Thom Yorke 30th powerful person in music

Q magazine has compiled a list of the 100 most powerful people in music. Thom Yorke is number 30 on that list. Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich is on number 74. Check Independent's article on the full list which has Eminem on number one. [thanks Vince]

Lucky on Six Feet Under

On the HBO show 'Six Feet Under', the fisher family are making a bonfire of the remnants of their garage sale and the character Claire runs up to her room putting her stereo on and blasting Radiohead's 'Lucky' to "amp the effect". [thanks Fatal Robot, Will, Matt, Doug, Anne, Josh]

Rice & Cullum play Radiohead on Glastonbury

Damien Rice has performed Radiohead's 'Creep' on the Glastonbury Festival last night. Jamie Cullum, who has recorded 'High & Dry' before, played the track on his Glastonbury performance. Speaking of Radiohead and Glastonbury. Radiohead's set from last years performance is online at the BBC website. [thanks will]

Happy birthday Colin!

Colin Greenwood is celebrating his 35th birthday today. Have a great one, Colin.

Radiohead nominated for TEC Awards

Radiohead are nominated for at the TEC Awards. Listed below are the nominees chosen by the Nominating Panel of the 20th Annual TEC Awards.

Record Production/Album

(Awards go to Recording Engineer, Mixing Engineer, Mixing Facility, Producer, Recording Studio, Mastering Engineer and Mastering Facility.) Dangerously in Love, Beyoncé Elephunk, Black Eyed Peas Fallen, Evanescence Hail to the Thief, Radiohead Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, OutKast

Tour Production

(Awards go to Tour Company, FOH Engineer and Monitor Engineer.) David Bowie, Firehouse Productions Toby Keith, Sound Image Radiohead, Firehouse Productions Simon & Garfunkel, Clair Brothers Rod Stewart, Sound Image

A complete list of all nominees for each project may be found at www.mixfoundation.org .

The award ceremony will be on Saturday, October 30, 2004, at the Marriott in San Francisco.

Essay on 'How to disappear completely'

Here's a part of an essay on Radiohead's 'How to disappear completely':

Within the first couple bars of “How to Disappear Completely,” I knew I was in deep shit. The strumming of the D and F-sharp-minor chords was gentle and distant and sad. The bass line was brooding and stubborn, complementing the denial in Thom Yorke’s refrain: “I’m not here. This isn’t happening.” There was also a mournful effect that sounded like the grieving of a lone humpback whale—an obvious simile at the time because a few weeks before, my girl and I had camped on the deserted southern tip of her island and watched a humpback surface just off the edge of the reef. Ugh.

[read it in full, thanks Trevor]

Radiohead on Portugese TV

Portugese channel Sol Música will be broadcasting the Les Eurockéennes 2003 Festival this Friday, 25th June, at 21h GMT. [thanks Inês & Filipe]

David Gray on touring with Radiohead

Here's a nice read from David Gray on his tour supporting Radiohead in 1995.

David Gray "I did an awful lot of support tours, all around America mandy times, and the UK, and they were often bloody miserable experiences.
Radiohead were the exception in that they were incredibly thoughtful about making sure we got soundchecks and just looking after us generally.
There was such a good bibe about their group of people that the tour was a real pleasure. They were a band that were coming into their own, we watched them
develop from nervously playing The Bends when Creep was still their only big hit on the first tour. Then, by the second tour, they were in a nother gear, there was a confidence about them and they knew they'd managed to wriggle free of the whole Creep issue. Thom was writing the songs for Ok Computer and playing them during soundchecks. There was a proper camaraderie about it. It was really good fun. There was a particularly insane night in Toronto when they were being presented with a platinum record aqnd their whole record company were there. I dunner where mine were, or even who they were! But after the show, at that time we were into a vodka and cranberry regime and we'd caned our entire rider bu the time they'd finished their set. The venue itself was like a labyrinthine succession of clubs and we ended up tumbling into their presentation. We were running about the place, barking on all fours getting in their photos, they didn't seem to mind. It ended up back in their dressing room. We'd already emptied all the ice out of our room covered it in crisps and round it was spectaculary good for moon walking. So we moonwalked into theirs and did the same. Ice and crisps everywhere. Brilliant fun, but a hell of a mess. And later we heard that Radiohead cleaned the place up after we'd left!

