Author: Jonathan

New York, NY

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Radiohead

Radio and Juliet, a ballet to the music of Radiohead

Ballet never looked so cool:

“Transport into another universe of razor-sharp dancing, video effects, electronic rhythms, and beautiful melodies with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, set to the music of Radiohead. In a rare U.S. engagement at Jacob’s Pillow Dance, this powerfully gorgeous contemporary ballet by Edward Clug, a fast-rising star and artistic director of Slovenia’s Ballet Maribor, casts superb ballet dancers to give new life to this timeless tale of conflict, fate, and love. Clug utilizes the rhythmic power of Radiohead’s dynamic compositions to propel his dancers into new emotional heights.”

The Radio and Juliet score includes “Bullet Proof I Wish I Was,” “Fitter Happier,” “How to Disappear,” and “Idioteque,” among others.

Preview the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvMANGrvJI0

See it July 1-5 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance: http://www.jacobspillow.org/festival/2009/07/radio-and-juliet-1/

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Amnesiac Jonny Greenwood OK Computer Phil Selway Radiohead

Radiohead ‘could have soundtracked Potter’

I know, this really has no substance, but it’s interesting.

From Digital Spy:

Daniel Radcliffe has said that the albums of Radiohead could have been a perfect soundtrack for the Harry Potter movies.

The actor told the Daily Record that it was “almost uncanny” how appropriate the records were to his character in the films.

Radcliffe said: “Harry’s darkness is a very specific type of darkness and it’s Radiohead’s OK Computer or Amnesiac, and it’s Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible and Hope of the States’ The Lost Riots and it’s stuff like that.

“It’s kind of angry and epic. It’s angry in the sense that your life is beyond your control and you are in the middle of this maelstrom of politics and power. You have no control over that, and that’s where part of Harry’s anger comes from.”

He added that he would like Icelandic band Sigur Rós to work on the score for the final movie in the series, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.

“They would be great, wouldn’t they? It’s so right, it’s got the amount of grandeur and majesty. It’s epic and it’s magical and it’s playing the guitar with the violin bow and… ah God, it would be great,” Radcliffe said.

You may remember that Phil and Jonny played in the Wyrd Sisters band in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie.

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Jonny Greenwood

Radiohead loves Ondes Martenot

Jonny Greenwood & Thomas Bloch
Jonny Greenwood & Thomas Bloch

Did you know that Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is one of a handful of musicians around the world that can masterfully play the Ondes Martenot? Yep.

News24.com has an article about the instrument which you may like to read. Here’s a bit to get you started:

What do Olivier Messiaen, Radiohead and Mars Attacks the movie have in common? The Ondes Martenot, an electronic keyboard that has just turned 80 and is the prequel to the synthesiser.

The instrument dates back to 1928, the brainchild of Frenchman Maurice Martenot, a cello player and wartime radio transmissions expert determined to turn the screech of airwaves into music.

Contemporary composers such as Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Arthur Honegger and Andre Jolivet have all written for the Ondes Martenot, which produces one note of variable pitch along with weird and wonderful sounds perfect for sci-fi movies such as Mars Attacks.

But pop musicians including Radiohead and Gorillaz too are fans of the trailblazing instrument that resembles an electronic organ surrounded by several loudspeakers.

In front of the central keyboard, which produces vibrato effects, is a ribbon which the ondist plays by placing a ring on a finger, recreating the undulating frequencies of the musical saw.

You can read the full article at news24.com.

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Radiohead

Interview with Nigel Godrich

Nigel Godrich

Wow. Two of the three posts today are about Nigel. When he’s not joining cover bands, Nigel is busy talking and this time he has been interviewed about his From the Basement series, which you may remember Radiohead being involved with last year, as well as producing in general.

Here’s a snippet of the interview:

JC: You mentioned a bit about the psychological approach to production, and I wonder how it is working with different acts and how you juggle those personalities. For instance working with Radiohead versus, say, Beck, do you have to alter your approach to get what you need?

NG: Yes. Completely. I mean, it’s like working in a factory versus working in an office. It’s just so different. It’s just a completely different scenario. Two very bad analogies I gave you there. [Laughs] But it’s so different. To be honest, I don’t really claim to know what I’m doing. When I talk about psychologies all I mean is the connections you have with people. So I have a set of skills and an open mind, and my agenda, what I like, my own aesthetic and I get together with a similar mind who I get on with. We get inside each other’s underwear and brains and it’s always a completely different, completely unique experience – apart from some very mundane technical things that kind of exist across the board. It’s as different as having two different friends; you have different relationships with different people. It’s as different as it can be. The music side of things is supposedly something that you enjoy or celebrate together. You create something that you both love. That is a very intimate experience and also a really wonderful one. I mean, my particular career has been based on a few different marriages to people, that’s the analogy, it’s like I have these very intense relationships with different people. It’s always a bit awkward when they’re all in the same room.

JC: Right, your name is often mentioned hand-in-hand with Radiohead’s, it’s that sort of relationship.

NG: I’ve invested so much of myself in that and it’s been 15 years that I’ve been working with them. You know…I love it. I love those people, I love making music with them and we all want it to be a very productive thing and it works and we just keep doing it. And I’m happy to do just that to be honest.

Read the full interview here.

(thanks to James)

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Radiohead The King of Limbs

Godrich: New album progress “going great”

From DAS
From Dead Air Space

Radiohead producer, Nigel Godrich, told The Quietus that sessions for the next album were “going great.”

In May, bass player Colin Greenwood told the BBC that the band had entered the studio with Godrich to start work on a follow up to In Rainbows, but were at a very early stage of the recording process and working from “scrapbooks”.

But a tight-lipped Godrich told The Quietus: “The sessions have started, that’s what I’m working on at the moment.

“It’s going fine. It’s going great, but apart from that I have nothing else to report.”

When asked if any release dates had been discussed, he replied: “None at all.”

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Ed O'Brien GP Phil Selway Radiohead Stanley Donwood

Radiohead Lately

pandemoniumx3

It’s been a while since our last post. Here’s what you (and we) have missed:

Radiohead opens up a new digital store. You can now purchase the In Rainbows CD2, as well as other treats.

Radiohead’s Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief Get Deluxe Reissue Treatment. Capitol is at it again. (via Pitchfork)

Ed and Phil are being included on the Neil Finn supergroup benefit album. It’s called The Sun Came Out and will feature the singing debut of Phil. Yeah!

Stanley Donwood exhibits new work in Bristol ‘EL CHUPACABRA’.

Stanley’s apt choice of title ‘El Chupacabra’, meaning ‘the goat sucker’ in Spanish is his response to suffering a long fixation with the horned gods and having to live amongst some of the most mendacious economic times he can remember provoking him to start making pictures of Pandemons.

“I’ve got nothing against goats. I’ve simply discovered that if I draw a goat, give it the mouth of a rapacious carnivore then dress it in the suit and tie of a disgraced banker or politician it looks fucking evil. There are thirteen Pandemons in the show called ‘el chupacabra’. Thirteen ghosts at the funeral. Thirteen spectres at the feast of the goat. Loitering on the blackened cliffs of free-market economics, cackling as they raise a glass to toast Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet. Gallons of paint I’ve poured over them to drown their snickering. But still they laugh.” Comments Stanley Donwood.

Sounds amazing.

And finally, you’ll notice a new look to GP. This is our first major design change in over 6 years. After dozens of mockups, we’re finally settled on this look, which should hopefully be more clean and simple. Many of the sections are still old so we’re working to convert those over. Until then, things may be a bit stupid.