Archive for: radiohead

Atoms For Peace – Thom Yorke Starts A New Band

Thom Yorke has ditched the eponymous approach, and his solo side-project is now called Atoms For Peace [not this band]. Comprising long-time Radiohead producer and Basement orchestrator Nigel Godrich, Chilis bassist Flea, Joey Waronker (who plays with Beck) and Mauro Refosco of Forro In The Dark. They’ve already played their debut gig in LA, and now they’re going touring… well, playing a few dates in the US anyway:

New York Roseland Ballroom April 5th & 6th
Boston Citi Wang Theatre April 8th
Chicago Aragon Ballroom April 10th & 11th
Oakland Fox Theatre April 14th & 15th
Santa Barbara Bowl April 17th

For details on tickets, click here – they’re being routed through Radiohead’s site.

Radiohead’s New Album Recorded?

Rumours (originating at the blog ‘Postmark Here’) are spreading over the web about a wrap party that went down [to use the vernacular] in Hollywood last week:

Bryan helped transform a house in the Hollywood Hills into a recording studio and spent the last three weeks there recording Radiohead with Nigel Godrich. On Saturday, we waded through a driveway full of Priuses and Minis to get to the wrap party.

Utterly unsubstantiated, of course, but if true, we can start hoping for a new release sometime in the next few months. The band will have to be very smart to top the buzz they created with their last release, and converting buzz to sales is another thing entirely.

The blog post over at Postmark Here has been removed, which makes this blogger think someone requested it be taken down… No smoke without fire.

High Profile Artists Accept File Sharing

In interviews with both Pharell Williams of N.E.R.D (click on the tab for videos from the 23rd of Jan) and Neptunes fame (named best producer of the 00’s) Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien on the Midem blog, they both talk about how the music industry is going to have to accept the way people are consuming music on the web and adapt to it, essentially that there is no sense in victimising people for file-sharing and exchanging music on the internet. Williams describes file sharing as ‘taste-testing’ for music, increasing listener base and giving musicians greater audience reach.

O’Brien likens P2P file sharing to the ‘home-taping’ of the 80’s – suggesting, like Pharell, that it is a way of introducing new listeners to your music, who will then go on to buy concert tickets, merchandise or other music products, if they really like the music. He also cites services like Spotify as the more attractive answer to the ‘deeply unsexy, utilitarian’ file sharing websites – criticising the recording industry for not moving fast enough to create services that cater to consumers taste for easy access to digital music. He also stresses the importance of connecting with your fans, ‘building your tribe’, even for huge acts like Radiohead.

Radiohead’s Guitarist Shoots the Rainbow With MIDEM

Head over to the Midem blog and watch an interview in which Ed O’Brien discusses how they made a success of releasing ‘In Rainbows’ independently of any record labels, and what that success meant for their band.As one of the most important ‘game changing’ releases of recent years it’s interesting to hear O’Brien tell the big labels to sit up and take notice. Of course Radiohead had the benefits of already having been made famous working with record labels (XL, TBD, Parlophone, Capitol), and the novelty and notoriety of being one of the first big acts to give their music away, but there are lessons to be learnt.

Digital Music Rides High in 2009 – Neilsen Soundscan Report

Neilsen gathers information from both bricks and mortar and online stores in the US, and has released a full report of music sales in 2009. The album charts are more or less what you might expect, apart from the last minute addition of Susan Boyle, who sold almost as much in the 5 weeks after her debut was released as Taylor Swift, the next biggest selling artist of 2009.  Michael Jackson’s death in the Summer undoubtedly caused his high chart position, but dear old Lady Gaga has smashed into the number 4 position from practically a standing start. Shows what you can achieve if you’re prepared to take your clothes off in a college bar, dole out some pizza and start selling your hair.

