Official RADIOHEAD thread

[72teeth]

My girlfriend just suprised me with two tickets for thursday nights Santa Barbara show....



i will marry her.

[MacGuffin]

i still fear Mac sayin night two was way better.

I don't mean to rub it in, but... Night Two Was WAY Better!!! The energy was more up this night; everything just sounded better. No Exit Music tonight, but No Surprises, Karma Police, Talk Show Host, Fake Plastic Trees, Go Slowly and Optimistic made up for it. Played a longer set; Thom even did a track from The Eraser. It was electric when the entire audience sang along to Karma. This was an excellent pair of concerts.


LA Times review of Sunday's show:



Live: Radiohead at the Hollywood Bowl
Eclectic playlist showcases the evolution of the band's sound, from dance influence to driving rock.
By Ann Powers, Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

AN ELECTRIC drone wafted through the air before Radiohead took the stage Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl. It was the ideal sonic prologue to the beloved English group's latest Los Angeles appearance. Atonal and abstract, the drone invoked contemporary classical music, just as the curtain of long tubes encircling the band's equipment suggested the churchy majesty of a pipe organ. But the fuzzy sound also had an edge, hinting at guitar freakouts to come.

This is the tension Radiohead rides, especially in its celebrated live shows: The sound it creates onstage is serious and complex, but it also delivers the whomp of more conventional rock. At the Bowl, beginning a two-night stand signaling the end of a long summer of touring and festival dates, Radiohead was completely comfortable flexing both aspects of its muscle. Its 25-song set enraptured its acolytes while exposing the contradictory desires this band stimulates: for live music as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and for rock as ritual, providing dependable release.

Grinning and waving as they took the stage, singer Thom Yorke and his mates looked ready to relax and stretch out, but the twitchy, mutant rhythms of "15 Step," from the 2007 album "In Rainbows," recalled that for Radiohead, every stretch demands an equal contraction. Yorke jerked back and forth doing what some fans call his "psycho bunny dance" as the song unfolded, each element sharp-edged yet precisely aligned.

Radiohead's sound relies on each player's careful execution of a distinct line or rhythmic sequence that interlocks with every other part. It's a structure more common in classical music and jazz than in rock, in which one riff or chord sequence is usually pushed to the forefront. (Dance music, a big Radiohead influence, is also based in pattern-making.) There's a lot to hear in most Radiohead songs; that's one reason they can sometimes feel vague.

Live, the band's commitment to complexity is embodied by frenetic multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood, who leapt from guitar to drum to keyboards to various effects boxes Sunday as the set progressed. Greenwood, who's also becoming known as an orchestral composer, represents the band's artiest ambitions. Whether bowing his guitar on "Pyramid Song" or triggering shards of sampled dialogue on "The National Anthem," he fulfilled his role as the group's ultimate music geek.

If Greenwood represents Radiohead's flowering as an art project, Yorke brings the band drama. Self-effacing and serious in civilian life, onstage he's a natural, if high-strung, showman. As a songwriter, he specializes in emotional extremes -- the almost altered states that arise internally when ordinary folk face mortality, wrestle with unresolved desires or allow frustration to go too far.

"I'm an animal trapped in your parked car," he sang in "All I Need," his kind of love song. Yorke's back was to the crowd as he played piano, and he brought his careening tenor to a murmur; yet he still came across as intense. Like many initially awkward performers who've mellowed in time, Yorke has found a way to reconcile his dislike of rock-star poses with his impulse to put on a show. His awkwardness now seems reflective of the human condition, not just eccentricity.

The band's other members provide crucial support -- not an easy labor in this ambitious group. The rhythm section of Colin Greenwood on bass and Phil Selway on drums interact with the music's electronic rhythms in ways that enhance and expand upon them. On guitar and effects pedals, Ed O'Brien was not just Greenwood's able second, he provided some of the basic elements that connect Radiohead to traditional rock.