OK Computer #24 in Observer's Best British LPs

The Observer on Sunday published their "100 Greatest British Albums". The Stones Roses' self-titled 1989 debut album has been voted the best British album of all time. The Observer Music Monthly poll of 100 musicians and critics voted the album ahead of The Beatles' Revolver (1966). The top ten list did not feature Radiohead's OK Computer (24)- consistently ranked the greatest of British album in many lists, but at number 24. The Bends was listed at 41. Artists and broadcasters who contributed to the list included Morrissey, James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers, Mike Skinner of The Streets, DJ Trevor Nelson and BBC Radio 1's Sara Cox. [thanks Nick]

Belated Coachella review

From the latest Spin magazine (July 2004) their review of Radiohead's performance reads as thus:

Word around the campfire is that Radiohead, who flew in from Australia, received a cool million to play this gig. Thom Yorke is sick and can't give "Lucky" and "2+2=5" his usual full-throated blast, but the songs almost work in a Johnny Rotten kind of way- it's as if he's hocking up a big gob at the Queen's motorcade. The band dedicate the infrequently played "Creep" to the Pixies. Despite a wry laugh, Yorke sings it like he means it, and the downstroke cha-chunk noise before each chorus rings out in the desert night like the sound of God firing up His lawnmower.

MTV2 broadcasts Shepherds Bush show

MTV2 in the UK will be airing Radiohead's show at Shepherds Bush Empire from last year. Show starts at 21:30 hrs. [thanks Hilary]

Michael Stipe stealing 'How to disappear...'

R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe was interviewed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer where he talked about 'stealing' Radiohead's 'How to disappear completely':

Q: Do you listen to a lot of other people's music while you're making a record?

M.S.: My fear is that I would steal something (from another artist) without knowing. (Laughs.) "I'm so brilliant ... No, Polly Harvey is really brilliant, and I stole that from her!"

Q: Does that happen?

M.S.: Absolutely. I write this song called "Disappear," and then days later realized it was a Radiohead song called "How To Disappear Completely." I called Thom Yorke and left him a message saying, "Thom, I think I stole your song," and he didn't call me back. I was so upset. Finally, a few weeks later, I heard from him, and he said, "Michael, that song came from a conversation we had four years ago!"

Eurockéennes broadcast on MCN

French music channel, MCM, will broadcast Radiohead's 2003 Eurockéennes concert on Wednesday June 16th at midnight (Tuesday night). The show will run for 90 minutes and will be also be re-broadcast (19/06 at 01:30, 22/06 at 00:15, 29/06 at 02:00, 02/07 at 01:00 and 05/07 at 02:00). [thanks cristina & marjorie]

Linkin Park on Radiohead

Linkin Park is set to wrap up its world tour behind 2003’s Meteora album this month. Bass player Phoenix Farrell about the band’s next album and where Linkin Park is headed: "I'm a big Radiohead fan, we all listen to them, but I don’t know if we’d ever go into that kind of stage that is so distant. But you never know.”

Will Linkin Park do a complete creative left-turn like Kid A (from Radiohead) or will it settle for subtle progress? On behalf of the band, the bassist doesn’t disappoint, waxing lyrical about Radiohead’s “Kid A years”. “I think we’re all really excited to begin work on the next album. We’re ready to be off the road for a while and just shift gears into the creative process.” [thanks Marjorie]

Fitter Happier Fred interview

Fred Cooper is the man whose voice speaks to Macintosh users everywhere. Many years ago, the first Macintosh said "Hello. I am Macintosh" with Fred's voice. On tidbits.com you can hear and read an interview with Fred, which was also used for Radiohead's 'Fitter Happier'.