Best Selling Albums 2009

1. Fearless / Taylor Swift ~ 3,217,000
2. I Dreamed a Dream / Susan Boyle ~ 3,104,000
3. Number Ones / Michael Jackson ~ 2,355,000
4. The Fame / Lady Gaga ~ 2,238,000
5. My Christmas / Andrea Bocelli ~ 2,207,000
6. Hannah Montana: The Movie (soundtrack) / Hannah Montana ~ 1,823,000
7. The E.N.D. / Black Eyed Peas ~ 1,787,000
8. Relapse / Eminem ~ 1,735,000
9. The Blueprint 3 / Jay-Z ~ 1,515,000
10. Only by the Night / Kings of Leon ~ 1,398,000

In terms of an artists’ overall units, rather than single albums, MJ topped the list, with the Beatles (whose catalogue is owned by the Jackson estate) making a surprise appearance at number 3, presumably supported by their Rock Band license deal.

2009 TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS

(based on Album sales from 12/29/2008-1/3/2010)

1. Michael Jackson  ~   8,286,000
2. Taylor Swift     ~    4,643,000
3. Beatles    ~     3,282,000
4. Susan Boyle    ~     3,104,000
5. Lady Gaga     ~    2,813,000
6. Andrea Bocelli    ~     2,668,000
7. Michael Buble     ~    2,280,000
8. Eminem       ~      2,166,000
9. Carrie Underwood   ~    1,895,000
10. Black Eyed Peas   ~   1,881,000

Another widely expected, but still pleasing phenomenon is that while the CD slides sickeningly into obscurity, vinyl sales are up: 33% in a single year, to 2.5 million albums. The Beatles and Jackson feature high on the list in the vibyl format, resting on a bed of heavy listening, serious music fan music like Fleet Foxxes, Animal Collective and Radiohead.

2009 TOP TEN VINYL ALBUMS
(12/29/2008-1/3/2010)

Abbey Road/ Beatles       ~       34,800
Thriller/ Michael Jackson      ~       29,800
Merriweather Post Pavilion/Animal Collective  ~   14,000
Wilco/ Wilco        ~       13,200
Fleet Foxes/ Fleet Foxes       ~      12,700
Backspacer/ Pearl Jam         ~        12,500
Veckatimest/ Grizzly Bear       ~      11,600
Appetite for Destruction/ Guns N’ Roses    ~     11,500
Big Whiskey & the…/Dave Matthews Band    ~    11,500
In Rainbows/ Radiohead         ~        11,400

2009 TOP TEN VINYL ARTISTS
(based on vinyl album sales from 12/29/2008 – 1/3/2010)

Radiohead       ~      45,700
Beatles       ~      38,800
Michael Jackson    ~     30,400
Metallica       ~      30,200
Wilco          ~       29,600
Bob Dylan       ~      24,500
Animal Collective     ~    20,600
Pearl Jam       ~      19,900
Bon Iver       ~      17,100
Iron & Wine      ~       16,600

Are All Covers Really Worse Than The Originals?

It seems to generally be a yes. It seems to us though, that people just adore the originals so much that they don’t even listen to the cover versions and arrogantly burst out with a little squeaky ”the originals better”, just in the same way that people fancy themselves more intellectual because they don’t watch films and start their self righteous rants with “the books better than the film”. That’s not always the case, Lord Of The Rings books are ace but, we don’t need to know every tiny piece of history about the castle in the distance that the fellowship don’t actually visit in the end ever. The movie came up with some super effects I never could have imagined reading the books as a kid. Everyone thinks it, but nobody admits it, like im sure if you listen carefully enough you can hear on the wind “Futurama is better than the Simpsons”. The same is with songs, some covers are better definitely better than the originals. So with the Internet full of bloggers and music fans that all know they’re right like we knew the world was flat, were gonna throw out a reasonable 10 to start the debate. (Richard Cheese is in there for fun, an if you haven’t heard it already, then you should!)

