for singer/songwriter John Matthias. Here’s some info:
John Matthias made a welcome return to Lifelike in November with ‘The Insurance Man’, a 12″ on Lifelike featuring two new songs and a Herbert remix of the title track. John Matthias: “These new tracks were recorded earlier in the year at the studio in the basement of Island Records in London where Bob Marley’s ‘Exodus’ and The Smiths’ first album among others were recorded. ‘The Insurance Man’ was finished at Star Barton, an old country manor house in Devon where 3 herds of deer roamed freely around as the music was recorded. We recorded everything through the strings of the Grand piano which gives the drums and violin extra resonances because of the harmonies of the strings. The E.P. has a general theme of money-borrowing, spending and saving and the general murkiness which surrounds any transaction. My website http://www.smalltownshining.com is based around the idea of exchange – in this case, taking an amount of money (?100) and changing this into francs, then into marks then into deutschmarks etc. until all the money had vanished into commission and all I had were 15 transaction receipts. The website is a series of receipts linked together and hidden in them is also some information about me, my band and several well-known mathematical physicists. The cover for the EP was specially made by Stanley Donwood who won an American Grammy award in 2002.”
– Time for a break, and a chuckle. Read Random Perspective’s (fake) Radiohead album review.
– In the February issue of Esquire magazine, there is an article called “34 Reasons to be Optimistic in 2003” and #33 was “a new Radiohead record.”
– And finally, we’re pleased to report that Christopher O’Riley, the classical pianist who has been doing amazing Radiohead transcriptions, has signed a contract with Sony Classical to record an album of his transcriptions. He’ll record the Radiohead songs in NYC and we should expect a Spring release. We’ll keep you updated…
(thanks to everyone that sent us news!)