TidBITS: Did you ever expect that your voice would become so popular? I've heard it in other things, such as Radiohead's song "Fitter, Happier," and of course Stephen Hawking's computerized voice.

Fred: The Radiohead thing was just a fluke. I spent maybe half an hour recording that, and at the time it made no sense. But when the song was mixed, it really came together. As for Dr. Hawking, I'm proud to have been the basis for his system. When I hear him speak, I don't even hear myself any more, his ideas are so unique. But my wife likes to think that I'm the one talking about time and space occasionally.

Christopher O'Riley article in Tulsa World

Tulsa World (Oklahoma) published an article on Christopher O'Riley:

Most piano recital programs are filled with titles like "Sonata in E-flat," "Etude No. 1" and "Variations on a Theme by So-and-So." When Christopher O'Riley plays a recital, however, the program is likely to list titles like "Fake Plastic Trees," "Karma Police" and "Subterranean Homesick Alien." Last year, O'Riley released a product that was what the pianist himself has called an "obsession" -- "True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead."

For those who aren't up on what David Letterman likes to call "the rock and roll," Radiohead is an English band more praised than played. The group had its first hit a decade ago with a song titled "Creep," and its third album, 1997's "OK Computer," was one of the most critically lauded rock albums of the decade. The band's music has been called everything from austere and angst-ridden to aggressive and atmospheric -- and that's just the adjectives starting with the letter A.

But it is the obvious craftsmanship in the band's songwriting, serving as the foundation for its mix of crunching guitars and dreamy electronica, that has attracted the attention of musicians like O'Riley. For those who don't pay attention to the world of classical music, Christopher O'Riley is one of the superstars, a musical dynamo whose career is divided equally among the concert stage, the recording booth and the radio station.

O'Riley has always pursued wide-ranging musical styles, performing solo piano music by everyone from Beethoven to P.D.Q. Bach. He's been a soloist with major orchestras throughout the world. Locally, he's been a guest twice at the OK Mozart International Festival in Bartlesville, and he performed with the Tulsa Philharmonic in 1997.

He's also been an advocate for contemporary music, and for bringing classically trained skills to non-classical forms, from tango to jazz. And he hosts a nationally syndicated public radio program called "From the Top," that features performances by, and O'Riley's conversations with, up and coming artists.

Creating his own solo piano transcriptions of other music is something O'Riley has done often in his career. And even the idea of melding classical and rock music is not new to him. The composer Aaron Jay Kernis wrote a piece for O'Riley called "Superstar Etude No. 1," based on the piano playing style of pioneer rocker Jerry Lee Lewis.

In an interview with the Tulsa World in 1997, O'Riley said he used to play rock 'n' roll piano as a youngster. "Classical music was always in my life," he said at that time. "But playing rock music was a way of my turning being the least popular kid in my class, who was always locked away playing music, to my advantage.

"Rock was a type of music that was easy to catch on to, and it helped get through those rough years of adolescence." But his attachment to the music of Radiohead goes much deeper than trying to earn acceptance through some kind of crossover production. "I connect with Radiohead's music for the same reason I connect with most of the music I play," O'Riley said last year in an interview with the Boston Herald.

"I'm always listening for interesting textures and colors and harmonies, and those are hallmarks of Radiohead's style. I wouldn't call anyone in the band a virtuoso guitarist, but you have potentially three guitarists contributing a specific building block in a way that is much more contrapuntal than you find in most popular music. As a classical player, that makes my ears perk up.

"I think by playing Radiohead I am revitalizing an activity that's been going on for hundreds of years," he said. "If Beethoven could be cajoled to sit down at a party and play piano, he didn't trot out his Fifth Symphony. He'd improvise on the popular songs of his day.