• I fought the law – The Clash (The Bobby Fuller Band)
• Live and Let Die – Guns and Roses (Paul McCartney)
• Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley ( Leonard Cohen)
• All Along The Watchtower – Jimmi Hendrix (Bob Dylan)
• It Must Be Love – Madness (Labi Siffre)
• Hurt – Johnny Cash (NIN)
• Whisky in the jar – Metallica (The Dubliners)
• Daddy Cool – Placebo (Boney M)
• Nobody does it better – Radiohead (Carly Simon)
• Creep – Richard Cheese (Radiohead)

Radiohead Leaks Their Own New Track To BitTorrent Sites

A couple of days ago a new Radiohead track was released on the internet, called “These Are My Twisted Words”. Until yesterday it was unclear where the track came from, but thanks to a post on the band’s blog it seems the boys could’ve had it planned all along, as they are now linking to the song on Mininova.

Today, on the band’s Dead Air Space blog, Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar and keyboard) seems to solve the mystery:

So here’s a new song, called ‘These Are My Twisted Words’.

We’ve been recording for a while, and this was one of the first we finished.
We’re pretty proud of it.

There’s other stuff in various states of completion, but this is one we’ve been practicing, and which we’ll probably play at this summer’s concerts. Hope you like it.

At the bottom of the post are two links to downloads, one directly from Waste and the other the original torrent uploaded to Mininova a few days ago. In fact, it was uploaded twice.

An enthusiastic commenter on Mininova exclaims: “OMFG! This torrent is being redirected from the radiohead official store, so there’s no album, just this song finished, this is very edgy, i mean thom yorke is way ahead from any other artist, at least we know he’s not doing his music to get some profit, at least not anymore, this is history being made, again, GREAT!”

Sounds like the first of many happy listeners.

Radiohead uploaded the torrent the old fashioned way though, seeding it themselves. Apparently they are well aware of the latest developments in the BitTorrent community, as they used the newly founded OpenBitTorrent tracker.

New Radiohead Material and Reading.

Radiohead Guitarist Jonny Greenwood has revealed to the world that the band will play their new material During their sets at the Reading an Leeds festival this August bank holiday.

“These are my twisted Words”, which is available for download after being leaked onto the Internet for fans by the band last week. “We’ve been recording for a while” wrote Jonny, ” and this was one of the first we finished. We’re pretty proud of it. There’s other stuff in various states of completion, but this is one we’ve been practising, and which we’ll probably play at this summer’s concerts.”

Other recent Radiohead releases include Harry Patch (in memory of) released 5 August and In Rainbows that came out October of last year.  There are also rumours of a new Radiohead EP to be released this month but no evidence of this has materialized.

Radiohead Honor Veteren

Today the radio 4 programme “today” debuted Radiohead’s new single Harry Patch(in loving memory of) who is the last remaining veteran of world war one.

The importance of the song is the main driving force behind it and the inspiration for it will remain a major influence for the many individuals who have been touched by Harry’s story, including Thom Yorke. Thom was inspired to write the sombre tribute after hearing Patch talk about his experiences of Passchendaele in an interview entitled “The last tommy”. The song is available for download only at Radiohead’s website an all proceeds will be donated to the Royal British Legion, a charity dedicated to former and serving British armed forces.

Top 20 Artists on Facebook According to Amount of Fans

Over at MusicAlly they have put together a great list of the top 20 bands on Facebook according to their popularity. 20 most popular music artist fan pages from the chart though, and they are (with number of fans):

1. Rihanna (1.52 million)
2. Coldplay (1.49 million)
3. Lil Wayne (1.34 million)
4. Linkin Park (1.33 million)
5. Chris Brown (1.3 million)
6. Metallica (1.22 million)
7. Pink Floyd (1.16 million)
8. Bob Marley (1.13 million)
9. Red Hot Chili Peppers (1.12 million)
10. Justin Timberlake (1.05 million)
11. AC/DC (997,000)
12. Daft Punk (912,000)
13. Beyonce (906,000)
14. Queen (900,000)
15. Evanescence (873,000)
16. Jonas Brothers (843,000)
17. Radiohead (793,000)
18. Kanye West (792,000)
19. Katy Perry (791,000)
20. Akon (753,000)