Sunday's set included enough older songs to show how much the band's template has changed since early albums like "OK Computer." The 1997 hit "Paranoid Android," performed as part of the encore, is a multi-part song suite that's challenging to execute, but it does provide a conventional climax and some rousing chances to sing along. Songs from "In Rainbows" proved catchy but not as cathartic, getting people dancing but earning fewer passionate cheers.

Pushing its audience to listen in new ways, Radiohead has earned its reputation as one of the era's great live acts. But that old craving for songs with big hooks and stomping choruses lingers, and the band is smart to serve it too. That pipe-organ set turned out to be the background for a very impressive arena-rock light show; several Beatles-esque riffs and soulful melodies made it into the mix too.

And you know what? There was still plenty of room for drone.

[tpfkabi]

neil young cover and true love waits intro to EIIRP?

[Pozer]

i still fear Mac sayin night two was way better.

I don't mean to rub it in, but... Night Two Was WAY Better!!!

of course it was.  i had a decent time sunday, but it was the worst Radiohead concert i've ever been to.  our section was dead, the setlist needed more liveliness at points, the big screens didn't want to produce a decent picture of them playing for us in the back (yes i realize they were Radioheadized).  as soon as the show was over, i knew we'd picked the wrong night.

it was a bit of a LET DOWN.  you're LUCKY, MacGuffin.

[JG]

man if i liked radiohead i'd be so happy that they covered tell me why, its one of my favorites. they did a really nice job though, good for them. also i heard that you payed whatever you wanted for their last record.

[edison]

Webcasting live at Santa Barbara

http://www.radiohead.tv/

[72teeth]

off atease:

Here is the Setlist

01. Reckoner
02. Optimistic
03. There There
04. 15 Step
05. All I Need
06. Nude
07. Talk Show Host
08. Arpeggi
09. The Gloaming
10. Morning Bell
11. The National Anthem
12. Faust Arp
13. No Surprises
14. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
15. The Bends
16. Karma Police
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. Cymbal Rush (Thom, "This one's off the Eraser, its called Cymbal Rush.")
19. House of Cards
20. Paranoid Android (Thom. "So this is for anyone who's had surgery. You're gonna be dead soon. Its all going south Brotha.")
21. Go Slowly (Thom, "I didn't mean it about the surgery you know. Whatever u wanna do.")
22. Everything In Its Right Place [some people in the front chant "TRUE LOVE WAITS!" repeatedly. Thom, "Just cuz your down in front mate. Nice idea."]

Encore 2:
23. Videotape
24. Lucky [Thom, "Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you everybody. Everybody who has come to every show on this tour. We've had a blast generally. We also very much like to thank Liars for playing tonight. Ok I'll shut up."]
25. Idioteque

i had no idea anybody could be this good.  Mozart Who?

[mogwai]

Boyzone Ronan Keating's says Thom Yorke is 'an idiot'

Singer is blanked by the Radiohead frontman

Ronan Keating has called Thom Yorke "an idiot" because the Radiohead singer ignored him in a hotel.

The Boyzone star told the Metro that he is still a big fan of the band's music, but isn't keen on Yorke anymore.

Keating said: "Thom Yorke from Radiohead was pretty rude. We were at the same hotel in Dublin and I went over to say hello as I'm a big Radiohead fan, and he just blanked me.

"I still love the music – he's just an idiot."

[Alexandro]

dude, you're in boyzone...

[MacGuffin]

Exclusive: Warner Chappell reveals Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' pot of gold
Source: musically.com

Warner Chappell will today reveal details of their view of the Radiohead licensing experiment at the "You Are in Control" conference in Iceland, including total sales figures of more than three million for 'In Rainbows'.

The UK-based branch of the publishing company licensed all digital rights including master recording rights and image and likeness rights on behalf of the band in a groundbreaking move for them as well as the band.

Today Warner Chappell's Head of Business Affairs Jane Dyball will reveal that the digital publishing income from the first licence (for the Radiohead pay what you want site) alone dwarfed all the band's previous digital publishing income and made a "material difference" to Warner Chappell UK's digital income.

