Author: Dylan

Radiohead went home from the Brit Awards empty-handed. They were up for best UK band, but lost out to The Darkness.
Speaking of The Darkness, Ananova is reporting the newly-crowned Princes of Spandex have “slammed” Radiohead in a recent interview. Decide for yourself-

Guitarist Dan Hawkins told Netzeitung that Radiohead couldn’t hold up to the stage antics of his brother Justin.

He said: “Most of these modern bands are so unbearably serious they leave me cold. Radiohead are totally boring. The world needs a showman like Justin who puts on his monkey outfit and entertains people. I haven’t bought anything by these modern bands in a while. They’re all wet rags.”

Hawkins added: “Bands like Radiohead are great for our business, of course, because there’s been a total Radiohead-isation of the British music scene. Coldplay, Turin Brakes, Starsailor – all of these groups have put together their selection from the Radiohead menu.”
You can pop over and read the whole story here.

For our friends down under who are still waiting for their tickets, fear not. w.a.s.t.e says that while there has been a delay, it’s only a small one- you’ll get your tickets with plenty of time to spare.
(Thanks to, um, everybody who wrote in with this, and it’s a lot of you…)

It’s a bad news-good news-bad news thing.
The bad news is that w.a.s.t.e. has sold out of their allocation of Coachella tickets.
The good news is that you can still get them elsewhere.
The bad news is that elsewhere pretty much means TicketMaster. Good luck…

The fine folks over at Climbing Up the Walls have posted a translation of an interesting article orginally published by Alternativenation.de. Here’s an excerpt, but keep in mind that the entire article is basically an English-German-English translation.
“During the actual recordings I kept thinking that this is the best thing we?ve ever produced. When we were finished I believed that it was the poorest thing we ever did. I always think that our most recent record is the worst of all…the reason for that is probably that you are always get kind of bored by your own records. Personally I think that this new album is somewhat too long?, Ed says critically. Because contentment equals stagnation. And maybe this statement is a hint for the reason why the band rarely ever plays their greatest hit Creep anymore. ?We are rotating the setlist in order to keep us from getting bored. We played Creep a few weeks ago in New York and we are going to play it again in Europe soon. But with In Limbo and Dollars & Cents we had two songs on the list that we haven?t played live for a while. That?s the good thing about having six records to choose from. It?s very important to get some diversion into the shows, ? says Ed, trying to distract me from Creep. Which is understandable since this song has haunted the band for almost a decade now.
Finally the question occurs how Ed sees Radiohead?s future from now. ?I don?t have any expectations. Just let us do our stuff, we are always ready to get the best out of the five of us. We were lucky to make a lot of experiences because we were able to do what we wanted. That?s great: To sound just what you want to sound like. That is a luxury many other bands are not allowed to achieve. Our management and record company always gave us freedom and support to do whatever we liked?, he replies both grateful but also cryptic. Apparently even the direction in which things are supposed to go on is not clear. Considered are: A Hail Too The Thief-remix album, a b-sides collection, another DVD, as well as the recordings for a new album that are supposed to begin soon. After a summer tour 2004 they surely will head off into new galaxies again. Living in a fantasy world.”
Go read the rest at Climbing Up the Walls, which is really humming these days.

This site has a good selection of pictures from the NME Awards, featuring Thom and Jonny. My favorite part is the keywords they chose- “awards facial expression confused look music entertainment celebrity” seems to describe pretty much everyone in the music industry, but apparently moreso Thom and Jonny than anyone else.

The New York Times has a brief blurb about Bodysong in their Arts section-
When Jonny Greenwood performs with Radiohead, he spends some time at his keyboards and guitar and some time on his hands and knees, working effects pedals to create the foreboding aura that envelops Radiohead’s songs. His instrumental soundtrack for “Bodysong,” a documentary about human life from conception to death, largely sets aside song forms for experiments in ambience.
Its tracks are like the protoplasm of Radiohead songs: a slow sequence of piano chords with hovering strings in “Moon Trills,” spattered layers of percussion in “Convergence,” glassy synthetic tinkling that turns into a somber march in “Clockwork Tin Soldiers,” yearning melodies scored for string quartet in Iron Swallow” and “Glass Light/Broken Hearts,” and muscular jazz-quartet vamps in “Splitter” and “Milky Drops From Heaven.”
Radiohead fans should be fascinated by the panorama of Mr. Greenwood’s musical laboratory, and it is clear how much he contributes to Radiohead’s haggard beauty. On its own Mr. Greenwood’s music conjures disquiet, serenity, turbulence and glints of wonderment. The entire album can be heard online at www.epitonic.com.