"I think that High and Dry is about a bank robbery gone wrong. The narrator is one of the crooks, and he is signing about the mastermind of the job. Once inside the bank, everything goes to hell, and the head thief is left to make some important decisions." —Radiohead songs: what do they mean?
“I like people, I just don’t have to see them all the time." —Neil Young seems like a particularly difficult person to interview. But I was very happy to read that Bukowskian quote in the profile David Carr wrote for Sunday's Times Magazine. Because it reminded me of the lyrics of my favorite Neil Young song, "On the Beach." "I need a crowd of people/But I can't face them every day…" Neil sings, sounding miserable—torn between the insecurity, the hunger for approval that fuels so many performing artists, and misanthropy. ("Though my problems are meaningless/That don't make them go away.") Man, and the stuff about how the [...]
"And no, you're not seeing double. The doppelganger drummers are myself and Clive Deamer. Clive has long been one of my favourite drummers and so I was really excited when he agreed to perform with us." —Radiohead's Phil Selway on recruiting Clive Deamer—who has played with Portishead, Dr. John, Robert Plant and Hawkwind!—to be the Jaimoe Johanson to his Butch Trucks. Or is it the other way around?
Of course we wish the people of Sudan good luck in this week's referendum to decide whether or not the southern part of the country secedes to become its own nation. A vote for independence seems likely. While there's much discussion about what the new country's name should be, a national anthem has already been written and recorded. It's called "Land of Cush," a reference to a Biblical kingdom in the area. Unfortunately, it sucks. Before anything becomes official, they should talk to Dr. Dre about the possibility of using his song.
News from England's just-concluded Reading Festival: "In a festival heavy on over-familiar or unimpressive bands, it was left to last night's closing act Radiohead to wrong-foot everyone. The odds on their angst-ridden singer Thom Yorke's first words being 'Whassup?' followed by the initial hit song they've all but disowned, 'Creep', would have been prohibitively long." And yet, those odds would have paid off handsomely. Have a look.
Wow, you can really hear Frank Ocean entrancing the crowd with this version of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" that he played at the Ceder Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York City last week. When the video begins, people in the audience are talking noisily, and Ocean's singing is strained: he misses a couple notes and misgauges the effect of his volume with the sound system's echo. But as he progresses into the song and finds the melody, loosening up, settling into the lyrics, improvising, the room hushes and he sounds beautiful and people whoop and holler and make new noise, but this time in attentive appreciation.
"This is the easiest of connections; I don’t even have my thinking cap on. Apple is the most valuable technology brand in the world. Their products are sold to People Of Wal-Mart but the aesthetic still shimmers diamond-hard, like faith beyond reason. When the first iPhone came out the cast of the Apple store applauded every buyer.
Radiohead is the most valuable band in the world. Their music references the phone book but sounds like nobody else. They’ve turned hard sell/soft sell into their own loud-quiet-loud solution. Their intelligence burns even at street level; the more they refuse to dumb it down the less they alienate even dumb people." [...]
Thom Yorke, who's spent the last few weeks taking a break from his Radiohead-fronting duties to play a handful of shows with his all-star backing band Atoms For Peace, threw Joy Division's oft-covered "Love Will Tear Us Apart" into his set last night. Somehow the Internet has not broken wide open and swallowed itself as a result of this particular song making its way to YouTube! Is it Flea's fault? [Via]
So when Thom Yorke says, "I'm not very interested in the album at the moment," it apparently means that that Radiohead's music will now just appear on the internet all willy-nilly-one new song at a time, with no publicity or even any official notice. "It sure sounds like a Radiohead song," Pitchfork says of the above "These Are My Twisted Words." "We haven't received any confirmation that it actually is." That's cool. Thom is clearly an ahead-of-the-curve kind of guy. Soon enough, one would imagine, he'll be beaming tunes directly from his brain into those of his fans. (Surely, this is what "Radiohead" has [...]
"I was a little hesitant at first to be involved with the theme song for Skyfall. There's a lot of instant spotlight and pressure when it comes to a Bond song." —Adele's right. The pressure's on. (And not just instant spotlight, very often a James Bond theme ends up in the crosshairs of a Luger or Barreta!) Living up to the likes of Carly Simon, or Shirley Bassey, or Paul McCartney, or Sheena Easton or Duran Duran? Adele's got her work cut out for her. Come Friday, when her new single, the title track from Skyfall comes out, we'll know how she did. (Whoops! BREAKING: We know [...]
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Anonymous should really make Ticketmaster their next target. #radioheadMon Sep 26 14:21:52 via webMichael Neffheyneff
Everyone in the Radiohead demographic hates Ticketmaster so much right now. MACHINES SAY: SCALPING IS GOOD BUSINESS.
The new Radiohead album, "The King of Limbs," is available this morning to anyone who pre-ordered any sort of version earlier this week. We were told this would be a Saturday download, but now it's a today thing. (Their press release says that the website was ready so the band just decided to push it live. Hmm!) There's also a video for lead "single," "Lotus Flower." At any rate: don't be waiting for an individualized link in your inbox, people! (That may still come Saturday?) If you go here, you'll be asked to put in your site-registration info that you used to pre-order, and then: BAM! You can [...]
Of course NME and Pitchfork are trying to make it all about a beef with Radiohead (who, by the by, do tend to get overpraised even though, no, they don't blow) but the point is: Beck has a new song up for streaming on his website. Be patient if it takes some time to load (as it did for me). The new track isn't actually "10 and a half minutes of insanity," though "Harry Partch" is indeed a very engaging and lovely tribute to the American oddball composer of the same name.
You can listen to the new Radiohead single here. A tribute to recently deceased World War I veteran Harry Patch, the song is available for purchase, with all proceeds going to the British Foreign Legion. One early review of the song describes it as "a not unworthy addition to the moany/whiny section of their catalog." Also, there are strings.