The publisher will also confirm that Radiohead had made more money before 'In Rainbows' was physically released than they made in total on the previous album 'Hail To the Thief'. It should be pointed out that Radiohead's existing digital income was of course low, because they had withheld licensing the likes of iTunes.

The topline figure, though, is that there were three million purchases of In Rainbows, including physical CDs, box-sets, and all downloads - including those from the band's own website and from other digital music stores.

The presentation represents the first time that the 'official' view of the Radiohead experiment has been heard. The fact that Warner Chappell played such a pivotal role in the initiative has been rather lost in all the noise which has since accompanied Radiohead's daring and genuinely ground breaking campaign. Indeed the publisher has been almost Radiohead-like by staying so quiet.

But the first anniversary of the release has provided an opportunity for some more light to be shed on the initiative. Jane Dyball will this morning give a keynote speech to the "You Are in Control" conference in Iceland to which Music Ally was given exclusive access.

Really there seems little doubt that the experiment was a success from both Warner's and the band's perspective. For Warner it served to prove a point that by licensing directly (ie outside the collecting society network) and by offering a genuine one stop shop for licensing (ie combining all the digital rights into one offer from a single entity) the publisher was able to generate far more money for both themselves and the band than would have been possible under the traditional system.

Good news for them but bad news for collecting societies such as the MCPS-PRS Alliance which was forced to bend its own rules in order to allow an initiative to go ahead, which then served to prove how much more money can be made without their involvement.

The reasons for this are too varied and complex to go into in any great detail. But fundamentally the publisher was able to move faster and do quick deals (with everyone from Radiohead itself to iTunes and Last.fm) which would ensure the money came in straight away. But Dyball is also clear that this is not about to lead to the publisher withdrawing rights en masse from the society network.

Where Dyball is arguably less successful is in busting some of the 'myths' which have grown up around the experiment. Firstly, the most effective way to confront the claim that the average unit price was too low would have been to reveal what the average price in fact was.

Instead Dyball points to the fact that the band and their management never announced a timeline for the pay-what-you-like experiment and were watching the average price daily with a view to potentially withdrawing it any moment should it drop too low. Dyball points out that the average price went down after the download moved from uberfans to less committed fans, as expected.

It's clear that the BitTorrent downloads did indeed greatly outnumber those from Radiohead's official site. But this was almost certainly always likely to be the case and all of this should not negate the 'success' of the experiment. And it was certainly an interesting aside to learn that of the dozen or so exclusive members of the 'circle of trust' who knew about the whole pay-what-you-like experiment before it launched, it was the band's manager Chris Hufford from Courtyard management who won the sweepstakes on how many downloads there would be, the average price paid and how many box sets they would shift!

So how many did they shift? Well, according to Dyball there were a total of three million album purchases including the box sets, CDs and all downloads including iTunes and pay-what-you-like downloads via their official site. That's an incredible number, given that their previous three albums sold in the low hundreds of thousands.

What about the claims that "no permissions were secured to use email addresses for future marketing". Dyball confronts this by pointing to the fact that "Radiohead don't want to sell or misuse addresses and will only use them to offer fan-focused value added services if they feel it's appropriate."

While that may well be true, that's not the point really. It may have been more cock up than an issue of marketing permissions but we have still yet to find anyone who received a follow up email from the band until the release of Reckoner – way after most of the gigs and other campaign milestones had taken place.

But again this should not lead to the conclusion that the campaign failed. This was virgin territory for everyone involved. And, at least, when it came to the Nude 'stems' release which received some criticism (when the band originally charged for each 'stem' of the track which could be then be remixed by the fans), it meant that the band could respond by offering Reckoner stems for free to those who had bought by the Nude stems.

One myth which Dyball is completely successful in busting is the accusation that the band were somehow foolish by giving away the songs for free. The fact that Radiohead had made more money before 'In Rainbows' was physically released than they made in total on 'Hail To the Thief' is surely evidence enough that the initiative was a tremendous success.