"Lizst took Hungarian folk songs and made them into grand piano fantasies. Bartok recorded hundreds of folk songs, which became the building blocks of his classical compositions.

"People are right to be skeptical of crossover. When Pat Boone does 'Stairway to Heaven,' it's calculated, not sincere. But I don't think of 'True Love Waits' as being a crossover record. I think it's like Lizst's 'Hungarian Rhapsodies.' Only this is O'Rileys 'Radiohead Rhapsodies.' " [thanks Alex]

'EIIRP' in new Wes Anderson movie?

According to Aint it cool News. An early Screening of The Life Aquatic starring Bill Murray features Radiohead's 'Everything in Its Right Place'. It's unsure if this will make the final film mix but it could. [thanks Morris]

OK Computer tops Dutch album list

Dutch alternative radio station KINK FM have posted their annual list (Longplay 101) of best all time albums. Listeners from the Netherlands voted Radiohead's 'OK Computer' number 0 again (alternatively their number 1). 'The Bends' dropped from 6 to 27 this year. 'Kid A' made it to number 51.

More news from the Lowlands... in Belgium 'Cutting Edge' reviewed the Com Lag EP (in Dutch and English).

Warren Haynes plays Lucky

As previously reported Warren Haynes has played Radiohead's 'Lucky' with Gov't Mule. Warren Haynes was interviewed in the New York Times where he talks about his live album: "Live at Bonnaroo", which also includes 'Lucky'.

On the day the album was recorded, Mr. Haynes took the stage at around noon, a time at which he would more typically be sleeping. Consequently, the set has an almost dreamlike feel, as if Mr. Haynes were simply playing some of his favorite songs as they came to mind.

That's pretty much how it was. As Mr. Haynes, who had done about a dozen solo performances in his life to that point, was sketching out his set list that morning, his wife, Stefani Scamardo, who manages him and other performers, noted the brooding Radiohead song at the top. In a perfect spousal question that is really a comment, she asked, "You're not really going to open up with `Lucky,' are you?" Mr. Haynes, a North Carolina native who speaks in a cheerful "hey, buddy" drawl, chuckled at the recollection. "Well, yeah," he replied, "I think I am."

Radiohead in Rolling Stone

The new Rolling Stone (isue 951; June 24,2004) features the "50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock & Roll." There's an article on radiohead....Fall
1996: "Radiohead Get Paranoid. OK Computer is the sound of rock falling apart." It quotes Thom Yorke as saying "it was going to be a real 'up' album but it came out 'a bit poisoned.'"
It also quoted Nigel Godrich as saying "This is something we never dreamed we could get done. I was so happy, I rang my girlfriend just to say 'wow, we've done something really great.'" [thanks Doug]

The Darkness on Radiohead (again)

The Darkness have been talking about Radiohead again. This time a bit more positive. Darkness bassist Frankie Poullain in St. Petersburg Times: "It's very important to entertain people. It's what's been missing. Nu-metal and angsty, miserable rock music is just like a horrible experience for people to have to stand in a crowd and watch that kind of music. You have someone like Radiohead who do it very well, and it's thought-provoking and quite deep, and it's good songs, and it's crafted. But I'm talking about the post-grunge bands, people like Linkin Park and everything. It's not real rock. It's produced like pop music. There's no vibe there. We try to entertain people on different levels. We rock them, and it's kind of hard and heavy, powerful."

On LiveDaily singer Justin Hawkins talks about succesful British bands: "There aren't a lot of good English bands, I don't think," he said, following the pronouncement with an appropriately placed yawn. "Coldplay's successful and they're good, too. Radiohead is successful and they're good. But Robbie Williams is s---. He hasn't been so successful. It's just the nature of the beast. Quality will shine through no matter what the country." [thanks just radiohead]

Radiohead on Radio 4's 'Radio 9'

Radiohead were featured on comedy programme "Radio 9" on BBC Radio 4 in the UK last night (June 3) at 11:30 pm. It was a fake news story about Radiohead stopping being "miserable" and Thom Yorke performing a duet with Zippy from cult children's TV show "Rainbow" called "I Zip My Mouth Up". The fake song took a few Radiohead tracks and mixed them with Zippy's voice to make a deliberately depressing-sounding pastiche. You can listen to the show again for a week on the BBC website. The Radiohead bit starts at 23:44. [thanks Stephen]

News bits: Donwood, Greenwood, Guitar Guru

A Stanley Donwood painting (4m x 6m arch) is up for auction on eBay.com.

