Author: Dylan

In the new Q magazine, the full band version “Follow Me Around” is featured on their What’s On Our iPod list. However, this isn’t a live recording of the band- in fact, none of the instruments (save the vocals and acoustic guitar) are even played by Radiohead. The “full band” version comes from fan Pawel Osmolski, who took Thom’s solo acoustic performance from the KROQ Acoustic Breakfast appearance and used his computer to record and add surprisingly Radiohead-sounding drums, guitar solos, and keys.
Some of you may have already heard this, as Pawel (a.k.a. devilhood) posted his impressive results on the At Ease boards for all to hear some time ago.
From the article-
Pawel, who posts on the message board as ‘devilhood’ says: “The mix started off as being an experiment, just to see what I could add to the KROQ performance. I figured that if it’s just Thom and his acoustic, I could easily build something from that. Only Thoms vocals and acoustic guitar were left un-touched to a certain degree, I had to edit them so that it was at a set tempo. The whole mix was produced at home using a MIDI/Audio editing suite called Cubase SX2, I used Wavelab for mastering and a V-Amp effects pedal for guitar amp simulation.”
Pawel recorded the mix for the fans: “I didn’t expect it to become so popular, the feedback response I got from it was overwhelming and I very much appreciate all the comments and e-mails I have recieved because of it. If Thom gets round to hearing it and likes it, I’d hope that this would maybe inspire him to finish the track, either way I’m sure fans would love an official release of it, whether it’s full-band or a live take.”
At the moment Pawel Osmolski is working on a mix of ‘Big Boots’. “I should probably have it finished in a couple of weeks or so. Unfortunately I don’t have a vocal track to work with on this mix, but I’m hoping I’ll find a work-around eventually.”
At Ease has been kind enough to host a stream of the song, go take a listen over here. Having heard tons of fan remixes and re-recordings, I have to say- this beats all of them hand over fist. Quite impressive…very interested to hear his Big Boots mix.
(Thanks to At Ease.)

This could be pure speculation on their part, but here it is-
Radiohead are set to shock fans by releasing a new album, just months after telling fans they were taking a break. Back in October, after releasing their last album ‘Hail To the Thief’, and ending their record contract with EMI, the band vowed to take a break and even suggested they were ready to quit making albums. Frontman Thom Yorke said, “We feel that after Hail to the Thief we want to definitely disappear into a black hole of the unknown rather than carrying on where we left off. “It’s always been album, album, album.” But the Paranoid Android rockers are now preparing to return to the studio, and hope to release new music this year.
The fact that the article is composed entirely of two month-old statements doesn’t inspire optimism, but the recent confirmation from Jonny that the band is in the studio makes this worth a read.
See the entire article here.
(Thanks to Brent.)

The University of California at Berkeley can take a course on Radiohead during upcoming Spring 2004 semester. Officially known as Music 98/198, “Appreciating Modern Pop Art Music Through Radiohead” was made possible by the Democratic?Education at Cal?program, which allows students to start their own classes to study topics otherwise not othwerwise covered by the regular academic departments.
According to the?organizers of?this course, students will be asked to look closely at the connections between?the lyrics, music and artwork for all?six RH?albums, in hopes of gaining a deeper appreciation for Radiohead’s work, but also to train themselves to listen?more critically to popular music in general. More information can be found in the catalog.
Always knew I should’ve gone to Berkeley…
(Thanks to Steven and David, both of whom you Berkeley kids should thank for organizing this class…)

Contrary to previous information, it turns out Jonny won’t actually be performing at FUSELeeds2004. However, his new composition, Smear, will still debut there, performed by Valerie Hartmann and Bruno Perrault.
We thought we might have read the website wrong when we reported Jonny would perform, but it turns out we didn’t. Judge for yourself-
THEN
Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) Smear
Jonny Greenwood indulges his passion for the ondes martenot instrument in a new work performed by the London Sinfonietta with soloists Valerie Hartmann-Calverie and Bruno Perrault. Jonny will also perform music from his recent album Bodysong.
Tickets will be available in January, so keep checking back.
NOW
Radiohead?s Jonny Greenwood indulges his passion for the ondes martenot instrument in a new work to be performed by Valerie Hartmann and Bruno Perrault.? Folk singer Kate Rusby joins the London Sinfonietta for a unique performance of new material from her latest album.
Interesting. Tickets are still not available on the internet, but we’ll let you know when they are.
UPDATE: While Jonny won’t actually be performing, the FUSELeeds people say he will be giving a short talk before the orchestra performs. However, the staff at the playhouse where he’ll be performing says he won’t be there at all. We’ll keep digging and keep you posted.
Also, tickets are available over the phone (you have to call the box office at 0113 222 3434). Tickets are ?17 and ?13.

A few people have written in, saying they think they’ve heard National Anthem playing over an ad for a Nissan truck. Finally saw the ad today, and I can say that this is true and it’s not- the tune is actually a “soundalike”- a song written to sound just like a popular tune, but changed in melody, pitch, and rhythm just enough to avoid a lawsuit (and those rather large usage fees). It’s a common practice in the advertising world.
I will say I’m not sure they’re trying to sound like National Anthem- I think the music actually sounded a bit more like another song, whose name escapes me. I’d be curious, however, to meet an ad executive who thought that Middle America would simply not buy a new Nissan truck without some Kid-A-era Radiohead playing in the background…
UPDATE: Turns out the song is by Gomez, called “Shot Shot”. Not sure if it’s the actual song or a soundalike, but this makes a little bit more sense.
(Thanks to John.)

Local paper Pulse of the Twin Cities has an article about Shynola, the folks who gave us the (very lovely) Pyramid Song video.
An excerpt-
??The Pyramid Song? video pushed us to the limits of our abilities at the time,? says Chris. ?We were just four kids in our bedrooms and we were making things up as we went along.?
The video landed Shynola their first NME BRAT award in 2002 for Best Video and all members of Shynola feel strongly about the work they did.
?From a personal, working point of view ?Pyramid Song? stands out because we worked terrifically hard on something where we aimed beyond our abilities and actually came out with a very pleasing result,? says Kenny. ?It was a very enjoyable time making that video and these days I find myself trying to recreate such enthusiasm in myself.?
Read it in full here.