In fact, if anything, the only trouble with the whole thing was that it was just arguably too successful. The whole 'pay what you like' experiment became the story rather than the music itself. And that's not so Radiohead. The band and Thom Yorke initially found themselves answering questions about why they chose to do what they did rather than being asked about the music itself.

At the end of the day In Rainbows is arguably a better album than Hail to the Thief, though clearly not so classic as, say, OK Computer. And lest we forget the quality of the music should also be considered when judging whether the initiative was a 'success'.

The band may not do things the same again. But the significance of the initiative, and the fact that they even tried it, is a huge testament to a band who remain such trend setters, even today some 15 years after the release of their first album.

THE STATS
• After being made available for free for 3 months the album was no.1 in the UK and in the US
• 1st Radiohead album on iTunes – no.1 album selling 30,000 units in the US in the first week
• The physical CD has sold 1.75 million to date and is still top 200 UK & US
• They sold 100k boxsets via W.A.S.T.E.
• Nearing 17 million plays on last.fm
• 1.2 million fans will see the tour
• The digital income from the experiment made a material difference to WCM's UK digital revenue this year

[MacGuffin]

Radiohead's Thom Yorke Schools Miley Cyrus & Kanye West on Humility
Source: E! Online

When Radiohead refused to meet Miley Cyrus and Kanye West at the Grammy Awards last month, the starlet threatened to "ruin" them and the rapper refused to stand for their performance. Now the In Rainbows band is fighting back.

Cyrus kicked off the feudin' during an appearance on the Johnjay and Rich radio show and rambled on for more than six minutes about how the band dissed her after she begged her manager to set up an introduction.

"I'm like, these are the people I really want to meet," she said. "I'd freak out. They're my rock gods. These are the only people that I would cry over...My manager asked and said, 'Miley's really obsessed. And they were like, 'We don't really do that.' "

She continued on in disbelief about the Thom Yorke band's lack of interest in meeting the Hannah Montana, admitting she was so disappointed about the diss, she left the show early.

"I left 'cause I was so upset," she said. "I wasn't going to watch. Stinkin' Radiohead! I'm gonna ruin them, I'm going to tell everyone."

The three-time Grammy winners responded by putting the teen in her place...

"When Miley grows up, she'll learn not to have such a sense of entitlement," the quintet said in a statement.

But the Radiohead beef buck doesn't stop there.

During the taping for his episode of VH1's Storytellers, West complained that Yorke snubbed him as well.

"When he performed at the Grammys, I sat the f--k down," the rapper said.

The British "Creep" singer, already in full retaliation mode, concluded a blog post on the band's website with a wink and a nudge to both stars. "Wish us all a safe journey if you still like us and you're not one of those people I have managed to offend by doing nothing," Yorke writes.

Bring on the next round in these wars of words ('cause you know they're coming)!

[tpfkabi]

Jack Black has also been disappointed by a meeting with Thom...and Chris Martin several years ago.

It would interesting to know what really happens.

[john]

Yorke seems like a painfully boring human being.... Cyrus seems like a monster. However, OK Computer and Kid A a still as mindblowing as they ever were and Greenwood's TWBB score made me not miss Jon Brion, for once. It is nice to not see everyone sucking Radiohead's collective dick all the time, though.

Actually the only person to has had any validity lately in criticizing Radiohead has been Tad Kubler of The Hold Steady.... even that was a bit shaky (but true.)

Point is, everyone everywhere should shut... the... fuck... up.

[Stefen]

That shit didn't even happen. Radiohead themselves never even responded to Miley Cyrus.

http://pitchfork.com/news/34826-did-radiohead-really-respond-to-miley/

Radiohead 4 lyfe.

[tpfkabi]

anyone buying these special editions?

i actually like that they're putting all the b-sides in one place. in the past you'd have to buy each individual Engish single - they usually had two singles of the same song with different b-sides.