Genuine Stanley Donwood artwork, a unique utterly one-off original painting done by his own fair hand, and blimmin’ HUGE with it too. Offered for sale on behalf of Bath Fringe Festival, the painting currently adorns the front of THE PLEASUREDOME, the Fringe’s temporary venue, and can be viewed in situ on Bath Recreation Ground until Sunday June 6. Come to a show while you’re at it – visit www.bathfringe.co.uk.

Robert-Jan Zuur has made a movie of a collection of photographs, entitled 'Flesh'. The movie contains music from Jonny Greenwood's 'Bodysong'. Have a look.

Musicnotes has just added a Guitar Guru Session for Paranoid Android that teaches one how to play the song by displaying all guitar parts on a virtual fretboard with proper fingerings and ornaments. Creep was already available on their site.

[Thanks Natalia & Robert-Jan]

Radiohead on Alternative 500 Countdown

Seattle radio station 107.7 The End had their top 500 alternative songs of the 80s, 90s, and 00s. Top Radiohead song was Creep, at #2. Full list of Radiohead songs: 2. Creep; 16. Karma Police; 100. Paranoid Android; 110. Fake Plastic Trees; 140. High & Dry; 212. There There; 276. Just; 277. Optimistic. Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit' was number 1. [thanks Scott, Fritz & Sean]

Radiohead vs. The Matrix vs. Copyright law

Canadian Vancouver Sun reports about the rumblings of resistance to the idea of intellectual property: Two writers take aim at copyright law, one more convincingly than the other.

One of the most popular shows at the late, lamented Blinding Light Cinema was a unique performance called Radiohead vs. the Matrix. In it, the Vancouver filmmaker Nicholas Podbrey screened the martial arts/science fiction movie The Matrix while manually switching between the original soundtrack and five different albums by Radiohead, the electronica/rock band. The resulting experience was somehow greater than the sum of its parts, the eerie music matched with exciting visuals.

Technically, Podbrey wasn't altering any of these works; he was merely playing a movie and some albums at the same time in a members-only theatre. Still, he made a point of getting permission from both Radiohead and Warner Bros.

He thinks of Radiohead vs. the Matrix mainly as a live performance but has considered making a DVD combining the images and music. That would be a far different matter -- one that could move Podbrey out of the realm of fair use and into that of felony.

Technology created over the last few years makes cultural expressions like this possible. It also makes it possible to distribute those expressions around the world, without the permission of copyright holders. Copyright law, which regulates intellectual property, is struggling to catch up but is also widely missing the mark.

OK Computer nr. 4 in 50 Greatest albums list

Radiohead's 'OK Computer' made it to number four on Q's 50 Greatest UK albums. Oasis's Definitely Maybe has been declared the best British album ever by Q Magazine. The July issue of Q is out now.

Here's the top 5:

1 Definitely Maybe - Oasis
2 Revolver - The Beatles
3 Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols
4 OK Computer - Radiohead
5 London Calling - The Clash

[thanks Alex]

Bono: No Live Aid II

The earlier reported rumours of Live Aid II have now been denied by Bono himself. British newspaper The Sun reported that U2's Bono is planning a repeat of the 1985 Live Aid concerts with Radiohead amongst the headliners. First time organizer Bob Geldof denied his involvement immediately. On Irish TV News (RTE Television) today, Bono said that there are no plans for Live Aid II. [thanks Michael].